Message From Michael -- January 28, 2008

SWEEPS – THE PAIN IN THE PATOOT

NEWS ‘WORKERS’ VERSUS NEWS DIRECTORS ON CONVERGENCE

MAKING DIGITAL NATIVES INTERESTABLE

FACTOID FODDER REPLACES COCKTAIL CHATTER


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SWEEPS: Here it is… the biggest pain-in-the-patoot sweeps period of the year – February. It starts Thursday. Those who have been reading the weekly MfM for any length of time will already know what I’m going to say next – Start early. You should have special reports airing before the sweeps start. Also, as a service to readers of MfM, a reminder of the big events in February: The Super Bowl on Fox on Sunday, February 3rd, Super Tuesday elections (which is generating more interest than normal) with primaries in two dozen states on Tuesday, February 5th, The Grammy Awards on CBS on Sunday, February 10th, and finally the writers-strike-plagued Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24th.

NEWS ‘WORKERS’ VERSUS NEWS DIRECTORS ON CONVERGENCE: A survey by three professors at the University of South Carolina finds “a fair amount of discontent exists in the newsroom regarding convergence work.” Not too surprisingly, reporters and producers were significantly more likely than news directors and general managers to believe that producing content for other media outlets (mainly the Web) was challenging. Despite this, nearly two thirds (60.8%) saw their stations overall experience with convergence to be ‘positive or very positive,’ according to the study published in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Even more interesting, more than half reported that they personally enjoyed working with other media outlets, but only a quarter of them believed their co-workers enjoyed the work. Curiously, the authors (Laura K. Smith, Andrea H. Tanner and Sonya Forte Duhe) found that reporters in medium-sized markets (DMA’s 51 – 100) had the most negative perceptions about the effects of convergence, in part it seems because they had bigger workloads than other markets. It should be noted that markets 50 and above were not surveyed because the reporters and producers were less likely to perform actual convergence duties, so the authors focused on markets 51 to 100, 101 – 150 and 151 – 200.

Even more interesting, not a single reporter or producer surveyed (out of nearly 300 surveyed) said he or she produced Internet-only stories. Most of the convergence work was either writing summary stories for the station Website (49.3%) or physically posting content (47.9%). Less than a third took part in question and air sessions with viewers (32.5%) while only one in five (21.6%) provided unaired video or soundbites for the Web. Even fewer (15.4%) provided links for viewers to find more information and fewer still (12.3%) provided streaming video of stories. Hardly any (4.5%) provided still pictures while even fewer (2.7%) of the reporters and producers created blogs or provided additional story facts or copy. Lastly, it should be noted, as the authors pointed out that almost invariably the television news managers “defined convergence in terms that mirrored the way their station already practiced it.”

MAKING DIGITAL NATIVES INTERESTABLE: Before anybody scolds me about using a weird word, I should say it comes from the Media Management Center at Northwestern University which has published a study of teen news habits which found, not surprisingly, that teenagers “aren’t much into following serious news online.” The qualitative study which examined the news habits of a diverse but limited (65) group of Chicago teenagers found that ALL of them have been “Digital Natives” going on-line for at least three years while half of them have been online for six years or more. The study authors argue that the news can be made “interestable” to teenagers and that news organizations can help teens develop a ‘news persona” by working with parents and teachers and by working with how they present their product. The report is titled “If It Catches My Eye” because the study authors say that was the constant refrain they heard from teenagers. They would watch the news or read a story if something about it caught their eye. Usually that meant videos, photos and motion, but it also included celebrity, sports, music and fashion news that lead them to other news stories or – the most popular – news of the weird. The teens also put a lot of emphasis on ‘new and current’ and that meant Websites that weren’t just updated daily but hourly.

Even so, the study says the problem is that not only do the teenagers find news “just not that interesting,” the teenagers also find that “news stresses them out.” It makes them feel unsafe. Not surprisingly teenagers didn’t differentiate between sites that aggregate news and sites that actually generate news; but somewhat surprisingly it was important to them that they get “information that I can trust” and that usually translated into major sites and major brands. Trust was one of the four driving factors for teens’ interest in news along with -- a website that is easy to use (they’re used to Websites with multiple elements); that gives them useful information (such as with their homework); and gives them things to talk about (they feel good when they are the knowledgeable one, the first to know.)

Unlike adults who often get their news during the work hours, most teenagers (60%) get their news from 6pm to 10pm. As noted earlier, it usually comes by happenstance while they’re visiting the major aggregator or video sharing sites. Local newspapers beat out local TV by a long shot when it come to the online news experience for teens with nearly half (43%) saying they visited a local newspaper website in the last week while only a quarter (27%) visited a television website in the last week. Even more telling, when asked to pick three websites they go to for news, one in ten (9%) cited the local newspaper website, but less than half of that (4%) cited the local television station website.

FACTOID FODDER: This is normally where Cocktail Chatter goes, but I found that facts and figures dominated so much of the CC this week that I decided to change the headline.

China’s ‘net population’ has soared from 137 Million at the end of 2006 to 210 Million by the end of 2007. English-speaking Asian-Americans are online more often than the rest of the Internet population with 74% online compared to 71.7% for whites, according to eMarketer. According to an analysis of Bureau of Labor statistics by Ad Age, employment in U.S. advertising and marketing sectors has hit a record 1.64 Million people, with online media growing the fastest at 24.2% year to year. Apple’s iTunes store has sold 4 Billion songs, 125 Million TV shows and 7 Million movies, according to data released by the company. Research firm AccuStream iMedia says viewings of user-generated video jumped to 22.4 Billion views in 2007, a 70% increase over 2006’s 13.2 Billion viewings. It also reports that 1.2 Million videos and 26.5 Million comments were published to user generated video sites in 2007. Sports website ESPN.com reported its users viewed a record 1.2 Billion videos on its site last year, a 54% increase over the previous year.

Okay, this one falls into the category of Cocktail Chatter: The top city in the U.S. when it comes to growth in podcast use is Chattanooga with a 644% increase over the previous year. Other cities in Wizzard Media’s podcasting top ten network are Tampa-St. Petersburg with a 380% increase; Kansas City (348%); Green Bay – Appleton (339%); Fresno-Visalia (173%); Toledo (106%); Houston (101%); Nashville (82%); Washington DC (72%) and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (68%).

Finally, this has been reported extensively already, but I find it so fascinating that I think it’s worth repeating. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has beaten out fellow talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey as the ‘most beloved’ TV personality, according to a new Harris Poll. Following Oprah is Jay Leno in the #3 spot, followed by Hugh Laurie (House) in #4; Jon Stewart #5; David Letterman and Stephen Colbert tied for #6; Bill O’Reilly #8; and Ray Romano and Homer Simpson tied for #9. Not surprisingly Republicans cite Bill O’Reilly as their favorite, but surprisingly, people who identify themselves as conservatives don’t pick O’Reilly. Instead they pick Jay Leno. Democrats and those identifying themselves as liberal cite Ellen DeGeneres.

A FINAL NOTE: One of LATimes.com’s web mavens has built a tagcloud (that’s those displays in which words are larger or smaller depending on how often they’re used) outlining the technical skills needed for online journalists by picking the words used in a series of online job descriptions. The number one word was ‘interactive’ followed by blogs and flash. You can see the tagcloud yourself by visiting Eric Ulken’s website at http://ulken.com/index.html.

A FINAL, FINAL NOTE: As long as I am pointing out websites, a really neat website is BigThink.com which features interviews with some of today’s leading “thinkers, movers and shakers” including politicians like Ted Kennedy and John McCain, businessmen like Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and Patrick Byrne, founder and CEO of Overstock.com, academicians like Larry Summers, President of Harvard and Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University, journalists like Jon Meacham, Editor of Newsweek, and David Remnick, Editor of The New Yorker. Okay, you get the idea. Anyway, some very cool stuff.

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