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New York’s seven-year-old The Sun newspaper printed its last edition today - on quite a big news day for the city. The paper started in the early part of the new millennium, and at its end lost more than a million dollars per month.
1 comment September 30th, 2008
Rant: I came home today to another phone book. I loathe them. I haven’t cracked a set of yellow pages in at least ten years. I have no need for them. They are a waste - of paper, of ink and of my time. I have to pick up the giant hunk of junk, throw the plastic covering away then haul it to the recycle bin. I get five different books each year - and NEVER look at them. I’m not alone. And sadly, many many of those books probably end up in the local landfill.
Enough. There’s this great thing called the Internets and the Google. I don’t need your finger-staining relic of the past. If you must cling to this fine, but how about you ask folks to opt in. Frankly I doubt you’ll get many takers.
43 comments September 30th, 2008
The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Washington is ditching the Associated Press. The service no longer meets the paper’s needs according to editor Steven A. Smith. AP chairman and MediaNews CEO William Dean Singleton says the AP is the “best bargain I know,” and said “AP has become the whipping boy for an angry bunch of editors who want to blame somebody for their woes.”
Smith fought back. First he said that the AP is not his “whipping boy,” and said he doesn’t blame the AP for the situation his - and many - paper faces. Then he destroys the AP: ” I mourn the loss of strong regional AP reporting;” “AP at the rates charged for content that does not meet my readers’ needs means laying off more local staff;” “there are better and cheaper alternatives to the AP;” “in Singleton’s world, AP is a bargain. It’s far cheaper to fill your papers with AP copy than local reporting.”
Wow. For the record, the Spokesman-Review has a Boise reporter who provides some of the best coverage of state issues - and she works for a paper based far from the Idaho capital in another state. Smith walks the walk when he says local is important - and I’d love to have a paper that wasn’t filled with AP copy in my town each day.
6 comments September 30th, 2008
We’re pretty excited here at msnbc.com with the launch of a new video technology last week that allows users to navigate an extended piece of video by keyword. We used it for the first presidential debate, which you can see in action right here. We’ll use the interactive player for the upcoming debates as well, and there are also plans to make the entire player embeddable. Press release below… (Full disclosure: I work at msnbc.com)
Read the full post 5 comments September 30th, 2008
Highly-respected media forecaster Jack Myers says he sees an advertising slump for the next 18 to 36 months. While national TV is expected to hold up reasonably well, local is a different story. “Local media will struggle because retail will be soft and almost all categories like automotive will be hurt by the economy, Myers said. “I see very few positive indicators on the horizon, if any.” But there are a couple bright spots. Explains Kevin Downey in Media Life:
Analysts say media types that are relatively inexpensive will weather this economic slump relatively well, including the internet and out-of-home media like digital billboards and cinema advertising.
Unfortunately, even the most aggressive internet efforts won’t make up for the decline in local TV spending. They will, however, help soften the blow a little in the short term. But if Myers’ forecast of an extended ad recession comes true, I suspect local TV online revenue will suffer considerably due to a lack of diversification: the vast majority of this revenue is tied to TV advertisers and automotive classifieds. This lack of diversification will become painfully apparent in the “perfect storm” of 2009: recession, no Olympics, no political and the February switch to digital — which has been a terrible, unavoidable distraction when local TV needed to be investing more online.
Also: Media stocks hit the hardest on Monday when bailout vote failed
3 comments September 30th, 2008
The local events provider Zvents, which is quickly becoming a strong competitor in local search (and has dozens of local media distribution partners), has raised $24 million in a new round of funding. The investors should get your attention: Nokia, AT&T (which owns Yellowpages.com) and Navteq (the GPS mapping company). As I’ve written before, the mobile implications of local search are tremendous. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of local searches (and local navigation) originated from location-aware mobile devices in the next five years.
The local advertising page on Zvents. What makes Zvents interesting is it empowers local businesses to publish timely content (”events” can also be sales) to the public. Then businesses can buy ads to highlight those events as well as their own Zvents pages.
1 comment September 30th, 2008
A new report by eMarketer says that online video ad spending will hit $5.8 billion by 2013, up from $505 million right now. That’s a jump in share from 2 percent of total online advertising to 10 percent. But the report warned that CPMs may drop in the coming years due to 1) the novelty wearing off 2) lack of scarcity and 3) web users are less inclined to watch video ads than TV viewers. (This last point, as written in the ClickZ article, makes little sense. But I think the point they’re trying to make is you can’t port over the same commercial load from TV to the web and expect users to sit through them. Part of the allure of online shows is short, infrequent commercials, which also has a net effect of higher ad recall. While this drives up CPMs now, if this inventory is allowed to grow to TV levels, ad recall will drop and suppress CPMs.) At any rate, the bottom line here is that online video remains a substantial and rapidly-growing business.
1 comment September 29th, 2008
As part of Disney-ABC’s new “Open ABC” initiative, developers will be able to build on the network’s video player to “innovate and give access to our shows (in ways) we haven’t even thought of yet,” such as new forms of 3D visual search and other applications for blogs, fan sites, and social networks.
5 comments September 29th, 2008
It’s not every day that you hear the head of a media company characterize the economic impact on a business division as “profound,” but these aren’t usual times. “(The economy has) had a profound effect on our local TV stations, which were highly dependent on auto and retail advertising,” NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said in London on Friday. “We haven’t seen an advertising slowdown on a national level yet in the United States but obviously we’re concerned about it, and I think if you’re not concerned about it you’re in denial.” 2009 looks especially bad for the local TV industry — no Olympics, no politics, eroding ratings, increasing competition for local dollars and an economy that continues to worsen. If the economic picture doesn’t turn around, I think we’ll see unprecedented budgets cuts in local TV next year.
16 comments September 26th, 2008
My employer, Gannett, which has invested in Mogulus, is about to embark on a fun project. Friday, we will have 12 live high school football games showing on LiveNewsCameras-esque widgets that will be posted to USAToday.com as well as many of our local broadcast and newspaper sites. The games are being produced by our broadcast and newspaper sites as well as a high school AV department. “If we can do this with a dozen games, we can do it with +100,” Kerry Oslund, the Gannett exec behind this project told me. Most of the games are single cam, laptop, aircard + Mogulus productions.
Read the full post 46 comments September 25th, 2008
The online video ad platform Jivox has added Media News Group, Examiner.com, Accuweather.com and Weatherbug.com to its publisher network. Small business advertisers can build (yes, edit) their own video ads on Jivox and place them on local-targeted sites.
4 comments September 25th, 2008
Today the Boston Globe launches its new 24-page weekly sports tabloid, called OT. Beyond the obvious (which they never mention because it is so obvious), they say OT stands for “Our Town/Our Teams.” It’s going to focus on Boston’s big four pro sports teams. They plan to print it every Thursday, just in time for the sports weekend, and sell it for 50 cents per copy. In their online introduction to it, they spend two paragraphs reaching out to readers for their input: “Bottom line: When it comes to all things Boston sports, we really want to know what’s on your mind.” (Via Romenesko)
Add comment September 25th, 2008
Yahoo has taken the wraps off APT (formerly AMP), its new display ad platform that has been under development with the newspaper consortium. In a nutshell, sites on the platform will be able to leverage behavioral data across Yahoo and the network to improve ad targeting. Agencies and advertisers, in theory, will spend on the platform because of its scale, simplicity and deep reporting. APT has been in testing with SFGate.com and MercuryNews.com, and now it will expand to Cox Newspapers, the MediaNews Group and Scripps Newspapers before fully launching next year. More info on Yahoo’s APT site right here.
2 comments September 24th, 2008
The CBS O&O has partnered with the Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun. Beyond the usual marketing arrangement, WJZ-TV video will appear on BaltimoreSun.com with WJZ pre-roll ads. “This makes our Web site even more robust, and it extends WJZ’s reach to the millions of readers who go to our site every week,” Baltimore Sun Editor Tim Franklin said. “That makes this more than your average newspaper-TV partnership.” The two newsrooms also agreed to coordinate coverage efforts.
1 comment September 24th, 2008
Soon after we moved to the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard last year, my wife Kate reserved MyBallard.com after we noticed there was no daily news source dedicated to the community of 35,000. We rolled out a standard Wordpress blog and started writing about news in the neighborhood. We added an events calendar, restaurant guide and a forum, too.
Ten months later, My Ballard has exploded in popularity beyond our wildest expectations, surpassing the weekly neighborhood newspaper in monthly reach (unique users compared to the paper’s physical subscription base.) We’ve even launched similar blogs in surrounding neighborhoods with the help of friends and friends of friends, forming a news blog network covering the core of Seattle’s fastest-growing communities.
It was all an experiment, really. We fashioned My Ballard after WestSeattleBlog.com, the neighborhood news site we mention frequently here on Lost Remote. We don’t cover nearly as much news as WSB, but the appetite for neighborhood news has been tremendous. Newspapers are covering less, and TV stations only storm into a neighborhood when there’s breaking news or a quirky story with regional interest.
We receive so many email tips, comments and forum posts, we’re able to provide a steady stream of original stories. We’re also able to beat the traditional media on larger Ballard stories, thanks to our active readers. In effect, we don’t “cover” the neighborhood, we “moderate” it. Users are our eyes and ears, and we provide a layer of journalism over the top, confirming stories before we post them.
We’re not selling any advertising (coming soon), but the West Seattle Blog has proven there’s money to be made. They have a full-time sales effort and 30 active advertisers. They’re not getting rich, but it shows the model works and has real momentum behind it.
I have so much to share about our experiences with our network of blogs — as well as the explosion of neighborhood blogging here in Seattle, the new epicenter of hyperlocal. I’ll be writing a series of posts on Lost Remote in the weeks to come, so stay tuned.
20 comments September 23rd, 2008
Two months ago, I ranted about national news sites and their approach to the iPhone. At the time, MSNBC.com, Newsweek.com and CBSNews.com force-fed you their mobile channels, with no route to the normal site. At the time I said it was probably someone’s misguided attempt at good UX. Some of the sites produce a special iPhone channel, but they should give me the option of getting their full site - since that’s what I want the most.
Now Newsweek.com gives you the full site by default - and CBSNews.com gives you the option of getting to the big site. Both organizations also produce special iPhone sites. MSNBC.com still makes me use its non-iPhone-enhanced site, and provides no way to see the full MSNBC.com. Very disappointing. Local sites should always make sure iPhone users are given access to the main site - and a iPhone enhanced site is a bonus as well!
4 comments September 23rd, 2008
FoxNews.com ramped up its online Strategy Room experiment from the conventions to a full-fledged nine hour per day live online video marathon. I watched for about 30 minutes today, and it’s not like any traditional TV broadcast. An anchor and pair of analysts sit around and talk about the politics of the day. During the 3pm ET hour, Fox News anchor Heather Nauert conducted a discussion with a FoxNews.com reporter via Satellite. A producer/director type sits right behind the anchor and punches the show on the fly. No graphics, no video - just raw politics. Nauert was reading from her Blackberry, let gaps of silence roll by and was very roll-with-the-punches. The Strategy Room is slated to run each day from 9am-6pm ET Monday through Friday.
“It’s like a cocktail party without the alcohol,” Nauert said…
17 comments September 23rd, 2008
Walter E. Hussman Jr. of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is so wrong… and so right all at the same time. Hussman wrote a piece last year for the Wall Street Journal that urged publishers to stop giving away newspaper content for free online. In the last year and a half, newspaper company fortunes have declined even further - and now he’s pointing back to that WSJ piece. His newspaper charges for most online content - instead of giving it away. The paper, he says, is actually growing. He notes that online advertising for most newspapers has been “a flop.” The approach is working for his paper - for now - because there isn’t much competition in small markets like Fayetteville.
But all it takes is an effort like the much-talked-about West Seattle Blog or The Batavian and Hussman’s paper will be sunk. He’s right that giving away content is sinking the newspaper industry. He’s also right that online advertising isn’t making the grade. But his paper can get killed with just one well-placed effort to take it down, and there won’t be much of a parachute.
8 comments September 23rd, 2008
This morning, T-Mobile unveiled the much-anticipated G1 phone, powered by Google’s Android 1.0 platform. WiFi, 3G, touch screen plus hidden keyboard, Amazon-powered MP3s, push Gmail, 3 megapixel camera, Android application store, and it will use a “light” version of Google’s new browser Chrome. The G1 costs $179 and will be available on October 22nd. Here’s the full scoop on all the features from Engadget.
“Not only does it allow all applications open access to the phone’s functionality; the platform itself will also be open,” Google explains. “Everyone will be free to adopt and adapt the technology as they see fit. By doing so, we hope that users will get better, more capable phones with powerful web browsers and access to a rich catalogue of innovative mobile applications.”
The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is whether the G1 can take on the iPhone. Only time will tell, but this is a sure bet: mobile application development will soon be a very big business, and we’ll be seeing some very interesting local applications coming our way..
2 comments September 23rd, 2008
You have to admit, we’ve been on good behavior lately with stories beating up on the newspaper industry. But we can’t resist this triple-link exchange. ValleyWag says the combined personal wealth of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin is $32 billion — $12 billion more than the estimated value of the entire U.S. newspaper industry. That prompted a former Financial Times journalist to blog that Google is profiting on the backs of newspapers. Which prompted Mashable to tear apart his blog post line by line.
4 comments September 23rd, 2008
The AP’s Online Video Network, which powers online video on 2,100 sites, many of them newspapers, has switched technology providers from Microsoft to ThePlatform. (Full disclosure: I work for msnbc.com, which is half-owned by Microsoft.)
1 comment September 23rd, 2008
CBS Corp. President Leslie Moonves had some interesting things to say about local at the IAB’s Mixx conference. He was asked about how the recent acquisition of CNET, which includes the food site Chow, will help CBS’ existing local properties. Quote via PaidContent:
“We own 129 radio, TV stations, more billboard. In a local market, Chow can be sold and crossed with our properties. Does it allow with CBS stations to compete against local newspapers more effectively? Clearly, we’re taking money away from newspapers. You’ll go to Chow for eating or Jobs.com for help wanted—all the kinds of information you used to turn to newspapers for. Radio and TV couldn’t do that on their own.”
A very valid point. I’ve written before how local TV (and by extension radio) is out of position with directory/search/classifieds products, which make up the vast majority of local online revenue.
1 comment September 23rd, 2008
Comcast has teamed with Mixpo to repurpose TV ads from small and medium businesses (SMBs) into click-to-play ad units that will run on Comcast.net and Vehix.com. SMBs can also customize their ads using Mixpo’s built-in video editor and text generator. Comcast Spotlight sales reps in more than 90 markets will pitch the new service to their clients.
Add comment September 22nd, 2008
I’ve been playing with “CBS EyeMobile,” a new iPhone application (iTunes link) from CBS News, built by Seattle’s Treemo Labs. You can submit photos straight from your iPhone, and browse photos and video clips uploaded by other citizen reporters. As you may know, you can’t shoot video from your iPhone unless you’ve hacked it. (Like many iPhone users, I’m waiting for Apple to unlock the phone’s video capability, both recorded and live.) “Soon we will be able to broadcast anything live from the street, essentially becoming walking televisions,” said Jeff Sellinger, GM of CBS Mobile.
As of this writing on EyeMobile, I see a photo from Yankee Stadium’s final night, a choppy video clip of Obama at the University of Miami and a bunch of other random stuff, including some guy drinking a beer. Regardless of what people are posting so far, mobile devices are clearly the platform for citizen newsgathering, and an iPhone application is a logical funnel. The challenge, of course, is how to organize the avalanche of citizen “news” that is to come — and how affiliates fit into this picture. Press release follows below…
Read the full post 2 comments September 22nd, 2008
Some Lost Remote readers questioned what was new with our post last week about CityVoter teaming up with KING5.com. Now there’s some news: CityVoter has landed $2.6 million in additional funding. In addition to KING5.com, CityVoter recently landed SFGate.com and Click2Houston.com. The press release follows below…
Read the full post 1 comment September 22nd, 2008
