Reporter Chris Gaither does a creditable job of summarizing the fitful, sometimes confounding, generally unpredictable path U.S. television shops have taken when it comes to putting their content on the Web. In the early days, as he points out, the networks reflexively relied on the big portal sites--Yahoo, MSN, and others--to handle the job, since they knew how to stream video better than anyone else did. In the months since, the networks have sometimes tried selling their content via Apple's iPod software or simply making it available on their own Web sites. These sites have matured considerably, Gaither says. And …

Comcast COO Steve Burke told an industry crowd late last week that once more of the technological issues get ironed out, the demos for video-on-demand customers suggest that the format will present a huge, untapped opportunity for advertisers. Overall, Burke said, the audience is young, sophisticated, and well-heeled. And it is growing fast. Currently, however, it is difficult for advertisers to buy time across multiple cable operators, which has frustrated some buyers, leading them to other media, such as podcasts. But ads will shift back to pay and free VOD programs in the near future, predicted Burke. He noted that …

Some individual newspapers may still be tallying nice profits, but the overall industry outlook is not terribly encouraging in the near term, and this gloomy view has affected Wall Street's view of the entire sector. Goldman Sachs several days ago said it could not recommend newspaper stocks to investors; they's weak and will get weaker, said the investment advisory firm. Summarizing Goldman's advice, Editor & Publisher said, "The group has a way to fall--a correction of 16 percent is necessary--before the stocks are considered a value." Quoting Goldman's note on the subject: "In our view, valuations have not yet reached …

Break all the existing rules. Think outside the box. Change the familiar paradigms. Those were the messages pounded home last week at the Television Bureau of Advertising's annual marketing conference. For the first time, the conference was arranged around a single, unifying theme: Multiplatform distribution of content. To thrive in the current environment, stations must regard content as endlessly distributable--to TV viewers, Web users, radio listeners, podcast fans. Everyone can be part of some potentially profit-generating audience-- or the attendees at least week's confab were told. Beth Comstock, president for digital media and market development at NBC Universal, said, …

Gemstar-TV Guide's online unit, TVGuide.com, has watched for a couple of years as literally thousands of blogs have developed around TV and individual TV shows.  Now, at last, the company is leaping into the vast blogosphere, hoping to use its considerable clout to attract readers and, eventually, advertisers.  The company launched 65 blogs last week. Later in the year--when the fall TV season gets under way- it will introduce more and, simultaneously, put more emphasis behind the new initiative.  "Though display ads are running in between blog posts, no advertisers have actually purchased placements specifically for the blogs yet," …

The assistant managing editor of Columbia Journalism Review's Web site told a group of Cornell students last week that these are "messy times" for journalism and that, consequently, contrarian points of view are welcome in the industry--mainly online, and particularly in the blogosphere. Bryan Keefer said that, amid today's confusing and fast-changing media landscape, no clear path exists for those who want to enter the field of journalism. He therefore advised journalism students to remain "format agnostic." Keefer: "One thing might be economical today, but that might change tomorrow." As one info source becomes as easy to access as …

Time Inc., alone among major magazine publishers, has agreed to a deal with Philips Electronics for a novel advertising arrangement involving the table-of-contents page in four of its magazines. While Philips is not technically sponsoring the page itself, it is assuring that the prized real estate is placed right up front--ahead of ad clutter-- and that it is preceded by a small advertisement noting that the TOC's easy-to-find location has been made possible by Philips--for the sake of "simplicity." All this is in keeping with Philips' current "Simplicity" campaign. According to The Wall Street Journal, it is likewise in keeping …

Who could have seen this coming? Shock impresario Howard Stern, whose long, storied career on CBS Radio was marked by internecine battles over his on-air improprieties, may be succeeded there by... Opie and Anthony, the country's best-known shock-jock team. This was made possible--some would say necessary--by the failure of the talent CBS hired to replace Stern when he moved on to Sirius Satellite Radio earlier this year. His successors, David Lee Roth and Adam Corolla, each operating in separate markets, have been unable to capture audience. Roth's show in particular has been a train wreck. If the deal happens, …

When a show loses 46 percent of its audience between its debut outing and its second show, expect repercussions. That's what happened to NBC's "Celebrity Cooking Challenge," which aired Monday of this week for the first time, then swiftly dropped off the radar. The five-night reality series performed so poorly that NBC honchos pulled it yesterday, after only three episodes had aired. The remaining two episodes, the network says, will be available at NBC.com for those who care enough to watch. "Will & Grace" and "Deal or No Deal" will take the slots that had been reserved for "Cooking." "Cooking"'s …

Its prose is sometimes turgid and its art old-fashioned, but The Economist rarely misses when it decides to weigh in on a Big Trend. That's the case this week when the British-based weekly ran a piece by Andreas Kluth about the transformational powers of high-speed broadband, saying its advent represents a true revolution in the way the people of our planet communicate. Kluth's main point is that, unlike previous eras in the annals of communication, in which power resided with owners of the machinery, the Web era is quickly becoming all about its participants. "This has profound implications for …