YouTube bids on search terms

By: Allison McNeal

As the media grows increasing more dominant, companies are starting to open up online bidding.

YouTube recently stated that they will be releasing a new program called Sponsored Videos, which will lets users promote their videos by bidding on keywords.

The program will work by allowing users to decide which of the videos that have been uploaded they want to promote through site search.

The individuals then decide which keywords they want to target.

Google has also created automated tools that help users place bids for the keywords in an automated online auction and also set spending budgets.

When people use keywords in search terms for videos, YouTube will display relevant videos alongside the search results.

Cnet.com gives an example of if a film studio is on YouTube, they may bid on the words "movie trailer" to obtain those rights.

This new bidding seems to be a huge step in allowing online companies to make money off of their users.

YouTube currently has around 80 million users, but Google's cheif executive officer Eric Schmidt said that YouTube was not generating the kind of revenue the company hoped for.

Matthew Lui, a YouTube product manager, also agreed with Schmidt and said that the companies plans to implement this product was challenging.

"We've been working on this for months," Lui said. "The key was [that] we wanted to make sure we got it right."

"YouTube is a video discovery platform," he said. "We've been integrating with Google AdWords for some time, and now we're at a place where it can be win and win."

Will Google profit from the keyword bids?

The Sponsored Videos are priced on a cost-per-click basis, and only U.S. users can bid on video keywords.

The producers of Sponsored Videos are not certain on whether the program will generate revenues or boost YouTube's ratings.

YouTube has recently surpassed Yahoo to become the second Web search provider, behind Google.

According to cnet.com, "Google has launched other ad formats, such as posting links near videos, enabling visitors to purchase goods found in the clip."

This company also has signed deals that will bring full-length TV and film content to the site.

Even though Google is expanding their target audience, YouTube will have to wait and see if consumers are embracing this new technique.

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Paying for stories

By: Callie McBroom

Crowdfunding is the practice of receiving mini donations through the internet to help fund a venture. It has worked for bands, film makers, and political figures, and now MediaShift is asking if it could work for newspapers.

This site references two local newspapers, Spot.us and Representative Journalism, that are giving the process a try.

Spot.us or anyone else comes up with a story idea, and people pledge money toward the story. Once a freelance Journalists is covering the story, people can donate up to 20% of the total cost of the story to help fund it. After the journalist has written the story, news organizations can pay the full cost to receive exclusive rights, or the story will be posted online for all to see.

Representative Journalism hires a journalist to cover a specific community or issue. The community then supports that journalist to write stories.

There are some bloggers who are using crowdfunding to raise money as well.

Representative Journalism believes that this process can provide high quality journalism, familarize a community with a journalist, and help members of the community value the news in the area.

This could be a good idea if it's used correctly. If not, crowdfunding could lead to conflicts of interest, biased stories, and narrow story selection.

If people are paying for the news, they will demand only that in which they are interested. This could be a big problem potentially for truth and ethics in reporting.

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Associated Press still thriving

By:  Erin Floro

 

The Associated Press is a huge nonprofit news organization owned by 1500 newspapers and employs 3,000 journalists in 97 countries.  The AP sells to over 15,000 news outlets worldwide, including 5,000 radio and TV stations and 4,000 Web sites. 

 

Last year revenues were $710.3 million and showed a 6 percent increase due to this year’s election.  Tom Curley, CEO of the 162-year-old AP, reports $30 million in the bank for the organization.  The AP has avoided layoffs and has diversified its business.

 

The biggest source of revenue 27 percent comes from U.S newspapers, which are facing their own revenue problems.  Many have announced plans to cancel their AP subscriptions.  Curley believes they are just blowing smoke and using these threats to negotiate.

 

Jim Willse, editor of the Star Ledger of Newark, N.J. reasoned that canceling is due to shrinking revenue and layoffs, not that the AP is invaluable.  His paper did print an entire issue without any AP stories in September to prove it was possible to live without the service. 

 

Other news organizations are sprouting up around the country.  CNN is launching their wire service in December and GlobalPost is starting an international network of correspondents in 2009. 

 

Under Curley, the AP has a vision for the news organization to set up ways to share premium breaking news yet it can’t start up a portal that would compete with those they sell their stories to, somewhat of a catch-22.  

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