Archive for March 14th, 2007
The less you try and cram into a story and a website, the more people will remember. That’s one of the lessons from Jakob Nielsen and OJR’s latest eyetracking testing. They took a story and edited it down. People spent half the time engaged in the edited version than they did in the unedited version, yet they remembered 34% more details. Give your audience the essentials, give a clean presentation and they will remember the information. Time to clear out the clutter from your sites. (Via Valleywag, RSS)
Cory adds: This is required reading for anyone who works in TV. Most TV sites are still terribly cluttered in large part because TV people are foisting their agendas on the web. So web producers, send this to your offending TV managers and start simplifying.
March 14th, 2007
I couldn’t resist showing this last example in the Jakob Nielsen and OJR eyetrack study (blogged above) because it’s just so fascinating…
March 14th, 2007
The most popular entertainment site on the internet is gearing up to launch a spinoff site in DC. Called TMZDC, it would focus on lawmakers, administration officials and media personalities instead of Hollywood stars. I’ll admit, I’ve always been fascinated by TMZ.com (and the site’s supervising producer is a friend of mine) because it grew out of a canceled TV show and became a whirlwind success online. Part of its success is due to a sort of guerrilla approach to video — freelancers weilding mini-DV cams who join the paparazzi on the streets of Hollywood. These clips (mostly raw) are combined with a freshly-updated blog that frequently breaks entertainment stories written by TMZ’s relatively small staff. Now the question is, will people be drawn to see the same kind of coverage featuring politicians and media types rambling around DC? I’m betting yes.
March 14th, 2007
WJW’s Kathleen Cochrane admits she’s not a cat person, and she paid the consequences on live TV when the cat she was holding decided to attack her head. In the old days, TV stations tried to pretend bloopers like these never happened. But kudos to WJW’s website MyFoxCleveland for posting the video, a story and even a blog post from Cochrane on the encounter. “I was obviously shocked and dropped the cat and stared at the camera, like a deer in headlights,” Cochrane blogged. “Then, before they rolled my story, I started to laugh. That was a laugh, not a cry!” Of course, the video is also on YouTube, which is how I found it after a friend sent me the link. (Thanks, Justin!)
March 14th, 2007
Beverly Hills, CA
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Wired News and Jay Rosen launched Assignment Zero today — a site that aims to bring together professional writers and editors with citizen journalists to collaborate on big stories. “Assignment Zero is pro am journalism because it’s reported by the many and edited by a few, who have to be constantly open to new contributions,” Rosen said. Users can pitch stories, assign themselves to existing stories, collaborate with others, and get updates from Assignment Zero’s editor on the day’s developments. Assignment Zero has also partnered with citizen journalism site Newsvine to engage its users to work together on selected assignments. “Essentially, we’re building a software platform for journalism 2.0 — open source and extensible – which we believe will bring new dimensions of creativity to news gathering,” said Evan Hansen, Editor in Chief, Wired News. A bold project to say the least, and one we’ll be watching.
Press release follows…
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Portland, OR
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Portland, OR
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In an expansion of its deal with mobile video provider MobiTV, NBCU will offer full-length shows on demand like Heroes, The Office and Battlestar – but with a catch. MobiTV’s paid subscribers will need to pay an extra $1.99 an episode for a 24-hour viewing period.
March 14th, 2007
Wired has exclusive screenshots of what MySpace News is going to look like. Even better, they have a Powerpoint presentation from February with an outline of the site and projected sponsorship rates. MySpace News will automatically aggregate stories from “top” news sites and blogs, and users will be able to vote for their favorites. Users will also be able to submit their own stories, which may include posts from their MySpace blogs. The news title sponsorship is listed at $150,000 a month, which is looking to deliver 25.5 MM impressions. There are 22 news category sponsorships available in the range of $25,000 to $100,000 a month. MySpace News is expected to launch in Q2.
The MySpace News masthead. See the screenshots here.
March 14th, 2007
New stats from Nielsen/NetRatings show just how hot game consoles are right now:
- 37 percent of U.S. adults who go online own a video game console.
- 16 percent own a portable gaming device.
- 71 percent of console owners are married, and 66 percent have at least one child.
“As game consoles have become increasingly sophisticated, families have incorporated them into their centralized home media centers, which include the television, digital recording device, digital music player and the PC,” said Carolyn Creekmore at Nielsen/NetRatings. We’ll keep saying it until it hits home: If you are involved in both television and interactive content, you need to figure out how to insert yourself into the game space, because that space is rapidly encroaching on both your screens.
March 14th, 2007
