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Media trends digest
– 2008
NY Times fails Public Editor test 25 February
The New York Times recently was caught in a controversy over its decision to publish an article hinting at sexual (and other) indiscretions on the part of Republican Presidential frontrunner John McCain on the basis of unverified info from anonymous former staffers.
Thanks to some damaging reporting scandals over the years, the newspaper decided to appoint a Public Editor a few years ago, who effectively acts as qualified conscience and ombudsman. He decided the piece on McCain should not have been published.
The discussion makes for interesting reading, as it’s a good example of the often grey tones which crop up when discussing truth, proof, ethics and public interest.
See this link
Saudi women joining journo ranks -- slowly 23 February
Yemen Times via Mediachannel: Not being allowed to drive or attend press conferences are only some of the obstacles that female journalists in Saudi Arabia face on a daily basis. But more and more women are demanding their proper place in the newsroom, and they are succeeding – slowly.
More
What’s more important – dead actor or war?
Daily Kos via Mediachannel: For just over three minutes on Saturday morning, TV talk show host Montel Williams owned the hosts of Fox and Friends. A former Marine and Naval officer, Montel lectured the stunned hosts on the stupidity of spending air time on the death of Heath Ledger, rather than covering the war in Iraq. It was a spectacle rarely seen on live cable television, as Montel exposed and condemned both tabloid “news” shows and much of American culture for what they have each become: shallow and greedy.
More
Press freedom in China “inevitable” 20 February
The Age: The Communist Party's top think tank has called for systematic liberalisation, including greater media and religious freedom in the next 12 years, as China seeks to become a "modern civil society" by 2020.
More
Underbelly dramas foreseeable 13 February
The popular opinion across the legal fraternity in Victoria is the court dramas faced by Channel 9 crime series Underbelly was entirely foreseeable. The series has been ordered not to screen in that state.
Several high-profile silks have said the series, which claims to depict Melbourne’s recent long-term underworld war, portrays people and events which are still subject to trial meant that releasing the show now was fraught with danger. One, Peter Faris QC, suggested in a television interview that trying to air the series now could be seen as foolish or negligent.
Faris has a point, as an ABC series from the mid-1990s, called Blue Murder, met with similar problems.
SMH news story; The Australian Media section; Analysis at The Age
Plus…
While Channel 9 has also been ordered to curtail its internet promotion of Underbelly, it seems inevitable people determined to see it will find a way around it, through peer-to-peer downloads. Ed's postscript: while downloads became available, it's questionable whether they added significantly to the audience. It seesm that the people familiar with technology such as BitTorrent may not be Underbelly viewers...
Did a movie inspire you?
 The Gawker in the US has nominated a dozen movies, headed by Citizen Kane, which have inspired people over the years to become journalists.
See this link
Embeds 2.0
The New York Times has recently examined the phenomenon of ‘embeds’ being used to follow the political campaign trail. It writes: [This is] a look at "off-air reporters," young journalists hired by the networks to follow the candidates
across the country, filing video and blog posts
as they go. Originally hired to cut expenses --
their cost is a fraction of a full television
crew’s -- these reporters, also called “embeds,”
have produced a staggering amount of content,
especially video. And in this election cycle, for
the first time, they are able to edit and
transmit video on the fly. As a result, the
embeds have changed the dynamic of this year’s
election, making every unplugged and unscripted
moment on the campaign trail available for all to
see.
More
Does ADSL2+ have a dark side?
The recent announcement by Telstra that it will switch on faster ADSL2+ internet access across 900 exchanges across the country, according to market research firm IDC. Here’s what it has to say on the issue:
There is a potentially
"bigger picture" situation evolving as Telstra plans to switch on ADSL2+ in over
900 exchanges, which could potentially have significant flow on effects to the
greater communications market and in particular the regional and rural consumers
of Australia.
"We believe that the announcement from Telstra to activate their remaining ADSL2+
ready exchanges as a result of Ministerial assurance and the Government's requirement
to cull more than $10 billion dollars of funding are related. As a result the Opel
Pty Ltd funding will potentially be a casualty of larger macro economic inflation
management processes," said David Cannon, Programme Manager, Telecommunications
at IDC.
"The activation of the ADSL2+ exchanges gives regional and rural communities metro-like
broadband services and will counterbalance any negative public sentiment should
the Opel funding be withdrawn," said Cannon.
If correct in its 'macro economic inflation management' assumption, IDC predicts
additional consequences in the industry will include:
* The announced (in January 2007 and subsequently re-affirmed in December 2007)
Optus 3G network build to 96% of Australians will not go ahead, remaining only in
major metro / regional areas. This effectively provides Telstra with a competitive
stay of execution in regional and rural Australia;
* IDC believes Vodafone may need to re-evaluate its plan to build out its own 3G
coverage through its network agreement with Optus. At it's most extreme, the Optus
delay could result in Vodafone reassessing its commitment to the Australian 3G mobile
market - either triggering another network partnership deal or a possible market
exit
;
* The balance between the ACCC and the Government's relationship will be increasingly
strained. The Government's decision to provide assurances to Telstra may be interpreted
as a backdown, encouraging Telstra to ignore the regulator and engage in legal saber
rattling for extended periods of time while Telstra enjoys market share monopoly
and profits.;
* Consumers of both fixed and mobile broadband in regional and rural areas will
continue to pay higher fee's that than those enjoyed by their metro counterparts
as a result of lack of competition for an extended period of time.
IDC web
Grim times for US newspapers
NY Times: The talk of newspapers’ demise is older than some of the reporters who write about it, but what is happening now is something new, something more serious than anyone has experienced in generations. Last year started badly and ended worse, with shrinking profits and tumbling stock prices, and 2008 is shaping up as more of the same, prompting louder talk about a dark turning point.
More
Public comment fraught with danger
The Public Editor at the Chicago Tribune recently wrote about the traumas faced by publications that allow public comment online.
See this link
Microsoft signs up MTV & Sony 6 February
The Guardian, UK: Microsoft has struck pan-European deals with MTV International and Sony BMG to provide programme clips and music videos across its MSN Video service.
The deal will see clips of shows such as South Park and music videos from artists as diverse as Elvis and Britney Spears made available via MSN Video across European countries including the UK, France and Germany.
More
Speed pitching, anyone?
The Media Alliance is promising a speed pitching session for freelancers at its upcoming convention in Brisbane, on 15-6 March, where participants hopefully walk away with a swag of work.
See this link
Web TV outperforms VOD
Multichannel News, USA: Internet users are more likely to watch TV shows
on the web than access cable video-on-demand
services, according to a survey by research firm
Solutions Research Group. The survey found that
about 20% of Internet users in the United States
said they watch TV episodes on the web every
week, compared with 14% who use a cable
operator’s VOD. Almost 80 million Internet users
in the US, or 43% of the online population,
have watched one of their favorite TV shows on
the internet, up from 25% a year earlier, according to the survey.
More
Unpacking the Bully
The Media Repoort, ABC: Historian and author Sylvia Lawson helps us unpack the legend of The Bulletin. After 128 years the journal is no more. But what made it so special? And did its most recent incarnation really have any connection to the original publication and its founder's aims?
More
Web increasingly important as election info source -- Pew
Pew Research Centre, USA: Many pundits and political scientists have
wondered where Americans are getting their
information about political campaigns as of late.
Some have said that the Internet continues to
grow in popularity, while others contend that
nightly news programs remain popular sources of
information. This 32-page report, from The Pew
Research Center for the People & The Press, takes
a close look at this very subject. Released in
January 2008, the report is based on a survey
conducted with 1430 adults near the end of
December 2007. The report notes that a quarter of
Americans say they regularly learn something
about the current presidential campaign through
the Internet, which is almost double the
percentage of those polled during the 2004
campaign. Interestingly enough, 42% of those ages
18 to 29 say they regularly learn about the campaign from the Internet.
More (PDF)
Big media appetities
AdAge, USA: For teens and young adults looking for
entertainment, too much of a good thing is never
enough. A new study put out by Integrated Media
Measurement Inc. found that American moviegoers
aged 13 to 24 consumed at least twice as much TV
and radio as non-moviegoers in the same age
range. "What we found here is that they look for
those opportunities to consume media no matter
what happens," said Tamara Gaffney,
director-client services, IMMI. "They seem to
have a voracious appetite that doesn't end -- the
extent to which they're consuming media is
surprising." "This age group is eager to be
entertained," added Steve Walsh, senior
VP-director of sales for IMMI, "and they access
it aggressively across a wide range of platforms."
More
Website make-over checklist
From Melbourne IT: Before you start a major makeover surgery on a website that has served you well in the last 3 years or more, take care that it doesn’t blow your hard-earned Google rankings to the bottomless pit…
More
Web users still vulnerable
Jakob Nielsen: Users now do basic operations with confidence and perform with skill on sites they use often. But when users try new sites, well-known usability problems still cause failures.
More
Restive investors push digital barrow
Online Publishers Assn: Media companies not only have to deal with flagging profits and the economic downturn; increasingly they also have to watch their back for activist investors who want to take over their boards.
There has been boardroom turmoil at IAC, CNET, The New York Times Company and Media General, with large shareholders trying to get more seats on the board and change company strategy.
At IAC, majority shareholder Liberty Media is suing the company over its plan to split into five companies, which would strip Liberty of its “high-vote” stock. IAC's Barry Diller has countersued Liberty's John Malone in a battle of media moguls.
Meanwhile, hedge fund Harbinger Capital has bought into Media General and The New York Times and is trying to nominate people onto their boards, to the chagrin of management at both companies. The investors said the Times should spend more money buying digital companies. Those same two companies reported quarterly earnings, with the usual pattern of softness in offline sales and growth online. At The New York Times Company, overall revenues were down 7.1% in the fourth quarter, but digital revenues were up 22% for the full year, making up 10.3% of the company's revenues.
Plus, About.com's revenues were up 26.8%, and profits were up 14% in the quarter.
At Media General, overall revenues were down 16% in 4Q, while interactive revenues were up 36%. In other earnings news, Microsoft had a solid quarter in online advertising growth, with a 38% jump in the quarter, and added 60 new publishers to its Atlas platform since taking over aQuantive.
Plus…
One good sign for reeling newspaper companies is that online traffic continues to rise each quarter. According to Nielsen Online, which compiled numbers for the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper sites in the US had 62.8 million unique visitors per month in the fourth quarter, up 6% over the year-ago quarter. Of all Internet users, 39% visited newspaper sites in 4Q, spending an average of 44 minutes per month per visitor. While the traffic was a record for newspaper sites, the 6% growth in the quarter was not as robust as the 9% growth in 4Q '06, plus unique visitors declined month-to-month from October to November last year.
“Newspapers continue to successfully transform themselves into multimedia companies, offering unparalleled content that reaches an audience growing in both size and sophistication,” said NAA President and CEO John Sturm.
OPA
Microsoft makes hostile play for Yahoo 3 February
Online Publishers Assn: After so many rumors, the Microsoft bid to buy out Yahoo became a reality on Friday. The unsolicited cash-and-stock offer, with a 62% premium over Yahoo's stock price, sent not only Yahoo's stock on a rocket ride upward but helped carry the whole US stock market up after a rough week.
Yahoo and rival Google were hammered on Wall Street earlier in the week for earnings that didn't meet expectations, with Yahoo's profit down and a plan to cut 1000 employees. Analysts hailed the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo as a legitimate counter to Google's rising power in search and contextual advertising.
While Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang had said he was resisting merging or being bought, analysts believe that Microsoft's hostile offer -- with its huge premium -- would likely ward off other suitors and win over shareholders.
Big online advertisers were supportive of the possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo, saying it would lead to a more powerful alternative to Google.
“If you look at the two companies together, if they apply a significant amount of resources to how they operate going forward and to their products, then that's fantastic,” said LowerMyBills.com president Stephen Semprevivo to the Washington Post. The Post also noted that more newspapers would likely sign up with Yahoo because of its broader reach and power with Microsoft.
However, others felt that smaller advertisers might get squeezed by higher key-word prices with fewer options for their ads. Plus, privacy groups immediately expressed concerns with the combination of online giants, according to PC World, and the EU might take issue with Microsoft extending its dominance in PC operating systems to the internet.
OPA
Strike may cost long-term TV audience 1 February
The Times: American TV networks have lost almost a quarter of their audiences because of the Hollywood writers' strike, according to new figures, and executives fear that “orphaned” viewers may never return.
More
The Bulletin –- a cautionary tale for mag publishers
Mark Day, a media columnist for The Australian, has written an interesting take on the demise of Australia’s oldest magazine masthead, the weekly Bulletin news mag. He argues it is simplistic to just blame the internet, when other factors, such as accelerating news cycles, were also in play.
He writes: The Bully had many great scoops over the years, but…they were of little use: they were ripped off by the daily papers, which reported the gist of the stories and then took them forward. The internet flashed the news across the world. By the second day of its seven-day life on the newsstand, the Bully was looking dated and left behind.
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