The Curator » Media, Marketing

Drudge’s Influence Waning. Developing…

Dale — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:01:22 +0000

The Drudge Report’s influence has peaked and is on the wane, according to several pundits who note the decline in Drudge’s ability to set the agenda. Huffington Post and Politico at times get more traffic. (TPM)

On the other hand, traffic to Drudge continues to climb, reaching 153,563,619 visits for the month of October, and 798,524,935 page views.

Recommended:

Big Media Figures Admitting That Drudge’s Influence Has Waned (TPM)
The Drudge Retort (Howard Kurtz, Washington Post’s media critic)
Wag the Blog: Does Drudge Matter? (Chris Cillizza, Washington Post’s political blog)
Overstating Drudge’s Influence For Fun And Profit (TPM)
Is Drudge Losing His Mojo? (Phil Singer, Marathon Blog)
HuffPo Beats Drudge (WSJ)
Drudge Unplugged: How His Campaign Influence Has Collapsed (Huffington Post)

Obama Infomercial Drew Record 33M Viewers

Dale — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:40:21 +0000

The impact on TV ratings of Sen. Barack Obama’s 30-minute infomercial is manifest: 33.5 million viewers watched the ad, far more than the 19.8 million who stayed up to watch the last World Series game. The Obamathon pushed up ratings on all the stations that aired it (network and cable). The only loser? ABC, who did not. (NYT)

Pew, Politico Analyze ‘Anti-McCain Media Bias’ [ANALYSIS]

Dale — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:04:55 +0000

Politico evaluates a Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism report, and accusations of “liberal media bias” in the current presidential election. It concludes: “As it happens, McCain’s campaign is going quite poorly and Obama’s is going well. Imposing artificial balance on this reality would be a bias of its own.” (Politico)

Christian Science Monitor To Publish Online Only

Michelle — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:56:07 +0000

The Christian Science Monitor confirmed Tuesday it will abandon its weekday print edition and appear online only, making it the first national newspaper to give up on print. The shift will allow The Monitor to lower costs and maintain its eight foreign bureaus. (NYT)

$133M Spent On Senate TV Ads In Four States

Dale — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:05:52 +0000

In four states — North Carolina, Oregon, Minnesota and Colorado, $133 million has already been spent on TV ads for Senate races, most of it from outsider and party committees, with more to come in the final week of the campaign. (Washington Post)

GOP Pulls Ads From Bachmann

Dale — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:23:29 +0000

Five days after Rep. Michele Bachmann suggested to Chris Matthews that Barack Obama was unpatriotic and urged the press to investigate anti-American sentiment in Congress, the National Republican Congressional Committee has pulled its media purchases from Bachmann’s race. (Huffington Post)

Obama Buys Half-Hour Of Network Primetime

Dale — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:17:27 +0000

[Updated] Sen. Barack Obama has purchased a half-hour of primetime television on CBS and NBC, for Oct 29th at 8 p.m., according to a blog that follows the television industry. (The Live Feed) The decision was later confimed by the Obama campaign and network TV officials. (Reuters)

Google’s Schmidt Says Brands Signal Trustworthy Content

Michael — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:59:58 +0000

Source: Wikimedia

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said online brands are the best way to signal that content can be trusted and are publishers’ best weapon in counteracting the prevalence of “false information” cluttering the Internet. (Advertising Age)

Inquiry Launched To Probe Iraq War Coverage

Indu — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:38:30 +0000

The Federal Communications Commission launched an inquiry to probe congressional complaints that military analysts violated sponsorship identification rules by not disclosing their ties to the Pentagon when reviewing the war in Iraq. (WSJ)

FEATURE: Will Sulzberger Heirs Sell ‘Times’?

Virginia — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:47:58 +0000

Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

The chances of a rift among the The New York Times’ founding family is greater today than a decade ago: Seventeen more family members are now old enough to join the board that controls the Times. (New York Magazine)

Magazines Lose Ad Pages, Gain Digital Revenue

Virginia — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:35:30 +0000

Ad pages fell 1.3% at the top U.S. magazines in 2007, but revenue growth from ads appearing on their Web sites almost doubled. PC World had the highest digital income: 38% of total revenues. (Portfolio.com)

Tina Brown Launches Web Site With Diller Backing

Virginia — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:06:31 +0000

Tina Brown, the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker and Talk, launched her first Web site this morning. The Daily Beast, which also counts a former Wall Street Journal editor among its execs, is funded by Barry Diller’s IAC. (FT)

Tina Brown

The site, which focuses on celebrities, new and culture, will contain both original pieces and summaries of stories on other Web sites. Edward Felsenthal, a former deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal has been working with Brown on the site, which counts celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, satirist Christopher Buckley and Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali among its contributors. The size of Diller’s investment in the site is unknown.

Sources: Financial Times, PaidContent, Gawker

Spielberg Leaves Paramount For India-Backed Venture

Virginia — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:31:34 +0000

Steven Spielberg and Paramount Pictures have finalized their separation. India’s Reliance Group, headed by the world’s sixth-richest man, is putting $1.5 billion into a new Spielberg venture. (AFP)

SEC Probes Fake Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report

Virginia — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:23:58 +0000

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a false report on CNN’s iReport site that Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs had had a heart attack. CNN says it is cooperating with the probe. The posting caused Apple stock to fall 9% before recovering to end Friday down 3%. (ZDNet)

The posting may put a halt to so-called citizen journalism, which allows users to post news without editorial review. The post got pushed to Digg, where many tech blog writers say they saw it and quickly determined it was a fake. Apple also quickly denied the story, which was removed from iReport by CNN.

Sources:
SEC investigating fake Steve Jobs heart attack story (ZDNet)
False Steve Jobs Report Shows Hazards of “Citizen Journalism” BNET)
Steve Jobs rumor: What can the SEC do? (Apple 2.0)

Bloomberg Media Growth May End On Wall Street Crisis

Virginia — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:28:19 +0000

Bloomberg LP has grown for 20 years with every twist and turn of Wall Street, selling its trading terminals and expanding its news force. But many analysts and observers expect that the current turmoil in world financial markets will finally break that growth streak. (BusinessWeek)