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Money is just as hard to find this week as it was a hundred weeks ago, or even a thousand. It’s still a problem. News publishers have long expected Google and Facebook to fix it.
When media buyers realized there was more bang from the digital buck, so to speak, publishers built that wall, the paywall. News consumers did the expected; climbing over, running around. The werwolves of publishing howled deep into the night, waking the lawyers, rousing sympathetic politicians.
The titans of digital technology responded like picnickers annoyed by small insects. Swat. Send them a little money, they’ll get over it. They also made clear the limits of their largess: set up a paywall and you’ll disappear, pass a law and your country will disappear, hands off our algorithms. (See more about online news here)
A couple of recently reported innovations on the technology side should not be confused for acquiescence or a softening of heart. Facebook, reports the Wall Street Journal (June 12), is developing a mobile app feature that will prompt users to buy subscriptions to online news outlets behind a paywall. Details are scant but apparently preference will be given to soft or metered paywall sites, hard paywalls left in the dark. (See more about social media here)
Media/tech watchers are sceptical. Matthew Ingram at Fortune (June 13) referred to it - as others have seen the relationship between Facebook and publishers - as a Faustian bargain. Publishers gain access to those 1.8 billion Facebook users but no control and, likely, little money. “Building your business… on someone else's land can have very real consequences.”
Reporters have varying degrees of access to legislators in the great halls of democratic deliberation. Politicians, typically, learn to face questions and cameras with grace if not always charm. It’s all part of the job, the Fourth Estate seen as essential to informing the public.
There was, last December, an episode in Warsaw, Poland quite telling in the devolution of press and media freedom. Reporters were banned from roaming halls of the Polish parliament by the ruling nativist/populist Law and Justice Party (PiS). (See more about the incident in Poland here) After protests inside the parliament building, PiS deputies scampered away to hold a budget vote in secret and, thereafter, fled the scene through a side door. Two days of street protests broke out. The ban was rescinded.
Fast forward to this week; different country, same tactic. TV news crews covering the US Congress were told to stop recording video of Senators in the hallways. The new rule, according to the Washington Post (June 13), came from the Senate Rules Committee, controlled by the nativist/populist Republican Party. “Collectively, the press following Senators have become large and aggressive,” said an official. (See more about press freedom here)
TV news outlets went public with complaints about the restrictions and, within hours, the Senate Rules Committee relented, blaming miscommunication. “A lot of people have complained, said the press gets in their way in aggressiveness. Fine, that’s part of the deal,” said Senate Rules Committee chairman Richard Shelby, quoted by the McClatchy DC bureau (June 13). “I told them to stand down.”
Rather abruptly the management of Russian State TV channel Russia K, also known as TV Kultura, dismissed a significant part of its workforce reported RBC, Vedomosti and republic.ru (June 9). Various details were given, all anonymously, from 200 to 300 people let go, many being “older” and relocating the channel’s operations to smaller facilities. The culture and arts channel is operated by State broadcaster VGTRK and was launched in 1997.
Those coming forward to inquisitive reporters told of employees being “informed” in March that jobs would be reduced. “A line formed at the personnel department,” said one. “Many of the dismissed employees worked on the TV channel for more than 15 years, almost all reduced to pensioners.” The staff cuts were on order from VGTRK, they were told by the personnel department, which did not share the specific order. And there would be a second wave of dismissals later this year. As all this was initially reported neither VGTRK nor TV Kultura spokespeople had anything to say. (See more about media in Russia here)
But after a restive weekend, TV Kultura director Sergei Shumakov, not to be confused with the hockey player of the same name, spoke up to Kommersant (June 13). The precise number of employees shown the door, he said, is 114, earlier reports were exaggerations. “Such reductions would mean a complete stop to to the broadcast. Anyway, some of the staff were able to arrange transfers.”
But, indeed, TV Kultura is undergoing digital transformation, he said, specifically to high definition (HD). "Modernization involves downsizing. We will have to free ourselves from many duplicative functions.” Those dismissed "due to age or professional qualities do not meet the requirements of the channel’s staff today.”
TV Kutura’s current annual budget is RUB 23 billion, roughly €36 million. Among notable cultural productions is the annual International Tchaikovsky Festival. VGTRK (All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company) operates a dozen national TV channels and about 90 regional channels as well as five national radio channels. Its annual budget is about RUB 78 billion.
There are different tracks for media operators and many factors influencing them. Where online media, particularly in ad spending, grows more slowly the television business powers ahead. This has, if anything, provided a financial cushion to cut debt and, cautiously, expand.
Bulgaria’s primary commercial TV companies - CME-owned bTV Media and MTG-owned Nova - have recently reported positive financial results for 2016, according to business news portal capital.bg (June 9). This good news - revenues and profits up, comes from a bump in ad spending from last year’s election campaign and an upturn in ad rates. “According to our estimates for the first half of 2017, the price per rating point has increased 5% to 10%,” said Argent Bulgaria media director Simona Tencheva. “We’re expecting TV prices to continue to rise slowly and steadily.” (See more about media in Bulgaria here)
Also increasing are carriage fees, benefiting TV operators dependent on cable and satellite distribution. This includes Fox Networks, HBO and Discovery Channels, all of which have added channels, including video on demand, and local production. “This is fully in line with global trends,” said HBO Bulgaria general manager Dimitar Neykov,” namely viewing content anywhere determined by evolving consumer attitudes in recent years.
Widely reported speculation in April of MTG (Modern Times Group) exiting the Bulgarian market, in keeping with a wider strategy oriented toward new media and production, was discounted by Nova Televizia chief executive Didier Stoessel, reported Bulgarian news portal vesti.bg (June 11). “There is no deal. It's speculation. Let it be clear. What happened was that (Swedish financial news outlets) picked apples and oranges and made chopped salad. I have an extremely loyal partner and owner in MTG. If anything happens someday, I'm sure they will tell me.”
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