danmcdonough.com

This piece by Wired explains how Detroit would fare much better if it operated in a retail environment much more the way Apple does. This would mean eliminating the fiefdoms of dealerships.

Of course, the dealerships want nothing of it. But it seems to me the alternative is annihilation of an industry.

This is another example of when an industry’s stupid rules get in the way of progress. It’s time that a visionary make his or her mark in the auto game.

For the meeting, the American Press Institute also prepared a “Newspaper Economic Action Plan” that detailed “models and recommendations” for charging for online content.

The folks at the Nieman Journalism Lab got their hands on a report that explains how newspapers should be charging for content. I read the report. Seems to me that without an OPEC-like cartel of newspaper executives willing to honor a sacred code of not giving away news for free, this plan will not work.

I also believe the plan should not work. Newspapers need to continue to find ways to provide free, relevant content for their readers and then “lease” their readers to advertisers. The way to survive as a newspaper is to realize that charging readers no longer works. Get the readers, and sell those readers to your advertisers!