In an interesting announcement, Ohio’s largest newspapers will be sharing their stories with each other’s websites. The newspapers from Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown will share their best stories every day. In explaining the partnership, the Plain Dealer admits how papers keep the best stories from the AP for as long as possible:
The way that news from The Plain Dealer and other big papers used to find its way around the state was this: We would report and write our stories, wait until late in the day, and then turn them over to the Associated Press. The AP would then either rewrite them into wire service story format for general consumption; report and write its own stories later; or decide that the news was not of statewide interest and do nothing. If we had a breaking-news story all to ourselves, we would try to keep it away from the wire until the following day. So did everyone else.
So, to bypass the game of waiting, the group of papers have this new partnership (questionably named OHNO - Ohio News Organization). In the end, it seems like the readers of the sites are the winners, getting more comprehensive news coverage from across the state from the trusted reporters breaking the news on the scene. (Via Cyberjournalist)
April 30th, 2008
- Schmidt says Google still scratching head over YouTube profits
- Nielsen moves February 2009 sweeps to March because of DTV
- New York Times newsroom gets upgraded to… Microsoft Office 2003
April 30th, 2008
Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live and Judah Friedlander of 30 Rock. The Webby Awards will be held in New York from June 8th–10th.
April 30th, 2008
I’m still digesting the latest Borrell Associates report, “Online Promotions: The Big Shift,” but I think it’s safe to say that there are some surprising — and potentially controversial — predictions for local media. At the heart of the report is the forecast that online promotions — money that local companies spend to promote their own online initiatives, including public relations — “will nearly triple over the next five years to $22.8 billion, surpassing all other online advertising categories.” The report says “the inability of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV to prove return on advertising investment has led to a swing toward promotional spending.” As a result, Borrell predicts display ads and paid search in local markets will peak in the next year or two and begin a steady decline (while video continues to grow more share). The advice for TV stations? Create “marketing partnerships” with local companies to drive awareness/traffic to their online promotions. “Television may be the best legacy medium for driving traffic to an online promotion,” the report reads, which lists some examples, including contests and coupons.
I agree that online promotion spending will grow quickly over the next few years. And I also agree that the goal for TV stations’ sales units is not to sell advertising but to increase their clients’ sales, which begs more creative, customized marketing solutions. But I question that fact that paid search especially will decline as aggressively as Borrell suggests. Paid search has become a “must” investment for any online initiative — it’s tremendously effective (it can drive more traffic than a TV campaign) — and local advertisers are still learning how to use it (in fact, local media companies are increasingly “reselling” search in their ad packages).
Finally, this report shouldn’t create artificial confidence that local TV stations can create a bunch of contests and maximize online revenue going foward. Creating “marketing partnerships” goes well beyond a contest or two, and it will require a new approach to selling. And it doesn’t diminish the urgency for local stations to create innovative new products and partnerships to diversify their online revenue outside the standard TV website fare.
April 30th, 2008
