"Social media have turned the world into one big living room. The future belongs to those who pull up a chair."
Read more at Time Magazine.
Friday, March 12
Seed and “Bionic Journalism”
AOL is unveiling its Seed project at Austin's SXSW. The plan is to mix freelance and pro-journalists to create a huge amount of original content. The effort is "fielding an army of freelancers to cover SXSW’s 2000 bands is certainly a baptism by fire."
“The essence of journalism has always been separating signal from noise says Saul Hansell, a former New York Times writer who is now the Programming Director of Seed. “It’s all judgment. It’s all selecting the best bits.” What AOL hopes to create with Seed is an editorial machine which automates the assignment process as much as possible, but keeps the final selection part in human hands.
“I call it Bionic Journalism,” says Hansell.
Read more at Techcrunch.
“The essence of journalism has always been separating signal from noise says Saul Hansell, a former New York Times writer who is now the Programming Director of Seed. “It’s all judgment. It’s all selecting the best bits.” What AOL hopes to create with Seed is an editorial machine which automates the assignment process as much as possible, but keeps the final selection part in human hands.
“I call it Bionic Journalism,” says Hansell.
Read more at Techcrunch.
B-Roll Issues
During a story on acceleration problems with Toyota vehicles, ABC News used a two second shot of a tachometer. Editing suggested the video of a dashboard was taken during a drive in which a Toyota was rigged to accelerate, illustrating a theory that a "short-circuit that could cause sudden acceleration undetected by the car's computer system." The picture of a tachometer with the needle zooming forward was actually taken from a different situation. ABC said the report used the footage from a parked car because it wasn't possible to get a good shot of the car's tachometer while it was moving. Toyota objected, saying the story was misleading. The network re-edited the video, admitting to a "misjudgment" in the editing room.
According to Associated Press, "It all points to problems that are created when visual journalists try to alter reality in order to get a better picture."
Read more here.
According to Associated Press, "It all points to problems that are created when visual journalists try to alter reality in order to get a better picture."
Read more here.
The Truth About the Average Twitter User
The security firm Barracuda Labs says only 21% of Twitter users are active users.
Only 26% of Twitter users had 10 followers or more by December 2009 and a majority of Twitter users, 51%, were following less than five people.
In terms of tweets, the report estimates that 34% of Twitter users hadn’t tweeted even once, while a whopping 73% of Twitter’s users tweeted less than 10 times. That means nearly all of the tweets on the social network were coming from about one-fourth of the userbase.
Read more at Mashable or at CNN.
Only 26% of Twitter users had 10 followers or more by December 2009 and a majority of Twitter users, 51%, were following less than five people.
In terms of tweets, the report estimates that 34% of Twitter users hadn’t tweeted even once, while a whopping 73% of Twitter’s users tweeted less than 10 times. That means nearly all of the tweets on the social network were coming from about one-fourth of the userbase.
Read more at Mashable or at CNN.
Thursday, March 11
119 words and phrases that must never be uttered
Tribune CEO Randy Michaels issued a list of 119 words and phrases that must never be uttered by anchors or reporters on WGN-AM (720).
“The real goal here is to avoid using words that make you sound like you’re reading, instead of talking — that shatter the image you’re speaking knowledgeably to one person. By not using ‘newsspeak,’ you enhance your reputation as a communicator.”
Read more here.
“The real goal here is to avoid using words that make you sound like you’re reading, instead of talking — that shatter the image you’re speaking knowledgeably to one person. By not using ‘newsspeak,’ you enhance your reputation as a communicator.”
Read more here.
Wednesday, March 10
Google's View on the Newspaper Business Model
Google's Chief Economist says newspapers' decline "started well before the web came along. Circulation has been falling since 1985 and circulation per household has been falling since 1947."
He says, "The average amount of time looking at online news is about 70 seconds a day, while the average amount of time spent reading the physical newspaper is about 25 minutes a day."
Other notes of interest:
35-40% of major U.S. newspaper online revenue is coming from search engine referrals.
The real money in search engine advertising is in the highly commercial verticals like Shopping, Health, and Travel. Unfortunately, most of the search clicks that go to newspapers are in categories like Sports, News & Current Events, and Local, which don’t attract the biggest spending advertisers. This isn't so surprising: the fact of the matter is that newspapers have never made much money from news. They’ve made money from the special interest sections on topics such as Automotive, Travel, Home & Garden, Food & Drink, and so on. Traditionally, the ad revenue from these special sections has been used to cross-subsidize the core news production.
Some have argued that the solution to the financial problems of newspapers is to charge for access... News sources that have highly differentiated content may be able to make pay-for-access work, but this will likely to be difficult for more generic news sources. In my view, the best thing that newspapers can do now is experiment, experiment, experiment.
Read more here.
He says, "The average amount of time looking at online news is about 70 seconds a day, while the average amount of time spent reading the physical newspaper is about 25 minutes a day."
Other notes of interest:
35-40% of major U.S. newspaper online revenue is coming from search engine referrals.
The real money in search engine advertising is in the highly commercial verticals like Shopping, Health, and Travel. Unfortunately, most of the search clicks that go to newspapers are in categories like Sports, News & Current Events, and Local, which don’t attract the biggest spending advertisers. This isn't so surprising: the fact of the matter is that newspapers have never made much money from news. They’ve made money from the special interest sections on topics such as Automotive, Travel, Home & Garden, Food & Drink, and so on. Traditionally, the ad revenue from these special sections has been used to cross-subsidize the core news production.
Some have argued that the solution to the financial problems of newspapers is to charge for access... News sources that have highly differentiated content may be able to make pay-for-access work, but this will likely to be difficult for more generic news sources. In my view, the best thing that newspapers can do now is experiment, experiment, experiment.
Read more here.
Bay Area News Project has high hopes, few employees
The Bay Area News Project will launch in the next few months with only 15 employees.
The nonprofit Web newcomer has a $5 million donation to work with from multimillionaire investor Warren Hellman who wants to "prop up journalism in his hometown." The New York Times has lined up to run stories in its twice-weekly Bay Area pages and will rely on paid interns from one of its partners, UC Berkeley and the Graduate School of Journalism.
Read more at the LA Times.
The nonprofit Web newcomer has a $5 million donation to work with from multimillionaire investor Warren Hellman who wants to "prop up journalism in his hometown." The New York Times has lined up to run stories in its twice-weekly Bay Area pages and will rely on paid interns from one of its partners, UC Berkeley and the Graduate School of Journalism.
Read more at the LA Times.
Facebook Will Allow Users to Share Location
Starting in April, Facebook users could start seeing status updates showing the current locations of their friends. Facebook has been working on a location-based tool for close to a year, according to the New York Times. Facebook wants to go head-to-head with Google in the fight for small-business advertising. In 2009, Google started Google Latitude with the pitch to let users “See where your friends are right now.” Twitter, another Facebook competitor, has also added an option to include location data with messages
Read more at the New York Times.
Read more at the New York Times.
Local TV, Radio Ad Market Poised To Rebound
Expect local television and radio revenues to continue their contraction until next year and then inch up for the next three years. All this will occur as local digital revenues will steadily and sharply rise. Media forecaster BIA/Kelsey says local advertising revenues for television and radio will reach $34.3 billion in 2014, up from $29.9 billion in 2009. BIA/Kelsey says spending on traditional media will decline from $115 billion in 2009 to $108.2 billion in 2014 -- an average loss per year of 1.2%. During the same period, spending on online/interactive media is projected to grow from $15.2 billion to $36.7 billion -- a gain of 19.3% annual average growth rate.
Read more at Media Post.
Read more at Media Post.
Tuesday, March 9
Digital Ad Revs To Top Print in 2010
Consulting and research group Outsell says total U.S. digital advertising and marketing revenues will pass print this year after passing radio in 2008. This prediction "heralds one of the most important symbolic milestones in the history of online advertising," according to Media Post.
Ad spending will reach $368 this year (up 1.2% from about $364 billion in 2009) with 32.5% ($119.6 billion) going to digital and 30.3% ($111.5 billion) for print. Newspaper total ad revenues will hit $27 billion in 2010, down about 8% from 2009 while magazines will see a 2% increase to $9.4 billion. Mobile advertising revenues will fall 16% from 2009 while TV (including broadcast and cable) will drop 6.5% to $59.6 billion.
Read more at Media Post.
Ad spending will reach $368 this year (up 1.2% from about $364 billion in 2009) with 32.5% ($119.6 billion) going to digital and 30.3% ($111.5 billion) for print. Newspaper total ad revenues will hit $27 billion in 2010, down about 8% from 2009 while magazines will see a 2% increase to $9.4 billion. Mobile advertising revenues will fall 16% from 2009 while TV (including broadcast and cable) will drop 6.5% to $59.6 billion.
Read more at Media Post.
Google is Testing TV-Search Service
In a "fast-moving race to combine Internet content with conventional TV" where the goal is the marriage of the Web and TV, Google is working with Dish Network on a new television-programming search service. The service "runs on TV set-top boxes containing Google software, allows users to find shows on the satellite-TV service as well as video from Web sites such as Google's YouTube, according to these people." Past efforts failed, "partly because they required consumers to purchase extra hardware. By working directly with an operator such as Dish and its hardware, Google could avoid the such issues." TiVo just released its new digital video recorders that blend broadcast and online content.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
Differences Between Consumers, Industry Pros
Media Daily News reports that "past research studies has shown that industry professionals tend to be 'more jaded' about their businesses than the average consumer, even if the industry happens to be media."
Some studies have shown "industry pros generally have a higher regard for big, national media such as network TV, consumer magazines, and the Internet, while consumers tend to have a stronger regard for local media such as newspapers and local radio and TV outlets."
Are industry pros and consumers wired differently? An unusual study "conducted by biometric research firm Innerscope and Havas' MPG unit, they answer may be - sort of."
Read more at Media Daily News.
Some studies have shown "industry pros generally have a higher regard for big, national media such as network TV, consumer magazines, and the Internet, while consumers tend to have a stronger regard for local media such as newspapers and local radio and TV outlets."
Are industry pros and consumers wired differently? An unusual study "conducted by biometric research firm Innerscope and Havas' MPG unit, they answer may be - sort of."
Read more at Media Daily News.
Monday, March 8
The New York Times is hiring 12 techies and a social media whiz
The New York Times plans to hire "at least a dozen full-time software engineers and Web designers, plus one social media marketing manager" according to Venture Beat. One opening is for a Creative Technologist. "Most of the openings are for senior software engineers and other Web developers" who know "HTML, CSS, Flash/ActionScript and JavaScript/Prototype."
The Times intends to start charging once users read more than a certain number of free articles each month.
Read more at VentureBeat.
The Times intends to start charging once users read more than a certain number of free articles each month.
Read more at VentureBeat.
Conde Nast Believes In a Digital Future
Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue, Glamour, Bon Appétit and Traveler, says it's focusing on checkout display spaces to drive single-copy sales while developing "digitized versions of some of its titles for iPad users."
Read more at SuperMarket News.
Read more at SuperMarket News.
Sunday, March 7
New York City to grant online journalists press credentials
New York City will allow online journalists and bloggers an easier time at obtaining press credentials according to The New York Observer. The plan comes after three bloggers filed a lawsuit against the city. A public hearing will be held April 7th on the matter.
Read more at The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Read more at The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
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