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Broadcasters association names new chief
Dans la langue française, bien sûr
Radio France General Director Jean-Paul Cluzel was named president of Radios Francophones Publiques (RFP) replacing Belgian public radio RTBF’s Francis Goffin who’s term expired.
RFP is an association of French language public radio broadcasters Radio France, Radio Canada, RTBF and Radio Suisse Romande. It promotes program sharing among the 21 radio channels of its members.
Cluzel became head of French public radio in May 2004. He’s renomination is widely expected when the term expires in May. He’s generally credited for revitalizing the channels of Radio France. (JMH)
Satellites crashing
Probabilities and possibilities
There are 18 thousand satellites orbiting our fragile planet. Two happened to crash into each other distributing a zillion pieces of high-tech space junk out there where nobody hears. Space experts say the statistical probability of such high flying bumper-cars approaches infinitesimal.
The probability of Sirius XM Satellite Radio crashing – in that financial sense – is approaching statistical certainty. CEO Mel Karmazin needs to make a debt payment and, not being a bank or automaker, will not likely get another bail out. The last gift from the US government was a waiver of rules stipulating competition among satellite radio companies so Sirius could acquire XM. As the old Russian satellite crashed into the Iridium satellite over Siberia Sirius XM Satellite Radio common stock was trading at US$ 0.06.
Mel is trying to pull one more rabbit out of his sleeve. (More on Sirius and Mel Karmazin here) It will – in statistical likelihood – be his last. He needs to convince Liberty Media’s John Malone to buy a piece of Sirius XM’s junk debt, due February 17, to prevent bankruptcy. Mel is the world’s greatest salesman. John Malone didn’t just fall off the pumpkin truck. (JMH)
Ad spending in Hungary up for 2008, sliding in Q4
Employment and services ad fall hard
Ad spending in Hungary inched up 8.6% in 2008 over the previous year to €2.03 billion, reported TNS Media Intelligence (February 10). Zenith Optimedia had projected €2.28 billion in an earlier forecast.
Services advertising, largely government sponsored messages, fell about 6% to €118 million. Hardest hit was employment advertising, falling 35% year on year. The beverage sector spend 2% less in 2008 and 22% less in Q4, compared with the same period in 2007.
Travel and leisure ads grew 18% to €61 million in 2008 though falling 25% in Q4 year on year. Financial services ads increased 15% to about €230 million. Telecoms spent €183 million, up 4% year on year.
TNS Media Intelligence reports ad bookings at listed prices. Needless to say, discounts and kickbacks apply. (JMH)
Google To Help Magazines Sell Ads
Google closed its Print ads program for newspapers last month because it wasn’t making enough money helping newspapers sell inventory at rock-bottom prices, but that doesn’t mean it’s done with print – it’s now going to give it a go with magazines.
Google has scheduled Magazines 24/7: Google Day NY on May 14 aimed at giving magazines tips on such subjects as how to sell subscriptions online and also how to grow digital audiences and revenue.
Maybe also how to buy AdWords?
Now This Is Really Low – UK Newspapers Trusted Less Than Banks
A UK study says that just 7% of the public trust newspapers to behave responsibly and the authors say that figure is even worse than the trust the public puts in banks. Add to that 75% of the public thinks newspapers frequently and knowingly publish stories they know are false, and that 70% believe journalists are intrusive and do not respect the right to privacy and by the time all is said and done it seems the UK public really doesn’t have much good to say about their newspapers these days.
What gets a bit dangerous in the Media Standards Trust report is that 60% of the public believes the government needs to get involved to protect privacy, and 75% believe the government should get involved to ensure newspapers correct inaccurate stories.
The report trashes the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), an independent body whose code of conduct UK newspapers voluntarily agree to abide by, saying it is far too lenient on newspapers when the public complains. Naturally once the report got published the PPC trashed it, saying “this report is in effect a kind of scissors and paste job from the cuttings masquerading as a serious inquiry.”
But newspapers trusted less than banks. Is there smoke without fire?
Youth Supported Obama, Now They Get Lobbied
One reason that President Obama won is that he had America’s young on his side, so now a Washington think tank has figured one way to lobby the President is via those very same young people who voted for him. And how to do that? Via ads in their university newspapers.
This week The Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, placed ads in 15 US student newspapers featuring a petition by economists opposed to the spending package moving through Congress. The same ad had previously run in the New York Times and The Washington Post.
No doubt university newspapers across the country will be aggressively seeking such ads, not so much for their lobbying powers, but rather student newspapers really do need the money. Even they are cutting back on their print days and ads like this can really fill some financial holes. And maybe, just maybe, advance the cause of democracy at the same time.
Ad spending to fall 5% in Poland
Print ads to fall hardest
Ad forecasts are becoming ritual exercises in self-flagellation. A new forecast for Poland by CR Media Consulting expects pain in this bellwether market for Eastern Europe. A 5% drop in ad revenues for media this year “leaves no illusions,” said the report.
Overall ad revenue is expected to fall to €1.56 billion from €1.64 in 2008. Television advertising “falls less hard” by 3-4%. Print, predictably, will drop 6-8% and radio will be off 3-5%. Internet ad spending is expected to gain about 15%, mostly from the rapid rise in websites.
Q4 2008 ad revenues in Poland were up 5.5% year on year with the internet gaining 33%, TV gaining 13%, radio 12% and print 2.5%. (JMH)
Can A Newspaper Lose 70% Of Its Value In Just 8 Months?
Apparently so! Cablevision that bought Newsday in July last year from Tribune at what was considered a ridiculously high $650 million has now filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is writing down the value of the newspaper by $375 million to $450 million. That’s some 70%!
Cablevision said the charges “reflect the continuing deterioration of values in the newspaper industry and the greater-than-anticipated downturn” affecting revenues.
Nothing in there about management being so stupid for having paid that much for the newspaper in the first place. Hey guys, how about some real transparency in these SEC filings!
Will Americans Go To The WAN Congress Right After Thanksgiving?
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the World Editors Forum (WEF) have confirmed their delayed 2009 annual conferences will be held in Hyderabad, India, right after the US Thanksgiving holiday. New dates are November 30 – December 3.
The conferences had to be postponed from March when not enough people signed up which WAN put down to the global financial downturn affecting travel and conference budgets. Obviously, the hope is that by the end of the year all should be well and attendance will be around the 1800 figure that the organizers are counting on.
We asked Larry Killman, WAN’s director of communications and public affairs, if he wasn’t worried that the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. the weekend before the Monday start might inhibit American travel. He responded, “There’s always a holiday for somebody, somewhere. Anyway, it’s a good opportunity to jump on a plane and go to Hyderabad.”
We hope for WAN and WEF that he’s right!
When in doubt – or debt – keep buying
The ad business is recession proof, right?
WPP’s Martin Sorrell has been shopping in Italy… between speaking engagements. Through Group M, he’s purchased 90% of boutique digital agency H-art. The not quite four year old agency in Roncade near Venice serves Armani, Nike, Microsoft and more. The company release said the deal is “part of the logic of investing in companies in the start-up phase and to enhance skills in interactive media.”
Of course, The Guardian (February 3) explored other parts of Sir Martin’s “logic.” Lots of debt means lower taxes. Shifting tax home means even lower taxes. The term “double Luxembourg” may come to rank up there with “Madoff” as the years’ favorite financial terms. (JMH)
F-letters and 8 seconds rule websites
Stop it! This is a family website.
A group of Hungarian researchers have discovered that website visitors will give a web page 8 to 10 seconds before moving on. Slow loading pages are, literally, death. Even with a broadband connection content-rich websites – that meaning full of video – might cause impatient surfers to move quickly along.
The second discovery from NRC and Meroving Research is the F-letter. As you visualize the laptop screen that F is what people notice first: the horizontal bar being the far left column and the forks being the very top – usually navigation, a center fork extending to the extreme right and a smaller fork below. This configuration differs from the traditional inverted pyramid design favored by most developers.
The researchers also concluded that web users are “banner blind.” (JMH)
Commissioner hearts product placement
UK “overly restrictive
A letter from EC Info Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding to British Culture Minister Andy Burnham, surreptitiously accessed by the Sunday Telegraph (UK) (February 8), appealed for a relaxation of UK rules about product placement.
An "overly restrictive approach in this area will prevent broadcasters and producers accessing important revenue sources, thereby depriving them of the means necessary to ensure diversity and quality of programs,” wrote Commissioner Reding.
Under the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive Member States are allowed more flexibility in restricting product placement on television programming. (See more on product placement here)
Last week Commissioner Reding hearted social networking websites, dissed (along with Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes) mobile phone companies and dissed repressive regimes and the techies who make their media repression possible. President Barroso hearts almost everything and Commissioner Kroes… well… remember St Valentines’ Day. (JMH)
Vibrant ads reach older consumers better
Bright colors, too
While youthful audiences are brand marketers favorite targets of opportunity, occasionally interest rises for the over 40’s. Afterall, they tend to have money, unless they invested with Bernie Madoff. Media outlets, too, are seeing opportunity in the post-40 demographic bubble. (Oh, sorry; that’s not a happy word.)
An image-preference study conducted by US consulting firm Creating Results of Americans over 40, reported by Marketing Charts, showed “vibrant” rather than “cooler” colors and “expressive” rather than “contemplative” visuals attract more attention.
More than three-quarters of persons over 75 years preferred recognizable images. Well, think about that. People over 75 have more images in their memories. (JMH)
Broadcasters ponder public service
“wonderful challenge”
Each new debate on quality television and public service broadcasting conjures up images of dentist visits. Germany’s main public television network held an internal symposium (February 5) called “Quality – making, measuring, managing.” Moderator Reinhold Beckmann, the well-known German sports broadcaster, asked for a bit of levity – a sense of humor – to the “wonderful challenge.”
ARD program director Volker Herres countered that, for Germans, it was genetically impossible.
With the passage of the amendments to the State Treaty on Broadcasting, humorlessly required by EC Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, German public broadcasters face the dreaded “three-step test,” akin to root-canal surgery. The first step asks whether public broadcasters new digital offerings benefit “democratic, social or cultural needs.” Step two examines whether or not new services enrich competition. Last but not least, step three asks whether or not funding is adequate. (See more on the State Treaty and Commissioner Kroes here)
"Public broadcasters will be forced to offer not only good but also good reasons to produce,” said Wolfgang Schulz, Director of the Hans.Bredow Institute and chief author of the ‘three step test’. (JMH)
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