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Clickshare-UPDATE for February 21, 2001
FOUR REGIONAL NEWSPAPERS, ACCUWEATHER DEBUT CLICKSHARE SERVICE;
COMMITMENTS ILLUSTRATE MULTI-DEVICE CAPABILITY OF THE CUSTOMER
EXCHANGE NETWORK FOR PRIVACY-PROTECTED CONTENT PURCHASING
Websites are creating enhanced services for their users and subscribers
which will bring in new revenue.
Newspapers have long-standing relationships with paying readers. Now
they
are beginning to "port" those relationships to the Internet. This week,
four U.S. daily newspapers announced they will use the Clickshare
Service
to build valued-added subscription services for their print subscribers
--
while considering charging non-subscribers for premium web-site content.
The papers are the Corpus Christi [Texas] Caller-Times, the Lawrence
[Kan.]
Journal-World, the Concord [N.H.] Monitor and Foster's Daily Democrat in
Dover, N.H. They join an existing service offered by the Sioux City
[Iowa]
Journal and Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
At the same time wireless carriers, portals and content providers are
gearing up to offer enhanced digital content to their subscribers. In
one
illustration of this, AccuWeather announced this week it is using
Clickshare to test the sale of customized, location-specific weather
information to WAP-enabled phone subscribers.
Excerpts of the news announcements of these relationships appear below
and
on the Clickshare website at http://www.clickshare.com/news/. But
first,
in this edition of "Clickshare-UPDATE", we round up what others are
saying
specifically about Clickshare and generally about the Internet
content-and-customer-sharing marketplace.
NAPSTER AND MUSIC PURCHASING -- A JOB FOR CLICKSHARE?
The Feb. 14 op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal carried a regular
column
by Internet business-marketing guru-and-author Don Tapscott, entitled:
"Napster Decision: A Business Opportunity." In the piece, Tapscott
describes last week's federal appeals court decision requiring a lower
court to put a stop to Napster's free-music sharing service -- on
grounds
it violates copyright laws.
The author of four books on Internet and technology business includes
the
latest, "Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs," argues
the court ruling creates an opportunity for the major music labels to
collaborate on a music-sharing service. Tapscott thinks the labels could
exploit the global popularity of music to develop a system enabling
consumers to make small purchases from pennies to $5 each.
Tapscott sees the market for such an online micropayment system as huge
--
video games at 25-cents per play, for example. "The business model is
already proven, because this is what legions of kids already do in video
arcades," Tapscott writes. He says research bureaus could answer how-top
questions, unpublished authors could sell books online at 50 cents a
chapter. But, says Tapscott, the infrastructure for micropayments
doesn't
exist yet. He says "significant riches await the companies that solve
the
online low-cost transaction riddle." He says Clickshare is one of the
companies trying, and adds that if the music industry put its entire
weight
behind a particular scheme, that could create the critical mass to make
it
successful.
To read Tapscott's entire column, you need to be a registered user of
The
Wall Street Journal online site. Here's the URL:
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/
SB982114787324366373.htm
NEW YORK TIMES: RETHINKING THE INTERNET NEWS BUSINESS
Felicity Barringer penned a thoughtful workup in the Jan. 22 online
edition
of The New York Times about the evolving business models of online
newspaper websites. Her reporting leads her to conclude that the major
U.S.
newspaper chains are now focused on achieving profitability for their
online efforts, rather than runing them as money-losing R&D departments.
Factors leading to this change -- and to the layoffs at some newspaper
dot-com websites -- include an anticipated softening of
print-advertising
revenues. Barringer says the E.W. Scripps chain is among those thinking
about requiring online readers to subscriber rather than read for free.
Another idea, she writes, is to give paying subscribers a look at
classified ads a day early. Barringer's piece is available in the New
York
Times online archives. The original URL was:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/22/
technology/22PAPE.html
CROSS-SITE MICROPAYMENT BROWSING NEEDED BY NEWSPAPERS?
Mark Jurkowitz, media critic at The Boston Globe, also filed a piece
Jan.
19 on the DigitalMASS section of The Globe's website entitled: "Online
news
outlets catch their breath." In it, Jurkowitz recites the litany of
layoffs
and restructuring at online-media websites during the last few months.
The
gist of the story: Traditional news organizations are becoming more
confident that the print medium has enduring value, and are still trying
to
figure out exactly what role the Internet will play in information
delivery
or enhancement. Among those quoted is David Cole, editor of The Cole
Papers, a news-industry newsletter: ''I think we're in a holding
pattern
waiting for a new technology to show up,'' says Dave Cole, publisher of
the
News Inc. media industry newsletter. ''And that technology is going to
be
some form of micropayment,'' that would, for example, allow a user to
pay
in very small increments to browse media sites.
Jurkowitz's piece originally appeared at:
http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/daily/01/011901/
online_media.html
COLE PAPERS PROFILES SIOUX CITY-CLICKSHARE IMPLEMENTATION
Speaking of David Cole . . . the Jan. 1, edition of his print
newsletter,
"NewsInc" told subscribers about the use of Clickshare by the Sioux City
[Iowa] Journal. Headlined: "Iowa paper takes the first steps toward web
fees," the report by NewsInc Senior Editor Peter Wetmore. Using
Clickshare
technology, the 47,800-circulation daily matches registrants seeking
access
to content at siouxlandbusinessjournal.com with the Sioux City database
of
print subscribers. If there's a match, wrote Wetmore, the user can get
in;
if not, access is blocked. The paper's website manager said she could
envision videotaping a high-school football game and putting a clip of
it
behind the Clickshare access-control wall for subscribers to view for
free
and outsiders to pay for. The Sioux City paper is jointly owned by
Hagadone
Corp., of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Howard Publications Inc., of
Oceanside,
Calif. The piece was in Vol. 13, No. 1 of NewsInc, published by The Cole
Group, Pacifica, Calif., 650-557-9595.
CLICKSHARE SHOWCASES TOWER PUBLISHING E-BOOK
Back on Jan. 9, we circulated a news release you may have missed.
Clickshare Service Corp. has been designated the electronic purchasing
and
fulfillment source for "E-Business or Out of Business," Tower Publishing
Co.'s new guide to electronic commerce. Written by Internet guru George
Prokop, the book is being fully marketed and sold on the net by the
Standish, Maine-based Tower, using Clickshare's market-leading digital
content exchange technology for ordering, downloading, and payment. As
the
definitive guide for conducting business on the Internet, "E-Business or
Out of Business" explains in non-technical terms how forward-thinking
companies are succeeding and thriving in the medium. The book is packed
with real world examples on how to conduct business in the digital age,
covering every major aspect of doing business on the web, from building
customer loyalty to automating supply chains, creating sticky websites
to
developing Internet communities. The numerous reference links serve as
an
e-business guide to the digital marketplace. To purchase a digital copy
for
a suggested price of $5.95, go to:
http://sites.clickshare.com/tower/
CATHY COMMENTS ON PRIVACY AND PASSWORDS
When some of us at Clickshare read the "Cathy" comic strip in Sunday
papers
several weeks ago, we were so impressed with her view of multiple
passwords
and privacy that we purchased the right to put the cartoon up on the
Clickshare website for viewing (but no downloading). We think you'll
appreciate the sentiment. Go tohttp://www.clickshare.com/ to see what
you
think!
FOOTNOTE: WHY WE LIKE IT THERE
Longtime readers of Clickshare-UPDATE know that Clickshare Service Corp.
incubated in Williamstown, Mass., a classic New England college town
with a
setup of unique, adjacent cultural and environmental resources. Users of
the the Monster.COM online-jobs site found last week a feature story on
why
the town works for dot-coms. Even though Clickshare's operations are
expanding to other locations, including Portland, Maine, we continue to
add
engineering staff in Williamstown. To see why, go to:
http://internet.monster.com/articles/silicon/
Finally . . . a little more detail on those newspaper and wireless
announcements we mentioned up front:
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS OF CLICKSHARE NEWSPAPER PARTNERS -- DETAILS
The latest customers to adopt Clickshare's service include Foster's
Daily
Democrat, of Dover, N.H.; the Concord [N.H.] Monitor; the Corpus Christi
[TX] Caller-Times; and the Lawrence [Kansas] Journal-World. Other papers
are being added. Clickshare is establishing an exchange concept for
digital
content, analogous to exchanges that serve other focused communities
ranging from stocks to auto parts. Clickshare President Nell Fields said
these exchanges can have benefits to both sellers and buyers of digital
content.
"Far beyond enabling the purchase of individual articles or enhanced
content," Fields explained, "customers can use the exchange to purchase
digital content from other businesses, including books, audio, video,
even
movies. Using Clickshare keeps the local publisher in total control of
the
registered membership/subscriber relationship, yet will eventually
provide
local customers anonymous, secure access to a world of content and
commerce
from a single account."
Phillip W. Calvert, vice president of business development at
Clickshare,
said, "Newspapers have been both reading and reporting about the dot-com
threat to their product, and then watching the meltdown. At the same
time,
they have been searching for a way to extend the local service they
provide
their own print readers. Clickshare has provided the answer. We are
proud
of the confidence these organizations have expressed in our service, and
look forward to taking them into the new, exciting world of the digital
exchange."
Clickshare's technology leverages three key strengths that newspapers
bring
to the online marketplace: brand awareness, customer loyalty, and
valuable
content. By Clickshare-enabling their content and users, Calvert added,
"newspapers create new revenue streams by doing what they already know:
extending their brand, loyalty, and content. Clickshare is one of those
defining technologies that serves as a benchmark for best practices
within
the industry."
AND NOW, THE WEATHER . . .
"AccuWeather, Clickshare Preview Customized Weather Service to
Individuals"
The pilot project with AccuWeather, the world's weather authority, went
on
display at the Internet World Wireless 2001 conference in New York this
week. The two companies are previewing the wireless delivery of weather
information to pagers and other untethered devices, customized for the
first time to the interests of individual subscribers.
AccuWeather is a premiere provider of weather forecasts, data, graphics
and
other information to clients that include media, government, educational
institutions, business organizations and private users. For the most
part,
individuals subscribe through third-party carriers such as telephone
companies. In the prototype being demonstrated at Internet World
Wireless
2001, Clickshare provides the transaction infrastructure to enable these
resellers to deliver individualized content to their subscribers.
Dr. Joel N. Myers, AccuWeather founder and president, said, "Wireless
delivery of individualized content expands access to information,
offering
carriers and portals another way to buy and distribute weather. In order
to
deliver a service that is tailored to the needs of individual
subscribers,
we need a partner that shares our obsession with quality, timeliness,
and
accuracy. The pilot with Clickshare is intended to prove that wireless
devices such as pagers and cellphones can provide this information
anywhere, at any time, and that the providers will be fairly
compensated."
Clickshare President Nell Fields said, "This pilot demonstrates a new
flexibility for buyers and sellers of digital content. Until now, end
users
could only retrieve their weather information through bulk subscription
services. Now, Clickshare makes regular or premium content more
accessible,
instead of being wedded to pre-paid subscription services. Millions of
direct and indirect users trust the AccuWeather name, a reputation that
has
developed over the past 34 years, and we are delighted to be partnering
with them."
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