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Media trends digest – 2007

Catalogues go digital (30 April)
Start-up website Catalogue Central is aiming to extend the reach and improve the feedback from the good old free catalogues that clutter up many of our mailboxes.
An article in today’s Australian newspaper explains: “It targets retailers that want to reach the 12 per cent of Australians who live in apartments and cannot receive unaddressed mail, as well as those outside the big cities. Also on the list are companies that want more information about who sees the material, and which offers are actually catching their eye.”
Source: The Australian
Catalogue Central

Broadsheets give way to narrow sheet by 2008 (26 April)
Fairfax CEO David Kirk has announced his company will be changing the format of its broadsheet newspapers – the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age – to a smaller size by 2008.
In a wide-ranging statement which also highlights some restructuring of the business and its production methods, he said: "Broadsheets have been our currency for 175 years, and we are sticking with them. Readers turn to our broadsheets for quality, integrity, authority, incisiveness and the very best journalism in Australia.
"But size does matter, and it is time to give our readers what they keep telling us they want: a slightly narrower broadsheet so that they can spend more time with our newspapers.
"We intend to move to a narrower broadsheet format for the SMH and The Age in 2008. We are not moving to tabloid size, or to become a compact; but our new broadsheets will be narrower and more reader-friendly. While our metro papers will have a new size and format, the content will be retained.
"We have not made a final decision on the precise size we will move to, but we are taking a careful look at the successful narrower broadsheets around the world, with particular attention to the current size of The New York Times. We will continue to consult with readers, editors, advertisers, agencies and other parties before we announce more specifics towards the end of this year."
Full text (pdf)

Vic to shoot Pacific
From News Ltd: In a major boost for the Victorian film industry, the sequel to Spielberg's World War II series Band of Brothers will be filmed at the Central City Studios in the Docklands.
Known as The Pacific, the 10-part series for US TV station HBO will cost $150 million to produce…In addition to the studios, location filming will take place in country Victoria.
Full story

TV & web merge via games
From The Australian: Sales of gaming consoles linked to the internet are finally forcing the merger of computers and televisions, years after the idea of convergence was first mooted…Thousands of Australian homes are installing next-generation gaming consoles, a trend likely to lead to more shows being streamed to the TV via the internet.
Full story

Gaming wants funding
The local video game development industry has called for federal support ahead of the expected announcement of a new funding and development package for the film and TV industry in next month's federal budget.
Full story
Game Developers Association submission on funding, 2006 (pdf)

Newspaper web site numbers rise
From the Benton headlines service: The number of people visiting US newspaper Web sites rose 5.3 percent during the first quarter, an industry group said on Monday, even as publishers reported slower online advertising sales growth. More than 59 million people, or 37.6 percent of all active Internet users, visited the sites in the quarter, the Newspaper Association of America said, citing an analysis it commissioned to Nielsen/NetRatings. The figures are the highest for any quarter since the association began tracking the numbers in 2004.
Source: Reuters

Also…
With broadband reaching critical mass in US homes, broadcast network Web sites are seeing an increase in time that users spend on their sites during the weekday primetime hours, according to a new Nielsen//NetRatings report.
NBC.com saw 39.6% of its traffic during weekday primetime hours in February, the largest such proportion of all sites tracked. ABC Primetime and Fox Broadcasting rank second and third, respectively, in this metric at 29.6% and 26%. CBS Television's portal is 10th, behind such other TV-related sites as TV Guide Online and Yahoo! TV, with 21.3% of its traffic during primetime in February, the most recent frame for which data was available.
"We're certainly aware of it," said Vivi Zigler, executive vp digital entertainment and new media at NBC. "The reason primetime was created is because that's when people are there to consume. That's the time when most people are home from work and have free time, and this is exactly the same pattern."
Zigler said that much of its primetime traffic is because of users streaming primetime shows the night after they first aired or visitors logging on to the site after shows have ended to check out Web-only features. NBC.com sees its highest numbers Tuesday nights after "Heroes," a high-rated Monday night offering, and "Deal or No Deal" drives visitors to the site's game connected to the show on nights when it airs.
Zigler said NBC was only made aware of this trend three months ago. She said that before broadband proliferation at home, weekdays from 11.00 am-1.00 pm saw the highest traffic numbers, when people used their high-speed connections at work.
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Saturation coverage a recent phenomenon
As news broke of the campus shooting at Virginia Tech, the familiar protocols of big-story TV journalism went into effect. Anchors jetted off to Blacksburg, Va., to probe the grief firsthand. Graphics departments churned out strip-formatted logos to brand the coverage. And virtually all other news was ignored to focus on this latest exercise in morbid fascination. But as familiar as these conventions of saturation coverage have become, it wasn't so long ago that a similarly violent tragedy would be considered unworthy of such national obsession. As few as twelve years ago, when violent crime was a bigger public policy issue than it is today, stand-alone crimes, however horrifically lethal, were treated by the networks as local stories. According to an analysis of the top 10 mass shootings covered most heavily by the broadcast networks' nightly newscasts during the past 20 years, nine have occurred within the past decade. Before 1998, only one rose to the level of national coverage: the 1991 shooting of 22 people at Luby's Cafeteria in Killen, Tex. Of the 10 shootings, it was the second deadliest; yet, it ranked last in minutes of coverage. As mass shootings go, the one perpetrated in Virginia was of major proportions and was clearly a newsworthy event. But, should a single criminal act be accorded the newsworthiness of events of national and global scope: a war, a natural disaster, a presidential election campaign, a terrorist attack?
Source: Broadcasting & Cable

Big Brother in big trouble
Network Ten’s 2007 Big Brother website, the first significant plank in the television network's fledgling internet strategy, remained crippled by technical problems last night, angering fans and making sponsors nervous.
Integrated website sponsorships with 3mobile, KFC and Starburst promised to be a key factor in the show's profitability this year, and sponsors have paid millions to leverage the mass audience across TV, mobile phones and the internet.
Source: The Australian

China opens government -- or does it?
China announced new regulations on Tuesday to reduce government secrecy and grant citizens greater access to official information, but the regulations include broad exceptions that raise questions about how much new openness will be tolerated. The regulations, approved in a decree signed by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, were announced with fanfare on Tuesday but will not become effective until May 1, 2008. And the caveats suggest that the new regulations may represent only measured steps in fulfilling promises by top leaders to create a more transparent and accountable government.
Source: New York Times
(requires registration)

Australia ranks 16th in world broadband
A recent OECD survey rates Australia as 16th in the world for broadband connections per 100 population.
Other observations made in the story say:
European countries have continued their advance with high broadband penetration rates. In December 2006, eight countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Korea, Switzerland, Finland, Norway and Sweden) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with at least 26 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
Denmark and the Netherlands are the first two countries in the OECD to surpass 30 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.
The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year comes from Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Ireland. Each country added more than 5.8 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during the past year.
The United States has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 58.1 million. US broadband subscribers now represent 29% of all broadband connections in the OECD.
OECD report

Also…
A US innovation brain drain, coupled with sloppy government handling of subsidy programs and data collection, have contributed to a decline in the country's broadband standing, technology experts told the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday.
Source: PCmag.com

Bush freezes on TV – Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch wore his politics on his sleeve Tuesday, telling a large audience of business leaders that the press is routinely unfair to George W Bush and that the president doesn't seem capable of defending himself.
"I'm a supporter of President Bush, but I do believe he's a bad -- or inadequate -- communicator," Murdoch told attendees at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
The News Corp chairman and CEO said that, personally, Bush is "persuasive, strong and articulate" but that "he seems to freeze whenever a television camera appears."
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Jail for Jones? (19 April)
Broadcaster Alan Jones is having a rough month. Last week he was found guilty of racial vilification by the Australian Media and Communications Authority, this week he will face sentencing for contempt of court.
He and the Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper have been found guilty of contempt for naming a child witness in a murder trial, and today Magistrate Helen Syme will hear sentencing submissions.
This is the third time Jones has been convicted of contempt and there is a real risk he will be expected to serve a custodial sentence.
The last high-profile broadcaster to do time was Derrin Hinch, who served four weeks – also for his third contempt conviction. (Postscript: Jones was given a fine and a good behaviour bond.)

In flight trial for mobile text & email
Do not be surprised if, on your next domestic Qantas flight, an attendant announces it is safe to switch on your mobile phone.
In a three month public trial beginning soon, Qantas is using a single plane from its Boeing 767 fleet to evaluate whether or not in-flight mobile phone use is a good idea.
Source: The Age

Politicians and exploding pigs get a second life
Politicians are lost deep in cyberspace, struggling to reach a new generation of tech-savvy voters through blogs, social networking sites and video-sharing.
In the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama used their websites to launch their 2008 presidential campaigns.
In France, supporters of the main presidential candidates have clashed over policy in the computer game Second Life, a virtual world that has more than 2 million users. In January, a spat between the far-right and left that featured exploding virtual pigs made a newspaper's front page.
Across the world political candidates have posted profiles on the social Web sites MySpace and Facebook, even set up offices in Second Life.
Source: The Age

Too much info
Teen magazine Dolly has had to pull a revamped edition after complaints over a photograph showing a knickerless model. 50,000 copies are reported to have been pulled off the shelves by major supermarkets. See this Sydney Morning Herald story.

Slow web costs ad industry
Local media groups could lose at least $500 million in online advertising revenue during the next three years due to the lack of availability of faster broadband internet speeds.
Studies have shown that as users get faster speed their usage of the internet increases. As they spend more time online, they visit more sites, increasing the potential for advertisers to sell their messages.
A report by AC Nielsen/Net Ratings released in October last year showed that time on the internet doubled when users moved from dial-up to entry-level broadband speeds of more than 300Mb a second.
Source: The Australian

On a similar theme…
(USA) The Federal Communications Commission wants to determine whether high-speed Internet access is being made available fast enough to all Americans, calling it "critical" to the nation's economy. The Commission said Monday it has begun to assess the availability of broadband, or high-speed, service, especially in rural and other underserved areas. The agency will also focus its inquiry on the cost of service and analyze competition among broadband providers. The FCC is seeking comments on how to speed up the rollout of high-speed Internet access, as well as opinions on investment trends in the industry. Additionally, the FCC is seeking comment on how to improve the data collected on wireless broadband services and data about subscribers who make telephone calls over the Internet. The agency said improving this data will help set broadband policy in the future.
Source: Money Central
FCC news release (.doc download)

Kids ad standards up for review
(Opinion piece) Marketing to children is to again come under the microscope with news that the industry's peak body is reviewing its Advertising to Children Code.
The Australian Association of National Advertisers completed a review of its food-and-beverage advertising code six months ago and is turning its attention back to marketing to children.
Source: The Australian

Student paper scoops Viginia shootings
As major news outlets scrambled to learn about the Virginia Tech shooter, the wounded and the dead, they found themselves scooped by Virginia Tech's student-run media: The Collegiate Times newspaper and website, collegemedia.com; the web-only news site, planetblacksburg.com; and radio station WUVT-FM. The news marathon began shortly after 7.00am Monday, as unofficial reports of the first Virginia Tech shootings began trickling in through e-mails, text messages and cellphone calls. During the course of that day and through the next, student reporters fanned out to cover the shattering events that overwhelmed the campus — interviewing students, teachers, school administrators, police officers and hospital workers. Collegiate Times editor-in chief Amie Steele became a staple on CNN, explaining details of the shooting. Reporters for the student-run newspaper churned out stories even as phones failed, police evacuated them from their offices in the student center, and their website crashed as it was discovered by readers the world over.
Source: LA Times
(requires registration)
* Editor of Virginia Tech Paper: On Scooping the Major Media

Rural Press & Fairfax will merge
Rural Press Ltd said its ordinary shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a AU$2.8billion share and cash offer from Australia's second largest newspaper publisher, Fairfax Media Ltd.
On Wednesday Fairfax secured the support of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for the deal after agreeing to divest some newspapers owned by Rural Press.
Source: Forbes
List of Rural Press newspapers

Rocky times for 2GB (12 April)
Sydney radio broadcaster Alan Jones and 2GB owner John Singleton have gone on the attack since the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) found Jones guilty of breaching an industry code of practice. In essence, Jones is accused of inflaming the tensions that lead to the Cronulla race riots of last year.
ACMA says, “2GB Sydney breached the code by broadcasting material on Breakfast with Alan Jones that was likely to encourage violence or brutality and to vilify people of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity.”
Jones says his accusers were whipped up by the ABC, and also complains they are anonymous, while Singleton has said he will not submit to a penalty as the station will already be suffering a loss in revenue and value thanks to the bad publicity. 2GB is currently subject to a take-over offer, while ACMA has the power to suspend the station’s licence.
ACMA findings, Alan Jones response

Are we working by different standards?
From the NY Times, via Benton: The radio talk show host Don Imus was suspended for two weeks yesterday after the outcry over his racially disparaging remarks about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. The suspension will begin Monday. NBC News, which does a simulcast broadcast of Mr Imus’s radio program on its cable news channel MSNBC, was the first to act, suspending Mr Imus and calling his comments “racist and abhorrent.” A short time later, CBS Radio, which is his chief employer, followed, saying it, too, would take Mr Imus, 66, off the air for two weeks. NBC also served notice yesterday that it would not tolerate insensitive remarks in the future. Mr. Imus had promised to change the tenor of the show, NBC said in a statement, and had agreed that the suspension was appropriate. “Our future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word,” NBC said. CBS made no statement other than that it was suspending Mr Imus, who has been the host of “Imus in the Morning” for more than 30 years. But his job still appeared to be in jeopardy, with Rev Al Sharpton and other black leaders calling for Mr Imus to be fired, threatening to initiate a boycott of sponsors and demanding that the Federal Communications Commission take action against him and radio stations that carry his program. The FCC may not have a direct means to address the issue. It was under a mandate from Congress to act against what was deemed indecency, but there is not a similar mandate against other types of speech by a broadcaster.
NY Times story

Do men hate women opinion writers? (12 April)
The Australian newspaper today canvasses the often torrid experiences of women newspaper opinion writers, who seem to experience an extraordinary level of abuse.
It says: Is the world ready for opinionated women? Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd, who has been The New York Times' only female opinion columnist for a decade, galvanised discussion of the topic when she wrote: "While a man writing a column taking on the powerful may be seen as authoritative, a woman doing the same thing may be seen as castrating." Dowd asked folklorist Alan Dundes about it. "Women are supposed to take it, not dish it out," he told her.
See this link

Online pie (12 April)
Who owns the internet advertising pie? Research firm Frost & Sullivan says the numbers run like this:
PBL (Ninemsn, Carl=sales etc) 23.6 per cent
Sensis (Telstra) 21.2
Google 21.1
Fairfax (SMH, The Age etc) 10.2
News Ltd (Herald Sun, Tele Mirror etc) 10.2
Yahoo 5.3.

And from the US…
Web giants rule the ads (12 April)
From AdAge via Benton: When it comes to online-advertising riches, the short tail is getting shorter. A recent number crunch from consultancy group Marketspace indicates the 10 biggest Internet players nabbed a whopping 99 per cent of gross online-ad revenue last year. If that's not enough to startle, consider: That's up from 95 per cent in 2005. The growth is notable by any standard in any business, but particularly surprising in a medium whose potential for fragmentation, at least audience-wise, is seemingly limitless. It means the majority of the sites on the web are left fighting over the remaining 1 per cent of online ad revenue. Of course, that's gross online ad revenue. On a net ad-revenue basis, Marketspace estimates the Big Four of online sales -- Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN -- nab about 57 per cent of total online ad outlays and the Big 10 about 70 per cent. EMarketer estimates the Big Four will pull in about 66% in 2007.
AdAge report

Chimp outlives Tarzan (12 April)
Cheetah the chimpanzee that co-starred in 1930s Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, has outlived his human counterparts to celebrate his 75th birthday.
The creature starred in his last film in 1967 and is now living in a Palm Springs retirement home for actors, with his trainer.

China & US at odds over piracy (12 April)
From the NY Times, via Benton: The Chinese government expressed "deep regret and strong dissatisfaction" on Tuesday with the Bush administration's decision to file two complaints against China with the World Trade Organization. Facing criticism from Congress that more should be done to address the widening United States trade deficit with China, the Bush administration announced Monday that it would file complaints with the WTO The complaints, which were lodged at the organization's headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday, accuse China of tolerating widespread violations of trademarks and copyrights and of unfairly limiting the importation of books, journals, movies, videos and music to state-owned companies. Wang Xinpei, a Commerce Ministry spokesman, denied the American allegations, saying that "the Chinese government has always been firm in protecting intellectual property." He added that until now, China and the United States had been "in good communication and consultation with each other over access to the Chinese publication market."
NY Times story

Telstra runs extraordinary political campaign (12 April)
Telstra has thrown its might into the political arena, backing the leader of the Federal Opposition, Mr Kevin Rudd, in his call for a massive investment in upgrading the nation’s internet broadband network.
The telco has emailed its 2.7 million Bigpond users, sent a pamphlet to its 1.6 million shareholders and 6 million phone customers, while sending more elaborate information packages to an unknown number of MPs and opnion leaders.

History and science rewritten – Conservapedia (12 April)
Wikipedia has a new challenger in the online open-source encyclopedia stakes, though we suspect it may not be too concerned.
Conservapedia, run and moderated by Andy Schafly in the USA, has what it proudly declares to be a ‘clean’ take on world issues, including science. For example, it is a firm believer in creationism and generally takes a conservative and literal Christian view of the world.
For example, if you look up koalas you get this:
Koalas are correctly said to be indigenous to the Middle East, as are all terrestrial animals. Australia became their adopted home to which koalas journeyed after the original two were released from Noah's Ark at the conclusion of the Great Flood. Most creationists believe that these ancient Koalas were considerably hardier, faster, and far less fastidious in their diet than their modern descendants, which have degenerated into sleepy, gum-leaf chewing opiate addicts as a result of human sinfulness.
Link

Code pf ethics for bloggers (12 April)
O’Reilly media founder Tim O’reilly has drafted a code of ethics for bloggers, in response to their increasing influence and the debate over their roles and responsibilities.
However Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine told the BBC he sees the code as unnecessary and even antithetical to the blogosphere. "This effort misses the point of the internet, blogs, and even of civilized behavior,” he wrote. “They treat the blogosphere as if it were a school library where someone... can maintain order and control. I don't need anyone lecturing me and telling me not to be disagreeable.”
O’Reilly’s proposal, BBC story, Buzzmachine

Hicks and free speech (3 April)
The 12-month gag order that is part of the sentencing agreement for long-term Guantanamo Bay prison camp resident David Hicks is at best unusual and at worst a possibly illegal kick in the proverbial head for free speech.
Website Cikey.com.au sums it up neatly in today’s editorial: “Hicks has now been banned from even talking about his experiences for twelve months, the duration of the Australian federal election campaign. Even Attorney-General Philip Ruddock today admits that he can't recall anything like the Hicks gag in his long and legally varied experience.
“This is a gag that is unconstitutional in its country of origin. It is a gag that is legally dubious in Australia. It is a gag that contravenes every shred of the notion of free speech.
“It is a gag that makes the Australian government -- whose hand is so stealthily and transparently behind it -- look like a bunch of totalitarian thugs.” However it seems likely the gag is unenforcable, though Hicks will be subject to laws which prevent people from profiting from crimes for which they've been convicted.
Crikey site

Top speeches of all time (3 April)
A recent listener poll by ABC Radio National had over 5000 responses in its search for the public speeches that Australia considers ‘unforgettable’.  There was a wide range nominated for their eloquence and significance – with Socrates, Hitler, Gandhi, William Wilberforce, Caroline Chisholm, Robert Menzies, Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator and The West Wing’s Matt Santos all making it into the mix. 
The top ten most popular speeches, as voted by postal and website votes are –
1. Dr Martin Luther King Jr, I have a dream, 28 August, 1963, Washington DC;
2. Jesus Sermon on the Mount c27;
3. Prime Minister Paul Keating, The Redfern Address, 10 December, 1992, Redfern Park;
4. Prime Minister Winston Churchill We Shall Fight on the Beaches, June 4, 1940, House of Commons;
5. President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863;
6. President John Kennedy Inaugural Address, Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, 20 January, 1961, Washington DC;
7. Earl Spencer Funeral Oration for Diana Princess of Wales, 6 September, 1997, Westminster Abbey;
8. Henry V Act IV Scene III. Author William Shakespeare c 1599. St Crispin’s Day speech made before the Battle of Agincourt (which occurred on 25 October, 1415);
9. Gough Whitlam, The Dismissal, 11 November, 1975, Parliament House steps;
10. Queen Elizabeth I, I have the heart and stomach of a king, 9 August, 1588, address to the troops at Tilbury as the Spanish Armada approached Britain.
See this ABC link

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