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James Murdoch (aka Mr. Murdoch The Younger) shuffled the ol’ organigram appointing Sky Italia CEO Tom Mockridge as CEO European Television, a new position. Mockridge will continue his role with Sky Italia. Martin Pompadur, a long faithful servant of Mr. Murdoch The Elder, steps aside, down actually.
This is not a story about ‘promoting the sales manager,’ a well-known disaster looking for a place to happen. Mockridge is known as a skillful manager, not without a creative bent. He’s also closer in age to The Younger than The Elder. Expect more as Mockridge’s mandate is continental Europe, leaving UK TV projects to others. (JMH)
Yep, Tribune Company CEO Sam Zell turned down the opportunity to do a really big deal with Rupert Murdoch. He took the cash from Cablevision (US$ 632 million € 408 million) for 97% of Newsday. There’s enough synergy in this story to last the rest of the week. (JMH)
It’s no longer the International Newspaper Marketing Association. Welcome to the International NewsMedia Marketing Association. Pretty clever that, the group still gets to keep the INMA initials but is Newsmedia really just one word?
By removing the word “newspaper” it sounds like the organization has little faith in print any more, but Earl Wilkinson, INMA executive director says nothing could be further from the truth. “Our roots and origins remain intact,” he said. “Most of our members continue to make the preponderance of their revenues from print newspapers, and we believe that will resume growing in the future. Yet the online, mobile, digital and niche publishing canvasses are vital, growing and important to news consumers and advertisers who want to reach them.”
Well, if INMA believes it is in its best interests to drop the word “newspaper” can we expect the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) to do likewise and become the World Association of Newsmedia? We put that question to Timothy Balding, WAN CEO, who thankfully assured us it wasn’t going to happen, at least not in the near future, although he does admit the question does arise from time to time.
“We continue to accompany – in many ways, I hope, lead – newspapers in their transition towards multi-platform publishing, so no one has any doubt about our identity and objectives. And we continue to grow in membership, staff, activities and influence, so our current name is not hampering our ambitions and our expansion,” Balding explained.
Well, thank goodness some things are still left sacred!
Those of us who live in glass houses shouldn’t really throw bricks, but there was a headline correction on the Dow Jones newswires Monday that struck a chord and brought a wry smile. In its entirety:
“DJ Correct: Thomson Reuters, Not Thomas Reuters, To Launch Blackberry Partners Fund …”
Wonder who Thomas was?
Ireland’s new Broadcasting Bill authorizes the Communications Ministry to set up a new DTT channel to broadcast sessions of both the upper and lower houses of Parliament, the Dail and the Seanad, plus all those meetings in between. Details on the programming and distribution should be released this week, according to the Sunday Business Post. In addition to Irish government business, the channel could broadcast sessions of the United Nations, European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
Also coming are proposals to make those Irish parliament sessions “more interesting and vibrant”, said committee chairperson Barry Andrews to the Post.
The channel is currently on the air in Dublin. (JMH)
Just in time for the Euro 2008 football championships Swiss publisher Ringier will bring all the coverage to laptops. A dedicated Euro 2008 channel will air on the IPTV portal Zattoo beginning June 7th. In addition to the usual football stuff - debates, analysis, arguments – five ‘citizen journalists’ will take cameras and record their visits to Switzerland and Austria for the championships. The Euro 2008 channel will also be broadcast on Ringier’s Blick TV.
Zattoo offers a variety of TV channels, all live streamed, for TV fans away from the big screens at home. It’s available in Switzerland and seven other countries. Quite good quality, actually. (JMH)
Passed without comment... (link - until somebody notices)
...from the ever faithful ftm Media Sleuth team. (JMH)
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted against establishing a new intellectual property right (May 8). But this barn door is open and rights holders - teams, leagues and other rights sanctioning agents - are clear in their intention to force media organizations to play by their rules... and pay.
The European Publishers Council (EPC) was generally pleased with the vote. (Read EPC presser here). The MEPs vote becomes a recommendation to the European Commission for further action.
Creating a new intellectual property right is a tough legal battle. Big broadcasters tried and failed at WIPO last year, eventually giving up. (read that story here) Legal precidents being what they are, it's difficult to find a pervasive argument for creating a new intellectual property right when WIPO itself refuses. (JMH)
from last weeks' Tickle File
English Doesn’t Swing It For East European Search
That Google was far ahead in the latest ComScore data for European search engine market share was no surprise, but what was interesting was that in Eastern Europe if the search engine isn’t in the local language then that’s a big problem.
The survey showed that in Poland and Russia in particular local search engines were gaining market share. And the future? “With Russia’s online population now the fastest growing in Europe, it is likely that some of these local search engines will continue to gain traction and market share,” according to Jack Flanagan, ComScore EVP.
UK Newspaper Ad Revenue On The Way Down Again
The word in UK newspaper circles was that advertising was picking up, or at least stable, but Trinity Mirror has put an end to that spin by announcing that advertising revenues were down 4.3% for the first four months of the year compared with the same period last year. And the company said it expected such volatility to continue for the rest of the year.
Its nationals – Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, were down 2%, doing far better than the regional press where ad revenue was down by 4.9%. The added problem at the regionals was that March and April’s performance was worse than the first two months of the year.
Like in the US, the rising cost of energy and food plus the credit crunch are blamed for the uncertain economic situation. “These market conditions are adversely impacting consumer confidence and spending with the effect that businesses are curtailing marketing budgets to offset the prospect of slowing revenues,” the company said in a statement.
Everybody answers to Randy Michaels
…who’s surprised?…
Tribune Company CEO Sam Zell appointed Randy Michaels the company’s Chief Operating Officer, announced in a statement late last night (May 7). Randy and Sam have a long history (read that story here) and this is no surprise. After an ownership change, incumbent senior executives tend to spend all their time playing for the bosses’ favor. That ends today. (JMH)
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The Hezbollah faction fought its way across Lebanon’s capital Beirut with more death and destruction in its wake. One target was the pro-government media center Future TV, now in ruins. The militias now control through force of arms much of what moves. And its own media empire is spreading the news.
