June 2011

According to recent survey conducted by Vidicom, 90% of TV news producers said they prefer only one mention per product per brand when using branded Satellite Media Tours (SMTs).

The survey, which polled producers in the top 20 TV markets, found that while the number one reason for using SMTs is the need for content, half of the producers surveyed only want one product mentioned for each branded segment. Producers said that they will tolerate embedded product only if they are unable to produce the content themselves and it is compelling enough.

Amazon’s Kindle platform doesn't just allow people to read millions of e-books, it also allows them to publish millions of them: the company announced that John Locke, who self-publishes his work through Kindle’s direct publishing program, has joined the elite group of authors who have sold a million or more books, a list that includes Stieg Larsson and James Patterson.

Along with fellow author Amanda Hocking, Locke has become the poster boy for a growing movement of writers who are bypassing the traditional publishing industry. What’s even more incredible than Locke’s million-selling status is that it has taken him less than six months to pull off this feat: the author said in an interview earlier this year with J.A. Konrath -- another popular independent author and proponent of self-publishing -- that he had sold 350,000 copies of his books in just three months and that was in March. In the interview, Locke said that he had no previous experience as an author (he ran an insurance business and a real estate business before turning to writing), and had never submitted a query letter or manuscript to a traditional publisher.

[Commentary] By limiting its specific argument to the slow-motion collapse of local news, the Federal Communications Commission's "Information Needs of Communities" report skirts over -- and on occasion whitewashes -- the myriad interlocking crises that threaten the entire American news ecosystem, and therefore threaten to undermine the crucial role it plays in ensuring the smooth function of deliberative democratic debate.

For it's not just local news that's disappearing, it's all news. The FCC staff report does not even dip its toe into the disappearance of actual "news" from the news and its replacement with nonsense -- which is the net result of all the above. Nor does it concern itself with the continuing problem of increased media consolidation and/or the disappearance of so much of investigative reporting infrastructure that is dying together with the media advertising-supported business model. Moreover, consistent with so much of the Obama Administration's ethos -- its proposed solutions are actually more amenable to conservatives than to liberals or even moderates.

Apple’s recent tweak to its in-app subscriptions policy was not a big “back-track”, a “reversal”, nor a “climbdown”. It was an adjustment, designed to soothe an impasse that remains in place between Apple and the many, if not all, proprietors irate at what they see as a landgrab. Despite the concessions, the situation, for all three groups concerned, is still an unsatisfactory “lose-lose-lose” stalemate that must be resolved fully at a later date…