Random Mumblings

On Friday, the Talk stops

2010-02-09T13:08:05Z

One of the pioneering efforts in new ways to deliver news and connect with audiences in Tennessee (and the country) is "going dark"

WKRN-TV's "Nashville is Talking" Web site, termed a "quaint reminder" of days gone by shuts down on Friday.

On the Web site WKRN general manager Gwen Kinsey writes:

NIT in its infancy introduced individual blogging to our mass media vehicle. The site generated buzz, a fair amount of regular readers and a provocative discussion about what role new media might play in the future of mainstream media. It was fun and it was messy. Our community's level of sophistication with social media has taken off. NIT is a quaint reminder of how we all got started. Now, we find ourselves using Twitter, Facebook and live streaming to enhance our connections with our viewers in ways that blogs do less and less. It's time to move on.

As of this Friday, NIT will go dark.

Its host, Christian Grantham said he has turned in his two-week notice. What's next he didn't say.

The first host of "Nashville is Talking," Brittney Gilbert, wasn't mourning the news. In a Q&A with the Nashville Scene's Pith in the Wind blog, she said:

I think Nashville is Talking, no offense to Christian, died long ago. It may be "going dark" now, but when the blog became a multi-media site that required log-ins to comment, it took a big hit. And while Grantham has a great nose for news, I am not sure he was as versed in community engagement. Nashville is Talking moved away from promoting local bloggers, and that is where I think it suffered most.

Frankly, if I were to move back to Nashville, I might start up something similar to what Nashville Is Talking once was. I miss the community that was cultivated and grown to something amazing. Because I do think there is a need for an aggregator of all the online talent in Middle Tennessee, and not just the political one at Post Politics.

I wonder if the Tennessee bloggers will miss NiT.

In June 2007, Brittney Gilbert, the first host of "Nashville is Talking," abruptly quit her job and later landed in a larger market, at KPIX in San Francisco doing its "Eye on Blogs."

Less than a year later in March 2008, the station dropped its "VolunteerVoters" site and author A.C. Kleinheider,, who moved on to the Nashville Post, where he has one of the most influential political blogs in Tennessee (arguably, the most influential).

While "Nashville is Talking" as Gilbert knew it may have died with her departure, the spirit of innovation at the site continued to burn. During Grantham's turn at the desk, it expanded into social media, live streaming and mobile video, again generally well ahead of local competitors and even broadcast outlets and newspaper Web sites in general.

The station also was the first in the nation to launch a platform for accepting user generated photos and videos (knoxnews.com, all of E.W. Scripps' newspapers and many TV stations use the same vendor, Cell Journalist, that worked to develop the WKRN system).

On his personal blog, Grantham wrote:

Our experimentation with blogs is likely the most widely noted. At a time when the industry as a whole scoffed at empowering any other voice but the reporter or anchor, WKRN embraced it. Now, virtually every TV station across the country has one or staff who author them.

Twitter and Facebook has helped place WKRN in a dominant and trusted position within our local community as viewers seek the latest information that directly affects their lives. WKRN was the first station in Nashville to bring you regular on-air commentary on top news stories directly from our viewers via Twitter. Since then, use of Twitter on cable news and elsewhere has become a new tool in instant viewer interaction.

One of the sure bets of the digital age is nothing stays the same so, like Gilbert, I don't mourn the change. The efforts that were ignited by broadcasting consultant Terry Heaton and Mike Sechrist, then general manager of the Nashville station, however, were truly innovative and have continued to be.

Heaton, Sechrist, Gilbert, Kleinheider, Grantham demonstrated that the future of media was as likely to be built or discovered in Nashville or Tennessee as in Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley. I've certainly studied what they were doing and borrowed unabashedly from their innovations.

I hope that spirit of innovation is not what is "going dark" at WKRN. It's quite a legacy, quaint as it may seem to some. As with Heaton, Sechrist, Gilbert and Kleinheider, I'm sure Grantham will move to do even better things and I wish him well.

Social Media Summit

2010-02-04T17:18:33Z

The new Scripps Convergence Lab at the University of Tennessee is being quickly put to use by the public as well as students.

The Knoxville Digital Strategy Winter Summit will be held in the Convergence Lab on Feb. 24 and is being put on by The Knoxville Social Media Association and Social Media Club of Knoxville.

According to an email from the Knoxville Social Media Club, the Summitl features three panels:

Panel 1 - 3:30 - 4:15 pm: "Social Media & the Health Care Industry: Where We Are & Where We're Going"

Panel 2 - 4:30 - 5:15 pm: "Journalism and Social Media: Breaking Down Barriers or Crossing the Line?"

Panel 3 - 5:30 -6:15 pm: "Does Social Media Have Real Business Value?: Real-world Examples & Case Studies"

More info here.

Seeing the journalists of the future

2010-01-31T23:53:23Z

I spent most of last week at Hampton University at Scripps Career Days. The students I met were extremely bright and they have a wonderful facility to work in at the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications. There are links to more coverage, including photos and videos, of the week at the ScrippsDays.com Web site.

(Photo by Hampton student Nolan Smash, who also shot video of some of the panels.)

Birds enjoyed the snow

2010-01-30T19:26:04Z

Jack D. Lail http://www.jacklail.com

Bulldog Calacanis bites comScore's leg

2010-01-24T16:35:06Z

Jascon Calacanis gets his rant on comScore, calling them "the technology industry's biggest bully."

It has always baffled me why people continue to rely on comScore when its data is so flawed, particularly when the data drills down to local markets. Generally, it's beyond wildly wrong.

He called comScore a "protection racket" and says:

it was an unspoken truth for years that if you paid Comscore they fixed your numbers, and if you were a small company and didn't, well, you suffered. Comscore would probably deny this, but their recent "pay to play" product shows their true stripes.

Calacanis tends toward hyperbole; his critics call him a blowhard. He's definitely taken the gloves off on his long-running criticisms of one of the biggest online metrics houses. Bully for him!

They'll have to tow Ruffin McNeill away

2010-01-22T22:24:38Z

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Ruffin McNeill didn't say a word. He just walked into the room filled with reporters and fans waiting to hear from East Carolina's new coach and repeatedly pumped his right fist in the air.
He was home, back at his alma mater and in his native North Carolina.
"This is my destination job," McNeill said Friday. "Let's get that out front right now. This is not a stepping-stone hop for Ruff. This is where I want to be until you tow me away from here. You'll have to drag me away."
More

A great way to start. McNeill sounds like he'll do great at East Carolina and I wish him well. Amid the slew of crazy college coach stories of the last few weeks, this is a positive one. Everything I have read about McNeill praises him as a person.

AP photo by The Daily Reflector, Rhett Butler

Hurry, antidote needed for dreaded 'Knoxville Syndrome'

2010-01-21T01:49:05Z

Too often, we let the sources set the terms. Even as (WBIR News Director) Bill (Shory) states this obvious truth, the crowd of his peers nearly shouts him down, yelling "Yes, he does!" That's absurd. This group of reporters in a major sports market is so cowed by the university media machine that it doesn't even know it's the victim here. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome. Perhaps the new term for sports reporter/hostages who've spent so much time under the thumb of sports information people they don't even know they're victims anymore should be "Knoxville Syndrome."

-- Stacey Woelfel, RTDNA Chairman

One of the toughest indictments of Knoxville sports journalists I've ever read. It's a reaction to the YouTube video that shows the raucous pre-press conference negotiations between the media and University of Tennessee officials over the ground rules for a press conference in which Lane Kiffin would announce his departure as Tennessee head football coach. Kiffin wanted no questions, no live video or audio, and off-camera and on-camera statements.

WBIR News Director Bill Shory refused to go along with the off-camera/on-camera arrangement and several of his journalist colleagues tried to get him to back down and acquiesce to the demands. It was one last humiliation Lane Kiffin was angling for the University of Tennessee and the Knoxville media, a staged press conference with the USC man in complete charge of the spin.

"Knoxville Syndrome" is unequivocally unfair to many Knoxville sports journalists. There are several dedicated, highly ethical, hardworking journalists who cover sports in Knoxville. But if the term sticks, the city's sports journalists will be the subjects of psychology grad student theses for years on the factors that led to their "Knoxville Syndrome." For journalism groups, a panel discussion on how to avoid befalling it will become standard fare. I imagine someone is planning just such a panel at this moment -- or should be..

It could be mentioned in textbooks. Had it not been for Shory and a couple others standing their ground, it most certainly would have been a completely depressing chapter in the YouTube history of journalism. It's like a pack of journalists were trapped in a "Big Brother" episode..

The YouTube video has gotten 193,250 views so far and the incident is being blogged extensively. Here are some more takes on it:

Jeff Woods: A Hero for Our Times: TV News Director Stands Up to Arrogant Flack, Wussy Reporters
Al Tompkins: As Tennessee Football Coach Resigns, News Director Stands Up for Full Coverage
Ben Garrett: Shory got it right
Jamey Tucker's BlogSquat: News Director Stands Up to Lane Kiffin and UT
Steve Safran writing on Lost Remote: WBIR-TV stands up to school - and other journalists
Instapundit: REAL JOURNALISM AT WORK: Bill Shory has an excellent reputation in this town, and for a reason
Jack McElroy: WBIR's Bill Shory is my hero
Katie Allison Granju: VIDEO: WBIR's Bill Shory shows us why real journalism still matters

Photo above shows Bud Ford of the University of Tennessee sports information office, arguing with WBIR-TV's Bill Shory over press conference ground rules.

Kiffin clash

2010-01-19T01:45:20Z

A video of the negotiations between the Knoxville media and Bud Ford, the University of Tennessee's Associate Athletics Director - Media Relations (Men) - Football, before the press conference where head football coach Lane Kiffin announced he was leaving Tennessee for the head coaching job at the University of Southern California.

Kiffin wanted to do two press conferences, one without cameras and one with. No questions apparently were going to be allowed at either. He also did not want any live feeds either video or audio.

Update: Jack McElroy and Katie Granju blogging the same thing.

Re-examining Examiner.com

2010-01-18T20:50:43Z

A follow up to my Dec. 21 post about Examiner.com's success at SEO, ranking high in Google searches and ballooning traffic: It seems the site has been at least temporarily banned from Google News.

Hat tip to Examiner.com contributor Elizabeth Kelly for making me aware of that news.

I'm not sure what rules infraction got the site bumped from Google News, but I still believe traditional news media sites could learn something from watching it, particularly its ability to rank high in organic search results.

What?

2010-01-01T18:06:21Z

Boots

A random top 10 list for 2009

2010-01-01T15:24:09Z

Random Mumblings' top 10 posts during 2009 based on page views.

Marc Andreessen: "The game is completely over"

Video of Marc Andreessen on the Charlie Rose show, talking at length about newspapers. (February 22, 2009)

Why Examiner.com's traffic is growing through the roof

On the SEO success of Examiner.com and why original content providers might want to study what it's doing. (December 21, 2009)

A stranger than fiction story line that's true

A tale that should have been a Snark Bites post, but wasn't. (July 29, 2009)

Just another victim of a shifting, churning landscape

Sen. John Kerry's defense of newspapers? (May 6, 2009)

The Internet Age that vanished

On the Internet archives that aren't (July 1, 2009)

On Being There

On using a Flip cam to shoot video of a porn. Questions about its enduring popularity? (May 22, 2007)

Journalists running toward burning buildings as fast as they can

Crowd sourcing a speech by E.W. Scripps VP Rusty Coats with Twitter. (September 23, 2009)

Who knew, videos on YouTube are embeddable

On a bonehead decision by the Associated Press (April 9, 2009)

Finding our way in a very old saying

"Give light and the people will find their own way." (January 4, 2009)

Journalism is not a federal earmark

Channeling Dave Winer (March 4, 2009)

All but one of these posts (the On Being There post) have a common link, they got links from Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit blog, who sent this site 51 percent of its visitors. Mighty Google only accounted for about half that. Others non-search engine sites among the top referrers were Twitter, piratenews.org, knoxviews, facebook, econlog.econlib.org and saysuncle.com. Thanks to all and wishes for a happy New Year.

Newspapers will flourish while they flounder in 2010

2009-12-30T15:52:43Z

A prediction about the newspaper industry:

All those papers which serve merely as vehicles of intelligence will be destroyed

Lest you think that is a prediction for the new decade, it was from James Gordon Bennett, editor of the New York Herald, writing in 1845 about the advent of the telegraph. (via Neil McIntosh)

Bennett also said of the telegraph and newspapers:

In regard to the newspaper press, it will experience to a degree, that must in a vast number of cases be fatal, the effects of the new mode of circulating intelligence.

It turned out that the telegraph was a boon to the newspaper industry. Granted, predictions are tricky business; even divining current trends is a haphazard affair

About the same time Wells Fargo analyst John Janedis was upgrading his outlook for newspaper stocks based on a forecast of lower declines in ad spending, Alan D. Mutter at the Newosaur blog was noting that 142 newspapers were folded for the last time in 2009.

That said, here are some predictions for the newspaper industry for 2010:

I think 2010 will bring a wave of consolidation in the newspaper industry. Cities that have more than one major newspaper at the start of the year will only have one at the end as the economy recovers and newspaper advertising doesn't. Clearly, this trend is already underway - Seattle, Cincinnati, and Denver have already lost their second paper - but I think more publications across the country will tire of the uphill struggle and capitulate. At least for now, however, I don't think a major American city will be newspaper-less: even though they are burdened by high debt loads, high costs, and high profit expectations, newspapers are still able to attract a large (if relatively smaller) audience. Even if it means raising the price and further slimming the product, newspapers will survive in print...for now.

-- Lee Shaker, Research Fellow at Princeton University.

Hyperlocal advertising will heat up, delivering another nail in the traditional newspaper industry's coffin. (Very similar to one of my 2008 predictions, but this time focused on the advertising aspects.) Specifically, it will be more common for a local establishment to pay marketing dollars to Yelp or FourSquare, for example, then their local newspaper.

-- Sean Ammirati, COO, ReadWriteWeb.

The Dow will rise by 8% (from its Dec. 31 close), but newspaper stocks will sink as revenue fails to rebound quarter after quarter.

-- Martin Langeveld, News after Newspapers.

Boing Boing says Murdoch's threat to block searches and shroud his sites with paywalls is nothing more than a bluff. Think again. This isn't a doddering old coot who doesn't get the Web. Murdoch is a savvy businessman who just might lead an industry back into the reality-based community. With billions in cash on hand, he can afford short-term losses as his properties experiment with strategies that do not involve the essential untenability of giving the product away. And once he proves that a news publication can poke Google in the eye and survive, others will follow suit. After all, if they don't, Murdoch may be the only one left standing.

-- Newsweek.

It seems only a matter of months before The New York Times starts charging for its online content. For years, readers of the WSJ.com have paid for the newspaper's biggest business scoops. Bloomberg News expanded in this dire economy, thanks to its subscription model, and even regional papers such as The Miami Herald are experimenting with new ways to make money. (Their latest innovation? Adding a tagline to Web stories to ask readers to donate.) Ugh, as if begging qualifies as innovation.

-- Newsweek.

A "major" newspaper will fail to make it to 2011

We've been talking for years about the impending death of the newspaper, in favor of Internet-based news channels. I think back to our experience with the local paper earlier this year. We subscribed purely for the reason of getting coupons. We subscribed to the weekend package (so Friday - Sunday). Total cost was about $10 a month. The problem? We only netted about $5-6 worth of coupons per month. After 2 months, we canceled the subscription. Ad revenues are already in the toilet for newspapers, and will only continue to decline. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, Mr. Newspaper Man.

-- In Other Words blog.

Urban metro papers continue to shrink. More papers stop publishing in print on some days of the week; others go to Sunday-only for print and online/mobile for the rest of week; and a few go entirely digital. Unfortunately, we see some more newspapers die.

-- Steve Outing, last Editor and Publisher column.

Stop looking for an ad "rebound" because the meta-trend is working against you. "The amount spent on traditional advertising may be in perpetual decline," says Borrell Associates. As some of the more evolved media companies already know (and the rest will find out soon) the money is going to a broad and highly fragmented array of marketing, from social networks to search engines, custom promotions and rebates. Follow the marketing money, not the ad pages.

-- Steve Smith, MinOnline.

Local newspaper advertising has been rapidly declining as local marketers are looking for a greater ability to target their messages and audiences. Online newspaper advertising, however, has been expanding.
Prediction: Online advertising for local newspapers will halt its expansion and go flat, or even see a slight decline. The year 2010 will be a turning point for news delivered via the web and mobile devices, which are areas in which newspapers typically do not excel. The exception to this prediction: publications -- both print and online -- that serve rural areas or are focused on hyper-local news.

-- Steve Vaughan, Ballihoo.

(The original "Inter-Tubes?" The photo at top shows the main Operating Room of the Western Union in New York, from Scribner's Magazine, July 1889. The image shows the pneumatic tube system for transmitting messages to and from city stations and the 600 operators in the room. Photo from the Early Office Museum)

Now for your predictions ...

Cole's pottery

2009-12-28T19:42:14Z

A Christmas present. a couple of pieces of pottery made at J.B. Cole Pottery. This was once the largest of the Seagrove, N.C., potteries, but has been closed for many years.

Delicious

2009-12-28T17:16:42Z

Blackberry Creek Confections

Why Examiner.com's traffic is growing through the roof

2009-12-22T02:53:03Z

Much to my chagrin, I've been noticing Examiner.com versions of stories we're covering show up prominently in Google search results while our original journalism on knoxnews or govolsxtra is buried.

It happening a lot and not just to the sites I manage.

Examiner.com, a collection of sites that Time magazine cattily describes as "neither advancing the story nor bringing any insight," is the fastest growing news domain with Nielsen reporting a stratospheric 228 percent increase in audience in November while the big mainstream news sites like CNN.com and MSNBC.com had double-digit declines.

A poster on the Google News forum said: "This is not a reputable form of news. Any half-brained twit can write for them (and do). It's more like social networking as it is full of opinions and skimpy on facts"

But Google's famously secret algorithms keep tilling fresh Examiner.com stories to the top of search results. How does that happen?

Time answers the question like this:

So why does Examiner.com's fairly superficial posts on the big stories of the day often end up near the front of Google News' queue? "It's not a trick," says (CEO Rick) Blair. "We have almost 25,000 writers posting 3,000 original articles per day." Examiners take seminars on writing headlines, writing in the third person and making full use of social media, all of which are Google manna. But Blair thinks it's mostly the scale of the operation that makes Examiner.com articles so attractive to search engines, from which more than half of the site's traffic comes. That is, by stocking the lake with so many fish every day, Examiner.com increases the chances that Google trawlers will haul one of theirs up.

Whatever the journalism value, the Examiner is honing a formula of SEO friendly headlines and body copy, Social Media links, sheer article volume and technology approaches that ought to make news sites envious and more than a little embarrassed they haven't done the job as well with their original journalism.

Oh yeah, some are more worried about Google "stealing" their content while the Examiner just grows and grows. We better start worrying about somebody wooing the audience.

(You can click the image for a larger view of the screen shot.)