So off we headed to Savannah this weekend for some quality time with Grandma Rita, Uncle Jerry, and Scarlett. We stayed downtown at the Mulberry Inn (very comfy, thank you) and hung out with family for most of the weekend. We did explore downtown and it’s environs with Sammy, who had a blast riding the water taxi across the Savannah River, going bumpity-bump down the cobblestone ramps to River Street, and hanging out with our friends the Suszynski’s and their nearly 5-year-old daughter Maddie.
A really nice new product was released by Turner Classic Movies TCM.com yesterday (Reuters coverage here) – the Media Room. Very slick product with lots of classic movie material for your viewing pleasure. And see below – you can embed content off their site as well, like this intro by Otto Preminger for his film ‘In Harms Way’ starring John Wayne.
A colleague has pointed out that our hometown Atlanta Journal Constitution (free registration required) has a more in-depth story on Pipeline moving to a free product. Read ‘CNN’s Pipeline will Stream for Free.‘
In a story in today’s Wall Street Journal (free content) today that focuses on a new CNN initiative with Internet Broadcasting, a Minneapolis-based company that publishes the web sites for 70 local television stations, CNN has secured rights to use local stories from these affiliates, and will in turn provide content to them. As part of the deal, CNN is also taking a minority equity stake in the company. But an interesting tidbit can be found in the last paragraph of the article:
This summer, CNN also is planning to roll out a redesigned Web site that makes all its live and archived video content available free, shifting the subscription model to an advertising model.
And yes, my team has been working tirelessly on this effort for the last six months or more. I believe it’s a game-changer – the product formerly known as Pipeline (reviewed by PC Magazine at launch as ‘the most impressive video offering the Web has ever seen’) is moving to a free model, and when news is happening, I can’t imagine anyone not turning to this product if they don’t have direct access to a television but are online.
The article also talks at length about how much local market online advertising has grown relative to the overall interactive business, something on the order of 200% v. 70% over the last few years according to eMarketer stats cited in the story. This deal helps CNN in this area, and ideally increases traffic (and advertising rates) for both properties. By way of comparison, the article points out that IB has an audience of 13mm, versus CNN.com’s 27.9, and Yahoo and MSNBC.com’s 33.1mm.
A quick post of our little guy, catching a few last winks before Dad had to wake him to go to school this morning. He didn’t nap yesterday, and for the first time in forever fell asleep in my arms while I was telling him stories last night. I knew when he began snoring! He also woke up around 4am asking to hear one of his favorite songs – Thanks A Lot, by Raffi. Yeah, I know that music gets on some people’s nerves, but that particular song is in his bedtime iPod mix, and I always found it calming as can be. In this photo, he clutches his favorite blankie, made for him by our dear friend Alisa. For the past several months, that’s the only thing he’ll allow in the crib with him when he does down to sleep. Precious!