A number of journalists working at the UK’s Guardian newspaper, and at Salon, will begin daily vlogging (video blogging) on Current TV, Al Gore’s integrated TV and web platform.
The Guardian is already well advanced in the use of online media and blogging, and Salon is a well-established online media publication, so it seems like a natural progression into video.
“When we were approached by Current TV we knew that their profile and outlook was highly compatible with the Guardian,” said Emily Bell, director of digital content, Guardian News & Media.
The advantage of partnering with Current TV is that the content will be broadcast on UK cable and satellite TV, packaged for the web, and be used on the content owners’ web sites.
“We are very excited about the partnership and think it will bring our journalism to a wider audience and help us showcase our best blogging talent in a video format,” Bell continued.
Audio comments are the latest effort by news outlets to boost website traffic and foster more interaction. The new tool comes as the cost of technology continues to fall and as more companies experiment with audio and video delivery of information.
The audio commenting system was first tested in July of 2006, but using a “very primitive tool,” according to TMZ. They have since refined their audio commenting technology, and have launched it as a regular feature. Readers with a microphone-enabled computer can record up to 30 seconds of feedback at a time.
TMZ editors say that the same problems with text-based commenting are also present in this technology. For example, they still spend time moderating comments for obscenity or other offensive material. The fact that it may be more difficult to apply spam filters to audio content adds to the challenge.
TMZ also plans to add video commenting soon, but there is no definite timetable for this.
ROO Group, a global online video solutions for content providers, advertisers and websites, has partnered with the UK’s media publisher, Shiny Media, to launch three cutting- edge online TV channels, featuring technology, fashion and lifestyle content.
The video players will initially rollout across Shiny Media’s leading tech blogs including TechDigest.tv and ShinyShiny.tv as well as the award-winning fashion blogs CatwalkQueen.tv and Shoewawa.com. Within a short period of time, it is hoped the players will be extended across Shiny Media’s network of 40 blogs catering to an audience of 3.5 million unique visitors monthly.
The channels will offer exclusive news, reviews, interviews and more, created by Shiny Media’s in-house production team. These will be combined with a selection of ROO’s extensive video content. To date Shiny Media has used video sharing website YouTube for hosting the bulk of its video content. The ROO partnership will enable it to further explore the business potential in online TV.
Advertisers will be able to purchase pre-roll video ad formats and MPUs across the channels which will be sold by Shiny Media’s online advertising partner Unanimis. From launch Shiny Fashion TV will be sponsored by LG Mobile and the channel uniquely branded to reflect this. The company hopes to develop similar campaigns for the technology and lifestyle channels.
Splashpress Media has launched Audival, a blog that serves tips, tutorials, equipment reviews, and articles about podcasting. Authored by Stefan Hedengren (more commonly known as Stiff), Audival aims “help you record and make a professional sounding podcast. [Audival] will supply you with tips and tutorials, as well as sound clips that you can use if you like to.” Audival was created with the thought that while many are interested in podcasting, the process behind actually recording audio, producing/using the music and sound clips, and putting these together, may not be as easy as it seems.
StrongMail Systems, Inc. announced that Fotolog, a photo-blogging community with growth rate of one million new members every six weeks, has selected StrongMail to further enhance its member experience and accommodate explosive growth with a reliable platform for marketing and transactional email.
Fotolog generates a high volume of transactional email from member registrations and automatic notifications of blog posts, photo uploads and other community-building tools. Extremely popular in Latin America and Europe, Fotolog’s members have posted more than 200 million photos and 2 billion guestbook comments. Fotolog’s sharing and collaborative environment depends heavily on the reliable and prompt delivery of email to its 8 million members across 200 countries.
“As Fotolog drives explosive growth around the world, we are continuing to update our member experience in order to further build and realize the full value of our large and engaged member base,” said John Borthwick, CEO of Fotolog, Inc. “As we build one of the world’s largest social media networks at the intersection of digital photography, blogging and social networking, we need an email platform that can scale reliably, and StrongMail will play a pivotal role in keeping our community informed of new user-generated content and updated account information.”
In the short time I’ve been writing here at the BH, I’ve occasionally used my bi-weekly column to gripe about PR and the new age of the web we’re calling Web 2.0. In our haste to try to reinvent the press release, convince our clients to podcast their AGM or industry conference, and culling lists of “influential” bloggers in order to hawk the latest goods and services for our clients, we might be forgetting what public relations is truly all about: the client.
If it seems obvious, it bears repeating: our jobs as PR professionals is to satisfy the client. By this I certainly don’t mean that when the client wants a news release we say “What kind of distribution would you like on that?”, as often the wrong tools are employed in certain situations because PR professionals are unwilling to speak up against such practices. If one of our responsibilities is to make sure the client is getting value for our work, then it’s certainly worth talking to them about using the right tools for the job. But, I digress… read more
HungryFlix.com announced a new content distribution deal with Tempe DVD, a leading distributor of independent horror films. Tempe has provided ten independent films in high resolution 640×480 MPEG4 format to HungryFlix.com for online distribution as digital downloads. All files support playback on Apple TV, fifth generation iPods and on computers running iTunes.
HungryFlix.com CEO Brian Andrews said, “We are thrilled to provide independent producers and filmmakers with online distribution to the Apple TV. Independents now have the power to distribute their content to multiple devices at basically no cost. We feel that the benefits of this new model can not be understated and we look forward to more content partnerships.”
HungryFlix.com has also announced that its online distribution platform is now open to film festivals looking to add digital downloading to their offerings. The web startup will provide all hosting, bandwidth and payment processing for the film festival. The site’s standard profit sharing model in which profits will be split between the content provider and the online distributor will apply.
Remember Ellen Simonetti? She was the former Delta Airlines flight attendant who got fired for posting amusing pictures online of her posing provocatively in her uniform.
You are what you post on the Web. While it’s fun to share photos of your antics, it can also get you into a lot of trouble. A good rule of thumb is, if you wouldn’t want your mom or employer to see it, don’t post it on the Internet.
Seventy seven percent of recruiters use search engines to perform background checks on job candidates according to ExecuNet. Ten percent of hiring managers size up recruits via social networking sites, with a whopping 63% dropping a candidate because they didn’t like what they saw, according to CareerBuilder.
The answer to sharing pictures and videos and staying out of hot water is a new private file-sharing service Quickeo, which avoids uploading files to a public Internet site for all to see. Quickeo sends an email to your chosen friends’ inbox. The recipient of the email is immediately able to watch or listen to the multimedia file(s) using Flash streaming. “Quickeomails” contain no attachments.
Quickeo lets you share any file, any size (video, audio, photo, other) to anyone through email. Quickeo is a Microsoft Windows application. Only the sender of the Quickeomail needs to have the Quickeo application installed on his/her PC.
I often write about interesting social media tools and sites. In the age of user-gen and social networks, there is no shortage of places where people can express themselves. As media creation and consumption patterns change how are writers, directors, musicians, and actors going to sustain themselves? Will it be possible for content creators to bypass the traditional distribution system all together? Could they make a living with their creative efforts by harnessing the power of the internet?
Ccube announced the launch of its over-the-phone social network that lets members search for and talk to anyone safely. The service lets users link a Ccube username to their favorite connectivity device, including mobile and landline phones or VoIP services, thereby keeping personal phone numbers private. Ccube lets you connect with friends and business prospects on sites like MySpace, LiveJournal and eBay with the click of a button. Ccube helps members connect with likeminded people on the phone while maintaining both parties’ anonymity, encouraging members to discover and converse with new friends with confidence and ease.
“Unlike most Web-based social network sites, Ccube believes that people still like to make connections by picking up the phone and hearing a member’s voice,” said Mahesh Lalwani, CEO of Ccube. “However, up until now it has been difficult for people to feel comfortable sharing their phone number with someone they just met. Ccube has blended the functionality of online social networks with the convenience of one-to-one voice communication. It’s a safe and private way to ask someone a question on a topic of expertise, locate others with similar hobbies, or search for and meet new friends.” read more
