Eubie's notes

At Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits, David E. Carlson, a professor at the University of Florida, wondered if content was lost in the focus on competition at the E&P/Media Week Interactive Media Conference? See related notes here and here.

“Out of 12 educational sessions over two days, there are three — count them, three — sessions that I would classify as specifically related to online content.”

“I fear that some of us may be losing sight of what brings people to media websites in the first place. It’s content, and there is a reason people say ‘Content is king.’ You can’t ‘monetize’ visitors you don’t have.”

For journalists worried about content losing out, their challenge is to find ways to bring readers to their sites. Why should they stop what they’re doing and read this article? Why should they choose to go to your site? They have other choices for news, sports and classified ads, what’s the reward of choosing your site?

A study by Neil Budde Group and the Advanced Interactive Media Group says the continued growth of local search and more pay-for-performance advertising, could lead some newspapers to choose to not publish everyday.

With readers searching for news by their topics instead of reading news, “local media face the competitive fight of their lives.”

PDF of Executive Summary is here. CBS Market/Watch also has a Story through AlwaysOn. Tip from editorsweblog.org.

Some days are not as profitable as others, Friday being more profitable than Tuesday, but to not publish? There are still far too many newspaper readers who expect to read on a Tuesday what the city council did Monday?

Local and state news is a niche that newspapers should be able to protect in the future. Some papers will have to rediscover that niche and find better ways to show readers the value of that news.

Steve Yelvington reports on a speech by Chris Schroeder, v.p. of strategy for Washington Post Co., who was speaking at the E&P Interactive Media Conference, about “the perfect storm” media companies face on the Internet.

The view goes that much of the media’s online efforts are on aggregating content, but competitors are chipping away at both the editorial and advertising markets.

Schroeder told the audience that the counter is for media companies to deliver quality audiences through registration and behavioral tagging and to move away from commodity data.

After the resignation last month of top editors at USA Today with the disclosure of the fabrication of stories by a top reporter, some asked why Ben Bradless, a legend at The Washington Post, did not resign?

Bradlee, quoted in an article in Editor and Publisher says he offered to resign after the fabrications of Janet Cooke were revealed, but his resignation was rejected. Tip: Romenesko.

New study by Borrell Associates says U.S. newspapers and television stations now generate $1 billion in advertising. In the executive report, Borrell says TV stations are discovering two areas of classified advertising that newspapers have enjoyed in both print and on the Web: job and automobile listings. Tip from Steve Yelvington writing for Poynter E-Media Tidbits.

Current: Hope to die: a Matthew Scudder novel by Lawrence Block

Finished: Death by Hollywood: a novel by Steven Bochco.

Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Set aside at page 86. I was disappointed after earlier enjoying Straight Man.

Small Town by Lawrence Block

The Last Goodbye: a novel by Reed Arvin

Crispin: the cross of lead by Avi.

Audio
Current: Winston Churchill by John Keegan

Finished: Elizabeth and Mary (cousins, rivals, queens) by Jane Dunn

Denver Business Journal: Numbers tell the tale: Women rule the roost

Wired News: The Kingmaker of Personal Tech. Good profile of Walt Mossberg and the power of his Personal Technology column in the Wall Street Journal. It’s one of the few items that non-subscribers can read on the site.

I read his column every week. I like the non-tech angle to it and his strong view on topics. Of course, it has helped his reputation and influence that he writes for the Wall Street Journal. His column is a good blend of strong publication and writer.

Glenn Fleishman felt Wired focused too much on Mossberg and overlooked other newspaper technology columnists.

Telegraph.co.uk reports in today’s issue about an experiment where people were asked to watch a tape of people playing with basketballs and count the number of times the balls are passed.

After the tape is over, the scientists (article did not mention their fields of study) asked viewers if they saw the woman in the gorilla suit? Story says half reported not seeing a gorilla. For a group that were asked to just watch the tape, the gorilla was easily seen.

The experiment is used to help explain traffic accidents “when a driver ‘looked but failed to see’, and other examples of mayhem and mishap in everyday life.” The explanation is that the brain processes only so many messages and the focus on the passing basketballs causes it to ignore the visual messages of the woman in the gorilla suit. The experiment is not new; it’s been around awhile.

Tip: Crooked Timber. Here’s a link to the tape. I saw the gorilla, but, then I knew what to look for didn’t I?

N.Y. Times: The Elements of Common Sense. When The Times opts for CD’s rather than CDs, it’s considered house style. But if a shopkeeper mislays an apostrophe, the kind of people who worry about whether anal-retentive has a hyphen are quick to criticize.