Using Hot Photos, Sex & Sexism to Generate Clicks

Last December, Glynnis MacNicol wrote a diatribe for Mediaite in which she calls into question the use of sexism to cause outrage in the blogosphere, which translates into clicks.

To support her thesis, Ms. MacNicol revisited the idea of using sex to generate traffic and she linked-out the Huffington Post's reprint of the Pirelli calendar, plus an article from the Washington City Paper, in which the author links to several HuffPo slideshows of nipple slips to illustrate a similar theme.

Yesterday, I questioned the wisdom of Ted Rall's most recent animation. Though among his "tips" to save newspapers was a slide that read; "Another key to survival: Pop culture core readers love".

Somewhere between Mr. Rall's suggestion and the common knowledge that sex sells, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution must have taken something to heart because last night, they published to their website, which I assume is in today's print edition, an enlargeable photo and repackaged press release from Playboy giving a short bio for a local girl deemed "Miss April" (pictured), along with notice of a casting call.

Semi-Related: Miss Nebraska Brittany Jeffers promoted to KLKN anchor

Ted Rall Bites the Hand that Feed

Editorial cartoonist and syndicated columnist Ted Rall has released another in his series of animations, created in association with David Essman. Their newest focuses on the newspaper industry and all indications from the title sequence through to the end credits is that it's something of a slam to the industry.

(Video and analysis after the jump)

Coming up... News at 11... L.A. Local TV Examined

Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and other members of the Los Angeles Civic Alliance commissioned a study from the Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism to examine LA local news over a two week period, last summer.

Basically, they recorded all local newscasts from eight stations, around the clock and broke them down into more than 11,000 stories, which some of the averages per half hour were as follows;

Sports & Weather: 3:36 min.
Crime Stories: 2:50 min.
Human Interest/Oddball/Fluff: 2:26 min.
Teasers: 2:10 min.
Local Economy: 29 sec.
Local Government: 22 sec.
Stories from Outside the Local Market: 8:17 min.

The Lear Center also looked at the Los Angeles Times over the same fourteen day period, which they compare to local television news as a percentage of the news hole.

Because broadcast television is supposed to serve in the public interest, the Civic Alliance are using the study's findings to draw attention to what they consider TV's shortcomings and though it's unlikely to bear fruit, they're making noises about weighing-in on license renewals.

Semi-Related: Pew/PEJ - State of the News Media - Local Television
Update: An LA Times article about the study.

Lede: State of the News Media - Newspapers

Poynter Institute ethicist Kelly McBride was visiting former colleagues at the Spokane Spokesman-Review last summer, when the conversation slid into the how-bad-is-it? mode. It has gotten so bad, one journalist said, that the independent contractors who deliver the paper are complaining that the Monday edition doesn’t have enough throw-weight to get all the way up the porch.

(Source: Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism)

90 Year-Old College Paper May Have to Close

(If player fails to load, click post title)

Background: Technician seeks restructuring
Editorial: Join the team, before it’s too late

Hawaii's Musical Newspapers to Merge

From 1971 to 1993, Gannett owned Honolulu's Star-Bulletin, then they sold it to purchase the Honolulu Advertiser, while the Star-Bulletin continued publishing under a joint operating agreement.

In 1999, Liberty Newspaper and Gannett announced the severance of this agreement along with plans to shutter the Star-Bulletin, which caused local activists concern and as a result, the State of Hawaii ordered them to look for a buyer.

Black Press of British Columbia purchased a controlling interest in the Star-Bulletin, set them up as a standalone company, then lost money on their investment for the next nine years.

On February 25th, the 55,000 circulation Star-Bulletin and its parent announced that they had reached an agreement to buy the 130,000 circulation Honolulu Advertiser from Gannett for an undisclosed sum.

Most likely, Gannett sold because Honolulu is the only market, where they do not not enjoy a monopoly; The Star-Tribune will now have that monopoly, if a buyer for the smaller paper can not be found and they'll gain a modern printing plant, something the smaller paper had lacked.

The U.S. Justice Department has ordered Oahu Publications to put the Star-Tribune on the market for antitrust purposes, but since no buyer is expected and the state has indicated that they will not stand in the way of a merger, the employees of the Advertiser have started fearing for their jobs and questions are being raised about future ad costs, when Honolulu becomes a one paper town in about six weeks.

Another Nail in the Classified's Coffin?

Several state legislatures are considering changing their laws, so that some or all municipalities could forgo publishing legal notices in the local newspaper in favor of the web.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities says that such a move will save governments thousands of dollars a year and the smaller cities of Missouri say they have limited access to community papers, so they are forced to advertise in the more expensive city publications.

While the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association argues that around 30% of their state's residents do not have access to the web and that legal notices only account for less than one percent of a municipality's budget. They also suggest that the loss of revenue could be devastating to the industry and because member papers already mirror the notices on the web, their site's higher traffic volumes might actually make the notices available to more people.

The State of Arizona is also considering a change.

Goose, Gander, Tax

The Denver Post recently published an editorial supportive of lifting some state tax exemptions. While I don't have a position on every provision and am actually a little confused by their suggested by-product benefit of taxing paper bags and napkins, I do have to take umbrage at a Republican Senator's attempt to tax newspapers.

After all isn't the 'net mantra, "information should be free"?

PullQuote: Analyst Upgrades Newspapers

A Wells Fargo Securities analyst upgraded Gannett and New York Times.

Analyst John Janedis said "after years of downward revenue estimate revisions, it appears as though the newspaper ad market is improving more quickly than we anticipated, particularly in December."

Heartland Publications Files Chapter 11

Heartland Publication, LLC which owns 23 dailies in 9 states has filed for Chapter 11 protection with hopes of emerging in the spring.

What's interesting is that accompanying the story about Heartland, the AP has issued a sidebar detailing other newspaper bankruptcies from the past couple of years.

2009: Record Death Toll for Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 68 journalists were killed in 2009. Three-quarters died for their work; 85% of the crimes resulted in no convictions and 56% were from print media.

News Crack

As part of a $905 million dollar press bailout, France will give the first 200,000 French citizens between the ages of eighteen to twenty-four, a free year's subscription to any of sixty approved newspapers.

I'm not sure how one qualifies as an approved French newspaper, but considering the resubscription rate experienced by one outlet who has done a similar promotion, France may gain 24,000 newspaper readers, putting the industry roughly, where they were twelve years ago.

Evicting a Newspaper Can't Be Pretty, Short-Term

More Details in the Text
Note: Neither the "eviction", nor the story is on the paper's site.

Paper Super-Sleuths "Elmer Fudd"

A couple of days ago, I provided a "Snip" pointing toward a Myrtle Beach Sun News article detailing the newspaper's appearance in court, where they were ordered to turn over any registration info in their possession about an anonymous commenter named "Elmer Fudd".

Mr. "Fudd" is the target of a defamation lawsuit brought by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and the case is wholly based upon comments that he had made to the newspaper's forum.

It appears that all the newspaper had on the user was an email address (noadtax@gmail.com) and though they had no direct knowledge through their site registration, they discovered that the email address is also listed as contact for the owner of the Facebook page, "No Ad Tax".

And, the "No Ad Tax" Facebook page includes a link to a "No Ad Tax Petition" which was sponsored by the "No Ad Tax Organization of Myrtle Beach" -- Mark McBride is a leader in the "No Ad Tax" grassroots group.

Mr. McBride is a former Mayor and the current President of the Grand Strand Chamber of Commerce, a competing CoC and though he wouldn't comment about "cartoon characters" when contacted by the paper, the founder of the GSCoC has come forward to say that Mr. McBride has revealed himself to him and has assured him that his organization's computers weren't used to post the comments.

Update (12/7): More from the man who outed McBride & Locals React

Online News Video is a Business

On November 24th, I had marked a Seattle Times treatment about the controversy surrounding a bikini expresso stand opening in nearby Bellevue for upload to this space.

My plan was to link it to a Gawker post about the one in a neighboring community, which was targeted by a prostitution sting and mentioned in the Bellevue coverage, but while deciding upon the context, the whole thing was pushed aside.

Luckily, I've been given the chance to revisit the topic because when I was getting the embed code for the Doris Buffett video used in the previous post, I saw the following listed first among CBS's "Most Popular" and after watching it (with a special emphasis on the "narration"), the term clickbait came to mind.


Watch CBS News Videos Online
BTW: Though the thumbnail is obviously part of the trap, the auto-repeat probably helps keep the video at the top of the list.

Upcoming Connecticut Suburban Paper War

Late last year, the Journal Register Company shut down three weekly newspapers serving Hartford suburbs, so Melissa Marinan, a former employee launched one to serve the five abandoned communities.

Her free, mailed-delivered Valley Press printed its first edition in February, which was the same month, the Journal Register Company filed for bankruptcy protection.

Now that they have regained their footing, the Journal Register has figured out a way to inexpensively serve three of the affluent suburbs, so they will launching three town-focused papers which will also be distributed free by mail, except it will be wrapped around an ad shopper they have kept going.

Ms. Marinan and her partners are all set to compete against their former employer, but there is a question of having a limited ad-base.

Viv Lazich, who operates a business catering to quilters has faithfully advertised once a month in the Valley Press, but she told the Hartford Courant that she is not looking to do more because she finds greater value in her Facebook page, blog and sending emails to customers.

Snip: Commenter Anonymity

A Horry County circuit court judge Thursday granted a motion by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce to compel the The Sun News to turn over the online registration information of Elmer Fudd, a commenter accused of posting false and defamatory information about the chamber on the newspaper's site.

(Source)

Sheriff May Charge News Copter

Throughout the initial investigation, the KING-5 helicopter hovered over the scene where four Lakewood (WA) police officers were killed.

Twice the Pierce County Sheriff's office called the station and asked them to back off because the noise made it hard to hear and twice the copter flew away only to return a short time later.

Now in the the aftermath of the tragedy, the Sheriff's Department has forwarded information to prosecuters with the idea that the station could be charged with interfering in an investigation.

Byron Pitts was Diagnosed Functionally Illiterate

And he promotes his book, when traveling on assignment.

CBS News Reporter Byron Pitts Visits Vermont
(WCAX - Burlington, extended video available)

Sheriff, Deputy, County, Reporter & Paper Sued

Dave Lovejoy was a candidate for Rockingham County (NH) Sheriff in 2008, when the person holding the office and one of his deputies leaked information about Mr. Lovejoy's annulled criminal record to the press, just over a week before the election.

Sheriff James "Dan" Linehan and his second-in-command Maj. Mark Peirce unlawfully told Portsmouth Herald reporter Karen Dandurant that Mr. Lovejoy had been "involved in a case of simple assault" in 1989. It appears that the Sheriff's office did not tell Ms. Dandurant that the case had been annulled, but when reached for comment, Mr. Lovejoy informed her of this fact. Under New Hampshire law, annulled cases can not be disclosed under any circumstances.

The state Attorney General's office investigated and last week, both Sheriff Lineham and Major Peirce resigned. To avoid prosecution, Mr. Lineham promised that he'd never seek another law enforcement position and both relinquished their law enforcement credentials.

On October 27th of 2008, Karen Dandurant of the Portsmouth Herald wrote an article, which included comments by the Sheriff about Mr. Lovejoy's knowledge of courtrooms because he's been involved in 22 civil cases and she discloses that the paper was "provided" with information about Mr. Lovejoy's arrest. When reached for comment, Mr. Lovejoy told the reporter that the case was part of a "domestic dispute" and that his conviction had been annulled.

Ms. Dandurant is no longer employed by the paper, but because a crime has been established by the state's AG, Mr. Lovejoy has filed a four-count lawsuit against the former Sheriff, the Deputy, the county, the reporter and her paper. He has also asked the county delegation to name him interim Sheriff based on his status as runner-up in 2008.