Longtime television newsman Ron Stone died Tuesday at his home. Stone, who was diagnosed last year with prostate cancer, was 72. His signoff, as delivered across four decades on KHOU (Channel 11) and KPRC (Channel 2), was "Good night, neighbors," and the signature spoke volumes about the man. He was a native Oklahoman who was honored by the Sons of the Republic of Texas and a TV guy who took pride in the depth and clarity of good writing, and his long tenure in Houston helped established the style that viewers expect of their local anchors. Stone was born April 6, 1936, in Hanna, Okla., graduated from East Central State Teachers College in Ada, Okla., and worked in radio and television in several small Oklahoma markets. He was working at KVOO in Tulsa in 1961 when he caught the eye …
Is this week''s announcement that Belo Corp. plans to spin off its newspaper business to create separate television and newspaper companies the first step toward putting its newspaper group on the market? We examine the public relations implications.
The newspaper industry in the U.S. and Canada is reporting that Web traffic at newspaper sites is rising dramatically, with more people spending more time at newspaper Web sites. Both the overall number and percentage of Internet users visiting newspaper Web sites hit new all-time highs in November 2005, according to a new report by Nielsen//NetRatings for the NAA.
The Houston Press and Dallas Observer will soon be under new ownership, at least officially. New Times Media, which owns both papers announced today it plans to merge with Village Voice Media.
Newspaper columnists from across the country decended upon the D-FW area this week, providing important lessons for public relations pros who bothered to listen. Tony Messenger of the Columbia Daily Tribune reported on how his trip to the Sixth Floor Museum brought into focus how the tools and behavior of journalists have changed dramatically in the past half century.
21 percent of respondents now primarily read newspaper content online, according to the Nielsen/Netratings Summer 2005 survey. The research focused exclusively on Internet users who consume newspapers and excluded online users who obtain their news from other online news and information sources.
More than one third of visitors to the Houston Chronicle''s Web site are from out of state, according to new data from Hitwise. As historically print-based news organizations embrace the Internet, it is becoming clear that customer acquisition and churn is heavily intertwined with other news and content sites, search engines and e-mail.
Houston''s top retailers have agreed to participate in Arbitron’s upcoming trial of the portable people meter ratings service in the market. The four retailers include Best Buy, Gap, Gallery Furniture and Old Navy, which operate more than 50 store locations in Houston reaching 63 percent of the Adult Houston population in a year. They will encode the audio that plays in their stores using the unique PPM identification codes supplied by Arbitron.
Arbitron will soon be testing its "portable people meters" in Houston, hoping to prove that the new electronic devices do a better job of accurately recording media impressions than traditional diaries. The announcement comes as Clear Channel turns up the heat for better measurement of audience trends.
Comments from the 58th World Newspaper Congress in Seoul, Korea are shining the light on how newspapers will survive in a world in which ever-increasing numbers of people are consuming their news online.