Archive for May 21st, 2007
Big news at CNN.com. The site is expanding into local news with a deal with Internet Broadcasting to post stories from 70 of IB’s local TV websites, reports the WSJ. In exchange, CNN is taking a minority position in the company, and IB affiliates can post CNN stories. NBC-owned sites are not included in the deal, as they’re pursuing a similar track with MSNBC.com (see our earlier story). CNN says the arrangement is designed to drive up traffic for both partners. Also, this summer CNN.com is planning on rolling out a redesigned site with all of its video available for free — a fundamental shift away from CNN Pipeline’s subscription model — and local video could be included.
In my opinion, both moves make strategic sense for CNN.com. There’s tremendous growth potential on the local level, and local TV sites are looking for more scale. On the video front, CNN Pipeline’s subscription model has always been a head-scratcher for me, although I think CNN.com has done a great job with Pipeline’s technology. A free Pipeline could become a competitive advantage for CNN.com in its battle with MSNBC.com.
Your thoughts, everyone? (Story is WSJ, subscription required. Thanks, Drake!)
May 21st, 2007
San Francisco
Read the full post May 21st, 2007
Imagine my joy that The Simpsons celebrated its 400th episode last night by sending up three of my favorite topics: the FCC, the web and local news. Homer winds up on the local news for buying the one-millionth ice cream cone at a local restaurant. (The station and the ice cream restaurant are owned by the same company, anchor Kent Brockman bitterly notes.) He spills coffee in Kent’s lap, causing Kent to utter a “super swear.” Ned Flanders starts an online protest, the FCC imposes a whopper of a fine and Kent gets fired. Kent then takes to the web to tell the story of a conspiracy at Fox News. (”Thank you for inviting me into your laps.”) It was a Very Lost Remote Simpsons.
May 21st, 2007
XM Radio has launched POTUS ‘08, a channel dedicated to the 2008 presidential election. (POTUS, of course, stands for President Of The United States.) It’s an XM/C-SPAN partnership and comes as XM and Sirius are trying to get Washington’s approval for a merger. It’s also a “free” XM channel, meaning you can get it if you have an XM receiver but don’t pay for a subscription, which Broadcasting and Cable correctly writes “seems a fairly unlikely scenario.”
May 21st, 2007
Good article at E&P about three recent redesigns at newspaper sites and what the people at those sites learned from the process. E&P talked with the editors of USATODAY.com, latimes.com and washingtonpost.com. The editors’ insights into the redesign process is very interesting. One observation echoes what Cory often points out:
One theme that emerged was that redesigning their site was an ongoing process that relies more and more on taking readers’ opinions into effect and making the process more of a conversation than ever before. Still, one editor admitted, half of the reader feedback was initially negative.
It’s the web, and you will always hear negative feedback more than you’ll hear positive feedback. That’s OK. You get more phone calls from crabby viewers than you do from happy viewers. There are great lessons to be learned from the newspapers - they understand page layout.
May 21st, 2007
I’m in Las Vegas for the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association’s annual meeting this week. I’ll be on a panel Tuesday morning at 10 at the Rio called “Making a Real Business Out of a Local Media Website.” If any of the LR Faithful are around, stop by and say hi or email me at steviesaf (at) gmail dot com.
May 21st, 2007
LIN Television (station list) says it has hired JP Morgan to advise on a potential sale. Also, Nexstar Broadcasting has hired Goldman Sachs to do the same. “Station groups may feel their value has peaked and face an uncertain future,” writes David Goetzl in MediaPost. “Consumers continue to migrate to the web for news and information, and local newscasts account for a major portion of a station’s revenue.” So have TV stations peaked in value? Or is this just a lull until stations can regain their footing in a digital world?
May 21st, 2007
After CBS canceled the serial show Jericho, fans have barraged the network in email, letters and on CBS.com’s own message boards. Now Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, has responded on the same boards. “Thank you for supporting ‘Jericho’ with such passion. We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment,” she wrote. “In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure in the compelling drama that was the ‘Jericho’ story.” It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with…
May 21st, 2007
The Syndicated Network Television Association points to one week of Nielsen ratings that show that 86 percent of TV viewers watched syndicated shows live, compared to 60 percent for network broadcast TV. “You cannot electronically skip a commercial if people are watching a program live,” says Mitch Burg, president of SNTA.
May 21st, 2007
