About Me
I'm an MBA student in data-driven marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. (More.) The views expressed on this site are my own.
Author Archives: Jennifer Berk
Millennial recession poetry
Every so often you start reading generational sociology (I’m one of the very-tail-end-of-Gen-X people) and find a poem instead. the Greek ideal of “thumos”, which is the lust not for money or success (in the conventional sense) but the lust … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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How to Learn About the Financial Crisis
Considering I went to business school to focus on marketing, this is a weird term. I’m taking Investments (the first finance course), Central Banking (an advanced macroeconomics course, taught by the former head of the German central bank, Axel Weber), … Continue reading
Posted in International, Journalism
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Selling Attention – the New York Times paywall, Lincoln, Chuck, Subway, and the Washington Post redesign
This week I’m actively selling attention. Others have sold it for me in the past, every time I read an article with an (ignored) ad next to it, but now the purchasers are making their requests explicit and obvious. And … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Business models, Design, Journalism, Marketing, Personalization Design, Publishing
Tagged chuck, editorial, ethics, nytimes, patronage, sponsorship, subway, usability, washingtonpost
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How to recruit an MBA intern
During last week’s Chicago Booth “West Quest” (trip to visit potential MBA internship employers in San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles), I found I had definite ideas about what the company presentations were forgetting to mention. After hearing from 14 … Continue reading
Posted in Management, Marketing
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How Amazon’s ebook prices are poisoning their ratings
Amazon has a dilemma. They tried and failed to keep Kindle ebook prices fixed at $9.99, while publishers insisted on having flexibility to charge more. Now complaints about ebook pricing threaten to break their user ratings, one of the features … Continue reading
Kicking off your crowdsourced fundraising with dynamite
Ever caused sales of $14,000 $18,000 in a day [ETA as of 10/6 1am: $50,000 in two days] for a product you off-handedly mentioned you were buying? If you’re a fan of good design and of Apple products in particular, … Continue reading
Posted in Business models, Marketing, Social Media
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Goodbye to Amplify Public Affairs, and why I believe in documentation
My goodbye-to-Amplify post is up now – I’m excited to be headed back to school but sad to be leaving great colleagues and projects. In the post I included the video from a more public goodbye, my talk at Debbie … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
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In Defense of Paul the Octopus, Prognosticator
In cephalopod solidarity, I protest the idea that the German octopus which predicted the results of all their World Cup matches, including their loss to Spain, should be cooked and eaten. I’m not sure why its keepers decided to ask … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
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The New News – Real-time and Overwhelming
What happens now when there’s breaking news? This happens: I’ve gotten my news mostly in real time since 1997, thanks to MIT’s zephyr instant message system, and one of the wonderful things about Twitter is expanding that to more people … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Social Media
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