Ever since DC Comics launched the ‘New 52′ — a renumbering of its first issues along with same day digital downloads (its sales have transformed! “Justice League” has already sold 200,000 copies compared to 46,000 in the old edition, plus the nine other titles that were revived have sold over 100,000 copies each! Comics are clearly reaching a wider audience today, and even more impressive is that these stats don’t even include the digital editions) (Vulture)
Teens and young adults are core online consumers (so it’s about time there’s a digital web series by teens, about teens, and for teens. Called Tiger Beat Entertainment, Jennifer Lopez teamed up with several companies to launch this program, including a partnership with Tiger Beat [obviously], AOL, and Cambio, AOL’s teen/young adult platform. We’re excited to see this series — hosted by young adults — about entertainment, celebrities, music, books, gaming, apps, social trends, and more) (World Screen)
Checking in to TV shows, as well as other places and activities, is extremely popular among Millennials (so we’re not surprised that DirecTV wants in on the action. Thanks to a partnership with entertainment social network GetGlue, DirecTV subscribers can check in to shows directly from their TV screen. We wonder if Millennials will find this easier or if they’ll prefer to check in via their computers or phones since they usually have them in hand while watching TV anyways. In other online news, Klout just added WordPress to its list of sites from which it calculates users’ social influence scores, just shortly after adding Blogger and Tumblr. We wonder what service they’ll include next) (SocialTimes) (Mashable)
Talking dogs have long been a part of kids’ entertainment (but in today’s tech-savvy society, dogs can blog too…at least in Disney’s newest show aptly titled “Dog With a Blog” about a step family learning to get along. Speaking of Disney, the network debuted the show “Jessie,” about an NYC nanny schooled by her charges, this past Friday, reaching 4.6 million viewers, making it the network’s most watched premiere in three years! In other entertainment news, MTV has completely reshaped itself for the Millennial generation with more focus in recent years on listening to viewers and being authentic to its audience) (Deadline Hollywood) (Cambio) (LA Times)
As magazines seek to appeal to digital savvy consumers (their next move is to sell the clothes they review. Given that most publications have transitioned to the web, readers shouldn’t have to go searching for the products shown, but instead be directed to e-commerce sites. This opens up huge opportunities, especially for Millennials, but as glossies enter the retail world, this may hurt existing shopping sites) (NY Times)
Hulu is implementing a new feature (to let viewers swap ads while watching online content. Although the site has let users pick what ads they want to see for a while, now people can click away if they aren’t interested in the commercial they’re viewing and can select a different one. Choosing what brands you want to hear from clearly correlates with higher recall as a recent study shows 93% of users remember brand messages for ads they selected as opposed to 59% who remember random ads. This means brands have to try even harder to appeal to consumers since they won’t even watch ads by a brand if they don’t care about the company) (Ad Age) (ReadWriteWeb)
‘The Hunger Games’ isn’t even out yet (but we’re already anticipating Lionsgate’s next big YA book adaption: “Chaos Walking” by Patrick Ness. Set in a dystopian future, the series is about humans colonizing a planet where a virus called the Noise takes over, making everyone’s thoughts audible. We’re excited to see the story, which has been compared to “The Hunger Games,” come to life on the big screen! (The Hollywood Reporter)