Archive for October 7th, 2007
CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times et al may have the journalists and resources - but Yahoo News has the most eyeballs. Forbes writes up Yahoo’s quiet ascension to the top of the online news heap. YN serves more than 50 million people each month - with a tiny newsroom that employs fewer people than your average tiny market TV shop. Yahoo GM Scott Moore says the company is switching gears from the old model of licensing content…
Instead Yahoo! is “scraping”–snatching snippets of content from around the Web and linking those back to a headline. Moore contends scraping is a boon to users, who can now finely tune the news settings on a Yahoo! page to pull together familiar sources, such as local news headlines, together with other Yahoo!-provided content.
Moore says Yahoo sends 20 million clicks away from its site, but traffic has grown since the site is now stickier, with a wider variety of content. My site gets more direct story traffic from Yahoo News (and a news module on Yahoo.com) then it does from Google News…
October 7th, 2007
The Onion News Network adds interactive features to their webcast in a hilarious imitation of an anchor dealing with messages from viewers coming in live during a show. The segment is appropriately called “Viewer Voices: Where We Respond To The Opinions Of Our Uninformed Viewers.” My favorite part is the last instant message, so stick with it to the end.
Viewer Voices: Where We Respond To The Opinions Of Our Uninformed Viewers
October 7th, 2007
MSNBC Interactive has acquired the Seattle-based community news site Newsvine for an undisclosed sum. If you’re not familiar with Newsvine, it features some rather sophisticated tools to manage user-generated content in a social setting. Newsvine will remain a separate site, and MSNBC.com plans to integrate some of its social and community features. Newsvine CEO Mike Davidson will remain CEO and report to MSNBC President Charlie Tillinghast.
Couple interesting things to note here. This is MSNBC.com’s first acquisition in its 11-year history (it’s a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC). Second, this appears to be a great way for MSNBC.com to get a shot in the arm from Newsvine’s extensive experience in the user-generated content and social news space. “Newsvine is local, small, nimble — they don’t come with a lot of things you don’t want,” Tillinghast said. “There isn’t a lot to rearrange.” Arguably, that’s a perfect addition to a large media company. How MSNBC.com integrates Newsvine — how they draw the line between edited and unedited content — will be of great interest to those of us who work in online news.
Update: MSNBC.com’s Rex Sorgatz has now posted, “Why we bought Newsvine” on his personal blog. And it’s a must-read. “I’m convinced that Newsvine represents a different way of thinking about traditional media,” Rex writes. “For me personally, it’s a moment I have been anticipating for years: seeing how a big news outlet can interact with its audience, how it can learn from its audience, how it can cede control to its audience.” Absolutely, and congrats to Rex for being instrumental in the Newsvine deal.
Update: Newsvine’s Mike Davidson has posted about the acquisition on his personal blog. “So why would an independent, cost-efficient, growing startup like Newsvine which has taken very little venture capital want to join a huge organization like msnbc.com? The answer comes down to global impact. Our goal at Newsvine has always been to spread the ethos of participatory news as far and wide as possible, and what more dramatic way can that be accomplished than with a partner who reaches 85 million computers a month and has an offline presence on nearly every television set in the country?”
October 7th, 2007
Broadcasting & Cable has a writeup on Cory Bergman’s labor of love, the Seattle blog and news aggregator Citizen Rain. B&C’s Michael Malone notes that Cory’s baby:
…showcases the work of 240-plus Seattle bloggers. The site is divided into a dozen categories, and features a “cover story” and four news slots.
The article also takes us through the still-nascent history of local station blog aggregators, starting with the WKRN effort. Malone did find some typical hand-wringing, too:
Some station-business insiders, however, express concerns with featuring outside blog content, and wonder about the logic of posting links to rival stations.
Here’s the logic: The Web is Not TV. And linking to other sites sure seems to be working for Drudge, Google News, The Huffington Post…
October 7th, 2007
Remember that great memo from Time editor Rick Stengel this summer that demanded writers get with the web? “(E)valuations of every Time writer, correspondent, and reporter will be based on the quality and quantity of the contributions each of you makes to both the magazine and to TIME.com.”
Turns out, a strongly worded memo only goes so far. The latest version of a proposed contract between The Newspaper Guild and Time Inc. would not require any online writing - and wouldn’t penalize writers who turn down online writing. The contract covers TIME, People, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, Sports Illustrated and Money.
October 7th, 2007
