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@ Media Summit: CNN’s Klein: Fox News Isn’t Our Biggest Competitor—Facebook is

Mar 10, 2010 8:48 AM ET

Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/U.S.

It’s the Bloomberg BusinessWeek Media Summit now, but the two-day conference is still at the McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) Building. CNN President Jon Klein led off in a Q&A with Bloomberg BW Editor Josh Tyrangiel, talking about the magic—and often illusory—word “synergy.” Klein talked about the ties that the Time Inc. (NYSE: TWX) cable news network can work with Time.com increase its traffic through CNN.com, and there are even ties with HBO, which has aired documentaries from host (and Newsweek International Editor) Fareed Zakaria. “A huge reason we’ve doubled our profit over the last four years is because we’ve collaborated with affiliates all over the world.” CNN U.S. will be a primary source of its online video, since some stories that might not work on the cable net could get traction online. “We’re not force feeding, it’s not creating foie gras and we’re getting better at learning to manage the differences between the cable side and the online side.”

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Posted In: Media & Publishing, TV, Cable & Telecom, Companies, Time Warner, Time Inc.

Pic of the Day, From Abu Dhabi Media Summit

Mar 10, 2010 8:07 AM ET

The biggest frenemies together: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) & Maurice Levy of Publicis, one of the largest ad holding companies:

We’ll have the full video of Schmidt’s speech and Q&A from here, later this afternoon. Meanwhile if you want to check out bits from his speech, chk out our Twitter feed at @paidcontent.

Posted In: , adms

pc buzz

  • davidaKaplan 39 minutes Ago
    CNN's Klein: I don't know anyone who gets into - and stays - in journalism for the $; it's an obsession #mediasummit
  • davidaKaplan 42 minutes Ago
    Klein: Even when I worked at the bcast networks, I didn't think 6:30 news block was sine qua non
  • davidaKaplan 43 minutes Ago
    CNN's Klein: Number of people getting news online is up 30%. We need to move away from "this happened" to what's going to happen.
  • davidaKaplan 1 hour Ago
    CNN's Klein: We had more viewers on election night '08 than the bcast networks. That never happened before. #mediasummit

News Corp’s Miller: Paywalls And Free Model Can Co-Exist

Mar 10, 2010 6:35 AM ET

Jon Miller

By Jane Martinson: Jonathan Miller, head of digital media at News Corporation (NYSE: NWS), said today that “dual revenue streams” are likely to co-exist as media organisations try ways of making money online.

Miller claimed the media industry had to return to charging, whether through subscription or some other method. “The choice between paywall or free is not mutually exclusive. They can co-exist based on quality of content and geography,” he sai.

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Posted In: Companies, News Corp.

Industry Moves
EMI Music Swaps Chief For Chairman Allen As Trouble Looms

Mar 10, 2010 5:59 AM ET

Charles Allen

In 2008, Terra Firma hired the guy who ran the company which makes Cillit Bang and Air Wick to turn EMI Music around. But now the record label finds itself seeking a reported £100 million to avoid breaching banking covenants.

So now executive chairman Elio Leoni-Sceti is on his way out; he’s being replaced by Charles Allen, the former CEO of the UK’s top commercial broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV), on March 31. Allen has chaired the board since January 2009.

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Posted In: Industry Moves, Entertainment, Music, Companies, EMI

Why MySpace Co-Presidents Aren’t Worried About Growth

Mar 10, 2010 4:01 AM ET

MySpace Co-Presidents Jason Hirschhorn (l) & Mike Jones (r)

MySpace (NYSE: NWS) pulled up the curtain a little this week, letting in some light on a makeover still very much in progress and marking a debut of sorts for Co-Presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn as a team. By walking reporters through their road map, the two hope to move the story from “oh woe is MySpace” to “look at MySpace go.” It isn’t going to be easy and it isn’t going to be fast. MySpace’s problems were legendary before Jones and Hirschhorn arrived last year as part of a turn-around triumvirate—and even more so with the hasty departure of Owen Van Natta, giving the social network the dubious distinction of losing two CEOs in less than a year. 

We spoke at length by phone Tuesday. One image to shed: the notion of MySpace as entertainment portal, something Hirschhorn says was poorly communicated by the company. Instead, think of MySpace as a social entertainment experience. “There are other sites on the internet that are big and don’t have permission to be social,” he explains. More from our conversation below:

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Posted In: Social Media, Community, Companies, News Corp., MySpace, jason hirschhorn, mike jones

How One Mobile Developer Created Its Own Local Ad Network To Boost Fill Rates

Mar 9, 2010 9:11 PM ET

uLocate's hyperlocal ad network Where Ads

Like many other developers, uLocate works closely with ad networks to monetize WHERE, its free mobile app that is available on a number of carrier networks and Android, iPhone and Palm (NSDQ: PALM).

But WHERE often struggled to keep its fill rates high, and when campaigns ran out, it had to use less desirable banner ads pushing ringtones and wallpapers, said uLocate’s VP of Marketing Dan Gilmartin. Today, the Boston-based company is launching an ad network that it created internally to remedy the problem and has been using since December. The ad network, which it calls the WHERE Ads hyper-local advertising network, is now available outside the company, and is being used by various publishers, including Geocade, Jambase, MocoSpace and Superpages.com.

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Posted In: Advertising, Local, Media & Publishing, Mobile, Search, Technologies / Formats, GPS Navigation/Maps

Without Colbert, Stewart, Hulu Could Cede Some Ground To Viacom

Mar 9, 2010 7:15 PM ET

Jon Stewart Hulu2

Barring a last-minute fix or change of strategy, at midnight Tuesday Hulu.com will switch from a co-host for online video of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report to a referral engine for the popular shows. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) execs like to call it a test but after 21 months it’s become a habit for those who relied on Hulu for one-stop viewing.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told investors at a Credit Suisse conference the 21-month stint was a test and this doesn’t have to be a permanent separation. “In the current economic model, there is not that much in it for us to continue at this time,” Dauman said, according to Multichannel News. “If they can get to the point where the monetization model is better, then we may go back.”

keep reading for chart of viewing trends »

Posted In: Media & Publishing, TV, Social Media, Video, Companies, Viacom, hulu, philippe dauman

Bingo! Microsoft’s Search Share Keeps Going Up

Mar 9, 2010 7:00 PM ET

Bing Bingo Card (off-center)

Nine months since relaunching its search engine, Bing’s market share continues to inch up. It’s now at 11.5 percent, up from 8 percent prior to its remake, according to the latest comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) figures (via Business Insider). We’ve made a point of checking in each quarter, rather than monthly, in order to avoid anamolies, and the trend has stayed remarkably the same.

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Posted In: Search, Companies, Google, Microsoft, Bing, Yahoo

Daylife And Demotix Partner On User-Gen Image Sales

Mar 9, 2010 6:30 PM ET

Daylife

News aggregator Daylife will begin reselling pictures posted by users of London-based citizen-photo journalism site Demotix to create an “open image wire service.” The arrangement is an expansion of Daylife’s existing image programs. Last fall, Daylife began partnering with Getty Images—which is also an investor in Daylife—on products that lets users insert imagery on their websites. In an e-mail exchange with paidContent, Daylife CEO Upendra Shardanand said the arrangement with Demotix is a bit different from the one with Getty, which handles professional photographers.

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Posted In: Marketing, Media & Publishing, Online News, Social Media, Photo Sharing, Countries, Europe, UK, daylife, demotix

Why Newspapers Are In So Much Trouble, According To Google’s Chief Economist

Mar 9, 2010 6:20 PM ET

Newspapers

Newspapers have blamed Google (NSDQ: GOOG) for their woes, and Google, in turn, has helped remind newspapers that they did a pretty good job of digging their own grave. The latest Googler to weigh in on the business is Chief Economist Hal Varian, in a speech to the FTC today. Below, the big takeaways from Varian’s remarks, which are drawn from a longer post, plus slideshow, on Google’s Public Policy Blog. Spoiler alert: If you had hopes for a print rebound, stop reading now. 

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Posted In: Media & Publishing, Online News, Companies, Google, hal varian

Exclusive
TMZ Courts Bigger Advertisers With New, Softer-News Website

Mar 9, 2010 5:19 PM ET

Too Fab Screenshot

Celebrity gossip site TMZ has quietly unveiled a gentler fashion-oriented offshoot called Too Fab. Although TMZ maintains high traffic—February uniques were up 6 percent to 14 million, per comScore (NSDQ: SCOR)—and gained new credibility by breaking the news of Michael Jackson’s death last year, many advertisers remain uncomfortable with the main site’s daily diet of in-you-face Hollywood crime and debauchery. But its advertisers tend to be Google-served ads and smaller businesses.

So where the main TMZ site features news of the David Letterman stalker’s guilty plea or an item about Gary Coleman having a seizure, Too Fab tackles safer stories—about Russell Brand’s $315 sunglasses, for example, and Conan O’Brien offering to foot the bill for a Twitter follower’s wedding.

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Posted In: Advertising, Features, Exclusive, Media & Publishing, Women-Centric Content, Online News, Social Media, Companies, AOL, tmz, too fab

Video @ paidContent 2010: How To Make Money From Digital News

Mar 9, 2010 5:00 PM ET

Business of Digital News - paidContent 2010

The Financial Times has a sizeable and nicely growing subscription business—so why mess with micropayments? FT.com Managing Director Rob Grimshaw says that half the FT’s print customers are newsstand buyers, and the company needs to offer an similar a la carte option online as well. Grimshaw, in an interview with ContentNext Media Managing Editor Ernie Sander, also explores about what the company has learned about its readers from its “data warehouse,” and how it has used that information to help convert some of those readers into customers.

Two other panelists at paidContent2010’s The Business of Digital News session, KC Estenson, CNN.com’s SVP and GM, and Lincoln Millstein, Hearst’s SVP of digital media, talked about the opportunities that apps and e-devices present for publishers looking for new revenue streams. Josh Cohen, Google’s senior business product manager, meanwhile, explains why news organizations that blame on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) are shooting the messenger. See highlights of the panel below.

Full uncut session

Posted In: Media & Publishing, Online News, Events, ContentNext Events, paidContent 2010, Companies, Google, Hearst, Pearson, Financial Times, FT.com, cnn, contentnext media, ernie sander, josh cohen, kc estenson, lincoln millstein, rob grimshaw

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