The TASTE Awards

ION's Michelle Harris joins as a TASTE AWARDS Presenter

2011-12-22T07:40:00.000-08:00

ION Life television host Michelle Harris joins the TASTE AWARDS as a presenter.

Television personality and actress Michelle Harris is the host and co-creator of the television program "Alive & Well with Michelle Harris," which airs on the Ion Life network.

Michelle helps viewers to reach their goals and look and feel their best. Her knowledge on living well helps to educate audiences in an entertaining way and create positive change.

She has been featured on shows such as Hollywood Green with Maria Menounos, Showbiz Tonight, and CNN. Michelle has also been seen in magazines such as In Touch, Women's World, Natural Beauty and Health, Celeb Life, and People Pets.

See:
The TASTE Awards
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

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Viewers Choice Voting Begins

2011-11-02T02:00:00.000-07:00

3rd Annual TASTE AWARDS Viewers Choice Voting for radio, film, and selected web categories is now open and continues through December 8th.

Viewer's Choice Nominees are: Average Betty, Beer Sessions Radio, Beneath the Surface: Gulf Seafood's Fight for Survival, Bikini Lifestyles, Bitchin' Kitchen, Chiara Marandellas - FashionPaparazzis.com, Come Dine With Me - BBC America (UK), Daily Front Row Chic Report, Deconstructing Dinner, Dining Around with Gene Burns, Dressed, Drinking Made Easy, Drinks with Alie & Georgia, Eat Yourself Sexy Australia, EatDrink on Sirius XM, Euromaxx (Germany), Extra Virgin, Fashion Network, Fashion TV , Fashion's Night Out (CBS), Food Wishes, FoodCrafters, Fridays with Fabio!, GastroLab, Globe Cooker (France), God Save My Shoes, Good Food, Hungry Girl, ILoveFlavor, iWineRadio.com, Jolene Sugarbaker the Trailer Park Queen, Kitchen Boss, Maangchi (Korea), Magnum Ice Cream Original Short Film Series by Karl Lagerfeld, My Drunk Kitchen, My Life as a Foodie, Quickies In My Kitchen (Australia), Slow Living Radio, Style.com , The Fire House Chef, The Food Maven Arthur Schwartz, The Handy Goddess Show, The Tasting Room with Tom Leykis, The Trip, Toast, Tokyo Fashion Express (Japan), Vogue TV , What would Brian Boitano Make?, Without Borders, and WTF (What's This Food).
To vote for Viewers Choice categories go here

3rd Annual TASTE AWARDS Juried nominees are: A Taste of New York, Aarti Party, Al sabor del chef, America's Next Top Model, Andrea Wine, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, Average Betty, B.Y.O.B. TV, Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten, Food Network), Beneath the Surface: Gulf Seafood's Fight for Survival, Bitchin Kitchen, Bizarre Foods (Travel Channel), Bon Appetit, Cake Boss (Buddy Valastro, TLC), Carson Nation, Check Please, Bay Area, Check Please, Chicago, Chef Tips with Jason Hill, Chefs A'Field, Cook's Country, Cooking.com, Cuisinart, Cupcake Wars (Food Network), Delicioso, dineLA, Divine Design, Drinking Made Easy with Zane Lamprey (HDNet), Drinks with Alie & Georgia, Easy Chinese San Francisco, Eat Street, En La Cocina Para Mi Amor, Extra Virgin, Fashion Police, Food and Wine Magazine, Food Wishes, Foodcrafters (Cooking Channel), Foodies: California, GastroLab, Good Eats (Food Network), Grape Notes, Hell's Kitchen, HGTV Design Star, HGTV Green Home 2011, Home Made Simple, Home Takeover, How Do I Look?, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Jolene Sugarbaker The Trailer Park Queen, Kaitlyn's Beauty Journal, Kitchen Nightmares, Kraft Cooking School, LA Times, Lanvin Fall 2011 Campaign Movie, Ludo Bites America, Magnum Ice Cream Original Short Film Series by Karl Lagerfeld, Man v. Food, Mexico - One Plate at a Time, Mutineer Magazine's Cognac Conversations, Naked Wine Show, New York Magazine Food, No Reservations, Nylon Magazine TV, Off the Beaten Palate, Off The Beaten Path, Originals with Emeril, Passport Hawaii, PlumTV, Project Runway, Raising the Bar with Jamie Boudreau, Reservations Required, Restaurant Impossible, RV Cooking Show, SAY YES TO THE DRESS: ATLANTA, Simply Ming, Spice Goddess, The Cooking Odyssey, The Fire House Chef, The Great Food Truck Race, The Next Food Network Star, The Rachel Zoe Project, The Science & Art of Cheese, The Winemakers, Thirsty Girl TV, Throwdown With Bobby Flay, Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back, Top Chef, Top Chef: Just Desserts, What Not To Wear, Wine & Dine with Mastro, Wine Spectactor Magazine, Without Borders, and WTF (What's This Food).
The categories for all nominations can be seen here

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Estonia Foodie Trip for Winner of Best Food Travel Program - Web

2011-10-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

Breaking News: For the TASTE Awards Winner of the "Best Food Travel Program on the Web" category, The Estonian Consulate is sponsoring a Foodie Travel Trip to Estonia.

The package includes:

Two roundtrip tickets from LAX to TLL
Hotel accommodations for 5 nights in Tallinn
Dinner at a renowned Estonian restaurant in Tallinn

More information soon. Visit Estonia

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The TASTY Awards are now the TASTE AWARDS

2011-08-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

The Awards Committee has announced that the TASTY Awards are now called The TASTE AWARDS.

The 3rd Annual TASTE AWARDS celebrate the year's best in food, fashion, and home lifestyle programs on Television, in Film, Online, and on Radio.

NOMINATIONS are being accepted through August 25th for the 3rd Annual TASTE AWARDS (aka the Tasty Awards). To submit a nomination for any category, go to www.TastyAwards.com or www.TheTasteAwards.com.

Nominations for 3rd Annual TASTY Awards Open July 17, 2011

2011-05-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

Nominations for the 3rd Annual TASTY Awards Open July 17, 2011

Nominations can be made at www.TastyAwards.com

Two new media award categories will be announced this year!

Winners for the TASTY Awards will be announced in January 2012.

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Nominees Announced for 2nd Annual TASTY Awards

2010-11-11T04:45:00.000-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES, Calif., Nov. 9 --The 2nd Annual TASTY AWARDS, the premier awards show celebrating the year’s best in Food, Fashion, and Home Lifestyle programs on Television, in Film, and Online, is pleased to announce the Nominees for the upcoming awards show in Hollywood.

Jamie Oliver, Tyler Florence, Average Betty, Anthony Bourdain, Top Chef, Project Runway, Style.com and Guy Fieri lead the awards finalists with several nominations each. Hosted by food and travel television star Zane Lamprey of Travel Channel and HD Net fame, the two-hour red carpet event takes place at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on January 13th, as well as filmed for later broadcast.

The show features a star-studded lineup of food and fashion TV celebrities, including Tanya Holland (Cooking Channel, Food Nework), Leslie Sbrocco (PBS), Nathan Lyon (Fit TV, Discovery Health, PBS, Food Network), and Bobby Bognar (History Channel), along with newcomers such as Candice Kumai (Lifetime, Bravo's Top Chef), Brian Boitano (Food Network), Daniel Green (ShopNBC), Luciene Salomone (WE tv), Amy Paffrath (E! Entertainment Television), Jeannie Mai (Style Network), Kevin Roberts (TLC), Peter Ishkhans (Style Network), Aida Mollenkamp (Food Nework, Cooking Channel), and more.

Special Achievement Awards have been announced for Niecy Nash, Gordon Ramsay, Mario Batali, Joan Rivers, Tyra Banks, Ryan Seacrest, Cat Cora, Heidi Klum, Martha Stewart, and Gail Simmons, among others.

The viewer appetite and response to food and style programs has surged over the last decade, making them some of the highest watched and sponsored video content. The TASTY AWARDS spotlight the year's best achievements in food, fashion, and home lifestyle programs on television, in film, and on the web.

The following are several of the nominees and categories for the 2011 TASTY Awards. To participate in the Viewers Choice voting starting November 15th, or for a full list of nominees, please go to www.TastyAwards.com, as well as get updates on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TastyAwards

Best Drink or Beverage Program: Television

Drink Up with Darryl Robinson
The Winemakers
Drinking Made Easy with Zane Lamprey
Wine & Dine with Mastro

Best Drink or Beverage Program: Web

12 Second Cocktails
Art of the Drink
Raising the Bar with Jamie Boudreau
Mixology
Thirsty Girl TV
Wine Library TV

Best Food Program: Television

America's Test Kitchen
Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
Good Eats
No Reservations
Top Chef
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Best Food Program: Web

Average Betty
CHOW.com
Aarti Parti
The Culinary Institute of America
Working Class Foodies
Jamie Oliver Recipes

Best Food Travel Series: Television

Avec Eric (Eric Ripert)
Bizarre Foods
Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
The Great Food Truck Race
No Reservations
Throwdown With Bobby Flay

Best Food Travel Series: Web

CMN Travels-Culinary Media Network
Working Class Foodies
The Hungry Pedaler
Vegan Hotspot
Without Borders
Savoring the Best of World Flavors: World Culinary Arts Series

Best Reality Series: Food or Drink

The Great Food Truck Race
The Next Food Network Star
Top Chef
Iron Chef America
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
Top Chef Masters

Best Food or Drink Video Podcast

Avec Eric (Eric Ripert)
Average Betty
Epicurious
Farmers' Market Gourmet
Simply Ming
Working Class Foodies

Best Home Chef in a Series

Average Betty
Working Class Foodies
What Would Brian Boitano Make?
Food Wishes
Barefoot Contessa
Down Home with the Neelys

Best Chef in a Series

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
Throwdown With Bobby Flay
Mexico - One Plate at a Time
Good Eats
Barefoot Contessa
Hubert Keller: Secrets of a Chef

Best Fashion or Design Program : Television

America's Next Top Model
Kimora, Life in the Fab Lane
Project Runway
The Rachel Zoe Project
What Not To Wear

Best Fashion or Design Program : Web

Cool Hunting
Fashion TV
Ford Models TV
Style.com
Vogue TV
Fashion Network

Best Reality Series: Fashion or Design

America's Next Top Model
What Not to Wear
Kimora, Life in the Fab Lane
Project Runway
The Rachel Zoe Project
Say Yes to the Dress

Best Fashion or Design Video Podcast

Ford Models TV
Style.com
ThreadBanger, D.I.Y. Fashion & Style
Vogue TV
Gucci
The Fashion Network

Best Home Decor and Design Program : Television

Home Made Simple
Curb Appeal: The Block
HGTV Green Home 2010
HGTV Design Star
Divine Design

Best Mobile / Apps / Out of Home Series

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
Working Class Foodies
Top Chef
Food Network Nighttime iPad App
Gourmet Live iPad App
New York Times iPad App

Best City or Regional Program

A Taste of New York
About.com
Check Please, Bay Area
Check Please, Chicago
dineLA
Savory Cities

Best Branded Program

Cooking.com
Cuisinart
H&M Fashion Video
Kraft Cooking School
Luxury Explorer TV
Target Frugalista

Best Newspaper or Magazine Program

Bon Appetit
Cook's Country
Food and Wine Magazine
LA Times
New York Times Food
New York Times the Minimalist with Mark Bittman

Best New Series

MasterChef with Gordon Ramsay
Top Chef: Just Desserts
FoodCrafters
The Great Food Truck Race
Cupcake Wars
Private Chefs of Beverly Hills

Best Single Topic Series

Cake Boss
Simply Ming
Mexico - One Plate at a Time
Cupcake Wars
Vegan a go-go
Top Chef: Just Desserts

Best Comedy Series

Bizarre Foods
The Dish
Jolene Sugarbaker: The Trailer Park Cooking Show
Tiki Bar TV
Drinking Made Easy
Average Betty

Best Critic or Review Series

Check Please, Bay Area
Savory Cities
The Naked Wine Show
The Cooks Plate
Average Betty
Wine Library TV

Best Green or Organic Program

Vegan Hotspot
Cooking Up a Story
HGTV Green Home 2010
Vegan a go-go
Chefs A'Field
Fresh Food Fast with Emeril Lagasse

Best Film or Documentary - Food or Fashion

Eat Pray Love
Soul Kitchen
Kings of Pastry
Beer Wars
Haute Couture: A Fashion Documentary
Fresh the Movie

A limited quantity of TASTY Awards event tickets are now available on a first come basis. For details, go to www.TastyAwards.com

See:
The TASTY Awards
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

The 2nd Annual TASTY AWARDS go HOLLYWOOD

2010-07-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

The Tasty Awards Committee is proud to announce that the 2nd Annual TASTY Awards event on January 13, 2011 will take place in HOLLYWOOD.

The decision to hold the next event in Los Angeles represents an industry-wide acknowledgement of the importance and prestige of the TASTY Awards.

Says A.K. Crump, Chairman of the Tasty Awards, "The Committee, Advisory Board, and Sponsors are all excited. The first year the event was in San Francisco, a city known for food, wine, technology and the Internet. The second year it will be in Los Angeles, a city known for food, fashion, entertainment and media. It fits."

Events leading up to the Awards Show in Hollywood are planned across the country, including in San Francisco and New York, and include Nominee receptions, announcements, gifting suites, and more.

NOMINATIONS OPEN JULY 19, 2010

As a reminder, NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2011 TASTY AWARDS Open on July 19th.

Nominations can be submitted through August at www.TastyAwards.com. Food, beverage, fashion and design programs or films that air original broadcasts during 2010 are eligible

ABOUT THE TASTIES

The Annual TASTY AWARDS is the premier broadcast awards show to celebrate the best in food and fashion programs on TV, in Film, and Online. The 2010 Awards included appearances by Anthony Bourdain, Zane Lamprey, Joanne Weir, Leslie Sbrocco, Philip Gum, Debi Mazar, Nathan Lyon, Marisa Churchill, and more. More information atwww.TastyAwards.com. (Broadband video of the 2010 Awards can be seen on Hulu.com at Hulu.com/tasty-awards)

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Ellen Degeneres custom iPhone Commercial takes heat

2010-05-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

As much as she loves the iPod, TV star, comedian, and talk show host Ellen Degeneres learned one thing about Apple: Don't make fun of the iPhone, even if you're just kidding.

See the video:

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Applie-Gizmodo-iPhone "Scandal" a la Jon Steward

2010-05-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

John Steward comments on the Applie-Gizmodo-iPhone "Scandal. " He accuses Apple of being the Big Brother in the Apple 1984 ad

Regardless, we all know that in the future, it will be all Apple on every channel.... at least until HP finishes incorporating Palm

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Appholes

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

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The iPad, and the Staggering Work of Obviousness

2010-05-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

A fantastic historical review of what lead up to the iPad, and why it will succeed BIG by Cheerful Software Manifesto. We'll just give you the big points:

On Thursday, I set my iPad up for the first time with the fold-out case and Bluetooth keyboard. And I got walloped but good by Nostalgia. Nostalgia that was chunky and green.

The heartbreaking fate of the lovable Newton is exemplar of everything that is wrong at an Apple without Steve Jobs, and why a customer reaction of “Is that it?” can be a product designer’s best friend.

TAKE A LITTLE TRIP IN MY TIME MACHINE
We can’t pretend to understand the present without first understanding the past. In this case, Apple’s past:

1998: A revolutionary, lovable Apple PDA with little squareish icons, on-screen keyboard, common icons across the bottom, single-tasking, and the best compact keyboard of the decade, complete with an ungainly but functional fold-out case. The Newton.

2010: A revolutionary, lovable Apple PDA with little squareish icons, on-screen keyboard, common icons across the bottom, single-tasking, and the best compact keyboard of the decade, complete with an ungainly but functional fold-out case. The iPad.

One an unmitigated, iconic flop, the other destined to be a success of Biblical proportions.

What a difference a decade makes.

What a difference a Steve makes.
......
.....
The problem with the Newton wasn’t any physical or technical problem. Those are easy to surmount. The problem that broke the Newton was that nobody was prepared for it.

There was no mental slot in people’s heads that the Newton could glide into.

Nothing like it had ever existed before. It was revolutionary. It was a total surprise.

THE IPAD HAS TECHNICAL PROBLEMS TOO, BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER
Today, of course, it’s an entirely different story: we’re all intimately familiar with the concept of the little computer in our pocket. We fell repeatedly for watered-down Palm handhelds which, in reality, we used rarely; we replaced them with iPhones, which we use too much.

Now the same critics who shit-canned the Newton for the wrong reasons are shit-canning the iPad for the wrong reasons.

The iPad, though, unlike the Newton, is going to win, and win on an epic scale.

Nevertheless, the shortsightedness of punditry is evergreen. Instead of praising the iPad, critics express their disappointment, because they expected more. They expected a genre buster. They expected something they’d never seen before, something beyond their imagination. Something revolutionary.

They’re disappointed that the iPad is so… well… unsurprising.

Therein, of course, lies the genius.

THE IPAD IS BARELY A SURPRISE AT ALL
The design, delivery, and timing of the iPad couldn’t be more different than the Newton. The iPad wasn’t a surprise at all. It’s the capstone in a family of devices.

There’s a cozy, pre-existing slot in people’s brains that the iPad fills quite nicely.

“Oh,” they say. “It’s a big iPhone.”

It doesn’t matter if they utter that phrase in distaste. That little sand grain of dismissal becomes the core around which will form a pearl of understanding.

“Trying to deal with email on the iPhone is tough. The screen’s too small.”

“I wish we could both work on this at the same time.”

“I’d like to sketch concepts with touch, but I keep running off the borders.”

Ding ding ding.

Steve knows, better maybe than anyone else, that you don’t just slap a product out there and hope it will succeed. You have to prepare people for it, first.

And it’s better that people misunderstand a product, at first, than not understand it at all.

THE “OF COURSE” MODEL OF INNOVATION DIFFUSION
People won’t buy a product if they can’t understand it immediately. They can’t understand it immediately if their worldview doesn’t already have a readymade place for it. And their worldview won’t have a readymade place for it, if they’ve never seen anything like it before....

Read the rest on Cheerful

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The Wrap.com raises more investment

2010-05-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

See video interview about their new funding. Taped by paidContent.org

Per paidContent:

TheWrap.com, the Hollywood business focused blog started by former NYT Hollywood correspondent Sharon Waxman, has closed a $2 million second round of funding, she tells us. The round was led by Maveron, the VC firm co-founded by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and other first round investors. The site raised $500K in seed round and then undisclosed, though above a million, in first round

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The iPad as story boutique plus other New York City musings

2010-05-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Apple iPad analysis from Garcia Media, and how it will effect print and new media:

TAKEAWAY: The iPad is everywhere one turns in New York City, and, although it is likely to become the story boutique of the future, we still do not see that level of storytelling by the newspaper editions that are taking their first baby steps into the new platform PLUS: A surprise in print that was not in the iPad AND: The INMA Congress is on here in New York City, and digital publishing plays a key role in the program. PLUS: A look at the Wall Street Journal’s Greater New York edition
Some early lessons from the iPad

The publishing world has now had some time to examine Apple’s iPad, the tablet that is likely to be the game changer for how we receive information and, hopefully for the newspaper and magazine industry, how we get our credit cards out to pay for subscriptions, or simply to download that favorite column that we just can’t survive without reading.

It is too early to tell if the iPad, or another of the several tablets looming in the horizon, will , in fact, fulfill the expectations. Surely, there is a tablet in your future, whether you are a journalist or a media consumer. So I am fascinated by what we have learned so far, especially as it applies to how a newspaper or magazine tabletizes:

1.Nobody wants the entire page content as it appears in print to land on the screen.

2.A special tablet edition is in order, with a superbly edited version of the editor’s choice of the best content, with special emphasis on multimedia. What are the stories from print that have received tablet enhancements?

3. The iPad is like a pop up book, it must surprise, and there is nothing linear or flat about it.

4. This is why the role of storytelling is key to a successful tablet edition, especially photography, which will become ever more important, each photo a huge canvas full of ministories.

Hollywood has often been described as a dream factory. The iPad can be the ultimate story boutique, as long as the creative people recognize its potential as a unique medium and not a mere dumping ground for the printed edition.

But the story boutique is not open yet. Newspapers and magazines are going into iPad territory cautiously one step at a time (as it should be), and not even crawling yet, allowing us who tinker with our iPads to dream of all the possibilities. The demos we saw in anticipation of the iPad’s arrivals have not quite materialized fully yet. Print still casts a large shadow. But we know that good things come with time for those who wait.

Read more on Garcia Media

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Hyping Books at the 140 Confab

2010-04-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

From Publishers Weekly:

Social media impresario Jeff Pulver returned to New York City with his140 character conference, a now annual 2-day event celebrating and propagating the pervasive cultural influence of social media and Twitter in particular. Named after the maximum number of characters in a tweet, the 140 Character Conference has mutated into a series of franchised evangelically driven technology events that Pulver has mounted in Los Angeles, London, Tel Aviv and Atlanta. This year the event was held at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Set up to mimic a Twitter feed's endless stream of short fragments of solid information, chatty irreverence and direct communication—no presentation at the 140 Character Conference lasts longer than15 minutes—the conference's tongue in cheek format features a ever-moving line of presenters offering observations, manifestoes, exhortations, panel discussions and even impromtu performances that march on and off the stage one after another. Indeed when a presenter runs over their allotted time the theme song from Exodus rises to drown them out and usher them off the stage.

Although this reporter visited the conference on Wednesday to see the book publishing presentations—public relations manager Imal Wagner (twitter handle: @imalwagner) hosted a panel with author Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) and Internet marketers John Kremer (@JohnKremer) and Michael Tasner (@tazsolutions)—much like the actual Twitter, a lot of quirkily useful or just downright entertaining stuff popped up to distract our attention. Think of this article as an elaborate retweet.

The book marketing panel focused on Ferriss (a powerhouse lifestyle guru/self-help author) and his use of Twitter and other social media to promote his bestselling book, The 4-hour Work Week, offering a superfocused strategy using social media essentially to flood relevant blogs, forums, websites and Twitter feeds with the name of your book. Ferriss focused on using "single-blogger blogs rather than multiple-blogger blogs" to target a core of readers interested in your topic before "moving out to a broader audience of readers."

Kremer, a book marketing consultant, kept things simple: "I saw that my blog attracted more traffic when I tweeted and less when I didn't. Twitter drives traffic without much effort." Kremer says tweeting 10 or more times a day is the trick. Essentially the panel concluded (this reporter agrees), regular thoughtful tweeting will drive traffic and attract a range of "tweeps" (that's peeps for the non-Twitter user) that can help promote, support or befriend your efforts to hype a book or pretty much anything.

While the book panel offered useful, targeted information for the hard driving self-marketing book crowd, the rest of the afternoon offered some interesting (and engagingly humane) presentations and illustrated why Twitter is called a "social" media and not a "marketing" media. In separate presentations, digital strategist Oz Sultan (@ozsultan) and gay community organizer Chris Bartlett (@harveymilk) both offered very moving online projects on death and memorializing the dead using Facebook and wikis. And former prison inmate Andy Dixon (@andydixn), who spent more than 20 years in prison, discussed using social media to fight "generational incarceration" and his work as part of a national movement to keep kids out of the prison systems.

But it was the use of Twitter and other social media as educational tools that carried the day. While a panel of educators on the panel, "Real Time Web and Education," urged teachers to change how they teach and use social media to bring real-world expertise and resources right into the classroom to engage students, a presentation by an adorable group of 8th grade students from the Saints Philip and James School in St. James N.Y. absolutely stole the show.

Read more on Publishers Weekly:

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TASTY AWARDS Show Television Broadcasts

2010-02-26T10:18:00.000-08:00

The first broadcast television airing of the 2010 TASTY AWARDS Show will be on March 13th at 10pm on KOFY-TV in the San Francisco Bay Area, followed by national broadcasts later in March on the America One Network and on Hulu.com.

The Tasty Awards for the best food and fashion programs on TV, in Film, and Online. www.TastyAwards.com

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TasteTV.com, TasteTV

2010-01-18T22:02:00.000-08:00

The Award Winners were announced on January 14th at 1st Annual TASTY AWARDS, the most exciting and prestigious event ever to celebrate food and fashion programs on TV, in Film, and on the Web.

What a fantastic evening!

See the the full list of Winners for the Awards at
www.TastyAwards.com

Hosted by food and travel television star Zane Lamprey of "Three Sheets" fame (Scripps Fine Living Network), the two-hour red carpet event took place at the Sundance Kabuki theatre in San Francisco on January 14th, with an AfterParty at the New People building. The Awards program will air on stations nationwide in February 2010, reaching millions of households and on Hulu.com.

To see the Full List of Nominees and Winners, and other information, please go to www.TastyAwards.com, as well as get updates on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TastyAwards

TasteTV Events include:

This blog from the contributors, producers and correspondents at TasteTV at TasteTV.com. technorati tags:TasteTV, restaurants, video, content, food, Chocolate, wine, recipes, cooking, Restaurant Reviews, Chef, ITV, fashion, seafood

Food shows are whipping TV networks into a frenzy - USATODAY.com

2010-01-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

USA TODAY talks about how Network TV has gone bananas over food programs:

Fox has made a cottage industry out of curmudgeonly Gordon Ramsay (Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmaresand next year's Master Chef). Networks not known as foodie havens have found solid ratings: Bravo's Top Chef and TLC's Cake Boss are their networks' top series, while others ranging from IFC to Planet Green are opening their cupboards to new food shows.

And Scripps Networks, which saw prime-time ratings for its Food Network spike 29% this year to a new record, is turning its underachieving Fine Living Network into a 24-hour Cooking Channel next May.
Scripps chief John Lansing says the sprouting of more food shows on other channels simply "broadened interest in the category," and much of the growth is coming from younger viewers. It's a long way from Julia Child— portrayed by Meryl Streep in summer's Julie & Julia — and her TV successors, Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray.
Food Network's ratings took off only when the channel sidelined "stand-and-stir" demonstrations from prime time in favor of competitions (Iron Chef America, Next Food Network Star) and celebrity-chef series.... Programmers say a recessionary trend toward home entertaining has driven the genre. "Culturally right now, food is a comfort device," says TLC chief Eileen O'Neill, who's peppered her network's schedule with shows about barbecue pitmasters, dwarf chocolatiers and that New Jersey cake guy, tapping more male viewers.

More here at USA TODAY

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The TASTY AWARDS

Foodie Nation article by Anthony Bourdain

2009-12-28T14:53:00.000-08:00

Anthony Bourdain, 2010 Tasty Awards Person of the Year, write in the New York Times article called Foodie Nation:

Something important happened to my former profession in 2007. I’m still unsure what, exactly — but there was a shift, the world of food tilting on its axis.

Dining rooms were busy with ever more food-obsessed, better-informed customers. Wall Street had yet to implode, so private parties and “whale” wine buyers — customers who’d spend $150 on food and $10,000 on wine — were still in loud, proud abundance. Celebrity chefs who’d made their reputations on the haute side moved to capture the middle ground as well, expanding into branded burger joints. As with haute couture, those who couldn’t afford the full ride could now at least buy the T-shirt.

“Top Chef” was a big hit for Bravo, making reality show contestants who could actually cook into household names. On the other hand, “Hell’s Kitchen,” with its cast of mostly delusional nitwits unfit to dunk onion rings for a living, was also a ratings juggernaut. The hugely talented Gordon Ramsay tormented his stunned charges like a carnival barker in some cruel and prolonged culinary version of “Dunk Bozo,” achieving a level of success playing dumb on TV that he never could have equaled as simply a prodigiously talented Michelin-starred chef....

Blogs about food became more important. Few writers of books, magazines or newspaper columns could compete with, say, a lonely, Vietnam-based food nerd who’d spent the last 10 years eating at every food stall in Ho Chi Minh City, exhaustively documenting every mouthful.

The best news of 2007 was that chefs, as a social class somehow empowered by the strange and terrible glare of celebrity, were finally free to rid themselves of the time-honored dictum of “the customer is always right.” If experience had taught chefs anything, it was that this is very rarely the case. Chefs were now trusted enough to persuade customers to try what they themselves loved to eat. Hence the hooves and snouts and oily little fishes that increasingly popped up on menus. This trend alone made up for the bad — a momentum that will, I hope, carry us through the tough times of the present.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Bourdain, Top Chef, Project Runway Lead Nominations for 2010 TASTY AWARDS SHOW

2009-12-01T10:01:00.001-08:00

TasteTV today announced the nominees and categories for the most exciting and prestigious event ever to celebrate food and fashion programs on television, in film, and online, the 2010 "TASTY AWARDS."

Anthony Bourdain, Top Chef, Project Runway, Cake Boss and Guy Fieri lead the awards finalists with several nominations each.

Hosted by food and travel television star Zane Lamprey of "Three Sheets" fame, the two-hour red carpet event takes place at the Sundance Kabuki theatre in San Francisco on January 14th. The program will air on stations nationwide in February 2010, reaching millions of households.

The show features a star-studded lineup of food and fashion TV celebrities, including Tyler Florence, Joanne Weir, G. Garvin, Tanya Holland, Leslie Sbrocco, Gary Vaynerchuk, Marcy Smothers, Novella Carpenter, Anita Chu, Dominique Crenn, Brian Solis, Marissa Churchill, and more.

Special Achievement Awards have been announced for Anthony Bourdain, Martin Yan, Paul Prudhomme, YouTube, Alton Brown, Jacque Pepin, Meryl Streep, Giada De Laurentiis, and Tim Gunn, among others.

The viewer appetite and response to food and style programs has surged over recent years, making them some of the highest watched video content. The TASTY AWARDS spotlight the year's best achievements in food and fashion programs on television, in film, and on the web.

To participate in the Viewers Choice voting, or for a full list of nominees, please go to www.TastyAwards.com, as well as get updates on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TastyAwards.

TasteTV Events include:

How the Web Is Changing TV’s Definition of a Hit

2009-10-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee reports on some of the reasons why what we now call a "hit" is no longer what we used to call a "hit" when the Nielsen reports, etc. where the only barometer of success.

"“It used to be the hits would pay for the losers, now not so much,” said Marc Graboff, the chairman of NBC.
Instead, shows like The Office, The Biggest Loser, Prison Break and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are successful based on different factors: strong advertiser support, cheap production costs, online popularity, and international and DVD sales.
Of course, it’s not only increased flexibility of consumption that is driving TV economics down; advertisers just aren’t ponying up like they used to. However the TV execs on the panel said they are none too comfortable with the current state of digital and DVR distribution, especially since measurement techniques are lagging viewership."

Via NewTeeVee

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Celebrity Chef Paula Deen on Conan

2009-10-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

It gets a little messy, but you can see where culinary stardom leads you:

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Video: What is New Media to You?

2009-10-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

An interesting video created about a year ago in early 2008.

Compare and contrast with what we know "new" media to be in late 2009

It should keep you awake at night.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Gourmet Magazine Editor says Print Magazines are dead

2009-10-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

Gourmet Magazine Editor Ruth Reichl says Print Magazines are dead

Hard to bring that into complete accord with the fact that the Food Network Magazine is growing like gangbusters, but she does have years of experience on which to base this observation.

Ruth says:

“It’s a very rarefied world,” she said. “It was a world that most people—I had no idea that this particular world existed. I sort of think of it as ‘Ruthie in Wonderland.’ People are fascinated by the world. It’s a life that is probably coming to an end.”
“That kind of luxury that we all had is probably a thing of the past. The new business realities have changed the life at Condé Nast. I think print magazines as we know them will cease to exist.”
“The business picture was not good for Gourmet,” she said. “It was a magazine that depended on luxury advertising, unlike many of the epicureans. Most of our competition gets a lot of different kinds of advertising. Our main categories were travel, automotive, financial, jewelry—that all went away. That was just the way that it was. I guess at a certain point the company decided that advertising wasn’t coming back. I wasn’t privy to those discussions.”

Via New York Observer

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Nominations Open - The Tasty Awards for Food and Wine Video

2009-10-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the TASTY AWARDS.

The Tasty Awards' goal is to recognize and acknowledge outstanding excellence in video content focused on food, drink, fashion and design.

Who do you watch? Who do you love? What have you produced? Nominated submissions can include Web Programs, Television Programs, Mobile Content, and Films & Documentaries.

There are also special categories for promotions and campaigns, as well as for casts and personalities.

To submit a nomination, or for more information about the Tasty Awards, go to www.TastyAwards.com

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Students' expectations of journalism have really changed

2009-10-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Journalism students talk about how their expectations have now changed based on the current media environment, challenges and opportunities (filmed by the Online News Association).

Is it sad, funny, cool, or just realistic? Take a look

Have your expectations of journalism changed since you realized you wanted to be a journalist? from Online News Association on Vimeo.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit
The Tasty Awards

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

New Media Upends TV Ratings System

2009-10-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

As reported by Reuters:

The explosion of ways people watch television is confounding the media industry, which has relied for decades on the Nielsen ratings but now must adapt to the realities of the Internet and on-demand video.

Americans are watching more TV than ever -- an average of 151 hours a month -- on more networks and in increasingly diverse ways. Industry heavyweights and analysts are calling for a new ratings system to keep up.

At first there was a "crisis in measurement" due to the scarcity of data, said Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development at NBC Universal, which is 80-percent owned by General Electric Co.

But now, he said, content providers are "drowning in data."

Factor in TiVo and video-on-demand systems with upcoming Internet video portals OnDemand Online by Comcast Corp or Time Warner Inc's TV Everywhere -- and getting uniform data becomes that much more difficult.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit
The Tasty Awards

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Video Platform Partnerships

2009-10-06T11:13:00.001-07:00

Daisy Whitney reports about the benefits of recent video platform partnerships:

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Disney looking for new Content

2009-10-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

According to the New York Post, Disney is looking not only for new content through acquisitions, but is trying to make sure that any hits are not just hits for ABC or the Disney Channel, but for everything:

Per the Post:

Disney also needs hit TV shows. Reversing the trend of ratings and advertising declines at ABC is a top priority for Disney. Not unlike the film studio, ABC's programming slate -- particularly scripted series -- have struggled to find an audience.

Hoping to strike pay dirt, ABC ordered more pilots than any other network, and is taking big risks this fall season, like airing an entire night of new comedies.

So far the efforts look promising, with ABC tying CBS for first place in viewers last Wednesday and winning the night on Thursday on the back of a strong debut for the new show "Flashforward."

To better exploit its marketing machine and wring more revenue from its content, Disney also put the ABC network and studio under the same umbrella

"Audience choice is increasing, which makes one pay a bigger penalty for mediocre product," said Tom Staggs, Disney's chief financial officer, in an interview. "Our emphasis is on creating products that extend beyond their entry into the marketplace in film or television to consumer products, games, theme parks and other areas of the company."

Or, in the words of RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank, "Culturally, Disney's goal is to have a hit that they own and that can be exploited across all its platforms."

Good luck to the Mouse. Hannah Montana the game? Fast Forward (fastforward) the ride?

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit
The Tasty Awards

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

In San Francisco, Plans to Start News Web Site

2009-09-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

From the New York Times:

In San Francisco, Plans to Start News Web Site

A wealthy investor, a university journalism school and a public radio station have joined forces to create a nonprofit local news Web site for the San Francisco area, in what may be the largest and most ambitious of dozens of similar local news operations that have cropped up around the country.
Skip to next paragraph

F. Warren Hellman has granted the start-up $5 million.

Like their counterparts in markets like Chicago, San Diego, Seattle and the Twin Cities, the founders of the Bay Area news project say they want to fill some of the vacuum left by the drastic downsizing of the region’s newspapers.

What sets their venture apart is a $5 million initial grant from F. Warren Hellman, and the expertise and labor to be supplied by KQED-FM, which has a 28-person news staff, and the 120 students of the University of California, Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism....

Asked if such efforts could accelerate the decline of troubled Bay Area papers like The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Jose Mercury News, as some experts have predicted, Mr. Hellman said: “I think that’s a reasonable question. I think that demise might be inevitable, anyway. This might put journalism, broadly defined, on a much more stable foundation.”

Kanye, Taylor, Obama and Serena - the New Media Impact; possible Video Games?

2009-09-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

IF the power of the impact of New Media was ever in doubt, the swiftness of the number of millions of viewers, commentors, bloggers, and twitters in response to the recent public scandals surrounding Kanye West, and Serena Williams, plus coverage of President Obama and Taylor Swift at the MTV VMA event, is proof.

Here's our compilation album (for as long as it lasts; note - the images online and in blogs never goes away, it's there for as long as the Internet lasts)

Taylor Swift Wins VMA: Kanye Interjects

MTV Shows

Beyonce Helps Taylor

MTV Shows

Kanye Goes on Leno to apologize; he's contrite

Someone Mashes Kanye and Obama

And to top if off, when asked off record what the President thought of Kanye's perfomance at the VMA, the President said he was a "jackass." Which then an ABC reporter posted on Twitter (until ABC retracted it, apologized, and acted contrite about)

You've gotta love! (or fear it!)

And let's not even start on Serena. She killed her tennis racket, then threatened to shove a tennis ball down the line ref's throat for a questionable call.

Dude, that's so uncool.

VCs: How can we make a video game from this?

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

How Good Is Your Startup Idea?

2009-09-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

How Good Is Your Startup Idea?

Three tips to figure it out in this short video by Ross Kimbarovsky at CrowdSpring

How Good Is Your Startup Idea? from Ross Kimbarovsky on Vimeo.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Don't be Fooled by Newspaper Profits

2009-07-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

Don't be Fooled by Newspaper Profits, says paidContent

In three of the four, the newspaper publishers’ profitability was based on the aggressive cost-cutting all have taken over the past year (the NYTCo benefited from a favorable tax charge). As Outsell’s Ken Doctor notes, each of the four all sliced expenses between 20 and 29 percent. “The results of the past week primarily shows that expense control has kicked in,” said Alan D. Mutter. “The industry is wondering if newspapers have hit bottom and will stabilize.”

But it’s pretty likely that this “return to profitability” is only temporary, as more drastic changes are sure to come. Even if the economy turns around, think of the past week’s earnings as a small break from the pain the newspaper industry is going through.

So much for that whiff of hope, or is it?

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

The living-room TV, not Cannes, may be independent film's best friend

2009-05-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

Great article in the Los Angeles Times about VOD, or Video on Demand for indie films. Another example of multi-platform broadcasting:

For years, filmmakers flocked to the Cannes Film Festival to sell their independently financed movies, confident they'd soon see their work exhibited in movie theaters. Like so many show business dreams, those visions have been vanishing quickly as numerous distributors of film-festival fare closed their doors after losing money or corporate support. But there's a potential savior on the horizon called video on demand -- and it may be hiding somewhere inside your cable television box.

Just as the videocassette and the DVD brought untold billions into studio coffers, video-on-demand distribution may deliver some much-needed economic relief to independent cinema, those often highbrow dramas and low-budget genre films made outside the studio system that have been struggling to turn a profit. It's likely that of the hundreds of movies headed to this year's Cannes festival (which opens Wednesday), only a handful will attract an American theatrical distributor, but scores may land video-on-demand deals.

"I think it is inevitable that it will succeed," said John Sloss, a lawyer and leading sales agent for independent film who this July will launch his own video-on-demand cable service, called Cinetic Film Buff. "Imagine the coolest, most imaginative film-literate person programming your Netflix queue. That's what this channel can be."

Unlike some Internet-based movie services, such as Amazon on Demand and YouTube Screening Room, video-on-demand movies arrive on your television set, not your computer. Cable subscribers with VOD channels can pick from several dozen independent films; with just a few clicks on the remote, the video-on-demand movie starts in seconds, rather than a more limited number of films that begin at prescribed times, as is the case with pay-per-view titles.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

2009 NEW MEDIA TASTEMAKERS SURVIVAL STRATEGIES SUMMIT

2009-04-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

At the NMT "2009 SURVIVAL STRATEGIES" SUMMIT in San Francisco, participants will meet, discuss, network and share strategies on how to survive and thrive in the downturn of 2009.

Speaker topics include:

* Owning your Intellectual Property
* Expanding your product line
* Increasing revenue streams
* Strategic Partnerships
* Finding Alternate sources of Funding

Sample speaking organizations for the Summit on June 4th include:

* Justin.tv
* BridgeBank
* TasteTV
* The Small Business Administration
* Rubinstein Law Group

The New Media Tastmakers Summit is an intimate gathering of 100 important Digital Media, Traditional Media, Online Video and Web 2.0 producers, platforms, clients and startups. Powered by the techniques and technology of New Media, these categories are not only required daily reading and viewing by tens of millions of consumers and businesses, they also have the ability to begin or end major trends, make fortunes & careers, and thrill & delight advertisers.

Date: Fall, 2009

Sign up for updates at www.NewMediaTastemakers.com

Also taking place in 2009 in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Adobe Flash secures set-top deal

2009-04-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

Is Flash going to be on television sets soon? Possibly!

Per the BBC:

Adobe has secured a deal to put its Flash software into many of the chips that go inside TVs and set-top boxes.

It will enable developers and content providers to create applications to deliver web-based content such as news, weather and share prices to TV screens.

Flash will be included on most chips -those made by Broadcom, Intel, NXP and STMicroelectronics - but the deal does not cover TVs made by Sony and Samsung.

The first applications using Flash are expected to hit TV sets early in 2010.

Adobe hopes it can get Flash inside many of those devices to create a new generation of connected entertainment services, including streaming video in high definition, and applications that can run in real time alongside video broadcasts, such as interactive news tickers, sport scores, quizzes and the weather.

"Change is coming to TV and we will see more and more content get used and taken to TV," said Anup Murarka, director of technology strategy for Flash.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Gary Vaynerchuk gets $1 Million Book Deal

2009-04-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

See the WSJ article on Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library) and his $1M book deal, based on his New Media and Twitter experience.

Makes you want to spend 17 out of every 24 hours online too, if that's his secret!

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Alison Biggar takes Buyout at Chronicle, Saving Newspaper - the Musical

2009-04-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

Rumor has it that Alison Biggar, editor of the Chronicle Magazine
, is taking the buyout option presented by the San Francisco Chronicle, along with Janet Fletcher, food editor. This news via Ghost Word.

On a lighter note, here's Saving Newspapers, the Musical:

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Glam Media Launches Glam Venus

2008-12-05T04:48:00.000-08:00

Now that Glam Media is in Japan, is Venus - the Planet of Love and Beauty - next?

Glam Media has just launched a new property in Japan. Per their press release:

Glam Media, Inc. ( www.GlamMedia.com), pioneer of vertical content networks and recently ranked comScore Media Metrix Top 10 Web property, today announced the launch of Glam Media Japan KK ( www.glam.jp). Glam Japan launches with leading magazine partners and more than 20 local Web publishers, blogs and sites, including CanCan, Nikkei Woman and Cafeglobe. Global luxury, beauty and consumer packaged good brands headlining as launch advertisers for Glam Japan include: MAYBELLINE NEW YORK (NIHON L'OREAL K.K.); FENDI JAPAN; MHD Diageo Moet Hennessy K.K. and ANA.

With its influential publisher and content network, Glam Media Japan is positioned to be a key partner for brand display advertisers in the region. Glam Media's global expansion follows the continued demand by advertisers for global premium content from vertical content networks like Glam Media. Glam launched its UK and German operations in June and July of 2008, respectively.

According our expert analysis, this only leaves the rest of the planet Earth available for Glam conquests, and then they will be forced into interplanetary properties.

Our guess is that Venus is the best fit.

Hmmm.... TasteTV Venus has a nice ring to it.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Daisy Whitney of TV Week: Local Advertising Survival Guide

2008-12-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

TV Week's popular journalist on New Media, Daisy Whitney, has created a nice primer on how to survive the upcoming slump in local online advertising:

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

GigaOm goes to a new Ad Network

2008-11-30T04:34:00.000-08:00

GigaOm goes to a new Ad Network, and if you don't think this is a big deal, look at the report from the newly downsized (down to one editor...period) Valleywag.com, part of Gawker. They call it the Death of Conversational Marketing, which as anyone with a blog and an ad knows, is Federated Media's catch-phrase. But is this really death, or possibly "renaissance? (rebirth)"

Speaking of which, Gawker's Nick Denton has posted what he calls a "2009 Internet Media Plan," which details who blog networks like his are going to survive the upcoming drop in online revenues and increase in cost-cutting.

It ain't pretty, but it might be right.

"Everybody talks about the new sounds funny but it's still rock and roll to me" - Billy Joel, poet and pianoman

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Budgets for Online Video may Shrink at Corporations

2008-11-28T08:08:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up to the previous post that included the video from the Beet.tv Online Video Roundtable, we've included this interesting one that includes an interview with Dina Kaplan of Blip.tv on how the economic crisis is affecting corporate tests of the effectiveness of online video.

See Also:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Should Online Video Advertising Matter to Publishers?

2008-11-25T08:03:00.000-08:00

Below is a very informational video from the Beet.tv Online Video Roundtable. The attendees address the question of "Should Online Video Advertising Matter to Publishers?" There's a lot of back and forth about who or if to monetize the videos on a publisher's site, or whether the videos are part of an overall package.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

AOL Abandons User Generated Videos

2008-11-23T08:59:00.000-08:00

AOL Abandons User Generated Videos, leaves them for someone with more time and money to worry about, reports TechCrunch:

AOL is on a product-cutting spree. In addition to the shuttering of XDrive, AOL Pictures, MyMobile And Bluestring, the company will also be shutting down the AOL Video Uploads service starting this week.

Users must move their videos prior to December 18, when the service closes for good and the videos will no longer be available. AOL is recommending that users transfer videos to Motionbox, a New York based video sharing and editing startup that we first covered in 2006.

Now that this particular online video bandwagon has been left in the hot desert sun to rot with the cactus of "good ideas past," where will the big media caravan go next for inspiration? It's not clear, but it better have guaranteed dollar signs around it.

We love two of the comments to this post. They basically say - social networking and user generated media -- "where's the beef?"

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

VC's Will Save the Day (or Not)

2008-11-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

According to a lot of fairly smart people, the current funding model for new media startups may not be in synch with the times.

Is everyone in agreement with that?

Venturebeat says the VC model is broken:

Adeo Ressi, founder of TheFunded, the site that lets people rate venture capitalists, is the latest to try to articulate the changes with a dour set of slides...One of the shortcomings with the VC model, Ressi argues, is that venture capitalists rely on their network of friends. Of all networks, HBS is one of the tighter ones. Needless to say, Ressi’s message wasn’t very warmly received. In fact, while blasting the old boys network is a popular thing to do, I’d actually disagree with Ressi on this point. Increasingly, you’re seeing diversity within the VC community, and they’re pushing themselves hard to find great entrepreneurs of any kind. I disagree that the Google founders were outsiders. They were part of the Stanford engineering student machine, a source of Silicon Valley magic for years.

Where I do agree with Ressi is in the ugly economics overall. Most daunting is that there’s more money being invested into venture firms than those same VC firms are generating from their investments in start-ups — in other words, Ressi argues, they’re now having a net negative affect on the economy. You’d expect this lopsided dynamic to exist temporarily in a downturn. But the worrying thing is that this state of affairs may last for quite some time.

The Comments from this post are as informative as the actual post.

In another take, the downsized Valleywag.com says "Why Venture Capital won't save your job". Interestingly, the post refers to Ressi again (who's getting a lot of coverage right now), as wel as to his famous slide deck:

TheFunded - Canarie

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: lp investing)

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

How many times can you say Newspapers are Dead?

2008-11-19T08:39:00.000-08:00

Methinks they claim this too much. Newspapers are in a blood bath, and many will not survive. In fact, many have closed up already, and good luck finding any reporter you used to know. Many are currently looking at new professions. But all is not lost (we hope).

However, here's what's currently being proposed by Gawker Media (Gawker.com)

With the full onset of consistently declining revenues and mass layoffs, newspapers have now finally accepted the depth of their plight. Now the war wages on as to how — and whether — print can become more commercially viable through innovation. In an article discussing how industries rework themselves to stay relevant, the NYT blissfully throws doubt on her ability to survive in this economic climate. Is there at least some solution that could save the local paper?

The bitter feud between Slate's Ron Rosenbaum and new media simpleton Jeff Jarvis aside, both do agree that newspapers are in deep s--t.

You'll see more on this topic tomorrow, and the next day, and the next...

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

Current TV Downsizes and Expands

2008-11-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

Current TV, launched by former VP Al Gore in San Francisco, is a great network. It is now expanding to Canada, but at the same time it's laying off quite a few staff persons.

Per PaidContent.org

Current TV, backed by Al Gore, is going through a bit of its own gore today, as it laid off about 60 of its employees. The exact count: it is eliminating 60 positions in U.S. but is adding 30 new positions, and many of those laid off will be offered new positions. The total staff count left now is 410. This comes a day after Current announced its expansion into Canada, in a tie-up with CBC. The company already has channels in the U.S., Britain, Ireland and Italy, and all of these are local JVs, hence likely unaffected in any big way

Per Valleywag

This just in: Current TV's director of public relations sent us an email designed to be printed in its entirety. (Thanks for that. Since Valleywag fired everyone else, I spend way too much time editing.) Current didn't just cut staff, they reshuffled a couple dozen employees. Instead of the economy, Current blames "a new, innovative programming strategy." That's gotta make everyone feel better. A tipster tells us, "The few spared [in San Francisco] are being made to choose between unemployment or a move to L.A."

On the bright side, Current TV's CEO says Let the 6 O'Clock News Die (per Wired):

Says Current CEO Joel Hyatt. "They brought it upon themselves," Hyatt said, while speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. "There's been no innovation in forty years. I grew up on Walter Cronkite. And the only thing that ever changed on the evening news was his tag line, 'And that's the way it is.' If you asked my sons -- both of them are in their 20s -- to respond to the notion that somebody is going to tell you the way it is, it's like speaking Greek . . . It's just not the way a young generation is willing to receive its information."

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

TasteTV.com, TasteTV

New Media and the Arts Forum paints a cool future

2008-10-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

The New Media and the Arts Forum, sponsored by the Chicago Community Trust's Chicago Wallace Audience Engagement Network (CWAEN), and organized by TasteTV, was a big success. The half-day forum brought together two panels of arts and new media organizations who talked about the challenges, and the great opportunities, for arts organizations to thrive in the digital world using new media techniques.

There was a lot of talk and demonstrations about Twitter, mySpace, Facebook, Kickapps, Flash Videos, and frankly, "just getting started and doing it." There looks like the possibility that TasteTV may publish a how to guide based on the discussions.

Keynote speakers at the event were Brian Solis of FutureWorks and Kara Walsh of Metromix.com. Other panelists included:

Pete Burgeson
Director of Marketing
crowdSPRING

Daniel Honigman
Social Media Strategist
Tribune Interactive

Jim Hirsch
Founder
ChicagoClassicalMusic.org

moderator:
A.K. Crump
CEO
TasteTV Networks

Erik Schroeder
Director of Marketing
Lookingglass Theatre

Andrew Huff
Editor and Publisher
Gapers Block

Sara Wambold
Museum of Contemporary Art

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

Speaker Bio: Lynne d Johnson, FastCompany.com

2008-09-25T09:38:00.001-07:00

Speaker Bio - New Media and The Arts Forum
October 10, 2008
www.CWAEN.com

Lynne d Johnson, FastCompany.com

Lynne d Johnson is the Director, Social Media for FastCompany.com, a leading website and community for people passionate about business ideas that also offers the complete content of Fast Company magazine. She also writes Digital Media Diva, a technology blog following web, media, and consumer trends for FastCompany.com, and has also recently contributed to TheDailyVoice, techPresident, Black Web 2.0, and Rushmore Drive. As a consultant Lynne works with technology and Web clients in the areas of content, community, and brand strategy. Lynne also serves on the Board of Directors of the Literary Freedom Project, a nonprofit arts organization, which seeks to empower communities of color through literature, creative thinking, and new media. Prior to joining Fast Company, she was the General Manager, New Media for VIBE, SPIN, and VIBE Vixen where she managed marketing, editorial, production, business development, and sales operations for the magazines’ websites and mobile properties. Her personal blog, Lynne d Johnson || music, media, my life, which launched in July 2001, is the recipient of the 2006 Black Weblog Awards Black Blogger Achievement Award.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

Speaker Bio: Sarah Wambold, Museum of Contemporary Art

2008-09-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

Speaker Bio - New Media and The Arts Forum
October 10, 2008
www.CWAEN.com

Sarah Wambold, Museum of Contemporary Art

Sarah Wambold is Media Relations Coordinator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and is responsible for promoting exhibitions, performances, and events to the public through the media, including maintaining content on the MCA’s website. Prior to working at the MCA, she worked as a graphic designer for L Magazine, a development assistant at ThreeWalls gallery, and as the Collections Manager at [C]Spaces, where she also served on the curatorial review board. She has taught graphic and web design at several colleges and universities in the Midwest, including the University of Nebraska, Midland College, and Columbia College. She graduated cum laude from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied journalism, and recently completed her coursework for a Masters of Arts Management from Columbia College.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

Speaker Bio: Pete Burgeson, crowdSPRING

2008-09-25T09:37:00.001-07:00

Speaker Bio - New Media and The Arts Forum
October 10, 2008
www.CWAEN.com

Pete Burgeson, crowdSPRING

Pete Burgeson is the Director of Marketing at crowdSPRING and is the lead equipment manager for the company's championship ping pong team.

Pete has over a decade of experience in building and marketing companies, both large and small. While at Leo Burnett in Chicago, Pete launched and managed national print, direct, radio and TV campaigns for Marlboro, Coca-Cola, Altoids and Delta Air Lines. He left Burnett to launch his own online businesses where he oversaw the development, branding and marketing of three online graphic design and printing businesses, which eventually became some of the largest printing sites on the internet.

Most recently, Pete was Director of Marketing for 1-800-GOT-JUNK? in Vancouver where, after starting as the only person in marketing, he built the marketing department and led the startup's international expansion to three continents and helped take the organization from $12M in revenue to over $160M in just three years.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

Speaker Bio: Jim Hirsch, Chicago Classical Music

2008-09-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

Speaker Bio - New Media and The Arts Forum
October 10, 2008
www.CWAEN.com

Jim Hirsch, ChicagoClassicalMusic.org

Jim Hirsch has served as Executive Director of Chicago Sinfonietta since August of 2004. During his tenure at the Sinfonietta the organization’s budget has increased by 65% and ticket sales by 63%. In addition, Hirsch implemented a number of new initiatives including Project Inclusion, a minority fellowship program that seeks to address the dearth of minority musicians playing in U.S. orchestras, and a chamber music series that has been presented in partnership with the Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium and National Museum of Mexican Art.

Prior to his work at Chicago Sinfonietta, Hirsch served as Vice President and Executive Director of the Chicago Association for the Performing Arts, managers and programmers of the Chicago Theatre, and as the Executive Director of the Old Town School of Folk Music. During his tenure at Old Town from 1982 until 2000, the organization became the largest institution of its kind in the country. The organization’s budget grew from $300,000 in 1986 to $7 million in 2000. In 1999, Hirsch completed work on a $10.2 million capital campaign that funded the organization’s expansion to the new Chicago Folk Center, a 43,000 square-foot building that the City of Chicago donated to the School, and established a $1 million endowment fund.

Hirsch has served as a grants panelist for the Illinois and Oregon Arts Councils and as a member of NARAS (Grammy) Awards and Nominations committee. He produced a nationally syndicated radio program for NPR and has released three albums. Hirsch has served as a consultant for a number of arts and social service agencies. He was chosen by Crains Chicago Business for their annual 40 Under 40 article that honors Chicago’s up-and-coming business executives under 40 years of age and was named Chicago Arts Entrepreneur of the Year in 1996. In 1998, he was chosen as one of Chicago Magazine’s Chicagoans of the Year. In 2006 he founded chicagoclassicalmusic.org, a website dedicated to audience engagement currently owned and operated by over twenty Chicago-area classical music organizations.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

NEW MEDIA SUMMIT: How Arts Organizations Can Thrive in the New Digital Age

2008-09-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

NEW MEDIA SUMMIT:
How Arts Organizations Can Thrive in the New Digital Age

Free: October 10, 2008, 9:00am - 12:15pm
Chicago Cultural Center

The Chicago Comunity Trust (www.cct.org) in conjunction with the TasteTV New Media Tastemakers Summit present a Chicago Wallace Audience Engagement Network Open Forum, with Keynote speaker: Brian Solis
Interested panelists should contact TasteTV (www.NewMediaTastemakers.com

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

New Media for Arts Organizations: Chicago, October 10th

2008-08-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

New Media for Arts Organizations: Chicago, October 10th

On Friday, October 10th, TasteTV's New Media Tastemakers Summit will be organizing a 1/2 day event with the Chicago Community Trust to present an exciting talk and panels on how Arts Organizations, Non-Profits, Museums and others can leveral the benefits of New Media and Web 2.0 to reach more people, build communities, enhance fundraising, and build awareness.

Over more than 92 years, the CCT has provided critical charitable resources in the arts, community and economic development, education, health and wellness, hunger and homeless alleviation, legal services; programs for youth, the elderly, and people with disabilities; and services to assure that basic human needs are met for all members of our community.

More information coming soon.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

Spot Runner Reorg highlights change in Focus

2008-08-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

According to NewTeeVee, SpotRunner is downsizing and reorganizing to meet the changes in the local marketplace for television advertising. Considering the impact of reduced auto advertising on all media, not to mention the migration of classifieds online, it's therefore not too surprising that they would adjust their focus.

Per NewTeeVee:

"Spot Runner confirmed late Tuesday it had made layoffs earlier in the day, the news of which was first reported by Valleywag but not in entirely correct fashion, according to a company spokesperson. The advertising platform let go of about 50 people, or 10 percent of its staff, said VP of corporate communications Rosabel Tao.

...Tao insisted the layoffs were part of a “natural course correct” as Spot Runner grows. “The timing of this given the economy, people can jump to conclusions,” she said. “But this is why we’re glad we raised so much money.”

Anytime anyone can say, "We're glad we raised so much money," means 'they're glad they raised so much money.'

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

Daisy Whitney: What Do Web Video Shows Cost?

2008-05-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

What Do Web Video Shows Cost?

Daisy Whitney of TV Week has her own blog on the site called Daisy Whitney's "New Media Minute," and in recent post she goes through the cost per minute associated with creating an online video series.

The bottom line: a lot less than on regular television, and it helps explain why there is a TON of VC money going to online video at the moment.

See Daisy talk about it more here:

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

NYTimes.com: Social Nets Squeezing Ad Prices

2008-05-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

PaidContent.org does a great job of summarizing the New York Times feedback on the pricing and online ad inventory issues for all media, and therefore all media revenues derived from the web and print.

We believe that it's possible that in the future, overall profits may be down for major media firms, but their profit margins may actually be higher, as they adjust their own internal cost structures and expectations. But then again, that's just one theory.

Goldman Internet: NYTCo.’s Nisenholtz: The Rise Of Social Nets Squeezing Prices
By David Kaplan

Janet Robinson, president and CEO of the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), gave the audience at Goldman Sach’s Internet Conference an overview of the company’s “strides” on the digital side. Among a string of stats, she pointed out that the company took in $330 million in digital revenue. But the issue of price realization for its online properties compared to its traditional print business was picked up by Martin Nisenholtz, SVP, digital operations. One issue Nisenholtz hammered home was the abundance of inventory coming from social networks, which has driven prices down.

-- Changing pricing dynamic: Does the migration of print audiences and ad dollars to the web result in a zero sum game? Nisenholtz: It’s not just about print migrating to online, it’s all media. It’s hard to discuss the print revenue streams and the online streams on a linear basis, as these are new businesses. How you compare to a newspaper print ad to an online ad is difficult. The display business at NYT.com is a big part of the revenues. We’re seeing tremendous amount of inventory getting created, mostly from social networks. And they’re being monetized at very low rates. At the other extreme is a highly customized inventory. And that’s what you see at NYT.com. You see Apple’s (NSDQ: AAPL) ads on our homepage. Those are very high rates campaigns and you can see at one-to-one rate compared to print. Asked about the growth of its newspaper ad alliance, QuadrantOne, Nisenholtz said it was too early to say.

Other key points mentioned in the response:
-- Influenced by Yahoo
-- Times Select and the paid model
-- The death of print classifieds
-- About’s display weakness
- Acquisitions

Read more here

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

Bloggers chime in about Online Television and Hulu

2008-05-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hulu is making a big splash among online television viewers, and several bloggers have added their input into why. Here are few choice excerpts from blogs that we like (and may just invite to the next New Media Tastemakers Summit):

Blog: Daniela's Lair

OhMyHeartness for Hulu.com and Consumer Behavior

Bye bye TV.

My recent consistent usage of hulu.com helps to demonstrate the way young people consume content. I stopped distinguishing between “video online” and “video on TV” a long time ago. The way I watch “video” has nothing to do with air time or brand loyalty. Here are my content viewing factors:

- geography

- mood

- current interest

Blog: From Angel to Private Equity

Hulu

I have used the site and it was pretty impressive. It was clean, easy to use and the video quality was excellent. Venture Beat,in it’s overall severely flawed analysis , strangly noted that “Hulu’s primary problem is that it doesn’t own any of the content on its site and is beholden to its content partners such as NBC and Fox.” . That seems like an advantage to us. In other words because this is a joint venture NBC and Fox are in a great position to become a leader if not the leader in the media driven web 2.0 world. Content is king. NBC and Fox own alot of content. NBC and Fox own 90% of Hulu. They will market the hell out of it. Given the low barriers to entry in the video market Hulu should succeed in a big way. Joost and others will likely end up in the dust. This is the first step in cutting out the middlemen like Youtube and others…..Of course nothing is that simple, Google will “fight back” but the lines have been drawn. Same in the fight with Itunes. Media companies want their content back. And they will get what they want

Blog: The Gadgeteer

Afternoon video break at Hulu.com

I just received an email from Erica Colon about a very cool online video service called Hulu. Hulu is an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips, is FREE to anyone, anytime in the US. The quality of the video is amazing and has been praised by The Washington Post, TIME, Business Week, the Chicago Tribune, Fortune, and the AP. Hulu allows anyone to embed video on any site for free (any specific part of any clip, movie, or TV show). Content includes main stream shows such as Family Guy, SNL, The Office, NBA sports, classic TV shows, and movies as well as a variety of “undiscovered” shows like Three Sheets, After Hours, Pressure Cook, Test Drive, Wall Street Warriors, etc.

http://www.hulu.com/browse/alphabetical/tv

I just watched the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I forgot how much fun that show was. Hulu has the what appears to be the entire 1st and 2nd seasons. The shows do have commercials, but in that Buffy episode that I watched, there were just 5 ads and each was only 15 seconds long. Didn't bother me at all. Go check it out... I'm off to watch Buffy episode 2. :o)

What more can we say? Online viewers really do like quality online programming, as well as sometimes the kitten falling asleep videos.

See:
The New Media Tastemakers Summit

Summit Panelist Yelp: New York Times Reviews Impact

2008-05-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

New Media Tastemakers Summit Panelist - Yelp: New York Times Reviews Their Impact on Small Local Businesses

The New York Times talks about the impact of user review sites like Yelp on businesses. As we know, they're huge, since every restaurant in town is now scared that they may offend too many customers with poor service or mediocre food. But if this is a consumer driven society, then in many ways firms like Yelp are turning every individual into a powerful new media tastemaker:

THE Rooz Cafe, a restaurant and coffee shop in Oakland, Calif., signals its distaste for patrons who post reviews on Yelp.com with a small sign: No Yelpers.

The sign is routinely ignored by devotees of Yelp, a San Francisco Internet company that enables average folks to write reviews of everything from restaurants to plumbers to parks.

“If you want good coffee and a comfy place to work, I’d recommend this place,” wrote Stephanie S., who gave Rooz four stars. “And the No Yelpers sticker made me laugh.”

Rooz’s owner, Steve Ranjbin, said he put the sticker up as a joke, but added that he had a complaint about Yelp.

“Yelp does not respect us as business owners,” Mr. Ranjbin said. “They don’t listen to business owners unless you’re an advertiser paying Yelp.”

Mr. Ranjbin, who said that amateur reviews can hurt his business, said some had misquoted him or called his employees names, but that Yelp had refused to take these comments down. Yelp rarely removes reviews, even when advertisers complain, preferring to let the crowd have its say.

The proliferating reviews of Mr. Ranjbin’s establishment offer a good illustration of people’s newfound love of comparing notes via reviews online.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, 2.5 percent of all Internet users in March went to Yelp.com, and traffic there quadrupled over the last year. Yelp tracks its users through Google Analytics, and the company, which is almost four years old, said it had 9.5 million unique visitors in April, nearly double the 5 million it reported last October. There are more than 2.6 million reviews on the site.

“This site is having an impact on business,” said Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting firm that focuses on the Internet’s effect on local consumer and advertiser behavior. Mr. Sterling said that Yelp had become an early leader in that field, which also includes Judy’s Book and Insider Pages.

But don't forget, when stores and restaurants get good reviews, they are more than happy to put the YELP sticker on their windows.

Video Interview: moderator Brian Solis of Futureworks

2008-05-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

A great video interview of Summit moderator Brian Solis of Futureworks PR. Brian was interviewed by BuzzLogic Vino Diaries.

Per the description: In this episode, we interview Brian Solis, founder of FutureWorks and author of PR 2.0 and discuss the social media release. Is it effective? What are the best ways for PR practioners to leverage new media in message dissemination?

Brian by the way was an excellent moderator at the New Media Tastemakers Summit in May.

Speaker Bio: E.C. Morgan, Soma Managment

2008-04-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

E.C. Morgan, Soma Managment

E.C. Morgan graduated with honors in Business from the University of San Diego in 1987 then joined WIG Securities as an analyst before starting his own investment company, Morgan Capital Management in 1991. His fund, MCM Partners, was featured in Barron?s Financial News for Top Performance. He invested in digital media and emerging technology and founded Soma Management in 2001 as he saw the digital convergence taking place.

Soma Management produces, aggregates, and syndicates original lifestyle content for broadband, mobile, IPTV, VOD, and virtual worlds. Its focus is Beauty, Fashion, Health, Travel, Celebrity and other lifestyle content.

Speaker Bio: Jeanniey Mullen, Zinio

2008-04-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Jeanniey Mullen, Zinio

Jeanniey Mullen provides more than two decades of accomplishment-laden experience in the email, interactive and digital marketing realm. She is considered by many a force of unending energy, focused on driving revenue, improving brand impact and increasing customer relationships; all by harnessing the power of a digital dialogue and integrating it in to every possible touchpoint in the on and offline worlds.

Jeanniey Mullen is the Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Zinio Systems and VIV Magazine. In her role at Zinio and VIV, Jeanniey is charged with reinventing the publishing industry as a digital cornerstone of the consumers lifestyle.

She is also the founder and Executive Chair of the Email Experience Council (recently purchased by the DMA).

Prior to her role at Zinio and VIV, Jeanniey was the Senior Partner, and Global Executive Director of the Email Marketing and Digital Dialogue Practice at OgilvyOne Worldwide. In her role at Ogilvy, Jeanniey was responsible for leading the worldwide efforts that use digital dialogues and email to create powerful, meaningful and profitable customer communication strategies for Ogilvy clients, including IBM, American Express and Yahoo!

Jeanniey’s experience spans across B2C and B2B initiatives and many verticals including publishing, entertainment and events.

Prior to joining OgilvyOne, Jeanniey founded and ran her own interactive agency, The Lift Network. Before that, she served as the CMO and EVP at Avalon Digital Marketing Systems, where she helped launch one of the first B2B email platforms that incorporated on-demand video into the email message. Prior to Avalon, Jeanniey was the Global GM and VP of the email marketing department. Before entering the advertising agency world, Jeanniey was the Director of Customer Relations and Marketing Experience for JCPenney’s five key businesses, Store, Catalog, Direct, CreditCard and Insurance, Jeanniey is recognized in the industry as pioneering the first global email marketing practice, and was named one of the top 25 media people to watch while at Grey Direct.

Jeanniey’s expertise in the discipline spans both the B2B and B2C industries. In addition to her board position at the eec, Jeanniey is a columnist for ClickZ, has published numerous white papers and best practice guides, has been appeared in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. She is a frequent keynote speaker on the topics of email and digital marketing for organizations like Media Post, ClickZ, DMA, Shop.org and many others.

Newspaper Goes Online-Only

2008-04-29T08:40:00.001-07:00

It's not completely true that what happens in Wisconsin happens everywhere, but is a completely online edition the best or worst scenario for small local newspapers for survival?

Just An Online Minute… Wisconsin Newspaper Goes Online-Only

The Capital Times, an afternoon daily in Madison, Wis., this weekend folded its print edition and became an online-only newspaper.

“Today marks our last edition as a traditional daily newspaper of the sort Americans knew in the 19th and 20th centuries,” the paper announced Saturday in an editorial. “Starting tomorrow, The Capital Times will be a daily newspaper of the sort Americans will know in the 21st century.

Given today’s challenging market for newspapers, it’s not surprising that an afternoon paper like The Capital Times would fold in print. Afternoon dailies have been fading away for decades, victims of evening TV news broadcasts and cable TV long before the Internet struck a death blow.

In fact, in some ways, The Capital Times’ shift to the Internet is good news. Before the advent of the Web, evening papers simply closed and didn’t resurface in other forms. And even the Madison newspaper isn’t completely abandoning print; it will still publish a free print newsweekly and a free weekly entertainment guide.

Still, it appears inevitable that more and more newspapers will shift resources to the Web. Consider, figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that most top dailies have lost ground recently. For the six months ending March 30, circulation at The New York Times fell to around 1.08 million, marking a 3.9% drop. At the Los Angeles Times, circulation fell 5.1% to around 774,000, and the Dallas Morning News saw a 10.6% drop to approximately 368,000.

Of the 20 largest newspapers in the country, only two saw gains — The Wall Street Journal (up 0.4% to around 2.07 million) and USA Today (up 0.3% to around 2,28 million). Some other, smaller newspapers to show gains include the San Jose Mercury News, which grew 1.69% to around 231,000 and The Cincinnati Enquirer, which was up 2.93% to around 206,000.

How's the online Feature section making out? Based on the number of Art & Food articles, they seem to be getting a good amount of space.

Why being like YouTube but for Food is not a Business Model

2008-04-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

Only YouTube can be YouTube, that's the common wisdom. And by most accounts YouTube does YouTube very well, which is why other business models that are based on the refrain "we're going to be like YouTube, but for food (or fashion, or sports, or whatever)" aren't very original, or likely to succeed in the long term because anyone can come up with the same idea.

Plus, now the basic layout is no longer difficult to reproduce. White-label tech outfits are even providing the basics for free. As reported in TechCrunch:

Create Your Own YouTube, Pray You Can Make Money

“YouTube sold for $1.6 billion. How much will you sell yours for?”

That’s the over-optimistic hook being used by StartYourTube to entice people into setting up branded video sharing sites on its white label platform.

StartYourTube does exactly what the name implies. You can go onto the site, create your own “tube”, customize it with colors and graphics, mask it to your own domain, invite friends, and start loading content. The tubes not only host videos but have sections for pictures, audio files, and blogs as well.

They also look and feel much like YouTube, with most recent, most viewed and most viewed lists. Users can vote and comment on videos; however, there’s no related videos list for each video.

This is entirely a free service with, puzzlingly, no perceivable revenue source for the owners. (Update: As has been noticed by commenters, it’ll actually cost you to raise the limits on how much content can be added to your tube and how many views you can receive). Publishers get to keep 100% 60% of ad revenues and the site is even running a $500 promotional giveaway campaign for the “top tubes”.

So far over 11,000 tubes have been created, including ones for snowboarding and anime. It was perhaps inevitable that a straightforward, white label video sharing platform would arise, especially given the success of other consumer social media platforms like Ning.

But it’s not the first company to give users and businesses more power to curate online videos. Magnify was built around the idea of creating specialized channels around videos hosted elsewhere. Reality Digital, KickApps, and VSocial all provide video hosting services that integrate with existing websites. And now with YouTube’s APIs, the online video gorilla itself is giving developers more control over how videos are managed on the web.

Press Release: New Media, Web 2.0 and Blog Tastemakers Gather for SUMMIT

2008-04-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

Press Release: New Media, Web 2.0 and Blog Tastemakers Gather for SUMMIT

(PRWEB) April 24, 2008 -- For the first time ever, key New Media players, execs, moguls, editors, producers, bloggers, designers and tastemakers gather for an exclusive summit in San Francisco on May 2. Their goal is to discuss the lucrative and highly influential Lifestyle-verticals of food and wine, fashion and design, and metro-regional guides.

The timing for the Summit is that these New Media Tastemakers have now attained unprecedented reach and influence over what global and local consumers buy, eat, drink, watch, wear, and do in leisure and in life. The New Media Tastemakers Summit was created to allow them to share ideas, network, and prepare their businesses for economic and technological opportunities specific to this category. It also allows hopeful marketers, partners, and investors to reach them face-to-face.

Summit attendees come from Digital Media, Traditional Print and TV firms, Online Video, and Web 2.0 enterprises. Summit panelists and moderators come from well-known New Media pioneers such as YouTube, Yelp, Yahoo, Chow.com, Turnhere, Bhootan, BooRah, Burst Media/CD Kitchen, Danoo, Fanpop, Fashiontribes, Federated Media, Foodbuzz.com, Gayot.com, Intercasting Corp, Kickapps, LA.com, Like.com, Metromix / Tribune Interactive - Gannett, MobiTV, Reality Digital, SFStation/Boulevards Networks, Soma Management/Somagirl.tv, Stylehive.com, TasteTV, The Sugar Network (YumSugar, FabSugar), ThisNext.com, Tilzy.TV, Variety and Zinio.

The restrained size of the event and the selected vertical focus makes networking and exposure to new ideas, partners, products and opportunities ideal, and meets the immediate competitive needs of these businesses, content providers, entrepreneurs, marketers and advertisers in the current economic climate.

Topics to be discussed at the Summit range from panels titled "Influencing and Following Consumer Tastes in a Digital World: The New Players, The New Paradigms, The New Moguls," and "Traditional Media: Embracing Digital Strategies to Viably Evolve" to "The Rise of TasteMaker Content and Distribution," "Social Networks and Broadband Platforms," and "Profitable Branding and Marketing: - Leveraging Influencer Buzz at the Local Level."

Attendees will also have the opportunity to taste new products provided and services provided by various sponsoring organizations. More information about the New Media Tastemakers Summit can be found at http://www.NewMediaTastemakers.com.

Moderator Bio: Brian Solis, FutureWorks

2008-04-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

Brian Solis, CEO, FutureWorks and Blogger, PR 2.0

Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. Solis blogs at PR2.0, bub.blicio.us, and regularly contributes PR & tech insight to industry publications. Solis is among the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media. He’s a co-founder of the Social Media Club, is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup, and also contributes to BrandWeek and the Social Media Collective.

Speaker Bio: Harlow Newton, Boulevards Networks and SFStation.com

2008-04-22T08:36:00.001-07:00

Harlow Newton, Boulevards Networks
/ SFStation.com

A true socially responsible entrepreneur at heart, Harlow has more than 20 years of experience as a business owner, from being one of the founding partners at SF Station, to starting a successful travel
services company and environmental non-profit organization.

After selling SF Station to the Boulevards City Guide Network in 2006, Harlow has been working as the Director of Digital Marketing & Strategy for the Boulevards City Guide Network. During his 10 years with SF Station, Harlow built and established long-term business relationships and strategic partnerships with local businesses, media companies, and community and public organizations. With a rolodex of over 8,000 contacts, Harlow continues to develop unique and innovative business partnerships, brand awareness campaigns and digital marketing programs for his clients and partners.

Harlow studied business, public relations and psychology at San Francisco State University through an interdisciplinary studies program. Harlow is currently building Buenaventura, an eco-adventure lodge and rainforest retreat on his 170 acre property in Costa Rica, scheduled to open to the public in the summer of 2010.

Speaker Bio: Kara Walsh, Metromix.com

2008-04-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

Kara Walsh, Metromix.com

Kara Walsh is Chief Executive Officer of Metromix LLC, a joint venture between Tribune Interactive (TI) and Gannett Company created to form a national network of local entertainment websites under the Metromix brand. Walsh served as General Manager of Metromix for Tribune Interactive in 2006-07.

Prior to joining TI and Metromix, Walsh was VP of online at Village Voice Media (VVM) where she served as general manager of villagevoice.com and led strategy and business planning for VVM’s network of 17 alternative news and entertainment websites.

Entertainment listings play a central role in the products that Walsh has worked with over the last ten years. Before joining VVM, she served as director of new business marketing at TV Guide and head of customer loyalty marketing at British Sky Broadcasting.

Walsh’s earlier experience includes brand management at The Coca-Cola Company as well as strategy and technology consulting. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from Clemson University. She lives in Chicago, where Metromix LLC is based.

Speaker Bio: Gordon Gould, ThisNext.com

2008-04-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Gordon Gould, ThisNext.com

Chief Executive Officer Gordon Gould believes that in order to live better people need to buy better. Through ThisNext, Gould envisions a product graph that connects people to products, products to products, and people to people and transforms the way consumers interact with the most unique, diverse products in the market. Gould is a true Internet visionary, founding and leading several ahead-of-its-time companies.

Prior to ThisNext, Gould founded Upoc.com in 1999, the leader in mobile community, marketing and premium services in the United States for the teen community. He served as CEO for the company’s first two years. While at UPOC, Gould raised two rounds of venture capital and was instrumental in selling the company to Dada Mobile.

Gould served as CEO of the blog platform company Blogsmith, which is the underlying blog platform that powers the Weblogs Inc Network, and oversaw Blogsmith’s acquisition by AOL.

Gould started his executive path as President and COO of New York's Silicon Alley Reporter/Rising Tide Studios. RTS/SAR published The Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter, as well as about a dozen email newsletters and produced several high-profile industry conferences during the Web 1.0 boom. RTS also published VentureReporter, an industry business information service now owned by Dow Jones.

Gould has a BA in environmental studies from Pitzer College, served as a founding board member of MOUSE (Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools and Education) and is the former co-chair of the Los Angeles branch of New Democrats Network.

Tim O'Reilly on WSJ and the New Tastemakers

2008-04-18T08:21:00.001-07:00

Great summary of a WSJ article by new media guru Tim O'Reilly:

Peter Brantley wrote: "[The]WSJ has an article on curation of online media sites ... reported by if:book":

"The Wall Street Journal has an interesting (and free) piece on the new class of individuals -- filters, recommenders, editors, curators, call them what you will -- that is becoming increasingly influential in directing attention traffic across the Web. ...

"It all adds up to a pretty astonishing redefinition of what
"the media" is. The front page, the lead story, the primetime
lineup -- all in constant renegotiation, constantly rearranged.
Yet still in so many ways dependent on the established sources
for the materials to be filtered (and probably in the future
for personal income, as is already beginning). Feeders and
filterers. The new media ecology doesn't destroy the old one,
it absorbs it into a new relationship."

Both the WSJ piece and the if:book commentary are worth a read. It's interesting to see how each new layer of internet media grows its own group of tastemakers. When we first started doing internet marketing back in the early 90s, we mainly reached out to influential posters on newsgroups and mailing lists. Then it was various lists of lists featuring cool web sites. Then blogging (including sites like slashdot that the blogging community is only now (finally) acknowledging as one of its own.) Now it's people who act as tastemakers on sites like digg, reddit and del.icio.us.

AMERICAN EXPRESS TASTEMAKERS INDEX

2008-04-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

American Express has created a forum it calls the AMERICAN EXPRESS TASTEMAKERS INDEX. It's like a city site for food and other picks. Here's a recent post:

EATING HEALTHY IN THE NEW YEAR? AMERICAN EXPRESS TASTEMAKERS DISH ON THE TOP NEW YORK RESTAURANTS FOR GRABBING A HEALTHY BITE

Tastemakers share tips on eating healthy while eating out in the New Year

NEW YORK, January 25, 2008 -- For many Americans, better health tops the New Year's resolution list. But for the millions of foodies in New York City, eating healthy while eating out is not always easy. Today, American Express issued its Tastemaker Index and in it, Tastemakers dish on some of the best New York restaurants where diners can get a fresh, healthy meal to help them keep that New Year's resolution. The Tastemaker Index is a monthly alert which provides an insider's look at the hottest restaurants recently dined at and talked about on American Express Dish®. Dish is a community web site dedicated to connecting people who love to dine out.

The Tastemaker Index reveals the Top Restaurants for Healthy Dining. These rankings are based on the number of charges made by Tastemakers at restaurants. While they don't account for a restaurant's size or hours of operation, they do reflect the dining trends of an exclusive group of food-loving Cardmembers.

NEW YORK CITY: Top 5 Healthy NYC Restaurants
RESTAURANT
1. Mizu Sushi
2. Café Metro
3. Estiatorio Milos
4. Spice
5. Republic

Source: American Express Dish Tastemakers
More on Dish
What Dish provides that is unlike any other dining resource is the web's most robust combination of dining offers, information and insights, including peer restaurant ratings, expert picks and instant reservations among other features. Available in New York and San Francisco, Dish is an ongoing platform, allowing diners to tap into the insights of a diverse group of passionate Cardmembers and celebrity foodies, better known as the Dish Tastemaker community.
In addition to the existing features and offers on the site, Tastemakers are encouraged to come back often to check out new offers from Dish. New York Dish's latest promotion called "Table for You" awards gift certificates and reservations at some of the city's most exclusive restaurants. American Express posts a featured restaurant and asks a thought-provoking question such as "which menu item inspires your imagination?" Tastemakers with the most compelling submission win a $400 gift certificate from the featured restaurant. Check out the Table for You contest by clicking on the banner on Dish's New York homepage and find new restaurant gift certificates to win in upcoming weeks, including 'Cesca and Babo among others.

Speaker Bio: Dave Lu, Fanpop

2008-04-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Dave Lu, Fanpop

Dave Lu is the CEO and co-founder of Fanpop, a network of online fan clubs created by and for fans. As the CEO, Dave shapes Fanpop's strategic direction, leads business development and helps drive product development and marketing.

Prior to starting Fanpop, Dave has held various product management and product marketing roles at some of the world's leading consumer technology companies. He was a product manager at Yahoo! for Yahoo! Finance, led product strategy for affiliate marketing at eBay, worked on product marketing for laptops at Apple, directed the Yahoo!-Sony marketing alliance for Sony and most recently helped launch single-use video cameras for Sequoia-backed startup Pure Digital Technologies. He started his career as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting in San Francisco. Dave received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and an MBA from Stanford University.

Ad:tech - How Diggnation Makes Money from Ads

2008-04-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

The ad:tech conference produced some very useful information. Here's a post on Mashable about How Diggnation Makes Money from Ads:

Hosted by “Internet Superstar” co-hosts Martin Sargent and Gator, the live event was a good way to end the ad:tech conference here in San Francisco. It was the first time something like this had been done for the conference, and it was a pretty fun (and funny) way to end a conference that’s all about monetizing business from ad revenue.

Sargent and Gator’s guests included Kevin Rose, Ask Ninja, Jeff MacPherson of Tiki Bar TV and Wine Library’s Gary Vaynerchuck. Each guest got to play a clip from their show, and Ninja was there “live” via satellite to do his thing. And as entertaining as it was to get all these web-famous personalities on stage together, the topic of discussion was on advertising revenue and how it’s applied to their programs.

Rose said that Diggnation is pretty picky about its sponsors, which is evident in the product placement you’ll typically find in a given episode. Vaynerchuck, on the other hand, gave a useful speech on the monetization capacity of his core business thanks to his expansion of his product through the creation of a made-for-web program.

The key takeaway? Advertising is about the product and the content. Get that right, and you’ll be all good, when it comes to advertising. This is typically easier when you’re already a trusted source or name, and even MacPherson noted he had filmmaking experience that lent to the ability for him to better create content. But you get the point. Do what you love, and advertisers will love you.

Speaker Bio: Kristin Hawley Dossetti, Bhootan

2008-04-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

Kristin Hawley Dossetti, Bhootan

Kristin Hawley Dossetti is Vice President, Programming of Bhootan, one of the largest digital out-of-home networks. She oversees all aspects of the company’s programming, including content acquisitions, creative development and proprietary production.

Prior to joining Bhootan, Hawley Dossetti founded EKLA Studios where she counseled clients working in the entertainment space on all aspects of the business, including acquisitions and development, production and distribution, merchandise licensing, marketing/promotions, sponsorship and advertising. Among the clients she worked with were ADV Films/The Anime Network, the premier anime producer and distributor in North America; Studio B Productions, a leader in the field of kids’ entertainment; and Pioneer Entertainment, the entertainment division of the electronics giant.

Prior to founding EKLA Studios, Hawley Dossetti developed her career in the entertainment and digital technology industries and achieved progressively higher roles in such companies as Internet start-up Candydates.com, The Harvey Entertainment Company, and Nelvana.

A cum laude graduate of the American University of Paris with a Bachelor of Arts, Hawley Dossetti is fluent in French and English and retains dual US/EU citizenship. She also received her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Motion Picture Producing as a student in The Peter Stark Producing Program at USC’s School of Cinema-Television. She has won numerous awards for public speaking and is an experienced film director, producer and editor.

Organic Taste Makers and Marketing Costs

2008-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

As far back as, gasp, 2005 and 2006, some had predicted the influence of the New Media Tastemakers. John Borland of CNET News.com wrote about the organic quality of the trend:

Like the Web itself, the impact of such grassroots opinions has grown geometrically to change the way hits are made in movies, music and television. Their significance goes far beyond the realm of entertainment, fundamentally recasting the way opinions are shaped in a society whose sensibilities have been saturated by mass-media campaigns for generations.

The undeniable influence of these organic taste makers has been made possible by the rise of blogs, tags, collaborative bookmarks and other so-called social technologies that are fulfilling some of the utopian objectives espoused in the early days of the Internet, when it was hoped that the Web would empower the individual and dismantle communication barriers across the globe. Many of those altruistic goals were vastly overshadowed by mass commercialization. But, in the years since the dot-com meltdown, they've been resurrected with a new generation of digerati who are developing and exploiting the social aspects of the medium.

Speaker Bio: Derrick Oien, Intercasting Corp

2008-04-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

Derrick Oien, Intercasting Corp

Derrick Oien is a seasoned operations executive with an extensive background in entertainment, media and technology. As co-founder and president of Intercasting Corporation, Derrick oversees the company’s overall strategic direction, managing product development and negotiating strategic partnerships.

Prior to co-founding Intercasting Corporation in March 2004, Oien was President of Vivendi Universal Net USA, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal that operated MP3.com, Rollingstone.com, eMusic, and Trusonic from December 2001 until April 2003.

Previously, he held a variety of positions with companies such as Universal Music Group, Computer Sciences Corporation, BDO Seidman, and Sony Pictures Studios in primarily operations or technology roles.

Speakers Bio: Sadia Harper, YouTube

2008-04-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

Sadia Harper, YouTube

Sadia is the Manager of HowTo & Style on YouTube. She is responsible for building and managing the HowTo & Style vertical by uncovering quality content identified by the YouTube community, developing programs to highlight and encourage distinctive talent, and collaborating with industry experts and publications on ways to engage the YouTube audience and expand their brands on the site.

Prior to joining YouTube, Sadia worked for Crate & Barrel and CB2 as a Store Designer in Chicago, Los Angels, and the Bay Area. She received her B.A. in Cinema Theory from the University of Illinois.

Speaker Bio: Nagaraju Bandaru, Boorah.com

2008-04-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Nagaraju Bandaru, Boorah.com

Nagaraju is the Co-founder & CTO at BooRah, a company that generates ratings and summaries for local restaurants from reviews and blogs. Nagaraju focuses on the new trends in social media content for dining and travel areas and evangelizes the company's solution to solve the explosive growth in user generated content. He also leads the semantic technology and website development efforts. Prior to founding BooRah, Nagaraju was Vice President of Engineering at MetroFi, a city-wide Wi-Fi networks operator. His prior work experience includes companies such as Lockheed Martin, Covad and Exodus communications.

Spear Bio: Jamison Tilsner, Tilzy.tv

2008-04-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

Jamison Tilsner, Tilzy.tv

Jamison Tilsner began his career in traditional film and television production but quickly recognized the profound impact that IP distribution of video would have on the media industry. He created Tilzy.TV, an online publication that reviews internet-television, and CityCapture.com, a production network and syndication system for video spots of local consumer interests. Jamison also offers consulting and production services to internet companies.

Tastemakers: New reason to surf the blogosphere: Book deals

2008-04-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

New reason to surf the blogosphere: Book deals

Take if from a book publisher -- the publishing business is changing shape faster than a stick of butter in Paula Deen's kitchen. But that doesn't mean that there's no business in the book business, especially for Tastemakers.

In an article in the International Herald Tribune:

When she started contacting bloggers and talking to them about book deals, many were stunned that a real literary agent was interested in their midnight typings. Her roster was so rich with bloggers, including Matt Welch from Hit & Run and Glenn Reynolds from Instapundit, that the New Yorker profiled her in 2004. Two years from now, the magazine noted, "Books by bloggers will be a trend, a cultural phenomenon."

And two years after that?

"If I contact someone or someone is put in touch with me, chances are they've already been contacted by another agent," Lee said. "Or they've at least thought about turning their blog into a book or some kind of film or TV project."

It will be difficult for the publisher to make a profit, said Sara Nelson, editor of Publishers Weekly. Doing some back-of-the-envelope math, she figured Random House would have to sell about 75,000 copies, a total that would likely land the book on best-seller lists, to earn back its $300,000 advance.

Blog books are far from a sure thing at the cash register.

Gawker.com spawned the book, "The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media," which has sold fewer than 1,000 copies since its release in October 2007. A book based on a popular Web site focused on fashion disasters has sold 2,000 copies in its first seven weeks of release, according to Nielsen BookScan.

From a Cookbook perspective however, Lulu.com is moving forward:

Lulu.com Creator Brings Glamour Back to the Kitchen With Cookbook Series to Spice Up Your Life

With all of the blending, simmering and boiling in the kitchen, it is no wonder passion can be found lurking around the fridge or beyond the counter. Blondee, a larger than life personality and successful chef, looks to bring Hollywood style entertaining to kitchens everywhere with the launch of her first cookbook "Glamour in the Kitchen," which is available exclusively at Lulu.com. Blondee shows anyone how to transform every meal into a romantic event by throwing out the rules, focusing on your strengths and laughing from your soul to generate sparks in the kitchen

Era of the celebrity broadcaster fades on local TV

2008-04-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Era of the celebrity broadcaster fades on local TV

These quotes sum it up:

"The TV programs won't be as personality-driven as they once were," said Chet Curtis, who coanchored WCVB-TV (Channel 5) evening news as a powerhouse team with Natalie Jacobson, his former wife, and now works for NECN. "TV stations decided they could find reasonably attractive people and pay them less money and attract if not the same audience, in some cases, a larger audience."

Moreover, media analysts said the increasingly fragmented media landscape makes it difficult to create local news celebrities and now stations are less willing to pay the six- and seven-figure salaries for top anchors.

"We're in a totally different world in 2008," said Philip S. Balboni, founder of New England Cable News and a former Channel 5 executive who in the early 1980s created the TV magazine show "Chronicle." "It's almost impossible to create a local news star today because viewership is so much reduced that no one gets the kind of exposure they did in the '70s, '80s, and early 1990s."

Lobel, in an interview yesterday, said: "All the people that they were branding back when I was in the business - Liz [Walker], Jack [Williams], and Natalie [Jacobson] - all that is over. No one is branded anymore. The stations brand themselves. That's just the way it is now."

How To: Get Noticed by Video-Site Tastemakers

2008-04-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

Web Video Report has an interesting Video 101 How-To for novices on getting videos noticed by "Video Site Tastemakers." Some key points:

Save Money on Equipment ... But Not Too Much
Don't worry about buying a top-of-the-line professional camera to make your videos. Part of the charm of web-videos is their DIY charm. Having that said, most video sharing sites (ie. Dailymotion) are launching higher quality video, so you don't want your videos to look TOO DIY ... go with a mid-range video camera and you should be fine.

Find Your Own Voice
This is so important. Everyone is inspired by others, but make sure you're taking inspiration and not copying. Viewers respond to originality, so do what comes naturally and don't look back.

Keep It Short
Video shouldn't drag on longer than 3-5 minutes. Users are one click away from distractions online, so the second a user gets bored, they will click away to something else.

Short Intros and Credits
Keep your intro simple and get your voice across in as few moments as possible. Your credits should fly by quickly, so save the fade-ins and dissolves for longer format films.

Dialogue
Once you've found your own, unique voice, let it be heard. Don't be afraid to speak up and be yourself, but do make sure you have the proper microphone. Nothing kills a perfectly executed dialogue like the tin-can effect of a poor sound-recording job.

Music
Get your friend’s band to record something for you or lend you a track or two rather than ripping off Britney … or do something yourself. Besides, it's illegal to use music that you don't have the rights to, and who needs a lawsuit for using Metallica in the soundtrack to their freeboard blooper reel?

Edit Edit Edit
Trim the fat--the most viewed videos will flow uninterrupted by long breaks in action. Remember that viewers on the Web will click right away if they get bored by a long drawn-out sequence. Cut out unnecessary frames and keep the momentum for your viewer.

Use a Descriptive and Attention-Grabbing Title
Don't include your profile/user name in the video title -- use that space for a descriptive/funny/informative/attention-getting title.

Speaker Bio: Brian Sugar, Sugar Inc.

2008-04-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Brian Sugar, Sugar Inc.

As CEO & Publisher, Brian Sugar sets the overall direction for Sugar Inc. Prior to founding Sugar Inc., Brian served first as Vice President of Marketing then as Vice President & General Manager of 2Wire, Inc.’s media business unit. Before joining 2Wire, Brian was founder and CEO of Sugar Media, a digital media software company, which was acquired by 2Wire in October 2003. Brian was Chief Web Officer at Kmart’s BlueLight.com, Vice President of eCommerce at J.Crew, and a founder of Neptune Interactive, a Washington, DC-based ISP.

Latest Sugar news:

Sugar Inc. starts two UK sites

SAN FRANCISCO – March 25, 2008 – Almost two years after Sugar Inc.’s launch of the Sugar Network, the company is crossing the pond to expand its lifestyle and entertainment network in the United Kingdom, introducing British versions of its most widely-read sites, PopSugar.com and FabSugar.com. The expansion marks the company’s first overseas venture

Food & Fashion Companies Pursue Blog Reviews

2008-04-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Food & Fashion Companies Loving Blog Reviews

Candice Choi of the Associated Press reports on how food companies (and we assume every other major consumer goods products, luxury or not) are beginning to understand how much power is wielded by the food, fashion, and metro-regional city websites and blogs. No only do they realize it, they have now made this a major marketing strategy and treat the sites and writers like major journalists and New Media Tastemakers. With article titles like "Food Manufacturers Examine Food Blogs, An Emerging Marketing Tool," the point is being made on a widespread basis.

In the SF Chronicle:

Food companies lap up blog mentions
Writers on every food group cook up free publicity
Obsessive Web sites evaluating the newest offerings have become must-reads for lovers of every type of food including frozen dinners, potato chips, candy bars and even energy drinks.

"Companies are paying attention to the concept of lots and lots of tiny little markets. Added up, it's significant," Weil said.

The single-minded focus of blogs may be in some ways more valuable than traditional marketing since it's easier to target an audience, said Daniel Taylor, a senior analyst of digital advertising and marketing for the Yankee Group.

Local Online TV Ad Spending in the Billions in 2008

2008-04-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

PaidContent reports on a study by Borrell Associates that online advertising for local TV stations will be up by 45% this year. But it also says that there's a ton of unsold commercial spot inventory available, and that's going to mean some issues for the television industry, such as:

-- Ending convergence: In a study on local online advertising in November, Borrell argued that bundling traditional and non-traditional media under one ad sales team had a dampening effect on the growth on internet revenues. Looking only at local TV, Borrell finds that most are adding online-only sales reps in an effort to sell a growing stable of unsold web inventory. The report finds these sales teams have their work cut out for them: "Nearly three-fourths of all TV site inventory is unsold. Looking ahead, TV sites should continue to gain share this year in most markets, topping $1.1 billion in online ad revenue overall." Additionally, it helps to keep in mind that digital ventures remain a small piece of the broadcast TV puzzle; it's barely 3 percent of most stations' total revenues, leaving many station managers to doubt the wisdom of adding online resources.

-- Revenues vary: Borrell also benchmarks stations against TV households. The range for internet revenue per TV household was 36 cents for large markets, up to $1.28 for small markets. While it may be an easy-to-grasp benchmark for television operators, Borrell said it is generally irrelevant because the reach of the internet extends well beyond a stations' broadcast signal. That said, not all sites are created equal. In large markets, several stations were making more than $3 million in online-only revenues, while others were pulling in less than $500,000. In a market where one station was making more than $4 million, a competitor in the same market was making $1.4 million, while three others were making less than $500,000 each. In the smallest markets, a handful of stations were generating more than $1 million, while their peers were laboring in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

Speaker Bio: Lesley Scott-Silbergeld, FashionTribes

2008-04-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Lesley Scott-Silbergeld, FashionTribes

Fashion & lifestyle expert Lesley Scott is the New York City-based editor of Fashiontribes.com, one of the Top 10 fashion blogs.

Lesley was one of the first bloggers to cover New York Fashion Week as an accredited member of the press. An influential and respected member of the lifestyle blogging community, her expertise is regularly sought after by top New York public relations firms including Kaplow Communications and Marina Maher Communications, and she has appeared in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Women’s Wear Daily & USA Today. Most recently, she helped co-found the Fabbies, the first-ever blogger created awards dedicated to the fashion blogosphere.

Prior to Fashiontribes, Lesley covered New York style & trends as the Senior Editor for Coolhunt, a global trendspotting firm. Her byline as a Lifestyle Expert appeared regularly in countless international magazines about fashion, beauty, streetfashion, lifestyle, and pop culture - including Marie Claire in Asia, Jessica, 25 Ans, GQ Taiwan, and Elle Girl Korea.

Speaker Bio: Azhar Khan, Like.com

2008-04-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

Azhar Khan, Like.com

Azhar Khan is Cofounder and VP of Engineering and Merchant Operations at Like.com. Like.com's photo and visual similarity technology has revolutionize the way we search and shop for fashion items on the the web.

An entrepreneur by nature he has started several companies in Silicon Valley, all very successful. Besides his entrepreneurial endeavors he has worked at Autodesk, Virage Logic, Citadon and BuildOnline in UK and India.

Azhar completed his Bachelors in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University and Masters in Business Management from Stanford Business School where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Speaker Bio: Michael Chin, Kickapps

2008-04-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Speaker Bio: Michael Chin, Kickapps

Michael leads the company’s marketing and communications strategy and efforts to evangelize the market potential of social media and the KickApps platform for major brands, global media companies, independent publishers and professional web developers. He brings a broad background of experience in Internet and Web 2.0 technology, enterprise software, mobile entertainment and consumer electronics.

Before joining KickApps, Michael was a director at Bite Communications, a global communications consultancy serving both blue chip companies and emerging start-up brands. At Bite, he spearheaded the agency’s New York City expansion to establish its media and entertainment services portfolio. Prior to that, Michael was Director of Marketing at StormPlay Entertainment Systems and an Account Manager at Niehaus Ryan Wong. Michael has worked with numerous well-known brands, including Virgin Life Care, BEA Systems, VERITAS Software, Become.com, Creative Labs and Netscape.

Michael has a B.A. in Politics with certificates in Legal Studies and Peace & Justice Studies from the University of San Francisco.

The Truth Hurts - Video Series are Fantastic Marketing, Sometimes Poor Revenue Sources

2008-03-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

You can only say that NewTeeVee's posting on "How Not to Get Rich Quick; Create a Web Series" is a 100% accurate. Not many people know this but to make money on web video using standard practices is very, very difficult, even if you have millions of viewers. As they put it:

In a moment of rare (but appreciated) Internet candor about money, Yuri Baranovsky, creator of the hit web series Break a Leg, lays out exactly how much moolah his efforts over the past two years have yielded him. Short answer: bupkiss. Gawker quoted him as saying:

...until the Internet can produce any real amount of money for good creators, there's no way it will ever be the future of TV as everyone in "new media" exclaims. The purpose of entertainment and art isn't to get smaller, quicker and catchier; it's to push the boundaries, to grow, to teach and to create. With no money and an endless stream of throw-away content made for a dime and worth about as much, the shows that can challenge network TV will eventually get grabbed up by those networks or they'll just give up and go on to greener pastures - like carpentry and porn.

So, are we rich yet? Hardly. But we're waiting for your call, Mr. Guffman.

There are some people making money on the web; the Ask a Ninja guys reportedly pulled in $100,000 a month for their show. But aspiring web creators should heed Yuri’s warning and hang onto their day jobs.

As Daisy Whitney of TVWeek adds:

Online video producers have a ways to go before they can support themselves on ad sales alone.

While advertisers are expected to pour $1.4 billion into online video this year—up from $775 million last year—that money isn’t yet trickling down in a meaningful way to episodic Web series, so online studios are either supplementing their income by providing production services or they’re riding the venture funding wave.

The bottom line: if you're a New Media Tastemaker and you want to stay in the black -- with or without video content -- you've got to think long-term and way out of the box (or just have fun at what you're doing regardless of the money).

Only Five More Weeks Until the New Media Tastemakers Summit

2008-03-30T17:34:00.000-07:00

We've entered countdown phase for the first ever New Media Tastemakers Summit on May 2nd. Only 5 weeks to go, and what a great lineup of speakers and partners:

Over twenty high-profile companies will be expert speakers and panelists, including:

Kickapps
YouTube
Yelp
Turnhere
SFStation /Boulevard Networks
Burst Media / CD Kitchen
Like.com
Yahoo
Intercasting Corp
The Sugar Network
Foodbuzz
Fashiontribes
TasteTV

Speaker Bio: R Jason Middleton, LA.com

2008-03-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

R Jason Middleton, LA.com
Editor in Chief

Jason migrated to LA for an LA woman -- and he wound up at LA.com. That's a leap from his first gig as an agate clerk at an afternoon newspaper, um, years ago.

From reporting he moved into graphic design and was an art director/designer in Houston. Now, he's combining those tools to help his team create a vibrant voice of commentary, awareness and entertainment in the world's sexiest city.

Report: TV media finally feeling Print media's pain

2008-03-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

There's no doubt that times are changing, and have been since the World Wide Web came into existence. But the changes that have affected things from banks to sports to clothing and toys is really affecting the traditional media in 2008. This last week's events spotlight the traditional media'search to adapt, evolve and survive the new media landscape.

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:

The TV news layoffs are more a reflection of a transforming media marketplace - and the financial expectations that are changing with it.

"If you're used to 45 percent profit, then if you only have 20 or 30, it feels like you're in the poor house," said Bob Papper, a professor of journalism at Hofstra University who regularly surveys the nation's TV and radio news directors. "KPIX is a strong station. This is not about them. This is a CBS thing."

Revenue at CBS declined 14.6 percent in the fourth quarter. Papper said many networks lost viewers during the recent writer's strike "when people got sick of watching reality TV and reruns. So they took it out on the local stations."

The economic slump is hurting TV networks, too, mostly in the form of its largest advertiser - automobile companies. According to media analysts at the research firm TNS, in 2007, U.S. automotive spending on TV fell 8.3 percent to $7.62 billion.

"But they're fighting a continued fragmentation of the market," Papper said. "Just as newspapers have found out, there are a lot more places to go to get news."

Other reports from around country confirm these points:

Layoffs of CBS veterans signal industry in crisis
The Mercury News

For television insiders, it was just a taste of what newspaper journalists have been experiencing recently as the industry downsizes in the wake of changing consumer habits and an ongoing economic slump.

"Local television news, as an industry, is actually losing its audience faster than newspapers," said Tim Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). "That's because newspapers are recapturing some of their audience online, and TV isn't."

Joe Ahern, a former KGO general manager who now presides over Chicago's WBBM, told the Chicago Tribune, "We have to rethink how we do business."

Generally speaking, evening and late-night newscasts long have been cash cows for local television stations in the Bay Area and across the nation. However, in 2007, local news ratings were down for the second consecutive year, according to the PEJ's 2008 State of the Media Report.

Lower ratings lead directly to decreases in ad revenue. Among the other challenges local television faces are competition from the Internet and 24-hour cable news outlets and the usage of digital video recorders (DVR's), which make it easy for viewers to skip over commercials.

However, television news has a couple of advantages that newspapers don't, according to Rosenstiel.

"If you lose viewers at 6 o'clock because people are still working, or aren't home yet, you can put on another newscast at 7 or 10 in an effort to recapture those viewers," he said. "And there's still nothing that sells quite like a TV ad.

Broadcasting & Cable

“This was supposed to be the good year, with the election and the Olympics, but of everybody I've spoken with, not a single one is making budget,” says station consultant Mike Sechrist, who adds that everybody thought 2009, not this year, would be tougher for broadcasters.

Station executives speak of a confluence of negative trends: a hangover from the writers' strike; a political windfall that, except for a few key markets, has failed to live up to forecasts; the nation's crawl toward a recession; and, of course, the woeful automotive category, which spent 8.3% less on television last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Many believe local television feels it more than the networks. “The networks have better-capitalized marketers who can weather some turmoil,” says RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank, “and they're much more focused on maintaining brand awareness and mind share” than local advertisers, who may be more keen to boost short-term sales.

But on top of these tales of change and loss comes very astute attempts at foretelling where things might be headed:

Local TV is no longer a cash cow
Baltimore Sun

"There is no doubt about it, local TV stations are facing harder times, and what you're seeing with the cutbacks and layoffs are media companies reacting to new economic realities," says Douglas Gomery, media economist at the University of Maryland.

One reality involves the downturn in the general economy, with companies across the board looking to cut costs. The stations have been particularly hard hit as struggling car manufacturers and dealers have curtailed their advertising spending.

Automotive TV advertising fell to $7.6 billion in 2007, a drop of 8.3 percent from the year before, according to research firm TNS Media Intelligence. The decline has been even steeper in the first three months of 2008, according to analysts.

"Car advertising accounts for about 10 percent of TV revenue," said Bob Papper, media studies professor at Hofstra University and author of the Radio and Television News Directors/Hofstra annual survey of local TV stations. "So, these cuts that you are seeing at stations across the country are in part a reaction to a drop in that revenue."

And if the downturn continues, so could the layoffs, Papper said.

"NBC laid off at its local stations in December, and CBS is doing it now," Papper says. I think it's reasonable to think ABC might be doing it next - spreading out across its stations."

But there are also "media-specific forces" driving the layoffs, Gomery said. "With a fragmenting of the audience and new strategies to reach customers in new online media, local TV is no longer as automatic a buy."

"More of the focus in general is toward the Internet, and so more of the money is moving that way," says Abe Novick, an advertising agency executive at Euro RSCG, a global advertising agency based in New York. "And that's why the local TV news industry - as well as the newspaper business - is going through these convulsions of cutbacks and layoffs."

While Papper says he knows layoffs at stations lead to headlines, he begs for a bit of context as to how "dire" things are - or are not - for the local TV news business.

"When I worked at a TV station in Minneapolis, I remember the general manager telling me that the owner demanded a profit margin of 45 percent," he says. "I guess if you are used to making a 45 percent profit and now you're only making 20 or 30, it feels like you're in the poorhouse. But in some businesses that would still be pretty good."

The answer is there somewhere. It just might be all of the above...plus surviving on smaller margins.