Cube Fabulous, produced by Shorn Entertainment, has landed some big-name sponsors as its second season draws to a close. The broadband reality show is about disgruntled office workers who get their cubes upgraded by a team of designers, and it’s sponsored by Honda, Monster.com and AOL. Beyond pre-rolls, the advertisers are integrated into the show. Producers say the show has $2.1 million in ad billings to date, with 4.5 unique visitors. Not bad for a little online production, eh?
In 1998, the McClatchy Co. purchased the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for $1.2 billion. It has now sold the paper for $530 million. Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm, is purchasing the paper. It sounds like the new folks are hinting at changes down the road. Said Avista’s Chris Harte, who will serve as chairman of a board overseeing the paper, “You and I and everyone who works with us will have to listen carefully to our readers and our advertisers and make sure we provide them with the information and advertising they want, when they want it, how they want it… By doing that, the Star Tribune will continue to be the dominant medium in the Twin Cities.” McClatchy is selling off some of its properties after purchasing Knight Ridder earlier this year, and says it’s selling the Star-Tribune - its largest property - to take a tax loss on the acquisition. (Via PaidContent)
Several reports say AT&T will announce it is rolling out its TV offering, U-verse, in seven more markets. U-verse, AT&T’s answer to Verizon’s FiOS, had originally planned to be in 15 cities by January 1, 2007. But it is scaling back the next step a bit, according to MediaPost, to “ensure that all the kinks are worked out.” U-verse is currently available in parts of San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose and Houston. AT&T hasn’t yet announced what the next seven cities will be, but it is establishing some serious goals: the company is projecting having its service available in 19 million homes by the end of 2008. Verizon is shooting for FiOS availability in 18 million homes by 2010. While the big cable operators are downplaying the importance of the telcos moving into the TV biz, the long term threat to their businesses is real.
If anyone doubts how BIG mobile content will become, just take a look at the ad below for the new Nokia N95, which is launching early next year. It’s designed to handle new high-speed networks, such as HSDPA, which delivers internet browsing and streaming video at 10-times the speed of 3G. It has an on-board GPS unit, which pinpoints your location on an interactive map. It has a 5 megapixel camera which also takes DVD-quality video. And it has an on-board MP3 player. Wow.
For example, that John Mellencamp song “Our Country” that has played, like, 16 billion times in Chevy ads. The album isn’t due out until January, nearly six months after the ads starting airing, and Mellencamp’s record label is worried it’s suffering from overexposure. You think? Plus, there’s the little issue of picturing a Chevy Silverado every time you hear the song, which is reason enough to never listen to it again. (WSJ sub. req.)
In the two months that Google has undertaken a pilot program to sell advertising in newspapers, it has generated some buzz in the biz. Apparently it has also generated some success. Google is selling leftover ad space in 66 newspapers, and is pleased enough with the results that it intends to expand the program after the pilot ends at the end of January. The director of print ads at Google says the volume of ad sales is “tripling where we thought it would be.” Still unclear is whether the program will generate significant revenue for the papers. (WaPo free sub. req.)
The Oregon Alliance to Reform Media (ARM) wants the FCC to deny license renewals for every commercial TV station in Portland. The group says the stations’ coverage of the 2004 elections did not meet the minimum FCC requirements. Oregon ARM points to a study that showed that, in the four weeks leading up to the elections, less than one percent of newscasts were devoted to coverage of state elections. While it’s unrealistic to expect the FCC to pull the licenses, the Oregon ARM makes a point - and I’m not trying to pick on Portland stations. I’ll bet the time given to local politics was similar in most markets. Local news doesn’t cover local news enough. I don’t buy that people don’t care about politics - they just don’t like the way TV covers (or doesn’t cover) politics. One of my guesses as to why? Viewers are tired of the predictable, counterproductive black-and-white, right-vs-left, horserace coverage TV gives to politics. The web has shown that people are passionate about politics. They want real, useful substantive information. I’m guessing more than one percent of the audience does, anyway.
Rex Sorgatz (”The Godfather of Lists”) has his Predictions for 2007 in Media/Tech/Pop over at Fimoculous. Now, normally I don’t do or link to predictions. Why? They’re just predictions. But Rex’s list is a good one, written in his usual witty and irreverent prose. Examples: “…the iPhone: Nope, never. Why? Cuz the iPhone is like God — if it really existed, you wouldn’t care that much.” This, about AOL: “I have no idea. And neither do they.” Web Man of the Moment Ze Frank? “The funniest guy in America lands a deal at Comedy Central.” And the out-as-soon-as-she-was-in “lonelygirl15: Remember Ellen Feiss?” Read Rex if you don’t already. He just may be the world’s best nemesis.
William S. Paley usually gets the credit but it was his partner, Frank Stanton, who was also responsible for starting up the CBS television network. Stanton died in Boston Sunday at age 98. He was president of the network in 1946 when it was primarily a radio operation. Paley didn’t want to get into TV initially, worried it would hurt his radio efforts. (Does that sound familiar?) Stanton pushed The Tiffany Network forward, signing Jackie Gleason for “The Honeymooners” and Lucille Ball for “I Love Lucy.” From Variety: “The long duet of Stanton and Paley was both richly fruitful and problematical. Never friends, the two titans were polar opposites in many ways, with Paley the charming dreamer, while Stanton was the thinker and doer.”
Jimmy Wales, who founded Wikipedia, is going to start up his own search engine. Wales has the backing of Amazon.com, and is calling the new search Wikiasari. (”asari” is Japanese for “rummaging search.” Nice.) According to the Times, the project has major funding from Amazon and a group of Silicon Valley VCs. Wales is calling out Google too, with a little trash talk: “Google is very good at many types of search, but in many instances it produces nothing but spam and useless crap. Try searching for the term ‘Tampa hotels’, for example, and you will not get any useful results,” the Times quotes him as saying. If anyone else were to launch a new search, I’d say they were doomed to failure. But Wales may just put up an interesting alternative. (More information here.)
One of the greatest performances in rock history, the appearance of James Brown on The T.A.M.I. Show singing “Prisoner of Love/Please Please Please.” Features the now-cliche but then-amazing scene of JB being handed his cape and ushered offstage, only to throw it off and keep on singing. The performance that so stunned the Rolling Stones that they were terrified to go on after him.
ALSO: The now ironic, but still amazing, James Brown performance of Please Come Home For Christmas (Rhapsody player required.)
A sad Christmas indeed with the news of the death of James Brown. Here is a performance of his from The Ed Sullivan Show on May 1, 1966. The man could move.
I think it started with Rex: bloggers putting together lists of “Best of the Year” lists. But it can be hard to sort out all those list lists, can’t it? Which best list of the best is the best list list? To help clear up any confusion, I have gone through the lists of lists, to bring you the this list of list lists: The Best of the “Best of 2006” List Lists List.
Fimoculous: The granddaddy of the “Best of” list lists, Rex Sorgatz had the inspired idea to aggregate “Best of” lists to present a more comprehensive list of what “best” was best. Fimoc is the best “Best of” lists list. Just search Google for top lists 2006 and see what’s first.
Reel Pop: Steve Bryant puts together his “Top Ten List of Top Ten Lists of Top Ten Online Videos.” A solid meta-list. Bryant has had a good year, recently adding this Hollywood Reporter blog to his resume.
Pitchfork Media: Bonus points for generating a list of “Best of” lists all its own. Pitchfork asked their favorite music artists for lists of their favorite music.
And Matt McAlister has a great “Top 10 Top Ten Lists” list. Included on the lists list is Valleywag’s “Top Ten Rules for a Top Ten List,” a good list for makers of lists, list lists and list list lists.
There you have it. I am crossing my fingers I make someone’s best of the best of the Best of 2006 list list lists list. That should clear things up.
The Apple Ads have a Japanese counterpart. Two Japanese actors play out what seem to be similar scenarios to what we’ve seen in the American campaign. The Japanese ad that shows the virus-prone “PC” character getting the flu, for example, is the closest reproduction to the esteemed work of John Hodgman and Justin Long.
(via Valleywag) Disclosure: I own shares of Apple stock. I bought too high, however.
There is still a fear among TV stations that sharing their video on YouTube will cannibalize from their site’s views. Ever the contrarians, we suggest using YouTube as a great way to promote yourselves. If you have a video you think could “go viral,” put it on YouTube. It’s the best promotion you’ll ever run. My client, NECN, burned its logo and web address into the video of Massachusetts politicians singing “The 12 Days of Christmas.” Warning: Their voices are, well, like you’d expect…
My dream? That this gets passed around New England like crazy. Stop worrying about “cannibalization” and start taking advantage of this terrific promotional tool.
This year, the Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld are going head-to-head. Both are the week of Jan. 9 and those who cover our industry are choosing which to attend. Over at PaidContent, Staci writes she’ll be in Vegas at CES. She’s part of Robert Scoble’s “Dream Team” list of interviewees. Meantime, Microsoft is hosting a blogger’s lounge at Macworld. (Last item.)
In 1998, the McClatchy Co. purchased the 
In the two months that Google has undertaken a pilot program to sell advertising in newspapers, it has generated some buzz in the biz. Apparently it has also generated 
Rex Sorgatz (”The Godfather of Lists”) has his 
William S. Paley usually gets the credit but it was his partner, Frank Stanton, who was also responsible for starting up the CBS television network. Stanton died in Boston Sunday at age 98. He was president of the network in 1946 when it was primarily a radio operation. Paley didn’t want to get into TV initially, worried it would hurt his radio efforts. (Does that sound familiar?) Stanton pushed The Tiffany Network forward, signing Jackie Gleason for “The Honeymooners” and Lucille Ball for “I Love Lucy.” From 
Please Come Home For Christmas
