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Noting the climate in Poland, arts and culture channel ARTE “suspended contractual relationships” state broadcaster TVP, reported tagesspiegel.de (January 29). The recently installed far-right nativist government in Poland, often citing cultural dominion, has replaced all TVP and Polskie Radio managers as well as journalists, editors and producers. ARTE is a joint-venture of French public TV France Télévisions and German public TV networks ARD and ZDF formed in 1991 to “foster understanding among Europeans and bring people together.”
“We deeply regret having to make this decision since the relationship with Poland is very important,” said ARTE executives Peter Boudgoust and Anne Durupty in a letter to TVP president Jacek Kurski. “We hope in the next few months to again cooperate more closely with TVP.” Herr Boudgoust, director general of German regional public broadcaster Südwestrundfunks (SWR), became president of ARTE this month. Mme Durupty is general director of ARTE France.
New co-productions with TVP are suspended “as long as freedom of expression, editorial diversity and the independence of public television in Poland are not guaranteed.” ARTE plans to add an online channel in Polish, as well as Italian, later this year. Cooperation with ARTE was suspended once before after TVP president Piotr Farfal, a far-right activist, cancelled a co-production agreement for a film about the Holocaust. "The party that TVP's president is presently connected with does not share European values,” said the ARTE statement. Mr.Farfal was ultimately fired and had to be dragged from the building. (See more about media in Poland here)
Earlier in the week media regulator National Media Council (KRRiT) president Jan Dworak, remarkably still serving, drew attention “to the violation of the principles of independence, pluralism and independence of the public media,” in a statement quoted by Puls Biznesu (January 26). “The appointment of a political activist as TVP president, who for many election campaigns was one of the main authors of election propaganda for the current ruling party, is in conflict with the declared intention of separating the spheres of politics and public media.”
Pleased with the editorial shift at TVP, prime minister Beata Szydlo, quoted in tabloid Super Express (January 29), said news is now presented “in an objective way.”
Anything happening in China rattles the world, particularly financial news. As home to 1.3 billion people with the second largest global economy turbulence has consequences. Some folks aren’t particularly concerned.
China’s media sector, still and always tightly controlled, changes very little. When streaming video service Netflix announced coverage in 130 more countries, China wasn’t included. Getting an operating license “may take several years,” said CEO Reed Hastings. “So we’re going to be patient.” North Korea and Syria, also not included, will require more than patience. (See more about media in China here)
Streaming video is coming to China. UK-based MUBI is the first, after organizing a joint venture with Huanxi Media Group. "Online and subscription is nonexistent, there is no Netflix in China,” said MUBI founder Efe Cakarel to CNBC (January 14). “There is no established platform for video on-demand.”
Alibaba Group is testing a film streaming service called Tmall Box Office (TBO), which will compliment its video-on-demand portal Youku Todou, acquired last year. Unlike Netflix, e-commerce giant Alibaba is sitting on US$10 billion cash. Others at an earlier stage are either ISPs or film producers.
China is “in a state of transition,” said Alibaba founder Jack Ma at the World Economic Forum diddy doo in Davos, quoted by Bloomberg (January 21). “It’s a healthy thing. The two or three next years may be challenging. But generally speaking, if the job market is there, if the consumption of China continues to grow…I think; It’s an opportunity not only for China, but for the world. Don’t worry.”
Publishers have, mostly, cast their fate to the digital realm. Those still groaning from anxieties related to the “ink in their blood” are few and far between. However painful, digital transition continues to transform what once was called the newspaper industry.
The fittest have survived, largely by being on a sound financial footing and immunity to the whims of stock traders. That does not mean anxiety has left the room. Guardian Media Group (GMG), publisher of UK newspapers Guardian and Observer, will be cutting annual costs by GBP 53.6 million to “achieve savings in the most sustainable way,” said the statement, quoted by the Press Gazette (January 25). The plan is to break even in three years.
The last few years have been, well, expanding. Digital capacities have soared, US and Australian editions launched and total web traffic has responded, roughly 7.8 million daily visits. It has been costly and that tidy sum squirrelled away from the sale of its stake in Trader Media Group two years ago and other investments is down to GBP 735 million. Print advertising keeps falling and the digital kind is under downward price pressure from Facebook and about a zillion other takers.
"What we are proposing aims to build communities that readers value and pay for while, crucially, Guardian journalism remains open to all,” said the GMG statement. “That may well mean producing some journalism which only our members can access, additional reporting, further updates, deeper participation with our writers, as well as better functionality and live events.” Ah, yes, “membership has privileges,” said the old American Express ad. Paywalls - hard ones, at least - have failed to turn the digital tide. No self-respecting publisher wants to disappear from public view.
Major Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera is adopting the subscriber/member strategy, offering early morning daily online delivery and access to 140 years of archives. A soft paywall rises after the 20th page. Videos count as one article.
“It is a significant step forward in our relationship with our readers, whereby we offer value at every click and in exchange ask for this to be recognized,” said RCS Media managing director Alessandro Bompieri, in a statement (See RCS MediaGroup presser here).
Last year RCS Media off-loaded its book publishing division to Mondadori, principally owned by the Berlusconi family. The Agnelli family’s investment arm Exor SpA is the biggest stakeholder in RCS Media as well as Fiat Chrysler. This past year’s big media investment was a controlling stake in The Economist Group.
Ekot (The Echo) is the news gathering and production unit within Swedish public radio broadcaster Sveriges Radios (SR). It provides foreign language content to international service Radio Sweden. A bit of reorganizing at SR announced last week will merge the foreign language news output of international broadcaster Radio Sweden with Ekot this spring, bringing to a close German and Russian language output with Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi, Somali and English remaining.
For a variety of reasons government funded international broadcasters continually adjust service output. Radio Sweden introduced English and German output in 1939. The Russian language service was added in 1967. Along the way French, Estonian, Latvian and Belarusian were dropped. Traditional analogue distribution - medium wave and short wave - was given up in 2010 for online services. Not all that long ago - and for different reasons - UK public broadcaster BBC absorbed BBC World Service. (See more about international broadcasting here)
SR’s decision is in sync with long term Swedish immigration policy. “Sweden looks different today than it did just 10 or 15 years ago,” explained Radio Sweden director Ingemar Löfgren in a statement (January 21). “With all the new arrivals, some minority groups have become larger, and now we turn this ship and concentrate on them.” Arabic and Kurdish were added in the 1990’s as part of SR’s immigrant language department, which was then merged into the Radio Sweden operation. “We consider the Russian and German (language output) a remnant of the old international programs,” he added. (See more about media in Sweden here)
Curtailing Russian-language output hasn’t been well-received within certain circles, typically critics wary of Russian State propaganda outlets that offer Swedish-language output. “Radio Sweden should not, of course, buy (Russian Federation president Vladimir) Putin’s media policy and become a propaganda channel,” offered the Expressen editorial page (January 24). “But public (broadcasting) has a responsibility to meet increased demand for impartial news reporting in Russian, and with increased news reporting via social media.”
Those critics misunderstand SR’s mission, rejoined program director Björn Löfdahl in a statement, quoted by medievarlden.se (January 25). “What is going on is that we will not continue to make news about Sweden and Swedish conditions in Russian and German. We have the largest foreign news organisation making very good coverage of Russia and Germany and we will, of course, continue unabated. It will not diminish.”
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