Archive for December, 2007
A great snapshot of the current ad market for online video compiled by WebVideoReport shows the range of pricing for different sites. On the high end are the niche sites for business leaders from WSJ.com and the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, selling video ads for $90 CPM. On the other end are video ads on sites that focus on user generated content, with sites like MetaCafe asking for $10 CPM - $35 CPM. MySpace is asking for $25 CPM on their video pre-rolls. What are local sites getting for video CPMs? I know each of our markets vary, with the largest factor often being high demand on a limited inventory. (Via PaidContent)
December 17th, 2007
Co-editor of the CBSNews.com blog The Public Eye, Matthew Felling sent out an email explaining he’s blogged his last for the company. Felling explained that he’s one of the job cuts at CBSNews.com.
December 17th, 2007
West Seattle Blog is a very popular neighborhood news blog here in Seattle. And for good reason: it’s covers the neighborhood better than most newspapers could ever dream to cover it, thanks in part to a steady stream of story tips and photos submitted by users. For the last year, the blog has been clouded in mystery as its popularity grew. The authors went to great lengths to stay anonymous. But last week, Tracy Record quit her job as assistant news director of KCPQ and revealed that she and her husband are the West Seattle bloggers. (Interestingly, Tracy also used to work at ABCNews.com). With Tracy covering the news and her husband Patrick Sand taking care of sales, the two say they’re setting out to make a hyperlocal experiment become a full-time venture. So stay tuned…
December 17th, 2007
Newspapers continue their emphasis on video, and the latest effort is by Chicago Tribune Interactive with the launch of chicagolive.com. Billed as showcasing video from professionals and UGC content, the site already has a hefty collection of video, thanks to the multiple divisions of the Tribune’s TV, Cable and Interactive divisions. Interestingly, I’ve also found video from off-site linked to, including video from competitors to the Trib’s TV division. Those additions surprised me since they won’t be able to sell pre-roll ads. Still, an impressive entry into the local video vertical. (Press release after the jump.)
Read the full post December 17th, 2007
On the new Slantly.com (in beta), you vote on controversial issues and claims submitted by other users. For example, PS3 is better than Xbox 360. (I voted no, of course). And then the most popular and controversial votes rise to the top. But here’s the interesting part: the site was created by “old friends and colleagues at Internet Broadcasting,” explains Rex Sorgatz.
December 16th, 2007
WNBC.com had what looked like a big scoop Thursday morning: the list of players that would appear in the George Mitchell steroids in baseball report later that day. WNBC.com’s story was cited far and wide - and with the muscle of one of the nation’s top local TV stations behind it, the report was trusted by most. As TheSmokingGun reports, the list was flawed - and listed more than a dozen folks that did not appear in the final report.
WNBC.com has issued a very brief correction.
TSG also points out that sports blog Deadspin released the exact same list - but with this disclaimer: that the list “could very likely be one of those Web urban legends that somehow got around.”
December 16th, 2007
RegretTheError.com has its annual list of the most interesting flubs and corrections made this year. CNN gets top billing for transposing Osama bin Laden and Barack Obama on two different occasions. But some of the deeper material will definitely leave you laughing.
Typo of the year, from the Houston Chronicle - in a photo caption related to Anna Nicole Smith:
“When Redding, a longtime scout for Playboy, discovered Smith, the model could barely right a sentence…”
Here’s the correction I can most identify with, from the UK Guardian:
We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30.
When recipes attack (from the UK Observer)!:
We should clarify that the stir-fried morning glory recipe featured in Observer Food Monthly last week uses an edible morning glory Ipomoea aquatica, found in south east Asia and also known as water spinach. This should not to be confused with the UK Ipomoea, also known as morning glory, which is poisonous.
Best misquote (from the Sydney Morning Herald):
David Marr unfortunately misquoted me in “A fallen leader of faith” (August 4-5). I actually said that I endured the naked beatings, paternal bum caresses etc from Frank Houston, not enjoyed them. I can assure readers that the experience wasn’t pleasurable but painful, both at the time and for some years later.
Read them all here.
December 16th, 2007
Today’s NY Times reports David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants has been working on a deal that would return his show - with writers - to the air in the near term. Letterman is working as an independent agent apart from the AMPTP - and can do so because he owns his show (and Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show). NYT also says Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien may announce a plan to break ranks and get back on the air January 2nd. Jon Stewart is also hoping for an interim agreement like Letterman’s, but that could be harder because Stewart doesn’t own The Daily Show.
ALSO: The WGA is set to tell the AMPTP that it wants to negotiate with each media company separately.
December 16th, 2007
Convergence has been the word over the past decade or so - with TV, print, web and radio all merging into one big media mush. But there are a few places where things don’t go so smoothly. Carolyn Washburn, managing editor of the Des Moines Register took the national stage during two televised debates this week. The forums have been widely panned - and not just for style. Washburn decided not to talk about Iraq or immigration. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank has a roundup of some of the chatter on the debates. Even though we’ve all become so used to people being Jacks and Janes of all trades - there are a few places where some specialization comes in handy: like hosting 90 minutes of live television.
(Disclosure: I met with Washburn several times during her time at the Idaho Statesman in Boise while planning — what else — a debate.)
December 16th, 2007
There are reports of a major staffing cutback at CBSNews.com and CBS.com, with paidContent reporting as much as 30% of the digital employees are being laid off from the site’s small staff. According to HuffingtonPost, there may have been as many as 20 people fired on Friday. Here’s a statement from official spokesperson Dana McClintock of CBS Interactive:
“During 2007, CBS Interactive acquired three companies, invested in 11 more, and grew its workforce by hundreds of employees, including the formation of a new senior management team. Along with the core success of CBSsports.com, new online sites from Last.fm to Dotspotter have infused invaluable DNA into the division, and are actively translating their experience in community-building to all of the Company’s properties and content. In the coming year, we intend to build on our success by expanding on that strategy of building communities online. Part of achieving this goal is reorganizing the way we do business to align the division’s workforce with our new vision, including increasing our operations in the Bay Area - the heart of so much of this activity. We’re confident that CBS Interactive’s focus on consumer involvement will help the Division experience another record year of growth in ‘08 and beyond.”
Anyone heard anything you can share in comments?
December 15th, 2007
For the month of November, here are the top newspaper sites ranked by total (not average) time spent:
1. NYTimes.com (550,035 minutes)
2. USAToday.com (136,603)
3. WashingtonPost.com (145,083)
4. Boston.com (79,712)
5. WSJ.com (72,110)
And there are some big surprises with the rest of the list of the top 30. For example, Chron.com (Houston Chronicle) beats LATimes.com handily. So does AZCentral.com. But the debate continues: is total time spent better than unique users when ranking top news sites? Or is it a combination of both? And, of course, there’s the whole issue of accuracy and standardization in metrics, which is the subject of this story today.
December 14th, 2007
Yes, it’s true, an analyst with Credit Suisse released an upbeat report about the future of newspapers. John Klim focused most of his praise on New York Times and Gannett, but he was upbeat about the industry as a whole. Klim says revenue troubles appear to be cyclical, and he believes newspapers will adjust their cost structures to succeed in a new digital world. “Newspapers’ reach remains impressive and the content remains relevant, even in this on-demand, highly fragmented media environment,” he wrote. But he said a recovery will likely not begin until late 2008. (You can bet this report is getting forwarded around a lot today.)
Meanwhile, a survey of hundreds of newspaper execs reveals that “more survey respondents project decreases rather than increases in 5 out of 8 ad revenue categories” for 2008. But online, “large increases are expected.”
December 14th, 2007
Mark Glaser has done a great job compiling various approaches to the hyperlocal news puzzle, along with links to a bunch of example sites.
December 14th, 2007
MSNBC.com unleashed its new video player to the masses today, and it offers a raft of features. The video quality is top-notch, and it uses Flash. The player screen itself is nice and roomy, measuring about 600 pixels wide. While a clip is playing, related links display along the bottom of the player, and the video clip pauses if you decide to take a look.
When you select a clip, a playlist comes along with it, putting several related clips in the queue. Also, three pre-programmed playlists are available in the upper left-hand side of the player window — including Top Videos, Most Viewed, and Weird News. Other navigation mirros MSNBC.com’s text-side navigation, with US News, Politics, Business etc. Embeddable video clips and search will be available “soon.”
When a pre-roll plays, a medium rectangle replaces the left navigation. It appears the new player is following the same approach as MSN Video, which is one pre-roll for every three minutes of use.
In full-screen mode, you can mouse-over the left screen to surface the nav.
Here’s the Alpha Channel blog entry on the player with the title, “Don’t kill your television (we’re still in beta).”
December 14th, 2007
According to a press release from TimeWarner, Nielsen Online is now ranking the CNN Digital Network as the largest online news audience with 32.8 million unique users. We’ve been following this closely since the metrics merger with the Internet Broadcasting sites. That partnership put CNN slightly ahead of MSNBC, but hadn’t put it at the top of the list until November. The press release also says that “During November, the CNN Digital Network also retained its No. 1 position among all News and Information Category sites for total usage minutes for the fourth month in a row, ranking ahead of Internet stalwarts Wikipedia and the Weather Channel.” Press release after the jump.
(Disclosure: Many of my employer’s sites are part of the CNN Digital Network.)
Read the full post December 13th, 2007
Oh my. I just discovered that ABCNews.com is offering a O.J. Simpson Trial Tracker widget, complete with a countdown until his next court date. “His new legal travails have been one of the most closely followed stories on ABCNEWS.com, and so we wanted to offer you a way to stay up to the minute on this law and order roller coaster,” explains ABCNews.com.
I dare someone to embed this on their site.
December 13th, 2007
Years ago, I got my start on a Vic-20 and later, the venerable Commodore 64. I programmed games for my junior high school friends, both in BASIC and Machine Language. In fact, I was so hard core, I owned two Vic-20s and two Commodore 64s at one point. So who was behind the C64, perhaps the best-selling personal computer of all time? Jack Tramiel, an Auschwitz survivor and former member of the U.S. Army who decided that his future wasn’t in repairing typewriters but in building electronics. And this week, Tramiel was honored during the 25th anniversary celebration for the Commodore 64. Cool.
December 13th, 2007
FrontDoor.com is a new real estate listings service, powered by HGTV. The idea is to own the home ownership lifecycle “from search and decision-making with FrontDoor, to decoration and personalization with HGTV, maintenance and remodeling with DIY Network and HGTV Pro, then preparation to sell and start the cycle again with FrontDoor,” explains John Lansing, president of Scripps Networks. Unlike most real estate sites, FrontDoor.com adds “how-to” content to the mix, along with 300 video clips to start. Will it be enough to compete in the crowded real estate space right now? We’ll see. But kudus to Scripps for pursuing opportunities outside the traditional TV bubble. Release…
Read the full post December 13th, 2007
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