March 20, 2007 in hope for the future, industry news
The Business Beat
Online ads don’t generate the money that print ads do, but ever so slowly, newspapers with a strong Web brand are starting to produce countable cash. Some newspapers are even getting close to offsetting print ad losses with increases in online ads.
Here’s some good news from the NAA.
March 20, 2007 in industry news
The Business Beat
There’s no shortage of doomsayers for the newspaper biz, but some pessimists have more authority than others. The Morton-Groves Newspaper Newsletter has dispensed business sense to the newspaper industry with great success since 1976. In their last newsletter, the authors warn that big newspapers are in big trouble, but small newspapers still have time to stake their local brand. Online.
Many newspapers in the largest markets already “have passed the point of opportunity†to save themselves, says the Morton-Groves Newspaper Newsletter in its farewell edition. “For those who have not made the transition [by now], technology and market factors may be too strong to enable success.â€
Bryan Murley forwarded this post from Alan Mutter, a man who fears newspapers are going the way of the dinosaur.
March 20, 2007 in Academics, career talk, industry news, Multimedia views
The Business Beat
New York
“Want a promising career in media? Get digital. Want to hand me five clips and expect a good job? I won’t even talk to you.” ………Paul Conley
I promise to stop whipping this dead horse as soon as more students and advisers start to hear what we are being told by those in the profession.
Friday’s “new” media sessions in New York were incredible. The only disappointment was the number of students and advisers who didn’t darken the Roosevelt Ballroom door. Attendance was sparse with the exception of the keynoters.
This was an all-star lineup.
Joe McDonald, Executive News Editor, The Journal News
Vivial Schiller, Senior VP and GM, NYTimes.com
Mark Whitaker, VP of Washington Post and Newsweek Interactive
Andrew DeVigal, Editor of Multimedia, NY Times
Jason Levine, International Adobe Evangelist
David Cohn, Editor, NewAssignment.net
Paul Conley, Paul Conley Associates (consultant to B2B publishers)
We listened to each of them and interviewed five (didn’t get a one on one with Ms. Schiller) and heard what they had to say about college students and “new” media.
* A new skills set is demanded for the best jobs and for leadership positions.
* The days of five clips getting a student a good job are over at major media outlets.
* The best jobs out there require a strong knowledge of journalism and technology.
* A digital portfolio will become commonplace.
* Students who can shoot photos, video, collect audio, edit and post to the Web will have employers knocking on their door.
* Students must have a better sense of the economics and business of media.
* Media must embrace the computer science/engineering and business disciplines.
* Every student should be a serious blogger.
* The pace of change is quickening.
* New media is not a fad, but a fact.
* Entrepreneurship in media is needed desperately.
* Marketing, advertising and PR are way ahead of journalism in adopting innovation.
We would like to express our gratitude to each of the speakers. Y’all were informing, educating and entertaining.
March 13, 2007 in industry news
The Project for Excellence in Journalism issued a State of the News report showing a continuing decline and fragmentation of audience in all media including the Web. Tom Rosenstiel, director of the project says good journalism is at risk.
While that is often leading to richer experiences for consumers of the news, the challenge for the journalism business is finding a new economic model to support itself. The old model of advertising in newspapers and on television is less successful on the Internet, where people expect to get their news for free. Rosenstiel says that journalism needs more risk takers to lead the way into the future.
A great converstation on NPR’s Talk of the Nation. It’s worth a listen.
March 12, 2007 in General Media, industry news
The Business Beat
A good journalism professor once told me that comparing and constrasting can be useful tools in telling a story to an audience. Some may argue that comparing Google to news/information companies is apples and oranges, but each of the following companies mainly sells advertising to generate revenue.
The New York Times Company publishes The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and 15 other daily newspapers, owns (is selling) nine television stations and two New York radio stations; and has approximately 35 Web sites.
Established 1851
$3.3 billion revenue in ’06
$(543) million income ’06
$721 million long term debt ’06
11,585 employees
The E. W. Scripps Company is a diverse media concern with interests in national lifestyle cable networks, newspaper publishing, broadcast television stations, electronic commerce, interactive media, and licensing and syndication.
Established 1878
$2.5 billion revenue ’06
$353 million income ’06
$766 million long term debt ’06
9,000 employees
Gannett Co., Inc. is a large diversified news and information company.
Established 1906
$8.0 billion revenue ’06
$1.2 billion income ’06
$5.2 billion long term debt ’06
49,675 employees
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally assessible and useful. Google generates revenue by providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective online advertising that is relevant to the information displayed on any given page.
Established 1998
$10.5 billion in revenues ’06
$3.1 billion income ’06
Zero debt ’06
10,674 employees
While analysts look for revenue growth in the mid-single digits for the three news companies mentioned above, Google could see growth in the 50 – 100 percent range.
Information compiled from MarketWatch, E-Trade and company Web sites.
March 12, 2007 in Censorship
According to the Great Firewall of China web site, our student newspaper, The Daily Mississippian online is banned.
March 7, 2007 in industry news
The Business Beat
The New York Times’ president and CEO, Janet Robinson gave an overview of the Times’ business strategy for ’07 to major investing house, Bear Stearns yesterday in Palm Beach.
These are challenging times in the media space. Yet, when we look at all that the Times Company has achieved over the past two years and what we are positioned to accomplish in 2007 and beyond, we are confident that we are making a successful transition to a new digital era. This enthusiasm is rooted in our demonstrated ability to implement a strategy focused on five areas:
* First, we are enhancing the positions of our strong brands through the introduction of innovative new products and services across media platforms;
* Second, we are aggressively pursuing leadership positions in key content verticals, both in print and online.
* Third, we are building a vibrant long-term innovation capability that helps us anticipate consumer preferences and create ways to satisfy them;
* Fourth, we are continuing to rebalance our portfolio of properties and to exercise financial discipline as we allocate capital for the benefit of our shareholders.
* And fifth, we are increasing our operational efficiency and reducing both fixed and variable costs.
The entire transcript available here.
When you visit our Web sites, you see that blogs are proliferating, video is exploding, and there has been a sharp increase in user generated content. We think our approach allows us to distinguish and preserve the distinctive quality of the reporting of our professional journalists on whom our readers rely and the more expressive range of opinion that informs user-generated content.
March 2, 2007 in industry news
The Business Beat
Advertisers are getting in on the social networking action. Anheuser-Busch is starting a site where they encourage audience members, among other things, to post photos of friends hoisting their brew for the birdie.
In a thought-provoking piece earlier this week, Kyoshi Martinez, a former IU editor, suggested media should stop covering the story of Facebook and start adapting some of the fundamentals of community interaction.
March 2, 2007 in industry news, management
The Business Beat
We conclude our look at Gannett’s business plans with their efforts in broadcasting. In addition to owning 90 daily newspapers, Gannett owns 23 TV stations . In a report to investment bank, Credit Suisse, Roger Ogden, president and CEO of Gannett Broadcasting, talked about the performance and transformation of Gannett television.
* Due mainly to political advertising, odd years mean less revenue, overall ’07 growth will not match ’06
* Broadcasting at Gannett is no longer just broadcasting,”it’s multimedia” with a Web focus
* TV stations will expand local news
* TV stations will expand community programming
* Gannett will repurpose locally generated news stories for other TV programming and online portals
* Online/digital revenue was up 58% in ’06
* Broadcasting sales force is being retrained to better tap online revenue streams
* An unexpected shift is taking place, Â local advertising interest seems to be declining while national advertising interest is increasing
March 1, 2007 in industry news
Business Beat
In today’s Online Media Daily update one of the top headlines is an investment house prediction that online advertising will grow to $60 billion within the next five years. We’re talking double-digit growth for year after year after year. Even if all that guessing pans out, that $60 billion will represent a grand total of 10% of overall advertising. Check it out.
