When millionaire former California gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington launched her celebrity-studded Web log in May, there was a lot of talk about how the Huffington Post would bridge the gap between new and old media. Commentaries penned by Huffington Post contributors would begin appearing in newspapers nationwide, referring people back to the blog to read and post feedback.
But it turns out the gap between old and new media was wider than anticipated.
After about three months of delays, content from the Huffington Post finally began appearing in newspapers last week under a syndication agreement between the Huffington Post and Tribune Media Services that had been originally set to launch in June. The Huffington Post’s leap to print was so late in coming that one media-related blog, MediaBistro.com, showed a picture of the Loch Ness Monster when it mentioned Huffington’s blog.
Adapting the more free-form nature of a blog to the more traditional approach of newspapers was a more formidable task than anticipated, said Mary Elson, managing editor of Tribune Media Services, which is owned by Chicago-based Tribune Co. For one thing, the sheer quantity of copy from Huffington’s blog may have overwhelmed some editors, so it was cut back from a daily offering to twice a week, Elson said.
“Blogs are organic and changing with the news, and we were sending out a day package seven days a week (during the trial phase), and with the way newspaper editors work, it was probably too much,” Elson said.
By many measures, however, Huffington’s L.A.-based blog has been a success. It drew nearly 800,000 visitors in July, who collectively made 6.6 million page views, according to Nielsen NetRatings. That makes the Huffington Post one of the most viewed blogs on the Internet, although far behind mainstream news sites such as cnn.com and latimes.com.
After launching without advertising, the Huffington Post now carries ads from major companies such as TiVo Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc.
Sarah Bernard, general manager of the Huffington Post, said the site needs exposure in mainstream newspapers to gain a mass audience. She denied that there was any incompatibility between the blog and newspapers, attributing the delays to vacations, personnel changes and the fact that blog content has never before been syndicated to newspapers.
“I don’t think we’ve come across anything unusual from the perspective of a blogger world vs. a newspaper world,” she said. “It’s been pretty seamless.”
Horse Sense
There are numerous magazines, books, Web sites and television programs touting the equestrian lifestyle. So why not a full-time cable network?
That’s the thinking behind HorseTV, a new cable network headquartered in Calabasas that is scheduled to debut Oct. 27.
“We’re really looking at all of the remarkable ways in which horses enrich our lives,” said Adryn Miller, director of public relations for the channel. “There’s always been a huge desire to do this but it’s just been a matter of putting this together.”
HorseTV will include programming for both newcomers to the horse world and advanced equestrians. It will focus not only on sports but also lifestyle. The network will even include amusing home videos of horses submitted by viewers and reruns of Mr. Ed, as well as footage of rodeos and a news segment with an equestrian bent.
The network will cost subscribers $5.95 a month and will carry some advertising. It may not, however, be available in Southern California right away. HorseTV announced a deal last week with G Force Cable, the cable provider for Aiken, S.C., that will put its programming into 22,800 homes a shaving, if you will, of the national hoofprint HorseTV’s creators eventually hope to get.
HorseTV’s creators are hoping to sign deals with the major cable carriers as well as satellite television broadcasters in the months ahead.
Breaking Eggs
Don’t get them wrong. Steven Amato and Shervin Samari are big fans of TBWAChiatDay, the powerhouse L.A. advertising agency where Amato worked as creative director and Samari as art director.
But Amato and Samari have broken off to form their own specialty advertising and entertainment agency one that could compete with their former employer. Along with three others, Amato and Samari have launched Omelet, which they say will combine the dexterity and innovation of a smaller agency with the professionalism and experience of a larger one.
The idea is to break the mold of traditional advertising by emphasizing ideas and concepts that can be used in all media, new and old, Amato and Samari said.
That’s not a dig at TBWAChiatDay, Amato said: “We have nothing but absolute respect for Chiat Day and what they’ve been able to accomplish.”
Omelet’s name reflects both its approach and its genesis. Its founders call themselves revolutionaries who are willing to break eggs to get things done, and the agency was conceived over breakfast.
Union Drive
After years of union agitation and management push-back, the fate of a unionization drive at the Chinese Daily News will be settled Sept. 22.
That’s the date the Monterey Park-based Chinese-language newspaper and the Communications Workers of America have set for a second vote on whether the paper’s 150 employees should join the largest U.S. media union.
Although there are some signs of acrimony in the campaign leading up to the vote, the union and newspaper so far are declining to air their sides publicly. Both declined comment, other than to confirm the date of the election.
That marks a change from the more aggressive posturing in the aftermath of the June 2001 election, in which workers narrowly voted to join the union but management alleged the election was tainted by a pro-union supervisor.
Each side charged the other with retaliation, and the union filed numerous complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Sept. 22 election is likely to be closely watched, as the Communications Workers of America’s parent union, the AFL-CIO, has described the Chinese Daily News effort as a watershed in ethnic media unionization.
*Staff reporter James Nash can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230, or by e-mail at
[email protected]
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