September 18, 2006

Message From Michael                    
                                                  September 18, 2006                                                            

• THE SOUND AND THE FURY


• FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC NEWS AFTER 9/11


• FRAGMENTATION AND CONSOLIDATION


• BROADBAND AND BROADCAST


• MACY’S AND GIMBLE’S NEWSLETTERS


• COCKTAIL CHATTER

We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.  

• THE SOUND AND THE FURY:  The sound is a report commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission that says LOCAL television station ownership results in more local news being broadcast.  The fury is the Congressional reaction to the FCC quashing the report.  The reason is that the report, which suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, is at odds with the arguments the FCC made when it voted in 2003 to increase the number of television stations a company could own in a single market.  That decision created a backlash with a federal appeals court rejecting the FCC decision and ordering it to try again.  The report was authored by two FCC economists based on material supplied by a University of Delaware professor and the Pew Foundations’ Project for Excellence in Journalism.  The study reportedly found that when a station is locally owned, there is 5 ½ minutes more news in broadcasts and 3 minutes more of ‘on location’ news. Present FCC chairman Kevin Martin says he knew nothing about the report.  It was before his watch.  Former FCC chairman Michael Powell says he knew nothing about the report and did not order it quashed.  Martin says he has added the report’s findings to the FCC’s current examination of localism (although I could not find it on the FCC website).  Meanwhile, the FCC had already scheduled a hearing on multiple ownership for October 3rd.  As a side note, Martin told Senators during his confirmation hearing that he was not comfortable with the original decision allowing multiple ownership.  


• FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC NEWS AFTER 9/11:  Not surprisingly, coverage of terrorism but also foreign policy has increased dramatically since the attacks in New York and Washington, but it has been at the expense of domestic issues, according to data generated for the Project for Excellence in Journalism by ADT Research.  For example, terrorism coverage was up 135% over the past five years while coverage of armed conflicts was up 69% and even foreign policy coverage was up a whopping 102%.  On the flip side, coverage of crime and law enforcement dropped 47% while science and technology coverage fell 50% and coverage of issues involving drugs, tobacco and alcohol fell 66%.  Despite that, the researchers say the coverage of ‘hard news’ only increased 2% over that time while the coverage of ‘soft news’ decreased by 5%.  Andrew Tyndall who publishes the Tyndall Report as part of ADT Research says the coverage patterns show that it is the events, not the journalists, who determine the news agenda.As a side note, Democratic party leaders have sent letters to the networks and news cable channels complaining that there is not enough balance in the coverage of national security issues.  House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada say President Bush and Republicans have made it clear that national security will be part of the agenda for the November elections, and complained that when the President has a news conference on national security it gets coverage, but when the Democrats hold conferences and briefings, it gets “scant coverage.”


• FRAGMENTATION AND CONSOLIDATION:  Those are the two themes that come out of the latest Veronis, Suhler Stevenson report on the communication industry.  First, a fact – total media and communications spending is expected to reach $962 Billion this year and $1.236 Trillion by 2010.  But much of that growth is coming in what they call “marketing services” or non-advertising-based forms of marketing.  The VSS report, which is one of the big annual reports, says that, plus out-of-home media, are the fastest growing segments.  Let me attempt to translate that into English.  The marketing services are things like experiential and event marketing.  You know, riding a Harley instead of reading about it, or mimes in Manhattan.  Out of home is, well, just that – like billboards but more.  The point is that it is becoming harder to reach the audience and marketers are looking at different ways to do that.  That’s the fragmentation.  The consolidation is the fact that so-called traditional media companies are holding their own, and then some, in the digital world.  Traditional media groups have increased their share of online and mobile advertising to 37% from 23% in 2000.  By 2010, their share is expected to increase to 39% as the ‘old’ media learn the ‘new’ media ways.  BTW – Last year’s report noted that the communications industry is expected to be the 4th largest and fastest growing part of the U.S. economy by 2009.  


• BROADBAND AND BROADCAST:  Proof of that changing world cited by VSS, and how traditional media are changing with it,   are four announcements worth noting.  NBC has started NBBC (National Broadband Company) to “connect the dots… (between)… the explosion in consumer digital video streaming (and the)… growing demand for online video content.”  Interestingly, the new company makes the point they will work with anybody.  Meanwhile ABC has announced that it will be dropping the traditional advertising sales standard of CPM’s for ads on the seven shows that it airs broadcast and broadband.  Instead they’re charging a flat rate for the shows which are streamed at ABC.com.  And two major players are jumping into the online movie business.  Amazon announced a service called the Unbox to compete with the present group of online movie download sites.  And Apple is expected to make a similar announcement about its iTunes site, making movies available for use on its wildly popular iPod unit.  


• MACY’S AND GIMBLE’S NEWSLETTERS:  Okay, if you don’t get enough cool ideas and trends from MfM, I’m going to do a Macy’s recommending Gimble’s.  (Remember?  Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street?).  Peter Stewart of the BBC publishes a monthly newsletter titled Useful Stuff which lists a potpourri of things such as coverage in the Middle East and Iraq, what the most popular journalistic clichés are, how to start your own Internet radio station, along with ten ‘kick-ass’ ways to start your creativity and much, much more.  I found Peter’s monthly newsletter after he found my newsletter when Graeme Newell picked up MfM for his newsletter (which needs no recommendation.)  Anyway, subscribe by writing to peter.stewart@bbc.co.uk.As long as I’m in the recommending mood, take a look at two training sites provided by your friends at Nielsen and Arbitron.  Nielsen Media offers a client service, NielsenU, which provides tutorials on ratings and Arbitron offers a similar tutorial system at arbitrontraining.com.  


• COCKTAIL CHATTER:  The makers of the Monopoly board game are creating an updated version of the 70-year-old game with Prius Hybrid cars, McDonald’s French Fries, Starbucks Coffee and Motorola Razr cell phones replacing the battleships, thimbles and the B&O Railroad.  Game maker Hasbro says it chose the new icons based on consumer surveys and not because of any product placement fee.  They will also continue making the ‘old’ traditional version as well.  Hasbro scores a second mention in cocktail chatter for inventing a toothbrush that lets you listen to your favorite music, by transmitting soundwaves through your teeth and jawbone, while you brush your teeth.  A single piece of music is stored in a microchip and you can buy replacement microchips, so you can listen to the Black Eyed Peas or Will Smith.  An electric car designed in California and built in India is selling like hotcakes in London.  The car, GoinGreen, is exempt from London’s congestion charge and road tax and comes in a variety of colors, including Leopard and Tiger print.


• FOLLOW-UPS:  It’s official.  The hugely popular YouTube video, Lonelygirl15, mentioned in MfM some weeks ago, is indeed a con, created by two film-makers who are using it to help create their storyline and create some buzz marketing.  The lonely girl was a not-so-lonely 20-year-old New Zealander.  And it’s official, two.  The South Korean guitar player who played the rock version of Johan Pachelbel’s Canon on the YouTube site Funtwo, also mentioned some weeks ago in MfM,  has been declared the consumer generated media’s first global rock star with more downloads than any other video.    


• SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM from 2006 are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  

September 11, 2006

Message From Michael                    
                                                       September 11, 2006                                                                                          

• 9-11


• KATIE COURIC


• IN THE YEAR 2020


• IN THE YEAR 2006


• FOLLOW THE YOUTUBE MONEY


• FACEBOOK LOSES FACE


• COCKTAIL CHATTER

We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.  

• 9/11:  Today’s the day.  And even though I believe every media organization should mark the day with special coverage, somehow the words from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address ring in my mind – “… in a large sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.”    


• KATIE COURIC:  Okay, even though I don’t want to join in the free-for-all, it’s hard to ignore.  But rather than give a personal opinion… which counts for nothing, I take a cue from the people at Pew Research who did an analysis of the “TV punditocracy.”  Results – 21% declared her opening performance “boffo” as the Pew people put it while 46% declared it “so so” and 33% said “uh oh.”  No doubt you’ve already heard or read that the debut ratings were the best for CBS in eight years.  No surprise there.  By the third night, ratings had dropped to a still respectable and still #1 position of a 6.4 rating and 13 share, beating the tied 5.3 rating and 11 share posted by ABC and CBS.  As a side note, The Programming Insider noted that the CBS Special Five Years Later, How Safe Are We” was a bust, finishing in last place in its time slot with a 4.3/7.  As a final note, a poll (yes, unscientific) taken by AOL’s Daily Pulse found more than a quarter (27%) believe her presence will raise the ratings while nearly half (48%) believe her presence will not, leaving 25% who say it’s too early to tell.


• IN THE YEAR 2020:  We don’t have to wait for the year 2525 for some stunning developments in television, according to a panel report titled Future Vision.  According to the panelists assembled by U.K. digital TV and Internet company TeleWest, in the year 2020 there will be only one channel – yours.  A combination of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) along with high definition TV, holographic capabilities and high speed hook-ups means that people will be able to watch anything they want anywhere they want.  Your living room wall will be a TV that allows you and your mate to watch two different programs while your children watch videos on the back of their cereal box and your teenager accesses the Internet from the magazine she’s reading.  The report says there will be a “feminization of technology,” in which products will be much easier to use.  The home will be a hub with global connectivity.  With RFID, the colors of the wall, the scenery on the windows will change to match the mood of the person walking through the room.  With the continuing development of what the authors label “Generation C” (because they can create their own content), people will be able to change the actors and endings of films.  With everything now on the network, that means no CD and DVD shelves. The report says, as is already becoming apparent, “the future of TV is all about choice and control… (and) ‘there’s nothing on the box’ will cease to be uttered…”


• IN THE YEAR 2006:  In case you think those ideas are too far out, consider a report in Forbes magazine that Big Media companies NBC, Universal, Viacom and Time Warner are creating short shows for the tiny screens of iPods and cell phones.  NBC’s Sci Fi unit has ‘reimagined’ versions of the 1970’s series BattleShip Galatica for such use.  Viacom’s MTV unit has converted two floors of its New York city offices to digital media to create such films and has struck a deal with Google to distribute its video to hundreds of websites.  Magazines like Country Living as well as Sports Illustrated and newspapers like The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal are hiring producers and directors to create videos that extend their content online.  Brewing giant Anheuser Busch has created Bud.tv to produce its own Internet video shows.  Global market research firm Ipsos reports that more than 10 million Americans have downloaded television shows from the Internet; 7 million in the last month alone.  The report says one out of every ten Americans aged 18 to 34 have downloaded television programs from the Internet.  And, my favorite, AOL has added Gilligan’s Island and old Godzilla movies to its In2TV website for anyone to download and watch free.      


• FOLLOW THE MONEY:  And if it doesn’t lead anywhere, then you have problems.  That is the story with both MySpace.com and YouTube.com.  We noted in a previous MfM that MySpace was still looking for a business plan.  Now, the same questions are being raised about YouTube.  Both are enormously popular.  Both have incredible traffic.  And both are living on VC’s or Angels (remember that term from the pre-Internet bust period).  The latest analysis comes from BusinessWeek which notes that despite all the excitement, the business plan so far amounts to “a whole lot of expenses, not much revenue and no profits.”   Part of the reason for YouTube’s questionable financial situation may be, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out, the fact that YouTube videos take up 45 terabytes (about 5,000 home computers worth) of storage and requires several million dollars of bandwidth a month to transmit; and part of it may be that 70% of its registered users are American and half of those are under the age of 20.  Even more critical to the question of whether he 19-month-old (seems longer, doesn’t it) YouTube will go down the tube is the fact that mega-monster Microsoft is developing its own service and not-so-mega-but-still-big Skype (eBay) and Kazaa are preparing to unveil a YouTube wannabe called the Venice Project.


• FACEBOOK LOSES FACE:  The social networking site for students (and teachers) had to do an about face after creating a RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed that alerted members to changes in other members profiles.  The ‘news feeds’ and ‘mini feeds’ were supposed to help members keep up with each other, but there was one problem.  It meant members didn’t have control of their own information.  More than half a million of the 9 million members signed a protest message.  Founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted they’d made a mistake and posted a blog apologizing.  So, now they’ve gone the other way and coded in more privacy controls.      


• COCKTAIL CHATTER:  Also from the Wall Street Journal article about YouTube, the total time the people of the world spent watching YouTube videos since it debuted is 9,305 years.  The oldest active YouTube viewer is a 79 year old U.K. resident who sits at his PC in his study with headphones on and narrates memories of World War II.  According to a survey by VoiceQuilt, nearly half (47%) of all U.S. women buy gifts for 10 or more occasions each year while a quarter (25%) give gifts for 15 or more occasions and one in five (19%) give gifts for 20 or more occasions and 65% give gifts “just because.”  Spam appears to be on the rise, according to software company Ipswitch, which reported that 70% of ALL e-mail received in North America and Europe in the second quarter of this year was spam, up from 62% in the first quarter of the year.


• FOLLOW-UPS:  Two stories from previous MfM’s are making the news.  Several other mainstream media have picked up on the phenomenon of lonelygirl15, the video of a young girl talking about her life on camera.  It is pretty consistently one of the most watched videos on YouTube.  And the first adventurers in the Tribe Wanted social experiment have landed on the island in Fiji, starting the world’s only online and offline community.  Background – People pay for membership in the tribal community, get to know each other online and then travel to Fiji to test their survival skills.  


• SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM from 2006 are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  

September 5, 2006

Message From Michael                    
                                                  September 5, 2006                                                                                                    

• 9/11


• CITIZEN MEDIA BEATS BIG MEDIA


• FREE FOR THE ASKING


• THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG IN TV NEWS


• TELEVISION BUYERS AWARE


• SOCIAL TRENDS – CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND AMERICANS


• COCKTAIL CHATTER

We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.  

• 9/11:  Less than a week from today will be the fifth anniversary of the attack.  Where were you?  Remember?  Of course you do.  Everybody does.  Now… what are you doing to mark the event?  --  ‘Nuff said.


• KATIE COURIC:  Also, ‘nuff said.  


• CITIZEN MEDIA BEATS BIG MEDIA:  That was the headline in a recent Media Daily News article about a whistle-blower who posted a video on YouTube talking about deficiencies in the refurbishing of U.S. Coast Guard boats.  Former (he was fired) engineer Michael de Kort says he contacted “every single mass media outlet on television and probably 75 reporters at different newspapers.”  Not one of them picked up the story.  So, de Kort says as a last resort he posted a ten-minute video in which he outlined his allegations about the $24 Billion refurbishment by Lockheed Martin.  Now, every news organization from The Washington Post, ABC, NPR and even the Navy Times has picked up the story.  Interestingly, most of that coverage has focused on the use of the Internet and YouTube and not on the allegations.  In the video de Kort is sitting, apparently at his kitchen table, and simply talks to the camera.  At the start, he says, “making videos like this is not something I do as a profession,” he then goes over each point, slowly and laboriously, from blind spots in the security cameras to equipment that malfunctions in cold weather.  He ends by saying that he knows that he will need a lawyer after the video airs and asks for volunteers.


• FREE FOR THE ASKING:  Well, sort of.  As long as you’re willing to watch advertising.  Melody monster Universal Music has cut a deal to make its vast array of selections available on an ad-supported website, SpiralFrog.com.  According to several reports, including the Associated Press, users can download an unlimited number of songs as long as they register at the site.  And as long as portable media players equipped with Microsoft Windows digital management software.  It can not be used with Apple Computer’s Macintosh computers OR its popular IPod player.    


• THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG IN TV NEWS:  That’s the question one has to ask after reviewing a report by The Media Audit which shows that more adults watch LOCAL TV news on NBC affiliate stations than on ABC or CBS.  On average, 28.5% of all adults watched an early local evening newscast in the past week on an NBC affiliate.  ABC scored 26.6% while CBS scored 23.6%, according to the recently released 2005 national report.  No doubt coincidentally, NBC is the highest rated national newscast, followed by ABC and CBS.  According to figures for the last week of August, NBC had a 2.2 rating (8.15 Million viewers) compared to ABC’s 2.0 (7.26 Million) and CBS’s 1.9 (7.06 Million).  The report finds a big difference in minority viewing.  Black consumers are MORE likely to watch local TV news than the general market, according to the report.  Anywhere from 2% (for NBC affiliates) to 6% (for ABC and CBS affiliates).  But Hispanic viewers are LESS likely to watch.  Here the differences are dramatic.  Anywhere from 7% for ABC affiliates to 9% for CBS affiliates and 11% for NBC affiliates.The report says Internet users are more likely to be similar rather than different in terms of local TV news viewing.  Even ‘heavy’ Internet users (defined as those who are online more than 430 minutes a week) are only slightly less likely to watch local TV news.  What was even more interesting though is that the Internet extends the reach of local TV news.  Newspapers often cite the unduplicated readership from the Internet.  The same can be done for TV, it seems.  The number one NBC affiliate in the country is WYFF in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  (Congratulations to our friends there.)  The station reaches 46.3% of all adults in a typical week, according to The Media Audit report.  But when you add in web viewing, the number jumps to 60%.  BTW, the top rated ABC affiliate is WTNH in New Haven, Connecticut and the top rated CBS affiliate is WHIO in Dayton, Ohio.


• TELEVISION BUYERS AWARE:  Despite all the concerns about television, the world’s biggest advertisers have actually increased their spending on TV in the last five years, according to the ZenithOptimedia media buying group.  Three of the five largest advertising groups – retailers, telecom operators and financial groups – spent proportionately more of their money on TV last year than they did in 2001.  Of the other two groups – auto and medicine – only medicine dropped slightly.  And, as reported in the Financial Times, the group predicts this year’s global TV advertising is expected to increase 5.5%.  But Internet advertising is predicted to rise 76% percent between 2005 and 2008.  Much of that increase will be driven by two of those advertising groups that increased their spending on TV – financial services and telecom operators.  Even more critically, many advertisers are combining their TV advertising with their Internet advertising.


• SOCIAL TRENDS – CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND AMERICANS:   Nearly half of U.S. adults (42%) see themselves as Christians first and as Americans second, according to a study by the Pew Research group. That’s larger than any other country surveyed (Germany, Great Britain, Russia, France and Spain) except one – Nigeria.  Just under a half (48%) say they seem themselves as Americans first while 7% say they see themselves as both equally. In comparison, Muslims identify themselves first as Muslims no matter what country they live – Islamic or non-Islamic.  The one exception was Indonesia where 39% said they were Indonesians first and Muslims second.  But everywhere else it was the other way around.  In Great Britain, 89% said they were Muslims first and only 7% said they were British first.  It was the same story, not unexpectedly, in Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey, but somewhat unexpectedly in Spain, Germany and France where it was the closest (46% saying they were Muslim first and 42% saying they were French first.)


• COCKTAIL CHATTER:  The same study group found that Americans believe workers are worse off now than they were a generation ago because they’re working longer and harder for less money and lower benefits for employers who are less loyal.  Despite that, the study says, people still have positive feelings about their jobs.  The top-rated basic cable network (at least in August) was the USA Network, according to a report in The Programming Insider.  The cable net scored 2.9 Million viewers.  Okay, I’m sure everybody, except me, knew this, but the currency of China is the renminbi.  I was reading an article which said Internet advertising in China is expected to reach “RMB 6.87 Billion” and noted that $1 U.S. equals 7.97979 Chinese Yuan Renminbi.


• SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM from 2006 are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.