video

A couple of good-news items from the AP crossed my desk over the weekend:

• Mac and Firefox support for AP Video. We've all griped about the IE-only, Microsoft-powered AP Video service. In the next few weeks AP will begin beta-testing a new video player that's compatible with non-Microsoft browsers like Firefox and will also run on the Mac. Full rollout is expected in September.
• More metadata. This has been an itch for as long as I've been working online. The AP board has agreed that AP "should develop digital standards that all news organizations could use for tagging and organizing news content -- text, photos, audio and video. ... The digital standards, much like the AP Stylebook, are key to allowing faster, more accurate search of original news reporting. As part of the effort, AP will start working with a small number of member news organizations on ways to refine the standards and make them more widely available. The board believes that these steps will help news companies improve their online businesses."

I've become a big fan of Ze Frank -- a New York vblogger whose real name is Hosea Frank. His intense, up-close, jump-cut bursts of incredulity are always funny, but since I've spent a lot of time traveling lately (Stockholm, Brussels, Kansas City, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minneapolis, Washington) I really appreciated his rant about Delta Airlines and his riff on Minnesota, which was my home for over a decade. If you're not a sports racer, following those links may turn you into one. Frank was profiled this week by nytimes.com. Study his videos; there's much to learn about optimizing for the Web.

Mark Glaser, who has moved over to PBS, has some more thoughts on the new AP Video service being unavailable outside the Microsoft world. He quotes some discussion from the online-news email list and has attracted some feedback, much of which gets at that old Microsoft. vs. Apple feud. Here's what I posted in response:

I don't think it's possible to discuss anything in which Microsoft is involved without bringing in a discussion of Microsoft's business practices, strategies and ethics. This isn't about incompetency in coding; it's about Microsoft purposefully tying media availability to its technology platform strategy (i.e., force an all-Microsoft world).

It may be that Apple would do the same thing if they could.

But I don't care about Microsoft vs. Apple.

I care about maintaining an open, level playing field in which anyone can publish and anyone can consume. We are all suspicious of government encroachment on press and speech freedoms. We need to be equally on guard against encroachment by giant multinational corporate interests.

I understand why AP took the route it did -- not to conspire against Mac owners, but to get a service up and running quickly, with an ad sales partner (MSN) whose ability to sell the network is known. Unfortunately, AP now is entangled in Microsoft's business practices.

I've recommended that my company sign the AP deal and deploy video.ap.org on our websites. But I'm doing so with a bad taste in my mouth, and with a reliance on AP's verbal promise to push Microsoft to open the service to open, standards-compliant Web browsers.

Tossed casually into a meandering media story in Sunday morning's New York Times is a reference to Spot Runner, a significant new Web-based ad service -- it's in beta -- that lets small businesses schedule local video advertising on cable/broadcast systems.

It's the local TV equivalent of Google's Adsense, a way for small businesses to buy advertising without having to talk with a sales rep, worry about production details, or for that matter put on a pair of pants. Like AdSense, it's inexpensive and it's something an entrepreneur can do at 11 p.m. or 6 a.m.

From a fairly extensive library, you pick a stock commercial like this one designed for carpet cleaning, you fill out some forms, and you pay with a credit card. Spot Runner recuts the voiceover and handles placement.

In my market, the Betty Boop ad would cost me about $350 for exclusivity. Presumably the airtime would cost more -- I can't tell and I'm not pulling out a credit card just to try it. But it does look remarkably easy and relatively cheap.

Both local TV stations and newspapers are hurting economically these days because traditional big retail advertisers are being replaced by national chains, such as Walmart and Best Buy, that buy mostly national advertising. Some of that money trickles down to local media, but it's a pittance compared with the good old days of local department stores.

To compensate, they have to find ways to go after smaller advertisers. Most newspapers and TV stations never call on the majority of potential accounts in their areas. Many entrepreneurs are bad credit risks. Many can't afford the rates. Cost of sales eats up any potential profit. A self-service, Web-based system fixes all of that.