Selected items of interest to the media community

• Google Launches Digital Media Destination Google Play

March 09, 2012: 

Jessica Guynn and Alex Pham report in Los Angeles Times that Google is entering the digital media market with Google Play.

Google, a competitor to Apple in the mobile market -- where the share of Android-powered phones by some estimates overtook iPhones last year -- is trying to catch up to Apple in selling digital media directly to consumers. Apple’s iTunes accounts for 70% of the market for digital song downloads, by one estimate. Google took the wraps off a digital music store to compete with iTunes in November.

"This is a crucial step Google had to take to keep competitive," Gartner media analyst Michael McGuire said. "Google is trying to simplify delivering to consumers something they will pay for or load onto their device. Anything Google can do to streamline that is important. Google has got more Android devices in the world, but I don't think it's paying out as much to people who create apps or content."

You can read the full article here.

• Hearst’s Bennack Talks Electronic Revenue

February 28, 2012: 

Lucia Moses reports in AdWeek on Hearst magazines' projected equal balance of revenue from print and digital this year.  Digital revenue in 2012 will equal the company’s total revenue of 25 years ago.

Hearst Corp. expects its revenue to be nearly equally split between print and digital in 2012, the year the media company marks its 125th anniversary, CEO Frank Bennack Jr. said.

“Our revenue will be nearly equally split between print and electronic media, and digital revenue will approach the company’s total revenue in our centennial year, 1987,” he said. The company wouldn't provide a breakdown of electronic media, which includes digital, TV and cable programming networks.

Bennack made the projection in a rare email to Hearst’s 20,000 employees today. The company officially observes its 125th anniversary March 4.

You can read the entire article at AdWeek here.

• How Forbes Stole A New York Times Article And Got All The Traffic

February 20, 2012: 

The New York Times writer spent months doing research for a story.  The article was well written with an interesting topic – how large companies target your purchasing habits to better serve you.  The only problem was a less than compelling title.  Nick O’Neill writes:

The original title was “How Companies Learn Your Secrets”. Kashmir Hill, a writer at Forbes, realized this and quickly developed a condensed version of the article with a far more powerful title: “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did“. It cut out the crap and got to the real shocker of the story. As of the writing of this story, the New York Times article has 60 likes and shares on Facebook versus 12,902 which the Forbes article has. The Forbes article also has a mind boggling 680,000 page views, a number that can literally make a writer’s career.

You can read O’Neil’s entire article here.