IN THIS ISSUE:

A(NOTHER) BIG DAY FOR APPLE
WHAT SETH GODIN'S PUBLISHING DECISION MEANS TO US
THE AMBUSH OF CRAIG NEWMARK
TIME-SHIFTING - ENEMY OF PRIMETIME TOPICALS
THE MULTIMEDIA REVOLUTION: WHERE'S THE WOW?
TOOLS OF THE TRADE - GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH & READER
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

A(NOTHER) BIG DAY FOR APPLE
by Ken Elmore

Leave it to Apple to kick it up a notch.

Today is a big day in Apple history, releasing redesigned versions of the majority of its music and video devices. Apple unveiled new iPod Shuffles, Nanos and Touches and an updated version of iTunes. All of which will be strategically rolled out by November for the holiday season.

But the big news today was the re-release of Apple TV.

Apple has changed its position from playing movies stored on hard drives to a streaming only device. The new Apple TV box is a quarter of the size of the original and more than half the price. "The new Apple TV, paired with the largest selection of online HD movie and TV show rentals, lets users watch Hollywood content on their HD TV whenever they want," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "This tiny, silent box costing just $99 lets users watch thousands of HD movies and TV shows, and makes all of their music, photos and videos effortlessly available on their home entertainment system."

Price was a huge part of the unveiling. Nearly every device Apple is offering has a reduced price from its predecessor. At $99 for the new Apple TV device, 99 cents television shows and $4.99 for first run movie rentals, streaming HD just become a whole new option for the home.

This is not Apple's first foray into the living room. They tried four years ago with the original Apple TV, but the device never hit cult status like the rest of its devices."

Jobs says people loved the earlier editions but there were certain things users were looking for. "They want Hollywood movies and TV shows whenever they want it and they want everything in HD. They would also like to pay lower prices for the content and do not want to have a computer on their TV's."

Jobs says only Fox and ABC networks have signed up to offer streaming television shows but believes once the other networks see the success of the project, they will follow.

The new Apple TV box, that literally fits in the palm of your hand, comes with an HDMI output, WiFi, and a wired Ethernet connection. It's built purely for displaying high definition video and pictures and playing out high quality audio. The box also links to any existing iTunes or Apple iOS device that is on the network, allowing the user to playout everything to an HD television. Netflix subscribers will be able to stream directly out of Apple TV. User can also watch HD YouTube videos and listen to more than 4,000 Internet radio stations. In November, Apple will launch Airplay - allowing users to playout a movie from their iPhone or iPad and finish watching it on their set at home. Now that's convenience.

The living room is the one place the computer industry has not been able to crack. Even though today's announcement is a move in that direction, Apple and others have a tough road ahead of them. Not just against the behemoth cable and satellite companies, but consumers who capture content on DVR's and play it back later. Nielsen recently released figures in the annual Three Screen Report that showed not only are more people connected to the Internet, but also are watching more television than ever before.

"Consumers are driven by the convenience and quality that today's technology now enables," said Matt O'Grady, Executive Vice President, Audience Measurement. "New mobile devices and enhanced TV quality allow viewers to engage in more content than ever before."

More than half of US TV households now have HDTV, up 189% from the first quarter of 2008, and more than one-third now have DVRs, up 51%. High-speed broadband Internet access, now in 63.5% of homes, has created a better user experience for watching online videos and nearly a quarter of households have smartphones, enabling consumers to "place shift" and watch video wherever they are. Despite the common perception that viewers of videos on mobile phones are predominantly teens, more than half (55%) are adults aged 25-49. While mobile online video viewing is still fairly limited, year over year growth is notable at 51.2%.

For the 2010-2011 broadcast season, Nielsen estimates the total number of TV households in the U.S. will climb to 115.9 million, an increase of one million homes from last year. It is only a matter of time before the two technologies - Internet and television collide. The new Apple TV box is available for pre-order now, with delivery in four weeks.   < Link>

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WHAT SETH GODIN'S PUBLISHING DECISION MEANS TO US
by Terry Heaton
Marketing guru Seth Godin announced last week that he has published his last book through conventional means. He's going electronic, and that has ramifications for anybody in any form of media. I admire this decision, for it took a lot of courage. It's being criticized in some circles, because of what it means to publishing as a whole. If Seth Godin can walk away, who will he take with him?

We talk a lot about leadership at AR&D, and so does Godin. His last two books, Tribes and Linchpin are all about the subject, and we quoted him frequently in our book, Live. Local. BROKEN News.

In unstable times, growth comes from leaders who create change and engage their organizations, instead of from managers who push their employees to do more for less.

If Godin is to practice what he preaches, he had no choice but to walk away from conventional publishing. He's done his homework and knows where it's heading, and rather than try to milk it while he can, he has chosen to go the other way. It is events like these that accelerate disruptions. "I think the ideas in Linchpin are my life's work," he wrote on his blog, "and I'm going to figure out the best way to spread those ideas, in whatever form they take."

Most would rather simply ride the money horse until it gave out completely, but Godin knows that there are advantages to being in the lead on something like this. He gets to help create the rules, for example, but he also gets first-mover status. Will history recognize him for that? Does anybody really care? Will it lead to bigger profits for him? Absolutely, and it's here where the publishing industry (and the record industry) has the biggest problem. If artists of all stripes can make more money by dealing directly with the public, then why do they need the middleman industries at all?

In "Tribes," Godin proposes that it's not about reaching everybody; it's about leading your tribe. That's what he's doing here.

Godin wrote that it took him a year to finally figure out that his customer as an author was the publisher, not the reader. He described himself as fortunate, but added that traditional book publishers "use techniques perfected a hundred years ago to help authors reach unknown readers, using a stable technology (books) and an antique and expensive distribution system."

The thing is--now I know who my readers are. Adding layers or faux scarcity doesn't help me or you. As the medium changes, publishers are on the defensive.... I honestly can't think of a single traditional book publisher who has led the development of a successful marketplace/marketing innovation in the last decade. The question asked by the corporate suits always seems to be, "how is this change in the marketplace going to hurt our core business?" To be succinct: I'm not sure that I serve my audience (you) by worrying about how a new approach is going to help or hurt Barnes & Noble.

My audience does things like buy five or ten copies at a time and distribute them to friends and co-workers. They (you) forward blog posts and PDFs. They join online discussion forums. None of these things are supported by the core of the current corporate publishing model.

And so he's moving on, and as you can imagine, it has not gone over well with those who like the existing system. Their arguments, however, sound like those of the newspaper industry trying to save its sacred cow, too. We need the filters that publishers provide, because we're incapable of sifting through all the crap that's "out there." So-called "professionally produced authors" have instant credibility, which we need in order not to be fooled by charlatans calling themselves "experts." And also that authors have poor marketing skills and need the help of big publishers in order to get the word out.

These are fine arguments, but they don't alter the reality of disruptive innovations attacking each premise. Technology can provide filtering, but you can't get "filtered" unless you're in the database, and new technology makes that easier for existing and budding authors everywhere. Credibility? Says who? Marketing? Anybody with a Facebook page can do that. Anybody can lead their own tribe. If being an author is all about making bundles of money, that's still going to be limited to the cream, but if it's about advancing ideas and the discussions thereof, there are much more efficient methods than traditional publishing to do that. This is Godin's whole point:

...as the methods for spreading ideas and engaging with people keep changing, I can't think of a good reason to be on the defensive. It's been years since I woke up in the morning saying, "I need to write a book, I wonder what it should be about." Instead, my mission is to figure out who the audience is, and take them where they want and need to go, in whatever format works, even if it's not a traditionally published book.

This is exactly the same issue facing the content side of the news industry, and those of us with a stake in it need to find the courage to one day go in a different direction. It's already happening in some areas with neighborhood news sites, aggregators, blogs and the like. What each has in common is that they begin and end on the Web, so there's no legacy core to protect. They're rewriting the rules for media, and they're doing it without us.

So, too, are pureplay Web companies attempting to enable commerce in our backyards. Groupon, Reach Local, Yodel and a host of others are disrupting the money-making mechanism that supports us, while we continue to press doing things the old way — just like the publishers.

Seth Godin is on a different journey now, and I wish him well.   < Link>

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THE AMBUSH OF CRAIG NEWMARK
by Terry Heaton
When we look around and try to figure out why people don't trust us (the press) anymore, the first stop we need to make is the mirror. There's no conspiracy. By our own actions and behaviors, we have made it nigh onto impossible for people to trust us. Witness the case of Craig Newmark and CNN.

I first met Craig Newmark in San Francisco in 2005. The occasion was a blog meet-up hosted by KRON-TV. Craig is "the Craig" of Craigslist, the free classifieds juggernaut that has had much to do with the financial woes of the newspaper industry. We spent time talking and have exchanged a few emails since, but I know enough of Craig to appreciate the gentle, self-effacing nature of his persona. He's genuinely a nice guy, and I'll admit an up-front bias about him.

Craig Newmark has very little to do with the operation of Craigslist, having hired a CEO, Jim Buckmaster, who has been running the company for the last ten years. Craig is on the board (of course) and hangs around in customer service, because — and again, this is his nature — he genuinely likes people and being in a position to help. He has used the resources given him in philanthropy, and not just because he can. This is simply Craig Newmark.

So it was with interest this week that I've read of an ambush interview by CNN's Amber Lyon that Craig endured concerning the salacious story of people advertising for sex on Craigslist. There's really nothing new about the story itself, but Ms. Lyon turned it into an "investigation" and cornered Craig after a speech in Washington on veteran's affairs, one of his causes. Ambushing Craig Newmark is a little like deer-spotting, it shouldn't be allowed, because it's too easy.

She pummeled him with questions about why Craigslist supports sex slavery and child rapists. He froze. I'm not surprised, knowing Craig.

This week, he wrote about what the experience was like, and it's a pretty insightful view of how it feels to have a camera stuck in your face.

As old time craigslisters know, I'm a hard-wired nerd with symptoms I'm told border on Asperger's Syndrome. That means I'm too trusting, often socially inept, have difficulty shifting focus, and frequently am unsure what to do in situations others handle easily. And I don't have a normal person's ability to sense when someone might be looking to take advantage of these shortcomings...

...If Amber had done her homework, she would have known ambushing me with questions I am not qualified to answer, or even the right person to ask, would not get CNN's viewers the accurate information they deserve.

So I should have said, "Hey, thanks, but Jim's the guy your viewers should hear from." Instead, I froze and looked clueless, and, worse than that, uncaring. Clueless I definitely am sometimes, but not uncaring...

...Amber, CNN, and others are depicting Jim and I as profiteers oblivious to the welfare of women and children. Anyone that's followed us over all these years knows that's not at all what we're about. In reality, we're both pretty obsessed with trying to make the world a better place, and neither have much interest in possessions or fancy lifestyles.

Ms. Lyon, meanwhile, has been bragging about the event as if she'd scored some major scoop. Here's what her bio says on the matter:

Lyon also investigated the sex trafficking of minors on Craigslist. In a CNN exclusive, Lyon brought her findings to the "Craig" in Craigslist, founder Craig Newmark. Her interview left Newmark speechless.

In the minds of everybody who knows Craig, myself included, and those who've been following this story via blogs and Twitter, Ms. Lyon's purpose in ambushing Craig was self-promotion, hyperbole to position herself as hard-edged. She may honestly feel that she did a great thing here with her "investigation," but the lesson for us to learn is that just because we feel that way doesn't necessarily mean that our audience does.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmeister later posted a blog entry of his own, taking Ms. Lyon and CNN to task. Apparently, she has now requested an interview with him.

You knew Craig was not in management or a company spokesperson, but setting CNN's ethical code aside, you sidestepped company channels in favor of ambushing our semi-retired founder, complete with a misleading "set up" for your surprise questions. Now that CNN has aired your highly misleading piece dozens of times, mischaracterizing your stunt as a serious interview on this subject, and you've updated your "bio" to showcase this rare jewel of investigative journalism, you're ready to try actually interviewing the company itself on this subject.

There is a class of "journalists" known for gratuitously trashing respected organizations and individuals, ignoring readily available facts in favor of rank sensationalism and self-promotion. They work for tabloid media. Your stunt has veteran news pros we know recoiling in journalistic horror, some of them chalking it up to a decline in CNN's standards, which is unfortunate.

Seeing how you've pinned your career hopes on butchering this story, I'll have to pass.

The decline in press trust in the U.S. began in 1976, after Watergate. I've said many times that the thirst to be the next Woodward and Bernstein has driven us to do some things of questionable ethics as we go about our daily chores, and this, perhaps more than anything else, has driven people away. Amber Lyon got exactly what she was seeking when she chose to ambush Craig Newmark, and it had nothing to do with reporting.

Shame on us.   < Link>

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TIME-SHIFTING - ENEMY OF PRIMETIME TOPICALS
by Jim Willi
We all know that it is increasingly difficult to reach local TV news viewers during daytime because there are so many two-income families these days. Now, the DVR has become your enemy as you attempt to drive viewers from network primetime programming to your late newscasts.

A Comcast survey shows that - for the first time - a majority of primetime television viewers - 61% in fact - say they use their DVR to record and time-shift their favorite programs. 40% of them say they now regularly record their favorite programs and watch them later - at their convenience. In effect, your viewers are now programming their own “network” of their favorite shows. That means your primetime topicals are no longer reaching these viewers the same day - or same time - within an hour or two of your late newscast.

For instance, about a third of the people who watch NBC’s “Parenthood” time-shift the program. That program leads into affiliate’s late newscasts this fall. Fox’s hit program - “Fringe” - gains 39% more viewers through time-shifting. ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” is time-shifted buy a third of its audience. Those are big chunks of potential late news viewers who are not getting your late news topicals in a timely manner.

So - what to do? I believe the first step is to make better use of the one constant platform you can rely on - your early evening and afternoon local newscasts. Typically - these are the higher rated programs during the broadcast day. Many stations try to sell ahead to the late news in these newscasts - but it is a haphazard effort with no special showcasing that makes it pop. It is time to take these “sells” out of the hands of your newscast producers - and have the marketing department create a special promo that will grab the viewer’s attention.

Don’t forget the Internet too. Many people are online in the evening - and it is a great opportunity to use your website to drive them to the late newscast. Social media is also another strong marketing avenue for you. One of my clients produces a 7:30 p.m. local entertainment program - and the host is texting and tweeting and online an hour or so before the program - letting people know what’s coming up.

The bottom line: It is time to be creative in new ways with your late news topicals - using better marketing tools and multiple platforms to battle the newest enemy - DVR time-shifting.   < Link>

WHERE'S THE WOW?
In a Sea of Sameness, one of the most timely and relevant questions you can ask yourself is "Where's the wow?" in your story.

This is the question my colleague Regent Ducas has been asking MMJs across the country during our training workshops with MMJ Galen Culver.

The problem is all the stories look just about the same. In fact, many stories are so forgettable that even news people have difficulty answering this question we frequently raise: "What local TV news stories do you remember?"

The question gets several blank looks, then responses about non-local stories on ESPN and the Comedy Channel, for example. And several MMJs admit they don't watch local TV news on a regular basis because it's not relevant to their lives.

And what questions do they remember? Several mentioned Jay Leno asking Kanye West "What would your mom have said about this?" following his infamous rant during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech. The only problem: This didn't have anything to do with local TV news.

Of course, it doesn't take a genius to observe: "If we can't get our own people to watch regularly and remember stories, what chances do we have to pull in non-employees?

Don't ponder that too long. Here are takeaways:

• Cover stories relevant to the lives of viewers, including yourself. If they're not relevant, the most creative photography won't matter. Viewers have no reason to watch it in the first place.

• Plan the wow. don't wait for Divine Intervention. Plan the wow. For example, we often ask workshops participants to shoot a story about "Eating Healthy in the Newsroom." Just about all the stories we see look the same. Yep, news people eating junk food. You know what that looks like, so we haven't grabbed any frames for you to see. What are the possibilities for wowing viewers with an inventive approach? Think different. For example, bring in a few dollars' worth of healthy vegetables — like spinach — setting them in front of a news person eating the salty, sugar-laden, fatty burgers complemented by sugar filled pop and a sweet dessert. Will they eat the healthy food? Regent and I can't predict for sure, but it certainly adds drama to what can be a ho-hum story. It can add a wow!

An honored TV storyteller with a keen appreciation for delivering a wow in visual storytelling is NBC's Bob Dotson. This is one of my favorite stories of his:

Multimedia Minutes: What the Nation's Most Recognized TV Storyteller Learned from this Video   < Link>

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TOOLS OF THE TRADE - GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH & READER
by Ken Elmore
In my travels around the country I am reminded how taxed many newsrooms are with generating fresher content, more in-depth perspective to stories, and simply keeping up with what is going on.

A very powerful resource often overlooked is Google. Yes, I know we all "Google" when we need a quick answer for something, but the power of Google goes much deeper than that.

Often times I will find producers and assignment editors who check site by site for what might be going on in the area. A time consuming and sometime fruitless effort.. Instead I always suggest letting the power of Google work for you.

Here's how. Make a list of the websites you check on a daily basis, and then navigate to Google's Reader Page. From there you can add all of the RSS feed links of your favorite pages and Google will build one page, yes one page, of all the latest information you are interested in. The newest content to hit the web, always up-to-date. Think about how this might help a morning producer looking for new, fresh, today content, where time is of the essence.

Google launched another tool just this week, Google Blog Search. Google Blog Search strips out what local bloggers are writing about, not just mainstream media. These sites are written by industry professionals, citizen journalists, just about anyone can write a blog. What blog search does however is exposes you to different views and potential new information about a particular subject.

These days its about working smarter, and if you look around there are tools that help you do just that.

Have a great week!   < Link>

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK I've spent millions of dollars, I've had media research companies, uh we've had thousands of people working around the clock, and we have got it. Drum roll please (imitates drum roll). Here it is! BANG: "Conan!" Conan O'Brien announcing the name of his new TBS talk show via a 2-minute YouTube video.