ViewPass update

After the New York Times last week dubbed the ViewPass project “dormant,” a number of people have asked what happened to my proposal for an industry-owned solution to do a better job of monetizing newspaper web traffic. Here’s the answer:ViewPass was proposed as a publisher-financed and -owned solution to monetize interactive audiences by encouraging registration across a broad variety of

Only 51% of pubs think pay walls will fly

A bare 51% of the newspaper publishers in the United States believe they can charge successfully for access to their interactive content, according to a survey released today. The other 49% of publishers either fear that pay walls will fail or just aren’t sure.The survey, which was conducted for the latest in the series of industry conferences this year studyng how to monetize the valuable

AP didn’t have to run dying Marine’s photo

While I defend the right of the Associated Press to distribute the controversial picture of a mortally wounded Marine in Afghanistan, I can’t support its decision to do so.The controversy came to light over the Labor Day weekend when Defense Secretary Robert Gates begged the AP to honor the request of the family of Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard not to run a photo of the young man taken in the moments

Sun-Times can be saved, says CEO

The money-losing Sun-Times Media Group can be turned into a modestly profitable business by the end of 2011, says the chief executive who took the company into bankruptcy court and plans to stick around to lead it back into the black.“The days of a newspaper company running 20% to 35% margins are over and they will not return,” said Chairman Jeremy Halbreich, who joined the Sun-Times Group early

Can latest savior save the Sun-Times?

More cuts, more drama and more trauma almost certainly lie ahead for the Sun-Times Media Group now that a civic-minded businessman has stepped forward to buy a company that probably could not otherwise have lasted out the year.In the latest twist in 25 years of always colorful and often dysfunctional ownership, a group of private investors led by Chicago financier James C. Tyree disclosed an

Yelp: Don’t leave home without it

I just got back from my first fully Yelp-enabled vacation and it was the best ever. As the late, great Karl Malden said in his American Express pitch: Don’t leave home without it.Although tens of millions of savvy Internet consumers know about Yelp, I find that an amazing number of broadcast and publishing pooh-bahs still haven’t heard of it. That’s too bad, because it means they not only are

Zell straps on his dancing shoes again

Sam Zell may (or may not) be headed for the exit as head of the Tribune Co., where he personally lost $325 million as the result of his recklessly financed acquisition of the company. But it looks like he is going to be all right.The man who proudly characterizes himself as a “grave dancer” specializing in the acquisition and turnaround of troubled businesses is organizing a $625 million fund to