This morning Upworthy.com, which crested at 30 million unique visitors in May thanks to a runaway viral hit, announced that they've started piloting sponsored posts to generate revenue, and shared with Fast Company a bit of their secret sauce. Founded 14 months ago by Moveon.org's Eli Pariser and Peter Koechley of The Onion, with Chris Hughes of Facebook (who's since left to take over The New Republic), Upworthy set out with the quixotic goal of making green-vegetable topics like gay rights, climate change, and cancer awareness as addictive as Doritos Tacos Locos and as shareable as LOLcats. And they've been really good at it, they revealed today. A social analytics company called SimpleReach reported that Upworthy's posts, helped along by 2 million Facebook Likers and 1 million email signups, were driving a startling 20% of all the social sharing they were tracking of published content on the web. And a separate company called Scanvine rated them #1 of the top 25 most shared sites. Take these mystery metrics with a heavy grain of salt, or say they just got lucky, but take note that a site made up of 80-90% reshared videos, most made by amateurs and activists and posted to YouTube, is pulling in some serious traffic. Here, according to Pariser and Koechley, are the top three rules they've arrived at through their testing that are different from what traditional media does. Spend half your time on the headline "People put way too much emphasis on the specifics of the... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The James Beard Award winner and co-owner of Union Square Cafe shares his top books from his kitchen shelf. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Esquire, Hearst's monthly men's magazine, has revamped its website, in the first step of the brand's digital strategy overhaul. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2013-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#monthly men
Hobby titles are proving to be fertile ground for video. Kalmbach Publishing's Model Railroader is the latest to expand its offerings, launching a paid video subscription site to its compliment the 79-year-old brand. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#fertile ground
As publishers migrate beyond the first phase of the ebook revolution, the IDPF's Digital Book Conference on Wednesday will address ebooks on the web, tablets, phones and more. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#open web
#cross-platform publishing
#ebook revolution
Those clinging hopefully to the old Borders books gift cards stashed in their drawers or wallets are out of luck, a Manhattan federal judge ruled Wednesday.Those clinging hopefully to the old Borders books gift cards stashed in their drawers or wallets are out of luck, a Manhattan federal judge... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#bookstore chain
Keith Smith from Warwick and Kenilworth Bookshops has criticised HMRC and the government for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Start-up company ReDigi had planned to allow users to sell used ebooks but were told by a judge that doing so would be illegal. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Condé Nast is taking its glossy, high-style images off the page and into the b-to-b marketplace. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#ecommerce site
Bloomsbury and Faber's Drama Online, launched today (1st May) in beta, includes a partnership... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#drama online
A German court has ruled that digital books cannot be resold by purchasers. The German District... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#german court
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Amsterdam will take on the role of city of honor at the upcoming Buenos Aires Book Fair and strengthen the relationship between Latin America and Holland. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#dutch publishers
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The British Supreme Court has decided partially in favour of news-clipping service Meltwater in its long-running dispute with UK newspaper publishers, who accused Meltwater of distributing excerpts of stories online without paying any licensing fees. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#licensing fees
Twitter has often been cited as anathema to long-form journalism, but one of the social giant's co-founders thinks the two concepts can work together. Medium, a content production and delivery platform started by Twitter and Blogger co-founder Ev Williams, has acquired the sci-tech long-form... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#long-form journalism
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Only newspapers have been given up for dead more often than magazines. But though their print cousins continue to lose advertising at a brisk clip, some magazine publishers are trumpeting a turnaround few could have foreseen in the dark days of 2008 and 2009, when nearly 1,000 titles shut... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2013-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Publishers Association has launched a new area of its website as a resource for those looking... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble's PubIt! self-publishing conduit has been active for well over two years, but you'd be forgiven for overlooking it with that somewhat forgettable (if very emphatic) name. The company might just know what you're thinking, as it's giving the service a considerably more memorable... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new report on the ebook market in 2012 shows the continuing dominance of fiction, with fiction... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's kind of a natural for a company that, despite its many other ventures, still makes a lot of its money selling books. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2013-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A start-up is hoping to create a new digital publishing platform for independent authors that... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#raise $50
#independent authors
It's only March, but 2013's already proving to be quite the wild ride for music distribution trailblazer, eMusic. A month after eschewing its long time subscription-only model by adding direct music purchases, the site has merged with Ray Kurzweil-founded ebook distributor, K-NFB Reading Inc.... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#ebook distributor
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