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Media trends digest – 2008

Jaspan leaves 27 August
The Age editor-in-chief Andrew Jaspan has been replaced one day after Fairfax Media announced 550 jobs would go at its Australian and New Zealand operations.
Ed's note: It's believed Jaspan had crossed swords with senior management over cuts to editorial resources. Marketing boss Anotony Catalino was dismissed yesterday. Ironically, the last 18 months or so have been widely seen as successful for the masthead, while the parent company has experienced strong profits.
More at The Age

Workplace & mobile Olympics a big hit in US
Olympics-watchers have had reason to grumble about NBC's coverage of the Games: tape delays on the West Coast, "live" streams online that are delayed until after they air on TV, and the requirement of using Microsoft Silverlight to watch video online. But that doesn't mean people aren't watching. Just the opposite. NBC announced that its Total Audience Measurement Index (TAMI) -- covering TV, online, mobile and on-demand -- reached 113 million on the first Sunday of the competition. And on Monday, the first weekday of the Games, online viewership soared to 7.8 million from 5.1 million on Sunday, according to Omniture. Are people watching at work? Duh. News.com said NBCOlympics.com was "a hit in the workplace" with a boost of 140% more visits to its video section on Monday from Sunday, according to Nielsen Online.
NBC was crowing about the early TAMI results, and were wowed by the growth in mobile usage on Monday, hitting 476,000 users vs. 210,000 on the F riday before, according to Omniture. Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC, told the Guardian he was stunned by mobile use. "These Olympics are influencing how people are using new technology," Wurtzel said. "Half of the people viewing on mobile are using it for the first time. After the Olympics, it will be interesting if these habits become part of their behavior." And Olympics mania isn't limited to US audiences. The BBC said its website had more traffic in the first two days of games than in the entire 2004 Olympic run from Athens.
Online Publishers Assn

Online growth moves to China
The days of gaudy online ad growth projections for the U.S. seem numbered, but that doesn't mean the online medium is slowing overseas, with a major boom coming in China. eMarketer announced it was cutting back on its online ad growth projections domestically, both for overall online ad sales and for video ads in particular. Instead of 2008 growth of 23%, eMarketer says it will more likely be 17.4%, hitting $24.9 billion in sales this year, with 14.5% growth in 2009 and 17.5% in 2010. You might say eMarketer knocked off a few percentage points of growth, or you could say "a billion dollars disappears," as WebProNews' Doug Caverly did.
In video ads, eMarketer says they will hit $505 million in sales this year, instead of the $1.4 billion previously projected. "Even as video becomes the great growth area for Internet advertising, there's a major disconnect between the amount of time people spend with short-form video, especially user-generated, and the ad dollars that accompany such video content," said eMarketer's David Hallerman. Such pullbacks are less likely abroad. In the UK, Ofcom reported that online advertising reeled in 19% of all ad revenues last year, surpassing the take of mainstream TV. Brits spent four times more time on their computer, and twice as much time on their mobile phones in 2007 than in 2002. And in China, the growth could be even more eye-popping, with GroupM predicting online and mobile ads there will jump 65% from 2007 to 2008, making up 7.3% of the ad spend this year, or $2.3 billion. And in 2009, digital ad revenues will grow another 40%, making up 8.5% of the ad spend.
Online Publishers Assn

Women's sites flourish
NY Times: Sites aimed primarily at women, from “mommy blogs” to makeup and fashion sites, grew 35% last year — faster than every other category on the Web except politics, according to comScore, an Internet traffic measurement company. Women’s sites had 84 million visitors in July, 27% more than the same month last year, comScore said.
More

Fairfax to shed costs and staff 26 August
Fairfax statement: (The company will) begin implementing during the first half of the 2009 financial year a business improvement program across the Group’s corporate division, Australian publishing and printing businesses and Fairfax New Zealand. A wide range of initiatives will result in a head count reduction of approximately 550 employees in Australia and New Zealand, or approximately 5% of the company’s full time workforce.
The program will deliver around $50 million in annualised cost savings. Approximately $25 million of the savings will flow into the 2009 financial year result.
The company will book a one-off charge of approximately $50 million for redundancy and associated costs.
Mr David Kirk, CEO, said:
“This is the third wave of business improvement initiatives we have undertaken over the past three years. Over the course of the 2006 and 2007 financial years we achieved $52 million in ongoing real cost reductions. Cost synergies associated with the merger of Fairfax Media and Rural Press and the acquisition of Southern Cross Radio produced a further $53 million in savings ($45 million Rural Press, $8 million radio). All of these synergies will be realised by the end of this financial year.
“With the new organisation structure in place and line management operating effectively, now is the time to launch a third wave of business improvement which will deliver benefits over the next two years.
“Media companies fit for the modern media world need to be lean and agile. This far-reaching program will position us well for the next stage of our growth and development.”
Ed’s note: Approximately one third of the staff cuts are expected to come from editorial. An email to staff adds: There will be a restructure for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun-Herald, bringing both papers under a 7-day roster to remove duplication. Editorial production processes are to be streamlined, with the production of some sections and special reports outsourced. However, the content creation and selection will remain under the control of their editors. The changes are to be implemented over the next three months by the senior editorial team, led by the Chief Executive and Publisher.
Report at The Age

Crikey cynics
The good folk over at Crikey seem a little underwhelmed by the Fairfax announcement. Speaking of the company’s senior execs, it says: "They might even have to do without the significant bonus payments scheduled to arrive in their accounts through October, a month that will probably coincide with the first of the 550 pink slips that will dot Fairfax newsrooms, sales and corporate offices over the coming financial year. Remember last year’s bonus payments for performance: $143,380 for Kirk on top of his base salary of $1.16million. The Age’s Don Churchill took home $86,667 to top up his salary of $394,912."
Crikey

Jump in the pool
ABC media release: Keen to foster creativity and collaboration online, ABC Radio National has developed Pool, a place for creative content makers to upload their work, publish and collaborate. Pool builds communities of interest across a range of genres such as animation, video, audio, photography, film, music and sound art. All work on Pool becomes available to share and to broadcast. Audiences have the opportunity to view works in progress, comment and review work and, perhaps, discover up and coming artists and creators. “Pool is another exciting entry into the world of participatory media for the ABC, where audiences become collaborators in the stories we tell,” said Sue Howard, Director of ABC Radio & Regional Content.
An important part of Pool is the capacity for members to share their work for others to reuse, repurpose and remix. This is made possible by Creative Commons, a set of licences that enable contributors to choose which rights they wish to retain, while encouraging sharing, exposure and distribution.
Pool link

US print publishers aim for 7 hours video per day
Poynter: Among the many news sites that will be trying to find new ways to cover the political conventions is WashingtonPost.com, which says it will produce seven hours of live video coverage a day… a news release describes how WashingtonPost.com and Newsweek.com reporters, "using a cutting-edge cell phone application from Comet Technologies, will be some of the first to live-stream video from their cell phones into a live webcast. Reporters will stream convention developments and questions from people directly onto 'Convention '08,' offering audiences a heightened layer of real-time video coverage. In addition, a live discussion platform online below the video screen will give viewers the ability to interact with anchors and guests."
More

Judge blocks names for online reporters
NZ Herald: judge has today taken the unprecedented step of banning news websites from naming two men charged with murder while allowing newspapers, radio stations and TV networks to reveal who they are.
Judge David Harvey said online media could not use the names, or publish images of the accused, to prevent the public searching for the information when the case comes to trial.
More

Site tries public-funded reporting
NY Times: Y ou think your local water supply is polluted. But you’re getting the runaround from local officials, and you can’t get your local newspaper to look into your concerns. What do you do?
A group of journalists say they have an answer. You hire them to investigate and write about what they find.
The idea, which they are calling “community-funded journalism,” is now being tested in the San Francisco Bay area, where a new nonprofit, Spot Us, is using its Web site, spot.us, to solicit ideas for investigative articles and the money to pay for the reporting.
More

Why the woes of newspapers are terminal
Digital Deliverance (opinion/analysis): Ignorance isn't bliss to the dying. Witness the pathos of American daily newspaper companies. Most have finally begun to realize that the deterioration of their businesses isn't cyclical but grave. Yet few, if any, understand why. Almost all grasp for the reasons.
Some attribute their grave condition to advertisers suddenly switching huge portions of spending from print to online - an excuse that ignores more than 30 years of declines in those newspapers' printed editions' circulations and readerships. Some others attribute their deterioration to not having transplanted their content into online quickly enough -an excuse that ignores not only the dozen years they've spent transplanting it but how their online editions are now read even less frequently and less thoroughly than their printed editions.
(Ed’s note: you may not agree with this, but it’s worth a read.)
More

Media Alliance snippets
Following the success of the Sydney Future of Journalism summit in May, the Alliance has decided to take the show on the road. First stop, Brisbane on Saturday September 13 at QUT Gardens Theatre. Speakers booked in include David Fagan, editor-in-chief of the Courier Mail, blogger extraordinaire Mark Bahnisch, APN’s general manager Hugh Martin and a host of top journalists, bloggers and academics. Contact Jonathan Este on (02) 9333 0925 for further information.
Women in the media - what are the experiences of women working in the Australian news media? Female journalists are invited to complete this simple, quick survey to for PhD research on the topic.
Survey link
Media Alliance

BBC reporter says it isn’t a man’s world
This is London: White middle-class men are the most discriminated against group in television, Jeremy Paxman has claimed.
The Newsnight presenter, 58, pointed to a string of women senior executives as evidence of their growing dominance in the industry.
And he even said he had advised white middle-class men not to bother going into TV because they have little chance of succeeding.
More

Digitally-altered billboards coming soon?
Supponor Systems, a company from Finland, has recently gained venture capital to develop a system which it claims can alter and localise the content of sporting ground billboards and advertising during telecasts, in real time.
Television broadcasts of the world’s most popular sports events are watched in exactly the same format in highly different markets, whereas advertisers are looking for segmented audiences”, said Mr. Juha Ruohonen, Supponor CEO. “Billboard ads visible throughout the sporting events create attention values that are manifold compared with ads on commercial breaks. The ability to digitally change the billboard content to best suit different audiences has achieved great interest from both TV rights holders and advertisers”.
Supponor link

Hannan goes live
The Australian: The Hannan family's Independent Digital Media has launched its first internet publishing venture with beauty website primped.com.au going live.  Two more "destination" sites targeting other niches in the women's interest market are being readied as the Hannans seek to reinvent their former print empire as a new media venture.
More

Going it alone is not the way
Price Waterhouse Coopers: Entertainment and media (E&M) companies hoping to drive growth over the next five years will need to accommodate dramatic changes in devices, market and consumer behaviour through striking strategic business alliances, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2008-2012, released earlier this year. The report also underscores the importance of continuing to extract revenues from traditional business segments while emerging technologies continue to solidify their consumer position. The highly anticipated annual report pegs global compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 6.6% for the sector, anticipating it reaching $2.2 trillion in 2012. “We’re seeing a new business model solidify for entertainment and media companies,” said Marcel Fenez, Managing Partner, Global Entertainment & Media practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Some, such as the film industry, have dabbled in this in the past, but those will be small movements compared to what lies ahead. No single company will be able to successfully go it alone over the next five years. The challenges are too significant and the demand for innovation too complete.”
More
Report home page

Benton headlines (USA) 25 August

CAPTURING THE BUSH LEGACY ONLINE
 [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Christopher Lee]
 The Bush administration will soon be packed and gone, but part of its legacy will live on in cyberspace. A consortium of government and nonprofit agencies plans to capture snapshots of every federal government Web site before Jan. 20, when the next president moves into the White House and starts remaking the federal bureaucracy to fit his agenda. The goal of the 2008 "end-of-term harvest" is to preserve millions of agency records in an online archive that librarians hope will provide a valuable trove for historians, government scholars and the public. The need for such an archive is greater than ever, librarians say. Many federal agency records exist only in digital form and are in danger of disappearing when the administration changes. Digital records are telling, they say, because an administration's policy priorities are often reflected in the face it presents to the world online.
 http://benton.org/node/16261

OBAMA'S WIDE WEB
 [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jose Antonio Vargas]
 With less than three months to go before the election, Triple O -- Obama's online operation -- is the envy of strategists in both parties, redefining the role that an online team can play within a campaign. If Triple O had a motto, it would be: "Meet the voters where they're at." Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Forum, an online hub of how politics and technology intersect, said: "Obama's success online is as much about how our society has changed, how our media ecology has changed, just in the past four years."
 http://benton.org/node/16265
 
 FCC'S MARTIN WANTS BROADBAND ACROSS USA
 [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Leslie Cauley]
 High-speed Internet access is so important to the welfare of people in the US that America can't afford not to offer it -- free of charge -- to anybody who wants it, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin says. "There's a social obligation in making sure everybody can participate in the next generation of broadband services because, increasingly, that's what people want," he says. Chairman Martin hopes to use a chunk of wireless airwaves due to hit the auction block next year to help turn his vision into reality. Some cellphone operators are objecting. As FCC chairman, Martin is responsible for protecting the interests of US consumers. "More and more people expect and demand to have access to the Internet and new wireless technologies," Martin says. "It is important that the (FCC) try to find new ways to address" those needs. The way Martin sees it, broadband is quickly becoming what copper phone lines were for decades: the main means of communication for millions of Americans.
 http://benton.org/node/16263

VIRTUAL WORLDS GET REAL ABOUT PUNISHMENT
 [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
 Virtual worlds have often been called the digital equivalent of the Wild West, where animated alter egos can live in a fantasy frontier. But in some of these universes, a sheriff has come to town.
 http://benton.org/node/16257  

TRACKING THE ECONOMIC SHOWDOWN
 [SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
 The media's coverage of the troubled economy has shifted repeatedly in the last year from a narrative about mortgages to one about recession, a banking crisis and now largely gas prices -- a changing storyline and one that differs from medium to medium. Moreover, the connection between media coverage and economic events has often been uneven. Sometimes, coverage has lagged months behind economic activity, when the storyline was dependent on government data. Other times, coverage has tracked events erratically, as with housing and inflation. But when the story is easier to tell, as in the case of gas prices, coverage has been closely tied to what is actually occurring in the marketplace. These are some of the findings of a new detailed examination of how the American news media have covered the economic slowdown over the last two years, produced by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
 http://benton.org/node/16210

DISCONNECT BETWEEN WHAT VOTERS EXPECT AND HOW POLITICOS SPEND ONLINE
[SOURCE: OnlineMediaDaily, AUTHOR: Tameka Kee]
Almost two-thirds of American voters expect political candidates to use online ads (including rich media and search) as part of their campaign strategy, but only about 10% of campaign consultants believe such ads serve as a highly effective channel for reaching voters. Meanwhile, just 5% think online ads are one of the most effective channels for reaching their candidate's loyal voter base. The stats stem from new research released by the E-Voter Institute and HCD Research, titled Missing the Boat: How Political and Advocacy Communications Leaders Spend Campaign Funds, and illustrate the sharp disconnect between what voters are expecting and what campaigns are delivering when it comes to information and advertising on the Web.
http://benton.org/node/16122

47% WANT FED-MANDATED MEDIA BALANCE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Joel Topcik]
Nearly one-half of Americans -- 47% -- believe the federal government should mandate equal time for conservative and liberal political commentary on radio and TV stations. However, a majority would exempt the Internet from any enforced balance, according to a new national telephone survey by Rasmussen Reports. The survey further found that 71% believe the current media environment allows pretty much any political view to be expressed.
http://benton.org/node/16118

SAVING TV
[SOURCE: Portfolio.com, AUTHOR: Mark Harris]
With its traditional business model failing, let's consider some ways broadcast TV might be reborn. 1) Accept the fact that niche is the new normal. 2) Know your brand. 3) Don't count on "flow" –unless all your programming is aimed at the same audience. 4) Content counts. 5) When you say the TV season is 52 weeks, you have to mean it. 6) Don't break faith with your audience. 7) The notion that the "500-channel universe" is a pie being cut into ever-tinier slivers ignores the fact that the vast majority of what we watch fills the coffers of a small handful of megaliths, just as it always has. 8) Lowered expectations can be your best friend.
http://benton.org/node/16117

MOBILE MESSAGING TO INCREASE 15% BY 2012
[SOURCE: OnlineMediaDaily, AUTHOR: Mark Walsh]
Consumer spending on mobile messaging will increase 15% from $65 billion in 2007 to $88 billion by 2012, with North America accounting for a quarter of that total, according to a new study by market research firm Strategy Analytics. While short message service (SMS) text-messaging will continue to dominate the category, the spread of flat-rate, unlimited data plans will accelerate the shift of common PC-based communication methods such as e-mail and instant messaging to mobile phones. E-mail alone is expected to make up 20% of mobile messaging revenue by 2012.
http://benton.org/node/16115

DAILY SEARCH ENGINE USERS CLOSING IN ON EMAIL USERS
[SOURCE: Center for Media Research, AUTHOR: Jack Loechner]
According to a recently released PEW Internet study, the percentage of Internet users who use search engines on a typical day has been steadily rising from about one-third of all users in 2002, to a new high of 49%. The number of those using a search engine on a typical day is pulling ever closer to the 60% of Internet users who use email on a typical day.
http://benton.org/node/16114

SOME RUSSIAN PCs USED TO CYBERATTACK GEORGIA
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Byron Acohido]
Thousands of Russian supporters are volunteering their PCs to be used in cyberattacks against websites supporting the rival state of Georgia. This new style of cyberwarfare — in which ordinary citizens instantly enlist their PCs to help bedevil the enemy — has caused little damage of substance, security experts say. But it affirms the untapped potential for using the Internet to cause mass confusion for political gain. "This type of attack will form at least a part of all geopolitical conflicts from now on," predicts Steve Santorelli, director of investigations at research firm Team Cymru.
http://benton.org/node/16183

TELEVISION STARTS TO COURT THE YOUNG VOTER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Television networks are assigning reporters to a new beat this election year: people who don't watch the evening news. Young people are catnip for advertisers, but they mostly shun TV, and especially news broadcasts. A biannual news consumption study released Monday by the Pew Research Center found that only a third of news consumers younger than 25 watch TV news on an average day. That's still twice as many as the 15 percent who read a newspaper on an average day. With polls showing a surge in primary-season ballots cast by voters under 30, media outlets are out to convert the newly energized voters into viewers.
http://benton.org/node/16180

LIKE POLITICS? BROADCAST YOUR VIEW FOR ONLY $6
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
A look at Saysme.tv which offers a service over the Internet that streamlines the submission process for homemade television advertising and offers cheap slices of cable-TV time -- perhaps as little as $6 for a 25-second spot. The hope is to get commissions from the legions of small-time commentators, political bloggers and local advertisers, who may have as strong opinions as T Boone Pickens on renewable energy, but do not have his millions to bombard the public with them. Instead, the dream goes, there would be millions of individual commentators placing ads a few at time, market by market, either by uploading their own ads YouTube style or choosing from those already hosted at the site.
http://benton.org/node/16179

KEY NEWS AUDIENCES NOW BLEND ONLINE AND TRADITIONAL SOURCES
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press]
The 2008 biennial news consumption survey finds four distinct segments in today's news audience: Integrators, who comprise 23% of the public; the less populous Net-Newsers (13%); Traditionalists - the oldest (median age: 52) and largest news segment (46% of the public); and the Disengaged (14%) who stand out for their low levels of interest in the news and news consumption. For more than a decade, the audiences for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news online has surged. However, today it is not a choice between traditional sources and the Internet for the core elements of today's news audiences. A sizable minority of Americans find themselves at the intersection of these two long-standing trends in news consumption. Integrators, who get the news from both traditional sources and the Internet, are a more engaged, sophisticated and demographically sought-after audience segment than those who mostly rely on traditional news sources. Integrators share some characteristics with a smaller, younger, more Internet savvy audience segment - Net-Newsers - who principally turn to the web for news, and largely eschew traditional sources.
http://benton.org/node/16169

BAN MEDIA CROSS-OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Seattle Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The House of Representatives has a chance to do what it would not in 2003: take a stand against media consolidation, which is one of the greatest threats to democracy. The Senate worked in the public's interest when it passed a "resolution of disapproval" of media consolidation in May. The House has been content to sit on its companion piece, which would kill a new Federal Communications Commission rule that essentially lifts the media cross-ownership ban. The Senate, which passed a similar blocking resolution the last time the FCC tried to scrap the ban, acted quickly and decisively. It is past time the House did the same.
http://benton.org/node/16168

WHY IS COX MOVING THOSE PAPERS NOW? AND WILL THEY SELL?
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Jennifer Saba]
Another major newspaper chain, Cox, has decided to put up for sale several of its properties -- including papers in Texas, Colorado, and North Carolina -- even as other dailies around the country continue to languish on the auction block. The question is: Why?
http://benton.org/node/16161

NSF AND THE BIRTH OF THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: National Science Foundation]
The birth of the Internet is the subject of this multimedia report created by the National Science Foundation.
http://benton.org/node/16164

NBC BUILDS ONLINE AUDIENCE EVEN AS TV RATINGS SOAR
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Paul Thomasch]
For NBC Universal, balancing TV and online coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games has been tricky. After paying $900 million for broadcast rights to this year's Summer Games, NBC Universal executives are determined to protect the television business by drawing viewers to NBC and cable networks like USA. At the same time, they are also resolved to build an online audience through the NBCOlympics.com website, with the aim of drawing in more Internet advertising revenue for future events based on the success of this one. It's a delicate balancing act: Concentrate too much on TV broadcasting, and risk missing the boat on the next generation of Olympic fans online. Or put too much content on the Web, and there's a chance some viewers will ignore coverage on TV, where advertisers have paid NBC top dollar for commercial time.
http://benton.org/node/16163

More from Benton

Challenging times for newsagencies 15 August
From the Australian newsagencies blog:
Overall retail sales in newsagencies up, on average, 2%.
Newspaper sales fell 4.8% in the city and 2.3% in the country.
Magazine sales fell 4.5% in the city and rose 2.2% in the country.
Card sales increased 3.3% in the city and 2.3% in the country.
Stationery sales fell by 7.8% in the city, and 2% in the country.
More (pdf); this blog is a must-read for publishers -- see this link

Net encourages lazy journalists
The Word (UK): If you believe all the sky-is-falling talk in the broadsheets lately, home blogging is killing journalism. The reality, as usual, is a bit duller: lazy journalists are killing journalism. The internet is just making it easier for them. The reason is that in modern media, as the Wu-Tang Clan might say, Clicks Rule Everything Around Me. Desperate for a way to make their ad-funded websites work, Old Media is now engaged in a Gadarene rush for page impressions -- any page impressions. Having seen how good bloggers are at attracting traffic, the traditional press tries to beat the amateurs at their own game, but only succeeds in looking like the proverbial dad at a wedding disco.
More

Reuters disappears from local market
The byline of UK new agency Reuters has disappeared from the pages of most Australian papers, thanks to a breakdown of negotiations with its local counterpart and sole agent AAP. The latter, owned by News and Fairfax, objected to a hike in fees that is reported to be a 600,000 now and rising to double that in five years. Reuters is now trying to negotiate with individual papers.

Benton headlines (USA)
WEB PRIVACY ON THE RADAR IN CONGRESS
 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephanie Clifford]
 Questions of data collection and privacy policies are attracting the attention of Congress. There is no broad privacy legislation governing advertising on the Internet. And even some in the government admit that they do not have a clear grasp of what companies are able to do with the wealth of data now available to them. "That is why Congress, at this point, is wanting to gather a lot more information, because no one knows," said Steven A. Hetcher, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School. "That information is incredibly valuable; it's the new frontier of advertising." Beyond the data question, there are issues of how companies should tell browsers that their information is being tracked, which area of law covers this and what -- if anything -- proper regulation would look like.
 http://benton.org/node/16003

YAHOO MAKES ITS GOOGLE SEARCH ADVERTISING AGREEMENT PUBLIC
 [SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Dawn Kawamoto]
 Yahoo on Friday released a copy of its controversial search advertising partnership agreement with Google, marking the first time details of the deal have been made publicly available. However, it is heavily redacted. The agreement was included as an exhibit to Yahoo's quarterly financial statement, which the Internet search pioneer filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the agreement, Yahoo will serve up Google's advertisements alongside its own search results. Yahoo has previously said it does not believe its open-ended deal is anticompetitive, citing it is under no obligation to run a certain number of Google's ads, or give its competitor's ads favorable placement on its search results pages.
 http://benton.org/node/15979

MEDIA OUTLETS LOSING MONEY FROM A LACK OF AUTO ADS
 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tim Arango, Stuart Elliott]
 The flight of advertising dollars to the Internet is one explanation for the pain felt by traditional media. Another culprit that is increasingly to blame is Detroit. For all the discussion of new media's role in hurting profits and revenues at traditional media outlets -- newspapers, magazines, broadcast television and radio -- the sharp downturn in the auto industry is another big culprit, and is taking an increasing toll on the advertising revenue generated by the media.
 http://benton.org/node/16002

IS GOOGLE A MEDIA COMPANY
 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Miguel Helft]
 Some media companies fear that Google is increasingly becoming a competitor. They foresee Google's becoming a powerful rival that not only owns a growing number of content properties, including YouTube, the top online video site, and Blogger, a leading blogging service, but also holds the keys to directing users around the Web. Money, of course, is very much at issue. The lower a site ranks in search results, the less traffic it receives from search engines. With a smaller audience, the site earns less money from advertising.
 http://benton.org/node/16001

 ALL OF US, THE ARBITERS OF NEWS
 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
 Editors often tell young journalists "We decide what the news is." That truism still attains; it's just the meaning of the pronoun has changed. Yes, we decide what is news as long as "we" now includes every sentient human with access to a mouse, a remote or a cellphone. On Friday, NBC spent the day trying to plug online leaks of the splashy opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in order to protect its taped prime-time broadcast 12 hours later. There was a profound change in roles here: a network trying to delay broadcasting a live event, more or less TiVo-ing its own content. Consumers have no issue with time-shifting content — in some younger demographics, at least half the programming is consumed on a time-shifted basis — they just want to be the ones doing the programming.
 http://benton.org/node/16004

SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION?
 [SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: R. Thomas Umstead]
 Some of the largest adult-entertainment players in cable TV are struggling online. The sheer volume of established competition is staggering, having multiplied like rabbits almost overnight. Today more than 4 million adult-oriented Internet Web sites offer pictures and video to titillate every imaginable sexual taste. As the number of sites has surged, they're increasingly being fortified with unfiltered pictures or partial video clips, creating a flood of saucy -- and free -- online content. And if the content isn't free, it's typically priced to reach a mass audience. Moreover, the category is experiencing a new influx of user-generated content. Millions of amateurs, sporting little more than digital video recorders and poor lighting, are also changing the fundamental business dynamics of the pornography industry by seeking nothing more than exhibitionist notoriety -- and not charging a cent.
 http://benton.org/node/15974

SAN FRANCISCO CASE SHOWS VULNERABILITY OF DATA NETWORKS
 [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ashley Surdin]
 San Francisco is being forced to overhaul security measures on the computer network that controls data for its police, courts, jails, payroll and health services, as well as other crucial information, after the technology administrator entrusted with the system blocked access for everyone but himself last month and for days refused to reveal the password, even from jail. The ordeal has spurred the city's IT department to bolster network oversight and to consider hiring outside auditors to monitor a security upgrade. City officials also will review all access to its FiberWAN network, the hub through which payroll, e-mail and criminal files flow. It has also persuaded other cities to scrutinize their own systems.
 http://benton.org/node/16000  

GEORGIA STATES COMPUTERS HIT BY CYBERATTACK
 [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Gorman]
 Georgian officials and international security experts say the Georgian government was hit by repeated cyberattacks just as Russia launched military action against the country, a move that illustrates the potential of cyberwarfare to augment a military attack. The leading suspect behind the attacks, which disabled key government Web sites, is a cybercriminal organization known as the Russian Business Network. That organization, however, is believed to act only as a carrier for criminal activities online. It may not be possible to determine who is ultimately responsible. The attacks on Georgia's public-information infrastructure have been particularly stinging in a conflict in which President Mikheil Saakashvili has tried to mount an aggressive media offensive on the airwaves.
 http://benton.org/node/16036

 
SOME WEB FIRMS SAY THEY TRACK BEHAVIOR WITHOUT EXPLICIT CONSENT
 [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
 Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Commerce Committee. And Google, the leading online advertiser, stated that it has begun using Internet tracking technology that enables it to more precisely follow Web-surfing behavior across affiliated sites. The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry of how more than 30 Internet companies might have gathered data to target customers. Some privacy advocates and lawmakers said the disclosures help build a case for an overarching online-privacy law.
 http://benton.org/node/16033 

DIGITAL CROSSROADS: PAINFUL AS SLANDER MAY BE, DON'T TURN SERVICE PROVIDERS INTO SPEECH POLICE
 [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Larry Magid]
 [Commentary] Although the Supreme Court struck down most of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the Court let stand Section 230, which immunizes Internet service providers from being held liable for what their members post by stating that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." The section is analogous to holding phone companies harmless for obscene phone calls made by their customers or shielding the post office from liability for illicit material sent through the mail. But Section 230 has also been used to protect social-networking companies and other Web sites with user-generated content whose business plans weren't even on the drawing board when the law was written back in the mid-'90s.
 http://benton.org/node/16030
 
SERVICE PROVIDERS' PRODUCT STRATEGIES HAVE LEFT THE HOME WORKER MARKET SEGMENT UNTAPPED
 [SOURCE: Forrester, AUTHOR: Sally Cohen]
 Driven by economic changes like the rising cost of gas, social trends like work-life balance, and the proliferation of collaboration technologies, consumers are changing the way that they work. Rather than commuting to a central office every day, 9% of consumers telecommute from home for an external employer, and 22.8 million run a business out of their home. When it comes to their telecommunications services, these home workers have distinct needs that are a combination of their personal and work activities. Yet telcos, cablecos, and ISPs have not focused on this attractive segment of "prosumer" home workers and thus have not yet capitalized on their unique market value. To do so going forward, providers need a designated prosumer product strategist who can mix product offerings, feature sets, and marketing messaging from the consumer and business worlds.
 http://benton.org/node/16016

CYBERATTACKS ON GEORGIAN WEB SITES ARE REIGNITING A DEBATE
 [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Gorman]
 The cyberattacks in Georgia are re-energizing a debate over whether the laws of war apply in cyberspace. Among the biggest questions: When is a cyberattack an act of war? Cyberweapons are becoming a staple of war. The Georgian conflict is perhaps the first time they have been used alongside conventional military action. Governments and private cyberwarriors can exploit Internet security gaps to not only take down government Web sites but also take control of power grids and nuclear reactors. US officials have begun to consider the legal and policy problems that cyberwarfare presents, but cybersecurity experts said the government has been slow to resolve them in the face of an increasing likelihood that cyberattacks will be used to augment, or even supplant, typical military action.
 http://benton.org/node/16112

RULING IS A VICTORY FOR SUPPORTERS OF FREE SOFTWARE
 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff]
 A legal dispute involving model railroad hobbyists has resulted in a major courtroom victory for the free software movement also known as open-source software. In a ruling Wednesday, the federal appeals court in Washington said that just because a software programmer gave his work away did not mean it could not be protected. The decision legitimizes the use of commercial contracts for the distribution of computer software and digital artistic works for the public good. The court ruling also bolsters the open-source movement by easing the concerns of large organizations about relying on free software from hobbyists and hackers who have freely contributed time and energy without pay. It also has implications for the Creative Commons license, a framework for modifying and sharing creative works that was developed in 2002 by Larry Lessig, a law professor at Stanford.
 http://benton.org/node/16099

 ADVERTISERS WILL SEE YOU READ THIS
 [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: John Gapper]
 [Commentary] If you feel like a shock, try finding out how many online advertising companies are tracking you every time you use the Internet. One way to do so is to go to the Network Advertising Initiative site in the US (www.networkadvertising.org <http://www.networkadvertising.org> ) and click on the opt-out button that allows you to evade their surveillance. It also tells you how many have been watching you already. Worries about online surveillance and privacy are growing. The US Congress is investigating Internet "behavioral targeting" of this kind and Yahoo last week tightened controls on personalized advertising. There is plenty to be worried about.
 http://benton.org/node/16103

WOMAN TO WOMAN, ONLINE
 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Claire Cain Miller]
 Sites aimed primarily at women, from "mommy blogs" to makeup and fashion sites, grew 35 percent last year — faster than every other category on the Web except politics, according to comScore, an Internet traffic measurement company. Women's sites had 84 million visitors in July, 27 percent more than the same month last year, comScore said. Advertisers are following the crowd, serving up 4.4 billion display ads on women's Web sites in May, comScore said. That is more than for sites aimed at children, teenagers or families. The rapid growth in advertising and traffic to women's sites has attracted the attention of major media companies and venture capitalists.
 http://benton.org/node/16102

UK ONLINE AD SPENDING OVERTAKES MAINSTREAM TV
 [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Georgina Prodhan]
 Spending on online ads overtook advertising on mainstream TV in Britain last year, growing 40 percent to $5.3 billion and accounting for 19 percent of all advertising, UK regulator Ofcom said.
 http://benton.org/node/16101

CLASSIC SHOWS COULD FIND NEW LIFE IN DIGITAL TV
 [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
 Everyone knows that the national transition to digital broadcast television will promote sexy new technologies including high-definition TV (HDTV). But few could have imagined that it might also revive some of the creakiest movies and series ever committed to celluloid, including The Lone Ranger, McHale's Navy and The Addams Family. Vintage reruns and other inexpensive shows are in vogue, though, as stations and programmers rush into a potentially important new business: multicast networks. Multicast services piggyback on digital signals from local stations, including those offering HDTV versions of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS. Most stations also have room in the airwave spectrum the government has allocated to transmit two standard-definition channels. That could mean up to a dozen stations for a moderate-size market.
 http://benton.org/node/16107

 THE GREAT UNTETHERING
 [SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Mark Morford]
 [Commentary] The land-line telephone is marked for imminent obsolescence. The phone companies are adding mountains of wireless customers as fast as they're losing land-liners, as millions of young whippersnappers switch to using their cell phones exclusively (or, more accurately, never order up a land-line in the first place).
 http://benton.org/node/16097

Launching an email newsletter 13 August
Melbourne IT has produced a worthwhile article, offering advice on launching an email newsletter.
See this link

China's first blogger 13 August
The Guardian: Isaac Mao, who is credited with writing China's first blog six years ago, talks about his battle with the 'Great Firewall' and the impact blogging has had on the country's culture.
More; Isaac Mao's blog

Nazi sex romp – is it really private?
The recent case of F1 car boss Max Mosley being ‘caught’ by media in compromising circumstances has raised a debate across Europe on privacy and the boundaries when it comes to publishing. Mosley won 60,000 pounds in damages for his trouble.
It’s a case which underlines the changing of the rules for tabloid-style publishing. See this link at Spiked for an opinion piece by a barrister, supporting the court decision.

Doomsayers skip the fine print
Mark Day, in The Australian: The newspapers-are-dead doomsayers are out in force again, the most fearless being Steve Ballmer, the chief executive of Microsoft, who said in a recent interview that your morning fish-wrapper will have left the stage within 10 years.
More

UK freelancers must register as “data controllers”
European Journalism Centre: Freelance journalists in Britain have been warned they are breaking the law and could be fined thousands of pounds unless they register with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a “data controller”. The UK Press Gazette has learned that the ICO has begun approaching freelances, urging them to register – because the personal information they collect in their day-to-day work is covered by the Data Protection Act. Under the law, anyone electronically processing data such as contact details is required to hand over any information about a named person if that person requests it – but lawyers have said most of the information gathered by journalists is exempt. The National Union of Journalists has reminded its freelance members of the need to register – and has said the fine for failing to do so could be as high as £5,000 (6,355.36 EUR). Staff journalists are not required to sign up, because the company that employs them should already be on the ICO’s database.
UK Press Gazette

E-paper – one designer’s vision
Designer Mayo Nissen developed this vision of the newspaper for 2015, for the Guardian in the UK. Employing e-paper, its display is intended to show anything from headlines to the full story, depending on how far it is unrolled.
Link

Kindle to get competitor
Germany's Deutsche Telekom is developing a portable e-reader that could be competition for Amazon's Kindle.
They are currently planning a test run with a few dozen of prototypes in Berlin. Pictures of the product, whose code name is "News4me", have not been revealed yet.
Peter Möckel, head of Deutsche Telekom's R&D department, said the "company sees a market in the gap between mobile phones and laptops."
CrunchGear

25 years of covers
The Washington Post has put together a gallery of magazine covers featuring entertainer Madonna over 25 years. Worth a look to see how an image can change for an audience and its time.
Link

Building good site maps
Jakob Nielsen has released a report (at US$74) offering guidelines on how to build useful site maps.
The spiel says: Users go to site maps if they are lost, frustrated, or looking for specific details on a crowded site. A site map's main benefit is to give users an overview of the site's areas in a single glance by dedicating an entire page to a visualization of the information architecture. If designed well, this overview can include several levels of hierarchy, and yet not get so big that users lose their ability to grasp the map as a whole.
More

News Corp insight
News Corp’s recent release of its first quarter earnings was provided as a webcast and supplies a fascinating insight into the business.
Click here to listen to the one-hour audio presentation

Online Publishers Assn headlines (USA) 10 August
Olympics broadcasters still stuck on web 1.0
As the Summer Games begin, NBC is anticipating a breakthrough year with 3600 hours of coverage across platforms, including streaming video online and mobile reports. NBC called it a "billion-dollar research lab" and planned a new measurement system to find out who's watching what when. News.com's Ina Fried reports that Microsoft partnered with NBC on a video player using Silverlight technology (as opposed to Flash), which will let people watch up to four video streams at once, as well as picture-in-picture viewing. But in order to watch the streams on NBCOlymics.com, you'll need Microsoft Vista, which should upset Mac and Linux users. Plus, critics say that NBC is not letting the videos spread through embedding. "They are being really a Web 1.0 company in a lot of ways," Jupiter's Emily Riley told ClickZ. "They're not leveraging Hulu for example. I think that they might not get the reach they could if they offered it in a more Web 2.0 fashion."

Branded content beats portals in ad effectiveness
If people trust a content site, there's a good chance that trust will transfer over to the advertisers on that site. That's the finding from a recent OPA study leveraging Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms data, which compared the ad effectiveness of "branded content" sites with portals and ad networks. The branded content sites scored especially well in two key segments: brand favorability and purchase intent. For example, ads on branded content sites had 29% better brand favorability than on all online ads measured, with purchase intent up 20%. And purchase intent is even higher, up 24%, among affluent households. Plus, rich media, video and sponsorships all performed better.

OPA web

Benton headlines
YAHOO TO MAKE TARGETED ADS OPTIONAL
 [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Peter Whoriskey]
 Internet giant Yahoo is set to announce that it will allow users to shut off targeted advertising on its Web sites, a move that comes as a congressional committee continues to air concerns about consumer privacy. Last week, the House Commerce Committee asked Yahoo and 32 other Internet companies to provide more information about the surfing data they collect from Web users and how the data are used to customize advertising. As many media companies struggle to make money from their Web sites, members of Congress and the industry appear to be in the early stages of a high-stakes negotiation over what kind of advertising ought to be allowed. While Yahoo's new policy may make it harder for the company to make money from ads -- targeted pitches generally fetch higher prices -- company officials said offering more privacy options could attract more users.
 http://benton.org/node/15960

FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER -- AND DIGITAL
 [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Bruce Horovitz, Laura Petrecca, Theresa Howard]
 Millions of Americans will watch the Olympics but never turn on a TV set. The Beijing Games will be the first Olympics in which a chunk of viewers — up to 5% — will watch their Olympic coverage via personal computers or mobile phones, estimates Dean DeBiase, CEO of TNS Media, which measures media outlets globally. And those viewers are the coveted trendsetting ones marketers want to reach. The best place to reach them: social media. Some 73% of Americans who have Internet access viewed video online in May, according to a recent Nielsen study. More than 154 million Americans will watch online videos this year, up 12% from last year, according to eMarketer's latest report. More than one in three mobile phone owners have video-capable cellphones, Nielsen reports. More than 147 million people worldwide now participate in a social network via their mobile phones, eMarketer reports. Here's how savvy Olympic marketers will digitally tap in: digital games; blogging; sharing videos; sharing ideas digitally; snatching search terms; and advertising in cabs.
 http://benton.org/node/15958

BROADCASTER USURPS NEWSPAPERS, ONLINE POISED TO DOMINATE
 [SOURCE: MediaDailyNews, AUTHOR: Joe Mandese]
 Despite broader issues in the overall economy, the media industry continues to be among the fastest growing industrial sectors in America. Long-term secular shifts, however, are altering the role of some major media and forms of advertising and marketing services. Long the dominant U.S. advertising platform, has fallen behind broadcast TV this year, which itself is poised to be usurped by the Internet within the next three years. This year, Veronis Suhler Stevenson estimates that traditional media operators will account for nearly half (49.5%) of the $86 billion Americans will spend advertising and accessing content online. That share is up from less than a third (29.1%) in 2002, and is projected to take a dominant position by 2011 when pure-play Internet operators will account for less than half of all Internet revenues. The migration of media operators mirrors that of major advertisers who have been slashing traditional media budgets and shifting a greater share of their total marketing spending online, and into alternative forms of marketing.
 http://benton.org/node/15878

QUESTIONING THE COMING INTERNET CLOG
 [SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Ed Gubbins]
 One of the nation's top authorities on global Internet traffic growth says his latest data show no reason to fear network capacity shortages, as traffic growth may even be slightly decelerating. Updating data collected from Internet exchanges around the world, professor Andrew Odlyzko, director of the University of Minnesota's Interdisciplinary Digital Technology Center, reported late last week that Internet traffic rates in the US and globally are continuing to grow at a rate between 50% and 60% (largely unchanged from recent years) -- rapid growth that nonetheless belies dire predictions of an escalation that would clog today's networks. Among the factors limiting Internet traffic growth, Odlyzko said, are the pace of broadband deployment, which he said is "not that fast" in some countries, including the US.
 http://benton.org/node/15875

WIFI NEARING TAKEOFF
 [SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Sholnn Freeman]
 Wireless Internet access is about to move out of coffee shops and airport lounges and into airplanes. After years of talking about what customers wanted and waiting for new technology, Delta Air Lines said it will begin offering broadband Internet service on domestic flights as early as October. Delta is trying to outmaneuver rival JetBlue, known for outfitting planes with satellite TV, and American Airlines, which is planning to launch Internet service later this year. Other airlines, including Continental, Southwest and Virgin America, are planning tests or have them underway. Yesterday's announcement makes Delta the first large U.S. airline to commit its main fleet of jets to a technology that lets passengers surf the Net while flying. The service will be available for a $9.95 flat fee on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on longer flights.
 http://benton.org/node/15885

NEW FEARS ARISE ON OLYMPIC PRESS FREEDOMS
 [SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Dikki Sinn]
 The beating of two Japanese journalists by police in western China drew an official apology Tuesday, but Beijing also set new obstacles for news outlets wanting to report from Tiananmen Square in the latest sign of trouble for reporters covering the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee, which last week only partially succeeded in getting China to unblock some Internet sites after journalists raised a furor, said it would look into the new rules that require reporters to make appointments to do reports at Tiananmen.
 http://benton.org/node/15871

AD SPENDING FORECAST TO SHIFT MORE TO DIRECT MARKETING
 [SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
 Consumers will foot more of the bill for the media they want over the next five years as advertisers shift their spending from traditional media to direct marketing, according to the latest edition of private-equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Communications Industry Forecast. The annual report, a fixture on the desks of many media executives, should cheer video game and cable and satellite TV companies and Internet service providers (ISPs). But it could complicate efforts by ad-dependent broadcast TV and radio stations, consumer magazines, and especially newspaper companies to characterize their current struggles as a temporary blip in an anemic economy. "You could call (2008) a tipping point," with consumers poised for the first time to spend more on media than advertisers will, says James Rutherfurd, VSS managing director.
 http://benton.org/node/15847

MEDIA OUTLETS ARE STILL SEEKING A CAMPAIGN BOUNCE OF THEIR OWN
 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter, Richard Perez-Pena]
 Capitalizing on the interest in this year's election has been hot or miss for mainstream news media. Cable news ratings are up as are the views of their online video. But media companies are struggling to translate campaign coverage into repeat readers, viewers -- and revenue. Televised debates and magazine covers with candidates on the front cover over temporary bumps, but no long term gains. Broadcast television newscasts are still losing viewers. The Pew Internet and American Life Project estimates that 17 percent of Americans now learn about the campaign via the Internet on a typical day -- more than double the number that did back in 2004.
 http://benton.org/node/15799

MUSIC INDUSTRY 'SHOULD EMBRACE ILLEGAL WEBSITES'
 [SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson]
 The music industry should embrace illegal file-sharing websites, according to a study of Radiohead's last album release that found huge numbers of people downloaded it illegally even though the band allowed fans to pay little or nothing for it. "Rights-holders should be aware that these non-traditional venues are stubbornly entrenched, incredibly popular and will never go away," said Eric Garland, co-author of the study, which concluded there was strong brand loyalty to controversial "torrent" and peer-to-peer services. Radiohead's release of In Rainbows on a pay-what-you-want basis last October generated enormous traffic to the band's own website and intense speculation about how much fans had paid. He urged record companies to study the outcome and accept that file-sharing sites were here to stay. "It's time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want," he said.
 http://benton.org/node/15793

NEWSPAPERS COULD BE BARGAINS, BUT FEW ARE BUYING
 [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Perez-Pena]
 Who wants to buy a newspaper? No, not just today's -- the whole company. While all publicly traded newspaper companies have seen their share prices fall in the last year -- drops of 50 to 70 percent are commonplace -- some have tumbled so far that any number of bargain hunters could snap up a controlling interest, despite the credit squeeze. But they haven't. The weak economy and tight credit market have slowed buying in all sorts of media, but the drop-off is especially pronounced in newspapers. Experts say the lack of interest reflects a sharp shift in the last year toward a more pessimistic long-term view of the industry. The loss of ads has accelerated, and few expect a rebound even when the economy recovers.
 http://benton.org/node/15794

ONE FIFTH OF MARKETERS BUY ADVERTISING FOR NEWS COVERAGE
 [SOURCE: WebProNews, AUTHOR: Jason Lee Miller]
 One in five senior American marketers polled said they had bought advertising in return for a news story about their company or product, according to a survey sponsored by PRWeek and Manning Selvage & Lee. implicit/nonverbal agreement with a reporter or editor for favorable coverage of their company or product in return for buying advertising. One in 12 provided valuable gifts in exchange for coverage.
 http://benton.org/node/15772

AS PAPERS CUT, TRIBUNE UPDATES TV NEWS
 [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sam Schechner]
 Tribune Company is slashing staff and space at newspapers across the country. But in another old-media business -- local television news -- it's moving in the opposite direction. Nearly half of Tribune's 23 broadcast stations are expanding or launching local news operations, many of them hiring staff as a result. The biggest investment is in KSWB-TV in San Diego, which has hired a staff of nearly 50 to produce the station's first in-house news broadcasts in nearly three years.
 http://benton.org/node/15748

HP, INTEL, YAHOO STUDY WAYS TO MAKE WEB A UTILITY
 [SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Eric Auchard]
 Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Yahoo are teaming up on a research project to help turn Web services into reliable, everyday utilities. The companies are joining forces with academic researchers in Asia, Europe and the United States to create an experimental network that lets researchers test "cloud-computing" projects -- Web-wide services that can reach billions of users at once. Their goal is to promote open collaboration among industry, academic and government researchers by removing financial and logistical barriers to working on hugely computer-intensive, Internet-wide projects. Founding members of the consortium said they aim to create a level playing field for individual researchers and organizations of all sizes to conduct research on software, network management and the hardware needed to deliver Web-wide services as billions of computer and phone users come online.
 http://benton.org/node/15653

MORE PEOPLE WATCHING PRIMETIME "TV" ONLINE
 [SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton ]
 According to a new study by Integrated Media Measurement, the appetite for primetime network TV online is growing, with 20% of respondents saying they watch some primetime TV programming online. Of those 20%, about one-half watch shows they missed or have already seen, while the other half are watching shows as they become available and "appear to be beginning to use the computer as a substitute for the television set."
 http://benton.org/node/15640

ONLINE DISPLAY MARKET IS BEING OVERHYPED
 [SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Abbey Klaassen]
 The inconvenient truth is that for all its new-media spin, display advertising is "old" media -- a commercial message to be placed next to editorial or entertainment content. And we know by now that measured-media growth has pretty much ground to a halt as marketers continue to increase their dollars in unmeasured disciplines such as web development, public relations and database marketing at the expense of paid advertising. Most of the top 100 advertisers that wield the big budgets are still primarily TV and print spenders. For all its glory, the Internet still has not proven itself capable of being a primary branding medium. Most ads online are response-based and work best for brand marketers when they complement a branding campaign in other media.
 http://benton.org/node/15585

THE CHANGING NEWSROOM
 [SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: ]
 The American daily newspaper of 2008 has fewer pages than three years ago, the paper stock is thinner, and the stories are shorter. There is less foreign and national news, less space devoted to science, the arts, features and a range of specialized subjects. Business coverage is either packaged in an increasingly thin stand-alone section or collapsed into another part of the paper. The crossword puzzle has shrunk, the TV listings and stock tables may have disappeared, but coverage of some local issues has strengthened and investigative reporting remains highly valued. The newsroom staff producing the paper is also smaller, younger, more tech-savvy, and more oriented to serving the demands of both print and the web. The staff also is under greater pressure, has less institutional memory, less knowledge of the community, of how to gather news and the history of individual beats. There are fewer editors to catch mistakes. Despite an image of decline, more people today in more places read the content produced in the newsrooms of American daily newspapers than at any time in years. But revenues are tumbling. The editors expect the financial picture only to worsen, and they have little confidence that they know what their papers will look like in five years.
 http://benton.org/node/15605

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