News: Noted

Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) struck a deal
this month to acquire 63 newspapers, said he may buy more publications
as the industry rethinks whether to offer free content on the
Internet. “This is an unsustainable model and certain of our papers
are already making progress in moving to something that makes more
sense,” Buffett wrote in a letter to editors and publishers of
Berkshire’s daily newspapers. “We want your best thinking as we work
out the blend of digital and print that will attract both the audience
and the revenue we need.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-24/buffett-says-free-news-unsustainable...

“At Hearst, we see the arrival of the tablet, and the scale of the
tablet market, as a significant media opportunity. There is a huge
opportunity through a new distribution market”, said Duncan Edwards,
CEO of Hearst Magazines International, when speaking in London.
Edwards went on to assert that Hearst is looking to reach one million
paid digital sales on tablets a month for the US by the end of the
year, but said that monthly tablet magazine sales currently stand at
around 600,000.

http://tabtimes.com/news/media/2012/05/15/hearst-hails-age-tablet-says-reader...

What is the real value of Facebook’s advertising business? One thing
is for sure: Wall Street has no idea. And neither do Facebook
advertisers. And therein lies the huge unspoken caveat to Facebook’s
$86+ billion IPO.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2012/05/14/truth-lies-facebook-adve...

It allows any material, including water, to become a touch screen
capable of reacting to multiple touches and gestures. Think of the
faucets that turn on from a tap of the elbow -- but applied on a much
grander scale. Because the applications of such a technology seem
limitless, there is no end to the markets Disney can enter, from
health care and education to security and gaming devices. If
successful, Touche could make current phone and tablet touch-screen
technology seem outdated. That alone would give Disney an edge over
numerous firms that specialize in the booming $13.4 billion-per-year
touch-screen industry.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/05/14/disneys-touche-could-be-the-...

It allows any material, including water, to become a touch
screencapable of reacting to multiple touches and gestures. Think of
thefaucets that turn on from a tap of the elbow -- but applied on a
muchgrander scale. Because the applications of such a technology seem
limitless, there is no end to the markets Disney can enter, fromhealth
care and education to security and gaming devices. Ifsuccessful,
Touche could make current phone and tablet touch-screentechnology seem
outdated. That alone would give Disney an edge overnumerous firms that
specialize in the booming $13.4 billion-per-year touch-screen
industry.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/05/14/disneys-touche-could-be-the-...

In the first quarter of 2012, at least one of these types of codes,
sometimes called “action codes,” appeared in 99 of the top 100 U.S.
magazines ranked by circulation; this is up from 78 in Q1 2011,
according to a new study by mobile marketing firm and 2-D bar code
specialist Nellymoser. The overall number of magazine ad pages
containing an action code was up 288% quarter over quarter—from 352 in
Q1 2011 to 1,365 in Q1 2012.

http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/05/14/more-advertisers-want-readers-take...

One element of Twitter’s potential mission appeared on Monday with the
announcement of a weekly curated email that is designed to show users
content they might be interested in from elsewhere in their social
graph. The second sign of what Twitter might have in mind came last
week, when a job posting started making the rounds of journalism
mailing lists and Twitter streams: namely, an opening for a “sports
producer” who could help curate interesting news-related content
around sports events.

http://gigaom.com/2012/05/14/twitter-tiptoes-further-into-the-media-business/

Facebook's new App Center should make branded mobile apps more
discoverable and therefore more lucrative to build, according to
industry players. The Menlo Park, CA-based digital giant last week
unveiled a platform where its 900 million users can search for mobile
and web apps while also seeing recommendations based on their social
graphs. "People will find apps based on pure relationships," said
Julie Renwick, director of mobile for ad agency Ogilvy North America.
"What's interesting is that your close circle of peers…you talk to
them anyway via email, IM, etc. But now it's the second- and
third-tier circle of peer influence that will come into the
application recommendation. That will be a game shifter."

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2174655/facebook-shift-mobile-apps-landscape

One element of Twitter’s potential mission appeared on Monday with the announcement of a weekly curated email that is designed to show users content they might be interested in from elsewhere in their social graph. The second sign of what Twitter might have in mind came last week, when a job posting started making the rounds of journalism mailing lists and Twitter streams: namely, an opening for a “sports producer” who could help curate interesting news-related content around sports events.

http://gigaom.com/2012/05/14/twitter-tiptoes-further-into-the-media-business/

The Christian Science Monitor, which gave up its daily newsprint
editions three years ago in favour of online, says it is "making
steady progress toward our goal of becoming self-sustaining." Editor
John Yemma's report on the current state of play is wholly positive,
but he said the Monitor's staff spent the first year "learning how to
swim."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2012/may/03/digital-media-us-press...