by The Editors on September 13, 2010
Last week Youtube.com began testing some live broadcasts with several different partners. In one of their tests they featured a live interview with Tony Hawk in conjunction with YoungHollywood.com and according to Techcrunch.com no one showed up.
Well, Tony Hawk just finished an appearance on Young Hollywood right now, and the number of viewers never went above 500, according to the view counter at the bottom of the player. For most of the segment, it was much less—at one point I saw 9 viewers, then 81. As a point of reference, when we livestream TechCrunch events, we often get 2,000 to 3,000 concurrent viewers, and that is without being promoted on YouTube’s homepage. So 500 viewers for Tony Hawk is really nothing.
Then again, we didn’t know Tony was going to be on. If he’d told us we could have rounded up a couple dozen more people, no problem.
[Link: TechCrunch.com]
by The Editors on September 10, 2010
Yesterday, (September 9. 2010) it was announced that Metacafe had “acquired” action sports site Go211.com for what MetaCafe CEO Erick Hachenburg called an “equity transaction,” according to a post on All Things D by Peter Kafka.
So what does he get for his equity? In addition to the four million visitors that Action Sports’ Go211 gets a month, MetaCafe will also get a new chief revenue officer, in the form of former Action Sports CEO Sean Aruda.
Ignoring for a moment that Go211’s traffic numbers have always been highly suspect, it is interesting that Aruda finally found someone to rescue his site.
From almost the the minute Go211.com launched in early 2007 rumors began swirling that Aruda was already trying to flip the site. While he may not have gotten a buyer exactly, at least he’s got a new paying job. It looks like he’s in good company, too. According to MediaWeek, Metacafe plans to “double its revenues next year and reach profitability.”
And that’s just the kind of talk that keeps those bubbles bubbling.
[Link: All Things D and MediaWeek]
by The Editors on September 7, 2010
by The Editors on September 5, 2010
Rudd Davis, founder of action sports advertising network BNQT and former JDK worker, has apparently been tapped to head up USA Today’s business development and digital development and this has caused Poytner Online media columnist Rick Edmonds to wonder what it all means in his Biz Blog:
How does it happen that two young execs from USA Today’s BNQT action sports site are now in charge of all business development and digital development? Does success in covering dirt-biking and skateboarding translate to building a broad digital domain?
Well, Rick. Could it be that after trying (and failing) to run a media business with the usual subjects they’ve finally realized that those wacky kids building that action sports business may actually understand how media works in a digital space? This move may be one of the first good decisions Gannett has made in years. Congrats, Rudd.
[Link: Poynter.org]
by The Editors on August 31, 2010
Not really sure what’s been going on at the Surf Industry Manufacturers’ Association lately, but it seems their Boot Camps have been oddly relevant. On September 22, 2010 SIMA will tackle “New Media.”
The first panel discussion of the morning, Media vs. New Media: Tracking the Transition, will showcase a discussion with the surf industry’s leading media experts on the transition to new media, its benefits and advantages, and specific learnings from the interactive endeavors of these media outlets. Moderated by Doug Palladini, the panelists will include: Rob Campbell / Editorial Director, TransWorld Media; Norb Garrett / Senior Vice President, Group Publisher, ASG; Ross Garrett / Director of Operations and Development, The Surfer’s Journal; Gene Pao / Vice President of New Media and International Development, FUEL TV; and Jonno Wells / CEO, Surfline.
It’s always entertaining to see what corporate executives from the established action media have to say about “new” media, isn’t it?
Follow the jump for the rest of the scheduled topics, or click here to register. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on August 25, 2010
For the past five years (starting in June 2005) Skate Park of Tampa’s tech nerd Rob Meronek has been logging skateboarding magazine coverage for the SPoT’s Skater Database. In this time he has kept a record of the ad and editorial pages for Skateboarder Magazine, The Skateboard Mag, Slap, Thrasher (graph above right), and Transworld Skateboarding.
Today he released all his data in a story titled: A Nerdy Analysis of Sketchy Skateboard Industry Paper Trails. Here is how it works:
For a page to get logged, it simply has to have a skater. Even if they’re just throwing gang symbols in front of their rims, as long as it has a skater it in, the page is logged as either editorial or advertising along with who the photographer is. I put all this crazy data I’ve collected since 2005 into a spreadsheet and out popped these Captain Corporate ass charts.
While only counting ads with skaters in them skews the total ad pages numbers of the magazines a little, the data does give a great snap shot of what is going on in skateboard print advertising. Look over the data and draw your own conclusions.
[Link: Skate Park of Tampa]
by The Editors on August 18, 2010
by The Editors on August 4, 2010
It seems that having an iPhone app has now become one of the check-off items for every well run event. Many, like the US Open of Surfing, are discovering that simply having the app doesn’t mean that the proper info is being distributed on the right channels.
On the surface the free US Open of Surfing app (click here to download it) has everything that an event app should. The opening screen features the following menu: Live, Schedule, News, Videos, Photos, Results, Media, and Shop. Under each of those is another slew of sub menus.
Follow the jump for the rest of our review. . .
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on July 28, 2010
If the movie is even half as good as the poster it will be well worth the trip to Encinitas, California’s world famous La Paloma Theater on Friday July 30, 2010.
With Andy Irons, Andrew Doheny, Fergal Smith, Wade Goodall, and Eric it can’t be bad.
by The Editors on July 27, 2010
Emerica finally drops their much anticipated Stay Gold on August 17, 2010 in Hollywood (of course).
Follow the jump for all the details. [click to continue…]
Last week Youtube.com began testing some live broadcasts with several different partners. In one of their tests they featured a live interview with Tony Hawk in conjunction with YoungHollywood.com and according to Techcrunch.com no one showed up.
![Std Owcexpo[1]](http://www.boardistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/STD_OWCexpo1-tm.jpg)
