MorphNMedia

Thanks for comin’ along partner…

You never know what lies in the shadows. It can be nothing at all that spooks you…or it can be somthin’ serious. The lack of that knowledge is the problem. Hopefully we can Wrangle up some info today that will help calm you in these crazy days… So let’s ride…and don’t pay no mind to anything but your mission.

Stay with the Ranger. He is here for you all day long.

I want my DTV

Some 3.8 million or 3.4% of all U.S. TV households are still completely unprepared for the June 12 digital TV switch, according to Nielsen Media Research. The Albuquerque-Santa Fe, N.M., market ranks as the most unprepared market, with 9.4% of households still not ready.

About 610,000 households became DTV-ready during the month of March, according to new figures through March 29 from Nielsen Media Research.

Although the percentage of households still unready for the June 12 switch continues to drop across the board, African American households remain the most unprepared, with 6.2% of homes still not ready for DTV. Hispanic households are down to 5.6% unpreparedness, followed by Asian households at 4.4% and white households at 2.7%.

Younger households also are unprepared at a much higher level than older households, with those under 35 years old coming in at 6.3% unprepared and those over 55 at 1.8%. More from TV WEEK

Money for nuthin’

– Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson has seen the future, and it’s in “earned,” not paid, media, which has big implications for marketers, agencies and, of course, the media itself.

“There are still a lot of marketers out there buying their media when they could earn it, and earn it a lot less expensively,” he said today at Ad Age’s Digital Conference in New York.

While overall spending on marketing may go up, traditional-media outlays are declining, and spending is growing on the creative and technology necessary to implement social campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Agencies have to find a way to continue to make money in this environment.

“The total amount of money flowing out of marketers’ pockets to agencies won’t decline and will likely go up, but the mix is headed for important changes,” Mr. Wilson said.

As a venture capitalist, Mr. Wilson said, he’s funding companies that address the new marketing paradigm, from earned-media platforms such as Twitter and social video site Boxee to next-generation ad agencies such as Federated Media and Clickable, and from analytics firms such as ComScore and Quantcast to tech platforms such as FeedBurner and Dave Morgan’s Simulmedia.

What do earned-media campaigns look like? A lot like Burger King’s “Whopper Sacrifice” effort on Facebook, which resulted in 234,000 “killed” friendships; like Disney’s building a following for the Jonas Brothers online and not on the radio; or like the gourmands behind the Kogi BBQ trucks in Los Angeles, which have 14,000 Twitter followers who are alerted when the Korean taco truck is in the neighborhood. (AdAge.com)

The National Association of Broadcasters today announced the re-election of six members of its Television Board of Directors.

Returning to the board for two more years starting this June will be Paul Karpowicz, president, Meredith Corporation Broadcasting Group; Jim Conschafter, senior VP of broadcast stations, Media General Broadcast Group; Paul McTear, president and CEO, Raycom Media; Ralph Oakley, VP and COO, Quincy Newspapers; John Kueneke, president, News-Press and Gazette Broadcasting; and Ray Cole, president and COO, Citadel Communications Co.

TV Newsday

AP covering it’s…Content.

The Associated Press and the newspaper industry plan an aggressive effort to track down copyright violators on the Internet and try to divert traffic from Web sites that don’t properly license news content, the AP board announced Monday.

The not-for-profit news cooperative also said it will cut fees by $35 million for U.S. newspapers in 2010 — on top of a $30 million reduction that took effect this year — and loosen its long-standing requirement for two years’ notice to cancel AP service.

The financial moves are part of an overhaul of the AP’s policies in the face of extraordinary financial hardship for newspapers. The changes were announced at the AP’s annual meeting in San Diego, along with the copyright initiative launched by the AP’s board, which is made up largely of newspaper executives.

“We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under some very misguided, unfounded legal theories,” said Dean Singleton, the AP’s chairman and the chief executive of newspaper publisher MediaNews Group Inc.

“We are mad as hell, and we are not going to take it any more,” he added, prompting applause in the meeting.

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