Invest 15 minutes in last week’s LA Times profile of Huawei and you’ll appreciate the power of candor. The Chinese telecom giant had every reason to expect a grilling from legendary journalist Norman Pearlstine and his team. Instead, Huawei received fair treatment in context useful for both parties.
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FRIDGE NOTES
Terrific interview in Press Gazette UK with Dow Jones CEO and WSJ publisher Almar Latour. Revenue and earnings are up — 80 percent comes from digital. Advertising revenue was down slightly, but subscriptions are strong and growing. Almar was quite generous in his advice to competitors — “differentiate,” he says.
A survey fielded Nov. 27 asked how much (or how little) subscribers would pay for The Economist’s subscriber-only podcasts and newsletters, as well as its digital edition and a digital-print bundle. The survey strategy is brilliant: what if the publication charges too much, or worse, too little? Clearly, the publication is contemplating pricing changes and wants to maximize revenue.
“You can read us first, or read them later,” says The Information in a new advertising campaign. You will not see a better way to call attention to excellent editorial.
What a good idea — and lucrative too. Fortune launches a list of the biggest companies in Europe by revenue. Can the Fortune 500 Asia be far behind?
The FT has a cool scoop about Hunterbrook, a new kind of investment firm. Guided in part by former WSJ EIC Matt Murray, Hunterbrook’s business model is part investment firm, part publisher. The investment side of the house drives a (theoretically) market-moving business deal, while the publishing side of the house — comprised of veteran business reporters and analysts — works alongside under NDA. At the very moment the deal is announced, the editorial side publishes the article, moving the market and giving Hunterbrook first-mover advantage. It’s all legal. though leaks could pose a moral hazard.
When Google Bard was asked whether it could deliver a list of trade reporters along with their email addresses, it responded, “I’m a language model and don’t have the capacity to help with that.”
