When Cory came up with the Lost Remote name, I doubt he thought the content would ever focus on the actual demise of the remote. A pair of Australian engineers figured out a way to control your television without a remote device - instead allowing you to use hand signals. The product senses hand movements - making a fist, giving the thumbs up, or making the “V for victory” sign for instance. It could be on the market in three years. I can just see it now: “When you can’t find that lost remote, just use your hand instead.”
July 15th, 2007
WHEN, EXACTLY, do you junk something that no longer works? And which major paper should go first—not today, but within the next 18 or 24 months?
San Francisco Chronicle, I’m looking at you.
BusinessWeek columnist Jon Fine says the Chronicle should jump off the deep end after racking up more than $330 million in losses since 2000. Fine makes a compelling case, noting that the paper is in a web-centric town. I’ll add another point: San Francisco is the home of the great plastic shopping bag ban — ditch the printing press, and launch a “news that’s environmentally friendly campaign.” With craigslist stronger in its home town of SF than almost anywhere else, the move makes some sense.
It occurs to me that the idea of a newspaper going online-only seems inevitable. Who will make the plunge first?
July 15th, 2007
Readers of the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News find it hard to avoid ads by American Furniture Warehouse. The company spends several million dollars each year - with 40% of that take going to print ads. AFW’s marketing director says the old-fashioned paper newspaper is actually a plus: “There are more and better filters for people to be able to weed out ads,” AFW’s Andrew Zuppa told alt-weekly Westword. “But if you’re getting a newspaper and you’re reading it, you have no new filter for that ad. What other media can say that?” Zuppa also has a smart take on how to advertise on TV - eschewing prime-time series for news: “News products gain a certain value — because I’m not going to record and watch yesterday’s news.”
July 15th, 2007
ABC-owned all soap opera channel SoapNet wanted a cost-effective way to launch a new prime-time series. The answer? General Hospital: Night Shift - a weekly extension of the daytime soap that airs on ABC. Night Shift uses some of the same sets and actors from the original GH, but focuses on what goes on during the overnight hours at the namesake hospital. The series scored big for SoapNet - attracting its highest ratings ever, with 1 million viewers (especially impressive since SoapNet is primarily a digital tier product.). ABC has taken what some look at as a dying medium and found new ways to leverage and extend the content. General Hospital tapes Monday-Thursday, while Night Shift takes the stage on Friday, lighting up a former dark day - giving SoapNet its own show with
July 15th, 2007
Sun Valley, Idaho has always been an enclave for the stars. Folks like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis maintain homes in the area, and the walls of the Sun Valley lodge are lined with photos of top-line stars, from Ernest Hemmingway to Marilyn Monroe to Lucille Ball. But for one week each July, the Allen and Co. conference brings stars of the media, business and political worlds to the nation’s first ski resort.
Despite its high mountain location, the area hasn’t been immune to the west’s heatwave of the past few weeks. Temperatures hovered in the mid-90s throughout the day, well above average.
Walking around the main pedestrian walkway between the Sun Valley Lodge and Sun Valley Inn, we quickly saw many big names, some of them clearly sweating from the heat. Since each guest of the conference wore a nametag (no matter how high the voltage of their star it seemed), I found my eyes trying to ever-so-discreetly stare at the tags. The very first person I spotted was InterActive Corp. president Barry Diller - with another gentleman slapping him on the back saying something about “well, you are the biggest shareholder har har.”
Sumner Redstone walked in to the Sun Valley Lodge and attracted many eyes. “The Joost guys” were strolling along a path as well. We also saw New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
A pair of my former KTVB colleagues were freelancing for a national business network. They had a hit sheet of people to capture on tape - two pages filled with color photos and names to make identification easier.
So far, the conference hasn’t produced any news of real value. The announcements usually come weeks later, with a line in the AP copy noting that the deal “was hatched at July’s Sun Valley media conference.”
A special activities desk helped coordinate play time for conference attendees and their families - including mountain biking, hiking, ice skating and others. The Sun Valley Opera House hosted movies, including the Kathryn Heigl film “Knocked Up” that evening at 9 p.m.
Security was tight - but certainly not oppressive. A consultant for Allen & Co. approached us shortly after we arrived and told us the rules - basically that we could shoot and approach conference-goers on any of the public paths, but to avoid areas behind ropes and “private function” signs.
We were working on a sidebar story about Allen & Co. donating a large sum of money to the nearby town of Ketchum for free Wi-Fi access. We stopped one Allen & Co. worker and asked if he could help connect us with someone to interview… “huh… good luck” he said… and walked away.
Our crew scooped up the Wi-Fi story anyway (here’s KTVB.COM reporter Ryan Larrondo’s package) , snagged some b-roll of the conference, taped a few standups and headed home.
July 15th, 2007
