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Nothing Like Good Berlusconi Scandals To Boost Italian Newspapers
Italians have taken to the streets to protest against what they see as Prime Minister Berlusconi’s attacks on press freedom – he has issued writs against two newspapers that have been having a lot of fun in their coverage of sex scandals that have engulfed Italy’s richest man since his wife publicly asked for a divorce in a newspaper article in May. The Prime Minister, of course, says he is not attacking press freedom, just libel, and that he is a victim of smear campaigns.
One thing everyone can agree upon, however, is that Italian newspaper coverage of the scandals has certainly boosted circulation. The lead newspaper, La Repubblica – at the best of time very anti-Berlusconi – says it is selling more newspapers since the scandals broke, a theme echoed by Corriere della Sera. And in August, when Italians take to the beaches and leave their sweltering cities to mad dogs and tourists, newsstand sales dropped only 2.6%, the lowest monthly decline of the year. (More on media in Italy here)
And even though Italian newspapers are hit by an advertising slump like everywhere else, the increased readership for print and online has caused newspaper share prices to soar well above the average increase of the Italian stock exchange.
The Berlusconi scandals, or as he puts it, the smear campaigns, are not thought to be ending any time soon and if he doesn’t have enough problems the country’s highest court on Wednesday overturned a law that protects Berlusconi from prosecution on pending corruption charges until after he leaves office which he says won’t be for another four years – it was one of the first laws he got passed when he came back to power last year. The ruling could mean that two cases may come back to haunt the prime minister – one of which is allegedly bribing his own English lawyer to lie in an Italian court. A Berlusconi spokesman called the court’s decision “politically motivated.” Well, what isn’t in Berlusconi’s Italy?
All great continuing fodder for the Italian and foreign media (particularly Murdoch papers – Rupert has a real beef with Silvio for increasing VAT taxes on Sky Italia subscriptions whereas there is no VAT on Berlusconi-owned terrestrial pay channels.)
An England International Match Only On UK Internet Streaming!
The English are about as soccer-mad as any country can get (all right, maybe Brazilians a bit more) but the thought that England is playing an away World Cup qualifying game this weekend against Ukraine and no UK terrestrial or satellite broadcaster wants it (at the price asked) says a lot about today’s TV economy.
Ok, even though it is a World Cup qualifying game, the English have already qualified for next year’s tournament in South Africa, so win or lose there’s little English drama. The TV rights are held by the home team (Ukraine) and apparently their agent is asking a figure that the BBC, commercial TV, and satellite TV find unacceptable. So instead the game will just be Internet streamed with the pay-per-view costing anywhere from £4.99 to £11.99 depending how soon one signs up. To maintain quality the organizers said they will limit streams to 1 million users, and no business licenses (to watch the game in pubs and the like) are being issued.
You do the math – if they actually get at least £4.99 a user and they get 1 million users that’s not a bad afternoon’s work.
The TV rights had originally been sold to pay TV company Setanta but it went bankrupt earlier in the year.
Caucasus radio service to start
Jamming potential looms
A new RFE/RL broadcast to Abkhazia and South Ossetia was announced early Wednesday (October 7). By mid-day Abkhaz authorities were fuming. Nobody called us, they said.
RFE/RL said a one hour news program under the Radio Liberty name would target Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the Russian language commencing November 2nd. The program will be produced at the Prague RFE/RL headquarters and feature correspondents in Georgia and Russia. A complimentary website will also be launched. RFE/RL correspondent Andrei Babitski, who irritated Russian authorities by covering Chechnya, will have a role in the program.
“The only thing you can say for sure in this case is the fact that the attempt to make pirate broadcasting on the territory of Abkhazia would be illegal with all the ensuing consequences,” said Abkhazia’s head of Information and Media Christian Bjaniya, quoted in Izvestia (October 7). “We will take tough measures, including technical, up to jamming. Such opportunities we have.”
Transmitter locations were not disclosed. Breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remain claimed by Georgia, the short war notwithstanding. Official Russian radio channels moved into the ceded zones when the shooting died down. (JMH)
Radio association loses major member
“no longer reflective”
UTV Media GB has withdrawn from UK commercial radio industry body RadioCentre. The company cited “increasing concern” over policies “too heavily influenced by the interests of its largest member,” reported Mediaweek (October 7). The company exited RadioCentre effective September 30.
The “largest member” would be Global Radio, which became larger with the acquisitions of GCap and Chrysalis. “The governance of the RadioCentre is no longer reflective of the wider industry interests,” said UTV Media GB managing director Scott Taunton. UTV Media GB owns national radio channel TalkSport and local stations including Juice FM in Manchester and Radio Wave in Blackpool.
Consolidation takes an evil toll on industry associations. Big members – paying a bigger share of operating budgets – often seize the overall agenda, offending or even sidelining the interests of smaller members. One unfortunate result - seen in Sweden, for example – is the collapse of the trade body.
RadioCentre was formed in the 2006 merger of the UK Radio Advertising Bureau and Commercial Radio Companies Association. Global Radio acquired Chrysalis in 2007 and GCap the following year. (JMH)
Digital radio needs more money
€100 million or left behind
Digital radio has stalled in Germany. What’s needed, says Bavarian media regulator (BLM) head Wolf-Dieter Ring, is money, a €100 million, quoted in Horizont.net (October 6). Without that “seed money” Germany risks isolation in Europe…at least on the digital radio front.
“Digital dividend” money should be used “for private radio stations to meet the necessary investment in networks and solving the problem of the market,” he said. (More on digital radio here)
“It is not a question DAB - yes or no – in my view,” he added. “It's all about the question (whether) we want and can afford an introductory scenario, which goes on for 20 or 25 years… or we do it in five to ten years. Internet radio…is no alternative but a complement to DAB.”
Ring also does not expect as “realistic” FM shutoff until 2018 or 2020. (JMH)
Online marketers say online advertising will continue to rise
Boom not “finished”
Online advertising in Germany will reach €1.5 billion, says a forecast by Thomson Media Control produced for industry association BitKom. So far in 2009 €1.1 billion has been spent in online advertising – not, significantly, including search keyword advertising – reported Kress.de (October 6). One-third of online ad spending in Germany comes from telecoms and online service providers.
“Even in the economic crisis, the boom in online advertising is not finished,” said Achim Berg, Managing Director of Microsoft Germany. (JMH)
This is US National Newspaper Week
We’re half-way through US National Newspaper week so hopefully you’re all having a great time celebrating – remember total readership is up even if circulation (and profits) are down.
Here’s a pick-up from a story by the York, Nebraska, News-Times which explains the state of the business, at least on the local level, as well as anything else we’ve seen lately. “It has been a rough year for newspapers in the United States. In Detroit, newspaper subscribers get either of the city’s two major newspapers delivered to their homes only three times a week. The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News are both teetering. The Boston Globe struggles. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer dropped its print edition altogether and went online. The Rocky Mountain News called it quits and folded entirely.
“The York News-Times (YNT) is proud to be bucking the trend. In February, YNT publisher Greg Awtry shared with readers a few facts that make him proud: In 2008, the YNT published 4,832 local stories about local people, and took over 65,000 pictures. Every day, about 15,000 people read the YNT, in print or online. We delivered nearly 1,400,000 newspapers just within York County.
“Conventional wisdom, Greg says, states that ‘a strong community has to have a strong newspaper. The York News-Times believes that a strong community gives us the opportunity to be a strong newspaper.’”
And so say all of us.
Turkish Prime Minister Likens Dogan Group to Al Capone
We have reported in detail the $2.5 billion fine the Turkish tax authorities have levied against Dogan, Turkey’s largest media group, and how the EU sees this as an attack against press freedom, but the Turkish Prime Minister is having nothing of that. As far as he is concerned, just think Al Capone!
Capone, of course, was the Chicago gangster who committed all sort of terrible deeds in the 1930s but the only crime the authorities could nail him for was tax evasion, and they sent him away to Alcatraz for 11 years.
Erdogan told the Wall Street Journal in an interview, “The issue here is of a routine tax examination. In the US, too, there are people who have had problems with evading taxes. Al Capone comes to mind. He was very rich but spent much of his life in jail….Nobody raised a voice when those events happened.”
Crunch time for Dogan comes at the end of the week when the finance ministry issues a ruling on whether Dogan needs to post $3.2 billion in collateral, penalties and interest as it appeals further in court. A company spokesman said if that is the ruling “we’d be out of the picture.”
Contemplating IOC’s Rio Decision
The bigger games
American whining and finger pointing about the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to award the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro over Chicago misses, as usual, a much bigger picture. And, it must be said, the IOC – always looking after the business - takes a long view. Clearly, the IOC sees that by the middle of the next decade the business of the Olympic Games will no longer be centered on the Americans. The IOC was not snubbing the US or President Barack Obama, contrary to unhinged wingnuts blinded by narrow vision. The IOC was merely taking care of business.
It is true that through the television decades the IOC prospered from the profligate spending of American television networks for broadcast rights and American sponsors for marketing value. Those days are coming to a close and the IOC knows it. Denial, as is said, is not a river in Egypt.
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC), looking out for its own, has plans for a television channel, presumably focused on Olympic sports. Cable TV provider Comcast is the USOC’s venture partner. The channel was to be launched sooner rather than later but the IOC talked the USOC into a delay fearing repercussions from US Olympic rights holder NBC, which has been paying fortunes. The USOC has recently changed executive staff raising questions about the experience of the new folks.
At the very time the IOC directors were making their final decision on the 2016 Games location, a deal for Comcast to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal became common knowledge. General Electric (GE), parent of NBC Universal, wants to jettison the broadcaster and producer. The deal, whether it happens or not, is emblematic of the instability of the American media market. The IOC doesn’t like instability. And, like bankers, the IOC never loses.
What a Comcast controlled NBC might or might not do with the Olympic Games is pure conjecture. What the media world will look like in 2016 is even less certain, except for one salient point. China is rapidly closing in on replacing the US as the world’s biggest economy. With that comes a shift in the global media landscape. China’s state council last week made clear its appetite for a bigger share of the world’s media market, willing to take on News Corporation, Time Warner and Viacom. Carat’s recent short-term forecasts for ad spending point to the reality of a receding US market share and rising share of that cash from Asia and South America.
But the IOC is hedging its bets, like stock traders, seeing little visibility. Media rights for Rio 2016 won’t be offered until after London 2012. By then much on the global media landscape will be different. (JMH)
Grenades tossed at TV station
Strongly condemned
A hand grenade was thrown at the TV Pink building in Belgrade in the early hours of Sunday morning (October 4), according to the station. Damage was noticeable but there were no injuries. Reports say two persons in an automobile threw the grenade.
Both the Association of Serbian Journalists (UNS) and the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (NUNS) strongly condemned the attack. A UNS spokesperson said the current climate in Serbia “is not friendly to media and journalists.”
All political parties added their condemnation. “Throwing bombs at the building of RTV Pink is evidence that the state response to previous acts of violence was not efficient enough,” said Liberal Democratic Party Presdient Cedomir Jovanovic. (JMH)
EuroZoom Suspended
“creative concept” questioned
The EuroZoom program created by European Radio for Belarus (ERB) and broadcast on Minsk station Avtoradio has been suspended pending clarification by the Belarus Ministry of Information. EuroZoom, which only appeared June 1st, is part of the ERB project supported by the European Commission. The hour-long program contains news, information and music.
The Ministry of Information warned Avtoradio to “make attempts to restore the stated creative concept.” Avtoradio general manager Yuri Bazan suspended the program to avoid authorities wrath, reported BelaPlan (October 3). (JMH)
Farewell Reinhard Mohn
Bertelsmann called him “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our age” and there would be few who would disagree that Reinhard Mohn, who died Sunday at the age of 88, was responsible for making the German media company into the powerhouse that it is today.
An executive at the company for 60 years, Mohn oversaw its rise from a family printing and publishing business into a global media conglomerate operating in more than 50 countries with some 100,000 employees.
“All of us at Bertelsmann, the entire nation, as well as our friends in Europe and the rest of ther world have lost an entrepreneur and benefactor par excellence,” current chairman and ceo Hartmut Ostrowski said in a statement.
Mohn’s great-great-grandfather founded the hymn books and religious material company in 1835. Today it has TV operations in several countries including its RTL brand, it owns the Random House book publisher in the US, and the Gruner + Jahr magazine group.
But even such a conglomerate is not immune from a poor advertising climate. The company lost €78 million in the first quarter of the year compared to a profit of €35 million for the same period a year earlier.
Farewell (Soon) To the WP-LAT Newswire
Just because a great story appeared in the Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times it didn’t mean it was lost to the rest of the world, for those two newspapers for 47 years have operated the Times-Post News Service selling their reports for a relatively low cost to newspapers globally.
But with the newspaper business in its current turmoil it seems all great things must eventually come to an end and the Times-Post service will dissolve at the end of the year. The Post is teaming up with Bloomberg and the Times, along with other Tribune newspapers, with McClatchy.
It brings back memories to when the International Herald Tribune was co-owned by the New York Times and the Washington Post and that meant, because of the Post’s service with the L.A. Times that you could pick up the Trib on any given day and have the best stories from those three great newspapers. It didn’t get much better than that.
Today, sadly the Trib is owned 100% by the New York Times and long gone are the Post’s and L.A. Times stories. And no matter how great the New York Times thinks it is, the Trib is not near the newspaper it used to be when it had all three of those newspaper reports.
International broadcaster “outlawed”
Reporters ordered to stop working
Authorities in the autonomous Puntland region of Somalia ordered citizens to stop listening to Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts. Persons found tuning in to the VOA will be punished, said a statement from the Security Ministry (October 2). “The Puntland government outlawed the VOA and warn people from listening to the American Radio which broadcast this week a news story that was very critical to our security,” said the statement.
The Puntland government also ordered an end to local broadcasters carrying news from the Voice of America (VOA) Somalia service. Jointly Puntland’s Ministry of Security and Ministry of Information said broadcasters must immediately comply and accused the VOA Somali service of “blatant (participation) “…in the creation of instability in parts of Somalia, especially Puntland.”
A day earlier (October 1) three VOA Somali service journalists were ordered to stop working. Deputy Minister of Information Abdishakur Mire Adan and Security Minister General Abdullahi Samatar called VOA’s reporting from Puntland “negative.”
The infamous Somali pirates troll the Puntland coast. Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991. (More on the media challenges in Somalia here) (JMH)
The Winds of Summer
On holiday in France
Ah, but those long, hot days of summer are now but a distant memory. The chill of autumn is descending bringing, for some, vigor, vitality or, mostly, a return to work. French media measurement institute Médiamétrie offered one last look back at summer radio listening and it’s clear France was on holiday.
The Médiamétrie survey covered July and August with a lighter sample frame and more attention to non-residents enjoying holidays in France. As such, channels with better coverage in the south of France and those tuned in to tourists enjoyed a slight advantage. Médiamétrie warned against comparing this July-August survey with anything other that last years summer report. Slightly fewer listened to radio during the period, just 75%, compared with 75.9% year on year.
RTL was the overall market leader with 12.4% market share, up from 12%. All of the information-heavy channels, save RMC, gained share. Regional public network France Bleu was the most significant gainer, posting 6.7% from 5.8% year on year. RMC was flat at 5.3% market share. France Info also rose; posting 4.0% from 3.6%.
Local stations fared particularly well, in aggregate, with 14.7% share up from 14%.
And, too, summer listeners seemed to tune in to old favorites. Nostalgie was the highest rated music channel with 5.8% market share, up from 5.1%. NRJ was the second place music channel with 5.5% share but significantly lower that last summer’s 6.7%. Even French DJs take holidays.(JMH)
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