More Tail-Wagging

David Card | July 02, 2008, 08:49 AM

The Journal's Lee Gomes goes after the long tail again, aided by a Harvard Business Review article. Wired's long-tail hypemeister Chris Anderson responds, and a little more.

To paraphrase myself from some Jupiter research, it's not saying much to acknowledge there are long-tail markets. Rather, you have to prove:

- there's significant demand for non-blockbusters
- that the long tail could re-arrange Pareto-principle (80-20 rule) industries and markets
- and that anyone can make money off the tail, without also supplying the head

So far, no, maybe, and no.