Fusion Takes Big Steps

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ABC News and Univision’s joint venture, Fusion, is making progress in getting ready for their launch in the fall.

The unveiling of a new logo (pictured above) and the hiring of Mariana van Zeller were announced in a recent press release.  Fusion is a news and lifestyle network that has been picked up by five major cable providers, Cablevision, Charter, Cox, AT&T U-verse and Google Fiber.  According to the press release programming will focus on “economy, entertainment, music, food, immigration, pop culture, education, politics, health and wellness and more.”

These are some big steps for Fusion.  The Hispanic demographic is one of the fastest growing in the United States and the fact that they already have deals with major cable providers is a good sign for the network.

Politico Testing Paywall

Politico is experimenting with a metered paywall in six states so they can experiment and see what price will be right for their readers.  The states being used for this experiment are Iowa, North Dakota, Vermont, Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming.

A memo was released by Politico a few days ago where they said “We promised a series of changes, big and small, in coming weeks. So please consider this the first of many updates on things to come.”  The paywalls in each of the states will be different so Politico can find what they describe as the perfect price.  The company emphasized throughout the memo that this was just an experiment, one that might not even work.

In terms of a paywall I like this move.  Instead of setting a price and making readers suck it up, it’s interesting that Politico is testing it out to see if readers like it and if it works for them.

Trouble at the Village Voice

The Village Voice is grabbing some attention this week as two editors have left their post in protest of proposed layoffs.

They were told to cut or reduce the roles of five members at the publication, one of which is believed to be longtime columnist Michael Musto, who has been synonymous with the Voice for the past 30 years.  In a New York Times report, Voice Media group denied it was targeting five employees but did admit that it would be “instituting further structural and staffing changes at the publication.”  Already short staffed with 20 writers, the future does not look bright for the New York City weekly.

Just last August the Voice made significant layoffs and switched several of their positions from full-time to part-time.  They also lost advertising revenue from Backpage.com, a site known mostly for its controversial but profitable adult online classifieds.  The paper severed ties with the sites after probing from law enforcement in 2012.

I don’t know much about the papers financials, but looking in from the outside I’m not sure how they can continue to operate if they keep making cuts like they have as of late.

YouTube Offers Paid Channels

Newspapers are not the only ones grabbing headlines about charging for content.  YouTube announced earlier this week that select channels will now be available via a paid subscription.

Users will have a 14 day free trial to decide whether or not they would like to subscribe to these certain channels.  As of right now a subscription costs $0.99 per month.  The UFC and the Sesame Street are two of the more notable channels participating in YouTube’s experiment, but according to a blog post by the company more are expected to take part in the coming weeks.

This may not be good news for YouTube users who currently access those channels for free but it could be good news for the news industry.  If broadcast news stations are worried about declining revenues they may want to consider streaming content on YouTube for a very low price.  They may want to sit back and see how some of YouTube’s more popular channels monetize content that is otherwise free.

A Bilingual Option for Newspapers

The latest innovation newspapers may want to experiment with is the ability to publish stories in different languages.  One paper doing this already is the New York Times.  The Times recently published a bilingual article about a former drug war informer on their website.  The story appears in English when a reader first arrives, but by the reporters byline a button titled “Leer en Espanol” can automatically translate the article to Spanish.

Apparently the Times have been doing this for a while and have offered similar services in Chinese and Portuguese as well.  I think it’s interesting that the Times does this for stories that would be of interest to those who may not fully speak or understand English.

Newspapers who serve communities with large bilingual populations may want to take advantage of this practice.  It would be a new way to increase traffic online and reach a new audience.  Montreal has two major papers that serve two languages (The Gazette and La Presse), it would be interesting to see if something like that happened in the United States.

Associated Press Twitter Hack

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The official Associated Press Twitter was suspended earlier this week when hackers accessed the account and tweeted that President Obama was injured during an explosion at the White House.

It was later revealed that the intention of the hackers was to obtain the passwords of other AP journalists. AP staffer Mike Baker tweeted shortly after that the hack followed a phishing e-mail sent out to employees.  The hackers were later revealed to be the Syrian Electronic Army, later taking credit on the Associated Press’ mobile twitter account.

I follow the Associated Press on Twitter, and when I saw this tweet and read the replies it seemed like people caught on quickly to the fact that the tweet was bogus from the start.

Even though that was the case, there is something to be said about the dangers of social media and how people have come to rely on it.  Misinformation spreads much easier because of the internet age in which we live.  It’s also my opinion that Twitter inhibits peoples ability to seek out the news.  I mean, why read a lengthy newspaper article when you can just read 140 characters?

The Kindle Set-Top Box

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Amazon is getting ready to take the next step in developing new video technology through the introduction of the Kindle Set-Top Box.

The device will stream video over the internet; people could then plug the box into a television to enjoy these video offerings from the comfort of a living room sofa.  Amazon’s newest creation is expected to compete with YouTube and Netflix, and users can also expect to integrate Amazon’s other music and video services into the device.

Could this spell trouble for broadcast news networks?  This is just the latest innovation to disrupt attention away from traditional TV watching.  As more television series become streaming there is not as much use to watch CBS, NBC or ABC and then stick around for the news.  If television takes a cue from Netflix and their House of Cards series, news shows may have to seriously consider placing a greater emphasis on streaming daily broadcasts.

Unfortunately, that might be the only way they can remain relevant as technology like this continues to develop.

The Media’s Coverage of the Boston Attacks

If there is one thing I learned about news coverage this past week it’s just how instantaneous the news has become.  I’ve said in previous blog posts that I am very thankful for this age in which we live in, but that’s not to say it hasn’t been detrimental to how we get information and consume the news.

Two media gaffe’s still remain fresh in my mind about 24 hours after the capture of the second suspect in the Boston Marathon attacks.  The first is when CNN’s John King erroneously reported that an arrest had been made in the course of the Boston Police’s investigation.  It wasn’t too long after that he retracted that statement and read on the air a statement from Boston Police that said anyone who says there was an arrest is getting ahead of themselves.  This moment lived in infamy on a recent episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which we viewed in class this past week.

The second was when I was following the manhunt of the second suspect, when they had determined he was hiding inside of a boat in Watertown.  I was watching the event unfold on Twitter when an account called @YourAnonNews had tweeted that all believed to be involved with Boston bombings were believed to be dead (the tweet is no longer available), just minutes later the Washington Post app on my phone alerted me that the suspect was in fact alive.

I understand the importance of scooping your competitors but if the cost is retracting your original reports, is it really worth it?

All Things Considered About All Things Considered

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I’ll admit that I am not too familiar with NPR.  The station is probably the clearest on my car radio but for whatever reason I never truly gave it a chance.  But after listening to the daily afternoon news program, All Things Considered, I feel that I have a greater appreciation for the daily programming they put out.

I think the thing I liked most about All Things Considered was the variety of stories I heard within the broadcast.  During the hour listeners were kept abreast of the breaking news coverage following the bomb explosions that took place at the Boston Marathon.  A story about a potential battle over the debt ceiling that may take place if both political parties don’t come to an agreement followed.  Afterwards a feature piece was run on the Korean American rapper Dumbfounded, and his continuing quest to become a rising star in the hip-hop community.

I really enjoyed the format of this show, everything seems like it went in the right order and the stories received what I considered to be appropriate length.  If you’re not into hearing politics talked about all the time, NPR will not overload you with information you’re not interested in.  But at the same time, if you are steadfast about being kept up to date with the latest dealings at the Capitol, there is enough content to stay informed.  Intermingled with breaking news coverage and culture pieces, All Things Considered provides a great combo for radio listeners.

I’m not sure if NPR has won me over or not, but after listening to their programming for more then my usual 15 minutes every now and then, I think I’ll be more compelled to turn the dial if I become bored with my usual listening habits.

USPS Will Not End Saturday Delivery…For Now

The U.S. Postal Service, who not long ago announced that they were going to stop Saturday deliveries, have withdrawn plans to halt weekend delivery.

This appears to be temporary though; Saturday delivery could not be cut because the new stopgap budget passed by Congress would have prohibited such a move.  Had the USPS made the cuts they originally intended they would have trimmed $2 billion off of their $16 billion deficit.

The postal board says they still plan on trying to end Saturday delivery saying:

“Delaying responsible changes to the Postal Service business model only increases the potential that the Postal Service may become a burden to the American taxpayer, which is avoidable.”

This is good news for weekly and community publications in the short term, many of these publications rely on Saturday delivery to get their product out to readers.

In the meantime, newspapers should ponder a new delivery model.  People may not be thrilled about not receiving papers and magazines by the weekend, but support seems to be towards ending six day delivery.