Wired article wiki makes readers editors
Readers are invited to edit Wired News writer Ryan Singel’s story on the wiki phenomenon (what else?) in an experiment in collaborative journalism. Readers take on the job of editor and are allowed to cut or smooth at will, but can’t change quotes. Wired plans to publish the article on September 7, if “the whole [...]
Google CEO joins Apple board
Eric Schmidt is joining Steve Jobs and Al Gore on the board of directors of Apple Computer. “Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire,” Schmidt said in a statement. “I’m really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple’s board to help with all of the amazing things Apple [...]
Couric gets Photoshopped by CBS PR
A tipster to TVNewser revealed two photos with some striking differences. The one on the left is the first official photo of Katie Couric as part of the CBS family. The one on the right is the same photo from the September issue of Watch magazine, which is owned by CBS. “The editorial staff of [...]
How to write to improve search results
Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox looks at the art and science of writing content in such a way that stories are easily discovered in search. The biggest tip: Use “old” words. “Familiar words spring to mind when users create their search queries,” Nielsen writes. “If your writing favors made-up terms over legacy words, users won’t find [...]
MTV’s VMAs to feature live ads
This sounds very cool. When MTV’s Video Music Awards goes to breaks, it will somehow transition to teens in a bedroom watching and interacting with the show live. It’s part of an integrated advertising deal with J.C. Penney. “We are looking to blur the edges between advertising and show content,” said J.C. Penney VP Michael [...]
Yahoo unveils revamped real estate section
Slowly but surely, the portals continue their lucrative march into the local markets. Yahoo’s new real estate section, which relaunched today, features deep MLS listings, interactive mapping and an integrated partnership with Zillow.
NBC to promote new show on Bebo.com
Bebo.com is a high school social networking site, and NBC has inked a deal to promote its upcoming show, Friday Night Lights. Users will be able to upload video, photos and blog posts about their own high school football experiences. Plus, NBC is sending “school spirit” kits of show-branded goodies to 1,000 high schools in [...]
Xbox 360 offers ‘Battlestar Galactica’ video
To get fans caught up before season three’s launch, Sci Fi has produced a 44-minute wrap-up of the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica. It’s now available on most VOD systems, but Xbox Live subscribers can download and watch the video via their 360s. “This marks one of the first times that a complete TV [...]
Guba offers cash for new sign-ups
So what do you do if you’re a video site that wants to compete with YouTube? Start handing out cash. Guba has started a reward program that gives active users .25 for each person they refer that signs up for a free subscription. The idea is to build up users who contribute content and hopefully [...]
Online Journalism Awards finalists announced
MSNBC, NYTimes, StarTribune, USAToday and WashingtonPost are OJA finalists in general excellence in the large site category. For medium category sites, NewWest, OrlandoSentinel, Roanoke and SpokesmanReview are the general excellence finalists. Scanning the list, there are quite a few Katrina-related finalists, as you can imagine. And I could find only one pure local TV finalist: [...]
Katrina’s one year anniversary online
We’re collecting links to expanded online coverage of the Katrina anniversary: WWLtv.com is streaming wall-to-wall coverage all day MSNBC.com revisits the lives of six people it’s been following since the disaster CBSNews.com’s “After the Storm” interactive features photos, video and resources An interactive on CNN.com tracks the progress of New Orleans’ recovery NOLA has posted [...]
TV news a year after Katrina
Even those of us who weren’t covering the story on the Gulf Coast a year ago were livid. I remember yelling at the television. And then my laptop. How in this age of sophisticated, instant communication was the government caught completely off-guard, both before and after the storm? Of course, that was the theme of [...]
New NBCSports.com launches
The new site (still in beta) is beefed up for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, and it will soon include content from the affiliates through a relationship that’s similiar to the Olympic Zone partnership. NBCSports.com will also have fantasy sports powered by RotoWorld. (Full disclosure: My station, KING-TV, is one of the participating affiliates.)
11Alive.com debuts phonetic video search
WXIA-TV’s 11Alive.com has debuted a beta search application powered by a company called Nexidia that allows users to search for video by audio keywords. So for example, I searched for “John Car” (instead of “John Karr”) and it correctly identified the exact locations in WXIA’s newscasts where the words were spoken by the anchors or [...]
Flickr adds geotagging
Oooh, cool. Flickr contributors can now tag their photos by location, which makes some cool map mash-ups. Plenty of applications here for news sites, from text to photos to video.
ESPN college sports site now running
ESPNU.com is up and running, and it’s all college sports, all the time. The site consolidates the various ESPN college sports stories under one umbrella. Live college games will be streamed on the site – an interesting new offering.
