The most accurate predictive letter in computing and telecommunications,
read by industry leaders worldwide.

 

 

 

In This Issue     Feature: Faking ROIs, Warping Markets   Quotes of the Week   Takeout Window   Ethermail   Upgrades  Netflix vs. Comcast: The Battle Royale    George Soros: Behind China’s Currency Manipulation    The Importance of Biological Clocks   In Other House News…   SNS Positions Open How to Subscribe May I Share This Newsletter? About SNS About the Publisher Where’s Mark?

Special Member Update:

 

I am very pleased to announce that Richard Marshall, Director, Global Cyber Security Management, National Cyber Security Division, Department of Homeland Security, will be joining me for a Centerpiece Conversation at our SNS Predictions Dinner next Thursday evening at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel.

 

So, in addition to a great evening reception and dinner with some of the more interesting people on the planet (roster now at the link below), you can also meet the top global expert in cyber security. Yes, we’ll talk about WikiLeaks. But we’ll also talk about “Economic Cyberwar,” a term I am coining this week, and that’s the part you won’t want to miss.

 

I have just come from moderating a panel with Richard at a meeting in Germany of the largest private EU companies and owners, and I’ll suggest that you will quickly understand why he is perhaps the most powerful cyber security expert in the world. I know you’ll enjoy meeting him, and hearing his views.

 

To register for this event, go to: www.tapsns.com/newyork/2010.

 

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This week’s National Public Radio interview with Mark, on Smartphones and Security, can be found here:

 

www.kplunews.org/post/smartphone-insecurity

 

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   “The [FiReGlobal : West Coast] conference was obviously an outstanding success, gripping, profoundly informing, and invigorating participants from start to finish.”

– Sidney Rittenberg, Author, The Man Who Stayed Behind

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» Faking ROIs, Warping Markets

 

This week, after 15 years of being either one thing or another, Salon.com announced that it was up for sale.

 

According to its SEC filing, the firm showed $1.4 million in revenues this year, up from $1 million a year ago. And its operating loss shrank to $454,000 from $1 million the previous year. The company, however, had only $246,000 in cash and short-term securities and faced a $7.9 million deficit. Oops.

 

This comes a week or two after the announcement of the “50/50 merger” (i.e., sale) of the Daily Beast to Barry Diller’s latest acquisition, Newsweek, itself just sold months earlier to a non-news entrepreneur looking for a quick turnaround.

 

It turns out that the Beast, Tina Brown’s latest vehicle, was also running at a deficit, with one account indicating the firm was burning up around $1MM in cash last year. This, it turns out, was a chip in her favor, since Newsweek, according to Beast DC bureau chief Howard Kurtz, lost $40MM in the same time period.

In the Salon announcement, chief executive Richard Gingras suggested it is not possible for a company to do serious reporting and remain in business today.

 

Are these just repeats of the fantastic flameout of John Battelle’s Industry Standard days, or is it something more generic? Is it just the common generic mantra about transitional times, as advertisers move from print to online, or is there a deeper, more strategic problem involved?

 

Clearly, I believe the latter is the case, which is why I’m writing on it for this issue.

 

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