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Controversial station transfer approved
One FM to Buzz FM to One FM
Normally individual station license transfers don’t attract much attention, administrative procedures being, well, administrative. This one is a bit different.
Last year the Swiss Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) denied renewal to incumbent Geneva broadcaster One FM in favor of new licensee Buzz FM. A bit of an outcry ensued. (See that story here) The owners of Buzz FM then agreed to transfer, pending approval of DETEC, their new license back to One FM.
DETEC has now approved that transfer. (See DETEC statement here - in French) (JMH)
Ad sales are tough all over
CME posts Q1 profit loss
Adrian Sarbu, COO of Central European Media Enterprises (CME), said the first quarter was the toughest in the company’s history. Revenue at the television broadcaster dropped 37% against the same period last year. Profits were negative; US$ 44 million in the red compared to US$ 14 million in the black in Q1 2008.
At TV Nova, CME’s Czech market leader, Sarbu has concentrated on cost control and incentives for advertisers. There’s a hiring freeze and managers have taken a 15% pay cut. Advertisers are getting bonus spots. The bottom line, EDITA, at TV Nova dropped 26%. (More on CME here)
CME, it should be noted, is plagued by sharp and negative currency conversion as the company reports in US dollars.
Sarbu runs a lean, mean sales machine, which got the attention of Time Warner who invested US$ 240 million in March. Contrast that with Time Warner wanting to spin-off (read: get rid of) AOL. (JMH)
Now Bankruptcy Hits Community Newspapers
Newspaper bankruptcies unfortunately are not as rare as they once were, but what catches the eye about American Community Newspapers filing is that this is a company that operates close to 100 small community newspapers concentrating solely on local news, and it had been thought that of all newspaper categories this would be the safest to ride out the recessionist storm. Apparently not.
It’s problem is the same as everyone’s – it could no longer handle the debt it took on in the “good old days” to build the empire, and now the stack of cards comes tumbling down.
As if Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper publisher, doesn’t have enough problems, it finds itself the company’s largest creditor, owed $273 million for unpaid printing work.
Time Warner Says Still Life Left In Magazines
Acknowledging that there is going to be a shakeout among major magazine titles, Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes still believes that magazines have a lot more going for them than newspapers. And since the Time Inc. division produces a chunk of the ready cash for the mother company it’s probably a good thing he thinks that!
Bewkes acknowledges that magazine advertising has taken and will probably continue to take hard hits but he noted magazines were a very different business to newspapers. "Magazine readership is growing, whereas newspaper readership is declining,” he said. And while the salvation for metropolitan newspapers is supposed to be increased local news, Bewkes sees the opposite for periodicals, “Magazines are national, not local. And they're not relying on classified ads."
Having said that, Time, Inc.’s revenue fell 23% in Q1 reflecting a 30% decline in ad sales which is about how hard newspapers are being hit these days.
Lots of radio on the iPhone
going where the people are
The good folks at Apple are very marketing smart. We know that. (For a reminder, go here)
Part of the smartness is opening their products to third party developers. All sorts of little applications (apps) are coming online. Some are cool and some are rubbish but lots of developers are getting a chance to make their mark. All of it adds to the allure of the iPhone.
Broadcasters have been less than thrilled with the available options, or lack thereof, for reaching out to the digitally enabled. The least best prospect has been to pursuade people to buy new digital receivers. But people already have mobile phones.
So, here comes the vTuner radio app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. (See presser here) Thousands of radio channels to choose from, says the developer, German company appsolute. Of course, that means a whole new challenge for audience measurement. (JMH)
ASNE Outgoing President Angry At Naysayers But She’s One Herself!
The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) outgoing president couldn’t give her farewell speech at the group’s annual convention because it got canceled as a budget cut, so Charlotte Hall put her speech online in which she tells how angry she is at newspaper naysayers. “I end my ASNE year both hopeful and angry. Many, in and out of our industry, are working hard to envision new models to support journalism. I cheer them on. But I am angry at the pundits who would dance on newspapers’ graves. Their anti-newspaper vitriol disrespects the work being done by journalists in newsrooms all over America.”
Well call us old-fashioned if you like but it was under Ms. Halls’ presidency that the ASNE dumped the word “newspaper” from its name. It used to be called the American Society of Newspaper Editors but that got changed to News Editors as if newspaper is a dirty word. That seems a pretty vitriolic thing to do!
No doubt the organization believes the name change goes to show how online editors are now welcome, but to do it did they really have to dump the “newspaper” name? That really was not a healthy newspaper thing to do!
Survey Says Free News On The Web Results In Print Cancellations
A survey has found that 22 percent of US Internet users said they stopped their subscription to a printed newspaper or magazine because they could access the same content online.
The annual survey conducted by the Center for the Digital Future at USC's Annenberg School for Communication also found a large increase in time reading online newspapers, up to 53 minutes per week, the highest level found thus far. In 2007 it was 41 minutes.
And the survey’s conclusion? "We're clearly now seeing a path to the end of the printed daily newspapers -- a trend that is escalating much faster than we had anticipated," according to Center director Jeffrey I. Cole. “The decline of newspapers is happening at a pace they never could have anticipated. Their cushion is gone, and only those papers that can move decisively to the Web will survive."
Of course do remember this comes from the Center for the Digital Future, so they would say that, wouldn’t they?
Big media group gets new funds from old source<
Targets Central and Eastern Europe
WAZ Group, one of the biggest European media operators, is receiving €40 million from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). WAZ Group subsidiary Ost Holdings, based in Vienna, will take €20 million for continuing operations and the other €20 million for future development in Central and Eastern Europe’s media sector.
WAZ Group is most often seen as a German regional newspaper and magazine publisher. The company has, however, made substantial investment in all media sectors in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans in particular. Last year WAZ Group took a 60% stake in Albanian TV channel Vizont+.
EBRD was formed at the fall of the Soviet Union primarily to inject capital into moribund infrastructure. That occasionally included media outlets. Early operators of Slovakia’s Radio Expres received investment funding from EBRD, which EBRD exited to Emmis International in 2005. (JMH)
Where Is CNN in Geneva – Part 2
Last week we complained that CNN had to provide voiceover from London on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tirade against Israel at the Racism Conference at the European UN headquarters in Geneva – the day’s biggest story. We also mentioned how the same day a Tamil demonstration outside the UK Parliament merited live reports by senior foreign correspondent Nic Robinson and we suggested CNN’s European coverage seemed UK centric.
Well, the Tamils have now held a similar demonstration – about 2,000 – 3,000 participants -- outside the UN in Geneva but we didn’t see any Nic Robinson reports on that, or by any other CNN correspondent for that matter. Guess if it happens in London ….
And let’s not forget that on Monday the World Health Organization in emergency session moved up by a day a meeting to discuss the swine flu outbreak and raised the pandemic alert level to 4, the highest since the scale was developed in 2005– by far the biggest story of the day – but again no CNN correspondent on the ground.
Need we say more on why they should take some of that money they have saved by throwing out Reuters and opening a one-person bureau in Calvin’s city?
Amazing What You Can Learn In Bankruptcy Court
Media attention is focusing on the bankruptcy proceedings for Philadelphia newspapers and how the money got spent last year – not the least being the AP’s reporting that CEO Brian Tierney earned $1.175 million in salary and bonuses that the AP said is “ somewhat higher than previously disclosed.”
And the AP also reports that the newspapers hosted a $233,000 trip to Rome for about 70 people, including for the newspaper’s top three executives and their wives.
Executive Vice President Richard Thayer told a U.S. bankruptcy trustee that the trip was an incentive for advertising managers and major advertisers.
That $233,000 could have been used, instead, to save the jobs of about four to five newsroom people so we certainly hope the newspapers got all of that money back and a great deal more from additional advertising revenue, although obviously it wasn’t enough to keep them out of bankruptcy court.
Star Academy house falls
Two TV technicians lost
An apartment building being used for the local Georgian production of “Star Academy” collapsed Saturday morning (April 26) in central Tbilisi, according to Trend News Agency. Fourteen people were in the building, which had been undergoing renovation. Two Rustavi 2 television employees were found dead Sunday (April 27), according to RAI Novosti. (JMH)
Government rejects new frequency study
Not again
The Swiss Federal Council turned down (April 22) a call from parliamentarians to mount another study of FM radio frequency allocations. One member of the Swiss Senate, Claude Janiak, asked the federal Communications Commission (ComCom) to review current frequency allocations suggesting unused frequencies might be available.
Swiss telecom regulator OFCOM studied FM frequency allocations in 2001 and finally shuffled a few in 2007. The Federal Council reminded one and all that shuffling FM frequencies cost a lot of money and very few new ones were found.
Anyway, the Swiss government is determined to push forward on digital radio platforms. (JMH)
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