Archive for July 3rd, 2007
NBC Universal and Innerscope Research hooked a bunch of test subject up to equipment that tested their “engagement.” The finding? That people are just as engaged when watching a commercial in fast forward as they are during a program. Advertisers that talked to the New York Times are still somewhat skeptical, but NBC says this could be a key finding as media companies and buyers figure out how to buy and sell advertising on traditional TV in years to come.
July 3rd, 2007
Oregon Senate Bill 248 would largely end the practice of non-compete agreements in employment contracts across the state. The measure passed the full house and senate - even after an attempt by broadcasting companies to exempt their employees from the proposed law. That attempt was blocked in large part by the efforts of Sen. Rick Metsger, a former broadcaster himself. “Management has required non-competes for even low level radio announcers
and that is unacceptable. To say to someone ‘we don’t want you to work for us anymore and we don’t want you to work for anyone else either’ is totally wrong”, Metsger said in a prepared statement. If an employer still feels they need to have a non-compete agreement — they can, but must pay the employee a minimum 50% of their salary for up to two years after termination. The bill is now on Oregon Governor’s Ted Kulongoski’s desk for final consideration.
July 3rd, 2007
CNN relaunches, NBBC crashes on takeoff and the affiliates are just trying to stay airborne. Cory Bergman and Steve Safran plow through this week’s changes in convergence media and ponder the ever-present philosophical question: should a news site put a dog in its masthead? Celebrate America’s birthday by having a beer with episode six of GET LOST.
GET LOST Archives
July 3rd, 2007
EBay is the latest high profile company to dive in to the lucrative classifieds game. Kijiji launched overseas in 2005, but now the company is expanding to the US. Right now the site is a pure “free” classifieds site, with no upsell for consumers - though eBay told the Wall Street Journal that it will explore those options down the road. “We look at Kijiji as being competitive with Craigslist as well as the other classified platforms in the U.S.,” eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy said. (Thanks Tony)
July 3rd, 2007
Gannett launched a new weather feature on a number of its local websites - “Nimbus.” The little corner graphic (right, seen on Denver’s 9News.com) unfurls to the full screen feature (below). By default, the weather page grabs conditions based on your computer’s IP address, including a video forecast loop from HamWeather.com. Currently Nimbus is being served on about 21 million pageviews a month, but the company hopes to ramp up distribution to more than 200 million views per month, as it rolls out more fully across the Gannett network, and partner sites.
July 3rd, 2007
