Hot topics click link for more
Money available for digital start-ups, none for digital DJs
Kick-start this
As the media world continues to find its way to that digital dividend, companies with cash on hand see opportunity as investors. Gambling on start-ups and other entrepreneurial genius, once the exclusive domain of VCs and investment banks, appeals to shareholders as growth rates for traditional media operations disappoint. Everybody, it seems, wants a place at the table.
A venture fund of €100 million has been set up by Bauer Media Group, based in Germany with a global publishing and broadcasting footprint. Bauer Venture Partners will “make stage agnostic equity investments in highly scalable digital business models in Europe,” said the announcing presser.(August 4). Thomas Preuss was hired away from German VC Neuhaus Partners as managing partner.
Bauer’s venture fund will be “results-oriented,” said Bauer Media Group managing director Andreas Schoo, with a focus on software start-ups in German-speaking countries. The side benefit, said Herr Schoo, is “allowing us access to new digital technologies and innovations.” The fund has a ten-year horizon.
In addition to publishing operations – print and digital – around the world, Bauer Media is a significant radio broadcaster in the UK and Poland. The company is currently bidding on the second national digital radio multiplex with broadcaster UTV and telecom Arqiva. Several show hosts at Bauer Media’s digital channels in the UK have been found to be working without pay, reported the Guardian (August 5). The company was only slightly embarrassed as those “volunteers” need to “kick-start their careers,” said a spokesperson.
Those two won’t make a company, and a crowd lurks
Shareholder engagement
It’s been an interesting week for Clan Murdoch and not all that happy. First there was the withdrawal, such as it was, from the billion billion billion bid for Time Warner. Then a group in the UK announced a crowd sourcing initiative to buy the Times and Sunday Times. In the midst stock traders worked that arbitrage magic to make money, lose money and make more money.
A UK group called Let’s Own The News wants to crowd-fund a bid to offer News UK, owned by News Corporation, principally owned and controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family, a pile of money for the Times and Sunday Times, reports Roy Greenslade in The Guardian (August 7). (See here) The idea is to raise GBP100 million, half going to Clan Murdoch and the other half to keep the newspapers afloat. Folks are asked only to pledge right now, paying up when the bid is accepted.
“A crowd acquisition of the Times and The Sunday Times would be an important and achievable step in reducing the power of the press barons,” wrote the group’s organizer Laurie Fitzjohn in an email to Mr. Greenslade.
The “surprise announcement” from 21st Century Fox (Reuters - August 5) that its US$80 billion unsolicited bid for Time Warner had ended surprised almost nobody except die-hard fans of the Old Fox and, of course, financial geniuses who had already pounced on both company’s shares. Time Warner executives “refused to engage,” said the 21st Century Fox statement. Shareholders have been offered, instead, a US$6 billion share buy-back plan. (See more about Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation, 21st Century Fox here)
Every Chairman or CEO worth their salt (and pepper and bacon) knows the importance of “engaging” with the shareholders. For Rupert Murdoch, chairman of both 21st Century Fox – the fun company – and News Corporation – the newspaper company – that’s just a conference call with the children. And that is exactly what Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes gently reminded his shareholders. A deal using those special non-voting shares meant a Murdoch would be in every meeting, figuratively of course, from now until the end of time.
As everybody in big business and big media watches Rupert Murdoch like a hawk (actually like a pigeon watching a hawk) Bloomberg Businessweek (August 6) offered three scenarios. First – and favorite among Murdoch watchers – says the Old Fox will make another bid for Time Warner, the withdrawal only a ploy to pressure Mr. Bewkes with the shareholders. Second – and a favorite among gravity-inspired financial kings – says buying Time Warner is too expensive and the Old Fox will be buying something else very soon. The third – and favorite of Prince Machiavelli – says the Old Fox will send the hounds after Mr. Bewkes, possibly bidding a fortune for rights to US basketball league NBA currently held by Time Warner.
State censor threatens BBC over interview
“serious issues”
An interview on the BBC Russian service website with Siberian “artist and activist” Artem Loskutov has drawn a threat from the Russian Federation’s media censor Roskomnadzor to block the site (bbcrussian.com) “from the territory of our country,” reported Russian daily Izvestia (August 5). The audio interview appeared last week and, according to State-approved Russian media, contained “extremist views and calls for mass riots.” Correspondence from Roskomnadzor to the BBC World Service demanded the interview be removed from the website, according to the agency’s deputy director Maxim Ksenzov, who moaned that the BBC hadn’t bothered to reply or comply.
“We can fully block the BBC Russian service website on the territory of our country. In fact, not only we can, but we have to do it, because the Prosecutor General’s Office has assigned Roskomnadzor to block the access to the sites and resources, publishing information of that kind,” said a Roskomnadzor spokesperson to Izvestia. From August 1st Roskomnadzor is empowered by a new law to require Russian bloggers with more than three thousand readers to register with the agency and social media portals to retain user data on Russian territory. The agency has blacklisted several Russian websites for “calls for illegal activity and participation in mass events conducted in violation of the established order.” (See more about media in Russia here)
Well, the BBC has responded. “We have no plans to remove this interview from our website,” said a BBC WS statement (See in full here). “Mr Loskutov is an artist and activist known for organizing events which are, at first sight, parodies of political activity, but which also bring out serious issues about life in Russia.”
Newscaster quits as colleagues turn ”ugly”
walking on bodies
Staff are spinning out the doors at Romanian TV news channel Realitatea TV. Newscaster Oana Ivan announced her departure this week after four others left last week. Realitatea TV has been undergoing “restructuring.” In June two newscasters were dismissed. Some of the departing staffers complained of back-pay issues. (See more about media in Romania here)
“It shocks me when I see how people I’ve loved can turn ugly,” wrote Ms Ivan in an email, quoted by paginademedia.ro (August 4). “Colleagues of mine would walk on bodies for recognition.” Realitatea TV is noted for taking certain journalistic liberties in the tabloid style. The channel has survived several owners, all locally colorful, a bankruptcy and dozens of fines from regulator CNA after “many complaints.”
The internet compliments the restlessness of youth
“different media culture”
The recent study on media usage in Denmark prompted comments on radio’s future by two respected media observers, neither particularly bullish on the DAB digital future. (See earlier note on the Danish Agency for Culture study here) Younger listeners have already migrated to internet radio, said one, and older listeners just aren’t interested. FM shut-off in Denmark is “uncertain,” said the other.
“Radio is actually a fairly important media in most people’s daily lives,” said Uni Copenhagen lecturer Henrik Sondergaard, quoted by Politiken (August 2). “It’s a medium to use everyday, for example, while on the way to work in the car.”
“Younger listeners hear less radio and more things like Spotify and YouTube,” he added. In the five years between 2008 and 2013 12 to 18 year olds in Denmark listened 20% fewer minutes per day. “Some would argue that DAB is already obsolete, because, after all, they just to listen to FM channels via the Internet.” (See more about media in Denmark here)
All time spent listening dropped 10.5%, according to TNS Gallup data. Older listeners are from a “different media culture” using media “in a different way.” The study noted that people over age 70 listened 17.5% less during the same period.
“There is a wide range of music services available today,” said Aarhus University media researcher Per Jauert who explained the lower FM listening as a general downturn in overall listening. “DAB listening increased,” he said, as radio channels began adding show hosts that “attract listeners.” Younger people are “not as faithful as the elderly.”
Integration on the road to consolidation
No question who’s driving
Editorial and operational functions at legacy Italian newspapers La Stampa and Il Secolo XIX are to be merged into a new company, reports Corrierre della Sera (August 2). Consolidation in the media sector this decade continues unabated. According to statements from the principals, the newspapers will directed and edited separately, ad sales remaining with Manzoni & C for Il Secolo XIX and RCS Pubblicità for La Stampa.
The new publishing house will be called Italiana Editrice, 77% held by La Stampa owner Italian industrial giant Fiat and 23% by the Perrone family, owners of Il Secolo XIX. Fiat chairman John Elkann will be president of the new company, Carlo Perrone vice president. The “integration” is subject to the usual review by competition authorities and votes by the respective boards of directors. (See more about media in Italy here)
La Stampa and Fiat are based in Turin. Il Secolo XIX is published in Genoa, where it was founded in 1886. La Stampa was acquired by Fiat in the 1950’s.
Fiat is a significant shareholder in RCS MediaGroup, publisher of Corrierre della Sera, and a long rumored merger of the two newspapers has failed to materialize.
|
