33 Comments Add your own

• 1. tdc  |  October 7th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

  leave it to don to point this out!

  thanks!!!

  i’d reiterate to all nbc affils to check and see if their nbcxxx.com extention is still available…. they are flying off the shelves lately (cinci was the most recent, sept 21?).

  yes, new orleans and boise are still available at last look.

  pittsburgh, indy and a bunch of other have been quietly picked up by ge over the last few months (ever since tdc pointed out that nbcchicago was bought from N-ew B-eginnings C-hurch in chicago (i still wanna know what they ge put in their collection plate)

  i’ve been punching up nbcnewyork on a daily basis waiting for this.

  thanks again, don!

• 2. Steve Baron  |  October 7th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

  @tdc - I still don’t have an answer for you about that…

  However, it looks like NBC was able to get a bunch of cyber-squatted domains back from WIPO - click my name for the .doc file of their decision from August - this involves Baltimore, Sacramento, and Minneapolis URLs.

• 3. tdc  |  October 7th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

  thanks!

  all the more reason for every other affil to get ‘em while they’re NOT.

  man, that slideshow went from about 12 different views to just a single one in a matter of minutes after don posted this piece.

  you think people don’t read LR?

• 4. Don Day  |  October 7th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

  We won’t EVER be NBCBoise.com — so go ahead and buy it up! We’ll always be KTVB.COM - the strongest online brand in the market

• 5. Just a guy  |  October 7th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

  It had been awhile since I had looked at the NBCOO sites, and I was struck by a couple of things. They had managed to clean out some of the clutter.

  But I was also struck by the emphasis on pageview-gaming things such as slideshows. The top entertainment story is a slideshow of celebs in their 80s. And to explain to me the logic of a widget called “Check this out!”, which consists of a slideshow on movies that make men cry, a AAA survey that links off site, and a link to NBC5 News on Demand.

  Then there’s the Photo Gallery section with eight slideshows…none of them local. One of the five top stories at the top is a slideshow (an SNL & politics feature). Even the “Weird News” section’s top story is a slideshow feature.

  Hopefully this “new” look will feature more local info and less of the cheap efforts to drive page views.

• 6. joe  |  October 7th, 2008 at 11:02 pm

  sexy slideshow hooks are classic internet broadcasting territory.. the dirty little secret of page views.

• 7. Just a guy  |  October 8th, 2008 at 12:00 am

  Joe, from what I can tell, NBC is pushing it as much as IB might be. They certainly could stop it if they wanted to (the way they’ve adjusted other things on their O&O sites). Nobody wants to walk away from those pageviews, even if they are ones that don’t really build the local brand.

• 8. tdc  |  October 8th, 2008 at 6:44 am

  i guess don never learned about playing a strong defense.

  even if you’ll “never be” nbcboise, why would you chance that someone else would “buy it up”? seems like $10 well spent to me (which i’ve been saying since may).

  also, what will ktvb be doing with the three other station ‘brands’ that come along with the digital switch? ktvb. com/other???

  as for strongest in the market, click tdc to see that, at a time of HUGE movement to folks online, ktvb seems to be at best flatlining…. even if you disregard the numbers at the left margin.

  i won’t bother to link to the stock price of belo to further my point either.

• 9. Don Day  |  October 8th, 2008 at 8:22 am

  Absolutely not flat-lining… and folks have snapped up all sorts of domains around the margins of our brand - it doesn’t really matter. we don’t brand on nbc here. And lastly - those analytics are bogus… as you know complete.com is not highly accurate - there is no good way to measure smaller markets right now (and you forget that ktvb.com isn’t our only site).

• 10. tdc  |  October 8th, 2008 at 8:37 am

  “those analytics are bogus”.

  agreed.

  but when they jibe with alexa which also shows very little growth then maybe it’s “someone else’s” analytics that are bogus. it’s amazing how webtrends can deliver astronomical numbers, if you pay them. let’s be honest.

  also, unlike alot of people on lostremote, i adjust my position on issues as circumstances (and the internet) evolve- i’d suggest keeping your ktvb.com brand as i would everyone else who’s invested in a branding campaign for many years. why toss all that goodwill aside as you are within 135 days of coming into 3 new ‘brands’? simply pointing them to “the portal” doesn’t count though.

  my contention is that you’ll need more than one brand to compete going forward. are we still talking zidaho?

  heck, i’d even suggest nbc5 launch something using this existing brand.

  however, nbcchicago is far more relevant.

  couple that with newyork, losangeles, and countless others and you are making far more than a $10 mistake.

  i always enjoy the conversation!

• 11. Rod Overton  |  October 8th, 2008 at 9:01 am

  Why is NBC doing this?

  They should just follow the lead at KTBS.com and make their homepage into a blog.

  Yes, I am not making this up. The site is a blog.

  I mean, just get a free Wordpress account and jump on the bandwagon — no real CMS needed!

• 12. Mike Escutia  |  October 8th, 2008 at 9:35 am

  tdc: “why toss all that goodwill aside as you are within 135 days of coming into 3 new ‘brands’?”

  What new brands?

• 13. clg3  |  October 8th, 2008 at 11:17 am

  “those analytics are bogus”. … “but when they jibe with alexa which also shows very little growth then maybe it’s “someone else’s” analytics that are bogus.”

  Anybody who can comment on a correct and reliable way to measure traffic, please speak up. If alexa and compete panels don’t work, and logs or webtrends-omniture etc js don’t work, what does? Is “agreement” your definition of correct?

• 14. tdc  |  October 8th, 2008 at 11:47 am

  errr, did you miss where i INITIALLY said “disregard the numbers at the left margin”?

  i was speaking in terms of direction, so in that case the fact that they “agree” does define correct.

  you wanna take a stab at it, pal?

  and sorry to mike above in getting back here… the soupline was extra long today.

  the three new brands i’m referring to are your new digital channels. i imagine many will try to pack them all onto their failing portals. those who can see where this is headed will not.

• 15. tdc  |  October 8th, 2008 at 11:58 am

  btw-

  does anybody else think by launching this in chicago first nbc is GETTING ALL MAVERICKY?

  (or just a knee-jerk to huffpo’s chicago thing)

• 16. Aaron  |  October 8th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

  CMS systems offer incredible flexibility if implemented properly.
  A wordpress blog is a relatively simple creature…Good in a lot of ways but still primarily a linear structure. For some sites, with something to offer more than just a set of simple text links
  blog structure is too limiting.
  If you look at how Drupal is built (or on a lesser level Joomla) you will see that the ability to serve up richer content in richer ways is simply amazing. Wordpress and other blogging platforms are quickly becoming the pablum of the web.

• 17. dave  |  October 8th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

  @Aaron

  To view Wordpress as linear is to not functionally understand it. With it’s plugin capabilities and simple tagging/category system, it’s a very powerful CMS in it’s own right with the ability to server up very rich content.

  It seems like using the ‘NBC’ brand is kind of a given for hte O&O’s, but I’d be wary of using it for other station groups, because that network affiliation is deteriorating exponentially as the networks do an online content end-around of the affiliates.

• 18. Aaron  |  October 8th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

  I understand what Wordpress can do but for the huge number of Wordpress publishers out there it’s under utilized. Drupal, while unquestionably more complex, is also incredibly powerful and flexible. What I meant to say Dave is that Wordpress is, as seen in most cases, a linear blogging tool with just a few of it’s tools really employed.
  NWSource.com uses Drupal for example as does The Onion.. But I’d be interested in seeing some “built out” Wordpress sites if you can mention them (using dotcom to avoid being bounced out of the comments here).

• 19. rodney overton  |  October 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm

  Wow guys I was just joking about how great Wordpress is to run tour site with — especially if you make the homepage look exactly like a blog…

  I think whatever AR&D has sold KTBS.com is an absolute joke. Most likely a $70,000 joke.

  Terry Heaton pitched this blog idea in a meeting to WLEX a few months back and — to show how secure he feels about it — he personally verbally attacked me after I asked two questions about it. (Several people came up to me after and told me it was completely out of line. I should post audio of it — since I recorded it…)

  Anyway, the concept has apparently been shoved down the throat of the weak folks at KTBS, WHO APPARENTLY COULDN’T HANDLE TERRY’S FUN PERSONALITY.

  I think we should all worry that the ‘innovation’ we’re seeing turns back the clock on everything known to make sense and work.

  AR&D got their wish and gets to play with yet another TV station’s website. (And get paid ridiculous amounts of money to do so)

  This time they tuned it into a blog. Not only that, the presentation is chronological — the newest items are at the top, putting some of the actually most important items much further down.

  There is no rhyme or reason to the placement of items and ridicously bad images (today it was a stock photo of gas station price signs) are gigantic on the homepage.

  I’m really stunned that LR has done nothing on KTBS yet…

  I can’t believe tha Heaton’s awful idea actually was implemented. Oh well, throw a tantrum in enough meetings and you can eventually get your way…

  (I wonder how long my critique will be allowed to stay up until meddling from AR&D brings it down…. I’d give it until Thursday morning..)

• 20. rodney overton  |  October 8th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

  my bad: while typing that entry on my phone I had a typo in the first sentence.
  tour should be YOUR….
  everything else is completely accurate (sadly)!

• 21. fdc  |  October 8th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

  Is ktbs.com a mock tv site?

• 22. rodney overton  |  October 8th, 2008 at 9:36 pm

  ha tdc!!

  sadly it is real.

  brace yourself for 2009: the year of bad ideas…

• 23. Z  |  October 9th, 2008 at 2:18 am

  Though I think it looks rather silly, I would point out that if your goal is to get staff to contribute more to the Web, making the creation and submission process as simple as possible goes a long way toward that goal.

  Something like this would likely work well with young, inexperienced staffs.

  Of course, so would a well-built CMS. But I’ve yet to see a “professional” one that didn’t have elements that tripped up less-experienced newsroom folks.

• 24. CG  |  October 9th, 2008 at 5:58 am

  I would have to say that the largest problem with a site (blog) like KTBS is the lack of organization on the home page.

  News is not always linear like a blog. News is something that is a timely thing yes, however when confronted with a list of stories such as in KTBS I am far less likely to read any of them since they are pilled up. As a user I have to scroll continuously to get to something I would like to read.

  Blogs formats work fine in a situation where their are one or two contributors, however in a fast paced environment such as a news room too much information is hitting the page for it to be well organized.

• 25. tdc  |  October 9th, 2008 at 6:59 am

  #17 dave makes a good point- “…network affiliation is deteriorating exponentially as the networks do an online content end-around of the affiliates”.

  how true.

  maybe that explains nbc going the WIPO route to regain “cities” they have NO o&o in (minneapolis, sacramento, etc)?

  maybe that expalins why ge has been quietly picking up “cities” like tampa, indianapolis, pittsburgh and cincinnati where they don’t o&o?

  affils like nbcaugusta, nbcprovidence and a few that escape me right now will at least hold a high card as nbc continues its “end-around”.

  if there is one thing i’d prescribe for local tv people it’s a good eye exam as it appears they can’t see past the end of their nose.

• 26. rodney overton  |  October 9th, 2008 at 6:59 am

  Right on the money ”Z”

  AR&D’s pitch was that this would make it easy for non-Web staff to contribute.

  The KEY problem (and where the logic breaks down) is that the ease of use on the backend results in a LOUSY user experience.

  So, what good is it that more of your staff is contributing if the site is such a CF that no USERS come to it?!!!?

• 27. tdc  |  October 9th, 2008 at 7:03 am

  btw- #21 reply was not me.

  i happen to think the ktbs effort is real tmz-y as it works with the “browser view” layout some are looking to exploit.

  that’s all i’ll have to say on the subject as i’m kinda tired of mr.overton’s negative campaigning.

• 28. Z  |  October 9th, 2008 at 9:07 am

  “The KEY problem (and where the logic breaks down) is that the ease of use on the backend results in a LOUSY user experience.

  So, what good is it that more of your staff is contributing if the site is such a CF that no USERS come to it?!!!?”

  It’s a problem if the viewers think it’s a problem. What numbers does it bring in compared to “traditional” sites in the market?

  Scary as it is, I virtually guarantee that there are some viewers who love the simplicity of it.

• 29. cway  |  October 9th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

  Just to jump into the KTBS debate … just ran the Shreveport local media sites in hitwise:
  #1 Shreveport Times
  #2 KSLA
  #3 KTBS

  I graphed the last 6 months, and there is a clear downward trend through today for KTBS.com. There was a huge spike for all the local media sites during the debate. KTBS.com is showing up in the #1 or #2 spot in Google organic search, however (”Shreveport news”)

• 30. Anonymous  |  October 12th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

  How can any Web layout like KTSB’s be a good one when it gives viewers just one place to go “above the fold?” What a regression — in the name of budgetary reasons and staff reductions, I’m sure.

  Isn’t what’s desirable on a TV news Web site the ability to find the news you want at an instant, rather than waiting for the newscast? I’m not saying you need some kind of flipping story box up there, but how about letting me see what you’ve got to offer without having to scroll immediately?

  It’s not like the wireless hits or RSS links are going to carry you at this point. Why let someone else lay out your stuff better than you have? Better yet, why lay out your homepage like this and then lay out your interior pages in a better way?

  Have MSM media sites learned anything from Drudge, etc.? Heck, if you’ve got enough content, a headlines only page is preferable to the one-story blog homepage.

• 31. Anonymous  |  October 12th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

  Again?

  Nothin’ up my sleeve….PRESTO!

  ROOOOOOOOOOAAAARRRR!

  Wrong website?

  Don’t know my own strength…

• 32. tdc  |  October 13th, 2008 at 7:38 am

  since folks are still commenting here, maybe i can bring this back to the subject matter of don’s posting?

  nbcchicago is finally resolving somewhere, nbc5 has restored a twelve page slideshow, nbcsandiego, losangeles and one other that escapes me are also providing a similar slideshow. all as of this morning.

  good thing they reworked the verbiage too- “locals only” sure sounded exclusionary.

• 33. Via AOL  |  October 13th, 2008 at 9:21 am

  A very good article about ‘the fold.” Just numbers, so take it for what it is.

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