If the first quarter of this year is any indication, 2009 may turn out to be the worst year ever for the newspaper industry.

According to figures from the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper revenues nosedived 28.3 percent in the first quarter – a $2.6 billion dollar drop from last year.

Newspaper revenues plummeted across the board:

• National ads: -25.9 percent to $1.1 billion.
• Retail ads: -23.7% to $3.3 billion.
• Help wanteds: -67.4 percent to $205.4 million.
• Real estate: -45.6 percent to $336.9 million.
• Cars: -43.4 percent to $332.8 million.
• “Other” classifieds: -16.5% to $587.7 million.

The newspaper industry seems to want to blame this on the recession. They want to fix the situation with tax breaks for old media.

This isn’t the recession, though. This is new media taking over. This is Craigslist eliminating the value of classified advertisements. This is people trusting the Internet at double the rate that people trust the New York Times.

It’s going to get ugly for the newspaper before it gets better. And then….it’s not going to get much better.

I’m going to miss the morning paper, but not businesses that ignore the future.

Do you think there’s any hope left for the newspaper industry? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

via paidcontent

CBS News has chosen video site Ustream as its streaming video provider, Ustream founder Brad Hunstable said today:

“[W]e are announcing the CBSNews.com channel on Ustream, which features breaking news coverage several times everyday– presidential press conferences, Congressional hearings, and online-only content and on-air programs such as the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. We’re excited about delivering this live breaking news.”

Ustream.TV is a “live, interactive video broadcast platform” that incorporates viewer text chat into the content creator’s live video stream. The company was originally founded in 2006 as way to help overseas soldiers connect with their families. Channels run the gamut from politics and famous musicians, to a very popular channel featuring a litter of agonizingly cute Shiba Inu puppies.

Ustream is working to distinguish itself from the pack of DIY/streaming video sites, which includes Bambuser and Mogulus (recently rechristened Livestream), and perhaps take a bite out of Hulu.com‘s dominance over the  streamed network television business.

CBS, similarly, is striving to find its streaming-online-video niche, being the only one of the four “big” TV networks to *not* be a partner in Hulu.

Even Hulu is trying to carve a bigger piece of the online video-watching pie. Just last week, they debuted a “desktop” feature for a more tv-like viewing experience, and added improved recommendations and date-specific video search.

The CBS News Ustream channel can be found at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cbs-news. The channel will also livestream “behind the scenes live news coverage.”

Do you watch a lot of Internet video?

If so, you may be an “Extreme Techie”.

According to the Nielsen Company, “Extreme Techies” stream significantly more online video content, watching about twice as much Internet video as average. These uber geeks watch up to 91 minutes (1.5 hours) per week, compared to the mean of 44 minutes for all broadband viewers.

Extreme techies make up about eight percent of the total adult 18 and older broadband population. Of this group, 38% connect their computers to their televisions.

Are You An “Extreme Techie”?

Here’s how you can tell if you’re one of Nielsen’s Extreme Techies:

• 63% are male, with a mean age of 31 and an average annual income of $67,000.
• 47% are married and 57% have children in the home under the age of 18.
• 74% report accessing video content over their computers using the Internet.
• 64% (vs. 30% for the total sample) say that watching TV shows online adds to their regular TV viewing.
• 60% (vs. 33% total sample) report they typically know what they want to watch online before they sit down at their computer.
• 55% (vs. 23% total sample) report they have found shows online and watched them on TV.
• Highest ownership of cross-platform devices used to view TV or movie content, with an average of slightly over four devices (compared to average of two for the total sample).
• Highest viewership on devices such as console gaming systems (46%), cell phones (33%), and set top media boxes (17%).
• 26% report planning to add to their television service (e.g. additional channels or services) in the next six months.
• They see themselves as ambitious, adventurous, tech-savvy and spontaneous.

This sounds suspiciously familiar to me. Do you fit the profile?

Image: eshm

Live video streaming site Mogulus recently announced their rebranding under the name Livestream:

“As much as we loved our old name, it was time for a change that reflects our growth and more clearly communicates what we do. We hope you like “Livestream” as much as we do.”

Along with a new name and new URL, Mogulus – er, Livestream – also has launched a new Broadcaster application, which offers instant streaming. Users launch the app by clicking the red ‘Broadcast Now’ button on any page on the site, or by going to the user’s ‘My Account’ section.

Broadcaster works with “almost any” webcam or video camcorder, and the application has options to promote the channel via live chat or Twitter. Greater customization and higher quality video is still available via Procaster, the company’s downloadable desktop application.

Although Livestream maintains that “Your channel pages and embedded players will continue to function just as they did before,” they encourage users to update any existing links *to* their old Mogulus channel page from “www.mogulus.com/yourchannel” to “www.livestream.com/yourchannel”, but they also maintain that the old links will still work “even if you don’t get around to it.”

According to company sources, more than 300,000 people have registered and launched live video channels using Mogulus/Livestream since its introduction in 2007.

Livestream service is available to producers and aspiring broadcasters two ways: as a free, advertising-supported service; and Livestream Pro, a $350/month advertising-free “premium service” with advanced features. The company announced that premium service has passed the 1,000-customer mark, and includes such clients as C-SPAN, USA Today, and the World Economic Forum.

We may have been unimpressed by the Zune HD, calling it “two years behind Apple’s iPhone/iPod touch platform” – but Gizmodo says that they would take one in a heartbeat:

The device is tighter and more physically beautiful than the iPod Touch and it’s got a better UI, the main menu’s scrolling so natural through the swipe gestures. There’s a little note on the side, under the volume toggle—”Hello from Seattle.” The power button is up top. The home button is nice and prominent, a bar rather than a round button on the Touch. It’s smaller. And the accelerometer is more swift in responding to repositioning; images rotate very fast.

Check out Gizmodo’s Bourne-o-vision blurry-cam video, above, to see Zune HD in action.

Do you think third time’s the charm for the Zune? Could the Zune HD be a contender?

“Inside the FBI” is a podcast from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that looks at current national crime-fighting issues.

The latest episode focuses on a recent flood of threatening phone calls, coming from overseas via VoIP, made to Chinese-Americans. Special Agent Dean Phillips, Chief of the Asian-African Criminal Enterprise Unit in the Organized Crime Section, details the problem and its current status, and gives information on how individuals can get in touch with law enforcement if they encounter such a situation.

Other FBI podcast series include “FBI This Week;” a case studies program called “Gotcha;” a weekly look at the most-wanted criminals entitled “Wanted By the FBI;” and “FBI 100: A Closer Look,” which is a historical retrospective on the federal policing agency.

Pictured at right: Bonnie and Clyde, two famous criminals sought by the FBI.

Worldwide shipments of devices that support Internet video consumption will nearly quintuple by 2013, according to electronics industry analysts iSuppli, spurred by an increase in consumers’ broadband Internet access.

Four years hence, an estimated 376.5 million “entertainment-oriented consumer electronics platforms” with Internet video-watching capabilities will ship, up from 80.5 million such devices shipped in 2008. These “platforms” include television sets, video game consoles, set-top boxes, and other Internet-enabled gadgets.

iSuppli market analysts tout the mushrooming demand, but also stress challenges that device manufacturers, designers, and distributors will need to overcome. Consumer electronics companies will have to “educate consumers and the supply chain on the benefits of Internet video and how it can be implemented,” according to the report.

Internet TV device makers will need to bring merchants and customers up to speed, not just about Internet video, but also about the unique benefits and features of each different platform and gadget, iSuppli says. That, and the “challenge” of adequate bandwidth for an optimal Internet tv-viewing experience, comprise the main hurdles for consumer electronics companies to overcome.

Nonetheless, the report’s authors say, the future of Internet video “is bright.”

The British Library has mounted a major exhibition to commemorate the accession to the throne of larger-than-life monarch King Henry VIII.

“Henry VIII: Man and Monarch“  provides new insights into one of England’s most memorable monarchs, featuring some of the King’s personal belongings, as well as a love letter he wrote to his mistress, Anne Boleyn. The letter was secreted away at the Vatican for nearly five centuries, and is displayed for the first time at this exhibition.

For those who can’t make it to see the exhibition in person, there is even a series of podcasts about Henry, his life and times, and thoughtful discussions of some of the artifacts on display in the exhibition. Topics include music written by and for the monarch, the King’s contributions to the field of cartography, and analysis of the famous international summit of “The Field of Cloth of Gold.”

The feed for the podcast is here. The exhibition itself runs through 6 September 2009.

Popular video portal Hulu.com today announced the launch of Hulu Labs, “a place to try out experimental projects from Hulu and share your feedback while they’re still in development.”

Hulu Labs consists of four new features:

• Hulu Desktop, a downloadable application that enables what it calls a “lean-back” video watching experience from the viewer’s personal computer. The app is optimized for use with Apple or Windows Media Center remote controls (or can use simple keyboard and mouse controls). Hulu Desktop aims to simplify navigation, and customization of the viewer’s desktop page. The application is available now, but is still in beta.
• The Video Panel Designer creates “easy-to-use, embeddable widgets” that allow simple content programming and easily integrate a Hulu video player into a user’s website.
• A Time-Based Browsing feature lets the viewer sift through videos by the episodes’ original air date, with records extending back many years and up to date with current news and other programming. Viewers can search by the most popular videos from that date, or look through an alphabetical list.
• Recommendations are just what they sound like: an updated help for discovering interesting shows and movies which the viewer may not have heard of, but is likely to enjoy. Viewers can rate shows and movies and share channel preferences with Hulu, improving subsequent recommendations.

Today podcast production and hosting company RawVoice introduced a major update to PowerPress, its podcast plugin for use with the WordPress blogging platform. The PowerPress Plugin now integrates with the RawVoice Podcast Hosting Services Platform at Blubrry.com, adding a podcast statistics summary to the user’s WordPress dashboard. The update also adds the ability to select media hosted by Blubrry within WordPress, simplifying the publishing process.

“New podcasters have the challenge of overcoming the technical requirements of publishing a podcast,” explained Todd Cochrane, RawVoice CEO. “While the Plugin is a powerful standalone, this important new integration with our hosting and statistics service makes podcast publishing easier.”

PowerPress simplifies the podcast publication process by taking care that the podcaster’s media (blog, audio, and video files), website and RSS feeds are all optimized for consumption by listeners. Cochrane maintains that this leaves the podcaster free “to focus on creating media.”

Podcasters using RawVoice with the updated PowerPress can publish their media using a simple three-step publishing process:

• Podcasters upload their media using the Media Uploader.
• In their WordPress blog, they select the uploaded file in the ‘Add
  Post’ menu.
• Then they click on ‘Publish.’

“The Plugin has the best iTunes support in the space, optimizing the feed to be 100 percent iTunes- and Zune Marketplace-compliant,” said Cochrane.

This new version of PowerPress supports new features, including automated ID3 tag writing, category feeds and multi-language support. However, podcasters who do not use our services are not impacted in any way by the new integrated features.

The PowerPress Podcast Plugin is free and available at www.blubrry.com/powerpress.