The Press and Tower

Editor’s note: Sound off, give a shout out on “Deep Background,” our totally-random open discussion of all things Erie media.

• Country 98 takes hit for Citadel’s bigger market stations: In Dave Richard’s interview with Citadel/Erie GM Jim Riley published Friday on GoErie.com, Riley was quoted that although revenues are up in Erie over last year at the four-station cluster, they continue to have to cut staff. “We’re part of the company and had to participate in getting costs under control,” Riley said. Therein lays the inherent downside of corporate ownership: even though your division or market is making its nut, you have to suffer for the underperformance of other markets. In Citadel’s case, their larger markets are greatly behind targets, so they proportionately suck more money out of their thriving smaller markets. For Country 98 it means going with a syndicated morning show, Big D and Bubba, and Elly McVay wears the cowboy hat in middays and the biker do-rag for drive time on Z-102. Be watching for some background on Big D & Bubba next week on P&T.




• Retailers upping cash into online search: On Tuesday, Online Media Daily revealed that a recent report by SearchIgnite shows that retailers increased by one-third their spending in search marketing in the first half of the fourth quarter. Google, Yahoo and MSN all reporting increases. “Advertisers are shifting more dollars to paid search and digital media,” said Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite. “Retailers want media they can buy on a performance bases to track and measure.”
• Target 24 targets DTV: Jeremy Beecher at WJET-TV did nice job with a Target 24 three-part series on the digital transition (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3). With the countdown well under three months, stations are upping their education efforts in order to combat the rampant confusion that exists in the marketplace. GM Tim Dunst was quoted that about 20% of WJET/WFXP’s audience is receiving the content through the over-the-air signal. “It’s just a different way of receiving the signal. For some it’s going to be easier, and for some people it will actually be more difficult,” Dunst said. Memo to the station: it would be helpful to package that video and story in an easy to find place on YourErie.com. The DTVAnswers website hasn’t been updated since April.
• GoErie.com is coming along: The addition at the Times Publishing Company of new VP/Interactive Media Laurel Lane seems to have a significant impact on the GoErie.com website. Plagued with complaints about readability and ease of use in the past, the top media website originating in Erie (Alexa ranking: 67,572) has an easier almost “old-school” menu structure, tabbing feature that makes for less scrolling, and reduction of clutter. What will be key is continued acceptance by Erie advertisers for venturing in the online space; still seeing a lot of promos on the website.
• The NFL on HDTV: We’ve been hearing some complaints about the robustness of the HD signals for the locals on Time Warner. If you get a chance, please comment your experiences regarding the High-Def tier on Time Warner (or Coax or Armstrong for that matter.) Lots of football has already been played during this holiday weekend, but here’s the rest of the schedule with over the air and Time Warner Cable HD channels noted:
  • Sunday, 1 PM – Indianapolis @ Cleveland   – WSEE: DT 35.1/City 405/Suburbs 709
  • Sunday, 1 PM – San Francisco @ Buffalo  - WFXP: DT 66.1/City 418/Suburbs 706
  • Sunday, 4 PM – Pittsburgh @ New England   – WSEE: DT 35.1/City 405/Suburbs 709
  • Sunday, 8:15 PM – Chicago @ Minnesota – WICU: City 412/Suburbs 712
  • Monday, 8:30 PM – Jacksonville @ Houston – ESPN: City 430/ Suburbs 772