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Speaking before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Wednesday (December 5) National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) Executive Director James Winston told US lawmakers, “PPM is a greater threat to the survival of minority-owned media than even the FCC's threatened media-ownership rule changes.” Winston cited “critical flaws” in the electronic measurement system.
US broadcasters and Arbitron have been verbally jousting for a fortnight since Cox Radio president Bob Neil challenged Arbitron CEO Steve Morris to broadswords at high noon. Morris responded by asking for more money, rolling out the ‘spin’ machine and, finally, delaying the PPM roll-out. (Read about that tête à tête here)
After ten years developing its electronic measurement system – and spending zillions – Arbitron, with the tacit agreement of broadcasters, began ringing in the new this year and assigning the diary-based surveys to the bone-pile of history. Ad buyers, said Arbitron, were insisting on full and rapid conversion to the new method. Revenue challenged broadcasters faced Colson’s Law and signed up. Arbitron’s sales strategy worked… as usual.
US media trade publication MediaWeek reinforced Arbitron’s message that broadcasters face the wrath of the ad people, publishing “Arbitron's PPM Delay May Further Confuse the Market” (December 3), written by Katy Bachman, senior editor. A week earlier (November 27), Ms Bachman was questioned about the PPM by Melissa Block on the highly rated All Things Considered (ATC) news program of National Public Radio (NPR). Neither the MediaWeek article nor the NPR interview disclosed that Ms Bachman is married to Thom Mocarsky, Arbitron’s Senior Vice President, Press and Investor Relations.
Spin?
MediaWeek’s editor in chief doesn’t seem to think a bit of disclosure would be appropriate. But, NPR people are"quite upset." One NPR editor complained, "They have different ethics rules than we do.” ATC co-host Robert Siegal said on the program (Thursday December 6), "Had we known, we would have called someone else."
Two years ago, when UK broadcasters faced pressure to adopt electronic measurement from the ad people the joint industry organization RAJAR, which produces radio audience figures, tested several systems. RAJAR determined a slow approach to electronic measurement best, approving a London test (coincidentally, using the PPM device). The ad business, an integral part of the RAJAR organization, was fully informed about all test procedures and results. The whinging about radio ‘dying’ without electronic measurement stopped.(JMH)
We wrote recently that it is not just the big shots like international cricket authorities or rugby and football officials who are trying to restrict what the media can do with its photo coverage, and that in the US state of Illinois the dispute has gotten down to the high school sports level and no doubt the courts will get involved. Well now both sides to the dispute have filed their law suits.
First it was the Illinois Press Association (IPA) filing suit to stop the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) from trying to impose limitations on the press in selling pictures it takes at the state high school football championships, and it barred newspapers that didn’t agree to its rules from the press box. Now the IHSA has filed suit claiming the media is trying to make money off student athletes.
What’s behind it all, of course, is money, but to the media at large it is a much bigger issue. Since the IHSA “owns” the football games can it restrict the newspapers even if the high schools are publicly funded, the high school stadiums are publicly funded etc, etc.
In this case the IHSA has long had an agreement with a third party that sells pictures of the championships to game players, their parents, family and anyone else. It doesn’t want newspapers who are taking pictures of the game for news purposes later selling those pictures in competition to the third party contract.
The IHSA has asked a judge to declare it does have the right to impose photo restrictions on newspapers and they do have the right to restrict access to the games for those newspaper that do not abide by its rules.
With Lagardère, Grupo Prisa and La Stampa (Fiat/Agnelli) putting in much needed capital at Le Monde a couple of years back there was the hope the financial future for the prestigious French national daily was secure. Apparently not.
Management has announced it needs to save some €10 million ($16.5 million) next year and will unveil a plan December 19. Staff fear job losses.
According to a Supervisory Committee statement the newspaper, and some of its other publications, has been hard hit this year by the advertising downturn. Like in other countries, French newspapers are hurt by advertising funds flowing to the Internet and also by the growing number of free newspapers.
None of those problems, by the way, have stopped both Le Monde’s CEO and its editorial director from asking for pay increases.
One might have expected in the old Soviet Union that if there were problems between it and another country that anyone with attachment to that other country took extra safety precautions while walking around Moscow. But now it’s Russia so that’s a need of the past? Afraid not.
The BBC has announced that three of its employees in recent weeks have been beaten in Moscow and that it is talking with the Russian Foreign Ministry. "We are extremely concerned at this unusual spate of attacks in Moscow. Although we have no evidence to suggest that the attacks were motivated by the victims' employment by the BBC, we are exploring that possibility. We have asked the Russian Foreign Ministry for assistance in ensuring staff safety," the BBC said in a statement.
Relations between Moscow and London are at a low after Moscow refused to extradite to the UK Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB agent whom the Brits believe was involved in the radioactive poison murder of émigré Alexander Litvinenko in London. Lugovoi was elected to Parliament in last week’s Parliamentary elections so the near zero chance of the British getting him have now become zero. Each side has already expelled four diplomats over the extradition issue.
The BBC and other international news organizations actively covered demonstrations in Moscow by The Other Russia, an anti-Kremlin coalition led by the former chess champion Gary Kasparov, vying for Parliament seats. Two of the attacks took place the same weekend Kasparov was arrested when Nashi, the pro-Kremlin youth group, got involved in violently breaking up unofficial opposition rallies. Nashi has also been involved in demonstrations outside the British embassy and basically making the social life of the British ambassador very difficult with continued protests wherever he goes.
It all brings back memories of another youth group in the 30s in Germany.
A questioner at Donald Graham’s presentation at Media Week this week commented that he thought the International Herald Tribune was a better newspaper when the New York Times and the Washington Post co-owned it and he wondered if Graham agreed.
To which the President and CEO of the Washington Post Company replied, “You and I would agree on that!”
The Times bought out The Post in 2002 threatening the Post that if it didn’t sell then The Times would start a competing newspaper.
More than a year ago the US Federal Trade Commission gave an advisory opinion that product placement was perfectly ok and it was not necessary to tell the public when a product was being “placed” and there were a lot of howls from various consumer groups. But it is only at the end of this year that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a surprise move, says it’s going to take a closer look at the practice with the view the public should know when there is a placement.
Product placement has been common in movies for years, but in the past few years TV has caught up, and it is now a huge revenue earner in the hundreds of millions of dollars. According to ZenithOptimedia, TV product placement revenue is growing seven times faster than regular TV advertising revenue.
But should we, the viewing public, be told that Hummer being driven in CSI Miami is because General Motors pays to have that Hummer driven in the show, or doesn’t it make any difference? (Haven’t you always thought it a little strange that the Miami Police Department would use such an expensive car?)
The FCC’s chairman Kevin Martin is hot to protect consumers’ rights so he wants us to know that Hummer is not there by accident. Do we care?
In Europe, incidentally, the European Parliament has just approved the new directive on audiovisual media services and it bans product placement from news programs, current affairs, documentaries and children’s programming. It is allowed, however, in TV films, sports broadcasts and light entertainment programs, but at the beginning and the end of such programs and after commercial breaks the broadcaster must tell viewers that product placement is in play.
One serious by-product of free newspapers is the awful mess they leave behind, and in major cities like New York and London it’s a real problem. And it has become one, too, in Geneva.
Board a bus or tram now and what used to be something so neat and tidy that you would use the cliché “typically Swiss” has now turned into the opposite as passengers leave behind the city’s two free newspapers on seats and floor, making an awful mess. At times it is so bad that you say to yourself how very un-Swiss it is.
But unlike London where Associated Newspapers and News International took forever to come up with a pilot scheme to clean up the mess, Geneva authorities have been, well, very Swiss, and have come up with a solution in cooperation with the publishers of the two free newspapers to help tidy up the mess.
The public transport system inaugurates a new tram route at the weekend and the city is installing new bright yellow boxes along the length of the line for passengers to discard their free newspapers. The bins are being paid for by Edipresse and Tamedia, publishers of the two free newspapers, Le Matin Bleu and 20 Minutes, and if these new bins prove successful then more will follow.
Of course, being Swiss, there is an economic concept to the project. Recycled paper is now fetching about 60 Swiss francs a ton ($54, €36) and if the public dumps just newspapers into these bins then the paper can be recycled, whereas if they dumped them into the ordinary trash bins found at most stops then they cannot be recycled.
One of the most famous stories, and most frequently reprinted to this day in American journalism folklore is the letter in the New York Sun written at Christmas time in 1897 by one of the paper’s editors, Francis Pharcellus Church. He answered at length eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon’s question of whether there really is a Santa Claus with the famous headline, “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” If Sam Zell were to ask that question this year the Chicago Tribune should probably headline its story, “Yes, Sam, there is a Santa Claus and his name is Kevin Martin, FCC chairman.
For Martin has just basically delivered the Tribune group to Zell with the FCC’s 3-2 vote along party lines to provide the necessary cross-ownership approvals in plenty of time for the lawyers to file the necessary paperwork by year’s end for the group to have a private tax-exempt status in 2008.
None of which should really come as much of a surprise since, as FTM reported several months ago, it would really be going against the grain for the Republican-controlled commission to go against this type of big business deal with the Chicago Tribune itself being one of the country’s most stalwart Republican supporters.
Incidentally, Virginia’s original letter read, “I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?” Which brings up the question in this day and age of whether Papas today still tell their children that if you see it in your favorite newspaper then it has to be true? If not then we’re in big trouble.
As our feature article today mentioned, advertisers are looking for new, less expensive ways of getting out their word, and it appears word-of-mouth is right up there as a popular alternative. According to PQ Media, advertisers are spending almost $1 billion annually aimed at getting consumers to start the “buzz” -- word of mouth of how good a product is.
And for good reason. We are far more likely to trust the word of a family member or a friend about how good a product is than the pitch we might see on TV or read in the newspaper.
How do advertisers do that? Largely by devoting more spend to social networking web sites.
There is one negative by-product, incidentally, for users of the social networking sites. According to Internet security company IronPort users of social networking sites are far more likely to receive Spam mail than non-users because there is so much personal detail available on those sites.
And according to IronPort 98%, yes, 98% of all email globally today is spam! Top three countries receiving spam are, in order, the US, China, and the UK.
Friday RTL104.5 launched a Christmas radio channel on the internet… 104.6rtl.com… full of holiday music, stories and cooking tips.(JMH)
Covering the Russia election coverage from reasonably sane Switzerland has all the obvious limitations. I’m not there. My Russian language skills are, er, limited.
Much to do is made about Russian media being overly friendly to President Vladmir Putin and the United Russia party and dismissive of all the rest. Well, conventional wisdom coming out of Russia suggests it’s true… and may have a qualitative (but not quantative) result on the polls. Russians, it seems, have grown quite bored with all the campaigning.
TNS Gallup reported that next to nobody watched debates televised at 7 in the morning or after midnight. From quick swing through the main Russian TV channels Sunday night, two out of six were showing feature films. The rest were wall-to-wall news, wall-to-wall election coverage. NTV was certainly the most slick. ORT…a bit ‘industrial.’ Best graphics – Russia Today.(JMH)
Polish journalist Adam Michnik was sent to Georgia representing the European Union to negotiate the Imedi channels’ return to the air. Saturday (December 1) he held a news conference in Tbilisi and said the station could return from black sometime this week…maybe.(JMH)
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