Archive for December, 2007
A survey of 1,500 adults by Nielsen discovered that 50% of the respondents say they visit ABC.com, 41% visit NBC.com, 37% CBS.com, 24% Fox.com and just 17% to YouTube. I must be missing something here — all the respondents are probably screened to see if they visit network TV sites — because the YouTube number is extremely low when you look at real traffic: YouTube beats all the network sites combined.
Meanwhile, Nielsen discovered that 56% of 18-34 year-olds use DVRs, streaming and downloads to catch up on missed TV shows, compared to 21% of viewers over 55. Duh.
December 4th, 2007
A magazine for Harvard alumni - 02138 - obtained a raft of private data for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg - including his social security number, parents’ address and the name of his girlfriend. The magazine posted it… all of it - in PDF form on its website as a companion to a piece the mag ran on the origins of the site within Harvard. So Facebook sued. Some of the documents are tied up as part of a lawsuit by rival (and much smaller) website ConnectU. “One reason the court ordered certain documents’ protection was to prevent exactly what has happened: misusing documents and taking documents out of context to sling mud,” lawyers told Kara Swisher’s BoomTown. And from 02138’s corner: “1) It was an oversight and as soon as 02138 was alerted they took it down. 2) The parents’ address is listed in the white pages and they are the only Zuckerbergs in Dobbs Ferry. 02138 nonetheless took it down as a courtesy. 3) This was not brought to 02138’s attention by Facebook.”
The ironic twist here is Facebook’s launch of Beacon. The service collects users activities on a variety of websites. For a time, those activities were posted on the News Feed… but Facebookers freaked out… so they made it an opt-in service. Computer Associates found that FB is even collecting the data when users are logged out of Facebook OR even if they’ve opted-out.
02138’s editor Richard Bradley blogged this about the documents: “We believe that we have a legal right to post them online and that you have a legal right to read them. Meantime, spread the word that a company which plans to collect and sell personal information about 50 million people doesn’t want one magazine to do the same about Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg.”
December 3rd, 2007
The efforts of a wide variety of media companies to capatilze on the high school sports space have been well-documented here on Lost Remote. Now, the Washington Post looks not only at the TV & newspaper folks jumping into the water - but several independents as well. One WaPo editor is skeptical that prep sports will ever make much money - noting that coverage is a loss leader for newspapers. But many are excited about the promise - and the flurry of deals and launches over the past year show that media companies and venture capital firms alike think there’s money in HS sports.
December 3rd, 2007
Whenever I travel to Maui for vacation, big news breaks. A few years ago, the tsunami hit. Then Katrina. Now there’s a state of emergency back at home in Seattle with potential record flooding. Does anyone else who works in news have this happen to you? We need a term for this.
By the way, NBC’s Brian Williams was slated to come visit us in Seattle today, but the weather in the Northeast postponed his trip. But maybe the Northwest weather will end up being the bigger story.
PS. It’s raining here in Maui, and the forecast is calling for one of the biggest storms of the season. Hence, I’m blogging.
December 3rd, 2007
Now that the contract has expired and Hulu.com is nearing launch, NBC has removed the last of its shows from iTunes. The exception is NBC News podcasts, which makes sense, since they’re free. Meanwhile, there’s a report that News Corp. and its studio Twentieth Century Fox are in talks with iTunes to begin offering movies next year.
December 3rd, 2007
WABC, KABC, WLS and the other ABC O&O sites relaunched today with a new look, and a huge Flash media window on their homepage. “We felt that the [old] Web sites looked more like newspaper Web sites,” said Bill Burton, executive vice president of digital media for the ABC-owned television stations in an interview with Broadcasting & Cable. “We tried to make them more like television.” I’ll give them that, but as Cory always says, the Web is not TV. A couple of nice things: the size of the video player in stories is great. The 16×9 video is Flash. I also like the rotating story tease in the navigation. I also like the Most Popular module at the bottom of the section pages. The sites also include user comments on story pages. What are your thoughts?
December 3rd, 2007
The Associated Press is creating four regional hubs that will change the way it files, edits and distributes stories. The hubs will handle editing duties and free up the bureaus to focus more on newsgathering, reports the NY Times. The most intriguing part of the reorganization, named AP 2.0, is a move toward an all-digital platform it calls the “Digital Cooperative.” But the NYT story is short on details. If you see more info, let me know.
December 3rd, 2007
I have to admit there are so many bits of information flying around, most unconfirmed, that I’m having trouble getting a grip on this story. But, wow. Here’s what we do know: Gamespot.com Editorial Director Jeff Gerstmann was fired soon after giving a video game, Kane & Lynch, a negative review (watch video here). The review then disappeared off the site, and gaming blogs were quick to point out that the video game is a big Gamespot advertiser. Hmmm. Meanwhile, CNET, which owns Gamespot, says it does “not terminate employees based on external pressure from advertisers.” Angry users began to post their own reviews of the game, voting down the score to 2.6/10 until Gamespot yanked it. And there are also reports that hundreds of Gamespot’s paid subscribers are canceling their accounts, calling it “Lamespot.” Stay tuned on this one, folks. (Thanks, Mike and Peter!)
December 3rd, 2007
An optimistic new report from ZenithOptimedia predicts online ad spending will surpass radio in 2008 and magazines by 2010.
December 3rd, 2007
Superpages.com has inked a deal with TurnHere and Denver Multimedia to create video profiles of local businesses. The plan is to leverage the Superpages sales force to upsell clients to the video packages, and the clips will appear alongside directory listings. Recently, Yellow Book and CitySearch have begun similar video efforts.
While most agree there’s a big business opportunity here, local TV stations aren’t players despite long track records of innovation in video advertising. And in some cases, it may already be too late. Why? Stations haven’t invested in building innovative local directory/search products that have succeeded in achieving a large enough audience. Without an audience, there’s no video worth upselling. If you try to post the same video profiles on a TV site, smart advertisers won’t buy it — there’s no targeting, no context. You don’t visit a TV site to find something. You Google it. Or CitySearch it. Or Yelp it. Or visit the local newspaper’s entertainment site. But never a TV site, unless you’re looking for the forecast, traffic report or the day’s news.
Put simply, TV hasn’t made local business directories and search a priority. And with well over half of local online advertising dollars moving to search, directories and lead-generation, this lack of investment will prove to be a key strategic mistake in the years to come.
December 3rd, 2007
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