The decision has been made to use the knowledge we have gained from the New Jersey Local and take the experiment in a new and exciting direction. And so today this part of The New York Times hyperlocal experiment has come to an end.

The Times is passing the baton to another site, Baristanet.com. Baristanet is one of the most successful hyperlocal Web sites in the country, and its owners, Debbie Galant and Liz George, both experienced writers and editors, are leaders in the field.

The new and exciting direction of which NYT speaks of is to cease publication… it seems lots of companies these days are trying this new approach to er…business.  Publicly traded NYT shut their experiment down because they couldn’t figure out how to make money with it, plain and simple.  Just looking at the The Local I could say, “where the hell is all the local advertising”?

Thankfully, Galant and George don’t seem to have any problem making money with their local news style.  Their sites content AND advertisements are plentiful and on topic.   A statement from their site follows below. Good luck to them and Happy Newsing.

Press Release from Baristanet

Starting tomorrow, July 1, the place we all call Baristaville gets bigger.

We will begin covering Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange with sites for each town as The New York Times today ends publication of The Local in New Jersey and directs its readers in those three towns to Baristanet.

We’ve served Montclair, Glen Ridge and Bloomfield — towns encompassing about 90,000 people — since 2004. Expanding to Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn will bring Baristanet’s coverage area to 150,000.

“Hyperlocal journalism is constantly evolving, and as The Times continues to investigate this arena, we’ll watch with great interest how our friends at Baristanet advance the cause in Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn,” said Jim Schachter, associate managing editor.

We’re thrilled that the Times has passed their hyperlocal baton to us and we will run with it. First and foremost, we are your local homegrown online community. And to that end, we are bringing these new towns into an expanded “Baristaville” by staying local. Journalist and Maplewood resident Jolie Solomon joins the Baristanet team along with community contributors from Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn.

What does this mean for you dear readers? More to love, we hope, and some new voices as we welcome these towns and new readers into the online community you helped create. Thanks for everything you do to make this site an online news and entertainment destination and a true community. And feel free to say hi and interact with your new neighbors in Baristaville.

###

Visit Baristanet.com for more.

click image above to experience the World Cup Visualization…

Some of you have asked for more info about the World Cup Visualization I recreated. Honestly, go read the overview of how robby macdonell did it, that’s what I did.

All my data came from wikipedia.  I’m still adding data to this little by little as time permits.

As an aside, I’m pretty comfortable using flash and actionscript and I feel that I could have done this in flash in half the time and with the emergence of things like Smokescreen and other things not yet created I would not discount the ubiquity of Flash for the near future.

U.S. Online Newspaper CPMs Nearly 3 Times Higher than Average

RESTON, VA, June 16, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report of the top U.S. online newspaper groups based on the comScore Media Metrix service. The newspaper category represents the first site category for which each of the top ten ranked entities has transitioned to the comScore Media Metrix 360 (Unified Digital Measurement) methodology.

The report showed that more than 123 million Americans visited newspaper sites in May, representing 57 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience, as the New York Times Brand led the category with more than 32 million visitors and 719 million pages viewed during the month. The average visitor viewed 22 pages of content on the New York Times, also leading the top ten. Tribune Newspapers ranked second in terms of audience with 24.8 million visitors, followed by Advance Internet (18.1 million visitors) and USA Today Sites (16.8 million visitors).

“The good news for publishers is that even as print circulation declines, Americans are actually consuming as much news as ever – it’s just being consumed across more media,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore senior vice president. “The Internet has become an essential channel in the way the majority of Americans consume news content today with nearly 3 out of 5 Internet users reading newspapers online each month. As news evolves towards a more digital model, the issue is not attracting the eyeballs, but rather demonstrating the true value of those eyeballs to advertisers. As advertising rates for digital move closer into line with those of traditional media, the economics of the news business should begin to look a lot more promising.”

Online Newspapers Attract High CPM Rates from Advertisers

comScore’s Ad Metrix service shows that among the top site categories where display ads appeared in April 2010, online newspapers accounted for 2.4 percent of impressions but a higher 6.7 percent of display advertising dollars. The average cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on online newspaper sites was $7, higher than each of the other top site categories and nearly three times the average CPM for the total U.S. Internet at $2.52.

“Online newspapers represent premium inventory for advertisers,” added Hackett. “comScore research conducted last year for the Online Publishers Association showed that visitors who are exposed to display ads on news sites are more likely than average to visit the advertiser website, are heavier online buyers and tend to have higher household income. Online news publishers are also leading the way in the use of newer display ad formats, which are aiming to create a richer, more engaging experience for consumers.”

In particular, online newspapers have demonstrated significantly faster adoption of the new OPA ad units. While these units currently account for just 0.06 percent of all display ads delivered online in the U.S., they account for 0.43 percent of ads on newspaper sites, or seven times higher than average. Notably, the Fixed Panel 336 x 860 unit is the most popular unit being used on newspaper sites among the new OPA units at a rate 35 times higher than average.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

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Partnership of the City, Polytechnic Institute of NYU and Columbia University Will Connect Media Companies with Academic Institutions and Drive Independent Technology Research

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today launched NYC Media Lab, a new initiative to promote innovation within New York City’s media industry. The new laboratory – a consortium of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and Columbia University – will drive new technology research and connect companies looking to advance new media technologies with local academic institutions undertaking related research. NYC Media Lab builds on models established at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and is the nation’s first government-supported laboratory for media innovation. It will be housed within the NYU Polytechnic Institute campus in Downtown Brooklyn. Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement at the Wired “Disruptive by Design” conference held at the Morgan Library and Museum, where he was joined by New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth W. Pinsky, NYU-Poly Provost Dianne Rekow, Columbia University Vice President for Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer Orin Herskowitz, and AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, an advisor to the City’s MediaNYC 2020 initiative.

“Many of New York City’s 100 universities and colleges are conducting new media-related research within areas that the City’s 10,000 media companies are looking to expand, but all too often that connection is made slowly or never at all. The NYC Media Lab will bring these two forces together,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “And by sponsoring its own independent research driven by private sector interests, the NYC Media Lab will further establish the City as a center for next-generation media research and commercial development.”

New York City Economic Development Corporation will provide $250,000 to establish NYC Media Lab, which will be located in Downtown Brooklyn at the NYU-Poly Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications and Distributed Information Systems. During its inaugural year it will host a minimum of 10 roundtable discussions between the private sector and academic institutions on topics ranging from technology innovation to business model redesign to legal issues. NYC Media Lab will host its first roundtable discussion this summer, focusing on the future of online and mobile video. The event, sponsored by WPP, the world’s largest communications services group, will bring together senior product and strategy leaders from across WPP’s portfolio of companies with faculty experts from Columbia, New York University and its Polytechnic Institute, who are currently engaged in research on the topic.

NYC Media Lab will connect private-sector businesses with research already underway, and develop collaborative research projects on topics vital to the City’s media industry such as: next generation search technologies; content format for digital mobile content; computer animation for film and gaming; emerging marketing techniques; and new devices currently in development that may affect content distribution. In addition, the NYC Media Lab will create a media research and development database comprised of university faculty; experts from corporations, not-for-profit research institutions, and R&D facilities throughout New York City; as well as contribute its own expertise to research currently being undertaken by the City’s academic institutions. It will also provide educational and networking services.

NYU-Poly will be responsible for management and operations of the NYC Media Lab, and Columbia University will coordinate involvement of its research faculty and faculty at other area institutions, and may contribute space for NYC Media Lab events. Divisions from area universities including New York University, the City University of New York, The New School, and Fordham University will be engaged to participate in the NYC Media Lab. And NYC Media Lab will develop a sponsorship and partnership structure to enable outside institutions to join the initiative. The NYC Media Lab will seek additional sponsors and members to support the expansion of its activities. Those looking for more information about NYC Media Lab can visit www.NYCMediaLab.org.

“The speed at which technology is evolving today means that our City’s academic researchers and media companies must work together to make sure that New York remains at the forefront of innovation,” said NYCEDC President Seth W. Pinsky. “By establishing this new Media Lab to facilitate these interactions, we increase the chances that the next great technology company will grow and thrive here, as opposed to Silicon Valley or elsewhere.”

“As technology and media increasingly converge, collaboration is essential to researching and identifying the best new IT solutions for New Yorkers,” said Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Carole Post. “The NYC Media Lab will provide the City valuable insights as it seeks to leverage academic and private sector expertise to address public sector issues.”

“NYU-Poly eagerly accepts the challenge to work with Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Economic Development Corporation to create the NYC Media Lab,” said President Jerry M. Hultin. “The NYC Media Lab is a prime example of academic entrepreneurship, a concept that we at NYU-Poly refer to as i-squared-e: invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. The NYC Media Lab will demonstrate that a university’s great ideas need not live only in laboratories but in the real world. The powerful combination of technology push from academia and market place pull from the City’s media leaders will transfer great research breakthroughs into new commercial products and processes.”

“Columbia enthusiastically embraced the challenge by Mayor Bloomberg and the City to join with our peer universities in New York on the MediaNYC 2020 task force,” said Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger. “With a Journalism School that trains leaders in the field, an Engineering School that helped develop FM radio, lasers and MPEG technology, and a Business School that is tackling the challenges of a changing media industry, we look forward to contributing a wide range of our intellectual capital to the NYC Media Lab. We share with the Mayor the firm belief that even in the most digital, disaggregated economy, New York City has unique advantages in creating a vibrant, entrepreneurial community where the next generation of media innovation can thrive.”

New York City is home to more than 100 colleges and universities, including nine academic research institutions that annually create over 600 inventions, produce nearly 200 new licenses and options, and generate over $500 million in licensing revenue. The City’s media sector employs more than 300,000 people and produces $30 billion in annual revenue. It also has a significant concentration of startups, many of which are in the new media sub-sector that is expected to expand significantly in the near term, with annual growth rates potentially surpassing 35 percent. Several of the City’s academic institutions currently undertake research on topics of interest to this sector; however, there has not been a facilitator to bring that research together with interested businesses. Many corporations at the intersection of media and technology, including WPP and AOL, are looking for ways to reach an expanding consumer base – including through expanded content distribution and hyper-local coverage – that may be supported by research currently being undertaken in New York City.

“New York City is the media capital of the world and today’s announcement by Mayor Bloomberg will ensure that it keeps that title as this industry continues to evolve and innovate,” said AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong. “The creation of the NYC Media Lab is the perfect collaboration between the private and public sectors and academia to realize the potential of homegrown innovations in this space. At AOL, we recognize the talent, resources and entrepreneurial spirit that’s alive here in New York. Earlier this year, we launched our own New York Technology Center with a goal of bringing more engineering into the content business – and making the Internet even more useful than it is today. We’re delighted to join with the Mayor on this announcement and look forward to working with the consortium on the Lab.”

NYC Media Lab will build upon initiatives already launched by the City to foster the creation of new media businesses and technologies and develop and train the sector’s workforce. These include: a network of business incubators for startup companies; the release of City data for software developers and programmers to create digital mobile applications; a seed and early-stage investment fund for technology businesses; a series of workshops to assist startups and small businesses in applying for City IT Contracts and federal research grants; and JumpStart and FastTrac programs to provide support to entrepreneurs launching or growing businesses in New York City.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Stu Loeser/Andrew Brent   (212) 788-2958

David Lombino/Libby Langsdorf (Economic Development Corp.)   (212) 312-3523

Kathleen Hamilton (NYU Polytechnic Institute)   (718) 260-3792

Holly Evarts (Columbia University)   (212) 854-3206

There isn’t much we can do to express our outrage over this mess except write a letter to our elected officials, never buy anything from BP ever again AND use as few plastics as possible.  This is just what Metaprinter Inc. will be doing from this day forward.

Robert Ivan
Owner, Metaprinter Inc.

He promises his sessions, like his tweets, will most likely be: * helpful * useful * informative * relevant * practical * actionable * entertaining * fun * occasionally funny

==> You can track his workshops at http://bit.ly/workshops and/or ask him to add you to his monthly tech tips & tricks mailing list: sree@sree.net

NEW YORK CITY:
Wed, June 2, 6:45-9:45 pm, NYC: Mediabistro workshop at Chinatown YMCA: BASIC Social Networking for Media Professionals – register here – USE THIS DISCOUNT CODE, SREE25 – save 25% on the class price: http://bit.ly/sreemb6
(this is the basic session; the advanced one is June 30; you can attend, one or both)

Wed, June 30, 6:45-9:45 pm, NYC: Mediabistro workshop at Chinatown YMCA: ADVANCED Social Networking for Media Professionals – register here – USE THIS DISCOUNT CODE, SREE25 – save 25% on the class price: http://bit.ly/sreemb7 Note: Sree will be joined by Soraya Darabi, a socmedia star who has more than 400,000 followers. (this is the advance session; the basic one is June 2; you can attend, one or both)

CHICAGO:
Thurs, June 17, 6-8 pm: A FREE intermediate/advanced social media workshop, hosted by Chicago chapters of SAJA & AAJA at Bloomberg Chicago bureau. Limited seating so please RSVP only if you can make it. Details: http://bit.ly/sreechi

BOSTON:
Thursday, June 24, 6:30-8:30 pm, Cambridge: FREE social media workshop at Cambridge Marriott. Limited seats available for outsiders – if you’d like to attend, e-mail sree@sree.net

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND:
Monday, June 7: 1-2:30 pm: FREE social media workshop at the Providence Journal. Limited seats available for outsiders – if you’d like to attend, e-mail sree@sree.net

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SOME RECENT ARTICLES ABOUT SREE’S WORK IN SOCMEDIA

NEW YORK OBSERVER: The Twitter Tutor – http://sree.ly/sreenyo

MEDIABISTRO: So, What Do You Do, Sree Sreenivasan?
http://bit.ly/sreembprofile

HUFFINGTON POST: Sree Sreenivasan on Using Social Media For Better Journalism -
http://bit.ly/sreehuffpo

LEAP (Sarah Davidson’s blog): Tweet or Die http://bit.ly/9unBJW

- – -

ATTENDEE COMMENTS FROM PREVIOUS SREE SESSIONS
“This seminar couldn’t be better. Sree is articulate and engaging, and really understands both his subject and the needs of the media professionals who attended the seminar.” — Lynn Brenner

“Sree knows his stuff. He packs lots of information into a totally engaging, fast-paced class. I strongly recommend this class for anyone who wants to understand social networking and how to apply it to their professional endeavors.” — TaRessa Stovall

“Sree was wonderful. He has a real knack for imparting an understanding of social networks and technology for the young and old.” — Peter Zehren

“Sree was absolutely terrific! He made a topic that is very difficult for many people to fully grasp very comprehensive.” — Melissa Schwartz

“Sree’s presentation was well thought out and the time flew by. He truly knows his stuff and engaged students as well.” — Anita Aboulafia

Prof. Sree Sreenivasan | sree@sree.net
Dean of Student Affairs, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
http://www.sree.net | http://www.sreetips.com
Contributing editor, DNAinfo: http://DNAinfo.com
FACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/sreetips
TWITTER: @sreenet – http://twitter.com/sreenet

iPad + Velcro from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Seriously though, we have an iPad for development purposes, but I haven’t seen a need for any personal reasons until watching this video. Now I want it just so I can watch cooking shows/ recipes while cooking in my Kitchen.

…thought you might interested this article from BNET about a new community news/hyperlocal company called Main Street Connect.  The founder of the company, Carll Tucker, talks in the article about how he got inspired to start the company and how it is different from other hyperlocal ventures in the space.

Here is the link to the article- http://blogs.bnet.com/smb/?p=558

Wed, April 28, 2010
6:30-8 pm

Columbia Journalism School
116th St & Broadway (#1 train to 116th St)

RSVP to: http://sree.ly/aajasaja28

Sign up for AAJA membership (open to all): http://aaja.org/membership
Sign up for SAJA membeship (open to all): http://bit.ly/sajamem

Free for members of those groups or pay $20 at the door if you are not a member.

We will check membership status at the door.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP: Already comfortable on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? Then it’s time to take it your social-media skills to the next level.

This special, advanced social-media class is designed to specifically help media pros make the most of social-media tools. You will be expected to know all the basics and be ready to dive into a session filled with practical, actionable tips and case studies.

# How to deepen your connection with your audience via social media

# New tools you must absolutely know and use

# How to build your personal brand

# How to find, on deadline, specific types of people you need for work

# The best ways to increase your followers, fans, and connections

# How to get the “right” followers, fans, and connections

# Metrics: why you need to understand them and how you can do just that

# Sustainable social media — how to keep from drowning in information and make time to participate efficiently

Versions of this have been taught by Sree at CNN, NBC, ABC, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Boston Globe, Washington Post, NPR, Mediabistro and elsewhere.

THE SPEAKER: Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs, Columbia Journalism School & contributing editor, DNAinfo.com – one of AdAge’s 25 media people to follow on Twitter. More on him at http://sree.net and you can see how he uses social media by connecting with him on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sreenet | Facebook: http://facebook.com/sreetips | LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/sreenivasan

He promises the workshop, like his tweets, will most likely be: * helpful * useful * informative * relevant * practical * actionable * entertaining * fun * occasionally funny

Here’s one comment from a previous attendee: “Professor Sree’s presentation at the Columbia Club luncheon in Naples was riveting, fast-paced and packed with information. He presented his material clearly, accessing the internet in real-time to introduce his audience to new and useful websites. Sree was friendly and open to questions at all times, and his style and sense of humor contributed to what was a fun learning experience.” – Michael Hanson

BTW, I am also teaching a brand-new workshop with a brand-new topic for a brand-new organization: “Get Beyond Job Hunting: Tips for Journalists and Media Professionals” – Wed, May 12, 6-9 pm (including mixer), NYC – presented by Guruloft at Hive at 55 (55 Broad Street, 13th floor, near Wall Street) – see details & register at http://bit.ly/gljobs – USE THIS DISCOUNT CODE – SREENET – for 15% off.