The Joss Group

What Killed The Daily

The news was official earlier this week (see our post about this on the Digital Publishing Report Web site), but I wasn't surprised to hear The Daily will cease publication on December 15. Neither was anyone on the Joss Group team. The Daily app got a lot of trumpeted fanfare when News Corp launched it nearly two years ago. But, when we looked at the product we were not impressed. "Bloated" is the word that came to mind. It took so long to download the app, and people were supposed to be lining up to wait this long every single day? No way.

So, the answer to what killed The Daily is simple. The product provided insufficient value. Full stop. Nobody wants to wait to get news they can get elsewhere and particularly on the Web.

News Corp plans to re-use the "technology and some of the staff" on other News Corp publishing properties and plans to put the app's publisher to work running the entire company's digital publishing efforts. No hint, though, as to whether the media giant has learned valuable lessons through the millions poured into the app. Time will tell, and here's hoping.

Push Versus Pull: TV Viewing

One of the cool things you can do when you sign up for Hulu is the system will send you notices when new episodes of your favorite TV shows are ready for viewing. This is cool. But, I have noticed I read the e-mail, delete it, and never watch the show! Yet, I have no problem sitting down on the couch and turning on the TV and watching whatever I like of what is currently being shown! Classic push versus pull--could it be that in the new world of media consumption that push will outweigh pull?

Definition of a Job

As might be expected, descriptions of the doings of Evil Bosses and crazy work situations pop up from time to time on my college alumni listserve.

You can depend on a Bryn Mawr graduate to have something pithy to say about just about anything, especially us older ones. Here's what one 1963 graduate and former IBMer (now retired) had to say during such a discussion (she credits her father as the source): "If I could get someone to pay me for doing exactly what I wanted to do it wouldn't be a job."

Amen. And exactly what I needed to hear in these dregs of summer. Being self-employed, I do feel I am the best boss I have ever had, but even I have to do things I'd rather not do sometimes.

I wonder if we could adapt this slogan to work with teens? How about, "If you could get someone to give you a degree for doing exactly what you wanted, it wouldn't be an education."

I like it.