Morgan Webb Archive

It's been a month now (boy does time fly!) since Morgan Webb and GigaOm launched their video/TV shows. I thought it might be beneficial to take another look and see if the shows are better, worse or the same as their initial airings.

WebbAlert – Hosted by Morgan Webb

I find the WebbAlert show content to be about the same in terms of quality from her first few shows. She has made some improvements, appears to be a couple of inches further back from the camera, though she still needs to be another 6-12" inches to reduce her neck bobs and weaves. I had drinks tonight with a person who said that he finds her show appealing if he misses a day of the blogosphere. What really irks me is her daily hair change. I am not sure why she does this but it is unneeded and many times (including today) looks like she just woke up :). Morgan, leave your hair one way. Morgan has a bubbly personality and seems to understand tech. If her producer would make some small tweaks, the show would have some real positive possibilities.

Overall rating change from launch: No change

GigaOm TV – Hosted by Om Malik and Joyce Kim

I can tell that Om and Joyce are listening to feedback about the show in both content and in production. They have stopped the overselling of the show in text which is great. Just sell it for what it is, people appreciate that. They have featured a good batch of guests over the weeks which can certainly increase ratings. I found the "battle" between Jason Calacanis and Kevin Rose to be the most missed opportunity for the show. They sold it as a battle, but it was nothing more than two guys praising each other. On today's episode about Web analytics (a topic I am very passionate about), I could tell Om wanted to really get emotional and excited but he reserved his "rant" for after the panelists left. As I noted on Om's blog, he needs to play the bad cop and let Joyce play the good cop. This could really bring the show to life as it is just so boring currently.

As for the production value, it is increasing week by week. Tonight they had a lit logo behind them and the video angle appears to be better. Om needs a pillow behind his back and under his butt to put him more on the same level as Joyce. Then let's move the camera up to a straight on level (instead of shot from under) and tighten the shot. It would be nice to see Joyce and Om's mouth move as they speak.

Net result: the show has improved. Om, I am bringing you a pastrami on rye from Katz's when I come to SF next month to help you get some of your NYC fire back.

Overall rating change from launch: +2 points

Reports from PEHub and Mashable indicate a new $4.5 million Series B round of funding for Federated Media. Congrats! Federated Media provides advertising for some of the world's largest blogs including: TechCrunch (TC is in "open warfare" and looking for a replacement), Read/WriteWeb, GigaOm, Mashable, ArsTechnica, TechDirt and about 100 other blogs. We have written several times about Federated Media and their "envelope-pushing" ad campaigns.

But I am left wondering, why do they need so much money and are they having difficulty filling their inventory?

First the "why" question. I have to assume that an ad network makes money (not profit perhaps) from day 1. Each ad view brings in some amount of revenue for FM. And since they are the provider of ads for many large blogs with mega CPMs, wouldn't they be bringing in oodles of cash? Perhaps this new investment round is to create other FM video shows like the Morgan Webb tech news show. And naturally towards hiring more sales execs and/or more ad-serving technology. Anyone else have ideas about where they would use this type of cash influx?

Secondly, Is FM having a difficult time selling ads/filling inventory on the top tech blogs? Over the past couple of weeks, as I browse their network of sites, I see a good number of bottom of the barrel ads running on their sites. It seems like they might not be able to fill the inventory that these sites need. Here are some examples over the past 10 days:

Some kind of download utility – TechCrunch

Supernova from GigaOm – this conference was 3 months ago?

Free iPhone with 1000 offers – Various

Two "we help you break the law speeding" ads – TechDirt and TechCrunch

On the plus side, there are the WebbAlert (shown right)/FM network banners running on many FM sites. These ads makes sense and I like the idea a lot. When you can't fill ads with paying ads, show house publisher ads. I wish all ad networks offered this type of publisher barter. Remove all of the ads listed above and only show the FM network ads. This is a great way for readers of x blog to learn about y blog and vice-versa. These banners also look 1000x better for a site's image than a "punch the donkey, win an iPod" ad. I would recommend they either explain what "SMB" means or change it to something else that people will understand.

Yesterday, I discussed the potential issues of disclosure with FM's new TV show, "Webb Alert." The feedback I have received (mostly on Skype and in email) agrees with me that there is something wrong here. So I thought I would provide some additional information.

First up, is the official reply to my post by FM. Neil Chase provided the following reply (snipped):

Federated Media's relationship with WebbAlert is explained in this morning's posts on the FM Blog and on John Battelle's SearchBlog, and in the press release we issued. We helped Morgan Webb develop the site, using the same technology from Castfire that we had used to help AskANinja. We love helping our authors develop new sites and expand existing ones.

When Morgan came to us with a proposal for a show using blogs as primary sources and asked us to help develop it and sell ads for it, we jumped at the chance. We didn't need a secret plan to get our sites mentioned. Eleven of the 21 tech sites in Technorati's Top 100 are FM authors, so our sites will show up in any tech news roundup.

Our financial arrangement is like the ones we have with all FM authors: We sell the ads, provide all the services related to ad serving, and take a commission.

While I completely understand that FM authors are the "big boys and girls" of the tech sector, I can't imagine that Webb walked into FM's office and said, "I want to link to your blogs more than other blogs." And Neil's link to John Battelle's blog makes my point crystal clear. The post on John's blog contains only the video. Check it out and tell me if you saw the disclaimer about the links contained within the video.

My continued issue with this program is simple: there is no disclosure. If I embed her video on my site, the only way a person would know that its a "family-link-network" show is to:

• first click on the video,
• then scroll way down on the page,
• then click about the links,
• then try to understand her statement. Here is my (sarcastic) take on the statement piece-by-piece:

The blogs listed on my front page are among the blogs that I read daily, and they're all blogs that I strongly endorse and recommend to you. They're not the only blogs that I love and endorse – but they're all among my favorites, and if you haven't already spent time with them, I recommend that you pay them a visit.

The blogs listed are those that are in FM's network. You should visit these using my links because by doing so I help support those sites and then those sites will continually link back to me. Oh yea, and they are the best!

I also have a traffic-sharing relationship with each of these blogs. In other words, we link to each other. The important thing to stress is that there's NO editorial element to these traffic-sharing relationships. In other words, I have made no commitments to cover stories on their blogs, nor have they made commitments to cover what I do. But since these are all blogs that I endorse, respect, and read daily, you'll probably see me talking about stories in them on a fairly regular basis.

I will post links to lots of sites, it will just so happen that those links will mostly be to sites in FM's network.

Mike Arrington from TechCrunch has given Webb two posts in two days. Today he notes, "Some will comment below that I’m only giving the show a thumbs up in the hope for TechCrunch mentions (there was one today for our Amazon/Webvan story, for example). They’re right, but for the wrong reasons." When Mike embeds this video into TC, the FM disclaimer doesn't follow. So to the untrained eye, it looks like Mike found a great piece of content or an awesome story. I believe Mike when he says he thinks the show is awesome. While the content might be great from his point-of-view, he is no-doubt linking to this video show because of what he expects in return. Mike has linked to me a few times, I have linked him as well, that's how the open Web works. Could you imagine if a site like TC was to link only to FM blogs?

Mike went on to say, "bloggers are going to see a mention on the show as a badge of honor and buzz about it." Sure, the FM network will blog about it. Let's be honest here. More links from FM sites = more traffic to Webb. More traffic to Webb = more impressions for FM to sell. More links back to FM sites = more ads to sell on those FM sites. It's a great marketing strategy, I can't fault them there.

So to be fair, let's look at who Webb links to today (similar to what I did yesterday):

• The Sun UK – n/a
• Rate My Teachers – n/a
• WSJ – n/a
• TechDirt – FM
• Ars Technica – FM (both shows)
• Kotaku – Gawker (both shows)
• Insomniac Games – n/a
• Read/Write Web – FM
• TechCrunch – FM
• NewTeeVee – FM (both shows)
• Boing Boing – FM
• O'Reilly – n/a

Today we have 12 total links, of which 6 are FM sites, which is 50%. However, what skews these numbers is that the sites she links to for non-FM are the only ones she could basically link to.

So here are my net concerns with this TV show. There is no real disclosure on either end. Embeds carry no disclaimer and the on-site disclaimer is hidden, wordy and hard-to-read. I would think they would want the best stories reported on the show, not just those that the FM family covers.

From the FM bloggers who link in perspective, should they disclose? This is a bit tougher for me to answer but wouldn't this type of post be considered a paid post in the same vein as Payperpost and ReviewMe? What do you think?

In any event, keep your objectivity Morgan, the Web is a big place, and this will help you build a bigger fan base.

Update 9:00PM – Is the WebbAlert Federated Media’s new conversation? 

So I wake up this morning to the exciting news that Morgan Webb has launched a daily video show, WebbAlert. Well daily as-in, Monday-Thursday, at least to begin with. I am sure Valleywag is happy as they have new bait to pick on. The first episode was a chore to watch. In the beginning she attempts so show a shy, cute side, a "please excuse me when i F-up, side." Then she jumps into the news! The neck and facial movements are a bit much.

On a positive note, she does appear to be knowledgeable about the content she is discussing, rather than just reading the screen which is great. Providing a new viewpoint on a story will help her gain momentum. She pimps arstechnica twice in the broadcast and then there is an arstechnica commercial in the middle. Bit odd, don’t you think?

Mike begins with, "she’s also fairly hot – Webb’s pictures have been in FHM and Maxim magazine, and in April she was voted the 51st sexiest woman in the world in a FHM survey." I am guessing Maxim airbrushed the winching between the eyes when she gets excited. He also believes this is better than Rocketboom. I disagree. Rocketboom brings stories that are not time-sensitive typically and so the content will always be worth watching. UK blogger Peter Cooper made an excellent point:

Despite a reasonable execution, the key problem here is that the info she gives could as easily be given in four or five paragraphs you could read in about 30 seconds. Should we celebrate four minutes of video replacing several paragraphs of text? I don’t know. If you just want the eye candy, then great, but if it’s really about “keeping up to date” with stuff, you don’t need this inefficiency!

You see without any entertainment value, it’s just a woman reading news. Tony Hung has his take, "WebbAlert: Morgan Webb Reads Techmeme" and goes on to say, "Geek celeb + blog pimping == lots of blog love == recipe for potential superstardom." Mike also says she will link to blogs. I hope she doesn’t fall into the Amanda trap of linking to the same sites over and over. We will have to see as the video shows continue.

Mike and others have said on numerous occasions that blogs are better because they get the news first. But for some reason, now he’s ok with it. This show will always be basically a day behind and I put it in the same "tech news" category as Natali’s show. In my video host smackdown last week I rated several video hosts. I would put Morgan on par with Natali, above Amanda and below Amber.

Morgan, please move back from the camera a bit for the reasons I noted above. Will she be successful? Sure, for the reasons Tony has noted plus the supposed "hot-chick" factor.

Oh yea, and today is Thursday so the next episode of "this is how we roll – GigaOM TV" should be out. My review to follow promptly thereafter :)

Update: She is already being represented by FM for advertising, she’s been live one day. When I started CN, they told me that you need 1 million impressions a month to qualify. Based on the note listed below, I guess they have either changed the qualification (so perhaps CN can get in now) or some don’t need that qualification?

WebbAlert Traffic: 10,000 page views per month.