Week of November 14, 2005

Local Newspapers: Low Online Reach For News

Monday, November 14th, 2005

A recent Nielsen/Netratings survey showed that no local newspaper in the top ten markets reached more than 31% of the market via its Internet site. While the fact that more than two-thirds of local Internet users don't bother with their local newspaper website for news is eye-opening, the fact that the local newspapers still were the most-used source for news is even more surprising.

This is another indication of how the Internet and new media in general have created a highly fragmented media landscape. For news, although local newspapers lead all news sources in appealing to local Internet users, the large majority of usage is spread among numerous other sites, from Yahoo to the Drudge Report.

Now This Is Forward Thinking

Tuesday, November 15th, 2005

The National Academy Of Television Arts And Sciences will soon announce the creation of an award for original video content created for computers, cell phones, and other technology devices. Look at it as the launch of the first "digital Emmy award."

A New Way To Check Traffic

Wednesday, November 16th, 2005

Traffic Vizzion is a service that ties into your cell phone and allows the user to tap his or her phone directly into specific traffic cameras. Want to know how busy that really bad intersection is before you leave for the opera? Just dial the number on your cell phone and watch the cars whiz past.

A Wet Blanket On Mobile Video

Thursday, November 17th, 2005

The real interesting part of the study was the question on interest in watching television on things other than television sets. In short: There wasn't much interest. 17% expressed interest in watching TV via the Internet, while 6% expressed interest in watching TV via their mobile phones.

Mobile Music Services: Stumbling Out Of The Gate

Friday, November 18th, 2005

First was the word on the poor sales of Motorola's iPod-integrated Rockr phone, now the New York Time has weighed in on Sprint's new mobile music service, and it's not pretty: Referring to the service as a mobile music test case, writer David Pogue states, "Sprint's pricing is so high, its catalog so small and its ring-tone restriction so silly, it turns out not to be a good test case at all."

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