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CME swaps Ukraine channels
PRO TV irritates politicians
CME (Central European Media Enterprises) owns popular Ukraine channel Studio 1+1. Over the last year the company has consolidated that interest, buying out minority partners. CME has also owned two other channels, Kino and Citi, in partnership with Glavred Media Holdings.
That changed (December 17) as CME traded its interest in Citi to Glavred Media plus $10 million for 100% of Kino. CME president Adrian Sarbu said in a company release the transaction is “crucial to the delivery of our strategy in Ukraine.” Glavred Media owns several print and online publications. (More on CME’s recent executive changes here)
That strategy includes ending the ad sales representation deal with Video International. That deal, in place between Studio 1+1 and Video International since 1995, ends January 1st. Video International is Russia’s biggest sales house with significant footprint in the CIS, and very well connected politically.
CME’s PRO TV Chisinau, which essentially rebroadcasts the Romanian PRO TV channel in Moldova, fell afoul of Moldovan authorities. A week ago (December 11) the Moldovan Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) indicated PRO TV’s license would not be renewed for violating rules on advertising, not providing sign-language in newscasts and rebroadcasting a Bucharest newscast.
PRO TV threatened to sue, the journalists union staged a protest and the stations license became a hot topic in the Moldovan Parliament. In October several members of the Moldovan Parliament complained that PRO TV had broadcast a public affairs program critical of some members of the parliament.
The regulator then cried foul (December 12), charging PRO TV with intimidation, and allowed that PRO TV had a loosely determined period of time in which it could continue operating while applying for a license renewal. (JMH)
Point of view is important
comment on 'News for Nothing'
ftm reader Jim Pickerell comments on business models for news websites, the article posted here:
“News for Nothing: Life on the Web” is a very interesting question. Selling-Stock (www.selling-stock.com) is an example of a very targeted news and commentary source that is sustainable, but not free. Our focus is the stock photography market. Despite all the free material available on the subject, a relatively small group of customers keep coming to us.
We’ve been operating since 1995, first as a supplement to a printed version of the newsletter that came out 6 times a year, and for the last three years exclusively online. We’re not getting rich, but we have enough subscribers to support the effort. We’ve always been skeptical of the advertising model, given our very narrow and focused subject area. Other competitors who have tried to support themselves with advertising have tended not to last long, although in many cases their content was excellent.
For us, our point of view has been important. Other sites often beat us with the “hot” news, but our readers are willing to wait to see what we have to say about the subject. They don’t always agree with us, but they want our perspective and analysis.
One of the advantages is that I’ve been in the stock photo industry for 45 years so I have background in the subject area and some credibility in my analysis.
Long range, I don’t see how the aggregator model is sustainable. There are new sites popping up every day aggregating the same content. My guess is each site will end up getting some small share of the visitors, but none will get enough to keep receiving support from advertisers.
The problem with this model is that advertisers are now able to better gage the number of times their ad is viewed relative to the number of visitors on the site, and the amount of additional revenue generated from a certain number of visits. This additional information, impossible to track nearly as well with printed publications, may be a big reason why advertisers are only willing to pay one-tenth or less for eyeballs online as print circulation. They are finally realizing, and able to measure, how ineffective their advertising really is and valuing it accordingly.
I certainly agree with the last line of the story, “Raising fleeting interest to ‘must know’ is the key to making money with news websites…or any news platform.”
Join in the discussion of business models for news websites on the ftm LinkedIn Group discussion here
So Much For Canada!
A couple of years back Time Magazine closed its Toronto news bureau leaving no full time correspondents in Canada, but it did keep its Canadian issue going and some business operations. But all good things must come to an end, in this case after 60 years, and as part of Time’s most recent cost-cutting exercise the Canadian issue disappears at the end of the year. Seven sales people in Toronto lose their jobs.
Canadian readers and advertisers will now have to make do with Time’s US edition.
Last year when the Washington Post closed its Toronto bureau it marked the end of American newspaper bureaus in Canada. Coverage since for the US market has been left to the news agencies, contract writers, freelancers and “instant experts” parachuted in for specific events.
A Very Merry Christmas For The Bancrofts
Remember how just a year ago the Bancroft family reluctantly accepted $60 a share for Dow Jones. If ever there is an example of a family that must be laughing all the way to the bank it must be the Bancrofts.
Most estimates say that Rupert Murdoch’s $5.6 billion Dow Jones investment is today probably worth less than half, no matter how much he has improved the Wall Street Journal; no matter how many more paying visitors there are to the web site. But Murdoch is famous for taking the long-term view and his News Corp. certainly has the cash to see through the next years of continuing print downturn.
But the Bancrofts proved to the world that when someone offers way over the odds for something you possess that no matter how much you’re tied to that possession that bird in the hand ($60 cash a share) is certainly worth more than sentimentality. And they also proved there is nothing like old-fashioned cash -- News Corp. shares have lost 61% of their value in the past 12 months.
Pakistani Journalist To Be Honored At Event In India
Given the political delicacies between India and Pakistan we found it of note that the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has voted to give its most prestigious press freedom award – the Golden Pen – to a Pakistani editor to be awarded during WAN’s annual convention in India next March.
WAN is honoring Najaam Asethi, Editor-In-Chief of Friday Times and Daily Times in Pakistan, for his defense and promotion of press freedom in what WAN described as “difficult circumstances and constant personal danger.” He has been threatened with death by the Taliban and he has been jailed and beaten for offending the Pakistani government, so he has both sides against him which surely must mean he’s doing something right!
We asked WAN, however, if there was any political message in presenting a Pakistani such an award in India or was it just pure coincidence? “Total coincidence,” replied WAN’s Larry Kilman. “He would have gotten it no matter where the conference would be held.”
So now you know.
Editorial Collaboration in Dallas/Ft. Worth
Last month we talked about how the Dallas Morning News (Belo) and the Ft. Worth Star -Telegram (McClatchy) – fierce rivals in the metroplex in years past – are now co-operating in distributing one another’s newspapers, and they said they were looking at ways editorial could collaborate, too. Well, it seems one editorial area already agreed upon is arts coverage -- to the chagrin of many cultural bodies both papers are now running the same reviews of some events.
The Morning News for instance doesn’t have a visual arts critic, so it is using reviews by that critic for the Star -Telegram; The Star -Telegram doesn’t have a classical music critic so it uses reviews by the Morning News’ music critic.
The problem for the cultural bodies, of course, is that if the review is negative then there is no newspaper alternative and that may bode ill for attendance. Of course, if the review is positive then Hallelujah!
But for the public what it really means is a lessening of available opinion, and that’s never good, but probably an economic sign of what is still to come. This all still begs the question we asked last month – how long will it take before it’s The Dallas-Ft.Worth News Star -Telegram?
MTV and mtv
Peaceful coexistence
Hungarian public television (Magyar Televízió – MTV) sued MTV Music Television, owned by multi-national media company Viacom, for trademark infringement in October 2007. The Budapest Court of Appeals ruled (December 11) that the trademarks for both could mutually coexist.
Magyar Televízió has used ‘MTV’ in its logo for about 50 years but didn’t get around to visiting the Hungarian Patent Office until 1993, two years after the MTV Viacom lawyers. The Patent Office granted MTV Viacom use of upper-case MTV for 20 years. Magyar Televízió was granted use of lower-case mtv until 2013. (Read here about how Magyar Televízió is a starving public broadcaster)
Consumers, said the Appeals Court, wouldn’t be confused. (JMH)
Mr. Pruitt, Here’s How To Make The Miami Herald A True Winner
Mario Garcia is perhaps the foremost newspaper designer. He has transformed newspapers globally so when he offers free advice on how to improve the Miami Herald, a newspaper said to be up for sale although McClatchy won’t confirm it, then one could do worse than take his free advice. So here, taken directly from his blog, are his recommendations and when you finish reading them no doubt you’ll feel it’s a far cry from the rambling advice that Lee Abrams keeps giving to Tribune newspapers.
“If I had the ability to buy The Miami Herald,” Garcia wrote, “I would not think about it twice, then I would do the following:
“Convert it to a compact. A large majority of Miami residents are Latins, who love the smaller-size newspapers. I would make it look and read less like a newspaper from Detroit or Columbus, and concoct a cocktail part cosmo part mojito—-with extra sugar added. Make the headlines bolder and bigger. Use more photos, both big and small, and show the people who live there more, especially the young ones, of which there are many.
“I would take a good look at newspapers such as Folha de Sao Paulo and O Povo(Brazil), Clarin (Argentina), El Pais and Marca (Spain), to get ideas about color and story presentation. I would insist that the advertising department dare be more experimental with ad positioning. I would add young Miami columnists who know the city well, and who can do sort of daily blogs of all that is good and interesting and happening there. I would be aware that to many in the larger Miami area, English is not their first language. I would make attempts to make the newspaper very pictorial, seeking to provide avenues for these new Americans to find their Miami Herald as helpful as I did almost five decades ago.”
One could do a lot worse than follow that advice.
Washington Post Doubles Newsstand Price Within A Year
A year ago the Washington Post was a bargain at 35 cents a newsstand copy. But a lot can happen in a year and Monday its price went up from 50 cents, implemented New Year’s Eve, 2007, to 75 cents – that’s more than double within 12 months.
Major metropolitan newspapers are finding that in spite of price increases at the newsstand their circulation revenue grows even if those buying the newspaper diminish a bit. The accountants seem to have it down to a science how many readers can be lost and yet still make a profit from the newsstand hike.
Mind you, European readers will tell you 75 cents is still a bargain – hard to find a paid-for quality newspaper (as opposed to tabloid) in Europe that’s priced less than a dollar, and they don’t have near as many pages or sections except on a Saturday or Sunday.
From high finance to high tech
Follow the bouncing transmitters
Oesterreichische Rundfunksender (ORS Austrian Broadcasting Services), a joint venture of Austrian public broadcaster Oesterreichische Rundfunk (ORF) and Raiffeisen Group acquired National Unit Radio and Television Systems (NURTS), the broadcast transmitter and tower subsidiary of Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) (December 4).
No sale price was disclosed but ORS indicated it would spend €51 million in digital development. Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) put the broadcast operations unit up for bid last year.
AIG Global Investment, a unit of the troubled US insurance giant AIG, has put BTC up for sale. In August 2007 AIG bought 90% of BTC from Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson’s Novator for €1.4 billion. Novator and Advent International bought BTC in 2004 when the company was originally privatized. Novator later bought out Advent and most other minority investors.
BTC CEO Bernard Moscheni, a mobile phone specialist who joined the company from Belgium’s Mobistar last year, said the company would concentrate on its core fixed and mobile telecom services. In November BTC posted a 40% drop in net operating profit for the first three quarters of 2008.
Broadcast infrastructure companies, particularly in Eastern Europe, were favorites of investment houses during early privatization rounds, with stable and attractive cash flow from broadcaster fees. As analogue to digital switch-over looms large the financial whizzes are ceding to the technical whizzes. ORS has been looking for expansion outside Austria even as parent ORF has fallen on difficult financial times. (Read more on ORF here) The French TDF owns tower and transmitter companies in Hungary and Poland. (JMH)
Elections approach, dictators target media
It's an old story
Yep, it's as predictable as snow forecast for the ski season from the Swiss tourist office, er, SwissMeteo.
Parliamentary elections on Sunday in Turkmenistan equals virtual media blackout. (RFE/RL details here)
AP reports (December 12) little coverage on State media and, interestingly, no billboards. (More on absolute dictators targeting media absolutely here) (JMH)
TV and radio are Poland’s strongest brands
Web portals under water
Six television channels, three radio channels and one newspaper fit the top ten strongest media brands in Poland. TV channel TVN placed first, radio channel RMF FM placed second, switching places on last years’ survey. Gazeta Wyborcza was the only newspaper to reach the top ten.
Polsat was ranked number 3, ahead of Radio Zet. Public television channels TVP1 and TVP2 were ranked 5 and 7, respectively. Radio Eske network placed number 6.
Two other channels of the TVN family are in the top ten; TVN24 and TVN7, ranked 8th and 10th. Gazeta Wyborcza ranked 9th.
The top ranking for a Web portal was 23rd for Onet.pl. Could it be people pay little attention to Web portals as brands?
Brand strength ratings are controversial insofar as they are subjective measures. But, as brand choice is subjective the importance to the brands is significant. And smart advertisers always pay a premium for exposure on strong media brands.
Millward Brown SMG / KRC conducted the brand strength survey with persons 15 years and older for Presspublica with details released this week (December 11). (JMH)
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