BoomTown » death

TMZ's Harvey Levin Speaks About Michael Jackson and More!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:51:29 +0000

On the spur of the moment yesterday–as Los Angeles was gridlocked by the memorial service for pop legend Michael Jackson–BoomTown decided to pay a quick visit to Harvey Levin, who runs TMZ.

Located on Sunset Boulevard–natch!–TMZ is the celebrity news Web site that actually broke the news of Jackson’s death, before any other media outlet.

And it has pretty much led the coverage as the sad story has unfolded–and continues to.

In fact, TMZ–which stands for the “30-mile zone” of Hollywood and also has a television show–is one of the great content sites on the Internet.

It uses a nice blend of text, video, audio and a laser focus on intense reporting on its topic to yield a whole new kind of media that is Web-born and -bred.

As I always note: Levin covers the tribulations of celebrities, like Britney Spears, as if they were the Iraq war.

TMZ, which will soon undergo a refresh of its design, is owned by Time Warner (TWX). It was launched in 2005 jointly by its Telepictures and AOL units.

Here’s a video interview I did with Levin about hubbub around Jackson yesterday and other topics, such as paying for tips and the convergence of online and offline (and, below it, is also a video tour of TMZ I did in late 2007, just after it launched its television show):

[ See post to watch video ]

Bing Marketing Dollars at Work: Farewell, Michael Jackson

Kara Swisher — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:46:52 +0000

Where is Microsoft (MSFT) spending its $100 million in marketing for its new Bing search service?

Well, here’s a photo that was forwarded to me showing an advertisement on top of a taxi in Manhattan of a goodbye message from Bing, as well as GE (GE) entertainment unit NBC, to the late pop legend, Michael Jackson.

It was a joint effort from Bing and NBC, said a Microsoft source. The software giant and NBC have a strong partnership surrounding the launch the search service.

Done by Show Media, which specializes in this form of advertising, the text–with a picture from Jackson’s “Thriller” album–reads: “We will miss you Michael.”

Presumably, enough of a condolence to get fans to search about him on Bing–instead of on Google (GOOG) or Yahoo (YHOO)–and get news updates from NBC’s many media outlets.

Jackson’s sudden death last week caused a massive surge of activity all over the Web, including at search engines.

Here’s the taxi-topper image (click on it to make it larger):

Farrah Fawcett Also Remembered on the Web

Kara Swisher — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:22:30 +0000

While she had almost nothing to do with the Internet, the Web still has a lot to do with Farrah Fawcett, especially today after the iconic Hollywood actress and model died after a long and well-documented battle with cancer.

Still, the massive online reaction to a more sudden and unexpected celebrity death yesterday–pop legend Michael Jackson, who was 50–pretty much drowned out Fawcett’s passing at 62 years old.

That’s too bad, since she was a genuine cultural phenom–from her famous poster to her feathered hairstyle to her always glamorous declarations of “Freeze!” on the television show, “Charlie’s Angels.”

Thus, here’s my favorite of the many tributes to Fawcett from the Web, to remember her by:

Viral Video: Luke Russert Honors His Father

Kara Swisher — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:00:47 +0000

BoomTown likes to post online videos that are viral, or should be, and I could not be any more impressed with this one.

An excerpt from the eulogy that Luke Russert gave for his father–NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert, who died suddenly of a heart attack recently–at a memorial service in Washington, D.C., a week ago, it is astonishing to see such poise given his young age (22) and under such tragic circumstances.

While all the controversy online erupted around when and how the elder Russert’s death was reported and about the huge amount of coverage, I think you will agree that this is well worth taking time to watch.

Here’s the video, taken from MSNBC: