All the pop-ups that are fit to block?

The New York Times Company announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire About, Inc., a leading online consumer information provider, from PRIMEDIA Inc. (NYSE:PRM) in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $410 million. The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed late this quarter or early in the second quarter.

Guess I am missing something here. The only far-out idea I have is that The New York Times turns About.Com into a citizen journalism stronghold. They’d better kill off those annoying pop-ups and get better guides if they want the idea to work.

Stay tuned.

This is reason number no.10 that I know we are back in the dot.com era. In the mid '90s, everyone would say, "our secret sauce is..." referring to "the thing" that makes their product or service different or better than anyone else's...

In the past month, I have heard at least 10 companies refer to their "secret sauce" in 1 on 1 pitches. Who knew the fast-food burgermeisters would have added so much to our lexicon?

This is how Napster happened. Consumers wanted music downloads and couldn’t wait for tardy record labels to figure out how to legitimately offer them. So, entrepreneurs who didn’t live by standard rules, didn’t wait for cumbersome market research studies to see a market opportunity and built a powerful P2P network. The folks from Napster basically opened their eyes and saw the need.

So, we’ll see if the folks from News Corp/Fox wake up and smell an opportunity. Since folks from the UK are illegally downloading episodes of “24,” wouldn’t it make sense for Fox to offer them legitimately? It’s not that consumers want to be pirates, but in today’s digital universe, if there is a compelling demand, folks will figure out an illegal way of fulfilling that demand if powers that be fail to offer the legal means.

We’re not talk about episodes of “24” on cell phones. Ugh. We’re talking next day, one-time viewing of “24.” With the advent of such remote viewing services as Orb Networks and Sling Media, the need for Fox to offer such a time-shifted deal is more than compelling; it’s a darned near necessity.

Think this topic will be discussed at the big News Corp. strategy pow-wow in New York? I doubt it!