Buzzmachine
"I've been yammering on for a few years about how news is a process more than a product," writes Jeff Jarvis in an interesting piece about how the digital revolution is redefining the way news organizations cover an event. Some events only need tweets from a journalist reporting from the field, while others -- like a natural disaster, may seem to require live reporting along with the insight and analysis provided in a full-blown article.
Advertising Age
In this Q&A with Wenner Media publisher Jann Wenner, he sounds confident about his magazines' profitability ("We've just been making money"), less so about the viability of publishing on tablets. "From the publisher's point of view I would think they're crazy to encourage it," he tells Ad Age. "They're going to get less money for it from advertisers. Right now it costs a fortune to convert your magazine, to program it, to get all the things you have to do on there. And they're not selling. You know, 5,000 copies there, 3,000 copies here, it's not worth it. You haven't …
Folio
Digital newsstand Zinio is now available with more than 20,000 titles on Android tablets. Users who download the app before June 15 get a bonus: 24 free issues of such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Men's Journal, Popular Mechanics, Seventeen and Us Weekly.
The Telegraph
UK private equity firm Oakley Capital, the majority owners of culture/events magazine publishers Time Out, plans to invest about $7 million in the next year developing a global event database and software enabling readers to buy tickets from the Time Out Web sites. Time Out currently publishes a magazine in 35 cities worldwide, and plans to expand to 15 more cities.
Advertising Age
News Corp. is negotiating with Hulu to allow the site to have more ads run against Fox programs. That would be a significant change for Hulu, which since its 2007 launch has "touted significantly lighter ad loads than what viewers get on TV," according to Ad Age's Brian Sternberg."The talks spotlight one of the most-fevered taffy pulls of the modern media age," Sternberg continues. "Digital outlets covet network TV programs because they're often among the most-watched pieces of content. Yet letting those shows run online with a reduced ad load doesn't always make financial sense."
TV Line
"Wheels have officially been set in motion" for Jon Hamm to direct the fifth season premiere of "Mad Men," scheduled to begin shooting in August. That quote is part of a longer one attributed to the Don Draper alter ego himself in TV Line. He apparently wanted to follow in the steps of co-star John Slattery, who directed a previous episode. (Not the most earth-shattering of news, but a tidbit for all you "Mad Men" fanatics desperate for any scrap of news about the production of the new season -- and, um, for those who still find Jon Hamm incredibly …
Politico
Hear the flash of corporate swords. Bloomberg LP, which opposed the NBC-Comcast deal because it feared Comcast would favor NBCU channels over its less-than-big league Bloomberg TV, is claiming that Comcast violated a key provision of the merger. Bloomberg TV's beef: that Comcast failed to relocate the channel next to other major cable news networks in its "neighborhood" of station numbers. Comcast claims the complaint misinterprets the merger provisions, which were imposed by the FCC.
Poynter
That's the thesis behind Rick Edmonds' analysis of the bid entrepreneur Aaron Kushner is putting together to buy the Globe from the New York Times Co. Among the reasons for Edmonds' skepticism: "The Times isn't motivated to sell," he writes. Also, "Kushner does not fit the typical profile of a newspaper rescuer."Still, he concludes, "never say never. Boston has the mixed psyche of big-time, yet provincial that could be just right for a serious push for local ownership."
Multichannel News
Early adopters say they really like their 3D TVs, according to a study of 3,065 3D-capable set owners commissioned by the DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, reports Multichannel News. Some key stats: 88% give a thumbs-up on picture quality; 83% said they took either no time or just a few minutes adjusting to 3D glasses.
HitFix
The historic last episode of Oprah Winfrey's syndicated talk show ran yesterday, basically her sermon on "the gospels of the Church of Oprah" interspersed with clips, according to critic Alan Sepinwall."To an Oprah non-believer, I imagine much of this last hour played like the self-important ramblings of a complete egomaniac," he continues. "To a member of the faithful, it may have been a blessing. To an agnostic like me, there were moments of power and moments of absolute self-aggrandizement." Sepinwall also analyzes the phenomenon of her superstardom, noting that "there will never be another Oprah because the marketplace is too …