Archive for December 15th, 2006
REBUTTAL: AgencyNext’s rebuttal is here. I encourage you to read it.Throw a snowball at my hometown’s own AgencyNext, which has issued a press release declaring that “Winter” has named AgencyNext its “marketing messaging firm of record.” A lame, if harmless, joke I suppose (See entry: “Snowjob: a pejorative that must end.”). But the company has started a blog, WinterIsCool.com, that weakly plays into the joke and places an ad for its agency in the page’s blogroll. And that’s where they cross the transparency line. Even though it’s a joke, the blog’s goal is to draw clients to the marketing firm. AgencyNext should clearly state on the site that the blog is its own work. (via AdRants)
December 15th, 2006
Under the “Absolutely Welcome” category, this terrific surprise: Nearly all 121 daily and weekly Massachusetts newspapers owned by GateHouse Media are getting Creative Commons licenses. This is the biggest step I’ve ever heard a newspaper chain take toward opening its content for non-commercial use. From PressThink: Mia Garlick, chief council of the Creative Commons Foundation, concurs: she’s not aware of any newspaper chains or major papers that are releasing content under CC. “For a major publisher with significant numbers of people reading to be doing this is great.” Check out TownOnline, a portal for several of the company’s Massachusetts papers and a search called, of course, Wicked Local. (Via Poynter)
December 15th, 2006
We spend a ton of time with the media. An average of more than 3,500 hours a year,in fact. A report from the Census Bureau breaks down those 3,518 hours for us and finds that in 2007, for the first time, Americans will spend more time on the web than they do with their newspapers. Here’s the breakdown: TV: 1,555 hours (up from 1,467 in the year 2000); Radio: 975 hours (up from 942 in 2000); Internet: 195 hours (up from 104); Newspapers: 175 hours (down from 201); Magazines: 122 hours (down from 135); Books: 106 hours (down only an hour); Video Games: 86 hours (up from 64). Good perspective there. But how/why will we continue to break apart these numbers in a world of broadband TV, online gaming, audiobooks, newspapers that successfully produce video, radio podcasts, etc.? Web time usage has nearly doubled since 2000 and every other medium is moving toward it.
December 15th, 2006
Ft. Myers, FL
Read the full post December 15th, 2006
comScore has issued data that iTunes sales have increased 84% in the first three quarters of 2006 on the heels of an earlier Forrester report that said iTunes sales dropped 65% during the first half of 2006.
December 15th, 2006
Many newspaper Web sites offer PDF shots of their front pages, and have for a long time, but a number of papers in Europe and Canada are going extra miles to produce customized print-it-yourself PDF editions and are finding they connect with readers. All this practice needs to pop an old technology to hot-hot media buzz status is a catchy name, like how calling an mp3 file a podcast got everyone jumping. Suggestions lostremoters? Maybe pagecasting or printcasting?
December 15th, 2006
‘Tis the season to be jolly if you are an auto rep at a local broadcast station. Growth in the auto category contributed to an overall 10.4% uptick in third quarter revenue growth. The biggest gainer, however, was a more than 30% increase in telecommunications business advertising.
December 15th, 2006
Both the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer are unable to publish so far today today due to power outages in the wake of a massive windstorm. Both newspapers are updating their websites. Update: SeattleTimes.com is offering an “electronic version” of the paper using Olive Software.
Plus: Mobile use spikes in wake of Seattle windstorm
December 15th, 2006
We’re in the middle of a massive windstorm here in Seattle. Yesterday we promoted KING5.com’s mobile capabilities on our newscasts in anticipation of a massive power outage. Now over one million customers are without power, and our mobile landing page (which automatically redirects from KING5.com for users with mobile devices) is the second most popular page on the site behind the home page. And we’re running near-record traffic for the site as a whole despite the outage.
December 15th, 2006
The Associated Press has a good year end list: the top YouTube videos of 2006. It’s not a list of the “most watched” videos - it’s the videos and YouTube stars the AP believes had the most impact in one way or another. No surprises, but a good idea for a list. The AP’s choices: lonelygirl15, macaca, Michael Richards’s rant, YouTube owners giggle at Google buyout, OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again” (I think “A Million Ways to be Cruel” was more of a breakthrough), geriatric1927, Hollywood police beating suspect, Chinese Backstreet Boys, and funtwo’s rockin’ electric guitar version of Pachelbel’s Canon. (Wasn’t JerryC the originator of this?)
December 15th, 2006
What’s the worst thing that can happen to a new toy at Christmas? How about a recall? Nintendo is recalling 3.2 million straps that hold the wireless Wii remote controllers to your wrist. Of course, Wii owners have been having the problem of the straps breaking and the controllers going flying - often breaking their TVs, windows or other objects in the room. The company is replacing the .6 millimeter-thick straps with ones that are 1 millimeter thick. (We suggest metal chains.) The Wii has outsold Playstation3 by more than a 2-1 margin, in part because of the PS3 shortage.
(Photo courtesy Flickr user thewind)
December 15th, 2006
