May sweeps sees record low ratings
“On average, the networks are off the mark by 10% from last year in total viewers and off 17% in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic,” reports TV Week. Some speculate that viewers who got out of the habit of watching broadcast TV during the writers strike are taking longer than expected to gravitate back to [...]
PBS ‘NewsHour’ in financial trouble
The show is several million dollars short, and it may reflect a larger issue for PBS. Explains Elizabeth Jensen in the NY Times: “Public television’s model — soliciting long-term commitments — is also increasingly out of step with the changing needs of corporations, which no longer sponsor public television programs for purely philanthropic reasons.”
Microsoft considering another Yahoo deal
But this time, Microsoft says it’s open to collaboration that would “involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo.” Explains the Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req): “According to people familiar with the matter, Microsoft has proposed to Yahoo a deal related to advertisements that run next to Internet search [...]
CBS teams with LonelyGirl15 production house
CBS will get a “first look” at projects from EQAL, the production house behind LonelyGirl15 and KateModern. They’ll also work with CBS writers to create series tie-ins, reports Broadcasting & Cable. EQAL recently landed $5 million in funding which includes an investment from Marc Andreessen.
‘We’re here to stay’
In the wake of difficult layoffs at the Seattle Times, the newspaper’s executive editor has published a column to respond to readers’ concerns. Interesting.
The intersection of media layoffs and religion
PrayingForPapers combines newspaper layoff updates with sincere prayers for the well-being of the industry and its employees. Webmaster Mike Koehler, whose day job is deputy sports editor at the Oklahoman, told me, “I can’t get the picture out of my head of some guy and his family at the kitchen table trying to figure out [...]
Will Fox’s ‘Remote-Free TV’ work?
Fox is debuting two new shows next season with dramatically fewer commercials. Calling it “Remote-Free TV,” the shows “Fringe” and “Dollhouse” will run about only five minutes of commercials an hour. “It’s a simple concept and potentially revolutionary,” Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori said. “We’re going to have less commercials, less promotional time, and less [...]
Job cuts across Gannett Broadcasting
The layoffs across the local TV industry continue. Gannett Broadcasting is cutting many master control and graphics positions at its stations as it centralizes its operations. For example, 7 people have been let go at KTHV in Little Rock. Master control will now be hubbed and more complex graphics will be handled by a centralized [...]
ESPN jumps into high school sports
While local media companies across the country have aggressively ramped up their high school sports initiatives with new sites and products, ESPN announced that it’s planning to launch a social networking site built around high school sports. ESPN Rise, which is the brand dedicated to the new effort, will also include a good deal of television coverage of high school sports — even in SportsCenter. ESPNRise.com will launch in August.
Press release below…
EPpy Awards for best websites announced
The annual EPpy Awards, put on by Editor & Publisher and MediaWeek, were just announced in Las Vegas. NYTimes.com and LJWorld.com won in the best news site categories. KING5.com took the best overall TV-affiliated site award (woo hoo!), edging out our friends at WRAL and Fox Chicago. MSNBC.com and DenverPost.com won in the best community [...]
2008 Knight News Challenge winners announced
Congratulations to the sixteen winners who split $5.5. million on various projects that advance communicating news and information in the public interest using open-source digital technology focused on geographic community. The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, received a grant to address issues surrounding sourcing and accuracy online. The 2008 awards were [...]
CBS to buy CNET for $1.8 billion
CBS Interactive is making its largest digital acquisition ever, buying CNET Networks for $1.8 billion, according to the NY Times. This price tops the $1.6 billion that YouTube sold for to Google. “There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks,†he said in a press release Thursday. [...]
Comcast buys social net site Plaxo
Comcast is adding Plaxo to its internet stable in a deal worth $170 million.
When hyperlocal news really shines
Just take a look at this post on WestSeattleBlog.com and the subsequent comments after a shooting broke out in the neighborhood. While police searched for suspects — a chopper swirling overhead — readers in the area posted comments with observations and questions, which the West Seattle Blog (WSB) worked to answer. “Thanks for the late [...]
J-schools should downplay anchor careers
If you work in local TV news, what percentage of your interns in the last couple years have said they want to become anchors? In my experience, the number is 50 percent or greater. But let’s look at the trends. News consumption is shifting fast to the “anchorless” internet. Stations are negotiating anchor salaries down [...]
A look at TV stations’ niche web efforts
Diana Marszalek in TVNewsday does a great job wrapping up many of the niche sites that local TV stations across the country have recently launched. One that we haven’t mentioned here on Lost Remote is GoLo.com, a local social forum produced by WRAL.com. The site (actually a subsection of WRAL.com) is less than a year [...]
YouTube, copyright and the F-bomb
So by now, you’ve probably heard about veteran WNBC anchor Sue Simmons and her unfortunate F-bomb drop on live TV. Of course, in the market the size of New York, this sort of thing spreads like wildfire… on YouTube, especially. As of this count there are 17 clips. Wait, make that 13, as two have [...]
WFLD tracks chopper online with ‘AirFoxLive’
I’ve always wanted to do something like this for years (proof right here), and now MyFoxChicago.com is the first to make it happen. On AirFoxLive.com, not only do they stream their chopper live whenever it’s flying, but they also track it in real-time on an interactive Google Map. As you can see, a bubble gives [...]
Newspapers guide to online video
The NAA has released this big ol’ report today: Zooming In on Online Video – Newspaper Association of America: Advancing Newspaper Media for the 21st Century Video viewing numbers are on the major upswing, with comscore reporting 11.5 billion viewed in March. So everyone needs to jump on, right? With the pack mentality, does this [...]
Study: Online ad prices drop for large sites
An ad optimization company called PubMatic analyzed data from over 3,000 online publishers and came away with some interesting results. Display ad prices for large sites (more than 100M page views a month) dropped 52 percent. Medium sites were flat, and smaller sites actually increased. “Among the verticals, social networking led the plunge with monetization [...]
