News Corp and NBC to challenge YouTube
The new video site is intended to provide an attractive platform for advertisers, with Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors already signed up.
The sitewill not follow the YouTube model of allowing users to upload copyrighted video, which has led to recent lawsuits. Since this is crucial to the popularity of Google's site, it remains to be seen whether or not this site will be a true challenger to YouTube.
blog@e-consultancy.com
Getting a handle on contracted distribution fees
Trimming excess costs from circulation operations without jeopardizing customer service is a pressure all newspapers face.
For papers that contract out their delivery services, distributor fees represent a large portion of the cost. But legal hurdles make it difficult for circ managers to establish fair, but efficient, contract fees across a wide spectrum of distributors.
As a result, newspapers are forced to rely on the expertise of the few managers who have direct experience as contractors to base their fees.
While this approach is common, its not always the most efficient way to realign costs and resources. In many cases, because contracts are negotiated over months, years or even decades, different managers with different perspectives may arrive at varying fee targets.
