Iran Blocks Opposition Party Newspaper

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's government was accused of blocking publication of a reformist party's newspaper Wednesday to prevent it publishing a letter from a presidential candidate questioning the legitimacy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in last month's election.

Meanwhile, questions surrounded an announcement in government-run Iranian media that Ahmadinejad canceled a planned trip to Libya on Wednesday for undisclosed reasons.

In the letter due to be printed in the Etemed Melli party newspaper, Mehdi Karrubi vowed to "stand by the people and the revolution, until the end of my life," describing the actions of the government over the June 12 vote as "the foundation for the annulment of the elections."

"I will not recognize the legitimacy of the government which has resulted from this process," the 72-year-old cleric and former parliamentary speaker wrote.

Karrubi's letter was instead published on the Etemed Melli Web site. The party said Iran's Ministry of Culture and its Attorney General prevented the publication of its newspaper because it carried the letter.

Read the rest of the article here.



(courtesy of CNN.com)

Paid Search 101 Rap

Check it out! The basics of Search Engine Marketing laid out in a 2-minute rap:

(courtesy of Mo Serious and Youtube)

Ninja vs. Penguin and Alien vs. Predator

On the lighter side of things, check out Ninja vs. Penguin for some awesome creative work and fun commentary.

Loved finding this older series of ads for Alien vs. Predator, mostly because it reminds me of the last time I watched the movie with my dad and he felt the need to explain all of the intricacies of the plotline even after I told him I had already seen the movie. Sigh.

Anycrap, they're pretty amusing:

(courtesy of Ninja vs. Penguin)

Jon & Kate Plus Ad Dollars?

The Discovery Communications family of networks has been cashing in lately on ad sales due to diverse and popular programming like Deadliest Catch on Discovery and Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC.

As you may have noticed in a previous post, I'm a big J&KP8 fan. In my own life it's always been a "family first" mentality, so I always appreciated their commitment to the kids and keeping the family together. With Jon & Kate's recent marital troubles, though, the increased press has put a huge strain on the family.

That's not to say the show itself has suffered - in fact, the season 5 premiere in May was the most-watched program on TLC....ever.

Even with record-breaking numbers, it's still unclear whether the show will return for additional seasons. While I'd miss the weekly episodes and seeing the adorable kids grow up, it's important they do what's best for them right now. Whether it's continuing the show, ending the marriage, only filming a couple times a year for some one-hour specials, etc., I don't really care as long as they pull through and make it work for their family.

With that said, imagine my extreme distaste when I read the following comment from Joe Abruzzese in the June 15 edition of Broadcasting & Cable Magazine:

As for the publicity surrounding Jon & Kate, the Discovery reality show about a couple with eight children—the couple's marriage problems are all over the tabloids—he is sanguine about the benefits of such exposure.

“The good thing is, we've got great sampling; it will be a disappointment if they don't come back,” he says. “The fear is, what's the show going to be? That's on everyone's mind. It may not be the show it was. We need to find out what the show will become and sell its value.”

Excuse me? I thought the fear was that a family would be torn apart by the constant media scrutiny and end up suffering in the long-term. While Discovery is obviously happy that the current media exposure is allowing them to rake in the advertising dollars, I don't think it's fair for Mr. Abruzzese to be so openly blasé when he's talking about real people's lives here. Sure, it may help business, but remember that in the end these people aren't TV show characters and their lives are affected by everything that goes on around them.

I don't know, I guess I'm not old and jaded enough by the advertising business to understand Mr. Abruzzese's point of view. Actually, I kind of hope I never do.




(Courtesy of broadcastingcable.com and hollywoodinsider.ew.com)

Bain Capital managing partner emerges as potential buyer of Boston newspaper

A managing partner at Bain Capital is among three parties interested in buying the Boston Globe newspaper, according to Financial Times.

Bain’s Stephen Pagliuca, who co-owns the Boston Celtics basketball team, has emerged as a potential buyer of the daily newspaper, which is being sold by the New York Times Company.

The Times Company is reportedly seeking a buyer for the Boston newspaper after cutting Globe employees’ pay by 23 percent. The Globe is said to be on track to lose $85m this year.

The newspaper’s management is currently in negotiations with Boston Newspaper Guild over cost-cutting measures, but the union is said to be hopeful of a settlement soon.

Pagliuca is apparently willing to discuss working with union leaders, according to the FT.

Other potential buyers include former advertising executive Jack Connors and Stephen Taylor, a former executive at the Globe and a member of the family that controlled it until its sale to the Times Company in 1993.



(Courtesy of altassets.com)

N.Y. Times Co. Shops The Boston Globe

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

And according to WCVB out of Boston, the New York Times Company "reversed course Tuesday and said there were no plans to close the paper."

Full Story Here

(Courtesy of upi.com and thebostonchannel.com)

Boston Globe Union Rejects Cuts, Times To Slash Pay

CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY

I wanted to post the full article here but my computer thinks it's smarter than me and I'm not willing to fight that battle right now...



(Courtesy Rock102.com, Story Copyright 2009, Reuters)

The Making of the Prius "Harmony" TV Commercial

So, originally I was just going to post the video and blather about how much I love this spot....

But this is better - A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the commercial!



(If you only want to see the actual commercial, skip ahead to about 4:08)




(Courtesy of Toyota)

A Newspaper Business Model That's Working

Those of us in the newspaper industry have been closely following the struggles of the daily newspapers for some time now. Business models have changed, advertising has changed, prices keep going up, and readers are finding their news elsewhere.

However, I'd like to point out (again) that weekly and community papers should not be listed among these seriously struggling major news entities.

Dan McDonough Jr. and Alan Bauer - founders of a community newspaper/media company based in Haddonfield, N.J. - comment on this topic in a recent article:

The National Newspaper Association (NNA) last month reported on a study that showed community newspapers were far less affected by the challenging economy than the industry in general (or the economy in general, for that matter). The Suburban Newspapers of America and NNA's reporting group showed 2008 fourth-quarter advertising revenue of $428.7 million, only a 6.6 percent decline from the same quarter in 2007. The Glennco Consulting Group estimate was much worse, however, for the overall newspaper industry. There it showed decline in fourth-quarter advertising expenditures of 21 percent, according to the NNA.

So while advertisers cut their spending by 21 percent across the industry, the impact to community newspapers was less than 7 percent.

In addition, 26 percent of the SNA/NNA reporting group launched new products in 2008. Indeed, many community newspaper companies are growing.

Further:

We know that, for advertising to be effective, people have to actually see the ads. Our business model and philosophy of making sure "Everybody Gets It. Everybody Reads It." pushes us to bring local news not found elsewhere to everybody who has an address in town [...]

For instance, huge regional daily newspapers would do better to stop requiring people to subscribe and instead deliver the paper to everybody in their target demographic (the market that key advertisers want to reach). If big newspapers would charge the advertisers, not the readers, they could still turn things around.

I wholeheartedly agree that local news is a product that is never going to get stale.
However, I strongly disagree that charging advertisers more will help big newspapers turn things around. The majority of newspaper revenue already comes in from advertising, not reader subscriptions. As someone who works with newspapers daily, I'll tell you that big newspapers already charge their advertisers a ridiculous amount of money, and raising prices any higher would cause some major waves in an already tumultuous industry.

A better solution? Work with advertising agencies to create relationships that are mutually beneficial! Many of the community newspapers (and newspaper associations) have taken this route, and according to the recent revenue numbers, it seems to have been a wise choice.



(Courtesy of The Christian Science Monitor and Yahoo! News)

The Great KFC "Free Chicken" Fiasco

We all know the story - Oprah gives out free KFC coupons, people flock to KFC, and then KFC runs out of chicken, prompting chicken-fueled chaos (or non-chicken, in this case)!

Obviously, this woman has the power to influence people. And I'll tell you, nothing gets people moving like the word FREE, especially when it comes from someone as influential as Oprah.

Well, imagine the pandemonium (riots!) when we find out there isn't enough chicken for America to cash in its free coupons. KFC is out of chicken? Really? Uh-oh, that can't be good...

So in a very obvious "save the campaign" PR move, I start seeing various commercial spots this weekend (like the one below):





From a PR standpoint, great crisis management. Reassure the people, let them know you care and appreciate the overwhelming response, while at the same providing a way to cash in on the freebie.

Oprah said, "Let them eat chicken!" And Roger Eaton replied, "Just not in the next few weeks..."