Media news digest archive for February 2006

Paper warfare still showing growth (Feb 28)
Australian print titles are still showing signs of growth in some sectors – particularly for specialist titles. Overall magazine sales rose by two per cent, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for the second half of 2005.
Of the newly-launched projects, News Limited’s sport title Alpha, sold as a $2.00 add-on to its newspapers, scored a solid 200,000-plus sales. It now leads the men’s interest sector by a healthy margin. The former title-holders, FHM and Ralph, are slugging it out at 110,000 and 108,000 respectively.
Notebook, a newly-released ‘good living’ magazine that eschews celebrity (so far) and is aimed at the women’s market, scored 96,000 copies.
Women’s Weekly remains the giant of the industry with 615,000 sales, though its figures receded by nearly four per cent. Woman’s Day scored slight growth to hold 525,000 sales, while New Idea grew over seven per cent in six months to reach 432,000.
Newspapers may be moderately pleased with their performance, as overall the sector appears to have arrested its sales slide. Fortunes were mixed, but in percentage terms the changes were minimal. Melbourne’s Herald-Sun is still the nation’s biggest seller. Its Sunday edition sells 618,000, only a few thousand ahead of the Courier-Mail’s Brisbane counterpart.
More info:
The Australian newspaper on magazines
And newspapers

Webcast breaks record (Feb 28)
From the Online Publishers Association: In the past, NBC worried that putting Olympics video online would eat into TV ratings. Those worries are starting to fade, as this year's decision to run video online just after they air has paid dividends. By Feb. 22, NBCOlympics.com (pictured) served up 6.4 million video streams, with 72,000 hours of video watched. Plus, the site had 278 million page views, shattering the old record of 251.4 million page views from all of the 2004 Summer Games. NBC Universal's Dick Ebersol told AdAge that this will be the first time NBC has turned a profit with its website, projecting it would bring in about $5 million to $6 million for its entire run. Ebersol said that by 2012, even more people will be watching the Olympics online or on other platforms. "To this point, the money that pays for the Olympics, for our rights, is still largely money coming from TV advertising," he said. "As soon as we see significant money start to come in from fields like the Internet and wireless, we'll adjust our policies even more." Of course, NBC isn't the only game in town for following the Olympics. News.com notes that Yahoo, ESPN and various blogs and podcasts have also made hay with Olympic coverage online.
AdAge story
News.com story
OPA

Print and digital mergers (Feb 28)
(OPA) Newspaper operations are starting to blow up existing structures that put online operations under separate control. The New York Times made a major announcement of combining print and online last year, and now Dow Jones has followed suit with perhaps a more profound change in its structure. The company's new CEO Richard Zannino announced the company would reorganize with three groups: consumer media, enterprise media and community media. Gordon Crovitz, who ran the online operations, now will be in charge of the combined print and online group in consumer media; he was named publisher of the Journal, president of the Dow Jones Consumer Media Group and executive vice president of Dow Jones. "The Internet will not mean the end of the print medium," Crovitz wrote in a memo. "But as people have many more choices about how, when and where they get their news, established media such as newspapers must adapt; we will be the first to adapt by developing a newspaper for this digital age." Dow laid off 20 people in the restructuring, and hopes to more tightly integrate its cross-platform sales efforts. Crovitz knows he has a challenge ahead of him. "In 2005, if this [consumer media] group had existed as a publicly reporting division of Dow Jones,we would have had revenues of just over $1 billion, but would have had an operating loss of $2.5 million," Crovitz said. For in-depth coverage of the Dow reorg, check out the blanket coverage in PaidContent, linked below.
PaidContent.org story

Crime Space? (Feb 28)
(OPA) For $580 million, News Corp bought the hottest of the social networking sites, MySpace (pictured), with its 55 million members and #5 spot in online traffic. But it also has its hands full. USA Today reports that investigators around the country are examining crimes that have taken place due to social networking sites such as MySpace, "from statutory rape and molestation to murder." In Middletown, Conn., police suspect that seven girls under 16 have been sexually assaulted by men they met on MySpace, USA Today reported, and the Connecticut attorney general is investigating the site for possible criminal prosecution. MySpace says it is working on implementing stricter controls and stronger safety procedures. But the bad publicity might be hurting MySpace in its worst spot -- with advertisers. AdAge reports that agencies are advising clients to tread warily into social networking sites such as MySpace, either staying away for the short term or running ads on front pages and not on user-generated pages. Perhaps even worse for MySpace was a week-long report by ABC News Radio questioning whether the site was as popular as it claims -- and whether it's lost its cool factor. "Once you start showing up in Newsweek, and one of the largest media companies in the world pays half billion dollars for you, it's kind of hard to maintain that 'street cred,'" Jupiter analyst Nate Elliot told ABC. "Kids will find something else that has street cred and move on to that, and I don't know what that is and if I did, the fact that I knew about it, would probably kill it.
USA Today story

Bigpond rents movies by wire (Feb 23)
In yet another expansion of its business interests, telecommunications giant Telstra has begun renting out movies, via its Bigpond internet service.
Cost is around five dollars and the electronic file is downloaded to you computer – so long as it is a PC. Incredibly, the Apple platform is not catered for.
The file self-erases at the end of the contract period and Bigpond says it cannot be copied.
The relative inflexibility of this format has raised some questions over how successful it will be – for example, how willing will people be to sit around the PC in this age of big screen TVs? Or will they be willing to connect the two devices?
Independent movie producers see it as a way of reaching a broader audience, without the expense of a cinema release.

Bad speech leads to jail (Feb 23)
An Austrian court has jailed extreme right-wing identity David Irving for three years for a speech on his assertion that the Jewish holocaust of World War II never happened. He was arrested on his return to Austria last November – the charges refer to speeches and an interview he gave during a 1989 visit. Denying the holocaust is a crime in that country, punishable with a sentence of up to ten years. Prosecutors are appealing for a longer sentence.
The jailing of the self-styled ‘historian’ has raised debate over where the borderline is between free speech and incitement.
In an opinion piece for the Australian newspaper, jurist and academic Stephen Morris says, “So what is at issue here is not politics but the basic principles of a free society. Of course, I do not argue that free speech is an absolute, even in a free society. We are all familiar with the prohibition on falsely screaming ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre. We Australians are all, by now, familiar with the prohibition on inciting violence against our fellow citizens. No one has the right to speak or write things that will directly incite others to commit crimes.”
He goes on to argue, however, that context and forum are critical. In Irving’s case he believes the sentence was too harsh, and banning him from the country would have been sufficient.
Australian home; Stephen Morris article

RIP the telegram (Feb 22)
From the Washington Post via Benton: Maybe old media do die after all. For generations, Western Union's telegrams were the way news moved from one coast to the other, hand-delivered messages filled with staccato sentences that were usually missing punctuation. They were part of Americana, important elements in movies such as Mr Smith Goes to Washington and "It's a Wonderful Life" and tools for delivering news -- often bad -- about loved ones who were serving their country overseas. But now, overshadowed by instant and inexpensive forms of communication -- e-mail, cell phone and text messages among them -- the telegram has gone the way of carbon paper and mimeographs. Telegrams peaked in 1929 with 20 million messages sent. Last year, there were 20,000. The final one was sent on January 27.
Washington Post
Benton

Yahoo’s hot zone meets with mixed success (Feb 21)
Yahoo’s venture into journalism with a difference – the Kevin Sites war zone weblog, called Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone – has met with strong reviews from respected outlets such as Columbia Journalism Review but is said to be struggling to build the audience numbers the publisher had been hoping for.
Sites (pictured), who is traveling on an Irish passport, and his team move from one ‘hot zone’ to another in short order, and this week were covering the Israeli—Palestinian conflict.
The stories typically begin: “In keeping with our mission, the Hot Zone is putting a human face on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We're profiling doctors, victims of the violence, journalists and artists -- one from each side. In focusing more on the human picture than the political one, we aim to present a clearer portrayal of the scope of the conflict.”
One piece, about a waitress who was caught in a suicide bombing, begins: “The first time she went out to a bar after the bombing, Kinneret Boosany says she was terrified.
"‘I was with my ex-boyfriend,' she says, sitting on the couch in her apartment in the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv, her two dogs on her lap, ‘and other friends were on both sides of me. I was holding onto his hand so tightly. It was a long time before I could go out alone. Or I would only go out at night.’
“She recalls that time as her ‘vampire life.’”
This piece – like most – is accompanied by video to bring the reader/viewer closer to the subject.
According to the Guardian in the UK: “But the project's remit still seems a little strange: visiting every conflict in the world inside a year. Does the self-imposed deadline create a sense of tourism? Sites, and his producer, Robert Padavick, say that it provides readers with a wider arc to follow, but admit it is a difficult balancing act.”
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone
Guardian story

More browse for fun -- Pew (Feb 20)
From the Pew Internet Project in the USA: Nearly a third of internet users go online on a typical day for no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time.
Two-thirds of all internet users have tried surfing the Web just to pass the time, according to a survey we conducted in December 2005. Some 40 million people said they were surfing for fun on a typical day during the month. This number is up from 25 million people who were browsing for no particular reason in November 2004…
Full story

Canning of graffiti game ignites controversy (Feb 17)
Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, a video game developed by USA fashion designer Marc Ecko and published by Atari, has been banned by the Classification Review Board, on the basis it incites crime. The 'crime' is graffiti and the central theme of the game is, somewhat ironically given the current Australian Wheat Board controversy, how a graffiti artist defies an oppressive and corrupt government.
Australia is the only country to ban the work, though it has caused considerable controversy in other places.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to halt a launch of the product, again on the grounds it would incite crime. However a Federal Court judge saw it differently, saying, “By the same token, presumably, a street performance of Hamlet would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder…”
The Review Board says: “Both the National Classification Code and the Guidelines for the Classification of Films and Computer Games state that a computer game will be refused classification if it includes or contains detailed instruction or promotion of matters of crime,” Convenor, Maureen Shelley said. “It is the Classification Review Board's determination that this game promotes the crime of graffiti.” In the Review Board's majority opinion, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure warrants refused classification as it promotes crime. Some factors contributing to this promotion include:
* The realistic scenarios whereby the central character Trane acquires his knowledge of graffiti tips, techniques and styles - including meeting with five real graffiti artists who pass on details of tips and techniques;
* The reward for and positive reinforcement of graffiti writing on public buildings and infrastructure, and;
* Interactive biographies of 56 real graffiti artists, with details of their personal tags, styles and careers. The game detail states that all these artists began their careers performing illegal graffiti on public buildings and infrastructure and that some continue with this practice today.
Australian Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock supports the ban. The minister's media release says: A computer game must be refused classification if it promotes, instructs or incites a matter of crime or violence.
Mr Ruddock last month asked for a review of the computer game's MA15+ classification after concerns raised by local councils and state governments about the impact of the game's content which they believed promoted graffiti crimes.
"I am satisfied the decision to refuse classification is consistent with the proper function of the Review Board to reflect community standards and apply the act, code and guidelines," Mr Ruddock said.
Getting Up home
The Age home; Story

Intellectual rights theft costs $30 billion -- IIPA (Feb 15)
The International Intellectal Property Alliance has recently submitted a report to USA trade officials detailing its view of the costs and priorities of copyright breaches across the globe. Russia was named as the country of greatest priority, from a list of 68 that the organisation deemed in need of monitoring. Australia was not on the list, but the Asia Pacific region did feature prominently.
The report claims: “As a result of deficiencies in the copyright regimes of the 68 countries/territories highlighted in this submission, the U.S. copyright-based industries suffered estimated trade losses due to piracy in these 68 countries/territories of over $15.8 billion in 2005. 13 On a global basis (that is, in all countries/territories including the U.S.), IIPA conservatively estimates that total losses due to piracy were $30-35 billion in 2005, not counting significant losses due to Internet piracy, for which meaningful estimates are not yet available.”
IIPA website

Shrinking paper to start trend? (Feb 14)
Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper will switch from broadsheet to tabloid, after 160 years of publication, on March 13 and the results will inevitably be watched closely by Australian publishers. Will it be the start of a local trend?
The venerable Times in London went to tabloid format (many publishers prefer to call it “compact” because of the negative connotations of “tabloid”) in 2004, with some success.
Several other papers have followed. The Observer relaunched in a Berliner-style format a month ago and has since picked up a massive 100,000 in paid circulation to score over 500,000, according to a report in the Guardian.
Courier-Mail Editor David Fagan, in a discussion with the ABC’s Media Report program explained the reasoning behind his masthead’s decision: “We decided to take the paper to compact size because we thought it was time to produce a paper that was we thought, more compatible with the needs of our readers and of the change in readership and marketplace in south-east Queensland. The paper’s been a broadsheet for all of its life, nearly 160 years, but when you look around the world, dozens and dozens of papers are changing to a compact format. And I think that the main thing is that it’s ease of handling. It’s easier to read, it’s easier to take wherever you want to go. It accepts the fact that these days, that everything is about, the technology’s all about being miniature. We carry iPods around, we should carry smaller newspapers around too.”
ABC Media Report interview

Newspapers could lose a generation (Feb 14)
Jupiter Research has found that online US consumers are spending 14 hours per week online -- the same amount of time they spend watching TV. Jupiter said that online consumers are starting to spend less and less time with old media, with 37% of online folk saying they were reading books less because of Net time. Plus, the people who use the Net most are also more likely to use advanced Internet activities such as RSS and online radio. "Even the most intensive users of newspapers and magazines spend less time reading these publications than they do online or watching TV," Jupiter Research analyst Barry Parr said. "TV and newspaper companies risk losing an entire generation of users unless they immediately start promoting their online products."
Jupiter release

Google and 'kleptomania' (Feb 14)
From the Online Publishers Association: The argument about whether Google is a media company or not is sounding so 2005. It's a moot point now as Google makes an even bolder move into auctioning ad space for 28 print magazines. The Wall Street Journal reports the search giant is looking to extend its successful ad auctions into print, radio and TV -- with the magazine ad auction ending on Feb. 20. Google said this was a way to test the interest in print ads for AdWords advertisers. ClickZ said the winning bidder won't have to pay the price they bid, but just enough to outbid the next-highest bidder. Search expert Gary Stein told MediaPost this wasn't extending Google's strength. "They're just selling an ad -- meaning there's no targeting behind it, there's no keywords, there's no analytics behind it," he said. "How do you optimize, how do you get greater targeting -- all that stuff you like from Google -- this isn't really like that."
And if Google hadn't freaked out ad executives enough, the company also started secretly testing rich media ads in AdSense, according to JenSense blogger Jennifer Slegg. "Google AdSense is moving beyond the traditional text and graphical advertising to rich media, including interstitials, expanding ads and floating ads," Slegg wrote. "AdSense began contacting publishers last week to be involved in the rich media limited beta test. The campaigns will likely be site targeted, rather than contextual." Google's raft of competitors have not sat idly by on the sidelines. Gavin O'Reilly, president of the World Association of Newspapers, is helping lead a campaign to force Google and other news aggregators to compensate papers for content. "We need search engines, and they do help consumers navigate an increasingly complicated medium, but they're building [their business] on the back of kleptomania," O'Reilly said.
OPA

Internet’s China syndrome leads to subpoena threats (Feb 14)
Also from OPA: This week, the other shoe might drop in the continuing controversy over Internet companies colluding with the Chinese government. Cisco, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have helped the Chinese monitor and censor the Internet for its citizens, with Yahoo turning over email data to help the Chinese government imprison at least two cyberdissidents. Now the US government is paying attention, and lawmakers are criticizing the companies in a series of Congressional hearings. None of the companies sent representatives to a hearing on Feb 1, but all four said they would attend another hearing on Feb 15, after the threat of subpoenas.
The companies have defended their actions by saying they are following local laws in China, and that shareholders demand that they do business in China to compete globally. Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, refused to accept that defense. "This is not benign or neutral," Smith told the AP. "They have an obligation not to be promoting dictatorship." But a recent report by iResearch showed just how important the Chinese market is for American companies. Online ad revenues there were up more than 70% in 2005, at eight times the level of 2002. Plus, online ad revenue in China will be up 30% annually for the next five years, iResearch said.

Murdoch on digital media (Feb 13)
Rupert Murdoch has been in the media news lately of his company's aggressive march into digital media, with several internet acquisitions (such as MySpace.com) and plans for more.
Newsweek recently interviewed the News Corp Chair about his views on the sector.
He said, in part: “Most newspaper companies still have their heads in the sand, but other media companies are aggressive. And there are completely new start-up companies. There is a great pace of development, which is very exciting. At News Corp, we have been developing online extensions of traditional media for the last few years. What's happened now? We're seeing the spread of broadband. In the whole world today, only 190 million homes can receive broadband. That's going to go up in the next 10 to 20 years to at least 3 billion homes. We're just now at the very beginning of the shift to digital media.”
Newsweek home; Story

Slow-boiling response raises ethical debate (Feb 10)
The decision by Danish publication Jyllands-Posten to run with cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad has taken a long time to boil over, but gives every appearance of -- temporarily at least -- spiraling out of control.
The newspaper's version of the events is, in part: “Journalists working for Jyllands-Posten became aware of several instances of writers and artists in Denmark and abroad practising self-censorship for fear of offending prominent Muslims.
“Danish author Kaare Bluitken wrote a primarily educational children's book about the prophet Mohammed, but ran into problems trying to find an illustrator. Certain interpretations of Islam find it inappropriate or directly forbid pictures of the prophet. Eventually, an illustrator did agree to work on the book, but only under the cloak of anonymity.
“Jyllands-Posten published several articles addressing this state of affairs. The newspaper took a position that it is untenable for non-Muslims to be bound by Muslim scripture.
“In order to find out exactly how widespread self-censorship is, the newspaper asked a number of Danish illustrators to submit their own personal interpretations of how the prophet might appear.
“Twelve illustrators submitted drawings, which the newspaper published on 30 September 2005 as a contribution to the debate about self-censorship amongst journalists, authors, and artists.
“The newspaper's editorial staff was well aware that the drawings would anger certain groups and individuals, but the Danish press has a tradition of depicting political and religious authorities in satirical editorial cartoons.
“If the newspaper had chosen instead to refrain from publishing drawings of Muslim religious symbols, this in itself could have been interpreted as an expression of discrimination against Muslims.
“The newspaper's editorial staff underestimated the emotions that practicing Muslims foster for their prophet, and the newspaper has subsequently apologised for the offence it unwittingly caused.
“However, the newspaper has not apologised for publication of the drawings, and it does not intend to do so. Editorial - often satirical - cartoons addressing all sorts of different subjects are a natural part of any newspaper. All Danes, including political and religious authorities, must be able to tolerate appearing in caricature. This is not an expression of a lack of respect. Just the opposite. It is an expression of respect in line with Danish tradition. Moreover, the drawings are not in conflict with either Danish law or the ethics of the Danish press.”
The newspaper's defence of its decision, based around freedom of speech, of course has its critics. One, Olivier Roy of Newsweek, asks,”Would carrying cartoons mocking dwarfs or blind people be published in respectable European newspapers? No. Why, then, the social acceptance for mocking Muslims, which sometimes verges on racism?”
The issue has led to riots and even deaths internationally, plus the arrest of some editors who have republished the work.
Jyllands-Posten web site on the incident
Newsweek opinion piece

Gaol for defamation in Timor (Feb 10)
From the Media Alliance: A new law proposed by the government of the Democratic Republic Timor-Leste is due to come into force today unless the president, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao, uses his constitutional power to veto it. Under the law individuals will face three years' imprisonment for defaming public officials, and the code contains no limits on fines. The IFJ has called on the President to reject this new penal code.
See this IFJ link

McGuire to run 9 (Feb 9)
TV host and Collingwood FC President Eddie McGuire has been appointed to run the embattled Channel 9 network, taking over at a time when its dominance is under serious threat - particularly from a revitalised Channel 7.
The position has had a string of short-term incumbents in recent years and it's hoped McGuire's appointment will see the situation settle down. Though some observers have pointed to a lack of senior management experience, it seems he will be backed by a broader management team from PBL. He begins work on Feb 13.

Print publishers gang up (Feb 8)
Five prominent Australian print publishers - News, Fairfax, Rural Press, West Australian Newspapers and APN - are forming a yet-to-be-named marketing group to push the value of newspapers to potential advertisers.
John Hartigan, News CEO, is the inaugural chair and recently said: "Newspapers deliver much more value than is currently perceived. They reach more people and are more powerful and influential than any other medium."
One of the issues to be tackled by the group is their dissatisfaction with current readership survey methodology.
News Ltd story

Sinister moves afoot for internet? (Feb 3)
From the Benton files & The Nation.com: Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers -- would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out. Under the plans they are considering, all of us--from content providers to individual users -- would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received. To make this pay-to-play vision a reality, phone and cable lobbyists are now engaged in a political campaign to further weaken the nation's communications policy laws.
They want the federal government to permit them to operate Internet and other digital communications services as private networks, free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight.
Indeed, both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission are considering proposals that will have far-reaching impact on
the Internet's future. Ten years after passage of the ill-advised Telecommunications Act of 1996, telephone and cable companies are using the same political snake oil to convince compromised or clueless lawmakers to subvert the Internet into a turbo-charged digital retail machine.
Benton files
The Nation home; Story
Links to white papers mentioned above

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