Joost.com, the Internet TV platform started by the creators of Skype, has received this week $45 million in financing from five venture capitalists and content partners: Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Li Ka Shing Foundation, CBS and Viacom. They plan to use the money to expand its advertising, programming and marketing operations. This is the company’s first institutional round of financing.
Joost has signed up 500,000 users in its test phase. Joost service is supported through advertising; the commercials consume about three minutes of each hour of programming, versus 15 minutes on standard TV. The peer-to-peer video site distributes shows in traditional television format, unlike YouTube and other video sites that mostly display user-submitted clips.
Right now Joost has 36 advertisers, including Nike, Coca-Cola and Intel, along with 100 content partners, including CBS, Viacom, Turner Broadcasting and Warner.
Outsourcing local news coverage to India
Why not hiring journalists in India to cover your local news? That is what the editor of California’s PasadenaNow.com site did. He hired two journalists in India. He is spending $20,800 for both of the reporters for the year, with a target of 15 articles each week.
Since the city council meetings are streamed over the internet, the journalists can pick up the phone or e-mail to interview people, and cover Pasadena’s city government and political scene.
Outsourcing comes the next frontier: local journalism. And the idea makes business sense because of India’s lower labor costs. This is not the first time media jobs have been shipped to India. Reuters runs an operation in Bangalore that chums out Wall Street stories based on news releases.
There is no doubt broadcaster will start coming around to the idea. Liz Foreman columnist wrote a list of jobs that will be sent overseas. Take a look.
Free classifieds ads for 22 million users; another blow for newspapers
Yet another blow for many newspapers. Facebook, the sixth most-visited Web site in the US, has added free classifieds ads for its 22 million active users. Between Craigslist and Facebook young people are being conditioned to never pay a penny for classifieds ad.
Facebook’s Marketplace service allows members to create classified listings in four categories: housing, jobs, for sale, and other. Also, they can choose to make their listings available to their friends, their network or to the site as whole.
CitySearch will start posting video causing concern for local TV
CitySearch.com, the leading local search and directory company that provides up-to-date information on businesses, will start posting video of local restaurants, spas, boutiques and other local businesses. It should be of grave concern for local TV stations.
¨Video on Citysearch will leverage our trusted content, providing consumers with the best local experience on the web,¨ said the President of Citysearch. Video on Citysearch gives user the opportunity to experience the ambiance and meet the owners of business before visiting.
Citysearch tapped Internet video company, TurnHere to create the video.
Newvine unveils a new design with smart functionalities
See the redesigned citizen journalism and social news site Newsvine.com with cutting-edge functionalities. The main page combines the drag-and-drop feature of many news aggregators, so you can import your own RSS feeds and position everything exactly how you want it.
Everything is totally customizable except the ads and a couple modules like the top story. In a world where the user is in control, it makes sense open it up for all kinds of content.
