Will wsj.com go free? Should it?
With News Corp. set to close on its deal to purchase Dow Jones and its Wall Street Journal unit, CEO Rupert Murdoch is indicating that wsj.com will go from one of the few successful pay sites to a free site supported by advertising. Several Dow Jones execs says the site should stay paid – but [...]
FCC chief on the record
FCC chairman Kevin Martin sat down with Broadcasting and Cable Magazine for a long chat about the pending DTV transition. Among other things, Martin says he will still be in the chairman’s seat when the Feb. 17, 2009 deadline rolls around – despite rumors he has public office ambitions in his home state.
Five goals to keep a blog fresh
I wrote this piece for the Idaho Business Review, the local business newspaper – and thought there might be some interest here as well. The paper’s editor asked me for some “rules” to help keep a blog fresh and active. Full story after the jump…
NYT Public Editor: MoveOn.org ad violated paper’s standards
New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt writes in Sunday’s Times that the MoveOn.org ad that ran in the paper and was critical of Gen. David Petraeus “violated the paper’s own written standards.” You know the ad – it’s the instantly famous one with the headline “General Petraeus or General Betray-Us?” (Get it? It rhymes.) [...]
Sergey and Larry make the Forbes top five richest
Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are tied for #5 in this years’ Forbes Magazine list of the richest Americans. They’re both 34 years old, and their net worth went up about $4.5 billion each in the last year. They displace members of the Walton family, of Wal-Mart fame. Sergey and Larry have an [...]
Cuban talks about potential bid to buy the Cubs
Mark Cuban is among those in the bidding to buy the Chicago Cubs and, if this ESPN article is anything to go by, he’s a fan-favorite choice. Asked via email about his bid to buy the Cubbies, “the Mavericks’ owner coyly replied via e-mail, “All I can say is anything I do, I do to [...]
Take a look at MSN Video in beta
MSN has launched a new video experience, currently in beta, that merges its traditional video offerings with user video clips from Soapbox. And it’s in Flash. Clean, straightforward presentation. Easy to navigate. Click a clip and a medium rectangle companion ad animates out of the side of the player. Interestingly, I could only get a [...]
Amanda Congdon logs off abcnews.com
TVNewser has the sad news that Amanda Congdon is no longer working with abcnews.com. Congdon joined the site almost a year ago after her successful video blogging experience at rocketboom.com. According to TVNewser, ABC News released this statement: “It’s been a great year with Amanda — a great experiment for both of us. We thank [...]
NBC.com to premiere original production
In a first for NBC.com, the site will debut an original production series, “Coastal Dreams.” Also, the animated comedy series “Pale Force” returns this fall. Press release below…
Free FOX shows coming to iTunes
As a way to hook you, kind of like a drug dealer, FOX is giving away the season premiere episodes of a number of their shows for free on iTunes. According to the LA Times, shows include “Prison Break,” “Bones,” “American Dad” and “K-Ville.” FOX hopes that by giving away the first show, you will [...]
Learning the right lesson from Times Select
There’s a temptation when an online experiment fails to engage in the “I Told You So” game, which generally doesn’t do anyone any good. The New York Times tried its luck with its Times Select subscription service. It didn’t work. I don’t penalize people for trying, especially online. But I do like to take what lessons I can from failure. One of the lessons from the Times Select experiment may not be so obvious.
Getting it right
A quick kudos to NYTime’s Brian Stelter for getting it right. All morning I’ve seen articles talking about Think.MTV, a new site from MTV that aims to help teens do good things. The problem? Think.MTV takes you no where. .MTV isn’t a web domain. Luckily, Brian correctly posted on his new blog TVDecoder that the [...]
TV news video appearing on BreitBartTV.com
BreitBart’s new video site features a bunch of news clips from local TV stations and the networks, and you can bet it’s not part of a distribution agreement. Right now on their home page, the top story is from CNN and the next big three stories are from WNEP, WKMG and KLAS. Scroll down the [...]
KING TV’s CitizenRain.com adds news aggregation
Yeah, yeah, I’m back to promoting myself, but this is pretty cool. Our blog aggregator, CitizenRain.com, has expanded to add local news aggregation. At the top of the site, we post links to the most interesting stories we can find from all of the Seattle news sites, TV competitors included. As you can see, we’re [...]
ABC will offer its shows on AOL Video
ABC will start to have its primetime shows available for viewing on AOL Video. The shows will be available on AOL Video one day after airing. From B&C:
ABC will offer the shows on AOL Video one day after they premiere on TV through an “ABC.com on AOL” player, which will also display identification from the local ABC affiliate station. While AOL offers primetime programming from the other broadcast networks, this partnership is its first to stream ABC’s shows and represents the first time that a network will co-brand its own online-video player with an online portal.
As Michael Gay wrote about yesterday, NBC will go a step further by offering its programs for free downloading (with some DRM limitations). Full press release after the jump.
NBC to offer free show downloads
NBC announces that they will start beta testing free program downloads in October that will allow users to watch shows for free on their computer for up to one week after it is broadcast for free. The free shows at launch will include “Heroes,” “The Office,” “Life,” “Bionic Woman,” “30 Rock,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Did I mention they are free? The NBC Direct service will even let users subscribe to shows and have the episodes downloaded as soon as they are available, for free. Mac support and portable player support will be included in future phases. Wow, I want in the beta. Press release after the jump.
A blog that’s a blog
The term blog is used a lot in our industry by people who want you to think they’re blogging, but they only post once a day or less. Well, FoxNews.com is blowing away other networks’ blogs with their new GretaWire.com blog. It’s a great look at the behind the scenes of the O.J. Simpson trial. [...]
The irony of the Business 2.0 closure
Business 2.0 magazine is shutting down, and Mark Glaser at MediaShift points out that the reason is because parent company Time Inc. took a decidely 1.0 approach to things. By combining the sales forces for Fortune, Money, Business 2.0, Fortune Small Business and CNNMoney.com, Time Inc. ironically sank the revenue for all.
Dan Rather files $70M lawsuit against CBS
Rather says the network violated his contract by not giving him enough face-time on 60 Minutes after forcing him to step down from the Evening News anchor desk. In the 32-page filing, he also says CBS “seriously damanged his reputation” and made him “a scapegoat” in an attempt “to pacify the White House.”
IB affiliates and the CNN boost
I’ve noticed here in Seattle (according to Comscore data) that KIROTV.com — which is one of the many Internet Broadcasting affiliates participating in the new linking partnership with CNN.com — has experienced a big boost in unique users. Of course, most of these incoming uniques are originating from outside the local market. I’ve also heard [...]
