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Dim reception for video at Wall Street Journal

Radio and TV were part of the DNA at MarketWatch.com (NWS) when we started it 10 years ago. 

That means, back in the days of dial-up, we were pushing streaming audio and video down the line.  Even as WSJ.com and Forbes.com were figuring out how to get their plain old text into HTML, we were recording, concerting, uploading, and pushing multimedia content.

So, you can understand why this morning’s CNNMoney.com (TWX) ad in the Wall Street Journal is so disappointing.  CNNMoney.com is touting Nielsen’s report on online video usage for October,  showing it had the lion’s share (57%) of all business and finance video viewing online.

The pie chart says Yahoo Finance was second, MSN Money was third, followed by Forbes.com, CNBC.com (GE), Reuters (TRI), TheStreet.com (TSCM), BusinessWeek Online, and Other. 

Where are WSJ.com or MarketWatch.com?  It would seem, they are in “Other.” Inside a print-focused editorial system, it’s real hard to get the scribblers’ contributions.  Blame deadline pressures, editors’ propensity to check, recheck, and check every word, and a reluctance by some writers to come out from behind their bylines and be seen. MW and WSJ spend a lot of resources producing video and virtually none promoting it.

The simple fact is that audio and video are not a priority; their Managers haven’t been successful in selling it to their bosses, and their bosses haven’t had the time or interest in seeing the possibilities, i.e. ad sales.  But CNNMoney does, and then even used the pages of the video-challenged Wall Street Journal to say so.

But that doesn’t explain why people aren’t watching video on these two high-ranking Web sites.  There’s plenty of content, posted everyday.  Some of it is analysis, some opinion, but precious little of it is ‘breaking’ news coverage.  Goes back to that problem if getting the reporters’ attention and contribution.

Well, it’s just disappointing.  MW and WSJ video ... ya coulda been a contender.

Morning News 'Pack-o-Podcasts'

Listening to music or an iPod while you run is nothing new.  Millions of people do it.  Even my minister. I know because I gave him an iPod for Christmas last year. And I virtually gave up radio while commuting, in favor of hearing podcasts using a cassette-adapter in the car. 

Now I’ve gone a step further. Well, several thousand steps further. On my morning run, I catch up with the overnight news via podcasts.  I stack up a few favorites that total about 25 minutes. I created a “Morning News” Smart Playlist on my iPod so that when the shows download they go into that folder. It's easy then to  sync them to my Shuffle.   

My morning “pack ‘o podcasts” is:

•     Wall Street Journal Tech Briefing
•     Front Page Preview of The New YorkTimes
•     Cynopsis Digital (tech news)

    So far, I haven’t been able to find a good Sports update.  Anyone have a suggestion.

These short-form podcasts, from reliable and specialized information providers really give new meaning to the phrase “News on Demand.”

CBS layoffs bad news for the Net

CBS has swung the scythe at its o-and-o TV outlets.  Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, and possibly more.

    •    Detroit: Sports producer Toby Cunningham leaves Channel 50
    •    San Francisco: REPORTING VETS AMONG 14 LAID OFF AT CBS'S KPIX
    •    Denver: AT LEAST 6 GONE FROM CBS'S KCNC DENVER
    •    Boston: CBS FIRES 30 EMPLOYEES AT WBZ BOSTON
    •    New York City: 2 CORRESPONDENTS AMONG THOSE OUT AT WCBS

Sadly, we've come to take these kinds of staff cuts for granted when they occur at newspapers.  (Read all about it ... in Eric Alterman’s brilliant New Yorker piece.)

And radio’s suffered, too.  (The possible collapse of Clear Channel’s buyout may mean even worse is in store for there.)

But local television?  Those near-monopoly broadcasters, who have been aggressive in capitalizing on their tremendous reach to drive viewers to their Web sites for what Borrell Associates said will be a lot of money.

“Local TV stations are expected to make more than $1.1 billion for online advertising this year, up 45 percent over 2007.  Link.”

In other words, print is not the only victim of the revolutionary changes the Internet is making to our media use.  Now the next question is ... is the online ad market immune from the financial pressures ‘old media’ are feeling.  or will they be cutting editorial/reporting staff? 

OOPS!  With a few exceptions, they don’t have any!  They live off the output of newspapers and magazines and broadcasters.  (Leo Laporte and Steve Gillmor talked about this reliance on old media by new media in the latest ‘This Week in Tech.”)  Huffington Post would look like MySpace if reporters and writers and columnists weren’t doing the heavy lifting of talking, interviewing, researching, and writing.

This latest round of job losses, now at major TV stations, is not good for the Internet today and is really bad news for journalism tomorrow.

HuffingtonPost.DC eyes online presidential debate

The newly-hired political editor of HuffingtonPost.com’s soon-to-be-launched Washington bureau has some big plans.  "I'm really interested in putting together an online Presidential debate," Melinda Henneberger said in an interview.  The interactive nature of the Internet should make for a lively exchange, she believes. "People would have to give real answers. There is no time limit," so they couldn't get away with hitting talking points and not really answering questions.

Henneberger has spent the last several years writing a book about women voters.  She's also worked with The New York Times and Newsweek magazine and doesn't see her linkup with HuffingtnPost.com as any kind of "dis" to old media.  "We can't exist without them," she said. "We're (online publishers) not going to be sending anybody to Iraq soon. I so respect what my print colleagues do."

So, the fact that she, and two other experienced political reporters just left the Washington Post to join a media startup, are forsaking print should not be taken as significant.  "This is a growing part of the media. It's both the future and the present,” she said.

The opportunity to hire a staff of reporters "with attitude," is exciting.  There are plans for a brick-and-mortar bureau to house those reporters, she added, but there’s no timetable for its opening. Henneberger said she starts work in January with plans to cover Nancy Pelosi and the new Congress.

Jeff Jarvis, a veteran print journalist, sees a bigger picture.  "It’s the next step for more and more institutional journalists to venture into the future," he wrote on BuzzMachine.com. "All three (Henneberger and the Posties) quickly say that there’s nothing wrong with print — nothing, clearly, except that they don’t see a bright a future there. Note, too, that it will soon be more difficult to tell the difference between old and new, as blogs and reporting and reporters blog. It’s all news."

The fact that HuffingtonPost.com is hiring an experienced journalist to write original content for the site can't be lost on other journalists.  It's a tough time to be a  print reporter. In Philadelphia, 1,000 union members are near striking, and the Washington Post (WPO) has recently gone through a staff reduction that cost the paper valued human resources.

The newspaper publishing business is undergoing wrenching change, too. The Tribune Co. (TRB) is weighing offers for its newspapers and, today it's reported, The New York Times (NYT) has considered going private.

And even as newspapers are losing advertising revenues and cutting costs, online is expanding.  A research report earlier this week suggested newspaper publishers have about five years of pain before the rising revenue line of their own online ventures - IF they're making them - intersects with the falling line from the print side and things get better.

That gives HuffingtonPost.com time to open bureaus in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Baghdad.

Let the lawsuits begin

Here they come: Universal Music sues Web video sites (SNE).

"Seeking damages of as much as $150,000 for each incident of copyright infringement."

Nielsen/NetRatings: Bravo, Comedy Central get boost from Net homes

If you have an Internet connection at home, odds are you're watching less television. Maybe as much as 25% less, depending on the broadcast or cable network, according to research now being distributed to TV executives by Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. (NTRT).

"It's not that people are abandoning TV for the Internet. Sometimes, they do both," said Mainak Mazumdar, the company's vice president of Product Marketing and Measurement Science.  "We only have 24 hours a day ... (that's) a finite amount of time to consume media."

He added, "Yahoo (YHOO) users are watching less. MySpace.com (NWS), much (less), the difference is 20%."

Mazumdar said company's first unified TV-Net report "provides a solution for the networks to say to advertisers 'We are getting incremental ratings for our programming on the Internet and want to be compensated for it.'"

The Nielsen analyst said the results are "phenomenal" and that broadcasters are smart to put their programming on their Web sites.  He cited data which showed visitors to Yahoo and MySpace watch more of the programming on Bravo (GE) and Comedy Central (VIA) than does the average viewer.  "That's not surprising," he said.  "They're kind of lifestyle channels."

Listen to Mainak Mazumdar describe patterns of Net and TV usage.

The interest in combined TV-Internet ratings has been high.  Mazumdar said he was unable to accommodate all the Web companies which wanted to participate in the beta test of the research methodology.  Beginning next month, year, he said the Nielsen Media Research NetRatings Digital Audio Video service will add Internet activity metering to those homes also participating in its TV ratings service.

Mazumdar's data was collected by a "fusion panel" of Nielsen's regular TV households, some of whom were identified as similar to participants in the company's NetRatings (NTRT) studies, and their Web use was then projected into the TV viewing study.

Disclaimer: I own shares of CBS and Yahoo.

ABC-TV focuses on Web sites

If you want to watch ABC-TV's new "Ugly Betty", forget buying it on Apple's iTunes Store.  "Betty" and about half a dozen of the network's hit shows are available for streaming viewing, free, on the broadcaster's site.  Alexis Rapo, v.p. of digital media at ABC Entertainment said, "We're adding a significant amount of unique content, especially video, to make ABC.com the primary destination for fans of our programming."

This echoes statements made a week or so ago by Bob Iger, Disney's chairman, that he wanted the company's Web sites to become "the networks." While iTunes is selling past seasons of ABC shows, the broadcaster is primarily using it as a promotional vehicle by producing "official" podcasts for series including "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," and The Bachelor."

Disclaimer: I own shares of Apple and Walt Disney.

Colbert learns about podcasting

Steve Wozniak flacks his book on the Reporrrr and 'splains podcasting.

Free TV shows at iTunes

It's a free for all - for a while - from Disney (DIS) and iTunes (AAPL).  A million free downloads of ABC's "grand slam" TV shows are available.  You can get last season's finales of "Lost," "Desperate Housewives," and "Grey's Anatomy."  Good way to catch up and be ready for the new season's premieres, right? ABC doesn't believe selling TV downloads cannibalizes watching.  It might increase viewing, given the TV audience skews old and the download audience is younger.

Yesterday, Disney's CEO Robert Iger told a Goldman Sachs investment conference his company's movie sales on the iTunes movie store, in its first week, totaled a million dollars. You can bet the other studios, not in iTunes (yet!) are noticing.  Om Malik wonders how much Apple's making out of it.  Experts tell him it may have cost as much as $250,000 for bandwidth to deliver the125,000 movies.   

Disclaimer: I own shares of Apple and Walt Disney.

Knight's old thinking about new media

Update:  Gary Kebbel, the experienced news executive who's running the Knight Foundation effort to fund new online media ideas says it's conceivable that an existing media company could apply for financial help to develop a new product.  But, it's not very likely, and not what Kebbel hopes happens.

"What we want are high school kids and college kids who we think have ideas and think about things in ways we don't ... we want them.  When we look back at the great discoveries, the Google guys were just working out their garages.  We're looking at trying to help the Google guys become the next Google guys."

Kebbel said a panel of experts in new media will help sift through what he hopes will be "thousands" of proposals.  Ideas may also be referred to Knight's financial advisors, some of whom are venture investors,  where they may win backing. 

Listen to a conversation with Kebbel.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced a competition for the best ideas that focus on the future of news.  "Show us how online news can help people improve lives and shape their communities," Knight said on its Web site. "We expect the best entries will be ideas that totally surprise us," said Gary Kebbel, journalism program officer for Knight.  The foundation said its 21st Century News Challenge competition is not looking to finance "pajamas media" ventures. "Blogging about a school board meeting is valuable, but not unique." Proposals will be accepted through the end of the year. A "special panel of new media advisors" will review them and make awards.

Sounds like bureaucracy, reviews, and business plans and possibly even spreadsheets.  Sure killers of imagination and innovation. 

Knight's offering as much as $25 million, with $5 million to be doled out in 2007. This is a good chunk of money, to be sure.  Too bad it's not necessary.  Given how cheaply startups can get into business these days, thanks to the low prices of PCs and bandwidth, Web savvy entrepreneurs really don't need money. To wit, YouTube and Digg and Netvibes and Memeorandum.  Funded out of their founders' pockets and off their credit cards.  There's a whole industry called venture capital that's rabidly looking for the same thing Knight is inviting, ideas.  Money's cheap.