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Media trends digest – 2007

Coonan springs media law surprise (30 March)
Federal Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan has caught many in the media industry by surprise, by announcing yesterday that the new media ownership laws – which passed parliament some months ago – will be in effect on April 4. The popular betting was that the laws may not take effect until much closer to the end of this financial year.
“The Government’s media reforms will encourage greater competition and allow media companies to achieve economies of scale and scope, while maintaining the diversity of Australia’s media landscape. 
“The current foreign ownership and control restrictions relating to free-to-air and subscription television, and cross-media ownership restrictions on commercial radio and television licences and associated newspapers have for too long limited competition in the media sector.  They have restricted access to foreign capital and expertise and stifled opportunities for growth.  
“The new laws create a framework that will deliver greater consumer choice and a competitive industry in a rapidly growing digital media age. Australia needs a flexible system to allow media organisations - national, commercial or community based - to adapt and prosper in the new digital environment,” Senator Coonan said.
However the laws have also been criticized, most notably by former Prime Minister Paul Keating, who sees them as bad for diversity and as having the potential to increase the power and influence of large media companies.
The laws have already prompted considerable jockeying in the industry, with a variety of sell-offs and take-overs underway.
The laws include provisions to:
• remove the foreign ownership restrictions for commercial and subscription television interests;
• remove the cross-media ownership restrictions relating to commercial radio licences,
commercial television licences or associated newspapers (subject to certain safeguards);
• impose disclosure obligations on commercial radio and television licensees and newspaper publishers with cross-media interests; 
• require the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to impose licence conditions from 1 January 2008 on commercial television licensees in regional aggregated Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania markets to broadcast a minimum level of ‘material of local significance’;
• require ACMA to impose licence conditions from the date of commencement of Schedule 2 on regional commercial radio licensees that require licensees to maintain existing levels of local presence if the licence is subject to a ‘trigger event’ (that is, a change in ownership or if it becomes part of a cross-media group);
• require ACMA to impose licence conditions from 1 January 2008 on regional commercial radio licensees to broadcast a minimum level of ‘material of local significance’ between 6am and 6pm on business days (the default level is presently 4.5 hours but this is the subject of a review by ACMA which is due to report by 30 June 2007); and
• subject regional commercial radio licensees to further local content obligations if a ‘trigger event’ occurs.  
Full release

$30 per listener (29 March)
Sydney radio broadcasting legend John Laws may have the world’s most expensive listeners, at $30 a head. That’s how much the man once dubbed The Golden Tonsils is being paid, according to the latest audience survey.
The figures reveal Laws’ audience share at 2UE has dropped to 6.7 per cent, well below that of arch-rival Alan Jones over at 2GB. The percentage translates to a mere 132,000 people on cumulative figures (people who listen for more than 15 minutes), while Laws is on a reported annual salary of $4 million.

Politics, not pools, wins for TV (29 March)
Channel Nine has been given an interesting ratings lesson, when it was beaten by the ABC in the Sydney TV market recently, because the latter ran with coverage of the NSW state election. Traditionally Nine has also covered state elections, but this time chose not to.
Meanwhile the coverage of the FINA world swimming championships from Melbourne has been a ratings loser for the broadcaster.

Whistleblower conviction a disaster for media (29 March)
The conviction of a former federal customs employee for blowing the whistle on lax security at the nation’s airports is being interpreted as a disaster for media and transparency in government.
Allan Kessing has been convicted of leaking a confidential government report, which had been effectively ‘buried’ without being acted on. Subsequent to his actions, which enabled The Australian newspaper to reveal the report’s contents, the Federal Government ordered what amounted to a $200 million overhaul of airport security.
However Kessing may now face a jail term, which sends a clear message to anyone who may have planned to emulate his actions. Kessing has already resigned job and has probably suffered further financial penalties because of the cost of his legal defence.
The Australian newspaper yesterday pointed out that the Federal Government has been willing to talk about shield laws which prevent journalists from having to reveal sources, but the gesture is borderline meaningless if it is prepared to pursue and severely punish whistleblowers like Kessing.
Australian editorial (second item); Report

Local content rules stay (29 March)
From The Australian: Regional radio operators have lost their battle to overthrow tough new regulations imposing strict local programming requirements. The rules, part of the federal Government's media reform legislation, take effect from Sunday.
See this link

Internet video is no gold mine (29 March)
From the NY Times, via Benton: Online video is getting a lot of hype these days, but it is not clear how companies will make money off such sites, a new study from Convergence Consulting finds. "As it was a decade ago, the Internet is once again being positioned as taking over the content universe ... but there are a number of cold, hard realities" that prevent broadcasters and cable networks from moving away from TV, the report states. One such reality is advertising. Online advertising rates can command high prices, but online viewership is still considerably smaller than TV. Broadcasters that put their TV shows online have seen about 5 per cent of their TV base watching the online streams; cable networks such as MTV see about 15 per cent of their audiences watching shows online.
Full story

Bypassing the network execs (29 March)
From the LA Times, via Benton: The Internet is giving Hollywood a nervous breakdown. Way, way back in prehistory — let's say, 2004 — if you made a TV pilot and the network didn't pick it up, the judge's decision was final. But now you have a savior, an ally, a friend with millions of other friends. You have YouTube.
Full story

Time for a change (27 March)
Time Inc is reported to have Who Weekly, In Style, Bride to Be and Practical Parenting on the market as outright purchases or licensed products. Time magazine itself has recently undergone a revamp and the Australian end of the group is reported to be performing well, posting an estimated $35 million profit last year.
Meanwhile the sale of Federal Publishing to News Limited –- which was delayed because of questions over circulation figures --  has been given the all-clear.

EMAP heads out of the digital bunker (27 March)
From The Guardian: UK Magazine publisher EMAP is ramping up its digital strategy by launching new media "incubator" projects for Motorcycle News, Today's Golfer and Empire magazines and appointing three new digital directors.
From today both Motorcycle News and Today's Golfer websites will feature instructional video for their readers, such as how to play a bunker shot.
Full story

Got a good publishing job story? (27 March)
From Bloom Partners in Melbourne: We have been commissioned by A&C Black to write a book, “How to Get a Job in Publishing,” and we wondered if you’d spend a few minutes sharing your own experiences? We’re after pithy advice and short, vivid anecdotes with which to sprinkle the book - to give young people hoping to get a start in publishing a real idea of what it’s been like for others before them. The book is aimed at university graduates, those considering taking a postgraduate publishing qualification and anyone considering publishing as a possible career.
See this link – the deadline is 30 March and there’s an iPod Shuffle up for grabs.

US newspapers battle to charge (27 March)
US newspapers have floated the idea of approaching the government for an exemption to anti-trust legislation, to allow them to start, en masse, for online content. The idea is being howled down in some circles as impractical, unethical and not necessarily in their long-term interest.
Few newspapers have succeeded in charging for content – many have tried, but the revenue has been minimal. A rare exception is the Wall Street Journal, which claims 800,000 paying subscribers.
See this story from Poynter

Boston not Bangalore (27 March)
The Media Alliance reports: The Boston Globe's union has launched an ad campaign encouraging readers and advertisers to oppose the paper's plan to outsource the jobs of 50 workers to India.
Meanwhile a Sydney-based animator tells us a similar thing is happening in that industry, with Disney being the latest company to shift jobs from here to India.
See this link

Buy a bigger plane for the PM – media (26 March)
Publishers such as Fairfax and News, along with the Media Alliance, have called for the Prime Minister to obtain a larger aircraft to enable media to accompany him on overseas trips, rather than relying on commercial flights. This is the result of the Garuda crash a couple of weeks ago, in which a number of media were killed or injured.
The Alliance says: "The government cannot expect journalists to follow ministerial movements where there is a real risk to their safety. It is critical, in the interests of personal safety, and indeed the broader public interest, that the media be afforded basic safe travel," said Alliance Federal Secretary Chris Warren. Read the letter at www.alliance.org.au
Guidomedia can’t help wondering at how the cost will and reasoning will be viewed by a public which itself resorts to commercial flights...

Rugby pic rules reach for the absurd (26 March)
The World Association of Newspapers has protested to the International Rugby Board about restriction on how media will be allowed to use photography. For example, they are not allowed to place headlines or captions over photographs in a way that may obscure on-field advertising.
See the full story at editors weblog

Not everyone loves the web (26 March)
From Reuters, via Benton: A little under one-third of US households have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives, according to a survey released on Friday. Park Associates, a Dallas-based technology market research firm, said 29 per cent of US households, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months. The second annual National Technology Scan conducted by Park found the main reason potential customers say they do not subscribe to the Internet is because of the low value to their daily lives they perceive rather than concerns over cost. Forty-four percent of these households say they are not interested in anything on the Internet. The study found US broadband adoption grew to 52 per cent over 2006, up from 42 per cent in 2005. Roughly half of new subscribers converted from slower-speed, dial-up Internet access while the other half of households had no prior access.
Full story

Naomi Winfrey? (23 March)
Now here’s a thought to bemuse fans of daytime TV. Former Today Tonight host Naomi Robson has shot a pilot with Channel 7 for an Oprah Winfrey-style afternoon program. The network has already committed to a new morning show to go up against Channel 9’s Mornings with Kerry Anne.
(We can also recommend searching YouTube for Naomi Robson – for an interesting set of Today Tonight out-takes. See The Adventures of Naomi Robson. The best quote is: “And if you believe that, you’re as dumb as I think you all are…”)

Broadband back in the news – but that’s all (23 March)
The pathetic state of Australia’s broadband network (famously described by the Australian Financial Review last year as Fraudband), by international standards, is back in the news thanks to the federal opposition’s promise to build a $4.7 billion high-speed network.
The Australian newspaper reports: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found Australia ranks 17th out of 25 nations with basic broadband at a speed of 256 kilobits per second.
See this link for the piece from The Australian, and this link for a quick backgrounder from economist Harry Clarke.

New privacy laws on the way? (23 March)
The Australian newspaper is clearly concerned about proposed new privacy laws in NSW may spread to the rest of the country – though the nature of what’s being proposed is anything but clear.
It says: The nation's media is being threatened with a new round of reporting restrictions and legal changes that will subject it to an avalanche of litigation.
The latest threat is a move by the NSW Government for a plaintiff-friendly way of suing the media over invasions of privacy.
That plan, which threatens to reverse some of the gains from last year's defamation reforms, takes up an idea that was proposed by the ABC's Media Watch program.
See this link

Engaging with the public (22 March)
French newspaper Ouest France has built up a tradition of going beyond the call of duty when it comes to engaging with its readership. As en example, it’s editor revealed in a recent interview: “We used to receive some 6,000 letters on the subject of orientation in school. So a few years ago, we decided to set up a call center, in partnership with school orientation specialists, with 20 people to answer the phone. Between nine and noon, we answered 4,000 calls and the call center overflowed with calls (we estimated total incoming calls at 40,000). So the year afterwards we had twice as many staffers answer 7,000 phone calls, but there were some 80,000 calls that weren’t processed. We decided to stop, because this operation ended up in more dissatisfaction than interactivity.”
Nevertheless it has enthusiastically embraced the opportunities offered by internet blogging to engage with its readers and using them as reporters.
See this story at editors weblog

Early mobile ads show promise (19 March)
From the Online Publisher Association, USA: While mobile advertising is still in its infancy, publishers are moving boldly into making more content mobile-ready and including advertising. Despite concerns about that advertising being too disruptive, the OPA and TNS found that cell phone users are accepting of advertising if it subsidizes free services. The study found that 76% of all consumers in the US and Europe have access to the web on their cell phones, with 32% using those features. And 34% of mobile web users say they would watch ads in exchange for free mobile content. In Europe, that number jumps to 37% who are willing to watch ads. The study found that nearly 1 in 10 consumers made a purchase based on a mobile ad, while 23% checked out a website because of an ad. "This is a clear indication that the mobile web is an effective advertising delivery platform and a potentially valuable source of revenue," OPA honcho Pam Horan said.
Mobile advertising hits wireless Web first (News.com) l
The Mobile Web Offers A Rich Platform For Content And Advertising (OPA release)

Will the tabloid TV shows declare a truce? (15 March)
The Australian newspaper’s Media section today speculates that the Channel Nine and Seven tabloids, a A Current Affair and Today Tonight, may declare an uneasy truce. They have, over the last few weeks, indulged in a marathon mutual face-slapping session which the producers now suspect is putting off the audience.
Story

Rumour suggests Gyngell to replace McGuire at Nine (15 March)
See this story at Crikey.com.au

Should football control the image? (15 March)
The Australian Football League (AFL) based in Melbourne has created a flap over its decision to contract photography for international media at its games to that provided exclusively by its in-house publisher, Geoff Slattery Publishing. The previous incumbent was Getty Images – which is independent of the AFL.
This means media outlets (other than contracted TV broadcasters and local outlets) will need to buy from the 'official' source which in turn will be able to weed out any images the AFL deems undesirable or somehow damaging to the game.
This tendency to control the message and the media delivering it is increasingly prevalent across several sports internationally and, from an Editor’s point of view, is a sinister trend.
See this ABC report for more background

Google print sales a qualified success (15 March)
From Editors Weblog: In April 2006 Google started working on a project known as PrintAds -- a sales bidding system for newspapers based on Google’s successful AdWords system. Newspapers provide details on their standard ad inventory including elements such as size, mono/colour, placement in paper etc. Advertisers then make bids on the system for any of these ads they want to purchase. Newspapers are able to accept or reject the bid for any reason. Tom Phillips, Director of Google PrintAds explains quite simply that Google provides a “system for booking ads and a universe of advertisers”.
The Alpha ran on a three-month trial with 50 large advertisers and 66 metropolitan newspapers. This trial showed that advertisers tend to bid one to six weeks in advance of publication and that newspapers accept or reject the offers almost immediately. About 50% are accepted - the reasons for rejection are mainly price based. Google was keen to emphasize that the system is not an auction so newspapers are under no obligation to commit actual space to this project unless the price is high enough. Some bids were frequently denied such as the New York Times travel section on a Sunday, which is almost always sold out well in advance. Throughout the process the newspaper keeps control of every aspect of the ad including approval of content and payment.
Full story

But the YouTube purchase is a problem (March 15)
Google’s purchase of YouTube has had the predictable effect of encouraging content owners to sue for breach of copyright. The latest player in the queue is Viacom, said to be asking for US$1.65 billion in damages over an estimated 160,000 unauthorised clips.
Google not surprisingly is arguing the clips qualify as promotion of the Viacom product – which would make for an interesting invoice.
Viacom owns Paramount Pictures, MTV and Comedy Central.
See this story at Information Week; and this analysis

Faster & more dramatic change for media –- US report (15 March)
The fourth state of the media report produced by The Project for Excellence in Journalism in the USA suggests the industry is struggling to define exactly what the new business models are as digital publishing becomes increasingly influential.
It says: In the last year, the trends reshaping journalism didn’t just quicken, they seemed to be nearing a pivot point.
“On Madison Avenue, talk has turned to whether the business model that has financed the news for more than a century — product advertising — still fits the way people consume media.
“With audiences splintering across ever more platforms, nearly every metric for measuring audience is now under challenge as either flawed or obsolete — from circulation in print, to ratings in TV, to page views and unique visitors online.
“Every media sector except for two is now losing popularity. Even the number of people who go online for news — or anything else — has stopped growing. Only the ethnic press is up.
“The definitions of enemy and ally in the news business are changing. Newspapers have begun to partner, for instance, with classified-job-listing Web sites they once denounced, brought together by mutual fear of free sites such as Craigslist.
“With fundamentals shifting, we sense the news business entering a new phase heading into 2007—a phase of more limited ambition. Rather than try to manage decline, many news organizations have taken the next step of starting to redefine their appeal and their purpose based on diminished capacity. Increasingly outlets are looking for brand or franchise areas of coverage to build audience around.
“For some, the new brand is what Wall Street calls “hyper localism” (consider the end of foreign bureaus at the Boston Globe or the narrowing of the coverage area at the Atlanta Journal Constitution). For others, it is personality and opinion (note the rising ratings of Lou Dobbs or Keith Olbermann). For still others it is personal involvement (the brand of Anderson Cooper, and, more tentatively and occasionally, even broadcast network anchors). For an emerging cohort of Web sites it is the involvement of everyday people (some alternative news sites now come closer than ever to the promise of authentic citizen media).
“In a sense all news organizations are becoming more niche players, basing their appeal less on how they cover the news and more on what they cover.”
The report is 160,000 words and very comprehensive.
See this link

Online video gains greater acceptance (15 March)
From a report by The Guardian on a recent online publishers conference: ROO Group executive director Robin Smyth had some pretty solid basic tips on incorporating video: add mini players within the site, embedded video in the site (that means not having a pop-up media player, like the iPlayer...), having a simple content management system, good marketing, a user content element and focusing on live events.
Smyth said the user attention span for web video had increased from 4.5 minutes in December 2004 to 25 minutes now, and that's up to as many as nine clips. The growth of broadband connectivity, better user interfaces and more compelling content has driven this increase in web video use and there's no doubt, he said, that the internet will become accepted as the largest broadcasting platform in the world.
Full story; Link to the conference

And coincidentally… (15 March)
From Journalism.co.uk: The chief executive of Guardian Media Group told an industry conference that over the next 18 months £15 million would be invested in redeveloping Guardian Unlimited.
Carolyn McCall told delegates at the OPA conference, in London today, that as part of this overhaul the Guardian had 'big plans' for video -- to take advantage of its advertising potential.
Full story

Getty goes pro-am (15 March)
Worldwide professional photography supplier Getty Images has made an interesting acquisition, buying up website Scoopt that is devoted to amateur snappers.
The company says: Getty Images today announced its acquisition of Scoopt, an emerging source for
user-generated editorial content. Scoopt is an aggregator and distributor of photographs and videos captured by eyewitnesses who have an accidental front row seat to headline-making moments.
Full release; Scoopt

The world of cyberworship (15 March)
From the Washington Post, via Benton: The Internet has become a hub of religious worship for millions of people around the world. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and people of other faiths turn regularly to Web sites to pray, meditate and gather in "virtual" houses of worship graphically designed to look like the real thing. Some sites offer rites from baptism to confession to conversion to Judaism. For many cyber-worshipers, online religious life conducted at home or in an Internet cafe has replaced attendance at traditional churches, temples, mosques and synagogues. Some are coming to religion for the first time, in a setting they find as comfortable as their grandparents found a church pew, while millions of people reared on churchgoing are discovering new ways to worship.
Full story

Song downloads rise – legally or not (15 March)
From the Los Angeles Times, via Benton: About 5 billion songs were downloaded illegally last year, far outnumbering the more than 500 million purchased legally, market researcher NPD Group said Tuesday. The number of U.S. households participating in illegal file swapping rose 8% to 15 million, Port Washington, NY-based NPD said. The growth in the number of households involved slowed from 2005. At the same time, legal online purchases of music jumped 56% and the number of U.S. households buying legally rose to 13 million, NPD said. The average user of LimeWire, a major source of unauthorized sharing, downloaded 309 files last year, a 49% rise from 2005, the research firm said. About 70% of households that bought songs online used Apple Inc.'s iTunes, NPD said. The average number of songs bought by each iTunes user fell 11%.
Full story

Seven leads first survey period (15 March)
Network Seven lead the first four-week TV audience survey period, giving Nine a fairly solid going-over and leaving Ten behind in the wake of the two-way battle.
Audience shares
Seven, Nine, Ten
All People
38.7% (38.9%), 34.7% (33.9%), 26.6% (27.2%)
16-39s
36.6% (35.7%), 28.9% (28.5%), 34.5% (35.8%)
18-49s
37.4% (37.2%), 30.8% (30.4%), 31.8% (32.4%)
25-54s
38.4% (38.0%), 32.7% (32.0%), 28.9% (30.0%)

Media in Asia in crisis – report (15 March)
From the Commonwealth Press Union: The Internet and other technologies have contributed to the commercialisation of Asian media reducing its ability act as a watchdog, says a recently released report.
Asia Media Report: A Crisis Within questions whether the Internet and other new technologies have brought about a more informative, independent or socially responsible media, or helped create more space to push for human rights and democracy.
"Barring a few gems here and there, the product of those transformative years has been anything but desirable," said the report's producers, Inter Press Service Asia Pacific. "In many countries in Asia, the sacred walls of separation between editorial and marketing functions are breaking down, making way for the commercialisation of media and concentration of media ownership.
"These, in turn, raise questions about whether media have become just another business product, and how media can keep to their function of being watchdogs."
The report concludes that throughout the Asian region, may of the dominant media have "metamorphosed into advertisement -delivery vehicles for ever-hungry corporate masters." Media which do not look critically enough at themselves are facing a crisis from within, the report adds.
Full report – see this link; CPU website

Journo’s dream (10 March)
From our They Don’t Make ’Em Like That Any More department, comes this link to the ABC’s World Today program, which recently interviewed former Prime Minister Paul Keating. It may be a long time since he left politics, but he still has a rapier tongue and – thanks to a colourful turn of phrase – is a dream interview for a journo.
See this link

Government backs down on loopy digital law (10 March)
From Crikey.com.au: The Government has backed down in its attempt to censor media content online and on mobile phones, despite claiming in public, including on Radio National’s Breakfast program this morning, that there never was a problem.
Blogger 901am also makes some interesting observations.
Full story at Crikey; 901am link

Fairfax tackles News in Qld (8 March)
Hot on the heels of the release of an MX-style free newspaper in Brisbane, by News Ltd, comes the announcement that Fairfax has started up a city-specific website called the Brisbane Times.
From the Fairfax media release: “The time is right for a new media source in Queensland,” Fairfax Media CEO David Kirk said.  
Mr Kirk launched brisbanetimes.com.au with Premier Peter Beattie at a Parliament House news briefing earlier today. 
“brisbanetimes.com.au will be a 24/7 online publishing force – delivering breaking news, entertainment and sport continuously,” Mr Kirk said.  
Fairfax Media is the number one news and information publisher online in Australia and brisbanetimes.com.au today became an integral part of the prestigious network of web sites. 
“Over a million people in Brisbane are online -- they can now get a new perspective. Fairfax Media will promote diversity of content,” Mr Kirk said. 
“The key for success for any media is to connect with its readers and audience. And local is the key to connectedness.”
Fairfax release; Brisbane Times home

Today Tonight out-offends Big Brother Uncut (8 March)
Network Seven’s popular Today Tonight ‘current affairs’ (or sometimes home shopping – Ed) program had the dubious distinction of heading up the complaints table for the free-to-air TV networks. It beat Big Brother Uncut, with a score of 95 complaints in a year (mostly over bias or misrepresentation) versus 60 for the infamous late-night lab-rat show.
Today Tonight has countered the publicity surrounding the stat by pointing out about half the complaints had to do with a single controversial program, talking about the ability of Muslim youth to integrate in Australian society.
See this link for the full report (PDF)

Brace yourself for mobile phone ads (8 March)
Mobile phone ads, which have already undergone a number of local trials, seem set to become part of our media landscape, according to to The Australian newspaper.
Australian home; Story

The Oprah effect (8 March)
From USA Today, via Benton: The "social journalism" that made Oprah Winfrey an international fairy godmother is the new rage in network and cable news, and it's expanding to other media. Increasingly, journalists and talk-show hosts want to "own" a niche issue or problem, find ways to solve it and be associated with making this world a better place, as Winfrey has done with obesity, literacy and, most recently, education by founding a girls school in South Africa. Experts say the competitive landscape, the need to be different and to keep eyeballs returning, is driving this trend, along with a genuine desire from some anchors and reporters to do good. In the process, some are becoming famous. And they're allowing news organizations to break away from the pack, as old and new media fight for viewers and readers, says Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "News outlets have found they can create more momentum and more identity by creating franchise brands around issues or around a point of view," he says.
Full story

Sport organisers accused of gouging media (8 March)
Organisers of this month’s world swim championships in Melbourne have been accused of price gouging media wanting to cover the event. The International Sports Press Association (AIPS) of charges running well in excess of $1000 for journalists wanting a reserved work-station with wireless internet access. Basic access is being charged at $440-plus. One of the ironies is that internet access is being priced at steep rates, though the event is sponsored by Telstra. AIPS President Gianni Merlo has decleared the event a “false start”.
AIPS web

China bans net cafes (8 March)
From Reuters via Benton: Fearful of soaring Internet addiction and juvenile crime, China has banned the opening of new Internet cafes this year. The notice said Internet cafes that had received planning approval would need to be completed by June 30, 2007. The notice comes as lawmakers at China's annual session of parliament, the National People's Congress, called for stricter regulations to keep teenagers away from Internet cafes, which are often seen in China as hotbeds of juvenile crime. There are currently about 113,000 Internet cafes and bars in China.
Full story

Newspapers not good business -- Buffett (6 March)
International investment icon Warren Buffett recently published the annual newsletter for his company Berkshire Hathaway (which is reported to have increased in value by US$16.9 billion last year), in which he marked newspapers as a shrinking business with poor long-term prospects.
Here’s what he had to say:
Not all of our businesses are destined to increase profits. When an industry’s underlying economics are crumbling, talented management may slow the rate of decline. Eventually, though, eroding fundamentals will overwhelm managerial brilliance. (As a wise friend told me long ago, “If you want to get a reputation as a good businessman, be sure to get into a good business.”) And fundamentals are definitely eroding in the newspaper industry, a trend that has caused the profits of our Buffalo News to decline. The skid will almost certainly continue.
When Charlie and I were young, the newspaper business was as easy a way to make huge returns as existed in America. As one not-too-bright publisher famously said, “I owe my fortune to two great American institutions: monopoly and nepotism.” No paper in a one-paper city, however bad the product or however inept the management, could avoid gushing profits.
The industry’s staggering returns could be simply explained. For most of the 20th Century, newspapers were the primary source of information for the American public. Whether the subject was sports, finance, or politics, newspapers reigned supreme. Just as important, their ads were the easiest way to find job opportunities or to learn the price of groceries at your town’s supermarkets.  
The great majority of families therefore felt the need for a paper every day, but understandably most didn’t wish to pay for two. Advertisers preferred the paper with the most circulation, and readers tended to want the paper with the most ads and news pages. This circularity led to a law of the newspaper jungle: Survival of the Fattest.
Thus, when two or more papers existed in a major city (which was almost universally the case a century ago), the one that pulled ahead usually emerged as the stand-alone winner. After competition disappeared, the paper’s pricing power in both advertising and circulation was unleashed. Typically, rates for both advertisers and readers would be raised annually – and the profits rolled in. For owners this was economic heaven. (Interestingly, though papers regularly – and often in a disapproving way – reported on the profitability of, say, the auto or steel industries, they never enlightened readers about their own Midas-like situation. Hmmm . . .)
As long ago as my 1991 letter to shareholders, I nonetheless asserted that this insulated world was changing, writing that “the media businesses . . . will prove considerably less marvelous than I, the industry, or lenders thought would be the case only a few years ago.” Some publishers took umbrage at both this remark and other warnings from me that followed. Newspaper properties, moreover, continued to sell as if they were indestructible slot machines. In fact, many intelligent newspaper executives who regularly chronicled and analyzed important worldwide events were either blind or indifferent to what was going on under their noses.
Now, however, almost all newspaper owners realize that they are constantly losing ground in the battle for eyeballs. Simply put, if cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed.
Full document (PDF download); Berkshire Hathaway home

Media to fight looney digital proposals (6 March)
From Crikey.com.au: As reported last week, the Government plans to pass legislation that would apply film classification guidelines to electronically-delivered media content, but there is a flurry of behind the scenes activity in Government builds to oppose attempts at censoring online content.
Full story

Media Ed at every level? (6 March)
(Opinion) "I'd like to see every student take a basic media course at every level of education -- not just college, but also grade, middle, and high school. What would it include? Skepticism, for starters: Children need to learn to be independent thinkers and not take for granted that what they see, hear, or read is necessarily true or real...J-schools will need especially to incorporate the conversational-media shift into their work. I hope they'll become leaders in training would-be professionals on how to engage the audience in journalism, to help communities (of geography and interest) have broad and deep conversations about their futures. New journalists will have to be entrepreneurs in coming decades. Can the J-schools teach product development in a web world -- and not lose sight of the journalistic principles and practices so vital to a self-governing society? Is there an alternative?" -- Dan Gillmor, Center for Citizen Media
From: Rethinking Media Education (Center for Citizen Media blog)

Pounding the pavement (5 March)
From Mother Jones via the Benton service: While our democratic culture could survive the loss of the daily newspaper as we know it, it would be endangered without the kinds of reporting that it provides, writes Eric Klinenberg. "Even in the online era, more than 60% of Americans say they read a local newspaper daily or several times a week. And with good reason: Few of the cable channels and websites that newspaper chains claim as competitors actually provide original news and information. Cable networks do virtually no local reporting of their own, and while bloggers do a good job exposing journalistic lapses, they generally aren't doing the muckraking, beat reporting, and pavement pounding that generate news."
Full story
Plus, from CJR: The Race Robert Kuttner believes newspapers have started down a financially and journalistically viable path of becoming hybrids -- part web, part print. "Assuming that most dailies survive the transition, my guess is that in twenty-five years they will be mostly digital; that even people like me of the pre-Internet generation will be largely won over by ingenious devices like Times Reader, supplemented by news alerts, RSS feeds, and God knows what else."
Full story

Wanna be a Thong? (1 March)
Theatre Australia is currently advertising for people to wear the promo costumes of a proposed new local animated TV series called the Aussie Thong Family.
Billed by its promoters as Australia’s reply to The Simpsons, the show is backed by comedian Kevin Bloody Wilson, cricketer Ryan Campbell, AFL footballer Matthew Pavlich and former Channel 7 head Kevin Campbell. It’s drawn by Western Australia artist Bev Gannon under the auspices of production company Red Dog Bites.
Theatre Australia is advertising the costume-wearing promotional roles saying it needs:
Bruce - 182.5cm - 6' Size M [Men's]
Sheila - 175cm 5'9" Size 10
Meg - 170cm 5'7" Size 10
John - 167cm 5'6" Size 10
Nipper - 165cm 5'5" Size 10.
If it gets the funding, brace yourself for an assault of Aussie slang…

Thank god you’re there (1 March)
TV comedy series Thank God You’re Here is in production in the USA with local comedians. The show is one of a string of local formats which have recently made it across the Pacific, including The Block and a version of Kath and Kim.

Real-life Da Vinci code (1 March)
Discovery Channel is milking huge rewards from the claim that a pair of stone caskets found some years ago in Jerusalem are in fact those of Jesus, Mary and son Judah. Media is struggling to work out whether their religion or entertainment writers should be chasing this story, which has started a world-wide debate on the true identification of the remains. Meanwhile sales of the show, called The Burial Cave of Jesus, are likely to go through the roof.
While experts argue over how common the names Jesus, Mary and Judah were in those times, Discovery is cashing in on the ever-growing popularity of docu-dramas. This is a genre that uses documentary cues to give it authority, while adding in speculation, debate and dramatisation – all of which are good for the ratings. Though hardly a new idea, we’re seeing the genre shift much closer to drama than documentary. Further up the drama scale was the lavish series Rome, which tried to cover itself in a mantle of historical credibility that was laughed at by historians.

Are those feet made for walking? (1 March)
The success of the animated feature Happy Feet at this year’s Oscars had many, but not all, Australian movie industry folk reaching for the champagne. Directed by ex-pat George Miller, the movie was done in Sydney by animation house Animal Logic. Industry pundits say the success could help Animal Logic to grow to a size that rivals industry giants such as Pixar, but only if it can find the staff.
Normally consisting of 200 employees, the company more than doubled in size during the penguin project, during which it had to bring in 150 contractors from overseas. Director Greg Smith complains that the local talent pool is currently too small for really big projects, and that there’s a need to train more “job-ready” graduates. He warns that if the situation doesn’t improve, the company may be forced to move overseas.

Newspapers discovering a 24-hour culture (1 March)
From Poynter: Newspapers are diving into web journalism, and in the process, learning what television stations learned long ago: The 24/7 culture is its own animal. It's exciting, exhausting and always challenging. It's a culture that has the potential to produce journalism that's excellent or an embarrassment.
Full story

WSJ goes mobile, and smaller (1 March)
From Bloomberg via Benton: The Wall Street Journal is probably the world’s most successful paid-subscription internet news service. Bloomberg reports: Dow Jones & Co's Wall Street Journal, with more than 800,000 paying subscribers to its Web site, began distributing an online version for mobile devices with Mdog.com.
Subscribers can reach the mobile version of the WSJ.com Web site by entering the site name in the browser of their mobile devices, the companies said today in a statement. Non- subscribers can also gain access to the site to view parts of stories and other content, the companies said.
Dow Jones is seeking to boost revenue from the Wall Street Journal's online business and make it more attractive to subscribers who want to read its articles on the go, to help compensate for declines in readership of its printed versions. The Journal also introduced a new, narrower and more colorful printed format in January to save money and lure commuters.
Full story

Politics goes centre stage for US news (1 March)
From Editor’s Weblog: As the 2008 US presidential election nears and online politics soar, newspapers are making sure they’re ready to get their online share of the pie. The New York Times (NYT) and The New York Sun both announced they were launching political websites.
In a recent memo to newsroom employees, NYT executive editor Bill Keller announced that the paper would launch a political website to ensure better coverage of the campaign. “The migration of politics and political journalism to the web isn't quite new, but it sure is moving fast. We're moving too,” read the memo. The NYT will establish for the first time a central political desk to supervise print and web coverage. Both platforms will “get equal emphasis.” The desk will provide breaking news continuously “for an audience that now expects its political news to arrive in full multimedia, interactive glory.”
Full story

PDF newspapers are a dud (1 March)
From Poynter: New figures from Norwegian Media Businesses' Association show that virtually nobody is interested in PDF version of newspapers.
PDF accounts for 0.07 percent of total newspaper circulation in Norway, according to the trade magazine Kampanje (in Norwegian). Combined, Norwegian newspapers sold 1850 PDF copies daily last year. Even for a small country, this figure is low to the point of insignificance. Regional newspaper Bergens Tidende has the highest PDF circulation in the country, with a not-so-staggering daily sale of 128 copies.
The PDF fiasco has several explanations. Of course, there's the price issue. Most Norwegian PDF editions cost approximately $2 USD each. Then there's the added hassle of downloading 10-20 MB on some patchy narrowband service in Faraway County, Distantistan.
Poynter story

Feel as though you’re being watched? (1 March)
An Australian organisation called National ICT is in the throes of developing an in-store LCD billboard, tied to a camera, which ‘watches’ your response to the advertising it shows, and responds accordingly.
"The camera keeps monitoring the behaviour of this consumer to see if he or she is interested in this message," Mr Mike Wu of National ICT told the ABC recently.
He added that future versions of the system will be able to track customer eye movements, which will give more accurate feedback.
ABC story

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