AP OVN switches to ThePlatform
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.)
CBS: How CNET will help us with local
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, [...]
Comcast to repurpose local TV ads online
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 [...]
A look at CBS’ citizen journalism iPhone app
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…
CityVoter lands $2.6M in funding
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…
ABC.com updates video player
As promised, ABC.com has rolled out some updated features for its award-winning video player, from “true” full screen viewing — powered by an app from Move Networks — to embedding functionality. The full screen mode is truly amazing, although it was buffering a bit for me.
Local TV and defining ‘quality’
Back in May, NBC Local Media announced that WNBC would be overhauled into a 24/7 “content center” operation that would provide coverage around the clock on multiple platforms, including a digital all-news channel. Instead of organizing around newscasts, the newsroom would focus on content. As you might imagine, such changes have prompted quite a few [...]
Houston TV sites draw viewers around world
Everyone watched as Ike pounded the Texas coast, but now Wall Street has diverted much of the national media’s attention, putting Houston’s local media sites back on the world stage. When Ike hit, KHOU.com peaked at 9.2 million page views and 225,000 video streams in a single day. Yet KHOU is still receiving emails from [...]
Rocky Mountain News and the Twitter escapades
Remember the creepy borderline disgusting Twittering of a funeral by the Rocky Mountain News? Now Denver’s alt-weekly has a post about another RMN snafu… emphasis on the “f.” During the DNC, a reporter from another Scripps paper was helping out by feeding the Twitter pipe. That reporter somehow used a profanity that doesn’t meet the [...]
Twitter redesigns
Late this afternoon Twitter rolled out a new design and tweaked their technology. As they explain in their blog, they rearranged the navigation a little, added some page-customization options, and set it up to refresh posts with AJAX instead of loading the whole page every time. Looks sharp.
Multi-station, multi-market analog switchoff tests planned
Group station owner ION is working with cable & satellite providers and other station owners to set up a multi-market analog switchoff test for next month. So far, B&C says stations in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Philly and Hartford have signed up. Ten days ago, most of the stations in Wilmington, [...]
Records at NBC.com, CNBC.com, WSJ.com
This last weekend’s SNL skit featuring Tina Fey has set video records at NBC.com — 5.7 million views as of Wednesday. Over on CNBC.com, trouble on Wall Street set a new daily record of 14.6 million pageviews. And WSJ.com, which had just launched a new design (talk about timing), set a new daily record of [...]
Stations to combine in Denver, St. Louis
A sign of the times: Tribune and Local TV stations in Denver and St. Louis will combine operations — and newsrooms — to cut costs. In Denver, KWGN (Tribune CW affiliate) will move into KDVR (Local TV Fox affiliate). In St. Louis, KTVI (Local TV Fox affiliate) will move into KPLR (Tribune CW affiliate). “These [...]
Outside.in offers blogs free story maps
A month or so ago, Outside.in launched a toolkit for neighborhood bloggers to help them geo-tag their posts. And now the place-based aggregation site has debuted an embeddable map that plots a blog’s most recent stories by location — and its free for blogs to embed on their own sites. Nifty. Neighborhood blogs are becoming [...]
BizJournals to launch Seattle tech site
Here’s a follow up on our earlier story this week that the Puget Sound Business Journal hired away the two top technology reporter/bloggers from the Seattle PI. Instead of just having them report for BizJournals.com and the weekly paper, they just announced a plan to launch a new, standalone technology site. “Our goal is to [...]
Borrell: Top TV sites worth up to $40M
A new report by Borrell Associates and BIA estimates the financial value of newspaper, TV and “city.com” sites, and the results may be surprising. Sites owned by the largest local newspapers in the U.S. are worth $300 million to $450 million, and the values of the largest-grossing sites owned by local TV stations are between [...]
KING5.com inks deal with CityVoter
The local directory service CityVoter has landed a big TV client: KING5.com is now using CityVoter to power its ongoing “Best of Western Washington” contest. CityVoter’s approach is to use a “best of” contest — leveraged by on-air promotion — to build a local business directory with user reviews. Businesses can also log in to update and enhance their listings. In addition to powering partner listings, CityVoter is also a standalone local business directory. Press release follows below. (Full disclosure: I worked at KING5.com until May of this year but had no role in the CityVoter deal.)
PIO shows emotion, tells the truth…
… and she’s out of a job. We need more public information officers like Metrolink’s Denise Tyrrell, who took a stand after this weekend’s accident. Adds Olsen in comments: “She told the public the Metrolink engineer was to blame. That is not the truth. We will know the truth in one year when the NTSB [...]
Chief tweeter: Twitter complements media
I Want Media has an interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. They talk a little bit about how the service is being used by big name media – and Twitter’s role in our media universe. “I don’t think it will ever replace newspapers,” he said. “We will always need a medium that carries more words [...]
Facebook launches update, usual pointless revolt follows
Facebook has transitioned its “beta” new design to full production, and eliminated access to the old site. The new version doesn’t seem better to me… but at a certain point – it is a free service and I can adapt. That’s why groups like “10,000,000 Against the New Facebook” make me laugh. They aren’t going [...]
