Message from Michael - Year in Review, December 2009

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        December 21, 2009                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

    THE YEAR IN REVIEW – A SPECIAL EDITION

·         WHO’S WRONG OR RIGHT

·         TWO TURKISH DELIGHTS

·         KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

·         JUDE THE OBSCURE

·         TACKY AWARD OF THE YEAR

·         DUMB PATENTS OF THE YEAR

 

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      WHO’S WRONG OR RIGHT:  It doesn’t matter because Michael Jackson didn’t just beat it; he beat everything when it came to the top search topics of 2009.  Whether it was Google, Yahoo, Bing or Twitter, the pop idol’s death was the number one topic, almost across the board.  No surprise there.  What may be a little surprising (and may be heartening) to those who believe such reports only confirm the celebrity obsession culture is that the Iranian election was far and away the top topic for “Twitterers”, according to the official Twitter website as well as spin-off site Whatthetrend.com.  That’s not to say celebrities didn’t dominate as usual.  On Yahoo, the top ten included Megan Fox, Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian.  On Bing, it was Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Jon and Kate Goselin, Billy Mays and Jaycee Durgan.  And just so you’re in with the in crowd, you should know that Amy Winehouse is out (she was on Google’s  GLOBAL “fastest falling” search list) while Lady Gaga is in (She was on Google’s GLOBAL “fastest rising” list.)  In the category of entertainment, Google’s list indicates Eminem is back, along with Beyonce and Natasha Richardson.  President Barack Obama also had the dubious distinction of making the “fastest falling” list on Google and only made it to number 44 on Yahoo’s list.  A different kind of personality also dominated the search engine trends – Vampires.  Shows like TrueBlood and movies like The Twilight Saga, New Moon were prominent search items along with Paranormal Activity, District 9 as well as Transformers.

      TWO TURKISH DELIGHTS:  Continuing the what’s hot, what’s not theme.  KralOyun is out; Sanalika is in.  If you’re like me, you’re saying, ‘heck, that kral thing is out before I even knew what it was it was and that san thing is in and I don’t even know what it is.’  Well, they’re both virtual world or multi-layer games.  Now, you’re saying to yourself, ‘that’s why I didn’t know about them; I’m not some teen video game enthusiast.’  No, actually, that’s probably not the reason.  There are some video game enthusiasts who are Message readers.  The real reason is that they’re Turkish in origin.  According to website TechCrunch whose editors were as surprised as you and I were, the reason is that there are 14 Million Turks online and when they do searches, they do a blanket kind of search which generates more hits.  Or something like that.  But if you are really into video games (which more and more research indicates is the trend of the future, along with mobile), then Runescape is the name of the game.  It isn’t just a multi-player online role playing game (MORPG), according to Yahoo, where it made the top ten list; it’s a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG).  Continuing the fantasy vein, Naruto isn’t just an anime or manga, it is THE manga series.  It came in at number six on Yahoo’s list of hot search topics and number four on Google’s fastest rising list in entertainment.  It is the story of a boy and his sword.  Actually, it’s the story about a young ninja who wants to become the ‘hokage’ – the top ninja in his village.        

      KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES:  Or the Gonzalezes.  Or the Wangs.  Or the Nguyens. The ‘global village’ that is the Internet is very much apparent in the hot search topics.  It is most apparent in Google’s Zeitgeist which has four different countries in its top ten of fastest rising global websites.  Sanalika mentioned above from Turkey.  Tuenti is a Spanish social network based in Madrid and was the third fastest rising site.  A newsletter from Vietnam came in 9^th (dantri.com.vn).  And the tenth spot was one of the more unusual risers.  Torpedo gratis is a free SMS service that started in Portuguese-speaking Brazil.  Elsewhere there is Peliculasid.com which provides Spanish versions of English movies free.  Keep digging and you will also find a South Korean sports page and a Japanese cooking website, all of them fast growing websites on the World Internet.  As a cultural footnote to this, it is interesting that three of the top ten blogs coming up in Yahoo’s list of top searches were African-American – Media Take Out, Bossip, and All HipHop.  Taking the top spot was relative newcomer TMZ, although ‘old-timers’ Drudge Report and Perez Hilton rounded out the top three.     

      JUDE THE OBSCURE:  If like the title character in Thomas Hardy’s novel (See, I don’t just do rock and roll references), you want to be a scholar, then the various websites and topics from the various search engines can help you.  Of course it depends on what you want to learn.  For example, I don’t know what learning about the search for the Yeti-like mythical character, Chupacabra, mentioned as one of the hot topics on Yahoo’s buzz blog list does for you.  But it is interesting to find that the hot new health food is the Acai Berry whose antioxidant capacity is so much higher than its cousins, blueberries and cranberries, that it is touted as a “superfood” with anti-aging and even weight loss properties.  Probably more to the point is the cultural snapshot that the searches provide.  Some would say that there is none better for this than Twitter.  And you can get that weekly through some of the top twitter hashtags.  For example, the top hashtag is #musicmonday where people share the favorite or recommended music choices.  But if you want to dig a little deeper, and some might say darker, into the culture, track hashtags #unacceptable where people exchange what they find is ‘unacceptable’ and #3drunkwords which, as the name says, is a way to share the three words someone utters in a drunken state.  Warning – some of the exchanges can be raunchy.  Much nicer, is #friendfriday where people tweet the names of people they like or think you should follow. It didn’t make Twitter’s top ten, but it did make the top 50 list on whatthetrend.  Another one of those footnotes I like so much, whatthetrend noted that one of the top twitters concerned Glee, a Fox TV show about a high school glee club which, while popular in the U.S., is wildly popular in the Philippines, Australia and Brazil.  What caused the twitter commotion?  The show was pre-empted by the World Series.      

      TACKY AWARD OF THE YEAR:  The honchos at ABC News just made it under the wire, but managed to win my first ever Tacky Award with the December 18^th broadcast in which Charlie Gibson made his final appearance.  One of the more interesting points he made during his farewell speech was that objectivity no longer seemed to be the valuable asset it once was in news.  It was a very thoughtful and heartfelt speech in which he became obviously emotional.  That was followed by a series of humorous and serious soundbites from politicians and celebrities talking about Gibson.  Out of that, they came to a shot of Gibson at the desk surrounded by the various people who work there.  They applauded him; he applauded them.  And then… then they immediately went to a promo spot for his replacement, Diane Sawyer, starting Monday, with some marketing genius’s allegedly witty play on the words “no” and “know.”  Okay, admittedly, commentary on my part, but the crassness really is astounding.        

      DUMB PATENTS OF THE YEAR:  My message may be a little late for you to rush out and get these for Christmas, but here are some gift suggestions for next year for the person who has everything.  A toilet-training watch.  Disposable diapers with a camouflage pattern. Condoms shaped like a filled beer glass.  A fingernail sander with its own debris bag.  A sun visor complete with hair. These are some of the dumb patents applied for in 2009, according to The New York Times.  Want some more?  Apparently putting two different ideas into one is a big deal for inventors.  Things like the combined letter opener, screen cleaner and pen cap.  Or the towel that also doubles up as a handbag.  Or the combined manure fork and fan-type shavings blower.  The greeting card that also can be used to hold socks.  And the list goes on… and on… and on.

      NOT SO DUMB VIDEOS OF THE YEAR:  Okay, so you can’t go out in time for Christmas and buy yourself an abnormality alarm device (another of the 2009 dumb patents), but you can watch some of the great viral videos of the year, courtesy of website Mashable.  Some of them you may already have seen.  Such as the baby who dances to Beyonce.  The president of The Feed Company, Josh Warner, who selected the videos, is probably right when he says the ads on this must-watch video will probably pay for the kid’s college education.  Or there is the guy whose guitar was broken by baggage handlers at United, and who now probably has enough publicity to put together a full orchestra.  Interestingly, the list dispels the myth that all viral videos must be short, ‘snackable’ videos.  The videos range in length from a minute and 39 seconds to 12 minutes and 13 seconds.  The top choice is a five-minute homage to one kid’s incredible wall-climbing, stair-case-jumping, rooftop-hopping biking skills, produced by Inspired bicycles.  The list shows how companies can capitalize on the viral video phenomenon – such as Volkswagen’s video showing how a subway staircase was turned into piano keys, convincing two-thirds of the people in a test to use the stairs instead of the nearby escalator.  Or, how companies can embarrass themselves—Microsoft attempting to some how connect the release of Windows 7 to a kind of The Big Chill gathering of friends.  And, if you liked last year’s viral video of the guy catching Ray-Ban sunglasses with his face, you’ll love this year’s spoof version where a guy catches a laptop with his butt.    

      HAPPY HOLIDAYS:  To all my friends and acquaintances, strangers and not-so strangers, subscribers and other readers, broadcasters and ink-stained wretches, new media and old media people, social media and anti-social media friends, those in the mainstream and those not even in the river, mobile and stationary; whoever you are, I wish you peace and happiness.  The message will go silent over the holidays…unless something really interesting happens.  But we’ll be back in the New Year with a look at the trends and issues, predictions and prognostications for the next year in media.  

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Message from Michael - The Information Deluge - December 16, 2009

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        December 16, 2009                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

      THE INFORMATION DELUGE

      TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY

      THE NEWS CHALLENGE CHALLENGE

      COCKTAIL CHATTER --  ONE COMPANY, ONE COUNTRY

 

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      THE INFORMATION DELUGE:  Or, put another way, we need a modern-day Noah to help us survive the information flood.  According to the Global Information Industry Center at the University of California/ San Diego, “Americans consumed information for about 1.3 Trillion hours (which totaled) 3.6 Zettabytes and 10,845 Trillion words.”  Or, put another way, Americans spent 12 hours a day consuming information which translates to 100,500 words and 34 Gigabytes of information “for an average person on an average day.”  Now, this idea may be a little hard to grasp, but the study authors say the actual consumption of information in bytes increased by only 5.4% per year, but the capacity to process data rose by at least 30% per year.  Okay, while you’re trying to process that, here are some other points made in the study.  Traditional media (radio and TV) still dominate our information consumption pattern, accounting for 60% of the hours spent.  Despite the rise in computers, more than three-quarters of U.S. households’ information is spent with non-computer sources.  Yet, because of computers, the amount of information “received interactively” is a full third of all words and more than half of all bytes received.  The authors make the point that information consumption was passive in the past with the telephone being the only ‘interactive’ medium.  Americans spent 16% of their “information hours” using the Internet versus 41% using Television.  And reading, which had declined because of television, has actually tripled from 1980 to 2008 because it is the “overwhelmingly preferred way to receive words on the Internet.”  

Esoteric but interesting is a point made by the authors that they are only measuring “artificial” forms of information.  If they were to include “personal conversation” as a source of information, “it is possible that we receive fewer bytes Info/c than our ancestors did 100 years ago.”  Info/c, by their definition, is ‘compressed bytes’ information, and personal conversation is “very high bandwidth” with “stereo vision and sound.”  So, three hours of personal conversation at this bandwidth would translate into 135 Gigabytes of Info/c – about four times the average daily consumption today.  As to the future… well, the authors admit they’re not so sure.  Television represents the biggest shift.  Mobile television and video over the Internet may cause the greatest ‘dislocation’ in information, but mobile television is still a ‘niche product’ and Internet video is a complement rather than a supplement to television because the bandwidth challenges means most Internet video is grainy and slow to load.  When bandwidths increase, that could result in a dramatic change.  The fastest future growth will probably come from computer gaming, according to the report.

Some Caveats:  The authors distinguish between data and information, with information being considered a sub-set of data.  Also as hard as it may be to believe, the study authors say their numbers are only for home and out-of-home information consumption and NOT work times.  The authors also note that their reports are only estimates because “in some cases, behavior is changing so fast that January 2008 and December 2008 may be quite different.”  By the way, because I figure that some of my very smart readers would know this, but some (like me) wouldn’t, a Zetabyte is a Million Million Gigabytes.

      TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY:  That still is the question, and two recent reports did nothing to help resolve the question, according to an article from the Online Publishers Association.  The Boston Consulting Group found that nearly half of Americans (48%) would be willing to pay for online news content, but only about $3 a month.  More people are willing to pay for unique local news content (72%) or specialized coverage (73%).  On the other hand, Forrester Research found that four out of five (80%) were NOT willing to pay with less than one in ten (8%) saying they would be willing to pay if it were one fee for ALL subscription content.  A measly 3% liked, or accepted, the idea of micro-payments.     

      THE NEWS CHALLENGE CHALLENGE:  No, that’s not a typo.  It’s to say that now the challenge begins for the people behind the Knight News Challenge.  The project which has funded such ideas as Adrian Holovaty’s Everyblock and Sir Tim Berner-Lee’s Transparent Journalism had 788 applications by the closing date.  This is the place to go, if you want to see what the future of journalism may be.  As the site authors note, “nobody knows all the answers.”  That’s why the funders, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, say they created their various funding programs – to seed experiments.  Some of those seeds grow into oaks.  The Everyblock project which provided some templated tools for people to create citizen journalism websites in cities around the world was recently sold to MSNBC for a figure reportedly in the Millions of dollars.  The sale has been controversial because of the irony that a mammoth mainstream media operation now owns what was supposed to be a micro-journalism mechanism.  But we’ve already talked about that in a previous Message about citizen journalism efforts.  In any case, the point is you can visit the site to find several innovative and interesting ideas.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I have submitted an application to create a consultancy of news professionals turned news professors.  As always I try to keep the Message objective and avoid self-serving statements, so I won’t go into what a great idea it is.  However, I have to note that humorously (depending on one’s sense of humor), the Knight project which has a technology and new media focus obviously has a glitch in its technology.  I have received more than two dozen emails saying the same thing – that the contest is closed.   

      COCKTAIL CHATTER:  One company (Nokia) accounts for a tenth (9%) of all the corporate taxes paid in one country (Finland).  A little factoid buried in an article in The New York Times about the company’s struggles.  Even though Nokia dominates the smart phone market (16.2 million phones, compared to Apple’s 7 Million and Research in Motion’s 8.5 Million), Nokia has the lowest growth rate of any company.  In fact, Nokia used to account for a fifth (19%) of all corporate taxes paid in Finland.  Other factoids were that Nokia accounts for one third of Finland’s total research and spending and one quarter of its total stock exchange capitalization.  Similar to the conflicting studies mentioned above about content payment, a report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, found that a quarter (26%) of teenagers of driving age admitted texting while driving, but half (48%) say they have been in a car while somebody else texted.  As almost a footnote, or maybe additional perspective, to the Information report above, comScore reports 167 Million Web users watched 28 Billion online videos during the month of October.

      FOOTNOTE:  As several industry newsletters have noted, the Federal Communications Commission wasted no time in jumping on the question of using television spectrum for broadband bandwidth expansion.  I only make this a footnote, because I have hit the subject so often in the last month.  But the FCC action is worth noting because it is such quick movement on a controversial topic.  First off, the commission issued a “public notice” soliciting comments by December 21^st.  Then, it followed that with the hiring of a Duke University law professor who has written on the subject and whom TVNewsCheck editor Harry Jessel characterized as a “broadcast TV hitman.”    

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.

 

Message from Michael - Journalism and the Internet- December 7 2009

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                December 7, 2009                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

      JOURNALISM AND THE INTERNET – A SPECIAL REPORT

 

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      THE FACTOID THAT SAYS IT ALL:  In the third quarter of this year, Google had $1.65 Billion in PROFITS.  In the same quarter, Gannett, the largest news company in the U.S., and the second largest in the world, had TOTAL REVENUE of $1.3 Billion.  Let me re-state that – Google made more money in profits than Gannett made in total revenue.  Gannett’s actual profits for the third quarter amounted to a ‘measly’ (by comparison) $73 Million.  This was, in my view, the Holy Cow (or whatever term you use) factoid from the Federal Trade Commission workshop on “how will Journalism survive the Internet age.”  The figures came from a presentation by Ken Doctor of digital marketing research firm Outsell (and which I confirmed through research online).  Doctor, and several other speakers, made the point that Gannett made its money creating content while Google made its money aggregating content.  And that is the question the FTC needs to wrestle with, when four of the top five news websites are search aggregators, not content creators AND they make more money.  

      MORE NOT-SO-FUN FACTOIDS:  Further exacerbating the problem, at least for the content creators, according to a presentation by media company E.W. Scripps’ Senior Vice President for Newspapers, Mark Contreras, the print business generates $500 “per year pet set of eyeballs” while the online business generates less than one-fifth that amount -- $75 “per year per set of eyeballs.”  Contreras cited an analysis by FTI Consulting showing that not only is the Internet taking market share from traditional media, it’s actually causing the overall advertising market to shrink.  For every $1 of NEW spending on the Internet, ‘traditional’ media loses $3.  And there’s a pretty basic reason for that, according to a presentation by Dave Evans of the University of Chicago Law School.  And that is what he calls a “deluge of ad space” not only on the Internet but on Internet-connected mobile phones.  Further exacerbating the problem (if I can use that phrase again) is the fact that Online Readers spend much less time reading – 68 Seconds versus 16 Minutes, for example, reading the New York Times.

      SOME LESS DEPRESSING FACTOIDS:  So, before any of my traditional media friends curl up in the fetal position under their desk, there were some ‘good’ or at least heartening factoids to come out of the workshop.  The folks at Ball State University’s Center for Media Design presented an observational study that showed Live TV was far and away the most popular medium, with a greater daily reach than any other medium and with people spending more time with it than any other medium.  In the total scheme of the media ecosystem, newspapers and magazines scored the lowest in terms of research and time spent.  But, in what Insight and Research Director Mike Bloxham called the “news footprint (of the) media ecosystem, “any” print had the same reach as “any” Internet, although people did spend more time on the Internet.  Also somewhat heartening (and interesting) for my newspaper brethren was a study by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business which showed that reading a newspaper ‘causes’ 13% of non-voters to vote.

      DEVIL OR ANGEL:  If you’ll remember the next line in the old rock and roll song, singer Bobby Vee couldn’t make up his mind which one his girlfriend was.  Well, apparently, the federal government along with major search engines Google and Yahoo have the same problem with behavioral advertising.  Executives with the two companies argued the virtues of behavioral targeting, as it is often called, at the FTC Workshop.  The ‘angel’ part of such an approach is that it allows companies to collect the web-browsing behavior of their users to define what their interests are so they can target advertising specifically addressing those interests to them.  The ‘devil’ part is that it raises all kinds of questions about privacy rights.  It’s the old saying that you leave lots of little crumbs as you travel the Internet trail.   Yahoo’s VP of Channel Sales, Lem Lloyd, argued that this “customized advertising (provided) relevant ads (in an) uncluttered ad environment (which resulted in a) superb consumer experience.”  He pointed out the measures Yahoo takes to protect privacy which (commentary by me) was almost humorous because the ‘protection’ was the fine print at the bottom of the web page allowing people to opt out.  Not too coincidentally, the FTC is holding a ‘privacy roundtable’ session to discuss the “privacy challenges” posed by technology such as behavioral targeting.  Several other speakers, including Scripps Contreras, talked about the behavioral targeting-privacy issue.  So, watch for this issue to grow in importance. 

Google’s Senior Business Product Manager, Josh Cohen, went to equally great lengths to explain in minute detail how news organizations can opt out of its aggregating process, while at the same time arguing that Google “sends billions of visits to publishers around the world.”  In an obvious nod to the debate over aggregating versus creating, one of the slides in its presentation was headlined Google and Publishers: A Partnership.  Yahoo also talked about its Newspaper Consortium partnership which, they say, has created 18,000 campaigns with more than 6 Billion impressions sold. Both men clearly (more editorial commentary by me) were trying to make the point that they are helping more than hurting their friends in traditional media.

In the area of interesting factoids, Yahoo exec Lloyd says it has 581 Million users, which translates into 3 out 5 Internet users worldwide and 3 out of 4 of the Internet users in the U.S.  He put the local ad market estimate at $14 Billion in 2009.  Not to be outdone, Google exec Cohen said Google operates in 30 languages with 50 domains worldwide as well as 22 languages and 30 domains on mobile, and has “archive content from over 200 years.”

      WE’RE ON THE EVE OF:    If you said ‘destruction’ you either listen to too much old rock and roll, or you were listening to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.  The chairman, who acknowledged that his wife works for one of the traditional media outlets (The Washington Post) raised the question whether the changes in the media landscape are “creative destruction” in which something new and better comes about, or just plain “destruction” period.  Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman argues, “we can not risk the loss of an informed public and all that means because of a… ‘market failure.’  But it’s a later point of his that I find even more interesting and which qualifies as a “thoughtoid.”  Okay, I just made that word up.  But it works… for me at least.  It’s a little dense but think about this one – “the atomization of news sources of content has resulted in the fragmentation of audiences, so that the commercial basis to support a critical mass of authoritative and informed news and information is melting away.”  Whew!  The bottomline – both men say they are open to some form of journalism support whether it comes in the form of government tax considerations, to public funding, to foundation funding or to “universities operating news organizations.”  Okay, I’ll admit it.  I had to throw that last one in, since we at the University of Georgia operate a university supported television news operation.

      YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON THAT:  And we will.  For example, Evans of Chicago’s law school argues that “journalism is the bait for securing viewers for advertisers.”  He defines traditional journalism as the hiring of reporters, photographers, editors to collect and write news, and he argues, “it is this labor intensive process for generating content that is under challenge.”  In a similar vein, Outsell’s Ken Doctor likens journalism to manufacturing which adds either much or little value.  He refers to a ‘content gap’ and the growing “chasm between market-driven ‘newsy’ content and public service content.’   And from former FCC chairman Reed Hundt and the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (catchy little title, huh?) comes this:  “information is as vital to the healthy function of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health.”

      THE TIMETABLE BATTLEFIELD:  Television is the overall winner when it comes to over-use by consumers, but it’s an interesting see-saw battle.  For example, television is the number one choice news viewing choice at 7 am and 6 pm, according to the observational study by Ball State University.  But between roughly 9 am and 11am, as well as from roughly 1pm to 5pm, Online wins out.  Not too surprisingly, newspapers are the number two choice at 7 am and just barely behind television at 8am.  But at 8pm and 9pm, it’s almost a dead-head as to who is most popular – television, newspapers or online.

      FOOTNOTE:  It may be an interesting or telling point that the workshop did not seem to get a lot of mainstream media coverage, at least as far as I could tell.  Aside from a little blurb or two about the conflict between Rupert Murdoch and Ariana Huffington about whether content can be paid for, or will have to be free… not much.  Actually the best coverage in this humble reporter’s opinion came from Danny Sullivan’s SearchEngineLand blog.  Also, as a further footnote, even though it’s repetitive of previous Messages, I should note that the Federal Communications Commission is also researching what can be done to “save journalism.”  

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.

 

Message from Michael - Journalism and Broadband - November 30, 2009

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        November 30, 2009                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

      MAKING A LIVING OFF THE EVENING NEWS

      THE BROADBAND BATTLE

      THE BROADBAND FACTS

      COCKTAIL CHATTER  -- COWS AND CHICKENS

 

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      MAKING A LIVING OFF THE EVENING NEWS:  Or can you?  The Federal Trade Commission wants to know.  And so does the Federal Communication Commission.  And so does the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  Now, the first two I mentioned in a previous Message, but the last one is news to me, and just goes to show you how widespread the concern is.   The Paris-based organization has also launched a study on the “future of news” but with a distinctly international approach.  While the FTC hearing has such luminaries as Ariana Huffington and Rupert Murdoch, the OECD kick-off hearing had the Executive Editor of Agence France Presse and a researcher from INSEAD, the International School of Business.  That’s not to disparage the FTC group.  Far from it.  About the only person missing from the FTC workshop is Don Henley, but everybody would agree with his admonition that the news is in need of something they can use and it isn’t dirty laundry.  The FTC workshop runs tomorrow and Wednesday and includes remarks from leading luminaries along with presentations by various scholars along with panels on the state of journalism today and tomorrow, emerging business models for journalism and online advertising and consumer demand trends.  Meanwhile, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities which also was cited in the previous Message echoes some of those same concerns, but also has an upbeat theme, saying – “there need be no second-class citizens in the democratic communities of the digital age.”  While acknowledging that the present economic downturn is “like an earthquake shaking the global economy,” the commission also says the technology “is a journalistic and political opportunity… to create a more transparent and connected democracy.” 

As a footnote, the FTC hearing will be webcast from the ftc.gov website, and there will be regular Twitter updates and RSS feeds if you want to follow the workshop online.  Or, you can wait till I do a summary in my next Message.    

      THE BROADBAND BATTLE:  As noted in the last Message, the idea of using part of the television digital spectrum as a way to provide broadband access is one of the proposals being considered by the Federal Communications Commission as a way to provide greater broadband Internet access.  As Harry A. Jessel notes in his very popular TVNewsCheck website, the cash-for-spectrum deal “has stirred up broadcasters as little else has over the past several years.” Now the various sides have started lobbing hand grenades in each other’s foxholes using industry newsletters.  Gary Shapiro, the president of the Consumer Electronics Association, says in a letter to the editor at TVNewsCheck that the country ‘desperately needs’ broadband spectrum and that broadcasters make little use of the spectrum they have, especially over the air.  Gordon Smith, the newly installed president of the National Association of Broadcasters, says, also in a letter to the editor at TVNewsCheck, that there are ‘tremendous synergies’ in the use of broadband and broadcast ‘for the enrichment of the consumer.’  Somewhat humorously, both men initially offer a conciliatory stance, before attacking the other.  The FCC is expected to provide some tentative solutions by December 16, with a final report to be presented to Congress February 17 of next year.  To paraphrase the words of the legendary American revolutionary war hero, John Paul Jones, they have not yet begun to fight.

      THE BROADBAND FACTS:  Just by way of perspective, a survey by Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project shows that two-thirds (63%) of Americans now have broadband Internet access.  That survey in April of this year is a significant increase from the half (55%) of Americans who had broadband access a year earlier.  The greatest growth came in groups which have had low broadband usage.  Broadband usage among senior citizens grew from 19% last year to 30% in the latest survey.  Among low income groups, usage grew from a quarter (25%) last year to a third (35%) this year, for those with incomes below $20,000 a year.  Much of the national debate about broadband access focuses on rural areas.  But even here, according to the Pew study, broadband usage has increased from just over a third (38%) last year to just under half (46%) this year.  BUT (there’s always a but), the definition of what constitutes Broadband varies from as little as 256Kbts to as much as 50 Mbts, with the U.S. being criticized for using the lower speed in its definition.  Given that, the U.S. still has the highest number of broadband subscribers (77.4M), followed by Japan (30M), Germany (22.5M), France (17.7M) and the U.K. (17.2M), according to figures compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperative and Development.  BUT (there we go again), the U.S. ranks 15^th, according to the data from the same group, in terms of per capita broadband penetration (per 100 inhabitants) with a quarter (25.8 per 100) having broadband access.  The top country for broadband penetration is Denmark (37.2), followed by the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.  Notice something similar in these countries?  They’re all small, which is one of the criticisms U.S. Internet experts make about the OECD comparisons with the larger-land-mass U.S.  Of course, it has to be said Canada comes in 10^th (with 29 users).  Now, the smart ones amongst you, are saying – hey, how do you reconcile the OECD numbers with the Pew numbers?  Well, I’m not sure I can except to note that one of the arguments is the difference in the size of the households between the U.S. and many other countries.

Footnote:  It should be noted that an FCC-commissioned study by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society argues that other countries have better broadband capabilities because of their ‘open access’ rules which require provides to lease their networks to rivals at government-regulated rates.  It should also be noted that the FCC estimates that it would cost anywhere from $20 Billion to $350 Billion to upgrade the broadband speed nationwide, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.  To get broadband speed in the 5Mbts range would cost $20 Billion, but $50 Billion to get to 20Mbts and $350 Billion to get to 100Mbts rate.        

      COCKTAIL CHATTER:  Those cows in the Chik Fil A commercials apparently don’t need to tell people to Eat Mor Chikin.  They already are.  According to an article in The New Yorker, Americans eat 36 Million cows and 115 Million pigs each year, but a whopping 9 Billion chickens and turkeys.  In the same article writer Elizabeth Kolbert says 46 Million American families own at least one dog; 38 Million keep cats and 13 Million have freshwater aquariums with more than 170 Million fish.  That racks up $40 Billion in bills. Writer Kolbert notes these facts in a review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s book “Eating Animals” which looks at the dichotomy in how Americans view animals.

      FOOTNOTE:  In keeping with the holiday spirit, let me take a page from Miracle on 34^th Street and like the Macy’s Santa Claus, send you to the Gimbel’s of newsletters and blogs.  Lawyer David Oxenford has a terrific blog site, broadcastlawblog.com which is a must-subscribe for anybody trying to keep current with the legal and governmental vicissitudes surrounding broadcast media machinations.  Actually there are several “gimbels” which are used in my message and I will share them with you at various points.   

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.