Lost Remote

"The highlight for me was seeing the founder and editor of West Seattle Blog, Tracy Record,..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:44:44 -0800

“The highlight for me was seeing the founder and editor of West Seattle Blog, Tracy Record, positioned on stage next to msnbc.com president Charlie Tillinghast. Two years ago, who would have believed that a neighborhood news site would warrant the same consideration as one of the giants in the online news world.”

- Mark Briggs blogging about a local panel at the MIT Enterprise Forum in Seattle.

Twitter lights up its geolocation API: It’s here, but it...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:16:00 -0800

Twitter lights up its geolocation API: It’s here, but it only works 1) if you turn on geotagging in your account settings on Twitter.com and 2) you’re using a Twitter mobile application with the geolocation feature, like Foursquare. Both these factors will combine to make this a rather specialized use case, but as Twitter says, “These are only the beginning.”

Fox Sports launching local sites, too: Joining the ranks of ESPN...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:58:00 -0800

Fox Sports launching local sites, too: Joining the ranks of ESPN and Comcast, Fox Sports is quietly rolling out a network of a dozen local/regional sports sites, like FoxSportsArizona.com. In less than a year, local sports has suddenly become an incredibly competitive field, with local media feeling the squeeze from both national players and the sports leagues themselves.

AOL hiring journalists, laying off just about everyone else

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:22:47 -0800

AOL hiring journalists, laying off just about everyone else:

AOL announced today that it’s planning to lay off 2,500 employees — about a third of its staff — but the company is still hiring journalists in a plan to beef up original content. That’s a change.

"What’s happening?"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:10:00 -0800

“What’s happening?”

- What Twitter now asks you, instead of “What are you going?” — a subtle change to try to encourage more newsy Tweets. “People are witnessing accidents, organizing events, sharing links, breaking news, reporting stuff their dad says, and so much more,” explains co-founder Biz Stone.

YouTube offers news organizations APIs for user uploads: YouTube...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:24:00 -0800

YouTube offers news organizations APIs for user uploads: YouTube continues its push into citizen journalism with the launch of YouTube Direct, a set of APIs that allows news organizations to use YouTube as the platform for user video uploads. “Users can upload videos directly into this application, which also enables the hosting organization to easily review video submissions and select the best ones to broadcast on-air and on their websites,” explains Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics. And of course, all this video lives on YouTube.com, which continues to build out its news presence. Among the first to use YouTube Direct: ABC News (see here), the Huffington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle (here) and WHDH-TV in Boston (here).

"By using your call letters, you’re automatically limiting yourself to those who follow your..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:50:00 -0800

“By using your call letters, you’re automatically limiting yourself to those who follow your newscast. Why not open it up, make it more inclusive and pull in a whole new audience online?”

- Lost Remote emeritus Steve Safran talking about local TV website branding in a Broadcasting & Cable story about the topic. Many local TV stations are beginning to loosen up to the idea.

Comcast launching local sports sites: Comcast is pouring some...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:09:48 -0800

Comcast launching local sports sites: Comcast is pouring some serious cash into an effort to compete with ESPN.com in local sports. The first site, Comcast SportsNet New England, will ultimately hire 40 staffers. San Francisco, DC/Baltimore and Chicago will soon follow.

A crazy idea on how newspapers can take on Google: Mahalo CEO...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:24:00 -0800

A crazy idea on how newspapers can take on Google: Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis suggests that news media companies team together and propose that Bing pay them a fee to block Google from indexing their search results. Interesting.

Adds Don in comments: “So you’ll have a pocket full of cash and no users? How does that make sense? … It would be like only having your news available to Mac users.”

GonzoCamp sparks entrepreneurial ideas for news

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:07:36 -0800

GonzoCamp sparks entrepreneurial ideas for news:

The second annual GonzoCamp — a brainstorming and prototyping session to generate new ideas around news — just wrapped up here in Seattle, and TechFlash has a summary. GonzoCamp is the brainchild of Mark Briggs. “Instead of panel discussions lamenting the demise of the way things were, we prefer to roll up our sleeves and build something,” he explains. Among the projects that came out of GonzoCamp: a “Yelp for journalists” and a community-powered story “PitchMap.”

How blogging has changed in last 3 years: A new survey shows...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

How blogging has changed in last 3 years: A new survey shows that the way users engage with blogs is shifting more to off-site experiences, thanks in part to social networks and bookmarking/voting sites. (The graph above measures engagement for top blogs.) This reminds me of that timeless quote from a college student, “If the news is that important, it will find me.” There’s a new ecosystem of content sharing, which may or may not drive referrals — a new universe of content consumption that many media companies are just beginning to understand.

Fwix unveils revenue-sharing plan for hyperlocal blogs

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:41:00 -0800

Fwix unveils revenue-sharing plan for hyperlocal blogs:

Fwix founder Darian Shirazi says just sending a little traffic to blogs isn’t going to cut it anymore. So his team has launched a new “ad wire” that mixes ad messages with local headlines, sharing revenue with not only the publisher that hosts the headlines, but the original news sources, too.

Of course, you have to sign up to get paid.

Belo's Moor to head up local news at Yahoo

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:26:10 -0800

Belo's Moor to head up local news at Yahoo:

DallasNews.com’s Anthony Moor says he’s just accepted a position at Yahoo to head up their growing local news efforts. Moor tweets, “Moving to Yahoo! and SF to build staff of editors around US who will improve the local news experience on frontpage.”

A very cool way to watch a TV newscast: One of the big struggles...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:12:00 -0800

A very cool way to watch a TV newscast: One of the big struggles in TV news is how to provide viewers with an easy way to find and watch specific newscast segments on the web. (“I saw it on TV around 5:30 p.m., but I can’t find it on your website….”) Here at msnbc.com, we just launched the TODAY Video Timeline on TodayShow.com, a nifty Flash experience that lets you chronologically scroll through TODAY segments labeled with the exact air times. Beyond finding a specific segment, it’s also a great way to browse the show, clicking on the clips you want to watch.

Local digital channels could be the new TV wasteland: “Do...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:15:00 -0800

Local digital channels could be the new TV wasteland: “Do you watch any of the new local digital channels?” asks Tom Petner on TVWeek.com. “No, neither do I.” I must confess, though, I do record and occasionally watch old episodes of Magnum PI on a random digital channel in Seattle. But I can’t tell you which one. (That’s a screen grab of an episode of Sea Hunt above, via ThisTV. )

"Proximity can be this proxy for relevance"

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:05:00 -0800

“Proximity can be this proxy for relevance”

- Twitter’s Ryan Sarver about using the company’s new geolocation feature as a way to sift through the crush of seemingly random tweets. Explains NYTimes: “That simple filter made a huge difference in what a visitor to Twitter’s search engine discovered about the Fort Hood shootings. After limiting searches to those from within 15 miles of Killeen, Tex., a town near the Army post, you easily find messages sent by soldiers describing what it is like to be on lockdown or worrying about their children at school on the post.” Sarver said that one idea is to provide local trending topics.

Gannett's MomsLikeMe.com streams live birth

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:35:16 -0800

Gannett's MomsLikeMe.com streams live birth:

A woman who kept a popular pregnancy journal on the Minneapolis section of Gannett’s MomsLikeMe.com agreed to have her birth streamed live on the site. “It’s really interesting that it went from an online local neighborhood thing to a global audience,” said spokeswoman Lisa Tyler.

Sacramento Press tries new local approach: The new city site...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:42:00 -0800

Sacramento Press tries new local approach: The new city site uses tags and social media as a hook into local advertisers. Running on its own CMS, the Sacramento Press has plans to grow to other cities, as well. The Kelsey Group has an interesting write-up on it here.

How social media is taking the news local

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:31:00 -0800

How social media is taking the news local:

Our own Next Door Media is mentioned in the Mashable story along with ChicagoNow.com, WCCO-TV’s Jason DeRusha and the Austin-American Statesman.

"A blog that’s associated with a major, legitimate organization… would be, I think, treated..."

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:11:00 -0800

““A blog that’s associated with a major, legitimate organization… would be, I think, treated differently than an individual blogger who’s using his or her right of free expression to say whatever he thinks. So the presence of an editor, as an example. You know, an editor that’s not your mom.””

- Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s derogatory over-generalization of independent bloggers compared to big media bloggers. I’m on the record criticizing Google for imposing “blog” labels on neighborhood news blogs while not adding the same labels to newspaper blogs. (Google has now asked blogs to tag themselves as a blog in their sitemap, but I don’t see newspapers rushing to get that done anytime soon.)