The Marketing Ideanet Newsletters

Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 2/26/2009

Obama Book Proceeds to Fund Poynter Institute Scholarship
The Poynter Institute has announced a new tuition scholarship program that is funded through proceeds from a new book of front pages about Barack Obama's election and inauguration. The program will make available a limited number of tuition subsidies worth up to $500 for participants of select 2009 on-site seminars, a release stated. The scholarships are made possible, in part, by a 2008 general support grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and proceeds from the book, 'President Obama,' a collection of newspaper election and inaugural front pages published by Poynter and Andrews McMeel. “We know how much the economic problems in the media business are affecting the ability of news organizations and individuals to pay for training,” Karen B. Dunlap, president of the Poynter Institute, said in a statement. “And we’re grateful to all of the Poynter benefactors who support our goal of providing affordable training to as many practitioners of journalism as possible. Hopefully, this program will inspire the participation of those who believe, as we do, that training is more important than ever to the creation of journalism that truly serves our democracy.” Scholarship recipients will be chosen on the basis of criteria that include: financial need; contribution to tuition; potential for improvement; and their impact on class diversity.
Editor & Publisher

Message From Michael
THE MUPPETS AND ZOMBIES VERSUS BARACK OBAMA: So, faced with those words in a headline or tease, which story do you pick? Well, the Pew Research group has provided an answer of sorts with a new twist on the old news debate about what people want to know versus what they should know. Their New Media Index tracks the top stories on the blogosphere and social media; then you can compare that with the top stories on its News Coverage Index which tracks the mainstream media. For example, in the latest survey covering the period from February 8th to the 15th, the economic crisis and/or the stimulus bill dominated both media streams. After that though, the main stream media devoted its “newshole,” as the Pew people inelegantly refer to it, to President Obama, the New York plane crash, Israel and the Australian fires. In contrast the stories rounding out the top five in terms of linkage in new media were eye care, Catholic indulgences, the Muppets and satellite radio. BUT – and you can see, it’s a big BUT – even those stories all originated in the traditional media forum. The eye care story was a New York Times article about how people could save money on eye glasses and eye care. The Catholic indulgences story also came courtesy of the New York Times and was about a practice that allows for the mitigation of punishment for sins. The Muppets story came from Mental Floss magazine through CNN.com and chronicled the history of the 20 characters on the show. And story number five about Sirius radio also originated in the so-called mainstream media and actually was covered there, just not as much as the bloggers and social media-ites. Just to add another twist, the folks at Pew also list the top viewed news and political videos on YouTube. In this particular week it was footage of a college student excited to ask President Obama a question, Obama’s video message about his stimulus plan, a firefighter giving water to a Koala bear in the fires in Australia, footage of a man in Essex barely missing being hit by a train, and the message from the Polish engineer being held hostage by the Taliban.

In the previous week, the mainstream media and new media both focused on the stimulus bill and economic crisis (with 44% of the news hole and 39% of the links), and the Obama administration (with 17% of the news hole and 24% of the links). But after that, the mainstream media focused on the Super Bowl, events in Iraq and Afghanistan while the top stories in the new media survey (which is based, BTW, on data provided by Technorati and IceRocket) were the snow in England (linked to several BBC reports), the practice of renditions (revolving around a Los Angeles Times report about the controversial practice used in investigating alleged terrorists), and a questionable method used by Johns Hopkins Medical Center to remove a donor’s kidney. In the YouTube world, it was all about actor Ashton Kucher complaining about his neighbor’s construction, the two New Zealand prisoners handcuffed together who run into a light pole when they try to escape, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struggling to explain how a program to prevent sexually transmitted diseases will stimulate the economy, Representative Dick Army telling Salon editor Joan Walsh how happy he is that she is not his wife AND – surprise of surprises – an hour long forum on Middle East Peace held at the Davos World Economic Forum.

One last one, in the week previous (January 26th to February 1st), the second most popular story, rivaling the economic crisis and the Obama administration was a story originating on Foxnews.com about hackers in Texas who broke into the system for programming digital road signs and changed one in Austin to read: Zombies ahead. Literally that story got almost as many links as the economic crisis and more than the Obama administration. In that same week, a study showing that high-fructose corn syrup could contain mercury got as many links as the problems surrounding Gitmo. In what seems to be a pattern to the two reports, two out of the five top stories are similar but the other three are totally different. In this week’s case, the mainstream media was reporting on Blago, the Super Bowl and the ice storms. There is a message in all this, but I will leave it to MfM readers to figure out what that message it.

THE CELL PHONE AS FIRST COMPUTER: That’s the way Craig Mundie of Microsoft characterized the mobile units to the future of digital/ mobile panel at the Davos World Economic Forum. And like the person who buys a boat and wants a bigger boat or who buys golf clubs and then wants more clubs, Mundie says Microsoft’s three-screen strategy is based on the idea that people buying the cell phones will eventually want something bigger and better. That may explain why the focus on mobile units at the forum. That, and the fact that while there are One Billion people online, as T-Mobile International’s CEO Hamid Akhavan explained to the group, there are more than three times that number (3.3 Billion) of cell phone users worldwide -- half of the world’s population.

If you believe that also translates into a mobile video world, think again. Microsoft’s Mundie was probably the bluntest when asked whether we’ve reached an online video tipping point – “the idea that we’re going to turn off cable and turn off satellite delivery and get on-line delivery is not in the cards – in my opinion – technically any time soon.” TMobile’s Akhavan noted that less than five percent of the cell phones being sold are 100% browser ready. While YouTube’s Chad Hurley noted that mobile video use is growing faster than the general Internet and new media growth, the percentage of people uploading video via mobile units is only two to three percent. On the flip side though, he said he believes the market for online video is reaching critical mass with audiences similar in size to what you can reach on television. What particularly helps the monetization of online video is that it is measurable. He argues the smart advertisers will move “from a world that isn’t measurable to an audience of the same size for a fraction of the cost.” (Let me emphasize the difference in these statements – online broadband-delivered video versus online mobile-delivered video.)

A couple of final points about the Davos forum. First off, I admit it’s a little old, but there has been little reporting of the panel activities in my view. Despite the big names on the panel, less than 8,000 people actually watched the hour-long webcast on YouTube – including, of course, yours truly – so you don’t have to. The movers and shakers at Davos have formed their own exclusive social network – WELCOM – to discuss global issues after the conference ends. And you’re not welcome to join. As BusinessWeek put it, it’s kind of a Facebook for the rich, powerful and famous. And finally, one of the key discussions by the panel was about privacy. Here, Microsoft’s Mundie probably put it best, saying it all boiled down to TRUST. (Please, no comments about the irony of that statement coming from a Microsoft person.) He says there are two elements to that trust: Notice, as in, let people know what information is being collected; and Choice, as in, let people decide how that information is to be distributed.

THE FACEBOOK FACE-OFF. The phenomenal growth of Facebook over the last year seems to pit the once student-focused social network against every other social network out there. As was pointed out at the Davos panel, slightly better than one out of every ten Internet users in the world is signed on to Facebook. Last year Facebook passed MySpace as the most trafficked social networking site in the world. It went from 52 Million in June of 2007 to 132 Million in June of 2008 while Myspace grew from 114 Million to 117 Million. You know how I love factoids. According to a blog by Mark Zuckerberg (who also attended the Davos panel) with more than 150 Million users worldwide at the beginning of this year, “if Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria.” In his talk to the panel, Zuckerberg said, “the mission of the company is to make the world more open.” Before you dismiss that as P-R pabulum, I should note that the fastest growing application on Facebook is “Causes” which, as the name implies, links people to causes and benefits. With 22.6 Million users, it is the fifth largest developer, behind RockYou (39 Million), Slide (38.6 Million), Zynga (32.3 Million) and Playfish (26.4 Million).

Facebook grew at double digit rates (38%) in North America; triple digit rates in Asia (458%), Africa (403%) and Europe (303%); but quadruple rates in South America (1055%). Of course, part of that is because Facebook was already mature in the U.S. and is only a recent introduction in other parts of the world. Interestingly enough, Facebook and MySpace are both flops in Japan where the top social networking site is Mixi and a social networking site originally created by Toyota (gazoo.com). According to Facebook web tracking site, AllFacebook.com, while Facebook numbers hover around 47 Million in the U.S., Japan had only 233 Thousand users while massive China had 240 Thousand and India had 1.1 Million. The country with the highest market penetration by Facebook, or put another way, the highest Facebook population density is…drum roll, please… Iceland with just under half of the country (41.31%) subscribing. It’s followed by Canada (32.81%), Denmark (32.79%), Norway (30.59%), Chile (28.37) and the United Kingdom with one out of four Internet residents (24.45%) a Facebook subscriber. The U.S. came in 17th at 13.97%, but looked at another way, that’s still one out of every seven Internet residents. As a PS, if you want to entertain yourself or drive yourself crazy, the allfacebook.com website as well as InsideFacebook.com provide enormous amounts of stats and stories to keep you going for hours on end.

CLARIFICATION: In last week’s MfM, we noted the amount of BitTorrent streaming videos in various countries around the world. It was part of a larger look at online videos and piracy. But as MfM subscriber and Intelligent Media Consultants partner Todd Fantz rightfully pointed out, the BitTorrent video streams are not all illegal.

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.

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavors for Bush
Ben & Jerry Bush Ice Cream Flavor This joke email is currently making the rounds. While Ben & Jerry's has no actual plans for a Bush ice cream flavor, the possibilities are hilarious.

Ben & Jerry created "Yes Pecan!" ice cream flavor for Obama. They then asked people to fill in the blank for the following:

For George W., Ben & Jerry created "_________".

Here are some of their favorite responses:

- Grape Depression
- Abu Grape
- Cluster Fudge
- Nut'n Accomplished
- Iraqi Road
- Chock 'n Awe
- Wire Tapioca
- Watermelon Boarding
- Impeach Cobbler
- Impeach Mint
- Heck of a Job, Brownie!
- Chunky Monkey in Chief
- George Bush Doesn't Care About Dark Chocolate
- WMDelicious
- Guantanmallow
- Neocon Politan
- RockyRoad to Fascism
- The Reese's-cession
- Cookie D'oh!
- Housing Crunch
- Nougalar Proliferation
- Death by Chocolate... and Torture
- Freedom Vanilla Ice Cream
- Chocolate Chip On My Shoulder
- "You're Shitting In My Mouth And Calling It A" Sundae
- Credit Crunch
- Mission Pecanplished
- Good Riddance You Lousy Motherf**ker... Swirl
- Country Pumpkin
- Chocolate Chimp
- Bloody Sundae
- Caramel Preemptive Stripe
- I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands...with nuts

About.com

--------------------------------------
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

Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 2/23/2009

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
Learning to do Smarter Searches in Google
Oscar Review
Comedy Pilots Reflect Recession
CNN Plans More Web-Only Shows
Hulu About to Get More Competition
Nielsen Reveals Online Program Rankings
Reception Problems Tops DTV Complaints
Man Shoots TV Over Converter Confusion
U.S. Domestic Mirth Product Faces Deficit
Economic Stimulus Explained

Quotes

“Know where to find the information and how to use it - That's the secret of success”
- Albert Einstein

“Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used”
- Dr. Carl Sagan

“As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.”
- Benjamin Disraeli

Learning to do Smarter Searches in Google
by Graeme Newell
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://www.602communications.com

If you are like most television station people, Google.com is your constant companion in the search for relevant information. Surprisingly, most people have never really taken the time to learn to use this powerful tool effectively. Implementing a few simple tricks can hone your searches, revealing the right information more quickly.

Going to the Second Page is Wasted Time.
A lot of people put one or two general words in the search box, then press return. They are then presented with a long list of results, most of which do not match. This is a bad use of your time. The best Google searches do not require scanning page after page of results. You will find what you need faster if you get very specific in your search description, then scan the results to see if you were successful. If what you need is not on the first page, don't go to the second page. Instead, narrow your parameters in the search box and do another query.

Use Quotes
Quotes are one of the most powerful tools in Google search. Google starts looking for web pages that contain all the words put in the search box. The terms can be in any order or at any place on the web page. For example, let's say you were looking for the famous Churchhill quote, "Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm." Unfortunately, all you remember is the end, ...loss of enthusiasm. If you put this term in the Google search box with no quotes around it, Google looks at all pages that have these three words. This search will yield articles about workplace feminism, a charm blog, and opposition during World War One. If you put "loss of enthusiasm" in quotes, Google looks for instances where those three words appear one after the other, in this precise order. Churchill's quote jumps to the top of the list. Whenever you're searching for a phrase that contains common words, using quotes can increase your chances of success.

Use the Minus Sign
If you want Google to skip over pages that contain specific words, put the minus sign in front of those words. For example, if you are searching for the hottest news on Britney Spears, an optimal search would look like this:
"Britney Spears" -pickle -weapon -aboriginal
This would eliminate all pages that contain the word spears that discuss the latest trends in dill pickle recipes, medieval weaponry, and native Australian hunting techniques. Remember to avoid excluding common words when using the minus sign. For example, "-the" would exclude most of the web pages in the world.

Use the Plus Sign
Just as the minus sign eliminates words from a search, the plus sign accentuates words in the search, giving extra weight to pages that have this word. If you were looking for pictures of the planet Neptune, your search might look like this:
Neptune planet +photo -god -roman -horse
This would weight the search towards astronomy sites with photos, and away from horse racing and Roman mythology.

Use Or
There are times you don't want Google looking for all the terms in the search, but for any of the terms in the search. For example, let's say you are looking for the latest information on crime in metro Boston. Naturally, you would include Boston in your search, but you would also want to include the names of the other neighboring communities. You might enter the search as:
"Crime Statistics" Boston Brookline Somerville
But this would only find pages that contain the names of all three communities. By using the or command, your search would be more accurate because it would bring up pages that contain crime statistics on Somerville, where Boston and Brookline are not mentioned. So the more successful search would look like this:
"Crime Statistics" Boston or Brookline or Somerville
This would bring up all pages that contain information on each of these individual communities.

Use the Tilden Sign
This is the little squiggly (~) character right beside the "1" key. There are times when you are looking for something, but don't know quite what to call it. Let's say you're looking for information on corruption in Congress. Where do you start? You don't know whether to search Senate, House, Congress or committee. Putting the tilden in front of the word signifies that you're looking for "words similar to this." Google will include synonyms to those words, expanding your search.

These are just a few of the simple ways you can optimize your searches. That little Google search box has many more tricks in store for you. Next week, I'll show you how to quickly get everything from weather, to sports scores, to stock quotes from that little magic box.

Graeme Newell is a broadcast and web marketing specialist. He guarantees that his teasing seminar will immediately increase your news ratings or his workshop is free. Find out more here.

Oscar Review
The Oscars were nothing if not different this year, with a return to the song-and-dance numbers of the past, a new format for handing out acting honors, and no stand-up comedian in the hosting job. But while the Academy should get credit for trying something new, after years of ceremony stagnation, this version didn’t exactly work either. Critics are giving last night’s drawn-out Oscar ceremony an A for effort but a C for presentation.

Host Hugh Jackman, a Tony winner whose opening song received a genuinely warm reception by the Hollywood types sick of being skewered by past hosts Jon Stewart and Chris Rock, did a solid job, though he appeared on screen sparingly aside from another somewhat bizarre musical medley with a sparkling Beyonce. “Jackman did his best. His mission just wasn’t accomplishable,” writes the New York Daily News’ David Hinckley. “Hollywood goes into the Oscars with the movies it has, not with the movies it might want, and it would have required powers beyond those of Wolverine to make Sunday night’s show greater than the sum of its cinematic parts.”

The new format for awarding acting honors was introduced early in the night. Past winners paid individual tribute to each of the nominees, a personal and sometimes touching gesture that still seemed a little awkward, especially since some speeches were more heartfelt than others. By the end of the night, with the clock well past 11 p.m. and three major awards still yet to give out, the best actor and actress presentations felt too drawn out. Viewers across the country were likely screaming at their screens, “Get on with it!”

The show included what seemed like an endless number of movie clips, though it also had a chuckle-worthy short film by Judd Apatow in which “Pineapple Express” stars James Franco and Seth Rogen gamely screened some of the year’s top comedies, adding their stoner observations. Still, on a night where virtually none of the winners was a surprise, the ceremony had a certain dullness that all the changes could not erase.

It remains to be seen whether last night’s atypical format will lead to viewership increases, though surely the ceremony’s long running time won’t help. Media Life readers predicted that the show would gain over last year, when viewership slipped to an all-time low of 32 million.

TV critics seemed to think that unlikely, based on the Oscars’ quality. “Yes, there were highlights, but the 81st Oscar show, which clocked in at 3 hours 23 minutes, was anything but a television highlight for the year so far or even for the week,” writes the Washington Post’s Tom Shales. “The Oscar ceremony has been televised since the early '50s, but they still haven't gotten the bugs out.”

A list of the night’s major winners:

BEST PICTURE
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, producer

LEAD ACTOR
Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)

LEAD ACTRESS
Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle for "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"Departures" -- Japan (Regent Releasing) A Departures Film Partners production

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Dustin Lance Black for "Milk" (Focus Features)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy for "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

ANIMATED FEATURE
Andrew Stanton for "WALL-E" (Walt Disney)
MediaLife Magazine

Comedy Pilots Reflect Recession
A group of friends gets fired on the same day. Troubled cops check into a halfway home. A Wall Street executive loses his job and has to reconnect with his small-town family. Laughing yet? Those are a few log lines for next fall's TV pilots -- the comedy pilots. Networks are looking at recession-friendly ideas for their new half-hours, with many projects embracing characters in crisis and avoiding office settings. CBS' "Waiting to Die" is, according to its description, a "buddy comedy about two simple guys who are happy with their life, no matter how bad it might look from the outside." Fox's "Two Dollar Beer" is about a blue-collar couple in Detroit who "deal with the reality of their long-standing roots in this community slowly becoming less relevant as the rest of the world passes them by." Groups of single, perky young people seem to be waning. No more friends with benefits -- they're now friends with unemployment benefits. The creative upside is that networks that have rushed back to police and medical procedurals for their fall drama pilots seem to have ordered some refreshingly untraditional comedies. Loglines suggest grown-up themes: single parents, a couple with an age difference, unexpected pregnancies. Yet the police-show resurgence is getting some play here, too. As odd as it might sound, there are four comedies in development about police officers or security guards. Office-based shows seem less popular as networks likely figure viewers do not wish to be reminded of their workplace -- or lack thereof -- during a recession. In another assumption-busting move, there are plenty of single-camera comedies on the list. This season, the traditional multi¬camera style of show seemed more likely to draw viewers, suggesting that networks might avoid the format in the fall. But nearly 40% of the pilots are single-camera shows, using the cinematic style popular with critics and younger viewers yet bearing a shaky track record in the ratings. Given the WGA strike last year, networks have plenty more pilots to choose from that presumably will result in a better-quality crop of shows hitting the air in the fall. If networks greenlight "losers of the recession" comedies, however, will the shows be funny enough to survive an economic recovery?
Hollywood Reporter

CNN Plans More Web-Only Shows
Look for CNN anchors and reporters to start doing more Web-only pieces and shows. That is according to a network spokesperson referencing the network's on-air/online coverage of President Barack Obama's first address to Congress Feb. 24. John King, for example, will host the first online-exclusive edition of his new Sunday show, State of The Union with John King, from noon to 1 p.m. on CNN.com Tuesday, followed by Ali Velshi and Christine Romans hosting an online-only special, State of The Economy, which will undoubtedly be a major topic of the president's speech. CNN will also re-team with Facebook to create an online community tied to the event and accessible via CNN.com. The two paired on coverage/community for the Inauguration. And just in case anyone needs a reminder of how bad things are where they live, CNN.com will enable users to "track the current economic climate state-by-state across various categories and indicators, including unemployment rate, foreclosures and job sector changes." CNN will also have special on-air coverage throughout the day, including a two-hour Anderson Cooper at 10-midnight following the speech.
Broadcasting & Cable

Hulu About to Get More Competition
When NBC Universal and News Corp. created Hulu, they gave the video portal a valuable but short-term asset: exclusive rights to distribute NBC and Fox shows outside of the media giants' own websites. From that base of content, Hulu.com has become the fourth-biggest online video distributor by unique visitors in January, behind YouTube, Yahoo and MySpace, according to the latest from Nielsen VideoCensus. In total video streams, it's No. 3, with 232 million, behind YouTube (5.8 billion) and Yahoo (277 million). But the exclusive part of that NBC-News Corp. deal lasts only two years, and Hulu knows all too well that the scarcity that helped it establish an audience (and brand) is going away soon. Hulu has never said exactly when the deal expires, but it's likely within a year after the first anniversary of Hulu's public launch, in March. So, in the coming year, Hulu will be focused on figuring out a calling card besides exclusive "Saturday Night Live" clips and "Family Guy" episodes. Since NBC Universal and News Corp. are partners in the joint venture, they'll still have an interest in seeing Hulu succeed, but if they distribute their content wider, Hulu will have to differentiate on quality, including features such as search, chat, community functions, and the ability to search for and discover content, among other conveniences. Hulu has a huge head start -- and even has a Super Bowl ad under its belt -- but it's about to get a lot more competition from portals such as Yahoo TV, which was the fastest-growing video site in January, but also from TV-centric sites such as, well, TV.com, which CBS acquired in the CNet deal last summer. Since its relaunch last month, TV.com is growing fast. It's the bigger site in terms of unique visitors, with 5.9 million compared with Hulu's 4.5 million, according to Nielsen. And TV.com's revamp has reversed a downward traffic trend, according to Compete. In the more-important video-views metric, however, TV.com is still a non-player, at No. 33 in unique video views, according to Nielsen, with about a quarter-million in January, compared with Hulu's 7.2 million. TV.com's challenge is to grow the number of videos served on its site. Why? It's the difference between a $5 to $10 CPM (the cost an advertiser pays to reach a thousand viewers) for a display ad, such as the kind shown to someone visiting TV.com for its TV listings and editorial content, and a $25 to $35 CPM for a 15-second video ad within a TV show, such as those on Hulu. Visitors are visitors, but they're more valuable when they're watching video. Right now TV.com is distributing Hulu, and getting 10% of ad revenue from views that originate on its site, but TV.com could just as soon do its own content deals, even with NBC and Fox once Hulu's exclusivity ends. It didn't take long for Hulu to build an audience, and a brand, but going forward, the question is whether it can defend what it has built.
Google.com

Nielsen Reveals Online Program Rankings
Lost, Saturday Night Live and Grey's Anatomy are among the most-viewed shows from U.S. network online video players, according to data from The Nielsen Company. Surveying usage on the broadcast networks' websites and embedded players, Nielsen reported that Lost had 1.4 million unique viewers in December from ABC.com, with NBC.com's Saturday Night Live in second place with 1.1 million unique viewers. ABC.com's Grey's Anatomy shored up 879,000 unique viewers. Rounding out the top five were Desperate Housewives and Heroes. The rankings exclude Hulu, which currently does not report VideoCensus data at the program level, and include unique viewers who viewed a full episode, part of an episode or a program clip during the month. "As I see it, the broad diversity of top television network entertainment programs online suggests that there is more to online viewership than a simple extension of the TV audience,” said Jon Gibs, the VP of media analytics at Nielsen Online. ”While the online popularity of some shows, like Grey’s Anatomy suggests that some people are using the Internet to catch up on programs they usually watch on television, the online popularity of other programs like Saturday Night Live, indicates that there is a Web audience that might otherwise not watch these programs at all. These viewers are driven by a morning-after water cooler effect. Then there’s Lost, which was not even on television in December. We believe viewers were using the Internet to familiarize themselves with the plot in advance of the show returning in January.” When ranked by time spent per viewer in December, CWTV.com’s Privileged is on top with 215 minutes per viewer, followed by NBC.com’s Chuck and Lipstick Jungle, with 163 minutes and 153 minutes, respectively. "Audience size is clearly important, but we are still in a ‘taste testing’ phase for online long form video," said Gibs. "Consumers are starting a stream to see if they like it, and maybe they finish watching the program and maybe they don’t. Advertisers should be looking to balance overall reach with minutes per viewer, since those programs with longer viewing times are ones where consumers are much more likely to actually watch the advertising. Focusing on time will also surface shows like the Young and the Restless, that advertisers might not normally look to."
WorldScreen

Reception Problems Tops DTV Complaints
According to just-released FCC figures, the FCC, the greatest percentage of DTV-related calls it received on Feb. 17 were from viewers who were having reception or technical problems, which it defined as problems receiving any channels, antenna problems, or weak or intermittent signals. Those accounted for 26% of the 27,764 calls it received. Calls were down slightly Wednesday to 25,320, but reception and/or technical issues accounted for almost a third of the calls (32.5%). Coming in second were calls about problems with converter boxes (coupon had not arrived, had not been requested or the store was out of converter boxes), representing 21.8% of all calls on Tuesday, 20.1% of the Wednesday calls. Only 4.5% of the calls on Tuesday, the day when 421 stations pulled the plug on analog, were from people who were not aware of the transition. That number was down to 2.2% on Wednesday. Only 2.3% of the calls on Tuesday came from people who were unaware of the correct transition date--the Congress moved it to June 12 last week. That percentage had dropped to .8% by Wednesday. The FCC said Wednesday that the early returns from the partial transition were good. Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps praised broadcast, cable, and government for "stepping up to the plate," then told them they would need to do even more in the coming months.
Broadcasting & Cable

Man Shoots TV Over Converter Confusion
OK, so the DTV transition hasn't been perfect. While the early analog-cutoff of 421 TV stations on Feb. 17 has gone relative smoothly according to most reports, that was not the case of at least one Missouri man, according to KARE-TV Minneapolis-ST. Paul. The station reports that a 70-year-old Joplin man was arrested and charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm after shooting his TV set. Responding to a report of shots being fired, the station reported, the police found the man angry that he had both lost his cable and had been unable to get his new DTV converter box to work. According to the man's wife, he had been drinking.
Broadcasting & Cable

U.S. Domestic Mirth Product Faces Deficit
Have you noticed it? The muted studio audience reaction when Jon Stewart riffs on President Obama. The pained look the Leader of the Free World gets when his loose cannon vice president cracks wise about, say, the chief justice of the United States.

Comedian Andy Borowitz has felt it in dozens of angry e-mails.

They come flowing in, just because his website – www.borowitzreport.com – wove a provocative double entendre (which my editor wouldn’t let me repeat) about Obama’s economic package and tweaked the chief executive for attempting to “Calm Americans With Series of Boring Speeches.”

It’s been almost two weeks since Obama’s inauguration. Only 1,448 days left in his term. Clearly, it’s time to start identifying trends. Making broad pronouncements.

So here’s mine: Our Domestic Mirth Product (DMP) is in danger. The Age of Irony Deficiency is upon us. Americans, we must not surrender to excess earnestness.

These priceless insights came to me the other day as I read a dispatch on the website owned and operated by Borowitz, a funny guy and onetime president of the Harvard Lampoon who kills as a political stand-up.

Borowitz wrote that he had been receiving mail protesting his “juvenile” disquisitions on Obama. Suitably chastened, the comedian wrote last week that he planned to embrace “the nation’s new, post-satirical spirit.”

Proving his intentions, with a wink, he offered up new poll results that found a majority of Americans agreeing with the statement, “Barack Obama is even more awesome than I originally thought.”

Further affirming the president’s popularity, the poll found Obama “receives higher approval ratings in the new poll than either leprechauns or unicorns, mythical beings that almost everyone agrees are totally awesome.”

OK, being semi-serious for a moment, I think Borowitz has made a point the media, and everyone else, should consider. It’s OK to root for Obama and to admire him, but don’t put him on a pedestal just yet.

We’ve got some tough times to slog through. We need a president with brains, perseverance and resolve. And we need one who, leading by example, can show his supporters than you can take a poke in the eye and come back smiling.

“I was making fun of him so gently,” Borowitz said in an interview from New York, “but I got a few dozen people saying, ‘The president has so much on his plate, we all have to support him.’ ”

“It was very Stalinesque, like we would suspend the 1st Amendment for the next four years or something,” said the writer, who voted for Obama and raised money for his campaign. “It wasn’t a huge number. But there were some people questioning whether it was appropriate to poke fun at Obama in any way.”

In a similar vein, a comedy writer for late-night TV told me she had noticed how audiences seem thrown off kilter when Obama – the prince of cool, the object of so many high hopes – is treated like any other president.

“Everyone laughs until it’s a joke about their guy. Then suddenly you are doing something wrong,” said the writer, who wouldn’t give her name because “I’m not supposed to talk to you without going through some big rigmarole with the PR people.”

“Maybe some people have lost sight of the fact we do comedy and that’s it,” she added. “They think our agenda is their agenda.”

A long, exhausting campaign tested Obama’s wit on many occasions and he passed, if not with flying colors.

He scored nicely in May when reporters asked if he could picture himself carved into Mt. Rushmore.

“I don’t think my ears would fit,” Obama said. “There’s just only so much rock up there.”

In October, at the black-tie Al Smith Dinner in New York, Obama showed a willingness to make fun of the messianic profile thrust on him.

“Contrary to the rumors that you have heard, I was not born in a manger,” he said to much laughter. “I was actually born on Krypton.”

But Team Obama’s famous cool occasionally cracks when it can’t control the message; witness the needless cluck-clucking last summer about a “tasteless and offensive” New Yorker cover that lampooned the idea of Obama and wife Michelle as a couple of shaggy Muslim extremists.

Clearly, cartoonist Barry Blitt was mocking not the Obamas but the fools intent on smearing them as a pair of sketchy outsiders.

Once he took office, Obama seemed to channel his controlling “Felix Unger” energy (Borowitz’s line) again, when Vice President Joe Biden, as he prepared to swear in senior staff members, said, “My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts. Chief Justice Roberts.”

Others laughed and groaned at Biden’s joke about Roberts’ flub while administering the oath of office to Obama. Obama’s face tightened and he reached out to prod Biden along, looking like the nervous groom whose crazy uncle has taken the wedding toast around the bend.

Borowitz has high hopes for this relationship – between the too-loose, older veep and his controlling younger boss. An odd couple for the 21st century.

The comedian already had Obama, in the first initiative of his presidency, shipping Biden on a mission to Antarctica. The job could take “up to four years.”

“That looks like a pretty good comedy team to me,” Borowitz said. “You are always looking for something that could have legs.”

Sounds good to me.

To paraphrase the funny man who left the White House for San Clemente a few years back, we need to laugh. Now, more than ever.
LA Times

Economic Stimulus Explained
Sometime this year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. No, they are borrowing it from China. Your children are expected to repay the Chinese.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.

If you spend it on gasoline it will go to Hugo Chavez, the Arabs and Al Queda.

If you purchase a computer it will go to Taiwan.

If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala (unless you buy organic).

If you buy a car it will go to Japan and Korea.

If you purchase prescription drugs it will go to India.

If you purchase heroin it will go to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

If you give it to a charitable cause, it will go to Nigeria.

And none of it will help the American economy. We need to keep that money here in America. You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer (domestic only), or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the US.

The Big Picture by Barry Ritholtz

--------------------------------------
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

Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 2/19/2009

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
UK's Channel 4 Personality Shapes Web Philosophy
Obama Opposes 'Fairness Doctrine' Revival
NY Post Stands Behind Controversial Cartoon
Walters, Kroft Discuss Dos, Don'ts of Interviewing
Advertisers Skipping Oscars
Hulu Pulls Content Off TV.com
Al Jazeera Launches Myth-Dispelling Website
WSJ Europe Pulls Dubai Sponsorship
FCC Fields 28,000 Calls on DTV Switch
Message From Michael
Top Ten Signs it's Time to Find a New Job

Quotes

“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”
- John Kenneth Galbraith

“Neither comprehension nor learning can take place in an atmosphere of anxiety.”
- Rose F. Kennedy

“Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.”
- Henry Ward Beecher quotes

Promo of the Day
WBRE Wilkes Barre - Scranton: Creative Services Director Chris O’Neal sends along a promo that reflects the changes and concerns we see in our cities, our lifestlyes and our finances.

-----------------------
CareerBuilder.com made some waves with their Super Bowl commercial "Signs That You Want To Quit Your Job." Using quick edits and repetitiveness, the desperation is driven home.

And when your heart is not in the job anymore, it might be time to visit their site.

Building on the commercial's success and theme, CareerBuilder.com is announcing a new online video contest to identify the most outrageous reason why someone would think "it's probably time" to look for a new job. The winning video will receive $5,000. To enter, film a 45 second or less humorous reenactment of your situation and upload it to your http://www.YouTube.com account. Next, complete and submit the online application at http://www.ItsProbablyTime.com by March 10, 2009 at 5:00 pm ET. CareerBuilder.com judges will then review all entries and post the top 10 videos during the week of March 24 for final voting by the American public. For more information and official contest rules, visit http://www.itsprobablytime.com or http://www.youtube.com/careerbuilder

-----------------------
Cars.com introduced the world to David Abernathy in its Super Bowl 2009 television commercial. The fictitious character, complete with Facebook celebrity profile, is an ordinary guy with extraordinary confidence. But when it comes to buying a car he’s like the rest of us.

“We wanted to showcase our confidence message in a big way during the big game,” said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com. “Consumer confidence in car shopping has never been more important, and it speaks to what Cars.com delivers. We are seeing the largest increase in internet shoppers in more than a decade, a clear sign of the times. As consumers are faced with more automotive options and economic uncertainty, they want to be sure they are making the right purchase decision, and they are coming online to do their homework."

In real life Ralph David Abernathy was an American civil rights activist and leader and a very good friend of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Inspiration Room

-----------------------
And from Monster.com: There are two kinds of people in the world: those who sit under the moose's head, and those who sit under... Nice, swift sight gag and return to the website's "hate your job" theme. (But question: in this economy, will you sit under that moose's tuchas and kiss it in gratitude?)

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.

UK's Channel 4 Personality Shapes Web Philosophy
First up, there are hundreds of people working on the BBC News website; there are seven at Channel 4 News, the commissioning editor of new media, news and current affairs at the channel, Vicky Taylor, explains to Journalism.co.uk.

"It means you can't do as much and you can't expect to do as much," she says. Taylor speaks as someone who has experience of both: she spent 21 years at the BBC in various positions; her last role before joining Channel 4 four months ago was as editor of BBC Interactivity, where she managed the 'Have Your Say' messageboards and user-generated content.

"One of the first questions [we ask] is what is the Channel 4 news website for? It cannot compete with a lot of the websites which have bigger staffs: the Guardian, the BBC," she adds.

Instead, the team takes a realistic approach: "What can we promote that will complement the TV program and also add something in the web area that's so unique to it? That's what we're working out now."

Channel 4's online content has undergone some changes recently, not what could be called a dramatic facelift, but significant nonetheless: the launch of a World News Blog, following the arrival of Jon Snow's Snowblog in January; Krishnan Guru-Murthy Twitters from his own account and there is also a main Channel 4 news Twitter presence; there have been alterations to the homepage; and video content is now at the center of the site.

"Channel 4 News has a personality," says Taylor. It's not 'just a list of news stories,' she says, 'there's something behind it'.

The new World News blog is an example of how the site's strengths - a high proportion of foreign news content - can be 'exploited,' she says.

With that in mind, Taylor is leading innovations which suit the audience, including a new web audience who might not watch the TV channel: "There's a real thirst for really good journalism and really incisive ways to tells stories. You've got to reach out to these people. It's not just long tracks of text: it's ways of displaying data; engaging people through Twitter; being open to new ideas.

"The number of people who have access to broadband is growing, and 'silver surfers' are one of the biggest growth areas", she says, adding that web access is now so 'ubiquitous', they can promote web links on television without making people feel they're 'missing out on anything'.

In an integrated multimedia newsroom editorial is decided in the same way as content for television programs, says Taylor in response to a question prompted by @BenLaMothe.

"You decide 'these are the stories we're covering in depth today'. Just as a program editor decides this is the content of a TV program, the web editor decides the content, the extra content, for the web proposition," she says.

As such, reporter Jonathan Miller supplied both 10-minute film packages and images from a digital camera during his recent Gaza coverage, explains Taylor. "The web team put together 10 or 15 of his photos with his narrative - that was a web piece from a TV assignment. We're very much trying to do cross-platform commissioning."

It may be small compared to the nightly broadcast audience (1.3 million during UK snow coverage in February, for example), but Channel 4 News' 4,000-strong Twitter audience is very important, Taylor says. "It's 4,000 people who might not have come to you otherwise," she says.

This an audience that understands the Channel 4 'personality,' she adds, citing the 'JonSnowman' photograph sent in during the UK's spell of heavy snow, and when the program called for photographs, most of the images were sent via Twitter, she says.

Social media is 'a form of journalism now' with journalists using it for professional rather than personal purposes, but it requires training and awareness, says Taylor.

Channel 4 commissions ITN to make the show and produce the blogs, so creating specific social media guidelines for its journalists is not within her remit (question from @scottmalthouse), but Taylor's own approach is flexible.

"They're professional journalists - they're aware of what they can and can't write. I don't think it's a major issue; I would encourage them to use these things. If you're going to someone's home every night it's quite good they can find out a bit more about you and the process by which you did that interview."

This attitude extends to blogging, she adds. "[Jon Snow] is genuinely interested in what's going on in the world and finding out about people and his blog is how he is. Opening that up to a wider audience is really good."

While the blog material still goes through a producer before it goes live, Snow writes all the content, says Taylor.

"A lot of that [production process] is practical actually, because he's always out and about. He has a producer who puts it on the webpage. It's no different from when I was at the BBC - Nick Robinson, Robert Peston, they all go through a producer who spell checks it, does everything with it.

While Al Jazeera has released material under a Creative Commons license, Taylor isn't sure this would be suitable for Channel 4 as it externally commissions many films.

"We're going as fast as we can in this area, but there are some key things we have to do first," she says. The news team could expand its Platform4 blog - which gives some explanation of new media plans - in the mold of the BBC Internet Blog or Al Jazeera Labs, but 'you have to be careful you don't have more blogs than people to actually help produce them (...) so a few resources need to be realistic and maximize [content] for the audience'.

Taylor is also hoping to expand the citizen involvement in the channel through sections like Freedom Files and FactCheck: "It seems to be a very Channel 4 thing, to be on behalf of the viewer or the user, and get the information. Crowd-sourced, citizen-led [rather than citizen] journalism I'm calling it," she says.

Similarly mobile, while important, is not a priority: "You can't just transfer all your web content to mobile - people want bespoke stuff. It is important but in terms of traffic we want to build up the web proposition first."

Being small may restrict the channel in some ways, but Taylor says it can allow more freedom.

"I don't want to say anything critical about the BBC because it's a fantastic organization, but its very size makes things, the process, often a little bit slower - Channel 4 is a speedier ship," she says.

"There are in a way fewer restrictions [at Channel 4] to try things out, you can be allowed to fail. You can try things, see if they work and then, if they don't, do something else."
Journalism UK

Obama Opposes 'Fairness Doctrine' Revival
President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, a spokesman told FOXNews.com Wednesday. The statement is the first definitive stance the administration has taken since an aide told an industry publication last summer that Obama opposes the doctrine -- a long-abolished policy that would require broadcasters to provide opposing viewpoints on controversial issues. "As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com. The debate over the so-called Fairness Doctrine has heated up in recent days as prominent Democratic senators have called for the policies to be reinstated. Conservative talk show hosts, who see the doctrine as an attempt to impose liberal viewpoints on their shows, largely oppose any move to bring it back. The Fairness Doctrine was adopted in 1949 and held that broadcasters were obligated to provide opposing points of views on controversial issues of national importance. It was halted under the Reagan administration.
Fox News

NY Post Stands Behind Controversial Cartoon
The New York Post is standing behind a cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police. The cartoon in Wednesday's Post by Sean Delonas shows two police officers standing over the body of a bullet-riddled chimp. One of the officers says the other, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." Civil rights activist Al Sharpton called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys." But Sharpton said the Post should clarify the point it was trying to make with the cartoon, which was playing off Monday's rampage by a pet chimpanzee in Stamford, Conn., that left a woman severely mauled. Police ended up killing the chimp. In a statement, Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan said: "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist." A story about the cartoon on the liberal-leaning Huffington Post Web site drew hundreds of reader responses, many calling the cartoon racist and insensitive. Sam Stein, a columnist for the site, wrote that "at its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it. Most provocatively, it compares the president to a rabid chimp. Either way, the incorporation of violence and (on a darker level) race into politics is bound to be controversial."
Yahoo News

Walters, Kroft Discuss Dos, Don'ts of Interviewing
Barbara Walters and “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft discussed the dos and don’ts of television journalism at a Tuesday morning breakfast sponsored by The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. The two were interviewed by The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta, who writes the magazine’s “Annals of Communications.” For Walters, the don’ts of good interviewing include not allowing the subject or their handlers to approve questions in advance, or letting subjects offer the same answer to you and your competitors. Take embattled Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor. “Doesn’t matter how many of us did him, we all got the same answer,” she said. Conversely, Walters said that “you must do your homework” before conducting an interview, so “that when you’re stuck, you almost know more about the person than they know themselves.” Both Kroft and Walters agreed one shouldn’t be friends with a subject. Being that Kroft’s show often profiles people or situations once they’ve become infamous rather than famous, “I try to hang out with a group of people that would not really be candidates for ‘60 Minutes,’” he said. Both believe in the art of asking the obvious. After Auletta asked the duo what the dumbest question they’ve ever asked was, Walters told the classic story of how she asked Katharine Hepburn what kind of tree she would be after the actress likened herself to one. “If somebody says that they’re an old tree, wouldn’t you say ‘what kind of a tree?’” she asked. Kroft agreed, and also said one shouldn’t be afraid to make those less than hard-hitting inquiries. “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a dumb question, particularly when you’re on tape and you can edit it out later.”
WWD Media

Advertisers Skipping Oscars
Add cosmetics giant L'Oreal to the list of advertisers bowing out of running ads during this year's Oscars. After tying with Coke as the biggest advertiser during last year's Academy Awards show, with eight spots, the company is taking a powder, joining a growing list of advertisers settling for lesser roles or ceding the spotlight altogether. What's more, American Express, a sponsor for 15 straight years, is slated to run only a single spot. Faced with a weak economy and fearful of a backlash against big spenders, several longtime sponsors have scaled back on spots, are recycling ads that have already aired elsewhere or are bowing out of the show entirely. L'Oreal joins General Motors, which ran five spots last year, to forgo Sunday's broadcast. The beleaguered automaker made the announcement before news that it would receive billions in a federal rescue. It also sat out the Super Bowl. Traditionally, a handful of blue-chip brands have dominated the Academy Awards, the second-biggest TV event after the Super Bowl. During the past decade, eight advertisers accounted for more than 60 percent of total spending, according to ad tracker TNS. Fortunately for ABC, First timer Hyundai bought seven spots and will debut two new ads, including one featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma. At that tally, the South Korean carmaker could turn out to be the year's biggest Oscar advertiser. Meanwhile, the show's organizers lifted a 50-year ban on commercials for upcoming movies to expand the pool of advertisers.
NY Post

Hulu Pulls Content Off TV.com
Hulu.com has pulled its content off CBS-owned TV.com, which relaunched last month, Hulu confirmed Wednesday. Attempts to access episodes of Heroes and other content from NBC and News Corp. partners in the Hulu joint venture, displayed a "video unavailable" message. In a statement, Hulu said: "Hulu has contractual rights with regards to our relationship with TV.com and we are exercising those rights. Out of respect for their confidentiality, we will not disclose our discussions." A CBS spokeswoman said the company had no comment. TV.com saw a 263 percent increase in unique viewers in January after it redesigned and expanded the site and added user interaction features, according to Nielsen VideoCensus figures cited by MediaPost Online. It has 5.9 million unique visitors compared with Hulu's 4.5 million, according to Nielsen figures reported by Advertising Age.
CNet

Al Jazeera Launches Myth-Dispelling Website
Al Jazeera has launched an English language website aimed at extending its reach amongst American and Canadian audiences and dispel myths such as that it supports Al Qaeda terrorism and that it shows beheadings. The website, called IWantAJE.net gives US visitors the chance to read and watch the news Al Jazeera produces, as well as providing a list of "Hits & Myths" -- a list of seven misconceptions about the channel, with explanations refuting them. As well as denouncing that it supports Al Qaeda the digital campaign is also looking to dispel the idea that the Qatari-owned station is anti-Semitic and anti-American. The website also asks for support from users to help it gain carriage deals with US cable and satellite firms. The channel's Arabic-language version is currently available in the US through the Dish satellite network and its English-language version is aired on a small number of cable channels.
BrandRepublic

WSJ Europe Pulls Dubai Sponsorship
The Wall Street Journal's European edition withdrew its sponsorship of the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday after the United Arab Emirates denied a visa to Israeli player Shahar Peer. "The Wall Street Journal's editorial philosophy is free markets and free people, and this action runs counter to the Journal's editorial direction," the paper said in a statement. A Journal spokesman declined to say how much money the Journal had planned to give to the tournament. The Wall Street Journal's parent company, Dow Jones & Co, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's international media conglomerate News Corp.
Rueters

FCC Fields 28,000 Calls on DTV Switch
More than 28,000 consumers called a federal help line Tuesday, after hundreds of television stations dropped their analog signals. Even though the national deadline for television stations to switch from analog to digital broadcasting has been pushed back to June, 421 stations made the transition Tuesday, the date of the original deadline. The changeover prompted 28,315 people to call the Federal Communications Commission's DTV transition help line. The number of calls Tuesday was 37 percent higher than on Monday, when 20,673 people called for help. However, most of the 421 stations that transitioned to digital broadcasting Tuesday did not do so until midnight, so the calls did not represent the full impact of the switchover. From midnight through 11 a.m. Wednesday, the FCC received 6,750 calls for help. Between the 421 stations that made the switch Tuesday and the approximately 220 stations that transitioned earlier, about one-third of the country's television stations have now dropped their analog signals. The FCC said the help line has been running smoothly, with calls being answered almost immediately. Most calls, the agency said, were from people who were unaware they needed to run the "scan" function on their digital televisions or converter boxes to search for changed channels. Meanwhile, the European Union on Monday released a statement saying "Europe is leading the world in switching from analogue to digital television." Five EU states have transitioned to digital signals (Germany, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden and the Netherlands), and the entire EU is aiming to complete the transition by 2012.
CNet

Message From Michael
RE-SETTING THE DIGITAL CLOCK: It has been covered extensively which means it usually isn’t MfM material, but the delay in the DTV switchover is too important not to lead with. The network O&O’s have agreed to extend their analog coverage to the new June 12th deadline. An estimated 190 stations have already switched to digital. Another 491 decided to stay with the February 17th switchover. Of those, 123 were questioned by the Federal Communications Commission. Of those stations, 53 were allowed to go ahead after agreeing to a series of conditions while 43 agreed to continue transmitting in analog and ten are being reviewed. And if you’re any good at math, you realize there are 17 missing, but I don’t know what’s happening to them. Nielsen has “adjusted its plans… in this uncertain environment” to take into account the consumer confusion surrounding the original date, as well as the fact that there will be a period between March 4th and June 11th in which stations may opt for a gradual cut-off; and Nielsen says it expects the same scenario expected for the original February 17th cut-off to happen on the extended June 12th cut-off but with a “lower volume of activity.” Meanwhile, stations in Wilmington, North Carolina, (including former client WECT) are feeling good that they were the Beta test site for the digital transition and are already done with all this confusion. And, finally, in the interest of full disclosure, WNEG-TV, which is owned by the University of Georgia’ Research Foundation is staying with the February 17th cut-off.

MEASURE ME THIS, MEDIAMAN: What area of new media growth has spawned a series of new measurement efforts? The answer – online video. Well, that and user generated content… and advertising… and… oh, never mind. The point is they’re all intertwined and nobody quite has a handle on it all. The Interactive Advertising Bureau has released VPAID – Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines – just kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? The point, according to the IAB website, is to build “a common language for buying, selling, creating and delivering digital video advertising.” Talking about rolling off the tongue, the Association for Downloadable Media whose mission is to “monetize episodic consumer-downloaded content” has also issued a set of standards and guidelines to insure “a landscape favorable to the commercialization of web-delivered shows.”   Advertising giants Starcom Mediavest Group as well as Publicis Groupe’s Vivaki have pulled together some of their major advertisers to create something they call “The Pool” – also for the ostensible purpose of creating standards for digital video ads. If that sounds like the same thing as the IAB, the folks involved in The Pool say, no, the IAB is about creating consistency in online video advertising, the pool is about creating more spending in online video advertising. Meanwhile, online video ad network Tremor Media has announced a new measurement tool in conjunction with comScore to convert online video measurement into something similar to television measurement standards. The group has created an online GRP (Gross Rating Points) system that breaks out the analytics into demographics, unique visitors and reach and frequency standards familiar to television executives.

On a very much related note, the New America Foundation has created a website (measurementlab.net) to test your Internet connection speed. Of course, there are several ways already to do this. The difference is that this site determines if your ISP is specifically blocking or “throttling” online video delivery services such as BitTorrent. Talking about which, there is a website which claims to be the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker. Called thepiratebay.org, it was founded by a Swedish anti-copyright group to facilitate video file sharing.

PIRACY OFF THE HIGH SEAS: Of course, such ‘file sharing’ is often called something else by the content creators – piracy. And it just doesn’t take place off the coast of Somalia either. According to a geo targeted map put together by the Pirate Bay group, the chief source of those video streams is China with a quarter (25.3%) of all those connections worldwide. At any given minute, the map shows that there are more than 337,000 users making connections. The U.S. accounted for about half that number (12.8%) with an average of 171,000 users online at any given minute. Interestingly, despite its size, there were only 12,000 connections being made in India through BitTorrent, accounting for less than one percent of the world total. Even mighty Russia only had 8,300 users. Population-challenged Australia had twice the number of either. The map is updated on the quarter hour, and when I last looked, there were more than 1.3 Million people on-line at the minute I checked. There were 2,145 users online from Iceland, 279 in Kenya, and 53 from the Faroe Islands. You can visit the site yourself and entertain yourself for hours at http://geo.keff.org. And just to keep my facts and factoids stream of consciousness going, German based website Torrentfreak.com which tracks downloaded videos says the most downloaded video is NBC’s hit series Heroes with 5 Million downloads. By way of comparison, the show averages 10 Million viewers. The most pirated movie this week was Underwood, Rise of the Lycans with a Million downloads, followed by The Day the Earth Stood Still, Thick as Thieves, Changelings and Sex Drive. Meanwhile, an article in the New York Times earlier this month argues that the studios may be losing the piracy battle. The reporters say the studios may be having their “Napster moment” with DVD sales at their lowest in five years. What is contributing to the surge is that people don’t have to download the entire video any more, they can just stream it. While the battle over video clips seems to have eased with recent acquiescence by sites like YouTube, the full-length movie battle has just begun with sites like SuperNovaTube providing a repository and connections called “link farms” to movies.

TRIVIAL COMMUNICATION AS AN ART FORM: That’s how The Wall Street Journal described the recent Shorty Awards in which 30,000 twitterers competed for top honors, with an awards ceremony (No, I’m not making this up) in Brooklyn. The ceremony will be hosted by CNN anchor Rick Sanchez with celebrity tweeters such as MC Hammer. The winner of the hotly contested contest was a woman who tweets in character as Peggy Olson, one of the characters on the AMC hit series Mad Men. On the flip side of the twitter trivial, New York Times tech writer David Pogue has declared himself a twitter fan. Pogue admitted to being a cynic but changed his mind when someone showed him the power of twitter crowdsourcing. A fellow judge at a contest twittered a question and got a response that not only answered the question but provided links. Pogue demonstrated the power of twittering in a speech to an audience in which he twittered the question – how to cure hiccups. Numerous replies provided all kinds of fodder for discussion. Of course, he got into ‘trouble’ with his fellow twitterers who didn’t appreciate being used as guinea pigs in the demonstration. But that’s another story. Meanwhile, several reports are circulating that the Twitter founders are trying to figure out a way to monetize the application which has proved popular but not profitable. And, proving that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, several Twitter-like copies have sprouted up, sort of like knock-offs to popular TV series. Twiddeo is a video version of Twitter and Wiggio is a college-based form of Twitter.

COCKTAIL CHATTER: Slightly more people believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution (40%) than in creationism, according to a recent poll by Harris Interactive, which notes that the number of both is still a minority. A re-analysis of earlier survey results but only recently released by the Pew Research Center in conjunction with the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth confirms those numbers with Pew Research (at 42%) and Gallup (44%). But the Pew Research finds more people believing in natural selection (26% vs. 14% for Gallup) while Gallup finds more people believing that a Supreme Being guided the evolutionary process (36% vs. 21% for Pew Research). The re-analysis by research director Scott Keeter of the surveys (done in 2005 and 2006) makes the point that the reason for the difference may be that the Gallup survey referenced a belief in God while the Pew Research made no mention of God.

Considering that four out of five adult Americans believe in God, the Harris pollsters note it may not be surprising that the poll (done in December of 2008) also found that more people believe in miracles (75%) angels (71%), hell (62%) and the devil (59%). But what may be surprising is the sizable minorities who believe in ghosts (44%), UFO’s (36%) witches and astrology (31%), and reincarnation (24%). Catholics are more likely than Protestants to believe in evolution (52% to 32%) and Protestants are more likely to believe in creationism (54% to 46%).   A majority of adults believe that all or most of the New Testament (54%) and the Old Testament (55%) are the “Word of God” but less than half that number (26%) believe the Torah is the word of God even though it is the same as the first five books of the Old Testament.

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.

Top Ten Signs it's Time to Find a New Job

10. When your new namecards arrive, the designation is correct but has someone else's name

9. They re-arranged the structure of the office space... and forgot your cubicle

8. The cleaning lady leaves empty cartons by your desks and shakes her head in pity everytime she sees you walk by

7. Your desk calendar has the words "LAST DAY" scribbled at the end of the month... and it's not by you.

6. Whenever a meeting ends, your colleagues walk up to you and say, "All the best, keep in touch yar?"

5. You get moved to the basement office... which really is just a broom closet.

4. In the broom closet, you found party supplies and a banner that says "FAREWELL BIGFOOZ"

3. You pick up your office phone and the voice on the other end says, "You're still here?!"

2. In your performance report, your boss writes, "What performance?"

1. Your screensaver has a scrolling marquee that says, "You're Fired".

--------------------------------------
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

Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 2/17/2009

Bad Economy Loosens Advertising Ethics
As the recession takes its toll on firms that rely on advertising, TV stations aren't the only companies running ads once considered inappropriate. In recent months, the NBA rescinded a ban on courtside advertising by liquor companies. Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. did the same for ads they run on their websites. Billboard operators have allowed more strip clubs to hawk their establishments on roadside signs. "Given the economy, there are publishers and media outlets that are doing what they have to do to survive," said Steve Hall, an ad-industry veteran who publishes the website AdRants. Standards for advertising have been changing for decades, just as they have for the TV shows they accompany. For example, the number of distilled-spirits commercials on cable TV tripled from 2001 to 2007, said David Jernigan, associate professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. But marketing experts say the trend has accelerated since the financial crisis began. "When you have the evaporation of advertising revenue, you have to look for new and creative ways of getting sellers in the door," said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council. "It's coming in the way of adult-themed products and content." Letting ad standards slip is as dangerous as doing the same for content, said Mark Fitzgerald, editor at large with Editor & Publisher, a newspaper industry trade journal. He said he had noticed more ads that wouldn't have made the cut, even on the front pages, and that adult-focused companies had become more suggestive with what they depict in their ads. Ads should "set a tone, have a little bit of class, suggest you're coming into good real estate," he said.
LA Times

Pew Study Profiles Twitter Users
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has finally discovered Twitter, and points out that its users are young, mobile, and new media savvy—surprise! These are Pew's latest findings, part of its first look at the Twitter phenomenon and online status updating as a whole. Though many of the findings aren't particularly shocking (especially to those of us who, well, use Twitter), Pew profiles the demographics of the average Twitter users and how they compare to the general Internet-using population.

Pew conducted its survey by doing phone interviews with 2,253 adults between November and December of 2008 and found that 11 percent of adults in the US who use the Internet claim to have used Twitter or a similar microblogging service. The trend seems to be picking up at a quicker pace, too; the firm notes that, just a few weeks earlier, only nine percent of Internet users said they did so, and in May, only six percent.

When narrowing down to younger users—those who typically are the first to adopt these kinds of services—the number is much higher. 19 percent of online adults between the ages of 18 and 24 reported having used Twitter, as well as 20 percent of those between 25 and 34. Unsurprisingly, the number drops off with the 35-and-up age groups. These more "seasoned" users are still likely trying to understand what the kids are even doing these days to begin with.

Pew says that the average Twitter user is "overwhelmingly young," though the average age of a Twitter user is slightly higher than most other social networking services. Twitter's median age is 31, while Facebook's is 26 and MySpace's is 27. Because of their youth, however, Twitter users are more likely to come from lower-income households (older Internet users tend to make more than younger users), and they're more likely to live in urban areas than the general Internet population.

Since Twitter is pushed as a service that can (and should) be used from mobile phones, it also comes as no surprise that Twitter users are more likely (by fairly significant margins) to use their cell phones to go online and send text messages than the overall online population. In fact, Twitter users tend to use and consume all sorts of media more than the rest of the population; they're more likely to read a newspaper on a smartphone, regular cell phone, and even online than everyone else, while "regular" Internet users are more likely to read a print newspaper. Twitter users are more engaged in blogging and reading other people's blogs as well.

Overall, Pew observes that Twitter users engage news and technology at roughly the same rates as everyone else, "but the ways in which they use the technology—to communicate, gather and share information—reveals their affinity for mobile, untethered and social opportunities for interaction." Given another few years, it won't be surprising to see widespread Twitter use spread to older and more general Internet users in the same way text messaging has spread to parents and families. In fact, Twitter often only involves sending an SMS in the first place—maybe some of those parents can keep the momentum going after texting their kids and start sending updates to Twitter while they're at it.
Arstechnica

New License Slogans
by John Phillips, 'Car & Driver' Magazine

I’m not seeing imaginative mottoes and slogans on license plates these days. Wouldn’t it be a source of revenue for cash-strapped states? Here are some starter ideas, free of charge. All yours. My pleasure. Really. Don’t mention it.

UNITED STATES

Alabama: COME ON IN AND GITCHA SOME.
Alaska: WE CAN’T ACTUALLY SEE RUSSIA FROM HERE.
Arizona: WHERE AIRSTREAMS GO TO DIE.
Arkansas: HELL, YES, WE SELL LIQUOR ON EASTER AND CHRISTMAS.
California: WE REALLY PISS YOU OFF, DON’T WE?
Colorado: WHERE PROACTIVE HOLISTICISM EMPOWERS INTROSPECTIVE PERSONHOOD.
Connecticut: FIRST IN LYME DISEASE.
Delaware: IT AIN’T DOVER TILL IT’S DOVER.
Florida: WE GOT DOZENS OF PEOPLE WHO STILL SPEAK ENGLISH.
Georgia: SORRY, WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?
Hawaii: NO MORE “I GOT LEI’D” JOKES, OKAY?
Idaho: SERIOUSLY, WE’RE STILL SEEING THOSE BLACK HELICOPTERS.
Illinois: THE STATE THAT’S MOSTLY A CITY.
Indiana: WHERE FOLKS ACTUALLY VOTED ON WHAT TIME IT WAS.
Iowa: GIVE US ONE MORE SHOT AT ETHANOL, OKAY?
Kansas: SOMETHING INTERESTING COULD STILL HAPPEN.
Kentucky: YOU REALLY THINK OUR GRASS IS BLUE?
Louisiana: WHERE YOU CAN WATER-SKI ON MAIN STREET.
Maine: PRETTY GOOD CHANCE WE BELONG TO CANADA.
Maryland: THE STATE WHOSE OUTLINE NOBODY CAN DRAW.
Massachusetts: OUR HOBBY IS SNOBBERY, AND WE LOBBY.
Michigan: LAST GUY OUT, TURN OFF THE LIGHTS.
Minnesota: LOOK FOR 10,000 FINNS IN OUR LAKES.
Mississippi: NO IDEA WHAT HANUKKAH ACTUALLY MEANS.
Missouri: THE SHOW-ME-YOURS-FIRST STATE.
Montana: IT’S TRUE, WE HAVE ONLY ONE AREA CODE.
Nebraska: LIFE IS A JOURNEY THAT MAY HAVE BYPASSED US.
Nevada: BRING ALL OF YOUR CRAPS TO US.
New Hampshire: LIVE FREE OR GET A BIG PINK FIBROID TUMOR AND DIE ANYWAY.
New Jersey: WHERE A CONTRACT REALLY MEANS SOMETHING.
New Mexico: NOT NEW AND NOT MEXICO, EITHER.
New York: WE MATTER; YOU DON’T.
North Carolina: A PLACE WHERE IT’S OKAY TO CALL A MAN HUMPY.
North Dakota: IF MANITOBA MAKES A MOVE, WE GOT OUR EYE ON IT.
Ohio: WOODY BARELY TOUCHED THAT KID.
Oklahoma: ANOTHER STATE WHOSE PANHANDLE TOURISTS AVOID.
Oregon: IT HARDLY RAINED AT ALL LAST THURSDAY.
Pennsylvania: WHERE JOE SIX-PACK CAN ONLY AFFORD THREE OR FOUR.
Rhode Island: THE STATE TWO HEART SURGEONS COULD EASILY BUY.
South Carolina: DAMN YANKEES REALLY RIPPED US A NEW ONE.
South Dakota: STRIVING DAILY TO BECOME MIDDLE CLASS.
Tennessee: HOME OF AMERICA’S LARGEST UNEMPLOYMENT CENTER.
Texas: TRUTH IS, WE BUY OUR HATS AND BOOTS AT SEARS.
Utah: HOW COULD WE STILL HAVE A DRINKING PROBLEM?
Vermont: FIRST IN STICKY FINGERS.
Virginia: THAT LOVERS THING? GET A ROOM, OKAY?
Washington: OUR MOUNTAINS REALLY BLOW.
West Virginia: GREEN WITH ENVY.
Wisconsin: FAITH. HOPE. COURAGE. PABST.
Wyoming: WE SHOOT LAWYERS IN THE FACE.

CANADA

Alberta: WHERE “STAMPEDE” MEANS “MORE BEER.”
British Columbia: WE CAN’T SEE RUSSIA EITHER.
Manitoba: OUR PRAIRIE DOGS AREN’T JUST COOL, THEY’RE FROZEN.
New Brunswick: WHY COULDN’T WE HAVE HAD GRETZKY?
Newfoundland: WHO ELSE HAS A TOWN NAMED DILDO?
Labrador: PAPER-TRAINED.
Nova Scotia: FIRST IN TOONIES.
Ontario: PLEASE DON’T MAKE A FUSS, EH?
Prince Edward Island: BUDS, SUDS, SPUDS.
Quebec: OÙ LA FRANCE ET L’APPALACHIE SE SERRENT LA MAIN. (WHERE FRANCE AND APPALACHIA SHAKE HANDS.)
Saskatchewan: LIKE KANSAS BUT WITH MORE SYLLABLES.

Car & Driver

--------------------------------------
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

Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 2/12/2009

Mainstream media representation in the Nation's Capital continues to decline, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Some of those ranks have been replaced by the rise in narrowly focused, niche publications. "Today, it is the niche, not the mainstream media that blanket coverage of Congress and other important arms of the federal government," the report concludes, though it includes Bloomberg among those niche operations. For example, the study found that the number of local TV and radio stations with access to stories and feeds from Washington news bureaus has dropped 37% since the mid-1980's (from 146 stations to 92 stations). In addition, the number of news executives, correspondents and anchors from ABC, CBS and NBC is half of what it was in the 1980's (61, down from 11). Those cutbacks are not mirrored by the foreign press. The number of overseas reporters now working in Washington has incresd almost tenfold in the past 40 years.

Broadcasting & Cable

To view the study, click here: www.Journalism.org

Obama Mulls Reversing Ban on War Dead Coverage
President Barack Obama said he is currently reviewing the U.S. military's policy of not allowing the media to show the flag-draped coffins of soldiers returning to the U.S., but he would not say whether or not he would reverse that policy. During the new president's first press conference Monday night, Ed Henry of CNN asked whether he would overturn the policy. The president said it was a timely question given the news Monday that four service members had been killed in Iraq. He said having to deal with those casualties was when he first felt the true weight of the presidency. He said he was in the process of reviewing the policy, but did not want to give an answer "before [he] had evaluated that review and understand all the implications involved." Presidents Reagan and Clinton both allowed coverage of returning war dead.
Broadcasting & Cable

Obama Signs DTV-Delay Bill
President Barack Obama has signed the bill extending the DTV date from Feb. 17 to June 12. His transition team had called for the date to be moved, and the bill was passed a week ago. But the president had pledged to put bills out for a five-day public comment period, which he did with this bill. "During these challenging economic times, the needs of American consumers are a top priority of my administration," the president said Wednesday. "This law, which was crafted in a bipartisan way and passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate, ensures that our citizens will have more time to prepare for the conversion." "Millions of Americans, including those in our most vulnerable communities, would have been left in the dark if the conversion had gone on as planned, and this solution is an important step forward as we work to get the nation ready for digital TV. My administration will continue to work with leaders in Congress, broadcasters, consumer groups and the telecommunications industry to improve the information and assistance available to our citizens in advance of June 12.”
Broadcasting & Cable

FCC Rejects 25% of Early DTV-Switch Applications
The Federal Communications Commission late Wednesday rejected, at least temporarily, a quarter of the requests from the 491 TV stations that had asked to switch to digital-only signals on Feb. 17. President Barack Obama earlier Wednesday signed legislation pushing back the national switch to June 12 from the original Feb. 17 date. Stations were given the option of applying to stick with the February date. The FCC had warned it might reject switches that weren’t in the public interest. In Wednesday night’s action the commission expressed concern about markets where all the major network affiliates were switching early. That would potentially leave viewers who were unprepared for the digital switchover without any source for local TV news or emergency messages. The agency, however, suggested it could let many of the same stations go ahead with switch if at least one major local station would continue to broadcast an analog signal. Other factors considered would be as assessment of whether the analog station had news and public affairs programming and if stations would set up “walk in” centers to help local residents apply for coupons and set up converter boxes that would let analog TVs receive digital signals. The stations were asked to agree to the conditions by Friday if they wanted to go ahead. “We have identified 123 stations of the 491 intending to terminate analog service on February 17th whose early termination poses a significant risk of substantial public harm,” the agency said in a statement.
TV Week

Message From Michael
TELEVISION – ALIVE AND WELL: Two separate articles in two widely diverse publications, but with the same message.   In Broadcasting and Cable, it’s the speech of Lions Gate CEO Jon Feltheimer. In The New York Times, it’s an analysis by San Jose State University business professor Randall Stross (which, BTW, thank you to the many MfM readers who sent this to me.) Feltheimer gets the “word-smithy” award, arguing that it is not television that is dead but bad programming that is dead because “a bad economy is the best critic on the planet.” Unlike oil and gas, he says, “entertainment is a rare renewable resource… (and) a ten year old TV show is not the same as a ten year old TV set… (because) the very best shows don’t age… their value is re-energized every time they are touched by the spark of a new market, technology or platform.” As an example, he cites his company’s Dirty Dancing franchise which has been seen by 50 Million moviegoers in 150 countries, sold 30 Million DVD’s, 32 Million soundtrack CD’s and sold out theatres in seven cities in six counties over four continents after being released as a stage play – 20 years after its initial release. The trick, he says, is “simply to engage the voice of the artist with the mind of the consumer” to produce content that is “recognizable… identifiable… relatable… and, above all, renewable.” Stross says a “tipping point” has been reached between print and screen with the ‘video experience’ taking charge and the most resilient video experience remains the television. To illustrate his point, he notes that while 100 Million viewers in the U.S. watched 5.9 Billion YouTube videos, it was not a cannibalization of TV viewership but an addition. The 2.7 persons in the average American household sat in front of their average 2.9 television sets for a record-setting 142 hours a month last year, an increase of five hours while Internet use averaged 27 hours a month, an increase of an hour and a half. The great arbiter – money – also reinforces the television dominance because the “overabundance of supply” with some 4.5 Trillion display ads shown U.S. Internet users in 2008 means very inexpensive rates. Both men note the growth of the digital economy, but argue that in the end, it is not a replacement alternative so much as a complementary alternative… at least for now.

MEDIA’S SHOTGUN WEDDING: It’s between the Web and TV. Continuing the theme from the first article, the big debate is can the two get married. Columnist Tom Regan of the Christian Science Monitor reviewed articles going back to 1996 predicting the marriage of the two, but he argues it will never happen because television is a passive experience while going on the Web is interactive. On the flip side of that, the Wall Street Journal carried an article that predicted that the percentage of Web-enabled TV’s being sold will jump from the one percent sold last year to 14% by 2012. And, of course, the fall-out continues from the discussion of Net-enabled TV’s at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year with Yahoo announcing deals with several TV manufacturers to build its online service into their sets. Meanwhile, it may not be a marriage – more like heavy petting – but the Gray Television group and Backchannel Media have announced a “Clickable TV’ deal bringing a level of interactivity to the TV watching experience with viewers able to “bookmark” television content to their computer by hitting a button on their remote. Backchannel says the deal brings its roster of Clickable TV stations to 68 nationwide. Meanwhile, apropos of nothing in particular but I think it’s some how related, DVR maker Tivo reported a “significant spike” in time shifting of prime time programming last year with more than half the programs being watched on a time shifted basis. Time shifting was lowest in the summer months (39%) but highest in sweeps months (54%).

YOUTUBE JOURNALISM CONTEST: Kind of sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Sort of like the phrase “citizen journalism” that some people object to. But then you go the site (http://www.youtube.com/projectreport) and, well, it’s time to eat your words. YouTube’s news manager (yes, there really is such a position and such a person) Olivia Ma told website journalism.co.uk that the project proves that “everyday citizens from around the world can contribute meaningfully to the newsgathering process.” The Overall winner of the contest (which was supported by the Pulitzer Center) made his final film on the residents of Camphill, a community for disabled adults in California. News manager Ma also says the contest proves that there are alternatives to the traditional way to enter the news business and proof of that is that semi-finalist Torrey Meeks has been signed up by the Washington Times. Not that it’s necessarily a measure of quality but the YouTube site has drawn nearly a Million views. For those journalism teachers amongst the MfM readers, it’s worth visiting the site just to watch the “Tips from the Frontlines” three part series showing how to produce a “news pod” report. Similar to the point about television and digital media, Ma argues that citizen reporters and professional journalists can not only co-exist but actually collaborate in a “media eco-system.”

Again, apropos of nothing in particular but, again, I think it’s some how related, the Poynter Institute’s Al Tompkins has been extolling the virtues of one-man-band/ video journalist/ whatever-term-you-want Joe Little whose stand-ups, shot solo, may be some of the most imaginative, creative stand-ups you will ever see. You can find them by searching Joe Little on YouTube. (Okay, I’ll help you out --   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO356cp9tKE. ) I don’t know what it says about Al or YouTube, but the video has only had about 5,400 views. As a side note, the Knight Citizens News Network (http://www.kcnn.org) offers a ten step citizens’ guide to Open Government. The website ranks all 50 states in terms of open-ness of government as well as providing a very good primer on how to use open records and what government meetings are open.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST CELEBRITIES: It’s an interesting exercise (yeah, yeah, maybe only to me) to look at the list of “people to watch” in 2009, compiled by TVWeek as compared to Forbes Web Celeb list. The TVWeek rounds up the usual suspects: Oprah Winfrey, David Gregory, Dr.Mehmet Oz, Jay Leno and Leslie Moonves, as well as MTV’s Stephen Friedman, Tribune’s Ed Wilson, Hulu’s Jason Kilar, Fox producer Chris Coelen, ABC’s Barry Jossen, media buyer Alan Cohen and just to prove they’re hip – Barack Obama.

The Forbes list is a who's who of I-don’t-know-who’s-who. Forbes starts its list with celebrity blogger Mario Lavandeira (and if you just went, who?, don’t worry, so did I.) But that’s the point. These are the people who are leading the online revolution. For example, Techcrunch blogger Michael Arrington and Digg founder Kevin Rose, you might know. But have you ever visited blog site Postsecret created by Frank Warren or do you know Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or Mashable’s 23-year-old Pete Cashmore. And Italian comedian Beppe Grillo? Nope, don’t know him, but now I will. Add to the list -- Mommy blogger Heather “Dooce” Armstrong, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki; self described entrepreneur and blogger Jason Calacanis who runs Mahalo.com, tech blogger Robert Scoble, who is also a managing director for FastCompany.TV;   sports blogger Will Leitch, who also writes for New York magazine; media critic Jeff Jarvis who runs buzzmachine.com, actor and blogger WilWheaton who is one of the most-read users on microblogging site Twitter. Know any of them? No? Let’s keep going -- statistician and blogger Nate Silver who has the distinction of being maybe the only person to correctly call the winner in 49 states in the election; tech journalist Om Malik who writes for Business 2.0 and the Wall Street Journalist; humorist and blogger Owen Thomas; Dave Winer, blogger and programmer who helped develop RSS; marketing guru Seth Godin; Brian Lam, the man behind one of the biggest blogs in the world – gadget size gizmodo.com; Mark Frauenfelder who founded culture zine Boing Boing; Steve Rubel, the PR expert behind micropersuasion.com; videocaster John C. Dvorak; and finally, Leo Laporte, internet broadcaster behind This Week in Tech. And last but not least, one name you probably do know, on the list – Matt Drudge.

COCKTAIL CHATTER: A company named Celestis that specializes in ‘memorial spaceflights’ has announced that it will launch the final remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry who died in 1991 and his wife, Majel Barrett, who died in December of last year into deep space in a specially created capsule. The CEO of the Taj Mahal Hotel and Towers that was attacked in Mumbai says the families of the 15 hotel employees killed in that attack will receive the deceased’s’ salary and medical benefits for the rest of their lives. And as a cocktail chatter side note, what kind of font are you? Helvetica. Times New Roman. The folks at PBS.org have created an online quiz that answers that question. Find out for yourself at http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/helvetica/quiz.html.

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.

Things You Don't Want To Hear On Valentine's Day

10. "I gave you the wrong necklace, honey -- that one's for my mistress"

9. "Wait, Valentine's Day is in February this year?"

8. "Mom, dad, meet my new boyfriend, Ayman Al-Zawahiri"

7. "Hmm, I thought IHOP would be busier"

6. "Uh, you know that movie 'Brokeback Mountain'..."

5. "Sure a diamond is forever, but this copy of 'Dianetics' will change your eternity"

4. "You're not a cop, are you?"

3. "Table for one?"

2. "Sorry, Mr. Letterman, we're out of Viagra"

1. "Damn. I thought you were a quail"

The Late Show with David Letterman 2/14/2006

--------------------------------------
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

<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>

Page 1 of 2


August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008

Archives