AR&D Reinventing Local Media

Killing them with clutter

December 22, 2008

It has been a great year for local Websites, at least visually. For two years now, Terry and I have been calling for local media sites to clean up their acts. Many have done so. The local media sites look less like a jumble of Legos and more like a consistent, professional display of news and information. Many still have a way to go. Those with the cleanest look have proven that you don’t need a ton of tiles to make money. It’s not the volume of spaces — it’s the quality.

It’s no surprise that a study by the ad company Burst Media finds that people are turned off by cluttered sites. We all know that (even those who have cluttered sites). What the study quantifies nicely is that cluttered sites don’t work at all — not for the advertiser, not for the visitor and not for the publisher. By trying to feed all mouths, everyone goes hungry.

Want a reason to cut back on the number of ads on your site? They kill the site’s effectiveness:

“One out of two (52.4%) respondents has a less favorable opinion of an advertiser when their advertising appears on a web page they perceive as cluttered.”

That’s not much of a pitch, is it? “Advertise on our site, and half the people will like you less!”

75% of those who remain on a site surrounded... more »

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My Top 10-ish predictions for 2009

December 18, 2008

Prediction lists are silly. I like to tell people who ask for my predictions that “The predictions are free, it’s the advice that I charge for.” Why are we so interested in predictions? Who would have predicted what happened in 2008? Most prediction lists are based upon what happened the previous year anyway. It’s like going to the track — people pick horses based upon what the horse did in the previous few races. Not bad, but nobody sees the new, untested horse out of nowhere.

Any why 10, anyway? It’s the industry standard. Do we owe it to David Letterman? A Top Five list looks lazy and a Top Nine list looks incomplete. Top 15 is too many.

So, with that said, in no order, here are my 10 predictions for the media industry in 2009.

1. Local media will start to appear on iPhones and Blackberries as iApps. This will appear like popcorn — one will do it, then a few more, then a ton will follow. But the leader in each market will be the only that gets the space.
2. More newspapers will go online-only. This is a wussy prediction, so let’s jazz it up. At least five medium-major market papers will do this.
3. Ditto, five major magazines.
4. Three television station groups and five newspaper chains will declare Chapter 11.
5. At least one TV station group will declare Chapter 7.
6. One of the networks and one of the cable news channels will combine news operations.
7. 10% of newsgathering will be done... more »

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Pulitzers still think prize-worthy journalism is newspaper-only

December 13, 2008

You’ve always had to have a “dead trees” edition of a newspaper to win a Pulitzer. If your news was distributed via the Web only, no prize for you. (”Brought down the government, you say? I’m sorry, we didn’t see it in newsprint.”) It was only as of 2006 that you could get a Pulitzer for your online work - and that was only if you were “attached” to a regular newspaper.

Well hand it to the Pulitzers for getting hip with the times. No - you still can’t win a prize for simply doing good journalism. But you can win one if your paper is now “Web-only.”

From the Pulitzer press release:

“While broadening the competition, the Board stressed that all entered material — whether online or in print — should come from United States newspapers or news organizations that publish at least weekly, that are “primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories,” and that “adhere to the highest journalistic principles.”

“Consistent with its historic focus on daily and weekly newspapers, the Board will continue to exclude entries from printed magazines and broadcast media and their respective Web sites.”

Well, now I’m just confused. What if you used to be a printed magazine, but now you’re a news organization that “publishes at least weekly” online? Does Pulitzer go by what you used to be? For that matter, your blog could be “dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories” that used to be considered more “magazine”-style reporting. (We’re no longer... more »

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The Leno Move: Why not experiment?

December 10, 2008

I have said to the network affiliates for years that there will be no such thing as a lead-in anymore. People watch shows, they don't watch networks. But with NBC's Leno experiment, I'm willing to amend my theory for the time being. There are plenty of predictions out there. I'm not going to add mine. Instead, I think this move is about the only choice NBC had - to keep the concept of a lead-in going.

People don't generally TiVo talk shows, and the Leno audience is older, more news-focused. Mind you, I still think the lead-in concept is a dying one, and finding a way to extend its shelf life a touch is a Band-Aid. But if there were any way to have an audience stick around consistently, night after weeknight, this would be it.

If I were an NBC affiliate, I'd take it. Considering that NBC has already said it's getting out of the expensive drama business, what options are left? Hoping that a crappy reality show catches on for a night?

The Leno audience will be, if nothing else, consistent. Whether they stay up through the news is anyone's guess. (And when did Conan O'Brien become so irreplaceable?) This is hardly a reinvention, but if you're an NBC affil looking for a little consistency, I suppose this may do it. This is not a long-term solution (the audience ages every year) but maybe a quick fix is in order.

My colleague Terry Heaton says this is "NBC... more »

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60-Second-Case Study: NY Times Facebook ad campaign

December 4, 2008

We’ve suggested before about the power of advertising on social media networks. Here’s some proof why.

On the day after the election, The New York Times purchased ad space on the front of Facebook, along with an interactive question (”What should Barack Obama do as his first post-inauguration action?”). In addition, Facebookers could “gift” each other a virtual copy of the Times’ front page from November 5th, with the headline “Obama Wins.”

Was it a success? An internal memo from New York Times President Scott Heekin-Canedy positively gushes:

“From our perspective, the (campaign) was a great success, garnering us 4.3 times the value of our spend. We reached 68.3 million individuals with our brand message. We increased our number of fans more than three times in just 24 hours — from 49,000 to 164,000 — and in the process far exceeded our 2008 goal of 100,000 fans. And we engaged the Facebook community in a lively conversation (more than 34,000 comments shared) on which issues are most important for the President-elect. More than 400,000 New York Times “gifts” were given by Facebook users to their friends. Possibly the greatest success of this campaign, however, is that our fans continue to rapidly grow (181,000+ fans as of November 19 ) into a powerful, free word-of-mouth network that we will leverage for future marketing messages.”

68 million people got the brand message. That’s about three times the audience of a top-rated TV show these days. 100,000... more »

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Be the place for local job networking

December 2, 2008

Lots of local sites make the mistake of trying to get into the “help wanted” business by trying to become the local Monster.com. This is usually a bad idea. There are some limited success stories, but for the most part, Monster is still - well - the monster in the room. On the other hand, you can offer what Monster doesn’t offer - a chance for great local networking, blogs and advice.

Right now, what employment-seekers need is to network. Yes - they’re looking for job leads. In October, the time spent on job search sites jumped 13% from the same month a year ago, “while the total number of job-site pages viewed rose 20% in the same period, according to comScore Inc,” writes the Wall Street Journal.

But these sites don’t know your town and city. What you can offer is talk and networking about the jobs special to your city. You can launch verticals in your market that are specific to your market. Find local employment gurus and give them free space to give advice. Outplacement firms would be a great advertising target for a site like this. Hold a meetup to launch the site. Get people talking with each other!

Have forums for discussion and lots of FREE job postings. The point isn’t the postings, mind you - it’s the discussion about the market and the advice each person can give to their fellow job-seeker. You can’t out-Monster Monster. But you can Meta-Monster. That is - you can be... more »

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Holiday Classic: The WKRP Turkey Drop

November 26, 2008

I post this every year, going back to my time at Lost Remote. It's kind of like how the old holiday classic shows come on every season. This should be on every media site and blog every year at Thanksgiving. It's a wonderful send-up of broadcast promotions, and a warm tribute to that station that exists only in our dreams now - WKRP: Where all the DJs are real people, where they spin the music they choose, where the boss is a pushover and where Loni Anderson takes their messages.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Interactive advertising still growing

November 21, 2008

How about some good news for a change? The Interactive Advertising Bureau says that online ad spending grew 11% in Q3 compared to the same quarter of 2007. That's nearly six billion bucks being spent online now. How much is that? It represents the second highest quarter since 2000, according to Editor & Publisher.

Quarterly $ Revenue Growth Comparison – 2000-2008 YTD

Source: PwC/IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report

Now, that's not the same rocketing growth we've been seeing, but given the economic climate we're in, that's not bad. And the forecast is still for significant growth in online spending next year. Why is Internet advertising holding up while TV and newspaper ads are falling through the floor? For one, advertisers can see the direct results of online advertising's performance. Online advertising gives better metrics, especially when you use ad reporting software that gives smart results.

Advertisers are getting smarter about where their money is going. Local media outlets need to get on top of this and be able to deliver ads that are efficient and are more about the advertisers' needs than the TV station's brand.

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Despite downturn, the venture investments keep coming

November 20, 2008

Because of the utter panic in the markets, everyone has frozen their money and has stopped investing in media, right? Wrong. The venture capital money is still there, and the VCs are still churning out business plans. Are they just throwing money out the window? Or are they following that time honored maxim: “Buy low, sell high.”

A quick perusal of the excellent website paidContent.org shows us some of the recent investments:

- Digital media browser Boxee gets $4 million in first round of funding

- Social network multiply.com gets $5 million, with option for $4 million more

- Online ad production company DigitalArbor raises $5 million in first round funding

- Discovery to invest $100 million in Oprah network

- Video indexing firm Digitalsmiths gets $12 million in second round

- $2 million goes to fora.tv (which paidContent calls “the C-SPAN of the web”) which has already raised $6 million.

- P2P firm PeerApp brings total amount raised in two rounds to $11 million.

All of these have happened in the past week..

So far this year, only six VC-backed companies have gone public. Compare that to 2007, when 86 did so, and 2000 when 265 went public at the height of the first bubble, writes Michael Malone at ABCNews.com.

For starters, look at what all these companies have in common. They’re video and they’re social. The Web is not dying. It is seeing an end... more »

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Heavy Web users are heavy TV users

November 18, 2008

If you needed proof that we are Multi-Tasker nation, here it is: almost one-third of in-home Internet use happens while people are watching TV. That’s one of the findings from The Nielsen TV/Internet Convergence Panel, and the study’s results should challenge our notions about media consumption.

For years, the big myth of “cannibalism” kept TV stations and newspapers from putting breaking news (and finished reports) on their sites. There’s still this superstition that “if we put it on our site, people won’t watch us.” There’s also a fear that putting news on your site will mean the competition will get a leg up on you. Get over it. We’re in the 24/7 news biz now. Unless it’s an investigative piece, they know what’s going on, too.

The cannibalism fear is what drives innovative companies under. It’s why buggy companies didn’t go into the car business. It’s why record companies didn’t get into digital downloads when they should have. And it’s why news has been overrun by the Web.

Sure - the audience is moving. But wouldn’t you rather it moved to you? We have this fear of the Web audience - that they are killing TV. And, obviously, with our entertainment choices spread out, people do spend their time with more “screens.” But this isn’t a zero sum situation. So what are we giving our audiences that makes our content worth watching and checking out online at the same time or... more »

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