Tag Archives: USA

New York Times expands video online

1 Reply

NYTimes.com has developed a new video player to allow clips to be embedded in more sections of the site.

The player, which uses technology from Brightcove, will make video available on the homepage, individual article pages and on the site’s blogs, a release from the title said. The player also lets users send footage to social networks and bookmarking sites, including Digg, Facebook and LinkedIn.

As part of a video overhaul, the Times’ video library has been redesigned and a regularly updated list of ‘most viewed’ clips now features on the site.

“Demand for high-quality video is on the rise across the web from both our users and our advertisers,” said Nicholas Ascheim, vice president of product management for NYTimes.com, in the release.

“To meet this need, we have upgraded our technology, increased our production values and given video even more prominence across the site.”

According to the release, the Times produces 100 videos a month, while also featuring content from Reuters, CNBC, MSNBC and Bloggingheads.tv.

paidContent.org: US MediaNews Group CEO says think about outsourcing ‘almost across the board’

Leave a reply

The CEO of MediaNews Group, Dean Singleton, told the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association this week that his company is exploring outsourcing options, including the possibility of a single news desk for the company that could be offshore.

Blogging scholarship: $10,000 to fund your studies in the US

Leave a reply

Student bloggers should take note of this one:  College Scholarships.org are giving away a $10,000 scholarship prize to a student blogger.

But before potential applicants get too excited, here’s the requirements you need to meet:

  • ‘Your blog must contain unique and interesting information about you and/or things you are passionate about.’
  • You must be U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
  • You must be currently attending full-time in post-secondary education in the United States.
  • If you win, you must be willing to allow the organisation to list your name and blog on their page.

Important dates:

  • Accepting submissions: October 15 2008
  • Submission deadline: October 30 2008

Full details here.

AP to stream live video on US election night for first time

2 Replies

According to a press release from the Associated Press (AP), the agency will embark on its first continuous, live video news coverage on US election night, November 4.

The Big Issue: Election Results stream will feature a host of AP reports and will be streamed from 7pm (EST) on the agency’s online video network.

The stream will include views from 10 non-journalists, representing the electorate, who have been selected from AP’s collaboration with Yahoo to track the changing attitudes of 2,000 American voters during the presidential campaigns.

“We recognize that this is a once in a quarter century election,” said Michael Oreskes, AP managing editor for US News.

“Through the course of the year we have dug deeply into the dynamics of race and gender and economic fears that are suffusing the electorate. Our pre-election AP-Yahoo! News poll assessing the impact of racial attitudes on the electorate is being cited as the prime source on the issue this year. We plan to carry this work into our preparations for election night.”

YouTube and PBS partner to broadcast election day action

Leave a reply

YouTube is teaming up with the US’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to broadcast user-generated clips of video from around polling stations on election day.

In the Beet.tv interview below, Steve Grove, head of news and politics at the site, said Video Your Vote will compile the largest video library in history of what takes place in the election on November 4.

paidContent:UK: IHT.com will keep its own identity on NYTimes.com site

Leave a reply

Forbes.com originally reported the site would shut down, but that is not the case, Vivian Schiller, SVP and GM of NYTimes.com told paidContent. “The idea is to have one big global brand under one roof,” she said, stressing that IHT content would be co-branded and feature IHT specific content.

‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’ tops the UK box office

Leave a reply

The film of Toby Young’s book, depicting his failed five-year attempt to make it in the U.S, as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, has shot to the top of the UK box office in its opening weekend.

‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’ took £1.5 million over the weekend according to Screen International. It has, so far, failed to enjoy the same success in the US.

Young was accused of plagiarism by New York magazine, last week. He has been accused of lifting passages from a June 16, 1996, New York Times story by John Tierney.

Young’s response in the magazine:  “I don’t think it’s a sort of mealy-mouthed or weasely defense to say that the standard that British journalists are expected to hold themselves to are not as high as the standards that some American journalists hold,” he explained. “We’re a little less precious about this kind of thing.”

The beast is unleashed: looking at Tina Brown’s new site

Leave a reply

As reported all over the shop, yesterday saw the launch of the online news aggregator site, The Daily Beast, captained by former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair and The NewYorker, Tina Brown, and backed by Barry Diller, of IAC/InterActiveCorp.

PaidContent had managed a sneak preview, but the likes of Roy Greenslade, and Journalism.co.uk had to wait till its official grand unveiling yesterday afternoon.

Named after the fictional tabloid in Evelyn Waugh’s 1938 novel, Scoop, Tina Brown describes The Daily Beast, on her site, as: “the omnivorous friend who hears about the best stuff and forwards it to you with a twist.”

Her motley crew boasts the satirist Chris Buckley, former McCain adviser Mark McKinnon, Project Runway’s Laura Bennett and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg.

The site’s bold red and black design has a large list of contributors and features a collection of news, opinion, blogs, links and video.

Over at Cyber Journalist Net they reckon it’s ‘about 30 percent original content’ and Gawker is having fun speculating about Brown’s spending habits.

Opinion in the US seems to be split on the site: Deadline Hollywood’s Nikki Finke thinks it ‘sucks’, but as the New York Observer points out she said that about Huffington as well.

Steve Johnson at the Chicago Tribune reckons there’s irony in the choice of title but doesn’t think that necessarily matters.

With absolutely no advertising on the site, it will be interesting to see whether The Daily Beast can survive in the online jungle. It seems to have had a lion’s share of initial hype at least.