CNN Readies All Citizen Journalism News Site
February 11, 2008
CNN is preparing to unveil a news site made up entirely of news gathered by users, Mediaweek reports. An offshoot of its iReport citizen journalism feature, which the Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) cable net launched in August. 2006. Since that time, CNN has received roughly 100,000 news photos and videos from viewers. The pickup in activity has been gaining lately, as CNN said it has received nearly 10,000 viewer-submissions just last month to iReport.com. more to come
Harbinger Parent Ups Stake In NYTCo To 9.96 Percent; Activists Meet With Management
February 11, 2008
Harbert Management, the parent firm of Harbinger Capital, announced in a regulatory filing that it now has 9.96 percent of the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), or 14.25 million shares. Through its Harbinger unit, the firm had previously disclosed a sub-5 percent stake, as part of an effort to put nominees on NYTCo's board. We reported at the time that it was always the intent to up its holdings, but that it originally wanted to fly under the regulatory radar.
-- Meeting: In addition to the new holdings announcement, the firm filed a letter sent by Scott Galloway of Firebrand Partners (also part of the activist group) to Chairman and Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, and CEO Janet L. Robinson referencing a previously unreported meeting held on Friday: "On behalf of Harbinger Capital Partners and Firebrand Partners, I am writing to thank you again for taking the time to meet with us last Friday. We are looking forward to continuing a productive and positive dialog. Accordingly, as we discussed on Friday, each of our director nominees is free to meet with the members of your nominating committee at their convenience."
-- Board nominees: The filing also makes official the four proposed nominees to the board each of whom were previously identified: Scott Galloway, James A. Kohlberg, Allen L. Morgan, Gregory Shove. The fund reserves the right to substitute other names or add additional ones if NYTCo attempts to change the structure of its board.
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WGA Strike: Ad Agency React: ‘The Aftermath Begins’; Upfront Presentations Remain In Doubt
February 11, 2008
While broadcast media buyers and marketers are likely to feel relieved by the end of the work stoppage, some contend that too much damage has been done for things to return to normal. Chris Boothe, a president at Publicis Groupe's Starcom USA, tells AdAge that "the aftermath begins" once the strike is completely wrapped up, adding that repercussions to the TV ad business will continue to be felt for some time. Some effects stemming from the way the labor action will permanently affect the way TV ad time is bought. Among the immediate expectations are:
-- There will be less original programming overall, with reality TV assuming a greater share of prime-time.
-- Rather than schedule most of the new season for a big fall opening, many new shows will see staggered debuts. Networks will likely begin to roll out more shows during Q4.
-- Audience erosion has been a fact of life for the networks the past few years. But the strike may have sped up that trend. According to Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson, live prime-time audiences between the ages of 18 and 49 fell 11 percent through Jan. 27, with CBS (NYSE: CBS) down 19.6 percent, while ABC dropped 15.2 percent and NBC saw a decrease 13.8 percent. Thanks to popular unscripted shows like American Idol, Fox was the only one to gain, albeit a modest 3.7 percent. Cable has grown and as more people by DVRs, live prime-time ratings might not be able to make a comeback.
-- Development of new shows have been held up during the strike. Therefore, the networks might not have a reason to hold the annual bombast that is the upfront. Between the start of the negotiations in May and the end in end in early summer, marketers placed $9.2 billion in advertising for the 2007 fall season. With some networks left wondering whether they will have to produce "make-goods" - returning advertisers' money for shows that failed to hit guaranteed ratings points - the shape of this year's upfront is very much in doubt.
B&C: Only Fox appears committed to hosting its major upfront presentation this year. NBC continues to waver on its upfront plans. The way it looks right now, the network's fall preview will have a decidedly more scaled back quality.
MyNetflix (beta) Vista Media Center plugin with Watch Now streaming
February 11, 2008
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs
[Via Chris Lanier's Blog, thanks Matt]
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The Futility of Fighting Media “Pirates”—How MediaDefender Got Hacked
February 10, 2008
As if we needed yet more evidence that trying to fight piracy is a futile exercise, just look at the case of a company called MediaDefender. The company acts on behalf of media companies to monitor and sabotage the sharing of movies, music, and video games on peer-to-peer networks. It seeds BitTorrent, for instance, with fake files to try to make P2P file-sharing a hassle and annoyance. Last September, a hacker fought back by uploading to BitTorrent internal e-mails and documents outlining MediaDefender’s tactics, rendering them much less effective.
Meet Michael Stephens - He Has Quit on Print
February 9, 2008
I have seen the face of the newspaper industry’s business conundrum, and it belongs to Michael Stephens. Stephens — a librarian, library science instructor, tech enthusiast and blogger — recently posted “An Open Letter to the South Bend Tribune” on the occasion of canceling his print subscription. My discerning friend Tom Billiterri found it while rummaging online for hometown news of Indiana and forwarded it with the comment “a sign of the times.” I could excerpt and paraphrase, but the flavor is best savored by reading the whole thing. Stephens’ item is not particularly long, and it’s stated with some style.
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A Radical Option For Yahoo: Out-Open Google
February 8, 2008
Yahoo is between a rock and Google. As Yahoo’s board decides today whether or not to accept Microsoft’s $44.6 billion offer to buy the company, we’ve argued that it really only has two choices: accept the inevitable and go with Microsoft, or outsource search to Google. Both, are in their own way, admissions of defeat and riddled with potential problems. There is another option to consider, though. That is to hit Google where it hurts by truly opening up search. I will explain what I mean below, but first let’s go through the two obvious options.
NBC Direct launches, everybody still misses iTunes
November 11, 2007
Books Category Position
November 9, 2007
This is a test to show which content shows up in which position. This is the Books category.
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