MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST APRIL 14: BBC WORLDWIDE IN CAMBODIA; STARHUB FINE FOR LESBIAN KISSING
April 14th 2008 08:21
RETURN OF MEDIABLAB
MediaBlab is back online after three week’s down time due to technical difficulties in new headquarters at Siem Reap, Cambodia. Uninterrupted service is now expected.
SINGAPORE’S SUNDAY TIMES UNDERGOES ‘SNAZZY’ REVAMP AND MAKE OVER
The Sunday Times in Singapore unveiled its new redesign on April 6, self-described as "snazzy, stylish, modern," by its sister daily title The Straits Times.
Sunday Times editor Sumiko Tan told Editor’s Weblog that, “The last redesign of The Sunday Times was in September 2003. It was a major one which saw the introduction of a Page 1 poster, a more leisurely lifestyle slant in the main section, and the introduction of quirky names like Think, Talk, Taste, Pulse."
Other changes in content include more stories on Page 1 thanks to a more flexible Page 1 design; removal of the giant poster blurb and the introduction of blurbs which occupy a smaller space; the introduction of Special Reports in the news pages, which are investigative pieces on topical issues.
The graphic redesign was based on ‘simplify and streamline’ guiding principles – one font family to ensure harmony; one color for each section with uniform washes; standardising of elements across sections; eliminating fussy details like dashes in quote attribution; more movement and interactivity in inside pages with graphics, etch outs for secondary pictures.
The paper polled about 150 people to receive their feedback on the paper, which has been reportedly positive, including comments such as "Magazine-styled blurbs on the front page makes it very easy for people to access the stories they want."
THAILAND AD SPEND DROPS IN FIRST QUARTER PARTLY DUE TO MOURNING PERIOD FOR DEATH OF PRINCESS
Nielsen Media Research (Thailand) reports that total ad spend in Thailand in the first quarter drooped by 3.67 percent, to Baht 20.6 million baht (A$7 million)
According to the Bangkok Post, the mourning period for the late Princess Galyani Vadhana was one reason advertisers slowed spending.
Also, the beginning of the year was an off-peak period due to heavy spending in the final quarter of 2006, the peak shopping period.
Spending on Thai TV, accounting for nearly a third of the total ad spend, dropped by 7.6 percent to Baht 11.7 million.
This in part reflected the end of commercials ion TITV , which is now the public broadcaster Thai PBS.
But radio ad spend was up, increasing by 11 percent to baht 1.5 million.
Also bucking the trend in the west was an ad spend gain in newspapers, which rose 1.2 percent to Baht 3.65 million.
The Bangkok Post said that media buyers predicted ads spend would increase in the second quarter, and improvement was already shown in March.
STARHUB COPS FINE FOR KISSING LESBIANS AD IN SINGAPORE
Reuters reports that a Singaporean TV advertisement featuring two women kissing has landed a hefty fine for the cable operator for breaching guidelines on sexuality in Singapore.
On Wednesday, Singapore’s Media development Authority said it had fined StarHub $US7,246 for airing the commercial that featured “romanticised scenes” of lesbians kissing.
The scene was part of a music video for the song Silly Child by Mandarin singer, Olivia Yan.
Reuters and media outlets were quick to tag Singapore as a “conservative city-state” for imposing this fine, but if a similar ad was aired in the west, especially in the US and Australia, it would create a brouhaha. But legislation would probably mean the as would never make it to air in the first place.
HONG KONG PUBLISHER LAUNCHES IN-FERRY UPSCALE MAG TO WOO RICH CHINESE MAINLANDERS
Despite the human rights furore besmirching the image of China, the chase for the big upscale mainland China bucks continues, with Marketing reporting that Hong Kong’s Star Harvest Holdings will launch an in-ferry magazine called Do it in July.
This will be aimed at high rollers and tourists from mainland China, and Pure Media has been appointed as the exclusive sales representative for the Chinese-language bi-monthly magazine that will be distributed in First ferries and the VIP lounge at the Macao Pier.
The magazine will naturally target luxury advertisers from fashion, jewellery, watches to premium liquors, and will have a pass-along circulation of two million readers and a print run of 45, 000 copies.
Do it will contain the usual range of content from fine dining, spa treatments, property, night life to profiles on movers and shakers.
NEW GROUP CHIEF EXEC FOR THE ECONOMIST
The Economist publisher and managing director Andrew Rashbass will take over from Helen Alexander as group chief executive when Alexander steps down from her role in July, according to Media Asia.
Alexander will remain as non-executive director of Centrica plc and Rolls-Royce group plc and will act as adviser to private equity firm Bain Capital.
Alexander, who has been chief executive of The Economist Group since 1997, commented that she was pleased to be leaving at a time when the company was “in better shape than ever”, and that it was “the right time to move on”.
STAFF AT FRANCE’S LE MONDE ON STRIKE TODAY OVER SAVAGE JOB CUT PLANS
The Guardian reports that staff at Le Monde, France's newspaper of record, will go on strike today to protest against savage job cutting plans, threatening publication of the paper for only the second time in its 64-year history.
Le Monde's management announced last week that 130 jobs would be axed, including two-thirds in the newsroom, which represents one in four journalists.
The drastic cuts are part of plans to turn around the loss-making paper.
The 24-hour strike today over job cuts could mean that Le Monde's Tuesday edition does not reach newsstands.
Le Monde has been in crisis for several years. The paper had a daily circulation of about 358,000 copies in 2007, down from 398,000 in 2003.
It lost euro15 million (A$25 million) in 2007, has not made a profit in seven years, and has accumulates losses of euro150 million.
Le Monde's plight reflects difficulties faced by the French press in general, with overall circulation and profits in decline.
Meanwhile, the International Herald Tribune reports that advertising on French public television could be phased out from 2009 to the end of 2011, according to a special commission set up by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Public broadcasters fear that an end to the advertisements could limit their resources, but Sarkozy has suggested taxes on ads on private television and new media like the Internet would compensate for the shortfall.
THE INTERNET IS THE NEW FAX IN TERMS OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM ACCORDING TO MURDOCH BOOK
Much has been made recently about the role of ‘citizen journalists’ using new technology such as email and video clips on YouTube etc to bring into the open the unrest in Tibet.
The same was said about the unrest and the uprising of the monks in Myanmar last September.
But interestingly, in the recently published book ‘Rupert’s Adventures in China,’ author Bruce Dover draws comparison to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China when protestors used different, and now almost out-dated, technology to achieve the same effect.
Dover wrote, “China’s student led democracy movement in 1989 was in fact largely orchestrated by fax machine. The protestors used the fax machines to circumvent the normal telephone lines, which were being closely monitored by the Chinese security forces, to coordinate the activities of the democracy movement….
“Overseas supporters of the protest movement also used fax machines to send news of how the Western media was reporting events, which greatly buoyed the spirits and enthusiasm of the student leaders, and encouraged them to continue with their struggle.
“So concerned was the Chinese leadership with the perceived role of the ubiquitous fax machine that on June 4, 1989, the day the government troops entered Tiananmen Square to end the democracy movement, it attempted to deploy monitors at every fax machine in China to intercept foreign reports about the events – albeit without much success.”
But Dover also pointed out that it was live television news coverage that “really rattled Beijing’s ruling elite.”
In 1993 Murdoch himself unwittingly further alarmed the Chinese in a speech in which he alluded to George Orwell, saying that Orwell had got it wrong. Mass communications technology was not in fact a totalitarian means of subordinating the individual, but a liberator.
BBC WORLDWIDE LAUNCHES NEW FM SERVICE AND A NEW PARTNERSHIP IN CAMBODIA
The international media push in rapidly-developing Cambodia continues, with the BBC World Service launching a new FM service and a new radio partnership in the kingdom.
On Thursday April 3 the British Ambassador David Reader signed for the launch of BBC 99.25 FM in the second-largest city, Siem Reap, which will broadcast the BBC’s radio programs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The BBC is also celebrating a new radio partnership with Love 97.5 FM which is now broadcasting the best of BBC World Service programming.
Neil Curry, regional business development manager for Asia and the Pacific region, BBC World Service said, “We are delighted to be launching the BBC 99.25 FM station in Siem Reap which means BBC programmes can now be heard in crystal clear quality all day, each day of the week.
“I am also thrilled with our new partnership with Love 97.5 FM. It’s an exciting FM and its listeners will now have a chance to enjoy BBC programmes.”
Listeners of the newly launched BBC 99.25 FM and new partner station Love 97.5 FM can enjoy a broad mix of BBC programming in English ranging from news and current affairs to sports and culture.
Highlights include Newshour, which is 60 minutes of news and analysis of the day's top stories, and the interactive global news programme World Have Your Say, giving listeners an opportunity to share their views and questions on topical issues.
For sports fans the BBC has daily hourly updates in news bulletins and Sports Round Up. Cricket enthusiasts can follow the latest in World Cricket while football supporters can tune into World Football or for the latest in UK football Inside the Premier League.
BBC programming also taps into the world’s cultural scene including the global music program The Beat, and the latest stories from the world of film, TV and video games in On Screen. Culture Shock looks at trends in cultural expression and Top of the Pops brings the best from the UK album and singles charts,
The launch of BBC 99.25 FM and the new partnership with Love 97.5 FM complements the current BBC 100 FM relay broadcasting throughout Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
The BBC World Service launched its Siem Reap operation in the same week that the part-Australian owned company, Post Media Co Ltd, publisher of the English-language Phnom Penh Post, opened its Siem Reap bureau.
The company will publish the now-fortnightly newspaper as a daily, starting late in the second quarter of this year. The company’s plan to go daily with the newspaper has been delayed due to problems shipping a printing press to Cambodia.
NEWS CORP AND MICROSOFT PUTATIVE BID FOR YAHOO WIDELY REPORTED
News that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is in talks with Microsoft about joining in its contested bid for Yahoo has been widely reported internationally.
According to the International Herald Tribute, the combination, which would join Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and News Corp's MySpace, would “create a behemoth that would upend the internet landscape. The talks are a surprising twist in the two-month-long takeover story that began when Microsoft made a US$44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. Yahoo has resisted Microsoft's overtures, contending that it will not negotiate unless Microsoft raises its offer.
Yahoo has been in a desperate search for white knights, negotiating with Time Warner's AOL and News Corp. If News Corp. throws its weight behind Microsoft's offer, that could allow Microsoft to raise its bid, putting even more pressure on Yahoo and its shareholders.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that a company founded by Rupert Murdoch's daughter will help News Corp's MySpace distribute web shows on television and DVDs outside the US, as the world's largest social network seeks an audience away from the computer.
The move is a play to make shows such as MySpaceTV's Quarterlife or Roommates available outside of the US, said Travis Katz, managing director of MySpace's international arm.
The partnership with ShineReveille, the distribution arm of Elisabeth Murdoch-founded Shine Group, is one of News Corp's most ambitious moves to underscore MySpace as a media platform, distinguishing itself from fast-moving rival Facebook.
Earlier in the month, MySpace announced a deal with three big music companies to start an online music service, seen as a rival to Apple Inc's popular digital entertainment service iTunes.
SOUTH AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION RULES THAT FORUM OF BLACK JOURNALISTS DISCRIMINATED AGAINST WHITE JOURNALISTS
The South African Human Rights Commission determined last week that the Forum of Black Journalists' blanket exclusion of white journalists from its membership amounted to unfair discrimination and was therefore against the Constitution.
Sowetan reported that the essence of the complaint was that the Forum of Black Journalists unfairly discriminated against white journalists by excluding them from its membership and activities.
The complaint followed an incident in which the Forum of Black Journalists' excluded white journalists from its re-launch, which was addressed by ANC president Jacob Zuma. The Forum of Black Journalists' sent out invitations to black journalists only. The event was for its members or potential members who are black.
The forum argued that it had the constitutional right to exist and organise black people with the objective of confronting the realities of racial discrimination that they continue to face in the media industry, 14 years into democracy.
THE WEST’S LAUDING OF NAZI PROPAGANDIST LENI RIEFENSTAHL IS A DANGEROUS GAME, ACCORDING TO CHINA DAILY EDITORIAL
China seems to be hitting back on all fronts, following the bagging it’s been getting in the West over the Olympic torch demonstrations. MediaBlab isn’t sure what exactly prompted this attack in a China Daily editorial on Saturday.
But the editorial, headlined ‘Shame On the Ways of the West,” pilloried the apparent glorification of Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda documentaries
Some excerpts:
“Strange are the ways of the West. Artists and writers do not become famous for their creations alone. Many other factors - politics, for instance - play a significant role in determining their fate. But no politics can justify the way Leni Riefenstahl is being hoisted into the documentary filmmakers' hall of fame.
“That the Nazi activist was a good filmmaker was never in doubt. There was never any doubt either about the innovative and creative superiority of many of her contemporaries and later generation directors. That is precisely what makes the West's tinted view of such artists a real tragedy.
“Unfortunately, despite their versatility and pioneering contributions to the performing arts, Dziga Vertov is still the eccentric Russian with a camera and Joris Ivens is still the communist filmmaker. Unfortunately still, Sergei Eisenstein is just the creator of Battleship Potemkin and Robert Flaherty only the director of Nanook of the North. Almost unknown to the general public are Bert Haanstra (who gave us Glass) and Emile de Antonio, who made the Point of Order (on the McCarthy files) and The Year of the Pig (on the origins of the Vietnam War.)
“Good films, books and music are immortal. But only proper flow of information, occasional if not continuous, can ensure they are not forgotten. And this is exactly where the Western media have failed. The 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) passed without Western news agencies running any in-depth stories. The civil war was a watershed in international relations, bringing together an unprecedented number of writers, poets, artists, filmmakers, theatre personalities and other individuals who fought for (or actively helped) the Republicans against dictator Francisco Franco.
“It is the war in which the wildly gifted 29-year-old Christopher Caudwell was killed, only to be recognised as a genius after his Illusion and Reality, Studies in Dying Culture and Further Studies in Dying Culture were published posthumously. It is the war that saw the brilliant Ralph Fox - author of Novel and the People and Marxism and Modern Thought - fall to fascists' bullets. It is the war during which Franco's Nationalists left poet Miguel Hernandez to die. It is the war in which the great Federico Garcia Lorca became a victim of circumstances. And it is the war that aroused Pablo Picasso to create the Guernica and Joan Miro to paint Help Spain.”
The rousing editorial concludes,
“The civil war is important because Hitler and Mussolini used it as a testing ground to launch their dirty assault on mankind. It is important because most of Europe adopted a non-interventionist policy toward Franco. It is important because just two years before Riefenstahl had made Triumph of Will, which some people today shamelessly say is a classic.
“Until a few years ago, American essayist and critic Susan Sontag's view on Riefenstahl as the handmaiden of Nazism was the last word. Sontag called the Triumph the ‘most propagandistic film ever made, whose very conception negates the possibility of the filmmaker having an aesthetic or visual conception independent of propaganda’. It is this propaganda, and the fear it generated, which drove Frank Capra (though uncredited) to make the seven-documentary-film series, Why We Fight, urging the US to join the Allies in World War II. The first and the sixth in the series incidentally are on the Chinese people's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
“But is the West bothered about all these great artists? No. Instead it is trying to put Riefenstahl on a pedestal much higher than what it has accorded to any of them. And that is a dangerous game against mankind.”
AUSTRALIA’S FAIRFAX NEWSPAPER EMPIRE’S DIGITAL DIVISION WOOS YOUTH
Fairfax Digital in Australia just launched a news site targeting youth.
The site, TheVine.com.au is a joint venture with youth marketing company Lifelounge, and will target 18 to 29 year-olds providing news, entertainment and social networking content.
Research by both companies has found that the 18 to 29 demographic prefer the internet over all media, spending over 14 hours per week online.
Fairfax will contribute to a share of the site's content, but Lifelounge will be responsible for hiring, housing and managing TheVine's editorial team.
TheVine will also use lifestyle and entertainment content from Fairfax's newspaper websites, including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and Brisbane Times.
INDIAN MEDIA SUPREMOS ARGUE THAT PREMIER LEAGUE PRESS RESTRICTIONS JUST AIN’T CRICKET
In an impasse mirroring a recent clash in Australia where cricket authorities tried to restrict coverage by news organisations, Indian editors and publishers are now up in arms over restrictions being proposed on press coverage of the Indian Premier League, a new cricket league that is proposing terms and conditions for coverage of its tests that are unacceptable not only to Indian media, but to media everywhere.
The arguments is that the cricketing bureaucracy’s efforts to monetise every aspect of sport by selling digital rights impinges on the news media role of providing free and open coverage of sports events.
The Indian cricket authorities originally proposed that media must transfer copyright of all photographs taken at cricket venues to the IPL, and that photos would be banned from websites. It has since backed off on its claim to copyright, and offered to allow media to post six photos on websites - an unacceptably small amount, though the IPL says it is willing to further engage news media in discussions.
Other terms also raise concern - it appears that IPL wants news media to limit photos posted on the web to those that are also used in print. The Hindu newspaper, in an editorial on Thursday, said, “"Where will professional sport be without media support, cooperation, and goodwill? Greed and arrogance and a total lack of common sense seem to be driving the IPL along a path of confrontation, which will surely bring on a media boycott."
The international News Media Coalition, a grouping of major news agencies, newspaper groups and newspaper representative bodies that was formed in response to the growing threat to open news coverage, has praised the stand of the Indian news media community for working together in an attempt to ensure that they are able to serve the public with independent and topical news materials.
"The News Media Coalition is very concerned about the IPL terms which represent a serious and unprecedented curtailment of the freedom of the press to fully report events of public interest. We believe that the right of the public is best served by a free and unfettered press.
"Anything which threatens to dismantle the inter-dependence between news sectors such as newspapers and agencies will not be in the best interests of the public," it said.
AMERICA’S HULU VIDEO WEB SITE MAY BE PLANNING TO GO INTERNATIONAL
Web Video News reports that Hulu.com, the joint web video site from NBC Universal and News Corp, is available in the US, but the site may have some plans in store for international visitors.
Textually.org, on online TV blog, notes an international message page allowing non-US visitors to sign up for news alerts for when Hulu becomes available in different regions. The company cites international distribution rights as the reason for keeping content only within the US.
In other web video news, Complete.com reports that the most-searched item on YouTube in March was ’sex. ’ “Items two through five were hip-hop music-related, followed by ‘porn’ in sixth place.
Associated Press will begin syndicating clips from its media affiliates across its online video network. This will allow about 1,800 media partners to host clips on their own sites through the AP’s media player, as well as video from other network members. AP has also hired AnswersTV, a cross-platform health and lifestyle network, to provide the site and its media affiliates with original content.
CANADIAN NEWSPAPERS OUTPERFORM THEIR US COUNTERPARTS
Editor & Publisher reports that, unlike their US counterparts, total revenues for Canadian newspapers barely slipped at all last year with accelerating online ad sales offsetting a dip in print, according to a report from the Canadian Newspaper Association.
Overall Canadian newspaper revenue was off 0.8 percent last year with a print decline of 2.4 percent largely made up for by online growth of 29 percent..
Those numbers stand in stark contrast to the US, where newspaper print advertising fell 9.4 percent in the biggest year-over-year decline since the Newspaper Association of America started compiling statistics more than 50 years ago.
Canadian Newspaper Association president Anne Kothawala says the study points out the key differences between the industry in Canada and the US.
"The narrative about newspapers in the US has been consistently negative in recent years, and that negativity has unduly influenced perceptions of the health of the newspaper industry in Canada.
"Advertisers and their agencies, many of whom are global businesses, should ensure that their Canadian buying decisions are not tainted by the US data. In an age when consumers are increasingly tuning out advertising content, studies show they continue to find newspapers engaging."
SOUTH AFRICA’S CONTROVERSIAL SUNDAY TIMES COLUMNIST DAVID BULLARD AXED, OSTENSIBLY FOR OVERT RACISM
Bizcommunity reports that South Africa’s controversial columnist David Bullard has been fired by the Sunday Times, and his ‘Out to Lunch' column was axed on April 6 following yet more allegations of racism.
Speculation is that political pressure has been brought to bear on the Sunday Times with Government threats to pull advertising. This is being denied by the Sunday Times editor, Mondli Makhanya.
Many in the media industry felt that Bullard’s last vituperative offering was an opportunity for the Sunday Times to get rid of him, as he became more and more vocal in his criticism of the government and the ruling party, the ANC.
Makhanya reportedly said the axing was about “values” and that Bullard's column no longer fitted in with the values of the Sunday Times.
Bullard has worked on a freelance contract basis for the Sunday Times for 14 years. He hit the headlines last year when he was shot and severely wounded in a robbery at his home.
The opening to the contentious column reads, “Imagine for a moment what life would be like in South Africa if the evil white man hadn't come to disturb the rustic idyll of the early black settlers...”
PLAYBOY IN THE PHILIPPINES LAUNCHES AS A ‘DAD’S MAGAZINE’Playboy has launched in the Philippines and even though its abstained s from nudity, it has received strong opposition from religious and feminist groups in the predominantly Catholic country.
Targeted at ‘mature successful men’, the local edition will not feature frontal nudity and according to editor-in-chief Beting Laygo Dolor will not be “as bold” as its American counterpart, but “not as tame” as the Indonesian version.
Dolor told Reuters that, "Maxim and FHM are called laddy magazines. We can be called a Dad magazine.
"We are targeting a more mature market, Filipino men, 30 and above. There will be no full frontal nudity."
Mens' magazines with risque photos are already sold in the Philippines, and although rural areas are more conservative, Manila and other large cities have a relaxed attitude to sex.
Dolor, who describes himself as a "bad Catholic", said the religion's values had influenced the decision not to go for a raunchier look for the magazine.
"I don't want to be ashamed to show it to my mother," said the father of four. "I have daughters in their twenties. It's something that I want them to also enjoy. I want them to be proud of their dad."
The 25th edition of the US-based magazine will compete with market leader FHM, which corners almost 71 percent of the male-lifestyle category, and Maxim, which has 13 percent.
In 2007, the editor of Playboy Indonesia faced indecency charges, although the magazine was considerably less risque than men’s magazines already in the market of the Muslim-majority nation.
REUTERS PHOTOGRAPHER WINS PULITZER PRIZE FOR PHOTOGRAPH OF DEAD PHOTOGRAPHER IN YANGON STREET
A Reuters news agency photographer won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography last week for a picture of a Myanmar soldier shooting dead a Japanese video cameraman during a last September’s demonstrations in Yangon.
The news agency’s Adrees Latif won for "his dramatic photograph of the Japanese videographer, Kenji Nagai, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar, the Pulitzer Prize board said.
Reuters published a firsthand account by its Bangkok senior photographer Adrees Latif of how he took the pictures in September last year which won him a Pulitzer Prize.
Latif said, “Tipped off by protests against soaring fuel prices, I landed in Yangon on September 23, 2007, with some old clothes, a Canon 5D camera, two fixed lenses and a laptop.
“For the next four days, I went to Shwedagon Pagoda, two-three kilometers from the center of town and waited for the monks who had been gathering there daily at noon.
“Since I was at the same pagoda every day, dozens of people, including monks, asked me who I was and what I was doing. As the ruling military regime is notoriously secretive, my replies were guarded.
“By September 27, Yangon had become packed with troops. Soldiers and government agents stood at street corners.
“Finding the Shwedagon Pagoda sealed off, I went to the middle of town to find groups of young people taunting soldiers at Sule Pagoda. Within minutes, the crowd swelled from hundreds to a few thousand. The soldiers threw barbed wire coils across the roads.
“Knowing that hundreds of people were gunned down in similar circumstances in a 1988 uprising, I climbed an old crosswalk directly overhead, to get to one of the few spots offering a clear view.
“Below me, protesters were singing and waving flags; to the side, young men were thrusting their pelvises at the soldiers.
“At about 1.30 pm local time, two dark green, open-top army trucks approached, followed by dozens more packed with riot police. They were hit by a barrage of water bottles, fruit and abuse from the crowd.
“I had already locked on my 135mm lens and set my camera shutter speed to 1000, aperture to F/7.1 and ISO at 800. With the camera on manual, I wanted to stop any movement while offering as much depth-of-field as possible.
“Two minutes later, the shooting started. My eye caught a person flying backwards through the air. Instinctively, I started photographing, capturing four frames of the man on his back.
“The entry point of the bullet is clear in the first frame, with a soldier in flip flops standing over the man and pointing a rifle. In the second frame, the man is reaching over to try and film.
“More shots rang out. I flinched before getting off two more frames—one of the man pointing the camera at the soldier, and one of his face contorted in pain.
“Beyond him, the crowd scattered before the advancing soldier. The whole incident, which went on to reverberate around the world, was over in two seconds.
“My initial caption read: ‘An injured man tries to photograph after police and military officials fired upon and then charged a crowd of thousands protesting in Yangon’s city center September 27, 2007.’
“Initially, I thought he was merely trampled. I had no idea he was dead.
“Two of the frames showed the man’s face. A few hours later his colleagues in Japan had identified him as Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai.
The images dominated front pages across the US and the world.
MARKETING MAGAZINE LAUNCHES WEEKLY E-NEWS BULLETIN IN ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
Marketing magazine has launched the inaugural edition of Marketing-Interactive Regional Watch, a weekly e-news bulletin covering Asia Pacific, excluding Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
Those three countries are covered in depth with the bulletins Marketing Daily Hong Kong, Marketing Daily Singapore and Marketing Daily Malaysia.
"Marketing's reach has expanded dramatically in the past 18 months and our new weekly Regional Watch newsletter, which complements our three separate editions of Marketing Daily, offers a platform for our region wide editorial team to report the news they gather," Tony Kelly, editorial director, Lighthouse Independent Media, said.
Lighthouse publishes Marketing magazine.
The website Marketing-Interactive.com was recently enhanced to include a drop-down country menu which allows Asian readers to select the markets they are most interested in learning about.
The markets available include China, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macau, New Zealand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Marketing intends to launch an e-news bulletin in each of these markets in the future, and Marketing-Interactive Regional Watch will bridge the gap for Asian news in the meantime.
Content for Regional Watch will remain along the same vein as its Marketing Daily counterparts, covering agency appointments, senior marketing and advertising career moves, new media platform launches, marketing and media research findings, and trends in the marketing, advertising and media arena.
Regional Watch will be sent out every Friday.
AUSTRALIA’S 2007 AD SPEND UP BY 11.5 PERCENT IN 2007, BOOSTED BY FEDERAL ELECTION ADVERTISING
Ad spend in Australia rose 11.5 percent in 2007, with online and subscription TV both showing healthy increases.
The Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia annual survey of advertising spend showed that total advertising spend topped A$13.2 billion.
Free-to-air TV continued to dominate with an 8.3 percent jump in spend to $3.5 billion.
But online advertising was the stand out performer up 34.5 percent to A$1.35 billion. Subscription TV jumped almost 30 percent to $275.6 million.
Government and retail advertising was behind the major increase, and the federal elections last year accounted for much of this.
In 2007, Australia's federal government was the country's biggest spender on advertising, estimated at between $215 million to $220 million. Retail giant Coles forked out between $170 million to $175 million.
CRIME DOES PAY FOR INDONESIA’S PAYTV OPERATOR, INDOVISION
Fox International Channels Asia has launched Fox Crime on Indonesia's PayTV operator, Indovision, after the success of the channel in Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines and Europe.
First launched in Asia in September 2006, Fox Crime features drama and investigation crime television serials, thrillers, biographies of infamous criminals, as well as original productions.
Zubin Gandevia, executive vice president and managing director of Fox International Channels Asia, said, "The launch of Fox Crime on Indovision comes at a time when Indonesians are looking for high quality entertainment programming to fuel their interest for crime, investigation and mystery."
Fox Crime is available on Indovision Channel 41.
Bahasa Indonesia subtitles are also available on blockbuster US programs, and from June 2008, Fox Crime will be a 24-hour Bahasa Indonesia subtitled channel.
MALAYSIA’S THE STAR IN JV WITH SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS INTERACTIVE DIVISION
Malaysia’s The Star newspaper has entered into a joint venture with Singapore Press Holdings Interactive International to create more value from its online assets.
The 50/50 deal has been called 701 Panduan.
Linda Ngiam, coo of The Star, told marketing magazine that SPH has the right methodology to create such a platform.
“A platform that can connect local businesses with local users in the most effective and relevant way," Ngiam said.
Leslie Fong, director of SPH II, said Malaysia has one of the highest internet penetration rates in Southeast Asia.
"More than half of its 28 million people enjoy ready access to the internet," she said.
"In absolute numbers, this is more than Singapore's entire population. Together with the country's growing economy, these make investing in the online business an attractive proposition."
THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS AND ABC TV COMBINE TO INCREASE ARTS BROADCASTING
A new partnership between the Australia Council for the Arts and ABC TV will give Australians greater access to more of the Australian arts across ABC TV’s expanding digital platforms.
Under the partnership, the Australia Council for the Arts and ABC TV will develop a number of initiatives, spanning the breadth of arts genres and practice, in a range of formats, including live performance.
ABC TV will present this arts programming on ABC1, ABC2, ABC online, Second Life, internet channels, and through mobiles, vodcasts and user-generated content.
Australia Council chairman James Strong James Strong said, “Each year the Australia Council invests more than $150 million in the creation of high quality works by Australian artists and arts organisations, and we are continually looking for ways to access new and bigger audiences for this work.
“This partnership with ABC TV will help us grow and diversify our support for Australian artists and give more Australians the opportunity to experience and enjoy Australia’s arts in new and more accessible ways.
“ABC TV, through ABC2, the ABC’s strong presence on the net, and its new internet channels, can provide a digital platform for Australia’s artists and arts organisations to reach audiences nationwide. It will also lead to artists and arts organisations exploring issues around rights’ management and business models in the digital era.”
The ABC's managing director Mark Scott said the national broadcaster looked forward to an enhanced engagement with Australia's creative communities.
The first project in the partnership was the live broadcast of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake, performed by The Australian Ballet at Sydney Opera House.
Screened live on ABC2, it was also beamed direct to the Australian Film Commission's digital cinemas around Australia and to Federation Square in Melbourne.
Next is My Favourite Australian, an initiative with the National Portrait Gallery, which will see the production of film and video art portraits of much-loved Australians. Also planned are other musical, performance and digital art initiatives.
Meanwhile, to firmly cement its position as the most boring and dreariest TV network in the entire Asia-Pacific Region, ABC TV will televise next weekend’s Australia 2020 Summit.
ABC1 will cover live both the opening and closing sessions of the summit, being held at Parliament House, Canberra.
ABC2 offers live continuous coverage of all 15.5 hours of the event, which will be hosted by Phillip Williams, the political editor for the 7.30 Report and a former foreign correspondent. The sessions will also be streamed.
The Australia 2020 Summit, which aims to bring together the best and brightest brains, will see 1000 leading Australians debate and develop long–term options for the nation in 10 critical areas.
US TO HIT TALIBAN WITH WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION – FREE MOBILE PHONES
Fox News reports that a plan of action similar to the underground pipeline of radios to North Korea is planned for Afghanistan, where the US military will drop cheap mobile phones that can also receive radio broadcasts in Taliban-dominated areas.
US psychological operations aircraft or blimps will transmit the programming that these phones can receive – weather reports, health and farming updates, religious messages from moderate imams and local and national news.
These cell phones also will also be able to dial out — but only to a 911 equivalent manned by Afghan police.
NEW ABU DHABI ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DAILY NEWSPAPER TO LAUNCH SOON
The Guardian reports that former UK Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland's new Abu Dhabi newspaper, The National, will launch within a fortnight.
It will have an editorial staff of about 200 and is designed to give the capital of the United Arab Emirates a national voice.
Newland said the paper will be printed six days a week.
"We have written, edited, illustrated and designed the dummy pages. We have stood back and taken satisfaction in the products of our dry runs, trying to forget the frustrations of publishing essentially for internal consumption," Randall wrote on his blog francesalut.com.
"Very soon now, we will be presenting the results of our efforts for real," he added.
"It is a late stage of my career to be participating, for the first time, in the thrill of launching a national newspaper.
"If truth be told, it is also a late stage of the career of newspapers themselves for an event of this kind to be occurring. I cannot imagine many parts of the world where anyone would think of embarking on such a project."
The National is owned by an investment fund controlled by the Abu Dhabi government.
RADIO CONTINUES TO BE A SOLID REVENUE EARNER IN AUSTRALIA
Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia figures for the full calendar year 2007 and last six months of last year, show radio continues to perform well in attracting advertising revenue with an increase of 6.4 percent per cent for the 2007 calendar year to a total of $984.4 million.
Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner, said CEASA’s Advertising Expenditure in Main Media report for the full calendar year 2007 shows radio advertising continues to perform in a competitive market with the metropolitan markets recording growth of around 7.6 percent to a total of $644.5 million and regional markets growing by 5.5 per cent to a total of $319.7 million.
Ms Warner said these figures reflected the same sentiment as the 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers Radio Revenue Performance figures for metropolitan radio markets.
She said, “This is good news for the radio industry which is continually working to keep radio top of mind with advertisers. These figures also highlight the importance of new strategies, like radio working in partnership with online, to ensure maximum advantage in today’s multi-media world.
“It is also a significant feat that the radio industry has recorded growth in attracting advertising revenue over the past seven years, despite a couple of slower years, and in what is an increasingly competitive and cluttered media market.”
Warner said radio advertising revenue in 2008 was showing promising signs with the first quarter year figures released today showing growth of around four per cent for metropolitan radio markets to a total of $144.45 million. But growth was not uniform across the markets with Sydney still facing some challenges.
According to the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers Radio Revenue Performance figures for March 2008, most metropolitan markets recorded strong growth in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same timeframe in 2007, with Perth (up 18 percent , Adelaide (up 4 percent), Melbourne (up 8 percent) and Brisbane (up 9 percent). Sydney recorded a drop of 6 percent to $46.78 million.
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