|
|
|
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account '
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more '
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account '
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more '
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account '
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more '
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account '
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more '
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet?
Create an account '
Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?
Learn more '
For those inclined toward social media, using Twitter while watching television has become a ritual, with viewers commenting on everything from sports events to nighttime dramas. On Thursday, executives from Twitter discussed how they planned to capitalize on that activity by allowing advertisers to send ads to people who are watching specific programming.
The new product will help brands match advertisements with Twitter commentary by viewers. Brands can then send messages to selected Twitter users who have already seen their ad on television.
“When people turn on TV they turn on Twitter,†said Matt Derella, the director of brand and agency strategy, who led a presentation on the product in Manhattan.
Twitter also announced it would work with a number of media companies, including Time Inc., Bloomberg, Discovery, Vevo, Vice Media, Condé Nast Entertainment and Warner Music Group, to sell advertisers content, in a partnership called Twitter Amplify. The content will probably be digital video or television content like clips from shows. It can then be shared on Twitter, and advertisers can run ads before the videos are viewed.
The format is similar to a partnership Twitter announced last year with ESPN and Ford, which embedded replays from football games in posts sent via Twitter. ESPN and Ford promoted the posts to people who had been identified as being interested in sports based on the accounts they followed on Twitter and the subjects of their posts.
Jim Nail, an analyst at Forrester Research, said Twitter would have to be careful about the number of advertisements it allowed on its platform. By injecting too many ads into a user's feed during a television show, “they risk driving those fans away and having those fans unfollow the show,†Mr. Nail said. A representative from Twitter said the company already had limits on how many ads users would see in a day.
“This will allow us to really align much more of the work we're doing day in and day out,†said Tim Castree, the chief operating officer at MediaVest USA, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group, of the new advertising offerings. Instead of focusing advertising during major events, advertisers can now “extend the time period for the spot we already had planned.â€
Last month, Twitter signed a multiyear deal, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with Starcom to, among other things, allow the companies to combine some of the resources they use for measuring and tracking data and advertising.
This week, Twitter made other brand announcements including a two-step authentication process that would provide more security for Twitter accounts. The accounts of several prominent brands, including Burger King and Jeep, were hacked in February.
The company also announced a feature that allows users to sign up for offers from brands without having to leave the site.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 24, 2013
An earlier version of this article described the Twitter Amplify program incorrectly. It involves Twitter's media partnerships, not its advertising targeting program.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 24, 2013, on page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: Twitter Lets Brands Reach Viewers of Their TV Ads.
President Obama's conciliatory gesture toward the press this week - a review of Justice Department investigations involving journalists - struck some national security reporters as closing the door after the sources have already bolted.
In announcing the review in his speech on Thursday, the president said he was troubled that recent investigations, which involved the extensive tracking of a Fox News reporter, James Rosen, and the seizing of phone records at The Associated Press, “may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.â€
Journalists say that chill has already set in. Jeremy Scahill, who writes about national security for The Nation, said that some sources who used to agree to encrypted chats and off-the-record conversations have recently stopped feeling comfortable with these terms.
“At times it seems that being a Luddite may be the safest way to do serious national security reporting in a climate where there appears to be an intensifying war on serious journalism,†Mr. Scahill wrote in an e-mail.
Noah Shachtman, editor of Wired.com's Danger Room blog, said that sources had told him to stay away in the recent climate of leak prosecutions.
“There's one source I have to run into ‘by accident' at some public function who before I could just contact directly,†Mr. Shachtman said.
James Bamford, author of the 1983 best seller “The Puzzle Palace†about the National Security Agency, said these latest leak cases make it increasingly difficult to establish new source relationships and that affects his reporting over all.
“It's important to get this information out there that doesn't come through a press release, through the front door of the White House or the Pentagon,†Mr. Bamford said. “Far more information comes through a side door or a back door.â€
Many reporters found themselves spooked by the extent of the government's investigation of Mr. Rosen, Fox News's chief Washington correspondent. This week, The Washington Post reported on a 36-page affidavit which detailed just how much information the government had been gathering about conversations between an unnamed reporter, who turned out to be Mr. Rosen, and Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a government employee.
The affidavit, a request for e-mails from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, provided minute-by-minute details about what time both men came and left the State Department and the length of their phone conversations down to the second and also took the unusual step of labeling the reporter a potential “co-conspirator†in the leak of classified information about North Korea's nuclear program.
In a memo to his staff this week, Roger Ailes, the chief executive of Fox News, said, “We reject the government's efforts to criminalize the pursuit of investigative journalism and falsely characterize a Fox News reporter to a federal judge as a ‘co-conspirator' in a crime,†and that “we will not allow a climate of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of us away from the truth.â€
Josh Meyer, director of education and outreach at the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative at Northwestern University and a writer for Quartz, said that in the 30 years he has lived on and off in Washington, he has never found journalists to be so skittish about being under the government's watchful eye.
“It's so bad that there's a gallows humor that has sort of emerged out of this,†Mr. Meyer said. “You see journalists at parties, and you joke about ‘How is the investigation going?' †People just assume they're being investigated, and it's not a good feeling.â€
He said that he was “highly skeptical†of President Obama's announcement. “One would think he would have done that months or years ago when these investigations were authorized.
In his speech, President Obama said that as part of its review the Justice Department would “convene a group of media organizations to hear their concerns.†Bruce D. Brown, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called the announcement “a welcome development,†but he remained cautious about what might actually result from these talks.
“We would want to come out of any such dialogue with an acknowledgment from the government that a reporter does not commit a crime when asking for information,†he said. “The second objective would be that the government honor its duties to notify the news media when it seeks journalists' records. That will give the news media the proper opportunity to challenge those requests in court.â€
The announcement is not likely to change the news media's suspicion that it is under assault.
Jane Mayer, a staff writer with The New Yorker who has reported on national security, said during the Bush administration, she had to start reminding herself that “the ‘e' in e-mail stands for “evidence†and instead, met people in person to talk about topics that are touchy.†She added that “the surprise has simply been that Obama's administration has continued, and even accelerated the crackdown on leaks.â€
Some journalists think that some of these confrontations between journalists and government sources could have been avoided. Jack Shafer, a Reuters media columnist, published an article called “What was James Rosen thinking?†that questioned why the correspondent did not try harder to protect his source. He said Mr. Rosen should not have used e-mail, not visited the State Department's offices and not timed his departure from the building at a time so close to his source. He also questioned what purpose publishing the information served.
“Boiled to its essence, the story says the U.S. has penetrated North Korean leadership,†Mr. Shafer wrote. “He would have been less conspicuous had he walked into the State Department wearing a sandwich board letter with his intentions to obtain classified information and then blasted an air horn to further alert authorities to his business.â€
Still, Mr. Shachtman hopes that eventually sourcing will once again favor reporters. “This stuff is cyclical. There are times when one group is harder to talk to. There's times when that group will be easier to talk to. Certain sources dry up,†he said. “Before you know it, those same sources spring back to life.â€
A version of this article appeared in print on May 25, 2013, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Press Sees Chilling Effect In Justice Dept. Inquiries.
Not only is “American Idol†expected to lose all four of its judges, it is also bidding adieu to Mike Darnell, the Fox executive who judged correctly at the very beginning that the show would be a hit.
Mike Darnell said he turned down a new contract with Fox.
Mr. Darnell, who has supervised reality programming for Fox since before the term reality show entered the lexicon, said Friday that he was leaving the network at the end of the month.
He oversaw Fox's most popular reality shows (“So You Think You Can Dance,†“MasterChef,†“The X Factor†in addition to “Idolâ€) and was also its most outlandish innovator (remember “Temptation Island†and “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?â€).
Mr. Darnell and his superiors at Fox said that he was offered a new contract but decided to leave. Nonetheless, there was immediate speculation that he was a casualty of the tough television season at Fox, particularly with “American Idol.â€
Fox's audiences have fallen by more than 15 percent in the season that ends this month. For “Idol,†once the most popular show on American television, the fall has been steeper. While the slide is not necessarily surprising, since the show has been on for more than a decade, the ratings have been distressing for Fox and its parent company, News Corporation.
When the company reported first-quarter earnings, it said Fox's ad revenue had declined in large part because of the performance of “Idol.†Now the network is contemplating a complete makeover of the show, possibly by replacing last season's judges with a panel of “Idol†alumni like Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson. Such a move would emphasize the past star-making success of the series.
On Friday there were reports that Ms. Hudson, a finalist on the third season of “Idol,†had signed on for the next season, which will start in January; Fox declined to comment.
Mr. Darnell, in a brief telephone interview, warmly recalled the days when “Idol†drew 30 million viewers a night and acknowledged that it would “never be as big as it once was.â€
But no other series will be, either, he added: “I don't think that's possible in television anymore,†with the exception of a few one-time events like the Super Bowl. He expressed confidence about the future of “Idol,†drawing an analogy between it and the 35-year-old “Saturday Night Live†on NBC.
“How many times have you heard that ‘S.N.L.' is dead?†he asked. “Then a new crop comes in and it's a big success again.â€
“There's something about these brands,†he said, asserting that “the audience wants to like them.â€
Mr. Darnell, whose title is president of alternative entertainment, gained notice in the TV world for his risk-taking and exuberance. But over-the-top reality TV shows are now less the domain of broadcast networks like Fox than of niche cable channels like TLC and A&E. Mr. Darnell has not had a particularly newsworthy show in quite some time. (Franchises he helped birth, however, like “MasterChef,†continue to gain viewers and inspire spinoffs.)
“He brilliantly paved the way for all of us, creating a powerful entertainment genre that audiences can't get enough of,†said Ryan Seacrest, the host of “American Idol.â€
Mr. Darnell, 51, joined the network in 1994 as the director of specials; among the most infamous of those was “Alien Autopsy (Fact or Fiction)†in 1995. In 2000, The New York Times called him “the Svengali of sometimes gruesome, sometimes comical specials that took television to new heights - or depths - of perversity.â€
Mr. Darnell said he was leaving to pursue other opportunities, without elaborating. Fox executives emphasized that it was his choice. Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corporation, said in a news release: “Mike took risks at a critical time and was a pioneering force in shaping the reality programming genre that exists today. He's a smart and fearless executive who will be missed.â€
Mr. Darnell, asked if his exit was related to “Idol's†ratings weakness, said, “Of course not.â€
“Every time my deal comes up, I go through this excruciating decision process,†he said, and this time he concluded he should leave.
“I was able to make this the Wild West,†he said, referring to Fox and its willingness to try stunt shows like “Man vs. Beast†and “World's Scariest Police Chases.â€
“But the Wild West has moved,†he added. “Cable, digital, it's everywhere now.â€
Putting “Idol†aside, he said his best show was “Joe Millionaire,†the 2003 dating competition that tricked female contestants into believing that the aforementioned Joe was a rich bachelor. Joe was actually a construction worker. About 35 million viewers tuned in for the finale.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 25, 2013, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Fox Overseer Of ‘Idol' And Its Kin Will Depart.
The Turkish Parliament passed legislation on Friday to ban advertising of alcohol. The measure also bans the sale of alcoholic drinks between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., except in tourist zones, and prohibits alcohol sales near mosques and schools. The measure requires presidential approval before it can be put into effect. The government says it is aimed at protecting young people from the harms of alcohol, but secularist opponents accuse the government of gradually imposing an Islamic agenda.
A version of this brief appeared in print on May 25, 2013, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Turkey: Legislation Would Limit Sales Of Alcohol and Ban Advertising for It.
William B. Plowman/NBC From left, David Gregory, the moderator, with Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson on NBC's “Meet the Press†on Aug. 2, 2009.
Haynes Johnson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, television commentator and author known in particular for his long association with The Washington Post, died on Friday in Bethesda, Md. He was 81.
The cause was a heart attack, his wife, Kathryn A. Oberly, said.
Mr. Johnson, who joined The Post in 1969, was variously a writer, editor and columnist there before his retirement in 1994. He was previously a reporter on The Washington Evening Star, where he won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for coverage of the civil rights movement in Selma, Ala., and its aftermath.
In his four decades in journalism, Mr. Johnson was widely esteemed for his coverage of domestic affairs in general and of the capital in particular.
Reviewing Mr. Johnson's book about the Carter administration, “In the Absence of Power,†in The Washington Post Book World in 1980, the British journalist Godfrey Hodgson called him “one of the most perceptive, the best-informed, and the most levelheaded reporters in Washington.â€
Mr. Johnson wrote more than a dozen books in all, including “Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years†(1991), “Divided We Fall: Gambling With History in the Nineties†(1994), “The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years†(2001) and “The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism†(2005).
On television, he was a member of the original panel of the PBS program “Washington Week in Review,†first broadcast in 1967, and appeared on it regularly through the mid-1990s. Mr. Johnson was also a regular presence on PBS's “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer†and in the late 1970s was a weekly commentator on the “Today†show.
Haynes Bonner Johnson was born in New York City on July 9, 1931. His mother, the former Emmie Ludie Adams, was a pianist; his father, Malcolm, was a newspaperman with The New York Sun. For The Sun, the elder Mr. Johnson won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for his 24-part series, “Crime on the Waterfront.â€
That series, which exposed the unsavory, often violent alliance of labor unions and organized crime on New York's docks, inspired “On the Waterfront,†the 1954 film starring Marlon Brando.
As a youth, Haynes Johnson worked as a copy boy on The Sun before earning a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. After Army service stateside during the Korean War, he earned a master's in American history from the University of Wisconsin.
Mr. Johnson was a reporter on The Wilmington News-Journal in Delaware before joining The Evening Star in 1957. There, he covered a wide swath of national news, including the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and the epochal Selma-to-Montgomery marches of March 1965.
Later that year, several months after reporting on the civil rights protesters' hard-won gains, Mr. Johnson returned to Selma to record the struggle's less visible aftereffects.
The result was a special report, “Selma Revisited,†published in The Evening Star on July 26, 1965. In it, Mr. Johnson chronicled the discontents that had emerged among the city's blacks as they found their goals of equitable employment, housing and education even harder to realize than they had anticipated.
“Their leaders are struggling to regain precious momentum, but many of those who followed them so patiently are frankly bewildered and disillusioned,†he wrote. “Selma's Negro community is, in fact, in an hour of new and more subtle crisis - a tragic crisis when it is contrasted with the soaring hopes and selfless devotion they and their friends demonstrated here such a short time ago.â€
Mr. Johnson joined The Post as a national correspondent, where his portfolio included many presidential campaigns; he was later an assistant managing editor as well as a columnist there. He was a finalist for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for his coverage in The Post of the impact of the recession on communities nationwide.
At his death, Mr. Johnson held the Knight chair of public affairs journalism at the University of Maryland.
His other books include “Lyndon†(1973, with Richard Harwood); “The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point†(1996, with David S. Broder); and “The Battle for America, 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election†(2009, with Dan Balz).
Mr. Johnson's first marriage, to Julia Erwin; ended in divorce. A resident of Washington, he is survived by his second wife, Ms. Oberly, a judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; three siblings, Michael, Paul and Sarah Johnson; five children from his first marriage, Stephen, David M., Katherine Autin, Sarah Johnson and Elizabeth Koeller; a stepson, Michael Goelzer; and six grandchildren.
Mr. Johnson's father, Malcolm, died in 1976, at 71. With Haynes Johnson's Pulitzer Prize a decade earlier, the two men became the first father-and-son writers to win the award.
“My father couldn't believe it,†Haynes Johnson told United Press International in 1966, describing his win. “I'm really more pleased for him than for myself.â€
Daniel E. Slotnik contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 25, 2013, on page B9 of the New York edition with the headline: Haynes Johnson, 81, Journalist and Author, Is Dead.