Liz Foreman
My employer, Gannett, which has invested in Mogulus, is about to embark on a fun project. Friday, we will have 12 live high school football games showing on LiveNewsCameras-esque widgets that will be posted to USAToday.com as well as many of our local broadcast and newspaper sites. The games are being produced by our broadcast and newspaper sites as well as a high school AV department. “If we can do this with a dozen games, we can do it with +100,” Kerry Oslund, the Gannett exec behind this project told me. Most of the games are single cam, laptop, aircard + Mogulus productions.
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September 25th, 2008
Cory Bergman
The online video ad platform Jivox has added Media News Group, Examiner.com, Accuweather.com and Weatherbug.com to its publisher network. Small business advertisers can build (yes, edit) their own video ads on Jivox and place them on local-targeted sites.
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September 25th, 2008
Kent Chapline
Today the Boston Globe launches its new 24-page weekly sports tabloid, called OT. Beyond the obvious (which they never mention because it is so obvious), they say OT stands for “Our Town/Our Teams.” It’s going to focus on Boston’s big four pro sports teams. They plan to print it every Thursday, just in time for the sports weekend, and sell it for 50 cents per copy. In their online introduction to it, they spend two paragraphs reaching out to readers for their input: “Bottom line: When it comes to all things Boston sports, we really want to know what’s on your mind.” (Via Romenesko)
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September 25th, 2008
Cory Bergman
Yahoo has taken the wraps off APT (formerly AMP), its new display ad platform that has been under development with the newspaper consortium. In a nutshell, sites on the platform will be able to leverage behavioral data across Yahoo and the network to improve ad targeting. Agencies and advertisers, in theory, will spend on the platform because of its scale, simplicity and deep reporting. APT has been in testing with SFGate.com and MercuryNews.com, and now it will expand to Cox Newspapers, the MediaNews Group and Scripps Newspapers before fully launching next year. More info on Yahoo’s APT site right here.
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September 24th, 2008
Cory Bergman
The CBS O&O has partnered with the Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun. Beyond the usual marketing arrangement, WJZ-TV video will appear on BaltimoreSun.com with WJZ pre-roll ads. “This makes our Web site even more robust, and it extends WJZ’s reach to the millions of readers who go to our site every week,” Baltimore Sun Editor Tim Franklin said. “That makes this more than your average newspaper-TV partnership.” The two newsrooms also agreed to coordinate coverage efforts.
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September 24th, 2008
Cory Bergman
Soon after we moved to the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard last year, my wife Kate reserved MyBallard.com after we noticed there was no daily news source dedicated to the community of 35,000. We rolled out a standard Wordpress blog and started writing about news in the neighborhood. We added an events calendar, restaurant guide and a forum, too.
Ten months later, My Ballard has exploded in popularity beyond our wildest expectations, surpassing the weekly neighborhood newspaper in monthly reach (unique users compared to the paper’s physical subscription base.) We’ve even launched similar blogs in surrounding neighborhoods with the help of friends and friends of friends, forming a news blog network covering the core of Seattle’s fastest-growing communities.
It was all an experiment, really. We fashioned My Ballard after WestSeattleBlog.com, the neighborhood news site we mention frequently here on Lost Remote. We don’t cover nearly as much news as WSB, but the appetite for neighborhood news has been tremendous. Newspapers are covering less, and TV stations only storm into a neighborhood when there’s breaking news or a quirky story with regional interest.
We receive so many email tips, comments and forum posts, we’re able to provide a steady stream of original stories. We’re also able to beat the traditional media on larger Ballard stories, thanks to our active readers. In effect, we don’t “cover” the neighborhood, we “moderate” it. Users are our eyes and ears, and we provide a layer of journalism over the top, confirming stories before we post them.
We’re not selling any advertising (coming soon), but the West Seattle Blog has proven there’s money to be made. They have a full-time sales effort and 30 active advertisers. They’re not getting rich, but it shows the model works and has real momentum behind it.
I have so much to share about our experiences with our network of blogs — as well as the explosion of neighborhood blogging here in Seattle, the new epicenter of hyperlocal. I’ll be writing a series of posts on Lost Remote in the weeks to come, so stay tuned.
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September 23rd, 2008
Don Day
Two months ago, I ranted about national news sites and their approach to the iPhone. At the time, MSNBC.com, Newsweek.com and CBSNews.com force-fed you their mobile channels, with no route to the normal site. At the time I said it was probably someone’s misguided attempt at good UX. Some of the sites produce a special iPhone channel, but they should give me the option of getting their full site - since that’s what I want the most.
Now Newsweek.com gives you the full site by default - and CBSNews.com gives you the option of getting to the big site. Both organizations also produce special iPhone sites. MSNBC.com still makes me use its non-iPhone-enhanced site, and provides no way to see the full MSNBC.com. Very disappointing. Local sites should always make sure iPhone users are given access to the main site - and a iPhone enhanced site is a bonus as well!
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September 23rd, 2008
Don Day
FoxNews.com ramped up its online Strategy Room experiment from the conventions to a full-fledged nine hour per day live online video marathon. I watched for about 30 minutes today, and it’s not like any traditional TV broadcast. An anchor and pair of analysts sit around and talk about the politics of the day. During the 3pm ET hour, Fox News anchor Heather Nauert conducted a discussion with a FoxNews.com reporter via Satellite. A producer/director type sits right behind the anchor and punches the show on the fly. No graphics, no video - just raw politics. Nauert was reading from her Blackberry, let gaps of silence roll by and was very roll-with-the-punches. The Strategy Room is slated to run each day from 9am-6pm ET Monday through Friday.
“It’s like a cocktail party without the alcohol,” Nauert said…
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September 23rd, 2008
Don Day
Walter E. Hussman Jr. of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is so wrong… and so right all at the same time. Hussman wrote a piece last year for the Wall Street Journal that urged publishers to stop giving away newspaper content for free online. In the last year and a half, newspaper company fortunes have declined even further - and now he’s pointing back to that WSJ piece. His newspaper charges for most online content - instead of giving it away. The paper, he says, is actually growing. He notes that online advertising for most newspapers has been “a flop.” The approach is working for his paper - for now - because there isn’t much competition in small markets like Fayetteville.
But all it takes is an effort like the much-talked-about West Seattle Blog or The Batavian and Hussman’s paper will be sunk. He’s right that giving away content is sinking the newspaper industry. He’s also right that online advertising isn’t making the grade. But his paper can get killed with just one well-placed effort to take it down, and there won’t be much of a parachute.
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September 23rd, 2008
Cory Bergman
This morning, T-Mobile unveiled the much-anticipated G1 phone, powered by Google’s Android 1.0 platform. WiFi, 3G, touch screen plus hidden keyboard, Amazon-powered MP3s, push Gmail, 3 megapixel camera, Android application store, and it will use a “light” version of Google’s new browser Chrome. The G1 costs $179 and will be available on October 22nd. Here’s the full scoop on all the features from Engadget.
“Not only does it allow all applications open access to the phone’s functionality; the platform itself will also be open,” Google explains. “Everyone will be free to adopt and adapt the technology as they see fit. By doing so, we hope that users will get better, more capable phones with powerful web browsers and access to a rich catalogue of innovative mobile applications.”
The question on everyone’s mind, of course, is whether the G1 can take on the iPhone. Only time will tell, but this is a sure bet: mobile application development will soon be a very big business, and we’ll be seeing some very interesting local applications coming our way..
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September 23rd, 2008
Cory Bergman
You have to admit, we’ve been on good behavior lately with stories beating up on the newspaper industry. But we can’t resist this triple-link exchange. ValleyWag says the combined personal wealth of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin is $32 billion — $12 billion more than the estimated value of the entire U.S. newspaper industry. That prompted a former Financial Times journalist to blog that Google is profiting on the backs of newspapers. Which prompted Mashable to tear apart his blog post line by line.
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September 23rd, 2008
Cory Bergman
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.)
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September 23rd, 2008
Cory Bergman
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, Chow can be sold and crossed with our properties. Does it allow with CBS stations to compete against local newspapers more effectively? Clearly, we’re taking money away from newspapers. You’ll go to Chow for eating or Jobs.com for help wanted—all the kinds of information you used to turn to newspapers for. Radio and TV couldn’t do that on their own.”
A very valid point. I’ve written before how local TV (and by extension radio) is out of position with directory/search/classifieds products, which make up the vast majority of local online revenue.
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September 23rd, 2008
Cory Bergman
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 their clients.
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September 22nd, 2008
Cory Bergman
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…
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September 22nd, 2008
Cory Bergman
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…
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September 22nd, 2008
Cory Bergman
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.
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September 22nd, 2008
Cory Bergman
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 questions and concerns from the WNBC staff. Here’s a quote from Crain’s Business:
“The great initial concern, unanswered by management, is what happens to the quality,” said a station insider.
But what is “quality?” The Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards have a largely traditional view of quality, especially when you consider the regional Emmy’s are judged by peers — people who usually have worked in the TV news business for years. I have a few of these awards, and I’m proud of them. But I think they’re not adapting quickly enough to a broader definition of quality.
I keep using it as an example, but let’s take the hyperlocal news site, West Seattle Blog (forgive me, Tracy.) Here’s a site that has all but replaced the community paper in a large Seattle neighborhood with a steady stream of unique, original stories and a community forum that breaks plenty of news on its own. But the stories wouldn’t win any Emmy or Murrow awards (even if there was a category for it). Some are only a few sentences long. The photographs don’t come close to the newspaper. The video isn’t broadcast quality. And the site design certainly wouldn’t win a Webby.
But thousands of people in West Seattle read the site before they read SeattleTimes.com or any other traditional news site. Traffic is skyrocketing. A week doesn’t go by without a TV station or newspaper running one, two or even three of the West Seattle Blog’s exclusive stories. Because it has original, relevant, unique content. Because it’s a community connecting point. Because it covers the neighborhood like no one else.
These should all be components of quality in today’s times, especially as the internet becomes the primary platform for news. Not everything has to be polished, in-depth, well-designed, beautifully-shot or even well-written. It just has to fill a need with content and community you can’t get anywhere else.
I’m not plugged into the changes at WNBC, so this broader definition of quality may or may not have any application there. But I think it’s worth considering as the local TV news industry continues its sometimes painful transition to an anytime, anywhere resource.
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September 22nd, 2008
Cory Bergman
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 Australia, Belgium, India, Norway, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere around the world. Click2Houston.com, meanwhile, says it’s been averaging 5 million page views a day.
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September 22nd, 2008
Don Day
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 “would it be OK on the front page of the newspaper?” test. In fact, it doesn’t even belong in a Lost Remote post. Wellllll… the word was kinda hard to get rid of - so staffers decided to flood the feed with posts. Westword Denver reports that staffers were told to text “something” to the feed ASAP… so one person sent… “something.” “Which qualifies as the second funniest word in the feed,” Westword dryly noted.
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September 20th, 2008
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