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Rational Rants

Mitch Ratcliffe
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Mitch Ratcliffe

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Mitch Ratcliffe

Mitch Ratcliffe
Mitch Ratcliffe is a veteran journalist, media executive and entrepreneur. He was editor of the ground-breaking Digital Media newsletter in the 1990s and a frequent contributor to ZDNet over the years. He led development of the first Web audio/video news network at ON24, sat on the board of Electric Classifieds Inc. and Match.com, and worked as an investment banker. A dedicated "portfolio career" worker, Mitch is co-founder and Chief Scientist of BuzzLogic LLC, a social network analytics and marketing communications platform developer, and works with Audible Inc. on its podcasting service, among other projects detailed here.

About Rational Rants

Mitch Ratcliffe blogs about the constantly changing boundary between media and life, the businesses that live on that border, and the meaning of all this change to society and the economy.

  • Happy New Year and Adieu, dear readers

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | December 27, 2009, 7:47pm PST

    I’ve been writing for Ziff-Davis, ZD Net and their many facets for almost two decades. It is just a few months short of 19th anniversary of the first time my byline appeared in MacWEEK, in...

  • Updating Kindles sold estimate: 1.49 million

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | December 26, 2009, 9:02pm PST

    Based on the ever-vague guidance provided by Amazon.com in the form of obscure comments from CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos and fluffy PR releases, such as today’s holiday sales update,...

  • When customers love the product, but hate your mission, it's time to change publishing

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | December 8, 2009, 11:48am PST

    I recently had the pleasure of presenting a vision for the future of publishing to a group of publishing professionals in New York. Can’t say where it was, yet, but suffice to say it was...

  • Zombie Alert: CrunchPad rises from grave

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | December 7, 2009, 5:20pm PST

    Last week, Mike Arrington announced the death of CrunchPad, his mythical $250 tablet for surfing the Web. This week, Arrington’s former partner in the project, Fusion Garage, announced it...

  • CrunchPad illusion after all

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | November 30, 2009, 9:15pm PST

    Mike Arrington has announced his CrunchPad web tablet, covered here, is “dead”, blaming his manufacturing partner for cutting him out of the deal. In the frothy market that is media...

  • Headline 2010: e-Reader device failure

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | November 2, 2009, 4:31pm PST

    The market knows best, right? Markets are bloody paths to progress. At this writing there are approximately 52 e-reader devices coming to market in the next 12 months. Fifty-two different devices...

  • Updating Kindles-sold estimates: 1.072 million

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | October 23, 2009, 2:17pm PDT

    Based on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ comments on the third quarter results for the company, Kindle sales are accelerating. Bezos is quoted: “Kindle has become the #1 bestselling item by both unit...

  • Kindle books come to the PC -- a Nook counterpunch

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | October 22, 2009, 12:50pm PDT

    Platform expansion is the logical counter to new competition at the device level. Amazon, facing the introduction of BN.com’s Nook and other e-readers this week, has announced it will...

  • Nook Clarified: Really solid progress for e-readers

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | October 21, 2009, 3:29pm PDT

    Yesterday, I posted a long analysis of what I thought was right and strangely wrong about the Barnes & Noble Nook. Matt Miller today got a clarification about my main concern, which was that...

  • B&N's Nook e-reader: Weirdly unrevolutionary

    By Mitch Ratcliffe | October 20, 2009, 3:05pm PDT

    In addition to this posting, please visit this clarifications posting to get the whole picture. It would be nice to say, as Matt Miller has, that the e-book and e-reader market was revolutionized...

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