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P&G Cuts Q1 Ad Spend by $440 Million.
And yet still got more play because of falling rates
They say that one man’s misery could be another man’s joy so in this story the misery is for the media that saw Procter & Gamble, by far the world’s largest advertiser, cut its global advertising spend by $440 million last quarter. The joy becomes P&G’s because even by cutting its actual spend that much it still ended up with 5% more media presence because of falling rates.
And P&G has let the US TV networks know upfront that it is going to play real hardball in the upfront negotiations that start soon that usually sells around 80% of a network’s ad inventory for the year at rates more advantageous than scatter. Just like the washing machine powder we buy from P&G, the company wants more from the networks for less.
Chairman and CEO A.G. Lafley freely admits that right now it is a buyer’s market and he intends to take full advantage. The company’s goal, he said is to “figure out how to spend a little less money and get a lot more delivery.”
Just what the media needed right now to hear.
Farewell Presstime
With newspapers suffering as they are it only makes sense that their trade organization suffers similarly, but it’s a real loss that the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) has decided it can no longer support its print edition of Presstime. Not only that, but after a cull last year, the organization is now letting go another 39 staffers leaving it with a total of 43. A year ago the number was around 130.
The problem is that major NAA members like Dean Singleton’s Media News are getting rid of all the “nice-to-have” in their budgets and thus out goes the NAA membership. NAA doesn’t give out its membership rate structure, and Media News wasn’t saying, either. NAA says it is reducing rates to hold onto membership and that means that by the beginning of next year it will be collecting about $10 million annually -- about half of what it was getting last year.
Also hurting this year has been poor attendance at its various sponsored trade meetings which usually are good money spinners and pad the budget, but this year attendance at some events has been down by one-half or so.
The NAA says Presstime will continue digitally, although the format has not been decided, but since most of its staff has been fired don’t expect much more than the name! Meanwhile the organization says it will spend less time preparing statistics – the ones that tell us how bad print is doing but how good print and online combined are doing -- and concentrate instead on lobbying which it sees as its main chore.
Local TV channels closing
Fantastic job…now go away
As digital switchover nears completion in Norway, local channels are closing. TVNorge, which has operated several local analogue television channels, is closing them down. Oslo TV will close June 19th.
“The era is over,” said TVNorge spokesperson Eivind Landsverk to Kampanje (May 4). Oslo TV took to the air in March 2003.
Last month, publisher A-pressen closed TVNordland. Chairman Per B. Brochmann said the employees had “done a fantastic job.” (JMH)
Warming up for Eurovision
Contestants arriving
It is only ten short days until the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) finals. As excitement mounts the Eurovision producers are no doubt expecting the unexpected. And, it’s starting. (See more on the Eurovision Song Contest here)
Russian border guards briefly detained Latvia’s contestant Intars Busulis traveling from Riga to Moscow by train, reported Telekritica (May 5). After a bit of confusion over travel documents and a phone call to ESC officials in Moscow, he was free to go… by taxi. The border guards apologized and promised to vote for him. It was feared that Lativan public broadcasting might be forced to withdraw from the contest for financial reasons. Busulis will perform in Russian.
Gay rights activists in Moscow have vowed to hold a gay-pride parade on May 16th to coincide with the ESC finals, reported the Moscow Times (May 5). Moscow authorities have steadfastly refused permission. “As guests in Moscow, said the ESC spokesperson, “we feel obliged to organize the event within the limits of local law. If organizers of other events decide differently, that is up to their judgment.”
Georgia withdrew its contestant after ESC officials told them to change their tune. And so the Georgians are holding their own contest, they say, during the same week. Sounding a bit bitter, a Georgian public television spokesperson said, “Eurovision is about bureaucratic control and censorship.”
So, contestants and their crews are arriving in Moscow, driven place to place in special decked out buses. (JMH)
Sorry Our Newspaper Was So Bad!
It’s actually a pretty canny idea. If you’re the new owner of a 181-year-old newspaper that has steadily been losing readers, then why not come right out and tell your readers “Sorry” for all the past mistakes of previous management but we’re under new ownership now and that’s all going to change. Would you at least take a look at what they’re up to?
That’s what London’s Evening Standard is now up to. Research said the newspaper under previous management (Daily Mail and General Trust) had turned too negative so the new print campaign says “sorry” for being negative, complacent and predictable, for taking Londoners for granted, and for losing touch.
The Standard is now owned by Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB man in his younger days. A former communist teaching capitalists a thing or two about advertising and promotion – who would have believed?
Here’s A Deal You Would Never Have Put Money On Happening!
TV local news has to be about as competitive business as any, so how many of you out there can believe that four of the top five local Chicago TV stations are establishing a locally run local video news service so the stations can pool coverage of non-exclusive events? That means when the mayor holds a news conference, there’ll be a lot less camera crews there with those four stations having access to what the one pool camera crew provides. Not clear exactly how they will handle on-the-spot stand-ups. WLS, the market’s number one station, is not participating and wouldn’t you love to be one of their marketing folk promoting that fact.
The spin from the stations is that this will free up camera crews to go work on exclusive coverage elsewhere. Employees aren’t so sure – maybe it will just plain mean a need for less camera crews in Chicago?
Media executives have been saying for a year or so now that deals that would never have been contemplated in the “good old days” are now being implemented. This is as good an example as any of that.
Would You Have Insisted On Cash Up-Front For Chrysler Ads?
If you think a business that advertises on your radio or TV station could be nearing bankruptcy would you accept additional spots without up-front cash? In light of the Chrysler bankruptcy filing are there stations out there still accepting GM ads without the up-front money?
Look at the list of Chrysler’s unsecured creditors and BBDO of Detroit is second, owed $58.055 million. But it appears it is not BBDO holding the can, rather it is the local stations on which it placed Chrysler ads.
The way it works is if the media agency hasn’t been paid for ad placements then the stations have to go after the advertiser directly; it’s a different matter if the agency has received the money for then the station can go after the agency.
For reasons rather easy to understand the media sellers don’t like that system too much and think the agency should hold some financial responsibility for placing the ad on behalf of the advertiser. And for obvious reasons the agencies disagree.
Meanwhile, would you accept GM ads without the money paid up-front?
A Second US Supreme Court Ruling Dumps On Press Freedom
When the US Supreme Court rains on press freedom it usually pours and sure enough now it is two weeks in a row the court has dumped on press freedom.
Last week it was the expletive row, ruling ok the FCC’s administrative policies in fining TV networks when personalities at live events uttered the “F” word, and now this week the court has ruled in a similar administrative policy decision that an Appeals Court should reconsider its decision that set aside a $550,000 fine against CBS for showing 9/16ths of one second of a Janet Jackson breast because of a “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.
Both cases really hinged on administrative practices by the FCC and whether the Commission had acted arbitrarily in setting its fines. The court has ruled that administratively the FCC’s actions were ok – the next round, therefore, is to attack the issues based on real press freedom issues, and the Court hinted in last week’s ruling that there the media could well be on stronger ground.
But how many years will that take to grind its way through the court system?
Another Eurovision host change
‘dream’ job for the new guy
We’re only days away from the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow and another broadcaster is changing host. Peter Urban, the color commentator for Germany’s ARD at Eurovision since 1997, will not be making the trip to Moscow for health reasons, said ARD (May 4). NDR host Tim Frühling will replace Urban. (More on the Eurovision Song Contest here)
Frühling said hosting the Eurovision Song Contest telecast is a “*childhood dream.”
The BBC’s long standing (seated and suffering) Eurovision commentator Terry Wogan retired from the program last year. (JMH)
Quote of the Week – the real reason newspapers are in deep do-do
Fleecing for decades
“Advertisers have finally figured out that newspapers, in collusion with clueless marketers and unscrupulous ad execs, have been fleecing them for decades.”
Geoffrey James, BNET, April 29, 2009 (from Jim Carnegie Radio Business Report) (JMH)
Broadcaster offers employees cash
Limited time only
Poland’s public television broadcaster TVP has been desperate to cull its workforce. There are other issues, like who is exactly in charge, but that’s quite complicated. TVP plans to offer employees cash to quit. Unions are, unsurprisingly, less than impressed.
The six weeks program, to begin May 15th according to the TVP website, offers a sliding scale for voluntary redundancies. Six months compensation will be offered to those who quite in the first two weeks of the redundancy program, 5 months compensation in the second 2 weeks, then 4 months compensation in the last 2 weeks. The cash compensation will also be offered to employees entitled to take retirement. TVP has about 4 thousand 500 full-time and 8 thousand part-time employees. (More on media in Poland here)
Union representative called the plan “unjust and unjustified.” (JMH)
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