January 6th, 2009 
joel The excellent coverage of the manhunt on Erie’s West Side this morning, particularly by WICU 12 News exemplifies just how powerful the traditional media remain.
It is upon this power that broadcast and print must build to solidify their voice online.
I was riveted by pictures and accounts from 12 News’ Emily Mattson as she related the situation from the area around the west side Tops Market. Having the infrastructure of the live truck plus additional photog crews, a television station can leverage its depth and use the additional streams available to engage the new audience that didn’t even think to turn on the news this morning.
Think of it this way: if new media is supposed to supplant the traditional outlets, if bloggers, podcasters, and YouTubers are actually going to be the places to go for news, then you would have 60 people in their pajamas holding Flip TV cameras
There will be a place for traditional outlets to continue to resource the community with news, if they can engage the next generation of viewers and readers. I saw the developing story because I’m from the generation who cares to check in with headlines on an actual television. However, there is a whole, very large generation under 30 who did not and probably will not know about the street closings, the man on the loose, and the like.
Here’s how the stations and paper can get them next time:
- Develop a breaking news headline text service, along with a daily news summary text service. Promote it during “The Office” and “The Daily Show.” Let’s get these folks using your news the way they want it.
- Provide streaming video on your website from the scene. It would have been easy to use the live truck video and/or SkyView12 tower camera to show what was happening with the fire. The raw feed is genuine reality TV.
- It’s time for a mobile version of the websites, and for those with 3G capability, video reports.
- Since there is no one that actually covers the news for radio, it wasn’t really an option for the latest news. Even if the remaining morning shows were reading the police news releases, there is no credibility there. There is definitely an opportunity for an Erie online radio news source.
There will be a lot of evaluation and second-guessing on the part law enforcement going on after this crisis is over. It’s going to be important for the Erie news media to do the same.
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35 didn’t even have a blip pf it on the web.24 and 12 had a small little article about it.This is another reason I don’t watch the Erie Media with a lack of man power no helicopter to bring us live shots from over head.The cameras they use can’t be very good the picture looks awful coming out of them.With no internet live video they aren’t worth watching or listing or even reading.When news breaks I will turn to web for Erie,PA blogs because they can’t do any worse.
wicu12.com couldn’t even handle the traffic is was getting this morning and wouldn’t fully load.
No offense Joel, but this is one of the most naive posts on new media I have read to date.
You are dead on about the under 30 crowd. NONE were watching traditional media. They work and think differently and will continue to do so. It will be a “Bill Gates” type from their generation that hauls them in.
Their current news is which celebrity breast was exposed today in a wardrobe malfunction.
Regular media tends to focus on blood, disaster, trauma.
The kids want sex, dippity TV, entertainment. That is why so much mainstream media is NOW entertainment oriented, along with traditional blood and gore.
Your picture presentation of running around in pajamas with telephone cameras is absurd at best.
The terrorists strike all over Mumbai at once.
How did the entire Globe hear of this startling development?
Twitter!
Messages flew around the Globe from multiple sources in Mumbai.
Regular media was silent.
NO phone cameras relayed info as you propose.
The story today is but another embarrassment to the community. I am not sure how any angle of coverage will benefit Erie, PA.
I can assure you that regular media will run this ad nauseum, and then compare our domestic dispute here with the Santa Claus killer in California.
No one will look into the trauma of divorce, counseling, job loss leading to vengeance (a story that will grow in 2009), and the myriad causes. Media wants the gore and then goodbye.
The new generation could care less and is leaving “news” in droves.
I think you misread how to cater to the under 30 crowd, but then, ALL of old media is doing precisely the same.
YOU need more coverage on new media……
and maybe a little “From The Audience” input too.
I have to agree with Danny. Swing and a miss…strike three!
No offense taken, Danny, but let me push back a bit…
The point of my post is that 1) there remains an important role for trad. media 2) they are missing the boat at their peril in their lack of leveraging existing new media streams.
You’ve also given me a great segue (radio term, sorry) into tomorrow’s podcast, where you’ll hear from a focus group of 20 20-something college students, on what media they do and do not consume. Let me just say that there continues to be tons of opportunity for mainstream media outlets to continue to thrive if they fundamentally adapt their business models to catch everybody, including the youngins.
To add some fuel to the news vs. old discussion, Kathleen Parker had an interesting take in last Saturday’s Washington Post. One of her insights: “We are all new media now.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010202157.html
Joel, President Reagan would have no trouble talking to you. He would begin with “There you go again!”
Traditional media is dying and will be dead sooner rather than later. What Pat Howard thinks about today’s manhunt in next Sunday paper is zilch to the world (outside of Mead–”ville”). Even tomorow’s edition of the Erie Times-News is irrelevant and they have no clue how to change the death march into oblivion.
(GoErie could not even put up a Sunday paper online; it was Saturday all over again).
The story has already come and gone. The only thing left is the pontification of all the whacked out among us on Topix, a service provided after the mental wards were all closed nationwide, but the patients needed to be occupied. They are. See Topix.
Radio you say? Surely you jest. New media has replaced it and the laments at EMGR, and later, Press and Tower, all but admit this amongst the laments.
TV? Longer lifespan than newspaper and radio, but the death march will include all of TV. New LCD’s are 1/4 inch thick as of last week. I am not a nut on Blackberry, but it seems to be a huge wave of the future.
From the classroom wall screen that is just like your laptop screen (available and in use in schools with leaders of tomorrow), to a change in habit and taste among the under 30 crowd, the old media is doomed sooner rather than later. They missed the “window” so to speak.
NONE of the TV’s locally Twitter.
None of the local radio or TV Facebook/Myspace.
(Even the churches are smart enough to do BOTH and Wii on top of that. They desire to have an audience in the future.)
I take no pity on a city without TV and Radio and Newspaper, that embrace death over life.
Here is a prediction:
just as the economic atomic bomb of last Sept/Oct took all by surprise with its massive scale, so will the demise of old media. It will be gone in the twinkle of the eye.
The only media that matters is what the kids are using and why they use it.
Old media is still enjoying the ideal pleasure of the 8-track cartridge. Don’t tell them that we stopped manufacturing film for cameras. They are not aware of the digital boom in photography either.
I agree with YOUR assertion that the old could have been saved. The new media will not kill them off.
They will do that themself.
Newspaper folk are entering Yahoo and introducing the “page fold”—-click here to read more. They are introducing “pages”….wholy unnecessary on the Internet.
These outdated skills they bring along are detracting, not adding to value. Yahoo will sink as they hire newspaper people.
TV adds are insane. And TV people are bringing THAT to the net as well. The kids will beat that back fast by ignoring it as they do radio, TV and newspaper now.
Pick up someone’s Tweet’s and scroll back and read what excited them to go “live” with an utterance.
How can Kevin Cuneo compete with “I’m having pizza now”. ROTFLMAO. — please translate that for Ms. Cheeseman too.
Ipods need a transcript/live blog/texting/ or simultaneous readability. Not everyone can hear and their numbers grow with all our ear attachment devices.
Hulu replaces TV now.
Are you studying to be a court reporter?
You are obsolete already.
Voicemail to text is now instantaneous and only a matter of time for microphones to be put on the judge, jury, lawyers, and witnesses. The “transcript” is made automatically as words are spoken.
How will Erie shoot itself in the foot with all this dream technology?
WE have NO Broadband Wireless, and anyone who tells you otherwise has been sold a bill of goods. It does not exist here and if Erie ever saw it and experienced it, they would demand it. But it is easier for business to just locate itself where Broadband exists now. We are driving business away for lack of technology access.
FWIW WSEE’s morning show has a Facebook Group page…and WQLN-TV has a Facebook fan page as well.
Thanks A.J. Micelli!
This line is from your link to Kathleen Parker of last Friday (ETN will post that column any month now).
Parker said: “Twitterers reported live from Mumbai in real time”
Parker is also old media. What is ” Twitterers”?
Those who Twitter “Tweet”
The kids would stop reading her right there.
But Mumbai terrorism to the world via Twitter is an established fact!
I rest my case.
True Jim Griffey. I rarely look at their homepages for lack of material, impossible navigation, and nitwit posts.
Erie Blogs puts the weather out all I need.
And turtle Dennis is rapidly passing the rabbit Erie Blog, with his Erie PA Today. He beats them daily in the last several weeks, and would be shocked to hear THAT from me.
However, churches across the land have all of those, and you can scoot to Grace baptist for Wii now (probably more places that I do not yet know).
Meta Cafe? Already at church.
You will see declining newspaper ads for church….as they go direct to the kids to market to their souls.
There are very few pastors that fail to blog anymore.
They speaK on their blog, what they missed on Sunday, because the crowd wants to go watch football.
Maybe WSEE, WJET, and WICU need to go to church to see how marketing is done.
Church and New Media — 4 hours ago.
http://tonymorganlive.com/
Why do churches reorient marketing tools, but our media will not?
ps scroll down that blog for a Twitter post. He has 2,000 followers on Twitter after opening to it in a week.
Hmmm.
THOSE 2,000 are connected to God alone knows how many more, who are connected to more, etc.
THIS is where the kids are.
I found out about the incident from the internet at panewsalerts.us then turned on the TV for the details. I’m in the age category discussed in this blog and if it hadn’t been for the internet and traditional TV news media I wouldn’t have known to turn on the TV and learn of the street closings, school closings, and effort by public service folks to keep us safe. I just hope that 35 continues to have news after they merge with 12. Less competition will mean less man power and stories will not get covered as well as this morning.
WSEE and WICU both have Twitter accounts and they were being used today quite a bit. That’s how I was following along.
http://twitter.com/wsee
http://twitter.com/wicu12
WSEE has Twitter since September 30, 2008. I did not look at WICU. WSEE has TEN followers listed (mostly fellow media and some artists) with 65 unnamed followers and a total 394 Tweets since Sept.
The church link above by comparison has 2,000 followers in one week.
In the 394 TOTAL Tweets, 11 of them came today on the manhunt. 11 Tweets all day. Then they went to Holiday Hangover, and back for one more manhunt Tweet.
My daughter text messages 3,000 times a MONTH.
Email and phone calls are zip with the kids.
Text and Twitter are in.
WSEE should be advertising for anyone and everyone to Tweet some news, stories, whatever. The old media does not know how to network this tool.
I suspect M ike knew of the links since he, too, is media.
Post it on Erie Blogs Mike, for anyone in the Media who Tweets, and post the links so the public can send in stories and keep aware too,…and post them before Dennis beats you to it at Erie PA Today.
ps. What about ETN and Twitter?
Do they know what it is?
I looked at WICU Twitter today.
Was the manhunt a big story in Erie?
Wicu managed a total of 4 Tweets on the story since it began until now, a day later. Whoopie!
Old Media needs to connect to the kids on Twitter and let them know youth “news” is critical for them to report.
Actively seek it out.
Instead, the tool of networking is a simple promo tool now for stories they have done, or talking to each other in the media…..not in the world.
Twitter is FREE. What more could you ask? Use it.
The kids do.
I see realtors on Facebook to build a network of clients who move in the future.
Insurance folks are doing the same.
Obama emails the globe every other day.
It is a new ballgame and the winners are using new balls and bats.
So does the amount of followers or amount of Tweets make a person a quality twitterererer? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I wish more media would get into Twitter. We have the Post Gazette, KDKA, WPXI and a lot of the local on air talent on Twitter and not only does it make news travel faster but also puts some of these businesses on a human level.
I’ve become friends with brewers all over the country that I would never have had access to before because of Twitter.
I think the issue for old media to embrace new media comes to the fact of being scared to try something new and fear of giving certain information for free. It’s like specials at a restaurant, you have to give a little to get a little.
Spoon, Happy New Beer to you!
Long ago we had a discussion on comments.
I find value in them.
Now, in this media talk, Twitter is the rage.
Maybe for the kids, but the older are having adjustment problems and, in effect, losing an audience.
When I go fishing, I use whatever bait the fish are biting, maybe even a lure. If I do not adjust to what they want, I go home empty handed.
I had no clue 2 local TV stations had Twitter.
They obviously rarely use it, and certainly not in a way to gain marketing advantage. But, they have it.
They relate to one another apparently, rather than to the audience at large. That’ll change.
As these links and relationships grow, I suspect all of Erie will be better connected in an unexpected way.
Anyone can follow whatever or whoever they desire, anytime. In news and media, that has to be a plus.
Kuddos to Mike at Erie Blogs.
I suggested he add any and all Twitter accounts related to Erie at his site. He did that just this very day.
He added a blurb on what Twitter is as well.
It would amaze you to see how few people know technology, in existence, since the changes are so rapid.
In general, Twitter and/or Text Message will grab 99% of anyone under 30. My experience is that they do use cell phone to talk, but not as much as plucking their fingers to text.
Erie Blogs is constantly encouraging local businesses to host a web site at their company location to increase marketing.
But until today, I have not seen a plug at ErieBlogs to Erie, PA to get Twitter. Soon they will advise on FaceBook and MySpace with emphasis on the former.
I am delighted to see them host a “Yellow Pages” of Twitter Addresses for all. I suspect it will expand.
If you want to catch these younger “fish”, Twitter and Texting are the bait that work…….for now.
Best regards to you spoon.
Cheers Danny!
My thoughts are if you have a twitter account and a website/blog you should take advantage of the Twitter plugin for your site that shows your last few tweets. Now in the Erie Blogs case this might not be helpful since its mostly just saying there are new headlines but it is good for checking archives quick.
Right now we have a standoff going on in a section of town and the only one giving updates is the KDKA feed. Jim Lokay ( http://twitter.com/jimlokay ) from KDKA is an advocate for Twitter and is the only one to embrace it. Plus side, he’s the traffic guy so if there’s a problem I get an update right away.
I don’t want to wait for an RSS reader to update while I’m at work or an email to eventually get sent out from a mailing list with thousands of users.
There are plenty of tools also to expand twitter. I use BrightKite to post pics straight to Twitter. It shows the location of where the pic was taken (you have to set that) but on many occasions I’ve visited business because of pictures some people took of the food there and have gone to some entertainment venues because I saw them on BrightKite/twitter. Whenever I’m in Erie I try to BrightKite so I can show ppl what I’m doing.
Communication is more than Facebook and MySpace used to be even a year ago. Now it’s all about interaction.
Spoon —
You are dead-on about twitter. It can’t be just a dumping ground for links to news stories. To use it well, it needs to be a two-way tool — and it needs to be cared for. At the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where I work, twitter has become our fastest-growing source of new traffic.
We have more than 1,800 followers — many of whom are reposting our best stuff on their own feeds (thus multiplying our ability to reach new people).
We post links, for sure. But we also pose questions, point to other interesting posts, find sources, and interact with our audience there.
The result is that we’re finding new readers, new sources, and new ideas.
BTW, we’re @philanthropy for those who want to join us.
Well Spoon, I am willing to bet that most old media have not the faintest clue as to what you are saying.
Even the two local TV stations that Tweet used a combines 15 Tweets on the recent manhunt story, and those were tinyurl’s to the story elsewhere.
It was a missed opportunity to link to people in the actual turmoil, as Twitter did in Mumbai terrorism.
The mention to make a directory at Erie Blogs for Twitter addresses everywhere related to Erie was more a challenge for them to beat Erie PA Today, a competitor that is rising rapidly in comparison to the stats to the establishment at EB.
(SeeGoogle).
A year or more ago, they also sent out a cry for the audience to chime :What should we add?”. I suggested they add Obituaries, thus eliminating any need to go to GoErie. Notice there is no Obit at Erie Blog, but Erie PA Today may eventually due them.
And why do all people die once a day.
Funeral homes are being given death info 24/7, but compile the story of a person’s life and sit on it.
Why not reveal it in real time as it is happening and the family releases it. [same with births, marriage, etc]
Maybe I’ll start my own company to do Obits and a final farewell to folks right.
More technology mainstream media misses is CallWave.
Once you are hooked up to them (in Calif), voice to text occurs. They designed it for the busy executive, who gets 10 voicemails while in a meeting, and has to listen to all of them when he really needs only number 7.
Anyone who calls a voicemail at CallWave has the message in text form sent to the recipient cellphone, emails, fax, whatever you want, simultaneously.
During the Obama weekend of calling every person in the USA from a supporter, I received CallWave voice to text from about 7 states…..all individuals with a story to tell. Obama is linked into the new media second to none. He not only Tweets, he sends emails even NOW on his Inaugural, plans, raising funds without going to Hillary type mega-donors, and more. He is light years ahead of any competition on the horizon.
Reason? He uses the new media well without any fear.
The Press and our Towers nationally still cannot figure this guy out. He is connected directly to the public.
Erie Blogs did a blurb on the Twitter addresses and the Twitter system. Fine. But no Erie Based directory exists, organized by category (church, politics, business, social, etc) and it is long over due.
As for CallWave, folks could call in media news stories and the transcript is ready to air, like CNN does with mini-people posts all day.
New media will change ALL news in extraordinary ways yet to be perceived.
Joel maintains that the old can survive if they incorporate the new. I agree.
The problem and probable outcome is death to all old media for lack of embracing the new in such a way that their audience grows exponentially.
PS. In reading the Jerusalem Post online, the recent invasion against Hamas was told in a first person way that was all but ignore in the USA media.
Get excited.
It won’t be long until you can watch ALL NFL games at once, and toggle in and out of the best one at the moment. Someone in the stadium somewhere will Tweet, and the entire viewing network will switch to see a cool play.
Categorizing is underway on blogs too.
Too much out there; how can you find any quality?
See the Daily Beast and how they incorporate best of the day, albeit a slant, but better writing noinetheless.
Last aside spoon, I thought the economic collapse and no credit would undo the Budweiser- Inbev buyout.
Here is a laugh just for you spoon:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL76178420090107
Consolidate; eliminate competition; raise prices DESPITE lower overhead due to consolidation……all while the global economy tanks.
Hoist away spoon. Cheers to beers.
Danny, I’ve always meant to build that obituaries site, but with a full time job, kids and more, I just have never found the time. I apologize.
I meant to – I even bought a domain name, ErieCondolences.com that anyone is welcome to have.
Mike,
A few kind words from Robert Browning:
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”
Throw my hat in the ring of those interested in the domain. When my mom died in 2008, I was appalled at the way the whole funeral industry handles a final farewell….especially the prices.
I envision more than a Legacy operation that is done at GoErie (and nationally). Newspapers will not be around much longer anyway, so that outrageous cost will abide.
Note: Erie Times-News runs a free announcement of a death, but includes just the vitals. You pretty much have to do your own in addition, at an extraordinary cost. The wealthy can do so. The less wealthy die unknown. It ALL disappears in the twinkle of a day or two. I would prefer an online permanence for ALL our town dwellers of today, yesterday, and tomorrow.
I would like to see people in Erie writing their own Obits –in advance of their death—when they are coherent. It should reflect what they want said of their life, not “Enjoys Bingo”. Every life is worth more than that.
As families fracture more and more, pre-obits gather all the details, and can be changed right up to the last moment. The cost of saying farewell has to be brought down financially, and brought up in meaningfulness.
I appreciate your reply Mike. This has been on my mind a lot.
I was delighted to see Job Board revitalized. The cost, location, and benefit to employers and employees is exceptional. Erie used to bustle with Human Resources. No more. Jobs are a function of the Temp Agencies and placement is Russian Roulette.
In truth, agencies represent the employer.
A “Middleman” has been set up with temps as they handle payroll, taxes, and the like. It robs employees of documented start dates…vital for health and pension membership, and vacation. It also places them at risk since they are not employees.
I believe that direct employer-employee contact is far better for both sides and the New Media, such as your own Jobs Board is a tack to the winds of better direction. It also shows a community willing to help each other at the most basic of needs….finding a job, and employers finding a body that does the needed operation very well. We have to do better.
As you have brought Jobs Board to life, I was wondering about “Blog of the Week” you started too.
“Sunshine and Moonlight (an MS blog)” was first, followed by “A Splattering”.
Though worthy of recognition by Erie Blogs as best of the week, neither are on your Blog Roll to the far right of your homepage and should be added.
There has been no Blog of the Week since those two, and that was a while ago. Is that on or off; and how is it determined? The basis of determination reveals the value of whether to read it. I have often read the MS blog, and never (yet) seen A Splattering to date….even after the win, since I do not know what the win is.
I believe you know I truly favor comments and I am glad to see Erie Blogs beginning to accept that comments have value. The old policy of No Comment, or precious few, has been superceded by some decent remarks by a wide array of folks out there. I hope you expand comments even more.
Someone asked that you increase fonts. The response was go click “a” “A” to increase them. It does, but ONLY for the Daily News, NOT the actual Blog Roll or roll to the far right. THAT is what folks want in a larger font.
I would have no problem with adios to the hover screen (it makes it more difficult to read the small font), and an increase to the font of Blogs you carry.
The “a” “A” font changer has no effect on the actual blogs folks come to read.
I believe you and Rich are out to make a long term success of Erie Blogs and an impact on the community in the process. I wish you well and hope the input above helps you see things clearly from the reader’s side of the table too.
Best regards,
Danny Lucas