Archive for May 24th, 2007
The official “Star Wars” website is relaunching to mark the series’ 30th anniversary (damn, I’m old) and with the relaunch comes something of a warming in George Lucas’s attitude toward online use of his stuff. The notoriously protective, some might say imperial approach Lucas has taken toward people who use his clips will thaw a bit, as the new site invites video mashups that use scenes from the “Star Wars” films. Lucas will have official screeners watch each clip (good luck with that) before they post, to make sure there is no pornography. We’re cool with that, so long as they allow the Princess Leia golden bikini scenes. Plus, any occasion I get to mention the Vader Sessions is worth blogging. Best. Star Wars mashup. Ever.
May 24th, 2007
Beet.TV’s Andy Plesser took me aside at Streaming Media East for one of the cool online live shots he was doing throughout the day. Here’s his edited version, made to make us both sound a little more coherent than we did in the live version of the conversation about YouTube, CBS and hyper-localism. Thanks for the PR, Andy.
May 24th, 2007
Philadelphia
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Grand Rapids, MI
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San Jose, CA
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Editor and Publisher has announced the winners of this year’s EPpy Awards for interactive media. There are awards in 32 different categories. Of note to the LR crowd… A surprise winner in the Best Newspaper-Affiliated Web Site (fewer than one million uniques/month) category: The Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World’s BoomerGirl.com, a site that targets baby boomer women, took the honors. Best big paper site went to the NYTimes.com, while Best Weekly Newspaper Site went to WickedLocalPlymouth.com here outside Boston. Best Network TV/Cable Site went to ESPN.com, with BBC News picking up the Best News Site (more than one million uniques/month.) The Chicago Tribune’s DC politics blog, The Swamp, won Best Media-Affiliated Blog, and Best Community Website honors went to HorseCity.com and IndyMoms.com. Best Use of Video in a Web Site with fewer than one million uniques/month was a tie, with AppealTV.com (The Commercial Appeal) and Studio 55 (Naples Daily News) sharing the win. CNN.com won best use of video by a big site. Screen grab of BoomerGirl below…
May 24th, 2007
TVNewser.com Founder/Editor Brian Stelter is graduating from college! Geez, I feel old.
May 24th, 2007
CBS has already inked a big list of video distribution partners, and today it announced relationships with technology partners to allow users to share video in various ways: Automattic, Clearspring, DAVE Networks, Goowy Media, meebo, MeeVee, Musestorm, Ning, RockYou!, Slide, VideoEgg, Voxant and vSocial. “Today, we are taking the CBS Audience Network directly to the user,” said Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive. “We now want to empower our audience to be creative and deepen their experience with our content by allowing them to share and embed CBS-provided clips to their blogs, wikis, widgets, community sites and whatever else gets thrown our way.” CBS is certainly embracing a “video everywhere” approach that shares two strategies: 1) Video syndication on a non-exclusive basis with large sites to grow revenue and 2) Open video sharing among users to build buzz and loyalty. Tons of details follow in the press release…
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That’s right, a live video ad from GE. As of this writing, it’s on MSNBC.com’s home page as a medium rectangle ad. Mouse over and the video loads for a second and begins to play. Interestingly, it’s a live stream of GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt chatting about the environment with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at a “ecomagination” event at Universal Studios in L.A. (Thanks for the heads-up Michael!)
May 24th, 2007
Technorati has rolled out a new look to go along with the changes it has made in how it ranks blogs and how it approaches search. (According to the Technorati Blog, the relaunch was promptly met with a bot attack which brought it down for a time Wednesday.) Writes Technorati founder Dave Sifry:
We’ve eliminated search silos on Technorati. In the past, you had to know the difference between keyword search, tag search and blog directory search in order to make use of the full power of our site. No more. Starting today, we now provide you a simplified experience. Simply indicate what’s of interest to you and we’ll assemble the freshest, hottest, most current social media from across the Live Web - Blogs, posts, photos, videos, podcasts, events, and more.
Here’s the new look:
May 24th, 2007
Local TV station websites are making gains in their markets in terms of their reach, according to a new study from Editor & Publisher and MediaWeek. The survey looked at 85 markets and measured visits from adults 18 and over. WRAL.com has a near-46% reach in its market, making it #1 in the nation. WashingtonPost.com follows with a 43% reach, and KUSA.com has a 42% reach. MySA.com, The San Antonio partnership of The Express News and KENS-TV has a 41% reach, and NBC13.com out of Birmingham rounds out the top five with a 40% reach. (Thanks Rex, Jerry)
May 24th, 2007
The final report from the IAB is out for 2006, and the ad bureau says online advertising grew 35 percent last year to $16.9 billion. Here’s how it breaks down:
| |
2006 share |
2005 share |
| Display Advertising |
22% |
20% |
| Sponsorship |
3% |
5% |
| Rich media and video |
7% |
8% |
| Keyword search |
32% |
34% |
| Classifieds |
18% |
17% |
| Lead generation |
8% |
6% |
| Email |
2% |
2% |
| |
|
|
Ads purchased on a performance basis (such as paid search and lead generation) grew a total of 6 percent to a total share of 47 percent. CPM-type buys make up 48 percent.
Despite the healthy growth — which IAB predicts will continue — I’m concerned about the growth prospects for mid to larger market TV sites. Paid search, lead generation and classifieds (58 percent total share and growing) play a very small role in local TV sites, and sales competition from the more tech-savvy pure plays is increasing quickly on the local level. What about video, you ask? Borrell predicts tremendous growth in this category, yet the research company was careful to point out that most of this growth will be in advertorial, advertainment and classifieds — in other words, not pre-rolls on TV news clips. And if you haven’t noticed, just about every major paper in the country is beginning to shoot video. (Even CitySearch is beginning to shoot video, creating video directories in local markets). For me, I believe that revenue growth will evaporate — zero growth — for TV sites in competitive larger markets in as little as two years UNLESS stations branch out into new online niches with original online content and smart advertising products. Given this report today that local TV ad growth decreased in Q1, zero growth online is not an option. While some stations understand this urgency, I believe the majority just assume that industry-wide ad growth numbers can be applied to local TV sites going forward. They’re in for a rude awakening.
May 24th, 2007
MTVN already has five virtual worlds, with more to come. MTVN digital chief Mika Salmi said plans are in the works integrate virtual avatars into TV programming.
May 24th, 2007
This already all over the web, but just in case you missed it, the big Knight News Challenge grant winners have been announced. MIT’s Media Lab pulled in the biggest fish with a whopping $5 million that they will use to “create the Center for Future Civic Media, a leadership project designed to encourage community news experiments and new technologies and practices.” MIT recognizes the evolution of the “Fifth Estate where everyone is able to pool their knowledge, share experience and expertise, and speak truth to power.” The other giant winner was wunderkind Adrian Holovaty, who is quitting his dream job at the Washington Post to launch Everyblock.com with the $1.1 million grant he received. Hat tips to LR friends who also had paydays big and small, including Amy Garhan, J.D. Lassica, Rich Gordon, and Jay Rosen.
May 24th, 2007
