The ability to build community has been one of the biggest selling points for local news media. When circulation numbers began declining and audience numbers dropped, local news media increased ad rates, because they argued there were still highly relevant to their local community. As a new report indicates, the Internet may be challenging that.The Pew Internet & American Life Project has a new study on the growing role the Internet plays in building community. According to the Pew study, about 60 million Americans said the Internet had played an important or crucial role in helping them with at least one major life decision in the past two years. While the report does not indicate what sites and sources users are turning to, it does tell us that the Internet is quickly becoming one of the most relevant aspects of everyday life.
The report dispels the notion that Internet users are some how less connected or more aloof, living in a virtual world where Web surfers never interact with real people. To the contrary, the report shows how Internet users often have stronger and deeper ties to their respective social networks. The Internet: It isn't just for geeks!If you want to understand the power of online communities, look no further than the growing phenomenon of social network sites, such as MySpace, Facebook and Xanga. MySpace.com is fueled by hundreds of thousands of young people around the globe, though not exclusively teenagers, who build online communities around groups of people with whom they share similar interests and passions, regardless of where they live. For years, local news has relied on geography as being the most important factor in determining one's community and social networks. Sites like MySpace show how that is no longer the case.
You’d think publishers would’ve smartened up following their missteps with West Virginia coal miners’ story. But on the day after the Palestinian election, we spotted a newspaper-affiliated site with a lead story that reports a Fatah victory over Hamas (obviously grabbed from the print edition). And incredibly, right above that lead piece, a scrolling AP headline declares “Officials: Hamas Wins Palestinian Election.”
Ugh.
We know that news sites aren’t staffed 24/7 (at least not yet). And that automated feeds can spring some surprises on a Web editor. But there needs to be better coordination between print and online news teams on stories that are especially likely to bleed past a printed deadline, particularly elections. Editors of a printed publication with a set deadline have to go with what they know, and any articles that lack a definitive resolution should point readers to the Web for details. But those editors shouldn’t wake up to see conflicting reports stacked one above the other on the home page. Not if they want to be viewed as a relevant, trustworthy news organization.
And so goes today's Chaser rant.
(Full disclose note: This Chaser is a semi-regular contributor of free-lance music articles to the news site described above. He hopes the person who signs his checks is open to constructive criticism!]
When professionals -- editors, academics, journalists -- are running the show, we at least know that it's someone's job to look out for such things as accuracy. But now we're depending more and more on systems where nobody's in charge; the intelligence is simply emergent. These probabilistic systems aren't perfect, but they are statistically optimized to excel over time and large numbers. They're designed to scale, and to improve with size. And a little slop at the microscale is the price of such efficiency at the macroscale.
Might not this statistical optimization of "value" at the macroscale be a recipe for mediocrity at the microscale -- the scale, it's worth remembering, that defines our own individual lives and the culture that surrounds us? By providing a free, easily and universally accessible information source at an average quality level of 5, will Wikipedia slowly erode the economic incentives to produce an alternative source with a quality level of 9 or 8 or 7? Will blogging do the same for the dissemination of news? Does Google-surfing, in the end, make us smarter or dumber, broader or narrower? Can we really put our trust in an alien logic's ability to create a world to our liking? Do we want to be optimized?
Within the last month, both the Online Publishers Association and Newspaper Association of America released studies on various services that measure the usage of online news products. The two reports review the four major audience-measurement services: comScore Media Metrix, Nielsen//NetRatings, Scarborough Research and The Media Audit.
Understanding the audience-research services is important, but all of them contain a flaw. All of them reflect the old-media approach to the world: if you build it, they will come.
In this "Field of Dreams" approach to audience measurement, we are only interested in how many people look at our sites. If reflects the mindset that the issues traditional media face never have to do with content, but rather with proper marketing. As a result, the metrics we use reflect that thinking.
Nothing better reflects that approach than newspaper-launched blogs. A quick scan by this Chaser of 10 newspaper sites found 15 blogs. The blogs read like newspaper columns and, most shockingly, more than half of them contained only one link or no links at all. Whoa!
That misses the whole point of blogs and the blogosphere. If you are not linking to other sites, you miss one of the key aspects of what makes the blogsphere work; you might as well not even participate.
We need new stats for the converged media world. When it comes to blogging, you should be tracking how many other blogs link to your blogs and how many items are you linking to. Identify 10 other local blogs and track how frequently they link, mention or interact with your local blogs. The new media world is a conversation in which traditional media is only one part. If you aren’t linking to other sites and if you are not being linked to, you are missing the whole point.
In another study released by the OPA, a new metric for tracking a Web site's success is put forth: SUM (site usage measure). This measure could be used for any media, but its focus is not simply on how many people look at something; it tracks the level of interaction a user has with a Web site. In essence, it's a loyalty index for your content.
If you don’t have a loyalty index for your site, you are missing a key metric that other industries have found extremely telling: while all visitors are good for the site, some visitors are better than others.
While audience aggregation data is important, these stats are quickly becoming outdated, and they don’t reflect the way people interact with media. We need new stats, and we need them now.
Shameless plug department: Chaser HQ will be hosting a media consumption seminar titled "Blogs, Podcasts, TiVo, Wikis: New Habits of News Consumers" March 12-15, 2006. Details are posted here. The conference goal is to explore how we use all media. Apply now. Avoid the rush.
It’s time for Chasers to start making their holiday wish lists, and so far, the page is crammed with gadgets and ideas to help us explore the future. Oooh, the Chasers just love this time of year!
So many new gadgets and next-gen devices, just in time to add to a plump and juicy holiday wish list. The items below aren’t just for fun -- no, no -- they’re all about R&D and getting smart about continuing fascination with content delivered to portable devices and small screens. (At least, that’s the argument we’re making to get The Big Chaser to spring for ‘em!) Everyone’s invited to chime in with the gadget and gizmos they’re drooling over. (Just keep that drool away from our turkey!)
We’ll start the list by pointing to the most intriguing choices from recent newspaper pre-prints (yep, we still skim ‘em) and Wired magazine’s December 2005 issue. Entertainment hubs: Hewlett-Packard’s HP Digital Entertainment Center and the Voodoo Media Center share similar goals -- to beat the stuffing out of your existing DVD player, DVR, FM radio and MP3 player! Oh, did we mention the PC is an endangered species, too? Yes, these boxes cram it all in there. We’re skeptical, of course, but that’s why they call it R&D!
Handsets and PDAs: The T-Mobile Smartphone keeps Chasers connected to e-mail, blogs and more -- plus, it’s got built-in Wi-Fi. This one won’t sneak past the bean counters, but the Mobiado Professional Executive Model handset mashes style -- exotic wood exterior -- with substance -- camera, camcorder, Bluetooth and on and on.
Reporter gear: Grooming your own Kevin Sites? Equip the on-the-scene reporter with a modular utility belt from Think Tank Photo that would, in Wired’s words, “make Batman jealous.”
Games: Must… try… Xbox 360! And not just for the games, but to see how Microsoft delivers on a machine that integrates wireless communication and community-building for $400. And drop a PlayStation Portable in the online shopping cart, too. It’s too soon to hope for all-in-one portable perfection, but Sony knows its core market as well as any consumer-goods company -- always worth watching. The "Play" in "PlayStation" expands far beyond video games to include movies, music and content from media publishers.
Now it’s your turn: Tell us what’s on your Chaser Wish List. Remember, this is the season to share!
Hmmm, reruns of TV shows on the computer screen. This is what we’ve been working so hard to accomplish? This is the fabulous result of massive broadband penetration? Vinnie Barbarino from “Welcome Back, Kotter” strutting around on the screen, followed by a helping of “Kiss my grits!” from “Alice,” washed down with caring parental guidance from Alan Thicke on “Growing Pains”?
OK, it’s just one lil’ ol’ announcement from America Online and Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution, not the end game of our digital-media future. The programming venture that places old TV shows on AOL, scheduled to begin in early 2006 under the name “In2TV,” builds on a series of other recent announcements from media companies that are working furiously to maximize their assets and bring content to new platforms.
Understanding media consumptionMark your calendars for "Blogs, Podcasts, TiVo and Wikis: The New Habits of News Consumers." This conference will bring together journalists, researchers and media watchers, who will explore how consumers use media in their daily lives.
March 12-15, 2006. Limited seating. More info click here.
In October, MTV and Motorola launched an eight episode, original content show for mobile phones. Viacom-owned MTV also developed a broadband version of its 24-hour college network, mtvU, during the same month. Scripps Networks is among the most aggressive dabblers in online homes for its content. Last month, Scripps’ HGTV introduced a new show, “My First Place,” on the Web instead of the TV screen.
All of these examples do more than repurpose made-for-TV format on the Web. They add extra video content, interaction among audience members, and cutesy add-ons like games and polls. The TechWeb article points to a significant stat that surely has motivated content dealmakers:
More than 94 million people, or 56 percent of the online U.S. population, have watched streaming video online, according to Web metrics firm ComScore Networks. Over the last three months ending in June, the average consumer watched 73 minutes of online video a month.
In addition to a sizable audience, there’s the not-so-insignificant fact that publishers and advertisers are getting more comfortable with video ad formats on the Web. AOL’s advertising model incorporates streaming advertising within the content, banners and sponsorships.
As the Newspaper Association of America’s Online Publishing Updated noted yesterday, there’s also movement from hardware manufacturers who see the opportunity to meet emerging needs for time-shifted, on-demand programming. Sony Electronics says that its LocationFree service is now capable of receiving content wirelessly from an individual’s TV, DVD player or digital video recorder. It’s competing for attention with Sling Media’s Slingbox, which also delivers content typically viewed at home to subscribers, no matter where they are.
All of the above are more signs that the digital future will be a multi-faceted thing.
This week, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released its latest study on teen online behavior. The study reported on teens as content-creators and consumers, and if you had any doubt that the media landscaping is changing, this study will help to put those doubts to rest.
The study found that 57 percent of teens online -- or about half of all teenagers aged 12 to 17 -- have created content for the Web. That's approximately 12 million young people. The type of content they have created ranges from blogs to personal Web pages to sharing original works of art online.
So what does that mean for those of us in traditional media? Contrary to what some believe, the issue is not simply about how many blogs you are or are not creating (and just because you post to a blogging platform does not mean you have a blog!).
So what is the issue? The issue is that the media world has gotten substantially larger. No longer is a local newspaper, television or radio station competing against another for viewers' and readers' attention. In today's media world, traditional media compete against their very own users: readers and viewers have become media outlets in their own right.
Young people online are not content to simply search one "definitive" source of news and information. They search multiple sources, and, as importantly, they want to be involved in the process. If teens continue with the same habits as they become adults, it does not bode well for traditional media outlets that fail to engage their audiences in the newsgathering and reporting process. Hence, the much-talked-about citizen or community journalist.
Traditional media must decide: Do they try to compete against these new media sources, or do they somehow try to incorporate them into the existing media world? To this Chaser it is not clear what direction traditional media will pursue, or, more importantly, which one will be successful.
The point to remember is that the way we present information to consumers affects their use of it and decisions about it. So if the only way we media types make management decisions is to study user behavior in the environments we create, we fall into loops of logic that are tough to escape.
For Chasers, that's the same as chasing your tail.
Here is today's understatement: Dealing with the future is complicated. So, dealing with today's stuff should be easy, right? As every Chaser knows, making changes around what we do today can greatly improve our chances of success in the future. Change the present and realize the future.
On that note, we shift to a report from an investment company, Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. The folks at Chaser HQ sometimes receive copies of the reports written by Paul Ginocchio, an analyst who specializes in the media industry. We like Paul's view on the media world, especially the newspaper business. He is generally positive, but also very realistic, about the changes needed for the future.
The report, written by one of Ginocchio's associates, David Clark, struck us as very "future-focused." Clark wrote about what newspaper companies need to do to secure their future when it comes to advertising -- especially retail advertising. Here are Clark's seven themes, picked up at a recent industry conference:
APPLY NOW Understanding media consumptionMark your calendars for "Blogs, Podcasts, TiVo and Wikis: The New Habits of News Consumers." This conference will bring together journalists, researchers and media watchers, who will explore how consumers use media in their daily lives. March 12-15, 2006. Limited seating. More info click here. Theme One: ZIP code zoning, or die Newspapers must quickly improve their zoning capability, as targeting is now the single most important marketing factor for retailers. Theme Two: Creativity creates opportunity Newspapers need to think outside the box to provide retailers with differentiated marketing opportunities. New sections and Post-It notes are not enough. Theme Three: Stabilize circulation in key geographies Retailers have penetration targets by ZIP Code, so circulation in key ZIPs is more important to them than overall circulation. Theme Four: Prove your value The newspaper industry needs to quickly develop ROI metrics to justify rising ad rates in the face of a declining audience. Theme Five: Know the client Newspapers do a poor job of understanding the retailers' strategy and needs. Retailers want newspapers to see clients as partners, pass along market intelligence, and stop pushing unwanted products. Theme Six: Less separation of church and state Retailers want newspaper ad sales departments to push the editorial side to be more flexible and allow more creative advertising. (We think movement on this front is unlikely.) [Chaser note: We agree, although we are seeing some signs of a willingness to try different shapes and positions.] Theme Seven: Standardize rate cards It is difficult for retailers to do national/regional ad buys because every newspaper has a different rate card structure, so industry standardization was urged.
Newspapers must quickly improve their zoning capability, as targeting is now the single most important marketing factor for retailers.
Theme Two: Creativity creates opportunity
Newspapers need to think outside the box to provide retailers with differentiated marketing opportunities. New sections and Post-It notes are not enough.
Theme Three: Stabilize circulation in key geographies
Retailers have penetration targets by ZIP Code, so circulation in key ZIPs is more important to them than overall circulation.
Theme Four: Prove your value
The newspaper industry needs to quickly develop ROI metrics to justify rising ad rates in the face of a declining audience.
Theme Five: Know the client
Newspapers do a poor job of understanding the retailers' strategy and needs. Retailers want newspapers to see clients as partners, pass along market intelligence, and stop pushing unwanted products.
Theme Six: Less separation of church and state
Retailers want newspaper ad sales departments to push the editorial side to be more flexible and allow more creative advertising. (We think movement on this front is unlikely.)
[Chaser note: We agree, although we are seeing some signs of a willingness to try different shapes and positions.]
Theme Seven: Standardize rate cards
It is difficult for retailers to do national/regional ad buys because every newspaper has a different rate card structure, so industry standardization was urged.
It's a good list. In fact, you could probably use those same themes for other aspects of the industry, including the newsroom. OK, not the rate card thing. But being creative, listening to customers/readers and thinking about local needs are important themes, regardless of department.
Clark's contention is "that many of the newspapers' retail [advertising] woes are driven by cultural inertia rather than inexorable structural changes." In other words, change is hard and there isn't a push to do things differently.
One other perspective on the topic is in a report commissioned by the Newspaper Association of America and written by this Chaser and consulting associates. The gist of the report, "Leveraging Your Web Site for Ad Sales," discusses the missed opportunities for newspapers to use their Web sites to help advertisers place print ads.
Some highlights:
The opportunties are there, making the change is hard. Throwing off "cultural inertia" is essential for any future thinker.
We were struck, during our usual Sunday morning stupor, by The New York Times Magazine article by Clive Thompson that explores how workers deal with interruptions. Titled "Meet the Life Hackers," Thompson introduced readers to researcher Gloria Mack. As you read the following, put yourself into Chaser mindset: If this is happening while we work, what happens when we try to consume news and information? Okay, here are the nut graphs:
When [University of California professor Gloria] Mark crunched the data, a picture of 21st-century office work emerged that was, she says, "far worse than I could ever have imagined." Each employee spent only 11 minutes on any given project before being interrupted and whisked off to do something else. What's more, each 11-minute project was itself fragmented into even shorter three-minute tasks, like answering e-mail messages, reading a Web page or working on a spreadsheet. And each time a worker was distracted from a task, it would take, on average, 25 minutes to return to that task. To perform an office job today, it seems, your attention must skip like a stone across water all day long, touching down only periodically. Yet while interruptions are annoying, Mark's study also revealed their flip side: they are often crucial to office work. Sure, the high-tech workers grumbled and moaned about disruptions, and they all claimed that they preferred to work in long, luxurious stretches. But they grudgingly admitted that many of their daily distractions were essential to their jobs. When someone forwards you an urgent e-mail message, it's often something you really do need to see; if a cell phone call breaks through while you're desperately trying to solve a problem, it might be the call that saves your hide. In the language of computer sociology, our jobs today are "interrupt driven." Distractions are not just a plague on our work - sometimes they are our work. To be cut off from other workers is to be cut off from everything.
When [University of California professor Gloria] Mark crunched the data, a picture of 21st-century office work emerged that was, she says, "far worse than I could ever have imagined." Each employee spent only 11 minutes on any given project before being interrupted and whisked off to do something else. What's more, each 11-minute project was itself fragmented into even shorter three-minute tasks, like answering e-mail messages, reading a Web page or working on a spreadsheet. And each time a worker was distracted from a task, it would take, on average, 25 minutes to return to that task. To perform an office job today, it seems, your attention must skip like a stone across water all day long, touching down only periodically.
Yet while interruptions are annoying, Mark's study also revealed their flip side: they are often crucial to office work. Sure, the high-tech workers grumbled and moaned about disruptions, and they all claimed that they preferred to work in long, luxurious stretches. But they grudgingly admitted that many of their daily distractions were essential to their jobs. When someone forwards you an urgent e-mail message, it's often something you really do need to see; if a cell phone call breaks through while you're desperately trying to solve a problem, it might be the call that saves your hide. In the language of computer sociology, our jobs today are "interrupt driven." Distractions are not just a plague on our work - sometimes they are our work. To be cut off from other workers is to be cut off from everything.
In a presentation this Chaser uses to promote the value of e-learning at Poynter's NewsU site, there's a moment where the narrator says, "Life is interruptions." The challenge, for media companies, is to get the attention of consumers.
Down at the bottom of the Times story is one of those important ideas:
Now that multitasking is driving us crazy, we treasure technologies that protect us. We love Google not because it brings us the entire Web but because it filters it out, bringing us the one page we really need. In our new age of overload, the winner is the technology that can hold the world at bay.
So, what will media companies do to help the consumer in the Age of Overload?
Footnotes:
The Times article mentioned personal-productivity guru David Allen. Poynter's Chip Scanlan is a disciple of Allen's, and has written about the topic. Here's the link for an article called "Writer Hacks."
Want some other solutions for all of these life distractions? Here's some info from the Times piece:
"In fairness, I think we bring some of this on ourselves," says Merlin Mann, the founder of the popular life-hacking site 43folders.com. "We'd rather die than be bored for a few minutes, so we just surround ourselves with distractions. We've got 20,000 digital photos instead of 10 we treasure. We have more TV Tivo'd than we'll ever see." In the last year, Mann has embarked on a 12-step-like triage: he canceled his Netflix account, trimmed his instant-messaging "buddy list" so only close friends can contact him and set his e-mail program to bother him only once an hour. ("Unless you're working in a Korean missile silo, you don't need to check e-mail every two minutes," he argues.) Mann's most famous hack emerged when he decided to ditch his Palm Pilot and embrace a much simpler organizing style. He bought a deck of 3-by-5-inch index cards, clipped them together with a binder clip and dubbed it "The Hipster PDA" -- an ultra-low-fi organizer, running on the oldest memory technology around: paper.
"In fairness, I think we bring some of this on ourselves," says Merlin Mann, the founder of the popular life-hacking site 43folders.com. "We'd rather die than be bored for a few minutes, so we just surround ourselves with distractions. We've got 20,000 digital photos instead of 10 we treasure. We have more TV Tivo'd than we'll ever see." In the last year, Mann has embarked on a 12-step-like triage: he canceled his Netflix account, trimmed his instant-messaging "buddy list" so only close friends can contact him and set his e-mail program to bother him only once an hour. ("Unless you're working in a Korean missile silo, you don't need to check e-mail every two minutes," he argues.)
Mann's most famous hack emerged when he decided to ditch his Palm Pilot and embrace a much simpler organizing style. He bought a deck of 3-by-5-inch index cards, clipped them together with a binder clip and dubbed it "The Hipster PDA" -- an ultra-low-fi organizer, running on the oldest memory technology around: paper.
Back to paper? That's cool!
First, Google announced that it was launching a search engine focused on indexing blogs. And today, Yahoo! announced it would begin including blogs in its news search engine's results, right next to traditional media stories.
As Forbes.com reported, approximately 750,000 blogs will be indexed for inclusion in the updated news search tool, which is in beta testing.
Some 750,000 blogs and other user-generated content will soon show up on Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) News search pages, presented right alongside news from mainstream media. But is Yahoo! taking another big step in the blurring of lines between professional media and grassroots journalism?The company is testing a new search tool that includes results from thousands of mainstream media outlets, and a separate results column for blogs, its new My Web social search and pictures posted to the company's Flickr photo service.
The article goes on to note that Neil Budde, general manager of Yahoo! News, is clearly aware of the dangers of marring the lines between traditional and so-called citizen journalism:
In a prepared statement, Neil Budde, general manager of Yahoo! News, says the company wants to fuse professional journalism with so-called citizen journalism to provide a fuller spectrum of content to its members. Still, Yahoo! is clearly sensitive to the dangers of blurring the lines between professional and amateur journalism.
Yet, just before that, Joff Redfern, a director at Yahoo! Search noted:
"Traditional media don't have the time or resources to cover all stories," says Joff Redfern, a director in Yahoo! Search. "We want to offer an alternative perspective on news outside of what the mainstream media has to offer."
Is Yahoo! making a bigger play here than just blogs? Is Yahoo!, which relies on partnerships to produce much of its news site, making a play to bypass media companies for hyperlocal and niche content, which is the focus on many blog sites? A search on the term "Chicago" yielded four displayed blog results and more than 3,000 additional blog results.
As always, The Chaser will follow events and report back, but it is clear the Blogosphere just became a little bit more mainstream (which is something that might make bloggers out there go nuts).
This is the "all video, all the time" edition of The Chaser.
First, we came across stories about how U.S. television viewing has reached a record household average of eight hours and 11 minutes per day. Wow. That means the tube is on for more than one-third of the day. Nielsen Media Research, which conducted the study, also concluded that, on an individual basis, TV-watching time is four hours and 32 minutes, slightly higher than the four hours recorded in the Ball State Univesity media usage study we reported on last week.
Here's the lede from Reuters:
LOS ANGELES -- U.S. TV viewership climbed again last season to a record household average of eight hours, 11 minutes a day, Nielsen Media Research reported on Thursday, challenging perceptions that Americans are watching less than they once did. DEADLINE NEXT WEEK Everything You Wanted to Know About the Future of Online... ...but were afraid to askPoynter seminar for senior-level executives. Apply now. Only a handful of seats left at the seminar table. Details here.The all-time high viewing level posted for the 2004-05 television season, which ended earlier this month, was up nearly 3 percent from the previous year and 12.5 percent from a decade ago, the TV ratings service said. Moreover, Nielsen said the average individual watched four hours and 32 minutes of TV last season, the highest level in 15 years. The figures include in-home viewing levels for broadcast, cable and satellite TV during all parts of the day.
LOS ANGELES -- U.S. TV viewership climbed again last season to a record household average of eight hours, 11 minutes a day, Nielsen Media Research reported on Thursday, challenging perceptions that Americans are watching less than they once did.
Moreover, Nielsen said the average individual watched four hours and 32 minutes of TV last season, the highest level in 15 years. The figures include in-home viewing levels for broadcast, cable and satellite TV during all parts of the day.
However, what put this item on the Chaser radar was Nielsen's reporting on the "explosion in the number of available channels." The Reuters story continues:
According to Nielsen, the average U.S. home now receives more than 100 channels of programming.
The second video item is an interesting piece from The New York Times about the emerging video search engine companies, including Blinkx, an online search company based in San Francisco. Blinkx does pretty much what standard search engines do -- plows through tons of data and returns the most relevant information to the user. However, instead of text, Blinkx searches video clips.
Here are some of the important elements from Bob Tedeschi's New York Times column on the subject:
A handful of new Internet companies have recently introduced Web sites that aim to sift through millions of online video clips and instantly splice them together according to the viewer's stated or implied tastes. Right now, that includes a fairly meager selection of mainstream media selections -- and, yes, you sometimes have to watch it through a subpar Internet connection. But more network-quality shows are coming online, and Webcasting technology is fast improving to the point where you can now catch glimpses of what TV could look like in the not-too-distant future. "You can debate what you should call it, but in the coming world, it's going to be a user-controlled environment," said Allen Weiner, an analyst with Gartner, a technology consulting firm. "I watch what I want, when I want."
A handful of new Internet companies have recently introduced Web sites that aim to sift through millions of online video clips and instantly splice them together according to the viewer's stated or implied tastes. Right now, that includes a fairly meager selection of mainstream media selections -- and, yes, you sometimes have to watch it through a subpar Internet connection. But more network-quality shows are coming online, and Webcasting technology is fast improving to the point where you can now catch glimpses of what TV could look like in the not-too-distant future.
"You can debate what you should call it, but in the coming world, it's going to be a user-controlled environment," said Allen Weiner, an analyst with Gartner, a technology consulting firm. "I watch what I want, when I want."
Finally, also from the Times, is a story about Jeremy Allaire, the software wizard who helped with the evolution of Macromedia's Flash system into a video format. Here's what he has planned:
As with his earlier ventures, Mr. Allaire intends to shake up an industry -- this time, the world of television -- by allowing all types of video producers, from media giants to anyone who has a camcorder, put their work on the Internet and make money if anyone watches it. Set in an office building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brightcove, [Allaire's new service], will offer three interrelated online services. It has tools that let television producers load their video onto its servers, arrange them into programs and display them to Internet users. It will help producers charge fees for their video, if they choose, or sell advertising on their behalf to insert into the programs. And it will broker deals between video creators and Web sites that want to display the video, arranging for the profits from such arrangements to be split any number of ways. [...] "We are trying to create a new kind of online media distribution business that has the scale of Google, an Amazon or an eBay," Mr. Allaire, 34, said. Some big companies, including Viacom and A&E Networks, are already experimenting with Brightcove's service.
As with his earlier ventures, Mr. Allaire intends to shake up an industry -- this time, the world of television -- by allowing all types of video producers, from media giants to anyone who has a camcorder, put their work on the Internet and make money if anyone watches it.
Set in an office building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brightcove, [Allaire's new service], will offer three interrelated online services. It has tools that let television producers load their video onto its servers, arrange them into programs and display them to Internet users. It will help producers charge fees for their video, if they choose, or sell advertising on their behalf to insert into the programs. And it will broker deals between video creators and Web sites that want to display the video, arranging for the profits from such arrangements to be split any number of ways. [...]
"We are trying to create a new kind of online media distribution business that has the scale of Google, an Amazon or an eBay," Mr. Allaire, 34, said. Some big companies, including Viacom and A&E Networks, are already experimenting with Brightcove's service.
Lots of video stuff going on, so let's recap: First, more channels than ever. Second, new ways of searching those extra channels -- first on the Web, but perhaps later on the next generation of television sets. Third, new ways of creating and distributing video.
Whew. Lots of video dots to connect as we look to the future.
Oh, one more thing: Reuters is reporting that Apple will annouce a video iPod next week. Link thanks to eWeek.
Now, here's a blogger's dilemma: Can a Chaser blog himself? As wiser heads figure out a solution, we thought we would call your attention to our Poynter Online centerpiece about media consumption. Here's the lede:
Americans are hungry media consumers, spending almost two-thirds of our busy days interacting with one medium or another. We spend more time with media than eating, sleeping or any other activity. We are also media multi-taskers, spending one-third of that time with multiple media, such as using the Web and watching television at the same time, or using an iPod and reading e-mail. Those are two of the major conclusions of the latest report from Ball State University's Middletown Media Studies project, which tracked the media usage habits of more than 350 people.
Americans are hungry media consumers, spending almost two-thirds of our busy days interacting with one medium or another. We spend more time with media than eating, sleeping or any other activity.
We are also media multi-taskers, spending one-third of that time with multiple media, such as using the Web and watching television at the same time, or using an iPod and reading e-mail.
Those are two of the major conclusions of the latest report from Ball State University's Middletown Media Studies project, which tracked the media usage habits of more than 350 people.
And here's some statistics that matter:
Here are the overall amounts of media minutes spent per user per day according to the 5,000 hours of observations recorded by the project researchers: Television: 240.9 minutes Any computer use: 135.8 minutes All Internet: 93.4 minutes Radio: 80.0 minutes Music [includes MP3 players]: 65.1 minutes Phone, includes cell: 42.2 minutes All print media: 32.8 minutes All video [VCR and DVD]: 32.6 minutes Newspapers: 12.2 minutes Game console: 11.6 minutes
Here are the overall amounts of media minutes spent per user per day according to the 5,000 hours of observations recorded by the project researchers:
You can read the full article here. The complete reports from Ball State University will be available here. You can read the news release here.
Understanding how consumers use media is vital, regardless of the medium involved. So important that Poynter will be hosting a conference on the subject next March. You can check that out a link to the seminar page with a click here.
This is getting scary. Is there anything that Google won't do?
According to Reuters, Google is planning to get into the WiFi [wireless access] business. Soon we'll need to find another way of describing the company. Perhaps we could call them "The Company Formerly Known As a Search Engine." Here are the key bits Reuters dug up from the Google Web site:
The Google Web site has several references to Google WiFi but provides few details. One page, http://wifi.google.com/faq.html, refers to a product called "Google Secure Access", which is designed to "establish a more secure connection while using Google WiFi." A separate page, http://wifi.google.com/download.html, offers a free download of Google Secure Access, carrying the headline: "Your wireless connection is almost ready to use." Google declined to comment further. Speculation about a forthcoming Google WiFi service has been rife since August following an article in Business 2.0 magazine, but the company has refused to discussed its plans.
The Google Web site has several references to Google WiFi but provides few details. One page, http://wifi.google.com/faq.html, refers to a product called "Google Secure Access", which is designed to "establish a more secure connection while using Google WiFi."
A separate page, http://wifi.google.com/download.html, offers a free download of Google Secure Access, carrying the headline: "Your wireless connection is almost ready to use."
Google declined to comment further.
Speculation about a forthcoming Google WiFi service has been rife since August following an article in Business 2.0 magazine, but the company has refused to discussed its plans.
Chasers, we aren't sure how this all fits into our future, but we know that it is very interesting. Stay tuned.
Chaser HQ has written about the explosions of blogs in the past. From Wonkette.com to the dog blog, more and more people are blogging. As the latest stats from ClickZ indicate, the blogsphere is growing:
According to David Sifry, Technorati's chief executive, the current number of blogs is now over 8 times bigger than the 500,000 blogs it measured in June, 2003. The company tracked 3 million blogs as of the first week of July, and has added over 1 million blogs to its stable since then. Meanwhile, Pew Internet & American Life reports a new weblog is created every 5.8 seconds. That roughly translates into 15,000 new blogs every day.
However, one of the problems with blogs has been the ability for people to discover the contents of individual blogs. Most people use search engines to navigate the billions of pages on the Web. However, blogs pose a problem for most search engines.
Traditionally, search engines crawl Web sites, cataloging the content of the site. They visit the site, and then they move on. The problem is that blogs are designed to be updated frequently, in many cases throughout the day. As a result, a search engine which is not crawling the blog frequently miss much of what these journals have to offer, and as the Wall Street Journal reported, results have been mediocre:
The technology is still evolving and companies are still looking for the best way to track and sort blogs. Some services miss large numbers of blogs, while others pull up irrelevant sites.
Specialized search engines, such as Technorati, Bloglines, Feedster and DayPop, have attempted to capture blog content, but most of them have failed to gain a substantial following, outside of blogophiles and geeks.
That was then. And now there is Google, the 180 pound guerrilla [pun intended] in the search engine wars. Google has a blog searching tool (blogsearch.google.com), and the initial reaction from the blogosphere is positive. The folks at Six Apart, makers of the blog software Movable Type and the blog site TypePad, have already weighed in
First, the new Blog Search works. All the basic functions you'd expect from Google search results are present, including ranking results by date or by relevance. (Interestingly, the default is by relevance, like other Google searches, instead of by date, which is the default for most blog displays.) But more importantly, the advanced search offers powerful functionality such as searching by date ranges and limiting to individual blog authors, in addition to features like searching for words in a blog post title or by language, which have been deployed in the past on other services.
There are problems with Google’s approach, but now that Google is in the race, expect the other big players to soon follow.
For traditional media companies, Google’s entry into the market means one thing: lookout. Few people expected Google to become a major player in online news, but today it has six million users a month to its Google News site. Could Google do the same for blogs -- open them up to a whole new group of people?
For many on the Web, the content of blogs was inaccessible. Google’s entry into the blog world may very well changes all of that. Millions of blog pages just became that much more accessible to the larger Web audience. Chaser HQ will continue follow developments, but if you want to get into the game, don’t wait.
We love market research. There, we've said it. Chasers are fascinated by forecasts and enthralled by estimates. We're always skeptical about the predictions, but enjoy ‘em nevertheless.
We are especially taken by this hearty piece from The Hollywood Reporter. Don’t mind the misleading title, “Convergence Fulfilled,” because no media company we can think of is satisfied with its cross-platform initiatives. The piece is valuable to Chasers because of its thorough review of consumer spending habits and predictions of changing consumption patterns for news and other content.
Annual consumer spending on all forms of U.S. media and entertainment — from television, home video, print and boxoffice movies to music and the Internet — will approach $253 billion by 2009. By that time, consumers, advertisers, service providers and institutional end-users will spend more than $1.1 trillion on all U.S. communications, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson's recently released five-year industry forecast. Consumers will media-multitask an average of 11 hours daily and 78 hours weekly by then, the New York-based media-merchant bank adds. Globally, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts that consumer and end-user spending on all media and entertainment will grow 7.8% annually to more than $1.3 trillion in 2009. PWC predicts that U.S. consumer spending on media and entertainment will grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% to $475 billion in 2009, with domestic advertiser spending projected to grow 5.3% annually to $216 billion during that span…. The big unknown, though, is how quickly out-of-home use of portable interactive devices will overshadow long-dominant in-home use.
Annual consumer spending on all forms of U.S. media and entertainment — from television, home video, print and boxoffice movies to music and the Internet — will approach $253 billion by 2009. By that time, consumers, advertisers, service providers and institutional end-users will spend more than $1.1 trillion on all U.S. communications, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson's recently released five-year industry forecast. Consumers will media-multitask an average of 11 hours daily and 78 hours weekly by then, the New York-based media-merchant bank adds.
Globally, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts that consumer and end-user spending on all media and entertainment will grow 7.8% annually to more than $1.3 trillion in 2009. PWC predicts that U.S. consumer spending on media and entertainment will grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% to $475 billion in 2009, with domestic advertiser spending projected to grow 5.3% annually to $216 billion during that span….
The big unknown, though, is how quickly out-of-home use of portable interactive devices will overshadow long-dominant in-home use.
You’ll all agree with the article’s main point: Media companies need leaders with vision and the conviction to make wrenching choices during a period of extreme turbulence:
The lines separating content forms, distribution platforms, producers, consumers, companies and nations also will be blurred and even shattered, and the fortunes and existences of traditional and new-media companies will become intertwined as their content, marketing and technology savvy are fused to define an interactive media era under the leadership of entrepreneurial executives.
That “intertwining” relationship is possible only if traditional-media companies take risks, make smart acquisitions and invest in the technology and people who can elevate their online game. For media companies, this means don’t get stuck playing the “how big can we crank this profit margin” game just like in print. There’s a role for number crunchers, but the dreamers need a space in the sandbox, too.
Chaser HQ is a multi-purpose building. It hosts lots of different folks during the course of a year. Recently, a number of newsroom trainers held their annual gathering at HQ. Their conversations spark this thought: Who and how will we train journalists to carry out the future?
Leaving aside any definitions about what kind of future journalism has -- and let's NOT talk about who is a journalist -- it seems like news organizations have a two-front effort:
We've written about the work Merrill Brown, the founding editor in chief of MSNBC.com, did on behalf of the Carnegie Foundation on the future course of news and information. Merrill has adapted his Carnegie Reporter for the The Seattle Times. As you read some of these thoughts, ponder the question of training.
Through Internet portal sites, handheld devices, blogs and instant messaging, people are accessing and processing information in ways that challenge the historic function of the news business; meanwhile, new forms of newsgathering and distribution, grass-roots or citizen journalism and blogging sites are changing the very nature of who produces news. Data from the Carnegie project indicate that today's young adults intend to continue to increase their use of the Internet as a primary news source, while newspapers and national television-broadcast news fare poorly in the research. Internet portals emerge in the survey as the most frequently cited daily news source — with 44 percent of the study group using portals such as Yahoo at least once a day for news. By this same measurement, local TV comes in second at 37 percent, followed by network or cable TV Web sites, and newspapers, at 19 percent each. And by other measures, the Internet is already clearly ahead of other media among the young. According to the survey, prepared for this project by Frank N. Magid Associates, 41 percent of young news consumers say that the Internet is "the most useful way to learn," compared with 15 percent for second-ranked local TV. And 49 percent say the Internet provides news "only when I want it" — a critical factor for this group — versus 15 percent for second-ranked local TV. As a result of all these changing habits, American news organizations and many around the world are going through significant upheaval. Clearly, young people don't want to rely on the morning paper on their doorstep or the dinnertime newscast for up-to-date information; in fact, they — as well as others — want their news on demand, when it works for them. And, say many experts, in this new world of journalism, young people want a personal level of engagement and want those presenting the news to them to be transparent in their assumptions, biases and history.
Through Internet portal sites, handheld devices, blogs and instant messaging, people are accessing and processing information in ways that challenge the historic function of the news business; meanwhile, new forms of newsgathering and distribution, grass-roots or citizen journalism and blogging sites are changing the very nature of who produces news.
Data from the Carnegie project indicate that today's young adults intend to continue to increase their use of the Internet as a primary news source, while newspapers and national television-broadcast news fare poorly in the research.
Internet portals emerge in the survey as the most frequently cited daily news source — with 44 percent of the study group using portals such as Yahoo at least once a day for news. By this same measurement, local TV comes in second at 37 percent, followed by network or cable TV Web sites, and newspapers, at 19 percent each.
And by other measures, the Internet is already clearly ahead of other media among the young. According to the survey, prepared for this project by Frank N. Magid Associates, 41 percent of young news consumers say that the Internet is "the most useful way to learn," compared with 15 percent for second-ranked local TV. And 49 percent say the Internet provides news "only when I want it" — a critical factor for this group — versus 15 percent for second-ranked local TV.
As a result of all these changing habits, American news organizations and many around the world are going through significant upheaval. Clearly, young people don't want to rely on the morning paper on their doorstep or the dinnertime newscast for up-to-date information; in fact, they — as well as others — want their news on demand, when it works for them.
And, say many experts, in this new world of journalism, young people want a personal level of engagement and want those presenting the news to them to be transparent in their assumptions, biases and history.
The next generation of journalists are about to not only join the profession but take up new leadership roles. Are we ready to help them?
Sometimes we know things are important but we don't always know why. That was the feeling -- call it a "blink" moment -- we had at Chaser HQ when we saw the Wall Street Journal news alert about the possible eBay purchase of Skype, the Internet phone company. Here are the juicy bits:
eBay Inc. is in talks to acquire Internet-telephony company Skype Technologies SA for $2 billion to $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that would represent a dramatic shift in strategy for the world's largest online auction site. The talks are in a sensitive stage and could fall apart, according to one person briefed on the matter. Luxembourg-based Skype, whose software allows consumers to make free telephone calls around the world using Internet technology, has been in active discussions with other technology companies, and none has led to a deal. But the emergence of eBay as a suitor reveals a lot about the auction leader's growth prospects and strategy. While still dominating its field, eBay's core business is maturing, and the company is searching for new product categories and international markets. The company has made a steady string of acquisitions and investments over the last year and a half to enter markets such as rental-property listings, online classified-ad listings and comparison shopping.
eBay Inc. is in talks to acquire Internet-telephony company Skype Technologies SA for $2 billion to $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that would represent a dramatic shift in strategy for the world's largest online auction site.
The talks are in a sensitive stage and could fall apart, according to one person briefed on the matter. Luxembourg-based Skype, whose software allows consumers to make free telephone calls around the world using Internet technology, has been in active discussions with other technology companies, and none has led to a deal.
But the emergence of eBay as a suitor reveals a lot about the auction leader's growth prospects and strategy. While still dominating its field, eBay's core business is maturing, and the company is searching for new product categories and international markets. The company has made a steady string of acquisitions and investments over the last year and a half to enter markets such as rental-property listings, online classified-ad listings and comparison shopping.
The competition for consumers' time and
