Web Channel Producer, WNCN-TV
Raleigh, NC
Read the full post May 7th, 2007
Archive for May 7th, 2007
Newspaper destroyed in Kansas tornado keeps reporting
Its offices are gone, but the Kiowa County Signal is still covering the news of the tornado that devastated Greensburg, Kansas. The Signal is small - it’s a weekly whose editor, Mark Anderson, is also its lone reporter. Anderson has been posting news to the web and has been getting help from a sister publication, the Pratt Tribune, since the tornado hit on Friday. He is also blogging news items. Anderson told E&P “I have been devastated by what I have seen, and am wondering if I still have a job… but knowing so many (residents of Greensburg) I feel like I owe it to them to try to give them perspective.”
Add comment May 7th, 2007
TV news of the future?
Some of you may have already seen this, but Dave Winer has sketched out his vision of a futuristic MSNBC. In essense, he visualizes a bunch of checkboxes that would allow him to opt in and out of various stories as he watches a linear newscast. So if he unchecked the Virginia Tech box, those stories would no longer appear. “I think this is another form of the River of News, the checkboxes represent subscriptions,” he writes. “I could see MSNBC including stories produced by CNN, and sharing revenue with them. The goal is to get the best news experience tailored to the interests of specific users.” He even built a mock-up of what it would look like. If this were an online streaming experience, frankly, why wouldn’t I just click on the individual clips? But as a TV experience, it could be a killer feature — although it’s far from technologically feasible right now. But maybe with IPTV’s bigger pipes? Thoughts on all this?
Adds Tim in comments: “I see the checkboxes more as ‘tags’ or categories: set your filters for the tags you want, or perhaps set your filters for tags you no longer want. The tags present an issue: who decides what the “offical” tag is? ‘Virginia Tech shooting’, ‘Virginia Tech chaos’ and ‘VATech shooter’ all could refer to the same thing - so how are the tags going to be assigned to storied to allow us to filter easily?”
Adds Geoff: “The problem with Dave Winer’s model is, it assumes your choices are final. I dismissed broccoli in 1955 - was that my last choice? I have also thought about this and favor tagging stories and matching them for affinity. You would tag for geography (zip code, for instance) and substance. A story would have many tags, so Paris Hilton’s latest foray might be sent to criminology fans who wouldn’t have gotten stories about her shopping or clubbing….”
12 comments May 7th, 2007
Lost Remote live at Streaming Media East next week
We take the Lost Remote Good Time Smile Hour and Tap Dance Revue Show to Streaming Media East in New York City next week. We’ll be presenting the best of the web, showing how stations should rethink their content and focus on niches and not mass audiences. Pageviews are dead. Come find out what works. Rich Warner and I will host “Redesign Your Streaming Content With the Lost Remote Guys” on Tuesday, May 15 in the Murray Hill room. If you can’t make it to the show, much of the conference will be streamed on TVWorldwide. Streaming Media master Dan Rayburn has the details on his blog, The Business of Online Video.
1 comment May 7th, 2007
Craig Newmark: Don’t blame us for newspaper woes
Our pals at PaidContent are at the NAA National Convention, and Staci Kramer is blogging a Charlie Rose interview with Craig Newmark of Craiglist fame. (NAA is the Newspaper Association of America.) Some quotes: (On newspaper industry troubles): “I’ve spoken with a lot of industry analysts who say our contribution to that effect has been exaggerated.” (On Craigslist): “We have no advertisers to keep happy, no investors to keep happy—which is a great relief.” (On the future) “I do have a great deal of sympathy with the people who run printing presses because I think they’re screwed. … The people who do news and the people who fact check it have great futures ahead of them.”
Add comment May 7th, 2007
Sunday’s online NYT crossword clues by Bill Clinton
Sunday’s online version of the New York Times crossword features a presidential puzzler. The clues have been provided by former President Bill Clinton. The theme of the puzzle is “Twistin’ the Oldies,” and it features several clues about music. (via E&P)
3 comments May 7th, 2007
NatGeo takes wraps off new broadband channel
Called NGC Wild!, the new National Geographic broadband channel will feature original full-length shows every week plus dozens of nature clips. “When you talk about professionally generated video content [online], then [supply] is tight, and that should be to the advantage of these broadband networks, which means CPMs will stay high,” said Michael Hayes, SVP at NatGeo. And with the NCTA show in Las Vegas this week, get ready for a lot more of these kind of announcements. NGC Wild also will have its own VOD channel on select cable operators.
1 comment May 7th, 2007
NBCU sides against YouTube in piracy suit
Both NBCU and Viacom filed a friend of the court brief opposing YouTube’s efforts to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Robert Tur, who sued YouTube over his Reginald Denny beating video. NBCU made it clear in the court papers that it had not sued YouTube itself. “Many of NBCU’s most valuable copyrighted works have been copied, performed, and disseminated without authorization by YouTube and other similarly operated Websites,” the brief said. “NBCU has a strong interest in preserving the strength and viability of all of its legal rights and remedies in response to such conduct.”
Add comment May 7th, 2007
‘Lost’ will end in 2010
ABC has agreed to allow the producers of Lost to set a hard end date for the show: three shortened seasons — 48 new shows total — that end in 2010. “In considering the powerful storytelling of Lost, we felt this was the only way to give it a proper creative conclusion,” ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson said.
2 comments May 7th, 2007
