Hurricane Ike Media Review: KHOU.com
September 15, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
Among the Houston based local media scene, KHOU is a solid contender and very popular station. Like the other local network affiliates they had “wall to wall” coverage on-air and online. Their broadcast transmission was also being streamed live online.
I do want to preface each of these reviews with the web technology or content management system (CMS) these media outlets are using.
The CMS decision a media outlet chooses (often a business decision more than a content decision unfortunatey) has a great effect on what they’re able to do without trying extra hard and breaking out of the confines of the particular system they’re using.
KHOU.com is a Belo station, using a custom built CMS common to Belo owned television stations.
KHOU unfortunately had one of the least informative web sites of the Houston market. Their site was predominently weather based, very important information during a hurricane no doubt! However, after the storm passed through their area it seems no changes were made.
What I’m seeing across most of the media web sites in Houston is that shortly after 11 am Saturday morning they switched gears from weather related focuses to breaking news mode, presenting information on recovery and rebuilding.
As of Sunday afternoon KHOU was still predominantly showing weather information on their web site, with news updates further down the page.
The Good:
- Weather maps and information very clear and easy to read, constantly updated
- A Blog with updates being sent very quickly. They were writing short, concise updates quite often. This is what emergency based news should be. The screenshot below shows the blog at one point Sunday afternoon.
The Bad
- Very little user interaction, comments were open on the blog but the barrier to entry was too high. The blog was not linked prominently on the homepage and it took me several minutes to find.
- KHOU was taking advantage of a PHPbb discussion board. These boards were getting fairly consistent traffic and served their purpose of creating conversations. One problem I encountered was that the boards required registration, however the links to the registration form was buried at the bottom of the page. Also, the system would let me get so far as to hit Submit for a comment before giving me an error saying I had to be registered.
- User generated content was minimal and hard to find throughout the site. There were solicitations to send in photos and videos on the KHOU homepage, however it was not
- The station’s official Twitter stream was a purely one-way road, the opposite of the spirit of Twitter and online conversation. KHOU was simply automatically piping in the latest headline from their site. They did not have any profile information entered, and had no avatar (profile image)
Overall, it’s unfortunate that that user experience around Hurricane Ike on this particular web site was so poor.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
Houston Chronicle Excels in Hurricane Ike Coverage
September 13, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
As someone who not only is interested in news and journalism, but who also works in social media for a living I constantly see television stations and newspapers who either don’t take advantage of advances in technology or completely ignore the true value in the power of people.
This morning as I think about my family who lives in Missouri City, Texas (a Houston suburb) I scoured the web to find the best and most complete coverage and information about Hurricane Ike.
First I turned to MyFoxHouston.com, the Fox TV affiliate for Houston. They have a a special live-chat, live-broadcast, maps, video, and audio going full force on a micro-site called MyFoxHoustonLive.com. This I feel was overkill, it’s too much to process at once. Yes they are using technology to extend their coverage beyond “wall to wall” - which I commend them for - but the page was cluttered, it was hard to focus on anything, and in general there was just too much going on.
I then tried the other TV networks, both national and local. Of course the national networks have information but still lack the “instant” updates that I wanted.
My next link was the Houston Chronicle (to be honest, they were actually the first place I looked yesterday afternoon for updated maps and evacuation information). Chron.com may not have the fancy cameras and satellites that the TV stations have, but what they do feature are blogs. Live blogs. This is my favorite format for live and constantly updated information. Blogs let the user read as much or as little as they want, and in chronological order.
Not only are there two blogs updating every few minutes (one focuses on the science, the other on news and information) but the Chronicle was also smart enough to start a Twitter feed of constantly updated informaiton, and also began pulling public “tweets” into their site.
To me, this shows absolute respect for their users both locally and nationally. and THAT’s the key to success in the news business - giving the customer what they want, when they want it, while maintaining your ethical standards.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
New Research on Premium Branding
April 21, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
This weekend I got the chance to sit down and read some of the huge stack of magazines that I previously hadn’t had time to read. I certainly didn’t make it through all of them, but a couple caught my eye. One of the most recent ones is the April 28th edition of Business Week.
One of the first things I noticed was that they are really trying to be trendy in their page design. They’ve got highlighting, charts and fly-aways, and some interesting section headings (like BTW). Since this is the first time I’ve noticed these things, I guess that tells you how often I read Business Week. It’s no fault of their own, magazines just aren’t as high a priority as working through the 1000+ headlines in my RSS reader in the evening (I often cheat and hit “mark all as read” if in general the headlines aren’t grabbing my attention in any particular folder of feeds).
But back to the post at hand, in this week’s BTW there is a short blurb about premium branding. As in, another researcher just did the old “wine tasting” test again. Where essentially they blindfold people and tell them they’re trying a $5 bottle of wine, and then a $45 bottle of wine… People inevitably choose the $45 bottle as tasting better even though the wine came from the same inexpensive bottle.
It’s a nasty trick for those of us easily influenced by marketing. But it illustrates something larger, since people still respond to premium branding. Shouldn’t you be interested in branding yourself as a top-shelf whatever you are?
I think that in the age of personal, and professional branding that more attention should be paid to finding out what makes a brand premium or not on the web. Is it different than in the brick and mortar world? What makes an online brand premium? I would argue that it’s easier to “fake” a premium brand on the Internet. If by image alone, the raw talent of the magnificent graphic designers and writers out there should be able to pull off a premium distinction.
That’s not to say that consumers on the Internet are more more susceptible to being abused, in fact customer service and having the solid foundation to support a premium brand is harder to fake. People using the Internet for research, entertainment, or learning gain the skills necessary to figure out “fake” premium brands. There is no long-term shortcut. As in the brick and mortar world, your image can get your foot in the door but it’s your content and substance that makes the sale.
A Personal Update
April 19, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
Today’s post has two different themes, 1) a change in blog format and 2) my job search.
I wanted to start out by saying that I’ve changed the way things work on here a little. After getting several emails, I re-evaluated having my Twitter updates archive to my blog. I’ve decided that there isn’t very much value derived from having those posts reposted here.
This blog and my Tweets fill very different needs and have very different value. I have decided that while having a searchable archive of my Tweets here was nice for me, it really wasn’t providing very much value to you, my valued readers. I’ve disabled the cross-posting of Tweets on this blog until a better solution crops up.
In the meantime, be sure to Follow me on Twitter. About two weeks ago I hit 300 followers on Twitter and am now proud to be followed by nearly 350 people. Thank you so much for your support and I hope that you enjoy the insight and knowledge that I share with the community.
On another personal note, you may have noticed that my blogging has been inconsistent as of late. This is a short-term situation and I hope to resume normal daily posting very soon. As you know, I’ve been actively seeking full-time employment, and looking is nearly a full-time job. Normally I would be writing daily and scheduling posts a day or two ahead of schedule about ideas, thoughts, and conversations happening. However, I don’t want to jeopardize any of the opportunities coming down the pipe.
I’ve already had to make some tough decisions, and there will be no shortage of more difficult decisions for at least the next several weeks. As I make those decisions and finalize plans, I will post some information from the numerous conversations I’ve been having with wonderful people across the country on the future of information and knowledge distribution (formerly known as the news business).
If you haven’t already, I’d like to invite you to subscribe to my blog via email by using the form in the right-side column or by adding my RSS feed to your feed reader.
The Twitter Song by Alana Taylor
April 15, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I was sent a link to this YouTube video earlier this week and just the opportunity to watch it. It’s a great example of how a fanatical user base can benefit your company and your content. The video is reporting over 1,200 views, and it didn’t cost Twitter anything.
When you engage your community and provide value people notice, and in an increasingly wired (wireless) world individual users have a voice. Now the decision becomes, do you want to use their voices as an asset in your business or push them elsewhere.
I’d argue that a healthy medium is probably best, although an engaged community based web site where
Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2008-04-10
April 10, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- Looking over some NAB materials and hounding on my development team to get Contributr back online in time for the conference season #
- Trying to figure out what the heck my Contributr developers have been doing for the last several weeks, not being micromanaged, nor working. #
- Wow that last Tweet was a Twoosh! (The sentence was 140 characters by complete accident) #
- @rosshill Nice find! reTweeting: Restaurant that uses Tumbler as their web site: http://blackbirdbuvette.com/ #
- @rosshill I like all of the Twitter interface changes I’ve found so far today, let’s hope it doesn’t get ‘cluttered’ #
- Why didn’t anyone tell me Flickr released video today? I must be out of the loop this week. #
- It’s not as exciting as you might think but here’s a tag-cloud generated from my Tweets http://tinyurl.com/6o63pw #
- @coreygreenberg You’re using AMP? I don’t run into people who have tried, much less use Adobe Media Player. #
- @CreativeSage Are you campaigning against RickRolling?
# - @efortiz Yeah, it’s a decent enough app, I talked to some of the original devs from AMP last year and it’s "heart" isn’t in the right place. #
- @CreativeSage oic, I haven’t watched the episode yet, it’s on the list though. #
- Retweeting: ijustine: Wanting to hit all the btchr’s complaining about flickr video: http://tinyurl.com/6xbelc #
- @acafourek what hardware do you have again? I don’t think my old PowerBook could handle all that #
- @acafourek that’s a nice setup, I’m looking at MBP’s pretty seriously right now, I get this thing maxed out all the time #
- @britter @chrisbrogan I’m going to have to have my parents Tivo it or something for next time I visit them. I keep hearing good things a … #
- @gerik do you love your Flip video? I got one a couple weeks ago, but NAB next week will be my first big test of it #
- I got my new business cards in today-they match my online branding, Convergence Journalism and New Media Specialist, including my twitter@ #
- Good morning Twitterville, it’s raining really hard this morning #
- @thewebcoach, have direct mail campaigns for social networking sites been effective for you? #
- @conniereece I’m still making up my mind on Everyone being w/ other tabs but I think it’s more Usable now, I see myself clicking on it more. #
- Contributr.net is back online, sans our beautiful new design, the design is done, the coding for it is not #
- Anyone out there who follows me or not from Vermont? @ or DM me please! #
- @awest FlipVideo has a lot of amazing potential to be used lots of ways, it one of my favorite gadgets right now. #
- @digitalmlewis The people behind Kickapps are very good people, I’ve met with them, and it’s a great product #
- I’m meeting with the startup incubator interested in Contributr here in a couple hours, wish me luck! #
- @misslacey123 ugh? #
- @singlegalDC Thanks! Been a while since we’ve talked, everything going well? #
- @leeodden Congrats on 1,000 after 1,400. That’s a much higher conversion rate than I have with my 316/3370 ratio. UR a good value!
# - Headed home from my meeting with the startup people, I’ve got some "next steps" to get started on, first thing, my patents and ownership … #
links for 2008-04-09
April 9, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
links for 2008-04-08
April 8, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
A Contributr Update
April 8, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
The Contributr team has been taking a little break recently, and that’s not a good thing. We’re trying frantically to make up time but other commitments got in the way.
Colby Palmer has been working on a complete redesign of the web application and the AIR desktop application and is doing a great job. He’s a great designer and a great guy and we’re glad to have him on our side! The difficult part now is pulling together all of the little bits and pieces before NAB next week.
I’ll be there presenting Contributr to the industry and friends and I’m really hoping we have the new design implemented enough to use it for our demos. It is a HUGE improvement over our first user interface and I’m very proud of it.
Thursday I’ll meet with the Missouri Innovation Center again to look at some of the business possibilities behind Contributr and its market viability as an early-stage startup. I hope that I’m able to take Contributr with me into my next job and continue working and enhancing it for the news media, and the public.
It would be a disservice not to give Contributr a shot and continue development.
So wish us luck as we try to get version 1.1 of Contributr out the door and ready for more widespread testing.
My Ideal Job
April 4, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
By way of looking introspectively at my self and my ambitions I have a pretty good idea of my ideal job is at this point. I’ve known for quite some time that being in the service of the public and working toward a greater good is in my blood. My mother was a teacher and my dad is a businessman. Between the two of them I acquired a passion for serving the public, and a business savvy entrepreneurial drive.
I’ve been on the path of working in the field of journalism for about 8 years now. Journalism attracted me in part because of the immense power of the press and how good journalism can be a cause for change. In addition, there are all kinds of cool toys that people in the news and information business can play with!
So that brings me to the ultimate point of this post, my ideal job:
- Serves the public interest, educating and informing them.
- Is collaborative with other smart people.
- Allows for the intelligent expression and discussion of ideas and suggestions.
- Brings people (both internally and externally) to have better, more efficient communication.
- Allows people to discuss and achieve.
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