Lessons from The Atlantic and the Columbus Dispatch

A story of success and a story of failure. The Atlantic posts profit in the fourth quarter of 2010, the first time in decades. Its online traffic grew 34% with a monthly average of 5 million unique visitors. The turn-around is attributed to

1. Creating a solid brand identity
2. A digital-first strategy
3. Building a marketing services operation
4. Expanding live events; and
5. Maintaining a relentless focus on hiring top talent.

Stop Thinking Like a Portal is the hard lesson the Columbus Dispatch newspaper in Ohio should learn from its poor handling of the homeless golden voice video that was shot by its reporter and went viral on YouTube thanks to a reader.

Few publishers …  seem to have really embraced the idea that content can’t be bottled up and locked behind walls any more, and that there is more to be gained by letting it be shared than there is to be lost.