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Time Out New York has partnered with the video curation platform Magnify.net to provide video content to it’s readers as an effort to increase their digital presence. As a resource of entertainment, arts, restaurants, museums and more around the city Time Out will be using the videos to add a multimedia layer to their website.  Magnify will also have access to the original video content that is produced by Time Out.

Market Watch

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With the new ‘Looks’ program from Vimeo, video creators are now able to add filters to their pieces on the site. Through their partnership with video enhancer startup Vivoom, the NY-based startup is offering their users 700 different filters. The filters are browsable by genre, mood, color, and holidays, according to Digital Trends.

The filters will be free for three months and then afterwards will cost 99 cents each. They aren’t available on the mobile app, however.

Digital Trends

iPad 2 with Smart Cover running iMovie. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Huffington Post has launched a new iPad app in the iTunes App Store. Mobile Insider writer Steve Smith says that the new version is completely re-engineered for touch screens. The new interface makes it easier for users to bookmark, personalize, share, and comment on articles.

The new app also integrates video and slideshow content better with live feeds. There is also a separate app for the digital video channel. Publisher Janet Balis said that the new app is a representation of the way that the social experience around news has shifted. The app also increases the range of marketing opportunities for advertisers because AOL will sell adds as part of cross-platform execution.

MediaPost

Metropolitan Museum of Art entrance, New York City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In their third major online initiative, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY has launched a year long web series called 82nd & Fifth. There will be 100 episodes, each two minutes long, representing 100 works of art that they feel changed the world. Two videos will be posted every Wednesday until December 25, 2013.

In every episode, a curator will be talking about photographs of the artwork and users will have an interactive feature to see the artwork in more detail.

Paid Content

Pratt School of Art and Design

Video is the new writing, according to Leighton Pierce, the acting dean of Pratt’s School of Art and Design. Pratt’s Clinton Hill campus is expanding its film/video department. By fall of 2014, they will have space for 200 students in the program, up from 50. They also hope to open a new graduate school with an additional 24 to 36 students.

Meanwhile Brooklyn College is teaming up with Steiner Studios to open a new Graduate School of Cinema in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Crain’s New York Business

CheckOutTheLatest

Nibletz

Tim Armstrong (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong talked with Business Insider editor-in-chief Henry Blodget about the future. Armstrong said, “In the content business, we are investing into what may not be popular in the time period, which is people think that the content businesses are expensive, and they don’t look like the platform businesses, but in reality if you look at a Huffington Post, or a Tech Crunch, or Business Insider, you see growing traffic, growing brand importance.” He said they are investing heavily in content and told Blodget, “You have to put your long term hat on.”  Recently, AOL made advancements in the video sector, growing it from $0 to $100 million over the last two years.

Business Insider

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News Distribution Network (NDN) recently made comScore’s list of top ten online video properties. According to Adweek, the video wire service’s audience just topped 53 million. NDN distributes video content from providers including AP, CBS News, Fox Sports as well as local TV stations. NDN has 4,500 partners, including the New York Post, the New York Daily News and it just signed a deal with CBS Local to distribute content from 13 stations, including NY, LA and Chicago. NDN provides the platform and the content to news organizations and sells advertising to its partners–and keeps the lion’s share of ad revenue.

NDN CRO Kevin Gentzel said, “We’re becoming a wider distribution arm. The more partners we have in local content, the more markets we’re penetrating.” In addition to supplying video to publishers, NDN also posts the video. For the New York Daily News, NDN  embeds videos remotely. Steve Lynas, the News’ svp of digital, said that embedding video in the story is more effective than putting it on the right rail. Matching videos to stories is currently done by people, but Gentzel says once it’s up to scale the process will be automated.

Adweek

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 Vimeo just released its latest iPhone app. Their mobile team said Vimeo 3.0 is “awesomer, sleeker, more beautiful, way awesomer, and also much more awesomer than ever before.” The NY-based company’s app allows users to record video and upload it directly to the web without leaving the application. The new app also has sharing features and the ability to quickly search for videos throughout the entire Vimeo catalog. An iPad update is also in the works, but there’s no word on a new Android app.

PC Magazine

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Tech giants discussed the difficulty of being in the spotlight at the Business Insider Ignition Conference in NY this week. AOL founder Steve Case said, “One day you’re the smartest guy in the world, the next day you’re the dumbest. It goes with the territory.” According to Variety, Case fell from superstar status after AOL was bought by Time Warner and dial up became history. Case continued, “You can’t react to short-term pressure from the press and investors. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong.

Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Groupon, talked about rumors that he would be fired by the board of directors any day. He acknowledged that Groupon’s stock has dropped more than 80% since going public and it would be “weird if the board wasn’t considering (if I am) the right guy to do the job.” Mason was interviewed by someone who knows what he’s going through. Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget, had to leave Merrill Lynch after he called Amazon “a piece of junk” in a email.

Panelists also discussed possible repercussions of a “cable-never” generation– current college students who are never expected to invest in cable TV. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes was the sole defender of traditional media. He said, “They pay $5 for a coffee. Cable is $2 a day and it’s the best programming anywhere in the world.”

Variety

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Vimeo debuted its pay-per-view content platform this week with six select movies to highlight some of the new features, like flexible viewing windows and exclusive content. According to GigaOm, the movies include options like We Are Legion: The Story of Hactivists and LCD Soundsystem’s concert movie Shut Up and Play Hits. The full feature pay-per-view system will go live early next year.

Some of the movies will be available for up to two months of viewing. Additionally, Vimeo offers content creators regional restrictions and flexible pricing. The films can also be viewed on PCs, iPads, mobile phones, and other connected devices like Apple TV.

GigaOm

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NowThis News is attempting to revamp news with video news content. The company was founded by Eric Hippeau and Ken Lerer, both Huffington Post ex-executives. The app and website feature professionally produced video content in short segments. The site has content from other networks and repackaged news stories, and a typical video on the site consists of a one to two minute clip which shows NowThis News hosts and video content. According to Digiday, Hippeau said, “The idea came as Ken and I were tossing around thoughts in mobile news. It was evident there was no video news, breaking news, that was created in video format just for mobile devices.”

NowThis News is one of the first to enter the field of rethinking news in terms of mobile devices. Additionally, former CNN executive Eason Jordan was hired along with former ABC News Digital executive producer Ed O’Keefe and former Washington Post executive director of digital news Katharine Zaleski. There is currently a team of 30 editorial and technical employees and a  studio at its offices in New York.

During Election night, NowThis posted 25 pieces of content, including President Obama‘s victory speech and a clip of people cheering post-election from 2008 and 2012. The site’s goal is to regularly have 15-20 videos per day. Though it has not yet secured advertisers, buyers are beginning to pay attention to NowThis, which has already begun to create an audience. While other major publishers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal push ahead in the online and mobile video arenas, the competition for advertising money is hightened.

Digiday

Eric Hippeau (Photo credit: jdlasica)

Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau, both former Huffington Post executives, recently released their social video news app, NowThis News. The goal of the app is to make watching news an interesting and exciting experience for the newer generations of consumers.  According to paidContent, the app has categories available for browsing, like: Top stories, Obama vs. Romney, Awesome debates, Malala, Tech and Fun. There is a selection of video clips for each category that users can swipe through, and many clips are introduced by a NowThis News host. Other clips are from users or outside sources, but feature the NowThis News branding.

Former news executive at CNN, Eason Jordan, is the manager at NowThis News. He noted that the app will have eight to 10 original clips added through the day, which is supplemented by another 10 to 15 clips. Jordan said, “We feel like younger people are not watching traditional TV news, they’re getting video news from mobile and social, and we’re building for that audience.” The company launched quietly in April under the name Daily Planet and has about $5 million in funding.

paidContent

Bennett only spoke for 45 seconds, even though speakers are allowed up to three minutes. Riders were asked to choose to one of four plans the MTA unveiled last month that could raise the cost of a monthly MetroCard, which currently costs $104, to anywhere from $109 to $125. The hikes are expected to take effect in March. The MTA has scheduled three more of their video conferences next week. On Tuesday, riders can go to the video hearings at either the Metro-North Poughkeepsie station, from 4 pm. to 8 pm., or the LIRR Hicksville station, from 6 am to 10 am. A conventional public hearing is also being held next Tuesday at Baruch college at 5 pm. Only 26 speakers showed up to the first regular public hearing this past Wednesday, the night that the Nor’easter hit.

NY Post

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The Huffington Post unveiled their new iPad app, HuffPost Live, recently. The app has a mix of entertainment and social interaction, and can be displayed on a TV screen. According to GigaOm, the site launched its online TV network  in August, which streams 12 hours of live footage daily from NY and LA. HuffPo hopes that the its video production will create viral video clips and content for its customers. This video material is used on the new app.

The iPad app provides access to the daily footage in addition to a comments section and the ability to share shows on Twitter. The most groundbreaking feature of the app is its ability to be shown on a TV screen using an Apple TV. Currently, the app’s commenting system is basic. Users can only flag or like other comments, not create a community of friends like on Facebook, or followers like on Twitter. Usage of bandwidth may also be an issue with the video feed on the app.

GigaOm

Train on Williamsburg Bridge (Photo credit: marcgg)

A webcam has been installed at the Williamsburg L train stop. The camera captures video of those walking out of the subway and is mounted a block away on a Bedford Avenue building. According to Gothamist, the camera is known as the Styleblaster and shows a real time feed of various styles seen on the street. Each photo is paired with a time stamp and users on the Internet site can then decide if the style captured deserves a “top hat,” a fashion seal of approval. The site reads, “The blog updates in real time  showcasing each new image as quick as it can be appraised.

Online viewers can watch a live feed, peruse a recent history of images, or compare shots over the days and weeks as FW-2012 blossoms into SS-2013. We believe this service fills a need for live fashion information, with a unique and unmatched vantage point on the hippest block in New York City”

Gothamist

English: Jon Oringer, Founder and CEO of Shutterstock (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shutterstock Inc. recently became the first NY tech firm to go public since 2010. According to Crain’s, Shutterstock now has a $750 million market cap. Jon Oringer, CEO and founder of the company said that executives paid close attention to every detail during the IPO, which impressed analysts.

Shutterstock began in 2003 with only a few thousand dollars of Oringer’s own money. He never borrowed from venture capitalists or created relationships with the press. He said, “It was kind of frustrating to read about all these great companies in the news and not be right alongside them. I just figured over all those years that concentrating on our product, on our customer, our contributors and our employees was more important.” Oringer graduated from Columbia University with a degree in computer-science, but considers himself a photographer. He thought of the idea for Shutterstock while running a software company.

Currently, the company sells two images per second and has 10,000 daily uploads. Its library has over 20 million images and illustrations and about 700,000 video clips. In 2011, revenue amounted to $121 million up to 45% from the year before. The subscription feature accounts for half of the company’s revenue and appeals to analysts.

Crain’s Business

As print publications expand into video space, especially YouTube channels, New York Magazine climbs on board. The publication has produced a five episode video series to give readers and users a look at the food featured in its “Eat Cheap” issue. According to paidContent, the food writers will show the kitchens of certain food spots like Eataly and Pok Pok Ny to give viewers a look at how the food is made. NY’s latest food trends will also be a part of the videos, in particular, a segment created about fish sandwiches popping up in restaurants in NY.

Hungry, a new food-inspired YouTube channel produced by multimedia studio Electus, hosted the CheapEats video. These partnerships seem to make sense in terms of business objectives, meaning New York Mag has the opportunity to bring its popular food feature to a professional video platform for a broader audience.

paidContent

NY street chaos (Photo credit: mararie)

StreetEasy and Sonia’s Travels are launching a new a new video series about NY neighborhoods. The NY-based real estate website and the online travel series teamed up and for a look at NY neighborhood history, atmosphere and residents. Sonia Gil walks around the neighborhoods and narrates in a voiceover. Six episodes are already available online and 10 more will come out later in the fall.

Cynopsis

Last year when TechCrunch wrote about AdGenesis, they described it as, “the Match.com of video advertising.” Publishers in the Genesis Media network include Fox, Parade, and Conde Nast. The company has reported that it now reaches over 150 million consumers, and 15 million U.S. users opt in to its video platform.

TechCrunch

[Editor's Note: Genesis Media is a client of Trylon SMR, owned by Trylon Communications, Inc., the parent company of NY Convergence]

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During Advertising Week in NY today, AOL announced that it will offer its full original video library  on YouTube, according to Web Pro News. The videos will be both distributed and monetized on YouTube. The collection totals about 20,00 videos from various brands like TechCrunch and The Huffington Post.

“The AOL brand includes an incredible array of premium video content from some of the most highly trafficked sites on the web, and this deal provides us with a way to expose that content to a vast new audience,” said Ran Harnevo, SVP of Video at AOL.

AOL’s sales team will control the ad sales, which will provide a new revenue stream for the company. AOL’s YouTube channels are not part of YouTube’s new channels segment that has Google paying for limited exclusivity of content. There will be 22 channels total run through AOL.

Web Pro News

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Accedo Broadband, a Stockholm-based technology developer for smart TVs and IPTVs, plans to build a NY branch. According to Xconomy, the company announced its acquisition of Brooklyn-based CloverLeaf Digital, which gives Accedo an automatic NY presence. CloverLeaf, in return, can increase its operations according to founder Lawrence Brickman, “We wanted to be larger, more muscular, and have more resources available to us.”

CloverLeaf was founded in 2003 and develops services like personal dashboards and app stores for the interactive television market in North America. Its customers are mostly independent cable television operators and telephone companies. There has been increase in demand recently for CloverLeaf’s TV Everywhere, which makes shows accessible online to subscribers and pushes content to mobile devices and tablets. Brickman will lead the NY team for Accedo.

Xconomy

Yesterday an invited group of digital media founders, editors and executives from such companies as Visual Revenue, Taboola, NewsCred, Seeking Alpha, Patch, Genesis Media, Newslook, The Daily and others met in midtown at ZAG/S&W for PluggedIn Ventures’ Digital Publishing Roundtable to discuss current challenges in creating, distributing and monetizing digital content.

Participants agreed that the past year has seen acceleration in the rise of tablets and the transition of magazines from print; e-books have risen while bookstores continue to fade. Online video viewership is growing but in decreasing lengths. And everything seems pointed toward mobile devices and their grasp on collective (yet fragmented) attention spans.  As a result, publishers are increasingly realizing that they need to move beyond repurposing print content and static ads in digital channels and to look to video  to make a real difference in monetizing their content.  Some key takeaways:

Video is more cost productive: Video doesn’t make more money than print content but it gives offers more bang for the buck. It gives better revenues than a generic banner ad, but it doesn’t make more money.  Banner ads are still generating more revenue. But there is more video inventory – so it can make more money on a cost-per-use basis. Advertisers look at CPM. It really comes down to relative CPMs in the simplest cases. They are looking at CPMs on the display side anywhere from 50¢ to $2.50, and video CPM’s can approach $15 or more. For example, pre-rolls  are now about $20, while banner ads average about $3. So while content isn’t a big money-maker, video is worth doing.

Website paywalls won’t make things profitable: Paywalls, the arrangement whereby access is restricted to users who have paid to subscribe to a site, is just not viable today. To make people pay for content doesn’t make sense — most readers don’t think they should have to pay for it anyway. The combination of paywalls, lack of performance and the need to create a digital subscription base is actually suppressing traffic. Publishers need to find a way to make dynamic and lightweight versions of the paywall that will replace the economics of subscription.  For instance, if users keep hitting refresh on NYTimes.com, they will not get more articles or content – instead they will get a “you must subscribe” button. But if these users are valuable, they should be allowed into publication’s site. In return for providing this time, attention and engagement, they should be given a pass for the rest of the month or the week or even just additional articles. In essence, paywalls won’t make things profitable; they are more of a hurdle to overcome.

Smaller Digital Publications need to focus on driving traffic: Digital publishers need to focus on targeted, value-added content for premier users. Publications like TheBlaze.com and TheDaily.com, for example, are focused on driving traffic – they are getting users by letting them see their content. This is their main way of monetizing — in order to grow they have to get significant traffic to their site. Publications need to focus on nurturing their content, nurturing their audience and aggregating the content that is relative for each reader.

Not everyone should get paid for content:  The internet is a democratizing platform for publishing. It’s the biggest innovation ever– one person can reach millions of people. But that still doesn’t mean that everyone should get paid for that content. Many writers will write just because they like to express themselves, but for those who want to monetize their content they will need different technologies like new platforms and toolkit innovations. They need to find a way replace the money they are losing from subscriptions. Premium publishers, like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, are missing out on money by not having access to great video advertising. They just don’t have video inventories and so are in no position to put ads into them.

Targeted advertising experiences make more money: In order to make money, the audience needs to be optimized.  While banner ads can be targeted, they are blunt instruments and appear in a static way for everyone.  With video, ad experiences can be targeted to individuals. There may be a higher premium on inventory, but it allows publications to make more money. Videos need to be more targeted and put in conceptually where there is a logical fit.  The fundamental premise behind advertising is that display will continue to exist; however, it’s not doing enough to solve the economic problems of traditional publisher. Video is a more effective vehicle for monetizing premium content.

Mia expects the business model for news to evolve with live streaming, as he said at the panel, “If live [streaming] is done well, it can be monetized. Publishers want to deliver [content] anywhere. It’s all about click and play.”

During the panel, Mia was joined by Joe Ruffolo, Senior VP of digital Media at ABC News, Roy Sekoff, president of HuffPost Live, Andrew Heyward, senior adviser of Monitor Group and former president of CBS. The panel was moderated by Merrill Brown, adviser to Streamworks and former editor in chief of MSNBC.com.

Xconomy

[Editor's Note: Streamworks is a client of Trylon SMR, owned by Trylon Communications, Inc., the parent company of NY Convergence]

English: Toni Maticevski’s catwalk show during New York Fall Fashion Week 2007 at the tents in Bryant Park New York (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

VFiles, a social media site focused on style and fashion, launched recently after a month of beta testing. The site was created by Julie Anne Quay, previous executive editor at V magazine. V is a strategic partner in the site. According to WWD.com, Quay and her team work in an office on Mercer Street in Manhattan. The site includes an online vault of issues of Visionaire, V, VMan, Project X, and Stop magazines. Users will eventually be able to upload their own multimedia files, and Quay expects the site to one day be 90% generated by users.

The main concentration of the site is on VFiles, which are online folders that users create for multimedia items, which are then searchable by tags. Users can search through various VFiles and tags to find things that interest them. In October, a partner site is set to launch in China which is being overseen by Bentham Liu, a media entrepreneur who helped launch editions of Vogue and Elle in China and Taiwan. The VFiles site also includes original video series, like TMI, Etreme Fashion Week, and others. Additionally, there is an e-commerce shop that sells collaboration products. Currently, there is no paid advertising on the site, but VFiles plans to create showcases for the brands on their site to showcase revenue.

WWD

U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly discusses FY2001 budget issues with House Appropriations Committee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The NYPD will increase the number of interrogations that are video taped. According to The NY Post, the program began last year and was dubbed by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly as the “CSI effect.” So far, about 300 interviews have been recorded. The pilot program covers four precincts throughout Brooklyn and the Bronx. Kelly said, “While many of these cases are still in process, I can say that we’ve secured a number of early pleas after turning over a video confession to the defendants’ lawyers. Based on this experience we’re ready to move forward with this practice in all of our commands and to expand it initially to include murders and sex crimes.” The cameras will be installed in each of NYC’s 76 precincts. Currently, the expansion does not have a set time table. The project will be funded by the NYC Police Foundation.

NY Post

This is icon for social networking website. This is part of Open Icon Library’s webpage icon package. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vimeo, NY based video hosting site, recently ranked among the top ten video web sites and is now offering new tools to help its video makers make money. According to Gigaom, the first tool is called Tip Jar, which allows viewers on Vimeo to contribute money to support video creators, who get 85% of the donated amount. This feature can only be activated by members of Vimeo’s paid services, Vimeo Plus and Vimeo Pro. Additionally, the site is a lunching a new pay-to-view service that will allow creators to  put their work behind a paywall.  A beta version of this feature will be launched in early 2013.

GigaOm

 Scenios

The Tribeca Film Center has offices that are home to various, well-recognized production companies. Tenants in the building will receive a discount for access to Scenios’ cloud services. Scienos is a startup that was created by five-time Emmy Award winner Jeff Wurtz and digital media entrepreneur Mark Davis. It launched in 2010, and in 2011 it released its next-generation online collaborative platform for film and TV production.

Video World Insider

[Editor's Note: Scenios is a client of Trylon SMR, owned by Trylon Communications, Inc., the parent company of NY Convergence]

Lincoln Center Plaza. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WNET, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, recently offered Fishbowl NY a backstage view of its Lincoln Center studio. The location is unique because it is located at street level and a black curtain is kept down during all productions.  The location also picks up many street sounds because it is not sound proof and therefore not much live content is produced for this location.

Though the Lincoln Center studio is up-to-date in the newest HD technology, it does not have a lot of storage space, and most of the production and voice-over work is done at WNET’s offices.  Though it doesn’t happen often, Thirteen will do a live recording from Lincoln Center. One will happen on September 22 of this month for a presentation of the American Graduate Day fundraiser.

Media Bistro

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NY’s Fox 5 misinterpreted the iPhone 5′s recent feature list. According to Tuaw, the coverage featured interviews with people waiting in line at the 5th Avenue Apple Store. The reporter on the scene mentioned of a laser keyboard and holographic images, the coverage then cuts to a video clip showing these new features. However, the clip was a concept video created by Aatma Studio and displays a “misshapen iPhone 5 and several hypothetical new things it could do.”

Tuaw