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While television series have not yet broken through on the web, their advertising counterpart is making fast headway. Starting this Friday, 15-second TV commercials will run on the Chicago Sun-Times web site, using Java-based technology to stream the video and audio, according to a report in Editor & Publisher. The technology, developed by Klipmart Corp., automatically detects the browser and connection speed of the user. The ads stream normally on computers with 56K modems and faster connections but insert a still image with a link to the advertiser for slower connections. Unlike interstitial ads, which use Flash programming, these ads are actual video footage. And the Sun-Times is quick to emphasize that it can target and track its audience more precisely and effectively this way than with regular TV. The ads can also be placed into email messages.
ESPN.com snaps up SportsJones
ESPN.com has swallowed up a much smaller rival, SportsJones.com, a daily online sports magazine. The Webby Award-nominated site, which covers an array of popular sports from baseball to wrestling, touts itself as a brainy alternative to conventional sports journalism. SportsJones has sections devoted to humor, women and sports, and books and culture as well. Walt Disney property ESPN.com, the internet branch of the cable sports network, says it will incorporate content from SportsJones throughout its own web sites. SportsJones.com’s web site proclaims itself to be on summer break, although there are no indications so far that the site will be taken off-line as a result of the merger. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Until ESPN’s acquisition, SportsJones was owned by Chicago- based New City.
Sony yanks R-rated web movie trailer
What, did it include an “American Pie”-style masturbation scene? Sony Pictures Entertainment has yanked an R-rated trailer for the upcoming teen sex comedy spoof “Not Another Teen Movie” off RedBandTrailer.com, a preview web site that it owns. Sony has also taken the drastic step of pulling Redbandtrailer.com off-line entirely. The Motion Picture Association of America asked Sony to remove the “Not Another Teen Movie” trailer because underage web surfers could too easily access it. The trailer, in addition to being sprinkled with dirty words, involved partial nudity. Sony's move was apparently intended to appease film industry critics, who have found that the movie biz markets adult movies to kids. Sony insists that the raunchy trailer was put up on the web site by a staff member who did not know any better.
Tribune and Knight Ridder nab HeadHunter.net
In an effort to hop onto the job-site bandwagon, newspaper publishers Knight Ridder and the Tribune Co. have jointly arranged to buy HeadHunter.net for $200 million. The publishers plan to fuse HeadHunter with another job site they partially own, namely CareerBuilder.com. The Career Builder-HeadHunter combination will have a combined audience of about five million. Together, the sites could present more of a challenge to the leading job sites, Monster.com and its recent acquisition, HotJobs.com. Also, starting in September, CareerBuilder print sections will run in the Sunday editions of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Newsday and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Metalhead peddles web site for £666
A surprisingly civil cybersquatter and death metal fan has sold a domain name to a rock zine for £666. The magazine Kerrang! decided to launch a web site and wanted the domain name Kerrang.com. Kerrang found that the name was already registered to Steingram Stegane, a Norwegian death metal aficionado. The magazine prepared either to embark upon the usual drawn-out, pricey legal battle or to appeal to intellectual property authorities. It turns out that Stegane, however, is a loyal reader of Kerrang! He says he registered the domain name not to exploit it for money but rather to ensure that it didn't fall into the wrong hands. So Stegane agreed to part with Kerrang.com in exchange for the fee of £666 plus a lifetime subscription to the magazine, leading Kerrang's editors to proclaim him a “lovely bloke.”
August 27, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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