Content Marketing

Current TV Tweets Convention On Air, iPhone News Browser, Jetsetter Soars

The Content Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

Current TV’s Dedication to Twitter During Conventions

Current TV, co-founded by Al Gore, will be showing a Twitter feed on half of the screen when they air the conventions, reports AdAge. The feed will feature tweets from Democratic and Republican insiders, the staff at Current TV, viewers, journalists, and voters in swing states.

David Bohrman, president of the cable news network, said, “It’s hard to compete with the big networks. … For the most part each network will pretty much look the same, so we need to do something that looks really different.”

Prismatic Provides Seamless News Browsing on Phones

Prismatic, an iPhone app that was released in the iTunes store on Thursday, aggregates news for users on their mobile devices and allows them to see an uncluttered stream of content.

According to GigaOM, the app lets people “to connect using their Twitter or Facebook accounts, and will also import RSS feeds from Google Reader. All of this information is used to customize the content that is shown using Prismatic’s recommendation algorithms, and users can also create their own topic feeds and content lists from within the app.”

Travel Site Jetsetter’s Content Strategy

JetSetter is a luxury travel site that combines content and economics. It provides content that travelers would typically find in in-flight magazines, along with products and deals for their trips.

According to NewsCred, the site strikes gold since it utilizes what in-flight magazines do not: The potential for customers to be interested even after they land. The site features a blog on Tumblr, boards on Pinterest, and Bon Voyage, a collection of travel stories.

TVGuide Customizing Content in iPhone App

With the popularity of YouTube’s original channels, Netflix, and Hulu, it is apparent that users are now choosing customized content, rather than flipping through TV channels and picking random shows to watch.

TV Guide, an old technology, has developed an iPhone app for users that will bridge the gap between traditional and new ways of viewing shows.

GigaOM’s Janko Roettgers writes that the app, which is called The Watchlist, “allows users to check into shows and keep track of the episodes they’ve already seen, and there are some basic social sharing and commenting features – but don’t expect too many bells and whistles. Instead of social activity streams, the app emphasizes TV and celebrity gossip.”

Smithsonian Magazine’s New Look

Michael Caruso has been at Smithsonian for almost a year but has already rolled out big changes, including more pop culture news on its pages, hiring well known writers, and, as of next week, introducing a clean new design.

It seems as if the methods may have paid off, since circulations increased by 3.1 percent in the first half of this year, according to AdWeek.

iTunes Releasing Movies Before Theaters

Traditionally, movies are released in theaters, then come to DVD, channels like HBO or Starz, Netflix, Redbox, and Blu-Ray. But now the industry is experimenting with something new  Movies are now going to be put on iTunes before they go into theaters.

Over three days, “Bachelorette,” a movie starring Kirsten Dunst that was produced by Will Ferrell, made about $500,000 on iTunes.

“‘Bachelorette’ made its debut Aug. 10 online and on video-on-demand services, nearly a month before it hits theaters,” writes The Wall Street Journal’s Michelle Kung. “After its theatrical run, it will be released on DVD after Christmas. Then, in another novel twist, it will stream exclusively on Netflix Inc.’s online subscription service, under a new deal that puts the video-streaming service in a position in the food chain normally occupied by pay-cable channels HBO, Showtime or Starz.”

Betty White Chats Live on Facebook

Here’s a fun one for the weekend! Betty White, who swore off social media because she says she doesn’t use a computer, finally caved and live-chatted with fans on Facebook on Thursday in a promotion for Tide. Check out the promo for the chat on Mashable.

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