February 6th, 2012 
joel Just a few voters shared their interactions with Erie media via social networks when we asked the question. The most common use indicated that people are willing to post a link to an Erie online story on their personal Facebook wall, as well as “Like” local Erie media Facebook pages.
It time for our annual local Super Bowl ad poll. We’ve listed the top ten ads as picked by the USA Today panel. Their favorite this year was from Doritos:
What was your favorite?
Loading ... January 23rd, 2012 joel We haven’t asked your opinion in a while, but when we did ask about how you came down on the looming spectrum war between over-the-air broadcasters and the wireless community, an overwhelming majority sided with the TV stations to keep as much spectrum as needed to maintain free service.
The education reporter at the Erie Times-News, Sean McCracken told us this morning how the newspaper is deepening their commitment to social media, with nearly every reporter on staff now on Twitter. Of course, the paper itself, along with the TV newsrooms and early-adopter reporters have been tweeting for a while now (we’ve been tweeting since April 2009), and most have accompanying Facebook pages that roll stories and ask for input from readers and viewers (and some listeners of radio stations).
The question today is, how are you interacting with old-school media’s leveraging of social media? You can choose as many answers as you like, and weigh in on the comments.
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Posted in Polls 
Tags: Erie Times-News, Facebook, GoErie.com, National Broadband Plan, Sean McCracken, social network, Twitter 
No Comments » October 24th, 2011 joel When we last polled our P&T readers, we asked about your online video usage. A plurality said that they never watch local news video online, while over a third would occasionally do so. Just under a third would watch full newscasts or live video streams if offered.
There is much talk in the trade press about the looming spectrum crisis, with wireless broadband operators such as AT&T and Verizon screaming for more bandwidth, especially in the UHF “beachfront property” bands where signals can penetrate buildings better and have less dropout. That just happens to be where for the past 60 years your local television stations operate, and they are not giving up their “seed corn” without a fight.
The National Broadband Plan has called for an additional 500 MHz to be allocated to the wireless operators, a big chunk of which would come out of broadcasters’ spectrum “behind.” This proposal is coming after the spectrum that TV stations abandoned with the digital TV conversion.
So which side are you on; does the need for spectrum to operate smartphones and tablets and whatever next-generation technology is out there trump the outdated free TV model? Or is the highly-efficient, locally-responsive, and free one-to-many model of TV stations an inherent right of citizens in a representative democracy?
Where do you fall in the spectrum war?
Total Voters: 29
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September 10th, 2011 joel All this week, media channels in Erie and around the globe have been filled with stories and special programming marking the 10 years since the devastating events of September 11, 2001 in New York City, Washington, DC and Shanksville, PA.
MSNBC: Men secure a flag over a World Trade Center beam prior to transportation to Erie, Pa., for construction of a memorial to remember the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
For me it is very easy to jump back a decade to that profound sense of horror, pain, and loss; not only in the immediate wake of the attack, but of the accumulated loss over ten years of wars, decimated economy, and internal national strife.
Those of us who were media producers on 9/11/01 instantly recall our efforts of getting the news out to the community, the hours on end radio and television news broadcasts, the extra edition of the Times-News, back-office staff filling roles where needed so that the organizations would meet the challenges of that horrible day.
Perhaps the most rewarding culmination of those extra efforts was United We Stand, the historical combined remote of all the Erie radio and television stations, well covered by the newspaper to raise funds for the American Red Cross and the victims of the attacks on September 20, 2001 at the Millcreek Mall. That sense of unity of purpose was unfortunately soon lost, and so our sense of loss in remembering is multiplied.
There has been some excellent reporting this week, with specials still planned on Sunday. Don’t miss this local content:
September 5th, 2011 joel In our poll last week about the media navel-gazing over their Hurricane Irene coverage, the majority of readers of P&T participating in our poll thought that the level of coverage was appropriate. Of course, that whole conversation died down when people saw the video of the real inland flooding damage in places like Middlebury, VT and Patterson, NJ.
Here’s a quote I recently read on my Facebook news feed:
I can’t believe that in the 21st Century I can’t watch the news (I) choose.
Well, actually, you can; kinda. Both WJET/WFXP and WICU/WSEE offer online video versions of certain stories. WICU/WSEE will also produce an online news headlines cast a couple times a day. GoErie will offer Web Extra video packages with big newspaper stories. Right now, no one locally is live streaming their news casts, nor offers an online archive of their casts.
How do you use local news video online (you can choose up to three answers)?
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Posted in Polls Tags: Erie, Erie Times-News, erietvnews.com, Facebook, GoErie.com, Hurricane Irene, WFXP, WICU, WJET, WSEE, YourErie.com No Comments » September 1st, 2011 joel 
First Press and Tower Post - Sept. 1, 2008
Three years ago today Press and Tower was born.
Since our humble beginnings on Sept. 1, 2008, we’ve generated 488 posts, received 3,362 approved comments, and almost 160,000 visits to the site, including almost 18,000 different visitors in the past year. Our Facebook page for Erie radio old-timers called “We Rocked Erie in the 20th Century” has over 220 group members from across the country engaged in lively conversation about their days in the Flagship City.
This was a year of celebration and sadness; great improvements and unfortunate setbacks.
We mourned the passing of Frank, Chris, Al, and Bob. Rupolo went to Florida, Nat The Hat to Texas, Cassie to NYC, and Joey to OneCarribeanWeather.com. Even the Jennings rejoined the South.
Sadly, GlobalErie fell off the face of the earth, and we lost 40 skilled workers and about 12 column inches per page when the newspaper outsourced the actual newspaper part of their business south of the border; the Venango County border that is.
But we also gained, especially in the area of a rebounding advertising climate, the embracing of social media and new technology, and some strong investment in the product that the Erie media consumer can benefit from. We now have a fun old-time TV Low Power TV digtial trio, and are getting at least one new FM station, while a couple AM’s simulcast on FM translators now. And the GoErie iPad app is coming.
Don’t forget, as Sean and Kim remind us consistently, we can “Like” them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter!
Let me just say that I “Like!” and appreciate each of you for reading, commenting, encouraging and supporting this effort. I am always open to ideas for improving this special community of consumers and producers and would love your feedback. Thank you for being gracious when my editing gets heavy handed, and for understanding that in the end we all want excellent, responsive, interactive media that improves our community and quality of life. We are all “for Erie.”
That makes this little “two cans and a string” of a media voice worth all of the effort. Thank you…and on to year four!
Posted in From The Editor Tags: Al Neri, Bob Martin, Camille Jennings, Chris Tarbell, Erie, Erie Times-News, Facebook, First Channel Communications, Frank Martin, GlobalErie.com, GoErie.com, iPad, Joey Stevens, John Rupolo, Kim Thomas, Natalie Massing, newspaper layoffs, One Carribbean Weather, Sean Lafferty, Twitter 5 Comments » August 29th, 2011 joel Right after the GoErie.com paywall went up we asked our Press and Tower readers if they would be willing to pay for site access. Close to 75% of respondents, including non-subscribers and partial week delivery subscribers said that they would not be willing to pay even $2.95 for monthly access to the portal. We will see how this changes in a few months.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Hurricane Irene is history and now the Monday Morning Quarterbacking has commenced. Some in the media, with their defensive thin skins clearly showing, are asking whether there was too much hype around the storm, and will it hurt next time if people don’t heed the warnings about a more ferocious tropical storm.
Can you over-hype a named hurricane in the post-Katrina era?
Did the media overhype its coverage of Hurricane Irene?
Total Voters: 27
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