ftm is introducing a new daily column of media news, complimenting the twice weekly feature articles on major media issues. Tickle File items point out media happenings, from the oh-so serious to the not-so serious, that should not escape notice...in a shorter, more informal format. 

We are able to offer this new service thanks to the great response to our Media Sleuth project in which you, our readers, are contributing media information happening in your countries that  have escaped the notice of the international media, or you are providing us information on covered events that others simply didn't know about. We invite more of you to become Media Sleuths. For more information click here.

The Tickle File is a time honored journalistic tradition. Invented in 1761 by Urs Tickes, editor of a long disappeared Swiss newspaper, it is an effective tool for organizing article ideas.

To each journalist Tickes would hand 10 file folders saying "Halten Sie Ihre Ideen organisiert und Ihre Schreibtisch sauber, verdammt!"

Unfortunately Tickes met an unfortunate demise. While personally escorting a shipment of 10 million file folders from Sweden, the boat was sunk and all, including Tickes, was lost. Rumors of involvement by a militant Swiss journalists guild - Die organisierte Gesellschaft des Rechtgehirns, durcheinandergebrachte schweizer Journalisten - were never proven.

The legend of Tickes continues...

Here is the ftm Tickle File with notes from the ftm team...and you!

Tickle File Week of September 25, 2006

MySpace Founder Urges Federal Investigation of Sale To News Corp.

Did MySpace former CEO Richard Rosenblatt want such a quick sale to News Corp that he agreed upon a price lower than the site’s true value and he kept that true valuation information from shareholders so the deal would not get hung up on price?  The founder of MySpace, Brad Greenspan, thinks so and he’s asking the Feds to investigate claiming the shareholders were defrauded.

The request for an investigation comes on top of Greenspan’s lawsuit last February accusing News Corp. and VantagePoint Venture Partners for breach of fiduciary duty.

News Corp paid $580 million for the site last year. At the time some analysts thought Rupert Murdoch had paid too much, such was his enthusiasm to immerse News Corp in the Internet.  One financial  analyst said last week he thought the site could be worth around $20 billion within three years.

Good reason to try and close the barn door after the horse has escaped.

SMS Mobile Advertising Works

Text message short code advertising tested in four European countries shows it is more of a success in some than in others, but with Spain’s monthly response rate at 29.1% the future looks bright, according to M:Metrics, a leading mobile content research company.

Following Spain was the UK with a 18.5% response rate, France, 10.1%, and Germany at 3.4%. In the US the response rate was 7%.

Response was  around 50% in Spain and France to text message add, most of which came from mobile carriers themselves. There is also a big draw when the respondents have chances to win prizes.

Yahoo Tests Mobile Phone Sponsored Search In UK, US

Yahoo has started to test mobile phone sponsored search in the US and the UK with some advertisers already signed up.

Consumers clicking on a sponsored mobile search have the option to call the advertiser – yes, it’s good to know that phones are still being used to talk to people – or they are directed to the sponsor’s mobile website or a page that tells them about the advertiser’s offerings.

CNN Makes Event Marketing A Product

Viewers of CNN International have been watching advertising for some time now promoting various special two or three-day speaking events involving such personalities as Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Rudolph Giuliani, Carly Fiorina, Jack Welch, Queen Noor of Jordan, and others held throughout EMEA, but mostly in the Middle East, and CNN is listed as one of the event’s many sponsors. Registration fees to attend the events do not come cheap.

The events must have turned a pretty good profit because now CNN has announced its is going into the events business for itself in the US, under the umbrella of its advertising department, and that its anchors and reporters will participate in such events that will not actually be shown on CNN.

It’s not unusual for anchors and reporters to participate in journalistic conferences – Jim Clancy for instance hosted a session at last year’s NewsXchange conference in Amsterdam -- but does their participation in a commercial event fully sponsored by a third party and not being televised by CNN cross that journalistic line in the sand?

CNN executives make light of that, but do admit that having their journalists involved does bring a certain credibility that the sponsors like.

Ed Richards to Lead UK Regulator OFCOM

OFCOM’s chief operating officer Ed Richards was named CEO to the general delight of all. Richards had a hand in the 2003 Communications Act, worked at the BBC, worked for the Labour government and is close to Gordon Brown, likely successor to PM Tony Blair.

Telecom regulation will remain high on the agenda as OFCOM  resists EC plans to create a pan-European telecom regulator.

Stephen Carter, the most recent CEO, left OFCOM in July, apparently to wait his turn to be the new ITV chief.

Apple Applies for iPod Trademark in Europe

That Apple finally applied to the European Patent office for the iPod trademark is no surprise, except to those silly enough to believe the company would actually withdraw from countries complaining about its ubiquity. Apple secured iPod trademarks in the US two years ago and recently Singapore.

Other filings show a vast array of designs, including the much expected mobile phone and video iPod.

notes:

Has it been only 2 years?

Viasat Adds Denmark to IPTV Network

The Viasat division of Modern Times Group (MTG) will deliver its premium 50 channel Viasat Gold package to Danish subscribers for 299 DSK per month in cooperation with broadband provider Dansk Bredband. A free, new set-top box will be sent to all new customers.

Viasat offers a similar broadband service in Norway and Sweden.

Skyrock Zinged by CSA

Slowly released details of warnings from French regulator CSA might put Skyrock’s license in jeopardy. The warning was issued in July but, at the Skyrock’s request, not posted on the CSA website until this week. At question was “graphic sexual language” on the night-time DiFool radio program, top-rated for teens 13 to 19 years of age.

A similar warning was issued in late 2004. Skyrock paid a fine and, apparently, kept rappin’. Now the CSA seems a bit more irritated. 

Hungarian Internet Portal Sold For €1.8 Million

One of Hungary’s largest Internet portals, Habostorts, has been bought by German media company Georg von Holtzbrinck for a reported 500 million Hungarian Forint (€1.8 million) in cash, according to the newspaper Nepszabadsag.

The six-year old portal forecasts revenue this year of between 150 million – 200 million forint (€545,000 - €725,000) – 80% from advertising and 20% from text messages.  The site has about 200,000 monthly visitors.

Share Buybacks Can Be Harmful to Your Media Company’s Financial Health

Standard & Poor’s has issued a warning to media companies that they shouldn’t forget basic financial rules when they are looking at share buybacks or acquisitions.

And the most basic rule is that they are creating too much risk if those activities consume more than two times their annual discretionary cash flow base.

The ratings company warns there are European media companies out there that will get caught short if there is a sudden turn in the markets.

We All Like Freebies

According to a survey by Orange Broadband in the UK 75% of people will take advantage of giveaways when on offer. That ranges from DVD/CDs given by newspapers to free text messages offered by, well, Orange.

The survey said that Britons save £6.9 billion a year by accepting giveaways – leaving them about £150 per person better off.

Two Indian Media Rivals Team Up For New English Language Newspaper

Two large Indian media companies, long-time rivals, have teamed up in a 50-50 joint venture to publish a new English language daily tabloid newspaper in New Delhi.

New Delhi-based HT Media Ltd, publisher of the Hindustan Times, and the Mumbai-based Times of India Group, the country’s largest media group, have agreed to the joint venture which will be a standalone entity. Executives believe the new paper will be launched before year-end.

More Analyst Praise for CME

JP Morgan analysts heaped more praise on Central European Media Enterprises (CME) in Tuesdays’ research note to investors. Citing healthy business condition in the Czech Republic, resolving the ownership questions in Ukraine and favorable currency exchanges the money boys have increased confidence CME will meet 2006 and 2007 projections.

Free Newspapers Rule Spain

Data released by ZenithMedia and EGM tell the same story told all over Europe: Free newspapers are blasting through the circulation figures. The recent charts show circulation growth (or not) since 2000. 20 Minutos, first appearing in 2002, has 2.45 million readers compared to Marca’s 2.42 million. (link in Spanish)

Metro Directo, the other freebie, has fallen slightly in the last year - but still circulates 1.7 million copies.

Shahab, ftm's statistical genius looked at the numbers and said "In chieh?" Comparing the circulation totals for the top 11 Spanish newspapers for 2000 and 2006, total newspaper circulation of the top newspapers seems to have increased 62%.

Online US Gambling Ban Hits Entertainment Ads

Congress’ ban on banks and credit card companies processing payments for web gambling could cost the Internet around 135 million display ads a month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

The company says there were around 233.5 billion online display ads in August of which 2% were entertainment. In the entertainment category around 2.9% were for online gambling, and that math works out at around 135 million display ads a month that could disappear.

Most of the online gambling sites are located offshore in such places as Gibraltar but rely on US clients for up to 75% of their business. They have said that if/when President Bush signs the Bill into law they will cut off Americans from their services.

UK, Sweden Lead Internet Market Share

The UK with 12.9% and Sweden with 10.5% are expected to be the first two countries to break the double-digit Internet ad spending market share by the end of this year, according to ZenithOptimedia.

Other countries projected to break into double digits by the end of 2008 are Australia, Israel, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Taiwan.

On a total global basis the double-digit share is not expected until 2011, according to Publicis.

ZenithOptimedia has increased its forecast of increased Internet spending between 2005 – 2008 from 76% to 84%.

LiveDeal Gets Into Jobs

LiveDeal has extended its reach into jobs by making a deal with SimplyHired, the world’s largest job search engine, to make all of its 5 million job listings available on the LiveDeal site.

LiveDeal saw more than 1.4 million unique visitors to its LiveDeal.com in August looking for everything from pets (it’s largest category) to vehicles, furniture and appliances.

LiveDeal is still showing a fast growth track, with its business 104% higher than the same period a year ago, according to comScore Media Metrix, whereas the growth norm for classified web sites is 47%.

notes:

For links to previous LiveDeal stories click here and here.

When Publishers and Editors Disagree There Is Usually Just One Outcome

It has only been one month since Kommersant, one of Russia’s leading newspapers, has had a new publisher and fears of how independent the newspaper would remain are already being realized – the chief editor has quit over  “different views on how the publishing house should be developed.”

Out goes Vladislav Borodulin. Reason: a front-page article about the son of the Federal Security Chief who got a greased transfer from the security agency to the state-owned Rosneft Oil Company. Oligarchs like new publisher Alisher Vasilyev apparently don’t think those types of stories serve any useful purpose.

In comes former editor Andrei Vasilyev who is said to be very friendly with the head of the Kremlin’s press service.

The new editor has made all the right noises about keeping Kommersant as an independent paper and he will not allow it to become a political weapon, but as the saying goes, the proof will be in the pudding.

notes:

See this link for background to the Kommersant sale

The More Luxury Advertising The Better

The Financial Times has had great success over the years with what may be the best name out there for a weekly magazine aimed at the well-off: How To Spend It. No subtlety there. It’s published on Saturdays when the money-people should be in the comfort of their own homes.

So the Wall Street Journal Europe countered last year with a quarterly with the absolutely blasé title, Style Journal, aimed at attracting the luxury advertising spend that it publishes on a Friday.

So now the FT fires back, and has announced that it, too, will publish a quarterly to be published on a Friday and its called Bonus. First issue is Oct. 13. 

notes:

If the marketing people don’t make hay with that title, like, “Get Your Bonus Friday in the FT" then they should look for other work. Great title.

How Do You Fit 43 Hours Into 24 Hours?

A recent survey asked how many hours a day people use their technical gadgets and the answer came in at 43 hours. How can that be? It seems we do two or three things at once.

For instance as this item is being written on the PC, the television is on across the room. The mobile phone just rang, so the typing stopped but watching the pretty girl on television didn’t, as the talking began.

According to the survey by Yahoo and OMD, US respondents watch TV 2 ½ hours a day, they spend one hour on instant message sending, 1.2 hours on e-mail and 3.6 hours on the web. The total list came to 43 hours a day.

Multitasking is obviously the name of the game.

How Many Tech Devices In Your Home?

A new report says there are an average of 12 tech devices in a normal US family home. Compare yours with this: three TVs, two PCs, and gadgets such as consoles, MP3 players, and mobile phones.

The report by Yahoo and the OMD agency surveyed 4,500 web users.

Which Do You Trust More: Traditional Media or Internet-only Publications?

Information consumers are four to six times more likely to believe that traditional media is more trustworthy than emerging news sources for the news that they are most interested in, according to a new US survey by LexisNexis.

The most popular topics were entertainment, hobbies, weather, food and cooking. Surprisingly coming in behind all of that was sports. Politics and elections were even further behind.

In the future, 52% said they will continue to mostly rely of traditional news sources, but one-third said that they expect in the future to trust and rely on both emerging news sources and traditional news sources.  Thirteen per cent said they will trust and rely mostly on emerging media.

2007 US Newspaper Earnings Downgraded

Paul Ginocchio is one of the most respected media analysts on Wall Street so when he sends out a note lowering Q4 and 2007 earnings for several major newspaper groups its bound to have a further negative impact on media share prices.

Among companies on which he cut back 2007 forecasts are Gannett, New York Times, Tribune, Washington Post, Belo, Media General and Lee Enterprises.

Ginocchio said he sees lower trends for classified real estate and help wanted (jobs).

Are Time Inc.’s IPC Magazines in the UK Up For Grabs?

With Time Inc. announcing three weeks ago it was selling 18 of its 50 US Magazines because revenue targets throughout the group – particularly at the flagship Time -- just weren’t being met this year, there is now interest in the UK that the American company might want to sell its IPC magazine subsidiary, too.

Time Inc has given no indication the UK magazines are for sale, but the company’s chief executive has said she intends restructuring the entire  company and putting more resources into digital.

Time Inc. bought IPC for $1.15 billion five years ago, and its value today is thought to be around $1.5 billion. 

Google To Digitize University of Madrid Library

Spain’s major university library in Madrid will become the second European library – and the first non-anglophone library – signed up for Google’s massive project to digitize archive works of major libraries. Oxford University signed up earlier this year.

Europe’s massive project, led by France, to defeat the “cultural capitalists” is still in meetings.

notes:

I love that story about tilting at windmills.

French TV Channels Busted

French regulator CSA admonished TV channels to meet quotas for European and French productions. Seven of the nine channels carried by TNT fell below the 60% European and 40% French production threshold. The worst offender: TMC with only 55% European and 34% French content in 2005.

Said TMC General director Laurent Fonnet : “2005 was very difficult.” TMC is the oldest private television channel in Europe.

UK Pirate Radio Station Busted

Smashing down the doors Coventry police put an end to the dastardly deeds of pirate radio Renagade last Thursday night. Nearby residents complained of interference to TV reception.

notes:

I have a theory: pirate radio flurishes when legitimate radio stinks. Afterall, the UK has a rich history of pirate radio.

A Cull At the UK’s Daily Telegraph’s Foreign Bureaus

The Daily Telegraph has bounced its Washington bureau chief and a second correspondent there, and also its New York bureau chief and a Paris correspondent.

There are plans to merge many different parts of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph operations, so there is a belief that the cull could mark the start of combining the foreign bureaus of the two newspapers.

As part of its move to a new headquarters Telegraph management has asked for 133 compulsory redundancies.

Springer Still Angry At Blocked ProSiebenSat.1 Deal

When the German cartel office stopped Axel Springer from buying ProSiebenSat.1 for €2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) earlier this year Springer appealed the decision to the Düsseldorf regional court, and broke off negotiations with the station.

Now the Düsseldorf court has ruled that because Springer is no longer in negotiations to buy the station there is no need to review decisions made by the cartel office.

Springer says that is nonsense – that in order to maintain a court appeal one has to engage in meaningless negotiations – and says it is now taking its appeal to Germany’s highest court.

ProSiebenSat1, owned by US billionaire Haim Saban, is no longer for sale.

notes:

What a fun story this was!! (link)

Toolbar Battle Heats Up

First it was Google that struck a deal with Dell that its PCs sold in the US would automatically be set up with Google’s search engine toolbar in the pre-installed Internet Explorer 7. Now Yahoo has made its own deal – this one with HP – that the Yahoo toolbar will automatically be set up within HP’s pre-installed Internet Explorer 7.

For PCs sold in Europe HP will set up Yahoo as the automatic home page.

Neither Google or Yahoo have said how much they paying for the exclusive privileges.

“We Live In Financial Times”

The Financial Times has changed advertising agencies, and one consequence may be that its strapline of “No FT, No Comment” that has been used since 1982 may be consigned to history, replaced by “We Live In Financial Times”.

A FT spokesman says no final decision has been made yet.

Which do you prefer? Click here

EC Speaks Out On New Chinese Media Restrictions

What better venue for the EC Commission President to lambaste China for new rules that severely restricts Reuters’ ability to sell directly in the Chinese marketplace, but at the inauguration of a Reuters pictures exhibition at EC headquarters.

EC President Jose Manuel Barroso made it quite clear the EC believes that recent rules that require foreign media to sell only to the Chinese news agency Xinhua and that agency then makes the (censored) information available to others violates trade rules, human rights, and freedom of expression.

“Let us not beat around the bush – these measures are likely to have an extremely severe impact on foreign news agencies in China, and on Reuters in particular,” he said.

Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has been in contact with the Chinese. The Chinese spin is that this has nothing to do with ideology or politics, but is merely to bring order into the news marketplace. The Chinese market is currently worth around $100 million to news agencies such as Reuters and Bloomberg.

Just this past week China hosted sports editors from around the world to preview preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (see last week’s tickle file), and Chinese authorities stressed that journalists would be allowed to travel the country during the Games and write stories without duress.

“Small Children Can’t Weed Out the Marketing Messages From Their Favorite TV Shows.”

US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner Kevin Martin is on a whirl-wind tour of America outside Washington DC. In theory, he’s gathering the thoughts of Americans living far from the seat of power, sometimes referred to as the fly-over zone.

What is he hearing? The folks in the sticks don’t like media consolidation and the blame TV ads for over-weight kids. But, never fear, DC lobbyists like consolidation and selling anything on TV, anytime, any place.

Martin’s tour could be permanent, as an unidentified US Senator has put a “hold” on his re-nomination.

Militias Close HornAfrik Radio Station

Somalia is nobody’s idea of a nice place. Warlord fights warlord for control of a most dismal piece of real estate. Last Thursday private radio station HornAfrik was surrounded by armed men of the Islamist movement “…on battle-wagons,” according to Reuters.

Employees were detained and the station, located in Kismayo, was closed.