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A very bad week for reporters
...and it ain't over yet...
That reporters put themselves on the front line of conflict is a given. Getting the story can hurt. And this has been a painful week.
Chinese authorities 'roughed up' ITN reporter John Ray for covering forbidden territory - a 'Free Tibet' protest. It isn't the first time a reporter has been harassed during the Beijing Olympics. It won't be the last.
As many as five reporters may have been killed covering the short, miserable Georgia-Russia war. Dozens more have been injured. Several have been specifically targeted.
And the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) exonerated a tank crew that fired a shrapnel round at a Reuters news photographer, killing him. The Reuters people - and the rest of us - are outgraged. (Read the Reuters statement here)
There is a relationship between public opinion and journalism. For news organizations this has been a horrible week. For China, Israel and Russia (not to forget the Ossetian warlords) it has been a most horrible week. (JMH)
Cox Basically Says Selling Newspapers Better Than Current Cash Flow
Cox Enterprises has basically told the media and financial community it is really more profitable to sell newspapers today and get what you can to pay down debt and invest in new media rather than hold on to them for their diminishing cash flow. The media group announced Wednesday it would sell its Austin American-Statesman and all of its stand-alone community newspapers in North Carolina, Colorado, and Texas.
The big question, however, is will anyone buy, at least at the kind of price Cox would want? Prices are down about 50% over the past five years.
Cox says it plans to keep hold of its flagship Atlanta Journal-Constitution and also the Palm Beach Post in Florida (it has a tiny circulation but makes loads of money because the vast majority of its readers are multi-millionaires and advertisers on Worth Avenue pays big advertising bucks to attract that audience – it probably takes just one jewelry sale a week to cover that week’s advertising by a shop/store).
Jim Kennedy, Cox chairman and ceo, said in a statement “The decision was made as part of an ongoing strategic review of our portfolio and enables us to maintain our strong and stable financial performance by further paying down debt.” What that translates into is that Cox believes the point has come where the sale money from those newspapers is worth more today than the cash flow those newspapers now provide and will continue to provide in the future. It’s very similar to what Dean Singleton did in Connecticut this week – selling newspapers to Hearst so that debt could be paid down and future investments could be financed.
Kennedy told employees in an email, “Our company will turn 110 years old this week, and while much has changed since 1898, our dedication to being the industry leader in the areas where we do business to serve our customers, communities and employees has not. We have always been an innovative company, and we must continue to change and evolve to position us for success for another 100 years.”
Newspapers have always been considered tremendous cash cows with margins often near 30%. But that has all changed in the past five years or so and mid-teen margins are now thought as a great success. The message from Cox and Singleton’s MediaNews now seems to be that the margins are now getting so thin, and look like they will get even thinner, that it’s better to take the money those properties are now worth and pay down debt and invest in new media businesses.
Big Loss In Tribune Q2
Take away the charge for writing down the value of some of its assets and Tribune still lost $690 million in Q2 with revenue falling 6%, blamed mostly on overall newspaper advertising down 15%. Classifieds were down 26%.
The company says it repaid $807 million in principal on its loans during the quarter and the next principal payment of $593 million isn’t due until next June.
There was better news on the broadcasting side where operating revenues were up 4% but cash operating expenses increased by the same percentage (not a good sign; management wants revenue percentage increases to be higher than expense percentage increases) so at the end of the day broadcast‘s operating cash flow fell 4% which is not what an organization wants to see when it needs big cash flow to pay off big debt.
Based on all of these numbers, newspapers revenues are still way down, broadcast income is up, but so are its expenses. Expect a heavy expense axe in the broadcast division soon.
Caribbean Newspapers, TV Unite On Web Site For Olympics Coverage
Media looking on how to save costs for special web coverage could do worse than emulate what three of the Caribbean’s largest newspaper plus a regional broadcaster are doing together for the Olympics.
The Jamaica Gleaner, the Nation in Barbados, and the Trinidad Express have banded together with the Caribbean Media Corporation for a joint web site carrying news, features, video pictures and blogging on the progress of Caribbean athletes in Beijing (www.sportscaribe.com)
Gleaner Online project manager, Hope McMillan, said, “We actually began to do it for ourselves and then we thought it would be much more dynamic if we included the rest of the Caribbean. It would be lovely if we could find other platforms where we can work together. Sports and news would be good if we can all commit. We really appreciate the enthusiasm so far and I hope it will be the beginning of new ways to work together."
It’s an idea regional and community newspapers should think about as they try and follow their local athletes. There’s no reason why everybody has to do everything themselves.
A Front-page Apology Within 36 Hours
London’s Evening Standard last week reported that Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s 87-year-old husband has prostate cancer, but within 36 hours the newspaper ran a front page apology saying it really wasn’t so and a further apology on page 5. Goes to show what a little influence can do, since usually getting prominent apologies out of British newspapers is like pulling teeth and usually involves a court case.
What made this so interesting is that Buckingham Palace which usually does not comment on health matters actually put out an announcement flatly saying Prince Philip didn’t have prostate cancer. It also made the point that given the advent of privacy case law in the UK that a health matter was a private matter anyway and had no business being printed whether true or not, and that when it came to privacy the Royal Family was included, too.
The Palace complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and a spokesman there said, "The process has been quick: the final settlement was negotiated less than 36 hours after the original complaint was made. The apology has been prominent and proportionate. And the PCC costs nothing to use."
Although 36 hours is fast it’s not the fastest that our newspaper guru Phil Stone remembers for a front page apology. He says that in Stockholm in the 1970s the leading daily Dagens Nyheter ran a front -page banner about a member of Parliament and his sexual antics and preferences, an unusual page 1 hatchet job for such a newspaper – it really belonged, if anywhere, in its sister Expressen PM tabloid.
But the next morning the banner headline in Dagens Nyheter read, “We Beg Your Pardon Mr. …” and it was about as groveling an apology as it could be. The Bonnier lawyers probably had a very busy 24 hours trying to ensure the Parliamentarian did not become the new proprietor of the newspaper!
Sir Terry Wogan Says Goodbye To The Eurovision Song Contest
Watching the European Song Contest in the UK just won’t be the same anymore because veteran broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan has told Radio Times that it’s just about a done deal that he won’t be the British announcer any more – something he first mentioned at the end of this year’s broadcast because he was so fed up with what he was watching. Wogan has provided the British commentary with great sarcasm and also with some home truths since 1980.
He has made no secret over the years that he believes the reason British entrants have done poorly of late is because neighboring countries gang together (you vote for ours and we will vote for yours) and the British have no such allies so the whole thing is basically a farce. "The voting used to be about the songs. Now it's about national prejudices. We (the UK) are on our own. We had a very good song, a very good singer, we came joint last. I don't want to be presiding over another debacle." The three main voting blocs seem to be the Nordic and Baltic countries, the Eastern Bloc, and the Balkan bloc.. (See more on Wogan's silly whinging here)
Wogan told Radio Times, "I was considering giving up before [this year's contest] and now I have to say I'm very doubtful about ever wanting to do Eurovision again.”I've had so much fun, but I think it's time for someone else to take over."
While the Brits may miss Wogan the general view from Eurovision is more likely “good riddance”; his commentary has been a real thorn in EBU’s side. Wogan really let loose in his commentary this year – predicting most of the top12 point awards that would be announced by most countries would go to a neighbor.
Bjorn Erichsen, director of Eurovision television at the EBU said a couple of days after Russia won this year’s contest, “ It’s totally legitimate to vote for the song you liked best,” he doesn’t really care about the voting blocs, and he doesn’t think they are as influential as Wogan claimed. He said there is no voting system more fair than the current one.
Sir Terry apparently would beg to disagree and has put that BBC chore, which paid him somewhere between £150,000 - £250,000, on the line to emphasize the point.
The first victim in war is truth
…Russia Today reporter quits…
Any one covering conflicts knows the torture of Rudyard Kipling’s famous phrase. Russia and Georgia’s war is torturing the region and the truth. There are several reports of reporters coming under fire. Two Georgian journalists working for the Russian edition of Newsweek have been reported killed.
The European Journalism Center (EJC) is reporting in its Media News (August 11) that Russia Today reporter William Dunbar resigned abruptly while on assignment in Georgia.
“The real news, the real facts of the matter, didn't conform to what they were trying to report, and therefore, they wouldn't let me report it,” said Dunbar to the EJC. “I felt that I had no choice but to resign.”
Russia Today is the Russian State operated international television channel. It has been praised for its reasonably credible job of reporting Russian affairs. Dunbar had reported Russian bombings near the Georgian capital Tbilisi, which Russia Today carried – once.
Moscow’s very credible radio station Ekho Moskvy reports, cited by AP, that two Georgia reporters working for the Russian edition of Newsweek were killed by South Ossetian separatists.
Turkey’s Anatolia news agency reported Sunday that one or more Turkish journalists were wounded when their car came under fire in South Ossetia.
Kommersant reports (August 11) that eight journalists have been injured in the fighting, including several television news crew members and reporters for Georgian newspaper The Messenger. “Mass media hadn’t suffered the losses of that extent even during the first war in Chechnya,” said the headline. (JMH)
Conrad Black’s Wife Blasts Away
It has been a long time coming but Conrad Black’s wife, Barbara Amiel, let it rip in the UK’s Sunday Times with her view of how her husband ended up in jail, blasting supposed friends and taking a few swipes at the judicial system.
One paragraph in her copyright article particularly stands out: “If ostensibly privileged defendants like us can be baselessly smeared, wrongfully deprived, falsely accused, shamelessly persecuted, innocently convicted and grotesquely punished, it doesn’t take much to figure out what happens to the vulnerable and the powerless….”
Or put another way, the lady says her husband is innocent of the charges that sent him to prison for 6 ½ years (no parole in the federal system) meaning he won’t be out until he is 70.
Black’s Hollinger International owned the UK’s national Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph from 1986 to 2004.
Rolling Stone Goes On Permanent Diet
… No, not our Rolling Stone, But Rather The Magazine…
The current economics of the magazine business has finally caught up with Rolling Stone’s girth. Its current large size (10 inches by 11 ¾ inches – 24.4 cms by 29.85 cm) is taking up too much space on magazine racks and today the industry favors US letter size (8 inches by 11 inches – near A4 in Europe).
So come the October 30 issue that large front page picture cover that so many personalities have wanted in their scrapbooks will no longer be so prized.
The bi-weekly magazine is actually more popular than ever with a US circulation of more than 1.4 million. But it has lost some 30% of its newsstand sales since 1999 and the reason seems to be it no longer physically fits in today’s magazine racks that are produced for the more standard size magazine. That means the magazine either gets left off the rack or is hidden away out of prime sight.
The magazine swears it is not a cost-cutting exercise. it is improving the paper stock, improving the binding and adding 16-20 pages to make up for lost space from downsizing.
But will it be the Rolling Stone we grew up with?
Peace radio station closes in Ramallah
…no advertisng…
Radio station RAM FM, founded to promote dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis, has closed, says the JerusalemPost (August 11). An on-air statement cited the “inability to generate sufficient advertising revenues to sustain its ongoing operations.” Israeli authorities shut the Jerusalem studios and transmitter in April over licensing and interference issues leaving only the Ramallah facilities.operating.
RAM FM was initially financed by South African broadcaster Issy Kirsch and began its brief life in February 2007. (See article on the launch here) Its broadcasts ended Thursday (August 7). (JMH)
TV advertising soars in Poland
…”several dozen % discounts”…
Poland’s TV ad market is certainly robust. The rising tide lifts all boats, or most. TVN is taking more. TVP taking less. Polsat holding its own.
Media house Starlink, quoted by Gazeta Prawna (August 8), repeated by Reuters, says Poland’s TV ad spending for the first half 2008 reached €580 million (PLN 1.9 billion), an 18.7% increase over the same period 2007. Q2 grew slightly faster than Q1. Starlink’s calculation considered broadcaster discounts and rebates to advertisers of “several dozen percent.”
The TVN group of free-to-air and cable channels took nearly 35% of all TV ad spending, €203 million (PLN 664 million), a 27% increase against the first half 2007. Public TV TVP’s channels received €180 million (PLN 589 million), less than 5% increase. Polsat took €156 million (PLN 510 million), up 21.6%, despite winning 16 to 49 year olds in the Q2 Nielsen AGB survey.
Polsat benefited from Euro 2008 football championships, according to Nielsen AGB, which estimated spending at €24 million (PLN 80 million). After ‘discounts,’ said Gazeta Prawna, the net was about €14 million (PLN 45 million).
July revenue figures were also released (August 8) by TNS OBOP, discounts not considered. Polsat ranked first with €37 million (PLN 121 million), up 23.5 % year on year. TVN ranked second with €33 million (PLN 109), up 7.9 % and TVP 1 and 2 combined ranked 3rd with €32 million (PLN 104.5 million), down 31%. But don’t forget those discounts.
Television in Poland has been upside down in recent months: News Corp cutting Polsat's news programming, the government complaining about TVP and TVN doing deals. (JMH)
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