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For decades the happy advertising people have rallied behind single-source measurement. The dream has been for one unified system of counting media users across every platform. Effectively, this would create a pricing standard - not to forget rankings - for any media with ads. The advertising people called the tune because they controlled the money. The digital age made the realization more complicated, privacy concerns continue to rage.
Advertisers, broadcasters and publishers, digital and otherwise, in Spain agreed earlier this year on a new measurement plan. Big market research provider GfK received the contract. This week (October 19) GfK clarified its plan to roll-out the new digital measurement service by the first of next year. “There will be a total change in the measurement that was known up to now,” said the GfK statement to Spanish media news portal Dircomfidential (October 21). “There will be a before and after.” (See more about media in Spain here)
“The call for this contest was a good decision because there was too much disappointment with the current measurement,” said GfK Digital Solutions director David Sanchez. “We have chosen to select a very innovative and pioneering methodology and we are being able to attract the interest of the industry, precisely because it has been the industry that has decided that this should be the form of measurement.” (See more about media measurement here)
Alas, the measurement circus continues. GfK replaced comScore as the lead measurement technology provider in Spain. That does not mean comScore has given up. They announced a new digital measurement solution - Privacy-Preserving Cross-Media Audience Measurement (PXM) - to roll-out across Europe in 2023. The PXM technology from comScore is supported by big media buyer Kantar Media and Spanish cable TV giant Telefonica and rolled-out this week (October 21) in Italy.
Norwegian online news portal Bodø Nu applied last year for a state subsidy allowed to news and current affairs media. It had not before applied but bad economics had taken a toll. Appropriate paperwork was transmitted to the Norwegian Media Authority (Medietilsynet). The application was rejected.
Bodø Nu serves the community of Bodø, just north of the Artic Circle. It’s on the water, there’s a beach, which attracts people during the reasonably warm mid-summer days. The Royal Norwegian Air Force has a major base near there. Bodø Nu is primarily an online news portal with a monthly printed supplement. It has been publishing since 2002. (See more about media in Norway here)
The Media Authority has offered support to publishers, directly or indirectly, for several years. The 2021 production support grant was increased about 3% to NOK 370 million, about €39 million. There were 155 applicants. Grants are intended for markets “too small to be sustainable” and those publishers offering “alternatives to the leading media in major markets.” (See more about media support here)
The media support application from Bodø Nu was rejected due to “excess profits” in 2019, the year it was acquired by publishing group Amedia. Bodø Nu believed this filing discrepancy qualified for an exemption and filed an appeal. The Appeals Bureau agreed, generally, and sent to application back to the Media Authority, saying “the decision is thus invalid,” noted Norwegian media portal Journalisten (October 18).
“We hope the committee also looks at how things have changed after the coronavirus, and that the profit we got in 2019 had nothing to do with operations,” said Bodø Nu production director Ståle Pettersen. “We are in an even tougher competitive situation, and the coronavirus has led to two tough years. If we are to be a real challenger and competitor, we depend on support that enables us to take important development steps.” Bodø Nu has applied for a 2021 grant.
Russian media regulator and indomitable enforcer Roskomnadzor alleges that independent TV channel TV Dozhd violated disclosure requirements in the infamous “foreign agents” rule, reported Meduza (October 14). The< channel’s founder/chief executive Natalia Sindeeva and chief editor Tikhon Dzyadko have been ordered to appear this week. News reports on TV Dozhd, said the complaint, failed to mention that opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has been designated a “foreign agent.”
The Russian Justice Ministry added TV Dozhd, also known as TV Rain, to the “foreign agents” list in August along with Latvia-based news portal iStories (Vazhnye Istorii) and seven media workers. Coincident with Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta founder/chief editor Dmitry Muratov receiving (October 8) the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize - jointly with Philippines news portal Rappler chief executive Maria Ressa - nine more names were added, including investigative reporting group Bellingcat and several BBC Russian and RFE/RL reporters. News portals Rosbalt and Republic joined the list last week, noted Moscow Times (October 18). (See more about media in the Russian Federation here)
The “foreign agents” law has been on the books for nearly a decade targeting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) receiving funding from outside the Russian Federation. It has been amended several times to include media organizations and human rights groups as “undesirable organizations.” Several individuals have been added to the list, now so long it is something of badge of courage among those on it.
Certain to bolster the TV Dozhd story - and off-put Russian officials - is a documentary film making the rounds: F@ck this job. It premiered in Moscow at Artdocfest last April and will, reportedly, have an international opening at the Warsaw International Film Festival, followed by screening at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and on to DOC NYC next month. The documentary, centered on Natalia Sindeeva, was produced by former TV Dozhd producer Vera Krichevskaya. The title comes “from an unguarded comment by a correspondent caught on tape during a 2014 gun fight in Kiev,” noted film news portal Modern Times Review (October 12).
Media support gained certain traction in recent times. Better stated, the idea of media support became a talking point for publishers stressed by everything from coronavirus lockdowns and disappearing advertising revenues to the vast consumer shift to mobile media and, recently, paywall panic. Journalism support groups joined the panic as newsroom employment diminished, not to forget professional status drifting lower. Tapping friendly politicians for a bit of cash seemed to be the answer.
Most every country so inclined has seem proposals to support news media outlets in some way or another. Those not inclined just turn the problem over to the biggest publishers or, failing everything else, private equity. The Portuguese Journalists Union (Sindicato dos Jornalistas - SJ) has expressed regrets that the state budget of next year “completely ignores the difficulties of the media,” said a statement quoted by Portuguese media portal Meios & Publicidad (October 15). "The communications sector has had no direct support during the pandemic.” (See more about media in Portugal here)
The SJ had proposed a €20 per household voucher for newspaper and magazine subscriptions or purchase, a VAT (value added tax) discount for media products and access support for people under 18 years. Instead, a €15 million boost in institutional advertising was offered. This “demonstrates the indifference of the political and executive power to the difficulties of the sector.” (See more about media support here)
Debate in the National Assembly on the budget package, including media support, will take place over the next two week with a final vote expected at the end of November. The SJ also recently expressed “great concern” about violence toward news reporters and crews by anti-vaccination rioters.
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