I’m happy to announce that the amazing Laura Flanders debuted her new DAILY show yesterday, Grit TV. You can find it on Free Speech TV (DISH Network ch. 9415) AND watch clips with their new online partner FireDogLake.

I’m super pleased that this show:
a) has a great, progressive host who is an extremely smart journalist (not a blow hard pundit)
b) has a smart, journalist host who is a woman…
c) … a woman dedicated to not only “progressive, mainstream, political” news but is also committed to feminism and racial justice, which is reflected in her story choices and the kind of guests she will showcase. This doesn’t happen all the time in progressive media (Shaking finger…)
d) is taking advantage of multiple platforms-traditional tv, online communities and new distribution channels at Blip TV.

(Full Disclosure: Laura is working on a project with The Media Consortium called Live From Main Street. More to come on that one.)

And to get really meta on you, here are a couple clips from the first show–a round table of media professionals, discussing what else? The Media. Watch Laura talk with Phil Donahue, Jane Hamsher and Katrina vanden Heuvel talk about the news of the week, the news the progressive media is pushing, and the evolution of the media landscape.

PART 1: The News (or what shouldn’t have been news, but was anointed as news by the MSM) of The Week

PART II: The first half of this one talks about the rising stories int the blogosphere (impact to come!) and how the media ecosystem is changing.

Part III: Really zone in around 5 min. 45 seconds.Katrina starts discussing how the prog. media, working together can around an the issue of media consolidation (6:20). A couple years ago the notion of working in tandem with each other was scoffed at, dismissed and generally feared.  Now–the power of coordination (not lock-step coordination, let me be clear) has new energy and potential People also see it as a lifeline to impact and their survival.

Hmmm. I’ve wondered about this model for a while. Spin Magazine has transferred the print version of its magazine to a digital version on MySpace. But wait. It’s not just read and scroll. It gets cooler.

“Spin Digital. In fact, the digital version is the print edition. Text and photographs are reproduced intact for online viewing, then enhanced with clickable text so that readers can listen to — and buy — the music they’re reading about as well as find out more about products they see in the ads.”

Tom Hartle, president of Spin Media says, “It could point to a way of breathing life into the magazine business — and give a boost to the embattled music industry at the same time.” Hartle said he hoped the digital version would find potential subscribers where they “live” online and persuade them that the monthly and its digital twin, which will probably be reserved for print subscribers after the yearlong trial, are a good buy.

I’m quoting liberally from this article, but I find some points fascinating (red alert: media geek on the loose!)

Early feedback from Spin Digital, which has been available in a lightly promoted “soft launch” on MySpace for three weeks, indicates that viewers are spending an unusual amount of time with it — six to seven minutes per visit, about double the time spent on a typical MySpace visit, according to Josh Brooks, vice president for marketing and content at the social network.

Renewals and new subscriptions to Spin were up 50% in January year over year, a sharp jump over previous months. Although Hartle said it was too early to say for sure, he thought some of the increase could be attributed to the digital product.

Ok–I’ve been wondering for a while why progressive print magazines haven’t taken this leap–especially with the need to reach younger audiences. I’m wondering if it’s cost prohibitive (will try to look into). I think that Spin was smart to support its natural audience of music lovers and use the digital edition to connect to music sites and songs. Why couldn’t progressive magazines do the same? Maybe not with music, but we have plenty of subjects, sources, reviews and so on.

I also think that extending the magazine and its reliable advertising base to a new platform (one that reaches additional demographics) and is interactive, is pretty smart.

They started with the Iowa primary and have been going strong since. Brave New Films and The Young Turks are teaming up to bring us their unique brand of election coverage. I caught a bit of their show during the Iowa primary and was impressed not only with the cool technology (streaming video, community blogging) but that these two have created a new partnership that continues to leverages the resources that each media outlet offers and comes up with an interesting model for election coverage. And they are funny.

You should check it out. And not just cause I think Cenk rocks.

Here’s the note from BNF.
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