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Support INSI!
Hard times are affecting financial donations to the International News Safety Institute (INSI) – an organization that truly merits the media world’s attention and financial support. Honorary President Chris Cramer writes that in its sixth year of operation INSI has really come of age. “We have become genuinely global in impact, consolidating our unique position as the world's sole organization totally dedicated to the safety of journalists and other news professionals in hostile environments of all kinds. Our achievements are real, and practical.
“We have provided safety training free of charge to more than 1,200 news media in 20 countries; we helped persuade the UN Security Council to pass Resolution 1738 on the safety of journalists in conflict zones; we have established our website www.newssafety.org as a one-stop-shop for news, information and advice on safety matters for journalists covering, or planning to cover, dangerous stories; we have set up a kidnap-hostage help network. And much more.”
He reminds us that “more than 1,400 journalists and other news professionals have died trying to cover the news since 1996, and there is little let-up. We count at least 40 casualties half way through 2009. Yet INSI struggles to find the resources to meet the constant demand for our life-saving work. We battle to provide threatened journalists around the world with the knowledge and training to survive the story. Our existing members do what they can, but we need more money to grow and respond more effectively in dangerous regions.
“We plan more safety training projects in danger spots such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia etc. We need to build up our regional information and assistance networks to go to those most in need. We have to train more trainers to work locally to help their colleagues in the most efficient and timely way. And we have to bolster our advice and information service so that it is more effective in real-time.
“Please help us in our critical work. We are a non-profit so every cent raised goes back into news media safety for those in direst need. Go to www.newssafety.org and donate to INSI or join up yourself or your news organization as a member. What better way to honor our thousand dead friends by helping save the lives of a thousand more who have yet to go into danger on behalf of us all!”
TV Watching Habits
Ad spending down
The French haven’t changed their TV habits in the last year, reports the National Association of Television Advertisers (SNPTV). In the first 6 months of 2009 people 4 years and older watched TV 3 hours and 27 minutes per day, exactly the same as in the first 6 months on 2008. It is, however, 12 minutes per day more than in 1999.
More are watching TV; 89.8% of French people 13 years and older in the first half of 2009 are in “daily contact” with TV, up from 89.2% in the same period in 2008. That leads radio, 78.6%, newspapers, 77.5%, and the internet, 49.6%. French women 25 to 34 years increased time with the tube by 18 minutes per day, year to year, to 3 hours and 47 minutes.
The report also notes that gross ad spending on all French TV – before discounts and other stuff – was down 2.7% year on year to €3.3 billion in the first half 2009. The decline was attributed to ads being removed from French public TV.(JMH)
Young Matthew and the Media
stunned and stunted
A 15 year old British kid so stunned a bunch of bankers with his “thought provoking” comments on teenagers and media the bank decided to publish a report. The bank is Morgan Stanley and, carrying notable heft, it’s report found its way to Charlie Allen’s secret media conference in Aspen, Colorado, where the air is thin and the attendees are not. As comments leak and lead, headline writers – for at least one news cycle – couldn’t get enough.
Young Morgan Stanley summer intern Matthew Robson said, among other revelations, his peers can’t be “bothered reading pages and pages of text,” an obvious assault on newspapers. Teenagers also won’t pay and haven’t the time for Twitter. This is real board-room stuff. Or, bored…
On reading – online, of course – one of the early reports of Matthew’s revelations I was struck by two relevant questions.
First, what was Matthew’s mother thinking? Hasn’t everybody who’s heard anything about bankers over the last nine months realized these aren’t people you want your kid hanging around with? Talk about stunting a kid’s growth…
Then, who among us – those having family experience with teenagers, at least – haven’t been ‘stunned’ by one or more of their ‘revelations’? Moreover, have we – the keen observers – noticed how those revelations change? Once upon a time a very successful broadcaster AND investment banker – who may have been among Charlie Allen’s guests - told me “nobody under 40 has anything to say.”
I am constantly amazed. (JMH)
Who Tweets
Emerging picture?
Media people are obsessed with the short, instant message portal Twitter. German consulting firm Fittkau & Maass Consulting has been digging through recent research in search of a stunning revelation. Some of their findings, reported in Kress.de (July14), show an emerging picture of Twitter users.
German Twitter users – those Tweeting at least once a month – increased in June by 34% over May. Earlier this year, February to March, monthly increases were 1000%. There are 125,000 registered Twitter accounts in Germany, which Fittkau & Maass calls ‘a little bird’ when compared with Facebook and other social network users. Reflecting similarity with the Pareto principle (80-20 rule), 61% of all German Tweets were produced by 10% of Twitterers.
Further clarifying this picture, most (67%) Twitter users are under 40 years and disproportionately work in media, entertainment and IT. Most Tweeting takes place during the week rather than on weekends. “Small, but precise,” is the description given by the researchers; “much more communicative and trend-driven than the typical Internet user.” And only 6% of German Twitter users said they’d pay for it. (JMH)
Should 47 BBC Executives Earn More Than The Prime Minister?
There’s a huge row going on in the UK – the government wants to give some BBC license money to other broadcasters to support their children’s programming and local news, and the BBC is not doing itself any good in the public relations department crying hard-up when revelations made under the Freedom of Information Act show that up to 47 of its executives earn more than Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s £194,000 annual salary.
It’s old hat that some BBC personalities are earning much more than that – talk show host Jonathan Ross is said to be earning some £6 million a year although there are indications the Beeb is trying to cut personality wages -- 81-year-old Bruce Forsythe has apparently agreed to another year of hosting the very popular Strictly Come Dancing but at less money – but it wasn’t known that so many BBC execs were doing so well, too.
The argument no doubt goes that such executives have to be paid on scale with private broadcasters or they’ll leave to join the competition. Mind you, the competition is said to be busy reducing its salary bills, too, and it may just be that the good old days will remain just that – good old days – for a very long time to come.
Sensing the way the wind blows the BBC reports that it has suspended paying bonuses to its top 10 executives for the forseable future. That should save some £300,000 annually.
How Do You Put Up With 14 Minutes Of TV Ads An Hour?
And they wonder why programs get taped and the commercials bypassed? Under the terms of the WGN Chicago deal with CBS Television Distribution that goes into effect this fall, the station gets to sell 10 minutes of advertising an hour and CBS will sell an additional 3 minutes. That means commercials take up just shy of 25% of the program. When Europeans hear numbers like that they are almost happy to pay their TV license fee, for one thing they are buying is that precious commodity that once gone is gone forever – time.
By comparison with that CBS deal, there’s a French satellite station, for instance, that televises the Jerry Springer show with no commercials. That’s right, 40 minutes of Jerry Springer without commercial interruption (in this case with all those bleeps and the yelling, dubbing doesn’t do the show justice so it is one of the few US television shows on French television that has subtitles).
Now one can always question whether Europeans should be subjected in the first place to Jerry Springer’s Americana, but if you’re going to watch would you prefer the hour with commercials or the 40 minutes or so it really is?
Still Digging That Traditional Media Hole!
Gannett announces its Q2 earning on Wednesday and the betting is that Q2 revenues will probably be worse than the 34% year-on-year advertising decline reported for Q1 with earnings about one-third of what they were a year ago. No wonder it went through its last cull of some 1400 employees last week so at least it could tell Wall Street before its earnings report that it was on top of things, sort of.
But it’s not just newspapers that have yet to see the worst. US consumer magazines saw their Q2 ad pages plunge by 29.4% compared to the same period last year. Compared to the 26.1% drop in Q1 it means the trend still is pointing down – it has not bottomed out yet. Typical examples are Business Week, down 36.8% and it has been put up for sale, and even National Geographic, down 33.2%.
And radio is not immune. Emmis Communications reported a 27% drop in Q2 revenues compared to a year ago, and thus an operating loss of $6 million compared to a $13.9 million profit for the same quarter a year ago.
Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan seems more optimistic than most by saying he believes the worst may be over, but “what no one can say is how long it will take to climb out of the trough.”
Mobile multimedia
Sales hot, downloads not
Sales of high powered mobile devices – touch screens, 3G, 3G+ - are hot in France, says the Mobile Multimedia Monitor from GfK (July 8). But few are downloading, only 12.9% “only occasionally.” Fewer – 10% - use mobile devices to surf the Web.
There is, however, an age divide. More than one in three 15 to 20 year olds download stuff, compared with just more than one in ten 35 to 39 year olds.
How the majority of people use mobile devices hasn’t changed: nearly three-quarters send SMS, a bit more than half take photos, a quarter listen to music and 15% listen to radio.
Men tend to use mobile devices for email plus news and sports content. French women are “more playful,” listening to music, playing games and using chat sites. Et Voila! (JMH)
Media fellowship
applications deadline
One World Media is offering fellowships for a two-week workshop to senior public and private broadcasters from developing countries. The workshop will take place in the UK between October 19th and 30th. To apply use this link: http://oneworldmedia.org.uk/fellowships/how_to_apply . Deadline is August 21st. (JMH)
Conference fades
Sign of the times
We received word from Jim Gold that the Arab Broadcast Forum planned for mid-Novermber has been “indefinitely postponed” because of “the continuing global economic turndown.” He’s looking for a new investor and hopes to have the event rescheduled sometime in 2010.
With the big WAN expo delayed and other simply cancelled, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for media people to meet and greet. (JMH)
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