FCC says upgrade the US Broadband and make it snappy!

Regulators opened a debate on Wednesday on how the United States, trailing many industrialized countries in access and adoption of high-speed Internet, can extend the technology to low-income and other under-served areas.

The Federal Communications Commission, taking orders from Congress, has until February 2010 to draw up a strategy that will address controversial issues as Internet openness, definitions of affordability and what speeds are fast enough.

A report for the United Nations out this week said the U.S. has fallen to 17th from 11th in a survey of nations’ advanced use of information and communications technology, which took into account adoption, speed and literacy. Read it on Reuters

USC Blogger upset over “News to go”

Call it a pet peeve, but whenever I hear anyone, especially in the mainstream media, complain that audience attention spans are getting shorter, I want to knock that person upside the head.

Putting aside for a moment that I have never heard anyone support such a complaint with hard data, I still have to ask myself what they’re peeved about.

Michael Scherer of Time Magazine portends the demise of political journalism and blames it at least in part on an Internet culture that focuses on the “news nugget, the blurb, the linkable atom of information,” which is not packaged “but rather sent out into the ether, seeking out links, search engine ranking and as many hits as possible.” Scherer cites as example Politico reporter Mike Allen’s practice of repurposing a single interview for multiple posts, none of which give you a comprehensive story.

The problem apparently is that people are abandoning longer, more thoughtful reportage in favor of shorter articles and blog posts, and that these sound bites, these tiny tidbits sans context, threaten the very integrity of journalism because they leave readers fending for themselves to discover the truth. MOre from Neon Tommy

If it moves shoot it…then put  it online!

Newspapers across the country may be scaling back to survive, but online video appears to be one area where they’re expanding aggressively. An analysis of 187 U.S. newspaper Web sites by Web video provider Brightcove shows a surge in their video-related activity last year.

The number of videos uploaded by each newspaper to the Brightcove platform, for example, grew from an average of 186 per month to 638 in 2008. The overall total of uploads increased 1,500%.

On the consumer side, video streams are growing 35% per quarter, nearly tripling to 42.7 million during the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the year-earlier period. Total video player “loads,” or page views containing video, increased 700% — suggesting that newspaper sites are putting video on more pages.

While Brightcove doesn’t provide ad revenue figures, the company says nearly all of its newspaper partners are monetizing video content with advertising. The main ad format is the 30-second pre-roll video with 300 x 250 companion banner.

A growing number of newspapers are also relying on third-party ad networks to help sell and optimize their video inventory, according to Brightcove. The Boston-based company attributes the rapid growth to lower production costs, higher-quality video and the gradual consumer shift from print and broadcast media to online outlets.  Read it on MediaPost

Cable to wrestle with the web…and win?

You’re watching Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” when suddenly you see a commercial for the Mustang convertible you’ve been eyeing - with a special promotion from Ford, which knows you just ended your car lease.

A button pops up on the screen. You click it with the remote and are asked whether you want more information about the car. You respond “yes.” Days later, an information packet arrives at your home, the address on file with your cable company.

This is the future of cable TV advertising: personal and targeted.

Cable TV operators are taking a page from online advertising behemoths like Google Inc. to bring these so-called “addressable” ads onto the television.

“It hasn’t really been done on TV before,” said Mike Eason, chief data officer of Canoe Ventures, a group formed by the nation’s six largest cable operators to launch targeted and interactive ads on a national platform starting this summer.

They’re betting they can even one-up online ads because they also offer a full-screen experience — a car commercial plays much better on your TV than on your PC. As such, they hope to charge advertisers more. Read more on TV NewsDay

The future of TV channel surfing is in your hands!

The TV remote control of the future isn’t an expensive device with an LCD screen and blinking lights. It’s your hand.

The classic TV remote control most of us have grown up with has been around in essentially the same incarnation for half a century. It’s been tweaked over the years, but now one company is looking at ditching the remote altogether and using a camera mounted below a TV screen that senses hand motions instead of button pushes. The result is something that seems right out of Minority Report.

But the high-tech user interface Tom Cruise coolly manipulates onscreen isn’t even all that far-fetched now, thanks to incremental improvements. Until now, the most innovative new input for entertainment in the living room has been the Wii-mote, the motion-sensing remote control/wand that has made Nintendo’s game console a cultural phenomenon. Swing it like a tennis racket and you can pretend you’re playing tennis, point it at the screen and use it like a mouse to navigate menus.Read more on CNET

Big surprise the arrow is pointing down in Q 1

Investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein on Wednesday released a new pessimistic report on media company earnings.

“The recent run-up in media stocks suggests investors are looking past the horrid near-term trends to a happier place off in the horizon,” said analyst Michael Nathanson in a report. “However, we think the rally will meet resistance once the market realizes that the 1Q results are below consensus.”

The company issued new lower estimates for first-quarter earnings that are below the Wall Street consensus levels.

For Viacom, Bernstein’s new estimate is 1 cent per share below consensus; for Time Warner it is 2 cents below consensus. But for CBS, News Corp. and Disney, Bernstein is between 25% and 75% below consensus. More in TVWeek

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.

More from WXFL

Thanks for signin’ on. Let’s strap leather…

Sometimes it takes all you have just to hang on. The Ranger knows that only too well. Hopefully we can Wrangle up some info today that will help keep your butt in the saddle and your attitude higher than the Bronco’s backfire!

Let’s ride…and don’t pay no mind to what those yahoos on Wall Street are doin’ today!

Winning the Web

It’s officially become a two-horse race to win the premium programming crown on the Web.

You probably know who the equines are, but I’ll name names anyway: YouTube and Hulu.

OK, those sites are already pretty much the dominant homes of online video. But they’ve come at it from vastly different positions.

Hulu has made a name for itself as the de facto first stop for full-length episodes of TV shows, while YouTube has hung up its shingle as the purveyor of more viral videos than you could watch in a lifetime.

However, that’s not really how YouTube wants to be thought of going forward.

By inking a deal with Disney last week—although the deal for now calls for YouTube to carry only short-form and promotional clips—YouTube is sending a big message to all of Hollywood and all of Madison Avenue that it’s very serious about being a premium provider.

In a way, YouTube is serving notice to Hulu that it’s going to be playing on the same turf. And YouTube has the muscle to pull it off. In February, YouTube accounted for nearly 41% of all videos viewed online, with Fox Interactive Media second at 3.5%, Yahoo third at 2.7% and Hulu fourth at 2.5%, according to comScore. More from TV Week

Times tough?  Turn on the tube…Local News chases the Blues!

When times are tough, people turn more often to local TV for news. According to a new study by Frank N. Magid Associates for Hearst-Argyle Television, 99 percent of respondents said they are turning to local TV news at least as much as or more frequently than in the past due to the troubled economy. 

Conducted over two weeks in February, the study surveyed 2,500 TV news viewers in Hearst-Argyle’s 24 TV markets including Boston, Baltimore, Orlando, Cincinnati, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. 

Sixteen percent said they are following local TV news “more.” The only medium surpassing local TV was the Internet, cited by 17 percent of respondents. Newspapers, radio and print magazines trailed at 10 percent, 9 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

Commercials airing on local TV news engage consumers more than other traditional media. When asked which types of ads respondents pay more attention to, 57 percent cited local TV versus 43 percent for magazines; 64 percent versus 36 percent for newspapers, 72 percent versus 28 percent for radio, 81 percent versus 19 percent for yellow pages, and 55 percent versus 45 percent for direct mail. Respondents also found local TV ads more engaging than all forms of online ads, on average 85 percent for local TV versus 15 percent for online ads.

Local news also got the highest scores compared to other media for creating “buzz,” having memorable ads, and the medium was on par with print magazines for trustworthiness and recall. Local news was also on par with print newspapers as the most important source of community information. More from MediaWeek

Gettin’ some of that Gov’ment money!

The state is paying more than $3 million to an Oklahoma media company, Griffin Communications, to advertise a state insurance program, and the company has promised to air television news stories on its Tulsa and Oklahoma City stations as part of the deal, records show. 

One media analyst expressed concern that by taking state money, the company has compromised the integrity of its television news outlets. 

“This kind of question arises when news media organizations try to diversify, when they are looking at more ways to make money,” said Joey Senat, associate professor of media law at Oklahoma State University. “It does create the potential for unethical behavior.” 

The key is whether a company discloses the sponsor of the information and “the number of walls they put between the newsroom and the other arm of the company doing the marketing,” Senat said.  More from the Tulsa World

The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut The Boston Globe unless the newspaper’s unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said yesterday. Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90-minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper’s 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company, and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe’s biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising, and business office employees.

The Ranger is still on the trail this weekend and if anything crosses his path he will pass it along to you.  

As we all know the news doesn’t stop on the weekend and neither does the Ranger!

If anything makes a move the Ranger will draw down!

Newspaper Reportcard is out… “P”  ”U”

The Pew Research Center for People and the Press released findings that showed that less than half the population would care if their local newspapers disappeared. 

“As many newspapers struggle to stay economically viable, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community ‘a lot.’ Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available,” the Pew study says.

A total of 22 employees were laid off Thursday at KMPH (Channel 26) and KFRE (Channel 59).

The two local stations are operated by New World TV Group, LLC, which purchased the stations earlier this year as part of the bankruptcy action against Visalia-based Pappas Telecasting Co.

New station general manager Jack L. Peck said the layoffs included 17 full-time employees and five part-time employees. None of the employees were on-air staff for the KMPH news programs. The employees let go were those who worked in production and behind the scenes. The 22 employees represented approximately 12% of the staff.

“I told everybody at the staff meeting today that 22 sounds like a lot. But, we are trying to keep from having to do this again. We did not want to lay off five employees now and five later. That way everyone would worry about whether today was the day they were going to lose their job,” Peck said.

He said that if the economy gets better, the company would be willing to hire people back.

“Right now, it is just scary,” Peck said of the loss of advertising revue. “The economy is so rough. I have been in the business for a long time and the first quarter of ‘09 is the worst in the history of broadcasting on a year-to-year comparison.”  More

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The FCC feels your pain

Good thing Federal Communications Commission chairman nominee Julius Genachowski is committed to public service, because his bank account(s) will take a hit next year.

Genachowski reported income upwards of $1.16 million for 2008, according to a financial disclosure form released late Wednesday. The form doesn’t require top federal officials to provide exact figures so that income estimate could be on the high side. However, the former IAC/InterActive Corp. executive and (current) venture capitalist did report about $770,000 in income from directors and consulting fees from companies including Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc., and private equity firms General Atlantic and Jana Partners LLC.

Those income figures don’t include a significant number of investments in companies or funds, including Expedia, Google and Level 3, which are held by either Genachowski’s wife or kids.

By contrast, the FCC chairman will make $162,900 this year.

All told, it took Genachowski’s accountant some 24 pages to list all of the family’s investments, not including their house in a leafy Washington, D.C., neighborhood and the 529 accounts established for Genachowski kids. More from Amy Shatz at the WSJ

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Muchas Gracias Los Angeles!

Entravision Communications Corporation has announced that its Los Angeles based radio stations have generated significant growth among key demographics in 2009.

“Entravision’s Los Angeles station cluster is off to a very strong start in 2009 as we deliver substantial growth among key demographics coveted by our advertisers,” said Jeffery Liberman, President of Entravision’s radio division. “Our successful ‘El Gato,’ ‘Jose,’ and ‘Super Estrella’ formats have proven to be extremely popular among our core Hispanic audiences, adults 18-34 and 18-49. We are excelling at what we do best - offering relevant and entertaining content to our devoted listeners and delivering valuable consumer groups to our advertisers.”

Since the launch of the company’s contemporary Mexican Regional format “El Gato” on KDLD / KDLE 103.1 FM in January this year, ratings have increased over 200 percent among adults 18-34, according to Arbitron’s Personal People Meter (PPM) ratings system. “El Gato” replaced the former Indie format, which was moved online. In February, the station garnered a 2.2 share of adults 18-34, up from a 0.7 share during the last month the station played the Indie format. More from mnilive.com

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Avoing the Grim Reaper in San Francisco

A top Hearst Corp. executive says that the company is making enough headway to move the San Francisco Chronical back to profitability, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.

The story, written by Shira Ovide, says Steven Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers, indicated on a conference call yesterday that the company was accomplishing enough cost-cutting that it may not need to shut the paper down. Wall Street Journal Online subscribers may read the full story here

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Taking a chance on Red 7

WHDH-TV Channel 7, Boston’s NBC affiliate, is refusing to air Jay Leno’s new talk show in the lucrative 10 p.m. hour in favor of its own hourlong local news show, and guess what? NBC doesn’t like it one bit.

“WHDH’s move is a flagrant violation of the terms of their contract with NBC,” said John Eck, president of NBC Television Network. “If they persist, we will strip WHDH of its NBC affiliation. We have a number of other strong options in the Boston market, including using our existing broadcast license to launch an NBC-owned and operated station.”

The decision to program local news instead of Leno, the longtime host of “The Tonight Show” who grew up in Andover, follows the runaway success of the 10 p.m. newscast on rival WFXT-TV Channel 25, Boston’s Fox outlet. WFXT’s newscast averaged 210,600 total viewers in the March ratings sweeps, while the 10 p.m. newscast on WHDH sister station WLVI-TV Channel 56 drew 43,800 total viewers. On some nights, WFXT’s newscast beats network shows in the city, with help from lead-ins such as “American Idol” and “House.”

Leno’s show is scheduled to launch in September. More from boston.com

You never know what’s around the next bend in the trail but  you can bet the ole Ranger has your back and will bring you the latest on what the varmits are up to today!

There’s always smoke on the horizon in this territory. Sometimes it’s a signal from some friendlies  but most often-as-not it is another group of folks burnt out by  the desparados.

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The good news for Employees of Journal Communications 10 extra days off this year. The bad news, no  money to go anywhere!

Most employees at all Journal Communications (JRN) divisions will take a 6% pay cut for the remainder of the year and in return will get 10 additional personal days off under a plan announced Thursday by Steven J. Smith, the company’s chairman of the board and CEO.

In a letter sent to employees, Smith said the pay reduction and time off are a reflection of weak advertising spending.

“There is a high probability that this environment will continue for at least the balance of 2009,” Smith said. “As we manage for the long-term success of the company, we must identify constructive ways to continue to reduce costs.”

The pay cuts and time off affect executives, managers, market managers, supervisors, as well as corporate staff. The company is also asking on-air broadcast talent and most union employees to negotiate payroll reductions.

The program will be implemented at Journal Communications, Journal Broadcast Group, Journal Sentinel and Journal Community Publishing Group.

This week, the company also offered a voluntary separation agreement to newsroom employees represented by Newspaper Guild Local 51. The company has told the Guild that it needs to cut $1.2 million in annual payroll.

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BELO is asking employees to take wages BELOW what they were making as well.

A.H. Belo, the parent company of the Dallas Morning News stated Thursday that it will cut salaries and suspend pension contributions this year in an effort to lower costs. It will also stop matching contributions to its savings program and amend severance for the time being.

Here’s the release:

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 News Corp gets some online leadership from AOL

As expected, News Corp. has signed former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller to the new position of chairman and CEO, Digital Media Group and chief digital officer for the conglomerate.

Based in New York and reporting directly to News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, he is tasked with taking the company’s digital efforts to the next level.

“Our focus moving forward is twofold: to enable our digital businesses to flourish as individual entities and to bolster the digital strategies of our core media properties by treating them as central to, and not separate from, the enterprise,” Murdoch explained the move. “With his strong background in media and entertainment, coupled with a deep understanding of the digital business, Jon Miller is — hands down — the best equipped executive to provide the vision, oversight and operational experience to truly transform our offerings.”

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There’s GOLD in that there Internet!

Broadcast TV stations reached the $1 billion revenue mark in online advertising sales for the first time in 2008, a 36 percent rise over 2007. And while in the majority of markets newspapers are still outstripping the TV outlets with unique visitors, the broadcasters are gaining ground.

Last year, local TV sites surpassed newspapers in 22 markets out of 80 markets, in terms of unique visitors, compared with only 16 markets last year.

That’s according to a Borrell Associates report commissioned by the Television Bureau of Advertising. The study was released this morning at a conference attended by TV station representatives and the press.

In Top 20 markets, TV site revenue grew 65 percent, year over year, with per-station online revenue surging past $1 million for the first time. Markets ranked 51 to 210 had an average gain of 33 percent. But there was a 3 percent decline in revenues by markets ranked 20 to 50. Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, said that decline mirrored a similar trend among newspaper sites. “In the mid-market levels, they came on very fast,” he said, noting that many midsize-market TV sites launched a decade ago. “They saw an awful lot of growth but hit a wall last year.”

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Saving Paper…

Peachtree Media Advisors, Inc.  has written a report for the newspaper industry to radically restructure their core business model, capitalize on social media trends, leverage their journalistic integrity, target stimulus money, recapitalize their balance sheets, and acquire interactive marketing services and consumer-facing social media companies.

(You might be able to tell from that run-on sentence that the Ranger is Wrangling here).

As one of the most trusted sources for information, the newspaper industry is well-positioned to leverage its advertising and editorial infrastructures to generate new digital marketing revenue streams from local merchants as well as professional bloggers.

 PRWEB

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What’s in a name?

ABC Radio Networks has a new name: Citadel Media. The company says the new name represents its dedication to connecting audiences with advertisers across multiple platforms beyond its core radio business including mobile, out-of-home, digital and experiential marketing” and will “allow the company to capitalize on synergistic opportunities throughout the marketplace.” RadioINK

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Paperless News from a Newspaper thanks to Hearst

US publishing group Hearst Corp. plans to launch a wireless electronic reader for magazines and newspapers similar to Amazon’s Kindle for books.

Fortune Magazine reports the device is likely to be unveiled this year and that other publishers will be allowed to adapt it for their use.

“I can’t tell you the details of what we are doing, but I can say we are keenly interested in this, and expect these devices will be a big part of our future,” Kenneth Bronfin, Hearst interactive media group chief, told Fortune.

The magazine said Bronfin led an investment by Hearst more than a decade ago in E Ink, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that supplies the electronic-ink technology used in the Kindle and in devices produced by Sony.

“What Hearst and its partners plan to do is sell the e-readers to publishers and to take a cut of the revenue derived from selling magazines and newspapers on these devices,” Fortune said.

The magazine said the Hearst e-reader has a large-format screen “suited to the reading and advertising requirements of newspapers and magazines.”

It said the device “will approximate the size of a standard sheet of paper, rather than the six-inch (15-centimeter) diagonal screen found on Kindle.”

“Given the evolving state of the technology, the Hearst reader is likely to debut in black and white and later transition to high-resolution color with the option for video,” Fortune said.

Downloading newspapers and magazines will be done wirelessly…

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