:: Future of Journalism

"Shazam for TV" to power up to third of Super Bowl ads

LostRemote :: Anyone who’s unsure that brands are interested in spending on social TV should take a hard look at the work Shazam has executed since launching “Shazam for TV” last year. Next weekend, as many as one-third of the Super Bowl ads will have some Shazamable component, the company says.

[Andrew Fisher, CEO Shazam:] No one else has come close to delivering as many unique campaigns, nor do they have our scale, with more than 175 million people who use Shazam.

Continue to read Natan Edelsburg, www.lostremote.com

News startups - Stanford and Andreessen’s launch FounderSoup: find co-founders

TechCrunch :: A single entrepreneur alone is vulnerable to shortsightedness, to fatigue. But with a team comes diverse perspective, encouragement, and the wherewithal to push through problems. That’s why a group of Stanford computer science and business students started the Andreessen Horowitz-backed FounderSoup program. It’s designed to give entrepreneurs with an idea or a fledgling company a chance to pitch — not to raise funding, but to recruit co-founders.

Clipped from: goo.gl (share this clip)

Continue to read Josh Constine, techcrunch.com

Social TV startup Bluefin Labs lands $12m investment

AdAge :: If there's any doubt that social TV is poised to become big business, Bluefin Labs is trying to put that to rest. The Cambridge, Massachusetts social-analytics startup has just closed a $12 million Series B round led by Time Warner Investments. Bluefin Labs is the creator of a social-analytics dashboard that aggregates and analyzes comments about television shows and the sentiment of those comments in social networks.

Continue to read Jason Del Rey, adage.com

Australia: APN News & Media takes stake in online start-up Friendorse

The Australian :: APN News & Media has joined with technology business incubator Pollenizer in two investments, including taking a 25% stake in online start-up Friendorse. APN said the investment followed a successful trial of Friendorse, a neighbourhood-based community recommendations web service for local businesses.

[Matt Crockett, APN:] Part of APN's strategy for our regional publishing businesses is to provide more services and useful local information relating directly to those communities.

Continue to read Sally Jackson, www.theaustralian.com.au

Do serial entrepreneurs have a leg up on first time entrepreneurs? - Successful startup secrets

Business Insider :: Do serial entrepreneurs have a leg up on first time entrepreneurs? - Answer: Yup. Serial entrepreneurs are more likely to build successful startups. According to the Harvard researchers, there is performance persistence in entrepreneurship.

"Why Some Startups Succeed And Others Fail: 10 Fascinating Harvard Findings," presents the research findings of Paul Gompers, Anna Kovner, Josh Lerner and David Scharfstein, who put together a Harvard Business School working paper to answer that question.

10 Harvard findings - Continue to read www.businessinsider.com

Peecho tranforms pixels into print: “License to Print” nets it $750,000 in funding

Venture Beat :: For a writer, nothing beats the romance of seeing your work in high-quality print. No screen can compete with the silky feel of the paper, the excess of glossy photographs and the unique smell of a new page. Peecho, which just raised $750,000, lets visitors to a website or application transform pixels into print by clicking on its embedded print button. The print button connects to a cloud of print facilities all over to world which can produce any chosen magazine, photo album, poster or book.

Continue to read Ciara Byrne, venturebeat.com

Twitter acquires social news startup Summify, better its talents

TechCrunch :: Summify, a startup that uses social data to create a personalized news digest, just announced that it has been acquired by Twitter. This sounds like a talent acquisition on Twitter’s part — in other words, the main purpose of the acquisition was probably hiring the Summify team. Some of Summify’s feature have been immediately disabled, it’s no longer accepting new users, and in a few weeks, Summify says it will shut down the current product entirely.

Continue to read Anthony Ha, techcrunch.com

New owners of San Diego Union-Tribune look to build media (center) incubator

North County Times :: San Diego developer Doug Manchester and radio executive John Lynch, who bought The San Diego Union-Tribune for $110 million a month ago, said they could pursue other newspapers or "video and audio" enterprises to wrap into a new media incubator emerging from the newspaper's Mission Valley headquarters.

Continue to read Pat Maio, www.nctimes.com

Technology waves and valuations: Are we in a social networking bubble?

RogerAndMike.com :: In my opinion, “Are we in a social networking bubble?” is an example of a rhetorical fallacy.  It assumes that social networking companies are either wildly overvalued like it’s 1999, or correctly/undervalued and there’s nothing to worry about. Framing questions honestly and in a truth-seeking way is one of the most important skills of the innovator or investor.  My hope is to tackle the question of social networking valuations with this in mind.

[Mike:] The question, “Are we in a social networking bubble?” misses the point.  The more important question is, “Where are we in the social networking wave, what is the valuation environment given where we are, what are the criteria for success, and what are the warning signs?”

By mapping the typical progression of valuations and investor sentiment to technology waves, I hope to show that investors and the market almost never know how to correctly value important disruptive technology companies.

Continue to read rogerandmike.com

Former Huffington Post CTO Paul Berry building new startup and incubator

BetaBeat :: The news broke that Paul Berry, the longtime CTO of Huffington Post credited with their legendary SEO and early adoption of social networking tools, was leaving the company. Betabeat has learned that Mr. Berry will be reuniting with the old gang, Ken Lerer and Jonah Peretti, as he builds out a startup called Rebel Mouse and a new incubator focused on viral and social startups. 

Continue to read www.betabeat.com