wsj

Turin is also elegant and perbene

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Il WSJ su Marchionne, Torino, Fiat, …

The holidays in Turin have certain rituals that set the city apart from others in Italy. That’s because Turin is home to the country’s largest manufacturing company, the multinational auto maker Fiat SpA, and like all big companies, Fiat is a sort of state within a state.

Besides traditional winter festivities, such as buying orange-colored boxes of handmade hazelnut chocolates at Gobino and stopping for a cup of hot chocolate mixed with coffee and cream at Café al Bicerin to fight off the Alpine cold, Turin offers parallel Fiat activities.

In this photo from 1955, Fiat 600s are driven on the roof track of the Lingotto factory in Turin. Like the car maker that calls it home, Turin, more than any other Italian city, mixes old with new, tradition with innovation.

Fiat auto workers’ kids receive gifts at the company’s annual Christmas party as the car maker’s sprawling Mirafiori factory shuts for the break. Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne delivers his annual speech to hundreds of managers gathered at the Lingotto—a former factory modeled on the Ford plant in Detroit where the Model T was born—that now houses Fiat’s executive offices.

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Il 22 ottobre atterra finalmente Windows 7

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Via All Things Digital

In just two weeks, on Oct. 22, Microsoft’s long operating-system nightmare will be over. The company will release Windows 7, a faster and much better operating system than the little-loved Windows Vista, which did a lot to harm both the company’s reputation, and the productivity and blood pressure of its users. PC makers will rush to flood physical and online stores with new computers pre-loaded with Windows 7, and to offer the software to Vista owners who wish to upgrade.

With Windows 7, PC users will at last have a strong, modern successor to the sturdy and familiar, but aged, Windows XP, which is still the most popular version of Windows, despite having come out in 2001. In the high-tech world, an eight-year-old operating system is the equivalent of a 20-year-old car. While XP works well for many people, it is relatively weak in areas such as security, networking and other features more important today than when XP was designed around 1999.

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Il Linkedin del Wall Street Journal

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In America gli editori cercano nuove strade. In Italia …

The Wall Street Journal has long envied the success of professional social network LinkedIn and its 15 million or so monthly visitors (WSJ.com has just a third of that). In late 2008 they launched WSJ Community, a social network bolted onto the main WSJ site. That community is a ghost town – raise your hand if you’ve even heard of it, let alone visited it. At some point, they’ll likely shut it down as quietly as possible.

But they are still serious about gunning for the LinkedIn crowd and all those monetization opportunities (jobs, ads and a heck of a marketing pool for WSJ subscriptions). They’ve been working on a new social network, to be called WSJ Connect, we’ve confirmed. And instead of building it internally, like they did with WSJ Community, they’ve enlisted the help of another arm of parent company News Corp. – Slingshot Labs. And yes, they call it “LinkedIn Killer” internally.

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Il WSJ farà pagare la lettura dei contenuti dall’Iphone

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Via Massimo Russo Il Wall Street Journal, come del resto già annunciato da Rupert Murdoch, si appresta a far pagare per le proprie applicazioni in mobilità. Per il momento gli utenti iPhone si sono visti sottoporre un sondaggio nel quale si chiede la loro disponibilità a pagare per avere pieno accesso al giornale, oggi del … Leggi tutto

Recessione 2.0

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Via WSJ

The last fast few years have seen resurgence in Internet companies not seen since the bubble years of the late 90s. The growth of these advertising-supported “Web 2.0” companies has propelled online advertising sales to $21 billion from $6 billion between 2002 and 2007. But the last recession pricked the bubble in 2001. What will happen to this crop of Internet companies?

The broader economic recession has not spared the Internet sector. Online display advertising is projected to be flat to down by RBC Capital in 2009. It is hard enough for internet startups at the best of times. Which companies will come out of this recession the best?

I predict that media buyers will focus on both a flight to quality and a flight to surety. This will benefit three types of startups: companies with large audiences, companies that sell direct-response advertising, and companies that offer valuable niche content.

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A lezione di Giornalismo da Rupert Murdoch: muovendosi dietro alberi morti

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A spiegare che succederà nel futuro del giornalismo ci voleva Rupert Murdoch che di mestiere fa l’editore, che non è per niente amato dai suoi giornalisti, ma che ha le idee chiarissime sul futuro dell’informazione (e non si può che dargli ragione) Trascrizione del suo intervento da Vittorio Zambardino

Today I would like to talk with you about a subject that always gets certain journalists going: the future of newspapers, and it’s a subject that has a relevance far beyond the feverish, sometimes insecure collection of egos and energy that is the journalistic profession.

Too many journalists seem to take a perverse pleasure in ruminating on their pending demise. I know industries that are today facing stiff new competition from the internet: banks, retailers, phone companies, and so on. But these sectors also see the internet as an extraordinary opportunity. But among our journalistic friends are some misguided cynics who are too busy writing their own obituary to be excited by the opportunity.

Self-pity is never pretty. And sometimes it even starts in journalism school—some of which are perpetuating the pessimism of their tribal elders. But I have a very different view.

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Online Video: Where’s The Money?

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Via TechCrunch Here is the stark reality of online video: nobody is making much money and the enthusiastic projections for online video advertising going from $500 million in 2008 to more than $5 billion in five years will undoubtedly be pared back in the coming weeks as analysts revisit their numbers. (Those numbers are from … Leggi tutto

Google vota Obama

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via WSJ Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt will hit the campaign trail this week on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, signaling Mr. Schmidt’s push for a greater voice in politics while giving the Obama campaign a boost from a highly desirable constituency. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in Washington earlier this year. … Leggi tutto

Il grande fratello nelle mani

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Questa volta Apple l’ha fatta davvero grossa … via Massimo Russo

Apple ha la possibilità di controllare a distanza tutti gli iPhone e disabilitare, qualora lo ritenga opportuno, applicazioni e software installati sui terminali degli utenti. Dopo una settimana di indiscrezioni in proposito, è stato lo stesso amministratore delegato Steve Jobs ad ammetterlo a margine di un colloquio con il Wall Street Journal sull’andamento lusinghiero delle vendite delle applicazioni per il gadget tecnologico più desiderato del momento.

La possibilità per Apple di rimuovere software in remoto dai propri telefoni esiste, ha affermato Jobs, giustificandola come un estremo rimedio all’eventuale distribuzione di un programma dannoso attraverso l’Apple App store, il negozio online al quale è necessario ricorrere per scaricare e installare programmi sul telefono: “Speriamo di non aver mai bisogno di tirare quella leva”, ha aggiunto, “ma sarebbe irresponsabile non avere una maniglia come quella da tirare in caso di necessità”.

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Divide et impera

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Microsoft ci riprova con Yahoo: l’idea è di spezzetare l’azienda, acquisire il search business e trovare un partner che si compri la parte di yahoo più orientata ai media. Via WSJ Microsoft Corp., positioning itself for a new run for Yahoo Inc.’s search business, has approached other media companies in recent days about joining it … Leggi tutto