Building the Electronic Arts of Casual Gaming: PlayFirst CEO John Welch (Part 3)

SM: Where did you get the idea for your current venture? What is your domain experience in the segment? Any particular reason that led you up to this venture? JW: I co-founded my first startup in 1997, with that same roommate from Boston. While trying to raise capital and recruit a head of engineering, the

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Murdoch Gets Dow Jones, Now What?

As expected, Rupert Murdoch has successfully negotiated for himself a position in the Business and Finance vertical with a crown jewel brand, The Wall Street Journal. Here’s my previous analysis on why this deal is a good one. I really like News Corp’s verticalization strategy. James Altucher asked Jim Cramer, “What’s the one thing the

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Re-engineering the Book Business: Blurb CEO, Eileen Gittins (Part 6)

SM: If I were to publish books through Blurb based on my blog writings, I would need to be able to have a paperback that sells for $5-6. I would also need to have a customized storefront on my site that seamlessly ties into yours, so that you can fulfill the order. Can I do

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Giving Up on AdSense

I am a painful critic for Google’s AdSense program, as it pertains to Content (not Search). My beef is that it doesn’t take into account any understanding of the target audience of a publisher, nor does it take into account Context or Intent.