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Journalists and media workers face enormous risk, increasing with each new outbreak of civil strife. Harassment, imprisonment and death are far too common, truth denominating reason.
Against this backdrop comes the disturbing story from Iraq. A journalist alleged his family was killed in retribution for his work. Journalist advocates piled on in condemnation. But the story wasn’t true. (The LA Times has excellent coverage of the story)
Reality for media workers is verified…and horrid. (Read INSI statement here) (See list of ftm articles on journalists at risk here) Unfortunately, journalists’ critics, bullies and dictators will fall for the story that truth is for sale.
What has come to be known as the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) directive passed the European Parliament Thursday. The long pondered replacement for the Television Without Frontiers directive will now go to the governments of each EU Member State for consideration. (Read EuroParl statement here)
Loosening TV advertising rules has received much of the attention through these debates. Product placement is in, sort of. Rules on ad breaks change, sort of. Unsurprisingly, the ad people fear ‘back-door’ rule making. (Read egta statement here)
Some websites will need to comply with these new rules, those providing ‘TV-like’ services. Excluded, of course, are newspaper websites and ‘personal websites.’
Much of the language remains quite vague. Media service providers are ‘encouraged’ to develop codes of conduct for ads directed at children.
Not so vague is the Commission’s intention to force Member States to insure the independence of media regulators.
AVMS, further changes notwithstanding, should become the rule of the realm by the end of 2009, about the time Google buys Gazprom.(JMH)
The Federal Communications Commission I(FCC) says it is meeting Friday to decide whether Tribune should receive a two-year waiver extension for its cross-ownership of television stations and newspapers in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Hartford, Connecticut, that need to be approved before the company can go private by the end of the year.
The meeting was called on just two days notice by the FCC Chairman which in Washington parlance means it’s a done deal since meetings are not called to defeat what a government agency boss wants done, and therefore the necessary approval votes are secured.
The timing gives Tribune the necessary working space to file all of its necessary papers with the government so it can have a tax-exempt status for 2008 in order for the Sam Zell privatization to go through. Also financial analysts are saying that Citibank and Merrill Lynch are still solidly behind the deal. They had been hit particularly hard in the subprime crisis and there was speculation they might have wanted to pull out, but apparently not, so, as Americans are fond of saying, all the ducks seem lined up in a row for Sam Zell to become a newspaper and television baron come January.
Macquarie Media Group of Australia via its American Consolidated Media LLC says it is buying five daily newspapers in Ohio and Maryland and 28 other publications in two separate deals, valued at $159.5 million meaning that within a year it now owns more than 100 US newspapers in 10 states making it the fifth largest owner of small community US newspapers.
It is buying 22 publications in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware from Whitcom Partners of New York, representing the families of Edward Barlow and Robert Blank. It is also buying 11 newspapers in southeastern Ohio from Brown Publishing Co. Brown will still own 16 daily and 60 weekly and niche publications in Ohio.
Macquarie entered the US market nine months ago with a business plan of buying newspapers it saw as primary news providers in their community with a large base of advertisers and that had little dependence on national advertising.
In June Macquarie swooped on Superior Publishing Corporation that publishes 19 newspapers in the Midwest and Grove Sun Newspaper Company that publishes four newspapers in Oklahoma, paying a total price around $67 million. It entered the market in January paying $80 million for the 40 newspapers of American Consolidated Media (ACM) in Texas and Oklahoma.
The EC says it wants DVB-H as its sole mobile TV standard, but several countries including the UK, Germany and The Netherlands oppose the decision.
DVB-H is promoted primarily by Nokia. Other parts of the world, including the US, South Korea, and Japan use other systems.
According to an EU Commission statement, “DVB-H will be published by the Commission in the list of official EU standards. As a result, all EU Member States will have to support and encourage the use of DVB-H for the launch of mobile TV services, thus avoiding market fragmentation and allowing economies of scale and accordingly affordable services and devices." It would take a vote of 18 of the 27 EU countries to overturn the decision.
Showing the sensitivity to the issue, EU telecoms ministers said in a statement Thursday that the DVB-H norm should not be mandatory.
The National Football League has imposed new media restrictions this year, the International Rugby Board tried to limit what the media could do at its world championships in Paris, Cricket Australia tried the same thing with Test matches, and now we have the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) trying to determine what newspapers can and cannot do with the pictures they take at the high school football championships.
It seems the IHSA has a seven year old contract with Visual Image Photography Inc. that grants the commercial photographer exclusive rights to state championship photos, so the last thing it wants is for newspapers to be selling their pictures of the games to parents and boosters in competition with that contract.
"Our intention is to enforce our media policy and to protect our rights," said Marty Hickman, IHSA's executive director. "Whether it means denying credentials or it means litigation, those options are out there."
"I see this as the IHSA sticking its nose into something it shouldn't be sticking its nose in to," said Don Craven, a lawyer that represents the Illinois Press Association. "Why is it the role of an association of primarily public schools to make money for a photographer?"
So, this is not just an issue at national and international sporting events. It’s down to the high school level already and is sure fodder for the courts to get involved.
R.J Reynolds has often been under fire for its Camel cigarette ads, usually because people believe they target the young, but in doing whatever it is they do, most agree they do it very well, too well.
But now, with Congress and anti-smoking groups making ugly noises about the most recent Camel ads, the company has announced it’s giving up on print ads and there’ll be none next year.
R.J Reynolds spokeswoman Jan Smith pretty well summed up the cigarette company’s thinking in an interview with AP. “There should be less controversy over cigarette advertising in magazines and newspapers, because we won’t be doing it.”
She also said this was a one-year decision and the company would take a look at how alternative marketing worked before making a decision to make it permanent.
Greek journalists took to the streets Tuesday, which meant no Wednesday newspapers, as they joined with other unions protesting the government’s proposed pension reforms.
Radio and television news bulletins were cancelled Tuesday and even government offices for the most part had no news releases since their press offices are staffed by journalists.
The government sent a Budget Bill to Parliament last week that the unions fear could curb future pension deficits estimated at €120 billion to €400 billion ($165 billion to $550 billion) by raising retirement ages and lowering benefits. The Bill calls for controlling public spending, lowering the budget deficit and raising taxes.
The journalist union says it will join a national general strike December 12.
A new law being considered by the Israeli Knesset overhauls ownership issues that have been on the books since the Israeli state was formed but are no longer seen as applicable in a democracy – such as getting a license from the government in order to publish a newspaper.
Under the proposal, to give readers knowledge of who owns their newspaper it must publish the publisher’s name or if it is a corporation then the names of those who hold controlling interests, the extent of their holdings, and the names of the directors. Twice a year the newspaper must publish the publisher's holdings in any other corporation that exceed 25%; and any holdings exceeding 15% in another newspaper. It will also have to publish its circulation numbers twice a year for the previous six months.
The new law also stipulates that every newspaper must appoint an ombudsman who will have to publish an annual report. Previous restrictions on the age and education of the editor are being dropped but remaining on the books is that neither the editor nor publisher has a criminal record. If a newspaper's editor is convicted of a crime while in office the editor must quit the post within 30 days, and in the case of the publisher, within 60 days
The courts will be authorized to prohibit or restrict a newspaper's publication for a specific number of days if it believes publication may endanger state security or public safety.
Rupert Murdoch said shortly after getting agreement to buying Dow Jones that the community Ottaway newspapers were not part of his grand scheme to boost the Wall Street Journal and the Dow Jones wires. So it was no surprise Tuesday that Dow Jones announced it was looking to sell the eight daily and 15 weekly community newspapers located in seven states.
"The options under consideration include the possible sale of some or all of those papers and associated media properties," Dow Jones said in a release. “There can be no assurance, however, that any transaction will take place or that all of the newspapers would be involved."
In favor of a sale is that if there is any market at all these days in the US newspaper business it is at the small daily and community newspaper level. A logical buyer would be a group like GateHouse Media that specializes in small newspapers.
The Ottaway newspapers contributed $179 million of Dow Jones' revenue through the first nine months of this year, close to 12% of the company's total revenue. The Ottaway family owns 6.2% of Dow Jones super voting Class B shares and were very opposed to the Dow Jones sale to Murdoch.
In a major blow to cycling sponsorship and as good as an example as any of how Germany regards the doping scandals of the past few years, T-Mobile has announced it will not sponsor a team in the 2008 Tour de France race.
“We have worked hard with the current team management to create a cleaner sport of cycling. We have now decided to put our money to other uses.”
Because of the various doping scandals in the 2007 race, Germany’s public broadcasters stopped televising the race in mid-stream and public opinion polls showed the public supported that stance, as did various journalists’ unions. Given that public attitude would any German sponsor want to continue?
Probably pushing T-Mobile to its decision was the one-year ban handed out a couple of weeks ago to German rider Patrik Sinkewitz who it fired during the 2007 race after abnormal amounts of testosterone were found in his blood. Sinkewitz has confessed to using the blood-boosting drug EPO from 2003, when he still rode for the Quick Step team, to 2006, when he was at T-Mobile. The sponsor had also fired Italian rider Lorenzo Bernucci after he failed a doping test, while severing its ties with two doctors being investigated by German authorities.
T-Mobile, and formerly Deutsche Telecom, had sponsored cycling for 16 years. The team it was sponsoring hopes to continue with a new sponsor.
Arbitron released a statement late Monday (November 26) succumbing to US broadcaster (i.e. client) pressure over issues arising from electronic measurement deployment. Over the last two months pressure has been building for Arbitron to delay the roll-out of PPM measurement. The cooker finally popped. Arbitron will return to diary based measurement in all but two US markets and delay further PPM deployment for 90 days. (Read Arbitron statement here)
Arbitron’s major US broadcast clients sent Arbitron CEO Steve Morris a strong letter demanding action on lingering questions about the efficacy of the PPM system methodology. (Read earlier report here) Morris responded by asking for a meeting, widely interpreted by broadcasters as an attempt to renegotiate for more money.
Is this the last shoe to drop on electronic media measurement? Probably not; ad buyers (more) and broadcasters (less) are committed to inevitable change to passive, electronic measurement. However, the 90 day delay will give broadcasters more time to sort out their specific questions without the pressure of on-going measurement under a system in which they have decreasing confidence.
Are pots rattling elsewhere? Probably; UK TV measurement service BARB is widely expected to contract with TNS, the Arbitron sales agent, for television measurement using PPM systems.
Arbitron is a publicly traded company. Stock traders punished the share price severely as Arbitron lowered its advice on future earning based on the PPM delays.(JMH)
It was always said during Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s time in power that he held too much influence over the country’s TV – he could strongly influence the state broadcaster, RAI, and his family owns the Mediaset networks, and all of that gave him sway over about 90% of Italian television. But Berlusconi always said he never exerted undue influence.
But now La Republicca has printed transcripts of tapped phone calls between RAI and Mediaset, taken in 2004 and 2005, in which executives discussed how to downplay Berlusconi’s Alliance defeat in local elections. That has now prompted Italy’s communications watchdog to investigate. “We have opened a probe and will evaluate the situation in the light of elements we receive. Based on the checks, we will decide on what interventions to adopt to guarantee pluralism, independence and freedom of information,” Corrado Calabro, secretary-general of the watchdog, told Parliament.
One of the first Parliamentary moves by Romano Prodi when his center-left coalition beat Berlusconi in 2006 was to introduce a Bill giving Italy more pluralism on the media landscape. But Prodi now complains that Berlusconi’s Forza Alliance (which Berlusconi disbanded last week) has applied for 1,280 amendments to the Bill.
Meanwhile, Berlusconi got some bad news from Switzerland where the Federal Court, the country’s highest, rejected Berlusconi efforts to stop the Swiss handing over bank documents to prosecutors in Milan who are investigating Berlusconi on several tax issues.
Berlusconi was successful last week in having an Italian court throw out charges referring to tax incidents in the year 2000 because of the statute of limitations, but Italian prosecutors are determined to ensure their current investigations for years after 2000 do not drag out to the same type of ruling. So the Swiss handing over documents about bank accounts frozen since 2005 may well help the Italians in pursuing Italy’s richest man.
Rupert Murdoch says he would like to see the UK’s Sky News, of which he is chairman, be more partisan in the same way that his Fox News Network is in the US, and that would improve its ratings, but his son, James, who actually runs the business day-to-day isn’t having any of it.
Murdoch complained to members of the House of Lords Communications Committee that had visited New York in September and has just released its minutes, “Nobody at Sky listens to me.”
Rupert is known to be somewhat more conservative in his political thinking than James, but don’t cry too much for the “old man”, he’ll soon have a new toy to play with – The Wall Street Journal.
Not even close – Procter & Gamble spent $8.522 billion on global advertising in 2006, some 47% more than number two – Unilever at $4.537 billion, according to Ad Age DataCenter.
P&G’s 2006 ad spend was up 4.1% over the year before, and Unilever’s was up 8.1%, but General Motors, third at $3.353 billion was down 17.1% over the year before (down 24.3% in just the US).
Overall the 2006 ad spend was just 1.1% more than 2005 and in the US it actually fell 2.2%, according to Ad Age.
Strongest growth was in the personal care category.
Get your fur hat and big coat. We’re going to Moscow. Two of Europe’s largest media houses have announced new projects in Russia, aimed at the ever-expanding – and increasingly segmented - Russian media market.
RTL Group’s Gerhard Zeiler said Thursday (November 22) the company has purchased 50% of Content Union, a production company, in a joint venture with Continental Finance Group (CFG), a satellite and cable TV supplier. CFG distributes several Russian language channels. RTL bought 30% of REN TV in 2005.
Lagardère Active said (Sunday November 25) it’s launching StarHit, “a 100 page women’s weekly,” in Russia, edited by television personality Audrey Malakhov. They’ll print 700,000 “exceptionally” for the first edition. The focus will be photos, beauty, “the art of life” and television programs… very French.
At the beginning of November I posted an article about broadcasting in Africa. (Read 'Textures of African Broadcasting' here) Admittedly, it is quite general, meant to explore different regional subtexts, each quite fascinating. I have been delighted by ftm reader interest. It's one of the top three most read articles this month.
Marco Domeniconi from Fondation Hirondelle wrote to correct my confusion about UN agency participation in broadcasting projects and the relationship with Fondation Hirondelle. I incorrectly ascribed involvement of the UN Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO) to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). (Read his full comment here) The test of the article has been changed to reflect the corrections. I regret any confusion.
Fondation Hirondelle should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, if it hasn't been already. I've touched on its story in earlier articles. (Read article on media training here) This Swiss-based organization has been involved in humanitarian aspects of broadcasting in Africa for more than a decade. It's quite a story. (full disclosure: my dear friend Felix Bollmann is a board member)
Hopefully others interested or involved will also add to the interesting, fascinating, complicated and important story of African broadcasting. Please send your comments to me. (JMH)
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