Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Format Change

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Over the years I have listened to plenty of radio stations that have gone through format changes. The one thing that seems to be common to all of them is the chase of the almighty dollar. It would seem that stations change format merely to attract more revenue. If Top 40 isn’t working out, move to rap. Shoot WIP, the nation’s first all-sports radio, used to be an adult contemporary station.

Surely we are all familiar with stations that have done so.

Why then don’t television stations do the same thing?

There is one cable news channel excelling; the rest are failing. Fox News viewership is up heavily month after month. Meanwhile, their competition CNN and MSNBC have plummeting audiences. Given the distinct differences between formats, it would seem that CNN and MSNBC would abandon a liberal editorial bent to move more toward the center in an effort to capture more of the market.

We’re talking business here. Moving a channel’s political point of view is not compromising core values as it would be for an individual.

If a station that is right of your channel is gobbling up the viewers every month, isn’t it good business to change your programming to capture some of that market?

CBS puts on a hospital show that does well, NBC will follow suit. When reality television worked, all the stations began creating such shows. So why doesn’t CNN and MSNBC do the same? Wouldn’t it be smart business to do so?

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Sunday, January 24th, 2010

I read that new villas have been built and sold at NJMP. The properties will be taxed. All this is positive. I just hope we don’t find out that the property taxes on the villas are at a rate not commensurate wih the $425,000 price tag of the homes . . . Congratulations to the Colts and the Saints. I like it when a new team makes it to the show. Go Saints! . . . Speaking of football, I think moving the Pro Bowl to next week at the same site as the Super Bowl the following week is an excellent move on the part of the NFL. It will drive viewers and give football fans something to watch as they wait for the big game . . . I love the smell of the woods on me after hiking. It should be packaged as a cologne (not) . . . For some reason, the older the children grow, the more difficult it seems to stay ahead of the laundry . . . This is why I disdain James Carville. Going with the Blame Bush defense has grown tired, much like the Cajun himself . . . I used to link to New York Times articles. I don’t any longer. I have no illusions as to what effect that has, however, few sites I read these days link to the Times. A few years ago the NYT placed its editorial content behind a fee schedule. It abandoned that when it saw how much money it lost. Not having learned anything from that experiment, the NYT is prepared to put all its content on a meter. Links are king and no one links to PPV content online . . .

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Friday, November 6th, 2009

I chuckled aloud when I read this Dilbert strip today . . .Have you ever got the feeling a site is dying?  As much as I enjoy Clayton’s Today in Social Media podcast, the once daily podcast has become a sporadic every few days type of thing.  Clayton had mentioned going to a weekly broadcast.  While I did not favor that, at least it would be regular.  The way it is now, it’s whenever, which certainly is not how to build an audience . . . The smell of roasting vegetables is one of the pleasures of this life . . . Congratulations to the Yankees.  They were the better team during this Series . . . Legal help please: SF Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum was pulled over for speeding. The officer smelled marijuana. Lincecum handed over 3+ grams and a pipe. Yet he pleaded not guilty. I know the charges could be trumped up, but for argument’s sake, let’s say Lincecum was high and this was his stash. Why wouldn’t one admit to it, pay the $622 fine and move on? . . . I have no issue with Barbara Boxer’s move to take a committee vote while the Republican members refused to sit and participate . . . Duane posted an 8th grade civics test from 1954. Could you pass this today? . . . I vividly recall Steve Allen reading the lyrics to Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff on the Tonight Show. Unfortunately, You Tube pulled the video of that. Not to be outdone, Christopher Walken reprised the humor using Lady Gaga’s Poker Face lyrics. This cracks me up . . . Reading The Soprano State is like re-living a nightmare . . . Further evidence New Jersey’s way of running government is insidious . . .

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Monday, October 5th, 2009

This is scary; Arabs are arranging to price oil in a variety of currencies, none of which are dollars. This is just another step to dismantle USA’s strength . . . I don’t see buying this any time soon. The gadgets folks come up with is amazing though . . . NJ.com reported that Governor Corzine is the #1 contributor of cash to Democratic organizations in 20 of the 21 counties. Are you surprised? . . . Newspapers get the facts wrong. Biden’s appearance in June was not a “surprise” . . . Governor Corzine is touting New Jersey’s rate of solar installations. He thinks its grand. Yet when I attended a conference in the spring discussing New Jersey’s energy issues, NJBUP president Jeanne Fox announced solar is dead in the state . . . Spent some time in the International Spy Museum on Saturday participating in a live-action spy adventure. Very kewl! Can’t wait for the GPS spy adventure that is coming . . . Speaking of DC, had a great time in our nation’s capital . . . I have been mulling over a unique idea to render a clue for a game. I need to flesh it out and then decide which game it will best fit: shutterspot, geocaching, something else . . . Gourmet magazine is to be no more. I used to like that magazine, but I stopped reading it long ago when I stopped reading most mags. Today I subscribe to none . . .

Local Newspaper Abuses Copyright

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Today Thomas Hawk detailed how the Los Angeles Times has been posting Flickr photographs of the fires nearby. The widget that was created to grab those photographs was improperly written; instead of grabbing just the Creative Commons licenses, it also grabbed the All Rights Reserved photographs.

It must be common in the newspaper business to do this. Locally, The Daily Journal has launched itself with other Gannett papers in the state to form the In Jersey site. Each town has a widget that pulls video and photographs from YouTube and Flickr. My photographs are seen all the time on this site as I tag many of them Vineland. Yet, my default setting at Flickr is All Rights Reserved. That means this site is not supposed to be grabbing those photographs.

Since this supports a commercial enterprise, it is definitely illegal.  Of course, I don’t suspect The Daily Journal will report about this.

Wikipedia spells out the issue pretty well.

Do you think The Daily Journal would have an issue if I began distributing its content continuously?