the newspaper business

Somehow Advertising Age started showing up uninvited at my house. I used to be a faithful reader, but it just became so irrelevant to the newspaper business, I quit reading a couple decades ago.

Just a couple issues convinced me I’m still right in my assessment.

Here’s what the Editor-in-Chief Rance Crain wrote in commenting on a moratorium on big pharma consumer advertising:

And we’re going to see ads for diseases we never knew were a problem (restless-leg syndrome, anyone?)

and…

Take Avodart — please. Apparently, some “guys” (as they are always called) have the problem of an enlarged prostate, which forces them to make frequent trips to the bathroom. The ads for the drug show some poor guy interrupting important work, such as making scaled-down versions of planets (to go with a scaled-down prostate, get it?), to rush for the bathroom, to the annoyance of his fellow workers. My take on this problem is if nature wants you to relieve yourself on a frequent basis, maybe it’s not a bad idea.

So I responded:

Dear EIC,

Your ignorant comment about Restless Legs Syndrome “diseases we never knew were a problem” is just foolish. First, it’s not a disease, it’s a condition. It’s real. For you to make light of it just hacks me off. You further back up your ignorance saying “guys” have enlarged prostates (is this news to you? - you are aware that only guys have prostates, right?) Avodart is not needed according to you because if nature wants you to pee a lot, it’s OK. You want nature to run your body? Have a nice day Cancer Boy!
Cancel my free subscription.
(I guess somebody thought since I was in the newspaper business I would be interested in reading what Rupert Murdoch’s top dog, et al think. I don’t.) And since there were at least three other stories in the same issue that I thought were pretty stupid, I don’t need the grief of dealing with such ignorance and stupidity through your thin little journal.

PS: Are you SO important that your email address doesn’t NEED to appear along with your mug shot or column?

Big pharma’s direct to consumer advertising is wasteful and adds to the cost of drugs. It should be curtailed, just like cigarette advertising was curtailed. That’s not my point at all. RLS advertising direct to consumer IS a perfect point since it’s estimate that only 3% of adults have RLS, so why spend millions on advertising.

But Crain should stick to writing about advertising without his lame asides casting aspersions on medical conditions.

“N² 2.0″
Now I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.

I’ve read a number of tech bloggers who are crying in their beer because U.S. Citizens don’t seem to want “broadband” as much as it seems.

Broadband adoption has kept even pace with previous years, but stalled among America’s poor, according to a report released this week.

or some variation is usually the lead paragraph in the story.

I can understand laypeople (like me) using the term “broadband” to mean fast access. But people like ConnectKentucky use the term as the equivalent to DSL. To ConnectKentucky, there are two kinds of access: dial-up and broadband.

In fact, the FCC recently recognized that if the lawmakers listened to ConnectKentucky and Connected Nation, all seems right in the U.S. internet world. Of course, it’s not. The U.S. is woefully behind other industrialized nations when it comes to moving data.

Of course the FCC was using the definitions most favorable to the telecos.

It was using the definitions the global telecom industry always has used. It’s just that the relevant standards bodies haven’t changed those definitions to reflect what actually is happening in the market.

But things are changing for the better, it’s just that the tech blogs are kinda slow to pick up on it. (Except for the MSM blogger! - a dead newspaper no less!)

The FCC has finally revised its definition of broadband Internet — which had grow, ahem, somewhat outdated.

In the past, the agency said you had broadband Internet if you got just 200 kilobits per second in either direction. From now on, it will use a more ambitious and more nuanced set of definitions:
* “First Generation data:” 200 Kbps up to 768 Kbps
* “Basic Broadband:” 768 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps

And from there, the FCC will keep track of the number of homes that get service in each of six higher speed tiers:
* 1.5 Mbps to < 3.0 Mbps
* 3.0 Mbps to < 6.0 Mbps
* 6.0 Mbps to < 10.0 Mbps
* 10.0 Mbps to < 25.0 Mbps
* 25.0 Mbps to < 100.0 Mbps
* 100.0 Mbps +

The agency will also make ISPs disclose the number of homes they serve at what speed, in which locations. They’ll also have to provide more detailed maps as to where they do and don’t offer service.

This system superscedes one that let ISPs say they “served” a zip code with broadband Internet if they offered more than 200 kbs to any one home in that zip code.

(Emphasis mine.) Hopefully all this crap ConnectKentucky and ConnectedNation has been spreading about how wonderful states are doing in providing internet access to citizens will slow.

My position is that access to the internet is too important to be left to the private sector. Access should be treated like infrastucture: law enforcement, roads, bridges, fire protection, sewer, water, electricity. Cities should move now to buy out existing cablecos and use tax money to provide access to the internet.

Like other infrastruture, some communities will spend more than others. Some may elect to go with the low end, while others (the smart ones ) will realized investing in the highest speed access to the internet is a tremendous economic driver.

Access to the internet is too important to leave to investors who expect an ROI.

Did we mention we don’t have any openings? If we do, the pay will be substantially below what we are paying now? The model for the new newspaper of the future, converging TV and newspaper newsrooms is now on it’s last legs.

Here’s a copy of a memo Tampa Tribune photographers received by email today from management:

“Based on the information that we received yesterday, here is some information you need to be most aware of.

1) ALL photography department employees will need to reapply for their job positions. This will probably take place in the next 2weeks.

2) The photo staffs of WFLA & the Tribune will merge (not surewhat that looks like or means exactly).

3) The Pasco community section will publish 5 days a week(Wednesday – Sunday) not 7 days a week as they currently do.

4) The remainder of the community sections will publish once aweek, not twice as they currently do.

5) 10 individuals will be let go in eight weeks or less. Some of which will likely be management positions.

6) If you apply for a position and are not accepted for that position, we were told that you would still receive the buy-out package.”

Source: Shoptalk

My friend Rick made this video. He did a heckuva job researching the law and offering his opinion in a very dignified way.
If you agree, please link back, or embed the video.

Before, during, or after? Pop up opaque banner over the video or product placement? It’s here, and there will be more video ads because video is hot and getting hotter. Google is putting Family Guy on a few thousand blogs.  The video will be served thru their AdSense system and be about a minute or two long.

So back to the question.

I think advertisers are missing a huge product placement opportunity in online video. There is a concern by mainstream companies that their video ad may be placed alongside content that is not in keeping with their brand. Like showing Victoria’s Secret ads anytime on NBC, or ED pills anytime on CBS, or feminine sanitary products anytime on ABC. Mainstream advertisers are afraid of Youtube. So they need more control.

Remember, although Youtube is the killer, there are some great high quality, larger image video programs being produced and shown on Vimeo, Brightcove, Revver, Daily Motion, and more.

Contextual video is here and getting stronger. But traditional video doesn’t work online. People are in control, so they click away from the ads.

Product placement is the answer. Mainstream advertisers can reach out to mainstream video producers and make the deal. Edgy advertisers can reach out and make the deal.

But there still are people inside the box.

The big issue would be whether the product placement was disclosed or not in some way that would be obvious to viewers. Brook Hinton says product placements need to be disclosed at the start of the video or else he considers them even more tasteless than ads.

It’s NOT an issue - don’t disclose. Give the viewer some credit for some brains. At the end of the Highway Patrol tv programs, there was a line that said: Ford Motor provided automobiles for Broderick Crawford. No animals were injured in the making of this program, etc. etc.

Was this necessary then? No. Do they still do it today? I dunno. I’m not even sure they have credits on broadcast tv anymore.

To feel the urge to disclose that Mr. Crawford was compensated to drink Dr Pepper and use iPhone is kinda ridiculous, right? Viewers either 1. don’t care or 2. already knew that.

Give me a scenario that would be so outrageous, so devious,  that product placement disclosure would give you a clue.

This one is student produced.

This summer, the School of Broadcasting and Journalism at Western Kentucky University hosted a workshop in conjunction with the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund that helps students learn to produce content for the web.

Story: Text and art

Video: High quality, well produced

Map: Interactive

Graphics: Chart

Timeline: Interactive with photos and text.

Congratulations to Nick Bergus, Olivia Hubert-Allen, Mathilde Piard, Michelle Rindels. Just one thing missing… and “about us” page!

There are three other multimedia stories here.

 I’m anxious to see electronic paper in person. I hope I get the chance since it appears to be the future of newspapers.

Electronic paper technology, one of the newspaper industry’s most exciting innovations, could be available to newspapers as early as 2009. Ryosuke Kuwata, vice president of E Ink Corp’s Asia Pacific region, revealed today in an interview that developers are getting close to unveiling the technology.

I’m not sure I buy this assertion:

Kuwata says US newspaper companies have been ahead of the game, pursuing electronic newspaper technology before Japanese companies. European papers, he says, have “just began to move.”

If they are “ahead of the game” they are keeping awfully quiet about it. Since there is no competitive advantage to being the “first”  seems that news would be pouring out.

If you are interested in how this might impact newspapers, click here.

Agency wants bigger bus fleet
GO bg seeks $878,000 in grants

Agency wants bigger bus fleet
GO bg seeks $878,000 in tax money

Which is more accurate? I wish the Daily News would stop referring to money obtained from taxing citizens as “grants.”

Earmarking is starting to gain some traction as being a no-no at the federal level.  Earmarks are special projects slipped into highly important,  sure-to-pass legislation at the last minute. But these “earmarks” at the federal level become grants at the local level.

The transition from “bad” (earmark) to “good” (grant) is made possible by your local newspaper.

BTW: neither of our Senators are disclosing their earmarks, nor revealing if they have any earmarks.

Lou Heldman is Distinguished Senior Fellow in Media Management and Journalism at Wichita State University. He is retired president and publisher of the Wichita Eagle and Kansas.com.

In nine months since I was carried from the bloody arena of the newspaper business and ascended to the ivory tower, I’ve gained this perspective: Most newspapers don’t need the best new idea to grow their classifieds business. They mostly need to get better at executing what they already know. 

He then offers his “wish I would have done it” list.PS: just to clarify, I am a newspaper relic too!