The content trap
"How did the Economist increase revenues from subscriptions when Newsweek and Time were hemorrhaging? How did Tencent create a cash machine from largely free and virtual products in a market with a GDP per capita ten times lower than the U.S.? And in the midst of an industry revolution, how are we to understand these and other media organizations, their fates, and their markets? Combining insightful analysis with an accessible, humorous tone, Harvard Business School Professor Bharat Anand juxtaposes the media strategies of The New Yorker and Britney Spears (they're more alike than you think) and uses analogies like the success of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and Chuck E. Cheese's in-house currency to illustrate broader points about Amazon's dominance and the rise of Netflix. A revolutionary and much-needed analysis, this book presents a way for media companies to survive and thrive amidst industry-wide upheaval. Indeed, as Anand reveals, media evolution is not always a celebration of "free", "media democratization", or entrepreneurship. Rather, the story unfolding in media markets across the world remains one centered around familiar ideas in business - of power, pricing, and strategy"
Stats for nerds
1recommend
3mentions
3people
2017years
33% recommend67% neutral
What Hacker News says
- > Extreme Ownership
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
> Grant
Ron Chernow
> Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy
Dani Rodrik
> Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought
Andrew Lo
> The Best Investment Writing, Volume 1: Selected Writing From Leading Investors and Authors
by Meb Faber (editor), Jason Zweig (contributor), Patrick O’Shaughnessy (contributor), Morgan Housel (contributor), Corey Hoffstein (contributor), Barry Ritholtz (contributor)
> Janesville
Amy Goldstein
> The Man Who Could Be King
John Miller
> My Own Liberator
Dikgang Moseneke
> Hillbilly Elegy
J.D. Vance
> Small Great Things
Jodi Picoult
> Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari
> Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen
> The Content Trap
Bharat Anand
> The Gene: An Intimate History
Siddhartha Mukherjee
> Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
> Attitude: Develop a Winning Mindset on and off the Court
Jay Wright
> The Euro and the Battle of Ideas
Markus K. Brunnermeier, Harold James, Jean-Pierre Landau
> 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy
Hamilton Helmer
> Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
Ellen Pao
> Bellevue
David Oshinsky
> The Woman Who Smashed Codes
Jason Fagone
> Stealing Fire
Steven Kotler
> Hit Refresh
Satya Nadella
> Thank You for Being Late
Thomas Friedman
> Supernormal
Meg Jay
> The Inevitable
Kevin Kelly
> Economics for the Common Good
Jean Tirole
> It’s What I Do
Lynsey Addario
> Gotham: 1898-1919
Mike Wallace
> The Good Daughter
Karin Slaughter
- Disclaimer: Non native english speaker - I am doing my best so please ignore my errors...
I read a bunch of the books on the list the most interesting to me that I have not read for now are:
- The Content Trap: A Strategist's Guide to Digital Change
- Stealing Fire
- Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought
- The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
Has anybody here on HN read those? Are these any good? I am usually quite sceptical regarding Amazon recommendations (or some random CEOs thoughts), but most of the time love books recommended on HN...
In turn my thoughts about some of the books on the list:
- Shoe Dog: Probably the best and most inspiring biography/memoir of any entrepreneur I have ever read. If you are thinking about starting a company or are a founder you will love it!
- Sapiens: Fantastic book that completely shattered parts of my worldview. In my opinion a must read for everyone! (Gave it away as a present for many of my friends - almost everybody liked it)
- Extreme Ownership: The best book regarding leadership I have ever read. At first I was skeptical about the "military-parts" of the book, but they have been useful in illustrating the underlying principles the book covers. If you are in any leadership position (top management, middle management or leader of a very small team) it is definitely worth your money.
- >The Content Trap: A Strategist's Guide to Digital Change -
I read that book and it's not bad. The main idea is that having a mindset of being protective of your content is flawed. The bigger opportunity is "network effects" like community, crowdsourcing, etc. It's the platform, not the content.
If you already agree with that, your time would be better spent reading "Modern Monopolies" because it has more tactical ideas for execution: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Monopolies-Dominate-Century-Ec...
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