rexblog random links:

A Web.2 business plan for publishers: Formerly of IDG and now of Yahoo, Matt McAlister presents a provocative outline for a Web 2.0 business model for traditional publishers.

Quote:

“Every publisher has 2 primary assets: audience and content. The more valuable of the two is the audience, so you have to be more careful with that piece. But the content is something you can exploit in this new world in some interesting ways that shouldn’t be too scary.”

Matt details some great ideas which may sound radical to some, obvious to others. I hope they’re obvious to the publishing folks who read the rexblog. If not, one day they will be.

Some of his points (which he explains in much greater detail):

If you look at the core of your content, the thing that differentiates you from everyone else is the data you have on the things that you cover.

Publishers need to package the core items in those important and unique data sets into normalized and usable XML databases.

You once thought the feature story or the comprehensive review was your most important content item. No longer. The name of the object you’re covering is what you need to build this database around.

When you have your data organized, post it publicly. Post it as XML. Let people take it. Let everyone take it…even some competitors.

Publishers think of their readers and their advertisers as 2 different customer sets. There’s a new one you need to serve – republishers. People who use your content and republish it (tools providers, bloggers, bigger publishers, etc.) may become useful sources of revenue.

Matt also has great advice for win-win revenue models for sharing advertising revenue with “republishers.”

Package your ads with your content. Advertisers can reach wider audiences, probably highly engaged readers. If you’re short on page view inventory, then this is a great way to open up more inventory to drop in more ad impressions.
Share revenue earned from use of your content. If you are making money from the ads then kick some of that back to your republishers. If they are making money from having your content, then have them kick some cash back to you.

Many great thought-provoking ideas are contained in Matt’s post.

tags: web2, b2b, magazines

Nashville reponds: I just learned that an online effort to match Katrina evacuees in need of housing with those willing to house them, “The Open House Project,” was started by some folks in Nashville. The site, however, has listings of housing from all over the country.

tags: katrina, nashville, katrina response

Lewis Lazare still doesn’t get it: Back before the nation was coping with a real cataclysmic disaster, Lewis Lazare of the Chicago Sun-Times, tried to create one by hyperventilating over his fantasy of the apocalyptic consequences of the New Yorker magazine running an issue with advertisements from a single sponsor, Target. Despite widespread ridicule of Lazare’s illogic and his obvious ignorance of history (and even some name calling) and the raves the magazine received, Lazare is back on the wolf-crying beat today, once again with a strange misunderstanding of history related to the topic.

Quote:

The stage is set for what may prove to be a defining moment in the history of the American Society of Magazine Editors, a group of high-powered editors from more than 850 magazines, including many of the nation’s most well-known and prestigious. On Tuesday, the ASME board of directors is expected to deal with the New Yorker magazine’s controversial Aug. 22 issue, which had Target as its sole advertiser.

A defining moment in history of ASME? Yes. I think it could be a defining moment if they do something like pass a resolution praising the New Yorker for once more demonstrating to marketers how powerful an advertising medium magazines can be, thus saving the jobs of countless magazine editors and writers.

tags: magazines, advertising

Renewable energy source? Scientists in Singapore have developed a battery powered by urine.

(I’m sorry, that’s it for my channeling of kottke.org today.)

Morning blogger-geek inside joke: A Technorati accelerator. Tired of waiting 30 seconds to get Technorati results. These folks have figured out a way to speed things up.

tag: humor

(via: kottke)

Snopes.com responds: As during war, in the fog of cataclysmic disasters, the first casualty is truth. Therefore it’s good to have a snopes.com Katrina page to help sort out fact from urban instalegend.

tags: katrina urban legends, katrina facts, katrina myths

Blame: Jeff Jarvis blames the 9/11 Commission. On a related note, David Weinberger proposes that we repeal the Law of Unintended Consequences. I second that emotion. Because it is so long and growing, I won’t be making my “who I blame post” until September 19.