Briefs: Ask, Joost, Digg, Sling

I’m on the road, so I’m posting in summary form…

    - NY Times: Ask.com redesigns, adds video and blogs (It looks pretty cool)
    - Business Week: Who wants to watch full TV shows on Joost? (Thanks Don!)
    - Mashable: Digg may expand to restaurant, product reviews
    - WSJ: MLB likely to soften stance with Sling (Thanks Michael! Sub req.)

Also, check out “10 obvious things about the future of newspapers.”

1 comment June 4th, 2007

KNBC rebrands site to… KNBC

For years, KNBC in Los Angeles has been NBC4.tv. But recently, the station site rebranded to KNBC.com. (NBC4.com is WRC in Washington DC.)

In my humble opinion, .com’s are best for core news sites and .tv’s are best for video niche sites when .com domain names are impossible to find.

14 comments June 4th, 2007

Freelance Writer, Tilzy.TV

NYC or remotely

Read the full post 1 comment June 4th, 2007

FCC chief drops F-bomb after indecency ruling

Fox appealed an FCC ruling that dinged the network for two “indecent” expletives blurted on live TV at the Billboard Music Awards, one by Nicole Richie and the other by Cher. But today the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled against the FCC, questioning the commission’s new policy on “fleeting expletives.” FCC Chairman Keith Martin didn’t mince words reacting to the ruling:

“I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that ’shit’ and ‘fuck’ are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience…. The court even says the commission is ‘divorced from reality.’ It is the New York court, not the commission, that is divorced from reality in concluding that the word ‘fuck’ does not invoke a sexual connotation.”

You can’t buy quotes as good as that one.

Adds Swift Loris below: “What would happen if a reporter read that statement, in full, on TV? Probably be funnier if the naughty bits were conspicuously bleeped (Jon Stewart, you listening?). But I’d really love to see how the FCC would react if they weren’t.”

6 comments June 4th, 2007

Online media job growth booming

While TV grew 2 percent in new employment, online media grew 15 percent over the last year. Newspapers dropped 2.7 percent, or 9,800 jobs.

1 comment June 4th, 2007

Apple iPhone date set, ads running

After incredible buzz and anticipation, Apple said its iPhone will hit store shelves on June 29th. But it’s not cheap: $499 and $599, depending on the memory capacity. And it’ll only work with Cingular AT&T. Here are the commercials, if you haven’t seen them yet. So… gonna buy one as soon as it comes out or wait to see if it warrants the buzz?

Oh, and have you seen Apple stock lately? Good grief.

Add comment June 4th, 2007

A confusing time to be a young journalist

I just wrapped up a presentation to a number of journalism students from Hampton University who are participating in the Scripps Howard Foundation Semester in Washington Program. We talked about interactive journalism, which I teach over at American University, and the future of journalism online, trends in mainstream media, and all the scary stuff that is going down in our transitioning industry. I get back to my desk and one of the first things I see is Romenesko pointing to this great story by Steven Barrie-Anthony that wraps up the points of view of five young journalists who are trying to make it work in the business today. Their observations are well worth a read, and your comments are welcomed here.

5 comments June 4th, 2007

Hearst-Argyle stations ink deal with YouTube

In a first for a local broadcaster, Hearst-Argyle stations will share in the revenue generated by video clips they post to YouTube. Starting today, five stations have launched channels on YouTube: KCRA, WCVB, WBAL, WTAE and WMUR. Other stations will follow soon. Each channel features a variety of notable clips, from news stories to promos to bloopers. Revenue details were not disclosed. (WSJ sub. req.)

A WCVB investigative piece plays on YouTube. One of the big upsides for Hearst-Argyle stations, besides the increased distribution and searchability, is their videos are now embeddable on local blogs.

Adds Rob in comments: “We started posting content at YouTube a few weeks back - sans revenue share - and the way we look at it, people get one more opportunity to see our content. Our ‘channel’ is /kxly. According to our traffic, its driven some YT users to our website, people are watching our content on YT and embedding it on their MySpace pages and our content is getting wider exposure beyond our website.”

8 comments June 4th, 2007