DISQUS

Might I also add that if you have the ability to produce television quality programming and get someone to purchase advertising then you probably don't need Urban Television.

He didn't say he'd sell your advertising. You always have the option to pursue Barter syndication right now.

I have a producer's license at my local public access station. Same professional quality equipment as the pros, plus access to all the editing bays and software. The only requirement is that you air your program on the station first, after that you are free to do whatever you want with it and several producers have syndicated their programming for profit.

Why is it that anytime someone criticizes an African American, folks pull out the "crabs in a barrel" charge. As if African American people can't do wrong or their ideas are immune from criticism. its not as if the critics don't have some basis to be leery.

I don't believe a word he's saying, that's a reasonable conclusion to draw in light of his history. However, its an interesting listen. I look forward to parts 2 and 3.

Angela has likely done more original reporting on Urban Television in this segment than I've seen and I have it set up on Google Alerts :)

I think we can all agree that everyone on this comment thread wants African American bloggers, publishers, developers to have the same access to opportunity, capital and success as those in other groups. Folks who read this blog are the choir. So right now we're all fighting over the A and B selection.

There are those in the Black blogosphere who are totally oblivious to both sides of this argument and are ripe for exploitation.

This was a good discussion thread however.

@Dede I've been pretty consistent in thinking an ad-based model for revenue is a dead ender for the average indie blogger. Yes, ads have a role and should have a place as a revenue stream, but the relationships/brand whatever you build are far more valuable in other ways. I look at Ebony and Jet sitting on tens ( possibly hundreds)of millions of dollars of value based on the "relationship" they ought to have with their readers and shake my head in awe at the thought they could go under. Why on earth would we walk the same path?

I am just trying to demystify the hustle to help others. I've got Google Adsense up on my blogs just because I was badgered about it ( I think you were there :)) Low and behold the checks start flowing in. It was the first time I had any idea what my "passion" was "worth' in a tangible way. I remember offering a special that charged a dollar a day because ads to me had little or no value. They still don't. I laugh at how little I valued my own sites. Adsense is a rough estimate of course, but to someone who would do it anyway for free, it helps know what NOT to do. Sure Google is the Devil, but it help to know where Hell (or the bottom of the barrel) is located.

Can't wait for somebody on this board to buy Ebony and Jet. Hopefully they will not have completely gone under by then.

@blackadagencyguy If a group of Black oriented blogs got together and could produce a million visits/uniques/impressions ( I don't know that you've distinguished), what would they need to do to cut out these random ad networks.

Do you care if you get 10 sites that pull in 100,000 visits versus 20 pulling in 50,000? Because the ad networks don't appear to be doing anything Black bloggers could not do on their own and cut out the unnecessary overhead.

@james and what does that have to do with a single thing I have said about educating Black bloggers about avoiding being exploited. If by "legal ramifications" you are some how implying I, the attorney, have placed myself in legal peril, then by all means send me an email letting me know the address of record for the company in question so we can move things along.

I haven't said anything damaging to anyone other than someone attempting to exploit Black bloggers. And yes, that is foolishness. But thanks for the law school lecture.

Liz,

Lets do it! You know I don't have a problem pointing out FOOLISHNESS! You can be the opening speaker at Blogging While Brown and speak about the scourge that is besetting us. :) they don't have a choice but to try to make us their sharecroppers because they don't have the "mentality" to do what it takes to build an online audience independent of the overflow being driven from the old media properties.

Well Dede since you said it first, I am safe to say DITTO! and Co-sign. Interactive One , ESSENCE, BET.com, et all don't know jack about producing content. They get traffic and they don't know why. So they just copy what other people are doing. I would mention two sites who purportedly have received millions of dollars for one URL but years later, they still don't know what they are doing.

All the while tiny little bloggers just keep chugging along with minimal capital investment.

As someone who has been featured several times with a direct link on some of the largest ("traffic-wise") sites online, I can say "yes" you do get an uptick in traffic.. for about 72 hours, but I know that being on the blog roll of a particular gossip and entertainment site brings me far more traffic over time.

And haven't we figured out that there is some relationship between traffic and increased revenue, but it isn't necessarily a direct relationship.

Maybe we need to launch a public awareness campaign in the Black blogosphere saying "Do Not Fall for This Mess!!" or start a union. This is naked exploitation especially when you can get paid to write blog posts. Unfortunately people are always looking for the silver bullet to build blog traffic.

There is nothing preventing Bob Johnson and Ion from beginning to broadcast Urban Television today. Liggins isn't blocking anything. What Johnson is asking is for the FCC to grant Bob Johnson an advantage that TV One, the Africa Channel, Si TV, the Gospel Music Channel,and Black Television News don't have. This has nothing to do with Urban television, but Ion Life and Quoba. Ion can't get them on Cable of satellite, so they are using this "diversity" angle to get a ruling to force all their other non-AA-oriented channels onto satellite and cable.

Don't believe the hype. Most of the "articles" in places like Broadcasting and Cable and the other MSM's are just repeating Bob Johnson's press releases.

You have to ask yourself, WHY is Bob coming back so hard? because if this "Diversity" angle gets blown to bits by Liggins and other Black folks, then the whole deal goes down the tubes.

Actually, its the other way around. Bob Johnson would have the legalized monopoly. Because this isn't an open process, Urban TV would be the only station benefiting from this in the beginning. TV One, the Gospel Music Channel, the Africa Channel, and BTTN actually had to compete in the market place to get carried by cable. Johnson asking the government not to make him compete, but to force them to carry him. He will get an advantage TV One and the other Black oriented stations won't have because they won't be "broadcast" There isn't a TV One "broadcast" station so they won't get to take advantage of the multicast must carry. They aren't multicast.

At least I think that's the case after pouring over FCC filings all week

@Angela there are not going to be "hearings." At this point this petition is being decided under "DA" delegated authority. The Media Bureau will be making the decision, not the full Commission. Yes, EBONY, ESSENCE, and other AA content providers could get their own programming, but they could have that now. Ion has the extra capacity in their spectrum. For every "Black" oriented station that is added, there will be 50 other stations added. The cable carriers will not be able to carry them all. Somebody has to go.

@Shercilla there is WAY more to this than Bob is laying on. Liggins isn't the only multicultural broadcaster in opposition, in fact ALL of the multicultural broadcasters are in opposition, from Si TV to the Gospel Music Channel. http://www.commlawblog.com/2009/01/articles/bro...

In fact, the only Black folks in favor of this are the "Civil Rights" organizations, but check out what they were saying about these multi-cast "must carry" schemes just one year before. Non other than Jesse Jackson Sr. via Rinbow PUSH explained why Ion's scheme would harm minority media owners.http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6519836708

What changed in a year? Why was it harmful in 2007, but a miracle in 2008? How did Bob Johnson's Black face change the impact this will have on multicultural channels?

One way to look at it is this. Each TV "station" actually has a ton more capacity than they ever use. That "spectrum" can be split up into pieces. However, cable carriers only have to carry the primary signal. Ion wants to force cable carriers to carry them all. So in exchange for giving Black folks a 51% stake in a piece of a crumb, Ion gets to save its entire business and get exponentially more of its stations on to Direct TV, DISH and cable. Not a high price to pay to give up capacity you already weren't using,

Dig deeper and look into whether or no 51% equals "ownership" if the minority owner retains certain rights that make the majority owner's "rights" illusory. Do you really "own" something if you have to get permission from someone else to do with it what you will? Do you really own something if you have to use someone else's equipment and facilities to carry out your business?

I don't know. I'm just asking the questions. Right now MSM is basically publishing Bob Johnson's press releases.

This is a horrific invasion of her privacy.

James is a nice guy and is big on social media. I don't know if he could have anticipated someone taking issue with the fact that he was not enamored with the city that his client was located.

Well its interesting the way you couched the question as if this is a "social media" authenticity issue. It isn't. it is a run of the mill traditional client relations - workplace politics issue. Possibly even some corporate intrigue thrown in there. This is a "know your audience" issue. Nobody gets to say what they feel at work or about work.

It sounds like they are going through some things in Memphis right now and at Fedex right now. That being said. any and everything I say online is permanent and subject to the interpretation of anyone in the world and it frequently is.

You have to wonder the agenda of the person that wrote an entire email and sent it up the chain of command to both the client and Ketchum and leaked to the the blogs. Does James have any enemies at Ketchum? Fed Ex? That to me would be a far more intriguing question. The person who wrote that letter had an agenda. What was it?

Moral of the story, "new media" doesn't eliminate the age old rules of business. Social media doesn't change the rule of the game and eventually age old business considerations will bend social media in their direction.

Keep your head up James!

Wow Marcus, you are one of Rushmore Drive's biggest supporters online so the unhinged assertion that you are hating on RD is laughable. I'm actually worried about you if they fail.

re the slam at encouraging them to focus on mobile content. Almost every "black" media venture that has succeeded has provided something Black ppl could not get anywhere else. It wasn't just branding something as "ours" or for us. If Mr. Johnson hadn't srarted EBONY we would not have seen ourselves in PEOPLE or whatever existed back then. Same goes with black entertaiment blogs. If they didn't cover OUR celebrities, you wouldn't see them on "mainstream" sites. Same with television, radio, HBCUs on and one. But you see what happens when THEY start taking down barriers. WE stop supporting OUR own. If they focused on unique content instead of run of the millionaire apps they would be leading instead of following and online being first matters. There isn't enough mobile content 4 US.

So Marcus has a legitimate concern that RD innovate. Just being branded as OURS isn't enough. That's not hating. That's concern and nobody give RD more coverage than this blog. I hope Johnny Taylor buys a BANNER AD on BlackWeb20.com, RD's biggest evangelists AND SUPPORTS THIS SITE IN A TANGIBLE WAY for the work you and your contributors do.

Keep trucking Marcus.

Wow. This isactually sad to watch. Marcus ar you going to weep when they finally give up the ghost?

My parents already have email through their internet service providers. Second, they see all of us emailing them from aol, yahoo, and gmail addys. So explain to me why someone would choos a service, even a free one, that was inferior to several competitors?

if the ad an snse the wod abandon thi folly and thrw their efforts to mobile content and apps since 85 percent of blck ppl have cellphones.

They are't going to out google googel.

Am I reading that right? They have 4.5 Million dollars and they are getting 152,000 unique visits a month? Mr. Diller, please call me immediately for 1/10000 of the cost I can generate 150,000 unique visits.

I get that SEARCH is the big dog online. If you can get a corner on SEARCH, then you are doign well, but I actually think that SEARCh is going to become more "intelligent" in the future. There is only so far, even the most powerful of algorythms can go. The best sites are the ones with live human beings who use the search engines to cull through information that is interesting or noteworthy to their audiences.

If YAHOO can't beat out google, what makes you think RUshmore Drive was going to be able to. I think Twitter, Facebook, Myspace etc indicate that Black web browsers are extrememly comfortable occupying a general "space" and then carving out their communities and networks within.

I hate it, but then you already know my opinion since you linked to me. Having interacted with "old media" on more than one occasion, I have a personal pet peeve of how they view and treat bloggers. The truth is I would rather be mentioned on a blog than appear on Tavis' SOBU WEBCAST. Having done MSM I can tell you that from a traffic standpoint, any appearance on MSM is short-lived, but links from blogs last an eternity.

Why does it have to be "crabs in a barrel" anytime someone has a complaint of disagreement with another Black person. Black people need to fight MORE not less. Did Tavis bother to reach out to bloggers other than the ONE working for him before he crafted this contest.

Second, if you take blogging seriously, like any profession, you have to develop some kind of standards for how you want to be treated. If you act like a contestant in the early rounds of American Idol, then you will continue to be treated like one.

Thank you for the shout out. Lord knows I wrestled with how to change the site. I settled on a magazine layout theme. I tried building it from scratch, but after a while I was like "Um why exactly are you doing this to yourself?" Hope to see you there.

You GO DEDE! Give them a run for their money. They don't get it. YOU DO!

Barackobama.com is the gold standard in online organizing and sales. I always refer my students to the site to get an idea of what is possible with new media.

irrspective of the outcome of the election, the site is a good study for using new media

Where did you get the photo of Michelle and Barack cuddled up. I love that one.

Good to see you again Marcus. What the folks didn't know at the conference is going to make me RICH!!!

it was actually a good conference for those with no insight to how the ad folks make their decisions.

thanks for the maintenance mode plugin tip. Honestly. you don't dictate what your
"community" turns into. You have to be flexible...at least for "corporate" blogs.

My personal blog however is a benevolent dictatorship.

Thanks for the rollout tips. I'm definitely using them.

Thanks for explaining the difference. I am working on a new project. A huge spin off and was trying to figure out the wp vs drupal vs joomla debate.

Of course I will end up outsourcing, but I like to know why things work the way they work. I was actually going to use WP, but I will have to rethink that.

None of these "old media" types get it. Yet I don't have the time to burnish my tech skills to pull it off. I can code intuitively, but learning "the rules" takes some time.

Probably time for another post on outsourcing ;)