Web Programmer, Internet Broadcasting
Mendota Heights, MN
Read the full post December 20th, 2006
Archive for December, 2006
Top Google search of 2006: ‘Bebo’
A stunning upset. A Cinderella story. An underdog… you get the idea. Google Zeitgeist has its top searches of 2006. The number one search on Google this past year? Bebo. The social networking site outsearched the number two term, MySpace. As for the number one Google News search term? As you would have guessed: Paris Hilton. (Clever headline from Australia’s Courrer-Mail: Hilton Most Hit Upon.) Orlando Bloom is #2 and you have to go down to #5, Hurricane Katrina, before you find a hard news story.
2 comments December 20th, 2006
Networks’ answer to YouTube getting plug pulled?
Good scoop at B&C: The networks were considering joining together and coming up with their own answer to YouTube. It was going to feature content from NBC Universal, News Corp., CBS, and Viacom, as well as user-generated stuff. But try getting corporations to agree. Broadcasting and Cable reports that Viacom is walking away from the plan. And that could end this enterprise before it even begins. I spoke with Variety’s Scott Kirsner about the plan earlier today, before this development. (Good timing on that story.) Networks getting together to start an online concern? Way too difficult. Rupert and Sumner are not going to get on the same page, which is a shame since the nets have such a deep catalogue of content we’d all love to see if it were online. Again I wonder: When will traditional media actually pioneer a great new form of technology instead of bickering over it?
6 comments December 20th, 2006
Jarvis on pro-shoots vs. amateur video
Jeff Jarvis has put together a video documenting his experiences with professional crews who shot interviews with him. His point? How many people it takes to do a network shoot vs. how he produces video by himself.
Writes Jeff: “The difference between big TV and small. A demonstration of what I blogged about earlier here. This one involves shoots for big TV — ABC 20/20 and PBS Frontline — and smaller TV — CNBC.com — and the smallest TV, my own.”
4 comments December 20th, 2006
DVD players now surpass VCRs in US homes
I’m surprised - I would have guessed this had already happened. A Nielsen Media Research survey says there are finally more homes with DVD players than with VCRs. 81% of homes have DVD players, compared with 79% of homes with a VCR. Also of note: about 27% of homes have an MP3 player.
3 comments December 20th, 2006
Michael Gay takes new digital media post at Hearst-Argyle
Congratulations to longtime LR pal and commenter Michael Gay on his new job, found right here in our jobs section. Michael, who was a huge success in Chicago as WBBM’s web guru, will become Hearst-Argyle’s first executive producer of digital media. He’ll be working with H-A’s Director of Digital Media, Jacques Natz, to shape the content of the company’s 29 TV station websites. Like many of us, Michael started in TV news production before making the jump to the web. He goes back to the dark days of the late ’90s in internet news, the web equivalent of remembering when they shot TV news on film. (Disclosure: My client, NECN, is half-owned by Hearst.) UPDATES: Michael writes in the comments below: “Thanks Steve for the nice congrats! I’m very excited to get up to Minneapolis and get started…. of course I saw the job here on lostremote. Is there a better place to learn about new media jobs?” And Rex adds a very good point: “…this job is based out of IBS HQ in Minneapolis, which is the first arrangement they’ve had like that.”
10 comments December 19th, 2006
MSNBC.com inks mobile ad platform deal
MSNBC.com has signed with Third Screen Media to power its mobile ad campaigns. Press release with more details below…
Read the full post 1 comment December 19th, 2006
Digg debuts new design, fights phony posts
Just months after launching a new look, Digg has debuted another new design that displays “all news” instead of technology as the default on the home page. I imagine this is because miscategorized stories of all shapes where ending up in the technology category because everyone wanted to get their stories on the home page. Digg is also working hard to counter the relatively new phenomenon of top Digg submitters being paid by marketers to post and Digg promotional stories on the site. “I receive two or three offers (from marketers) a week to promote some product or service,” said one 19-year-old Digger. He said he normally turns them down, but he agreed to plug JetNumbers, a site that provides virtual phone numbers. Digg yanked his profile until he apologized and promised never to do it again (yeah, right.)
3 comments December 19th, 2006
Perette moved up NBCU digital ladder
Jean-Briac (J.B.) Perrette has been promoted to President, Digital Distribution for NBCU.
Add comment December 19th, 2006
PayPerPost decides to make disclosure mandatory
This one drove us to the edge. Startup PayPerPost has a pay-for-bloggers business. That’s fine. You can make money blogging for companies. Only problem was, PPP argued the bloggers didn’t have to disclose they were getting paid by those companies to write all those nice things. PayPerPost even started the unintentionally hilarious Disclosure Policy generator. There has been a ton of pressure from bloggers, and PayPerPost has blinked. CEO Ted Murphy today announced that bloggers will be transparent in who is footing their bill. He even gave ClickZ a not-quite-contrite statement: “We have tried to be hands off in terms of what types of arrangements and what deals are cut between the advertisers and bloggers. What we’ve come to recognize is maybe that’s not such a great decision.” Full press release, after the jump.
Read the full post 1 comment December 19th, 2006
iPhone now available: it’s just not from Apple
All that speculation over an Apple iPhone has run into one huge problem: the new Linksys iPhone. Linksys has beaten Apple to the i-punch with its new WiFi/Skype-enabled phone. Cisco (which owns Linksys) says it has owned the iPhone trademark since 2000. An Apple miscue? A Linksys attempt at capitalizing on someone else’s brand? Says a marketing prof from the University of Toronto: “It looks as if they’re basically trying to sew a little bit of confusion and defend their own franchise… In hindsight, not locking in the trademark on iPhone seems like quite the misstep on Apple’s part.”
2 comments December 19th, 2006
HP’s spying on journalists ‘PR blunder of the year’
Wow. Talk about a tough year to pick the costliest public relations fiasco. Certainly, ‘macacca’ cost Sen. George Allen his job and possibly cost the Republicans control of the Senate. So many wonderful options. But PR Week has chosen Hewlett-Packard former Chairwoman Patricia Dunn’s “let’s spy on journalists to get some dirt on them” initiative as the costliest PR blunder of the year. They’re being literal on this one: HP had to pay $14.5 million to settle civil suits. That’s a lot of $200 printers.(Third item down.)
Add comment December 19th, 2006
The traveler’s lament: good web access in hotels
Hoteliers: want to become an instant hit among business travelers? Offer free WiFi. Or, at least, make sure your in-room web connections work consistently well and can handle the modern broadband demands of video, voice, and big downloads. Before you know it, you’re going to lose out to mobile web access anyway. Might as well make this a perk.
3 comments December 19th, 2006
Media circus o’ the day: Miss USA
The scribes at The Daily Show must be thanking the comedy gods today. This morning’s press conference announcing that Miss USA Tara Conner will remain on as Miss USA was comedy gold. The news channels all went with it, and it was absolutely a jackpot. The only hard part will be choosing which bites to run with. I suggest Jon & the gang blow out their programming and devote the full half-hour to a Special Report. Donald Trump knows how to drum up PR. An early Christmas present/timely Hanukkah present for all.
4 comments December 19th, 2006
VH1 takes ‘Junk’ mobile for uploads, viewing, voting
VH1’s “Web Junk 20″ (Which I would happily link to if it were Mac-compatible) is one of the most enjoyable, easiest to produce shows on the network. VH1 partners with iFilm and features 20 viral vids from online. Current host Rachel Perry links them together and like that - you’ve got a show. Now VH1 is launching “Mobile Junk 20,” which is pretty much what it sounds like. They could have simply featured the same videos on a mobile app, but they have gone further. People can upload their vids and pics to Mobile Junk 20 and vote on their favorites. And there’s more social stuff still to come. The app is only available on Sprint at the moment, but you can expect it on other carriers in ‘07.
ALSO: Two reports on how social networking is going mobile
Add comment December 19th, 2006
AgencyNext rebuts my criticism of its blog
I love getting opposing views. I’ve invited them in the past. I always run them. So here is AgencyNext’s response to my criticism that the blog they launched as “Marketing Messaging Firm of Record for Winter” was a bad choice and is less-than transparent. **Note that a small hoo-hah ensued when they thought I wasn’t posting their reply. This is because they were blocked in the comments section by our spam filter when they put in a URL. Good reminder for everyone - and it says so at the top - that we have to filter out URL comments because so much spam comes in that way. You can always write something like “www (dot) blogname dotcom” or something.
3 comments December 19th, 2006
C-SPAN will show FCC profanity case arguments live
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing arguments in broadcasters’ challenge to the FCC’s profanity crackdown. And you’ll be able to hear them, too - live. C-SPAN, to its unending credit, has decided to carry the arguments live. (And to its credit, the court agreed to the deal.) The arguments are supposed to happen on Friday, some time around 10 a.m. C-SPAN will stream the live coverage on its site, too. I’d love to see a network carry the thing live, too. We could wind up with the marvelous possibility of the FCC lawyer having to mention one of the swears and then fining the network that carried him saying it.
2 comments December 19th, 2006
MTVN launches mobile division
Former MTVN VP of wireless strategy, Greg Clayman, will lead the new group as SVP, MTVN Mobile Media. He’ll report to MTVN global digital media president Mika Salmi.
1 comment December 18th, 2006
On demand and DVD at same time
Safran has been going off for years about how movie release windows should collapse to a single day to capitalize on the buzz: theatrical release, DVD release and VOD release all at once. Well, we’re getting closer. Comcast is running a trial that gives its subscribers in Philly and Denver the ability to pay $4 to watch a movie via VOD on the same day it’s released on DVD, instead of the normal 30-45 day delay. “I don’t expect it to cannibalize sales on DVD,” said Andrew Mellett, vice president for the video-on-demand division of Warner Digital Distribution. “What we are really interested in seeing is whether this increases the buy rates.” Um, yes, it will.
Add comment December 18th, 2006
Barbera exit, stage right
Cartooning legend Joe Barbera has died at the age of 95. If anyone ever made the world a better place simply by being in it and doing what they loved, it was him. Thanks for the laughs, Joe. AP obit here.
Add comment December 18th, 2006
