The Subscription Age

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You ever get a magazine subscription – and sometimes read it?  You still renew it you know . . . just in case.

Or maybe you get comics in a pull at a comic store.  You buy them, and might even read them.

Or a book club.

Or . . .

Well you get the idea.  We all have experience with subscriptions one way or another.  However in an age of eMedia, DLC games, and the iPad-ness, think about what kind of subscriptions you're going to see.

I think we're going to see a lot more subscriptions in the future.  Your business models, your publishing models, and your estimates on profitability are going to need to keep this in mind.  If you're writer, an ePublisher, a game developer, this will be a factor.

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Backlog and The End of Backlog

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So the iPad is here to deliver our media, tablets are on their way to challenge the iPad, smartphones are there when we don't have tablets . . .

There's going to be a lot of way to get our content in the future.

Of course, not all that content is going to be new content.   Past games will be recompiled or emulated.  Comics wlll be scanned, books digitized or re-digitized.  New content is going to compete with old content.

I've speculated before about this competition – simply delivering old content in many ways is faster and cheaper, and represents a huge backlog of easy-to-deploy content.  For those of us in the content/media business, a truly geeky area, that's important as it will affect what we do and what we produce.  We need to observe this competition.

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News of the Day 4/6/2010

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Economy not too hot (and not hot for some gaming companies), Net Neutrality gets noogied, and Yelp has to change policy. Not the greatest day in the geekonomy, but let's get to the news!

Career:
A paper on wages and skills may give you some insights on the future and of geekonomics.

Economics/Geekonomics:
A movie showing unemployment growth over the last 3 years – Informative and depressing.

Job market still kind of lousy – Even if it looks stable, remember we need more jobs for the people not working to have.

Greece wants the IMF out of their bailout? Probably not. However I'm not sure I trust the IMF and its unimaginative solutions anyway.

Geek Law:
Oklahoma citizen info? Wow, THIS feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The US Court of Appeals says the FCC doesn't have the authority to enforce net neutrality rules. Ouch. Net Neutrality is looking like it's going to require a law to get. Frankly I think good Net Neutrality is needed to make sure we maintain healthy competition and innovation on the internet.

Movies:
Will actors hate 3D? Well so far Sam Worthington isn't complaining, but he's got nothing to complain about. A theory that the 3D trend could affect actor's careers.

Publishing:
Consumers not happy with some iPad magazine publishing. I can understand why.  Frankly some companies really mismanaged this and I don't think they can get away without a price cut.

The advantages of Print On Demand publishing like Lulu. I'm already sold, but it's a good read.

Social Media:
Yelp changes some of its policies to deal with claims of 'extortion' policies.

AOL is dumping Bebo. The question now is how – and who will get it. I'm not sure what anyone would do with it, but who knows.

Technology:
Video hosting company Brightcove gets $12 Million in funding. They are in Massachusetts. They need you to help spend that money. Send a resume.

Is Venture capital back? I dunno, it's a bit promising, I'm a bit cynical.

Video Games:
Infinity Ward loses more staff. In short, not good.

Monumental closes one of it's offices. Really not a good day in gaming news is it?

Question of the Day: What's next for Net Neutrality?

– Steven Savage