Ad networks already dying, as predicted

Five days ago, Cory wrote about the coming death of “dozens and dozens” of ad networks, as predicted by Razorfish’s Jeff Lanctot.  Here we go.  (via ContentAgenda)

7 comments October 28th, 2008

Report: CNN courts newspapers with wire service

Editor & Publisher is reporting that CNN is preparing to pitch a new wire service “to a variety of newspapers and newspaper groups, large and small,” which would presumably compete with the Associated Press.

4 comments October 28th, 2008

Christian Science Monitor ends print edition

The Christian Science Monitor will be the first national daily newspaper to give up on print, focusing its resources on CSMonitor.com as well as starting a weekly magazine. Sure, it’s not publicly traded — nor has it generated much in print advertising — but the move from print to online will be watched carefully by the newspaper industry.

Earlier: If newspapers dropped their print product

2 comments October 28th, 2008

Watch the Online Video Summit live

Beet.tv has pulled together some of the top online video experts in the field — folks from Yahoo!, YouTube, MySpace, Akamai, The Washington Post, CNN and msnbc.com, to name a few — for a live discussion this morning. The event streams live from 9 a.m. to noon EST from the msnbc.com Digital Cafe in New York. Watch it via the embedded Mogulus player below…

Update: Now that the event has concluded, it’s running in a recorded loop. You can also click the “on demand” button to watch it from the beginning. See all the participants and more info on Beet.tv here.

1 comment October 27th, 2008

MTV launches its own Hulu

Hulu has done such a good job with its user experience, MTV has copied it. Sort of. The new MTVMusic.com is a clean, user-friendly video site featuring a full slate of music videos. You can comment, rate and embed clips, as well as meet other people. Time will tell if MTVMusic.com will succeed, given the most viral music videos are usually available on YouTube and other video sites.

A little Beyonce clip for you.

Update: MTV says that MTVMusic.com is not designed to be a destination site but a sort of white-label archive for other sites, both MTV Networks properties and others. Interesting.

4 comments October 27th, 2008

Msnbc.com offers election results widgets

Our team here at msnbc.com has created a snazzy set of widgets that any site can embed on election night for the latest returns, updated every two minutes. There are two widgets that come in three sizes each: a national electoral map and a state map of your choosing. So if you’re a local media site in Denver, for example, you can post both the national map as well as a Colorado map, and users can even drill down to county-level results. Here’s a mock-up example of the national widget using random test data:

More details here, and you can grab the widgets here on msnbc.com. (They’ll display a countdown until a couple hours before the results start coming in on Nov. 4th, then they’ll automatically switch to the map).

Also, don’t forget msnbc.com also offers up embeddable video, and on election night there will be a ton of it. So with the widgets and the embeddable video, you can essentially create an election experience on your own site. (Full disclosure: Yes, I work at msnbc.com.)

4 comments October 27th, 2008

Blogs on their way out?

Wired magazine had an interesting and humorous article about how blogging is so 2004. It’s all Twitter now. It’s timely because so many newsrooms are trying to figure out what to do with their blogs. Most are still yet to take off and many contain the same type of content you would find on the rest of the site. It’s also timely considering Lost Remote’s one week redesign.

I’m not so sure that blogs in newsrooms are going away. They have an important role to play and when done right, are very valuable. So, here’s my list of six things you can do to help your newsroom blogs

Read the full post 14 comments October 26th, 2008

Web beats TV or fuzzy math?

Updated: There have been a few stories lately comparing the popularity of SNL clips on TV and the web. “The number of people who have watched the clips on the web is closing fast, and will soon surpass the 15 million that watched on TV, if it hasn’t already,” explains an Ad Age story, adding up numbers from NBC.com, Hulu and YouTube. Inevitably these comparisons draw “ahems” from TV research types who note that some people have watched the clip online more than once, a point that Ad Age’s Michael Learmonth explains in his story. “Online video streams and Nielsen ratings aren’t comparable — the Nielsen viewers are unique; streams aren’t,” he writes. “But the point is that the online clip will ultimately expose ‘SNL’ to a lot more viewers than TV alone.” True, and some TV folks may be too hung up on the apples-to-oranges comparison to realize that viral TV clips will soon drive larger audiences on the web no matter how you interpret the numbers.

5 comments October 24th, 2008

If newspapers dropped their print product

Assume a newspaper has revenue of $100 million a year operating on a 15% margin with 60% of its costs and 90% of its revenues tied to print. Alan Mutter of Newsosaur runs the math:

“If the company abandoned print but were able to double its online sales to $20 million, it would lose $14 million in a year, for an operating margin of a negative 70%. To break even, the prototypical publication would have to more than triple its sales from the current levels. To make a profit of 15%, the company would have to quadruple it sales.”

Which, you could argue, is conceivable. But not anytime soon.

9 comments October 24th, 2008

AP changes course on new rate plan

Facing a tough economic environment and threats from newspapers to drop the service, the AP said it will cut member assessments by another $9 million next year, for a total of nearly $30 million. It will also consider cutting rates for broadcast members, too. “It is time to consider fundamental change to address members’ rapidly changing needs and to assure that AP remains the world’s leading news organization,” said William Dean Singleton, chairman of the AP Board of Directors and CEO of MediaNews.

1 comment October 23rd, 2008

Knight News Challenge deadline Nov. 1

The deadline is approaching fast to submit an application to try to grab some of the $5 million in grants in this year’s Knight News Challenge:

“If you have a great idea that will improve local online news, deepen community engagement, bring Web 2.0 tools to local neighborhoods, develop publishing platforms and standards to support local conversations or innovate how we visualize, experience or interact with information, we’d like to see it!”

The Knight News Challenge is a great way to get some funding behind an idea, but be warned: it’s getting more competitive year after year. Also, for the first time ever, your applications will be public. Good luck…

1 comment October 23rd, 2008

‘Dozens and dozens’ of ad networks to die

That’s what Jeff Lanctot, chief strategy officer for Microsoft’s interactive agency Razorfish, predicts will happen in 2009. “There are probably more than 300 ad networks up and running and they aren’t differentiated on technology,” he said. “It’s all about arbitrage; they buy inventory for a low price and sell it for a higher price and add little value in between. I think there will be real shakeup in that business over the next year.” I think that’s a good bet.

3 comments October 23rd, 2008

CitySquares lands funding, to go nationwide

The hyperlocal search/directory company CitySquares, which we’ve profiled here on Lost Remote, has just landed an undisclosed amount of funding from Mark Cuban and Jonathan Kraft. “We recognize the value of local search and see CitySquares as a dynamic player in that space,” says Cuban. CitySquares will begin rolling out nationwide in November.

Press release below with more details below…

Read the full post 2 comments October 22nd, 2008

Borrell revises local ad spending forecast

This is no surprise, but still painful. Borrell Associates has scaled back its local online spending forecast for 2008 and 2009. Local businesses will spend $11.9 billion in online advertising this year, down from $13.1 billion. And in 2009, businesses are expected to spend $13.6 billion, down from $18.2 billion. “We are going to see this (lower growth) for a few years,” says Peter Conti, a senior vice president at Borrell.

Add comment October 22nd, 2008

Pithy observations on media from Bioneers

The Bioneers 2008 conference focused on how nature and technology can join forces to better the planet. Jaymi Heimbuch posted the following snippets on Treehugger after attending the panel “iTube, YouTube, WeAllTube: Digital Media and Distribution Innovators:”

“TV is a powerful medium whose agenda was once created by newspapers. Newspapers, though, are on their way out. You can set the agenda for television by using new media – blogs, YouTube, Facebook and other popular sites – and being the source of stories that television stations will want to pick up. Don’t pay for a commercial; get someone else to want to pay for it because your issue is so important to them.” – Richard Graves

“Niche TV is a new wave. Focusing a program or station on specific issues rather than broad strokes is on its way in. But it needs money. We have to demand money be sent to visionary media makers, rather than junk TV.” – Leila Conners

“Innovation journalism is becoming more relevant than investigative journalism – finding out how everything works together and taking a look at it in new ways. Media is changing from a one-way messaging service to an interactive format for information exchange.” – Mark Sommer

There’s more in original post, but these ring particularly true to the LR audience.

3 comments October 22nd, 2008

Google phone hits store shelves, video demo

The Google-powered G1 phone went on sale today in markets with T-Mobile’s 3G service (not quite as much hype as the iPhone, eh?) The Google Android application market has also launched. Here’s a video demo…

The phone is $179 if you’re not an existing T-Mobile customer.

Plus: The top ten Google Android applications so far

4 comments October 22nd, 2008

The urgency to re-engineer local TV news

Economically speaking, local TV newsrooms must learn how to produce less costly product. That’s the cold and hard reality of the approaching year when that product — even with high ratings — will yield significantly less revenue. TV journalists, of course, don’t like to hear news described as “product,” often don’t understand that high ratings may not equate to high revenue, and they certainly don’t like to hear anything about reduced costs. You get the sense of it in this NY Observer story today about WNBC’s re-engineering efforts.

But in a new fractured digital world, stories are too expensive to produce with the old model. Local TV newsrooms must re-engineer themselves to produce and aggregate multiple forms of content — even non-news content — on multiple platforms with a streamlined cost structure. Employees must learn new skills and become more adept at juggling multiple specialties. Writers, for example, should know how to write TV stories, web stories and blog posts. They should also know how to edit video and photos.

This may sound like “doing more with less,” the unofficial motto of local TV news. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn’t, depending on the model. But one thing is clear: if local TV newsrooms don’t adapt, they could be replaced with cheap syndicated programming. Sure, the jury is still out on which approach to re-engineering proves the most successful — the industry is watching WNBC carefully — but the question of whether or not to re-engineer has already been made by the economy and a new competitive reality.

4 comments October 22nd, 2008

Fox pitches new publishing platform

As we blogged yesterday, the Lin stations are switching to Fox Interactive Media’s publishing system called the Digital Publishing Platform. So what does DPP have to offer? “It’s a true plug-and-play solution,” said Ron Berryman, who heads up FIM’s publishing group. “(We provide) an a la carte menu of features, from which you include what you see fit. This helps keep cost down — you pay for what you want — and it also ensures that each Web site is unique.” The platform includes video, blogs, social networking, geocoding and the ability to plug in external RSS feeds.

32 comments October 21st, 2008

iPhones about to become live cameras

Qik is close to launching an iPhone app that will allow you to stream live video from your phone with a touch of the button. Video demo…

As you might imagine, this will be big. The challenge, of course, is how to organize all these streams into useful and entertaining experiences.

4 comments October 20th, 2008

The new Lost Remote gets linky-ish

Updated: Thanks everyone for your comments on the new design. I’ve taken the feedback to heart and reverted back to the old style. But as you can see, I’ve kept a column of links in the middle column.

I’m glad everyone is such a big fan of the blog, but please understand we won’t be blogging as frequently as years past due to our extremely busy schedules. (Remember, we have “real jobs” in online media, and I have this thing called a “baby” now.) So don’t be surprised if the blog isn’t updated every day of the week. The links, meanwhile, are an easy way for us to provide daily coverage in abbreviated form, and I hope you’ll come to find them useful.

42 comments October 19th, 2008

Lin sites drop World Now, go with Fox

Lin TV is pulling its 29 stations off World Now and switching to a “hybrid relationship” with Fox Interactive Media. “It’s our brand on top of their technology,” said LIN Senior VP of New Media Robert Richter. “It allows us to custom develop specific items we want to build.” WPRI is the first non-Fox Lin site to switch to the new platform and design, with more making the move in coming weeks. Much like redesigns at Cox, the site is simple and clean, with a tabbed cover (in fact, WPRI and Cox’s WPXI look very similar to each other).

With the news, it’s clear that FIM has moved into the platform business to take on the likes of WorldNow, IB and BIM.

Update: WISHtv.com in Indianapolis is now live, as well.

1 comment October 19th, 2008

Cox’s WPXI launches new design

Pittsburgh’s Cox station, WPXI.com, has launched a new design, and the other Cox sites are expected to follow soon. The design follows the trend for TV sites toward clean, simplified designs that reduce their reliance on TV branding (the masthead features weather coverage, not anchor heads). WPXI.com’s site also includes an embedded video player on the home page, which we believe is a first for an Internet Broadcasting website.

By the way, NBCLosAngeles.com, NBCBayArea and NBCSanDiego.com have joined NBCChicago.com in launching the new NBC owned-and-operated stations’ new “local portal” design.

3 comments October 19th, 2008

Layoffs at Zillow despite big growth

Startups are heeding the advice of their investors and cutting costs fast in the face of a major recession. For one, Zillow announced today that it’s laying off 25 percent of its staff despite a 42 percent increase in traffic over the previous year. Zillow CEO Rich Barton explains it well:

“We concluded that we had no choice but to securely batten down the hatches as we sail into a major economic storm. The unprecedented economic events that are playing out on a global stage began in our own industry and have made a prolonged recession likely, in our judgment. We are a young company that is not yet making a profit. Despite having sizeable cash reserves, we deemed the responsible course was to meaningfully reduce expenses, so that Zillow emerges from the other side of the recession in a very strong position, even if the recession lasts many years.”

This is just the beginning of layoffs in the industry, I’m afraid…

Also: Details of layoffs at 8 other web companies

Update: NBCU’s Zucker announces $500 million in coming cuts

5 comments October 17th, 2008

NBC should give Leno the 10/9c slot

(Not local media, but humor me?) Next year, NBC will shift its late-night lineup for the first time since 1992. Jay Leno will leave the Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien will step up to his timeslot and Jimmy Fallon will take over at 12:35am.

Read the full post 22 comments October 16th, 2008

Tribune gives notice to drop AP

Tribune becomes the first major newspaper group in the country to give AP the required two-year notice to drop the service. Of course, it remains to be seen if Tribune plans to cancel or is using the notice as negotiation leverage. But it seems these cancellation notices are gaining momentum as the newspaper industry continues its agonizing decline.

4 comments October 16th, 2008