Out Fox The $treet

After the close on Thursday, Pandora Media ( P ) reported some encouraging trends that sparked the stock higher in after-hours trading. The company though continues to lose money questioning the validity of any rally on whether meaningful profits will ever be produced. The company is a leader in custom-radio internet services. Even with competitors such as Google ( GOOG ) venturing into the online radio market, Pandora continues to trade towards the all-time highs around $20 back after the IPO in the summer of 2011. The question is whether this service has a profitable future. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

This article is the fourth in a monthly series to analyze the stocks at the forefront of the monetization of the trend towards mobile data traffic. The original mobile monetization index highlighted the leading public companies and defined the concept. Market Data The expectations for the monetization of mobile traffic increased dramatically in December following the nice surprise when Facebook (FB) reported very strong mobile revenue back in October. Analysts continue to become more bullish on the concept. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long AAPL, GLUU, and VELT. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

This article is the second in a monthly series to analyze the stocks at the forefront of the monetization of the trend towards mobile data traffic. The original mobile monetization index highlighted the leading public companies. The concept was created as the market continuously lumped the new mobile stocks into the original failures of the relatively old companies such as Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOG) . Recently Facebook reported a huge improvement in the monetization of mobile traffic providing hope for the sector A range of companies benefiting from this shift to mobile traffic continues to grow. The industries range from Advertising to Real Estate to Travel with varying degrees of success and profits. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure. Long AAPL, GLUU, VELT. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

With the much-published failures of Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOG) to monetize mobile traffic that switched from desktop, the sector has obtained a ton of bad press, mostly from uninformed journalists and investors not understanding the difference between legacy companies and new entrants focused on mobile. While other people focus on the rather large missteps, Stone Fox Capital has been focused on the companies benefiting from the monumental shift to mobile provided by fast wireless data networks and a movement to more advanced smartphones and now, more importantly, tablets. A whole slew of companies are benefiting from this shift as happens with every technological move. Legacy companies either aren't savvy enough to make the shift or the economic structure prohibits a move as revenue is cannibalized by the currently lower monetization rates. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long VELT. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

After recently  writing  about how some of the new media companies had failed to embrace new business models, along came my initial introduction to shopkick. Last week, shopkick  announced  that it has signed up  Target ( TGT )  as the largest retailer to use the service. My issue with some of the new media companies is that the revenue source remains very old media since a large salesforce is needed to attract advertiser dollars. Shopkick is an interesting app for the iPhone and Android phones that makes shopping more delightful. Users are rewarded with points known as "kicks" for walking into stores or scanning products. These kicks can be redeemed for gift cards,  Facebook ( FB )  credits, iTunes downloads, or donated to charity. Guests can also receive special in-store deals including coupons and discounts. Brand Awareness After trying the app at the local Target store, it struck me that no better advertising tool existed for brand pro...

When listening to the Q112 earnings call this week for Pandora Media (P) , it really struck me that this company was mostly built on the old business model. Sure, companies such as Pandora, Angie's List (ANGI) , and Yelp (YELP) have new relevant services, but none of them have veered much from the labor intensive model of hiring local sales reps to find advertisers. The Pandora earnings call had one very shocking number. The company had hired 79% more sales reps than last year. Sure, the company told a great sales story of how a local car dealership found advertising on its services more compelling than terrestrial music channels since the ads could be more targeted. When, though, will these companies attract advertisers without a sales rep and large marketing budgets? Developing a business model attracting a bunch of costly users is nice, but how about attracting paying subscribers? Sure Pandora may attract millions of users, but the real issue for media companies, including even...