Entries tagged as ‘TechCrunch’
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
Yeah, try re-bottling that. (illustration by Stuart MacKay-Smith)
It’s tough watching an old friend slowly die. Even tougher knowing that you’re helping to knock him off.
Before you go calling 911, the old friend I’m referring to is my daily newspaper. For decades, I’ve started every day with my morning paper. I score my sports and business fix while downing pure Colombian full-caf. Over the years, the two addictions have chemically intertwined to enhance their combined effects. Consequently, whenever I miss my morning coffee-n-paper jumpstart, I find myself fluttering from activity to activity the rest of the day like a fat pigeon in a hurricane.
And now, to my horror and profound sadness, newspapers are dying, losing readers and advertisers to the Web. As a blogger, I contribute to this lethal migration, not so much by stealing readers from newspapers (if only I had such drawing power), but by validating the Web as the place to go for scoop. I myself drink deeply from this vast sea of instant info. After all, why read papers for business alerts or sports scores when they’re updated every second online? (more…)
Categories: Manifestos · Media News
Tagged: bloggers, blogging, Fox News, journalism, L.A. Times, Los Angeles Times, media, Michael Arrington, newspapers, NPR, Paul Carr, TechCrunch
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
Still a troublemaker.
Orwell is not only spinning in his grave, he must be doing triple salchows.
Amazon kindled a web-wide furor this morning when it yanked digital copies of two books from users’ Kindles: George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm… (more…)
Categories: Media News
Tagged: Amazon, books, David Pogue, e-books, ebooks, George Orwell, Kindle, MG Siegler, Paul Carr, TechCrunch
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
Hunger-inducing visual courtesy of PhotoXpress.com
Maybe it’s the bacon.
Every week, I shoot pool in the same joint. Is it the cheapest pool hall in town? Nah. It’s actually pricey. Is it the service? Not really. The people are friendly, but service isn’t a big factor when renting a pool table. Is it the ambience? I do love pure pool halls like this — not some bar with a coin-op table, but a dedicated pool hall with 8-foot Brunswicks and a jukebox playing Soundgarden. What about the location? The House of Billiards is one of the few remaining pure pool halls on L.A.’s west side, and although L.A. is a car culture, we Los Angelenos generally hate to drive, so it wins there. And then there are the BLT’s… (more…)
Categories: How To Tips
Tagged: Amazon, AOL, Apple, bacon, Bing, business, GoodSearch, Google, House of Billiards, iPod, Karen Dillon, loyalty, marketing, Microsoft, pool, TechCrunch, Verizon
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
"God I need an exit strategy... or a man... maybe both at the same time..."
Too many entrepreneurs treat their start-ups like Hollywood relationships: the affair begins with a lot of passion, is great for headlines, and might even lead to deals, but as soon as things get a little rocky — or something better comes along — the entrepreneur is outta there faster than you can say “Renee Zellweger”… (more…)
Categories: Random Observations
Tagged: business, business plan, Deadpool, dotcoms, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, exit strategy, Google, Inc, IPO, Jack Stack, Silicon Valley, SRC Holdings, start ups, TechCrunch, Twitter, Wall Street, Web 2.0, Yahoo, YouTube
just a series of tubes
Former Senator Ted Stevens was roundly mocked for his comment that the Internet was a “series of tubes.” Now, I can think of a hundred reasons to ridicule venal old Ted, but his analogy wasn’t that off the mark. Yes, it was technically wrong, but many Web 2.0 companies share the same purpose as public utilities: they exist to pipe stuff to users… (more…)
Categories: Random Observations
Tagged: business, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, marketing, Napa Valley, Silicon Valley, TechCrunch, Ted Stevens, utilities, Web 2.0, wine
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC
Web 2.Uh-Oh
Just over a year ago, Wired magazine proudly proclaimed that the future would be free, an argument based partially on ad-supported free sites like NYTimes.com. Of course, it was hard to take this manifesto seriously since Wired still charges for their magazine (cover price $4.99).
It was also misleading because it appeared during the height of the second dotcom bubble, when most of the free websites and services weren’t really living off their ad revenue. Some still aren’t. The New York Times website, for example, couldn’t exist in its current form without the financial and content support from its parent company. (more…)
Categories: Manifestos · Media News
Tagged: Aaron Levie, advertising, Box.net, business, free, Google, Imeem, iStock, LinkedIn, marketing, micropayments, New York Times, revenue models, SpiralFrog, Splashcast, subscriptions, TechCrunch, Web 2.0, Wired, YouTube
It’s amazing the difference between what you learn in school and actual business practices. I once took a class in public relations where we learned how to write a press release. The basic rule: write an actual news story about your company using standard journalistic practices to make it as objective as possible. That way, the news editor can make a few adjustments and print it as is.
Then I ventured into the real business world and discovered that everyone ignored that rule…
(more…)
Categories: How To Tips
Tagged: business, how to, humor, marketing, media, PR, press release, public relations, publicity, satire, TechCrunch
