Media Oxpecker: May 31, 2013

Every week we round up media news you may have missed.




  • Analyst Mary Meeker released her 2013 Internet Trends report this week, which says there’s still large gap between where the eyeballs are (mobile) and where ad dollars are going (print). But eventually, the ad dollars will flow to where consumers are, right? Not so fast, says Poynter’s Rick Edmonds:

    Meeker, he said in a phone call, is “leaving out the notion that different platforms may have different levels of effectiveness, and that’s a pretty big thing to leave out.” Print, he said, “is still in some ways premium, and digital still has some very basic difficulty with do banners work…. And that’s all the more so on mobile.”

  • Fashion mags have seen a slight increase in ad pages this year, reports Erik Maza:

    The caveat in all the increases — and declines — is the rates publishers charged per page. Only they and their clients know the truth, since wheeling and dealing is standard operating practice, no matter what they say.

  • The New York Times has introduced a form of sponsored content in its city guide app by including info on where to find the nearest Citi Bike, a new bike-sharing system in the city:

    If most native advertising tries to make sponsor-provided content look a bit like a news article, this tries to make it look a bit like a regular ol’ tab in a mobile app. What’s interesting is that the “content” here is less a collection of words and pictures than a real-time data service. It’s a callback to the classic news advertising idea — we assemble the audience, you provide the content, we make a match — in a mobile, apped-up world.

  • Can BuzzFeed make viral hits out of CNN’s archive footage? The new “CNN BuzzFeed” channel on YouTube aims to do just that:

    Powered by CNN’s current and archival video footage, BuzzFeed will create unique mash-up news videos tailored for the social web. The content will appear on both CNN.com and the CNN/BuzzFeed YouTube channel. In addition, the two organizations will collaborate on original list posts that combine the strength of CNN’s newsgathering and BuzzFeed’s signature voice.

    Translation: It’s like BuzzFeed staffers now have free access to Shutterstock, except in this case the stock photos are years’ worth of CNN footage.

  • The Chicago Sun-Times is eliminating its entire photography staff, a move that will affect 20 to 30 people. The paper will rely on freelancers and will ask reporters to take their own accompanying photos.

  • Why a media shield law isn’t enough to save journalists.

  • Amanda Hess on how journalists use high-heel name-drops to minimize women in positions of power.

  • Media companies that rely on unpaid interns marginalize the voices of low-income communities and minorities, says David Dennis.

  • Borrell Associates has released the results of a survey of digital sales managers, Assessing Local Digital Sales Forces.

  • And finally, is the social media editor dead? In many newsrooms, social media is increasingly seen as part of every reporter’s job, says Rob Fishman.

    But Many Jenkins says it isn’t the social media editor that’s dead, it’s the self-promoting “Newsroom Social Media Rockstar Ninja Guru” that’s dying.




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