The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. 602 Communications is a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and promotion skills. We teach workshops on teasing, marketing, reporting, producing, lighting, editing, internet and graphics. Get more information on all our workshops.

The Marketing Ideanet is sent via TVSpy's e-mail servers. Visit TVSpy's Marketing Matters online community.

Graeme Newell
602 Communications
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In This Issue
Make Sure Attribution in Teases is Absolutely Necessary
The Official Candidate of the Olympics
Controversial Cover Demand High
1/3 Unaware of New Yorker Cover, Pew Finds
USC Young Republicans Allege Phony CNN Interview
NY Times Probes Restraints on Embeds
Fox News Racist, Protesters Decry
Fallout Continues Against Savage Comment
Sirius Granted XM Merger
Message From Michael


Quotes

"Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds for exemption from the examination by this tribunal. But, if they are exempted, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination."
- Immanuel Kant

"To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one's own."
- Henry James

"In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone. Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable."
- Susan Sontag


Simplifying Your Brand Message
Should all your internet, cell phone and broadcast be one brand, or should you have different brands for different platforms and audiences? Click here to watch how some the best branders in the world tackle these difficult growth and expansion problems in Graeme Newell's latest video presentation.


Make Sure Attribution in Teases is Absolutely Necessary
by Graeme Newell
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http://www.602communications.com

A good tease will contain as few words as possible, getting to the point immediately. When attributing facts in a tease, make sure that attribution is absolutely necessary. For example, look at the phrase, "she says she's mad at the government." Do you believe her? Can we take that information as fact? If you truly believe a fact is true, consider leaving the attribution out of the tease. "She's mad at the government." There is no need to include "she says" if you are sure that fact is true.

In news stories, we have more time for attribution. This added information is a great part of a story. But we want to keep our teases and promos as short and tight as possible. This makes every word precious. Many times, attribution is vital; however, I find producers often include unnecessary attribution.

If there is any doubt about the statement, then leave the attribution in the copy. "The man says he didn't kill his wife." In this sentence, I'm not sure if he's telling the truth. In cases like this, attribution is essential. "The city counsel claims there's no more money in the budget." Leaving out attribution here could be misleading. Also, leave in attribution if the person is important or an attention grabber. "Hillary Clinton reveals the secret passages at the White House."

If there is no doubt about the fact, then leave the attribution out of the tease. "Police say the man is dead." I'll take their word on it. I believe he's dead. "The man is dead." Double check all your tease copy. Include attribution when it's necessary, but make sure you're not using it out of habit.


The Official Candidate of the Olympics
It's official. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy for any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads. According to NBC's political file, the campaign had initially requested information about $500,000, $2 million and $4 million packages of Olympics spots. The network also offered the candidate a $10 million package. The buy comes as the Obama campaign continues to set fundraising records. Its decision not to accept federal matching money leaves it able to spend as much money as it can raise. The campaign reported it raised $52 million in June, compared with the nearly $21.5 million raised by his challenger, Sen. John McCain. The Obama campaign will join major advertisers including McDonald's and Anheuser-Busch. The Beijing games begin with opening ceremonies Aug. 8.
AdAge


Controversial Cover Demand High
The controversial July 21 cover of The New Yorker portraying Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a Muslim has been a virtual sellout on newsstands. In fact, the demand has completely overwhelmed Condé Nast's ability to fill requests for additional copies. The issue went off sale on Monday and preliminary estimates show single-copy sales surged 80 percent over average weekly newsstand sales, or around 75,000 copies, compared with average newsstand sales of around 43,000. Admittedly, The New Yorker gets the bulk of its weekly sales from subscriptions since its weekly rate-base promise to advertisers is to sell 1 million copies. Still, strong newsstand sales are an indicator of how hot a cover topic is. Love him or hate him, Obama covers seem to be selling better than celebrities or rock stars. And in most cases, his covers are selling better than those that feature his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain. Said a spokeswoman for Time, "Of our five covers featuring Obama and/or Hillary [Clinton] . . . this year, they either sold significantly above average or above average. And the McCain cover this year sold just below average." In 2006, Time had one of the first big Obama covers for a major magazine. It was timed to the publication of his book, "The Audacity of Hope." It was the second-biggest newsstand seller of that year. For Us Weekly, which is owned by Obama supporter Jann Wenner, the cover featuring Obama and his wife sold a lot better than the average celebrity cover, with estimated newsstand sales between 900,000 and 1 million, far above the magazine's typical week of selling 800,000 copies. Obama is also on the cover of the recent double issue of Rolling Stone, also owned by Wenner Media. Insiders predict it will sell anywhere from 225,000 copies to 250,000 copies on newsstands, which is better than average for double issues.
NY Post

1/3 Unaware of New Yorker Cover, Pew Finds
Coverage of The New Yorker’s controversial Obamas cover last week seemed inescapable, but a small portion of the population apparently managed to avoid it entirely. One-third of those surveyed by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press said they heard nothing about the cover, a satire that featured Michelle Obama toting a machine gun, Barack Obama dressed as a Muslim, and a picture of Osama bin Laden decorating the Oval Office behind them. Another quarter of respondents said they heard little about the controversy, perhaps blunting liberals’ fears that the satire wouldn’t play well in Peoria. Forty percent said they heard a lot about the controversy. Only 51 percent said they actually saw the cover, and among those who did, their opinion broke down predictably over party lines. Seventy percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Republicans labeled the cover offensive, and 53 percent of Democrats and 19 percent of Republicans said it was racist. Just 17 and 31 percent, respectively, found it funny, though 50 percent overall thought it was okay for The New Yorker to publish the cartoon.
MediaLife Magazine


USC Young Republicans Allege Phony CNN Interview
The president of the College Republicans at the University of Southern California is charging that CNN used a "fake College Republican" in its broadcast report today, claiming there was a lack of enthusiasm for the GOP candidate, Sen. John McCain. A CNN spokeswoman now says it was an inadvertent error. In its Thursday morning report, according to a news release from the student organization, CNN interviewed someone identified as Eric Pearlmutter, who was said to be a USC student and College Republican. "We try to get people out to our College Republican meetings, but we can't seem to get the same amount of support," he said. Ben Myers, the president of USC College Republicans, said, "I have never met Eric Pearlmutter. I have never seen him at a College Republican meeting. He is not on our membership roster. I don't know why someone would think he speaks for us. As far as I know, he could be a Democrat." A CNN spokeswoman admitted the error this evening in an e-mailed response: "“Eric Perlmutter appeared on today’s 'American Morning' segment about young Republicans on college campuses. While he attends USC and says that he is a registered Republican, he was inadvertently identified on-screen as a member of the USC College Republicans organization. "We regret that error. We have invited Ben Myers, the president of the USC College Republicans organization, to appear on 'American Morning' at a future time.” Myers also said his Republican club meetings regularly attract 30-40 attendees, which he said is more than college Democrats. "I'm not saying that McCain is going to win big among youth voters," Myers added. "But to claim that his support is weak among young Republicans is just pure liberal media propaganda. Real College Republicans are fired up for McCain. He's our kind of Republican… a maverick."
LA Times Blogs


NY Times Probes Restraints on Embeds
Three weeks ago, E&P probed the case a freelance photographer who had been "disembedded" from U.S. forces in Iraq after he published on his Web site graphic photos that the military charged broke "embed" rules. The photographer, Zoriah Miller, contested this, but soon he had returned to the U.S. Now The New York Times, in its Saturday edition, has used that case as a jumping off point to explore the whole issue of the growing restrictions on images from Iraq, or as reporters Michael Kamber and Tim Arango put it in their lead, "what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war." In a slideshow on its Web site, www.nytimes.com, the paper presents one of the disputed Miller photos, several other images from other photographers that were restricted, and then some pictures from previous wars that were allowed to go through. The story online is titled: "4,000 U.S. Combat Images, and Just a Handful of Images." E&P has raised questions about this issue from almost the beginning of the war in 2003, but few others in the media have pushed this issue forward. The Times has now done its own search: "If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers." Separate controversy has surrounded the issue of showing flag-draped coffins returning from war. The Times summarizes it this way: "While the Bush administration faced criticism for overt political manipulation in not permitting photos of flag-draped coffins, the issue is more emotional on the battlefield: Local military commanders worry about security in publishing images of the American dead as well as an affront to the dignity of fallen comrades. Most newspapers refuse to publish such pictures as a matter of policy.

But opponents of the war, civil liberties advocates and journalists argue that the public portrayal of the war is being sanitized and that Americans who choose to do so have the right to see — in whatever medium — the human cost of a war that polls consistently show is unpopular with Americans. Journalists say it is now harder, or harder than in the earlier years, to accompany troops in Iraq on combat missions. Even memorial services for killed soldiers, once routinely open, are increasingly off limits. And while publishing photos of American dead is not barred under the 'embed' rules in which journalists travel with military units, the Miller case underscores what is apparently one reality of the Iraq war: that doing so, even under the rules, results in expulsion from covering the war...."News organizations say that such restrictions are one factor in declining coverage of the war, along with the danger, the high cost to financially ailing media outlets and diminished interest among Americans in following the war. By a recent count, only half a dozen Western photographers were covering a war in which 150,000 American troops are engaged." Robert H. Reid, the Baghdad bureau chief for The Associated Press, tells the paper, “I don’t think the uniformed military has really bought into the whole embed program,” following the actual invasion when "it got a lot of, ‘Whoopee, we’re kicking their butts’-type of TV coverage." The full story and slide show are at www.nytimes.com.
Editor & Publisher


Fox News Racist, Protesters Decry
Protesters gathered on Wednesday outside Fox News Channel to denounce what they claim is its racist campaign coverage, including a pundit who called Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama a terrorist. The crowd of some 150 people wielded a petition with more than 600,000 signatures objecting to news coverage by Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, organizers said. Some demonstrators held signs that crossed out the network's "Fair and Balanced" slogan and replaced it with the words "Fairly Racist!" Led by activist groups MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org, protesters cited incidents on Fox including an on-screen graphic calling Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama" and a pundit who confused Obama with Osama bin Laden and joked they should both be assassinated. Another anchor called a televised fist bump between Obama and his wife a "terrorist fist jab," they said, and talk show host Bill O'Reilly discussed calling a "lynching party" to deal with Michelle Obama after criticizing her patriotism. "Putting racism on national television and calling it news is never funny," said Andre Banks of ColorOfChange.
Yahoo News


Fallout Continues Against Savage Comment
Michael Savage’s critics continue to rail against him. In fact, it seems they’re getting louder. Nearly 10 days after the conservative radio talk show host said that 99 percent of autism cases are really just a matter of bad parenting, the fallout continues. The seven-station cluster Super Talk Mississippi Radio Network has dropped his show, as has Cleveland’s WHK AM/1420. Earlier this week Aflac yanked its advertising off his show, which is syndicated to more than 400 stations nationwide by Talk Radio Network. There are also dual protests against Savage being planned for Sunday on both coasts, one in San Francisco and one in Long Island. Savage has stood by the meat of his comments, saying many cases of autism are misdiagnosed, but he’s backed down a bit on the claim that it’s 99 percent of them, saying he wasn’t attacking kids or parents but rather doctors and the drug industry that make money off such diagnoses.
MediaLife Magazine

Sirius Granted XM Merger
With FCC Republican commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate casting the decisive vote, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.’s buyout of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. has finally been approved. Tate’s tally came Friday night as the 3-2 FCC vote gave the go ahead to the transaction 17 months after it was first proposed. The companies agreed this week to pay an almost $20 million fine to the U.S. Treasury for violations relative to radio receivers and ground-based signal repeaters. The deal, giving the 18 million satellite radio subscribers access to programming from both services, is expected to result in significant cost savings and profits for the merged company. “I think it's going to be, in the end, a good thing for consumers and be in the public interest,” Martin told The Associated Press Friday night. “Consumers will enjoy a variety of programming at reduced prices and more diversified programming choices.”
MultiChannel


Message From Michael
DIGITAL DROP-OUTS: You hear so much about the Web and new media that it’s sometimes easy to think everybody is Internet inclined. Not so, according to a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The focus of the report was on broadband adoption. Yes, indeed it is up – some 55% of adult Americans now have broadband Internet connections. That’s a 17% increase year to year. And interestingly, monthly broadband bills are actually lower (by 4%) this year than three years ago in 2005. Broadband Internet penetration among upper-income Americans is reaching the “saturation” point at 85%. Low-income Americans actually showed a drop, or were flat, year to year in terms of broadband adoption. Older Americans are adopting broadband at a slightly higher rate than the average. Some of this you may have already heard about. But how about dial-up users. They still make up about 10% of the Internet world. Some don’t have it for economic or access reasons, although nearly two-thirds (60%) say they just aren’t interested in broadband. Then there are the non-Internet users. More than a quarter (27%) of adults in the United States just don’t use the Internet. Age and income are two factors. Still, the report notes that a third (33%) of these non-Internet users simply are not interested with another 9% saying it’s just too difficult or frustrating and another 7% seeing it as “a waste of time.”

As a side note to this, there is a website (digitaldivide.net) that is focused on bridging the divide in digitaldom between the have’s and have not’s – a problem “painstakingly clear” in developing countries but existent also in North America. The organizers of the Digital Divide Network say, “there is a moral imperative to ensure that everyone has equal access to information technology.”

AND THE WORD IS: Doomed, if you don’t start now. That’s the underlying message in a report issued by market research firm Borrell Associates on local web revenues. Although I’ve reported on it before, noting that the report warned that Internet ‘pure-plays’ could “gobble up” local advertising revenue, a second reading proved even scarier. (Yes, I need a life, but it really is worthwhile to review these things a second time sometimes.) The report predicts (or warns, if you prefer) that by 2012, that there will be ‘winners’ in LOCAL online advertising and whoever that winner is, will be “the second or third largest media outlets in their markets in terms of total revenues.” And right now, newspapers have a formidable lead and the biggest head start. Borrell projects total LOCAL (let me emphasize that word again) online ad spending to hit $13.1 Billion this year, up from $8.7 Billion last year. Of that amount, local newspapers will score $3.7 Billion this year, local TV stations $1.2 Billion and local radio stations $255 Million. I know many of my MfM readers are math impaired, so let me point out something. You add up all three sectors and you come up with roughly $5.1 Billion. Subtract that from the $13.1 Billion, and you are $8 Billion short. Guess who’s getting that? You guessed it. The Internet pure plays – Google, Yahoo along with places like Craigslist.

AND THE WINNER IS: Danged if I know. Two separate reports, but both citing data from Hitwise research, show different winners for top U.S. broadcast network sites. One cites PBS.org as the leading site with a quarter of all visits (24.23%). The other cites ABC.com as the winner with a quarter of the visits (26.94%). Interestingly the report citing ABC does not even include PBS in the mix, and that may explain the difference. Plus they are for separate weeks. The reports are consistent in that CBS, NBC and Fox are in a dead heat, with less than a percentage point separating them in both reports. They are also consistent in that the CW gets only a quarter of the visits the other networks get while the MyNetworkTV site gets less than a single percentage point. In the report with the PBS numbers, ABC comes in second (19.35%). That report by Julieanne Smolinski at TVWeek says PBS beat the others in total U.S. visits in part because of video usage online while another report cites the website redesign and a search engine optimization effort.

AND THE WINNER IS: Depends. Month to month, week to week, the honors for top news website will vary among the top three: Yahoo News, CNN, and MSNBC. They all hover around 35 Million unique visitors a month, but CNN usually beats the other two by ten minutes or more in terms of time spent online. Its visitors average a half hour or more at a time. The other two are in the 20-minute-plus range. After the top three, the battle is between AOL and the New York Times, with the number of visitors a month dropping significantly to a little over 20 Million visitors a month. But both do average about half an hour in time spent. Rounding out the top ten in varying order, depending on the week or month, are Tribune group, Gannett, ABC News, Google News, Fox and some times USA Today. Interestingly (as I always say -- at least to me), Yahoo News averages three times as many visitors as Google News (an average of 30-plus Million unique visitors compared to Google’s 11 Million) and usually twice as much time spent by its visitors (an average of 20-plus minutes compared to Google’s 12 minutes.) Considering the previous article, I should note that NPR averages about 3.7 Million unique visitors to its site and they spend an average of six to seven minutes. Lastly, in further proof that I need to get a life, I averaged the amount of time spent online at these various websites. The average time spent was 9 minutes and 49 seconds while the median for time spent was 13 minutes and 30 seconds. I give that, because it gives you something to compare with the time spent on your website.

AND THE ONE TO WATCH IS: Actually there are ten to watch. Ten web startups that Technology Review says are worth watching. In keeping with websites nowadays, they all have some weird names, but not so weird potential. My two favorites help turn everyone into a reporter (not a journalist, just a reporter) on the scene. Qik lets you capture audio and video and stream it in real time to its website and from there to any other platforms. In essence you can broadcast live from your phone. Ushahidi is the Swahili word for “testimony” and is the name of an application developed during Kenya’s chaotic and deadly presidential election last December. It picks up text messages from any mobile phone and displays them on a Google Maps application to track trouble spots. The founder says it can be used in any crisis situation, such as the Katrina disaster, to track problems. A third website is a kind of traffic reporter. Dash Navigation is a two-way Internet-connected traffic network that employs traffic data but then also tracks users’ cars through GPS data to help deal with traffic jams. Others include Pinger which describes itself as “noninterruptive voice mail” – you record a voice message on the Pinger server and it sends out a text message to the recipient telling them they have a message to pick up. Pownce allows you to send and receive large multimedia files to specific people. As the review put it, think Twitter meets Napster. QTech is a sort of electronic post it note which generates reminders about everything from meetings to grocery lists via phone, text message, RSS feed, e-mail or Web interface. 33Across uses self-provided information and Web browsing to find out who are the “viral promoters” who influence the buying of products. Peer39 is a semantic-advertising company whose algorithms help customize advertising messages to a very detailed level based on blogs, social networks, forums and Web page use. Mashery, as its name implies, allows a sort of mash-up of Websites, letting them talk to each other using API’s (application programming interfaces). Anagran uses technology to prescreen data so that it can tell which packets are which (packets are those little bits that all Internet info is broken into); and then it prioritizes their sending.

MEDIA GORILLA FOLLOW-UP: It almost invariably happens. After I send out an MfM, I find new information or information I forgot to put in. In last week’s MfM about TV as the dominant medium, I left out the latest Nielsen numbers on TV viewing, which has hit an all-time high. Americans watch an average of 127 hours and 15 minutes of TV a month. That’s up from 121 hours and 48 minutes last year. Americans also spend 26 hours and 26 minutes a month in front of their computers. Two hours and 19 minutes of that time is spent watching online video.

Michael Castengera is an instructor at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia AND President of Media Strategies and Tactics Inc., a consulting firm that works with all media but primarily broadcasting. You can visit his website at MediaConsultant.tv.

--------------------------------------
The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. 602 Communications is a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and promotion skills. We teach workshops on teasing, marketing, reporting, producing, lighting, editing, internet and graphics. Get more information on all our workshops.

TVSpy.com is home to ShopTalk, the FREE daily newsletter for the TV news industry, read by more than 25,000 subscribers. For more than 20 years, ShopTalk has given TV news professionals the daily inside scoop on the industry. Read today's ShopTalk and subscribe for FREE.

The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. 602 Communications is a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and promotion skills. We teach workshops on teasing, marketing, reporting, producing, lighting, editing, internet and graphics. Get more information on all our workshops.

The Marketing Ideanet is sent via TVSpy's e-mail servers. Visit TVSpy's Marketing Matters online community.

Graeme Newell
602 Communications
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
(919) 217-4438
http://www.602communications.com


In This Issue
Promo of the Day
Simplifying Your Brand Message
Marketing Movers
NATAS to Honor Schieffer, Burns, Russert
Leno Sets End Date for 'Tonight'
NBC News Prez Defends Election Analysts
'Rathergate' Movie in Works?
Court Tosses 'Wardrobe Malfunction' Fine
FCC Discusses Diversity
Ebert, Roeper Exit 'Movies'
New 'At the Movies' Hosts Named
Savage Attacks Parents of Autistic Kids
Fox Interactive Takes Dip in June
Almost 1/3 of Kids Contacted by Strangers Online, Study Finds
Global Ad Spending Up, U.S. Flat, Nielsen Finds
Formula Shows Internet Advertising Surpasses TV, Radio
TiVo, Amazon Team Up to Sell TV Products
Original Greek Bible to be Posted on Web
McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet


Quotes

"After you've done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over."
- Alfred Edward Perlman

"Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict."
- Saul Alinsky

"Cause change and lead; accept change and survive; resist change and die."
- Ray Norda


Promo of the Day
In May, Tribune Co. re-launched Superstation WGN, taking the wraps off a new brand (WGN America) and slogan, "TV You Can’t Ignore." Launched in 1978 as the national outgrowth of Chicago's WGN-TV, the superstation was given a facelift in keeping with Tribune chief innovation officer Lee Abrams’ self-described mission to "write the blueprint for 21st Century TV." Earlier this month, Abrams told the WGN team that the problem with the old brand lay in its slavish devotion to a set of conventions that were developed over 50 years ago. "You aren't TV. You are part of this complicated media pie and you need to think outside of where you 'are' or else you define yourself by what everyone else is doing," Abrams wrote. In an earlier memo, Abrams said that he had sent WGN's creative director "a few Pink Floyd albums" after she had turned in some uninspired art/voiceovers. MediaWeek

Writer/Producer/Editor William Craig submitted this sampling of what they have been rebuilding from the ground up under the new mantra of WGN America. "We don’t have the programming yet, but we certainly have a new brand identity."

www.602communications.com/VideoExamples

Have a video clip to share? Email it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Flash (.flv) or QuickTime (.mov) files, size 320 x 240, are preferred, but WindowsMedia (.wmv) files will also be accepted. Large files may be sent via http://www.yousendit.com. You can also mail your clip on VHS or DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.


Simplifying Your Brand Message
The latest Graeme Newell on-line video presentation is just out. Click here to watch it.

TV brands are being stretched to the breaking point these days. Gone are the days when you could market to one specific audience. All of us are being asked to promote more channels on more platforms than ever before. Our brands must now work for highly specialized, and wildly diverse audiences.

But promoting so many different products dilutes the message for your highly profitable main channel. What's a marketing director to do?

How can you position a teen football web site and a fishing cell phone alert under one brand? Should all your internet, cell phone and broadcast be one brand, or should you have different brands for different platforms and audiences?

In this example packed session, Graeme Newell shows you how some the best branders in the world tackle these difficult growth and expansion problems. Find out specific strategies for bringing wildly varying product categories under an easy-to-understand and highly profitable brand.


Marketing Movers
Despite the fact my spam filter doesn’t really filter to my liking, it does throw emails I want into the Trash. Sigh. It happened recently when JOHN RICE, major creative at WBTV in Charlotte, sent along an update that he wanted to share. Luckily, he pays attention to detail and resent, so I can now tell you about 24 Hours of Booty. Well, come to think about it, the spam filter may have had reason to flag it. It shouldn’t have, because the booty in question is a 24-hour cycling event for the Lance Armstrong Foundation to benefit cancer research. Set in Charlotte this coming weekend, John is ready. His goal is 200 miles and $1,000. Surely that’s a lot of distance for very little cash. You can support John and donate via the website. Learn more about this here: www.24hoursofbooty.org
As John states on his site, cancer is going to touch you and your family. My brother died of cancer, as did my best friend – within days of each other. So come on everybody, pony up and support this. BTW, since the event has only hit two cities, why not explore doing this in your town with your station? Yeah, I agree. GREAT idea!

Finally! Some international news. Even though DEMIAN TORRES-BOHL lives and works in greater Atlanta, his work is seen in Mexico. He’s part of Castalia Communications, a global distribution company focused on broadcast, satellite, cable and online programming. And now Demian has a promotion to share with us. He’s been upgraded to Marketing and New Media Director. Demian will handle planning and implementation of marketing functions for Castalia, MEXICANAL, AlternaTV, BBCWorld News among other clients based in the U.S. and Latin America. Demian is also involved with public relations for Castalia and MEXICANAL among other duties. Bueno!

Want to take a guess at the cost of driving from Denver to Rochester, NY? Go on. If you guessed $260, you’ve got a future as an energy analyst. That’s what ED CRONY reported on his trip from Colorado to NY State and his new job as CSD at Nexstar’s CBS affiliate WROC. I would have guessed higher – he must have a very efficient car. Glad to report the Crony family made the trip safely and had a blast seeing grandparents and the like along the way. Congrats and Well Dunne!

Up in Spokane, WA, where a good friend of mine once played minor league baseball, comes word that DAN WEIG has taken the CSD slot at Belo’s CBS affil KREM.

Think About This: “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.” - Anatole France

Kate Bacon compiles MARKETING MOVERS and wants to hear about the latest news in your career, your life, or any fun event that is going on. Just drop her an email at movers (at) 602communications.com. She’ll handle the rest. And read her daily blog about TV marketing at www.welldunne.blogspot.com or www.dunnesaid.wordpress.com. Also, don’t miss her new FATES & FORTUNES blog on the Broadcasting and Cable website.


NATAS to Honor Schieffer, Burns, Russert
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will pay tribute to three lifetimes of achievement when it presents the 29th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards on Sept. 22. CBS News’ chief Washington correspondent and “Face the Nation” moderator Bob Schieffer, public broadcasting’s noted documentarian Ken Burns and NBC News’ late Washington bureau chief and “Meet the Press” moderator Tim Russert were announced as the recipients of the honors Tuesday. “Bob Schieffer has given CBS News more than 30 years of high-quality reporting and anchoring and has won the admiration of both his fellow professionals and the American public. He is a role model for any aspiring journalist,” Bill Small, chairman of the News & Documentary Awards, said in the announcement. Mr. Small praised Mr. Burns as having set the standards “for the very best in long-form documentaries in a wide range of subject matter, from the Civil War to baseball to Mark Twain to jazz. It is a record of the highest quality in documentary production, and without question many of the very best broadcasts on PBS bear his skilled production touch.” “I am especially pleased that we are paying tribute to Tim Russert,” said NATAS President-CEO Peter Price. “Tim was the supreme example of a dedicated newsman, admired by his host of friends at NBC and elsewhere for his work ethic, his dedication to first-class journalism and his love of family. He was truly special.”
TV Week


Leno Sets End Date for 'Tonight'
The countdown has begun to Jay Leno’s last day on “The Tonight Show.” Whether it’s his last day on NBC remains to be seen. At its Television Critics Association presentation yesterday, the network said Leno’s last night as host of “Tonight” will be on Friday, May 29, with Conan O’Brien taking over the job the following Monday, June 1. Jimmy Fallon, meanwhile, will take over for O’Brien on “Late Night” in March or April after a previously-announced run of online-only shows. Taking a page out of Jimmy Kimmel’s book, Leno himself was disguised as a reporter to lob questions about the situation at NBC Entertainment co-chairs Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff. Leno’s contract expires in 2010, and although the network wants to keep him, he’s indicated he will leave for another late-night opportunity. Kimmel pulled a similar stunt at ABC’s TCA presentation last week, though Leno’s exchange with his bosses seemed a little more pointed. In other NBC programming, the network’s new comedy starring “Saturday Night Live’s” Amy Poehler won’t be a spinoff of “The Office” after all. It will still be from “The Office’s” Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, but it will now be a stand-alone project. The show also will not premiere after the Super Bowl as originally planned, since Poehler is pregnant and is due sometime this fall. The network is still discussing what to place in that lucrative post-Super Bowl slot, and a future “Office” spinoff is still up in the air. Finally, in other TCA news, the CW will begin streaming “Gossip Girl” episodes on the web again this fall after a brief spring hiatus.
MediaLife Magazine


NBC News Prez Defends Election Analysts
NBC News president Steve Capus Monday defended his division’s use of the opinionated Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews to head up election coverage. Legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow migrated between news and opinionated analysis and the "foundations of the great CBS News division were not shaken," Capus said. Capus was peppered with questions during a Q&A session at the Television Critics Association press tour here Monday morning about Keith Olbermann's role as opinionated primetime host of Countdown and impartial anchor of MSNBC's 2008 election coverage. Olbermann was taken to task earlier in the tour by his competitors on Fox News Channel, specifically Chris Wallace, who said MSNBC was clearly "in the tank for Barack Obama" "Mr. Wallace is a little underinformed in all of this," Olbermann said, pointing out that Laura Ingraham and Bill O'Reilly were on Fox News "for lengths of time on primary nights." A Fox News representative said Ingraham's and O'Reilly's appearances during primary coverage were within their capacity as commentators. "We know there are different roles for us," Olbermann said. "And the viewers know there are different roles." Olbermann and Chris Matthews anchored election coverage during the 2006 midterm elections. "And I don’t remember reading anything then suggesting that what we did on election night was inappropriate. The viewers get it," Capus added. As far as their other critics -- namely the Bush administration -- Olbermann said: "I didn't redefine the American presidency. The president did. I didn't turn it into what it is right now. Pointed criticism of our presidents goes back to [George] Washington."
Broadcasting & Cable


'Rathergate' Movie in Works?
The Media Mob has learned that a team of Hollywood insiders is currently working on a screen adaptation of Truth And Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power—the 2005 book by former CBS News producer Mary Mapes, in which she defends the 60 Minutes II story by Dan Rather about President George W. Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, which ran on CBS in September 2004 and eventually led to her ouster from the network. In the book, Ms. Mapes was highly critical of how her bosses at CBS and Viacom handled the aftermath of the wildly controversial story about President Bush's military service. Along the way, she lays much of the groundwork for what could be a juicy White House conspiracy thriller. "Money is the master," wrote Ms. Mapes. "That is the bottom line to what happened at CBS that fateful fall when we aired a story that, like all stories, was imperfect, but was absolutely grounded in fact. It was well researched and well documented. But when Viacom saw that the story was not well received and that a conservative firestorm was threatening the corporation's financial well-being, their collective wallets started itching. As a result, I believe CBS News, 60 Minutes, Dan Rather, and journalism itself got badly scratched." "This was a corporate, political, and public relations operation, designed to take the heat off and allow Viacom to walk away unscathed, unencumbered by lingering anger from the White House or the various Republican-dominated committees that the corporation lobbied constantly," added Ms. Mapes. It remains to be seen how much of the screenplay will be dedicated to the alleged bungling of the story and its aftermath at CBS versus the broader story of the President's military service.
The Observer


Court Tosses 'Wardrobe Malfunction' Fine
A U.S. appeals court Monday tossed out the Federal Communications Commission's $550,000 fine against CBS for Janet Jackson's notorious breast-baring incident during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. The ruling is the second time in a year that a court has overturned a key underpinning of the FCC's four-year crackdown on broadcast indecency. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit said the FCC "arbitrarily and capriciously" broke from its policy exempting fleeting instances of coarse behavior and improperly held CBS responsible for its entertainers' actions. "I am surprised by today's decision and disappointed for families and parents," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said. The Super Bowl is "one of the most-watched shows" on TV, aired when children are likely to be watching. CBS said it hopes the decision "will lead the FCC to return to the policy of restrained indecency enforcement." The FCC wouldn't say whether it will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
USA Today


FCC Discusses Diversity
Four of the Federal Communications Commission's five members weighed in on the issue of media diversity Monday. All agreed that more needed to be done, but they split along party lines, or at least ideological lines, over how empty of full the glass was. Commissioner Michael Copps didn't seem to think there was much water in the glass at all, saying that the FCC lacked the commitment to do something about a fundamental national problem of lack of diversity in media ownership and employment. He added that the FCC had been frightened by the courts into a position of not wanting to do anything for fear that it would be overturned. Instead, he said, it should have been finding creative ways to stake out a middle ground. Republican commissioner Robert McDowell, who was in the glass-half-full camp, agreed that the commission had been "nibbling around the edges" of the Adarand decision, the Supreme Court ruling that restricted government set-asides for minority businesses. But he said that was the understandable caution of those who were concerned about taking action that could be knocked down, setting up false hopes and winding up a step behind instead of ahead. But McDowell said the small steps the FCC had taken -- including adopting a number of diversity initiatives and putting out others for comment -- were steps in the right direction. McDowell said he favors helping minorities get more deals done it a tough economy and he hoped some deals would come out of an "access to capital" hearing the FCC is holding next week in New York. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said much more needed to be done, but he also said this FCC had made strides, including banning discrimination in advertising contracts. The commissioners and conference officials both cited a Radio-Television News Directors Association study that found minorities still underrepresented as broadcasting owners and virtually nonexistent in cable-system ownership.
Broadcasting & Cable


Ebert, Roeper Exit 'Movies'
Consider it the final reel. Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert, along with Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, is ending his relationship with Disney-ABC's "At the Movies." The show is expected to undergo big changes for when the national syndication is launched. Ebert founded the show with the late Gene Siskel 33 years ago; Roeper has been with it for eight years.
MediaPost


New 'At the Movies' Hosts Named
One day after Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper signed off as hosts of "At the Movies," Disney ABC Domestic Television announced their replacements along with a new format for the Chicago-based syndicated movie-review show. Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz were named Tuesday as co-hosts of show when its new season begins Sept. 6. Lyons, the son of film critic Jeffrey Lyons and grandson of columnist Leonard Lyons, reported on movies for E! Entertainment. Mankiewicz, the grandson of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz and great-nephew of director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, was a host for Turner Classic Movies and Sirius Satellite Radio. Brian Frons, president of daytime for Disney-ABC Television Group, said: "Over the years, ‘At the Movies’ has become synonymous with fun, compelling movie reviews. With the addition of Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz as our talented, charismatic new co-hosts, and exciting new segments planned, we’re confident that audiences will be enjoying ‘At the Movies’ for many years to come.”
SunTimes


Savage Attacks Parents of Autistic Kids
Add parents of autistic children to the long line of people conservative radio host Michael Savage has offended. Yesterday Savage, the country’s third-most-popular radio talker, said he’s standing by his July 16 comments about autistic children, in which he blamed 99 percent of autism cases on poor parenting. “It is an overdiagnosed medical condition,” he insisted to the New York Times. Liberal media organization Media Matters for America sent out a news blast on the comments Friday, and since then reaction has been swift. Yesterday advocacy group Autism United staged a protest in front of Savage’s New York City affiliate, WOR. Aflac yanked its advertising from the show, which is heard on 350 stations nationwide via Talk Radio Network. It’s not the first time Savage has been called out. MSNBC fired him five years ago after a brief stint hosting a weekend show when he told a caller to “get AIDS and die.” He’s also been the target of protests by Catholic, Muslim and even the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which objected to his denunciation of a local student fast for immigration reform.
MediaLife Magazine


Fox Interactive Takes Dip in June
Fox Interactive Media’s online video delivery, led mostly by MySpace viewership, took a 26.9% dip in total streams, streaming 240 million clips in June compared with May’s 328 million, Nielsen Online said. Unique viewers, however, were down only 3.9%, with 17.3 million uniques in June compared with 18 million the month before. Fox remains second to YouTube, as the Web video giant saw a month-to-month increase in unique visitors, reaching 71.8 million users, up 5.6% from May’s 68 million. YouTube users streamed 4 billion video clips during the month of June, a 5.3% increase from May’s 3.8 billion streams. The numbers reflect the fluctuations in online video activity. While both total streams and unique viewer numbers were up for YouTube, those increases come a month after YouTube saw decreases in both categories from April to May. Yahoo! came in third in Nielsen Online’s rankings, streaming a total of 212 million clips yet reaching 23.8 million unique viewers, more than Fox Interactive Media.
TV Week


Almost 1/3 of Kids Contacted by Strangers Online, Study Finds
About a third of kids between eight and 12 years of age said they have been contacted online by strangers, according to findings made during the third annual Cox Communications Internet safety survey. Further, 18% of those 28% who were targeted by strangers said they kept the communications to themselves and another 11% said they had talked to the stranger. The survey was released in conjunction with a teen summit in Washington in Internet safety sponsored by Cox and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is part of the telecom company's Take Charge! initiative, which aims to gives consumers tools to made smarter media decisions. The survey indicated that 90% of tweens using the Internet began doing so by the time they were nine years old. Most kids, 86% according to the survey, between eight and 10 years of age start out telling their parents “a lot” or “everything” about their online activities. But by the time they turn 11 or 12, only 69% of tweens are communicating fully with their parents about their Internet activities. That communications gap leaves them especially vulnerable, because at 11 to 12 years of age, 34% of tweens have begun posting on social networking sites, and the survey shows about 25% of users of those sites are posting personally identifiable information, such as pictures, the name of their home towns and their ages.
MultiChannel


Global Ad Spending Up, U.S. Flat, Nielsen Finds
TVNielsen research shows that global ad spending climbed 4% in the first quarter, even as an economic slowdown accelerated. Yet much of the growth came from outside the U.S. and Canada, which saw a 1% increase. Spending in Europe, where the waters may be getting choppier than the U.S., was essentially flat--down .4%, compared to the same period last year. The Asia-Pacific region--with China and India accounting for a chunk of the expansion--saw spending climb nearly 10%. Growth in Africa was strong--up 16%, with South Africa posting 15.3% growth, which Nielsen labeled "stunning." Nielsen said spending related to the U.S. presidential campaign helped offset negative factors, such as the Hollywood writers' strike. Among traditional media, television showed the highest growth rate globally in the first quarter, up 6.9%. Radio was second at a 1.1% increase, with newspapers up .4%. Magazines saw a .9% drop. (In the U.S. at least, magazines may benefit the least from political spending.) Television accounts for 60% of all global ad dollars, Nielsen said. In Europe, where TV accounts for half of the ad market, the medium was the only one posting growth in 1Q, with a 2.2% climb. Nielsen said the health-care category accounted for about 10% of spending, the largest single sector. The impact from the coming Beijing Olympics is expected to lead to a notable increase for the second half of the year, with a massive jump in China. It remains to be seen, however, whether any percentage increase will outpace an uptick from 2003 to 2004, the last year with a Summer Games.
MediaPost

Formula Shows Internet Advertising Surpasses TV, Radio
Is online advertising poised to surpass most other forms of advertising for the first time this year? It is according to a new report by Outsell Inc. But there’s a catch. The reason online ad spending will pass up TV, radio and movies combined is based on how Outsell measures ad spending. The California-based company includes what companies spend on their own web sites in their ad budgets as a form of marketing. Using this formula, Outsell predicts companies will spend $105.3 billion in online advertising this year compared with the $98.5 billion expected to be spent on TV, radio and movies. Sixty-two percent, or $61.5 billion, of online marketing and ad budgets for the 1,088 U.S. companies surveyed will go toward their company web site. Print media will still dominate overall advertising spending with $147 billion spent, up 12 percent compared to 2007. Only a third of that budget projection is slated for newspapers, which is down 4 percent compared to last year.
MediaLife Magazine


TiVo, Amazon Team Up to Sell TV Products
Wish you could instantly buy Oprah’s latest book club selection or Rachael Ray’s brand of EVOO while watching their TV talk shows? TiVo and Amazon are teaming up to make that lazyish wish come true by instantly connecting consumers to products they see featured on TV shows, including books, CDs and DVDs. Beginning today, TiVo digital video recorder owners will see a product purchase feature in various onscreen menus, which provide links to product purchases through online retail giant Amazon. TiVo also plans to offer the feature to programmers and advertisers, which could mean the chance to buy something featured during a live show. The move is TiVo’s latest effort to shed the anti-advertising label that has dogged ad-skipping DVRs since their introduction.
MediaLife Magazine


Original Greek Bible to be Posted on Web
There hasn’t been this big a breakthrough in making the Bible accessible to the general public since Gutenberg invented movable type. Anyone interested in reading the original Bible written in Greek more than 1,600 years ago now has a chance, as long as they have access to the internet. For the first time Thursday, sections of one of the oldest copies of the Bible will be available with a few clicks of a mouse. The University of Leipzig Library is putting high-res images of several Old Testament books and the Gospel of Mark up on www.codex-sinaiticus.net. Some translations of the Greek text will be available in English and German. Plans call for having the entire book’s contents online within a year.
MediaLife Magazine


McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet
Will Spend Five Days at Key Sites

In a daring bid to wrench attention from his Democratic rival in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today embarked on an historic first-ever visit to the Internet.

Given that the Arizona Republican had never logged onto the Internet before, advisors acknowledged that his first visit to the World Wide Web was fraught with risk.

But with his Democratic rival Barack Obama making headlines with his tour of the Middle East and Europe, the McCain campaign felt that they needed to "come up with something equally bold for John to do," according to one advisor.

McCain aides said that the senator's journey to the Internet will span five days and will take him to such far-flung sites as Amazon.com, eBay and Facebook.

With a press retinue watching, Sen. McCain logged onto the Internet at 9:00 AM Sunday, paying his first-ever visit ever to Mapquest.com.

"I can't get this [expletive] thing to work," Sen. McCain said as he struggled with his computer's mouse, causing his wife Cindy to prompt him to add that he was "just kidding."

Having pronounced his visit to Mapquest a success, Sen. McCain continued his tour by visiting Weather.com and Yahoo! Answers, where he inquired as to the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

Sen. McCain said that he had embarked on his visit to the Internet to allay any fears that he is too out-of-touch to be president, adding that he plans to take additional steps to demonstrate that he is comfortable with today's technology: "In the days and weeks ahead, you will be seeing me rock out with my new Walkman."

The Borowitz Report

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The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. 602 Communications is a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and promotion skills. We teach workshops on teasing, marketing, reporting, producing, lighting, editing, internet and graphics. Get more information on all our workshops.

TVSpy.com is home to ShopTalk, the FREE daily newsletter for the TV news industry, read by more than 25,000 subscribers. For more than 20 years, ShopTalk has given TV news professionals the daily inside scoop on the industry. Read today's ShopTalk and subscribe for FREE.

The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. 602 Communications is a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and promotion skills. We teach workshops on teasing, marketing, reporting, producing, lighting, editing, internet and graphics. Get more information on all our workshops.

The Marketing Ideanet is sent via TVSpy's e-mail servers. Visit TVSpy's Marketing Matters online community.

Graeme Newell
602 Communications
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(919) 217-4438
http://www.602communications.com


In This Issue
Free News Research from Madison Avenue
Obama's Media Entourage
'Nightline' Braces for Late Night Shake Up
CBS Chiefs to Face Questions in Rather Suit
'Mad Men,' '30 Rock' top TCA Awards
Basic Cable Makes Emmy History
China to Ban 'Threatening' Performers
Few Use Hulu
Internation Video Use Up 250%, CNN Says
Obama Releases List of Approved Jokes About Himself


Quotes

"Without the strength to endure the crisis, one will not see the opportunity within. It is within the process of endurance that opportunity reveals itself."
- Chin-Ning Chu

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

"... as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we have become."
- Bishop Westcott

Simplifying Your Brand Message
The latest Graeme Newell on-line video presentation is just out. Click here to watch it.

TV brands are being stretched to the breaking point these days. Gone are the days when you could market to one specific audience. All of us are being asked to promote more channels on more platforms than ever before. Our brands must now work for highly specialized, and wildly diverse audiences.
But promoting so many different products dilutes the message for your highly profitable main channel. What's a marketing director to do?
How can you position a teen football web site and a fishing cell phone alert under one brand? Should all your internet, cell phone and broadcast be one brand, or should you have different brands for different platforms and audiences?
In this example packed session, Graeme Newell shows you how some the best branders in the world tackle these difficult growth and expansion problems. Find out specific strategies for bringing wildly varying product categories under an easy-to-understand and highly profitable brand.

Free News Research from Madison Avenue
By Graeme Newell
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://www.602communications.com

Research budget get slashed this year? Well some good news is on the way. There are huge companies out there that are more than willing to give you their multi-million dollar research findings for free.

Each year Fortune 500 titans such as Unilever, Proctor and Gamble, and Ford spend tens of millions of dollars researching the precise emotional buttons their advertising must push to motivate a sale. Before they spend a dime on an on-air schedule, they test and re-test the effectiveness of each ad. These advertising pros use this info to mold spots for specialty cable channels. They tailor-make the ads to target the niche audiences these channels attract. In essence, these channels have become little behavior labs for marketers.

Every year the 602 Communications editors record and categorize thousands of ads from Madison Avenue, cable, and local TV stations. We analyze these ads and come up with specific visuals and messages that stimulate the emotional triggers that motivate TV viewing. Let me give you an example. After analyzing a few thousand ads, all aimed at mothers in their 30’s with children in the home, you will find four consistent emotional themes that show up.

Smart – Mom is an amazing genius. She continually finds clever and imaginative ways to care for herself and her family.

Minivan Example
Video Camera Example
Soup Example
Medicine Example

Selfless – Mom is humble. She quietly and ingeniously helps her family without a lot of showiness. As a matter of fact, she is so clever that she often tricks her family into doing what is best for them, without them ever knowing it.

Pediasure Example
SUV Example
Insurance Example

A Hero - Mom is continually saving the day. Bad stuff may happen to her family, but like Wonder Woman, she finds an ingenious solution that leaves everyone at ease.

Mastercard Example
Aflac Example

Domestic Nirvana – her whole family unit is incredibly happy, well adjusted and safe. The children are precocious and whimsical. The family is constantly hugging and admiring mom.

Soup Example
Store Example
Jif Example
Toll House Cookies Example

Why do these themes show up again and again in Madison Avenue commercials? Because they work. Before Dodge puts a mini-van on the market, it spends millions in research to find out exactly what motivates its target audience. Nestle knows it ain’t about the cookies. There are a zillion different cookies in a typical grocery story. Through careful research, they develop a methodical advertising game plan that quietly convinces mom that smart, heroic and selfless women can love their families with just a bit of Toll House magic.

So how can newsrooms use this information? We aren’t selling cookies; we’re journalists who weave stories about local community issues. The point is that this isn’t just advertising trickery. These four points are deeply held customer values and beliefs. They are a window into the soul of our viewers. This is how they want to see themselves. If your newsroom wants to attract more mothers in their 30s, then stories that mirror these values will strike a deep emotional chord with this specific audience. Madison Avenue spent millions finding these connections. The good news is that you can use them in a package for your 6pm show.

So as newsrooms start to crank up the back-to-school stories to attract young mothers, they can utilize these core emotional drivers in their storytelling techniques. You could start the story planning by looking for ways to showcase the story information around these four values. For example, don’t center the story around the impersonal shelves at Wal-Mart. Instead, find a smart-shopping mom who saved the day for her family, her school, or her community.

Showcase her intelligence and creativity. Show how she solved a tough problem with a smart solution. Show the best parts of her family life with bright-eyed and happy children. This is how this audience sees itself, and if your story mirrors these beliefs you will create a loyalty that motivates viewing even on slow news days. This is a newscast that’s a friend, not just a product.

So which specific audience do you want to attract to your station? If it’s men in their 40’s, you might want to hang out with the History Channel for a few weeks. Look at the images, words and attitudes of every ad that rolls across the screen. If you want men in their 20s and 30s, then check out Comedy Central, Spike and Versus. Take advantage of all the free research that’s available to you every single night in the Madison Avenue creations that provide a window into the soul of our audiences.

Graeme Newell is a broadcast and web marketing specialist. His teasing seminars immediately raise news ratings, and he guarantees you will get results or his workshop is free. You can see his latest on-line video presentation by clicking here.


Obama's Media Entourage
Senator John McCain’s trip to Iraq last March was a low-key affair: With a small retinue of reporters chasing him abroad, the NBC News anchor Brian Williams reported on Mr. McCain’s visit there from New York, including it in the “in other political news” portion of his newscast. But when Senator Barack Obama heads for Iraq and other places overseas this summer, Mr. Williams is planning to catch up with him in person, as are the other two network evening news anchors, Charles Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, who, like Mr. Williams, are far along in discussions to interview Mr. Obama on successive nights. And while the anchors are jockeying for interviews with Mr. Obama at stops along his route, the regulars on the Obama campaign plane will have new seatmates: star political reporters from the major newspapers and magazines who are flocking to catch Mr. Obama’s first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee. The extraordinary coverage planned for Mr. Obama’s trip, though in part solicited by aides, reflects how the candidate remains an object of fascination in the news media, a built-in feature of being the first black presidential nominee for a major political party and a relative newcomer to the national stage. But the coverage also feeds into concerns in Mr. McCain’s campaign, and among Republicans in general, that the news media are imbalanced in their coverage of the candidates, just as aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton felt during the primary season. Executives at the three traditional networks say they generally devote the same resources to the candidates. But they do not dispute that Mr. Obama has received more coverage this year, not only because of the historic nature of his campaign and his newness to the political scene relative to Mr. McCain, but also because of the protracted nature of Mr. Obama’s primary battle with Mrs. Clinton, which was at a peak when Mr. McCain last went to Iraq. The imbalance has appeared in various analyses of the news coverage. The Tyndall Report, a news coverage monitoring service that has the broadcast networks as clients, reports that the three newscasts by the networks — which have a combined audience of more than 20 million people — spent roughly 114 minutes covering Mr. Obama since June. They spent about 48 minutes covering Mr. McCain, who made the rounds of the evening newscasts in satellite interviews last week. The news industry’s fascination with Mr. Obama has carried over to general-interest magazines, with the candidate landing on considerably more covers in recent months than has Mr. McCain. In the last couple of weeks Mr. Obama has graced the front of Rolling Stone for the second time this year, and the cover of Us Weekly (both of which are owned by the company of a prominent Obama supporter, Jann S. Wenner).
NY Times


'Nightline' Braces for Late Night Shake Up
Nearly three years after it could have been dealt a fatal blow by the departure of Ted Koppel, ABC's "Nightline" has bucked the odds to not only survive but thrive. But with Jay Leno's departure set to shake up late-night TV, "Nightline" may be facing an even stiffer challenge to survive. Losing a talent of Koppel's magnitude has killed lesser shows, even without the radical transformation that the show underwent. "Nightline" went live after years on tape, offered three anchors instead of one and three stories every day instead of the single focus and conversation that had been a Koppel trademark. But something unexpected happened on the way to the TV scrap heap. "Nightline" grew year-to-year in its first two years, even beating "Late Show With David Letterman" in some weeks. And in the crazy, WGA strike-impacted TV season just past, it was down only slightly while both "Late Show" and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" saw steeper declines. Season-to-date, "Nightline" is a competitive No. 2 and has increased its retention from the ABC stations' late local news from 39% in 2005 to 50%. "The audience really responded right from the start," executive producer James Goldston said. "Clearly, there was a worry that a lot of traditional 'Nightline' viewers would reject change. Viewers don't like change at all, under any circumstances. It could all have been very different. It could have gone quite badly here." "Nightline" stands as one of the brighter lights in TV journalism, a daily newsmagazine that both serves as a last word on the news and has its own sometimes serious, sometimes quirky take. "Nightline" also has played a large role in making ABC competitive in late-night for the first time, and its pairing with "Jimmy Kimmel Live" has worked so well that ABC recently extended Kimmel's deal through 2010. But with the face of late-night TV set to change dramatically next year with the departure of Leno from "Tonight," there's a chance that no matter how successful "Nightline" has been in remaking itself, if ABC and parent company Disney decide to go after Leno, "Nightline" could be the odd show out. It would be a cruel irony for a program that has managed not only to keep its journalistic integrity intact but done everything that it's been asked to do and more ratings-wise.
Hollywood Reporter

CBS Chiefs to Face Questions in Rather Suit
The chief executive of CBS and the former president of CBS News have agreed to answer questions from lawyers for Dan Rather, who has accused the network of violating his contract by giving him little to do after forcing him off the “CBS Evening News” in 2005. Lawyers in the case told a New York State Supreme Court judge, Ira Gammerman, late Wednesday, that Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News, would give a deposition in late July, and Leslie Moonves, the chief of CBS, would do so in September. Mr. Rather is also seeking to depose Sumner M. Redstone, the executive chairman of CBS. Mr. Rather is seeking to prove that CBS mishandled his removal from the anchor chair he had held for nearly a quarter century in the fallout over a 2004 report for the weeknight edition of “60 Minutes.” The report, for which Mr. Rather had served as a correspondent, sought to raise new questions about whether President Bush had received preferential treatment during his Vietnam-era service in the National Guard. After bloggers in particular raised questions about the veracity of the documents that had been used to support the report, CBS said it could not verify their authenticity. In April, Justice Gammerman said that he would permit Mr. Rather to argue throughout the discovery process that CBS had violated his contract by, in effect, marginalizing him for more than a year after he left the evening news. For much of that time Mr. Rather was a correspondent on “60 Minutes,” though he has contended that others were featured far more prominently. In amending his original suit in May, Mr. Rather said that CBS had damaged his reputation to the point that he was unable to get a job with ABC, NBC or CNN. He currently works for HD Net, a high-definition television channel. Among the claims in Mr. Rather’s original lawsuit, filed in September, is that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the National Guard broadcast in order to “pacify the White House.” In a telephone interview Thursday, Jim Quinn, a lawyer for CBS, said: “We feel comfortable, and we felt comfortable all along, that whether there’s a trial or motion, CBS will be vindicated. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
NY Times


'Mad Men,' '30 Rock' top TCA Awards
The nation's TV critics coronated AMC's "Mad Men" Saturday, naming the period drama about advertising execs the program of the year, the outstanding new program and the year's best drama. The awards, on the heels of a sweep of Emmy nominations, were the first ever given to AMC by the Television Critics Assn. Another big TCA Award winner was NBC's "30 Rock," which took the prize for comedy and its star Tina Fey, who won for individual achievement in comedy. The other dual-award winner was HBO's "John Adams," which won for best movie, miniseries or special, and its star Paul Giamatti, who was honored for individual achievement in a drama. HBO's "The Wire," a critical darling practically ignored by Emmy voters, was given TCA's heritage award, reserved for longstanding programs with cultural impact. The prize for career achievement went to Lorne Michaels, creator of NBC's "Saturday Night Live." PBS took two TCA Awards. Ken Burns' "The War" won for news and information, and the erudite "WordGirl" was named best children's program. The awards, presented at the Beverly Hilton, were introduced by the Smothers Brothers.
Hollywood Reporter


Basic Cable Makes Emmy History
This year, AMC's "Mad Men" received 16 Emmy nominations, including best drama--the most of all TV dramatic series. It was the first time a basic cable series was nominated in the best-series category. HBO's "The Sopranos" did that trick for a pay-TV series some years ago. "Mad Men" has already won a Golden Globe for best series. Cable grabbed other honors for its original series: FX's "Damages" also took a best drama nomination, as did Showtime's "Dexter." AMC's other new original series "Breaking Bad" received an actor nomination for Bryan Cranston; TNT's "Saving Grace" took one for Holly Hunter. For all ongoing TV series, however, it was still a broadcast show leading the way. NBC's comedy "30 Rock" grabbed 17 nominations. In the high-profile drama series category, repeat nominations for best series include ABC's "Lost," ABC's "Boston Legal" and Fox's "House." HBO's miniseries "John Adams" was the most-nominated program with 23 mentions, including best miniseries and best lead actors nominations for Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Overall, HBO remained the most-nominated network--with 85 nominations. ABC followed with 76, and CBS with 51. For all cable networks, after HBO, Showtime scored the second-best with 21 nominations, mostly from "Dexter" and "This American Life," a contender for nonfiction series. AMC was next with 20 nominations. Emmy nominations for best commercial were earned by Leo Burnett for a Hallmark Cards spot called "Brother of the Bride"; BBDO New York for a FedEx spot, "Carrier Pigeons"; Fallon, for Travelers' "Delivery"; Weiden + Kennedy for Coca-Cola's "It's Mine"; and DDB Chicago for Bud Light's "Swear Jar."
MediaPost


China to Ban 'Threatening' Performers
China is tightening the screws on political expression, saying it will ban foreign artists and entertainers who have ever engaged in activities deemed to "threaten national sovereignty." The notice, posted Thursday on the Ministry of Culture's Web site, follows a March incident in which Icelandic singer Bjork yelled, "Tibet, Tibet, Tibet" after performing her song "Declare Independence" live in Shanghai. Under the new mandate, Chinese event organizers will be expected to scrutinize acts and material and ban any performance that might threaten national unity, stir ethnic hatred or violate Beijing's strict policy on state-approved religions and "cultural norms." Other artists that could theoretically be barred under the terms of the notice could include Hollywood heavy-hitters Steven Spielberg and Sharon Stone. The Ministry of Culture did not respond to requests for comment.
Hollywood Reporter


Few Use Hulu
Despite a high-profile in the media business, only 15% of online Americans have even heard of Hulu.com, the NBC-Fox online video venture. But those who have used the site like it a lot. That’s the conclusion of a recent study from Solutions Research Group obtained exclusively by TelevisionWeek. Hulu users say they like the ability to search and find both old episodes of TV shows and recent ones they missed. Hulu visitors also like that the shows are free and that the service operates as something of an online digital video recorder. Their only complaint is that the site offers only the most recent episodes of certain shows. The average age of a Hulu user is 32, 10 years younger than the average online American. Also, two-thirds of Hulu users are male. Solutions Research Group said 51% of users are between 12 and 29, and their average income is 22% higher than the U.S. average. Hulu users are more likely to own laptops, smart phones and video-capable MP3 players than the average online American. About 39% of Hulu users said they “frequently paid attention to ads seen online.”
TV Week


Internation Video Use Up 250%, CNN Says
International news network CNN claims the use of its international online edition's video offering has increased 250% year-on-year. The company said its coverage of the US elections, Myanmar cyclone and Chinese earthquake were key drivers for the increase. CNN has been ramping up its video offering since a global relaunch nine months ago, and now publishes 79% more video content than the previous year. CNN offers users live online video, personalization and feedback tools in what it calls 'multi-media storytelling'. Nick Wrenn, managing editor, CNN International (EMEA), said, "Last year we invested in online video to bring more of our international reports to a wider global audience. The increase in video usage shows our strategy is paying dividends and we're now well placed to build out our content on different diverse platforms."
NMA


Obama Releases List of Approved Jokes About Himself
Bid to Help Late Night Comics

Saying he is "sympathetic to late night comedians' struggle to find jokes to make about me," Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) today issued a list of official campaign-approved Barack Obama jokes.

The five jokes, which Sen. Obama said he is making available to all comedians free of charge, are as follows:

Barack Obama and a kangaroo pull up to a gas station. The gas station attendant takes one look at the kangaroo and says, "You know, we don't get many kangaroos here." Barack Obama replies, "At these prices, I'm not surprised. That's why we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

A traveling salesman knocks on the door of a farmhouse, and much to his surprise, Barack Obama answers the door. The salesman says, "I was expecting the farmer's daughter." Barack Obama replies, "She's not here. The farm was foreclosed on because of subprime loans that are making a mockery of the American Dream."

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Why the long face?" Barack Obama replies, "His jockey just lost his health insurance, which should be the right of all Americans."

Q: What's black and white and red all over?
Barack Obama: The New Yorker magazine, which should be embarrassed after publishing such a tasteless and offensive cover, which I reject and denounce.

A Christian, a Jew and Barack Obama are in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. Barack Obama says, "This joke isn't going to work because there's no Muslim in this boat."

Borowitz Report

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In This Issue
Marketing Movers
Media Plays Into Big Oil's Hands
Huckabee in Talks for Own Fox Show
Brit Hume to Step Down After Election
FOX Business Ups CNBC on Web
Cartoon 'Insult to Muslims', Obama Says
Cover Concerns Dems, Study Finds
'NBC Nightly News' Tops for NATAS
SNL's Poehler Lined Up for 'Office' Spinoff
Message From Michael
Late Night Licks: Gas Prices


Quotes

"Business is the art of extracting money from another man's pocket without resorting to violence."
- Max Amsterdam

"The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."
- Ralph Nader

"The problem isn't that people don't understand how good things are. It's that they know, from personal experience, that things really aren't that good."
- Paul Krugman


Promo of the Day
WDRB Louisville is correct that a good journalist is naturally curious. To quote Eugene Ionesco "It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question." In these promos, their morning team asks viewers to 'wake up your curiosity with Fox in the Morning.'

www.602communications.com/VideoExamples

Have a video clip to share? Email it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Flash (.flv) or QuickTime (.mov) files, size 320 x 240, are preferred, but WindowsMedia (.wmv) files will also be accepted. Large files may be sent via http://www.yousendit.com. You can also mail your clip on VHS or DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.


Marketing Movers
It’s a little late, but a big Welcome Aboard goes out to BRITTANI EDWARDS who joined Cox’s WSOC as a Topical writer/producer. She’s a Spartanburg, SC native who got her first job in TV in the one and only Charleston, SC. Brittani began as a part timer who was hired on fulltime and got a taste for promos at WCSC, Raycom’s CBS affiliate in that lovely seaside charm of a place Brittani has been calling CSD SALLY GANZ boss for a bit, but we want to send out a very heartfelt Well Dunne! to her.

Who is the newest member of Louisville’s FOX affil WDRB/WMYO creative services team? If you answered WILL BENSON, you win a prize. Taking on the job of News Topical Writer/Producer. Will is heading to Derby Town from his promo gig at Raycom’s NBC affil WFIE in Evansville, Indiana. A native of McCordsville, IN (near Indianapolis), he’s thrilled to be able to stay near family. A grad of Vincennes U, he spent four years with the Army, mainly at Ft. Campbell, KY but also did a tour of Saudi Arabia. WFIE was his first job in TV. BTW, his lovely wife, LeAnn, has already gotten a job in TV in L-town as well…this time for the competition in the sales and traffic departments. David Jewell is the CSD and Will’s new boss. Well Dunne! Will!

Two major markets, one on each coast, have new CSD’s. Let’s start in LA, where Tribune’s KTLA has brought John Moczulski on as Vice President of Programming and Marketing. He’s been on the job since June 3, coming to KTLA from TV10s, LLC, a television rep firm that did something with sponsorships. He was Prez and co-founder. He’s a guy who knows the ropes, having handled both programming and/pr promotions for KNBC, KABC, KGO, CBS/Viacom and Columbia TriStar Television Distribution. A big Well Dunne! to you John.

Now, to the East Coast, where Sunbeam’s WHDH has promoted KAREN FEINBERG-LEVY to the CSD slot. This is a great story…she’s from the Boston area – Wayland, MA to be specific. She’s a 14-year veteran of WHDH, having started as a Production Assistant and worked her way through News and to Promotions. Rah! She was Promotions Manager in 1999 then went part-time as a producer so she could be raise her three children. What a great story. Congrats Karen and Well Dunne!

Bob Oswaks has been on the creative TV bus for a long time, and he’s just been named President of Television at Sony Pix TV. WOW…that’s quite an amazing slot. It’s a promotion, actually – he’s been Exec VP of Marketing. Bob, an East Coast kind of guy, has been involved in promoting TV shows at such places as Orion, Pearson, Hill & Knowlton. More news from his shop: Chris Van Amburg has been tapped to be VP of New Media, Digital and Mobile Marketing. Steven Gadecki has been bumped to Senior Manager, New-media Marketing; Kendra Moore has been named Director, Digital Marketing; and Allison Higgins is now Senior Manager, Mobile Marketing. Last but not least, Rachel Mizuno is now the VP of Affiliate Marketing. A round of Well Dunne! for everybody.

Think About This: "When you feel inspired, more than ordinary thinking is involved. There is a sense of being uplifted, of suddenly breaking through. Old boundaries fall away, and one feels, if only for a moment, a rush of liberation." - Deepak Chopra

Kate Bacon compiles MARKETING MOVERS and wants to hear about the latest news in your career, your life, or any fun event that is going on. Just drop her an email at movers (at) 602communications.com. She’ll handle the rest. And read her daily blog about TV marketing at www.welldunne.blogspot.com. Also, don’t miss her new FATES & FORTUNES blog on the Broadcasting and Cable website.


Media Plays Into Big Oil's Hands
The cover of a recent BusinessWeek about the runup in oil and gasoline prices framed the question of what’s causing it nicely: “Speculation or Manipulation?” But the story was maddeningly evenhanded. By dodging its own question, the magazine raised another. When it comes to the cost of gasoline, who should we believe? Here are some nominees and their viewpoints:

1. The oil companies: It’s supply and demand at its most basic, just like your professor outlined in your freshman economics course.

2. The petro-toadies in Congress: All we have to do is open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the waters off Florida and California.

3. The Department of Energy: OPEC has to pump more, and we’ve got to allow more refineries by rolling back environmental restrictions.

4. King Abdullah: OPEC pumps plenty of crude but “despicable” oil-futures speculators in the West are driving up the prices due to their “selfishness.”

5. Senator John McCain: Exxon Mobil has done such a good job of demonstrating the magic of the marketplace that it deserves another $1.2 billion in tax breaks.

6. Senator Barack Obama: Impose a windfall-profits tax to remind American oil executives that price gouging can backfire politically.

7. About 90 percent of the print and TV reporters in America: See No. 1. It really is that ol’ devil supply and demand.

8. The White House: Never mind. Nobody’s home.

For my money, a sounder answer as to whom to believe is Don Barlett and Jim Steele, the investigative reporting team that has won two Pulitzers and two National Magazine Awards for exposing government theft and corporate greed. Their 2003 series for Time magazine on oil economics remains required reading for anyone who wants a better understanding of how gas at $4 to $5 a gallon represents a carefully arranged screwing of consumers. “The bottom line for the oil people is, How much can I make while spending the least I can get by with on refineries, synthetic fuels, and for exploration and drilling on the vast, unused acreage in existing oil leases?” Barlett says. He notes that Canada has become the United States’ No. 1 oil supplier by funding joint government-industry exploration of the tar-sand fields of Alberta. “The most chilling statistic is Exxon Mobil’s. It spent twice as much last year to buy back stock as it did on exploration.”

As for shallow journalism that helps Big Oil, Steele makes the point that the newsrooms that were once staffed by the redistributionist children of the New Deal and the A.F.L.-C.I.O. are now populated with the children of Reaganomics: “Younger reporters come out of a mind-set that the market rules, taxes are evil, and government ought to let these people in the oil industry go about their business.”

As journalism has passed from a hungry to an elite profession, there’s no shock value in the fact that Exxon Mobil paid only $5 billion in U.S. income taxes last year while it paid $25 billion to foreign governments. Even with Exxon Mobil making $76,000 a minute, the last thing that occurs to many assignment editors and reporters is to investigate whether a windfall-profits tax would drive Exxon Mobil, BP, and other oil companies to invest in the alternative-energy strategies they boast about in their television commercials.

Then there’s the problem of letting general-assignment reporters, rather than energy specialists, cover gasoline prices mainly as a story of consumer suffering. About 40 percent of U.S. oil is produced domestically, and Washington has declined to regulate auto fuel as an essential commodity. That’s where the vertical integration of a giant like Exxon Mobil creates market leverage. It owns oil fields, processing plants, and retail outlets, creating some monopoly-like advantages in controlling supply and fixing prices in the U.S. market. Then there is the remarkable job that the oil companies have done in persuading network-TV anchors and correspondents to depict them as they want to be seen: powerless victims of a supply-and-demand cycle that is as immutable as gravity and as random as lightning. Congress, responding to demands for tougher laws on oil speculation, would prefer to blame environmental regulations. Much of the context-free reporting about what the executives say, in Congress and on television, is marked by breathtaking gullibility.

Speaking of television, no one of any age can doubt that the industry’s star performer in the public relations battle over gasoline prices is Rex Tillerson, chairman and C.E.O. of Exxon Mobil. His appearances on the Today show have become five-minute promos for price escalation, with Matt Lauer cast as the surrogate for a nation of consumers who don’t fully understand their role—helpless and sacrificial—while the company maximizes shareholder value, “our reason for being.”

This is a “demand-driven price runup, no question about it,” Tillerson drawls, fingers intertwined and as fidget-free as Chance the Gardener. Lauer gamely zeroes in on Exxon Mobil’s dirty secret—that it spends only 5.3 percent of revenue on exploration at a time of record revenue. “If you’re making $400 billion a year, should consumers expect you to pay or spend even more on exploration?” Lauer asks.

The unflappable Tillerson describes this modest expenditure as “very, very robust.” He adds, with apparent conviction, “We would do more if we could gain access to more areas.” In other words, give us ANWR, then we can talk price at the pump. In fact, no unbiased expert claims that exploiting the fields in the Alaskan wilderness would cause more than a bump in world supply or prices in the U.S. By the way, Tillerson observes, the industry needs more refineries too.

Lauer, charmingly outpointed at every turn, finally blurts, “Mr. Tillerson, you’re always nice with your time.”

“My pleasure, Matt,” the oil king rumbles, not a hair out of place on his salt-and-pepper corporate coif.

And it was, no doubt, a pleasure for him to slip out of Rockefeller Center, built with Standard Oil dollars accrued in an earlier era of rapacious pricing, without addressing the oil-company claims that are most easily disproved by that old-fashioned journalistic method called reporting. The plain truth is that the record profits cited by Lauer—$10.9 billion in the first quarter of this year for Exxon Mobil—reflect an industrywide decision to flow revenue directly to the bottom line rather than to capital expenditure. To buy Tillerson’s story, you’d have to believe that profit is an accident, when it is, irrefutably, the result of a company strategy tailored to this unique moment of opportunity.


Read the rest of the article here:
Portfolio.com


Huckabee in Talks for Own Fox Show
Less than one month after signing on as a Fox News commentator, Mike Huckabee is working aggressively to expand his media presence. This week, Huckabee is meeting with Fox officials about plans to host his own show on the network. Plus, he’s subbing for Paul Harvey on ABC Radio Network and appearing on a number of existing Fox shows. Cable news networks have expanded their political coverage in response to intense viewer interest in the 2008 presidential campaign. And in recent months, Fox has inked a number of big political names to provide analysis, from former Bush political guru Karl Rove to Howard Wolfson, the top spokesman for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic nomination. Huckabee also has started a political action committee to raise money for Republicans who support “tax reform, a strong national defense, real border security, life, the family, less government, and individual liberty.”
Politico


Brit Hume to Step Down After Election
Brit Hume, the pre-eminent political anchor on the Fox News Channel, intends to step down from his nightly newscast after the presidential election, three people close to him said this week. Mr. Hume, 65, has expressed an interest in “reducing his role” but will likely remain with Fox News as a panelist on “Fox News Sunday,” two of the people said. The people requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his contract negotiations, which are ongoing. Mr. Hume’s departure from “Special Report” would represent one of the most dramatic changes to Fox’s powerhouse schedule since the channel’s inception nearly 12 years ago. Mr. Hume was the most prominent anchor recruited by Roger Ailes before Fox News debuted in 1996, and he has remained a cornerstone of the network ever since, serving as the baritone voice of Washington news. He anchors election coverage and, as Washington managing editor, helps oversee news coverage in the nation’s capital. Mr. Hume has been an unbridled supporter of Fox and a believer that the network acts as a counterweight to liberal bias on other networks. At Fox, he has helped shape the coverage of President Clinton’s impeachment, the 2000 election stalemate, and the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Mr. Hume previously spent 23 years as a reporter for ABC News, including eight years as the chief White House correspondent.
TV Decoder


FOX Business Ups CNBC on Web
The much-hyped upstart cable network Fox Business Network is finally beating the long-established incumbent CNBC—on the Web that is. The network’s site FOXBusiness.com drew 1.618 million unique users in June, placing it two slots above CNBC’s 1.437 million uniques in Nielsen Online’s Financial News and Information category. That marks the third month in the past year that FoxBusiness.com’s total audience surpassed CNBC.com’s, despite that network’s considerable head start in the financial news category. News Corp. launched the Fox Business Network and its companion site last October. Meanwhile CNBC’s site was relaunched in December of 2006 after its five year relationship with Microsoft’s MSN Money expired. Thus, FoxBusiness’ traffic advantage can be considered something of a small victory—at least in the cable category--considering that the network is available in far fewer homes than is CNBC, which was launched in the late 1980s. Currently Nielsen does not yet report on Fox Business’ ratings. Still, FoxBusiness.com and CNBC.com have miles to go before either site is a major player in the vast financial news universe on the Web. In June, the sites ranked 23rd and 26th respectively, both trailing leader Yahoo Finance by a whopping 18 million unique users.
MediaWeek


Cartoon 'Insult to Muslims', Obama Says
Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, has spoken out about the satirical depiction of him and his wife on a magazine cover, calling it an insult to Muslims. Speaking on Tuesday night on the CNN's Larry King show, Obama said the cartoon, which depicts him and his wife as flag-burning "radicals", did not bother him. "You know, there are wonderful Muslim Americans all across the country who are doing wonderful things and for this to be used as sort of an insult, or to raise suspicions about me, I think is unfortunate," he said. Obama blamed himself for not being forceful enough in challenging some of the misconceptions about him, including the false belief held by some Americans that he is a Muslim. "I do think that, you know, in attempting to satirize something, they probably fueled some misconceptions about me instead," he said. "But, you know, that was their editorial judgment. And as I said, ultimately, it's a cartoon, it's not what the American people are spending a lot of their time thinking about."
AlJazeera


Cover Concerns Dems, Study Finds
In an election year where the two sides can’t seem to find anything to agree on, The New Yorker has given Democrats and Republicans another issue to differ on. A study released yesterday by HCD Research finds that 54 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of Independents did not find the magazine’s satirical cover illustration of Michelle and Barack Obama offensive. By comparison, 31 percent of Democrats did not. Forty-seven percent of Democrats think the cartoon, which showed the couple dressed as Islamic militants with a portrait of Osama bin Laden hanging behind them in the Oval Office, will hurt Obama’s campaign. But half of Republicans and 54 percent of Independents don’t think there will be any effect on the campaign. The New Yorker has stood by the controversial cover, saying it was meant to illustrate the fear-mongering directed at the Obamas during the campaign.
MediaLife Magazine


'NBC Nightly News' Tops for NATAS
“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” regained the top spot among total viewers over the last year, and it’s also at the top of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences’ list. The show yesterday received 10 nominations for the 29th annual News & Documentary Emmys, making it the year’s most-nominated program. PBS led all networks in nominations with an impressive 38, with all but one nod coming in the documentary categories. ABC and CBS tied for second with 17 nominations each, with ABC earning eight apiece for “20/20” and “ABC World News with Charles Gibson” and CBS grabbing nine for “60 Minutes” and five for “Sunday Morning.” National Geographic led the cable networks in nominations with 12, followed by HBO/Cinemax with 10 and History Channel with six. The awards will be handed out on Sept. 22 at New York’s Frederick P. Rose Hall at the Time Warner Center.
MediaLife Magazine


SNL's Poehler Lined Up for 'Office' Spinoff
"Saturday Night Live" regular Amy Poehler is in advance negotiations with NBC to star in the network's upcoming spinoff of "The Office," according to network and talent agency sources. Creator Greg Daniels has been keeping details of his new series under wraps. So far, he and NBC have only confirmed the casting of Aziz Ansari in what's believed to a relatively minor role on the show. If Ms. Poehler finalizes a deal for the show, she will join "SNL" alum Tina Fey on NBC's Thursday night lineup. Ms. Fey, who stars in NBC's "30 Rock," teamed with Ms. Poehler for the spring feature hit "Baby Mama." "The Office" spinoff is scheduled to join NBC's Thursday roster in February, following a post-Super Bowl premiere. Ms. Poehler's departure from "Saturday Night Live" has been the subject of industry speculation for several months now. In addition to co-anchoring "Update," Ms. Poehler's best known character on "SNL" in recent months has been that of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
TV Week


Message From Michael
THE 600-POUND MEDIA GORILLA: Even without me saying it, you can probably guess what I’m talking about, and if you guessed the Internet, you’re wrong. Half a dozen recent reports that I’ve reviewed came out with the same conclusion – television is and will continue to be for some time the dominant media. First comes the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report which says that revenue from traditional media such as television will still dominate the global market. Then there’s the media services firm Magna Global whose director of industry analysis argues that TV’s “convenience, relatively low cost and quality of content” will sustain the traditional viewing and support from big brand advertisers for the foreseeable future. Interestingly The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising based in London (who else but the British would have such a weird name), used the same language as the Magna Global people, referring to television as “the dominant medium.” The Solutions Research Group predicts that TV viewing will stay pretty constant for some time, accounting for nearly half (47%) of the daily “video pie.” Add to that the report by The Media Audit which says adults spend an average 222 minutes a day (that’s 3 hours and 42 minutes) watching television, compared to 122 minutes a day using the Internet. Finally research conducted by The Nielsen Company for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing which shows the vast majority of adults (94%) who subscribe to cable or satellite prefer to watch on the traditional TV sets.

Of course it’s never that simple. The Media Audit study notes that online usage has jumped 62% in the past year from an average of 2 hours and 2 minutes a day to 3 hours and 17 minutes a day. Television, which while still the larger amount, has actually dropped as a percent of the total media day from 36.5% in 2006 to 32.7% in 2007. The CTAM commissioned study by Nielsen noted similar numbers and percentages, while also noting that a third of broadband users surveyed (35%) said they had turned to the Internet to watch a television show originally shown on TV. The Solutions Research Group makes a similar point, noting that TV’s share has dropped while PC-based, web video and mobile video consumption has continued to rise; but the group says on-demand video and digital video recorders will mean TV will still retain a place in the market. The PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report says the ballooning over-50 crowd in developed countries (aka America and Europe) is the main support for traditional media even while adopting some of the new media; but that in the developing countries it’s the ballooning under-35 crowd who are setting the stage for change in media consumption. Putting that into PWC-speak, media companies should continue to “extract revenue” from the traditional segments while the emerging technologies “solidify their consumer position.” Brian Weiser with Magna Global says part of the problem with ad spending on new media is that it is labor intensive, but that as ad buying becomes more standardized for these segments along with data crunching (aka measurement), spending will increase. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising warns that increased advertising is driving some people away while the advent of the personal video recorders is helping keep them away.

Side Note #1: A study commissioned by Yahoo titled Engage and Entertain: The Impact of the Internet on your TV Show Brand” found that a third of TV viewers go on-line for details about a TV show BEFORE watching it while two-thirds (68%) of TV viewers say they go online to find about more information about a TV show AFTER watching it.

Side Note #2: The PriceWaterhouseCoopers report says the fastest growth in media will come in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations with the group forecasting the media business in those four countries at $250 Billion by 2012 compared to $165 Billion for Japan, $633 Billion for Western Europe and $760 Billion for the U-S which remains the largest but slowest growing market.

VIDEO, VIDEO EVERYWHERE: Several reports say we should get away from thinking about things like TV, DVD’s, DVR’s, Mobile, Film, Movies, Internet video and video games as separate issues but rather as part of a total video universe. The Solutions Research Group, cited above, predicts that by the year 2013, people will spend as much time consuming video as they do sleeping – roughly eight hours a day, up from six hours a day right now and 4.6 hours a day in 1996. The report says the “appetite for video is remarkable” and talks about “ambient video everywhere.” In a similar vein, the Forrester Research group issued a report titled somewhat hyperbolically How Video Will Take Over the World in which it talks about a concept it calls “omnivideo.” It predicts a video explosion with individuals able to watch – and produce – video nearly everywhere on a variety of different devices because, says principal analyst James McQuivey, “video satisfies the brain in a way that other media just cannot.”

THE TECHNOLOGICAL SHOTGUN WEDDING: It’s between TV and the PC, and several major groups are working to make sure it happens. Sony has created an Internet video link that plugs into the back of Bravia LCD TV’s and allows you to access sites as diverse as YouTube, AOL, CBS.com and Yahoo! Panasonic’s version is Vieracast on its Viera model TV sets and which accesses YouTube and the Weather Channel. Sharp has a configurable widget on its Aquos Net TV’s to update people on weather, NASDAQ, traffic and comic strips. Comcast is seeking patents, as reported by Cynopsis, for two devices – one that acts as a portable TV and video player and one that ports TV content to PC’s. Of course, Google is in the fray, with its announcement of a Google Media Server which conveys content from the PC to the TV AND even a move to distribute ORIGINAL TV content via AdSense. Finally, there is a device called the ZvBox which lets you watch high definition Internet video on any digital TV in your housing, simply by plugging one end into your Windows PC and the other into an ordinary cable TV wall socket.

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON: That catch phrase from the 1960’s TV series Lost In Space was the first thing that came to mind as I read the Technology Review’s special report on the future of the Web, quoting thirteen of the leading minds in the Internet world. Many of them warned that privacy will be lost in the interconnected world that is the Internet. Richard Stallman who developed the GNU/ Linux system and founded The Free Software Movement warns of the dangers of Big Brother while Mena Trott who cofounded Six Apart sees it as letting people put most of their day online. Jonathan Abrams who founded Socializr and Friendster offers the tongue-in-cheek (or at least I think it’s tongue-in-cheek) prediction that in ten years we will all have chips in our brain which will immediately process all information from others we meet as well as sharing it with others, overloading our brain and “causing frequent nosebleeds and occasional cerebral hemorrhage.” An interestingly different perspective comes from the three futurists who, not coincidentally, all come from the developing regions of India, Africa and the Middle East, with all three seeing the Web as empowering the people of their areas either financially, socially or politically. A good number of the predictors talked about the Internet becoming more mobile so people are not ‘tied’ to a computer at a desk. And, of course, no prediction about the Web would be complete without a statement from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with inventing the Web, who speaks about Linked Open Data. And in a line that only Sir Tim and a few others probably full understands, says, “a mashup sphere will feast on a wealth of Semantic Web data and herald the next wave of progress and creativity on the Web.”

FACTOID OF THE WEEK: According to website, TubeMogul, whose motto is “empowering online video,” the ‘shelf life’ of most video is about two weeks. The website which helps people upload video to multiple websites reports that a quarter (25%) of all views of a video take place in the first four days; half of the views (50%) take place in the first two weeks; three quarters in the first 44 days; and by day 81, nearly all of the viewing (95%) that will take place has taken place.

COCKTAIL CHATTER: Just one, but it’s a beauty. You’ve heard about clothes and fashion outlets opening businesses in the virtual worlds. Now, trend website Springwise reports that the flip side of that is people are taking the clothes worn by their avatars and having them made for real world use. Two websites, Stardoll and Spreadshirt, are already capitalizing on the trend, according to industry website, Virtual Worlds News. Yes, I know, I had the same reaction. There is actually an association or newsletter specifically for virtual worlds. In fact there is going to be a virtual worlds expo in Los Angeles in September. And I would note a previous MfM in which people were getting married in these virtual worlds, or at least their avatars were, even though some of them were married in real life.

Michael Castengera is an instructor at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia AND President of Media Strategies and Tactics Inc., a consulting firm that works with all media but primarily broadcasting. You can visit his website at MediaConsultant.tv.


Late Night Licks: Gas Prices

"The average national price of a gallon of gas hit an all-time record high of $3.15 this week. Meaning that wherever you're going this summer, it might be cheaper to mail your car."
- Amy Poehler

"Oil has fallen to $60 a barrel. Experts predict it will continue to fall until exactly one minute after the polls close on November 7th."
- Jay Leno

"The Federal Trade Commission has ruled that oil companies are not gouging customers. They say, technically, they're screwing customers."
- David Letterman

"Republicans in Congress are demanding that President Bush investigate whether oil companies are now gouging consumers on these gas prices. That's a good idea, Republicans asking Republicans to investigate other Republicans. And you know who they're going to blame? The Democrats."
- Jay Leno

"Republicans in Congress are now demanding that President Bush investigate whether the oil companies are engaged in price gouging. Putting the White House in charge of investigating oil companies. That's like putting Dick Cheney in charge of gun safety."
- Jay Leno

"President Bush said this week to help with gas prices he will temporarily ease environmental regulations. Great. Not only will you not be able to drive, you won't be able to breathe either."
- Jay Leno

"There was a sign at the station near by my house that said, 'We take Visa, Mastercard, Discover Card, and American Express.' After I filled up they took my Visa, Master Card, my Discover Card, and my American Express."
- Jay Leno

"They said on the news tonight that if gas prices get any higher, we could see something totally unprecedented here in California. People actually walking."
- Jay Leno

"Gas prices continue to rise. At the gas station near my house they have a slot for your credit card and one right next to it for your 401K."
- Jay Leno

"President Bush announced his plan to increase the number of barrels (of oil) produced. You hear his plan? He wants to make smaller barrels." - Jay Leno

"I was watching that movie Mad Max, you know that movie where gas is so precious that people are killing each other for a few gallons. It was set in the future -- I believe it was August."
- Jay Leno

"To counteract all the bad publicity they've been getting, the oil companies plan to introduce full-page ads explaining where your gas dollar goes. Before you explain that, explain where you get gas for a dollar. There's no such thing as a gas dollar. It's your gas five dollar."
- Jay Leno

"President Bush announced his new fitness plan to get people walking again. It's called, 'Gasoline at $3 a gallon.' ... Given how expensive gas is, today, I saw a van with 50 legal Americans inside it."
- Jay Leno

"President Bush spoke with the Amish. He didn't want to, but it was the only group he could find that wasn't upset about the high price of gas." —Jay Leno

"On the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq gas prices in L.A. reached three dollars a gallon in some places. Didn't we win that war? I mean, I know there were no weapons of mass destruction but apparently there's no gas there either."
- Jay Leno

"The average price of gas is now $2.11 a gallon, and here in California, it’s $2.30 a gallon. Here in L.A., it is literally cheaper to buy a new car than to fill your gas tank. Literally. Oprah tried to give away a car to someone in her studio audience today, and the woman spit in her face."
- Jimmy Kimmel

"While speaking to conservationists this week, Dick Cheney made it clear that he plans to deal with the rising gas prices by drilling in our federal wildlife refuge in Alaska. Cheney tried to sway his opponents saying trust me, there's enough oil up there to last us the rest of my natural life."
- Tina Fey


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