* Kids Addicted To Gaming
* Commercial Radio Seeks Donations
* Charge: AARP Official Embezzled
* URL-shortening Mystery @NYT

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Here is my take on the stories that interest me this morning:

• 

  8.5% of kids are “addicted” to video games. In the first serious study of its kind, researchers adapted a gambling diagnostic survey and administered it to 1,178 youths aged 8-18 as part of a Harris poll. Kids answering “yes” to 6 out of 11 factors are seen as “pathological.” With 45 million gaming youth, that means 3 million could have trouble.

  • My take: New tech provides new avenues . . . for old problems.
• Commercial radio stations are appealing directly for audience donations. Air America is the highest-profile recent entry into the direct-appeals space, which threatens NPR with (say public radio folks) “confusion.” But lots of stations are asking for fundraising help, in ways large and small.
  • My take: This could be a serious threat to some stations in some markets. It argues for public broadcasters to differentiate themselves far more than they typically do. One way to do this is through increased efforts at citizen engagement, which can position the station as a local leader instead of just a broadcast outlet.
• The former director of national events for AARP was charged with fraud. Court documents say that Bruce Sanders directed AARP funds to a “sham” Nevada corporation that he controlled and kept the money. The president and sole employee of the company was Sanders’ romantic partner. $135K was stolen before the scheme was discovered and Sanders left the organization.
  • My take: AARP is overall a well-run organization; this is a cautionary note for all nonprofits that even in the social sector controls are necessary.
• The New York Times appeared to debut a new branded url-shortening service. But then it didn’t. Techcrunch reports that it recently learned of NYTUrl.com, purported to be a branded url-shortening service. But shortly after inquiries, the service’s website was suspended, and is now back up but with the disclaimer that it is run by an “enthusiast” and not NYT staff. It appears to have been a “grassroots” effort spurred by a pair of NYT employees. Why use this shortening service for Twitter updates and the like? Sez the website, users can be sure “they are going to NYT web pages, and not someone singing on YouTube or anything NSFW.”
  • My take: Two interesting battles here. One between brands and generic services (a fine idea to self-brand your short urls). The other battle is between management and ground-floor innovation. This was apparently a good idea by staff that just got out ahead of itself. How do organizations harness that spirit, without stifling it?

Thanks for reading,

Brad