Monday, December 12, 2005
MSNBC: We Cover News Too
MSNBC will have an advertising blitz this week, blanketing the blogosphere and the web with ads for its cable news shows.
The New York Times
says MSNBC will spend nearly $1 million this week promoting its talking heads including Keith Olberman and Joe Scarborough.
The article says MSNBC will advertise on 800 blogs, including Adrants, Daily Kos, IndieWire, and Talking Points Memo.
So a cable station (MSNBC) that is losing audiences to websites that do a better job of providing alternative perspective and breaking stories (Rathergate, Sony's DRM nightmare), is spending big bucks on those websites to remind people that their cable shows still exist.
Um, probably not going to work. If MSNBC wants to advertise online, they should advertise the great stuff on their website, which would lead a percentage of people to also watch their shows. The problem with that is their website doesn't stand up when compared to the sites on which they advertise. (Olberman's latest blog is about upside down Christmas trees -- wow!) When was the last time MSNBC's website had a scoop that reverberated around the blogosphere?
The mainstream press needs to get it through its collective thick head that online reporting needs to drive its websites growth, and not just regurgitate stuff that has already been on TV. Take it from someone (me) who has written extensively for print , (Tech)TV, and online, the tail should wag the dog.
A great story posted online in the morning could have a huge buzz by lunchtime and prompt more people to tune in by the evening. They could flesh out the story and add faces to breaking developments. Imagine if stories broken by the DailyKos or DrugeReport were covered in detail in prime time? People under 50 might actually start watching TV again.
Instead of spending $1 million in advertising, MSNBC would be better off hiring a few full-time bloggers and coming up with stories that cover important issues that are on the edge, not running tired stories about how Palm computers are used in school.
The New York Times
says MSNBC will spend nearly $1 million this week promoting its talking heads including Keith Olberman and Joe Scarborough.
The article says MSNBC will advertise on 800 blogs, including Adrants, Daily Kos, IndieWire, and Talking Points Memo.
So a cable station (MSNBC) that is losing audiences to websites that do a better job of providing alternative perspective and breaking stories (Rathergate, Sony's DRM nightmare), is spending big bucks on those websites to remind people that their cable shows still exist.
Um, probably not going to work. If MSNBC wants to advertise online, they should advertise the great stuff on their website, which would lead a percentage of people to also watch their shows. The problem with that is their website doesn't stand up when compared to the sites on which they advertise. (Olberman's latest blog is about upside down Christmas trees -- wow!) When was the last time MSNBC's website had a scoop that reverberated around the blogosphere?
The mainstream press needs to get it through its collective thick head that online reporting needs to drive its websites growth, and not just regurgitate stuff that has already been on TV. Take it from someone (me) who has written extensively for print , (Tech)TV, and online, the tail should wag the dog.
A great story posted online in the morning could have a huge buzz by lunchtime and prompt more people to tune in by the evening. They could flesh out the story and add faces to breaking developments. Imagine if stories broken by the DailyKos or DrugeReport were covered in detail in prime time? People under 50 might actually start watching TV again.
Instead of spending $1 million in advertising, MSNBC would be better off hiring a few full-time bloggers and coming up with stories that cover important issues that are on the edge, not running tired stories about how Palm computers are used in school.
Posted By John Gartner at 01:33 PM
Permanent Link: MSNBC: We Cover News Too
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