In part because baby boomers will soon leave the job market, Borrell is predicting a 24 percent growth in online recruitment spending by 2012. And Borrell remains bullish on video, predicting $5 billion in spending at the local level by 2012 — over one-third of all local online ad revenue. “What’s driving the increase in online video is mainly what’s going on in automotive, real estate, recruitment, and healthcare,” said Borrell Associates SVP Peter Conti. “The local online ad spend is so big in these categories that they have a direct influence on this number.”
And these aren’t pre-rolls, folks, but advertorial clips. Refer to my earlier statements about how local TV is out of position on advertorial.
- I don’t have any hard numbers yet, but RTNDA’s attendance appears to be significantly down, thanks to the economy and the Pope visit.
- Where are the big names at NAB? Several folks have remarked how few heavy-hitters are speaking at NAB. Although I will attend Hulu CEO Jason Kilar’s keynote on Wednesday evening.
- Broadcasting & Cable is shooting video! Look, they interviewed Safran.
- I’m growing weary of young reporter wannabes who quickly glance down at my name tag and walk away. Coming soon: reporters who seek out web managers instead of news directors — and land better jobs.
- Why aren’t NABShow.com and RTNDA.org optimized for mobile? Geesh.
- Note to self: while interviewing people as a VJ, don’t let them grab the mic. They think they’re doing you a favor, but they’re hijacking the interview.
- My new thing here is walking around with a drink in my hand. Because I can. Once a year. And let me check with my boss… yep, go right ahead.
This year, two big technology companies are missing from the convention floor. And both of these companies have had a big, flashy presence in years past. Apple and Avid said they decided not to spend the money for exhibits on the convention floor. “Often there are better ways to reach our customers,” said an Apple representative. Photo from last year…
In 2007, Apple drew massive crowds on the floor. (Photo from jayrunquist.)
The Lost Remote meetup went splendidly, and thanks to everyone who dropped by. Some of you I only see once a year… at the meetup. (By the way, NY Times’ Brian Stelter came by, and I interviewed him. Stay tuned for that video.) After the meetup, lots of folks headed over to the annual CNN Newsource party. This year, Kool and the Gang took to the stage.
Everyone is still talking about Tim Robbins’ brash keynote speech yesterday, which took broadcasters to task for voyeuristic, gossipy content, among other things. While it was probably a strategic mistake for the NAB to book Robbins in the first place, personally, I enjoyed it. I live-blogged it while Steve Safran shot it all on his Flip phone right here.
The consulting company AR&D has unveiled a new full-service content management system, built by partner Synapse Multimedia. Here at NAB-RTNDA, AR&D is actively pitching the product to local TV media groups. “It puts the flexibility to innovate the next generation of local media at the local level,” said CEO Jerry Gumbert. I watched a demo of the product, and it’s packed full of features. The web-based CMS allows just about anyone to drag-and-drop widgets to create their own web pages. It includes ad serving with behavioral targeting, a video player (live and on demand), basic video editing, image editing and user-generated content. One of the big sells of the CMS is its ability to publish content seamlessly across multiple sites — and import RSS feeds from any other site. It also has the ability for a local TV station to run a local ad network of unaffiliated sites. “We’re not taking on WorldNow or IB (Internet Broadcasting),” Gumbert said, explaining that AR&D has no plans to create a national ad network. But the idea is to empower local newsrooms with the technology tools they need to “have control at the local level to be more successful on the web.” You can see the CMS in action on KTBS.com in Shreveport as well as AR&D’s recently relaunched site.
- Cops, Survivor and Oprah will soon be broadcasting in HD. Yes… Cops.
- Laura Bush will co-host the 9am hour of Tuesday’s Today Show
- Hillary Clinton will go on the Colbert Report.
There are dozens of pics in the Lost Remote flickr pool. I just added a few - including images of a satellite live truck mounted on a mid-size SUV. The components fit in the back of the rig - and automate most of the process.
During the “change in digital newsrooms” session yesterday, I noted that many of the questions from the audience of news managers were the same we’ve heard year after year: how are we going to get the resources, what about legal dangers of user content, is the web really going to make enough money… etc. After the panel, I debriefed with moderator Steve Safran and panelist Adam Symson, vice president/interactive, E.W. Scripps Television Station Group. (Sorry, dreadfully low audio, which I will fix soon…)
With 89% of U.S. adults signed up for cellphone service, carriers are trying to boost revenue by getting customers to receive more data on their phones — and nothing contains as much data as video.
The big carriers have done little to promote video, in part because most handsets can’t show moving pictures.
But that may change soon, industry executives said. Sales of video subscription services jumped to $308 million in the last quarter of 2007 from $112 million a year earlier, according to Nielsen Mobile.
Meanwhile, BusinessWeek has an article saying service providers are losing their grip on selling content over mobile phones as the mobile web takes off. The service providers are not so worried, since their core business is providing access and that is not going down anytime soon. But, just as we LostRemoters keep thumping the get-on-the-mobile-bandwagon bible, we also know that cell phone bandwidth and service in the U.S. is pathetic compared to overseas markets.
Hitwise has the new numbers on U.S. online video traffic. Overall, visits in the online video category were down 7 percent, but the time spent per user went up 7 percent. The category leader, YouTube, went up 32 percent, but other sites, like MySpaceTV and Google Video, were big losers. The new Hulu.com gained ground fast, hitting the 22 spot on the list for March, and it only came out of beta midmonth.
When we talk about newspaper sites doing video, comments always come in that newspapers have way more resources than broadcasters. There’s a wide gulf, sure, but that gap is getting smaller. According to Editor and Publisher: U.S. daily newspapers shrank their newsrooms by 2,400 journalists in the past year. a 4.4% workforce decrease that’s the biggest year-over-year cut in ranks since the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) began conducting its census 30 years ago. ASNE said 52,600 people work full-time in daily newspaper newsrooms — a number that has not been that low since 1984.
Anticipating the slowing online ad market, Nick Denton’s Gawker Media is selling off three of its blogs. Music blog Idolator is being sold to the music community Buzznet and the urban travel guide Gridskipper is being taken over by the Curbed Network. Perhaps the biggest surprise though, is the sale of Wonkette, one of the first blogs in the Gawker stable and one of its best-performing properties. Wonkette’s managing editor Ken Layne will be taking over the site, which is joining the BlogAds network of political sites.
Federated Media Publishing has snagged $50 million in an investment round led by Oak Investment Partners. Federated Media publishes a number of very popular blogs, and provides ads to many others, including Lost Remote. “People have been speculating about it for months, but the real news is that this is the deal, and it’s closed,” John Battelle, FM’s founder, chairman and CEO, told Online Media Daily.
While the broadcasting world is confabbing in fabulous Vegas at the fabulous NAB, the stodgy old newspaper business is holding their mega-meeting in the stodgy old beltway. The Newspaper Association of American and American Society of News Editors have converged on the Washington Convention Center for Capital Conference ‘08. All three presidential hopefuls are scheduled as speakers, and the show floor as usual is jam packed with presses, image setters and other massive machines for producing and distributing dead tree products. One of the more interesting sessions for the LR faithful was a breakfast held by Apple that featured the Emmy-award winning video content produced by the Detroit Free Press. Check the NAA site for blogs, photos and more coverage.
A few reminders for folks here in Las Vegas. The RTNDA session “Going Local in a New Direction” is at 9 a.m. this morning. I’m on the panel along with WCBStv.com’s Dan Shelley and Hearst-Argyle’s Jacques Natz. At 10:45 a.m., there’s “Tips and Tricks for Your Website.” And then don’t forget our annual Lost Remote meetup from 4-6 p.m. in the little bar between the RTNDA sessions and the Hilton casino floor. Hope to see you!
The annual RTNDA Paul White award ceremony was held last night, and Sam Donaldson took the honors. “Don’t be rude–you know it’s my maxim,” Donaldson quipped. “But ask the questions. Your job is not to win a popularity contest. Don’t give anyone a pass. Keep on them.” Donaldson urged the audience to ask the candidates the tough questions.
The annual RTNDA Paul White award ceremony was held last night, and Sam Donaldson took the honors. “Don’t be rude–you know it’s my maxim,” 
