Trotz.com

Yes, the day is finally here.

After over 18 months of work amounting to literally thousands of staff hours, the CNN.com site has been reborn in full embracement of modern web content and technology approaches. After an extensive beta, the site has now replaced the prior version of CNN.com which had essentially never had this extensive and end-to-end redesign in it’s nearly 12-year-long history.

And yes, the site looks lovely on the iPhone too.

And here’s what the blogosphere has to say about it…

A slideshow of these images can be found here, or click on a thumbnail below.

Tags: beta, CNN, iphone, relaunch, web2.0, work

You’d think I’d hear about this around the office, but instead saw this blogged by someone at Optaros, a vendor we use. My co-workers David Payne, Dermot Waters and Lori Adams are blogging the CNN.com Relaunch project. Check it out here. The comments are a great read.

Tags: advertising, beta, CNN, cnn.com, relaunch, work

It’s been a busy few days for us at Turner Broadcasting. Today, CNN.com took the wraps off a beta preview of their new design coming on July 1st (as reported earlier). Full disclosure - I work for Turner Broadcasting, and my ad services team has worked extensively on this project, but the views herein are my own. But as one blog put it:

Something strikes me as… different. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It looks cleaner. Brighter. Cleaner. Grayer. Whiter. Redder. Bluer. Nicer.

The blogs seem to have welcomed the new video treatment (no popup player, and now in Flash!), the Amazon-like ‘We Recommended’ feature, the intelligent use of Ajax, the tabbed presentation in stories highlighting multimedia elements and even, daresay it, the cleaner ad presentation. Some comments do opine for the ability to embed videos on user sites, however. I do think the new site embraces the spirit of Web 2.0, emphasizing the blogosphere on every story (via Sphere) and utilizing Topix for local coverage. Another very cool feature are the new Hot Topics pages, which are being autogenerated for pretty much any story, personality or subject you might dream up; here are a few examples: tuberculosis, Lindsay Lohan, Vioxx, and George W. Bush. As an added bonus, all of these are also available as RSS feeds, huzzah!

As with Gametap 3.0 that launched yesterday, my team has been working on the advertising portions of this project for many months. I’m encouraged to read in some blogs that the ads are less obtrusive, and on the technology side, we’ve really broken what I believe is new ground with some of the underlying approaches, especially around the new video players.

Please do check it out, and be sure to add your comments - there is a handy ‘+Feedback’ link on most pages, and the site wants to hear your opinion. More coverage of the beta can be found here.

Tags: advertising, beta, CNN, cnn.com, relaunch, work

Echostar held the 6th Annual Interactive TV Awards last week in Englewood, Colorado, and my project CNN Enhanced (nominated previously for two Emmys) won for ‘Best ITV News Program.’ Echostar - which runs the DISH Network service - offers over 40 virtual and enhanced channels, including entertainment, news, shopping, sports, user support and games.

Tags: awards, CNN, Interactive Television, work

Yes, that’s our very own Anderson Cooper reporting live from Oscar’s trashcan, sporting a mike with a ‘GNN’ moniker on it as he taped a segment for an upcoming episode of Sesame Street. I hope Sam doesn’t get confused and mistake our gray-haired reporter/anchor with his old buddy Oscar. TVNewser reports this episode was taped this week but doesn’t air until next September. But the photo above is pretty priceless.

Tags: CNN, work

Well, it’s deja vu all over again, folks! CNN Enhanced on Echostar (launch, interview) has been announced as an Emmy Finalist for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for the Non-Synchronous Enhancement of Original Television Content, this time by the National Television Academy. As those regular readers of this blog are aware, this project I spent over a year of my life managing was also nominated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for that bodies’ similar award for interactive television over the summer. Sadly (for me anyway), the award went to TiVO. But hey, at least I can say I’m a ‘two-time Emmy nominee,’ no? And maybe, just maybe, the judges will see just how spiffy our application is and give it the nod. ‘twoud be nice, indeed. And as they say, the nominees are:

• CNN Enhanced – CNN/Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
• Fantasy Football Tracker – BIAP Systems, Inc.
• Passions Vendetta – NBC.com
• Sopranos: Crime. Organized – Deep Focus/HBO
• The Cultivated Life: Thomas Jefferson & Wine – NetBlender
• The-N.com Video Mixer – The N

The awards will be presented at the opening evening event of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Monday, January 8, 2007. You’ll note that we’re up against the Sopranos this time, as well as some friends over at BIAP. May the best app win!

Tags: awards, CNN, Interactive Television, work

From a story on Sunday on C|Net, pointing out new move towards adding an outlet for ‘citizen journalism’ to the flagship CNN.com site, called CNN Exchange.

On Monday, CNN is expected to announce the launch of CNN Exchange, a page on the company’s Web site that will feature user-submitted video, audio and articles.

CNN snatching page out of YouTube’s book | CNET News.com

In other CNN news, they have also launched a new 3-minute free preview of live streams from the premium Pipeline product. Nice way to sample this cool service.

Tags: CNN, ugc, web2.0, work

Although it was an honor to be an Emmy finalist, the CNN interactive television project I led for Dish Network called CNN Enhanced lost out to the entry from TiVo. Having never won an Emmy, Tivo was announced as the 2006 Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in enhanced television programming. This year’s Interactive Television Emmy Awards recognize original interactive television programming content, applications and services that have been deployed in the United States between June 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006 and that have demonstrated creative excellence.

Other finalists include AOL Music on Demand and DirecTV Interactive Sports. The awards will be presented at the Creative Arts Awards Ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, August 19.

And while I won’t be getting a statue,  I did take home a nice certificate for our project. As a special bonus, I was able to meet both Julie Brown (of Earth Girls are Easy and many other flicks) who was attending the AFI event with Richard Cardran of ZeTools and Sharon Lawrence (of NYPD Blue fame) who was the lead on one of the AFI’s recent Digital Content Lab projects.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the groundbreaking business model shown by ABC was also honored in the new broadband category by the Academy. Their full-length, ad-supported video player (designed by the smart team at Schematic) was simple and elegant. There was also coverage on Engadget and Gizmodo - take a look there for more info.

Tags: awards, CNN, Interactive Television, work

Wow - I’m thrilled this morning to learn that one of the big projects I directed for roughly 18 months has been announced as a finalist for the 2005-06 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television (exclusively reported Tuesday morning by [itvt]). CNN Enhanced on Echostar/Dish currently reaches over 11M households; I blogged the launch back in February, and the extensive interview by Interactive TV Today last month. Winners will reportedly be announced at the AFI event on July 26th, followed by the awards ceremony in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium on August 19th. Full list of nominees for the Award for Outstanding Achievement for Enhanced or Interactive Programming - Television:

• AOL Music on Demand (broadband, cable and MCE versions): AOL/Time Warner Cable/Zetools
• CNN Enhanced: CNN
• DirecTV Interactive Sports (NFL Sunday Ticket, SportsMix and NCAA March Madness): DirecTV
• TiVo Service: TiVo

The nominees for the Award for Outstanding Achievement for Enhanced or Interactive Programming - New Delivery Platforms are:

• ABC.com Full Episode Streaming Player: ABC
• Danny Bowles and the Jade Treasure, Stranger Adventures: Riddle Productions/Red Car
• MLB.TV Mosaic: Major League Baseball & Ensequence
• Vongo Video Download Service: Starz

Tags: awards, CNN, Interactive Television, work

CNNd - it’s where all the cool kids hang out. And today, that included Sam and Amy. As you can see above, Sam helps out Lauren Golus in ad operations. I tell ya, that kid is a natural. More pics here in the photo gallery.

Tags: CNN, nyc, sam, work