February 27, 2008
OPU: The Catch-Up from the Marketing Conference Edition
Yes, I finally went through my stuffed e-mail inbox and Bloglines account, and it turns out the digital media and newspaper worlds don’t stop for NAA conferences! Here’s what I dug up from this week:
 Complete Marketing Conference Coverage!NAA’s 2008 Marketing Conference wrapped up Wednesday morning with great advertiser roundtables, ideas sessions and more. NAA has full coverage of this week’s events, including:
NAA Releases Online Community Cookbook: Recipes for Building Audience Interaction on Newspaper Web Sites
The Online Community Cookbook ties together developments in social networking, blogging, photo sharing and more and details how newspaper Web sites can benefit with audience growth and revenue. The Cookbook provides a structured approach for newspaper companies to understand online communities and a step-by-step guide to building and sustaining them successfully in local markets. The author is Rich Gordon of the Medill School, Northwestern University and of the Media Management Center. Go to www.naa.org/digitaledge/cookbook for more information and to download the first part of the report.
People on the Move: Dickey to Fill Clark-Johnson’s Role at Gannett
Robert J. Dickey has been named head of Gannett’s newspaper division. Current division head Sue Clark-Johnson, who is also chair of the Newspaper Association of America’s board of directors, will retire this spring. Gannett also announced today that the newspaper division is being renamed U.S. Community Publishing. Dickey was a senior group president of Gannett's Pacific Group and chairman of Phoenix Newspapers.
Source: Gannett (press release)
 Quote: Poynter’s Edmonds API’s Latest ‘Newspapers Next’“Newspaper Next is worth the considerable money the industry has spent on the study and the attention it has received. I'm not sure that it comes close to offering the answer -- the equivalent of a miracle cure for what ails newspapers. But it asks the right questions, provides new business models and goads urgent action -- all good things.”
-- Poynter Institute Media Business Analyst Rick Edmonds on the American Press Institute’s latest iteration of Newspapers Next.
Zell to Treat Smaller Market Tribune Co. Newspapers as Innovation Incubators
Tribune Co.’s Sam Zell said he plans to use the newspaper company’s smaller-market papers as testing grounds for new products and development, The Daily Press of Newport News, Va. reported. In a meeting with Daily Press employees, Zell said, “I believe that newspapers, in fact, have a great future, and 25 or 30 years from now, the newspapers that adapt and take a position that create a future for them will survive, and those that keep operating under the old thesis that 'Well, this is the way we always did it' aren't going to survive."
Source: The (Newport News, Va.) Daily Press
 Yahoo Launches Buzz
Yahoo has launched a combination social booking site and news aggregator called Buzz. Like Digg, Buzz will rank articles by how users vote on them. However, search terms will also push content higher on Buzz, and editors will ultimately choose what appears in the Buzz section of the Yahoo homepage, The New York Times reported.
Sources: The New York Times, MediaPost
comScore Says Google Paid Ad Click-Throughs Decrease; Hitwise Disagrees
Even Google is showing some soft spots, economically speaking. comScore data showed a 7 percent drop in the total number of times people clicked on search results ads on Google, PC World reported.
The news sent Google share prices down to an 11-month low. “The sell-off represents a sobering shift in Wall Street's sentiment toward Google, whose dominance of the lucrative Internet-search market had convinced many investors that the company would thrive even in a recession,” according to The Associated Press. “Other analysts, though, say they believe Google will deliver stellar earnings and revenue growth this year. They attribute the recent slowdown in Google's growth to deliberate changes that were made to weed out advertising links that don't conform with the company's policies or don't appeal to consumers.”
As of late Wednesday, however, analysts from Hitwise, a competing Web metrics firm, said the comScore numbers were not right. “If economic troubles in the U.S. are really affecting Internet search, then the amount of traffic going from Google to retail sites should show a decline, he said. Instead, Hitwise data shows a 13.3 percent rise over the past three years, and a steady increase in January over the same time last year,” PCWorld reported.
Source: The Associated Press, PC World
Quote: Comcast’s Cohen on Network ‘Management’
"There's nothing wrong with network management. Every broadband network is managed, and every network must be managed or no network would function."
-- Comcast Executive VP David Cohen on Comcast’s reasons for managing traffic from BitTorrent. Cohen spoke at a packed Federal Communications Commission meeting Monday, after which FCC Chairman Kevin Martin “that he is considering taking strong action against Comcast,” The New York Times reported.
Dallas Newspaper Sites Opens Crowd-Sourcing Project on JFK Assassination Documents
The Dallas Morning News has asked the public to help it sift through documents found in a Dallas County vault. Henry Wade, Dallas County D.A. at the time of the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy, compiled the documents but never released them.
The Dallas Morning News posted a letter to readers on its Web site. The following is an excerpt:
“The contents include transcripts, personal and official letters, newspaper clippings, lists of jurors, police reports, rap sheets, autopsy reports, trial notes, police notebooks, photographs and much more.
“The documents appear here exactly as they were received by The News. They are neither cataloged nor indexed, and they are in no apparent order.
“Given the volume, we haven't been able to review most of the files. That's why were calling on you. Here's your chance to review never-seen-before materials related to the JFK assassination.”
Sources: The Dallas Morning News, NewAssignment.net
 The Editors Weblog Launches Future of Newspapers Series with BradyThe Editors Weblog has started an interview series York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian and many other newspaper companies. on the future of the newspaper industry, opening with Jim Brady of washingtonpost.com. The blog has also requested participation from The New
Responding to the question, ‘In journalism’s multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?” Brady said:
“I think it’s part of the continuity. New forms of delivery come up and previously existing forms need to adapt to these changes. There are now new forms of journalism and storytelling through video, picture galleries, databases and more. It’s just a different way to deliver information. But in the past print, TV and radio have all figured out how to adapt and reposition themselves when new channels have emerged. Digital neither compromises nor changes the standards for journalism.”
Source: The Editors Weblog
Lessig Decides Against Run for Congress
Lawrence Lessig announced he will not run for office in the U.S. House of Representatives, CNet’s News.com reported. Lessig, who founded Creative Commons and is a law professor at Stanford University, based his decision on polls indicating he would probably not win against former California Sen. Jackie Speier.
Source: News.com
Media General to Acquire DealTaker.com
Media General announced it will acquire social shopping site DealTaker.com. DealTaker.com already has more than 100,000 registered users and has relationships with more than 1,500 retailers, Digital Media Wire reported. The site’s features include coupons and forums for product reviews and shopping tips.
In a statement, Kirk Read, president of Media General’s interactive division said,
"It will add a platform for community-based commerce to our local sites and will provide non-traditional online revenue.”
Source: Digital Media Wire
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