Message from Michael - YouTube Sensation - April 25, 2011

Message From Michael                              

                                                                                                                        April 25, 2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

BLACK IS BLACK

LET'S DO THE WIME WARP AGAIN

WOMEN VERSUS MEN IN MEDIA

THE ROYAL WEDDING

PLUGGED AND UNPLUGGED

COCKTAIL CHATTER – SORT OF

 

 

BLACK IS BLACK.  I don't want my baby back.  Not if her name is Rebecca Black.  But more than 300-thousand people do.  But gray is gray for 2.3 Million people who would be happy if she went away.  Yes, yes, yes, this is another one of those headlines of mine that is a reach.  Rebecca Black is a 13-year-old California girl who paid (all right, her parents paid) an estimated $20,000 to have a music video produced featuring her.  So, why should this rate the lead story on this week's message?  Because… hold on to your 45 RPM's here, folks… her video has had 114 Million views on YouTube.  I don't know about you, but I find this stunning.  Let me put a little perspective on this.  That 114 Million is five times as many people as watch American Idol.  For a little more perspective, the number one video of all time on YouTube is Baby by Justin Bieber (who I am assuming she is attempting to emulate), with his 523 Million views.  But (here we go again), her 114 Million would still put her in the Top 40 (isn't that appropriate?) of all time YouTube videos.  All this for a 'bubble-gum' style music video titled Friday with the enlightening lyrics explaining that Friday comes after Thursday and before Saturday.

Now, for some perspective gone mad, let me throw some more figures and factoids at you.  That 300-Thousand represents the number of people who say they "like" the video.  The 2.3 Million represents the number of people who "dislike" the video.  Bieber's video had roughly 635K likes and 1.3 M dislikes.  That is a 2 to 1 ratio.  Her ratio of dislikes to likes is 7 to 1.  Hers was the only video I could find in a review of the top 100 videos where the dislikes so far outweighed the likes.  She and Bieber were the only ones I could find, in fact, where there were more dislikes than likes, which says something about the polarizing reaction to their music.  For example, the second most watched video of all time is Lady Gaga's Bad Romance which has so far had 371-Million views but with 400-thousand likes versus 86-thousand dislikes.  Shakira's Freshly Ground which comes in at number three with 334-Million views, had 319-thousand Likes and only 16-thousand Dislikes.  Still (more perspective here), with 114 Million views, her video scored nearly twice as many views as teen idol Miley Cyrus's Can't Be Tamed (69 Million), significantly more than either of the two hits by teen idols the Jonas Brothers, Burning up (89 Million), and SOS (88 Million) or the very popular High School Musical 2 (64 Million) or even High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens (104 Million).  You can throw into that Lady Gaga's Born This way (68 Million) and Poker Face (79 Million), and virtually any of the Black Eyed Peas hits.  And it should be noted, the video Friday is available on iTunes where it had only 1,200 likes roughly.

Anyway, you get the point.  As an additional note, her video continues to rack up views.  By the time you read this, I'm sure the views have gone way beyond the 114 Million when I looked.  You can do a search for the video on YouTube, but let me warn you.  The video has generated so many parodies (many of which are getting Million views and more) that you may have trouble finding it.  Look for… seriously… the 'official video.'   As a side note, thanks to my students who prompted me to check on Rebecca Black's video after I had read about it elsewhere. And as a further side note thought, an examination of the top 100 videos on YouTube is an interesting sociological study in and of itself – some aspiring PhD candidate's thesis in waiting.  A final footnote, and sort of sad commentary, many of the comments you'll find on YouTube are pretty vicious and nasty and she has even received death threats.  Did I mention she's 13 years old?  And, oh, yes, she now has a publicist and a manager.

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN.  As long as I am on a youth kick, some interesting notes from Nielsen's State of the Media report.  Somewhat 'old news' but still worth noting, the average American watches 34 hours and 39 minutes of TV a week, an increase of two minutes year to year.  But here's what's interesting.  While older Americans (65+) watch the most television (47 hours and 33 minutes per week), teenagers (12 – 17) watch the least amount (23 hours and 41 Minutes a week).  Okay, maybe not too surprising, although I wonder if (in the early days of TV), teenagers watched more than other age groups.  Another thesis in the making.  The heaviest 'timeshifters' were adults 35 – 49 who timeshifted 3 hours and 8 minutes of TV a week.  That teenage group (12 – 17) also was the least interested in time shifting (averaging 1 hour and 31 minutes); 18 – 24 year olds were close behind (1 hour and 32 minutes).

Now, according to that same report, the number of mobile phone users (13+) in the U.S. is 228 Million, and nearly a third (31%) of those, use SmartPhones, with 83.2 Million of them mobile phone web users. Nielsen says 24.7 Million mobile subscribers watched video on their phone which is a 41% increase year to year.  They watched an average of 4 hours and 20 minutes of mobile video a month.  And you want to guess which age group watched the most mobile video… as if you have to guess.  Teenagers (12-17) watched an average of 7 hours and 13 minutes of mobile video a month.  As a side note, the average number of TV's per household in the U.S. is 2.5, but nearly a third (31%) have four or more TV's.

WOMEN VERSUS MEN IN MEDIA.  Based on some of the recent media reports, this could be a weekly feature on the Message. The latest, from Nielsen, shows that women are more 'engaged' online than men, spending more time on fewer sites than men.  They visit more social and community sites, and they watch more TV specials and award shows so they can engage in "community viewing" discussions.  And I will avoid any Mad Men era stereotype style jokes, but the report also finds that women talk more (28%) than men and text more (14%) than men.

THE ROYAL WEDDING.  A couple of quick media notes about the wedding.  One, Britain's Royal Family is providing its own coverage of the wedding via YouTube.  They will use video from the BBC, but use a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace in place of the BBC commentators.  The Royal Family will also provide a live blog and Twitter feeds (#rw2011).  Also, the Associated Press is also planning to offer a live feed of the ceremony, using LiveStream.   

PLUGGED AND UNPLUGGED.  As a sort of follow-up to last week's message on The World Unplugged study about 'addicted' student media users, a survey by Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania found that students spend an average of three hours a day tapping away on their cell phone keyboards.  It was a combination of Facebook, emailing and searching, but primarily texting.  The study reported by eCampusNews says regardless of the medium, the students "rarely" gave it their undivided attention.  As a further follow-up note, one of the professors here at the Grady College asked his class about the report's findings that students define news as personal information and world events.  Their reaction?  Yep, it's true.  And in the interest of setting the record straight, I didn't give credit to the lead researcher on The World Unplugged study.  Her name is Susan Moeller with the University of Maryland.

COCKTAIL CHATTER: Actually these aren't cocktail chatter items, so much as one-liners about things I read and wonder about.  For example, retail gianticus maximus Wal-Mart is getting into the social media business.  It bought social media platform Kosmix.com which searches and analyzes social content data by topic.  Hmmmm… wonder what that could mean. Yahoo is getting into the TV Upfront advertising business, with original video output aimed at getting some of those TV add dollars.  In a similar vein, online video ad network Digital Broadcast Group which started the Keifer Sutherland Web show The Confession is also offering up web shows similar to TV Upfront ad presentations.  Need more proof that online video providers are gunning for traditional TV dollars?  Facebook has created a sort of online ad agency called Facebook Studio aimed at helping 'participants' aka ad agencies produce effective Facebook pages for a client. Facebook is also getting into the lobbying business big time, hiring two lobbying groups and adding staff to its Washington office.  And I say big time because according to the Wall Street Journal, the company spent a measly $351,000 on lobbying last year.  And YouTube has set up a scholarship fund along with grants to find the next great video creators      

SUBSCRIPTIONS:  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 Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word "subscribe-MM" in the subject line.  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 - World Unplugged - April 18, 2011

This is a re-send of the weekly Message from Michael.  Because of a change-over in email services, some people did not get the message.  For those who are getting it a second time, my apologies.

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NEWS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

COMMERCIAL FREE DOESN'T MEAN PROMO FREE

CONFESSION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL

 

 

NEWS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.  And the beholders in this case are university students from around the world who apparently have a dramatically different definition of what is "news."  Yes, note the quotation marks.  According to a study led by the University of Maryland's International Center for Media and the Public Agenda, the students believe that the "everyday thoughts" of their friends count as news just as much as worldwide events.  Not only that but the nearly 1,000 students surveyed don't "discriminate" between news provided by The New York Times, the BBC, or Al Jazeera and what they find on a friend's Facebook status update.  News to them simply means 'something that just happened.'  The study is based on an experiment, similar to one done in the U.S. a year ago, in which students go "unplugged" from all media for one whole day.  Then they write about their experiences.   Just as other studies have found, this one found that the students are virtually addicted to the media.  The authors say that while it may not be a clinical diagnosis, the cravings, anxiety and depression "sure seem real" to the students.  In fact most of the students in the ten countries failed to go unplugged for a whole day (which may raise questions about the study validity), sometimes because of "moments of weakness," sometimes because of work demands but sometimes just because the media is so pervasive.  The study authors, who include researchers from nearly a dozen universities, noted semi-facetiously that if cartoonist Charles Schultz were drawing the character Linus today, he would be clinging to a mobile phone instead of a blanket.

The report notes what many other studies have noted, and that is that the young people are platform agnostic.  However, it says that the students have different groups of 'friends' for different types of devices, with their Facebook friends being slightly different from those they text, who are in turn slightly different from those they call and so on.  In effect they create different 'brand' identities based on the different communication tools.

For broadcasters, the report is a mixed message. The students say TV is still a favorite way to relax "without thinking too much," but that it is mainly "white noise."  Very few of them said anything about TiVo or other DVR systems, and while some of them talked about favorite shows, almost none of them talked in terms of "destination TV."  The students see music, regardless of its delivery system, as both critical to how they feel, using it to regulate their moods, but yet completely unnoticed at the same time.  It both enhances and shuts out the world they live in and then becomes "background news."

For the news media, the report is an even more mixed message.   There is so much news flooding them 24/7 that, the report authors say, "They inhale, almost unconsciously, the news."  It's news served up on the sidebar of their email accounts, on their friends' Facebook walls, or through Twitter.  They've become mostly headline readers who are happy getting their news in chunks of 140 characters.  Unless they are personally engaged, the students don't have the time nor the interest to follow up the news, no matter how momentous that news appears to be.  It's gotten to the point, the authors say, that "students no longer search for news (if they ever did), the news finds them."   Yet at the same time, the authors say students today have a much broader range of interest, but again because "the flood of information is so continuous, and the bandwidth already is so great that there isn't a hole of curiosity that needs to be filled."

The report is not without hope for the news media.  For example, the authors argue that "news" about friends and family can be a "Trojan horse" for media wanting to deliver local, national and world "news."  Yes, there are those quotation marks again.  They argue that journalists should "stop arguing there is a moral high ground to news" and just figure out how to meet their information needs.  And remember how I made the point in a previous Message that you would be hearing a lot about 'news curation.'  Well, guess what the report also argues – that there is tremendous need for news curation, "people and tools to make sense of the 24/7 influx of information."  Somebody needs to separate the dreck and dross and turn it into something digestible.  They argue that media literacy needs to be part of the core curriculum in universities around the world and that news curation, in particular, needs to be taught to journalism students.

COMMERCIAL FREE DOESN'T MEAN PROMOTION FREE.  Okay, is it just me, or has anybody else noticed that there has been an enormous increase in the number of self promotional spots (aka branding and image spots) on National Public Radio.  Everybody from their top journalists to Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers are extolling the virtues of the service.  Do you think it has anything to do with the effort to cut off federal funding?  Newsletter RBR/TVBR recently noted a campaign by a group calling itself Americans for Limited Government which is specifically targeting funding for public broadcasting with an online petition drive.  They've even asked, somewhat humorously, for equal time on NPR to make their case.  On top of that, a service called America's Radio News Network is offering itself as a commercial alternative to NPR. And that may be the real reason for the image spots.  ARNN, as the service refers to itself, makes no bones about the fact that NPR's "implosion" is an opportunity for them, because they offer the only long form alternative without what they call NPR's "perceived bias."  I don't know what it says about the service, but ARNN's catch phrase or slogan is "making, breaking and driving the news."  As a footnote and a reminder from previous Messages on the State of the News Media, NPR averages a weekly audience of more than 27 Million listeners, which is significantly bigger than the combined audiences of either the network news, and dramatically bigger than the combined audiences of cable news.  Also from the State of the News Media report, last year there were 3,446 radio stations which identified themselves news/talk/information – up from 2,634 the year before.  Yet only 30 are all news.  There were 268 NPR "member stations" last year, and 764 stations that carried some NPR programming, many of which (I didn't know) are religious broadcasters.

CONFESSION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL.  I am not a Diane Sawyer fan.  Never have been.  So, when she took over the anchor chair at ABC News, I was not expecting much.  I was wrong.  Thanks to former Atlanta ABC Bureau chief and fellow lecturer Steve Smith, I watched.  And, folks, there is a dramatic difference in the quality of the programming.  I meant to write about this some time ago when I watched their coverage out of China.  It managed to achieve the hard to achieve standard of being both interesting and informative.  Now, in the interest of equal time and so I can say you heard it here first, look for some significant changes in the CBS Evening News.  And I am not just talking about the anchor change.  60 Minutes Correspondent Scott Pelley who is considered the leading contender for the position visited the Grady College of Journalism.  According to him, the new chairman of news (isn't that a weird title?), Jeff Fager wants to see the evening newscast reflect the same quality as the critically and ratings acclaimed 60 Minutes.  Pelley says they are talking context and perspective, although he prefers the word 'insight.'  More importantly, he says, he wants to give the audience a sense of "wow, I didn't know that."    

   

Message from Michael -- Arbitron and Nielsen reports -- April 6, 2011

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        April 6, 2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

      A SEXTUPLE INCREASE

      LOVING IT

      EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF INTERNET USE

      TWITTER ME THIS

      EQUAL TIME

      FACTOID(S) OF THE WEEK – TV VIEWING

      WORTH NOTING – PEABODYS AND ADVERTISING

 

 

      A SEXTUPLE INCREASE.  Okay, sure, I could have used ‘six fold increase’ but haven’t we always been told that ‘sex sells’ even if the ‘sex’ in this case refers to six.  Anyway, that is the increase in the percentage of Americans using Facebook in just the past three years – from a mere 8% in 2008 to a munificent 51% now, according to The Infinite Dial report by Arbitron and Edison Research.  As amazing as that increase is, equally amazing is the increase in the percentage of Americans using SmartPhones.  That percentage more than doubled in only one year from one in seven (14%) of those 12 and older having a SmartPhone last year to one in three (31%) this year.  At 51%, the percentage of Americans using Facebook constitutes a ‘majority’ for the first time.  Even more interesting, the report notes that the greatest growth has been in the 35 to 54 demographic, so that Facebook “is on a trajectory to become a mainstream media platform.”  Another majority threshold crossed this year is the percentage of American households (also 51%) having two or more computers at home.  Between the computers, radio and television, Americans are spending more time than ever each day with media, with ‘self-reported daily usage’ at 8 hours and 11 minutes.  That’s up 20% over the last decade (from 6 hours and 51 minutes in 2001).  The point is new media usage doesn’t necessarily have to displace old media usage.

      LOVING IT.  And we’re not talking about McDonald’s.  No, we’re talking iPhones and iPads, satellite radio and Pandora.  When it comes to devices, two thirds (66%) of Americans say they “love” their iPhones; more than half (53%) “love” their iPads.  The Android SmartPhones weren’t far behind (49%), nor were regular SmartPhones (48%), or DVR’s (also 48%).  When it comes to media platforms, more than two thirds (39%) “love” satellite radio and an almost equal amount (32%) “love” the Pandora music service.  Not that far behind were Facebook (27%), Television (26%) and YouTube (24%).  The analysts then calculated the percentage of people who “love” a device or medium against the percentage of the U.S. population using the device or medium to come up with what they called “passionate users.”  Using that method, the hands-down winner was Television with a quarter of the U.S. (26%) being “passionate users” followed by AM/FM radio with a fifth (21%).  Further behind were Facebook (14%), YouTube (12%) and, interestingly, (to me at least) Online Video (10%)  But here’s the kicker:  although the Infinite Dial report makes clear that traditional media still holds a dominant and cherished place in Americans’ lives, when given the choice, six out of ten (58%) “non-iPhone” (an important distinction) SmartPhone users would rather give up their TV than their SmartPhone.

      EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF INTERNET USE.  The question is – does faster Internet speed mean more time spent online.  According to a study of nine countries by Nielsen, the answer is a tentative yes.  Those with the slowest speeds tended to spend the least time and those with the fastest speeds spent the most time, but the differences were not that great.  For example, in the U.S., those with the fastest speeds (8 Mbps or more) spent 25 hours, 48 minutes and 11 seconds online, while those with the slowest speeds (512 Kbps or less) spent 25 hours, 33 minutes and 4 seconds online.  The countries with the greatest differences were Australia, the United Kingdom and Spain.  Roughly half (47%) of the Internet connections in the nine countries surveyed are at ‘fast’ speeds (2Mbps to 8Mbps) while a fifth are at the ‘super fast’ rate.  A fourth (26%) are at ‘medium’ speeds (512Kb to 2Mb) and less than a tenth (8%) are at slow speeds  As a footnote, the Internet World Statistics report shows that there are now more than 2 Billion Internet users worldwide.  North America has the highest penetration rate (78.8%), ahead of Europe (58.4%); while Africa has the lowest (11.4%), behind Asia (22.8%)                 

      TWITTER ME THIS.  Just because you have a lot of followers on Twitter doesn’t mean you have a lot of influence, according to a study by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.  Yes, that is a real honest-to-goodness association.  The study says it is true, and obvious, that the most followed users were public figures, celebrities and major news sources.  Refer back to my previous Messages – the one about Lady Gaga being the top Twitterer with more than 9 Million followers or the one about Charlie Sheen garnering more than 3 Million followers in a short time.  In fact, out of the millions of Twitter users worldwide, the report says there are only 233 of what it called “all time influentials” meaning they have broad impact.  The report also identified ‘topical influentials’ individuals who become major influencers when the topic they focus on becomes the topic of strong news coverage.  The report makes the point that influencers become influencers through “concerted effort (and) great personal involvement (and by) posting creative and interesting tweets.”  As a side note, the Infinite Dial report noted that while 92% of Americans are familiar with Twitter, only eight percent use it.  And as a foot note, to give credit where credit is due, this report was first brought to my attention by the Journalist’s Resource of the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard.      

      EQUAL TIME.  The FCC doesn’t mandate equal time provisions in my message, but in the interests of balance, and because many analysts believe the future of media is going to be a battle between Google and Facebook, let me make some points about Google.  First and foremost, and proof, that the search giant is getting ready to take on Facebook, according to many analysts, is that Google has launched its own version of the Facebook “like” button called “+1” – Plus One.  It adds a ‘social layer’ to the search, although the question is what is the social network added, besides the various Google services like Gmail, Talk, Buzz and Reader.  Website SEOchat.com says it is still debatable whether Facebook should be worried.  Google is also getting into the custom publishing business with the launch of its new online magazine, Think.  And although Google still faces an uphill legal battle in its effort to create a worldwide digital library, it has successfully launched its worldwide art project.  And it is ‘way cool.’  Go to googleartproject.com to tour some of the greatest museums in the world and see some of the greatest paintings in the world.  As I say, ‘way cool.’      

BTW X 2:  The Google Plus One service is not yet generally available, but if you want to test it out, go here -- http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html.  Also, an interesting factoid about Facebook.  According to a report by The Daily Telegraph of Australia, quoting Facebook’s chief privacy adviser, the company removes 20,000 users every day who are under the site’s age limit of 13.
 

      FACTOID(S) OF THE WEEK.  According to a release by NielsenWire, the average American watches five hours and 11 minutes of Television a day with African Americans watching more (7 hours and 12 minutes) and Asians watching less (3 hours and 14 minutes).  Whites watch an average of five hours and two minutes while Hispanics average four hours and 35 minutes.  African Americans play video games more (16 minutes a day versus a U.S. average of 13 minutes) and use DVD’s more (18 minutes versus 15 minutes) but Whites make greater user of DVR’s (27 minutes versus an average of 24 minutes).

      WORTH NOTING:  The announcement of the winners of the Peabody Awards has already been covered extensively, but I would be remiss if I did not send out a congratulatory note to the local television stations that won awards for their news reports.  Three of the station winners probably wouldn’t surprise most broadcast journalists – WTHR/ Indianapolis, WFAA/ Dallas, KSTP/ Minneapolis.  All are powerhouse stations with a strong commitment to investigative journalism.  A special congratulations though should go to the surprise winner -- ‘little’ WILL-TV, the Public Broadcasting Station in Champaign/ Central Indiana for their report – “The Lord is not on trial here”, examining the landmark court case about the separation of church and state.  Not anywhere near in the same category, but at least worth noting is the launch of the anchor-less news at KIAH, Houston.

      ALSO NOTEWORTHY:  Especially since it hasn’t been getting that much coverage, is the ‘new approach to television advertising and buying’ by CBS.  In their new model, the standard using demographics of age and sex is thrown out as “essentially invalid,” according to chief CBS Research officer David Poltrack.  Instead they segment the consumers according to viewing habits.  Poltrack says the data shows there is “no link, none” between advertising campaigns targeting specific age and sex groups, and the actual sales generated by such campaigns.    Admittedly, this does not seem like the kind of story normally in the Message, but this is such a radical departure from past practice that it is worth noting.  Now the question is – will the network be able to ‘sell’ their new approach in the face of the long-standing, built-in bias toward demographic data.      

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  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 Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.  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 - Twitter - March 30, 2011

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        March 30, 2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

      THE TITAN TODDLER KNOWN AS TWITTER

      THE GOOGLE OF INTERNET MOVIES

      FACTOID OF THE WEEK – BILLIONS OF VIDEO

      COCKTAIL CHATTER – BILLIONS OF STARS

 

 

      THE TITAN TODDLER KNOWN AS TWITTER.  Having just celebrated its fifth birthday, that’s what Twitter would be considered in human terms… a toddler.  But this is one ginormous toddler.  Hard to believe it’s just five years old, especially when you look at some numbers.  For example, after founder/ creator Jack Dorsey sent his first tweet on March 21, 2006, it took three years, two months and a day to reach a Billion tweets, and more than 18 months to reach the half Million mark in subscribers.  Now, according to its blog site, there are a Billion tweets posted every week and more than half a Million new accounts added every day.  A year ago, the service was averaging 50 Million Tweets a day.  Last month it averaged 140 Million Tweets a day.  The land speed record in Tweets came the day Michael Jackson died when there were 456 “tweets per second.”  The new record was set four seconds after Midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day when there were 6,939 “tweets per second.”  More pragmatically, the company has gone from eight employees three years ago to 400 employees now, which is still remarkably low considering the volume of messages.

There are 366 Twitterers with more than a Million followers, according to unofficial but semi-official website, twittercounter.com.  Most of those are  -- no surprise, no surprise – celebrities; Lady Gaga -- no surprise, no surprise -- tops the list with more than 9.1 Million followers, semi-closely followed by -- no surprise, no surprise -- Justin Bieber with 8.4 Million followers.  Britney Spears comes in third (7.3 Million), followed by President Barack Obama (7.2 Million) and Kim Kardashian (7 Million).  The first non-human to make the top list is Twitter itself at number 12, with 4.7 Million followers.  Interestingly, Twitter en Espanol comes in 14^th with 4.4 Million followers.  And, yes, it would be easy to dismiss some of the Twitter hype when you look at the celebrity-dominated top 100 list.  But then we’re reminded of the role Twitter played in Iraq and Egypt and Haiti.  In fact, the Haiti Earthquake came in number four in the list of top Twitter trends of 2010.  The top issue Tweeted was the Gulf Oil Spill.  Of course Justin Bieber and Pulpo Paul, the Nostradamus Octopus who predicted the World Soccer Cup winner, also made the list.  And then again, you learn about people through Twitter that you might never have heard of – such as Wired Magazine’s recently profiled Rafinha Bastos, Brazil’s answer to Jon Stewart.  A comedian and journalist with 1.8 Million followers – a fact even more remarkable when you consider he tweets in Portuguese.  Then again, there’s Rebecca Black, a 13-year-old singer from Orange County, California, who has made the Twitter ‘hot’ topic list as well as Facebook where her song has been viewed…. drum roll, please… 46 Million times.

Disclaimer:  I am on Twitter (#MessageMichael), but I have not really adopted it, like you would expect some tech savvy, cool, with-it kind of person to do. Proving that I am not as tech savvy, cool or with-it as I probably should be.  I keep promising myself to do better.  But to show that I am not a complete Luddite, business-focused social networking site LinkedIn recently announced that it has passed the 100 Million user mark.  And I, along with thousands of others, received a nice little email, noting the milestone and thanking me for my involvement.  No big deal there… but, in the email, it noted that I was member number 168,043.  So, see, I am an early adopter… on some things.

      THE GOOGLE OF INTERNET MOVIES.  A recent report from market research firm NPD Group shows that Netflix has become the Godzilla of paid (a very important word) movie providers online.  The report says that Netflix accounts for six out of every (sort of, but not really) ten movies streamed or downloaded.  The group has since had to clarify that report to say its measurements do not include free movie services, like Hulu, or movie services that come with your subscription, like HBO on-demand.  It does include Electronic Sell Through (a concept I am still trying to understand) along with IVOD (Internet Video on Demand) as well as “transactional” purchases of movies – in other words movies that aren’t part of your package deal.  Even with those qualifications, the bottom-line is that Netflix has become ginormous.  (Yeah, I had to use that word again.) And here’s a tip for you future movie mogul investors – Aspera.  As reported by Beet.TV, the small, and at this point privately-funded, start-up has become the standard bearer for delivering movies for all the big companies in Hollywood and everywhere.  The reason is it has developed a protocol for delivering huge files faster than FTP and other TCP-type protocols.  The company offers a ‘consumer’ version of its software for smaller publishers and journalists.  As a side note, while trying to figure out what EST is, I came across this interesting factoid.  The Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Torino, is Warner Brothers Home Entertainment’s most successful VOD movie, garnering $60 Million in sales worldwide, compared to the $148 Million it took in at the Box Office.      

      FACTOID OF THE WEEK.  According to a study by Intel Corporation, by the year 2015, there will be 500 Billion hours of video the Internet.  I say this way too often, but I’m going to say it again anyway – Think about that.  500 Billion Hours.  That’s more than 70 hours of video for every man, woman and child on Planet Earth.  On a very similar note, according to product manager Hunter Walk of YouTube, if the three major U.S. Networks were to have broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the past 60 years, they still wouldn’t have broadcast as much content as is uploaded to YouTube every 30 days.  Now, ain’t that a wowser of a factoid?  In an interview with TechCrunch, he says there are 35 hours of video uploaded every minute.  That’s up from 24 hours a minute just a few months ago.  And YouTube provides Two Billion playbacks every day.  And from a previous Message, this factoid reminder – ten years ago it cost $300 to transfer a Gigabyte of video over the Internet; Today it costs about 30 cents.  A disclaimer here.  The first figure attributed to Intel is cited by Internet backbone provider Cisco in a report on its efforts to keep up with the growing demand.  I have not seen the original cite.         

      COCKTAIL CHATTER.  Somewhere about 11 Billion miles from earth, there are two space ships winging their way through outer space carrying two records made of gold-plated copper.  The records contain a variety of sounds, ranging from a dog barking to a chimpanzee’s call, along with music ranging from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto to Chuck Berry belting out Johnny B. Goode; Peruvian wedding music to a Navajo night chant; photographs of everything from a plane taking off to an astronaut walking in space; and diagrams showing the atoms making up DNA and maps of Earth.  A recent article in the progressive magazine, Utne Reader, noted that the first craft, Voyager 1 just recently passed a key barrier, the official edge of our solar system, meaning that it has “broken free of their human influence and moved one step closer to unknown worlds.”  The record was put aboard the craft at its launch in – get this – 1977.  It was part of a project by astrophysicist Carl Sagan.  This is the same person who created SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.) Coincidentally I was reading some old columns by newspaper humorist Dave Barry, one of which was about the Celistis Group which created a project in 1984 whereby you could launch your cremated ashes into space.  Astronaut Gordon Cooper and Star Trek actor James Doohan (aka “Scotty”) have been launched into space.  Much to my surprise, upon investigation, it turns out the project is still going with the next launch scheduled for May of this year.  BTW, costs range from $695 to have your ashes just flown around the earth to $9,995 to be ‘buried’ on the moon and $12,500 to be sent into ‘deep outer space.’

      MORE COCKTAIL CHATTER.  Mama Mia, MTV’s Jersey Shore ‘dropped’ to a season low in the last couple of weeks, but with more than 6.6 Million viewers, it is still one of the most popular series on basic cable.  But when MTV introduced the series about young Italian Americans to Italy, the homeland of my father BTW, it caused an outrage, with one columnist saying it perpetuated the worst stereotypes of Italians, “multiplied a thousand times and Americanized.”  As I write this, I should note that I am wearing my cornicello (Italian horn of plenty) around my neck to protect me from the evil eye.        

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  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 Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.  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 - State of the News Media - Part Three

STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA – PART THREE

 

 

KEY QUESTIONS FACING DIGITAL NEWS:  That is the headline from the Online News section of the report.  Yes, no cute headline this time.  Let's face it.  The ones from the two previous parts were a bit of a stretch.  Anyway, the key questions are a dose of reality for news operations trying to create, if not predict, their future.  In brief, the report notes "money will, to a large degree, determine where things are going" AND "advertising alone will never generate the revenue traditional media generated."  One word keeps popping up throughout – sustainability.  Yes, as reported earlier, total online ad revenues (which includes Web and Digital advertising) jumped ahead of newspaper print advertising (by $2 Billion), but that growth is not necessarily associated with news.  On top of which, news is competing for advertising dollars in a world in which there are a lot of competitors… or frenemies (a word the report doesn't use)… or even possible partners.  Search still accounts for the lion's share (48%) while banner and display ads normally connected with news are still small.  Video ads are the fastest growing area, and have potential, but they still make up an even smaller part of online advertising -- $1.4 Billion; Or put another way, one-tenth of search and only five percent of the online total.  The report makes the case for "targeted display" as an option for online news advertising.  Targeted display is what I think of as contextual or behavioral advertising – using search habits, demographics, location and past behavior to target ads to a target audience.  "In theory" the authors say, online news could make use of such advertising approaches because they already know a lot about their customers and they are trusted.

The battlefield will be in local online ad spending which now accounts for 40% of all online ad spending – up from 34% a year ago.  Theoretically, traditional news operations would have an advantage since much of the news traffic online goes to them.  But it doesn't quite work that way.  Again, there are other competitors for online attention such as portals, search engines and other information providers.  And, again, much of the digital agenda is being set by third parties – device makers and software developers. Two prime examples are Apple and Google which control much of the content and advertising, allowing others only limited use, the report says.  An interesting side note to this is that the report says Google is much friendlier than Apple.  Only further complicating the issue is the fact, noted earlier, that the three major online measurement firms (Nielsen, comScore, HitWise) all use "different methods of counting." On a positive note, a reminder that a third (34%) say they got news 'yesterday' online – up five percentage points from a year ago.

As to mobile and applications… well, another reality check.  Apple has more than 350,000 applications.  Android has more than 90,000.  Of all the mobile and tablet owners, just 13% have used an app for local news and information.  That equates to one percent of the American population.  And of that, only 10% have actually paid for that app. Reality checks hurt, don't they?  That's not to dismiss the possibility.  After all 18-29 year olds are making greater use of apps, and, again, nearly half of mobile users (47%) say they got "some kind of news and information' from their mobile device – almost double the year before (26%).

 THE WAL-MART OF NEWS:  They didn't use that analogy but that seemed to be the implication of the analysis of AOL's move into online news. Right now, the AOL properties 'only' get an average of 3 Million unique visitors a month.  By way of comparison, the Web's most trafficked news website, Yahoo News, gets 94 Million unique visitors a month. Website Topix, which relies totally on aggregation, had 7 Million unique visitors.  So, it may seem a little premature to use that analogy.  The difference though is that AOL is staking a lot on original content creation.  Yahoo has started back into original content creation, hiring a dozen journalists, but it has had a mixed history of starting and stopping such efforts.  Still, its latest efforts have paid off with a 300% increase in original content.  Of course, that means it went from one percent original content the year before to four percent in the last year.  The vast majority (96%) is still aggregated content.  AOL, on the other hand, increased its original content six times over from seven percent in 2009 to 42% last year.

On top of which, AOL bought, or merged with, depending on your perspective, The Huffington Post.  It is a move which (my interpretation) the report seems to question.  For example, it notes that The Post had revenues of $31 Million versus AOL's $2.4 Billion.  AOL already had many more national journalists than Huffington which had all of four reporters in 2009 and a projected 18 last year out of a total of 70 to 80 mostly "curators and editors."  AOL was #3 or #4 in traffic versus The Post's #8.  The report says that what Huffington does have is an 'upward growth trajectory' and (somewhat worrisome, to me at least) "an ideological orientation that AOL did not."  In any case, the report notes in the Digital section that AOL's Patch has websites in 800 towns and communities, soon to be 1,000.  The author of the Community News section says the AOL News Network "casts a long shadow on the local news landscape." By way of perspective, the report does note that a similar venture, BackFence, failed after struggling for three years, in part because of what the report called an "unavoidable reality" – local news is expensive to produce and the audience for any one piece is limited.       

 As a side note, here's a question for you Message readers – is it just me, or is the report's  discussion of Tina Brown's appointment as editor of the combined Newsweek/Daily Beast operation dripping with sarcasm?  It notes that Brown, "the creator of the money-losing Daily Beast" brought with her… "a digital brand… a famous magazine resume, major marketing presence… (she is, they note, and in their words) "a media celebrity"… as well as financial backing from Billionaire Barry Diller.

CONVERTING COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS INTO CASH.  If you read only one section of the report, besides the overview, read the Community News section by Michelle McLellan.  Maybe it's because I was reading it at 4 a.m. after four cups of coffee, but I just found this part fascinating.  It's a combination of reality check and real hope.  The reality check – we have been "spoiled into believing" that journalism is such an important public good that people "were bound to open their wallets for it despite evidence to the contrary."  The fact is there are too many people focusing on content and dreaming that their next grant is just around the corner.  The real hope – discovering and providing what customers value.  Here the fact is there are not enough people focusing on digital innovation and trying different business models.  The point, she says, is that finding success means experimentation… as in, (though she doesn't use this often-used phrase) – fail fast and move on.  News operations need to have multiple revenue streams.  I would add (commentary) – one, that just doesn't apply to community news operations, and, two, that all news operations need to be community news operations.  She quotes the folks at community website, St. Louis Beacon, who make the point that… they're not an online newspaper but an "engine of engagement"… (which just doesn't) toss information at people but figures out how to serve them… in community conversations.. meeting new people in respectful, intelligent conversations."  And before you think I've gone over the deep edge, they say these relationships apply to advertisers and sponsors as well as readers and users.

One other point -- for my journalism education brethren, McLellan says:  "if the real job is to help journalism survive, then entrepreneurship, business literacy and community engagement needs to be as much a part of the curriculum as multimedia and digital literacy." 

THINGS I MISSED WORTH MENTIONING:  First, two firsts I missed.  For the first time, more online listeners (55%) report listening to online only audio (like Pandora and Slacker Radio) than to the streams of radio stations.  Also, for the first time, the Internet became the #1 platform of choice for news among 18 – 29 year olds in 2010.  It was the #2 choice among 30-49 year olds.  Okay, now in no particular order, the other things I missed mentioning in the two previous reports: 

According to an RTNDA survey, there are 224 stations running news produced by another station, although I have to say I sort of mentioned this in a previous report but without the specifics.  Newspaper websites reach a larger audience in 50 of the top markets, with local TV tops in 14 of those markets.  In talking about newspapers' declining revenues, the report notes that half of that decline comes from shrinking ad volume and half from declining ad rates.  Despite fears, private equity owners of media have not made substantial changes any different from traditional publisher/ owners.  And credit to the report authors for honesty, their prediction or 'possibility raising' that local owners would step in to save or salvage city news operations has not happened.  In the section about the networks' morning news shows, an important distinction is made between ratings and share.  In actual fact, the morning news has grown among people who are actually watching, but there are fewer people watching anything at those times.  There were 196 magazines started in 2010, while 176 folded.  The year before, a whopping 596 magazines folded.  Even after all its cuts, the publishers of Newsweek estimated that it cost them $17 on average to acquire a new subscriber.       

And in the area of things I didn't know (and, yes, I could fill a whole Message with that):  Retransmission fees make up an average of seven percent of the revenue for local stations.  (I should note that the networks want to get a piece of that pie back.)  This one was something of a surprise  --  According to the report, CBS News only broke even last year.  And more of a shock than a surprise, 'little' CNBC generates nearly as much revenue ($722.9 Million) as the entire broadcast division ($850 Million.)  BTW, for some reason, I didn't see any exact figures for profitability for ABC News, although there was a lot in the report about its expense cutting efforts. 

DISCLAIMER -- AGAIN:  A repeat but worth repeating -- the report contains a wealth of information, and my summaries, in all probability, do not do its justice.