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YouTube Journalism Gets Its Own Pulitzer
Confession: when I think Pulitzer, I think hard-hitting investigations and thoroughly researched journalism. I don’t necessarily think YouTube. That’s my mistake, though, because yesterday YouTube announced the winner of its Project: Report competition, a collaboration with the Pulitzer Center to find aspiring journalists who focus on stories “not typically covered by the traditional media.” Working much like the Sketchies, Project: Report narrowed down the field of entrants to five over the course of three rounds of competition, and the winner was determined by YouTube viewers.
- Editor rating:
The question is, how much reporting can you actually do in a five-minute span of time? Even given my bias against longer videos, sometimes you simply need more time to tackle a given subject. Project: Report winner Arturo Perez Jr. triumphed with his third round entry Abilities, a heartfelt portrait of a community for adults with developmental disabilities. Not exactly a hard-hitting investigation, especially given the too-short time frame: while Abilities manages to convey a strong message about learning to see “the person behind the disability,” it raised so many other questions (What kind of obstacles do Camphill California and its residents face? Why are communities like this important?) that I felt unsatisfied. The topic could easily supply several episodes of material, so the piece as it stands feels a bit superficial. Read more of this story
The Outlook for Video Startups in 2009
The new year doesn’t promise to bring much in the way of good tidings for most startups, much less those with the shaky business models found in digital media. But, at the same time, online video consumption is a strengthening reality that won’t be suppressed by tough economic times. So, if you’re involved in a video venture looking out at the spread for 2009, where do you stand?
First of all, let’s talk about where things ended up last year. The big news items for video startups (and young, internal ventures at big companies) in 2008 were acquisitions, layoffs and shut-downs — and of course fundings. Many of the companies we cover raised funding last year, though the pace of new investments slowed along with the economy. (As for including a category for IPOs…yeah right.) To recap some of the highlights (and lowlights):
Is the Web Hurting Guilty Pleasure TV Shows?
So, um, I watch Gossip Girl. But I do it on my laptop, when nobody else is around.
And as I read recently of complaints by Lipstick Jungle’s creators that its cancellation threats are unfair because much of its audience isn’t measured, I had to wonder if maybe they weren’t just whining.
Could the increasing number of options for watching TV shows that fall under the guilty pleasure category mean they are slipping in the conventional rating systems? Soap operas are some of CBS Interactive’s most popular online programming, I’ve been told. I’ve also heard concern from networks that younger-skewing shows just aren’t as economically viable these days, because their audience could care less about the TV. BitTorrent, YouTube, TV Links, iTunes — it’s all at their fingertips.
But I wonder if as online viewing goes more mainstream, this wouldn’t be a broader concern for shows that people prefer to watch in private or when nobody else is around. I don’t mean anything salacious, necessarily, I just doubt that I’m the only one who would rather not admit I know what Blair Waldorf’s latest blackmail scheme was.
Gossip Girl to Stream Online Again
When Gossip Girl returns to the air on Sept. 1st, new episodes will also be available on the CW’s web site for ad-supported streaming. It’s a reversal we’d been hoping for ever since the new TV network — which is having trouble quantifying the show as a hit despite receiving widespread buzz for it — took Gossip Girl off its site in an effort to boost television viewership.
The move, however, failed to have the desired effect: 
Gossip Girl continues to be popular on iTunes and unpopular on TV — where it’s getting fewer than 2 million viewers per episode. In fact the CW’s president of entertainment, Dawn Ostroff, told television critics last weekend that the network is looking to a new survey by Optimedia that includes “television, downloads, iTunes, mobile” in its rankings. “‘Every viewer must be counted, and no viewer should be left behind,’ Ostroff declared,” according to one account.
Optimedia’s survey ranks Gossip Girl as the 15th most popular show on television, as opposed to the below-100th place it takes in Nielsen’s ratings. But notably, Optimedia also measures “PR mentions and word-of-mouth ‘buzz’,” according to a press release — the intangibles that seem to be Gossip Girl’s biggest and most perplexing asset.
One way or another, we’re breathing a sigh of relief. Had Gossip Girl numbers gone up, networks might have started pulling down streaming episodes all over the place.
IFC Gets “Downfront” with New Series
Before the networks starting hosting their “upfronts,” IFC.com held its own tongue-in-cheek “downfronts” to showcase its new slate of web series originals. The site is in the midst of moving away from becoming just a brochure for its oldteevee sibling to rolling out original comedies, how-tos and even some hipster porn all summer long.
Up on IFC now is Wilfred, a comedy from Australia about a mischievous dog that terrorizes his female owner’s new boyfriend. The hook is that though Wilfred is a dog, he’s played by a guy in a dog suit, which actually makes the series funny. Though to be fair, this one wasn’t created for the web, it’s a TV show from Down Under that IFC licensed and cut up into snack-sized bits.
But who cares about talking man-dogs when you have naked nerds?
WB to Combine Old TV Shows, New Web Shows
The Warner Bros. Television Group is launching its much-anticipated portal for old TV shows, and adding into the mix original, short-form series. The ad-supported site will be at TheWB.com and through a paltry list of syndication partners: Comcast Cable, Fancast (isn’t that the same thing?), AOL, and “a number of mobile carriers.” There’s also some Facebook integration.
paidContent has the rundown on the slate of none-too-highbrow original programming:
On the talent side, WBTVG has lined up director/producer McG (Terminator 4, the “Charlie’s Angels” movies) and writer/producer Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl) and Big Fantastic (producers of the internet series Prom Queen). TheWB.com currently has seven short-form shows being developed for site, including Sorority Forever, which execs are describing as ”Prom Queen meets The O.C.; Exposed, billed as a thriller concerning a college student with a hidden past; Chadam, a 3D animation project based on the surreal character that appears in videos by the alt-rock band The Used; Rich Girl/Poor Girl, a class-based comedy set in Los Angeles about two teen girls who switch places; Lockdown, a show about a model being kept prisoner in her own home; a reality series about a high school musical production called High Drama: Against All Oz; and an untitled series about a fictional Hollywood rock club.
Sketchies2 Q&A: Winners Waverly Films
With the triumph of finalists Waverly Films (a.k.a. WaverlyFlams on YouTube), this year’s YouTube Sketchies contest has finally come to a close. We spoke with Waverly’s Christopher Ford about being latecomers to YouTube, the vicious lies spread by POYKPAC, and the benefits of participating in these competitions (even when you don’t win). Below is an edited version of our conversation.
NewTeeVee: So tell me a little about Waverly Films — where you guys come from, how you guys met.
Christopher Ford: We all met at NYU Film School, and we were friends mostly because we wanted more constructive criticism than we were getting in class. So we started a little group to go over our scripts and storyboards. Then, when we graduated, we kind of stayed together like a herd.
Vid-Biz: CW, Sketchies, FCC
CW Won’t Stream Gossip Girl Online; network thinks the move will help bolster the show’s oldteevee ratings. Teenage girls protest… then go back to texting about what a jerk Spencer Pratt is. (TVWeek)
YouTube Sketchies2 Winner Announced; WaverlyFlams takes home $40,000 in cash and prizes for “Sherlockbot & The Cast of the Purloined Piggybank.” (YouTube Blog)
Bunch of No-Shows at Cali FCC Hearing; AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable skipped the public session on net neutrality. But Larry Lessig showed up with a powerful lecture. (GigaOM)
MediaXstream Buys Secure Media Solutions; transport and managed network service provide acquired production applications, consulting, and managed workflow solutions provider, terms undisclosed. (PEHub)
Break a Leg Creator Hearts YouTube; says recent stories surrounding his $1,600 for two million plays misses the point. (Break a Leg Blog)
Sketchies2 Q&A: POYKPAC
Second in our series of interviews with YouTube Sketchies2 finalists is the Brooklyn-based sketch group POYKPAC. Already well-known online for their previous sketches, Mario: Game Over and Hipster Olympics, Ryan Hunter, Taige Jensen, and producer Tyler Jackson spoke to us about the differences between the first and second Sketchies contests, whether being a voice-over artist is genetic, and their “feud” with co-finalists Waverly Films. Below is an edited version of our conversation.
NewTeeVee: So, was the Sketchies2 contest the first contest you entered as a team?
Taige: Unfortunately, no.
NewTeeVee: Why is it unfortunate?
Taige: Well, we’ve entered two other contests, and never made the first round.
NewTeeVee: Did you enter the first Sketchies competition [in June 2007]?
Ryan: Yes, we did. We had a piece called Human Resources, and I really liked it. But they had thousands of entries, because there were no constraints to the contest. It was just “submit a comedy sketch.” So everyone was submitting whatever they had lying around, and the number of submissions was really astronomical. With Sketchies2 it was lower, because of the instrument-road trip thing. [Entries in the first round were required to use those elements as part of the sketch.] So I think the selection process was a little less unwieldy this time around. Read more of this story
Sketchies2 Q&A: FunBox Comedy
The winners of the last YouTube Sketchies contest have since gone on to fame and fortune — or, at least, full-time comedy production. So, after being handpicked by UTA Online agents and surviving audience voting, the 10 the Sketchies2 finalists are, needless to say, more than a little anxious. The winner is announced April 18th. In the meantime, we spoke to a few of the teams who’ve spent the past few weeks biting their fingernails and hassling their friends to go vote.
First up, FunBox Comedy! William Weissbaum, Matthew Roop-Kharasch and Paul Malewitz, like many participants, originated as a sketch team before branching out to video production. We spoke to the team via email about the brainstorming process, being recognized in grocery stores and men vs. tigers.
Photo credit: Heather Landis
NewTeeVee: What spurred you to sign up for the Sketchies?
FunBox Comedy: If you want a lot of people to see your material, YouTube is the place to do it. If you want to prove that you have the best comedy shorts on YouTube, you have to enter the Sketchies. We were chomping at the bit waiting for the entry rules to appear. The refresh button on our keyboard was completely worn out. (We have fancy keyboards with refresh buttons.)
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