The remains of social news sharing site Digg were bought by New York-based incubator Betaworks on Thursday. Betaworks would not comment on the price it paid for the once high flying tech company.
Digg is a social news aggregator that lets users vote up popular stories, and down-vote ones they don’t like. The most popular stories appear on the Digg front page. It used to be one of the most fearsome traffic drivers on the Internet, but faltered with a redesign in 2010 that critics complained gave all the leverage to promote stories to publishers, and took it away from the community that had built the site’s popularity.
Users started leaving in droves, turning to Twitter to find their news, or Facebook to share links with friends, rather than “Digging” a story. For all the competition that Facebook and Twitter represent, news and community site Reddit is the clear usurper of the former Digg throne. The 7-year-old Reddit has captured many of Digg’s users by building lively communities around topics such as photos, sports teams, and hobbies.
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Friday, July 13
Thursday, July 12
Memorable TV moments
The most impactful TV moments of the past half-century? The awful “Seinfeld” finale and terrific “Cheers” one have to be up there, right? Same for the “M*A*S*H” finish and so many Olympic golden achievements?
A Nielsen study commissioned by Sony found that no entertainment or sports content made the top 20. Major news events filled the whole list and only one could be considered fully uplifting: Barack Obama’s acceptance speech after the 2008 election (ranked 13th) and the 2011 royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton (14th).
Two others could be considered positive, but negative events engendered them: the 2011 death of Osama Bin Laden (5th) and Saddam Hussein’s capture and death (12th).
The research found the Sept. 11 attacks to be the most impactful, followed in second place by Hurricane Katrina. The 1995 O.J. Simpson verdict came in third, followed by the 1986 Challenger tragedy. Bin Laden’s death completed the top five. Simpson’s white Bronco chase finished sixth, followed by the 2011 Japanese earthquake, Columbine school shooting, 2010 Gulf oil spill and Princess Diana’s funeral.
Read more here
A Nielsen study commissioned by Sony found that no entertainment or sports content made the top 20. Major news events filled the whole list and only one could be considered fully uplifting: Barack Obama’s acceptance speech after the 2008 election (ranked 13th) and the 2011 royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton (14th).
Two others could be considered positive, but negative events engendered them: the 2011 death of Osama Bin Laden (5th) and Saddam Hussein’s capture and death (12th).
The research found the Sept. 11 attacks to be the most impactful, followed in second place by Hurricane Katrina. The 1995 O.J. Simpson verdict came in third, followed by the 1986 Challenger tragedy. Bin Laden’s death completed the top five. Simpson’s white Bronco chase finished sixth, followed by the 2011 Japanese earthquake, Columbine school shooting, 2010 Gulf oil spill and Princess Diana’s funeral.
Read more here
TV News Staffing Way Up, More Hiring Expected
Here’s some good news: TV news employment is soaring. According to the annual RTDNA-Hofstra University survey on the state of TV news staffing and profitably, TV news employment is up to the second highest level ever and more hiring is expected over the next year.
There’s more hiring on the horizon, too: 36.7% of news directors polled said that they expected to increase the size of their staffs over the next year.
TV news profitability is also on the rise. In 2012, 59.6% of news stations showed a profit–that’s the highest level it’s been since 1998. Markets 51-100 showed the most profit in 2012, with 68.2% of those stations turning a profit, compared to 54.7% in markets 1-25.
As well, Papper found that there are now 725 TV stations originating local news. Those stations air their news on an additional 242 stations, meaning that there are a total of 967 stations across the country running local news.
Read more here
There’s more hiring on the horizon, too: 36.7% of news directors polled said that they expected to increase the size of their staffs over the next year.
TV news profitability is also on the rise. In 2012, 59.6% of news stations showed a profit–that’s the highest level it’s been since 1998. Markets 51-100 showed the most profit in 2012, with 68.2% of those stations turning a profit, compared to 54.7% in markets 1-25.
As well, Papper found that there are now 725 TV stations originating local news. Those stations air their news on an additional 242 stations, meaning that there are a total of 967 stations across the country running local news.
Read more here
Monday, July 9
The Fissures Are Growing for Papers
The newspaper industry by all appearances (is) starting to come apart. Between operational fiascos and flailing attempts to slash costs on the fly, it’s clear that the print newspaper business, which has been fretting over a looming crisis for the last 15 years, is struggling to stay afloat. There are smart people trying to innovate, and tons of great journalism is published daily, but the financial distress is more visible by the week.
The bread and butter for most of the industry is local information. But it has become seemingly impossible to make money creating daily compendiums and throwing it on people’s doorsteps. And it’s not just newspapers. AOL’s ambitious local news effort, called Patch, is losing $150 million a year, by some estimates, and is no closer to cracking the code.
Read more here
The bread and butter for most of the industry is local information. But it has become seemingly impossible to make money creating daily compendiums and throwing it on people’s doorsteps. And it’s not just newspapers. AOL’s ambitious local news effort, called Patch, is losing $150 million a year, by some estimates, and is no closer to cracking the code.
Read more here
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