News From You

followthemedia.com - a knowledge base for media professionals

ftm News From You

News From You

We receive dozens of news tips and press releases each week from ftm contributors. We want MORE. And we want to share the raw information as quickly as possible. NEWS FROM YOU is the forum for adding what you know to what we know. Share what you know...or what your hear. We will apply the light-touch of the editors axe for clarity. We will also accept NEWS FROM YOU in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese...without translation. (We do insist on being able to understand what you contribute.) You also must clearly indicate that your contribution is for publication in NEWS FROM YOU.

Please note: we cannot use PDF files, only text and .doc files.

Send us NEWS FROM YOU

Week ending September 19, 2009

NAB - NAB NAMES GORDON SMITH NEW PRESIDENT AND CEO - September 18, 2009
from Dennis Wharton/NAB

Gordon H. Smith, of Covington & Burling LLP, a former two-term U.S. Senator from Oregon and successful entrepreneur before launching his career in politics, has been selected as the new president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters.

Smith, who will be introduced to broadcasters and make brief remarks at the NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia next week, will officially join the broadcast advocacy organization on November 1. He will be introduced to the entire NAB Board of Directors at a meeting in Dallas in mid-October.

The 57-year-old Smith served in the U.S. Senate from 1996 to 2008, where his committee assignments included the Senate Commerce Committee, the panel that oversees all broadcast-related legislation. Smith also served on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has been widely respected as a pragmatic lawmaker able to successfully reach across party lines. Smith's role on the Commerce Committee and as the Chairman of a Senate High Tech Task Force helped foster his interest in new media and new technology issues.

"I am honored to have been selected as NAB's new president and consider this an opportunity of a lifetime," said Smith. "As radio and television stations embrace new technologies and new business opportunities, I look forward to articulating to public policymakers the unique and positive role played by local and network broadcasters in the fabric of American society."

"We conducted an exhaustive search to identify the very best individual to lead a great trade association," said NAB Joint Board Chairman Steve Newberry. "We're convinced we have found that person in Gordon Smith. His background as a lawyer, a statesman, and as an entrepreneur -- coupled with his extensive knowledge of broadcast issues from having served many years on the Commerce Committee -- make Gordon eminently qualified to represent the interests of free and local broadcasters in Washington."

Born in Pendleton, Oregon, Smith attended college at Brigham Young University, received his law degree from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, and practiced law in New Mexico and Arizona before returning to Oregon to direct the family-owned Smith Frozen Foods business in Weston, Oregon. Smith Frozen Foods is now a $50-million-a-year enterprise, and one of the largest frozen foods companies in America. Before serving in the U.S. Senate, Smith was elected to the Oregon State Senate, rising to the position of president of that body after only three years.

Smith and his wife Sharon are the parents of two children and have one grandchild.

Oxford Univ - Journalists need ‘new, collaborative ways to tell stories’ - September 18, 2009
from Maria Coyle/Oxford

While user-generated content may make some in the mainstream media 'uneasy', according to a paper published today (18 September) by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, it allows journalists to ‘explore new, collaborative ways to tell stories.’ The word ‘user’ shows that the people once at the end of the production chain have ‘upended the standard order’, writes RISJ report author and award-winning columnist at The Washington Post, John Kelly. He argues in his report ‘Red Kayaks and Hidden Gold’ that journalists must respond to this changed dynamic.

Mr Kelly, Visiting Fellow at the RISJ, says: ‘News was a broadcast from one to many. We live in a network age now, where the many can talk to the many, bypassing the one completely.’ He points out that, ‘the tables have turned so much that the old producers – the newspapers, the TV news operations – are now users’, with the mainstream media continually asking citizens to have their say and citizens obliging.

Commenting on the phrase ‘user-generated content’, he writes: ‘There is much contained within the phrase to make journalists uneasy. “Content” is a word that calls to mind a commodity, something bland used to fill a hole’. “Generated” isn’t much better, suggesting as it does material that’s created in some vaguely spontaneous way’.

However, the report goes on to highlight the views of supporters of citizen journalism who argue that it can improve journalism itself. ‘It can make them more interested in their communities, it can demystify the political process, it can excite them about the things the best journalism strives to do: explain, crusade, call to account.’

Mr Kelly’s report sounds a note of caution in its conclusion. ‘It can do these things. How often it does do them, and for whom, is something worthy of further study. In the meantime, the question “Should there be citizen journalism?” is beside the point. Journalists must accept that the dynamic has changed. They must see the public as more than an inert, monolithic audience. They must explore new, collaborative ways to tell stories.

‘Mainstream news outlets that neglect to allow their readers to participate will risk losing those readers. In a culture that increasingly views news as a commodity, users will look for differentiating factors as they choose their news sources. The quality and legitimacy of the product will be aspects – perhaps even the most important ones – but so too will be the extent to which the media responds to its customers and gives them useful tools to customize, share and contribute to the news.’

DETEC - Radio Energy à Zurich: le Tribunal administratif fédéral confirme la décision du DETEC - September 18, 2009

Le Tribunal administratif fédéral a rejeté le recours de Radio Energy. Il a ainsi confirmé la décision rendue par le Département de l'environnement, des transports, de l'énergie et de la communication (DETEC) lors de l'octroi des concessions de radio OUC dans la région Zurich-Glaris. La station zurichoise devra définitivement cesser d'émettre sur les ondes OUC dans un délai de trois mois. Elle pourra toutefois poursuivre la diffusion de son programme en mode numérique via le DAB ou sur des lignes (réseaux câblés, internet).

Le 31 octobre 2008, le DETEC a octroyé les trois concessions attribuées à la région Zurich-Glaris aux stations existantes Radio 24 et Radio Zürisee ainsi qu'à Radio 1 (anciennement Radio Tropic, depuis octobre 2007 en mains de Roger Schawinski). Radio Energy (détenue à 51 % par Ringier SA) avait vu sa candidature écartée.

Radio Energy a fait recours contre cette décision. Le Tribunal administratif fédéral vient aujourd'hui de confirmer la validité de la procédure d'évaluation des demandes de concession suivie par le DETEC. La décision du tribunal étant sans appel, aucun autre diffuseur ne peut prétendre à une concession de radio OUC dans la région Zurich-Glaris.

Octroi des concessions

L'année dernière, le DETEC a attribué 41 concessions de radio OUC et 13 concessions de télévision régionale. Les décisions ont été arrêtées dans le cadre d'une procédure d'adjudication selon des critères clairement définis. Les demandes de concession ont été évaluées sous l'angle du mandat de prestations à l'échelon local et régional conformément à la loi sur la radio et la télévision (LRTV), à savoir une vaste couverture des événements politiques, économiques, sportifs, sociaux et culturels dans la zone de desserte. Les concessions ont été octroyées aux candidats les mieux à même d'offrir un programme de qualité (input) ainsi que des prestations journalistiques complètes au sens du mandat de prestations (output).

Médiamétrie - Les dépenses médias et multimédias ne connaissent pas la crise - September 17, 2009
from Julie Albessard/Médiamétrie

Cette année, les foyers français ont dépensé 2 324€ (soit 4,3%* de plus par rapport à 2008) pour leurs achats dans les domaines des médias et du multimédia, hors redevance audiovisuelle. Ils ont dépensé plus mais différemment.

Quand les ménages aiment, ils ne comptent pas !

Le poste Internet occupe « la tête du peloton des augmentations » des dépenses médias et multimédias, un poste qui marque une progression de 22% par rapport à 2008. L'audiovisuel profite aussi d'une nette progression avec près de 8% d'augmentation en un an, hors redevance audiovisuelle (il représente 635€ redevance incluse).

La progression du média Internet est en grande partie due aux équipements avec notamment la croissance des Netbooks, les mini PC spécialement conçus pour faciliter l'accès à Internet. L'Observatoire des Dépenses Médias et Multimédias met en évidence la progression du nombre de foyers qui dépensent pour l'accès à Internet. A cela s'ajoute une croissance du montant dépensé par foyer sur les abonnements Internet (+11%).

Pour l'ensemble des dépenses liées à l'audiovisuel (tv, radio, vidéo, etc.), les équipements tirent la croissance des dépenses des foyers. Cette progression s'explique par une volonté de s'équiper en « postes numériques » sans doute stimulée par l'arrêt annoncé de la diffusion analogique terrestre. Notons que le montant dépensé pour les abonnements audiovisuels se stabilise.

Pour sa part, la téléphonie (fixe et mobile) qui représente plus d'un tiers des dépenses médias et multimédias des foyers, marque une légère progression (+3%). Concernant la téléphonie mobile, la part de l'abonnement et des services associés est plus importante que celle des équipements.

Le poste de dépenses jeux vidéo et consoles progresse également (+4%). Ce sont les équipements qui favorisent cette croissance. Les foyers continuent de s'équiper en consoles de jeux de toutes sortes. Néanmoins, ils dépensent moins en jeux vidéo.

Les foyers consacrent moins d'argent à la musique et notamment à l'achat de CD.

*Le périmètre de l'étude a évolué entre 2008 et 2009 pour intégrer le montant moyen de la redevance payé par les foyers. En tenant compte des foyers exonérés de redevance, le montant de 116 € est ramené à une moyenne de 98€ sur l'ensemble des foyers, portant ainsi le montant total des dépenses médias et multimédias des foyers à 2422 euros en 2009.

Prix Europa - 20 Years After the Fall of the Iron Curtain - Europe’s Largest Media Festival Boasts a Record Number of Participating Countries - September 15, 2009
from Prix Europa

The interest in Europe’s largest media competition for quality productions for Television, Radio and Emerging Media has never been larger than in this year, the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. With 665 submissions from 40 countries a new entry record has been reached. The nominations are final: 231 productions will compete against each other from 17 to 24 October at the Haus des Rundfunks in Berlin.

Susanne Hoffmann, the festival director: “The number of submissions has again gone up which proves that despite sinking budgets programmes of outstanding quality are still being produced. Also increasing the share of co-productions where the creative heads in the industry work together defying language and national borders. PRIX EUROPA has developed into a central forum for the personal exchange of Europe’s media makers.”

In eight TV, Radio and Emerging Media categories programme makers face the jury and fight for one of the 13 coveted PRIX EUROPA Trophies that will exchange hands on the 24 October at the festive Prize Giving Ceremony. The European Commission supports the new category “Languages through Lenses” where a prize will be awarded to one of 15 short videos dealing with multilingualism in Europe. These films will be presented to a wide audience who can vote for these productions online.

Twenty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain PRIX EUROPA can take stock: It has consistently brought together media makers from different language and cultural backgrounds and has thereby supported the development of a common European identity. In the spirit of bringing East and West together, the Radio Day of European Cultures will build a bridge across the language barriers under the motto “Languages through Microphones”. For the first time devoted radio are supported with production grants for this year’s Radio Day.

The current development of Europe in the face of the international crisis will be discussed heatedly by stakeholders from television, radio, print media and the Internet in various conferences held during the festival week.

PRIX EUROPA 2009 will start on the 17 October with an Opening Concert by the French band “Babylon Circus” which will be broadcast worldwide.

More than 1,000 media makers from across the European continent are once again expected at PRIX EUROPA. The festival week is characterised by the unique transparent open jury system which supports the exchange between journalists, media makers and programme managers. Anyone who commits to openly discuss and debate each entry is allowed to register as a delegate – allowing full voting rights in one category. All festival participants may join the jury discussions – even if they are only participating as observers.

The list with all nominations is available on www.prix-europa.de.

PRIX EUROPA is supported by the PRIX EUROPA Alliance consisting of 25 broadcasters from Eastern and Western Europe as well as European institutions and of course the Länder Berlin & Brandenburg.