According to the New York Post, Disney is looking not only for new content through acquisitions, but is trying to make sure that any hits are not just hits for ABC or the Disney Channel, but for everything:

Per the Post:

Disney also needs hit TV shows. Reversing the trend of ratings and advertising declines at ABC is a top priority for Disney. Not unlike the film studio, ABC’s programming slate — particularly scripted series — have struggled to find an audience.

Hoping to strike pay dirt, ABC ordered more pilots than any other network, and is taking big risks this fall season, like airing an entire night of new comedies.

So far the efforts look promising, with ABC tying CBS for first place in viewers last Wednesday and winning the night on Thursday on the back of a strong debut for the new show “Flashforward.”

To better exploit its marketing machine and wring more revenue from its content, Disney also put the ABC network and studio under the same umbrella

“Audience choice is increasing, which makes one pay a bigger penalty for mediocre product,” said Tom Staggs, Disney’s chief financial officer, in an interview. “Our emphasis is on creating products that extend beyond their entry into the marketplace in film or television to consumer products, games, theme parks and other areas of the company.”

Or, in the words of RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank, “Culturally, Disney’s goal is to have a hit that they own and that can be exploited across all its platforms.”

Good luck to the Mouse. Hannah Montana the game? Fast Forward (fastforward) the ride?

From the New York Times:

In San Francisco, Plans to Start News Web Site

A wealthy investor, a university journalism school and a public radio station have joined forces to create a nonprofit local news Web site for the San Francisco area, in what may be the largest and most ambitious of dozens of similar local news operations that have cropped up around the country.
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F. Warren Hellman has granted the start-up $5 million.

Like their counterparts in markets like Chicago, San Diego, Seattle and the Twin Cities, the founders of the Bay Area news project say they want to fill some of the vacuum left by the drastic downsizing of the region’s newspapers.

What sets their venture apart is a $5 million initial grant from F. Warren Hellman, and the expertise and labor to be supplied by KQED-FM, which has a 28-person news staff, and the 120 students of the University of California, Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism….

Asked if such efforts could accelerate the decline of troubled Bay Area papers like The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Jose Mercury News, as some experts have predicted, Mr. Hellman said: “I think that’s a reasonable question. I think that demise might be inevitable, anyway. This might put journalism, broadly defined, on a much more stable foundation.”

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