Media Giraffe Project -- <br>Link & reference blog: November 2005

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

RESEARCH: Youth using Internet to engage in civic affairs, Wisconsin study finds

ORIGINAL URL:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/11892.html
http://www.journalism.wisc.edu/~dshah/

SOURCE: Univ. of Wisconsin news release

Youth log online for civic engagement
November 29, 2005

By Dennis Chaptman

Use of the Internet as a resource and a forum strongly influences participation in civic affairs, often more than traditional media and even face-to-face communication, according to a study by a UW-Madison
journalism professor.

The study by Dhavan Shah, published in the October edition of the journal Communication Research, analyzes data from surveys conducted during and after the 2000 presidential election and concludes that the Internet can rival the effects of newspapers in spurring citizens to action.

That is a significant finding, since Internet use tends to be more prevalent among young people - a wired generation often assumed to be disconnected from civic life.

"One hopeful piece of news from this is that young people are taking advantage of the Internet in a way that may be a sign of civic renewal," Shah says. "Everything points to the idea that this may be an important pathway to the involvement of young people in civic life."

Shah says his study illustrates how the Internet can be a potent tool not just for community organizers, but in promoting the long-term health of democracy itself.

"The Internet is something that tends to involve those who are least inclined to be public-spirited - if they use the Internet in certain ways - to become very public spirited and very civically engaged," he adds.

The study's conclusions are also significant because they show the potential for the Internet to be a dynamic, interactive medium able to build citizen participation in public life. Although some scholars have criticized online communication as eroding social connections and encouraging people to withdraw instead of become engaged, Shah's study found that certain uses of the Internet can actually heighten civic participation.

"Although this analysis cannot vindicate the Internet as a cause of social withdrawal, it certainly suggests that when two of the most popular uses of the Internet - browsing and e-mailing - are used to gain information and express opinions about public affairs, they have substantial potential to affect the health of a civil society," the study found.

That potential has likely increased since the surveys were conducted, with the rise of online phenomena such as blogging, says Shah, who plans to expand on the study by analyzing data from the 2004 elections - in conjunction with political advertising data developed by the Wisconsin Advertising Project.

The strong correlation between using the Internet as a tool of political expression and engagement in public life underscore its potential to enable civic participation without the traditional limitations of face-to-face communication, Shah says. Additionally, the study concluded that television news - despite claims that the entire medium has a demobilizing effect - has some positive, indirect effects on triggering civic participation.

The study also found that both online and offline information gathering culminates in civic participation. That tends to discount earlier theories that there are two distinct pathways to civic participation - one online and the other offline - and that political uses of the Internet dampen civic action and often lead to a dead end.

Shah says that future research needs to probe how people use various media over time, instead of concentrating on how much they use them, when studying their effects on civic activism.

Dhavan V. Shah is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches and studies political and strategic communication. He is faculty in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and affiliated
faculity in the Department of Political Science. His research concerns the social psychology of media effects with particular attention to communication influences on political judgment, public opinion, and civic participation. To date, he has authored nearly 50 journal articles and book chapters.

DHAVAN V. SHAH, Professor
School of Journalism & Mass Communication
Department of Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
5162 Vilas Communication Hall
821 University Avenue
Madison,WI 53706-1497
Phone: (608) 262-0388
Fax: (608) 262-1361
E-mail: dshah@wisc.edu

----------------------------------------------------------------

The article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not have specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, democracy, First Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided by Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 107, the material above is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this blog for purposes beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

# posted by newshare @ 11:35 PM 0 comments

EDUCATION: British duo launches international web-based PDF paper for kids over 9

http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/new_electronic_newspaper_for_kids.php#more
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/11/prweb315755.htm

Newsademic.com
Hill House
210 Upper Richmond Road
London
SW15 6NP
http://www.newsademic.com/

A new international newspaper called Newsademic targeting younger readers (from
age 9 onwards) has been launched. The objective of the paper is to be a source
of information "for younger people who are keen to begin to understand what.s
going on around them and to make sense of the world they are growing up in."

Newsademic is the brainchild of Stephen Bradly a co-owner of Ley-Lines.com Ltd.
a project specific web site design and hosting company. The editor is Susan
Elkin.

Susan Elkin is a regular contributor to The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph
on education issues. She also writes for The Stage and a wide range of
magazines and has written several books. She taught in five schools and three
counties in England, most recently at Benenden School, Kent from 1993-2004.

The paper includes at least twenty articles on international events, book and
film reviews, a prize competition and a Sudoku puzzle and is distributed via
email as a printable file every two weeks. It is offered on a subscription
basis.

Articles cover economics, international politics, science and the environment.
The paper does not cover television, pop music, celebrities or sport, unless
there is a significant international news story related to any of these topics,
and nor does it carry advertisements.

Editor of Newsademic, Susan Elkin, said the following about the new paper:
"Currently most children have a very limited understanding of world events and
no time is allotted within the school timetable to cover them so I.m thrilled
to be helping to put that right." Ms. Elkin also believes the paper will be a
good learning tool for people learning English because it uses "straightforward
vocabulary".

For additional information please contact Stephen Bradly on 07989345685 or
Susan Elkin 01795 423708.

FROM THE WEBSITE:

Newsademic is a newspaper for young readers and anyone studying English as a
foreign language. Its aim is to educate and inform them about current
international news stories.

The newspaper is distributed by e-mail every fortnight. It can be read on
screen but has been designed to be printed out and read as a paper copy.

It is carefully written and edited for young people and English language
students. It does not carry advertising. Neither does it feature articles about
television, sport, computer games, pop music or celebrity culture. The focus is
on fortnightly international news events which shape and affect the world that
we live in today.

Newsademic has no political or ideological bias. Stories are reported factually
and every attempt is made to feature both sides of any situation in which
opinions differ.

Q: Can I advertise in newsademic?

A: No, current Newsademic policy is to not display any third party
advertisements. You may however E-mail admin@newsademic.com and ask us to keep
your details on record in the event that we change this policy in the future.

WEBSITE STATEMENT BY Susan Elkin, Editor

"Newsademic has two aims. First, we want to inform young readers about
international world happenings. Second, we are a useful study aid for anyone,
anywhere, learning English as a foreign language (EFL).

"It's fun to read as well as educational. Our editorial style and the choice of
Newsademic's content make sure of that. So does the inclusion of a prize
competition which doubles as a glossary on words used in that Issue's news
stories. And we have a review or two, of a worthwhile book, film, CD or other
work in each issue too.

"I spent many years teaching English. And I've always been conscious that
schools offer few opportunities for pupils to acquire and develop an
intelligent interest in international news, although it's a key part of
citizenship education.

"So that's the point and purpose of Newsademic. Easy to read, it gives
schools, pupils, families, young readers a stepping stone to adult news media.
And for EFL students it offers regular, topical reading material in
straightforward English.

"Of course we don't claim to have got everything right and we want to improve
and innovate as we go along. So please send me your suggestions, views - and
even praise, if you think it's due."

AUDIO: eDemocracy simplified, by Steven Clift

Steven Clift of eDemocracy Online in Minneapolis, Minn., has developed a 30-minute talk about building community life and democracy in the 21st century. "The Internet allows citizens to become everyday citzens anywhere, anytime, by deeply connecting them to things local, not just global," Clif says.

Clift, who has spoken in 25 nations -- including Mongolia, Iceland, Lebanon, and South Korea -- on eDemocracy concepts and practices, connects the best online realities in an optimistic recipe which he says will "counter the emerging virtual civil war among partisans online."

AUDIO LINK: http://dowire.org/media/everydaycitizens.mp3 (15MB)

MEDIA GIRAFFE PROFILE of Steven Clift:
http://www.mediagiraffe.org/profiles/index.php?action=profile&id=275

Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net
Minneapolis - - - - E: clift@publicus.net
Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667
USA - - - - Skype/MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift
Democracies Online Newswire - http://dowire.org

# posted by newshare @ 3:37 PM 0 comments

AUDIO: Will NPR's podcasts birth a new business model for public radio?

URL: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/051129glaser/
Posted: 2005-11-29

Will NPR's podcasts birth a new business model for public radio?

How the public radio giant has become a leading podcaster in just two months.

By Mark Glaser
Online Journalism Review

Last summer, the folks running National Public Radio started to get a clear
message from their listeners and member stations: Give us podcasts! They
received e-mail requests from listeners for months, and the term "podcast"
was one of the most searched terms on NPR.org. The public spoke, and NPR
listened, launching podcasts on Aug. 31.

Talk about pent-up demand. According to Maria Thomas, vice president and
general manager of NPR Online, it took only six days after launch for NPR's
"Story of the Day" podcast to reach the coveted No. 1 spot on iTunes for
most downloaded podcast. On Nov. 21, NPR's podcasts held down 11 spots on
the iTunes Top 100, more than any other media outlet.

But NPR has done much more than simply repurpose its own material for
podcasts. The radio giant is hosting podcasts for member stations, and
selling and splitting underwriting revenues with them. Plus, it's launched
three original podcasts under the new alt.NPR brand as an incubator for
edgier content.

In a wide-ranging interview on NPR's podcasting initiatives, Thomas told me
that there were two driving forces for NPR: listener demand for portable
audio, and the chance to find a new business model for working with
stations. Previously, NPR's income was split evenly from fees paid for
content by member stations (who raised money from pledge drives), and
corporate and foundation underwriting spots. Podcasting gave NPR a new model
for selling underwriting, and sharing the proceeds with stations.

"We are actually working with a subset of stations that are providing audio
to us, and we're organizing that audio in a central database, so we can put
consistent inventory units around the audio," Thomas said. "And we would
sell those inventory units to underwriters, and if we are successful with
that, we would share that revenue with the stations. That's a different
model than what we have on the radio. The whole principle is that we'll have
to act differently on these new platforms because the model we have on the
radio might not work in this world -- but we have to be in this world." At
launch, NPR already had sold underwriting to Acura as a premier podcasting
sponsor.

So what makes NPR's podcasting a different animal? Rather than just offering
podcasts of entire NPR radio shows, the most popular NPR podcasts have been
"best of"-type offerings by topic. For instance, podcasts such as NPR
Movies, NPR Technology and NPR Music take content from various radio shows
on the same topic. That way, it's easier to sell to underwriters interested
in a particular topic.

On the news side, NPR has had success with its nightly podcast wrap-up of
hearings on the John Roberts Supreme Court nomination, and will repeat that
with the upcoming Samuel Alito hearings in January. The NPR podcast
directory now includes 174 podcasts (including those of member stations).
Thomas says the original 17 podcasts it offered from the start have been
downloaded more than 5 million times.

The importance of original content

While a lot of Big Media companies have jumped on the podcasting bandwagon,
much of the content is simply repurposed material from offline programming.
While NPR has done that with most of its podcasts, the alt.NPR brand is a
chance for NPR to look beyond the usual fare. The first three offerings for
alt.NPR include a commentary on the gambling world by NPR reporter Mike
Pesca, downtempo electronica music from independent Net radio station
SomaFM, and a selection of the best young public radio producers on Public
Radio Exchange (PRX.org) called "Youthcast."

These three mark different approaches to podcasts for NPR -- one being from
an in-house reporter, one being an exploration of new music, and another
taken from PRX, which has worked with NPR before. SomaFM receives a
freelance production fee from NPR.org, while PRX will share revenues from
underwriting that NPR sells. Thomas considers this as an experiment for NPR,
which will release more podcasts after it gauges the success of its attempts
so far.

"If we're going to make it on the portable platform, we have to act
differently," Thomas said. "With podcasting, we're acting like producers and
seeking new voices but at the same time we're working cooperatively with
stations to find a way to help all public radio become more meaningful,
which is something we didn't accomplish in the first 10 years of the
Internet."

So what type of content works best for podcast listeners? Thomas believes
that shorter content has been more popular, perhaps because people listening
to podcasts are multitasking and don't have the attention for long-form
content. A case in point is the "Story of the Day" podcast, which runs from
four to eight minutes, highlighting the editorial pick from NPR as the most
important and unique story that NPR produced that day. Because it has
occupied the No. 1 slot at iTunes for so long, Thomas believes it might be
the most downloaded podcast ever.

Kris Jacob is vice president of business development for PodShow, the
venture capital-backed startup from "podfather" Adam Curry, which is
aggregating podcasts into an ad network. Jacob told me that repurposed
mainstream content might bring in a larger podcast audience of consumers,
but that podcast listeners in general like the close bond they feel with
independent productions.

"The fundamental mistake that media companies, large and small, make is that
they adopt the model but not the philosophy," Jacob said. "They look at
things as the adjunct to the core product that they're providing, and not as
a fundamental shift in the way that they are creating media itself. ... What
listeners tell us is that mainstream programming converted to MP3 files and
redistributed and called a podcast is interesting to a point, but it's not
what they are really compelled by. What they are compelled by is unique
independent niche programming that appeals to them and allows them to
develop a relationship that they can't forge with mainstream programming."

Rusty Hodge, SomaFM's founder and general manager, agreed that shovelware
wouldn't cut it for podcasts, and that the democratizing effect of so many
new voices emerging was much more important.

"The most interesting content on the Internet has not been repurposed
content from somewhere else (which we've all heard already), it will be that
content that didn't have an outlet before," Hodge said via e-mail. "I think
that NPR is using the alt.NPR podcast project as an incubator, to try out
new content and explore areas that they don't have the space to do over the
air."

PRX has been running its own podcasts culled from all the radio pieces
people submit to PRX. (PRX acts as a non-profit intermediator between
independent producers and public radio stations and networks.) Plus, it
released Pubcatcher, a free podcast tool for public radio stations to use on
their sites. Jake Shapiro, executive director of PRX, told me that
podcasting might bring a new generation of talent into public radio.

"I have high hopes that out of this wave of energy around podcasting, with
all of these people trying to become audio producers, that a bunch of them
will emerge as truly talented new voices that will bridge into radio,"
Shapiro said. "It doesn't have to be either/or [podcasting or broadcasting].
My hope is that podcasting does identify a whole new rising generation that
is producing a different sound with different ears and that public radio
will embrace them."

The challenges and potential of podcast ads

As for making money or getting underwriting for podcasts, everyone agrees
that there are a slew of issues to iron out -- though there's a lot of
potential. First off, anyone who sells advertising usually has to have
metrics on the audience: who is listening, how often do they listen, what's
the demographic of listeners. These remain a mystery for podcasts, because
there is no current way to track who actually listens to podcasts. Just
because you subscribe to a podcast, doesn't mean you upload it to your MP3
player or listen to it.

NPR.org's Thomas admits that this is an initial problem, but she said she
hopes to get listener information when technology companies can solve the
metrics issue, as long as it doesn't invade personal privacy.

Along with the measurement dilemma, there's also bandwidth costs to
consider. The more popular your podcast is, the more it costs to support
downloads. Thomas says NPR.org has already been serving streaming audio for
some time, so it could negotiate good bandwidth deals with vendors.

"We went into this business with eyes wide open because we've been streaming
audio -- lots of it -- on NPR.org for nearly a decade," Thomas said. "We did
a lot of work upfront, pushed hard on vendors and [did] estimating and
scenario planning. Frankly it helped shape our content offerings. We're
keeping it shorter not just for the user experience. I'm not at all
convinced someone wants to listen to two hours of 'Morning Edition' on an
iPod. You're penalized for success, but we're trying to build an
infrastructure that supports a business."

Another issue is the intrusiveness of ads on podcasts, a medium born out of
people's frustration with the ad-saturated nature of broadcast radio. So
far, most podcasts have toned down the commercialism, and tried to use more
low-key sponsorships and spots voiced by the host. NPR has an advantage
because it is already well versed in using less intrusive ads in its radio
and Web programming.

Thomas told me NPR would only do one "gateway" sponsor ad for 12 to 15
seconds at the beginning of podcasts, along with a three-second closer at
the end. For podcasts less than 30 minutes long, that would be the limit.
For longer podcasts, NPR is experimenting with a sponsor ad in the middle of
content. Host-spoken ads would likely only happen in entertainment offerings
-- not in news podcasts.

PodShow's Jacob says the potential for advertising in podcasts is
"absolutely huge." But rather than repurpose radio ads, advertisers and ad
agencies will have to get more creative, and collaborate more with the
audience.

"The research we've done indicates strongly that the listeners are
interested in interesting advertising," Jacob said. "They don't want the
same thing they're getting in the mainstream. They want to participate in
that process. That has to do with context, with host involvement, and it has
to do with the advertisers, the agencies, the buyers and [PodShow] all being
very creative about how we do this, and listening to the response."

While Madison Avenue types are swarming over the prospects of ads in
podcasts, the typical DIY podcaster shouldn't expect to get a windfall
profit anytime soon. SomaFM's Hodge says that it's hard, but not impossible,
to make a living doing independent podcasts. Though SomaFM has been going
strong since 1999, Hodge still has a day job running Internet operations for
a computer hardware maker.

"If you start by saying, 'I'm going to start a podcast or Net radio station
and get rich,' you're on the wrong footing," Hodge said. "It takes a long
time to get established, and it will be a lot of work to become successful.
But I know some folks running Net radio stations who are mostly supporting
themselves from it. They're not getting rich, but they're making an OK
living. And you'll have to really hustle as a salesperson if you're going to
get sponsors (or donors for that matter). You can't just sit back and expect
the money to come to you."

This article above is copyrighted material, the use of which may not have specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, democracy, First Amendment, technology, journalism, community and justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' as provided by Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Chapter 1, Section 107, the material above is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this blog for purposes beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

# posted by newshare @ 3:24 PM 0 comments

Monday, November 28, 2005

Toronto Star columnist on putting journalism ahead of profits

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1133133016399&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851

Newspapers must put journalism before bottom line
Nov. 28, 2005. 05:48 AM

ANTONIA ZERBISIAS
The Toronto Star

When he died in 1948, the Toronto Star's former owner and publisher Joseph
Atkinson stipulated in his will that the public interest should supersede
profits.

This "paper for the people'' philosophy has made the Star the most
successful newspaper in Canada.

It's all about, in the words of the late American newspaperman H.L.
Mencken, afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted.

There's a similar mindset at the U.S. newspaper giant, Knight Ridder,
which publishes 32 dailies, including the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia
Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

This month the chain, the second-largest in the United States, made
headlines when it announced it was putting itself up for sale because its
sagging stock price wasn't rich enough for its three biggest shareholders:
Private Capital Management LP of Naples, Fla., which has 19 per cent, plus
Southeastern Asset Management with just under 10 per cent and Harris
Associates LP with about 8 per cent.

A sale is expected to break up the company at best, or degrade the titles
to pay off the resulting debt to such an extent that their journalism will
not be worth the paper it's printed on.

Private Capital Management in particular is pressuring Knight Ridder for a
better return, as it's not happy with last year's 19.4 per cent operating
profit margin.

It also threatens to nominate its own slate of directors at the company's
annual meeting next April, because it hasn't received satisfaction on its
"serious concerns'' regarding its investment.

Now, despite all the falling circulation and dwindling advertising in the
paper business, it's still a rich game.

According to The State of the News Media 2005, from the Project for
Excellence in Journalism, affiliated with Columbia University Graduate
School of Journalism, "as businesses, newspapers are strong, highly
profitable and resilient."

In fact, "the industry now boasts operating margins in the low-to-mid-20
per cent range, a bit less than Microsoft and Dell but higher even than
pharmaceuticals.''

Even as the department stores disappeared along with their advertising,
newspapers have adapted, with special sections devoted to cars, computers
and condominiums, as well as other products such as freebie commuter
dailies.

Of course, circulation is declining.

This month, an industry average drop of 2.6 per cent was recorded,
although some papers such as The New York Times held steady. That didn't
stop the company from cutting 500 jobs, including 80 newsroom positions at
both the Times and its sister publication, The Boston Globe.

There are two main forces behind the readership drop. The first is that
young people aren't picking up the paper and the second is, of course, the
Internet.

Apparently, the folks at Private Capital Management . which snapped up
most of its Knight Ridder stock last summer . didn't get the memo on that
downward trend in circulation.

What's more, Knight Ridder has generally not performed as well as other
newspaper companies because it tends to invest in quality journalism.

It also has a more progressive outlook.

Which is why some Knight Ridder employees are very suspicious about the
For Sale sign on their corporate door.

The Daily News' Will Bunch, for example, on his company blog, recently
documented the rich donations made by the top executives of Private
Capital Management to the Republican National Committee and the
Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign.

"Say what you will about Knight Ridder's business practices, but when it
comes to journalism, they do a remarkably good job of getting out of the
way," blogged Bunch.

"Thus, the liberal editorial voice of the Daily News and the Inquirer, and
the amazing work by Knight Ridder's Washington bureau, which was one of
the few media voices casting doubt in 2002 and 2003 on whether Iraq had
WMD and posed a threat to America."

As it turns out, that company, not unlike the Star, subscribes to a
"creed,'' handed down by co-founder John S. Knight.

This is why some 60 prominent Knight Ridder alumni, including Pulitzer
prize winners and the Inquirer's Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down), signed an
open letter this month, announcing that they planned to nominate their own
directors.

"Knight Ridder is not merely another public company," they wrote.

"It is a public trust. It must balance corporate profitability with civic
purpose. We oppose those who would cripple the purpose by coercing more
profit. We abhor those for whom good business is insufficient and
excellent journalism is irrelevant."

To them, and toner-stained wretches in newsrooms everywhere, the strategy
for survival is clear: It is to not cave in to shortsighted bottom-liners
who demand extraordinary profit margins in the near term while destroying
the product in the long run.

In the business of newspapers, greed is just bad news.

# posted by newshare @ 10:04 PM 0 comments

RESOURCE: Independent Media marketplaces for books, videos sold from new COA News website

COA News just developed a Independent Media Marketplace(IMM) (http://imediamarketplace.org ) for books, magazines and videos. You can also sign up to IMM Update to be notified when the IMM (Independent Media Marketplace) has new media products available. http://www.coanews.org/lists/index.php?p=subscribe&id=1

"Coalition of Awareness"

FROM THE WEBSITE:

COA News is a Canadian-based is a non-profit online news network featuring diverse, credible independent news organizations. COA News can best be described as the portal to independent news media. The COA is published by:

The Center For Information Awareness.
384 Amberlee Court
Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
L3X-1E8

Staff
Steve Anderson (steve{@}coanews.org): Managing Editor
Krystle Kingston (krystle{@}coanews.org): Environment Editor
Lindsay Carrocci (lcarrocc{@}uwo.ca): Media Editor
Arthur Krebbers: News Editor
News section - news{@}coanews.org

The Center For Information Awareness(CFIA)is a registered non-profit organization dedicated to bringing awareness to world events and situations by proving free access to world reporting and promoting alternative channels of information.

Their initiatives include but are not limited to:

-- Creating open, free community email lists
-- Promoting the independent media through local and international campaigns
-- Creating a venue for independent news organizations to feature their material and thus expose it to new and broader audiences.

We at The Center For Information Awareness know that in order for democracy to function and for powerful structures to be held accountable, citizens need to have access to unfiltered information. A certain degree of transparency is necessary for democracy to work. In providing a space for citizens to communicate freely, we think the powerful will be more accountable to the public.

# posted by newshare @ 2:36 PM 0 comments

Feisty dialog or comfortable cocoons? CBS News exec considers journalism future

Will consumers engage in feisty dialog or retire to cocoons of comfortable opinion as a result of new information technology? That's the question posed by Andrew Hayward, president of CBS News. Hayward was part of an Oct. 5, 2005, panel at the "We Media: Behold the Power of Us," conference at The Associated Press headquarters in New York City. And Hayward says its the central issue journalism must face.

The conference was organized by The Media Center, the think-tank arm of the newspaper publisher-sponsored American Press Institute. His comments were made generally.Here is Hayward verbatim, as transcribed from the MP3 download of the the panel he was on:

" . . . [A]t its worst you will have an atomized world in which people only have access to, or only choose access to, the news and opinions that they're interested in, and you'll have a completely splintered society where even though the information is available, for those who are actively willing to seek it, to learn about public affairs, most people will live in a comfortable cocoon of their own self-reinforced opinions and it's going to be even harder to reach consensus on the issues of the day.

"And I think we have to grapple with those contradictions and discuss them rather than, recycling what frankly to me were fairly familiar criticisms. It's doesn't mean they are not valid. They're familiar because they've been around for a long time. But i think looking ahead is a lot trickier than looking in the rear-view mirror."

SOURCE: MP3 of panel at "We Media":
http://www.mediacenter.org/wemedia05/the_program.html
http://www.mediacenter.org/wemedia05/audio/we_media_we_inc_100505.mp3

# posted by newshare @ 9:16 AM 0 comments

OPINION: Mainstream media not under corporate control, CBS news chief says

Here's a view about the extent to which mainstream media's news agenda is set
by multi-industry corporate owners.

The comments below are from Andrew Hayward, president of CBS News. He was on an Oct. 5, 2005, panel at the "We Media: Behold the Power of Us," conference at The Associated Press headquarters in New York City. The conference was organized by The Media Center, the think-tank arm of the newspaper publisher-sponsored American Press Institute. His comments were made generally.Here is Hayward verbatim, as transcribed from the MP3 download of the the panel he was on:

"One of the misunderstands about these conglomerates, certainly maybe not in this room, which is a sophisticated audience, but among the public at large, is that the conglomerates are actively telling us what to cover and actively censoring or blocking stories based on what advertisers want. That is not true. There is still a very solid firewall in this country between news providers and sponsors, and to the degree it becomes permeable, I think there are going to be a lot of watchdogs who are going to sound the alarm.

"I think the real issues is what the vice president correctly said -- its the sins of omission that are more important to me than the sins of commission, because you can always ignore the Lacy Peterson or the runaway bride, but not having a vigorous debate about global warming or about what is going on in the classrooms -- that is something that we can tag the media with -- however we also have to look again at the marketplace and the audience . . . the fact is if there weren't the marketplace for the runaway bride it wouldn't be on as much as it is . . . I don't think we can wish away the influence of the marketplace on American media."

Hayward's comments earlier about the future of media were interesting as well.
Here's an excerpt:

"We're at the very early stages of development in the democracy that could go one of several ways. At its best, the disaggregation of content, the lowering of barriers of entry to news, and inforramtion and opinion providers sare in fact a very good thing that could recreate the kind of feisty dialog that the Founding Fathers had in mind when they created the town meeting model for our democracy. At its worst . . . and the vice president even cited this case of the sudden upsurge in the number of emails urging that a particular professor be fired . . . at its worst you will have an atomized world in which people have, or chose, access only to the things that they are interested in and you will have a completely splintered society where even though the information is available, for those who are actively willing to seek it, to learn about public affairs, most people will live in a comfortable cocoon of their own self-reinforced opinions and its going to be even harder to reac!
h consensus on the issues of the day. And I think we have to grapple with those contradictions and discuss them rather than, recycling what to me are fairly familiar criticisms. It's not that they aren't valid. They're familiar because they've been around for a long time. But i think looking ahead is a lot trickier than looking in the rear-view mirror."

# posted by newshare @ 9:08 AM 0 comments

Sunday, November 27, 2005

FIRST AMENDMENT: Comcast aiming to control the content it delivers?

URL: http://www.freepress.net/news/9074
URL: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/12095299.htm
PUBLISHED: July 10, 2005

Comcast aiming to control the content it delivers

By Tony Gnoffo
The Philadelphia Inquirer

LOS ANGELES -- When former Disney executive Charles Hirschhorn had an idea for a new TV network, he called one of his old Disney associates.

Stephen B. Burke, Comcast Corp.'s chief operating officer and the president of its cable business, was driving home when Hirschhorn reached him on his cell phone and announced that he was coming to Philadelphia to pitch an idea. Burke recalled the conversation like this: "I said, 'Before you waste the airfare, why don't you tell me what you have in mind?' And he says, 'MTV for video gamers.' I pulled the car over to the side of the road and told him to get over here right away." So was born the G4 Video Game Network.

Philadelphia, Hollywood is calling.

Comcast came up short in its bid last year to buy the Walt Disney Co., that icon of American entertainment. But Burke and Comcast chairman Brian L. Roberts nevertheless have become media moguls of considerable influence.

Their power base is Comcast.s huge audience: the 21.6 million households that subscribe to the company.s cable service. They give any channel owned or blessed by Comcast instant traction . a place on Comcast.s vast national stage. That alone gives Comcast a lot of influence. But Comcast wants a piece of the action, too -- the ability to own the programming it once merely delivered. "Comcast wants to leverage its control of the pipes to gain control over the content," said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a media-watchdog group critical of Comcast's increasing power.

But the same statement could be taken as a compliment, had it come from a Wall Street analyst. "Comcast ought to own content," said Michael A. Kupinski, a cable and telecommunications analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis. "Content drives demand."

Comcast today owns 84 percent of Hirschhorn.s G4 network, which claims to attract a higher concentration of 18- to 34-year-old males -- a group advertisers love -- than even ESPN. It also owns 61 percent of E! Entertainment and its sister network, the Style Channel. It owns 100 percent of the Golf Channel, the Outdoor Life Network and AZN, a network recently refocused on an Asian American audience. Five regional sports networks, including Comcast SportsNet in the Philadelphia area, also are owned or controlled by Comcast.

Together, Comcast's channels generated $787 million in revenue for the company in 2004 -- less than 4 percent of the company's overall revenue.

In addition to networks, Comcast owns movies and TV shows -- thousands of
them -- thanks to a partnership it formed with Sony last year to purchase the MGM film and video library. In June, Comcast named an executive to create new channels to highlight that library. But with all those channels and all those cable subscribers, critics such as Scott see an unfair advantage -- and peril for the marketplace of ideas.

The Federal Communications Commission, which is already reviewing Comcast's deal with Time Warner Inc. to buy the bankrupt Adelphia Communications Corp., has also promised to review its media-ownership laws. Comcast could come under scrutiny in that proceeding, too.

"When Time Warner and Comcast get behind a channel, it has a 100 percent chance of succeeding," said Doron Gorshein, who is trying to launch an independent cable channel. "If Comcast and Time Warner don.t get behind a channel, it has almost zero chance of succeeding." Gorshein said his America Channel, which aims to feature independently produced documentaries about life in the United States, is among those that have been rejected by Comcast and Time Warner.

Together, the two cable operators serve about half of all households that receive cable or satellite TV. And their reach will grow if their proposed purchase of Adelphia is approved. Gorshein has filed a statement with the FCC opposing the deal. "I do not believe that a small group of four or five companies ought to have domain over creativity in America," he said.

The marketplace has more influence over creativity than Comcast, responded David L. Cohen, a Comcast executive vice president who once served as chief of staff to former Mayor Ed Rendell.

"It's about content," Cohen said. "It's about putting on programs that people want to see." He offered a litany of programming -- enabled by cable -- 24/7 news, C-Span, ethnic programming. "Comcast is the largest distributor of cable TV, but but none of the networks in which it is invested are among the 20 highest-rated," Cohen said.

Yet most of those top cable networks are owned by a handful of media companies, including Disney, Time Warner Inc., Viacom Inc., and Vivendi Universal S.A., a French company that owns the NBC network. Critics also worry that Comcast -- and other cable companies that own cable channels -- will try to keep those channels off satellite systems and TV systems promised by phone companies in the coming years.

DirecTV has accused Comcast and several of its cable partners of doing just that. In a complaint to the FCC, DirecTV says fees charged to satellite systems to carry the iN Demand High Definition movie network are higher than those charged to cable firms. iN Demand is owned by Comcast, Time Warner and Charter Communications Inc.

In response to the complaint, iN Demand issued a statement saying that its "pricing policies are in full compliance with FCC rules and regulations" and that it is "confident that the FCC will find in our favor."

Burke said Comcast is interested in delivering the best cable channels to its subscribers, without regard to whether it has a stake in the channel. And, he said, it is to Comcast's advantage to get its networks delivered to as many viewers as it can -- even viewers who subscribe to satellite TV.

Gorshein says he remains unconvinced. "Comcast has a strong disincentive to launch independent channels," he said. "The benefit to a cable operator from owning a channel far outweighs the incremental benefit it may get from simply carrying a channel owned by an independent company."

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# posted by newshare @ 7:41 AM 0 comments

NETWORK NEUTRALITY: After Brand X, advocacy groups making it a top priority

FROM: Technology Daily
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-GSSV1119906704461.html
POSTED: June 27, 2005

After Court Ruling, Advocacy Groups

Focusing On 'Network Neutrality'

By David Hatch
Technology Daiily

Public advocacy groups are making "network neutrality" a top legislative priority after the Supreme Court handed them a defeat Monday -- and they could be boosted by support from Amazon.com, Microsoft and other corporations, sources said.

Those companies, along with other members of the Coalition of Broadband Users and Innovators -- such as Yahoo and eBay -- want to safeguard customer access to their new and existing high-speed Internet services. But opposition from the cable industry is expected to be fierce.

Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska and Commerce ranking member Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, vowed late Monday to review the impact of the court's ruling in the so-called Brand X case on public-interest obligations -- including contributions to the $6.5 billion Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes telecom service in rural and impoverished areas. Both lawmakers are strong proponents of the fund, and Stevens plans to introduce a universal service reform bill in an effort to strengthen the program.

One source, speaking on background, suggested that the high court's classification of cable-delivered high speed Internet as an "information service" means the technology also would not be subject to public interest requirements governing 911 emergency service, consumer privacy, law enforcement wiretapping, and communications access for the disabled.

"[A committee review] will permit us to consider what steps may be necessary from the Congress or the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that our communications laws preserve competition and protect the interests of consumers," Stevens and Inouye wrote.

Network neutrality would bar cable companies from blocking or degrading competing telecommunications, media or commercial services offered over broadband pipes. The restrictions likely would extend to phone providers of high-speed Internet. The high court ruled Monday that broadband over cable modems should not be subject to "common carrier" rules requiring the sharing of networks with competitors.

"Network neutrality is no such thing," Kyle McSlarrow, president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, responded during a Monday press briefing. His industry has a business incentive to preserve the rights of cable-modem customers to go anywhere online, he said, and network neutrality would create a solution for a non-existent problem.

Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, will champion the neutrality cause by seeking to add anti-discriminatory protections to telecom legislation being drafted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a source said.

"My goal will be to ensure that national broadband policy reflects the open architecture model of the Internet and remains a medium friendly to innovation," Markey said in a statement. "Congress intended that cable broadband services should be treated with the same openness and access that consumers and Internet providers enjoy today over telephone lines," he added, while declaring, "Unfortunately, today's ruling is both anti-consumer and anti-competition."

But House Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, may not be receptive to Markey's goals. "I commend the court for upholding the FCC's deregulatory approach to broadband services," Barton said in a statement, adding that the "FCC correctly determined that broadband services should not be regulated as common carriage."

Said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., chairman of the Senate Commerce Technology Subcommittee, "It is my hope that Congress can build on the Supreme Court's decision today on Brand X by updating our nation's communications laws" and removing barriers to innovation.

SSen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a Commerce Committee member, wants the FCC to protect independent players on the Internet and is willing to consider a legislative fix, a source said. But the source suggested that the court's decision could be moot in a few years -- because the telecom legislation envisioned by lawmakers would kill the regulatory framework that classifies technologies as "information" or "telecommunications" services.

"I think it's an uphill battle," Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said of the chances of finding support for network neutrality among influential GOP lawmakers. Nevertheless, he said the court's ruling in National Cable and Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet, would galvanize cable industry critics. "There will be a growing call on the part of the civil-liberties community and the Internet community to reverse this decision," he said.

Gigi Sohn, president of the watchdog group Public Knowledge, said anti-discriminatory safeguards could be outlined in a few sentences. But a congressional source suggested that provisions would be lengthier and more complicated. The FCC or another agency, Sohn said, should be charged with enforcing the requirements.

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# posted by newshare @ 7:35 AM 0 comments

NETWORK NEUTRALITY: Washington Post story details lobbying effort by "pipe" owners to restrict content on Internet

ORIGINAL URL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/23/AR2005112302200.html
PUBLISHED: Thursday, November 24, 2005; D01

SEE ALSO:
http://newshare.blogspot.com/2005/07/technology-daily-brand-x-and-focusing.html

Another good source:
The link is to http://www.fepproject.org/commentaries/grokster&brandx.html

By Marjorie Marjorie Heins / Brennan Center for Justice / Free Expression
Policy Project / 212 992-8847 / marjorie.heins@nyu.edu / www.fepproject.org
BRIEF on subject: http://www.fepproject.org/courtbriefs/BrandX.pdf

Renewed Warning of Bandwidth Hoarding

By Jonathan Krim
The Washington Post
© 2005 The Washington Post Company

A couple of years ago, a group of big technology companies got together and issued a public alarm about the future of the Internet:

Those who own the wires that get us online, the companies said, should not be able to pick and choose what Web content and services we can see and
use.

Just as electric companies can't cut deals with electronics makers to allow only some products to work, the Internet should have similar, guaranteed "network neutrality," argued tech firms such as Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

The telephone and cable companies that provide most Internet access dismissed the warning as a pro-regulatory, paranoid rant. It was a solution in search of a problem, they said, and they vowed they would never, ever do such a thing. And the issue receded.

But now it's back in a big way, and the question is: How will the tech industry respond?

Consider:

On March 3, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it settled a case against a small North Carolina-based telephone company that was blocking the ability of its customers to use voice-over-Internet calling services instead of regular phone lines.

On Sept. 15, the first major draft of proposed changes in the nation's telecommunication's laws was circulated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The draft said Internet service providers must not "block, impair, interfere with the offering of, access to, or the use of such content, applications or services."

On Nov. 2, another draft of the bill came out, with language specifically addressing the Internet video services that are proliferating as connection speeds increase and the phone companies get into the digital television business. In this draft, the prohibition on blocking or impeding content was gone.

If the bill passes as is, tech companies say, the Internet could be forever compromised.

"Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators to discriminate in favor of certain kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online activity," Vinton G. Cerf, a founding father of the Internet who now works for Google Inc., wrote in a letter to Congress.

The phone companies argue that with their new fiber-optic systems capable of handling huge amounts of bandwidth, they simply want the ability to set aside some of it for their own services, be it television, gaming or anything else.

Unfortunately for them, the head of phone giant SBC Communications Inc., Edward E. Whitacre Jr., was a little more plain-spoken in an interview in Business Week.

"Now what they [Google, Yahoo, MSN] would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it," Whitacre said. "So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using."

Like his predecessor, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin favors network neutrality "principles," but not codifying them as rules.

The FCC did add them as conditions of planned mergers between SBC and AT&T Corp., and Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI Inc. But those conditions apply only for two years, and only to those companies, so Congress will have to wrestle with this beast.

A coalition of tech companies that includes Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Google, Ebay Inc. and IAC/InterActive Corp., argues that the issue is bigger than straight-up discrimination. What if, they say, the Internet service providers decide to reserve 90 percent of their bandwidth for their own services, and leave 10 percent for the rest?

"Allowing broadband providers to segment their . . . offerings and reserve huge amounts of bandwidth for their own services will not give consumers the broadband Internet our country and economy need," Cerf wrote.

Another wrinkle: What if Internet service providers decide to provide lots of bandwidth to customers who buy their other services, such as cellular or voice-over-Internet telephony -- but less if the customer uses rival providers of those services? That would be similar to the kind of bundling that occurs now, under which, for example, cable Internet service is cheaper if a consumer also buys a cable-television package. That, they say, is the free market at work.

With tech firms and the Internet providers engaged in many joint business relationships, it is unclear how much artillery the technology group is willing to roll out on this issue.

If they hope to succeed against the powerful cable and telephone lobbies, it will require more than some letters and public testimony to Congress.

Jonathan Krim can be reached atkrimj@washpost.com.

# posted by newshare @ 7:02 AM 0 comments

FUTURE: Spokane daily's editor details efforts at "transparent newsroom" in Rosen blog post

On the weblog of New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen, there's a guest piece by the editor of the Spokane Statesman-Review, a 107,000-circulation daily, about their extensive efforts at creating a "transparent newsroom." It's a detailed look at one newspaper's effort to change. Here's the link:
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2005/11/21/spk_ss.html

Here's a link to Spokane editor Steve Smith's account of "transparent newsroom" in the fall edition of Nieman Reports:
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/05-3NRfall/V59N3.pdf

Read also a transcript of New York University professor Jay Rosen's appearance on a Washington Post-sponsored chat session about Bob Woodward:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/11/14/DI2005111400854.html

Smith also links to a 1999 American Society of Newspaper Editors' credibility report:
http://www.asne.org/kiosk/reports/99reports/1999examiningourcredibility/index.htm

Here is a Washington Post column on Spokane's transparent newsroom approach:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501162.html

# posted by newshare @ 6:46 AM 0 comments

Saturday, November 26, 2005

BLOGS/ADVERTISING: As Corporate Ad Money Flows Their Way, Bloggers Risk Their Rebel Reputation - New York Times (fwd)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/26/technology/26blog.html
November 26, 2005

As Corporate Ad Money Flows Their Way, Bloggers Risk Their Rebel Reputation

By LOUISE STORY
The New York Times

When Anita Campbell started her Web log about small-business trends two
years ago, she thought it would simply be a service for her clients and help
her consulting business grow.

Instead, she said, the blog "just took off," attracting more readers than
she had dreamed of. Then, companies offered to pay her to post
advertisements and product mentions on her site. There were enough offers,
she said, that she could choose to work with only the ones relevant to her
readers. And so, her blog, once just a marketing tool, became a money
generator on its own.

"I never try to hide the fact that I am writing about an advertiser," she
said in an e-mail statement. "But I also don't apologize for accepting
advertising, and I make it clear that just like everyone else I have to earn
a living and pay the expenses of keeping the site going."

After beginning as a vehicle for anti-establishment, noncommercial writers,
many Web logs have laid out welcome mats for corporate America in the last
couple of years. No one tracks how much advertising money is flowing to Web
logs. Nor is it clear how many bloggers, like Ms. Campbell, disclose their
sponsors. But when writers have not been completely open, their fellow
bloggers have been quick to criticize.

Businesses have noticed the growing readership and influence of these
Internet postings and are spending $50 million to $100 million this year on
blog advertising and marketing, said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester
Research, a company that looks at the impact of technology on business and
consumers. Recognizing that blogs have become more mainstream, companies are
paying for advertisements or mentions on blogs, courting blog writers with
public relations efforts and inviting writers to come blog on one of their
corporate sites.

The blogosphere, companies said, is an important place to have a presence,
and blog writers are not shying away from the attention.

"The attitude has completely changed from where it was two years ago and
even a year ago," said Jim Kukral, the publisher of ReveNews, a site about
making money from Web logs. "People have started to realize that, hey, this
is fun; we've proven it's fun; I enjoy doing it; now let's apply a few
advertising techniques and make some money."

There is now an annual Blog Business Summit and several books on how to make
money blogging.

Many blog writers have signed up for Google's AdSense program, which started
in 2003 and pays Web publishers based on how many times advertisements on
their sites receive clicks. Google places the ads on participating Web sites
using contextual word matching, in an attempt to ensure that the
advertisements relate to the content on the page.

Bloggers are also making money through "affiliate networks," which, in
contrast to Google's automated system, allow blog writers to choose which
advertisements to put on their pages. They also can be paid based on how
often ads on their sites lead to sales rather than how often the ads receive
clicks. Shareasale, Commission Junction and LinkShare are three such network
companies.

"You have all these self-publishers, people like the bloggers, who suddenly
become business partners with Fortune 500 companies," said Heidi S. Messer,
the president and chief operating officer of LinkShare, which connects Web
writers with companies like Dell, Wal-Mart and Apple Computer.

Sometimes blog writers make money by simply linking to companies' home
pages. Companies come up higher in Google, Yahoo and other search engines
when they are frequently linked to and mentioned on many sites, including
blogs.

USWeb, an online marketing firm, has run campaigns this year that pay people
$5 to mention a company or link to its site. Most of the companies USWeb
works with do not allow the company to identify them, said Ed Shull, the
chief executive of USWeb, but some that he can mention include Lussori.com,
a watch and jewelry company; Dot Flowers; and Terra Entertainment.

Currently, USWeb is asking people with personal profile pages on
myspaces.com, a social networking site, to include a trailer from Terra
Entertainment's coming release of the film "One Perfect Day" on their pages.
In exchange, these Web users will have their names listed on the end of the
credits on the film's DVD, Mr. Shull said.

USWeb has been criticized by some blog writers for not requiring its network
of about 5,000 blog writers to disclose payments. It is currently completing
guidelines on how bloggers should disclose that they were paid to mention
products, Mr. Shull said.

"We are still leaving this as an option to bloggers," he said in an e-mail
statement, "but we do recommend that they disclose to readers that
advertisers do support the site through paid mentions."

To be sure, most blog writers do not make any money, and those who do often
make only enough to pay their site fees. There are now at least 21.5 million
Web logs worldwide, according to Technorati, a company that tracks blog
postings. Many blogs remain primarily personal postings that Internet users
pursue purely because of their own interests.

Still, large numbers of online writers are interested in making money.

Large blog Web sites like Gawker Media and Weblogs have offered blog writers
another opportunity to cash in. These sites display their postings alongside
that of many other writers, increasing bloggers' abilities to attract
readers and advertisers.

So far, the idea seems to be working. Jason McCabe Calacanis, chief
executive of Weblogs, a site acquired by the America Online unit of Time
Warner this fall, said the site would generate a few million dollars this
year. Weblog's 140 bloggers are paid based on how often they write, he said.
A Forrester Research survey found in February that 64 percent of national
marketers are interested in advertising on blogs.

Audi, for example, paid for about 70 million ads about its A3 compact model
on 286 Web logs in the spring. Many of the blog ads featured links to other
blogs that mentioned Audi's campaign for the A3, not to Audi's site, said
Brian Clark, chief executive of GMD Studios, an experimental media firm that
worked with Audi's advertising agency to create the campaign.

"It was a substantial buy, and it was a really effective buy for the
campaign in terms of the response," Mr. Clark said. "You find that blogs are
these series of citational records of what bloggers read. People with blogs
read blogs. You get a feedback cycle."

Web logs also give advertisers the chance to aim at specific readers. If you
want to advertise to New York Mets fans, for example, you can easily find
blogs that cater to those readers, Mr. Clark said.

Last spring, Volvo spent several million dollars to sponsor Microsoft's MSN
Spaces, a site that offers free Web logs and personal pages. The blog
investment was worth it, said Anna Papadopoulos, the interactive media
director at Euro RSCG 4D, a division of Havas that is running Volvo's Web
log campaign. Since April, about five million pages have been set up by
individuals, and a million people have visited Volvo's home page directly
from the blog site, she said.

"These are people that we wouldn't have gotten through other marketing
efforts," Ms. Papadopoulos said.

SBC Communications, which adopted the AT&T name on Monday, has found that
advertisements on the blog site it started last fall, ProjectDU.com, have a
higher click-through rate to its home page than its advertisements have had
on other Web sites, said Michael Grasso, associate vice president for
consumer marketing at AT&T.

Companies are also starting Web logs on their sites written by their
employees. General Motors, for example, created two within the last year.
Blogs may eventually replace many of the company's news releases, said
Michael Wiley, director of new media for General Motors.

General Motors has also started to treat some Web log writers as it does
traditional journalists, and is deciding which bloggers to invite to media
showings of its new cars.

"It's very similar to media relations, but it's a little more grass roots,"
Mr. Wiley said. "The level of respect for certain influential bloggers is
certainly growing."

When Piaggio USA, the makers of Vespa scooters, decided to include a Web log
on its site, the company recruited Vespa customers who were already blogging
about scooters. The two Vespa blogs, which started posting last summer, do
not pay the writers and ask the writers not to sell later the material they
write for Vespa.

One Vespa writer, Neil Barton, said he was willing to blog on Vespa's site
free because of the visibility it would give his blogs, formerly published
only on his own site, UrbanNerd.com.

"I just thought, well you know, no one really knows about UrbanNerd, but a
lot of people know about Vespa, so it will be a cool way to get what I'm
writing out there," said Mr. Barton, who lives in New Jersey. "The only
limit I could see with Vespa is if I wanted to write about a competitor's
scooter. I probably would post it on my blog as opposed to Vespa's."

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# posted by newshare @ 7:33 AM 0 comments

ADVERTISING: Blogs become locations for new advertising

ORIGINAL URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/business/25adcol.html
Published: November 25, 2005

By STUART ELLIOTT
The New York Times

THE parade of mainstream advertisers starting to use nontraditional media is growing almost as long as that march through
Manhattan yesterday sponsored by a certain department store.

Joining the throng are the Budget Rent a Car unit of the Cendant Corporation and the toy maker Hasbro. Budget turned to
blogs to promote a contest with a scavenger hunt motif, buying advertisements on 177 blogs bearing names like
BuzzMachine, Gizmodo, Jossip, Largehearted Boy, Overheard in New York, Stereogum and The Superficial.

And beginning next week, Hasbro will sponsor an unconventional series of make-believe classified ads to promote a new
version of its Monopoly board game.

The classifieds will appear in newspapers read by consumers shopping for cars, houses and boats.

Although the ads will resemble those that sell cars, houses and boats, the "merchandise" is actually in the form of
tokens from the new Monopoly 70th anniversary edition.

The campaigns from Hasbro and Budget are a sign of the increasing appeal of nontraditional media to once-conservative
mainstay marketers as they seek to reach bombarded consumers. The growing willingness to consider alternatives to
television commercials, billboards and print ads is one of the most significant changes in marketing in decades.

"I've got to be smart and make my brand feel smart to the consumer," said Scott Deaver, executive vice president for
marketing at the Cendant Car Rental Group in Parsippany, N.J., which oversees Budget and Avis.

"I can't outspend Hertz," Mr. Deaver added, "but I can outsmart them."

What is most valuable about nontraditional media like blogs, Mr. Deaver said, is their ability to "actively engage the
consumer" compared with "passive TV spots" and other traditional choices.

That assessment was echoed by Mr. Deaver's counterpart at Hasbro.

"When you do something unusual, unexpected, with something so well known as Monopoly, you can get a lot of talk value,"
said Mark Blecher, senior vice president for marketing at the Hasbro Games division of Hasbro in Longmeadow, Mass.

"We're not going to shift all our money into this," Mr. Blecher said, "but using innovative advertising you can generate
some word of mouth for a fraction of the cost of a commercial on a major network TV show."

John Staffen, executive creative director of the Hasbro Games agency, the New York office of Arnold Worldwide, estimated
that the budget for the make-believe classified ads was "a couple of thousand dollars." That sum is buying space in
publications like Deals on Wheels and Yacht Trader, interspersed among the classifieds from actual sellers.

Reading those publications is "what middle America does to live out its dreams," said Mr. Staffen, whose agency is part
of the Arnold Worldwide Partners division of Havas. That matches the dream-big theme of Monopoly, he added, as symbolized
by its brand character, once known as Rich Uncle Penny Bags and now called Mr. Monopoly.

The Monopoly ads feature photographs of the tokens from the new game rather than real houses, boats or automobiles. They
are written in the typically terse prose of classifieds, the better to blend in with their prosaic surroundings.

The car-token ad reads: "1935 classic. Just upgraded. Low mileage. Mint cond. Chrome finish. Runs like a dream in
Monopoly 70th Anniversary Edition. The best Monopoly board game money can buy. Call 877-MONOP70 or go to
monopoly70th.com."

The blog campaign for Budget cost about $20,000, Mr. Deaver said. The ads appearing on the 177 blogs asked readers to
visit a blog sponsored by Budget (upyourbudget.com) and enter a treasure hunt being held for four weeks in 16 cities with
cash prizes of $160,000. The final contest, in San Diego, ended this week. "Blogs seemed an appropriate fit for Budget's
young, tech-savvy audience," said Jay Arnold, president and chief executive at the Impax Marketing Group in Philadelphia,
which created the blog campaign for Budget.

"And fortunately, some of the people who won the contests were Budget users," Mr. Arnold added, laughing. The Budget ads
were simple, presenting cartoon characters urging blog readers to visit the Budget blog and enter the contests.

The blogs were selected, Mr. Arnold said, with the help of a consultant, B. L. Ochman, using criteria like how frequently
they are updated and how interesting they are to the so-called technorati. In fact, Mr. Arnold said, the tracking service
technorati.com was used to help pick the blogs.

Among some of the other blogs on which the ads appeared were Blurbomat, BoingBoing, CityRag, Coolfer, Daily Heights,
DCist, Gothamist, IndieWire and This Is Broken.

As online diaries, most blogs are by their nature candid and uncensored. As a result, "you don't have the same kind of
control of or ability to know the content as with mainstream advertising," Mr. Arnold said, adding: "There's no question
about the fact it's a little riskier. We want to push the envelope, but not be inappropriate."

The blogs were screened to cull those with content like "naked body parts," Mr. Arnold said, adding that he and Mr.
Deaver received no complaints during the month the campaign ran.

Mr. Deaver said he was pleased enough with the results of the campaign to have decided "we'll certainly be back in this
space." (The Budget blog tells readers the next contest will be "sometime in spring 2006.")

Even so, "the jury's still out on the metrics," Mr. Deaver said. "I'd be lying if I said I know what to measure to
determine success."

By a preliminary count, Mr. Deaver said, the blog pages on which the Budget ads appeared had 19.9 million impressions,
which generated about 60,000 click-throughs to the Budget blog. That accounted for about half the total traffic to the
Budget blog, he added.

"I'm happy about those numbers," Mr. Deaver said, "but the real determination is, what do we learn? Are we smarter when
we do it next time?"
----------------------------------------------------------------

# posted by newshare @ 7:09 AM 0 comments

Friday, November 25, 2005

BLOGS: FEC finds a blog covering public policy is not subject to regulation

Reposted from SPJ Pressnotes, Nov. 23, 2005
http://www.spj.org/pressNotes.asp?ref=13029

ORIGINAL SOURCE:
Kaitlin Thaney, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2005/1122-prr-fecsay.html

FEC says political blog exempt from campaign law

The Federal Election Commission recognized the partisan blog Fired Up! as
a press entity that is allowed, like journalists, to cover and comment on
political candidates without their positive comments being counted as
campaign expenditures. The FEC unanimously approved Advisory Opinion
2005-16 Thursday in response to a request from the blog's organizers
concerning the application of the finance rules to sites owned and
operated by Fired Up! The five-member commission adopted the proposed
draft opinion without revision. Fired Up! consists of three state-specific
blogs for Maryland, Missouri and Washington, and one covering national
issues, each comprising a mix of editorial postings, quotes and commentary
from other news sources, and links to various articles or other blogs. The
FEC opinion is based on a long-standing two-part test. To qualify for the
exemption under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, the FEC
considers whether the press entity is owned or controlled by a political
party, committee or candidate and examines the intentions behind the
organization's actions to determine if it is performing "legitimate press
functions." Despite its political slant and progressive content, Fired Up!
met both qualifications, the FEC found. Because "Fired Up! is a press
entity, and neither it nor its Web sites are owned or controlled by any
political party, political committee, or candidate, the costs Fired Up
incurs in covering or carrying a news story, commentary, or editorial on
its Web sites are exempt from the definitions of 'contribution' and
'expenditure.' "

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bill Densmore DENSMORE ASSOCIATES |
| 75 Water St. / P.O. Box 367 densmore@newshare.com |
| Williamstown MA 01267 USA http://www.newshare.com/ |
| VOICE: 413-458-8001 FAX: 413-458-8009 |
| media / marketing / management consulting |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

# posted by newshare @ 8:21 AM 0 comments

Thursday, November 24, 2005

GOVERNANCE: Knight-Ridder "alumni" seek board slate

ORIGINAL URL:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001524631

Knight Ridder Alumni, in Open Letter, Take Stand for 'Excellent
Journalism,' Say They Will Name Candidates for Board

By E&P Staff

Published: November 18, 2005 11:30 AM ET

NEW YORK In an extraordinary "Open Letter from Knight Ridder Alumni"
circulated to the media this morning, a long list of journalists declared,
"We have watched mostly in silent dismay as short-term profit demands have
diminished long-term capacity of newsrooms in Knight Ridder and other
public media companies. We are silent no more. We will support and counsel
only corporate leadership that restores to Knight Ridder newspapers the
resources to do excellent journalism. We are prepared collectively to
nominate candidates for the Knight Ridder board. We wish to reassert John
Knight.s creed."

The signers include such well-known figures as Doug Clifton, Gene Roberts,
Buzz Bissinger, Mark Bowden, Philip Meyer, David Lawrence Jr., and Bill
Marimow, among many others. The letter was mailed to the media by Jim
Naughton, former editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and former president
of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Naughton told E&P today he had organized the effort just this week and
they hoped to nominate a "slate" of candidates for the Knight Ridder board
that would include journalists at the next annual meeting. The company is
currently the focus of an investor-led move to pressure a sale or break-up
of the company, or other moves.

The full text and signers follow:

John S. Knight, a founder of the company known today as Knight Ridder,
believed -- and proved -- that excellent journalism is good business. The
undersigned, all alumni of Knight Ridder, have lived that creed.

As did the late Jack Knight, we believe profit is not merely nice but
necessary. Knight Ridder routinely has generated double-digit operating
profits -- such as last year's 19.4%. We understand the obligation of an
institutional investor to maximize return on investment. An investor for
whom double digits are insufficient is free to sell Knight Ridder stock.
An investor who instead demands the sale or dismantling of Knight Ridder
merely in the name of a larger profit margin is engaged not in good
business but in greed.

As did Jack Knight, we speak out of confidence in, not fear of, the future
of the good business of excellent journalism. There is durable value in
businesses that treat their citizens, their communities and their
employees with respect. New technology is an ally of, not a threat to,
trustworthy and nimble media. Competition gives rise to innovation and
efficiency, much as recent declines in print circulation have been
accompanied by increased electronic readership.

Knight Ridder is not merely another public company. It is a public trust.
It must balance corporate profitability with civic purpose. We oppose
those who would cripple the purpose by coercing more profit. We abhor
those for whom good business is insufficient and excellent journalism is
irrelevant.

We have watched mostly in silent dismay as short-term profit demands have
diminished long-term capacity of newsrooms in Knight Ridder and other
public media companies. We are silent no more. We will support and counsel
only corporate leadership that restores to Knight Ridder newspapers the
resources to do excellent journalism. We are prepared collectively to
nominate candidates for the Knight Ridder board. We wish to reassert John
Knight's creed.

Signed by:

Dale Allen, retired editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, former associate
managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, former editor/reporter at
The Charlotte Observer.

Rich Aregood, retired editorial page editor of the Philadelphia Daily News
and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize.

Marv Berenblum, former Senior Vice President for Human Resources of Knight
Ridder and current Chairman and CEO of the National Executive Service
Corps.

Buzz Bissinger, Philadephia Inquirer reporter (1981-88) and recipient of a
Pulitzer Prize, author.

Mike Blackman, Philip G. Warner Endowed Chair in Journalism at Sam Houston
State University and formerly editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and
foreign editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Ken Bookman, former Philadelphia Inquirer editor.

Mark Bowden, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, author of 'Black Hawk Down"
and many other books.

Lorraine E. Branham, Director, University of Texas School of Journalism,
and former editor of the Tallahassee Democrat.

Doug Clifton, former Executive Editor of the Miami Herald and current
Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Gary Cohn, reporter for the Los Angeles Times, formerly a reporter for the
Lexington Herald Leader, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Baltimore Sun
and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize.

David B. Cooper, retired Associate Editor, Akron Beacon Journal.

J. Lowe Davis,, formerly an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and The
Biloxi Sun Herald, both Knight Ridder newspapers, and currently Executive
Editor and CEO of The Virgin Islands Daily News, which is independently
owned.

Gary Farrugia, Editor & Publisher, The Day of New London, Ct. Formerly
Vice President of New Business Development for Philadelphia Newspapers and
an 18-year Knight Ridder employee.

Albert E. Fitzpatrick, Retired Assistant Vice President for Minority
Affairs of Knight Ridder and former Executive Editor of the Akron Beacon
Journal.

Gene Foreman, retired editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and currently a
professor of journalism.

Gilbert Gaul, former reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer and recipient
of two Pulitzer Prizes.

Michael A. Graham, former reporter for the Detroit Free Press.

Joe Grimm, recruiting and development editor, Detroit Free Press.

Edwin O. Guthman, senior lecturer in journalism, University of Southern
California, former Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and recipient of a
Pulitzer Prize.

Glenn Guzzo, former Editor of The Denver Post and a Knight Ridder editor
for 18 years.

Carol Horner, Director, Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, and
former reporter, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1979-94

Bob Ingle, former executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News; former
Knight Ridder vice president/new media; former president, Knight Ridder
Ventures.

Marvin Katz, former reporter at the Akron Beacon Journal (1960-67).

George Kennedy, Miami Herald 1967-74, now Professor of Journalism,
University of Missouri.

Maxwell King, former Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and current
president of The Heinz Endowments.

Ann Kolson, former Philadelphia Inquirer and current New York Times
editor.

Thomas Kunkel, Dean, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the
University of Maryland ,and former Executive Editor, Columbus
Ledger-Enquirer.

David Lawrence Jr., Retired publisher of the Miami Herald, now president
of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation.

Jan Leach, former editor of the Akron Beacon Journal; current Professional
in Residence, Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass
Communication.

Simon K.C. Li, formerly an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, now
assistant managing editor of the Los Angeles Times.

Steve Lopez, columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Pam Luecke, Reynolds Professor of Business Journalism, Washington and Lee
University, former Editor and Senior Vice President, Lexington
Herald-Leader.

Janet Mandelstam, former Associate Managing Editor of The Philadelphia
Inquirer.

C.S. Manegold, James M. Cox, Jr. Professor of Journalism, Emory University
and visiting professor, NYU; former reporter for The New York Times, The
Philadelphia Inquirer and Newsweek Magazine. Part of the New York Times
team awarded a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1993 bombing of the
World Trade Center.

Bill Marimow, reporter and editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer (1972-1993)
and Knight-Ridder stockholder and recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes.

Jim McCartney, Knight-Ridder Washington correspondent and columnist,
retired.

Molly Sinclair McCartney, Miami Herald reporter 1969-79, Washington Post
reporter, 1979-1993.

David A. Meeker, adjunct professor of journalism at Kent State School of
Journalism and Mass Communication, former reporter at the Akron Beacon
Journal and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, recipient of the John S. Knight
Award for Community Service from the Buckeye Chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists.

Philip Meyer, former Knight Ridder director of news and circulation
research, current Knight Chair in Journalism, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, and author of "The Vanishing Newspaper."

Fen Montaigne, freelance journalist and former reporter at The
Philadelphia Inquirer.

Paul Moore, Public Editor of the Baltimore Sun and a former Assistant
Managing Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Arlene Morgan, former Assistant Managing Editor of The Philadelphia
Inquirer and now Associate Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School
of Journalism.

Norman Morrison, formerly Vice President/Technology, Knight-Ridder
Newspapers, and Executive Vice President, Viewtron, KRN subsidiary.

James M. Naughton, retired editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and retired
president of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Brian Richardson, Head, Department of Journalism and Mass Communications,
Washington and Lee University, and
former reporter and editor at the Tallahassee Democrat,
Miami Herald and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Gene Roberts, retired executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and
retired managing editor of The New York Times, now professor of journalism
at the University of Maryland.

Doug Robinson, retired editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

John Russial, Associate Professor, University of Oregon School of
Journalism and Communication, and former Sunday copy chief of The
Philadelphia Inquirer.

Stephen Seplow, former news editor of Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau
and former metropolitan editor of the The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Neal Shine, retired copy boy, reporter, Managing Editor, columnist and
Publisher, Detroit Free Press.

Timothy D. Smith, former Managing Editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, now
Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Kent State
University

William Vance, Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, retired.

Debbie Van Tassel, KRI shareholder and Assistant Managing
Editor/Administration, The Plain Dealer.

Lois Sutherland Wark, Knight Ridder stockholder and retired editor at the
Detroit Free Press and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Thomas E. Wark, retired journalist.

Pete Weitzel, former Managing Editor, Miami Herald, and now Coordinator,
Coalition of Journalists for Open Government.

Mike Wendland, technology columnist for the Detroit Free Press and
Internet correspondent for NBC-TV Newschannel affiliates.

Ray White, public information director of Heifer International and a
former assistant news editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Abe Zaidan, retired senior editor of the Akron Beacon Journal.

David Zucchino, correspondent, the Los Angeles Times and former foreign
correspondent of The Philadelphia Inquirer and recipient of a Pulitzer
Prize.

# posted by newshare @ 9:00 PM 0 comments

Media Giraffe Project --
Link & reference blog

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

RESEARCH: Youth using Internet to engage in civic affairs, Wisconsin study finds

EDUCATION: British duo launches international web-based PDF paper for kids over 9

AUDIO: eDemocracy simplified, by Steven Clift

AUDIO: Will NPR's podcasts birth a new business model for public radio?

Monday, November 28, 2005

Toronto Star columnist on putting journalism ahead of profits

RESOURCE: Independent Media marketplaces for books, videos sold from new COA News website

Feisty dialog or comfortable cocoons? CBS News exec considers journalism future

OPINION: Mainstream media not under corporate control, CBS news chief says

Sunday, November 27, 2005

FIRST AMENDMENT: Comcast aiming to control the content it delivers?

NETWORK NEUTRALITY: After Brand X, advocacy groups making it a top priority

NETWORK NEUTRALITY: Washington Post story details lobbying effort by "pipe" owners to restrict content on Internet

FUTURE: Spokane daily's editor details efforts at "transparent newsroom" in Rosen blog post

Saturday, November 26, 2005

BLOGS/ADVERTISING: As Corporate Ad Money Flows Their Way, Bloggers Risk Their Rebel Reputation - New York Times (fwd)

ADVERTISING: Blogs become locations for new advertising

Friday, November 25, 2005

BLOGS: FEC finds a blog covering public policy is not subject to regulation

Thursday, November 24, 2005

GOVERNANCE: Knight-Ridder "alumni" seek board slate

RECENT POSTS:

Links

archives

About The Media Giraffe Project

Media Giraffe Project -- Link & reference blog

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

RESEARCH: Youth using Internet to engage in civic affairs, Wisconsin study finds

EDUCATION: British duo launches international web-based PDF paper for kids over 9

AUDIO: eDemocracy simplified, by Steven Clift

AUDIO: Will NPR's podcasts birth a new business model for public radio?

Monday, November 28, 2005

Toronto Star columnist on putting journalism ahead of profits

RESOURCE: Independent Media marketplaces for books, videos sold from new COA News website

Feisty dialog or comfortable cocoons? CBS News exec considers journalism future

OPINION: Mainstream media not under corporate control, CBS news chief says

Sunday, November 27, 2005

FIRST AMENDMENT: Comcast aiming to control the content it delivers?

NETWORK NEUTRALITY: After Brand X, advocacy groups making it a top priority

NETWORK NEUTRALITY: Washington Post story details lobbying effort by "pipe" owners to restrict content on Internet

FUTURE: Spokane daily's editor details efforts at "transparent newsroom" in Rosen blog post

Saturday, November 26, 2005

BLOGS/ADVERTISING: As Corporate Ad Money Flows Their Way, Bloggers Risk Their Rebel Reputation - New York Times (fwd)

ADVERTISING: Blogs become locations for new advertising

Friday, November 25, 2005

BLOGS: FEC finds a blog covering public policy is not subject to regulation

Thursday, November 24, 2005

GOVERNANCE: Knight-Ridder "alumni" seek board slate

RECENT POSTS:

Links

archives

About The Media Giraffe Project

Media Giraffe Project --
Link & reference blog