A Brief History
Press clipping service in the United States can be traced back to the late 1800?s in New York City. With the growing number of newspapers, it was difficult for anyone to keep up with all the news about their company. So the idea was born. Get subscriptions to as many newspapers as you can, read them for news that pertained to your clients and send them the newspaper clippings.
The industry, while always a specialized business, was even featured in a popular novel, ?A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.? In that book, one of the main characters talks about the challenges of her job in a New York City press clipping service.
As American business grew and newspapers flourished in the 1900?s, so did the need for press clipping services. Clients? focus became more national in scope, and so more newspapers had to be monitored. In the 1940?s magazine coverage was added and 30 years later, press clipping services began monitoring television news stations upon our client’s request.
Press clipping services have evolved into media monitoring services which monitor and analyze every type of media: daily newspapers, non-daily newspapers, magazines, trade journals, television and radio news as well as the internet.
Today there are media monitoring companies which provide broad national service and many who specialize in regional or state coverage. And media monitoring companies have responded to the growth of on-line newspapers by offering coverage of the internet.
Showing posts with label dred porter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dred porter. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 27, 2009
Magnolia Launches Internet Monitoring
Ridgeland, MS, April 25 -- Magnolia, the leading media intelligence provider, announces the launch of its Internet broadcast monitoring service.
Whilst Magnolia has monitored and analyzed the impact of print and broadcast media coverage on behalf of leading corporate, financial, PR and public sector clients for a number of years, the company is now able to seamlessly integrate Internet content into its range of monitoring and analysis services.
Commenting on the service, Dred Porter, Managing Director at Magnolia said "We have responded to client demand for a service that is fast, accurate and delivered in a simple to use format. Because the impact of Internet news can be immediate, we update our database hourly."
Magnolia has developed a proprietary system based on search technology that searches Internet and Blogs, effectively in real time. "This allows us to create a searchable database from which our searches to extract and assess content relevant to our clients' requirements," says Porter.
Internet news content is delivered via email alert and available alongside other media coverage via the Magnolia Media Portal that allows clients to carry out a range of activities including the creation of coverage and analysis reports, and historical searches by media type, coverage area or keyword.
As well as covering all local newspaper and TV websites, and blogs, Magnolia Monitors ALL major national and regional television and radio stations, the service is unique in having Hyper Local coverage so end-users can access all of the content available. Magnolia's Analysis Products can now contrast the impact of broadcast coverage against other media channels including Print and Internet Sources to help focus PR activity.
Note to Editors:
Magnolia is the leading provider of media intelligence services in Mississippi and the Southeast, providing press, online, broadcast and social media monitoring, media analysis and forward planning services to support PR and external communications activity. Magnolia is based in the Ridgeland, and retained by many corporate, financial, PR, charity and government clients.
For further information, contact: Dred Porter, Jr. Marketing Director, Magnolia (601) 856-0911 Dredporterjr@magnoliaclips.com 298 Commerce Park Dr. Suite A Ridgeland, MS 39157 www.magnoliaclips.com
Whilst Magnolia has monitored and analyzed the impact of print and broadcast media coverage on behalf of leading corporate, financial, PR and public sector clients for a number of years, the company is now able to seamlessly integrate Internet content into its range of monitoring and analysis services.
Commenting on the service, Dred Porter, Managing Director at Magnolia said "We have responded to client demand for a service that is fast, accurate and delivered in a simple to use format. Because the impact of Internet news can be immediate, we update our database hourly."
Magnolia has developed a proprietary system based on search technology that searches Internet and Blogs, effectively in real time. "This allows us to create a searchable database from which our searches to extract and assess content relevant to our clients' requirements," says Porter.
Internet news content is delivered via email alert and available alongside other media coverage via the Magnolia Media Portal that allows clients to carry out a range of activities including the creation of coverage and analysis reports, and historical searches by media type, coverage area or keyword.
As well as covering all local newspaper and TV websites, and blogs, Magnolia Monitors ALL major national and regional television and radio stations, the service is unique in having Hyper Local coverage so end-users can access all of the content available. Magnolia's Analysis Products can now contrast the impact of broadcast coverage against other media channels including Print and Internet Sources to help focus PR activity.
Note to Editors:
Magnolia is the leading provider of media intelligence services in Mississippi and the Southeast, providing press, online, broadcast and social media monitoring, media analysis and forward planning services to support PR and external communications activity. Magnolia is based in the Ridgeland, and retained by many corporate, financial, PR, charity and government clients.
For further information, contact: Dred Porter, Jr. Marketing Director, Magnolia (601) 856-0911 Dredporterjr@magnoliaclips.com 298 Commerce Park Dr. Suite A Ridgeland, MS 39157 www.magnoliaclips.com
Friday, March 27, 2009
Media Monitoring Service = Definition
Media monitoring service
A media monitoring service provides clients with documentation, analysis, or copies of media content of interest to the clients. Services tend to specialize by media type or content type. For example, some services monitor news and public affairs content while others monitor advertising, sports sponsorships, product placement, video or audio news releases, use of copyrighted video or audio, infomercials, "watermarked" video/audio, and even billboards.
Such services hold, or have held, various names - changing over time as new forms of media are created. Alternative names for such services include:
Press/media cutting agency/service
Press/media clipping agency/service
In the past, the mass media consisted almost solely of printed matter, so monitoring the press was the chief activity of such agencies. But with radio, television and the Internet now providing output of interest to their clients the services have expanded their activities.
Typically, a client (either an individual or an organization - such as a charity or corporation) approaches a media monitoring service to keep track of what is being said about them, their competitors, or other topics of interest.
An author has a book published and has a strong interest in tracking how well the book is received by critics. The media monitoring service will have a method by which they extract any information about the author and their book from newly printed magazines, radio programs, television programs and so on.
The author will receive a printed bundle of clippings, i.e., the bits of the magazines and newspapers relating to them and their book. They may also receive recordings of any radio reviews, television programs and so on, in which they are featured.
In the past the services relied on employing people to read through printed matter and physically cut out relevant articles. With the vast amount of publications on offer now some services use scanning equipment with optical character recognition to automate this task to some degree.
Television news monitoring companies, especially in the United States, capture and index closed captioning text and search it for client references. Some TV monitoring companies still employ human monitors who review and abstract program content.
Online media monitoring services utilize automated software called spiders or robots (bots) to automatically monitor the content of online news sources including newspapers, magazines, trade journals, TV station and news syndication services.
The International Association of Broadcast Monitoring (IABM) is a world-wide trade association made up of news retrieval services which record, monitor and archive broadcast news sources including television, radio and internet. It acts as a "clearinghouse" or "forum" for discussion on topics of collective concerns and acts as a united voice for the news monitoring industry. Members of IABM subscribe to a code of ethics for broadcast news monitors.
FIBEP (Federation Internationale des Bureaux d’Extraits de Presse/International Federation of the Press Clipping Services) is the most important professional organization in the media monitoring field. The organization was established in 1953 in Paris, and, at present, has 92 members from 43 countries all over the world. Every 18 months, the members of FIBEP members organize a three-day FIBEP-Congress. In work groups, workshops, reports and discussion circles, members discuss the latest trends in the market.
Some people can argue that Google News provides a media monitoring service by allowing queries on the number of times a keyword has been mentioned in thousands of publications, based on the publications' websites. However, specialized services will very often provide a much more reliable service based on trusted publications and human reading.
Starting in 2005 companies like Global News Intelligence began using Java based artifical intelligence to automate the process of coding clipped content for tone and sentiment. This emerging technology is often referred to as media meta analysis. Key technological differentation to clip/cut only services is instant visualization media tone and sentiment without requiring the user to review content.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A media monitoring service provides clients with documentation, analysis, or copies of media content of interest to the clients. Services tend to specialize by media type or content type. For example, some services monitor news and public affairs content while others monitor advertising, sports sponsorships, product placement, video or audio news releases, use of copyrighted video or audio, infomercials, "watermarked" video/audio, and even billboards.
Such services hold, or have held, various names - changing over time as new forms of media are created. Alternative names for such services include:
Press/media cutting agency/service
Press/media clipping agency/service
In the past, the mass media consisted almost solely of printed matter, so monitoring the press was the chief activity of such agencies. But with radio, television and the Internet now providing output of interest to their clients the services have expanded their activities.
Typically, a client (either an individual or an organization - such as a charity or corporation) approaches a media monitoring service to keep track of what is being said about them, their competitors, or other topics of interest.
An author has a book published and has a strong interest in tracking how well the book is received by critics. The media monitoring service will have a method by which they extract any information about the author and their book from newly printed magazines, radio programs, television programs and so on.
The author will receive a printed bundle of clippings, i.e., the bits of the magazines and newspapers relating to them and their book. They may also receive recordings of any radio reviews, television programs and so on, in which they are featured.
In the past the services relied on employing people to read through printed matter and physically cut out relevant articles. With the vast amount of publications on offer now some services use scanning equipment with optical character recognition to automate this task to some degree.
Television news monitoring companies, especially in the United States, capture and index closed captioning text and search it for client references. Some TV monitoring companies still employ human monitors who review and abstract program content.
Online media monitoring services utilize automated software called spiders or robots (bots) to automatically monitor the content of online news sources including newspapers, magazines, trade journals, TV station and news syndication services.
The International Association of Broadcast Monitoring (IABM) is a world-wide trade association made up of news retrieval services which record, monitor and archive broadcast news sources including television, radio and internet. It acts as a "clearinghouse" or "forum" for discussion on topics of collective concerns and acts as a united voice for the news monitoring industry. Members of IABM subscribe to a code of ethics for broadcast news monitors.
FIBEP (Federation Internationale des Bureaux d’Extraits de Presse/International Federation of the Press Clipping Services) is the most important professional organization in the media monitoring field. The organization was established in 1953 in Paris, and, at present, has 92 members from 43 countries all over the world. Every 18 months, the members of FIBEP members organize a three-day FIBEP-Congress. In work groups, workshops, reports and discussion circles, members discuss the latest trends in the market.
Some people can argue that Google News provides a media monitoring service by allowing queries on the number of times a keyword has been mentioned in thousands of publications, based on the publications' websites. However, specialized services will very often provide a much more reliable service based on trusted publications and human reading.
Starting in 2005 companies like Global News Intelligence began using Java based artifical intelligence to automate the process of coding clipped content for tone and sentiment. This emerging technology is often referred to as media meta analysis. Key technological differentation to clip/cut only services is instant visualization media tone and sentiment without requiring the user to review content.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Media Monitoring for the Media (Resume Tapes)
A valuable resource for the reporter is the archives of the News Media Monitoring Industry. When a reporter is looking to collect video of themselves to put together a resume tape to move up the ladder in the media warld they can quickly turn to the www.magnoliaclips.com or any other media monitoring service to provide video clips of their work. Many times this is a free service provided to the reporters provided that they will refer individuals back to them for obtaining copies of clips. A good friend of mine Duane Regehr was just featured in an article from http://www.nuestra-comunidad.org/?p=983 IT is a very interesting article about how the environment in the News Media is changing rapidly even in the newsroom.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Utilizing Media and Media Monitoring Services in the Legal Atmosphere
Utilizing Media and Media Monitoring Services in the Legal Atmosphere
In The Beginning
In order to know where we are going we have to understand where we have been.
Old Days Old Ways At Home Manual searching
High school Grandfather reading at night at home
Mrs. Godwin with the Godwin Group Bama my Great Grandmother’s Friend
Four Quadrants of News Print Internet Television and Radio
Two Offices over 30 employees
Newspaper Clipping Today
The industry has come a long way
Modern techniques
2 southern states
Index Cards Out
Computers in
Reference Identify Account
Over 1 year to train a reader
Bar coding
Demographics
Circulation statistics and reports
Clip Analysis
Clips on disc
Regular hard Copy Newspaper clippings
Tracking Press Releases
Clients Legal
Unknown to them or their organization
You Missed it…. Once its gone its gone
Baptist hospital administration
Previous media response
Media Training How to handle the media better (what to say what not to say)
Innovators… the first clipping service in the 80s to become computerized.
NACPCS
FIBEP
Olfa Mats and circular razor blades
Internet Monitoring
Internet publications
Nationally
Specific internet sites
Publications with internet sites not the same as the hard copy newspaper
Different version, revised versions, abbreviated versions, less detailed information
Pro faster con Less info
Clips on disc
Searchable
Permanent archive
Easy to share
print email fax sort
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Kidzone to kids
Ageless heroes
Insurance related topics
Disasters
MS Department of insurance topics
Broadcast Monitoring
VCR Betamax to VHS to VCR
Manual logging, meaning someone would have to watch ever minute of every newscast and manually summarize or transcribe each newsstory into a database
Client asking for total Media Monitoring
Print mentions mixed in with Television and Radio Monitoring
Want to come to one source for all media needs
Then manually / Now international automated closed captioned. Digital recorded internet uploads instant views multiple servers
IABM
All stations in Mississippi and Alabama 24/7 news 210 markets in the use nearly more than 2500 local channels over 100 cable stations across the US.
Specialty recordings
News Entertainment Morning show
News Content
MS Outdoors
MS Roads
Television Stations refer callers to us,
We also act as the Television Stations backup
Subpoenas
Trick of the trade, it is cheaper before the subpoena call first before issuing a subpoena
File manipulation
Upload raw data to a local database as well as a central server on the internet backbone.
Searchable 2 second searches
Board of Directors of the organization that run this data sharing
IABM FIBEP NACPCS
Clips available on the internet, can not store them, nto DVD quality
DVD klilled VHS
Delivery
Reporting
Searching
Daily multiple Daily delivery
Daily Summery
AM from Same Day
PM from night before
Reports acts as a menu from which to choose clips
From none to all
Some representative clips
Build clients master reels some go back to 1992
Same day or Overnight delivery on DVD all of our markets.
We record everything whether we know you need it or not.
Permanent archive for Jackson market.
An archive is an investment for us.
We have clients that are law firms all over the country
Special Analysis Built
Confidential
For instance we knew the people running for public office long before they even announced themselves.
Special Searches
Hard and expensive
Ongoing searches
Easy sharing of files over the internet.
Order Extra DVD’s for archives or discovery
Send clips in high resolution or portable low resolution for blackberry’s and PDA devices
Media Analysis
Sample Reports
Katrina
Killen Trial
Horton Tobacco Trial
Crisis management
Trail Wrecks
Fish Kills
Employees interviewed by the media
Radio Monitoring
For long periods of time without being there to flip the cassette tape over we would then record in 6 hour mode on the audio only on VHS tape. Now we use computers to record multiple stations at once, the trouble is what to record, and when. The next issue is an old one, how to get what was said on the radio into a digital text searchable format. (still a troublesome issue today) we now monitor statewide several networks reaching into all 82 counties of Mississippi.
In The Beginning
In order to know where we are going we have to understand where we have been.
Old Days Old Ways At Home Manual searching
High school Grandfather reading at night at home
Mrs. Godwin with the Godwin Group Bama my Great Grandmother’s Friend
Four Quadrants of News Print Internet Television and Radio
Two Offices over 30 employees
Newspaper Clipping Today
The industry has come a long way
Modern techniques
2 southern states
Index Cards Out
Computers in
Reference Identify Account
Over 1 year to train a reader
Bar coding
Demographics
Circulation statistics and reports
Clip Analysis
Clips on disc
Regular hard Copy Newspaper clippings
Tracking Press Releases
Clients Legal
Unknown to them or their organization
You Missed it…. Once its gone its gone
Baptist hospital administration
Previous media response
Media Training How to handle the media better (what to say what not to say)
Innovators… the first clipping service in the 80s to become computerized.
NACPCS
FIBEP
Olfa Mats and circular razor blades
Internet Monitoring
Internet publications
Nationally
Specific internet sites
Publications with internet sites not the same as the hard copy newspaper
Different version, revised versions, abbreviated versions, less detailed information
Pro faster con Less info
Clips on disc
Searchable
Permanent archive
Easy to share
print email fax sort
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Kidzone to kids
Ageless heroes
Insurance related topics
Disasters
MS Department of insurance topics
Broadcast Monitoring
VCR Betamax to VHS to VCR
Manual logging, meaning someone would have to watch ever minute of every newscast and manually summarize or transcribe each newsstory into a database
Client asking for total Media Monitoring
Print mentions mixed in with Television and Radio Monitoring
Want to come to one source for all media needs
Then manually / Now international automated closed captioned. Digital recorded internet uploads instant views multiple servers
IABM
All stations in Mississippi and Alabama 24/7 news 210 markets in the use nearly more than 2500 local channels over 100 cable stations across the US.
Specialty recordings
News Entertainment Morning show
News Content
MS Outdoors
MS Roads
Television Stations refer callers to us,
We also act as the Television Stations backup
Subpoenas
Trick of the trade, it is cheaper before the subpoena call first before issuing a subpoena
File manipulation
Upload raw data to a local database as well as a central server on the internet backbone.
Searchable 2 second searches
Board of Directors of the organization that run this data sharing
IABM FIBEP NACPCS
Clips available on the internet, can not store them, nto DVD quality
DVD klilled VHS
Delivery
Reporting
Searching
Daily multiple Daily delivery
Daily Summery
AM from Same Day
PM from night before
Reports acts as a menu from which to choose clips
From none to all
Some representative clips
Build clients master reels some go back to 1992
Same day or Overnight delivery on DVD all of our markets.
We record everything whether we know you need it or not.
Permanent archive for Jackson market.
An archive is an investment for us.
We have clients that are law firms all over the country
Special Analysis Built
Confidential
For instance we knew the people running for public office long before they even announced themselves.
Special Searches
Hard and expensive
Ongoing searches
Easy sharing of files over the internet.
Order Extra DVD’s for archives or discovery
Send clips in high resolution or portable low resolution for blackberry’s and PDA devices
Media Analysis
Sample Reports
Katrina
Killen Trial
Horton Tobacco Trial
Crisis management
Trail Wrecks
Fish Kills
Employees interviewed by the media
Radio Monitoring
For long periods of time without being there to flip the cassette tape over we would then record in 6 hour mode on the audio only on VHS tape. Now we use computers to record multiple stations at once, the trouble is what to record, and when. The next issue is an old one, how to get what was said on the radio into a digital text searchable format. (still a troublesome issue today) we now monitor statewide several networks reaching into all 82 counties of Mississippi.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Media Monitoring Traditional vs New Media the rule of 40-40
It is the Rule of 40-40… 40 % of the papers in Mississippi have websites that are updated regularly, of that 40% they only include 40% of the content. Now this is an average, and as we papers progress there are more and more websites for newspapers. But the newspapers are protecting their content & subscription base from the web by not publishing everything that they have so that they will retain some of their subscribers.
40% of 40% is 16% ---------So only 16% of what is published actually makes it to the web.
The methodology that I used to get these numbers was taking a single newspaper and clipping every article out of the paper and searching for those articles on the website.
I automatically excluded ads (Advertisements are completely different on the internet than they are in print)
I automatically excluded AP stories (Associated Press stories can be included on website, but the paper must pay for those stories to run there -
I automatically excluded classifieds (Classifieds are different that what is on the internet, and frankly classified revenues are going down the tubes since the advent of craigslist and eBay)
I included what was left, original articles, sports news, TV listings, entertainment and Calendars from that paper only are an average only 40%. Realistically the hard news is only about 20% of the paper’s original content.
I have not done such studies with TV and Radio websites but they have to be much lower than print. So in a sales call or a reply to a blog posting, I respond with the following. This is a typical explanation for why marketers and PR professionals need to include newspaper clipping & broadcast monitoring services in their tool belt in addition to Google / Yahoo alerts and other online monitoring services. But know you as well as I do that perception of what the client’s needs are different from reality.
Actually Google only monitors and indexes about 4500 news sites with Google alerts. The reality of matter is that as the newspaper industry is fighting with how to create revenue and fighting the online new media threat they are actually holding back many of the stories from their websites. The truth of the matter is that not every newspaper has a website with content it is actually about 40% but growing of that 40% they only post 40% of the content. You must exclude AP stories, ads, classifieds, and most sports stories. So 40% of 40% is 16. 16% of what is printed actually makes it to the paper. The same is true with TV sites as well, but even less of the coverage is on the web. Radio stations mostly have promotions and contest and virtually no news content. Twitter is easy to monitor but not understood by 85% of the population. You do the math. Is an online monitoring service with FREE tools going to compare with media research professionals that actually know the news. I don’t think so. Check out http://newsmediamonitoring.blogspot.com or http://www.magnoliaclips.com for more in-depth information about this topic.
40% of 40% is 16% ---------So only 16% of what is published actually makes it to the web.
The methodology that I used to get these numbers was taking a single newspaper and clipping every article out of the paper and searching for those articles on the website.
I automatically excluded ads (Advertisements are completely different on the internet than they are in print)
I automatically excluded AP stories (Associated Press stories can be included on website, but the paper must pay for those stories to run there -
I automatically excluded classifieds (Classifieds are different that what is on the internet, and frankly classified revenues are going down the tubes since the advent of craigslist and eBay)
I included what was left, original articles, sports news, TV listings, entertainment and Calendars from that paper only are an average only 40%. Realistically the hard news is only about 20% of the paper’s original content.
I have not done such studies with TV and Radio websites but they have to be much lower than print. So in a sales call or a reply to a blog posting, I respond with the following. This is a typical explanation for why marketers and PR professionals need to include newspaper clipping & broadcast monitoring services in their tool belt in addition to Google / Yahoo alerts and other online monitoring services. But know you as well as I do that perception of what the client’s needs are different from reality.
Actually Google only monitors and indexes about 4500 news sites with Google alerts. The reality of matter is that as the newspaper industry is fighting with how to create revenue and fighting the online new media threat they are actually holding back many of the stories from their websites. The truth of the matter is that not every newspaper has a website with content it is actually about 40% but growing of that 40% they only post 40% of the content. You must exclude AP stories, ads, classifieds, and most sports stories. So 40% of 40% is 16. 16% of what is printed actually makes it to the paper. The same is true with TV sites as well, but even less of the coverage is on the web. Radio stations mostly have promotions and contest and virtually no news content. Twitter is easy to monitor but not understood by 85% of the population. You do the math. Is an online monitoring service with FREE tools going to compare with media research professionals that actually know the news. I don’t think so. Check out http://newsmediamonitoring.blogspot.com or http://www.magnoliaclips.com for more in-depth information about this topic.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Fundamental shift in Media Monitoring
As communication in our world becomes more and more depend on computers to transmit messages, there is a shift in communications. The way that we get our news from the Main Stream Media (CNN, FOX NEWS, HLN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and NPR) and Daily and Weekly Newspapers is moving towards the online world. Like most people the first thing that they do at the office in the morning, is check email, and open up a browser. On this browser page whether it be Yahoo, MSN, iGoogle, or another, the news is one of the first things that they read.
As a Media Monitor, this directly affects my business. My company will have to adapt and shift the paradigm from monitoring traditional media to monitoring online media, blogs, RSS feeds, Newspaper and Television Websites. That is not to say that there is no need for traditional media. People are tactile creatures, we like to touch the newspaper turn the pages, flip them over. There is a sense of accomplishment once you have read the entire newspaper. Sure there is Wifi at the coffee shop, and news websites, and Amazon’s kindle, but the fact remains that newspaper are still printing papers. Not all of this content is online, therefore how will you monitor this? With a traditional newspaper clipping service that is how. Magnolia Clipping Service as been around for nearly 70 years, that is before TV news, which my great grandmother was worried about way back when. Nothing is going to change the fact that people still want newspapers, and that the Local 6 PM newscast will remain indispensable at least not in the near future. TV website have some of the content on the website, but usually it is only the package that they post, not all of the segments from the 5, 6, 10, and the two hours of AM shows. One thing that will not go away are the ratings from the TV, PR professionals will still need to track it, measure it, and make sure that they can count that towards their ROI stats for the PR campaign.
Currently there is a thrust of companies to try to get into blogging, and trying for find their place in the blogosphere, and again, this does not mean that they will not need to also follow the old ways too. This will be a gradual transition, as people and companies have different learning curves for the Social Media.
As always I welcome any comments you may have on this topic.
As a Media Monitor, this directly affects my business. My company will have to adapt and shift the paradigm from monitoring traditional media to monitoring online media, blogs, RSS feeds, Newspaper and Television Websites. That is not to say that there is no need for traditional media. People are tactile creatures, we like to touch the newspaper turn the pages, flip them over. There is a sense of accomplishment once you have read the entire newspaper. Sure there is Wifi at the coffee shop, and news websites, and Amazon’s kindle, but the fact remains that newspaper are still printing papers. Not all of this content is online, therefore how will you monitor this? With a traditional newspaper clipping service that is how. Magnolia Clipping Service as been around for nearly 70 years, that is before TV news, which my great grandmother was worried about way back when. Nothing is going to change the fact that people still want newspapers, and that the Local 6 PM newscast will remain indispensable at least not in the near future. TV website have some of the content on the website, but usually it is only the package that they post, not all of the segments from the 5, 6, 10, and the two hours of AM shows. One thing that will not go away are the ratings from the TV, PR professionals will still need to track it, measure it, and make sure that they can count that towards their ROI stats for the PR campaign.
Currently there is a thrust of companies to try to get into blogging, and trying for find their place in the blogosphere, and again, this does not mean that they will not need to also follow the old ways too. This will be a gradual transition, as people and companies have different learning curves for the Social Media.
As always I welcome any comments you may have on this topic.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Twitter and Business Development; What I have learned in a two week twitter trial
Twitter and Business Development
In merely a week using twitter, I went mad following people, by doing a search for “PR”, “Public Relations”, “Media Relations”, and “Media Monitoring”. Typically when you follow someone they follow you. I have found that 2 out of 5 people I follow started following me. This is a good thing since the message I wanted to send was targeted specifically to an audience that has a need for monitoring service. Without being to self promotion, I posed questions to my twitter followers such as,
“Are you happy with your traditional media monitoring services?”
“Do you wish that there was an alternative your current service provider?”
“What is the best new product that Media Monitoring services have introduced recently?”
“Have you found that the measurements of media monitoring service to be accurate?”
“If you could change the way media monitoring services work, what would you change, how and why?”
There were a few other question, but most of the responses I got the best results from were questions. I also threw out there a few things that were more like pitches. Most people did not respond to that. I believe that the best way to engage the twitter community is to participate in the conversation. Asking who they use, why, what is good or bad about them.
Most people in the twitter community want to believe that online is the only thing out there and that traditional media no longer exists, or has become irrelevant. This is not the case. Statistics that I have found are that only 8% of people in the U.S. are actively engaged in Conversational Media. By far the audiences are still going to traditional sources, Newspapers, Television, and Radio for news. That being said the online communities and social networking sites are growing, and building a momentum. Social Networking Sites like Facebook, and LinkedIn are good for measuring your sphere of influence, and creating a social graph of people you know and who know you, through how many degrees. I will admit that the mainstream media sources are now referring back to online sources more and more. Nielsen’s ratings show higher numbers than online communities.
When attempting to use twitter to get people’s attention, you have to be subtle, not to “in your face” about marketing your product. If you are then you just become a spammer, another used car salesman, another furniture store with a crazy gimmick. Twitter is a wonderful means to grab the attention of a specific market. People who are using twitter have several attributes that many real world people do not have, but the twitterverse has to cross over into the real world somewhere.
They are aware of new technology
They know how to use this technology
They are willing to try new things
They know that they “the people” are the influencers now
They are aware that their words DO have an impact on others thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes
The main thing to remember is that it is a two way conversation. Pitches, and traditional sales techniques do not work in the conventional sense, but some of the traditional sales techniques can be altered, and then they become a real force. It is more about the art of conversation, a way to steer your audience, or your listeners into wanting to know more. In many ways it is good speech writing, or good written salesmanship that creates curiosity. You have to believe in the product or service that you are selling. You have to be willing to share what you know about your area of expertise in order to win people over. Twitter does not get you more business, it is the proper use of twitter and tying that into a blog, by the use of link bait that gets traffic, readers, and more eyeballs on you material that is the driving for of twitter in the business world.
In merely a week using twitter, I went mad following people, by doing a search for “PR”, “Public Relations”, “Media Relations”, and “Media Monitoring”. Typically when you follow someone they follow you. I have found that 2 out of 5 people I follow started following me. This is a good thing since the message I wanted to send was targeted specifically to an audience that has a need for monitoring service. Without being to self promotion, I posed questions to my twitter followers such as,
“Are you happy with your traditional media monitoring services?”
“Do you wish that there was an alternative your current service provider?”
“What is the best new product that Media Monitoring services have introduced recently?”
“Have you found that the measurements of media monitoring service to be accurate?”
“If you could change the way media monitoring services work, what would you change, how and why?”
There were a few other question, but most of the responses I got the best results from were questions. I also threw out there a few things that were more like pitches. Most people did not respond to that. I believe that the best way to engage the twitter community is to participate in the conversation. Asking who they use, why, what is good or bad about them.
Most people in the twitter community want to believe that online is the only thing out there and that traditional media no longer exists, or has become irrelevant. This is not the case. Statistics that I have found are that only 8% of people in the U.S. are actively engaged in Conversational Media. By far the audiences are still going to traditional sources, Newspapers, Television, and Radio for news. That being said the online communities and social networking sites are growing, and building a momentum. Social Networking Sites like Facebook, and LinkedIn are good for measuring your sphere of influence, and creating a social graph of people you know and who know you, through how many degrees. I will admit that the mainstream media sources are now referring back to online sources more and more. Nielsen’s ratings show higher numbers than online communities.
When attempting to use twitter to get people’s attention, you have to be subtle, not to “in your face” about marketing your product. If you are then you just become a spammer, another used car salesman, another furniture store with a crazy gimmick. Twitter is a wonderful means to grab the attention of a specific market. People who are using twitter have several attributes that many real world people do not have, but the twitterverse has to cross over into the real world somewhere.
They are aware of new technology
They know how to use this technology
They are willing to try new things
They know that they “the people” are the influencers now
They are aware that their words DO have an impact on others thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes
The main thing to remember is that it is a two way conversation. Pitches, and traditional sales techniques do not work in the conventional sense, but some of the traditional sales techniques can be altered, and then they become a real force. It is more about the art of conversation, a way to steer your audience, or your listeners into wanting to know more. In many ways it is good speech writing, or good written salesmanship that creates curiosity. You have to believe in the product or service that you are selling. You have to be willing to share what you know about your area of expertise in order to win people over. Twitter does not get you more business, it is the proper use of twitter and tying that into a blog, by the use of link bait that gets traffic, readers, and more eyeballs on you material that is the driving for of twitter in the business world.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
What is a Clipping Service?
Extract: "A clipping service is a “tool”, much like your computer or calculator or cell phone, for the express purpose of gathering business intelligence. To be effective, the clipping service must provide an individually tailored service to search out the precise information you need. We have no “stock” orders because what you need to know is unique to your organization. "
Public Relations professional need to measure their effectivness by gathering clippings from the media outlets to whom they have sent press releases. The purpose would be to see if they have covered the story as they wanted, if they message of the press release was clearly communicated, and to measure the value of the earned media. The value can be qualtified, by measuring the column inches, then calculating the media value by multiplying it by the national advertising rate for that paper. Many PR Pros also use a multiplier to determine a publicity value for those clips, which is more art than science.
Public Relations professional need to measure their effectivness by gathering clippings from the media outlets to whom they have sent press releases. The purpose would be to see if they have covered the story as they wanted, if they message of the press release was clearly communicated, and to measure the value of the earned media. The value can be qualtified, by measuring the column inches, then calculating the media value by multiplying it by the national advertising rate for that paper. Many PR Pros also use a multiplier to determine a publicity value for those clips, which is more art than science.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Where does Social Media fit into the daily business activities of Traditional Media?
Social Media & Traditional Media collision inevitable!This is a question that many people are blogging about, there are discussion all over the Internet trying to figure out how the corporate world will change once people "get it". In Valarie Maltoni's Blog she displayed this image. It is an excellent visual demonstration of how the communication will transform from dissemination information from the few to the many, to the many to the many. Media will change for sure. This has been demonstrated over and over again.
First there was the printing press, which was an easy way to duplicate the same news information many time. It came from one source, and was distributed to many readers. The along came radio, now instead of having to purchase something new everyday you could make one purchase and get all the news still from one or more sources. The radio gave you a choice of how to get your news. Eventually Television made it onto the scene. The traditional "BIG 3" networks had cornered the market for news. Again the news came from a few sources, and had further reach, and spread throughout the the country by the creation of affiliates. This has pretty much remained the same for about 60 years. Sure there have been upgrade, like cable, and Satellite TV, but this remained news from above. Now we are almost current. Now the 400 lb Gorilla in the room s THE INTERNET, with its websites, blogs, and twitters, and forums, and newsgroups, and wiki's and and and... All that is what we have today. Newspaper adopted websites, so did radio and television, but now with blogging, and Social Media giving anyone a chance, anyone who is willing to share his/her opinion a voice. I say speak up, Speak LOUDLY. Make a change.
This new revolution, will change the world as we know it. Take for example, advertising. How has it changed? Think back, just say 5 years. no AdSense, no Google ads, nothing splattered all over the margins of you page. Now they are everywhere, and cheap, with a much more targeted niche markets. Advertisers can reach people who are looking for their product. So where does this leave the traditional media players? I believe that they are still trying to figure it out. But to what end? How to make a buck from Web 2.0. This is slowing their ability to move ahead. When the day is done, people will still pay to have themselves mentioned in front of people who might buy their products and services. They need to stop trying to tie news distribution directly to advertising. Advertising should always be in a peripheral experience. Nothing bugs me more than an in your face auto dealer commercial between the first block and the weather. I know that there is money to be made there by the TV station, the car dealer, the production company. But do they have to raise the volume up to 11? I got a car, why do they have to scream at me to see if I want a new one. Does this method work? Yell at me enough times to buy a car, and I will most definately NOT go to that dealership. Name recognition is worthless if I recognize your name as being associated with the cheezy loud car ads. To me this seems counter productive. Plus I bought my last car off of the Internet.
In my opinion, newspapers, tv, and radio should all attempt to drive people to their own sites, and involve more people in discussion, report discussion, comments, interesting blogs. Let the people behind the blogs be the news, and not the latest murder rate in the crime invested city. The people are beginning to show the media that they are more intelligent than the media wants them to be.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Monitoring broadcast media for "Social Media" mentions
Monitoring broadcast media for "Social Media" mentions After doing a little research within my own database, I discovered the great number of stories that mention blogs, blogging, twitter, and other Social media outlets. I have put together a study, and will continue to follow and update this for the entire month of April. I have created a broadcast media portal that will be tracking any mention of the Keywords "Social Media" - "Blog" - "Blogging"- "Twitter" and a few other terms regarding social media that could generate some results from the traditional broadcast media. I think that the traditional media outlets understand social media in the most limited and shallow levels. Traditional media outlets don't get it yet, because they're either unaware of the value, or trying to figure out a way to make money from it. They are thinking only about ad revenues from these "cute blogs" and do not realize the revolution that has begun. They are of course going to think about selling what they have always sold- the allmighty advertisements. This is very traditional thinking about advertising, but it changes when you migrate from TV/Radio to the Internet. Blogging ads currently are heavily dependent upon adwords who control what ads are seen on your page. Media wants to control it themselves. If the Media wants to make some money on blogging, they need to encourage people to blog. So far there is very little mention of how to blog, what to blog about, and why blogging is important to the biz world. I'd like to see more.
You can log into the portal to see what it is this does www.magnoliaclips.com/login.html
Login ID = Twitter : Password = ******* (email me to get the pwd) videodred@gmail.com
Then feel free to play with the system. Please send me an email if you like it, or have any comments about it.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Analysis 04-03-2008
Top Stories for 04-03-2008
WJTV = POLICE CHIEF ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL.
WLBT = MARK SEEPE FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND CREMATORIUM IMPROPERLY CO- MINGLED HUMAN REMAINS.
WAPT = HUMAN BONES WERE FOUND IN A DUMPSTER OUTSIDE OF A JACKSON CREMATORIUM.
Two of the stations decided to cover the human remains story, while the other chose to cover the Police/Sex Scandal. What does this say about the state of affairs in Jackson, MS. For one, i think that this says that Jackson media WLBT, WJTV, & WAPT all report the bad news first.
More commentary than that I don't know what to say. to really analyze the news you must have a goal, a purpose, a reason for doing so. Here I am just posting these to compare the top stories. over time, this would be a relevant search for a new news station, like WDBD who is supposed to start a newscast very soon.
WJTV = POLICE CHIEF ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL.
WLBT = MARK SEEPE FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND CREMATORIUM IMPROPERLY CO- MINGLED HUMAN REMAINS.
WAPT = HUMAN BONES WERE FOUND IN A DUMPSTER OUTSIDE OF A JACKSON CREMATORIUM.
Two of the stations decided to cover the human remains story, while the other chose to cover the Police/Sex Scandal. What does this say about the state of affairs in Jackson, MS. For one, i think that this says that Jackson media WLBT, WJTV, & WAPT all report the bad news first.
More commentary than that I don't know what to say. to really analyze the news you must have a goal, a purpose, a reason for doing so. Here I am just posting these to compare the top stories. over time, this would be a relevant search for a new news station, like WDBD who is supposed to start a newscast very soon.
WJTV 04-03-2008 10 PM
WJTV
APR 3 2008 10:00PM CT Captioned
[**10:01:32 PM**] SOME STUNNED MENDENHALL RESIDENTS CAN'T BELIEVE THEIR POLICE CHIEF HAS WALKED AWAY FROM HIS SECOND FROM HIS SECOND TRIAL FOR SEX CRIMES, WITHOUT BEING CONVICTED. CHIEF JAMES SULLIVAN IS NOT COMMENTING ABOUT TODAY'S MISTRIAL, BUT MANY IN HIS COMMUNITY HAVE A LOT TO SAY INCLUDING PROSECUTORS. THIS IS THEIR SECOND HUNG JURY IN THEIR CASE AGAINST THE CHIEF, AND IT WON'T BE THE LAST. THEY PLAN TO RETRY HIM IN SEPTEMBER. NEWS CHANNEL NEWS CHANNEL NEWS CHANNEL 12 WAS THERE THIS AFTERNOON AS SULLIVAN LEFT THE COURTHOUSE. 11 JURORS VOTED TO CONVICT, ONLY ONE HELD OUT. SULLIVAN'S ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL. SHE TESTIFIED IT HAPPENED 3 TIMES IN HIS POLICE CAR. PROSECUTORS PRESENTED PHONE RECORDS AND RECORDED PHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SULLIVAN AND THE TEEN, BUT SULLIVAN WORKED TO DISCREDIT HER REPUTATION, SAYI NG HE WAS JUST TRYING TO "BEFRIEND A TROUBLED GIRL. PROSECUTORS DID NOT PRESENT ANY PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. ONE MENDENHALL OFFICER WE TALKED WITH IS DISAPPOINTED WITH THE OUTCOME. IT'S AN INTERVIEW YOU SEE ONLY ON NEWS CHANNEL 12. RUNS: 0:06 "IT'S BEEN A CLOUD HANGING OVER THE DEPARTMENT AND ME HAVE WONDERFUL OFFICERS AND JUST WANT TO GET ON WITH OUR LIVES. NEWS CHANNEL 12'S EMILY WOOD WAS THERE FOR THE VERDICT, AND HAS REACTION FROM OTHER RESIDENTS IN THIS TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITY. MISTRIAL IS OUR BIG STORY TONIGHT AT TEN. RUNS: X: XX OUTCUE: STANDARD 11:20 I BELIEVE HE DID IT, KNOW HE DID IT. PHONE CALLS, PHONE RECORDS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. MANY IN THE SMALL TOWN OF MENDENHALL SAY THEY'RE SURPRISED AT LEAST ONE PERSON ON THE JURY DID NOT SEE E PROSECUTION'S EVIDENCE AS A ENOUGH TO CONVICT. 00:52 THAT HE DID IT NO DOUBT. IT SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED WILLING OR NOT. PEOPLE WHO SAT THROUGH THE TRIAL SAY TO THEM CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SULLIVAN AND THE YOUNG GIRL WERE CONDEMNING. SULLIVAN TESTIMONY ABOUT PREGNANCY THEY SAY THINGS WERE ONLY FURTHER CONFIRMED WITH THE CHIEF TOOK THE STAND TO TRY AND DEFEND SOME OF THOSE LATE NIGHT CALLS. 11:27 HE GOT ON THE STAND YESTERDAY AND HUNG HIMSELF WITH ALL THIS STUFF HE WAS SAYING AND THE DEFENSE CAME BACK AND I DON'T SEE WHY ITS A HUNG TRIAL. BUT THE CHIEF PREGNANCY THEY S THINGS WERE ONLY FURTHER CONFIRMED WITH THE CHIEF TOOK THE STAND TO TRY AND DEFEND SOME OF THOSE LATE NIGHT CALLS. 11:27 HE GOT ON THE STAND YESTERDAY AND HUNG HIMSELF WITH ALL THIS STUFF HE WAS SAYING AND THE DEFENSE CAME BACK AND I DON'T SEE WHY ITS A HUNG TRIAL. BUT THE CHIEF MAINTAINS HE IS TELLING THE TRUTH AND AT LEAST ONE JUROR SEEMS TO AGREE. IN MENDENHALL, EMILY WOOD WJTV NC12. SULLIVAN IS STILL THE CHIEF OF THE MENDENHALL POLICE DEPARTMENT. HE WILL REMAIN ON LEAVE WITH PAY THROUGH HIS NEXT TRIAL,
APR 3 2008 10:00PM CT Captioned
[**10:01:32 PM**] SOME STUNNED MENDENHALL RESIDENTS CAN'T BELIEVE THEIR POLICE CHIEF HAS WALKED AWAY FROM HIS SECOND FROM HIS SECOND TRIAL FOR SEX CRIMES, WITHOUT BEING CONVICTED. CHIEF JAMES SULLIVAN IS NOT COMMENTING ABOUT TODAY'S MISTRIAL, BUT MANY IN HIS COMMUNITY HAVE A LOT TO SAY INCLUDING PROSECUTORS. THIS IS THEIR SECOND HUNG JURY IN THEIR CASE AGAINST THE CHIEF, AND IT WON'T BE THE LAST. THEY PLAN TO RETRY HIM IN SEPTEMBER. NEWS CHANNEL NEWS CHANNEL NEWS CHANNEL 12 WAS THERE THIS AFTERNOON AS SULLIVAN LEFT THE COURTHOUSE. 11 JURORS VOTED TO CONVICT, ONLY ONE HELD OUT. SULLIVAN'S ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL. SHE TESTIFIED IT HAPPENED 3 TIMES IN HIS POLICE CAR. PROSECUTORS PRESENTED PHONE RECORDS AND RECORDED PHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SULLIVAN AND THE TEEN, BUT SULLIVAN WORKED TO DISCREDIT HER REPUTATION, SAYI NG HE WAS JUST TRYING TO "BEFRIEND A TROUBLED GIRL. PROSECUTORS DID NOT PRESENT ANY PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. ONE MENDENHALL OFFICER WE TALKED WITH IS DISAPPOINTED WITH THE OUTCOME. IT'S AN INTERVIEW YOU SEE ONLY ON NEWS CHANNEL 12. RUNS: 0:06 "IT'S BEEN A CLOUD HANGING OVER THE DEPARTMENT AND ME HAVE WONDERFUL OFFICERS AND JUST WANT TO GET ON WITH OUR LIVES. NEWS CHANNEL 12'S EMILY WOOD WAS THERE FOR THE VERDICT, AND HAS REACTION FROM OTHER RESIDENTS IN THIS TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITY. MISTRIAL IS OUR BIG STORY TONIGHT AT TEN. RUNS: X: XX OUTCUE: STANDARD 11:20 I BELIEVE HE DID IT, KNOW HE DID IT. PHONE CALLS, PHONE RECORDS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. MANY IN THE SMALL TOWN OF MENDENHALL SAY THEY'RE SURPRISED AT LEAST ONE PERSON ON THE JURY DID NOT SEE E PROSECUTION'S EVIDENCE AS A ENOUGH TO CONVICT. 00:52 THAT HE DID IT NO DOUBT. IT SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED WILLING OR NOT. PEOPLE WHO SAT THROUGH THE TRIAL SAY TO THEM CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SULLIVAN AND THE YOUNG GIRL WERE CONDEMNING. SULLIVAN TESTIMONY ABOUT PREGNANCY THEY SAY THINGS WERE ONLY FURTHER CONFIRMED WITH THE CHIEF TOOK THE STAND TO TRY AND DEFEND SOME OF THOSE LATE NIGHT CALLS. 11:27 HE GOT ON THE STAND YESTERDAY AND HUNG HIMSELF WITH ALL THIS STUFF HE WAS SAYING AND THE DEFENSE CAME BACK AND I DON'T SEE WHY ITS A HUNG TRIAL. BUT THE CHIEF PREGNANCY THEY S THINGS WERE ONLY FURTHER CONFIRMED WITH THE CHIEF TOOK THE STAND TO TRY AND DEFEND SOME OF THOSE LATE NIGHT CALLS. 11:27 HE GOT ON THE STAND YESTERDAY AND HUNG HIMSELF WITH ALL THIS STUFF HE WAS SAYING AND THE DEFENSE CAME BACK AND I DON'T SEE WHY ITS A HUNG TRIAL. BUT THE CHIEF MAINTAINS HE IS TELLING THE TRUTH AND AT LEAST ONE JUROR SEEMS TO AGREE. IN MENDENHALL, EMILY WOOD WJTV NC12. SULLIVAN IS STILL THE CHIEF OF THE MENDENHALL POLICE DEPARTMENT. HE WILL REMAIN ON LEAVE WITH PAY THROUGH HIS NEXT TRIAL,
WLBT 04-03-2008 10PM
WLBT
APR 3 2008 10:00PM CT Captioned
[**09:58:02 PM**] ANSWERS AS THE STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL INVESTIGATES A LOCAL CREMATORIUM. POSSIBLE HUMAN REMAINS ARE DISCOVERED NEAR INTERSTATE 20 IN RICHLAND TODAY. AND RISING WATERS CONTINUE TO FLOOD THE CITY OF VICKSBURG, STATE OFFICIALS PLAN TO SHUT DOWN A LOCAL CREMATORIUM UNDER SCRUTINY TONIGHT. MISSISSIPPI ATTORNEY GENERAL JIM HOOD HAS FILED FOR A CHANCERY COURT INJUNCTION TO GET A THE SHUT DOWN. IT IS TONIGHT'S TOP STORY. TODAY HOOD ALSO CONFIRMED TO WLBT NEWS, HIS OFFICE IS CONDUCTING A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGATIONS MARK SEEPE FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND CREMATORIUM IMPROPERLY CO- MINGLED HUMAN REMAINS. RECORDS INDICATE, 147 PEOPLE WERE CREMATED THERE IN 2007. HOOD SAYS THIS IS A HIGHLY EMOTIONAL MATTER FOR FAMILIES. I DON'T THINK YOU ARE GOING TO SEE THIS HAPPENING GAIN AND UNFORTUNATE LY THESES VICTIMS HAVE HAD TO SUFFER TO MAKE SOME CHANGES OCCUR. AMONG THE CHANGES THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SAID HIS OFFICE IS RECOMMENDING THE IMMEDIATE HIRING OF AN INSPECTOR BY THE STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES IN ORDER TO INSPECT ALL CREMATORIUMS BEFORE LICENSING, AND HIS OFFICE IS PREPARING TOUGHER LAWS FOR LEGISLATIVE CONSIDERATION. IT WAS AN EMOTIONAL DAY FOR FAMILIES WHOSE LOVED ONES HAVE BEEN CREMATED AT MARK SEEPE FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND CREMATORIUM IN JACKSON. THE STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES AND ATTORNEY GENERAL JIM HOOD INVITED CONCERNED FAMILIES TO SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS TODAY. DOZENS OF FAMILIES LINED UP TO SHARE THEIR STORIES WITH BOARD MEMBERS. THE CREMATORIUM HAS BEEN UNDER SCRUTINY SINCE A FORMER EMPLOYEE REVEALED DISTURBING PHOTOS THAT APPEAR TO SHOW PILES OF BONES. THE STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES SAYS IT LOOKED AT THE PHOTOS AND TURNED THE CASE OVER TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE. ONE WOMAN WHOSE FATHER WAS CREMATED AT SEEPE'S CREMATORIUM TOLD THE BOARD WHY SHE'S SPEAKING OUT. "ARE THEY MASS CREMATING PEOPLE? I WANT ANSWERS. I KNOW YOU CAN'T GIVE ME ANY, BUT I WANTED YOU TO SEE, THIS IS A PERSON, NOT A BUCKET OF ASHES. THE STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES SAYS IT WON'T INTERFERE WITH HOOD'S INVESTIGATION. BUT IT SAYS IT WILL CONDUCT ITS OWN INVESTIGATION AS SOON AS HOOD IS FINISHED WITH HIS.
APR 3 2008 10:00PM CT Captioned
[**09:58:02 PM**] ANSWERS AS THE STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL INVESTIGATES A LOCAL CREMATORIUM. POSSIBLE HUMAN REMAINS ARE DISCOVERED NEAR INTERSTATE 20 IN RICHLAND TODAY. AND RISING WATERS CONTINUE TO FLOOD THE CITY OF VICKSBURG, STATE OFFICIALS PLAN TO SHUT DOWN A LOCAL CREMATORIUM UNDER SCRUTINY TONIGHT. MISSISSIPPI ATTORNEY GENERAL JIM HOOD HAS FILED FOR A CHANCERY COURT INJUNCTION TO GET A THE SHUT DOWN. IT IS TONIGHT'S TOP STORY. TODAY HOOD ALSO CONFIRMED TO WLBT NEWS, HIS OFFICE IS CONDUCTING A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGATIONS MARK SEEPE FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND CREMATORIUM IMPROPERLY CO- MINGLED HUMAN REMAINS. RECORDS INDICATE, 147 PEOPLE WERE CREMATED THERE IN 2007. HOOD SAYS THIS IS A HIGHLY EMOTIONAL MATTER FOR FAMILIES. I DON'T THINK YOU ARE GOING TO SEE THIS HAPPENING GAIN AND UNFORTUNATE LY THESES VICTIMS HAVE HAD TO SUFFER TO MAKE SOME CHANGES OCCUR. AMONG THE CHANGES THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SAID HIS OFFICE IS RECOMMENDING THE IMMEDIATE HIRING OF AN INSPECTOR BY THE STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES IN ORDER TO INSPECT ALL CREMATORIUMS BEFORE LICENSING, AND HIS OFFICE IS PREPARING TOUGHER LAWS FOR LEGISLATIVE CONSIDERATION. IT WAS AN EMOTIONAL DAY FOR FAMILIES WHOSE LOVED ONES HAVE BEEN CREMATED AT MARK SEEPE FUNERAL DIRECTORS AND CREMATORIUM IN JACKSON. THE STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES AND ATTORNEY GENERAL JIM HOOD INVITED CONCERNED FAMILIES TO SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS TODAY. DOZENS OF FAMILIES LINED UP TO SHARE THEIR STORIES WITH BOARD MEMBERS. THE CREMATORIUM HAS BEEN UNDER SCRUTINY SINCE A FORMER EMPLOYEE REVEALED DISTURBING PHOTOS THAT APPEAR TO SHOW PILES OF BONES. THE STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES SAYS IT LOOKED AT THE PHOTOS AND TURNED THE CASE OVER TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE. ONE WOMAN WHOSE FATHER WAS CREMATED AT SEEPE'S CREMATORIUM TOLD THE BOARD WHY SHE'S SPEAKING OUT. "ARE THEY MASS CREMATING PEOPLE? I WANT ANSWERS. I KNOW YOU CAN'T GIVE ME ANY, BUT I WANTED YOU TO SEE, THIS IS A PERSON, NOT A BUCKET OF ASHES. THE STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES SAYS IT WON'T INTERFERE WITH HOOD'S INVESTIGATION. BUT IT SAYS IT WILL CONDUCT ITS OWN INVESTIGATION AS SOON AS HOOD IS FINISHED WITH HIS.
WAPT 04-03-2008 10PM
WAPT
APR 3 2008 10:00PM CT Captioned
TONIGHTS LEAD STORY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS HUMAN BONES WERE FOUND IN A DUMPSTER OUTSIDE OF A JACKSON CREMATORIUM. I'M SCOTT SIMMONS. AND I'M JOYCE BREWER. THIS WAS THE SCENE LAST WEEK AS INVESTIGATORS WENT THROUGH A DUMPSTER OUTSIDE OF MARK SEEPE FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATORIUM. THAT INVESTIGATION CAME AFTER PHOTOS OF HUMAN BONES INSIDE THE CREMATORIUM SURFACED. THE AG IS NOW FILING A CIVIL INJUNCTION. AN ACTION THAT COULD EVENTUALLY SHUT DOWN THE CREMATORIUM. BUT AS 16 WAPT'S JOSEPH PLEASANT EXPLAINS THAT COULD BE TOO LITTLE COMFORT TO SOME FAMILIES. SHARON WARD SAYS HER HUSBAND BRUCE WAS CREMATED AT THE MARK SEEPE FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATORIUM IN SEPTEMBER 2006. I DIDN'T GET A CHANCE TO SAY GOOD BY TO HIM. I DIDN'T GET A CHANCE TO VIEW HIS REMAINS. I THOUGHT ALL I WOULD HAVE LEFT WOULD BE HIS REMAINS. THURSDAY SHE MET WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL JIM HOOD, BECAUSE SHE WORRIES THE CREMAINS AT HER HOUSE ARE NOT HER HUSBANDS. I DON'T WANT THEM TO TELL ME THOSE ARE HUMAN REMAINS. I WANT THEM TO BELONG TO BRUCE WARD. I DON'T WANT THEM TO BELONG TO SOMEONE ELSE. THURSDAY, HOOD TALKED FOR THE FIRST TIME ABOUT A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE CREMATORIUM. HE SAYS HE SENT INVESTIGATORS TO THE BUSINESS TO COMB THROUGH A DUMPSTER AFTER THESE PICTURES OF HUMAN BONES SURFACED. HOOD SAYS THEY FOUND HUMAN BONE FRAGMENTS. BUT, THAT DOES NOT PROVE THE OWNER MARK SEEPE MISHANDLED REMAINS. WE HAVEN'T SEEN ANY EVIDENCE TO CREATE THE HYSTERIA THAT PEOPLE WERE GIVEN THE WRONG CREMAINS. NOW ITS GOING TO TAKE A WHILE THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION. EVEN IF INVESTIGATORS FIND OUT THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MARK SEEPE ARE TRUE. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS HE IS NOT SURE WHAT CRIME IF ANY HE COULD CHARGE HIM WITH. WE ARE DEALING WITH A LAW THAT'S BEEN THERE A WHILE AND DOESN'T SPECIFICALLY ADDRESS CREMATION. THURSDAY HOOD PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE WAY CREMATORIUMS ARE REGULATED. CHANGES SHARON WARD SAYS ARE TO LATE FOR HER AND AT LEAST 147 PEOPLE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE SAYS USED SEEPE'S SERVICE IN 2007. I GUESS THIS IS ONLY THING I CAN SAY I HAVE THAT I KNOW IS THAT OF HIS, THIS PICTURE. IN JACKSON JOSEPH PLEASANT 16 WAPT NEWS. GENERAL HOOD SAYS HE WILL ASK THE STATE LEGISLATURE TO FUND AN INSPECTOR FOR THE MISSISSIPPI STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES. HE ALSO SAYS HE WILL PUSH FOR LEGISLATION TO GOVERN CREMATION.
APR 3 2008 10:00PM CT Captioned
TONIGHTS LEAD STORY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS HUMAN BONES WERE FOUND IN A DUMPSTER OUTSIDE OF A JACKSON CREMATORIUM. I'M SCOTT SIMMONS. AND I'M JOYCE BREWER. THIS WAS THE SCENE LAST WEEK AS INVESTIGATORS WENT THROUGH A DUMPSTER OUTSIDE OF MARK SEEPE FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATORIUM. THAT INVESTIGATION CAME AFTER PHOTOS OF HUMAN BONES INSIDE THE CREMATORIUM SURFACED. THE AG IS NOW FILING A CIVIL INJUNCTION. AN ACTION THAT COULD EVENTUALLY SHUT DOWN THE CREMATORIUM. BUT AS 16 WAPT'S JOSEPH PLEASANT EXPLAINS THAT COULD BE TOO LITTLE COMFORT TO SOME FAMILIES. SHARON WARD SAYS HER HUSBAND BRUCE WAS CREMATED AT THE MARK SEEPE FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATORIUM IN SEPTEMBER 2006. I DIDN'T GET A CHANCE TO SAY GOOD BY TO HIM. I DIDN'T GET A CHANCE TO VIEW HIS REMAINS. I THOUGHT ALL I WOULD HAVE LEFT WOULD BE HIS REMAINS. THURSDAY SHE MET WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL JIM HOOD, BECAUSE SHE WORRIES THE CREMAINS AT HER HOUSE ARE NOT HER HUSBANDS. I DON'T WANT THEM TO TELL ME THOSE ARE HUMAN REMAINS. I WANT THEM TO BELONG TO BRUCE WARD. I DON'T WANT THEM TO BELONG TO SOMEONE ELSE. THURSDAY, HOOD TALKED FOR THE FIRST TIME ABOUT A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE CREMATORIUM. HE SAYS HE SENT INVESTIGATORS TO THE BUSINESS TO COMB THROUGH A DUMPSTER AFTER THESE PICTURES OF HUMAN BONES SURFACED. HOOD SAYS THEY FOUND HUMAN BONE FRAGMENTS. BUT, THAT DOES NOT PROVE THE OWNER MARK SEEPE MISHANDLED REMAINS. WE HAVEN'T SEEN ANY EVIDENCE TO CREATE THE HYSTERIA THAT PEOPLE WERE GIVEN THE WRONG CREMAINS. NOW ITS GOING TO TAKE A WHILE THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION. EVEN IF INVESTIGATORS FIND OUT THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MARK SEEPE ARE TRUE. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS HE IS NOT SURE WHAT CRIME IF ANY HE COULD CHARGE HIM WITH. WE ARE DEALING WITH A LAW THAT'S BEEN THERE A WHILE AND DOESN'T SPECIFICALLY ADDRESS CREMATION. THURSDAY HOOD PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE WAY CREMATORIUMS ARE REGULATED. CHANGES SHARON WARD SAYS ARE TO LATE FOR HER AND AT LEAST 147 PEOPLE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE SAYS USED SEEPE'S SERVICE IN 2007. I GUESS THIS IS ONLY THING I CAN SAY I HAVE THAT I KNOW IS THAT OF HIS, THIS PICTURE. IN JACKSON JOSEPH PLEASANT 16 WAPT NEWS. GENERAL HOOD SAYS HE WILL ASK THE STATE LEGISLATURE TO FUND AN INSPECTOR FOR THE MISSISSIPPI STATE BOARD OF FUNERAL SERVICES. HE ALSO SAYS HE WILL PUSH FOR LEGISLATION TO GOVERN CREMATION.
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