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Overhype

Overhype

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
community, content, influencers, local, news, social capitalists

Companies:
nbc universal



NBC Once Again Overvaluing Content, Undervaluing Community

from the their-own-loss dept

NBC Universal, like so many big media companies, seems to view everything through a top-down broadcast media lens. For example, while it may seem like a good idea that the company is finally (finally!) recognizing that people may be craving local content that is sometimes difficult to find, there's something missing in its announcement of plans to create "locals only" websites targeted at specific geographic regions. You can read the entire press release and see if you notice what's missing.

Every single part of the description of the site is about delivering content to people. Nowhere is there any sense of actually building a community around that content. The only time "community" is mentioned is as a "target." The press release claims that these sites are aimed at "social capitalists" who are the leading influencers in their communities, but the company seems to have missed out on the fact that the reason those folks are influencers isn't because they sit back and just consume the content shoveled to them, but because they take part in the process. They share the news, they comment on it, they write it, they annotate it, they build on it and they help create it. But all that NBC Universal is talking about is taking the same old, old model of simply shoveling content to people.

7 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Politics

Politics

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
community, local, mandates, regulations



Why Should The Government Force Local Restrictions On Media?

from the not-needed dept

Ed Felten has a great post questioning various government regulations forcing "local" ownership, advisory committees and content for certain types of broadcast media. Felten points out that local content makes sense for local communities, but communities aren't just defined by locality anymore. In fact, he points out how such "local" broadcasting rules made it more difficult for him to keep in touch with his "local" community back in Princeton, New Jersey, when he spent a year on sabbatical in California. Due to those local restrictions, he couldn't get the local television stations from back in Princeton that he enjoyed.

But, perhaps an even bigger question (which Felten doesn't touch on) is why there need to be regulatory mandates for local content in the first place. As we were just pointing out, in the newspaper business, newspaper chains that have aggressively focused on producing local content have found that it's quite profitable while the newspapers that focus on more national news are struggling. In other words, the market itself seems to reward local content without any government mandate. So why is a government mandate necessary at all?

10 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
News You Should Have Read Elsewhere

News You Should Have Read Elsewhere

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
local, news, newspapers



Not All Newspaper Chains Are Facing Doom And Gloom Scenarios

from the local-local-local dept

The common refrain on the newspaper industry is that it's dying out, being replaced by online news sources. Of course, that leaves out some important facts: such as the fact that there are newspaper chains that are actually doing quite well, even when they mostly focus on the old dinosaur of actual newspapers. Romenesko points us to a story about David Black, a Canadian newspaper publisher who owns a ton of local newspapers around Canada and the US that are actually doing quite well. But, that's because they're not competing with the big dailys, but focus on having a lean staff that writes almost exclusively about local news. His papers are all local papers, that don't try to provide all that other news that you can already get online, but the news that is only going to be interesting to a small group of folks. But, as Black has learned over many years, those small groups of folks are a lucrative audience. While other newspapers have trouble competing, Black's are full of ads -- many from local businesses which find those papers an effective (and cost effective) way to cut through the clutter.

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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