On Digital Media

What is it?

On Digital Media is a podcast about the technology, creation, distribution, consumption and monetization of digital media and its effects on traditional media and marketing. If it's part of the digital media ecosystem, you'll likely hear about it here. Your hosts are John Federico, Chia-Lin Simmons, Ken Gellman and Steve Hatch.

On Digital Media, Episode #45: Hey, Rupert! Free the WSJ!

In this episode John Federico, Chia-Lin Simmons, Ken Gellman and Steve Hatch discuss:

We received an oh-so-vague tip that “something would be happening between Hearst and an unnamed web site”. (We learned the next day that it was Hearst’s acquisition of Kaboodle.com.) We think it’s a great fit for many of their magazine titles and companion web sites. The question becomes: will they integrate it well, or will it flounder?
EMI saw a 13.2% growth in their digital division. (From what baseline, we have no idea.) They’re seeing “encouraging signs of growth through the iTunes Store” (referring to their DRM-free experiment).
Microsoft is licensing their PlayReady DRM to Nokia for use on their Series 60 and Series 40 phones. We want to know: what the heck is PlayReady!?!?!?
AmieStreet delivers demand-based pricing for indie music. The company received an investment from Amazon.com.
Yahoo is preparing to take on YouTube by revamping Yahoo Video. flickr is rumored to be the interface for uploading UGC video. (And Eric Schmidt is George Steinbrenner thanks to Ken’s sports analogy.)
What if the WSJ.com went free? What if the NYTimes.com went paid? (What if every time one of us says the words ‘Wall Street Journal’ we have to sip our wine? The ODM drinking game! ) We delve deeply into the possibilities.

Our wine this week is our old standby, the 2004 Coppola Rosso and a 2004 Jumilla from Altos De Luzon.

Our closing music is Democracy from Alexander Blu.

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