WASHINGTON – Any day now, if published reports are accurate, cable giant Comcast will celebrate Thanksgiving not by dining on turkey but by feasting on peacock: Comcast is set to acquire NBC from General Electric. However, reports in the past few weeks touching on the financial performance and prospects of NBC Television raise an interesting question: Why does anyone really want to buy NBC? And why does Comcast, in particular, really want to buy NBC?……
Tag: powell
Newsday is first to take the plunge, goes all-pay online next week; one major provider vows to remain free
NEW YORK — Look, up in the sky! It's a balloon! No, it's not Falcom Heene floating over Colorado (or not, as it turned out). It's Terry Jimenez, floating over Long Island! Who??? Dear readers, meet Terry Jimenez, hero to newspaper publishers and scourge of free content on the Internet. What, you've never heard of him? Those of you without the Terry Jimenez poster can write to the Newspaper Association of America. Think of the iconic Farrah Fawcett poster, but with presses rolling. Really. No, just kidding (I think)…….
Two Newspaper Models: Microlocal success, large market challenges
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The latest evidence of financial viability of microlocal news comes from an article in the Wall Street Journal describing the Register-Star, a successful newspaper in Hudson, a town in Columbia County, New York. The formula is a familiar one: "a rich diet of local politics, education news, crime, school sports and people stories." And according to the Journal article, the Register-Star never relied on classified advertising as heavily as the major metro dailies, all of which have seen their classified ad revenue eviscerated by craigslist.com. But that's another blog; let's go back to the editorial side, to……
Will YouTube be the Craigslist of TV News?
BOSTON — Watch that space: YouTube video news is here, tailored just for you, featuring news of your microlocal neighborhood, just for you. If you haven't seen it, YouTube News Near You is an automated microlocal news service, with software detecting a your location and matching it with video news stories from that neighborhood. Turn on, tune in, and drop out of the six o'clock local TV news. So far the story selection is pretty limited. Think of YouTube's new local news service as 2009's version of the "Camel News Caravan," NBC's 15-minute nightly newscast of the early 1950's, hop……
The week the media crashed
So this is how it ends: Detroit newspapers have lost so much revenue they plan to publish and distribute a traditional paper only two days a week, according to the Wall Street Journal (and reported here). NPR has lost so much revenue that it will cancel programs once considered the network's future to conserve resources for its decades-old hits, according to an NPR announcement. NBC has lost so much revenue it announces it will only program four hours a week of traditional prime time entertainment next fall. Yes, that's correct: four hours a week. (The press release is available here.)……
Remembering Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
The New York Times, in a story remembering Adam Clayton Powell Jr., noted that one of his sons is Senior Fellow Adam Clayton Powell III, USC's vice provost for globalization. Powell Jr., who was a legendary Harlem congressman, would have turned 100 years old on Saturday, the story noted…….