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Facebook's Instant Articles will no longer appear in Messenger
Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is working on a paid-content model with partner publishers, the company has made further tweaks to the way users can view external articles. According to TechCrunch, Instant Articles will no longer appear in Messenger. The faster-loading article format, hosted by Facebook itself, arrived in Messenger last July and was denoted by a lightning bolt icon on the top right corner of some links shared within the platform. This content would load up to 10 times faster than a standard mobile web article.
Open Air sees e-book sales success by publishing in the App Store
Paid Content is a fantastic blog for freelance and office professionals that covers paid-content business models for furthering the reach of your work. They've just published a useful interview with Jon Feldman, the CEO and founder of e-book publisher Open Air, about what it takes to get an e-book published in iOS. Open Air sells exponentially more titles through the App Store than it does via the iBookstore, between 10 to 30 times as much depending on the situation. Originally the company just published their books through the App Store, but when iBooks Author was launched, the company adapted its titles for the new market. What they thought would be a massive jump in sales turned out to be just another smaller market. Although iBooks Author allows publishers to make highly interactive e-books, consumer perception is that an app will be more interactive than an e-book. Accordingly when a customer visits their website and is given the option of an app or e-book version of a title they tend to move towards the app version, even when they feature similar content. According to Feldman, "My advice for publishers would be to carve out a digital-first division that would allow them to play in that space without having to think about Barnes & Noble or a shelf or a piece of paper at all." Head over to Paid Content for the rest of Feldman's advice. It's a wonderful look at the way small publishing dynamics are changing as the digital economy continues to grow.
iBookstore lines its shelves with paid content in New Zealand, 17 Latin American countries
iDevice owners in New Zealand and 17 Latin American countries are no longer restricted to a diet composed of free content when it comes to their respective iBookstores. A quick search of the storefronts will reveal virtual shelves stocked with paid-content that haven't yet found their way to the shops' homepages. Reside in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru or Venezuela? Head on over to the appropriate store and books with price tags will be available for purchase. If this is any sign of what Apple has up its sleeve for tomorrow, we suspect that "a little more" will involve a bit of reading.
Tencent reveals how it gets users to pay for its service
We've all seen those "OMG! Don't make us pay for Facebook" fake petitions, but App.net and The Social Network raise questions about how our social services raise their moolah. Tencent's Sophia Ong has revealed that it's in the unique position of having users happy to pay for services that we take for granted. While signups for QZone (Facebook equivalent) is free, users have to use QBs, the site's virtual currency, to buy and clothe their avatars. While 1 QB = 1 yuan ($0.16), there are 30 million paying customers on the site -- meaning that the company can count on around $50 million in monthly payments. It's not stopping there either, sensing a slowdown in the local economy, the company has an eye on opening up its eCommerce platform to ensure it can continue to rake in the cash.
Apple checking out the competition at CES
Just because Apple isn't exhibiting products at CES doesn't mean it's not interested in the event. paidContent.org is reporting that the company does have a presence, with one of their bloggers running into Greg Joswiak (head of iOS product marketing at Apple) at the Sony booth. Joz isn't the only Apple employee at the crowded show. Reuters noted a source who said that Apple has over 250 employees registered for the event. paidContent's Tom Krazit talked with Joswiak, who apparently is interested on how other companies present products at shows like CES. From the layout and design of show booths to the individual products that are highlighted by a company, he's keeping his eyes on the competitors. According to Krazit, Joswiak seemed underwhelmed with the Sony booth. The most humorous part of the encounter was Krazit's observation that "His badge was strategically arranged as to cover over his name and company affiliation, however, a nod to Apple's penchant for keeping a low profile." Only a seasoned Apple-watcher would know that one of Apple's highest-placed executives was in the house.
How Steve Jobs got the Internet to pay for content
Just about every Internet and print news outlet has paid tribute to Steve Jobs over the past few days, but PaidContent.org -- a website dedicated to discussion of the sale of digital content -- had one of the more interesting plaudits. In a post by Media Guardian's Charles Arthur, Jobs was rightly given his place in history as the "man who got the Internet to pay for content." Arthur reflected on the sad state of affairs in the media biz just ten years ago. He notes that "if you wanted to download some music, your best bet was Napster or one of the filesharing systems such as LimeWire or KaZaA." For the services that were actually considered legal, there were services like PressPlay and MusicNet requiring US$15 monthly subscriptions for low-quality streams that couldn't be burned to CD. Jobs came along with the iPod, and then followed up with the iTunes Music Store. If it hadn't been for Jobs persuading the music companies in 2003 to license their songs to Apple, the store wouldn't have happened. As Arthur notes, the music companies figured that Apple was just a tiny company with a minimal market share in the computer business, so they went along for the ride. And a huge ride it was -- Apple sold a million songs in the first week of the iTunes Music Store, which at that time was only available in the U.S. The iTunes Store now sells TV shows, movies, apps, and books in addition to songs, with sales of both songs and apps in the tens of billions. As Arthur comments towards the end of his post, "Jobs was a champion of getting customers who would pay you for your stuff." By focusing on "getting something great to the customer with as few obstacles as possible," Jobs was able to insist that customers pay for that value and the content. While he is largely known as the man who brought the world some "insanely great" hardware, Jobs should also be remembered for his lasting impact on sales of digital content.
New York Post blocks iPad access through Safari browser, hopes you'll pay for a subscription instead
Well, that's one way to make people pay for puns. The New York Post, that bastion of fair, balanced, and not-at-all sensationalistic reporting, has blocked iPad owners from reading its stories through the tablet's Safari browser. If folks want the full spill on Hugh Hefner getting ditched at the altar, they'll be prompted to download the iOS app, which requires signing up for a subscription starting at $6.99 on a month-to-month basis. Setting aside News Corp.'s hubris for a moment, what's odd about this is the number of workarounds Rupert Murdoch & Co. left us cheapskates. You can still read the site on a desktop browser or a phone, including an Android one. Basically, then, News Corp. is strangling web access, but only for a select group of readers. That's a stark contrast from other content providers (even the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal), which have been more platform-agnostic. Then again, there's the dim possibility that News Corp. targeted the iPad in an effort to re-brand the Post as a glossier sort of tabloid, à la The Daily. To which we say, that's some wishful thinking there, Rupe.
Android developer anecdotally claims AdMob brings home the bacon
In February 2009, Arron La's $0.99 Advanced Task Manager was one of the first paid apps on Android, allowing T-Mobile G1 users to do what was then a novel thing -- close applications. (We immediately bought a copy.) Today, the app is all but obsolete, its functionality baked right into Android's core, but Arron's still making thousands of dollars a month. Why do we bring this up? Because nine months after Arron released the pay-first version, he unleashed an ad-supported variant as well... and since that day, each has contributed about the same amount ($30,000) of money. It's not exactly an object lesson in what's possible on the 70,000-application-strong Android Market, as this gentleman obviously had quite the head start, but it does show that when it comes time to monetize your best-thing-since-sliced-bread app, there's more than one option -- ads can be an equally good revenue source. Find rays of hope for indie development (and several stormy clouds for comparison) at the links below. Update: Did we say 50,000 apps? We meant more like 70K and counting as of July. Thanks to the astute commenters who pointed this out. [Thanks, Shannon G.]
Murdoch plans digital-only paid newspaper for tablets and phones
We can't honestly say whether The Wall Street Journal's laggy iPad rendition was a success at $17.29 per month, but either way Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is gearing up for another try at this whole digital news thing. The LA Times reports that Murdoch is planning an entirely new national publication for the iPad and other devices -- in other words, not just a print-to-digital conversion this time. "Unlike News Corp.'s business-centric Wall Street Journal, the new digital newspaper would target a more general readership, offering short, snappy stories that could be digested quickly," writes the Times, adding that sources say the digital paper could launch by the end of the year. Here's hoping it debuts alongside that Skiff Reader, eh?
Scribd positioning self to become Amazon competitor, sell books on Kindle?
The de facto place to buy Kindle books is, of course, Amazon. Given how tightly this allows Bezos & Co. to manage things we're guessing this is how the company would like to keep it, but there may be direct-to-kindle competition brewing from an unlikely source: Scribd. The site, which started off as a place to dump and share random documents, has been following the YouTube path and is now selling access to fully copyrighted works. Many of those are downloadable as text, Word, or PDF documents, meaning Kindle users can already conjure up some conversion magic and get them on their devices. But, according to Scribd CEO Trip Adler, straight to Kindle distribution is next. The question is: will they be for-pay titles, or only the billions of pages of free content the site offers? Places like Feedbooks and Gutenberg.org let you download free content direct to the Kindle already, but we're not aware of anyone selling that content yet -- other than Amazon, of course.
Microsoft's layoffs conclude early, over 5,000 let go
With this morning's confirmation from Microsoft that another 800 people have been let go, the layoffs that began all the way back in January of this year have completed. Affecting everyone from Games for Windows Live to Rare to a quarter of the Massive team, we're sure that the folks still working at The Big M are glad that pendulum blade has stopped swinging above their heads. "We are eliminating around 800 positions ... and have completed our reduction plan sooner than we had anticipated," the company said in a statement to PaidContent. Unfortunately, as with any business in a down economy, the statement also notes that "continuing to manage our businesses closely ... can mean additional headcount adjustments." Considering a company representative already told TechFlash that more than the announced 5,000 number had been let go over the last 10 months (though no specifics were detailed), we're wondering just how many more people will be affected by "headcount adjustments." We contacted Microsoft for more information, but were given the same statement that PaidContent received. It's been reprinted in full after the break.
ZeniMax received at least $105 million in financing for id Software
SEC documents reveal that ZeniMax obtained $105 million in debt financing for its acquisition of id Software. PaidContent dug up the documents, but is currently working on what entity actually slid the cash ZeniMax's way.We're not that well versed in our mergers and acquisitions jargon, so we asked Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter for a bit of an explanation. Just what is "debt financing"? He explained, "It means that [ZeniMax] borrowed $105 million at the time that they bought id. The article doesn't say if the debt is secured by id's intellectual property, or what the repayment terms are, but the bottom line is that they bought id with borrowed money. It is not clear what they paid, but safe to assume that they paid at least $105 million, probably more."ZeniMax isn't hurting for cash, so it's not like the company went begging for a loan. The parent company of Bethesda Softworks already made at least $300 million in sales off of Fallout 3. It'll take some time to find out if ZeniMax's minimum purchase price of $105 million was worth it for id's tech and intellectual property.[Via Gamasutra. Thank you, Michael]
Disney's games and internet divisions merging
Disney Interactive Studios and the company's Internet Group will merge into one unit, named Disney Interactive Media Group. Disney Interactive Studios has published games like Hannah Montana, High School Musical and Turok; meanwhile, the internet division was responsible for hundreds of online casual games and Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Clearly, the merger makes sense, and can be likened to when Sony Online Entertainment became part of SCEI.Variety speculates the merger is so that Disney can report all its digital revenues in one spot, instead of games being lumped in with the consumer products. It doesn't appear many (if any) pink slips will be handed out in the unification, as these seemingly offline and online games divisions continue doing their separate things. Source -- Disney Merging WDIG Group With Games UnitSource -- AllThingsD Iger memo
