The Chicago Sun-Times ran a contest called “Zell No!”, a video contest to protest the possible selling of naming right for Wrigley Field by new owner of Tribune Co., Sam Zell. The winner of the UGC video contest would slide into home with $1,000. Well, pranksters over at the Chicago Tribune entered the contest under the name of one of their interns, and their video won. The Chicago Tribune’s site proudly declares, “Zell yeah! The winner of the Sun-Times’ Wrigley Field name music video contest is… the Chicago Tribune.” And the Sun-Times presents a much smaller announcement that “The Sun-Times has been punk’d.” The prize is being donated to the Chicago Tribune Charities.
The Tribune intern and a reporter proudly show off the front page of the Sun-Times in this video:
The WSJ has a good story today (free link) on the experimental efforts by Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon to produce hyperlocal video content. You may remember that Michael Rosenblum, the VJ guru, is working with Verizon in Washington D.C. on a 24-hour IPTV channel that features content from a team of 5 VJs. Most of the stories are local features. “What we accomplish is more positive, uplifting and community central (than traditional TV news),” says Terry Denson, who oversees the local content effort for Verizon. (Via B&C)
Have you been watching March Madness on Demand? It just took 60 seconds or so waiting “in line” without a VIP pass to get in, and everything seems to be streaming just fine. I had a few buffering problems with one game, but nothing too major. As we’ve mentioned before, MMOD will stream all the NCAA games this year, all the way to the finals. Very, very cool.
Yes, it has the boss button again this year, but be careful if you’re logged on to Facebook — it’s “Beacon” feature may rat you out for watching at work.
The Tribune Co. will combine its Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper operations with those of WFSL - the CW affiliate in the Miami market. Right now, WFSL does not produce its own news - but instead airs a 30 minute nightly newscast produced by WTVJ. The story in the Sun-Sentinel today has one of those “sounds great” passages:
The broadcast collaboration also is designed to broaden the Sun-Sentinel’s audience, particularly for younger viewers who favor CW programming such as One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl.
The combo will have a single GM/publisher - and all operations will be based in the same building. Tribune has cross-ownership in other markets of course - notably KTLA & The Los Angeles Times - and WGN and The Chicago Tribune.
