CNNfn, the Financial News Network and sister to CNN, CNN Headline News, CNN espanol and CNN International, is signing off at 2pm ET today. The network suffered from the same issues that doomed CNN/SI, my old employer – the turn around in how distributors paid for programming, and the slower-than-expected rollout of digital capacity to take on niche networks like this. CNNMoney.com will, however, continue to publish online. Managing editor Allen Wastler has this retrospective. But Myron Kandell summed it up best as he signed off on behalf of all the staff — ‘It was just one of those things.”
All posts by jetrotz
Come Clean
Those wacky folks at the ad agency Porter + Bogusky (creators of Burger King’s Subservient Chicken) have a new campaign, this time for Method Soap. This site features a confessional of sorts, and users can view others confessions. User-submitted confessions can also be streamed to a downloadable screen saver. Nice stuff, and awfully quirky – but in a good way. Visit the site.
Buh-Bye to ESPN NFL2k6
Unless you don’t mind playing NFL games where ‘KC #10’ passes to ‘KC #87″ instead of ‘Chiefs QB Trent Green passes to wide receiver Eddie Kennison’, you are not going to be pleased with this news. The NFL and Players Inc. today announced an exclusive deal with Electronic Arts granting a five-year exclusive right to the NFL’s teams, stadiums, and players across PCs, consoles, and handhelds. Five companies reportedly bid for this exclusive right, and EA came out on top in the undoubtedly high-priced bidding war. Why is this bad news? Exclusivity sucks for the consumer on all fronts. I hate my DirecTV (fade out, spotty service), but I’m reluctant to drop it ’cause I love Sunday Ticket. Guess what – DirecTV is the only licensee for that. Same deal here – ESPN’s NFL2k5 is a much better game than this year’s Madden – I can only hope that EA steps up and improves their product. More at Gamespot, Slashdot. Joystiq suggests an alternative – Maximum Football. And get a load of this illustration on Joystiq as well – a bit of a strong statement, but it shows how people feel…
2004 Candlelight Tour – The Movie
With a quick turn-around, here is a Quicktime video of our house as it looked over the weekend during the Grant Park Candlelight Tour of Homes. I counted over 109 candles burning at one point – plus a few oil lamp menorahs. Whew! No fires were reported, but there were extinguishers in several handy locations, just in case. Click here for the movie!