|
|
| Newspapers | |
|
|
|
| Newspapers | |
at Washington Times Other shorts: Current zaps 80 employees in reformatting Nov 12, 2009 Mystery deepens at Washington Times The situation at the Washington Times is getting even more bizarre. Days after the mysterious firing of three top executives at the city's No. 2 paper, and with no word on whether suddenly absent executive editor John Solomon will continue to lead the paper, armed guards have been posted on the third floor at the Times' headquarters, where management's offices are housed. That's led many to wonder what in the heck is going on at the Times, which has long been shrouded in secrecy. The paper is owned by the Unification Church led by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a shadowy figure whose church was often accused of brainwashing its followers, known as Moonies. Politico and Talking Points Memo, blogs that have been covering the situation closely, say that the guards were posted so that the new chief financial officer can secure the paper's financial records, but armed guards seem a bit unnecessary for bookkeeping. There have been rumors that the paper is doing anything from folding to going online only, but thus far its owners have stayed mum. The shakeup earlier this week, in which president and publisher Thomas P. McDevitt, the chief financial officer Keith Cooperrider and chairman Dong Moon Joo were booted, was blamed on the economy. Current zaps 80 employees in reformatting Current TV is losing a lot of employees but gaining an attention span. Al Gore's cable network has eliminated 80 jobs as it moves to a new format emphasizing long-form programming rather than the short-form videos and user-generated content it has emphasized since its launch four years ago. At the time, the idea was to mimic the online format, but mostly it has led to confusion for viewers. The network won't abandon UGC or short videos, but it will package them into more traditional 30- or 60-minute shows. In a statement released yesterday, the channel insisted that the layoffs are not a result of economic instability, saying Current is on pace for its best year ever. "With this change, Current made the difficult yet necessary decision to eliminate certain daily, weekly, and non-regularly scheduled programs, including 'Current Tonight,' 'Current Takeover' and 'Current Exposed,'" said the statement. Current is available in nearly 60 million households. The network received a huge amount of publicity at launch, when Gore and co-founder Joel Hyatt touted their intention to blow up the traditional cable model. But since then, its biggest claim to fame has been fighting for the release of journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were held captive in North Korea for five months. Programming notes: Fox orders 'Our Little Genius' For those who thought "The Baby Borrowers" or "Kid Nation" weren't exploitive enough, Fox has ordered a new show, “Our Little Genius,” from veteran reality producer Mark Burnett. It's a game show in which kids ages 6-12 answer trivia questions for a chance at winning hundreds of thousands of dollars. During the game the kids’ parents will watch from an isolated area and judge how tough the questions are by listening to answers from adult experts; the parents can then step in at any time and take home whatever money their child has won. There’s no word yet on when the show will launch, but it will have a huge audience -- it will follow “American Idol” at least four times next spring. Meanwhile, in other programming, Fox has picked up the comedy pilot “Keep Hope Alive,” about a 25-year-old man who raises an infant after her mother is put on death row. Lucas Neff will play the main character, while Martha Plimpton will play his mother. On cable, Syfy will debut “Outer Space Astronauts” on Dec. 8, a comedy that combines live action and 2D and 3D animation. Syfy has ordered five episodes of the comedy. And ABC Family has picked up the rights to “Gotta Catch Santa Claus,” an animated special that will air on Nov. 18. William Shatner will voice Santa Claus in the hour-long special. Study: Fewer okay with mobile advertising Just because more and more people are addicted to their iPhone or BlackBerry doesn’t necessarily mean more people are receptive to mobile advertising. In fact, an increasing number don't like it. Sixty-seven percent of folks dislike text message ads, up from 64 percent in June 2008, according to BIGresearch. Also, 60 percent now don’t like voicemail ads (compared to 57 percent in ’08) and 60 percent don’t like video ads (versus 56 percent in ’08). There are some unique characteristics of the group of people who do like mobile marketing, according to BIGresearch. Those who like it tend to be young and male and more likely to use social networking sites. According to the survey, the average age of those who use mobile marketing is 39.2 years old, compared to 45.9 years old for those who don’t. About 37.9 percent of those who use mobile marketing also regularly use Facebook, compared to just 27.8 percent of those who don’t use mobile marketing.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2010 Media Life Privacy Statement |
