Lost Remote

YouTube offers publishers links in overlays: If you’re a...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:03:05 -0700

YouTube offers publishers links in overlays: If you’re a publisher who buys search ads on YouTube, you qualify to create overlays on your clips (like the one above) that are designed to drive traffic back to your site. “All you have to do is include a short headline, ad text, a destination url, and upload an optional image, and the overlay will appear whenever someone watches your video,” YouTube explains. It’s tearing a page from the Google playbook: provide unique incentives for publishers who buy search ads. Details here.

"WNBC.com or WNBC4.com is an extension of the television station, it’s not a real scaled game. We..."

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:43:00 -0700

““WNBC.com or WNBC4.com is an extension of the television station, it’s not a real scaled game. We don’t want to play just in that game. We want to play in the entire New York or Chicago or Los Angeles or whatever city you want to call it online media space and we can’t do that by just limiting ourselves to the call letters of our traditional analog TV station.””

- NBCU chief Jeff Zucker explaining why NBC stations abandoned call letters in online branding. When WNBC.com relaunched last year, it rebranded to NBCNewYork.com.

Joost scaling back, to offer white label video service: Joost...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:58:00 -0700

Joost scaling back, to offer white label video service: Joost had high hopes of become the premium video destination on the web, a space that’s now largely occupied by Hulu. So now CEO Mike Volpi is out, massive layoffs are on the way, and the company announced it’s shifting from a consumer focus to offering a white label technology and distribution service.

Msnbc.com’s iPhone app debuts: We’ve launched apps...

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:20:00 -0700

Msnbc.com’s iPhone app debuts: We’ve launched apps for Today Show and Rachel Maddow, and now our mobile team has debuted a msnbc.com iPhone app, in collaboration with Zumobi. Beyond the clean interface and Best Buy as a launch sponsor, it’s worth noting that users can share stories via Twitter as well as browse some of msnbc and NBC News’ popular Twitter accounts.

Fake local TV site promotes get rich scheme

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:49:00 -0700

Fake local TV site promotes get rich scheme:

It looks like a local TV site, KLMT News 3, complete with the smiling anchors across the masthead and the weather report down the side. But the “story,” written by a “35-year-old news veteran,” is a glowing report on a scheme to profit from Google. And clicking on any of the navigation items will take you to Google-Money-Master.com.

Update: As you’ve pointed out in comments, there’s also News3News.com.

Sites crash, publishers complain on Twitter

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:00:28 -0700

Sites crash, publishers complain on Twitter: Of course, when Twitter crashes, the reverse happens.

How not to sound like an idiot on television: Washington Post...

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:13:00 -0700

How not to sound like an idiot on television: Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza hosts this how-to clip on YouTube’s brand new Reporters Center, which aims to educate citizens on how to produce better journalism. Interesting observation: there are 34 clips providing tips on video newsgathering, but only two of them are from people who work in TV news.

Meanwhile, YouTube wants more news publishers to join as partners.

Google: We’re not THAT big: As part of a public relations...

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:12:00 -0700

Google: We’re not THAT big: As part of a public relations offensive to convince regulators that it’s not a monopoly, Google says its share of online advertising is about 30 percent, which boils down to 2.66% share of total U.S. advertising. Or in other words, 2.3 times larger than the combined online advertising of every newspaper in the country.

More one-click mobile publishing to YouTube: Ah look,...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:46:00 -0700

More one-click mobile publishing to YouTube: Ah look, T-Mobile’s upcoming new Android phone, the MyTouch 3G, will have a video camera with one-touch publishing to YouTube, just like the new iPhone. Hmm, is this becoming a standard feature on new 3G smart phones?

Facebook to add followers to friends

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:37:00 -0700

Facebook to add followers to friends: Looks like Facebook will soon copy Twitter’s successful following model by allowing users to become a fan of other users. Facebook recently added a new feature that lets you publish status updates to the world, which would work hand-in-hand with Twitter-like following.

On Jackson death, old media “did the heavy lifting”:...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:54:00 -0700

On Jackson death, old media “did the heavy lifting”: This is an actual paragraph from a Chicago Tribune story about how the news of Michael Jackson’s death spread:

“Gossip site TMZ.com, owned by Time Warner, was out in front with Jackson news and digital-era pipelines spread the word, as has happened before with other major celebrity news stories. But it was old media stalwarts that did the heavy lifting, with giants such as The Associated Press and the Web site of the L.A. Times, sister paper of the Chicago Tribune, reporting the fastest, most credible information on the emergency call for paramedics and ultimately his death.”

Um, I realize that TMZ isn’t the most credible news source, but it was first and right on this one. And I realize that some folks on Twitter thought Jeff Goldblum had died, which he hadn’t, but many people found out about Jackson’s death through a Tweet, not by visiting their newspaper’s website. Dismissing the value of speed and social connections is dangerous. News is not an end state, it’s a distributed conversation. You can do all “the heavy lifting” you want, but if it’s not part of the real-time conversation, it’s increasingly irrelevant.

Digital chiefs at local TV groups 'no longer second tier'

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:12:00 -0700

Digital chiefs at local TV groups 'no longer second tier': The vast majority of local TV station groups now have upper-level managers dedicated to growing their online and mobile operations. (For some groups, this took way too long, if you ask me.) TVNewsday has a handy list of the digital execs here.

Journalism Online expects 10% of users will pay for news

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:07:13 -0700

Journalism Online expects 10% of users will pay for news: Um, that’s a bit optimistic, wouldn’t you say?

Google brings local advertisers to mobile phones: Google...

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:55:00 -0700

Google brings local advertisers to mobile phones: Google continues its aggressive push into mobile with the beta launch of Adsense for mobile applications. What makes this interesting is you can imagine Google will ultimately add a location-aware element, serving up contextually- and location-relevant (as in physical location) local advertising across a network of mobile experiences. In this Google testimonial clip, Howard Steinberg, Director of Business Development at Urbanspoon, talks about how they’ve implemented the mobile ads on their popular local restaurant app.

Also: YouTube sees big boost in mobile uploads after new iPhone launch

Cable companies begin web video test: Looking to protect their...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:29:00 -0700

Cable companies begin web video test: Looking to protect their multi-billion dollar investments in television distribution while growing a web video presence, Time Warner and Comcast have teamed up on a technical test of “TV Anywhere.” In essence, the system checks to ensure you’re a Comcast subscriber before you can watch a Time Warner TV show on Comcast.net or Fancast.com. “It’s called playing defense,” writes Martin Peers in WSJ, explaining why he believes the plan isn’t ready for prime time.

Or as Dan Frommer puts it, “How about letting subscribers watch more TV on their TVs?”

"(Google is) sucking the blood (out of newspapers.)"

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:03:00 -0700

“(Google is) sucking the blood (out of newspapers.)”

- Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal) CEO Les Hinton not only bashed Google, but he made a little news, explaining that WSJ.com subscribers will soon be able to buy access to other newspapers online. “Imagine this future,” he said. “The Journal is one of the many newspapers you might buy in one place and with one payment… Watch for it.”

Live video coming to Facebook

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:59:00 -0700

Live video coming to Facebook: I think it’s safe to say this will become very popular, especially as cell phones begin to offer live streaming functionality as a standard feature.

"Local advertising is bought, not sold."

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:12:44 -0700

““Local advertising is bought, not sold.””

- Gordon Borrell of Borrell Associates responding to the news that Yahoo has teamed with AdReady to expand self-serve display advertising for local businesses. “I think this is not going to work,” he said.

Don’t count TiVo out just yet: One of television’s...

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:49:17 -0700

Don’t count TiVo out just yet: One of television’s biggest innovations, TiVo once was a household word. But when cable and satellite operators began offering their own DVRs, TiVo’s growth stalled. But now, after winning a key federal patent battle against Dish, TiVo is back in the game, reminding operators with their own DVR technology that they may have violated its patent. And today, TiVo is reportedly in talks with Time-Warner to power their DVRs, and acquisition rumors are beginning to swirl. Will DirecTV buy TiVo? Amazon? Apple? Netflix? Stay tuned…

Also: TiVo teams with Quantcast to measure TV-web link in real time

University of Washington offers class on Twitter

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:21:00 -0700

University of Washington offers class on Twitter: In what may be the first university-level class dedicated to Twitter in the country, UW’s Masters of Communications in Digital Media program just kicked off a summer class called, “How Twitter Is Changing Organizations.” Borderline Twitter addict Kathy Gill will be teaching the class which will explore the social impact of Twitter, best practices and look at organizational case studies. (Full disclosure: I’m on the advisory board for the program.)