Kucharz to head up CBS Local Digital Media
Ezra Kucharz is leaving FiLife, a personal finance company, to become president of CBS Local Digital Media, a newly-formed business unit at the network. Kucharz will oversee the online media strategy for the CBS owned-and-operated stations as well as its 36 radio stations. Back in 2006, Kucharz was COO of iVillage, just after it was [...]
Fisher hyperlocal sites hit two big milestones
Fisher Communications has announced that its hyperlocal site effort has passed a couple of big milestones. The effort now has over 1,000 advertisers and over 100 sites, including Seattle, Portland, Eugene OR, Bakersfield CA and Boise. A local TV group, Fisher combines its traditional content with technology from DataSphere-owned LocalNet, a highly-automated solution that helps [...]
Notes: Conan talks Fox, Amazon, Avatar sinks Titanic
Noted, while getting in line for whatever the hell it is Apple will be selling next… Fox to begin official talks with Conan O’Brien this week NY Times starts unit tasked solely with developing digital reader apps Amazon gives publishers right to publish with or without DRM Quantcast and comScore are arguing over measurement techniques. [...]
Nielsen to merge online viewing into ratings
The Nielsen Company will now merge the information about online show viewing into its overall picture of how a TV program is doing. According to MediaPost, Nielsen will roll out “Internet meters” (presumably the computer equivalent of a “people meter”) in August. It will take that data and combine it with the existing Nielsen data [...]
Connecticut Mirror latest local news startup
It seems like we’re doing one of these reports a day now. This time, Connecticut is the home of a new local news site. The Connecticut Mirror launched today, the latest in a line of non-profit news organizations. The site is the work of The Connecticut News Project, which the site says is “an independent, [...]
MinnPost traffic, revenue growth ‘remarkable’
The folks at MinnPost.com, the non-profit news site based in Minneapolis, write of how they are celebrating what they call “a remarkable year.” According to a blog entry by site CEO Joel Kramer (a former editor and publisher of Star Tribune), the site saw extensive growth in revenue and page views: Revenue from advertising and [...]
Report: NYT working with Apple on tablet
The LA Times reports that the New York Times has been working with Apple in recent weeks “developing a large-screen version of the newspaper’s iPhone application that incorporates video for the yet-to-be-unveiled device.” Apple’s big unveiling is Wednesday at 10 a.m., which for many in the tech crowd, will certainly eclipse the State of the [...]
A Foursquare first: teaming with a news org
Location-based digital services are exploding all around us. Integration and consolidation of these services is inevitable, so let the partnerships begin. Metro, Canada’s largest free daily newspaper, announced today it is the first news publisher to partner with fast-growing Foursquare, the social network and location-based game. According to the press release, “Metro will add their [...]
NBC launching Boston site that will compete with affiliate
NBC has announced it is going to launch a website in Boston that will cover news and entertainment. No biggie, right? Except that NBCBoston.com (not running yet) will go head to head with the NBC affiliate in Boston, WHDH. We’ve talked a lot about how the networks are going around the affiliates, but this is [...]
Hey Pulitzers! Journalism is the act, not the platform
The National Enquirer is a rag. It’s a gossipy, supermarket tabloid that trades in innuendo and exaggeration (if not outright fabrication). The National Enquirer is not a “news” source by any stretch of the imagination.
Except that it is.
In fact, The Enquirer predates by decades the gossip and entertainment sites we see in abundance right now online. E!, Perez Hilton, TMZ: these all owe their nascence to The Enquirer, the Rodney Dangerfield of gossip.
I’m not going to defend The National Enquirer as being anything more than it is. But when it breaks a news story, as it did with the John Edwards paternity scandal, it deserves to be recognized. The Pulitzer Prize committee feels otherwise, sticking to some of its absurdly outdated rules to eliminate The Enquirer on a technicality. It’s true – The Enquirer did run its original story in 2007, and did more reporting on the affair in 2008. So, let’s give the committee the benefit of the doubt that its chief concern was annual deadlines and not the reputation of The Enquirer.
Lessons from Massachusetts hyperlocals
I swear I’m not being a homer on this one. I came across a good article from True/Slant about hyperlocal sites in Massachusetts, and the writer has nothing but praise for the efforts. Writer Bart Brouwers is the Managing editor of Hyperlocal Online Media for Telegraaf Media Netherlands. Bowers points to three Massachusetts hyperlocal efforts [...]
Local TV expects big money after Supreme Court ruling
Last week, the US Supreme Court made a major decision in how campaigns are financed. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled against corporate spending limits on political advertising. In the case, Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority: “We find no basis for the proposition that, in the [...]
Join LR: Seeking writer for mobile
As part of the Lost Remote reboot, we’re reaching out to new voices. We are seeking a volunteer writer who knows about the local mobile space to join our team. We’d like an expert who can regularly update LR with information about mobile, particularly as it pertains to local advertising and location-awareness. No, we can’t [...]
St. Louis Post Dispatch ‘pops up’ speech facts
I love this idea. The St. Louis Post Dispatch did a little post production of their own after Gov. Jay Nixon’s State of the State address on January 20. With a tip of the hat to that great VH1 series, “Pop-Up Video,” the Pop-Up edition of the State of the State mixed in fact-checking with [...]
NY Times fleshes out its paywall plan
Managers from The New York Times took Q&A from readers in an online forum run by MediaDecoder, one of the site’s media blogs. Janet L. Robinson, president and chief executive of the company, and Martin A. Nisenholtz, senior vice president for digital operations, took a few questions and were fairly forthcoming. A few examples: Q: [...]
GQ, starting slow, sells $55k in iPhone mags
I’ll admit it – I bought the January issue of GQ for the iPhone with Rhianna on the cover. At $2.99, it seemed a reasonable investment to get a peek at what the future of magazines might look like. I have to say – not bad. Still too “magazine-y,” but getting more creative. You can [...]
Weekend Funnies: Sleep Talkin’ Man, Lost Coco
A fine tradition returns to Lost Remote: off-topic hilarity for your weekend enjoyment. Because this is why the internet was invented. Sleep Talkin’ Man. Hilarious blog, 20,000-strong FB Group, and now a TV and internet sensation Beer vs Wine Snobbery Five great lost Conan moments Steve Ballmer autographs a Mac Weekend Toy: Voice Band, a [...]
Twitter rolling out local trending topics
As promised, Twitter is rolling out trending topics around local cities powered by its new geolocation feature. So far, only a small handful of users have the new feature, including Lisa Barone, who grabbed a few screenshots. And it’s also worth noting that only 0.23% of tweets are geolocated so far, and it’s unclear if [...]
