• Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? The New York Time’s social networking service TimesPeople which launched in September has now racked up 100,000 registered users.
• SAI notes that 100k users for TimesPeople is a paltry figure when compared to the NYT’s 15M monthly uniques.  Yes it is. But let’s not withold a golfclap here [golf clap] and celebrate a significant achievement for a company thats desperately in need of some optimism.
• It’s clear that newspapers are struggling to find relevance in an increasingly online world but at the end of the day the NYT is still the most dependable name in news. period.  As news consumptions continues to fracture amongsnt small, online sources there is one trait that the NYT maintains: historical relevance. The NYT is one of the few constants in a ever growing sea of variables in the information consumption equation.
• On a side note, I’m not sure that SAI’s gripe about twitter and .mac mail additions and/or the inability of friends to locate you via your secret address is particularly relevant (you’re in the big minority here).

• More bad news for the big newspaper publishers this week, as The New York Times and Tribune, Inc look for ways to stay afloat.  Their businesses are being hit hard by diminishing advertising sales as well as competing online papers and professional blogs.
• The Tribune owns eight major daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, plus a string of local TV stations. Many papers will need to fold in coming months, but for both the NYT and Tribune, some internal cash infusions are possible.
• The NYT is looking to borrow against its new Manhattan headquarters. It has hired a real estate firm to raise up to $225 million using the value of the building as collateral. The company owns 58% of the headquarters which is valued at somewhere between $900 million and $1 billion. Pulling money out of commercial real-estate is a good option for property owners looking for a tax free way to raise capital if they are to throw the money back into another investment.
• The Tribune too has their share of investments that it can salvage some money. A sale of its Chicago Cubs baseball team is under way, which will help the company in it’s effort to pay soon to be owed debts.
• Both the NYT and Tribune are under more heat than usual as they both have loans in the hundreds of millions that need to be paid back in 2009. The NYT needs to ante up $400 million by May in debts (ATD) and Tribune owes $512 million come June. Unofrtunatelly selling their paper assets are most likely not possible as the buyers market for old media is getting thin. The amount of money they are both able to pull from their other assets are limited and neither business will be able to withstand the ever-growing transition to new media outlets.

• Just after Adobe and AT&T’s layoff announcements, like it’s going out of style, NBC and Viacom have also announced large scale downsizing.
• NBC will be cutting around 500 workers, making up around 3% of their workforce.
• Viacom will be cutting around 850, nearly 7% of theirs.
• Everyone sing along with me…….”jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the wa…..wait……you’re fired!”

AW, AB, AW2

• Next week’s Chargers-Raiders game will display in 3D at three theatres across the country: Los Angeles, New York and Boston. (sorry Silicon Valley)
• NFL execs and industry insiders are the only ones getting tickets.  I guess we’ll have to wait until next year to get a chance to see 3D Charger Cheerleaders.
• In all honesty, I think this is a worthless and unpractical idea. We have come so far in consumer level picture quality and now they want to switch to 3D? What we need more than 3D is better camera angle technology. Let me pick ‘Quarter Back View’, which let’s me see a span of the field from behind the QB. Let me get a close up of that ‘pass’ going towards the reciever. If I am going to watch something in 3D, I don’t want to have the view I currently have from my living room, which is similar to sitting 25 rows up. Scoff…..

CG

• George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC has decided that it is time to move on after achieving his goals.
• Kliavkoff was the brains behind Hulu, Major League Baseball Advance Media and the entire online production and broadcast of NBC’s Olympic Coverage.
• With Hulu, he took what was anticipated to be the laughing stock of the web, and turned it into a legitimate YouTube contender that is immensly popular and profitable. Hulu set a standard for the industry
• With the online NBC olympic coverage, even though ad revenue was weak, it is one of the largest digital events in history with 1.3B page views.
• Kliavkoff says he will take some time off and then go work on another project, most likey a startup. No doubt he will defy the odds again.

CNET

• DirectTV, the $24 billion satellite TV provider, may be entering the online TV wars with a new site called DirectTV Web On Demand. The site would compete with companies like Hulu, Joost, Fancast, Sling.com, etc.
• Fancast and Joost arguably the worst of the offerings.
• Good or bad move for DirectTV?

Image and story via TechCrunch

• MobiTV, the leading provider and platform for content delivery over mobile and broadband networks is about to enter the financial news world with a suite of real-time and on-demand mobile features.
• Ray Dorenzo, Mobi’s Senior VP of Product, announced the news today @ the Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica, CA this afternoon.
• Mobi4biz will offer on demand financial video news from Fox Business, Bloomberg and CNBC.
• Other offerings include personalized real-time stock tickers, portfolio trackers, charts and analysis.
• Ray says “Any news reports related to any of the stocks you are tracking will push straight to your phone”
• The service, which is set to launch Tuesday will be available on most phones, including the new Blackberry Bold. No iPhone support though yet. Whats with that?

A tiny exclusive.

• Today Strike.tv launched its widely anticpated online hub of original HD quality video content from well known Hollywood creators today @ the Digital Hollywood Conference in Santa Monica, CA
• They are pushing live with over 40 original mini web series with talent including many actors, producers and directors from shows like ‘The Office’, ‘SNL’, ‘The Daily Show’, ‘Californication’ and more.
• BitGravity is powering the HD streaming and Episodic is providing the content delivery network.
• CEO Peter Hyoguchi tells tinyComb, “content creators will retain full rights over their material, and they will be rev sharing with them once they pick up some advertisers”
• They hope that this will become a launch pad for well known creators to try out new projects or distribute content that wouldn’t normally get picked up by a network.
• Interestingly enough, the content will not only be syndicated to YouTube (obvious choice), but they have worked out a deal with Joost. Hmmm.
• Amateur film makers will not be allowed as of yet, and even for professional creators there is still an internal voting process that goes into what will get distributed on the site.
• The concept and name of the project sparked during the Hollywood Strike this past year in hopes that a site like this would be a safe haven for content creators in dire times.
• Their series ‘Global Warming’ is pretty funny and includes some familiar Office and SNL characters.

A tiny exclusive.

• Current TV and Twitter have just teamed up for the first time in what they call Hack The Debate.
• During debate coverage, Current TV will be displaying tweets in real-time over top of live broadcast.
• So go ahead, twitter your candidate all the way into the office.

It seems pretty clear cut that McCain’s policies don’t really allign with people that utilize Twitter on a regular basis, and this is not only because Obama is the most followed person on Twitter.  My question is, are there any readers out there who use Twitter and have a legitimate reason why they’re voting for John McCain?

• Sources inside NBC Universal are claiming they lost money on the Beijing Olympics
• In the third quarter earnings conference call with parent company General Electric, executives said NBC Universal generated more than $1 billion in revenue from the Olympics, but still lost an undisclosed amount on the event
• We wrote last month that NBC’s web site which was streaming events couldn’t even pull higher traffic numbers than Yahoo’s Olympics page that was providing the same news coverage and no video.

Reuters

•  PopTent enables advertisers and brands to post requests for an ad to be produced for around $25,000
• The site’s members, which consists of small studios and videographers can create the ad and submit it. 
• If the brand or advertiser likes the ad, they can purchase it for around $6K. 
• CurrentTV does this exact same thing. They let advertisers post a project on the Current web site, where users can take a crack at getting their submission picked up. If your spot airs on Current, they pay you$2,500. If sponsors air it elsewhere, you can earn up to $60,000 

• SlingMedia, makes the hardware (soon to be software) that lets users stream their home television signal to an Internet device anywhere with DVR capabilities.
• They are now launching Sling.com, which will be offering premium content from over 60 major partners (TV Networks, Movie Studios, Sports Leagues) to be viewed on demand. 
• Now SlingMedia has a serious advantage over Hulu by matching their premium online content, but also integrating their previous business of streaming television with DVR capabilities online. No more waiting for Hulu to put up the latest episode, because you will already have it recorded. 
• The service is in private beta, request an invite here. 

• The Wall Street Journal recently announced that Slide has signed a content deal with Warner Bros, CBS, and NBC.
• Slide’s most notable presence is the former FunWall on Facebook.
• The network content will be available through Slide’s FunSpace.
• The partnership will begin tomorrow and allows users to embed selected clips of their favorite shows from the above networks.

Mashable

• Angry Apple, who controls 85% of the (legal) digital music market, suggests the record labels move to a rev share and not a per song fee. 
• Apple claims the raised fees may cause iTunes to shut down. Bluff.