“The Printed Blog” Calls it Quits
Six months ago I told you about The Printed Blog, a free glossy paper that would carry content from popular blogs and fine-tuned to what each neighborhood wanted to read. Unfortunately, publisher Joshua Karp announced on the paper’s web site yesterday that “due to a lack of outside investment capital, The Printed Blog is ceasing publication.”
The paper made it through 16 issues, distributing 80,000 print copies and readers downloaded another 100,000.
The Printed Blog may be gone, but Karp still sounds optimistic for the future. In his statement he says; “I’m disappointed, to be sure, but also looking forward to the future. I believe the next few years will be among the most exciting times in the history of journalism. The industry’s landscape is on the verge of major change, and when redefined, it will look a lot different than it does today. It will also function considerably better.”
Although this project is ending, Karp still has the kind of ideas that tradition media needs to embrace.
More Info:
Read the announcement from Joshua Karp here
Read the exit interview with Crain’s Chicago Business here
You Otta be in Pictures… in Detroit???
Michigan’s Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced in her State of the State address last week that a former auto plant and a vacant casino will be turned into film studios. Hopes are that this 150 million dollar investment will create 4000 new jobs in Detroit.
By the end of the year, the former MGM Grand Casino in downtown Detroit will become an $86 million digital animation and visual effects studio to be called the Detroit Center Studios. In addition, a former GM plant in Pontiac will become a $70.7 million film production studio called Motown Motion Picture Studios.
The Detroit News reports that Hollywood’s Raleigh Studios will operate the Motown Motion Picture Studios.
The fact that an established group like Raleigh Studios will operate this new Detroit hope is a huge step in the right direction, considering the “investor seeking” developer that usually come to town with the promise of production jobs and the bright lights of Hollywood.
More Info:
Read the Detroit News article here
Read the Crain’s Detroit Business article here
Read the ReelChicago.com story here
Hot Off the Press, Blogs in Print
Commuters in three select neighborhoods of Chicago and one in San Francisco had a new offering to consider for their morning read today, The Printed Blog. This new free glossy newspaper will carry content from well know blogs and from its readers.
Starting as a weekly offering this stretched tabloid size paper covers all topics with selections gathered a wide range of writers. Sources ranged from large national blogs, such as Daily Kos, to the music blog CreamTeam.tv and the literary site The Nervous Breakdown. A clean wide layout makes the paper look much like the web pages of the blogs themselves.
The New York Times reports that 300 bloggers have given The Printed Blog permission to publish their work for a share of the ad revenue. Founder and Publisher Joshua Karp also told the Times that he hopes eventually to publish two neighborhood editions a day of the paper in a number of cities around the country.
The Printed Blog website explains that the content of the paper will vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. “The selection of content in The Printed Blog is based solely on the votes of readers and their geographic location.”
In an atmosphere where newspaper owners are trying anything to get readers, having a business plan which includes putting commercial printers in the homes of its distributors might just work… if its not picked up by a bigger company first.
More Info:
Read the New York Times Article here
Read the Wired Blog here
Download the first issue of The Printed Blog here
Battle Heats Up Between TicketMaster and Live Nation
Concert producer and promoter Live Nation has signed a three year deal with Blockbuster to use their stores as sites for Live Nation ticket sales. The deal will give Live Nation an instant retail presence using 500 Blockbuster locations.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the battle for your concert dollars, it’s been non-stop in the entertainment world. Concert promoters have been morphing into an entertainment serve-all; doing everything from promoting the concerts and owning the venues to having their own record labels. The idea is they can handle every aspect of a band or entertainers career. Live Nation refers to this as “maximizing the live concert experience.”
Live Nation had been working through ticket sales monolith TicketMaster, but their agreement will end in January of 2009 and Live Nation will then take over their own ticket sales. This new deal makes Blockbuster the “exclusive physical resale ticket outlet” for Live Nation and will begin in January right as the Live Nation/TicketMaster agreement ends.
On the Blockbuster side of the deal, hopes are that having ticket sites in the stores will increase traffic and send customers to their stores that aren’t usually there as DVD rentals slow. The 500 Blockbuster stores will be in cities where Live Nation venues are located; such as The House of Blues and numerous theaters and stadiums.
According to the Live Nation press release, “the selected stores will offer exclusive blocks of tickets available only at Blockbuster during the first four hours of ticket sales, as well as general ticketing as long as supplies last.”
The TicketMaster/Live Nation battle won’t be cooling down anytime soon. This fall TicketMaster agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Front Line Management Inc, a very influential management firm in the music business. If you think that will put TicketMaster and Live Nation head-to–head out on the street again, you would be correct.
Possibly the easiest way for Live Nation to win this one might be to start by not charging the obnoxious service charges that TicketMaster has become known for over the years.
More Info:
Reuters here
Dallas Morning News here
Live Nation Press Release
Blockbuster Press Release
Are You Ready For Some 3D Football?
The NFL’s broadcast of this Thursday’s game between the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders will be the first ever broadcast in 3D-HD. This broadcast will take place in theaters in three cities; Boston, New York and LA as an invite only event.
Seeing a football game in HD on the big screen is one thing, but the added 3D experience is said to make the viewer feel as if they are actually on the playing field.
The NBA was the first sports league to give the 3D-HD a try with their presentation of the 2007 NBA All-Star game. 3ality Digital of Burbank California will produce and transmit the NFL’s December 4th game. 3ality Digital may be best known to the public for their work on the concert film “U2 3D” and for making NBC’s “Chuck” first scripted television show shot entirely in live digital 3D.
Guests to this screening will be the NFL’s broadcast and consumer electronics partners. The venues will also have 3-D televisions on hand to show what the home experience could be like in the future.
At the IBC trade show this summer, I was positioned across from a live 3-D demonstration. The 3-D camera was just pointed at the booth and passing crowd, letting people see the live feed on a 3-D HD monitor - once they put on the special glasses. The crowd continued to line up for three days to get their look.
At the theater this week the game will be a sight to see, with the biggest stumbling block still being that the audiences has to wear those glasses.
More Info:
Broadcast & Cable here
CNET here
WSJ here
American’s Time Watching TV Hits a Record High
People may say that there’s nothing to watch on TV, but they still end up spending more time watching TV. The latest “Three Screen” report from Nielsen says that Americans have set a new record watching TV and have also increased their time online, watched more video online and increased time spent watching video on mobile devices.
According to the report the average U.S. home had their TV on 8 hours and 18 minutes per day, a record high since Nielsen began measuring TV in the 1950’s. The report doesn’t say how much of that time there was someone watching that TV.
More Info:
LA Times here
Nielsen Blog here
Nielsen Three Screen Report here
Guns N’ Roses Deal Send Fans Only to Best Buy
Another exclusivity deal hit over the weekend as Axle Rose released the first new Guns N’ Roses product in 17 years only at Best Buy Stores and on iTunes. At a time when retailers and economists are doing their rock-paper-scissors evaluations to guess what this year’s holiday sales will be like, this cd will no doubt drive customers to Best Buy.
The long delayed release called “Chinese Democracy” reportedly cost 13 million to produce. This is one of a string “available only at” deals that we’ve seen such as The Eagle’s & AC/DC at Wal-Mart, and Christina Aguilera at Target.
Don’t be fooled by all of the hype though, the upfront money is important to the performers and the traffic is important to the retailers. PopMatters.com reported that to get the exclusive deal with the Eagles last year, Wal-Mart paid the band a nonrefundable $30 million upfront for 3 million copies of its comeback CD “Long Road out of Eden.” There have been no reports of what Axle Rose may have pocketed from the Best Buy deal and he has been strangely quiet during the time leading up to the cd’s release.
The idea of course is to turn the release into an event and to hope that the exclusivity gives it the stamp of “better hurry out and buy it” in the mind of the consumers and fans. I don’t know if I’d go as far as the Best Buy PR however, who might want to watch just how much importance they put on this releases before they loose any credibility they may have. The Best Buy press release posted on MarketWatch.com calls the GN’R release “One of the most anticipated albums of all time.”
Really, of all time?
Gary Arnold, Best Buy’s senior entertainment officer gave a more down to earth statement. Arnold told the Pioneer Press, “It’s a logical step, given the challenges of breaking out from all the noise that exists in the marketplace. I think artists are trying to look for ways they can be as successful as possible.”
GN’R does have a large fan base and 17 years is quite a bit of time between releases, but if a retailer didn’t make an event out of the cd it could easily get lost in the shuffle. These “events” try to point out that the band still matters whether it does or not.
These big box deals do cut out an important group, the Independent Music Retailer. The fact that they have to sit on the sidelines as the big dollar deals are made and even resort to buying the cd’s from the big box stores to make sure they have them in stock sell them to customers is a shame. The bands can be brushed aside the second they are deemed to be not “hot” by the big box stores, but the independent reseller will be pushing their music far past the holiday shopping spree.
In a related note, the Guardian reports that The Global Times, a Chinese newspaper published by the country’s ruling Communist party, has furiously condemned Guns N’ Roses over the title of their latest album “Chinese Democracy” claiming it is an attack on their nation. The Guardian goes on to say that the article ran under the headline “American band releases album venomously attacking China” and said it was part of a western plot to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn”.
Perhaps they missed the Best Buy press release…
More Info:
Reuters article here
LA Times Music Blog here
Greg Kot review here
Best Buy Press Release here
Live Commercials Make a Comeback… So You Won’t Skip Them
They’re back! Live commercials, are making a comeback on television. Now if you’re thinking this is just the television industry going retro or just wanting to show young viewers what things were like in the golden era of television, you would be wrong. The live commercial is making a comeback in a move to stop DVR owners from skipping over the spots… the TiVo effect.
The David Letterman show was the latest show to join the live commercial club last week when a live spot for the Mazda 6 was included in the show. TV Week reported that the commercial was produced by Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, using a script from Mazda. Live spots have also been incorporated into most of the late night talk shows including “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.”
Knowing that viewers can’t automatically recognize them to skip over and may even watch after they discover it is a commercial will lead to more of these live spots. Definitely look for an increase in the number of these spots as the year winds down.
The New York Times reported on a live three minute commercial broadcast in Britain earlier this year by Honda in which skydivers spelled out the word Honda… yes live. The idea the article said was to turn advertisements into events. We’ve discussed the trends of commercials here before with the web series type ads, but the idea is really to make sure viewers watch.
Last year Garmin aired a live spot on the “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” the show’s first in 14 years. In a Reuters article about the spot Steve Lovell, media sponsorship marketing manager at Garmin said, “Probably most people had no idea they were being pitched a commercial, it looked like a skit.”
Now that’s dangerous. Nothing can hold a grudge like a viewer who suddenly realizes he’s been duped into watching a commercial. That’s why Kimmel’s spots work so well. There’s no hiding the fact that it’s a commercial; there’s energy, awkwardness and you want to see what will happen.
These days when many of the talk shows and morning news interviews are no more than commercials for new shows and movies or a celebrity hawking a product, trying to pull off live commercials under any premise other than it being a commercial is asking for the viewers to find a way to skip those too.
More Info:
TV Week article here
NY Times article here
Kimmel live spots here
Honda Skydivers article here
Reuters article here
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