Recent Blog Posts
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Death by a Thousand Cuts
Nov 20 200912:35 pm EDT -
Oprah, Exit; Exit, Oprah
Nov 20 20097:20 am EDT -
Vivendi Could Complicate Comcast's NBC Universal Bid
Nov 19 20094:08 pm EDT -
Project Everest Brings Avalanche of Layoffs to AOL
Nov 19 200910:58 am EDT -
'Reader's Digest' May Be Moving to Manhattan
Nov 19 20098:03 am EDT -
100 Layoffs Coming to 'BusinessWeek'
Nov 18 20098:43 am EDT -
'BusinessWeek' Names Josh Tyrangiel Editor in Chief
Nov 17 200911:56 am EDT -
The End of the Affair
Nov 17 200911:23 am EDT -
Window Media Closes 'Washington Blade' and Other Gay and Lesbian Publications
Nov 16 20091:53 pm EDT -
Less Than Half of 'Regular Internet Users' Willing to Pay for Content
Nov 16 200911:52 am EDT
Links
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- Jim Romenesko, Poynter Institute
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- Don't Quote Me, The Boston Phoenix's Adam Reilly
- Media Decoder, The New York Times
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- The Media Guy, Ad Age's Simon Dumenco
- L.A. Observed
- Fine on Media, BusinessWeek
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- Tuned In, Time Magazine
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- Gawker
- The Huffington Post Media Vertical
- Editor and Publisher
- PaidContent
Retail War II: Discount DVDs
There's a new front in the online sales war Amazon, Target, and Walmart are waging for consumers' holiday gift dollars: DVDs.
After weeks of undercutting one another on select hardcover book prices—which has infuriated independent booksellers and led to partial rationing—the big online retailers are now dropping prices on some DVDs to as low as $9.99, according to the Wall Street Journal's Miguel Bustillo and Ann Zimmerman.
Pricing DVDs that low pretty much ensures losses by the retailers, but that doesn't seem to matter to them. It may not matter to consumers, either, since DVD sales have steadily declined since 2004, as The Wrap's Daniel Frankel noted earlier this week.
The Los Angeles Times' Ben Fritz throws in another variable to the discussion of DVD sales: Those ubiquitous Red Box DVD kiosks that are popping up at supermarkets and pharmacies. Fritz reports that there are nearly 21,000 of them nationwide—and more coming soon. Instead of buying disks and building a home library, consumers are renting them for $1-a-night: Red Box has reported a revenue growth of 90 percent in the third quarter with operating income of $34.5 million.
Matt Haber is the media blogger for Portfolio.com.
