current

Al Gore wants to save advertising, too

NEW YORK--According to former Vice President Al Gore, the importance of sustainability doesn't just apply to the environment. It also is key to the future of advertising.

"It really comes out of the environment, but in my opinion the key theme of this century really is sustainability," Gore said. "This theme of environmental sustainability has become a part of our culture, it's a part of our discourse, and I'm very optimistic that it will soon be a part of our policy."

Addressing the crowd of advertisers and online-media types at the Digital Content NewFront … Read more

Rotten Tomatoes coming to Current TV

Rotten Tomatoes, the popular online destination for movie buffs, will premiere in all its television glory (TomatoMeter and all) Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. EST on Current TV. The 30-minute show, which is hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox, will run weekly in that time slot where the hosts will discuss and review three movies.

Although the movie review space is crowded, Erlich and Fox believe their show is different from the competition. Both hosts told me in an interview on my Digital Home Podcast that while the basic premise--reviewing movies--isn't unique, bringing the audience in … Read more

Webware Radar: Grammy trivia comes to iPhone, Facebook

Mobile app developer BrowserMedia announced Thursday that it has launched an iPhone app for the Grammy Awards, airing Sunday. According to the company, it worked closely with The Recording Academy to develop the trivia game, which tests the user's knowledge about Grammy history. BrowserMedia is also developing a companion Facebook application that will provide ongoing trivia contests past the award show's airing Sunday.

Juicy Campus, a service that let college students manufacture gossip and spread it anonymously, announced on its corporate blog that it has decided to suspend operations. According to the company, it was enjoying strong user … Read more

The Digital Home 48: What happened to respect?

In this episode of The Digital Home podcast, Don discusses the Apple and Palm battle, as well as the death of respect in the industry. After that, he sits down with Current TV and finishes the show off with a rant. Check it out!

And as always, follow Don on Twitter!

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 48 … Read more

Current Media: Nope, we're not closing an office

A rumor floated on the Twitter account known as The Media Is Dying--which, for obvious reasons, has been fairly active as of late--indicated on Wednesday morning that Current Media, the cable and Web media company co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, is closing its San Francisco office. The Twitter account, which has broken a handful of accurate layoff and shutdown stories as of late, claimed that it had "confirmed" the office closing.

But Current was quick to deny the rumor. Not that we have to remind you, but don't believe everything you read on Twitter.… Read more

Six Apart lays off 8 percent of workforce

Tuesday was not a good day for the San Francisco Bay Area's new media community.

The latest bad news to hit was word that blogging software developer Six Apart has laid off about 8 percent of its 200-plus staff. In a post on the company's public blog, CEO Chris Alden announced the cuts, writing, "We are reducing the size of our full-time staff by around 8 percent and are making some organizational changes as we prepare for 2009."

Though Six Apart seems to be growing--"with Q4 2008 on track to be our biggest revenue … Read more

Layoffs hit Al Gore's Current Media

There have been layoffs at Current Media, the cable network co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

A statement from Current put the number of layoffs at about 60 positions, with 30 more to be refilled, the company said in a statement. That's less of a hard hit than the 20 percent cuts that a source close to Current hinted to CNET News on Tuesday. The statement read: "Approximately 60 positions have been eliminated in the company's three U.S. offices, and approximately 30 new positions created," the statement read. "Many of those … Read more

No rest for the Web's election-weary

SAN FRANCISCO--There wasn't much time for Current Media, the cable news network co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, to recover from last week's election and its marathon live broadcast, infused with content from Digg, Twitter, and countless video bloggers.

On Friday, Gore was giving the final address of the Web 2.0 Summit, a few blocks to the west of Current's offices, at the Palace Hotel, and plenty of advertising and marketing types were in town for the occasion.

Since it's a media company partially dependent on ad and sponsorship revenues, Current seized the opportunity, … Read more

Current TV to broadcast Diggs, Twitters on election night

After broadcasting live Twitters during the U.S. presidential debate, Current TV had to go one notch higher for election night.

The cable channel, co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, has partnered with both Twitter and social news site Digg for the evening of November 4, during which it will feature a "multimedia dashboard" with live messages from Twitter, headlines from Digg, and video from both Current and "video status update" start-up 12seconds.tv. In keeping with the network's young target audience, electronica act Diplo will be performing DJ sets throughout the night, too.… Read more