• Will Dogs Watch TV?
    Can dogs actually benefit from watching TV, as the creators of 24-hour cable channel Dog TV claim? Douglas Quenqua gets a variety of responses from experts, ranging from a qualified yes to “I think a lot of this is to make us feel better as opposed to making the pet happier." Still, if you want to try the network -- available now in San Diego but probably coming to cable systems nationwide by the end of the year, if Dog TV salespeople are up to snuff -- remember this important point: "Place the high-definition TV at the pet’s eye level."
  • Yes, Broadband And TV Are Linked
    "For those who even doubt that the future of TV involves broadband," Stacey Higginbotham presents a chart showing how "real-time entertainment (primarily video) [Web] traffic is almost 65 percent of U.S. network traffic." Her conclusion? "We can’t put this genie back in the bottle." Still, all this video streaming creates new issues, with ISPs implementing usage caps. "Which then leads back to one of the questions that wasn’t asked yesterday at the Senate hearing on the future of TV," she writes. "Are caps a worrisome protectionist tool to keep subscribers locked to both broadband and pay TV subscriptions? …
  • Comcast Calls Bloomberg A Liar; Publishes Long Must-Read For New HIres
    All the latest in news from Comcast: First, the media giant hit back in its battle with Bloomberg over "where Bloomberg TV is placed on the cable dial in relation to Comcast's CNBC," writes Joe Flint in the L.A. Times.  Basically Comcast said that Bloomberg was a liar, thought it never quite used that word. Instead, Bloomberg was accused of  presenting "erroneous facts" in its initial presentation to the FCC about the cable dial issue, which included the "demonstrably false" claim "that Comcast was ignoring the conditions that the regulatory agency put on the cable giant as part of approving …
  • 'Boston Globe' Offers Free Web Access To Lure Subscribers
    The Boston Globe is chopping down down its Web site pay wall for the next 12 days to introduce potential subscribers to new features in the face of "sluggish" sign-ups, writes Jeff John Roberts. BostonGlobe.com launched last October but so far has only 18,000 paid subscribers. "Part of the challenge may be cannibalization from the paper’s affiliated site Boston.com which pre-dates the new site but also draws on content from the Boston Globe," writes Roberts.
  • 'Women's Health,' P&G Host Olympics 'Twitter Party'
    Rodale's Women's Health and Procter & Gamble will play in what some are branding  "the first social games" -- this summer's London Olympics -- by co-hosting a "Twitter party" between readers and writers during times like the opening ceremonies, writes Emma Bazilian.  Hashtags for the event will appear in a 15-page editorial section of the July/August issue devoted to interviews with women Olympics competitors, complete with seven ads from Procter & Gamble.
  • NARC Rebrands To Advertising Self-Regulatory Council
    The advertising review council with the somewhat-unfortunate acronym -- NARC -- has taken on a new name, the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ARSC), and plans to develop "a more consistent marketing and communications effort," writes Maureen Morrison. "We cannot just hide and hope the benefits of self-regulation are understood within the industry," says ASRC board director Bob Liodice in this post, which also attempts to explain the other groups that "fall under the ASRC umbrella."
  • Lori Burgess Becomes 'Prevention' Publisher
    Rodale's Prevention has a new publisher: Lori Burgess, most recently publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, who was formerly with such pubs as House & Garden, Elle and Seventeen. She replaces Laura Petasnick, who "left in March for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia after a year and a half in the job," writes Lucia Moses.
  • 'WSJ' Unveils Continuous Digital Coverage With Markets Plus
    On Monday the Wall Street Journal rolled out Markets Pulse, "a platform for a continuous flow of news — including blog posts, articles, videos, tweets, photos, and other elements — that readers can dip into throughout the day from their computers or from a mobile device," writes Adrienne LaFrance. This kind of coverage "makes sense for a few reasons," according to LaFrance -- including the fact that, as a WSJ editor notes, “Markets is kind of an ongoing story all day."
  • 'National Enquirer' Launches iPad App
    National Enquirer's new iPad app is already 15 on the list of best-selling periodical brands, and is "well-designed and tap-friendly," writes Steve Smith in this review. The app's "strongest element," according to Smith, is its integration with Twitter "to involve readers in the digital conversation around celebrities." He also approves of "the app’s balance of image and caption-length text," which he calls "adept at pulling the reader in" -- but notes it "can be sluggish, especially when jumping from a cover headline to a specific feature."
  • NBC Seeks Near-Million$ For Football Spot
    NBC is seeking what would be a large price tag of "pretty close to seven figures" for a 30-second ad in its new Thanksgiving-night NFL broadcast, says Seth Winter, exec VP-sales and marketing for NBC Sports Group, in this post. NBC's ambitious valuation the game -- previously available only on cable -- is "a signal that discussions for ad time in football could heat up in the weeks leading to the annual upfront haggling sessions between advertisers and TV networks," writes Brian Steinberg. But whether or not NBC will get top dollar "could hinge on the network's ability to draw …
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