Message From Michael -- August 4, 2008

CHINA BEATS THE U.S.

NOW YOU SEE IT; NOW YOU DON’T

BUYING THE NEWS

PAYING FOR CITIZEN NEWS

NEWS DIRECTOR DIVERSITY

THE INTERNET CANARY

COCKTAIL CHATTER

COMPLIMENTS AND KUDOS

GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE


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CHINA BEATS THE U.S. And, no, I’m not talking about the Olympics although that will be interesting to see. No, it’s the Internet. According to the China Internet Network Information center (CNNIC), the number of ‘netizens’ (as they refer to them) in China reached 253 Million in June. Of that, 214 Million are broadband users, which, the release from the CNNIC says, “tops the world.” And here is an interesting twist to the info, the China domain name – CN – has become the world’s largest country domain name. In case you were wondering, DE, which is the country domain name for Germany used to be the number one country domain name. Nearly a third of the Chinese netizens (28.9%) access the Internet by cell phone with the number of cell phones reaching more than 73 Million. The report also says the “use rate of network news” has reached 81.5% and adds, “the Internet can be said to have become the mainstream media with huge influence and the most development potentiality in the field of mass communication.”

Okay, a little perspective. There are 220 Million Americans online. That represents more than 70% of the U.S. population which, you may remember, recently passed the 300 Million mark. The Chinese numbers are based on a population of 1.3 Billion which, by the way, is one-fifth of the entire world population. Just for a little more perspective, the last figures I could find for India put the Internet population at 46 Million-plus with a population of 1.1 Billion people.

NOW YOU SEE IT; NOW YOU DON’T. That is what’s happening in some TV newscasts as advertisers go for product placement. The example making the rounds centers on Meredith-owned Las Vegas Fox affiliate KVVU where fake cups of McDonald’s iced coffee sit on the anchor desks during the news-and-lifestyle portion of the morning show. Reportedly McDonald’s has also placed products on Chicago’s Fox-owned WFLD, Tribune’s Seattle Fox affiliate KCPQ, and Univision 41 in New York City. Interestingly though I could only find the one article dealing with Las Vegas. It appears the one story from the Las Vegas Sun has been picked up by all the media. KVVU News Director Adam Bradshaw says the product placement is only in the lifestyle portion of the morning show, after 7 a.m.; that he wouldn’t put such products in the hard news shows like the 5pm and 10pm and that the product placement would not affect their coverage of McDonald’s. (Thanks to former anchor turned college teacher turned doctoral candidate Rebecca Coates for this tip.)

As a side note to this, there are groups and websites devoted solely to product placement. Website productplacement.biz, for example, makes the case that the growth in product placement and branded entertainment is a natural result of the increase in media choices available to the consumer. Website iTVX.net even has devised a system to equate the value of a product placement segment to a :30 second commercial. Both sites extol the virtues of product placement.

BUYING THE NEWS. If the journalists amongst you found the product placement upsetting, get ready to be real upset. A survey of senior American marketers found that one in five (19%) say their organizations have bought advertising in return for a news story. The survey on behalf of PRWeek and Manning Selvage & Lee also found that one in ten have had “an implicit/non-verbal agreement’ with a reporter or editor that they would get favorable coverage in exchange for advertising, and one in 12 (8%) said they paid or provided a gift of value to an editor or producer to get their product placed in a news story. The survey authors say the latest results are consistent with previous years. The authors say while some marketers see this as simply an extension of product placement, “any kind of undisclosed paid placement spells trouble for consumers, the media and the marketing industry.”

PAYING FOR CITIZEN NEWS. In the Tampa/ St. Petersburg market, Gannett-owned CBS affiliate WTSP is soliciting so-called citizen journalists to shoot video for them. Okay, that may not sound so new in today’s citizen media world, but the difference is that WTSP is paying $20 a pop for the video and is trying to build a stable of 20 of these citizen correspondents to contribute regularly to their newscasts and webcasts. If the citizen shooter provides ten pieces each quarter, for a year, they get to keep the camera and accessories provided by the station. The posting on the station website has already drawn a wide variety of responses, from it would be great to get the tiny slices of life on air to a paramedic worrying about more amateurs getting in the way of emergency services.

On a related note, locally-owned low-power CBS affiliated KPSP is trying to use teen aged viewers as part of their news gathering resource. Former Clear Channel CEO Don Perry took over as VP/ GM of the little station after leaving the mega-group after the sale of its television properties. The local philanthropist owners wanted the station to “play a vital role in the fabric of the community.” Perry says his goal is to re-invent the station, starting with re-training everybody to run all the equipment so they can “deputize camera operators as needed” on a big story, partnering with the local Gannett owned newspaper, as well as making greater use of consumer generated content such as the teen agers. (Thanks to Peabody Awards director Horace Newcomb for these two tips.)

NEWS DIRECTOR DIVERSITY. Although already reported, worth noting again is the Radio Television News Directors’ Association survey showing there are more women news directors in television than ever before and that the percentage of minority news directors in television has also reached an all-time high. The numbers are still small – 28.3% for women and 15.5% for minorities. The report also notes that the percentage of women GMs at stations with local news ‘edged up’ to 16.3% while the percentage of minority GMs jumped to 9.8%. The percentage of minorities in TV news now stands at one fourth (23.6%) but that’s for ALL TV news. For just non-Hispanic TV news, the number drops slightly to 20.1%. The percentage of minorities in radio rose slightly year to year to reach one in ten (11.8%) while the percentage of minority radio news directors fell (to 5.9%). As a bit of perspective, the percentage of minorities in newspapers stands at 13.5%.

THE INTERNET CANARY. That is one of the descriptions given to Internet website, 4chan.org. Using the Internet lingo, it is a “meme” which Wikipedia defines as the spread of ideas and cultural phenomenon, such as tunes, catch phrases, beliefs, fashion and technology. It is one of those places that is a harbinger of future things on the Internet. Let me warn you though, it can be both odd and off-putting in many ways. (Thanks to KPLC GM Jim Serra for this reminder.)

COCKTAIL CHATTER. This isn’t really cocktail chatter. It’s more like me slipping into blog commentary, but the line used by one of the characters on a recent episode of the NBC show My Name’s Earl is too good not to mention. The pregnant ex-wife of Earl talking to a man threatening to shoot her, warns him that if he were to shoot “a hot blonde with a multi-racial child” that “Nancy Grace will have you convicted before the first commercial break.”

KUDOS AND COMPLIMENTS. Normally, MfM is reserved for media trends and research, but every once in a while, we slip in a kudo or two. Today’s goes to client station KFVS in Cape Girardeau, which GM Mike Smythe notes, has won Medium Market station of the year in Illinois for the sixth straight year. No other station has ever won the award six times, and on top of which KFVS is in Missouri, where it also has won several awards.

GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: And the credit goes to the readers of MfM. Oftentimes readers send in recommendations for articles. This past week, there were half a dozen such recommendations. So, thank you. And proper credit is given at the bottom of each article. Also I have to compliment the TV Newsday website which is one of the dozens of places I go for news. It continues to get better and better. Several times this past month, general managers, news directors and others have mentioned stories to me that TV Newsday broke.

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