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Google To The Rescue Of Newspapers?
Most publishers now believe they need a pay model for their digital sites but how practical is it to charge pennies for access? Well, none other than Google is said to be working on a micro pay system being formulated particularly with newspapers in mind.
Google has responded to the Newspaper Association of America request for paid content proposals. It says its new e-commerce option is “in production” in the early planning stages. Apparently it will cover subscriptions and various payment options for individual pieces of content.
Google executives have often said they would like to help the newspaper industry. It doesn’t want to buy newspapers but it would like to work with newspapers to enable them to become stronger online. Coming up with a micro-pay system could just be the right ticket.
Honoring Walter Cronkite
President Obama made the most important speech of his Presidency Wednesday night before a joint session of Congress to push health care reforms, but the enormity of that occasion didn’t stop him from being in New York that morning to give another speech – one honoring the memory of Walter Cronkite, the American TV anchor who was voted by Americans as the most trusted man in America.
Cronkite, 92, died in July (see story here) but it wasn’t until Wednesday that CBS held a celebration of his life at the Lincoln Center.
Two Presidents – Obama and Clinton – spoke. Cronkite had a good personal relationship with all the Presidents during his tenure although with President Lyndon Baines Johnson it got a bit stroppy at times because Johnson did not forgive Cronkite for saying on-air after a visit to Vietnam that the US should get out of that war quickly with honor – not the government line of the day and for the most trusted reporter in America to say that carried enormous clout.
So the two often sparred. One day Cronkite asked the White House if the President was considering making a certain political appointment to which the White House responded that he was not. The very next day the President announced that appointment. Cronkite protested that he had been misled but the White House told him, “At the time of the question the President was not considering making the appointment. He had already decided to make the appointment.” Cronkite looked directly into the camera and bit his lip as the picture faded to commercial.
And so it was.
Itsy Bitsy Bigger
Network grows to 20 cities
Romania’s Itsy Bitsy FM radio network gained 9 new licenses (September 8), says strategic.ro. The children’s radio network will now be heard in 20 Romanian cities.
The network first launched in December 2005 as “a safe environment for children, a playground for them and for their parents,” said general manager Nadia Tataru. In March and April Itsy Bitsy FM ran an environmental responsibility campaign called “Green For Life” and sponsored a contest resulting in 400 trees being planted in Bucharest parks.
The stars of Itsy Bitsy FM are Itsy, Bitsy, Aranburu, Zapa and the Magician. (JMH)
Choose Radio
"Nice to meet you"
Radio broadcasters in Ireland have begun an on-air marketing campaign, mentioned earlier this week. (See here) They've produced some very clever spots to entice advertisers to radio. Here's one, courtesy of Sarah Martin at RTE. Enjoy!
Other broadcaster groups have launched similar campaigns. I think other ftm visitors would be interested in hearing these spots. If you have one, please share. (JMH)
There’s no business like the production business
TV channels need content
Central European Media Enterprises (CME) is preparing to develop production centers and sell TV shows and movies to broadcasters outside the group, said E15.cz (September 7). Prague, home to flagship station TV Nova, may become the central headquarters for a new production division. Other details are a bit more vague.
"These centers will be strongest in the CME in the Czech Republic and Romania, a little less strong to the Slovak Republic,” said TV Nova General Manager Petr Dvorak.
None of this is surprising. CME CEO Adrian Sarbu has a background as a film maker and his Romanian production business was recently merged into CME. (More on CME here) More significant is the explosion of television channels in Central and Eastern Europe creating a huge market for program content. (JMH)
Some Good Swiss News
Switzerland has been getting some bad press lately – allegedly protecting international tax dodgers, banking secrecy and the like -- so since ftm is based in Geneva we thought we should let you in on some positive Swiss news – that 92.4% of Swiss aged more than 14 read a newspaper “more or less regularly”, according to Remp, an independent research organization. And before you ask, the survey doesn’t really define “more or less regularly” but for the sake of argument let’s just say the Swiss remain avid newspaper readers.
In fact, overall Swiss newspaper readership has risen by 0.6% but there can be no doubt that free newspapers rule the roost although readership for the paid-fors has remained pretty steady.
The largest readership is for the German language free 20 Minutes at around 1.4 million – it has completely left Blick, the largest German-language paid-for, in the dust with just 670,000 readers.
In the French speaking part of the country there are more than 1 million daily readers of two free newspapers – Le Matin Bleu from Edipresse which has 559,000 readers and 526,000 readers for 20 Minutes, owned by Tamedia. The two companies announced in March that Tamedia was buying the Swiss business of Edipresse, the leading media group in French-speaking Switzerland – assuming, of course, the competition authorities agree. (See Tamedia/Edipresse story here) As a result of that there were all sorts of hints that one of the free newspapers would soon disappear but both are still going at it against each other.
The bad news for Swiss newspapers is that while readership may have held steady, advertising revenues did not. In the year to July revenues dropped 23% from the year before, although there has been some upturn since May.
Huge $2.5 Billion Fine For Turkey’s Dogan Media
Turkey wants to be part of the EU more than just about anything else, even though far more of its territory actually is on the Asian side of the Bosporus. Ask a Turk in Istanbul or Ankara, for instance, with which region they feel most affiliated and the answer invariably comes back “European”. But there are some powerful EU figures that doubt the Turks have really yet to really Europeanize their ways, and the government has just provided more fodder for those cannons by pouncing on Dogan, the country’s largest media group that has been having a very public spat with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a year or so, and now there is a $2.5 billion fine for tax issues on top of an earlier $500 million fine.
Without getting into the complexities of Turkish tax law and whether Dogan did right or not, in Europe such an arbitrary heavy fine will be seen as an attempt by the government to silence a very critical media voice by basically financially breaking the company. Not exactly what the EU is looking for in a new member country and the head of the EU warned back in March the spat threatened “pluralism and freedom of the press.” So much for that warning. (See background here)
Dogan owns two of Turkey’s top three selling newspapers and two of the four most-watched TV stations. Its main competitor is Calik whose chief executive just happens to be the prime minister’s son-in-law so doubtful government criticism is an issue there.
Watch Out For Satire, It Can Bite Where It Hurts The Most
The satirical Onion web site ran a story saying Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was a fake, and had some juicy quotes from Armstrong to prove it. Now for those of us who understand the Onion site that is supposedly a big ha-ha, but for those that don’t it means big trouble instead.
Thus in Bangladesh, according to AFP, two newspapers ran with the story. "We thought it was true so we printed it without checking," an editor told AFP. "We didn't know the Onion was not a real news site."
There’s a lesson there for all of us – know thy source!
Shhh, Here’s A Secret To Ensure Free Newspaper Profitability
Thinking of starting up a free newspaper? Then here’s a secret to profitability -- do it in a city with a booming subway (underground, metro) system? The more lines, the more passengers, the better.
That the lesson from Guangzhou, China, courtesy of Metro Daily. Guangzhou’s subway system is undergoing a doubling of size in preparation for the 2010 Asian Games and ridership is already up markedly. That, in turn, has translated into around 30% ad revenue growth for the first half of the year for Metro Daily with the second half expected to do even better, according to China Daily.
With the subway system expanding it means more riders travelling further distances, and what do they do with their time – why, read the free newspaper of course. The subway system currently has 1 million passengers a day on four lines and by next year it will have twice as many lines, doubling its size. An advertising delight!
So, there’s the secret. Start up in a town with a big subway system, even better one that is expanding its system. How many newspapers do you know of reporting those kinds of ad revenue numbers?
Radio broadcasters sell radio
“Let’s see them do that on television.”
Irish radio broadcasters have created an ad campaign designed to reinforce that basic sales message – Choose Radio. Public RTE channels and private station members of the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland will air the 70 second spot beginning Wednesday September 9.
“To demonstrate the visual power of radio we decided our voiceover would describe a person,” said Cawley Nea creative director Alan Kelly in a release. “We wanted the listener to start painting a picture of this individual in their head. Then, to make it interesting, we made the person we were describing - the oddest person you could possibly imagine.” Cawley Nea created the spot in association with Carat Ireland.
Radio broadcasters have a knack for selling themselves. No sales story is better than pointing out to advertisers that they listen to radio, too. And “theater of the mind” is always an effective pitch.
Broadcaster associations have a long history of mounting campaigns to raise awareness of the medium to advertisers and listeners. The spot created in 1973 by advertising legend Stan Freberg – dropping a giant maraschino cherry into Lake Michigan drained and filled with hot chocolate – ended with the memorable tagline – “Let’s see them do that on television.” (JMH)
Public’s opinion of BBC differs from Murdoch, politicians
No “chill”
While Clan Murdoch and sympathetic British politicians continue to call for shrinking public broadcaster BBC, a new poll suggests they are out of synch with the British public. A Guardian/ICM Research survey conducted September 2 and 3 shows 77% of those questioned believe the BBC is an institution people should be proud of, an increase from 68% in 2004. (See Guardian article here) It isn’t the first instance of a disconnect between the public and the plutocrats.
James Murdoch, at the annual Edinburgh Television Festival MacTaggart lecture, blasted the BBC as having a “chilling” effect on competition and rounded on “state-sponsored journalism.” (See note here) Conservative Party politicians have in recent weeks called for dismantling the BBC. In the ICM poll, 69% of respondents believe the BBC is “trustworthy,” up from 60% in 2004.
News International, controlled by Clan Murdoch, announced plans to begin charging for access to its UK newspapers’ websites. The BBC news website, with free access, is one of the worlds’ top news websites. According to the ICM survey, only 16% of respondents want the BBC to begin charging for access.
Commercial media companies are having a tough go of it, ad spending being rerouted and consumer habits changing. But fundamental to free-market economics, oft touted by BBC critics, is the failure option. The public seems to notice this. (JMH)
World Cup squeezed out by Eurovision
“A lot of money”
For Norway’s public broadcaster NRK 2010 is shaping up to be a very big year for special events. Winning the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest for Norway means NRK hosts the broadcasts next May. And then there are Winter Olympics, Norwegian football and the Melodi Grand Prix music competition. Something had to give way.
That would be the 2010 football World Cup, hosted in South Africa. NRK sold part of the rights it held to MTG/Viasat, reported Kampanje.com (September 4). “We have so much good content,” said NRK spokesperson Sigurd Sandvin. “But this also has a cost side.” Selling off part of the football World Cup rights had been considered before the Eurovision Song Contest finals and semi-finals were added to NRK’s schedule. “When we got the Eurovision Song Contest it became more important," said Sandvin.
NRK will also host the 2011 World Ski Championships. “It’s a lot of money,” said Sandvin. (JMH)
Public broadcaster acquires Olympic rights
All rights, too
Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE has picked up rights to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and the summer 2016 Games, wherever they might be held, said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (September 4). RTVE gets rights to all platforms, including the Web and mobile distribution. No fee amount was disclosed.
RTVE’s financial situation, recently quite dire, improved after a new law passed to provide direct State funding. One of the law’s provisions is a limit on RTVE’s spending on sports rights to 10% of its total budget. However, the rights bidding for the Olympic Games is specifically excluded. Madrid is one of the final candidates for the 2016 Summer Games.
In the past RTVE has been part of the joint bid for Olympic Games rights through the European Broadcasting Union, like most other public broadcasters. All that came to an end when the IOC determined that it would make substantially more money selling rights country by country, leaving some public broadcasters either out, furious or both. (See more here) (JMH)
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