I removed the tweet at the request of Nielsen. I intended no harm and apologize for the reference.

– Oprah Winfrey, in a statement to the New York Times, referring to a tweet she published Sunday night encouraging Nielsen viewers to tune in to OWN, in violation of Nielsen’s policy

The firing of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz leaves open one of the bigger and more difficult jobs in tech — one that has taken its toll on many.

Nonetheless, rapper Snoop Dogg stepped right up to the Twitter plate yesterday, as soon as news broke of the ouster.

Tweeted Snoop Dogg:

“Im takn over as tha CEO of Yahoo. Need sum of tha Snoop Dogg content ya digg. Nuff Said.”

Not nearly nuff!

Thus, while the Yahoo board has yet to begin a search, I have already been hard at work on selecting the next CEO.

(Last time, the company took none of my suggestions, but after the most recent result, the directors might want to pay mind!)

Sources said Yahoo is looking for an experienced Internet type, either from inside or outside the company.

“Yahoo has put its flag in the ground as a digital media company with a technology base,” said one source. “The job requires big buckets of expertise and needs someone who will grow the company.”

Here I go with the outsiders:

Peter Chernin: The former News Corp. exec has been eyeing Yahoo for a possible takeover with other investors. Both Yahoo and I had picked him when co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO almost three years ago, and he had declined the offer. This time, perhaps a big chunk of the company and total autonomy would work, even if making a hit like “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is more fun.

Sheryl Sandberg: The COO of Facebook is sort of the anti-Bartz, with a smooth and efficient persona, and she is an experienced tech exec. But the former Google exec is at a place of growth at the social networking site, and is unlikely to want to leave the big show, especially since a blockbuster IPO is looming.

Jason Kilar: The Hulu CEO is in the midst of the process of selling the premium video service, with Yahoo as a bidder. While he has some tense relations with the studios, Kilar is top notch in his dedication to consumer products, and has a lot of experience from his stint at Amazon, too.

Dan Rosensweig: Currently CEO of IPO-headed Chegg textbook rental service, the former Yahoo exec never got a chance to run the company as its top leader. Well-connected and still well-liked by the troops at Yahoo, it still would be pretty hard for him to go home again.

Dave Goldberg: Sure, he’s married to Sandberg (see above), but the savvy CEO of polling phenom SurveyMonkey is one of the sharpest thinkers in Silicon Valley. He sold his music company to Yahoo many years ago and has a strong background in consumer online services.

Jon Miller: The chief digital exec at News Corp. almost got the CEO spot years ago when Carl Icahn was agitating for change at Yahoo, before Time Warner blocked him via a noncompete. With the mishegas at the media giant, and dwindling digital businesses there, it might be a good escape hatch for Miller.

Susan Wojcicki: The accomplished Google exec, who runs all its ad products, has the kind of calm, cool, collected persona that Yahoo could use right about now. The search giant was founded in her garage, and she has been a key part of its success since then. Wojcicki is also an understated class act in hey-look-at-me Silicon Valley.

Todd Bradley: The Hewlett-Packard exec just got blindsided when the company kicked webOS to the curb. While he is in line to run a possible spinoff of the device business, Bradley might also want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

Mike McCue: The CEO of Flipboard would certainly energize Yahoo with his intense focus on quality and consumer delight. The news app start-up could be a good addition to Yahoo, and McCue, the former Netscape and Microsoft exec who is well-liked in the Internet scene, would be, too.

Joanne Bradford: The former Yahoo advertising head bolted Bartz’s regime early on to run revenue for Demand Media. Well-liked in the ad business, she also knows where all the bodies are buried at Yahoo. Since ads and media are key at the company, she’d make an interesting choice.

Yusuf Mehdi: The Microsoft online exec would also be a left-field candidate to run Yahoo, given his even-keeled personality and longtime experience in the sector. And, though pricey, Mehdi’s impact on Bing search has been important. But he’s also been involved in the software giant’s lackluster ad and search partnership and still has not turned around the situation at MSN.

Kevin Johnson: The former Microsoft exec and current CEO of Juniper was once slated to be the CEO of Yahoo, had Microsoft managed to win the company in its hostile takeover attempt. In fact, Johnson was the architect of the idea of Yahoo running the media and Microsoft running the tech.

Tim Armstrong: Well, he might have been a good candidate before the downward slide of AOL and a recent series of questionable judgments. If Armstrong can’t keep a loud tech blogger in line, it’s not clear he can wrangle the Yahoo beast.

And here’s the insider scoop:

Ross Levinsohn: The former News Corp. exec is running the Americas for Yahoo, which puts him in charge of the company’s key businesses. But he’s still struggling to turn the ad business around, and how well he does that could be a major determinant of his success. But fantastic hair!

Blake Irving: The former Microsoft exec has an amiable nature and is well-liked at Yahoo, but he still needs to show that the company can ship some innovative products, and quickly. Like Livestand, the news reader, which is muchly late.

David Kenny: The Yahoo board member is now president of Akamai, which might preclude him from the job. But the well-regarded exec — he’s a snazzy dresser, too — ran one of the Internet’s top digital ad agencies and now has tech chops from the content delivery network.

Memo to Yahoo board: I have a million more ideas, from former Viacom exec Tom Freston to former Yahoo board member Eric Hippeau. Or why not bring back a passel of former Yahoos to advise, such as former CEO Terry Semel or former president Sue Decker?

Or Oprah! I hear Winfrey will be in Silicon Valley later this week, and she has a lot more free time now.

Like Snoop Dogg, she would fo shizzle be the bomb to cover.

Related posts

• As Yahoo Continues to Wobble, Investors (And Board) Eye Options
• Exclusive: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Tim Morse Named Interim CEO
• Carol Bartz’s Last F%*& You — Now Aimed at Yahoo Board
• Yahoo’s Statement on Bartz Ouster
• Wall Street Likes Bartz’s Firing — Yahoo Stock Spikes on News
• My Picks for Yahoo’s Next CEO — Maybe Snoop Dogg, Ya Digg?

Winfrey, who apparently hit it off with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at this year’s Allen & Company mogul meetup, is due at Facebook on Sept. 8. In addition to the live video interview, she’ll meet with a gathering of local tech industry folks to discuss social media and the Oprah Winfrey Network, and she’ll appear at one of Sandberg’s exclusive dinner events for Silicon Valley women.

Winfrey is an active Facebook user, with nearly 6.3 million fans who have “Liked” her official page.

Facebook is already soliciting questions for the live chat, which starts at 1:30 pm PT next Thursday.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement. 

In an important deal for social reading app Flipboard, it has partnered with magazine giant Condé Nast to offer a slew of titles with branded advertising from major marketers American Express and Lexus.

The pair will share in the specially designed program, which will include the New Yorker, Wired and Bon Appetit. Additional magazines will be added, the companies said.

Flipboard, which is a popular and elegant app for the Apple iPad, has been trying to create strong ties with big publishers as it seeks to dominate distribution in the fast-growing social reading arena. It recently struck a deal with OWN, for example, the new cable network Oprah Winfrey has launched with Discovery.

Here is the official press release:

Condé Nast and Flipboard Launch
Brand Advertising On Flipboard for iPad with The New Yorker, Wired and Bon Appétit

American Express to launch today, Lexus in October

July 25, 2011 — PALO ALTO, Calif. — Today, Flipboard and Condé Nast bring brand advertising to the popular social magazine for iPad with web content from The New Yorker, Wired and Bon Appétit, with additional titles coming to Flipboard throughout 2011. American Express will be first to launch its campaign starting today in The New Yorker with Lexus following suit in October in Bon Appétit, The New Yorker and Wired.

Flipboard’s new program gives publishers and content creators a fresh way to offer magazine-like experiences of their web content with full-page ads to showcase advertiser brands. With a limited number of ad pages available within select content, advertisers benefit from an unprecedented share of voice within an immersive iPad reading experience. A simple tap on the magazine-style ad takes a reader to a brand’s website or Facebook page for additional information.

“Condé Nast is always looking for ways to take advantage of new channels that provide an environment in keeping with our editorial excellence, while offering unique opportunities for readers and advertisers,” said Lou Cona, CMO at Condé Nast. “Flipboard’s social magazine is a great example of that winning combination, while also giving us another way to market our own portfolio of tablet apps.”

Flipboard developed its brand advertising on the popular and groundbreaking iPad in collaboration with Condé Nast including the design and placement of the advertising inside the social magazine. Using a revenue share model, Flipboard will manage inventory and the publisher maintains its direct relationships with advertisers.

“Condé Nast continues to create new experiences for their content that also brings new reach to their advertisers. We are excited to be a part of this overarching strategy and bring their amazing stories, images, publications and advertisers to readers on Flipboard,: said Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard.

“At American Express, we actively seek innovative partners that connect our Cardmembers with compelling and creative content through platforms that fit into their evolving digital lifestyle,” said Louis Paskalis, Vice President Global Media, Content Development & Mobile Marketing of American Express. “As such, we are proud to be an inaugural advertising partner for the groundbreaking New Yorker Flipboard edition, which will provide our Cardmembers and consumers everywhere a seamless, next-generation way to experience an iconic magazine in a tablet friendly adaptation.”

Enjoy:

Late last month, BoomTown posted about a huge venture funding effort by the high-profile and even more highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, Flipboard.

Today, its co-founder and CEO Mike McCue confirmed the $50 million round at an eye-popping $200 million valuation, in a wide-ranging interview at the start-up’s Palo Alto, Calif., HQ.

“We’re obviously thrilled, because we think it confirms our focus that people want a beautifully designed way to interact with content and to share it,” he said. “And there is a lot more to come–on a scale of one to 10, we’re just at a two or three.”

The bulk of the new second round of funding–Flipboard had previously raised $10.5 million–came from New York-based Insight Venture Partners.

Insight’s Jerry Murdock said in an interview that he was excited about the idea of “social endorsement” that Flipboard was pioneering.

“We back great entrepreneurs and Flipboard is that and also in an obviously unique position to solve a problem of media consumption in the digital age,” he said. “The sky is the limit. Or more precisely it is the best environment to consume curated real-time content for Twitter and Facebook, because of the user experience and social endorsement integration with the content.”

Insight is also an investor in Twitter.

Also stepping up in the new Flipboard round is Comcast’s venture arm, as well as previous investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures and a spate of well known angels, such as Twitter co-founder and product guru Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder and Asana dude Dustin Moskovitz, the ubiquitous Ron Conway, actor Ashton Kutcher and the investment company of former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin.

“From a Comcast perspective, we’re intrigued with Mike and what he’s doing with content aggregation,” said Amy Banse, Comcast Interactive Capital’s new head. “We think we can learn from him and he from us.”

Co-founded by longtime entrepreneur McCue (Netscape, Tellme) and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll in January, Flipboard launched to much attention in July.

The elegant Flipboard–which McCue recently told me in an onstage interview at the South by Southwest conference in Austin had zero revenues thus far–has changed the game on the consumption of social media.

Its innovative social magazine concept is attempting to make the social networking universe more accessible, consumable and, perhaps most importantly, visually arresting via its rich app.

Essentially, Flipboard pulls information from media RSS feeds and sites such as Twitter and Facebook data streams and then reassembles it in an easy-to-navigate, personalized format in a mobile tablet touchscreen environment.

In its current offering, there are pull-quotes, photos, videos, status updates and even the first paragraphs of linked-out content. There is also the ability to comment and share, as if one were on a social networking or microblogging site.

McCue said the new giant pile of cash will be used to increase its 32-person staff to about 50, international expansion, small acquisitions and more product development on more platforms.

The next in the arena will be the iPhone version of Flipboard, said McCue, followed by one for the Google Android mobile operating system eventually.

Left unsaid, of course, was the need for funding to fight the likelihood of increased competition in the hot space for delivering both professional and social content to consumers on a wide range of devices.

Rivals are varied, such as Silicon Valley’s most adorable news reader start-up Pulse and also Zite, a news reader which was recently sued for copyright infringement by a group of major publishers.

There are bigger potential players, such as Google, which is trying to find various ways to move into the social space.

In fact, said several sources, Google and others have made acquisition approaches to Flipboard, which has instead opted for raising more funding and staying independent for now.

McCue declined to talk about that, but did note that he is not surprised by publisher interest, especially of the worried and wary kind, in the arena.

“Anyone not respectful of others’ content is going to get in that kind of trouble,” he said, noting Flipboard has struck deals with 17 big publishers so far, including this morning’s announcement about a partnership with Oprah Winfrey’s and Discovery’s OWN cable network. “There is not one half to this equation.”

Right now, the Flipboard app is free and the business plan is advertising and some possible subscription scenarios.

McCue said advertising will be the key to Flipboard’s business plan in the future, although it’s not clear if the company will ever sell advertising itself.

Rather, it will partner with publishers seeking better distribution in the explosive tablet and smartphone market, where Flipboard has been gaining traction quickly.

But until that is sorted out, there is now $50 million more in the Flipboard kitty to figure it all out.

“With this funding, we can grow at the right pace and have a lot of flexibility to get the product right,” said McCue. “And, that’s the most important thing.”

In a post last week, BoomTown wrote that Cisco would introduce a consumer telepresence product.

It did today in San Francisco at a press event. It is called, inexplicably, “Umi” telepresence.

I’ll be honest, it sounds like the kind of sushi I typically refuse to eat, because I am not as adventurous as I like to pretend I am.

Actually, it seems to be a variation on you-me.

Get it? You and me and telepresence. As in “Star Trek” for non-geeks.

According to Wikipedia, here are some other definitions for the word:

“Umi may refer to: Umi, ‘sea’ in Japanese language; UMI, Universal Mobile Interface; Umi, Fukuoka, a town in Japan; Umi-a-Liloa, the king of the island of Hawaii; Umi Ryuzaki, a character in the fictional manga series ‘Magic Knight Rayearth’ by CLAMP.”

“Connect with a touch of the button,” is the motto for the giant Silicon Valley networking company for Umi.

And, frankly, I wish I could have telepresenced from my bed at home with it.

You can, using Umi with your existing high-definition television and high-speed broadband. It’s in three parts: A camera, a remote control and, ugh, yet another set-top box to pile on the rest on the shelf in your home living room, as you can see below.

Cisco said the device is scheduled to be available to consumers on November 14 in Best Buy (BBY) Magnolia Home Theater stores, as well as at bestbuy.com and umi.cisco.com “for the suggested retail price of $599 with a monthly fee of $24.99 for unlimited ?mi calls, video messaging and video storage.”

At the short and sweet event, Cisco execs touted their entry into the crowded consumer video-conferencing arena.

“It’s all about tasting the chocolate,” said Cisco exec Gina Clark about her box of Umi, which will work with Google Voice Chat–but not Skype and Apple (AAPL) iChat yet.

It also has the seal of approval from Oprah Winfrey, who will doubtlessly use it in some Oprah manner on her talk show.

Clark mentions tasting the chocolate several more times to knock the point home that if you try it, you’ll like it.

I can’t believe I ate the whole Umi!

Now, Cisco–which really is obsessed with the chocolate metaphor today–is making me have a chomp in a demo.

And, while I am no reviewer, it is pretty sweet, and looks great, well beyond what is available via Internet video chat.

Until the inevitable shaky video appears, here is the full press release from Cisco (CSCO):

Cisco umi Press Release

No, you may not, and that’s what I said on Leo Laporte’s terrific “This Week in Tech” online show last Sunday about why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his recent $100 million donation to schools in Newark, New Jersey, on the same day as the splashy Hollywood movie–”The Social Network”–eviscerating him premiered.

Because the powerful television talk show host wanted him on that week, since she was focusing on education reform! And what Oprah Winfrey wants, Oprah Winfrey gets–which is pretty much my motto for life.

Bad timing? Good timing? Whatev–kids in need get a piece of the Silicon Valley wunderkind’s pile of moolah, so I am good with it no matter when Zuckerberg announced it.

Also joining Laporte as guests on the program were tech super-couple Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla and gdgt’s Ryan Block. The show is a lively one.

Topics included were: TechCrunch’s Angelgate (I really have to ignore this faux-controversy now), the alleged Facebook smartphone, China spying on Gmail, making room for new set-top boxes, Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt’s Bing FUD, Zynga’s Farmville panic, brodown throwdown and, of course, the Facebook Movie.

Here’s the full video:

Those efforts range from attempting to massage the script, according to one of the film’s producers, to promoting an alternative corporate history.

The movie, “The Social Network,” depicts Mr. Zuckerberg as a socially awkward egomaniac who may have stolen the idea for his company from fellow students while he was an undergraduate at Harvard University.

The film—which premieres Friday night and will be widely released Oct. 1 by Sony Corp.’s (SNE) Sony Pictures—takes as its narrative framework two lawsuits over the company’s origins. Facebook later settled the cases.

On Friday, Mr. Zuckerberg will announce on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that he is donating $100 million to the public schools in Newark, N.J.— his first major act of philanthropy.

According to a person familiar with the matter, Facebook didn’t time Mr. Zuckerberg’s gift for the film’s premiere.
Mr. Zuckerberg, through a company spokesman, declined to be interviewed for this article.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The question is: Which movie was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinking about when he decided recently to fork over $100 million to public schools in Newark, New Jersey?

Was it a bid to spiff up his image–with a splashy announcement on Oprah Winfrey’s popular television talk show tomorrow?

That would be the very same day of the New York premiere of “The Social Network,” a movie that rakes the now-26-year-old Silicon Valley wunderkind over some very hot coals in the sordid tale of how he founded the powerful social networking site while at Harvard University.

Or was it actually the impact of another film, “Waiting for Superman,” a just-released gripping documentary about the crisis in public education?

It’s become a topic that has apparently become of great interest to Zuckerberg, as he has been considering his approach to big-time philanthropy in anticipation of huge wealth after Facebook eventually has its long-anticipated IPO.

In fact, said sources, the timing of the donation was hotly debated within the company, with worries that it would look like Zuckerberg was trying to counter the flood of negative press from “The Social Network.”

And for good reason.

After seeing a screening of the movie recently, MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka noted that “the film portrays him as an insecure jerk who screws over people and becomes a much-richer insecure jerk…He’s the bad guy in his own creation myth.”

In fact, said sources, Zuckerberg actually has been cooking up the deal since he and high-profile Newark Mayor Cory Booker started kibitzing over the idea while both attended the Allen & Co. conference in July.

From there, Zuckerberg decided it was best to flood the zone–in this case, the deeply troubled Newark school system, which had previously been taken over by the state.

Now, it will instead get a big dose of friending–um, funding–from a foundation that Zuckerberg is funding with $100 million worth of Facebook stock, which will be sold off in secondary markets as needed.

Sources said his interest in the area was apparently sparked by watching the up-and-down experience of his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, whose first job out of college was as a teacher. She is now a medical student.

It’s all an unusual bipartisan effort, with Zuckerberg working with the Democratic Booker and also New Jersey’s new Republican Governor Chris Christie.

The pair of politicians, who will formulate a plan, pushed for the announcement this particular week on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” in order to give the topic national attention.

Winfrey has been focusing on education reform this week on her show, and the Obama administration is reportedly going to do the same in the weeks ahead.

Thus, Zuckerberg himself decided to move forward now, sources said, apparently concluding that even if a prominent movie was portraying him as the villain, he did not have to act like one in real life.

But don’t tell Hearst. The publisher says it will charge at least as much for the iPad versions of its magazines as it does for its paper and ink version. And in the case of at least one title, it may ask for more.

Hearst says that when the full version of its Popular Mechanics app launches in the fall, it is considering charging a dollar more for the digital magazine than the $3.99 the title fetches at the newsstand. Meanwhile a demo version of the app, which doesn’t contain everything in the magazine, is now going for $1.99.

What gives? John Loughlin, Hearst Magazine’s executive vice president, makes two arguments:

• True, Hearst doesn’t have to pay to print and distribute copies of the app. But it’s still spending money on it, both for app-specific features like new interactive graphics and videos, and for digital overhead costs.
• At least as important: Hearst thinks everyone else who sells their digital stuff at a discount–or worse yet, gives it away online–is dead wrong. “I think publishers have learned a huge lesson from our cousins in the newspaper world,” Loughlin says. “I think we’ve got an opportunity to reset the right expectations out of the gate.”

Philosophically, Hearst isn’t alone. Nearly every publisher I’ve talked to imagines that the iPad will give them the ability to reverse the price-eroding effects of the Web. But the digerati squawked when Time Warner’s (TWX) Time Inc. and Condé Nast charged the same price for their first magazine apps. And even though Condé’s Wired app debut sold 100,000 copies at offline prices, the publisher has since shaved a dollar off the price.

Loughlin doesn’t expect to charge a premium for every magazine app Hearst puts out. IPad editions of Esquire and Oprah Winfrey’s O magazine, due out in August and November, respectively, will have fewer bells and whistles than Popular Mechanics. So there, he’ll be willing to charge the same price as the print edition.

And Loughlin says he’ll follow the same pricing philosophy when Hearst begins selling subscriptions to its iPad magazines, which it plans to start with Esquire at the end of this summer–digital subscriptions will be priced at or above the price that print subs pay.

Meanwhile, a word on iPad subscriptions, which Hearst’s competitors are also planning on rolling out but haven’t done yet: Hearst doesn’t like the current plan, which involves selling bundles of issues for one-time payments via Apple’s iTunes store.

That’s because that method gives Apple (AAPL) 30 percent of the transaction, and more importantly, it doesn’t give the publisher access to crucial subscriber data. But since that’s the only option Apple is offering for now, Hearst will take it.

Ideally, Loughlin says, Apple will relent and allow it sell iPad subscriptions directly. If not, he’s hopeful that iPad/iTunes competitors–most likely Google and its Chrome and Android platforms–will give Hearst the terms it wants.

We chatted about all of this yesterday, after a show-and-tell session where Hearst laid out its digital road map for the rest of the year (short version–lots of apps!):

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100715/is-there-an-ipad-premium-hearst-says-its-popular-mechanics-app-may-cost-more-than-the-print-version/feed/ 6 http://allthingsd.com/20100426/kindle-lover-oprah-fawns-over-the-ipad/ http://allthingsd.com/20100426/kindle-lover-oprah-fawns-over-the-ipad/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:06:40 +0000 Geoffrey A. Fowler http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=24404 Is Oprah Winfrey shifting gadget loyalties?

The question comes to mind following some comments by Winfrey–-a prominent past booster of Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle–-during a short segment of her influential TV show last week that featured tech analyst Omar Wasow and the Apple (AAPL) iPad.

Winfrey gushed about the “amazing” new device, which she said she got the day of its launch. One reason is that “books move,” she said, as she demoed how the iBooks app (featuring the Oprah Book Club) keeps e-books on a virtual shelf and how some books can feature interactive elements. “It’s going to change the way kids learn,” she said.

She also said that she loved the iPad because it is back-lit, which makes the screen good for sharing digital photos and playing games like Scrabble. “Gosh, those Apple folks,” she said.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100426/kindle-lover-oprah-fawns-over-the-ipad/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100310/twitters-wallflowers-get-a-little-less-timid-but-its-still-a-service-for-watchers-not-talkers/ http://allthingsd.com/20100310/twitters-wallflowers-get-a-little-less-timid-but-its-still-a-service-for-watchers-not-talkers/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:12:31 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=17224 Twitter gets described as a conversation or a cocktail party, but it’s really more like a stage play. A few people do all the talking, and everyone else watches and listens.

But that’s changing, a bit, as the service grows.

Barracuda Labs, a security company that says it has surveyed 19 million Twitter accounts, reports that 73 percent of Twitter users have tweeted 10 or fewer times. And 34 percent of users have never tweeted at all.

That’s a lot of quiet users, but it’s less than before: Barracuda says those numbers are down from 79 percent and 37.1 percent, respectively, in June of last year.

Barracuda also notes that Twitter had a huge surge in growth from November 2008 through April 2009, when there was a rush of publicity about celebrities who tweet (Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN, etc.). The company claims that nearly half of all Twitter accounts were created in that period.

But even high-profile Twitterers don’t tweet that much. Most of the messaging on the service, Barracuda says, comes from users with about 1,000 followers (see chart below; click to enlarge).

All of this makes for fun data points to snack on. But for Twitter’s managers and investors, the usage numbers underscore a key question the company needs to resolve: Is it a communications utility a la Facebook or is it a media company?

The Twitter guys have resisted the second notion, but that’s sure what the company looks like from the outside–because it distributes content created by a small number of people for a large number of people.

If done right, that can still be a very good business, especially if you don’t have to pay anyone to create the content.

But a service with a largely passive user base also loses out on some opportunities. Twitter’s plan to ape Google’s (GOOG) search advertising, for instance, won’t be nearly so robust if most of its users aren’t making tweets and searching for them.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100310/twitters-wallflowers-get-a-little-less-timid-but-its-still-a-service-for-watchers-not-talkers/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100208/viral-video-the-conan-debacles-final-score-game-goes-to-letterman/ http://allthingsd.com/20100208/viral-video-the-conan-debacles-final-score-game-goes-to-letterman/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:15:17 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=24119

The snake finally ate its own tail in the long-running NBC debacle over the network’s mishandling of its late-night switcheroo, with a Super Bowl promotion for David Letterman’s “Late Show” on CBS (CBS) last night.

It starred Letterman, daytime talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and–big reveal–Jay Leno.

The bit was perhaps what will be the final joke in the humor-heavy mess around the cloddish game of musical chairs perpetrated by NBC management on the Viacom (VIA) television network’s late-night stars.

In the end, “Tonight Show” host Conan O’Brien was out, replaced by former “Tonight Show” host Leno, who had previously been replaced by O’Brien and whose own attempt at a show earlier in the evening bombed.

Of all the players, “Late Show” host Letterman has actually gotten the most mileage from the imbroglio, taking an endless number of dead-on shots at Leno, all of which portrayed him as the villain, including a high-pitched impression of him.

That mockery was on display in the short promo below, with the trio on a couch for what Letterman called the “worst Super Bowl party ever.”

It wasn’t.

Enjoy the video, as well as the 2007 promo it was based on with just Letterman and Winfrey.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100208/viral-video-the-conan-debacles-final-score-game-goes-to-letterman/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091120/why-broadcast-tv-wont-miss-oprah/ http://allthingsd.com/20091120/why-broadcast-tv-wont-miss-oprah/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:38:14 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=13111 You can debate whether Oprah Winfrey’s plans to shut down her broadcast show–in 2011–and move to cable constitutes “news.” Ditto for what it means for the culture.

But what do Oprah’s plans mean for the TV business? Not that much, argues JP Morgan (JPM) analyst Michael Meltz. Short version of his note published this morning: It’s not bad for OWN, the cable network Oprah co-owns with Discovery (DISCA). But it’s also not terrible for CBS (CBS) and Disney’s (DIS) ABC, the two broadcasters currently in the “Oprah” business.

That’s because while the move makes for unpleasant “optics”–bizspeak for “looks bad”–for broadcast, it turns out that Oprah didn’t make that much money for the business. (But plenty for herself, obviously.)

Medium-sized version of Meltz’s argument:

• The show made $50 million a year for CBS, which syndicated the program. CBS would rather have that money than not, but losing it will amount to a “rounding error” in 2012.
• The show was a big ratings hit for local TV stations, but they paid a lot for it–upward of $200,000 a week in big markets. That made it a loss-leader for most broadcasters, Meltz says.
• And yes, the show provided a big lead-in audience to local TV news broadcasts, particularly in top ABC markets. But given that it’s not going to end up on a rival broadcast channel, “it is conceivable that station audience/ad share won’t change much for the day-part.”

Okay. Back to the crying and teeth-gnashing.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091120/why-broadcast-tv-wont-miss-oprah/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091117/palin-nears-one-million-facebook-fans-while-lagging-on-twitter/ http://allthingsd.com/20091117/palin-nears-one-million-facebook-fans-while-lagging-on-twitter/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:06:08 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=20687

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is certainly giving her Facebook fan page a workout this week, as she nears one million fans.

Using the site to flack her new book, “Going Rogue,” which comes out officially today, it got a big boost from her interview today with Oprah Winfrey, clocking in at close to 995,000 fans last night.

Posts include info on her multipart interview with Barbara Walters, her unhappiness with the recent cover of her in running clothes in Newsweek magazine (“The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now.”) and, of course, how the media were unfairly attacking her.

Interestingly, Palin’s followers for the book in Twitter (#SarahPalinUSA) number a paltry 17,624.

Still, Palin has other Twitter accounts, such as when she was governor of Alaska (153,432), but this is still a very small audience.

(By the way, President Barack Obama is closing in on seven million fans on Facebook and 2.7 million followers on Twitter.)

As the media onslaught gains steam, here is some video of Palin’s television interview on “Oprah” yesterday:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091117/palin-nears-one-million-facebook-fans-while-lagging-on-twitter/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090521/skype-gets-the-oprah-treatment/ http://allthingsd.com/20090521/skype-gets-the-oprah-treatment/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 15:17:37 +0000 Geoffrey A. Fowler http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=11995 Oprah Winfrey may already be the Queen of All Media, but lately she’s been gunning for another title: Queen of All Tech.

Thursday’s episode of the show (taped earlier this month) is entirely dedicated to Skype, eBay’s (EBAY) soon-to-be-spun-off Internet communications service.

On the show, titled “Where the Skype Are You?,” Winfrey conducts video chats–via Skype–with people in weird places. Those places include a Canadian town near the North Pole, and from a submarine. She also talks to somebody flying in a Virgin America plane that offers Wi-Fi service–although Virgin warns they don’t allow us normal people to use Skype and other voiceover IP services to make calls while in the air (so that folks don’t annoy other passengers with noisy calls).

Winfrey also interviews Skype president Josh Silverman in a not-so-weird place: Skype’s London office.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090521/skype-gets-the-oprah-treatment/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090424/which-governator-candidate-is-better-at-twitter/ http://allthingsd.com/20090424/which-governator-candidate-is-better-at-twitter/#comments Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:30:18 +0000 Marisa Taylor http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=11144 Ashton, Oprah, Britney, when will it end?

Now Twitter is taking on a distinctly political bent, with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom using the service to announce his bid for governor of California. On Tuesday, he wrote: “It’s official- running for Gov of CA. Wanted you to be the first to know. Need your help. Check out video: http://tr.im/iOCN and ReTweet.”

How do his tweets stack up to the musings of the would-be Republican candidate, former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman?

For starters, Mayor Newsom has more than 290,000 followers, while Ms. Whitman has about 940 (point for Gavin).

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090424/which-governator-candidate-is-better-at-twitter/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090421/newsom-enters-twit-race-to-grab-way-more-than-a-million-voters/ http://allthingsd.com/20090421/newsom-enters-twit-race-to-grab-way-more-than-a-million-voters/#comments Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:04:06 +0000 Beth Callaghan http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=16387 In a move that most likely would not have been made without the recent efforts of Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his candidacy for the California Governor’s seat this morning via Twitter.

This web- and Twitter-savvy move (he uses the word “retweet”!) is the most immediate piece of a digital campaign strategy that also includes a YouTube channel, a Facebook presence, a Flickr account and a Digg profile, all lined up in the footer of every page on his Web site. Visitors are also urged to sign up for an email newsletter.

Campaign 2.0 was ushered into existence by Barack Obama’s brilliant campaign manager, David Plouffe, who really set the gold standard, even though Twitter wasn’t a part of his strategy. The microblogging powerhouse wasn’t at quite the same level of omnipresence a year and a half ago as it is today.

One of Twitter’s most persistent qualities is its malleability, lending it to any number of creative applications users can invent and implement. Of course, Twitter is the tool, not the strategy–next election cycle, there will no doubt be a new shiny new app to play with. But for now, It will be interesting to see if Newsom’s camp does something creative with this one.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090421/newsom-enters-twit-race-to-grab-way-more-than-a-million-voters/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090416/i-cant-believe-i-am-now-following-ashton-kutcher-on-twitter-because-cnn-just-cannot-win/ http://allthingsd.com/20090416/i-cant-believe-i-am-now-following-ashton-kutcher-on-twitter-because-cnn-just-cannot-win/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:36:16 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=12357

Actor Ashton Kutcher crossed the million-follower-on-Twitter line at 11:12 p.m. PDT, beating CNN.

Kutcher simply tweeted: “Victory is ours!!!!!!!!

The CNN cable news channel went over the million mark soon after, but still a clear second.

Here is a pix, below, from Twitter HQ of the Kutcher win, on its database (courtesy of Twitter’s Jessica Verrilli).

The race was getting close as midnight neared on the West Coast.

Not a real race, but a race of the Twits.

That would be Kutcher vs. CNN.

CNN was all over the issue on airwaves tonight touting its Twitter feed, because–you know–there is no more important news to cover, like the weak economy or anything.

And at Twitter’s offices in San Francisco, staff was up monitoring the race to one million “followers,” those who sign up to receive a person’s or organization’s tweets on the hot microblogging service.

Kutcher is scheduled to be on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” later today, along with Twitter CEO and co-founder Evan Williams, when the talk show host will do her first tweet.

Oprah, of course, will get to one million users in 4.67 seconds, which is making everyone on Twitter worry about the looming Fail Whale of all time.

(Oprah Friend-in-Chief Gayle King is already up and tweeting via @kinggayle–with her first one going over 140 characters, oops, just as we all did.)

In a moment of temporary insanity, BoomTown actually clicked the follow button for Kutcher.

What can I say? I like “Punk’d” and want Larry King to go down like a ton of bricks.

Now I am officially worried about what Kutcher–whose Twitter handle is aplusk–will do with his one million minions. Order us all to play idiotic practical jokes on people? Rent Demi Moore movies, even the unwatchable ones (“G.I. Jane” anyone?), over and over? Get 1970s mullets?

If you are so inclined, here’s a chart of the situation now from chartbeat, with the numbers ticking up like a clock, which you can track here (click on the chart to make it larger):

While we wait, here is a video of the famous haircutting scene from “G.I. Jane”:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090416/i-cant-believe-i-am-now-following-ashton-kutcher-on-twitter-because-cnn-just-cannot-win/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20090313/if-oprah-approved-zuckerberg-cant-buy-twitter-co-opting-it-is-the-next-best-thing/ http://allthingsd.com/20090313/if-oprah-approved-zuckerberg-cant-buy-twitter-co-opting-it-is-the-next-best-thing/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:18:44 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=10936

Fresh from his puppy dog-esque, “Oprah” interview, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made good use of the press the television talk show appearance engendered to hawk his wares, most especially new features the hot social networking-site has been coming out with of late.

Including some that look suspiciously like Twitter, the hot microblogging service that has hip-checked Facebook out as the new “in” thing in Silicon Valley and which declined Zuckerberg’s acquisition attempt last year.

But what tool did the ever-clever Zuckerberg also use yesterday to flack his products?

Twitter, of course!

Imitation is, of course, the sincerest form of flattery. But the posting by him (finkd) and also PR honchette Brandee Barker (facebookbrandee) does give new meaning to the word: coopetition.

Here are Zuckerberg’s and Barker’s tweets today, as well as part of the Oprah Winfrey interview–well, more a lovefest for the tie-wearing (please stop taking him shopping, Brandee!) and unusually loquacious Zuckerberg–below:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090313/if-oprah-approved-zuckerberg-cant-buy-twitter-co-opting-it-is-the-next-best-thing/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090313/oprah-to-interview-facebook-founder-about-%e2%80%a6-friend-requests/ http://allthingsd.com/20090313/oprah-to-interview-facebook-founder-about-%e2%80%a6-friend-requests/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:30:12 +0000 Jessica Vascellaro http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=9437 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will take to Oprah Winfrey’s couch today. What to expect? Questions about the economy? Mark’s not-so-secret Twitter account? The latest redesign?

Here’s what we’re hearing: Oprah and three guests–Oprah’s best friend Gayle King, actress Ali Wentworth and actor Mark Consuelos–will interview Mark and show a demo of the show’s new page on Facebook. A celebrity Facebook addict might Skype in to talk up the service as well, although that’s still a little TBD.

Another thing likely to be on the agenda: those nitpicky Facebook etiquette questions and some user stories to back them up.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090313/oprah-to-interview-facebook-founder-about-%e2%80%a6-friend-requests/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081127/amazon-no-kindles-for-you-this-year/ http://allthingsd.com/20081127/amazon-no-kindles-for-you-this-year/#comments Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:06:20 +0000 Eric Savitz http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=6386 If you were planning to buy that special someone on your holiday shopping list an Amazon (AMZN) Kindle e-book reader, you better come up with something else.

Amazon notes on its Web site that “due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is sold out.” Amazon advises ordering now, though, “to reserve a place in line,” noting that orders will be filled on a first come, first served basis. The site says that the Kindle usually ships “in 11-13 weeks.” Silicon Alley Insider notes that the long wait suggests that those who order now could actually end up with Kindle 2.0, which is expected to launch in Q1.

Maybe Oprah bought them all.

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