Marketing Me! NYT and WSJ abandon subscription model, join twenty-first century

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal will/have abandoned the idea of subscriptions to read news off their web sites. Read it here.

I think it is big time funny.

For years, if you wanted to read the NYT on line, you had to subscribe and hand over all kinds of personal information.

Meanwhile, all the other news sites were handing content over in favor of your eyeballs viewing loads of sometimes, very creative ads.

The Times thought that subscribers, the old model, would benefit the Gray Lady better than new-fangled, unreliable, Internet advertising. Great thinking.

Guess who won? Not hard to determine with the Times decision today.

Okay, so how does this apply to Marketing Me?

First, how hard are you making your life to prospective revenue sources? You know people and companies who are willing to pay for your time and talent?

Difficult people require all sorts of protection and firewalls which keep revenue at arm's length.

Freewheelers, people who move fast and rely on personal marketing, remove every barrier possible to making things happen. Further, they find ways to monetize every potential customer opportunity.

Difficult people love certifications, trial periods, apprenticeships, reviews, check boxes and any other roadblocks which makes their life feel worthwhile, yet often, unprofitable.

No different than the Times and their subscription model. Make your best customers go through the ringer in order to protect a short-sighted, old-fashioned, "because we always did it that way" goal.

Got a suggestion for you: Stop making it hard for your customers to give you money.

Happy hunting!

Marketing Me! GM Strikes, Iranian visitors, Cracker Jack and inevitable quarter demise

General Motors Strike

The UAW hosted a labor strike at GM plants around the country on Monday. I can't see why this is big news anymore.

- GM is losing money.
- UAW member and retireee benefits are in serious trouble
- Toyota is gaining market share.

The key word is relevancy. Both sides speak in broad terms and with generalized goals - "return to profitability", "job security" and "health benefits".

GM makes cars. There are two goals that matter: Make cars people want and will buy (key word) and make a profit on the sale.

Everything else is secondary.

Ranting about "quality" and "productivitiy" is a moot point.

In my world, the solution lies with the Big Three becoming the "Small to Medium 300".

Tragically, this all comes at the same time Michigan comes close to shutting down state government operations due to a massive budget shortfall.

Iran

The president of Iran spoke at Columbia yesterday and will speak at the United Nations today.

Who cares?

Why does the media still think that 19th century country borders and their leaders matter any longer?

I would rather read Shoemoney or hear his speech from last week.

Cracker Jacks

I received a bag of "Original" Cracker Jacks today at my children's school.

Hint: Original Cracker Jack was in a skinny box with a platic toy enclosed in the blue stripe packet - (I am too young to remember tin toys, thank you).

This product did not taste like Cracker Jack, had a cruddy prize and not enough of those burned peanuts in the bottom of the bag.

Sort of tee-d me off this morning.

The Quarter is still going to end this week

I tried to push back, but the calendar got in the way.