News Writer, KING-TV
Seattle
Read the full post May 4th, 2007
Archive for May 4th, 2007
Chicago Tribune mulls evening online ‘edition’
The Chicago Tribune is thinking about focusing some of its reporting staff on an evening “edition” online. “One reason to consider such a publication is that people now are absorbing news and headlines throughout the day. There may be a new appetite for something more thoughtful to read during the evening,” said the Tribune’s Public Editor Timothy J. McNulty. The idea of dayparting is not new, but backing it up with reporter deadlines is a more serious attempt at attempting to bring in appointment users outside their typical workdays. Also, it’s important to note that despite the 24/7 nature of news and the web, both paper and TV websites still largely rotate around old media deadlines simply because that’s how the staff is scheduled and tasked. Newspapers have their biggest burst of fresh enterprise stories at night, and TV stations have them at 5 p.m. Ideally, if you ask me, these stories should be distributed throughout the day, especially in the peak 11 a.m.-1 p.m. hours.
2 comments May 4th, 2007
HDTV antenna site overwhelmed with traffic
Right after the AP published a story that explained how antennas might deliver better HDTV pictures than cable or satellite, the Consumer Electronics Association’s AntennaWeb.org was hammered with inquiries. That day, some 86,000 people filled out a form on the site to get recommendations on antenna choices, which crashed the site for a bit. As Broadcasting & Cable points out, broadcasters have been frustrated that more people don’t recognize the value of free over-the-air HD.
3 comments May 4th, 2007
Joost ‘a little red-faced’ because of problems
Joost gets credit from LR for blogging about the problems it has been having because of the surge in demand for its product.
As you might have discovered already, we’re having some problems with the central servers in Luxembourg… We’ve been flooded with demand, which is fabulous and ultimately will make the system stronger, but since it’s unaccustomed to this level of usage it’s stumbling a bit, whereas we’d like it to be sprinting. While we regret that some of our new and existing users aren’t getting the experience they should right now, we’re getting an incredible look at the system at work (and more importantly what’s not working) so that we can reduce the likelihood of this happening again. We’ll post again when the issue is fixed.
3 comments May 4th, 2007
Study finds most news sites aren’t doing RSS well
In the distributed media universe, RSS is the way people get their content. The model has changed from “come to our website” to “here - we’ll send you the stories.” Most news sites have RSS feeds now. But a new study by the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda at the University of Maryland finds that very few news sites use RSS well. (No surprise - I’ve spoken with stations that didn’t even know their sites had RSS.) So what the sites are doing is actually turning people away to other resources where they can get a full diet of news. “Rather than RSS, the study found, casual news consumers users should just stick with Google’s Top Stories,” writes E&P.
Adds Michael in comments: “There are markets who have a very large base of viewers who still can’t tell their usb port from a vent in the CPU case. (I’ll pause for the visual). In previous experiences in markets of that size, I’ve found making a demonstrative push for RSS–no matter how detailed your FAQ, how lay your explanation–can confuse enough viewers into thinking they need advanced technical knowledge simply to browse the site. Didn’t stop us from trying to innovate, but it made my hair thin that much quicker.”
9 comments May 4th, 2007
Microsoft and Yahoo reconsider merger
A year ago the two companies were considering a merger, but nothing came of it. Now they’re back at it, reports NY Post and the WSJ, with Microsoft possibly looking to acquire Yahoo (see update below). Some analysts say, though, the most likely deal scenario would focus only on online advertising and not an outright acquisition due to the heavy overlap in MSN-Yahoo services. Sources say that Microsoft is growing more concerned about its poor performance in online advertising, especially after losing Doubleclick in the bidding to Google. “The minute you hear Microsoft start arguing against something on antitrust grounds, you know they are desperate and need to do something big,” said one source. A combined Microsoft-Yahoo would equal a 27 percent share of paid search dollars compared to Google’s 65 percent. And it would get them within 13 percent of Google in overall online ad sales. Stay tuned…
Update: Yahoo stock closed up 10 percent.
Update: Wall Street Journal reports merger talks are “no longer active” but the two companies are still talking about ways to cooperate with each other.
Add comment May 4th, 2007
Are .tv domains the new .com for video?
I remember when .tv domains went on sale a few years ago. Very few people felt they were worth the money. But now with just about every conceivable .com domain sold out (have you tried recently?) and video sites popping up all over the place, .tv domains are picking up steam fast. Richard Rosenblatt, who built MySpace, has launched a new company that will provide video and social networking tools (he retained licensing rights to much of MySpace’s backend) for people who buy .tv domains through me.tv. And if you ask him, .tv is the new .com, especially for video sites. Agree?
Adds Jeff in comments: “There’s an interesting situation here. Domain squatters (the guys who are milking the traffic and really have no intention of selling their names) have a whole lot of the .com’s locked up. This leaves a bunch of .tv names available that largely don’t have any trademark issues to deal with. The squatters aren’t trademarking anything to speak of - it’s too expensive and the USPTO does a pretty good job of approving names only for specific intended use. In addition, .tv names are much more expensive for squatters to finance (5X or 6X more than .com’s) so they don’t much bother with the .tv’s for now. If you’re doing something in video grab a .tv now.”
8 comments May 4th, 2007
