The Marketing Ideanet Newsletters

Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 3/30/2009

MTV to Air...Music Videos?
MTV is adding more music videos to its schedule — at 3 a.m. On Monday the network starts “AMTV,” a six-hour block for music and advertising experimentation. From 3 to 9 a.m. Monday through Thursday, it will show music videos, news, interviews and performances, harking back to the network’s origins as a 24-hour home for music videos. Now, of course, the network is more synonymous with unrealistic reality shows like “The Hills” than with music. Over the years the network, a unit of Viacom, has relegated music videos to its less popular digital channels and intermissions between shows. But the network says that by carving out a new space for artists in the mornings, it is rethinking how it programs music. Stephen Friedman, the general manager of MTV, said the new schedule “creates more sampling opportunities” for viewers. The network is bringing back “Unplugged,” its series of acoustic performances by artists. Mr. Friedman said the mornings would always be “complemented by a prime-time connection,” when the network sees its highest ratings. Critics of MTV say that its music brand is all but irrelevant now, since countless music videos and songs are only a click away on YouTube and other Web sites. The network canceled “TRL,” its long-running video countdown, last fall after years of sagging ratings. Mr. Friedman acknowledged that music had not always drawn “the level of viewership we hope for,” but nonetheless he said, “we know our audience wants more of it.” The “AMTV” hours will not be measured by Nielsen’s ratings service. MTV is calling the morning block a laboratory for advertising partnerships; sometimes a company could sponsor all six hours, and other times it could insert its brand into individual segments. “We’re trying to move as the audience moves with their consumption habits,” Mr. Friedman said.
NY Times

Obama to Appear on Univision Award Show
With Mexico in the headlines of late, President Obama will talk directly to a massive Hispanic aud when he makes an historic appearance on “Premio Lo Nuestro,” Univision’s longest-running and most popular music awards show on Thursday. Always ready to break old White House habits, Obama raised eyebrows during his second press conference Tuesday when he called on a Univision reporter to query him. If anything, these moves send a positive signal to a fast-growing electorate which helped land him in the White House. His bilingual videotaped message of hope and civic engagement on the music event “demonstrates the continued growth and influence of Hispanics in this country and the importance of speaking to them directly,” said a delighted Joe Uva, Univision’s CEO. This won’t be Obama’s first appearance on Univision. The Hispanic web hosted two historic forums with Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and co-hosted a debate with CNN during last year’s election season. A record turnout of nearly 10 million Hispanic voters in 2008 helped reshape the political map by defining the election in key Southwestern states as well as Florida, Indiana, and Virginia. Last year, “Premio lo Nuestro,” reached 12.7 million viewers, its biggest aud ever.
Wilshire and Washington

Obama Nominates Strickling To Head NTIA
President Barack Obama has indicated his intent to nominate Larry Strickling to be the new head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. The actual title of the post is assistant secretary for communications and information, Department of Commerce. NTIA is the administration's telecommunications advisor and oversees the DTV-to-analog converter box coupon, as well as $4.7 billion in broadband rollout grants from the economic stimulus package. Currently, NTIA is led by acting administrator Anna Gomez. Strickling was a telecom and technology advisor to the Obama campaign -- as was FCC chairman nominee Julius Genachowski -- and is former chief of the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau and held other posts there. Strickling was one of the top candidates for the FCC post as well. Strickling's resume includes stints at Ameritech, Allegiance Telecom, CoreExpress and Network Plus. He also was a partner in the firm of Kirkland and Ellis. Like Genachowski, with whom he would undoubtedly be working on the congressionally mandated grand broadband rollout strategy, and President Obama, Strickling is a Harvard grad.
MultiChannel

FCC Launches AmeriCorp DTV Aid Effort
The Federal Communications Commission is teaming with AmeriCorp's National Civiliation Community Corps ) for DTV outreach. The FCC and NTIA have identified 49 DTV at-risk markets that data suggest are the least prepared for the switch from analog, including the FCC's own hometown of Washington, D.C. (number 49 on the list). The FCC, which has asked for $65 million from the stimulus package's DTV money for outreach and other DTV transition-related expenses, said Friday that it had signed an interagency agreement that will send AmeriCorps volunteers (ages 18 to 24) into the homes of target populations -- minorities, elderly, the disabled -- to help them connect antennas and converter boxes, or help them apply for the $40 government coupons to buy the boxes. They will also help with community events and at walk-in help centers, starting with Denver (#15) as a test market. Training begins next week in advance of a mid-April transition for some stations there, including two major network affiliates, according to the FCC.
MultiChannel

FCC May Need To Revisit Media Cross-Ownership
A spokesman for acting Federal Communication Commission chairman Michael Copps confirmed Thursday that Copps said he believes the agency may have to revisit newspaper-broadcast crossownership restrictions. The spokesman was confirming a Copps quote reported by Bloomberg. However, an aide to Copps said Friday that the acting chairman was not implying that he had changed his opposition to relaxation of the ban, and still believed that the new rule did not meet "the needs of the industry, the economy, or the public." Currently, the FCC's loosening of the ban has been challenged in court by both broadcasters that think it didn't go far enough, and consumer activists who argue that the FCC had already deregulated the industry too much, so any more was unacceptable. The job cuts, shuttered dailies and moves to Web-only status has drawn the attention of Capitol Hill recently, including a letter to the Justice Department from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggesting it take a broader view of competiton when it considers possible media mergers. But it was unclear just what form that FCC revisit might take. Copps opposed the FCC's decision to loosen the newspaper/broadcast crossownership ban last fall, and his successor, Julius Genachowski, has been officially nominated to replace him, which could happen within weeks.
MultiChannel

Message From Michael: The State of the News Media
INTRODUCTION: The sixth annual report by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism is, as the authors readily admit, the “bleakest” of the reports. In large part that is because it examines in detail… lots of detail, the economic battering that the media has taken and continues to take. One is tempted to say that the study is not so much a report on the state of the news media, as it is a report on the state of the advertising media. And possibly rightfully so. If total spending on advertising falls, as predicted, in 2009, this will be the first consecutive three year decline in advertising spending since the Great Depression. As the authors put it, the problem facing journalism is not so much an audience problem or a credibility problem as a revenue problem. In their words it is “the decoupling… of advertising from news.”

OVERVIEW: Two other themes emerge from the report. One is that the move to a digital, online world has changed from a migration to an acceleration. It is a race for survival, according to the report, with the news industry having to re-invent itself sooner than later, using the revenues of the ‘old’ media to seed potential future revenues of the ‘new’ media. The problem is the new media platforms account for so little of the revenue now. In newspapers, the dead tree technology of print still accounts for more than 90% of the dollars crossing the transom. In television, online ad revenues still account for only two percent of a station’s revenues. So, how do you pay for online newsgathering when online revenues are so low? What makes it even more challenging is the fact that the amount of online advertising available is abundant – meaning rates are low. The second theme is that the media agenda which had already narrowed down in 2007, narrowed down even more in 2008. Just two stories -- the presidential election and the economic crisis -- accounted for more than half of what the authors inelegantly call the media “newshole.” And, again, maybe rightfully so. The presidential election was “historic” and the economic crisis was (or is) “profound”, so “lopsided” coverage may be expected. But when three out of every five minutes of cable news coverage, for example, is devoted to the one topic (elections), it raises questions. Of course, it was a successful strategy for cable. They were the only ones to show growth in 2008 (a whopping 38%), but the report notes they did it with “the narrowest news agenda of all media.” Coupled with the media’s short attention span (a story one week doesn’t make news the next), and the economic staffing strains, the report raises the question whether the narrow focus is strategic or systemic. Regardless, the result is “more outlets seemed to have resulted not in coverage of more things, but more coverage of a few things.”

PARAPHRASING MARK TWAIN AGAIN: You know what I’m going to say. His famous quote – reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Well, the authors say the idea that “traditional journalism” is on the brink of extinction is also overstated. For example, newspapers are the poster child of the dead media movement, but the authors note that newspapers still make $38 Billion, have double digit profits, sell more than 48 Million newspapers daily and employ 45,000 people. Of course that last number is counter balanced by the fact that by the end of this year, the study says newspapers will employ 20% to 25% fewer people than they did in 2001. In other words, as much as one in four jobs gone in less than a decade. And that $38 Billion. It was $49.3 Billion two years earlier. But here’s the number that threw me – in 2008, stock prices for newspapers fell 83%. In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, there were 795 English-language commercial televisions doing news, a 10% increase from the year before, with a station in the top 25 markets making an average $77 Million a year and even the smallest stations making $4 Million a year. And local television is still the most popular source of news. Of course, counter balancing that is that local TV has had the greatest loss. A decade ago, two thirds (64%) of Americans said they were regular viewers. That number has dropped to little more than half (52%). But maybe the most notable argument for ‘traditional’ media comes from examining news websites. While all news and information websites were up seven percent, the top 50 news websites (associated with mainline media) were up 27%.

NEW MEDIA VERSUS ‘OLD’ MEDIA: Even though the report calls 2008 a “watershed year” for the Internet as a source of news, with more people citing it as a primary source for news, the report raises questions about its role. Paradoxically, the report notes, despite the public reliance on the Internet for news, the public gave the Internet particularly low marks for credibility.   Citizen news sites which the report says “gained some steam in 2008” remained “far from a substitute for legacy (meaning traditional) media.” As the report notes, their range of topics is narrower, the sourcing thinner, and the content is often not updated even once a day. Online news ventures started by what the report calls “refugees of the mainstream press” (people who have left their traditional jobs for whatever reason), while showing some solid journalism, are limited to niche areas of interest and are reliant on philanthropic funding. For those reasons, the report says these sites may be able to “fill in the gaps of vanished journalism” but are unlikely to replace the industry entirely. (The report makes the point several times in various areas that it is questionable whether online revenues can support the kind of newsgathering we have associated with traditional news operations.) Paradoxically (OK, I just wanted to use that word again), so-called legacy media sites actually do a better job of involving citizen participation and interactivity than the so-called citizen journalism sites and even more so than the so-called citizen blogging sites. In short, the report says the “new media in aggregate” are a long way from compensating for the losses in coverage in traditional newsrooms.

FACTS TO KEEP IN MIND: When considering the website component of your operation. More often than not (50% vs. 41%), when people get news online they do so by following links to arrive at a news site, rather than going directly to the home page of a favorite news organization. This relates to another point made in the report. The real growth online is in search advertising, but “no one has figured out how to combine search advertising with news.” Some numbers to add to that argument. Nearly half of Americans (47%) have emailed a news story to a friend. That’s more than double what it was in 2006. (20%). A quarter (22%) have customized web pages that include news. And one in six Americans (15%) receives e-mail alerts for news.

SAME AND DIFFERENT NOTES:   In an echo of a finding from the previous year’s report, the study found virtually no difference between the three networks in terms of content. In fact, an analysis of news stories showed that the Big 3 agreed on nine out of the ten top stories for 2008. In actual fact, there were bigger differences between the morning newscasts and the evening newscasts than there were between the network evening newscasts themselves. Again, an echo of the previous year’s report. For example, the morning newscasts had as much as 10% more Presidential election coverage than the evening newscasts. Even more interesting, the report says cable news operation have the same difference between the morning and evening programs, but in reverse. The prime time programs are one of the main reasons that the cable news analysis showed such a narrow agenda, because the hosts focus on one or two big stories (mainly the election) and that’s it. Or, as the report authors put it, prime time cable closely resembles talk radio with pictures. Equally interesting (to me, at least) is the difference between the networks television operations and their web operations. The web operations showed more diversity in content. For example, the election represented a quarter of the online content compared to a half on cable. The economic crisis got significantly more play online than on air, and the same goes for the Iraq war.

NOT TO BE IGNORED. The two other areas of the report are radio, which the report says, should now be referred to as audio, and magazines. The changing reference to radio is in part because of the digital transition and the number of options now – terrestrial radio, HD radio, satellite radio, Internet radio, cell phone radio and podcasting. The report notes the number of people citing radio for news continues to diminish, but the numbers for talk radio still remain high. News/talk radio is the second most popular format, just behind country music, and it might be #1 except for country music’s popularity in the south. Newspapers may be in “free fall” as the report says, but for news magazines, it is closer to total collapse. The report particularly cites U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek and Time as examples of that. But the report also notes that niche magazines for an “elite” audience are doing better, although still struggling. In that area, the report cites The Economist, The New Yorker and The Atlantic. Another two other areas covered in the report are Alternative Weeklies and Ethnic Media. In previous reports, these areas had shown better prospects of growth than the other media, but this year, both appear to have joined the others in falling victim to the economic malaise. Both areas started heading toward more online efforts which is a change from the past, but with unclear results.

JUST TO ADD PERSPECTIVE: Let’s look at some basic numbers, keeping in mind that as of March, 2009, the Census Bureau reports the U.S. population is just more than 306 Million. Okay, so we’ve already talked about the 45 Million newspapers delivered daily. The total circulation in 2008 for the three news magazines cited is 7.95 Million. For the three niche magazines, it’s 2.23 Million. As a side note, The Week magazine, which is a compilation of news articles from around the world, had a circulation of half a Million. The three Network newscasts averaged 22.8 Million viewers nightly. (That is a drop of 273,000 from the year before, but that drop is significantly lower than the 1 Million audience drop-off, the newscasts had been averaging every year.) Cable news averaged 3.5 Million viewers on an average night in 2008, which as noted earlier, was a substantial increase over the previous year. During daytime, cable averaged 1.86 Million viewers. The cumulative audience measurement (which counts any viewing, even for a few minutes, in a month-long period) reached 192 Million. With 700 news websites and two different measuring services (comScore and Nielsen) using different methodologies, the numbers for Internet news use become somewhat slippery. However, just taking the numbers for the top ten news sites, the average unique monthly visitors was a low of 187 Million (comScore) or a high of 226 Million (Nielsen). The report makes the point that the percentage of Americans who relied on the Internet regularly for news (39%) is now roughly similar to that who regularly watch cable for news. Rating service Arbitron reports that radio ‘reached’ 235 Million people over the course of a week in 2008. Because of the varying platforms for “audio,” the numbers get a little squishy. But, as an example, National Public Radio has 26.4 Million news listeners weekly which, if local NPR programming is included, goes to 31 Million. Local television news numbers are difficult to decipher at a national level, but the Project for Excellence in Journalism says its analysis shows the total audience in February (the highest month for numbers – something I didn’t know) for the local evening news was 9.8 Million, and for the late local news, 9 Million. In May, which TV people will tell you is the most important ratings period, the evening newscasts averaged 8.2 Million while the late newscasts averaged 8.7 Million. Mornings averaged about half that number.

THOUGHTS TO PONDER: These are some of the statements spread throughout the report that caught my attention. Each line probably deserves a page of discussion, but we don’t have that. In any case, here they are, in no particular order:

Powerful structural shifts brought on by digital technology have allowed those who want to reach consumers to do so without the news media as intermediary. The expansion and innovation is coming from those outside the traditional news industries. People have a greater amount of trust in the paper or TV they use, but not the ‘generic’ media. Civic life will be poorer if the current trends in news investment simply run their course.   The press as an institution failed to function as an early warning system on the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. The average citizen seemed more attuned to the early rumblings underneath the financial landscape than the journalists. (A reference to the fact that most journalists admit missing the coming economic crisis while public interest stats showed Americans were talking about this before the reporters.) Power is shifting to the individual journalist and away, by degrees, from journalistic institutions. Consumers are gravitating to the work of individual writers and voices and away somewhat from institutional brand. The appeal of a news organization in the future increasingly will be not just the content it produces but also the package of information it assembles from multiple sources. Most of what we know about the new President came from his campaign rather than from media enterprise.

COMMENTARY: In addition to being the “bleakest” report, this may also be the weakest report. It may be my bias, built up from six years of reading these reports and six years of reading studies and surveys from hundreds of other organizations, but much of the report fell into the category of things-we-already-know. Yes, things are bleak and the drop-off in circulation/ratings/viewing coupled with a drop-off in revenue, compounded by an economic ‘imperfect’ storm, makes the future scary. But tell me something I don’t know. The short shrift given social networking is partial evidence of that deficiency. Much of it is interesting and much of it is significant, but too much of it is not. That may explain why the study appears to have received less coverage than previous reports. At the very least, it provides me an excuse for why it took me so long to write this summary.

DISCLAIMER: The report breaks out into 13 sections, amassing 160,000 words. I boiled that down to 25,000, and from that, distilled it even further into these 2,600-plus words. Unfortunately, unlike the distillation process that takes place with a Jack Daniels, the result may not be a sweet essence but a sour distortion. It is still massive and this summary does not do it justice. So, despite my questions about the report, expect more on the state of the news media in future newsletters, especially about mobile.

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 11 Signs It's Springtime for a Geek

11. The headcrab saw its shadow.

10. Caffeine intake increased to cope with longer days.

9. The mold in the pizza box in the corner is in full bloom.

8. The thermometer is starting to go above 280.

7. Increase in amount of marshmallow peep-related experiments.

6. Skin color changing from translucent with a tinge of blue to pasty white.

5. Steve Jobs is in a short-sleeved turtleneck.

4. WoW character changes into shorts.

3. "Welcome to Hoth" doormat replaced by "Welcome to Endor" doormat.

2. The hunt begins for new trolling grounds.

1. The snow tires on the segway can be removed.

BBSpot

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

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

Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 3/26/2009

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
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http://www.602communications.com

In This Issue
Promo of the Day
Letters
Obama Presser Ratings Down, Only 40 Mil
"60 Minutes" Get Ratings Surge Off Newsmaker Interviews
Late-Night Shows See Boost in Ratings
Economy Good For Cable, Study Shows
Sports, Fiction Top TV in Global Survey
Fox News Continues Ratings Tear
NPR Sees Ratings Boom
Young People Turn to Stewart, Colbert Over Traditional News
CNBC Still Trusts Cramer
Howard Dean Joins CNBC
Olbermann Names Twitter "Worst Person in The World"
Saudi Clerics Demand Ban on Women on TV, Media
Afghan TV Manager Arrested for Showing Women's Bare Limbs
Iran Proposes Death to Offensive Bloggers
China Blocks YouTube - Again
Heinous Investment Advice

Quotes

"...There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zan Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/ Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme...."
- Ray Bradbury

"Obviously, the danger is not in the actual act of reading itself, but rather, the possibility that the texts children read will incite questions, introduce novel ideas, and provoke critical inquiry."
- Persis M. Karim (The New Assault on Libraries)

"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him."
- John Morley

Promo of the Day
From Fox 40/KTXL's News Director Brandon M. Mercer:
Funny you should write about weather names.... check out our "It doesn't need a name" promo. We're poking a little fun of KCRA 3 Live Weather Plus Triple Doppler HD

Also, a few of the weather name-game spoofs and other atypical weather spots.

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

Letters
Responses to article "Naming Your Weather Radar"

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THANK YOU for saying the whole weather radar naming thing is ridiculous. It's even one step beyond, now ... since everything that's shown or said seems to need the tag "... in HD!"

Redundancy run amok, again.

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Nice piece on the ridiculous weather radar naming practices so many local television stations employ.

For an example of an outlet that is doing something right, take a look at Florida's Bay News 9, which recently acquired the world's first Klystron radar system. According to the company that developed the system, the term Klystron refers to the type of tube used by the radar. The company says it uses power more efficiently by amplifying its signal so its output can be precisely controlled in amplitude, frequency and phase. In contrast, the company states, traditional radars use an inefficient Magnetron tube, which requires more power. The bottom line, according to Bay News 9, standard radars need more power and are still less accurate.

So what did Bay News 9 decide to name their super, duper new technology that can look inside deadly storms to better protect their viewers from harm? Um, Klystron9. By using this name, the viewer has an opportunity to learn more about the technology and why it is an improvement over what they may see on the competition. Isn't this so much better than attempting to scare viewers into watching "Severe Storm Tracker 9000" or some such bull?

David Mays

Check out Bay News 9's Klystron9

Obama Presser Ratings Down, Only 40 Mil
Taking to the airwaves again to pitch his economic plan, President Barack Obama drew 40 million viewers for his latest news conference, down some 9 million from his first prime-time press encounter last month. Obama's question-and-answer session with reporters at the White House on Tuesday night capped a weeklong media blitz by the president and was carried by 11 U.S. TV networks, including the Big Four broadcast outlets, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, according to Nielsen Media Research. By comparison, the first prime-time news conference of his presidency, on February 9, averaged 49.5 million viewers across eight networks, Nielsen reported. Both events were dominated by discussion of Obama's plans for dealing with the recession and financial crisis. Facing hesitation in Congress about elements of his recovery plan, even among some in his own Democratic Party, Obama sought to capitalize on his popularity with a string of media appearances in the past week. He showed up on the ESPN sports network to talk college basketball, made history as the first sitting president to appear as a guest on "The Tonight Show" and gave an interview on the CBS news program "60 Minutes." Sunday's "60 Minutes" broadcast averaged 17 million viewers, making it the fourth-most watched TV show of the week behind episodes of "American Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars," Nielsen said.
Reuters

"60 Minutes" Get Ratings Surge Off Newsmaker Interviews
"60 Minutes" has thrown a few haymakers in recent weeks: the first interview with hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger; a long-sought talk with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke; and a sit-down with President Obama. It's paying off where it really counts in the world of television: The CBS newsmagazine has emphatically reversed a long, nearly unbroken decline in viewership this season with a sharper focus on the news stories that define the day. "We stand on the shoulders of giants," correspondent Scott Pelley said, "but I dare say this program has never been better than it is right now." This season, the program is averaging 15 million viewers an episode on Sunday nights, according to Nielsen Media Research. If it holds up, it will be the largest average audience for the show since the 2000-01 season. Since the 1997-98 season when nearly 20 million people watched the show each week, the viewership has declined each year, except for a brief blip in 2003.
Huffington Post

Late-Night Shows See Boost in Ratings
While prime-time average is down an aggregate 4.7% on the five largest English-language broadcast networks this season compared to the year-earlier period, late-night shows are seeing a boost in their ratings. "Late Show with David Letterman," on CBS, is averaging 3.8 million viewers, up 11% from the 2007-08 season, and Mr. Leno is up 5.4%. So far in 2009, the number of people between ages 18 and 34 who watch live TV between 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. has grown to 14.6 million, 1.7% above 2008's average. "Late night has gotten a lot of high-profile buzz that prime-time has sort of been lacking this year," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research for Horizon Media, an ad-buying company. Securing Mr. Obama is a coup in the cutthroat world of late-night booking. That competition is likely to become even fiercer in September, when Mr. Leno takes over NBC's 10 p.m. hour on weeknights with a new show, adding yet another option to the growing menu of choices for celebrities and politicians looking to promote a new project. Late-night and variety television has played a part in presidential politics for decades. John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon paid visits to Jack Paar's "Tonight Show" during the 1960 campaign. Mr. Nixon also appeared on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" during the 1968 campaign, uttering the catch phrase "sock it to me." During his 1992 presidential run, Bill Clinton played the saxophone on "The Arsenio Hall Show," and, more recently, Sen. John McCain announced his candidacy on Mr. Letterman's show. The appearance by a sitting president comes with the growth in the late-night platform's popularity. Since 1993, when Mr. Clinton began his first term in the White House, the number of people watching TV between 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. has grown 47%, even as the number of TV households has grown only 20%, according to Nielsen.
WSJ Online

Economy Good For Cable, Study Shows
The economic meltdown may actually be a boon to cable, suggests the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM). "These are uncertain times, and consumers are not only cutting back on out-of-home activities, they're cocooning with family and friends in their homes," says CTAM Char Beales in announcing the results of a new study. "This has led to increased reliance on cable's valuable entertainment, information and communications services." The study found that while 71% of respondents feel the economy is either in a recession or heading toward a depression, those same people aren't planning to cut back on cable or cable modem service. The study found that 95% planned to retain modem service, and 81% said they were not likely to drop cable TV service. That is compared to 71% who said they were unlikely to back in November. While 53% reported doing less shopping, 52% less eating out, and 51% fewer vacations, 35% said they would watch more TV at home, with only 5% saying they would watch less and the rest staying about the same.
MultiChannel News

Sports, Fiction Top TV in Global Survey
A global survey found that sports and fiction topped television ratings worldwide last year, Daily Variety reports, citing a study from French researcher Mediametrie. Sports programs were top-ranked in 13 countries out of the 72 surveyed, while the most-watched fiction programs included "CSI" and the Russian show "Tatyana's Day," the trade paper says.
TV Week

Fox News Continues Ratings Tear
Fox News Channel continued its ratings tear last week, coming in second place again among all cable channels in primetime. This is the fifth straight week that Fox News has placed second in cable and more emphatic proof that the network is thriving under the Obama administration. Fox News averaged 2.15 million viewers in primetime for the week ending March 22, 2009. Only USA (3.16 million) averaged more. CNN came in 21st with an average 914,000 total viewers, and MSNBC placed 23rd with an average of 886,000 total viewers. All figures are according to Nielsen Media Research.
Huffington Post

NPR Sees Ratings Boom
The audience for NPR's daily news programs, including "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," reached a record last year, driven by widespread interest in the presidential election, and the general decline of radio news elsewhere. Washington-based NPR will release new figures to its stations today showing that the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year. The weekly audience for all the programming fed by Washington-based NPR -- including talk shows and music -- also reached a record last year, with 23.6 million people tuning in each week, an 8.7 percent increase over 2007. While almost every news organization saw its audience spike during the political campaign last year, NPR's surge continues a trend that goes back to at least the fall of 2000, when the organization began aggregating audience data from hundreds of affiliated public stations across the country. NPR saw a big audience increase after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has added listeners since. Its audience has grown 47 percent since 2000, according to figures from Arbitron. "When people discover us, they seem to discover us for good," Ellen Weiss, NPR's senior vice president for news, said in an interview yesterday. "They stay with us." NPR's rising popularity reflects the decline of news as a radio format, said Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington think tank. Producing an original newscast is expensive, especially compared with playing music or airing syndicated talk shows; many radio companies have pared back or eliminated their news departments as the industry has consolidated over the past decade. "Local news stations have slowly but steadily vanished in a lot of cities," said Jurkowitz. One strength of NPR, he said, is its original foreign reporting -- something that is now largely unavailable elsewhere on the radio. The organization maintains 18 foreign bureaus, more than any of the major broadcast TV networks. Its reports from abroad, he said, are a magnet "for a lot of people who weren't necessarily born in this country who may see NPR as the one place to get news about parts of the world they care about."
Washington Post

NPR's All Things Considered, March 23, 2009
Fox News Thrives In The Age Of Obama

Audio for show

Young People Turn to Stewart, Colbert Over Traditional News
A new poll released Wednesday by Rasmussen Reports found that about one-third of Americans under the age of 40 believe that shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are replacing "traditional" news outlets. Thirty-two percent (32%) of adults ages 30-39 believe this to be true, while 42% disagree, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. According to the poll, nearly 39 percent of adults say shows like Stewart's and Colbert's are helping Americans stay informed about current events, and around 21 percent say the shows are "at least somewhat influential in shaping their political opinions." Many traditional media outlets, like daily print newspapers, are already suffering from a lack of regular readership and severe budget shortfalls. Papers are cutting back from daily publication, and some, like the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, are shuttering production completely, and switching to online-only news. Papers all over the country are shedding jobs, cutting pay and closing bureaus. Other news outlets are only doing better. Viewership is up at Fox News, and more people than ever are tuning in to NPR.
Huffington Post

CNBC Still Trusts Cramer
Jim Cramer’s personal brand — not to mention that of CNBC’s, his employer — has taken a beating in the last month. But CNBC still trusts him. The business network, a unit of NBC Universal, continues to show the “In Cramer We Trust” commercials that were blasted by Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” weeks ago during a much-talked-about war of words and video clips. On Friday afternoon, one of the commercials — which play off the United States motto “In God We Trust” to promote Mr. Cramer’s program “Mad Money” — called him “the voice of experience you can trust.” Mr. Stewart said that his network, Comedy Central, “doesn’t have the slogan ‘In Stewart We Trust.’ ” He whispered the punchline: “They don’t want people to think I’m God.” Mr. Stewart even suggested some alternate slogans, including “Cramer: he’s right sometimes” and, more judgmentally, “He’s like a dartboard that talks.” CNBC declined to comment on the commercials. But the network has aggressively defended itself from the complaints of Mr. Stewart and others that it had inadequately covered the origins of the financial crisis. Last week Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, told attendees of an investors conference that “to suggest that the business media or CNBC was responsible for what is going on now is absurd.” In a statement Friday, the network said that it is “built for balance” and said that “since the crisis began the most notorious bears have appeared regularly to debate the most prolific bulls.” “If people are looking to pass out the blame, there are numerous offenders who are way ahead of the media: the lenders, mortgage brokers, speculators, legislators and regulators, who have billions in budget and thousands of employees,” the statement said.
NY Times

Howard Dean Joins CNBC
Former DNC Chair Howard Dean will become a regular contributor for the business news network CNBC, a source close to the former Vermont Governor confirms. Dean started his new gig on Monday morning with a guest-hosting appearance on the station. The move comes at a time when CNBC is under intense pressure to change its format and criticism for its failures to report or foresee much of today's economic crisis. In this regard, Dean -- who worked on Wall Street after graduating college and has family ties to the financial sector, but has nevertheless been an early critic of the business practices that contributed to the current recession -- should be a refreshing presence, particularly for progressive economists. But the decision to bring the recently departed DNC Chair on board, the source says, was finalized well before the current wave of CNBC-angst. So while grassroots groups have sprouted up in recent weeks petitioning the network to make wholesale changes, Dean's hiring can't be viewed as a direct result of public pressure. "This was in the works long before the Jon Stewart stuff," said the source, "but it will be good for our side to have him on."
Huffington Post

Olbermann Names Twitter "Worst Person in The World"
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann isn't joining the cable news Twitter frenzy. Indeed, he's upset that a fake Olbermann account amassed nearly 14,000 followers without him actually using the service. "I'm not on Twitter," he said Thursday night. "I tried to sign up for it last summer and then abandoned the project." The discovery of the fraudulent account led Olbermann to name Twitter the "worst person in the world."
Video: Huffington Post

Saudi Clerics Demand Ban on Women on TV, Media
Hardline Saudi clerics have called on the government to ban women from appearing on television and to prohibit their images in print media, which they called a sign of growing "deviant thought." In a letter to new Information Minister Abdul Aziz al-Khoja that appeared on websites this week, the 35 Islamic clerics also condemned the increase of music and dancing on television, as well as images of women in popular newspapers and magazines that they labeled "obscene." "Our faith in you is great to carry out media reform, for we have seen how perversity is rooted in the ministry of information and culture, on television, radio, in the press, literary clubs, and book fairs," the letter said. It cited an alleged plan to "westernize" Saudi women by "reducing their rights to a question of removing veils, wearing makeup and mixing with men." It added that the ministry had permitted the import of "obscene newspapers and magazines that are filled with deviant thought and pictures of beautiful women on its covers and inside." "There should be no Saudi woman on television, in any case," they said. "There is no doubt that this is religiously impermissible." The clerics appeared to be challenging a growing push for liberalization of tough restrictions on women, including near-mandatory use of black, full-face veils, which are rooted in its ultra-conservative Wahhabi version of Islam. Both Saudi television and print media increasingly feature women, while Arabic-language magazines showing women in Western garb and makeup are also widely sold in the country.
Breitbart

Afghan TV Manager Arrested for Showing Women's Bare Limbs
Authorities arrested the manager of an Afghan TV station for refusing to censor women's bare limbs, officials said Tuesday, cracking down on an envelope-pushing broadcaster as they grapple with the cultural sway of Islamic extremists. The government has previously censured television stations and taken others to court, but the arrest of Emrose TV's Fahim Khodamani on Monday was the first by authorities for airing overly salacious content, said Deputy Attorney General Fazel Ahmad Faqiyar. The debate over what should be shown on television in this conservative Muslim country heated up after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001. The militant group, which practices an extreme version of Islam, banned television and other forms of entertainment that it deemed un-Islamic when it ruled the country in the 1990s. It also required women to cover themselves under an all-encompassing burqa. Since the Taliban fell, television stations have flourished in Afghanistan, pitting the issue of freedom of the press against conservative norms in a country where most women wear clothes that cover everything but their face and neck. The issue has become even more complicated with the resurgence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan in the past few years — gains that President Barack Obama hopes to counter by sending an additional 17,000 U.S. troops to the country this year. Aggressive Afghan government attempts to censor TV programs could be part of a strategy to temper conflict with the Taliban. Or it could be an attempt to siphon support from Afghans drawn to the Taliban's conservative style of Islam. Many Afghan TV stations cut or blur scenes with women showing more than their face or neck, taking a conservative stance to avoid violating a vague government law that prohibits media content that is not "within the framework of Islam." Khodamani was arrested for refusing repeated requests to pixelate or otherwise obscure images of women dancing in short skirts or outfits with low necklines, Faqiyar said.
Fox News

Iran Proposes Death to Offensive Bloggers
Al Jazeera's Nazanin Sadri reports: World-wide, the number of state-sanctioned executions almost doubled last year. A report by Amnesty International shows Iran, Saudi Arabia and China as being responsible for 90 per cent of all executions in 2008. Now, Iran is proposing a new law that could see the death sentence imposed on Internet bloggers who post offensive material on the web. When in 2000 regular print outlets were censored by the mullahs, many Iranians turned to blogging. Over the past decade, Iran has blossomed into a nation of bloggers. It is estimated that there are some 46,000 bloggers in the country. Blogging in Iran is not without risk. Earlier this month, Iranian blogger Omid-Reza Mirsayafi was found dead in Tehran's Evin prison. He was serving a two and a half year sentence for allegedly "insulting Ayotollah Khomeini and the Supreme Leader Khamenei" and posting "seditious" materials on his blog. If the President is going to reach out to the Islamic Republic, let him also tell the Iranian leadership that the United States and the West can never sanction a regime that so disparages human life and seeks to quash freedom of expression so egregiously.
Video: MyDD

China Blocks YouTube - Again
China did not confirm Wednesday that it had blocked YouTube, after the US-based firm said its popular video-sharing website could not be accessed in the giant Asian nation. 'At present we have no information we can give you,' a spokesman for China's foreign ministry told AFP. The ministry of industry and information technology, which is responsible for the regulation of the Internet in China, also refused to comment. YouTube said Tuesday that the site had been blocked in China, and attempts to open it in the capital Beijing resulted in a message saying it could not be displayed. 'We do not know the reason for the blockage and we're working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users in China,' said Scott Rubin, a US-based spokesman for YouTube. When asked Tuesday whether the website had been blocked by Chinese authorities, China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang did not deny or confirm the allegation. 'What I can tell you is that the Chinese government manages the Internet according to law,' he told reporters. The site's unavailability came after a video clip appeared on the Internet this week alleging to show Chinese police brutality in Tibet, which the official Xinhua news agency said was 'a lie.' The video appeared to show numerous Tibetans, some in monks' robes, being shackled and beaten by police. Chinese authorities have a history of blocking websites they deem politically unacceptable or offensive. During the riots in March last year, YouTube access was temporarily unavailable in China after video clips appeared showing violent protests against Chinese rule in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. Tibet's exiled government has said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the crackdown on the riots. China reported killing one Tibetan 'insurgent' and said 'rioters' were responsible for 21 deaths.
AsiaOne Digital

Heinous Investment Advice
If you’re one of those people who’d rather hide their money under a mattress than give it to an investment adviser, you’re ignoring a basic economic fact: Mattresses are expensive. Let's say you want to hide $500 under a mattress. A queen mattress capable of hiding such a sum could run you as much as, say, $500. Do the math: By the time you've paid for the mattress, you'll have no money left to hide under it. Smart move, asshole.

Okay, let's say you have thousands of dollars to hide. That problem can be solved by buying a bigger mattress, like a California King, right? Guess again, dim-bulb. A larger mattress may indeed conceal your money, but it’s also an inviting place for a thief to hide inside. Try this scenario on for size: A thief breaks into your home, hides inside your mattress, and when you're not looking cuts his way out of said mattress and robs you blind. Not only are you out all your dough, you've just lost a perfectly good mattress. Ever try to repair a mattress that a thief has been hiding inside and then cut his way out of? Well, guess what: You can't. Now, you're probably saying to yourself, "Hey, wait a minute -- a thief has never hidden inside someone's mattress." Well, there's a first time for everything, and why would you want to take such a risk? We've already established that you don't know what the hell you're doing.

If you're still averse to hiring an investment adviser, you may opt for a "do it yourself" approach, putting all your money in gold coins or cash. While gold coins may retain their value in a turbulent market, they will be worth nothing if they fall out of your pocket and roll down a grate. Equally risky is cash, especially if you keep it in white cloth moneybags with big dollar signs printed on the sides. If a thief gets a load of said bags, he'll pop right out of your mattress and purloin them. Hey, that's the same thief who stole your money before! Now how dumb do you feel? An old saying comes to mind: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, it's time to hire an investment adviser." So stop your bellyaching and let's choose one, shall we? I'll go extra slowly so even you can understand.

Investment advisers come in all shapes and sizes. Fat ones, skinny ones, shifty-eyed ones with pencil moustaches and electronic ankle bracelets. From the list I just mentioned, do not, I repeat, do not hire the fat ones. If they're so well fed, it's probably because they've been paying for three-lobster lunches with money skimmed from their clients' 401(k)s. Similarly, do not hire your mother. She may seem trustworthy, but think of all the times she's lied to you in the past, like in middle school when kids started calling you a dickwad and she said it’s just because they’re jealous. I've got a name for your mother and it rhymes with "pants on fire." With her history of fibbing, you might as well cut a slit in your mattress and hand your cash directly to the thief who lives in there.

What's in a name? Plenty, when it comes to choosing an investment adviser. Much gallows humor has been devoted to the fact that Bernie Madoff literally "made off" with his clients' money. Why his suspicious-sounding pun name didn't set off alarm bells is anybody's guess, but lesson learned. Investment advisers to avoid: Herbie Embezzlesteal, Charlie Takeyourdollars and Jake Pickpocketovich.

Which leads me to one final question: Should your dog be your investment adviser? Let me put it this way: Mine is. Last September I gave my Jack Russell terrier, Daisy, all of my money to invest. She promptly dug a hole in my backyard and buried my entire nest egg. Since then, I've beaten the S & P 500 by more than 50 percent. Now, you're probably wondering, what if your dog isn't as smart as Daisy? No worries. He's probably still smarter than you.

The Daily Beast

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Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 3/23/2009

The best weather names will be one or two words. They will be simple and convey a product difference:
Weather Lab
Stormtracker
HD Radar
Distance Doppler
X-Ray Weather

Avoid adding any kind of amplifier to the term like super, mega or hyper. Finally, make sure your station identifier is in there. That could be your channel number, call letters or whatever you use. Again, avoid adding amplifiers like "thousand" or "million." When we use these numbers we assume viewers will make the mental leap that "Doppler 3000" is the weather forecast on "Channel 3." You know the difference in house, but a distracted viewer might not pick up on this.

Remember that product naming is all about a viciously simple message. Most viewers don't care about TV brands. If you make the message complex, it will be more clutter in the advertising maelstrom viewers endure each day. Make sure your message hits them like an ax in the middle of the forehead. No thinking required.

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.

Watch the famous WTNH Doppler promo

Watch Woppler Doppler

Obama’s Leno Appearance Draws Most Viewers in 4 Years
President Barack Obama’s appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” attracted the largest audience to NBC’s late-night program in more than four years. The first late-night talk-show appearance by a sitting president posted an 11.2 household rating, Leno’s best since January 2005, NBC said today in an e-mailed statement, citing preliminary Nielsen Co. data. Each rating point equals 1 percent of the 114.5 million U.S. TV households. “For advertisers on this show, they got a lot more than they expected,” said Brad Adgate, research director at the advertising company Horizon Media Inc., which counts NBC as a client. “It serves as reminder that Jay Leno is going to be in prime time in September, and these are the kinds of guests and drawing power that he has.” Last night’s show matched the audience for Leno’s January 2005 tribute to former “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson. The last time Leno, 58, scored a higher rating was following the finale of the “Seinfeld” series in May 1998.
Bloomberg

Nets Grumbling About 2nd Obama Speech
President Obama’s decision to hold another primetime news conference is playing havoc with the networks’ sweeps schedules—and causing some in the industry to grumble about the financial impact. The president has slated a news conference for Tuesday at 8 p.m. EDT, his second since taking office two months ago. CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox all have confirmed they plan to carry it. The networks won't be happy about it, however. Fox, which normally airs the performance episode of "American Idol" on Tuesdays, has just decided to shift that episode to Wednesday, March 25, from 8-10 p.m. The usual Wednesday results show will air on Thursday, March 26, at 8 p.m. The changes mean "Idol" now will face off against CBS' March 26 coverage of NCAA basketball. And "Survivor," which airs a special Wednesday edition on March 25, will battle "Idol" that night. As for the other networks, NBC plans to shift "The Biggest Loser" into the 9-11 p.m. timeslot, bumping "Law & Order: SVU" for a week. CBS, meanwhile, will shift "NCIS" and "The Mentalist" to 9 and 10 p.m., respectively, preempting "Without a Trace" for a week. Of even more concern to network executives, however, is the financial impact to broadcasters. “Every time the president disrupts primetime, the networks lose another couple million dollars,” one TV industry insider said. “In this economy, that’s the last thing we need.”
TV Week

Geeks Tweet SyFy Rebranding Gripes
NBC Universal’s decision to jettison the Sci Fi Channel brand was met with an outpouring of fanboy ridicule Monday, as genre partisans took to Twitter to register their disdain for the new Syfy label. The Twittersphere has been crackling with indignation since the release hit the wires at around 9 a.m. Monday morning, with comments ranging from slangy incredulity (“WTF? What kind of stuff are you marketroids at Sci Fi smoking?”) to revolting hyperbole (“Syfy makes me vomit tears”). According to the online Twendz application, which analyzes the sentiments informing active Twitter conversations, 46 percent of the tweets related to the Sci Fi re-brand were negative, while just 14 percent were seen as positive. While NBCU anticipated that the switcheroo would generate a lot of heat, Sci Fi president Dave Howe said the network was ripe for a semantic overhaul. “This is about positioning ourselves for future growth, and about acknowledging the changing media landscape,” Howe said. “As we are coming off our best year ever in terms of ratings and revenue, it’s the right time for us to assume a brand that gives us a more global reach.” One of the limitations of the Sci Fi brand is that, as a genre placeholder, it was far too generic to allow for trademark protection. “Those five letters no longer differentiate us from anyone else,” Howe said. “As a category generic, Sci Fi doesn’t define us as a brand with its own point of view and attitude.” Although Syfy was in part conceived as a nod to the compressed lingo of the OMFG era, Howe notes that the new handle doesn’t represent a radical departure from the 16-year-old legacy brand. “We live in a world where communication happens with minimal effort,” Howe said. “Our audience in particular is technologically savvy ... and in many respects, the brand name reflects how far we’ve come and how much further we can go.”
MediaWeek

Twitter Growth Explodes, Nielsen Study Finds
A small new survey from Nielsen about the five fastest growing "member community destinations" in the U.S. reveals what we all kind of knew already: Twitter is at the top. From February 2008 to February 2009, it clocked in at a whopping 1,382 percent growth rate. That's to be expected, considering the amount of press the still-without-a-business-model microblogging service has gotten in recent months. In third place is Facebook, with 228 percent growth year-over-year according to Nielsen. That's not terribly surprising, as Facebook is still growing in the U.S. but not quite as exponentially as it once was. There are, beyond that, a handful of interesting things to note. Two of Nielsen's top five, for example, aren't social networks but rather wiki creation services: Zimbio (240 percent growth) and Wikia (172 percent growth). And in fourth place is Multiply, which probably got a surge of activity when it recently acquired the MSN Groups service that Microsoft was spinning off. But a blog post from Nielsen said that Twitter (which counts the 35-to-49 age demographic as its biggest, the statistics said) may be growing even faster than its numbers say. "PC Web usage of Twitter.com doesn't tell the whole story," the post by Nielsen Online's Michelle McGiboney read. "The ability to (use) Twitter via a mobile phone--whether through the mobile Web or via text messages--is a driving factor in the social network's success. In January, 735,000 unique visitors accessed the Twitter Web site through their mobile phones. The average unique visitor went to Twitter.com 14 times during the month and spent an average of seven minutes on the site." An additional 812,000 users accessed Twitter via text message on the AT&T and Verizon carriers alone.
CNet

Advertising Can Boost Consumer Confidence, Study Reports
Consumer confidence in the long-term health of companies is influenced by the amount of advertising and marketing for the companies, a Nielsen IAG study reports. Fifty-five percent of respondents who said they have seen more advertising for their banks, insurance companies and investment firms indicated that they have “complete confidence” in the health and soundness of their financial company. Only 18% responded that they had “little or no confidence.” Meanwhile, only 18% of those who has seen less advertising reported having “complete confidence.” Forty-five percent said they had “little or no confidence.” A minority of all people surveyed had “complete confidence” in the health of their financial institutions. The study underscores the correlation between reduced spending and lack of confidence at a time when total ad spending decreased 13.4% from 2007 to 2008, according to the Nielsen Co. Respondents said that seeing regular advertising, receiving regular mail and e-mail offers, seeing regular Internet offers/advertising and reading positive stories in the press would help increase confidence in their financial institutions. “This research shows that ‘out of sight’ can mean ‘out of business,’” Richard Khaleel, executive VP of Nielsen IAG’s financial practice, said in a statement. “The current economic climate makes it more important than ever for financial institutions to bolster confidence among their clients, and this study clearly demonstrates the link between advertising and confidence levels. With constant scrutiny on the industry, it’s clear that taking control of the message in advertising and press can make all the difference for a brand.
TV Week

Advertising Key to Stimulating Economy, Marketer Explains
There's a reason that America is the largest consumer market in the world: It also happens to be the largest advertising market in the world. Advertising works -- and it has been proven again and again for over a century. Every successful business spends money on advertising, everything from public relations to TV to Internet-search advertising. But today's businesses have responded to the economic crisis by radically cutting payrolls and other expenses, which includes advertising budgets. We are now at the lowest levels of consumer spending in recent history -- it fell at a 4.3% rate in the fourth quarter of last year, the biggest drop in nearly three decades -- and the lowest levels of advertising spending as well. There is a connection. Maybe, just maybe, some of the current drop in consumer spending is the result of cuts in advertising. We can debate exactly how much consumer spending is healthy -- and the pros and cons of a consuming society. However, I think we can all agree that a meaningful resurgence in consumer spending is necessary right now to get us out of this economic hole -- and advertising would certainly have a stimulating effect.

What can the government do? If the recovery program includes provisions promoting job creation, renewable energy and infrastructure improvements, couldn't it also include at least a little something to help businesses advertise more? That would enable them to connect the consumer to those products and services through awareness, excitement and information. I'm not a tax-policy expert, but as a marketer I know that offering a new incentive would help. Ad spending is already tax-deductible as a business expense; a bigger help to some advertisers would be a tax credit for ad spending up to some percentage of prior-year sales.

Unfortunately, some consumers today simply can't spend, since they've lost their jobs or their nest eggs. This is the group which is rightfully a major focus of the current economic stimulus program. However, there is a much larger group of consumers that I believe holds the key to our recovery: those who can spend, but aren't. They are sitting on the sidelines and waiting, even though they have the money and security to be spending. How do we stimulate them to spend again? With advertising. It's a mistake to think of advertising merely as a cost -- it's an investment, and like all investments it can have a wide-reaching impact. Incentives for advertising need to be an important component of any plan to stimulate our economy.

Bob Pittman is a co-founder of the Pilot Group investment firm, the former CEO of MTV Networks, AOL Networks, Six Flags Theme Parks, Time Warner Enterprises and Century 21 Real Estate, as well as the former chief operating officer of America Online and AOL Time Warner (now Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500)), the company that publishes Fortune.
CNN Money

'Collabotition' Key to Competition, Panel Says
Sleeping with the enemy is becoming a business necessity. That was the theme of a panel I moderated at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival last week in Austin, Texas. Executives from MSN Video, MTV Networks, Digitas and social design firm 7 Robot joined me to discuss when companies should work with their competitors and when they should draw a line in the sand. This concept of “collabotition,” a new term marrying competition and cooperation, is more important in the recession. It’s also becoming de rigueur in a digital economy where programming is easily passed around on the Internet, said Sarah Szalavitz, CEO of 7 Robot. Collabotition is based on transparency, the idea that the world is flatter and the reality that everyone is getting into each other’s business. But when should you partner with a competitor and when should you shut your door, wrap your arms around all that is yours and protect your ideas and businesses like Bilbo Baggins would? (“It’s mine!”) Companies should work with competitors only when the partnership is complementary for each and the business objectives are clear, said David Gale, executive VP of new media at MTV Networks. Remember also that a rising tide can lift all boats, said Christine Beardsell, VP and creative director of the Third Act, the branded-content division at Digitas. Her company is hosting a branded-content think tank in June in New York and will invite competitive advertising agencies to participate. It’s a bold move to let the competition in, but it’s also a sign of the changing digital times as companies start doing business with their competitors. Bringing competitors into the fold can help spread the digital gospel to brands working with other agencies, which in turns helps Digitas, she said.
TV Week

Obama FOIA Reforms Lets Sun Shine In
"The Lights are back on." That is how one open government advocate reacted to the news that the Obama administration was beginning to implement its FOIA reform policy. The Justice Department has followed through on its pledge to reform the government's approach to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests, which are a tool used by journalists and the general public to get access to government information. The new guidelines, issued in memos to agency and department heads, expand on the openness principles expounded by President Barack Obama in a presidential memorandum on FOIA issued on his first day. They supercede guidelines issued under former Attorney General John Ashcroft shortly after 9/11.

Among the key points in the new guidelines are:

Attorney General Eric Holder has instructed agencies not to withhold records just because it is technically defensible, but to make "discretionary disclosures" and partial releases." The Ashcroft guidelines were widely criticized by journalism organizations as being overly restrictive under the rubric of national security.

There will also be a new standard for defending decisions to withhold records. "Now, the Department will defend a denial only if the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by one of the statutory exemptions, or disclosure is prohibited by law," said Justice in announcing the policy changes. "Under the previous defensibility standard of the rules rescinded today," said Justice Thursday, "the Department had said it would defend a denial if the agency had a sound legal basis for its decision to withhold."

The attorney general also told agencies to have effective FOIA response systems in place. Some studies have found FOIA requests going unanswered for months and even years. "The Holder memo is a refreshing change from the disastrous standard set by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Pres, which is a member of the Sunshine in Government initiative. "We hope it empowers federal employers who manage these public records to improve their services to the taxpayers who request them."

Justice will provide training and guidance on the new policy to agencies and other interested parties. The FOIA changes are part of the president's pledge of a more transparent government overall. The Justice announcement came during Sunshine in Government Week, which was started by media companies to promote open government. Rick Blum, Sunshine In Government Initiative coordinator, praised the move. "By restoring the presumption that federal agencies should disclose information absent a foreseeable harm or a legal ban, today's memorandum sends a clear message: when in doubt, let it out. The lights are back on."
Broadcasting & Cable

World's Strangest Liquors
Necessity may have been the mother of invention for these traditional brewers, but a good marketing scheme has never hurt sales, either. (Remember the worm in the mescal trick?) Travel and Leisure gives us the world's most bizarre liquors:

Pizza Beer
Illinois, U.S.A.
Description: In 2006, Tom and Athena Seefurth wanted to create a beer that would “pair with our favorite food.” Pizza beer was born. The couple has since gone commercial, hand-chopping the hundreds of pounds of wheat crust, garlic, oregano, tomato, and basil for their malty concoction. But you won’t need to chew to down the brew; pizza beer is 100 percent debris-free-the ingredients are filtered after steeping, leaving just a soupçon of the “essence of pizza.”

Snake Bile Wine
Vietnam
Served at specialty restaurants all over Vietnam, this delicacy is prepared tableside by a handler who slices open a live cobra’s gallbladder and blends its bile with rice wine. Traditionally, the greenish-black mixture is served as an invigorating aperitif to subsequent courses made from the remaining parts of the snake. Men are strongly advised to ingest the drink, which allegedly endows virility and a host of other health benefits.

O2 Sparkling Vodka
England
English Distillers International is injecting vodka with CO2 (and calling it O2, no less). Made from a blend of malted wheat and barley, O2 is distilled and filtered three times in copper pot stills before it’s infused with bubbles—a secret, patented process. The result is a smooth, clean-tasting vodka that tingles with effervescence.

Chicha
Peru
Once consumed in Incan ritual sacrifices and festivals, chicha (corn beer) is still prepared in the traditional way: women in remote Andean villages chew maize and spit the pulp into earthenware jars of warm water, where it’s left to ferment. The resulting milky yellow liquid is then served in hollowed-out gourds called pilche. Yucca, plantains, and pineapples are just a few of the regional variations.

Lizard Wine (Hejie Jiu)
China
Valued for its medicinal qualities, the lizard (usually a gecko) is a key ingredient in one of China’s strongest alcoholic drinks. Typically, the reptile (the more poisonous, the more potent) marinates, whole, in bottles of rice wine or whiskey from 10 days to one year; its glassy-eyed stare is said to scare away cancer, arthritis, and ulcers, among other nefarious ills. Hejie jiu is served by the shot—usually in restaurants where exotic meats are sold.

Kvas
Russia
This Russian summertime beverage made from fermented cubes of stale black or rye bread is just as widespread as vodka, the country’s other brew of fame. Dating back to antiquity, the traditional drink transcended the classes and was consumed by both peasants and nobles alike. Made by pouring hot water over bread baked into croutons, which are then left to ferment in wooden tubs, the concoction is frequently flavored with mint, berries, or raisins. Vendors in Russia’s residential neighborhoods pump the amber brew into jugs from wheeled yellow tanks.

Yogurito
Japan
This tangy, yogurt-based liqueur may be made in Holland and bottled in France, but its target market is strictly Japan. Drunk straight or mixed with orange or pineapple juice, the creamy, fruity-sweet combo is especially popular among the health-conscious. But when asked about the calcium content of Yogurito, a Suntory representative remarked, “Yogurito is made from yogurt and tastes like yogurt, but is not yogurt. We cannot say that it’s healthy.”

Coffee Beer
Big Island, Hawaii
Kona Brewing Company’s seasonal coffee beers—the Pipeline Porter and Da Grind Buzz Imperial Stout—ingeniously marry two powerful substances: alcohol and caffeine. Created by Oregon transplants and father-and-son team Cameron Healy and Spoon Khalsa, the eclectic brews are made from 100 percent Kona coffee grown on the nearby Cornwell Estate.

Cynar
Italy
A series of TV ads in the 1960s touted Cynar’s ability to “fight the stress of modern life.” Today, this medicinal aperitif-digestif from Italy is still promoted for its health-enhancing qualities. Based on artichokes and infused with 13 herbs and plants, “all-natural” Cynar is the V8 of liquors, retaining (claims Campari, its maker) all of the nutrients of its original ingredients. Imbibers will absorb artichoke cynarin, an active ingredient said to reduce the risk of heart disease and blood clots. The tonic is most often sipped up or on the rocks but can also be used in cocktails as a mixer, or added to beer for a bitter kick.

Mezcal
Oaxaca, Mexico
Distilled from fermented agave cactus mash, mezcal catapulted to notoriety when an importer deployed a successful marketing scheme in the 1940s: the addition of a worm to the bottle. Technically one of two types of larva (snout weevil or caterpillar), the “worm” is coveted for its hallucinatory properties, but worm-snackers beware: some of them are plastic.

Travel & Leisure

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Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 3/19/2009

I liked the article and what it had to say and of course, I agree with it… this is usually the case when I read your work… but at the same time it was depressing because of the trend in the industry of whacking Promotion Managers.

I think this is ridiculously ignorant and short-sighted. I also think it is crazy because so many Marketing and Promotions Directors are wearing about 18 hats and do so much more than produce 30 second spots!

Sorry… needed to vent there!

Dan Meyers
Marketing and Promotions Director
WIVB-TV and CW23 WNLO
Buffalo, NY

ABC Promotion Crosses Enemy Lines
In some circles, this would be tantamount to war: To promote its flagship morning show, "Good Morning America," ABC has bought ads in rival early-bird programming, including CNN's "American Morning." That's right, when John Roberts cuts to a commercial break, you might see an ad telling you to consider changing the channel to watch Diane Sawyer instead.

"You can imagine the direct competitors, the MSNBCs and the CNBCs, weren't going to accept a national spot from ABC News," said Alan Ives, executive producer and creative director at ABC News. So ABC made purchases through local cable operators in the top 10 national markets, allowing its "GMA" ads to run between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. on a range of cable-news channels. "I'm not sure I would be thrilled to see running in my daypart the competition, but that said, it's running in local cable time, and I think there isn't a network or show out there that isn't a strong program."

ABC's "GMA" campaign marks the latest use of local ad time to circumvent those awkward moments when a particular TV network would prefer not to run a certain ad. MillerCoors recently ran one-second ads for Miller High Life on local stations airing this year's Super Bowl; Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser, has a lock on the game's national broadcast as its exclusive malt-liquor marketer. Likewise, Diageo ran local ads for Smirnoff Ice during the 2003 Super Bowl broadcast, helping the spirits marketer get around Bud's exclusive roost in the popular contest.

CNN and MSNBC, two of the cable networks running the "GMA" ads, declined to comment, and with good reason: They didn't sell the ads, and there isn't much they can do to block them from the air. Local cable systems get a handful of ad inventory every hour and often run ads from TV networks hoping to lure viewers elsewhere.

At CNBC, executives can't do much about the tactic, but they can certainly promote their own fare when asked about ABC's maneuver. "As I am sure you know, we don't sell ads placed locally," said CNBC spokesman Brian Steel. "Given that we have the most affluent and educated audience on TV and we are essentially DVR-proof, strategically it obviously makes sense that they would want buy time on CNBC."

Still, the fact is ABC is boldly hunting for non-"GMA" watchers and hoping to lure them elsewhere. "Six to 9 a.m. is when the decision is made as to what I should be watching. That's when we want to reach people," Mr. Ives said. "It's easier to convert someone who has the TV on at the time than it is to run a print ad to get them to remember."

The "GMA" ads, which feature copy about Diane Sawyer's tenacity, Robin Roberts' great spirit, Chris Cuomo's ability to cut through red tape and Sam Champion's weather reporting, have been on air for about two weeks, Mr. Ives said, and will run for about a month. (A campaign about evening-news anchor Charlie Gibson is in the works, he said.)

Local buying in this fashion can be used for rather brassy tactics. In 2004, NBC stations dropped promos from Time Warner's TNT that ran during Thursday-night showings of "E.R." The promotions were for "Without a Trace," a CBS show that aired opposite "E.R." but also appeared as reruns on Monday nights on TNT. TNT's spots ostensibly promoted the syndicated version of the show it had programmed, but the ads were also a reminder to viewers that CBS was showing a new episode at that moment while you were watching NBC's "E.R." NBC ran the TNT spots for several weeks, however, before taking them off the air.

Meanwhile, you can expect to see more ads for "Good Morning America," said Mr. Ives, who called the current campaign one of ABC News's "tent-pole" efforts for the year. The "GMA" spots could soon show up in movie theaters, he said.
AdAge

Wall Street Smiles on CBS
Like most media stocks, CBS shares have slumped badly amid the recession. That's true even though the company's core TV network is going full blazes and scored the season's No. 1 new show with the crime drama "The Mentalist." Now, Wall Street may finally be changing its tune. On Tuesday, Caris & Co. analyst David Miller upgraded the stock, arguing that the recent share price below $4 reflects roughly the value of its Showtime pay-cable channel, without even weighing the value of the CBS broadcast network and other assets. CBS shares perked up 32 cents to close Tuesday at $4.15, an 8.4% gain. CBS is the only broadcast network that has seen ratings grow across the board this season. Through Sunday, it had won 19 of the last 25 weeks among all viewers, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. Season to date, the network is averaging 11.8 million total viewers, up 12% compared with the same period last year. By comparison, NBC and ABC have both slipped 4%; Fox, which aired the Super Bowl last season and has suffered declines at its No. 1 hit "American Idol" this year, has plunged 18%. Last year, CBS' prime-time lineup was hammered by the effects of the three-month writers strike, so it may not be surprising that it looks much stronger this season. Even so, the network has seen strong results for virtually its entire lineup, from the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" to the newsmagazine "60 Minutes."
LA Times

'60 Minutes' Makes Big Comeback
It was never a complicated concept: take three news stories, stitch some commercial breaks in between and kick with some quirk. That was Don Hewitt's idea when he pitched "60 Minutes" to CBS in 1968. It was so simple, he was shocked when it worked. "It took off like a big-assed bird," says Hewitt, who produced the show until 2004. "Soon we were in the top 10, then we were No. 1." For 30 years, "60 Minutes" stayed there, but then its ratings tanked, bottoming out at an average of 11 million last year. But just when "60 Minutes" was being written off as old hat, it's back in a big way. Thanks in part to a renewed commitment to hard news (the financial crisis, probing pieces on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) along with some exclusive sit-downs (the Obamas, post-election; Captain Sully and his heroic crew), the audience is up to 15 million per episode through February. "Our success is a direct reflection of America's hunger for news," says Jeff Fager, the show's current executive producer. Fager says he's resisted the celebrity crush for the past few years, but it didn't pay off until the economy hit the skids. "60 Minutes" has also embraced timelier, less evergreen segments—meaning more harried, deadline reporting. "It's the most fun you can have," says correspondent Scott Pelley. CBS has also gotten a boost from a less serious source: the NFL, which has surged in the ratings as well, providing a strong Sunday night lead-in for "60 Minutes." Its competitors, meanwhile, have been too busy catching predators to notice. Maybe they will soon. Tick, tick, tick, tick
NewsWeek

‘60 Minutes’ Lands Obama Interview
President Barack Obama will be interviewed Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Steve Kroft will interview President Obama on Friday in the Oval Office, covering topics such as the economy, bailouts, his budget and America’s involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr. Kroft spoke to the president in his first post-election interview, which aired Nov. 16 on “60 Minutes.
TV Week

Obama to Appear on Leno
President Barack Obama will take his economic strategy to Jay Leno's comic couch on Thursday in the first appearance by a sitting U.S. president on a late-night TV talk show. NBC said in a statement that Obama would sit down before a live audience on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on March 19 to talk about his economic plan and "other topics." Obama's visit to the Burbank studio near Los Angeles, where the top-rated late-night TV show is recorded, will come during a visit by the president to Southern California this week. NBC said it would be Obama's first sit-down talk show appearance in studio with a live audience since his election last year, and the first ever appearance by a U.S. president while in office on a late-night chat show.
Reuters

Dan on Dan Action at Media Summit
Dan Rather and Dan Abrams will deliver the two keynote addresses at this year's Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Summit. On Monday, May 18 Rather will deliver an address titled "The Future of the News." The following day Abrams, who recently stepped outside full-time journalism and founded media strategy firm Abrams Research, will discuss "The Future of Media Relations."
MediaBistro

NBC Flounders in Fourth Place
A big challenge of being a fourth-place network is getting the attention of viewers even when you have something new or intriguing, as NBC learned last week. Two shows that premiered on the network barely moved the Nielsen Media Research needle, most notably "Kings." The ambitious two-hour opener of the modern-day tale of David & Goliath, starring Ian McShane, was seen by only 6.1 million viewers last week. That's less than half the audience ABC's "Desperate Housewives" got at the same time. It was even slightly less than the collection of old "Saturday Night Live" skits that ran in the same time slot the week before _ giving network executives less incentive to spend money on expensive scripted shows. NBC's reality show "Chopping Block" had only 3.8 million viewers in its first run, well short of the 7.7 million people who watched the series it was obviously modeled upon, Fox's "Hell's Kitchen." Fewer than 11 million people watched the return of original stars George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Eriq La Salle and Julianna Margulies to "ER" last Thursday. That's the biggest audience for the show in two years, but still about a third of what those actors routinely drew during their first runs. NBC noted that Clooney's appearance was largely kept under wraps and not promoted. And in this era of economic woe, Olympian Michael Phelps was clobbered by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a TV duel. "60 Minutes," with a Bernanke interview, was seen by 12.9 million viewers while a "Dateline NBC" interview at the same time with Phelps discussing his drug use was seen by 4.3 million people, Nielsen said.

For the week, CBS averaged 11.1 million viewers (6.9 rating, 11 share), Fox had 10.9 million (6.4, 10), ABC 8.3 million (5.3, 9), NBC 6.1 million (3.9, 6), the CW 1.8 million (1.2, 2), My Network TV 1.6 million (1.0, 2) and ION Television 580,000 (0.4, 1). NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.9 million viewers (5.9, 12). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.8 million (5.3, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.4 million viewers (4.3, 9). For the week of March 9-16, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 25.77 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 25.55 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 22.83 million; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 17.13 million viewers; "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 14.6 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 14.34 million; "The Mentalist," CBS, 14.32 million; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 14.22 million; "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 13.64 million; "CSI: NY," CBS, 13.63 million.
Washington Post

NBC Looks to Import British 'News'
NBC is closing in on a deal with the United Kingdom’s Hat Trick Productions to bring the long-running BBC panel show “Have I Got News for You” to the United States. According to two people familiar with the conversations, NBC is in advanced talks with producer Jimmy Mulville’s Hat Trick to produce a pilot for a U.S. version of “News.” The U.K. series has been airing since 1990, with more than 200 episodes produced. “News” features two teams of celebrities and newsmakers humorously trying to answer questions about current events and politics. The show makes heavy use of film and TV clips, as well as tabloid headlines, and features participants riffing on the week’s events. NBC declined comment on its plans for “News,” but it seems likely the network will make some changes to the show’s format in order to make it fit with the big “event” feel seen in most primetime reality shows.
TV Week

Fallon Speaks Geek
If the half-dozen Twitter messages Jimmy Fallon sends most days aren't enough, the talk show host cemented his geek credibility last week by interviewing a gadget blogger and the creators of a Web-only show most Americans have never heard of. On Wednesday, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, hosts of the techie favorite "Diggnation," bantered with Fallon on the same love seat previously graced by such celebrities as Robert De Niro, Van Morrison and Cameron Diaz. Two days earlier, Engadget Editor Joshua Topolsky talked operating systems and accelerometers while he showed off an early version of the hotly anticipated Palm Pre smartphone. "Geek out, man," Fallon told him after Topolsky looked sheepish for mentioning the term "user interface."

That's what "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" is doing. As he tries to build a loyal audience for his 2-week-old NBC show, Fallon, 34, is embracing gadgets and digital media more than any of his peers. Before he debuted on March 2 as Conan O'Brien's successor, Fallon practiced his delivery by posting video clips on his website. "Late Night" gags involve fake Facebook status updates for audience members. He exchanges tweets -- as Twitter messages are known -- daily with the more than 300,000 people following him on the Web service, and he enlisted their help in compiling questions to ask Diaz on the air. "You can't do a show nowadays that doesn't mention the Internet," said "Late Night" producer Gavin Purcell, who formerly worked for the G4 cable network, which focuses on video game culture. "It's where people spend so much time every day."

But the geek love also may help "Late Night" attract a demographic that advertisers lust after: hip, plugged-in consumers who otherwise don't watch much television. "It would make sense to use Fallon as the guinea pig," said Ken Wilbur, a marketing professor at USC. "Experimenting with a new show is always less risky than messing with an established formula. Any strategies that work on Fallon's audience could then be ported to Leno and Conan." Fallon and Purcell say they're merely trying to reflect the growing importance of tech gear and digital communications in society. "I love technology and gadgets," Fallon said in an e-mail, adding that he doesn't "see it represented enough on television."
LA Times

Ferguson Tops Fallon in Ratings
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson topped Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Monday night, according to late night metered market households data from Nielsen. Fallon drew a 1.6 rating/6 share to Ferguson's 1.8 rating/6 share. That is despite two strong premiere weeks and a buzzed about performance by Public Enemy and Fallon house band The Roots Monday night. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon launched March 2 to strong ratings, easily topping Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel in the timeslot for his first two weeks on the air. In fact, Fallon has been topping his predecessor Conan O'Brien's average Late Night rating this season. Ferguson had been catching up to O'Brien leading up to the transition to Fallon, even topping him among certain demographics some weeks. With viewers having had a couple weeks to check out Fallon's Late Night as well as sample the competition, the ratings are beginning to drop to more average levels for the 12:30 timeslot. Whether Fallon can maintain the consistent 18-49 demo wins that his predecessor brought will likely become clearer in the coming weeks.
Broadcasting & Cable

Cramer Gets a 'Daily Show' Bump
Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show,” which had one of its highest-rated episodes ever last week, hasn’t been the only one to benefit from the host’s high-profile verbal brawling with CNBC host Jim Cramer. Cramer’s show, “Mad Money,” has also seen ratings rise since he first rebuked Stewart on the air some two weeks ago, calling his program “just a variety show,” and in a TheStreet.com piece accusing the funnyman of misquoting him. For the week ended March 15, when Cramer made his ill-fated appearance on “Daily” after a week of back-and-forth yapping, the nightly “Mad” averaged 322,000 total viewers, up 10 percent from the 293,000 he averaged the week ended March 1, before the controversy began. On Thursday, the night Cramer appeared on “Daily,” “Mad” averaged 372,000 viewers, 44,000 more than his second-most-watched show of the week, which aired Monday. The bump was undoubtedly due to that night’s “Daily” appearance. Cramer spent most of his day promoting it, appearing on “The Martha Stewart Show” and NBC’s “Today” and joking about whether he should be scared to face Stewart. Turns out he should have been. Stewart eviscerated Cramer and his network, accusing them of cozying up to Wall Street types when they should have been grilling them over the economic meltdown. Critics and viewers alike agreed that Stewart got the better of Cramer in the confrontation, with the latter admitting rather feebly that his network should do better in the future. An HCD Research poll released Monday found that 74 percent of respondents thought Stewart benefitted most from the interview. Certainly the interview gave “Daily” a boost as well. The show drew 2.3 million total viewers, ranking in the 13-year-old program’s top 10 episodes ever, and excerpts of the interview generated 14 million online streams.
MediaLife Magazine

FixCNBC.com Push Gains Momentum
According to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee PAC that is sponsoring it, an online petition at http://fixcnbc.com, prompted by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart's savaging of CNBC's Wall Street coverage, is receiving about 400 signatures an hour. The petition -- labeled "FixCNBC! Jon Stewart made the case. Now we're demanding action"-- called on the network to ask tough questions of the financial community. Among those listed as sponsoring the letter were representatives for Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting and Free Press. At press time, the petition had gotten 1,744 signatures.
MultiChannel

Sci Fi to Rebrands as SyFy
Sci Fi Channel will rebrand itself Syfy on air and online starting July 7 in an effort to expand its scope and own its trademark. The channel, coming off its most-watched year out of 16, said in a release “the new brand broadens perceptions and embraces a wider and more diverse range of imagination-based entertainment including fantasy, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure, as well as science fiction. It also positions the brand for future growth by creating an ownable trademark that can travel easily with consumers across new media and non-linear digital platforms, new international channels and extend into new business ventures.” Sci Fi Channel president Dave Howe said in the release: "While continuing to embrace our legacy and our core audience, we needed to cultivate a distinct point of view with a name that we could own that invites more people in and reflects our broader range of programming." “Imagine Greater” will be the new brand message and tagline. The Web site Scifi.com will become Scyfy.com. An aggressive trade marketing will kick off this spring.
MultiChannel

SyFy for the Kids
The Sci Fi cable channel, soon to be renamed Syfy, says it is moving into the youth market by forming a partnership with Acclaim Games and ZooKazoo to develop a series of online games and entertainment destinations. The partnership will be a part of Sci Fi Ventures, an effort to move the channel into a lifestyle brand that transcends the TV screen. Acclaim will be creating a Sci Fi label for games with plans to extend those properties to other platforms, products and forms of media. The first Sci Fi game, “Tales of Magic,” is expected to launch on Scifi.com this spring. ZooKazoo, a virtual world for kids 6 to 12 years old, will create a Sci Fi Club within Zookazoo.com. “We strive to entertain our consumers with unique imagination-based content across all platforms,” Dave Howe, president of Sci Fi, said in a statement. “Acclaim’s expertise in game development will enable us to provide a deeply immersive and engaging game experience. We are also extremely pleased to partner with ZooKazoo in a historic first move for Sci Fi into the kids market, building a virtual laboratory for young imaginations.”
TV Week

Television Academy Honors 'TV With a Conscience’
The second annual Television Academy Honors will celebrate eight programs from 2008 that demonstrate “television with a conscience” on April 30 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The eight programs had a significant impact on viewers regarding issues such as racial integration, adoption, gun control, sexual orientation, cancer, endangered species, the environment, faith and tolerance. The shows were honored for the following achievements:

- CBS' “Home for the Holidays,” honored for heightening awareness of adoption.

— HBO’s “Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football,” honored for creating awareness of the impact of college football on the civil rights movement,

- ABC's “Brothers and Sisters,” honored for the episode “Prior Commitments,” which revolves around legalization of a same-sex marriage.

- ABC's “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” honored for “The Martirez & Malek Families,” which exemplifies the importance of helping those in need.

- PBS' “God on Trial,” honored for its exploration of faith and philosophy.

- FX's “30 Days,” honored for helping viewers understand different views of life.

- Animal Planet's “Whale Wars,” honored for highlighting global conservation efforts.

-“ Stand Up to Cancer,” honored for its uplifting update on cancer treatment and recovery progress.

TV Week

Pew Reports on the State of Journalism
Viewer migration to the Web and the economic freefall have combined to “shorten the time left on the clock” for traditional media, says the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism in its sixth annual report on the state of journalism. Local TV news staffs are being cut as never before and broadcast-network news revenues are falling, even for shows that have been able to record audience gains. “Imagine someone about to begin physical therapy following a stroke, suddenly contracting a debilitating secondary illness.” Perhaps most troubling, traditional media have not figured out how to monetize the move to the Web. PEJ suggests a cable-like subscription model may have to be built into Internet-service provider fees to help compensate journalists. Display advertising isn't going to cut it, he said, given that per-click charges to advertisers have been halved due to the proliferation of capacity.

But the news isn't all bad. Cable was one bright spot. “CNN, Fox News [Channel] and MSNBC all gained viewers [in 2008], were projected to see record profits, and expected to increase spending on newsgathering and bureaus around the world,” said PEJ, even if the gains were due to an “Ahab-like focus” on election coverage, as the report dubbed it. “The big winner in the last year, by any measure, was cable,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, “at a year when everybody else was having a terrible time.” Ratings were up 38%, and profit was up 33%, Rosenstiel pointed out. He concedes some of the viewers went away after the election, “but not all of them.” Cable gets points for its economic model, too. “The other advantage that cable has,” says Rosenstiel, “is that their subscription rates are kind of locked in.” The fact that cable is not as sensitive to ad fluctuations helps its news operations, he said.

There was also some good news for network news. So-called old media have benefitted from the migration of news consumers online, with legacy news sites making bigger gains than new media. PEJ says the big long-term problem for the news media is not audience, or credibility, but money: “the decoupling of advertising from news” and the need to come up with a new model. Rosenstiel says that one conclusion among the industry folks PEJ talked to for the report is that “there is going to be no one magic bullet for online revenue. It will be a multiplicity of sources.”

Local TV-station viewership was flat or down across the board and cost-cutting by the fourth quarter had “touched nearly everything and everyone,” says PEJ, including deep cuts in stations' Washington bureaus. Helping that along was the crash of the auto sector, a TV station's largest advertiser, plus the shift of campaign funds from local to network and cable by the Obama campaign, with the McCain campaign following suit. It is the first year revenue fell in an election year, which PEJ called a very bad omen for local TV. On the network front, PEJ said it is likely that only one of the three news divisions — NBC's — made a “significant” profit. That was because its multiplatform approach with NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, Telemundo and its Web sites has put it in a much stronger financial position.
MultiChannel

Mother of All TV Studies to be Unfurled
A group of the biggest names in TV research are set to explode some commonly held myths about how consumers watch TV. Their findings about what’s really going on in the world of video consumption will be unveiled next week. The survey is expected to reveal such things as which age groups do the most media multi-tasking; whether younger viewers are really shifting away from traditional TV and how much commercial time viewers are exposed to. The Council for Research Excellence, a cross-industry think tank of top executives from agencies and TV networks, has spent the past year executing a $3.5 million project called the “Video Consumer Mapping Study.” The initiative is described as, “the largest and most significant observational study of media activity ever undertaken.” Shari Anne Brill, Senior-VP director of at Carat, who has been intimately involved with the project said, “People are in fact watching commercials and not running screaming from the room and younger viewers haven’t abandoned television.” The major findings are being kept for a presentation on Thursday, March 26. The study was funded, in part, by Nielsen Media Research, and was created to investigate commonly held, but perhaps mistaken beliefs about TV viewings. The Council for Research Excellence put together their wish-list of questions to help better inform marketers about their fears on such issues as DVR penetration. The results could have some impact on this year’s upfront and will no doubt create a topical environment ahead of the Advertising Research Foundation’s annual convention on March 30. That event has often been a forum for changing the parameters of the upfront debate and back in 2006 saw the first movement towards an embrace of the commercial ratings currency. While ad agencies and industry associations have looked at consumer’s TV habits previously, this data is creating a buzz on Madison Avenue because it comes from a single source and is so comprehensive. While the video consumer mapping study primarily looks at video media, it also holds some interesting news for other media such as print and outdoor.
Broadcasting & Cable

David Letterman's Fun "Facts"

Prior to 1936, elevators only went up, not down.

Every year, surgeons leave an average of five cell phones inside patients.

Scientists who’ve been studying pigeons say they’re definitely up to something.

The first material used in breast implant was cookie dough.

At any given time, 20 million Americans men don’t realize their fly is down.

Two of Jesus’s 12 apostles were temps.

The standard American eye chart contains several Dutch obscenities.

Conspiracy theorists believe that I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter is indeed butter.

The average Amish person spends nearly three minutes a year in traffic.

The last time Bono was not wearing sunglasses was during a 1988 shower.

Contrary to the popular slogan, 68 percent of what happens in Vegas leads to divorce and/or bankruptcy.

Not many women named Lydia are considered hot.

For $25, New York will name a pothole after you.

At the end of his life, Thomas Edison didn’t have enough money to pay his electric bill.

Molecularly speaking, water is actually much drier than sand.

Febreze, the product that removes odors from fabric, will not work on wide wale corduroy.

Polar bears can eat as many as 22 penguins in a single sitting.

You can get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.

A Wisconsin man was beaten by an angry mob because he asked for "no cheese" on his Whopper.

King Henry VIII slept with a gigantic axe.

In the early 70s, McDonalds briefly offered customers a choice of French fries or consomme.

Human saliva has a boiling point twice that of regular water.

30% of women who apply makeup while driving have accidentally swallowed a tube of lipstick.

Calvin, of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, was patterned after President Calvin Coolidge, who had a pet tiger as a boy.

Watching an hour-long soap opera burns more calories than watching a three-hour baseball game.

Until 1978, Camel cigarettes contained small particles of real camel dung.

You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them.

Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.

At the first World Cup championship in Uruguay, 1930, the soccer balls were actually monkey skulls wrapped in paper and leather.

Labrador retrievers dream about bananas.

40% of people who believe the moon landing was faked also believe the moon isn't real.

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

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

Graeme Newell's Marketing Ideanet 3/16/2009

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
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In This Issue
Marketing without Market Directors
TV News Spotlights Financially Challenged Americans
Stephanopoulos to 'Twitterview" McCain
Twitter Driving Traffic To Social, Entertainment Sites
Stewart Questions Integrity of CNBC Promotion
Show-Down Draws 2nd Biggest Audience of the Year
MSNBC Producers Asked Not To Highlight Cramer/Stewart
Exxon Mobil Taps Documentary Channel For Pitch
ABC Dominating in Online TV: Nielsen
Fox Flips 'Remote Free TV' Off
Chirpy Ads Win Over Comcast Critic
FCC OKs Some Early DTV Switchovers
Message from Michael
Irish Wit and Wisdom

Quotes

“A leader's role is to raise people's aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.”
- David Gergen

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"When some passion or effect is described in a natural style, we find within ourselves the truth of what we hear, without knowing it was there."
- Blaise Pascal

Marketing without Market Directors
by Graeme Newell
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http://www.602communications.com

Television marketing directors are dropping like flies all over the country. At many stations the CSD position is simply being eliminated. The promo producers are moved into news and sales. This means overburdened News Directors now must take on the added responsibility for creating and marketing their product.

If you look at most of the major advertisers in the world, you'll notice few of them have in-house agencies. After some rather scorching failures in the past, corporate America learned that a healthy distance between manufacturing and customer wooing is important for success.

The problem is that most of us are so in love with our own products, that we lack the healthy objectivity required to truly understand a customer's less passionate feelings about what we do. We are proud parents who just can't imagine that our baby is not the best looking, smartest kid in the world.

When the people who make the donuts are the same people who sell the donuts, the advertising starts to focus on yeast ratios, baking time and glazing efficiency. Because the donut company's ad agency is outside the manufacturing process, it knows that donuts are all about customer indulgence. Great ad campaigns firmly channel the branding to the customer's feelings about the brand. They decisively move away from the self-congratulatory, in-house biases that come from working in the trenches each day.

News marketing that looks like news

As I take a look at marketing campaigns from stations that have lost their marketing director, I notice a trend. The marketing looks a lot less like advertising and a lot more like news stories.

The number of shots and the volume of copy steadily increases. Statements of journalistic ethics move to the forefront. In general, the connection to the viewer tends to wane as self-congratulatory scenes of speeding live trucks, rain-pelted meteorologists, and harried reporters take center stage.   The marketing starts to objectively "report" the station's content characteristics, when it should be using that content to build a human connection on the viewer's terms.

When we look at other industries, most of us can easily recognize this kind of misguided self-congratulatory advertising tone. Take a look at this bad local ad for a local heating and air conditioning company. This ad is bad because it breaks some of the most basic rules of advertising:

1) It was created by and for the in-house staff.
2) It is self absorbed.
3) The only people shown in the ad are the company staff.
4) The only thing they talk about is how they do their job.
5) All the video shows employees doing typical work.
6) There is not a customer in it.
7) There is no customer benefit.

Most of us look at this ad and say, "I'd never do anything like that," but if you look at those seven sins listed above, a lot of news marketing fails on every one of them. Sure, the promos we create have higher production values, snappier copy, and crisp graphics, but you'll notice a startling omission in most TV campaigns - the customer.

This next TV news promo was created by a well-meaning news director who had lost his marketing director. When he showed me this spot, he was the first to admit that he was not a marketing person and felt a bit out of his element. This news director did what news people know best - he told a story, and that story is about why his product is great.   This promo has dazzling production values. The news team looks fantastic. It has a "big league" feel. But when you really analyze what's in this commercial, it committed the same seven mistakes as our heating & air ad - this one just looks a lot slicker.

What you will also notice is this is a scene right out of a Hollywood movie. It is sublime journalistic perfection. It is a first-amendment fantasy and makes all of us who went to journalism school beam with pride. This is how a newsroom likes to see itself. Show this promo at the station meeting and all the in-house staff will walk a little taller, and be even more impressed with their own abilities.

Getting our focus back on the viewer

The promo never made the critical advertising leap to the customer's vantage point.   It is all set inside the newsroom. You never see a viewer or anyone outside the station. The station showcases its own journalistic priorities, and just assumes the viewer has the exact same motivations. Unbiased, objective reporting that digs for the facts is clearly this station's top priority, but is this the top priority for the viewer? Sure, objectivity is something viewers expect, but is it important enough to motivate the viewer to change her news choice? Do viewers feel their current news choice isn't objective and hard working?

During these tough economic times, our audience is transfixed by their own priorities and problems - mortgages, raising kids, paying the bills and getting ahead on their job. If the information we provide helps them to further those priorities, we win a fan. If our brand reflects who our audience hopes to be, if it connects with them on the core level of their values, they will switch to our newscast and keep coming back.

But if the brand we present narcissistically builds our own egos, endlessly pats ourselves on the back, and ignores the viewer's priorities, we brand ourselves as arrogant and self-absorbed. Journalistic ethics are our priority, not the viewer's priority. Movies like "Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgandy" are a lot of fun to watch, but my guess is that the public suspects there is a little bit of Ron in all of us in the news business.

News marketing isn't a mission statement for what the newsroom likes to do, or a laundry list of exemplary product characteristics. Effective marketing is a personal conversation that should be done entirely from the customer's vantage point. If you are a station staffer out there on the front line each day, it is quite easy to slip into this kind of newsroom-centric promotion. Because we are impressed with hard-working, action-oriented reporters, it is hard to imagine that our viewers won't be equally impressed by them as well.

Compensate for your own bias

As we move into the age of diminished marketing staffs and merged departments, it is important that those who direct the station marketing recognize their own very natural innate bias. To effectively market your product, you must shed your in-house rose-colored glasses and approach your branding from a dispassionate outside perspective. Often times, that means swallowing your on-the-job pride and owning the vantage point that a lot of customers have never heard of your product, don't like it, and feel it's irrelevant.

The job of an ad agency is to give the client brutally honest feedback about its product position. Its job is to dispassionately assess where the product stands in the customer's mind, and create a realistic and pragmatic branding plan to influence skeptical customers who are already overwhelmed with advertising clutter.

Some news directors can't stand to hear bad things about their product so their marketing never gets out of the starting gates. Because they promote a product that only exists in their own minds, it never connects with the audience. Embracing a product's warts and flaws are as necessary as touting its successes.   That marketing director who was outside the daily news routine helped to facilitate that honest outside opinion. Because she did not make the product, she had a more realistic view of its customer appeal. If your news staff is now handling your news marketing too, it is important to constantly be on guard that you're not kidding yourself.   Remember to take off the proud papa content hat and put on the skeptical and dispassionate advertiser hat when creating branding for your station.

Next week - news branding tactics that work best when times are toughest.

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.

TV News Spotlights Financially Challenged Americans
In a slumping economy, U.S. network news programs are expanding their gaze beyond Wall Street and Washington to mainstream America, heralding projects that give voice to everyday people and their financial woes.

The latest project comes from former "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw, who said last week he would motor down a cross-country highway, capturing stories along the way. In one segment from the project, Brokaw will show how the credit crisis strained relations between a car dealership and the local bank. Segments will air on NBC news programs as "Dispatches from the Road," beginning this spring. "People are out there doing some unique things, responding to what's going on, struggling in some cases," Brokaw told reporters in a telephone conference call. "In other cases, they're finding ways to get around economic obstacles that have been thrown in their path."

On Friday, NBC morning show "Today" postponed its travel series "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer" after viewers overwhelmingly voiced opposition to a lavish foreign trip in favor of something local. Instead, "Today's" four anchors will travel to U.S. destinations for a series airing in May.

Rival network ABC has launched a project called "The Kitchen Table Economy" that it says borrows from the Iraq war practice of "embedding" reporters with U.S. troops. As part of its effort, ABC has embedded producers in Brockton, Massachusetts, as the city cuts jobs, at a Texas cowboy hat manufacturer struggling to stay afloat and with suburban Washington state parents who both lost their jobs.

ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" recently aired the first report in the series. "We're doing it because we feel there's a need to know, as close as we can, what different people in different parts of the country are facing," said Jon Banner, the program's executive producer. "We spend a lot of time in the sort of New York-Washington axis, which is very important, but not a good idea to spend a lot of time in," he said.

The latest network news projects harken back to the late CBS News correspondent Charles Kuralt, who began a long-running series of "On the Road" reports in 1967, traveling in motor homes to meet Americans from all walks of life and depict their stories.

Martin Kaplan, media expert and director of the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California, said the networks had turned to the voices of average Americans to counter grass-roots competition from Internet news sources. Kaplan said he welcomed the networks' shift in focus. "I think what this does is give more viewers a chance to see what people like them are feeling," he said. "It legitimizes their point of view in a way that the official gatekeepers are not doing."

For ABC's "Kitchen Table Economy," the Internet and new technology also were a driving force, Banner said. It allows producers to shoot and package their material single-handedly, instead of having a whole news crew on the story for the recurring, weeklong assignments, he said.

In a CBS project, "At the Kitchen Table," which began on March 7 on "The Early Show," anchor Erica Hill sat down with a New Jersey family of five who have struggled since the father lost his job. CBS plans to make "At the Kitchen Table" a recurring part of its broadcast.
Yahoo News

Stephanopoulos to 'Twitterview" McCain
George Stephanopoulos and John McCain plan to be "tweeting" Tuesday in an interview hosted on the Twitter Web site. The Arizona senator and the ABC News correspondent will come together online for a "Twitterview" to be conducted on Tuesday. But they can't get too wordy. The microblogging platform restricts each entry to just 140 characters. "We're going to attempt to conduct a full interview exclusively on Twitter — complete with the 140-character limit," Stephanopoulos said in a statement Friday. He said it was the latest in an effort to find new ways to connect with viewers of "This Week," which he anchors. The public will be able to read the real-time 15-minute exchange by signing up at the Twitter site to follow both Stephanopoulos and McCain. Meanwhile, Stephanopoulos is inviting everyone to "tweet" him proposed questions — with a 140-character limit. While messages posted by the average Twitter user might be read by a few dozen registered "followers," Stephanopoulos' Twitter page Friday listed more than 148,000 followers, while McCain could claim nearly 200,000.
Yahoo News

Twitter Driving Traffic To Social, Entertainment Sites
With Twitter becoming the way information spreads fastest on the Web, who's benefiting from traffic driven by the micro-blogging service? Mostly social networking, search, email and entertainment sites, according to a new analysis by Hitwise. The Web measurement firm found that Twitter sent nearly one in five visits to social networks and the same proportion to entertainment sites in February. Google ranked as the top visited after Twitter, followed by Facebook, Twitpic (a photo-sharing service for Twitter), MySpace and Twitter Search. The top entertainment sites besides Twitpic were YouTube and Flickr. Other sites among the top 20 destinations from Twitter included Yahoo, MSN, Wikipedia and Gmail. The data also showed that Twitter has more in common with social networks than search engines. "It appears that Twitter is being used as a social network and means of distributing content," wrote Heather Hopkins, a senior online analyst at Hitwise, on the company blog. "This is by no means the only way it is being used -- just one standout trend. Twitter.com's clickstream profile is much closer to a social network than to search engines or email services." She pointed out that, unlike search engines, Twitter refers relatively little traffic to retail sites. (As more retailers tap Twitter as a marketing tool that could change over time.) And unlike email services, it drives less traffic to dating and business and finance sites. Conversely, "a higher share of downstream visits from Twitter.com go to entertainment Web sites, in particular photo-sharing, and a much larger share go to blogs and personal Web sites (7.28% in February) and to news and media" sites, according to Hopkins. The findings on traffic from Twitter underscore the growing role social media properties are playing in sending traffic to other sites. Hitwise recently released data showing that Facebook is now referring more traffic than Google to certain sites including PerezHilton.com, CafeMom, Evite and, highlighting a degree of reciprocity, Twitter. And with the redesign of the Facebook home page and brand pages allowing more and faster content-sharing, referrals from the world's largest social network are only likely to increase. But to date, it looks like sectors outside Internet services and entertainment haven't seen much direct benefit from Twitter or Facebook.
MediaPost

Stewart Questions Integrity of CNBC Promotion
Last night on The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart interviewed Mad Money host Jim Cramer, asking him about CNBC's role in policing the financial industry over the last 10 years during which the housing bubble formed and burst. In the second part of the segment Stewart tells Cramer why he's upset with the network, which if you weren't aware is the leading financial newsmaker by audience. "Let me tell you why I think this thing has caught some attention," Stewart begins. "It's the gap between what CNBC advertises itself as, and what it is, and the help that people need to discern this." Then Cramer's promo plays; "An economy on the brink, investments in free fall, you don't know what to do. Don't panic, Cramer's got your back." For the rest of the interview, Stewart lambastes Cramer, his show and the network, basically for not seeing any of this coming — or at least, not reporting it. Cramer and CNBC are guilty not of omitting the truth, says Stewart, but of commiserating with the finance professionals who have guested shows and provided interviews. Basically, Stewart calls out the journalistic integrity of CNBC, which for all rights should have been a watchdog, rather than a lapdog.
MediaBistro

Show-Down Draws 2nd Biggest Audience of the Year
Jon Stewart’s faceoff with CNBC’s Jim Cramer Thursday night gave “The Daily Show” its second biggest audience this year. The media-hyped event was seen by 2.3 million total viewers on Comedy Central. That trails only the Inauguration Day episode of “The Daily Show” in 2009, which had 2.6 million viewers. The show was also in the top 10 in the show’s history. Today, TheDailyShow.com posted its highest traffic day of 2009 and streamed more videos than on any other day so far this year.
TV Week

MSNBC Producers Asked Not To Highlight Cramer/Stewart
A TVNewser tipster tells us MSNBC producers were asked not to incorporate the Jim Cramer/Jon Stewart interview into their shows today. In fact, the only time it came up on MSNBC was during the White House briefing, when a member of the press corps asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs if Pres. Obama watched. Gibbs wasn't sure if the president had, but Gibbs did. "I enjoyed it thoroughly," the Press Secretary said. On Cramer's network, CNBC, the subject has only come up twice today, including when master marketer/CNBC personality Donny Deutsch brought it up briefly around 1pm on "Power Lunch." "I'm a huge Jon Stewart fan," said Deutsch, "He does what he does he does his job. But I'm also a huge Jim Cramer fan. He sticks up for the little guy, he cares, he puts his neck out, and I respect that. I respect both those guys." Cramer appeared on his regular "Stop Trading" segment during "Street Signs." But the Daily Show did not come up. With anchor Erin Burnett in Washington, the discussion was about banking policy and the Federal Reserve, ending with Cramer saying, "Ben Bernanke's got the magic." (A far cry from Cramer's "Wake-Up" call to Bernanke in August '07.)
MediaBistro

Exxon Mobil Taps Documentary Channel For Pitch
Exxon Mobil has tapped The Documentary Channel to produce a long-form integrated marketing pitch for its Mobil 1 synthetic motor-oil brand. As part of a four-month media buy, DOC is rolling out Speed Dreams, an original film that examines the professional successes of Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren Automotive, Porsche factory GT driver Wolf Henzler and drag racing specialist Jason Whitfield of Whitfield Racing. In the course of the 24-minute documentary, each subject discusses how scientific breakthroughs in the development of synthetic motor oils have helped improve his performance on the track. Mobil 1 is featured prominently in the film. According to an ExxonMobil rep, the company paid DOC a “low six-figures” fee, which covered production costs and airtime. The channel reaches 21 million subscribers, with the majority (about 14 million) served by DISH Network. DOC will debut Speed Dreams on March 16 at 10 p.m. In addition to the integration, the Mobil 1 campaign includes branding on DOC’s Tuesday night programming block, “Quantum,” for the next four months, as well as traditional 30-second commercial units, branded lower-thirds, billboards, promos, tune-ins and sweepstakes promos. “We’re extremely pleased with this campaign, and we believe any fan of racing will enjoy the documentary and appreciate the success that great drivers experience when using Mobil 1,” said Scott Howard, Americas Automotive Marketing Manager, ExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialties. “The promotion also gives fans of Mobil 1 an opportunity to get to know the brand better.”
MediaWeek

ABC Dominating in Online TV: Nielsen
ABC is dominating prime-time TV—when it comes to watching prime-time TV on the Web that is. The network’s shows accounted for nine of the top 10 series ranked by Nielsen’s February VideoCensus report, which tracks the audience for online video. Lost was the most streamed show in February, per Nielsen, reaching 2.5 million unique viewers, an increase of 41 percent versus the previous month, when the current season began. Lost also led all shows with 48 million total streams, and increase of 20 percent compared to January. The only other series to top 1 million unique online viewers were Dancing with the Stars, which was streamed by 1.5 million unique viewers; and Grey's Anatomy, which was viewed online by 1.3 million individuals. Rounding out the top five shows were The Bachelor (962,000 uniques) and Brothers & Sisters (801,000 uniques). Dancing with the Stars, which just kicked off its eighth season this week, exhibited the largest month-over-month increase in total streams, which soared by 1,678 percent. Among the other ABC shows to score with Web viewers in February were Scrubs, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives and Private Practice. ABC claims that this season to date visitors to ABC.com have at least started to stream over 106 million episodes (the network does not break out how many episodes were streamed in their entirety). NBC’s Saturday Night Live was the only non-ABC show to crack the VideoCensus top ten, coming in at number eight on the list.
MediaWeek

Fox Flips 'Remote Free TV' Off
FOX's Fringe Fox's "remote free TV" effort this year--which drastically cuts advertising time in two new prime-time shows, "Fringe" and "Dollhouse"--is not likely to continue next season. According to a production executive close to the network, Fox will probably be ending the practice. "Financially, it wasn't viable," says the executive. "It was a noble experiment; viewers enjoyed it." A Fox spokeswoman had no comment. Under the "remote free TV" banner, which Fox announced during last year's upfront event in New York City, "Fringe" and "Dollhouse" have witnessed a 50% cut in national TV advertising inventory--from 10 minutes per hour to five minutes. The effort was undertaken to keep viewers on Fox rather than switching to other channels. Media agency executives had complained for decades about growing non-program clutter--national and local advertising as well as on-air promos for TV shows. Agencies and marketers roundly applauded Fox's move last year. Last fall, Fox released results showing that advertisers that have participated in Fox's efforts for "Fringe" did see higher recall for their ads. Before each commercial break, Fox alerted viewers that upcoming commercial breaks had been shortened. Typically, Fox has been running just two 30-second commercials per commercial break. But despite positive results from advertisers that participated in the effort, Fox got bogged down in dealing with a smaller pool of TV marketers that will pay a premium to be in a prime-time show with fewer commercials. Plus, Fox incurred some additional costs in producing extra content for the two-hour drama--about five minutes or so.
MediaPost

Chirpy Ads Win Over Comcast Critic
Is there anything that could make a cable company seem adorable in 60 seconds? Comcast's new "Dream Big" campaign -- featuring a catchy jingle, guitar-strumming squirrels, bouncing astronauts, dancing penguins and other bubbly cartoon flourishes -- did for Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield. Garfield, you will recall, is the guy who became so incredibly cheesed off at Comcast that he created a Web site, ComcastMustDie.com, devoted to shaming the MSO into improving its customer service. The grumpy media maven last week pronounced the initial Comcast "Dream Big" ad derivative but successful. "Remember, this isn't a nice, eco-friendly hybrid they're jingling goofily about. It isn't ice cream or circuses or Day-Glo condoms," Garfield wrote in his column last week. "It's the freakin' cable company, which - after all the singing is done - you can't help feeling better about." The TV ads feature ordinary-looking people in "Comcast Town" extolling the benefits of the MSO's services (high-speed Internet, HD, on-demand, sports, etc.) in a sort of monotone chant, ending with the spelling out of C-O-M-C-A-S-T. The spots can be viewed at ComcastTown.com, which also offers downloads of the jingle's sheet music and lyrics.
MultiChannel

FCC OKs Some Early DTV Switchovers
The Federal Communications Commission is giving a reluctant go-ahead to a new round of early DTV switchovers, telling stations they can terminate their analog signals starting April 16, but imposing more conditions on network affiliates. The FCC said the network affiliates could switch only if at least one local network station in the market continues to air an analog signal until the national switchover June 12. The changes were announced today in a formal FCC report that also expands the outreach efforts and messages TV stations are required to provide.
TV Week

Message from Michael
THE INTERNET BIG PICTURE: Nearly a quarter of the world’s population (23.5%) is on the Internet. That translates into 1.574 Billion Internet users out of a total world population (as of December 31, 2008) of 6.710 Billion people. The fastest growth, since the website internetworldstats.com started keeping figures in 2000, has come in the Middle East (1,296%), closely followed by Africa (1,100%), while the greatest penetration is in North America with three quarters (73.1%) of the population online; and of course the largest Internet population is in Asia with more than 650 Million Internet users. The actual number of Internet users in the Middle East is just under 46 Million while Africa has just more than 54 Million. North America has nearly 247 Million users which is significantly lower than Europe (390 Million) but then again, Europe’s population is significantly higher (804 Million) so its rate of penetration (48.5%) is significantly lower than the U.S.

As reported before in MfM, China has the largest population of Internet users (253 Million), although one of the lowest penetration rates (19%) followed by the U.S. (220 Million and a penetration of 72.5%). But in third place is Japan where, also, three quarters (73.8%) of the country’s population (127 Million) is on the Internet (94 Million.) Fourth places goes to India with 60 Million users but a penetration rate of slightly higher than five percent. It’s followed by Germany (52 Million and 63.8%), Brazil (50 Million and 26.1%), the U.K. (42 Million and 68.6%), France (36 Million and 58.1%), South Korea (35 Million and 70.7%), Italy (35 Million and 59.7%) and Russia at 11th place (33 Million and 23.2%). Not surprisingly the smallest countries have the highest broadband penetration rate with Bermuda (36.5%) leading the pack, followed by Netherlands (32.8%), Denmark (31.8%), Iceland (29.3%), Switzerland (28.5%), Liechtenstein (28.1%) and Monaco (28.1%) with the U.S. in 19th place (21.4%).

As a side note, the United Nations agency, the International Telecommunications Union, reports that there were 4.1 Billion ‘mobile subscriptions’ as they put it, at the end of 2008. That’s four times the One Billion number in 2002. And as a footnote and sort of plug (I guess), the website mentioned – http://www.internetworldstats.com – has some great resource material on maximizing your Internet marketing efforts.

THE INTERNET LITTLE PICTURE: It occurs in the offices and homes of people everywhere. And when it comes down to that, the average person surfing the Internet spends less than a minute viewing any one web page, according to data compiled by Nielsen Online. That’s even though they spend more than an hour, on average, during any surfing session each month. The explanation may be that even though the folks at Nielsen Online say their data from last year shows that people spend around 38 hours on the Internet at home (an important distinction) on average, they are visiting upwards of 1,600 web pages each of those months. Just to make this even more confusing, the study says people average 36 visits a month and visit about 62 domains. Yeah, I know, lots of numbers, and somewhere in there, is some meaning.

Okay, a little less confusing, and equally interesting is Nielsen’s so-called Three-Screen Report, or as they like to label it, the A2/M2 study. Part of this you may have already heard or read about. For example, Americans watch an average 151 hours of Television a month, based on the fourth quarter of 2008. By comparison, they spent less than one fifth that time (27 hours) on the Internet. And of that, they spent less than three hours (2:53, to be exact) watching video online. And despite all the hoopla about DVR’s, Americans did not spend that much time (7 hours and 11 minutes) watching time-shifted TV. Nielsen reports that the number of homes with DVR’s does though continue to grow with nearly a third (29%) of American homes now time shift capable. Candidly, I couldn’t figure out why there was more mobile video viewing (3 hours and 42 minutes) than Internet video viewing (2 hours and 53 minutes), until I re-read the report and saw that these are the “early adopters” using mobile video. Those early adopters are growing, with 11 Million Americans using mobile video – an increase of 9% from the previous quarter. Lastly, the most interesting statistic I found was that Nielsen says nearly a third (31%) of Internet activity occurs when the person is watching television.

COCKTAIL CHATTER: The Wall Street Journal reports that MTV is going to release a video game based on The Beatles. The “Rock Band” video game will be released in September (along with instruments modeled after the ones used by the band), and represents the “first foray” into the digital world for the group, which the newspaper notes, has kept its music away from digital distribution outlets like iTunes. And if that isn’t enough Beatles cocktail chatter for you, The New York Times reports that Liverpool Hope University in the boys’ hometown is going to offer the world’s first Master’s degree in Beatles studies. Times writer Alan Kozinn who wrote the book “The Beatles” says he is surprised by the number of young people who know so much Beatles material (including, I could add, one of my daughters). He admits it may be strange to consider what a graduate with a master’s in Beatle studies could do with such a degree, but he argues it could be useful not just for musicians but for students of social studies trying to understand the times.

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.

Irish Wit and Wisdom
Here are some funny Irish sayings and quotes to lift your spirits this St. Paddy's Day:

You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.

If you're lucky enough to be Irish, then you're lucky enough.

Who gossips with you will gossip of you.

There are fish in the sea better than have ever been caught.

A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures.

But the greatest love - the love above all loves, Even greater than that of a mother - Is the tender, passionate, undying love, Of one beer drunken slob for another.

Don't give cherries to pigs or advice to fools.

The Irish ignore anything they can't drink or punch

When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.

Both your friend and your enemy think you will never die."

Why should you never iron a 4-leaf clover? You don't want to press your luck.

The longest road out is the shortest road home.

The Irish are very fair people; they never speak well for one another.

Here's to our wives and girlfriends: May they never meet!

The Irish don't know what they want and are prepared to fight to the death to get it.

A quarrel is like buttermilk: once it's out of the churn, the more you shake it, the more sour it grows.

In heaven there is no beer...That's why we drink ours here.

God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world.

Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you fight with your neighbor. It makes you shoot at your landlord and it makes you miss him.

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

The Irish forgive their great men when they are safely buried.

Irish Alzheimer's: you forget everything except the grudges.

Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat.

When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to Heaven. So, let's all get drunk and go to heaven.

For every wound, a balm.
For every sorrow, cheer.
For every storm, a calm.
For every thirst, a beer

When I get a very generous introduction like that I explain that I'm emotionally moved, but on the other hand I'm Irish and the Irish are very emotionally moved. My mother is Irish and she cries during beer commercials. - Barry McCaffrey

I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my Mum. I know I've got Irish blood because I wake up everyday with a hangover. - Noel Gallagher

The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven't seen the joke yet. - Oliver Herford

I can resist everything except temptation. - Oscar Wilde

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