• MediaNews To Test Home-Printed News
    MediaNews is preparing to put its personalized newspaper to the test in real homes in Denver. On June 3, the "Individuated News" product is being offered in conjunction with the installation of printers in 25 Denver households and the rooms of 60 guests at a Marriott Residence Inn. By August, MediaNews expects to install I-News printers in 300 homes in Los Angeles, where it publishes the Los Angeles Daily News. Subscribers to I-News will get home delivery of a printed paper, through home printers or portable devices, with content personalized to their demands and including hyper-targeted advertising and …
  • 'NYT' Juicing Up Digital Ads with Edit
    The New York Times has realized that newspapers and magazines can't wait for Madison Avenue to create lucrative new ad models online. The paper is leading a charge among big newspapers and magazines to create digital ads that interweave marketing images with editorial content and respected journalism brands. In the past month, the Times has unveiled a real-time news wire feature wrapped in ads for software outfit SAP. It has also crafted a Web campaign for the AMC series Mad Men, which includes a mini-archive of Times articles about the show within the ad unit. Online ads …
  • More Households Cut the Cord on Cable
    More people are joining the ranks of "cord cutters" by forgoing cable TV subscriptions that can run $60 or more a month. In response, cable companies are beginning to experiment with new Internet services. Some people are turning to free over-the-air high-definition television channels and video-game consoles for their TV viewing. Others are watching Internet-connected TV sets, paying a basic high-speed Internet fee of about $45, and using set-top boxes from companies like Netflix. Some are also using free media browsers that provide access to TV shows and movies on the PC. But Web TV doesn't offer as …
  • Too Much Reality May Hurt 'Jon & Kate'
    Out-rating every network program on Monday, "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" on TLC caught the public's imagination due to tabloid tales of inferred infidelity by both Jon and Kate Gosselin. At the same time, the mainstream press is pressing for answers on whether it is appropriate for the couple to be publicly brooding over their marriage instead of looking after their brood. Compared with a conventional soap opera such as "Young and the Restless," TLC's young and restless couple is today's generation's soap opera. With the show's 9.8 million viewers, the traditional trade-off of low-cost but low-rated reality …
  • Newspaper Rivals Meet About Online Subscriptions
    The nation's top newspaper executives gathered in a quiet, closed-door session at a Chicago O'Hare airport hotel yesterday to discuss charging for online content and protecting their intellectual property. The secretive meeting was first made public yesterday by former Chicago Tribune managing rditor James Warren on The Atlantic's Web site. Editor & Publisher reporters tracked down the group holding discussions in the Hilton Hotel at O'Hare. The summit was initiated by the Newspaper Association of America in response to the recent hearings on Capitol Hill. John Sturm, the NAA's CEO, says the group discussed intellectual property rights and …
  • Murdoch Says No to Bailout
    News Corp CEO and newspaper empire builder Rupert Murdoch showed up on the Fox Business Network (which he owns) to say his papers will not take bailout money to help them stay afloat. His U.S. papers include The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and the Ottaway chain of local dailies. "We would never take money from the government," said Murdoch. To do so would mean the papers would "give up our freedoms to criticize and to play our full role in the community. Nothing that the News owns will ever take money from the government and …
  • ESPN, Disney To Open Innovation Lab
    Disney World and ESPN are building a media research facility at the Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. The "ESPN Innovation Lab," will allow the cable-sports giant to test virtual graphics and other new tools during events at Disney's sports venues. ESPN believes the venue is an ideal spot to test and tweak new broadcasting concepts during actual in-game conditions. New applications developed at the lab could be similar to the strike-zone graphics used during baseball games or the "EA Virtual Playbook" that ESPN has used in its football and basketball coverage. The lab, which is …
  • BBC To Launch U.S. Kids' Channel
    BBC Worldwide has moved a step closer to fulfilling its ambition of launching a TV channel for children in the U.S. Susanna Pollack has been charged with spearheading the launch of an English-language CBeebies channel in the U.S. Pre-school-oriented CBeebies is a huge success in the U.K. and the BBC is keen to roll out the channel in the potentially lucrative U.S. market, but it has had difficulties with distribution. Based in New York, Pollack will also be responsible for growing other BBC Worldwide's children's program brands in both North and South America. In a related move, …
  • CNBC Examines 'The Oprah Effect'
    CNBC is doing a special called "The Oprah Effect" today about how companies get their wares onto the Queen of Consumer Culture's show. A mention on Oprah Winfrey's show can make a product sell like mad. The documentary tells about folks who tried for seven years to get on the show and who were rescued from the brink of bankruptcy by an Oprah mention. In another example, some consumers have ended up so desperate to buy a $56 plain white T-shirt that the second that Oprah crowned it "the best-fitting cotton garment of all time," the Web site …
  • Publishers Boost Revenue With $2 Newspapers
    U.S. publishers are betting they can boost revenue by getting readers to fork over a few more quarters for their newspapers. New York Times Co.'s flagship newspaper will cost $2 at newsstands as of June 1, a 50-cent increase. A.H. Belo raised the Dallas Morning News 25 cents to $1 in February and will consider more increases next year. Price increases at the Washington Post and Tampa Tribune have paid off with higher overall circulation revenue. As a result of previous price hikes, Times Co.'s circulation revenue rose 1% in the first quarter, and accounted for 38% of …
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