Journalism

 http://www.journalismfestival.com/news/hal-varian-on-the-economics-of-the-newspaper-business/

by Hal Varian 

Thank you, it is a great honor to accept this award on behalf of Google. We appreciate the recognition and the responsibility that accompanies it. 

I am an economist by training, and only a part-time journalist, so I want to focus my remarks on the economics of the newspaper business during this period of transition. 

Printed  newspaper circulation has been declining for 50 years In the US, newspaper circulation reached its peak in 1972 and it has been all downhill ever since. 

Experts agree that most of the decline during this period was due to competition from broadcast TV news and cable news, with the Internet contributing only in the last few years.

Be a Better Writer: How To Make Your Sales Copy Actually Sell

Be a Better Writer: How To Make Your Sales Copy Actually Sell: "How To Make Your Sales Copy Actually Sell."

Helge: I'd like to become a better writer. Need to read this with better care.

One of the main problems I see with sales and marketing copy online is that it rarely makes me want to buy anything. More often than not, it sounds sales-y, and by the 'call to action', I'm looking to the browser search bar to find something I actually care about. I, like millions of other net savvy surfers, have become grossly desensitized to online advertising, so it takes a lot more than your average, run-of-the-mill sales letter to get me to act.

Chances are that you're that way, too.

So how do you counteract this advert apathy? How do you write sales and marketing copy that converts visitors into subscribers and buyers?"