Google News testing Twitter ‘friends’ integration
Google News is testing a new feature that brings a social element to its news aggregation. Today we noticed a new module in the right column — above the fold — under the heading “friends” that asks for your Twitter account: Enter it in, and Google News serves up headlines from people you’re following: Notice [...]
Accidental tweet breaks huge NFL trade story
ESPN’s columnist Bill Simmons, whose @sportsguy33 account has 1.2 million followers, sent a tweet on Tuesday with two words: “moss vikings.” That sent off a flurry of retweets and phone calls, as sports journalists everywhere worked to try to confirm that Randy Moss was traded to the Vikings. Some 30 minutes later, Simmons deleted the [...]
What Facebook’s new groups feature means for media
In a press conference at Facebook HQ today, the social media giant unveiled a new feature (that’s just beginning to roll out) that allows people to create groups of friends. By creating a group, you can invite people, limit sharing to a group, open a group chat, and even group-edit documents with wiki-like collaboration. Groups [...]
How a viral news story became factually incorrect
(Guest post from Frank Mungeam, Director of Digital Media for KGW.com in Portland, OR) “Epic battle between cows, bear caught on cam.” The headline was a web site manager’s page view dream, and when a Eugene, Oregon TV station posted the story to its site, it took less than 24 hours to be republished by [...]
Local news reporter reflects on tweeting murder case
The details of the murder of three family members in Cheshire, Connecticut are as disgusting and gruesome as you’re ever likely to hear. I won’t recap the whole story, but you can read about it at WTNH’s excellent coverage. The trial of defendant Steven Hayes was big news in Connecticut and even the surrounding states. [...]
PBS.org relaunch will include locals’ content
PBS.org is revamping its digital offering this month, and it’s taking an interesting approach. According to paidContent, content from the 354 PBS member stations will be integrated into the PBS.org site. That’s certainly opposite from the traditional network/local model, where the network feeds national news to the local site, usually presented as a box somewhere [...]
ABC News and Facebook team up for election coverage
Facebook appears serious about getting into the livestream business, and the latest sign comes from a deal it’s doing with ABC News for election night coverage. ABC News will stream its election night (November 2) coverage in the usual places you’d expect – ABCNews.com and the ABC iPad app – and will also livestream on [...]
Will AOL bring daily deals to Patch sites?
AOL announced it will soon launch, as TechCrunch calls it, the “500th Groupon clone.” The daily deals site Wow.com will feature deep discounts from local and national merchants which users can buy. But one clear advantage here is distribution, especially on the local front. While AOL has made no such announcement, we expect Wow.com deals [...]
NBC Local praises social media for traffic jump
NBC Local Media, which runs ten large-market sites including NBCNewYork.com and NBCChicago.com, said today it’s seen steady audience growth over the last year — up 32% in page views and up 20% in unique visitors. NBC says the growth is fueled in part by the sites’ integration with social media, from its shareable “mood” ratings [...]
Exclusive Chicago political coverage – for $175
EarlyAndOften.org (clever name) has launched with the exclusive mission of covering the Chicago elections. The site promises “…unmatched coverage of the 2011 Chicago mayoral campaign, aldermanic races and the city treasurer and clerk contests – right through the April 5 run-offs.” It seems to have a strong staff and lots of good features. But you’ll [...]
Boston Globe ‘dual site’ strategy is flawed
The Boston Globe announcement that it will charge people to read its newspaper online, but will still allow free access to its portal at Boston.com is a surprise to me. In case you missed it, the Globe (owned by the the New York Times Co. ) has decided to launch this strategy in the second [...]
NC’s Star News expands local site, adding social & data
The Wilmington, NC newspaper Star News is greatly expanding the local offerings on its MyBackyardNC.com site. The site (which, I will add, looks nothing like the newspaper site – so good for them) has a lot going for it. The main page is a searchable database that enables users to get relevant information by zip [...]
IB strives to be more social, expand beyond TV
Internet Broadcasting, which powers a large network of local TV websites, announced a partnership today with a company called CoreMedia that provides a cloud-based content management system (CMS). What’s interesting about the deal is IB, which has long offered its own CMS, is now bringing in some help. “Internet Broadcasting is still very much in [...]
Twitter rolling out promoted accounts
As we wrote about last week, Twitter is adding a new feature called “promoted accounts” that allows users to pay for followers. Today Twitter announced it’s starting to roll out this week. As you can see on the right, Twitter displays these promoted accounts in the suggested users to follow box. “Promoted accounts are suggested [...]
Media companies warm up to Tumblr
Tumblr began slowly three years ago, but the social platform has been picking up speed — now running over a billion page views a month with 4.5 million users. If you’re not familiar with Tumblr, it’s a simple blogging platform (think stripped-down WordPress) that let’s you “reblog” stuff from other people and follow your favorite [...]
Check out the media jobs postings at Lost Remote
Start your fiscal quarter off right! We have a whole bunch of new jobs posted today and coming this week, so check them out. And if you get a job through LR, let us know. We love success stories. Employers: as always, posting your openings at Lost Remote is free, and we’re a great place [...]
Local TV staffer loses job over tweet
An employee for KTVX-TV, the ABC station in Salt Lake, accidently sent out a tweet on the station’s Twitter account on Friday morning: As one Salt Lake resident said when she retweeted it, “Whoops!” The station quickly deleted the tweet and followed it up a couple hours later with an apology: “A personal tweet went [...]
CNN fires Sanchez and (likely) his Twitter account, too
CNN anchor Rick Sanchez fired off this cryptic tweet last night… And today CNN says he no longer works for the company in the wake of comments he made on a radio show. What’s interesting (to us) about this whole affair is Sanchez was an early-adopter of Twitter on TV, and we suspect his Twitter [...]
