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feeding from local media

John permalink | categories: newspapers, online, tampa, tv
by John @ 8:47 am

Really Simple Syndication is something that has become a fast spreading craze among media web sites. Any blogger knows that having an RSS feed is a plus for syndicating content from their site and keeping readers informed of updates. It’s easy to find from national sources like CNN, MSNBC, ESPN and other national media outlets, but not all local media are as fast to embrace it.

Here is a quick rundown of those local media outlets and the state of feeds within:

For the TV stations:

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9 Responses to “feeding from local media”

  1. Matt Says:
    February 25th, 2007 at 9:57 am

    I’m not surprised that Tampa Bay’s 10 is ahead of the other local channels with RSS. From being the first to offer their noon news online to their unique “Enjoy it. We do” promotional efforts, WTSP seems to nearly always operate differently from, and ahead of, the other Tampa stations.

  2. Addison Says:
    February 25th, 2007 at 10:15 am

    I sent a couple of emails to the editor over at St. Pete Times asking about RSS feeds, never heard a response. It seems sad that they don’t make the effort.

  3. Jack Says:
    February 25th, 2007 at 1:36 pm

    RSS functionality on these websites has nothing to do with the stations themselves, and everything to do with the corporation that owns them. In WTSP’s case, they are owned by Gannett (out of Arlington, VA), a company that also happens to own USA TODAY. USA TODAY is a major national player, and WTSP benefits from the trickle down effect of Gannett’s national initiatives.
    Although RSS is a rapidly growing and useful technology, it hasn’t seen widespread adoption yet. Everyone of these media outlets will be on board eventually.

  4. dcdave Says:
    February 25th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

    TBO.com acts as the defacto online portal for WFLA, so separate feeds would be redundant, unless they were video feeds.

  5. John Says:
    February 26th, 2007 at 10:55 am

    Jack, I disagree with some of your assertions:

    RSS feeds have nothing to do with the stations (and I assume also newspapers) and everything to do with the corporate backers/owners of stations/newspapers/news sites? WTVT is owned by Fox itself, The St. Petersburg Times is owned by the non-for-profit Poynter Institute, and I forgot to even include local radio stations who present news to listeners — how many are owned by radio behemoth Clear Channel?

    Although RSS is a rapidly growing and useful technology, it hasn’t seen widespread adoption yet. Everyone of these media outlets will be on board eventually.

    And the thing is — it’s not like RSS is a complicated item to implement. There are not only how-to’s posted online but DHTML/XHTML scripts posted on the web and other scripts/software to enable RSS feeds from your web site/portal.

    In the end — downplaying RSS feeds and how far they reach and giving media sites the benefit of the doubt just don’t add up. Syndication of content through RSS/Atom feeds has exploded and local media outlets are far behind the times.

  6. dcdave Says:
    February 26th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    I agree that media outlets are behind the times, but my point was that the corporations ultimately dictate whether or not RSS feeds are implemented. WTVT is owned and operated by FOX, but FOX hasn’t seen fit to implement RSS on ANY of it’s local stations. If you look at Alexa traffic stats (insert grain of salt here), you will notice that WTSP doesn’t really benefit from it’s RSS feeds, vs. TBO.com which is the 800 pound gorilla in the local web space. Yes, it’s easier for US to digest, but the bottom line for a station/newspaper is whether or not they can monetize something. RSS points us towards the future, but as of right now, I seriously doubt you can show me any financial benefits reaped by anyone in the market currently implementing RSS. Which is exactly why it hasn’t been widely adopted on a local level.
    To be clear, I agree with you that it should be a standard, but you have to realize that RSS, much like any other Web 2.0 jargon, tends to make peoples eyes glaze over. It is up to people like us to figure out how to simplify terminology, implementation and overall acceptance. Extensive studies have been done on RSS technology suggesting that the vast majority of users don’t even know WHAT they are using. Especially when it comes to portals like Google Personalized. They just search what they want and add whatever available feeds they like. It’s not the same as clicking an XML or Livefeed button and having to manually add it to Netvibes or Netgator. The process as it stands is still not very user friendly, and I would argue that until there is some simplification of the process and terminology involved, we will not see the widespread use or implementation of RSS on the scale that it could ultimately achieve.

  7. Chuck Welch Says:
    February 26th, 2007 at 4:57 pm

    “The process as it stands is still not very user friendly, and I would argue that until there is some simplification of the process and terminology involved, we will not see the widespread use or implementation of RSS on the scale that it could ultimately achieve.”

    True. We need the feed version of Netscape to emerge. An app so simple and popular that it takes off.

    Still, the feeds are there. The software is there. No one has educated the public enough to bring them together.

    Extending “Tampa Bay” over to Lakeland…the Ledger has done a great job getting feeds for almost everything in the paper.

  8. Matt Says:
    February 26th, 2007 at 9:30 pm

    Jack I disagree. WTSP has forward-thinking management from a marketing perspective; they are far from simply relying on corporate there.

  9. dcdave Says:
    March 23rd, 2007 at 9:27 am

    P.S. WFTS has RSS feeds now.

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