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Media trends digest – 2007

Pollies head for the web (Jan 25)
The web is being is increasingly being used by politicians as a means of speaking directly to their audiences. Local politicians have long argued that the typical TV/radio demand for a 30 or even 15 second news grab stifles proper political debate, while internet enables them to conduct a more thorough discussion and make policy documents public.
Expect to see more & more use of the web by pollies.
For example: (from the NY Times) “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton strived for an Oprah moment yesterday night, the third of her presidential campaign, by sitting in a fake living-room set and fielding questions on a live video Webcast about her vote for the Iraq war (if she had known then), universal health care (still wants it) and her favorite movies (The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca and Out of Africa).
“But will she attain Oprah Winfrey’s ratings? Advisers could not say how many people watched and took Mrs Clinton’s measure during the appearance — or whether any of them were anyone other than her diehard lovers and her diehard haters.
“Mrs Clinton’s advisers say the Webcast demonstrates her determination to speak directly to voters, in as many ways as new technology allows, instead of dealing only with news media that have sometimes been intensely skeptical of her actions and motives.
“The questions e-mailed from Linda in Pensacola, Fla., and other visitors to the Web site were vetted by Mrs Clinton’s staff and offered or elicited few surprises. Mrs Clinton sat on a sofa in front of a bookcase looking relaxed as a young aide read questions from a monitor. Her answers suggested various personas that she wants to convey to voters: a hometown girl, a mother, a moviegoer, a churchgoer, a standard-bearer for women and a critic of the war.”

Free newspapers face clean-up bill (Jan 25)
From The Guardian in the UK: “The London Paper and London Lite free newspapers face bans from central London unless both companies contribute towards a £500,000 clean-up cost, Westminster City Council threatened today.
“An extra three tonnes of waste is generated every day in Westminster due to the "deluge" of the London Paper and London Lite, the council said.”
Full story

Journos too left and too involved – Hilmer (Jan 25)
Former Fairfax CEO Fred Hilmer is to release a book next week in which he is critical of what he saw as a left-leaning editorial culture that at times lead to reporters becoming participants in the political process.
"Fairfax's default position was to turn left and be agenda-driven," Mr Hilmer says in The Fairfax Experience.
"Journalists often conducted campaigns where they persisted in covering stories long after readers had lost interest."
These are common complaints about reporters:
1. Left leaning – though the prominent columnists tend to be right-wing. There is research to back this view – though the definition of left-wing as loose and may simply mean not right-leaning.
2. This is more serious – that journalists cross the line from being an observer/reporter to being an advocate or participant. For some, this is a very deliberate decision – Alan Jones in Sydney is a prime example, for others it happens by osmosis and is hotly denied.
Crikey.com.au recently ran a list of media people who became political minders, and it was extensive. Many have gone on to become pollies. One of the more famous examples was former NSW Premier Bob Carr. Somewhat ironically, he was famous for being very manipulative when it came to dealing with journalists.
Crikey’s list

The battle we missed: web neutrality (Jan 24)
Debate has been raging in the USA for over a year on whether telcos should be allowed to place a toll on web content providers – providing faster service to those willing to pay.
The debate was crucial to the internet internationally, given the USA is still the centre of the network. However it went largely unreported in Australia.
Content providers argued that the telcos were benefiting from material they didn’t pay for, and were already making good money on their investment.
Telcos argued the additional revenue would result in a better service.
Some community groups countered that this would free exchange of ideas and create an even bigger gap between the digital haves and have nots.
The latter won, despite having little or no lobbying money, versus the US$50 million spent by the telcos.
See our Benton files for more

Broadband linked to TV decline (Jan 23)
UK media regulator Ofcom ecently released a report on the state of the media, which makes for interesting reading.
Among the highlights:
1. In every country surveyed, broadband usage appears linked to a decline in conventional television viewing. On average around one-third of consumers with broadband access said they watch less television since going online. Conversely, internet access appears to have a positive effect on radio listening, offsetting a decline in hours spent listening to conventional broadcast radio.
2. China leads the world in viewing music videos and television programmes over broadband; 76% of Chinese broadband users watch downloadable or streaming music video clips and 70% watch TV over broadband.
3. Among 18-24 year old broadband users, the UK is second only to China in its enthusiasm for online video. 77% of UK 18-24 year old broadband users watch music videos online (87% in China) and 60% watch TV programmes via their broadband connections (82% in China).
More info

Speed matters (Jan 22)
US lobby group Speed Matters writes: “It is now time for the United States to adopt a comprehensive national high speed broadband policy to ensure that we all benefit from the telecommunications and information revolution. Throughout our history we have been able to benefit from major technological advances because we adopted national policies to ensure their widespread and equitable deployment. In the 19th century we adopted policies to develop canals and a national railroad system. In the 20th century we instituted policies to develop national telephone and highway systems. It is now the 21st century but we still do not have a national high speed broadband policy.”
Australia’s broadband service – last year referred to by the Australian Financial Review as “fraudband” – is notoriously slow and expensive. There is a good argument that it needs to be addressed as part of a national policy.
See Speedmatters.org

Internet a political force (19 Jan)
From the Pew Internet Project in the USA: Twice as many Americans used the internet as their primary source of news about the 2006 campaign compared with the most recent mid-term election in 2002.
Some 15% of all American adults say the internet was the place where they got most of their campaign news during the election, up from 7% in the mid-term election of 2002.
A post-election survey shows that the 2006 race also produced a notable class of online political activists. Some 23% of those who used the internet for political purposes – the people we call campaign internet users – actually created or forwarded online original political commentary or politically-related videos.
Full story

Newspaper blogs triple audience (19 Jan)
(Media release) Nielsen//NetRatings in the USA announced today that Web traffic to the blog pages of the top 10 online newspapers grew 210 percent year over year in December (see Table 1). The overall unique audience growth to these online newspapers was 9 percent year over year. Unique visitors to blog pages accounted for 13 percent of their December 2006 Web traffic, up 9 percentage points from 4 percent in December 2005.
“As Web 2.0 becomes a predominant online consumer model, traditional publishers are adopting interactive forums like blogs,” said Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. “It makes perfect sense for online newspapers, where responding to a blog posting is like writing an instant letter to the editor,” she continued.
Full release

Online sales big, but not big enough (18 Jan)
Record labels have become digitally literate companies, selling an estimated US$2 billion worth of music online or through mobile phones in 2006 (trade revenues), almost doubling the market in the last year.
Digital sales now account for around 10% of the music market as record companies experiment and innovate with an array of business models and digital music products, involving hundreds of licensing partners.
Among new developments in 2006, the number of songs available online doubled to four million, thousands of albums were released across many digital formats and platforms, classical music saw a "digital dividend" and advertising-funded services became a revenue stream for record companies.
However, despite this success, digital music has not yet achieved the "holy grail" of compensating for the decline in CD sales. Meanwhile, digital piracy and the devaluation of music content are a real threat to the emerging digital music business.
Source: IFPI

Digi recorders make networks nervous (18 Jan)
The Age newspaper today reports that TV networks are getting nervous about the increasing uptake of digital TV recorders, which allow consumers to easily edit out the ads.
The report says: Free-to-air networks and pay TV are already on the defensive, banning a recent ad for the new LG hard-drive HDTV after it prompted consumers to "snip" out the ad breaks. LG audio visual marketing manager Darren Goble was surprised and frustrated by the censorship. "The ability to skip the commercials was a consumer benefit we were keen to highlight," he says. "We were disappointed we didn't get to run with that."
Full story

New Ed for Hun (18 Jan)
From the Herald Sun (Melbourne): The Herald Sun will have a new editor-in-chief after two senior executive changes yesterday. Peter Blunden, after 11 years as editor and editor-in-chief of Australia's biggest-selling newspaper, was appointed deputy managing director of the Herald & Weekly Times. Bruce Guthrie (pictured -- a former Editor of The Age) will become editor-in-chief of the Herald Sun from next month.
Herald Sun report (Pic: Herald Sun)

Murderous year for journos (17 Jan)
From the MEAA: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reports that 2006 was a year of tragedy for the world's media as killings of reporters and media staff reached historic levels with at least 155 murders, assassinations and unexplained deaths. "Media have become more powerful and journalism has become more dangerous," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "2006 was the worst year on record - a year of targeting, brutality and continued impunity in the killing of journalists." Full coverage at the IFJ web

Foreign ownership on the rise (17 Jan)
Also from the MEAA: Reports that offshore institutional investors have bought close to 20 per cent of Publishing & Broadcasting Limited means that the Nine Network and ACP Magazines, both part of the PBL Media joint venture with CVC Asia Pacific, are now more than 50 per cent foreign owned. This means that the highest rating TV network and number one magazine group have slipped out of Australian ownership. Changes at Seven and Ten have also called into question the levels of Australian ownership.

BBC plans to provide journalism training to the public (16 Jan)
Following Monday’s launch of their in-house journalism training website, the BBC plans to make the site more widely available to the public.
The corporation’s college website aims to create a massive training resource with plans to release the material to the public later this year. This could have a dramatic effect on journalism with the trend towards citizen journalism over the last year.
The site has 500 pages with over 40 video clips giving practical exercises, how-to guides and theoretical discussions on the practice of journalism to stimulate debate. The site is split into ten sections ranging from BBC values to the future of journalism. Everyday the site will lead with three new stories so that readers can learn from current issues in the news.
The college's director, Vin Ray, told Press Gazette: 'I want, by the end of this year, to have an external site. 'There are some legal issues about rights, fair trading and the tone, because it is very much directed at the BBC, but I plan to do a bit of work this year on making it an external site.'
Press Gazette; 2006 BBC announcement on enhanced staff training

Bloggers hit radio where it hurts (16 Jan)
From the NY Times via Benton: A San Francisco talk radio station pre-empted three hours of programming on Friday in response to a campaign by bloggers who have recorded extreme comments by several hosts and passed on digital copies to advertisers. The lead blogger, who uses the name Spocko, said that he and other bloggers had contacted more than 30 advertisers on KSFO-AM to inform them of comments made on the air and to ask them to pull their ads. The comments were also posted on Spocko’s Web site, spockosbrain.com. In response, ABC Radio Networks, which owns KSFO and which in turn is owned by the Walt Disney Company, sent letters to the site’s service provider, demanding the clips be taken down from its servers. The provider complied, raising the issue of what constitutes fair use of copyrighted material by a critic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/technology/15radio.html (requires registration)

'24' hits the shelves in half that (16 Jan)
From the Los Angeles Times via Benton: In one of the quickest turnarounds ever for a television show to appear on DVD, Twentieth Century Fox Television today is expected to release the season premiere episodes of "24" less than 12 hours after the popular drama finishes airing. The sixth season of the show starring Kiefer Sutherland as federal agent and terrorist fighter Jack Bauer was launched Sunday and Monday on Fox Broadcasting Network. By this morning, DVDs of the shows will be on retail shelves. Usually, studios release a television DVD months, if not years, after the network run and package them as a boxed set with an entire season's worth of discs. "This is an interesting approach to marrying the DVD format with the broadcast network," said Amy Jo Smith, executive director of Digital Entertainment Group, a trade organization that tracks the home entertainment business. "The entire industry has been discussing convergence — but this is an actual illustration of it." Fox's release of the "24" premiere on DVD is as much a promotional device as it is an experiment in collapsing the windows that traditionally separate a show's network run from its appearance in other formats. The latest "24" DVD will contain the first four hours of the new season plus 12 minutes of the episode that is scheduled to air Monday. But Fox's gambit also illustrates the speed at which studios increasingly must operate to keep up with a world where consumers prefer to watch shows on their own time schedule — not the networks'. Several networks, including ABC and CBS, have offered Internet downloads of an episode a few hours after the show airs. "The trend of the network business is to try to tap into the value of shows earlier in their life span instead of waiting four or five years like we used to," said Gary Newman, president of Twentieth Century Fox Television, which produces "24." "Shows today have a relatively short life span. We've got to make money while there's heat on a show."
LA Times report (requires registration)

Bloggers score accreditation (Jan 15)
From the Washington Post: For the first time in a federal court, during the trial of US Vice President’s former chief of staff set to open next week, journalists won’t be the only ones to occupy the press seats. Two of the 100 press seats will be reserved for bloggers. Another step towards the convergence of bloggers and journalists?
The Media Bloggers Association obtained, after two years of negotiation, that two of its members report on the trial. "Bloggers can bring a depth of reporting that some traditional media organizations aren't able to achieve because of space and time limitations," said Sheldon Snook, administrative assistant to Chief Judge Thomas F Hogan.
Most bloggers (two thirds according to a 2006 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project) don’t consider themselves journalists persay. So trying to force the view of journalism and blogging as converging to create a new form of information isn’t always relevant. For most people from both domains, both forms are complementary rather than converging.
"Blogs are first and foremost a conversation, people talking," said Jeff Jarvis, a journalist-turned-blogger who created a forum called BuzzMachine.
Washington Post

Iraq searches for free press (15 Jan)
From the BBC: After the collapse of the old regime, the number of newspapers in the country increased to over 200. The BBC now estimates that there are around 50 newspapers publishing regularly.
Apart from the Al-Sabah, which is funded by the US-led coalition, most other newspapers are funded by political or religious groups meaning there are very few independent newspapers with truly unbiased reporting. Also, journalists and media outlets are frequent targets of attacks by militant groups impeding the development of free press.
Some newspapers now publish Internet editions to overcome distribution issues in the country. It seems that it will take time for Iraqis to have a true free press.
BBC

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