How I want to write and read news

Paper: The Economist Twitter Facebook “Sponsored” Blogs (e.g. HBR, Gizmodo) “Indy” Blogs (e.g. Seth Godin)

Process:1. Twitter2. Copy link to Instapaper3. Read from Instapaper at a later time

No local news – I don’t subscribe to any local newspapers because most of the content is crap. Their online outlets are inconsistent and inefficient.

I spend a significant amount of time scanning and searching for relevant news

I depend on multiple sources to determine if something is worth reading (i.e. Relevant):◦ Twitter Followers◦ Aggregate News Sources◦ Facebook “Likes”◦ Verbal Recommendations

I hate advertisements on the page. They are nothing but distracting and I have become very good at ignoring them

In general, I feel like reading online is a pain and a lot more work than it should be

I have a “monthly” blog

I refuse to put advertisements on my blog because they are distracting and the ROI is hit or miss

I would write more if I knew I could make a few bucks some other way

Hard to increase readership:◦ Play the viral lottery by adding a bunch of “social” media links on my blog (e.g.

Facebook “Like”)?◦ Spend some of my money investing in advertisements (ACK!) to market my blog?◦ Invest a ton of my own time on writing a number of decent blogs and hope that

someone decides to read them some day?

Maintain you’re own Wordpress deployment or pay someone else to maintain it for you? Seems expensive just to publish a few words.

Again, writing online is a pain

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/1 Consuming online media via web browser is in a decline. Communication: Facebook. Video: Youtube. Music: iTunes.

Etc. Text: ?

Major news sites (e.g. New York Times) are absurdly complicated (1000+ links on the front page)

Advertisements and relevance engines take 10-50% of the screen space on most websites

Solutions like Instapaper and Readability become relevant because they strip away the advertisements from the content: bad news for the authors!

Terrible reading experience

iPhone App Store

Kindle Singles: Cheap $1-$3 dollar downloadable PDFs from Amazon

Dedicated iPad Applications (e.g. The Economist)

The Daily (http://www.thedaily.com/): Corporate media’s rich media answer to news online.

My Times (http://my.nytimes.com): Customised New York Times? Just went from beta to production in the last few weeks

Are companies really going to invest in technology for every platform? (e.g. The Economist for Kindle, iOS, Android, WebOS, etc.)

How can it be cost-effective?

Online hyper-competition for content will lead to the need for a “configure” type solution (i.e. 1 solution that does it all) as opposed to a “custom” solution (i.e. many solutions that serve specific purposes)

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/02/end-of-bestseller.html - Things are going to change and there needs to be a lean solution

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12406171 - Facebook executive thinks that news is due for a “social revolution”

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/who_rules_the_web_now.html - Media delivery is changing

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/technology/internet/21blog.html - Things aren’t working like they should

http://gigaom.com/2011/02/22/blogging-is-dead-just-like-the-web-is-dead/ - Opinion piece on the NYT article above

Dozens upon dozens more being written every day on the subject...

It is too complicated to consume text

It is too complicated to publish text

Existing business models (ads & subscription) are not working

People, both authors and readers, are looking for a solution to the problem

At a time of my choosing (say 11:23), I open my iPhone and open the “Foj” application.

1.

GET THEM NEWZ $1.32

GET THEM NEWZ $1.32

Click on a button and download (the 11:23 FOJ Times) for a disclosed cost.

3. Read

4. Store (to reread on a different device or for future reference)

5. Repeat

2.

My 11:23AM edition of the news would contain:◦ Stuff that I want to read (a priori):

Subscriptions (e.g. Twitter, Blogs) Relevant by Interest (using hashtags or categories) Relevant by Location (using GPS coordinates for

home, office, phone)◦ Information that I should read (posteriori):

Relevant by what others are reading If non-zero cost, I can read the abstract/twitter and

choose to buy next time I download the foj news.

<Customized news header e.g. The Foj Times><dashboard-y type stuff like weather and stocks>

<user experience “extras” that reproduce the look of a real newspaper>

<articles: news/blogs/etc.>

<abstracts of what others are reading>

<other feeds like non-link twitters or facebook updates,

pictures?>

The Foj Times Winnipeg: -24C (-36), SunnyOttawa: -8, Overcast

$1.56 The latest news as of February 27th of 2011 at 13:59 and 345694839483ms o’clock

Fred Wilsonavc.combit.ly/a3dkfj

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Bertrand Charlemagne.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne bit.ly/20fkdjf

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Seth Godinsethgodin.typepad.combit.ly/a3dkfj

Free

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François AugerBlog.francoisauger.cabit.ly/sdlfjdkf

0.15$

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TMX Inc.Tmx.combit.ly/dfiuern

12.00$

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Article Abstract = Tweet◦ 140 character abstract that is free and available

to everyone Factors of Relevance

◦ GPS coordinate◦ Hashtags

Article Textbox◦Simple text editing to facilitate lean authoring

Cost◦ Pennies, dollars?

NO ADS (people don’t read them)

“POOR” MEDIA (vs. rich media) (facilitate multi-platform and multi-device solutions)

“SIMPLE” AUTHORING (limited text editing)

AUTOMATE RELEVANCE (vs. the reader doing the work)

LEAN CONTENT (forced by hyper-competition)

ANYONE CAN GENERATE CONTENT (news immediacy)

MOST EFFICIENT (cheapest way to publish and read news)

CUSTOMIZATION (pay for and read only what you want to)

1. Instapaper++: Automate screen scraping of articles online. Leverage what everyone is reading for posteriori relevance. Build readership to the point that:

2. People start freaking out: “HEY YOU’RE REMOVING MY ADS, I MAKE NO MONEY”. To which we reply, here’s how you make money: publish with us.

3. Rule the (news) world (or get bought out by some big media company)

Market analysis: Is anyone else currently doing or planning on doing The Foj News?

Plan

Funding?◦ Can IDF fund the project? If not,◦ Can IDF sponsor François to go to Ycombinator? If

not,◦ ???

DOUBLE GUINNESS CHEERS!