Oregon Media Insiders

Three quick facts:

• Portland Mercury readers are very young.
• It is illegal to advertise tobacco to youth.
• R.J. Reynolds is the biggest advertiser in this week's Portland Mercury.

And for hardly the first week. Read the post. Does a free market trump civic responsibility? Is the Portland Mercury suspect when it criticizes a tobacco tax? Is this even a story worth reporting?

Update from Lynn: WW's Hank Stern writes in with this:

For whatever it's worth, our publisher Richard Meeker tells me WW refused the SNUS insert before it then went to the Merc, though one of these got into our paper earlier in the summer due to our inattention.

I'm also reminded that we rejected this insert on the grounds that it litters the landscape and is a public nuisance.

Nothing like a pile-on.

The Associated Press notices TV bloopers on YouTube and mentions KGW's Cheryl Stewart by name. Here's the video.

A suspicious submission from the same YouTube user shows it's not Cheryl's first on-air blooper. Only this submission has no graphics, and no audio from the studio, so I assume user "newsbloops," whose only other submission is the first vid, is an adoring fan at Channel 8.

KATU is streaming its newscasts live online. During the news, a red banner appears on the KATU homepage directing viewers here (direct video link here).

It's a bold move. Newscasts are a station's profit center, and ads don't even appear on the stream (which cuts to live shots of town, presumably so as not to run afowl of copyright restrictions on music used in advertising). And live streams can be costly to maintain, especially when offering them at the relatively high rate of 755 Kbps from one's own servers, as KATU is doing. If 1000 people watch for half an hour, that's 160GB of bandwidth used.

Is the strategy to build loyalty with the KATU brand, regardless of platform? Is it simply to deliver more visitors to the website?

Regardless, KATU.com has clearly one-upped KGW.com, which was the first to live-stream newscasts during major breaking news years ago.

At 9pm each weekday, OPB radio breaks its format and all four public radio stations in Portland play music. For any non-commercial alternative, I've been forced to go online, and I thought I'd share this jewel of a program I've found from Public Radio International. It's Fair Game with Faith Salie. Hosted by a comedian and Rhode Scholar, the program is a light yet nerdy mix of news and funny, and was recently featured in the Sunday Times. Tonight's show features Portland's own Pink Martini.

Listen here.

Meredith Corporation debuted Better.tv featuring Kimberly Maus and content drawn from its portfolio of TV stations, magazines and websites, including Better Homes and Gardens.

20 channels of video for "the daughters of Baby Boomer women." Read more here.

Seattle-based Crosscut launched today, offering up original and aggregated Northwest news. The operation is all online, and is a bit Emerald-centric, but provides Oregon- and Portland-specific feeds and links, including a link to OMI. A media story of note: a Seattle Times ex-veep told antitrust investigators the paper sabotaged its jointly operated rival, the P-I. The testimony was given in 2004.

The Tribune Company, whose assets include such prestigious media brands as the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Portland's CW, has been sold to private investor and media neophyte Sam Zell for $8.2B.

Last week's "Dateline WW: To Catch a Portlander" may have been a cheap stunt ("I posed as a war supporter...," "We sent an intern undercover..."), but it looks like Cheap Eats is what Portlanders are hungry for:

Beats & Pieces is canceled as of the end of this weekend, according to a rather terse message introducing the show last night. Apparently it will be replaced by the national music program UnderCurrents, while a new local music program is on its way.

I'm reminded of Lynn's post back when OPB canceled Performance Today:

David Christensen and Steven Cantor, watch your backs; you're next.

But taking OPB at its word that it's canceling the one half of its remaining music programming only to replace it with different music, I'm wondering why? Did Cantor want to move on? Is there a high demand among OPB listeners for different sleepytime music?

REGION 1 (Northwest)

Television: Large Market
Continuing Coverage: KGW - Search for Mt. Hood Climbers
Investigative Reporting: KATU - OHSU: Shielded By The Law
Spot News Coverage: KATU - Police Shootout
Videography: KGW - Gibson Dreams

Radio: Large Market
Continuing Coverage: KEX - Kim Family
Sports Reporting KEX - Win at State

No small-market Oregon winners.