Mar

14

State of the media report

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As a member of the “media” (so to speak) I think we all need to understand what is going on in the news industy; where it is going, who is doing what and what we need to do to keep up with it. Here are a few articles I found this evening while doing some research:

Open Source Newsroom — http://zero.newassignment.net/ (interesting experiment)

Newspapers brought financial woes upon themselves, says Craigslist boss –
http://www.out-law.com/page-7800

The Great Media Industry Schism — (good read)
http://publishing2.com/2007/02/25/the-great-media-industry-schism/

Gannett’s New Lease On News –
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_09/b4023023.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

Indy Media Organizations and Their Web 2.0 Tools –
http://newassignment.net/blog/steve_anderson/feb2007/27/indy_media_organ

Feb

10

BetaNews | Viacom to Promote YouTube-like Features on Sites

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BetaNews | Viacom to Promote YouTube-like Features on Sites
Viacom is wasting no time in moving on from dealing with YouTube, as the company is planning to aggressively promote new functionality on ComedyCentral.com in the coming months, and others in the future.

Functionality will be provided directly from the site itself that allows users to embed and share videos much like the popular social video site. Users will be permitted to show the video for a period of one month after it is posted.

Big media sites are starting to buckle-down and demand their content be taken off of YouTube because they’ve seen just how lucrative it can be. I know that in the last month, most of the clips I tagged as favorites on YouTube have been taken off, making that site nearly useless for me. I don’t really care about user generated content — I want to see professional content in bursts. There are a few scenes in every show that you’d like to see again… too bad you couldn’t tag scenes with keywords so you could jump straight to that section, (maybe you can someplace and I just don’t know about it).

Feb

10

“This Just In”; AOL, HBO, Amex and Tylenol’s joint Entertainment Venture

Filed Under Internet Videos, TV, commentary, cool stuff | Leave a Comment

This Just In - AOL has launched “This Just In”, a site that will present the funny and quirky side of news. TJI, “powered by HBO”, is also backed by American Express and Tylenol. The site is a blog format and has video, photo slideshows and witty commentary on popular news topics.

Of particular interest to me is the video on “What happens when Arts majors try to make a living“, and “Muslims Object to “24″: “There’s No Way That All Happens in One Day.”

It’s something like we are attempting to do with TalkingApes.com, albeit much, much slower a pace (global warming is happening faster).

Nonetheless, ThisJustIn.com (not to be confused with ThisJustin) will be a daily stop on my internet thrill ride.

Feb

10

Advertising Age - Local TV Goes Mobile

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Advertising Age - Digital - Local TV Goes Mobile
Internet Broadcasting, which creates websites and sells ads for 79 local TV stations, has forged a venture to get news and weather onto the so-called third screen. The Minneapolis-based company has signed a deal with Crisp Wireless to deliver content to phones and other wireless devices. Internet Broadcasting, itself owned by three major station group owners — Hearst-Argyll, Post Newsweek and McGraw Hill Cos. — will deliver local fare such as weather radar images and sports headlines and scores.

How are other companies, (like Media General for example), going to compete with this when their sites are so far behind already?  The Mobile frontier is the next great format, especially with the iPhone and devices like it on the horizon. Still, many media companies haven’t even embraced RSS, Blogging (done the right way) or even dynamic content across all affiliates.

Bravo to Internet Broadcasting for realizing what people actually want and doing something about it.

Aug

7

AOL launches free anti-virus software

Filed Under cool stuff, tech | 2 Comments

AOL launches free anti-virus software - Yahoo! News

(Reuters) - Time Warner Inc.’s (NYSE:TWX - news) AOL online division on Monday said it launched a free anti-virus program for online users, providing real-time scanning and hourly updates.

As I’m in the market for a new anti-virus software, I’m going to give this a shot. Why not? It’s only AOL.

Ironically, the large pillow ad on this article page was for Norton’s internet security.

As I’m setting up the new AOL program, this is what they are promising me:

  • Free AOL E-mail - The legendary AOL e-mail address is now available to everyone, completely FREE.
  • AOL Safety & Security Center – The most comprehensive set of free, automatically updating safety and security tools — protecting your whole PC, not just your e-mail
  • AOL Video - gives you access to millions of high-quality videos—including music videos, news clips and movie trailers.

The disclaimer…

This service plan provides unlimited usage of AOL over a high-speed broadband or dial-up internet connection purchased separately from another company. This plan does not include internet access or live customer service. AOL premium services, which may be subscribed to separately, are subject to charges.

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Aug

3

MediaShift: Newspaper Sites Hot to Blog, Cool to Podcasts

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Newspaper companies are feeling the shift hard, as people go from reading print newspapers to getting their news and classified ads on the Internet.

MediaShift . NewspaperShift::Newspaper Sites Hot to Blog, Cool to Podcasts | PBS

MediaShift by Mark Glaser has quickly become one of my favorite blogs. In this particular post, here are his main points in the cited article:


- Blogging is all the rage.

Out of the Top 100 newspaper sites, 80 of them have blogs. Of those 80
sites with blogs, 67 sites (or 83%) let readers comment on the blogs.



- Podcasting is still a province of larger papers.

Unlike blogs, podcasts are employed by a minority of Top 100 newspaper sites — 31 of them.



- Video offerings are widespread.

61 newspaper sites of the Top 100 offer video on their sites, which is a pretty strong number.



- Newspaper sites offer RSS — but not with full text or ads.

Out of the Top 100, 76 sites have RSS feeds and almost all of them offer feeds for particular sections of the site.



- Forced registration is losing steam.

Only 23 of the Top 100 newspaper sites require people to register in order to read articles.



- Editors are not hip to reader comments on stories or bookmarking.

Only 19 sites allow readers to comment below each article, and only 7
sites offer either internal or external bookmarking features.

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Aug

1

Wal-Mart’s lame attempt at social networking.

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Hdr_hubWal-mart is like so rad, ok?

um… yeah.

The execs at Wal-Mart have come up with “the Hub” — a myspace-like site geared towards back to school. As far as I remember, that is the most depressing day of the year for kids. Let’s blog about it, or perhaps make some short wal-mart commercials so that we can be laughed at for the rest of our scholastic lives!

Wal-Mart has started the Hub, which bears some of the features of a My-Space-like social network, but appears to be essentially an advertising vehicle that encourages teens to create commercials for the retail chain and post them to the site. The Hub allows users to create pages and videos, somewhat like MySpace. It tells them to express “individuality,” but screens their posts and doesn’t allow them to e-mail each other. The site is running a contest for the best video submissions about how much the submitter likes Wal-Mart (schoolyourway.walmart.com).

Wal-Mart Web site seems to try too hard to be hip

A quick glance at The Hub leaves the impression that social networking is not Wal-Mart’s forte, but rather, hiring a teen focus group is. One member Ashley, whose profile is called “Tap into Fashion,” writes: “Shopping will be my number ONE hobby this fall….I’ll be on the lookout for the latest fashions. From leggings to layers, to boots and flats, big belts, and headbands!”Maybe Ashley really is into fashion, but her language suggests that a career in marketing might be a better fit.

Wal-Mart’s awkward dress-up as MySpace | News.blog | CNET News.com

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Aug

1

USATODAY.com - Niche competitors crowd into MySpace

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USATODAY.com - Niche competitors crowd into MySpace

Is MySpace losing its cool? Margaret Marks, 17, thinks so.The Birmingham, Ala., high school senior was an avid user of the No. 1 social networking website for two years.

“But I never use it anymore, because most people my age now use Facebook,” she says. “I can talk to people I haven’t spoken to in years, and you can join college networks and meet people. MySpace is good for looking at bands and music, but for your own website, Facebook is much better.”

As the social networking phenomenon continues to grow, competitors are snapping at MySpace’s heels — er, portal. Facebook, Xanga, Wayn, vMix and others are salivating over MySpace’s 95 million users and recent crowning by tracking service Hitwise as the Internet’s most visited domain, surpassing longtime champ Yahoo Mail.

This kind-of goes hand-in-hand with what I said in this post about MySpace.com. People are starting to get tired of it already. Question is, what is going to take its place? According to USAToday, the main competitors are:

Facebook.com — geared towards high school and college kids.

vMix.com — centered around the photo and video lovers.

Xanga.com — focuses on blogs, looks nicer than MySpace.com

Whyville.com — geared towards kids 8 to 15.
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Jul

23

Wired 14.07: His Space - Rupert Murdoch and MySpace

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Wired 14.07: His Space

Twilight of the media moguls? Not for this guy. With the $580 million purchase of MySpace, News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch is betting he can transform a free social network into a colossal marketing machine.

Many people have said in the past that News Corp.’s purchase of MySpace would be its death. I still believe that. Big business tends to destroy great ideas. I see it happen daily. As a member of myspace (merely for the observation), the marketing has greatly increased, and there is no real benefit to being a member IMO other than marketing at this point. When will the kids get tired of seeing all the commercialism? Will they ever get tired of it at all? There is a point when things stop being fun and start being about money.

Jun

8

Newspapers woo bloggers with mixed results | CNET News.com

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Newspapers woo bloggers with mixed results | CNET News.com
Blogs written by so-called citizen journalists are increasingly challenging newspapers for readers. According to a recent study by Forrester Research, blogs and newspaper Web sites now have the same audience share–about 17 percent–among Internet users between the ages of 18 and 24.

"Newspapers still have a larger overall audience," says Charlene Li, a Forrester analyst. "But blogs are catching up quickly."

Initially caught off guard by blogs, newspapers and old-guard news agencies are now racing to present their own. So far, the results have been mixed. While papers such as the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman are using blogs to give readers a news voice they never had before, other papers like the Washington Post are struggling with everything from charges of plagiarism in their blogs to being labeled with the word every editor dreads–boring.

Please read the entire article, there is a lot of truth in there.