MEDIABLAB DAILY NEWS DIGEST DEC 27 : NAOMI CAMPBELL JEREMY CLARKSON TOP GEAR XPRESS
December 27th 2007 00:18
A compendium of MediaBlab news items compiled and posted over the last 60 hours
EDITOR OF AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST WOMEN’S MAGAZINE TO TAKE TO THE AIR WAVES
The editorial director of The Australian Women's Weekly, Deborah Thomas, will team up with Mike Carlton on 2UE's breakfast show in Sydney in 2008.
The Australian reports that Thomas, a former model and editor of Mode, Elle and Cleo, was appointed editor of The Australian Women's Weekly in 1999. She is expected to retain her position as editorial director. She is expected to provide more of a contrast to Carlton than his previous co-host, Peter FitzSimons, and brings experience, having acted as a spokeswoman for ACP Magazines.
Melbourne’s 3AW is expected to confirm Derryn Hinch has re-signed as its drive host after speculation former Nine Network chief executive Eddie McGuire was eyeing his or Neil Mitchell's slot.
THOUSANDS OF AUSSIES EXPECTED TO AUDITION FOR HOST OF LOCAL VERSIONS OF BBC’S TOP GEAR TV SHOW
Australia’s SBS Television has been swamped by applications from would-be hosts of an Aussie version of the BBC Worldwide hit show, Top Gear.
Thousands of submissions are expected in the coming month from locals hoping to host the Australian version of what is by far SBS's top-rating show.
The Australian newspaper, in reporting this, resorted to self-aggrandisement by stating, “The British motoring show (is) hosted by The Weekend Australian columnist Jeremy Clarkson.” True, technically, but of course the Australian simply carries a syndicated column by Clarkson.
SBS said it has been inundated with phone requests for more information, suggesting thousands, not hundreds, of people will submit 10-minute video auditions. A number of local celebrities have also asked to drive a lap in the ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ segment, while early interest among advertisers is said to be “extraordinary".
The Australian said, “Like another of the BBC's global entertainment franchises, Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear is heavily licensed and subject to strict British control. But Top Gear is key to the global expansion plans of the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. It hopes Top Gear will be the world's leading motoring portal. As a result, Australian online rights have been separated from SBS's deal.”
UK RESEARCH COMPANY PREDICTS THAT WEB 2.0 WILL DIE IN 2008 DUE TO AD WITHDRAWAL
Another big call: UK based research firm Scivisum has predicted that web 2.0 will die in 2008, as “cautious companies pull their advertising from user-generated content web sites, worried about the effect on their brand of appearing alongside questionable content.”
Scivisum also suggests that “consumers and companies will continue to adopt a nomadic attitude towards web 2.0 websites, flocking to the ‘next big thing’ until the market becomes so saturated that consumers will actually be turned off.”
New figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers show that internet advertising continues to grow to record levels, with the third quarter internet ad spend in the US hitting US$5.2 billion, a $1.1 billion/ 25.3 percent increase over the same quarter in 2006.
But the growth rate quarter on quarter shows that the third quarter was up only three percent on the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the latest forecast for internet advertising from eMarketer, shows that in the US it will rise from $21 billion this year to $42 billion in 2011. During that time period, web advertising’s share of the overall ad market in the US will also roughly double from 7.4 percent to 13.3 percent.
HERE’S FIVE BUCKS – DO SOMETHING USEFUL WITH IT READERS DIGEST TELLS ITS STAFF
The New York Post reports that the Reader's Digest Association sent each of its 3,000 employees in the US a $5 note and encouraged them to do something worthwhile to help others.
With the new slogan of the redesigned Reader's Digest being ‘Life Well Shared,’ the giving back initiative was meant to encourage people to start sharing just as the new issue hits newsstands.
NAOMI CAMPBELL TO BECOME A POLITICAL REPORTER AND WILL INTERVIEW CASTRO AND CHAVEZ
Is Naomi Campbell about to spread her wings and become a political reporter?
The New York Post thinks so, reporting that the catwalk queen is said to be in Cuba interviewing Fidel Castro for British GQ magazine.
The Post says that wily old Fidel likes a pretty face and has given access over the years to female reporters he finds attractive, like Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer.
Supermodel Campbell, who calls herself the adopted granddaughter of Nelson Mandela, is said also to be lining up an interview with Castro's protégé in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, who she visited earlier this year.
The New York Post described Chavez as “the anti-American blowhard.”
EMAP SELLS IT B2B DIVISION DESPITE DECLARING IT WOULDN’T
Women’s Wear Daily reports that Emap has now sold its B2B division and is no more, despite it saying it planned to keep its business-to-business operations earlier this month.
It sold its B2B arm for 1 billion pounds to Eden Bidco Ltd., a new company created for the takeover by Apax Partners and Guardian Media Group. The move follows the sale earlier this month of Emap's consumer magazine and radio division to the German publisher H. Bauer for 1.14 billion pounds.
The B2B business, widely regarded as Emap's most valuable sector, includes the retail trends web site WGSN, the retail trade publication Drapers and a conference business.
Apax's publishing interests include the Trader Media Group, which it co-owns with GMG, and American Lawyer Media. Apax also owns Tommy Hilfiger.
FRENCH NEWS TEAM RELEASED IN SRI LANKA FOLLOWING CHRISTMAS EVE ARRESTS
Two French journalists employed by the French TV news channel France 24 who were arrested on the evening of December 24 in the Sri Lankan southern district of Galle while travelling with a Tamil family, have been released.
The two journalists are reporter New Delhi-based Capucine Henry and cameraman Constantin Simon. Henry has been told she can stay in Sri Lanka to do a report on a Bizet opera performance in Colombo.
The two were arrested while doing a report on the life of a Tamil family.
Reporters Without Borders said, "We appeal to the government in Colombo to show more flexibility with foreign journalists and to let them work freely in Sri Lanka, including when they are doing reports on members of the Tamil population."
Henry and Simon were interrogated by members of the Terrorist Investigation Division, who told them they had committed a "breach of national security." The authorities also took offence at their failure to register with the foreign ministry's press service in Colombo.
SPECULATION OVER WHETHER THE WASHINGTON POST PRINT EDITION COULD CEASE
It’s a big call, but BuzzFlash is running with the notion that the Washington Post print edition could cease publication.
It cites recent statements to Wall Street by the chairman of the Washington Post Corporation, Donald Graham who, in the Post itself, confirmed that the parent company now no longer saw itself as primarily a news corporation, but rather an education and media company.
The Washington Post Corporation acquired Kaplan Inc, and the growing education enterprise now accounts for 50 percent of its revenue.
In a December 6 article, The Washington Post reported that the corporation’ newspaper division, which is primarily the Post, accounts for 21 cents of every dollar.
The Post Company also owns Cable One, a small cable television system with customers primarily in the south and northwest [of the US] that generates 15 cents of every dollar of company income; six television stations (8 cents of every dollar), Newsweek magazine and Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazines (6 cents), the web magazine Slate and several smaller newspapers and publications.
One newspaper industry analyst, John Morton, went so far as to, ironically, tell a Washington Post reporter, "The company probably ought to be identified as an education company and get The Washington Post name out of the title."
The Post newspaper's average daily circulation peaked at 832,232 in 1993. It now sells an average of 638,800 papers Monday through Saturday. Operating income for the company's newspaper division, primarily The Post, fell 50 percent during the third quarter this year, compared with the third quarter of 2006.
The paper's income has seen a sharp drop in real estate advertising and the continued bleeding of classified and employment advertising to the internet.
BuzzFlash concludes, “So, will the Washington Post newspaper shut down anytime soon? That’s highly unlikely in the short-term...It would be hard to imagine that the imprimatur, ‘The Washington Post,’ that has come to be equated with reporting on [US] national government (for better or for worse) might bite the dust as a print entity. In the long term, Rupert Murdoch could possibly pick it up and run it at a loss for its propaganda value in ingratiating himself with the Republican Party (as he does with the New York Post and the Weekly Standard, not to mention Fox which is profitable).”
INDIAN ENTERTAINMENT NEWS AGENCY VENTURES INTO ONLINE ADVERTISING
Indian entertainment news agency Sampurn Media, after establishing itself as a news syndication service, is now pursuing the online advertising market with its new division, Sampurn Ads.
According to Exchange4media, Sampurn Media is already catering to print and web publications like The Telegraph, The Statesman, The Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle, Deccan Herald, The Hindu, Rajasthan Patrika, Punjab Kesari, www.glamsham.com, www.santabanta.com and www.oneindia.com, among others.
Exchange4media said, “By adding online advertising solution provider tag to it, the company has further strengthened its position in the field of online business. Sampurn Media, the parent company of Sampurn Ads, was launched in January 2006.”
INTERNATIONAL NEWSPAPER DESIGNER MARIO GARCIA WRAPS UP LOOK FOR BANGKOK’S FORTHCOMING FREESHEET, XPRESS
A one-time child star of Cuban television who couldn’t speak a word of English when he moved to the US at age 14 became a newspaper reporter and then an internationally celebrated newspaper designer.
Mario Garcia has reshaped hundreds of newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and now he is in Bangkok to design the new freesheet XPress which will be launched in March as a sister paper to the English-language The Nation newspaper.
He began to understand the psychology if you like of how people read newspapers while working as a reporter for the Miami News. He was fascinated to watch how their eyes moved around the page as their facial expression changed.
Garcia told The Nation that, "Readers decide in 10 seconds whether they'll buy or read a newspaper. Five years ago it took them 25 seconds."
He said colour is also important and, being struck by Bangkok’s liveliness, he decided to reflect this in a bright orange front-page banner.
He said, “The colour represents the vibrant city and its people. The way people read doesn't differ much from one country to another, but the differences in culture might be reflected in their colour preference. For example, people prefer grey or light blue in Scandinavia, while in Latin America they want more sass, including yellow and orange."
The Nation reported that “XPress is the 21st brand-new paper he's birthed, and he's definitely going for the younger groove. ‘Young people hardly ever buy a newspaper, but they'll grab it if it's free and if the design appeals to them,’ he says.”
Garcia also dismisses the notion that the internet is killing off the print media.
"One medium can't replace another, as we've witnessed with radio, TV and now the internet. On average a person spends 35 minutes reading six to seven websites, selecting the stories that interest him, and in this way we all become editors on our own. Yet online readers don't remember what websites they've just scanned - but they remember which newspaper."
WOMEN’S MAGAZINES BOOMING ACCORDING TO TIME
Most of the reportage about the print industry, or the dead-tree media as it’s become known in some hip online circles, has been negative during 2008, with stories of plunging circulations and declining ad revenues predominating.
But Time magazine, in its November 19 issue, reported that, to the contrary of conventional wisdom, boom times were being enjoyed by women’s magazines in the US.
Edward Atorino, a managing director at Benchmark, a brokerage firm in New York, told Time, "They are doing much better than the magazine business overall. Everybody thinks the internet is the only place where things are happening, but the women's magazine field is not getting the attention that it deserves."
Cathie Black, head of Hearst Magazines, is responsible for 19 titles, including flagship women's magazines like the 122-year-old Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and O: The Oprah Magazine, her most recent blockbuster hit.
Time reported, “Ad revenues in her division, a unit of Hearst Corp., have tripled since she took over, soaring to US$2.5 billion in 2006, from $841 million in 1996. The magazines are being powered by the rising incomes and aspirations of women, the prime consumers of lifestyle, fashion and celebrity titles.”
HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES BECOME A LIVELY US MEDIA NICHE MARKET
When it comes to magazine niche markets, America with its large relatively affluent population, rules and one of the livelier niche market segments is currently high-school-age athletes.
MediaDailyNews reports, for example, that as ESPN magazine celebrates its tenth anniversary, ESPN is set to expand its youth-publishing operations with the purchase of SchoolSports Inc, which publishes Rise and Girl, both targeting high-school-age athletes. The terms of the deal, which also included the Rise Web site, Risemag.com and its high-school basketball event business, were not disclosed.
MediaDailyNews said, “Over the last several years, new publications and web sites have emerged targeting high-school athletes, a highly engaged audience that spends a considerable amount on athletic equipment and entertainment.”
Stack magazine, published with sponsorship from Nike, is distributed free to athletes by coaches, and also maintains a web site where users can post video clips of their performances, engage in social networking and join discussion and fan forums for famous athletes
In December 2006, Takkle.com partnered with Sports Illustrated to give the magazine access to its audience of high-school athletes. Like Stack's web site, Takkle.com offers users social-networking features and the ability to post videos of themselves in action.
FORMER LONDON SUN EDITOR THANKFUL FOR BEING PART CRIMINAL
The Times of London reported that former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie, who got in trouble earlier in the year when he attacked Scots on the Question Time program, has now discovered – as expected from his surname – that he has Scottish ancestors.
Indeed some of his forebears included bankrupts, outlaws and brothers accused of murder in the 19th century – and they weren’t even Australians.
MacKenzie said,” I tell you what, it's no surprise I ended up as editor of the Sun. I've got some criminal blood in me. Excellent!"
FOX BUSINESS NEWS SERVED UP AS THE CHRISTMAS TURKEY OF 2007
One of the biggest turkeys this Christmas has been News Corp’s Fox Business Network.
Launched with a great wave of publicity on October 15, its effect on the US business scene has largely been the sound of one hand clapping, and instead of being ground breaking its seems to have simply gone to ground.
Indeed, reports are that its numerous mistakes and gaffes, plus its ‘average Joe’ positioning, have buried it.
A couple of months after its launch, word on Wall Street was that there was barely a TV monitor in the New York Stock Exchange building tuned to Fox Business Network.
Just before the launch in the US, News Corp ceo Rupert Murdoch said, "CNBC is a financial channel for Wall Street. We're for Main Street."
But it looks like Main Street has stayed away, although this hasn’t stopped rival CNBC pulling out all stops to further frustrate Fox.
According to 24/7 Wall Street, CNBC is threatening guests who appear on Fox Business News.
An executive at Jefferies & Co sent a note to Fox saying he could not appear on the new network without losing his place on CNBC. Arthur R. Hogan, the director, global equity product at the investment bank, informed Fox that "CNBC has put pressure on me not to do spots for any other business news stations."
Inside Cable News quoted an email sent by CNBC executive editor Nick Dunn to a guest saying, “Saw you on the new network. Please don’t make that a regular thing."
But 24/7 Wall Street said, “Unless/until Fox retools Fox Business News and aims it at a more sophisticated business audience, CNBC has nothing to fear. So this behind-the-scenes bullying does seem thuggish."
THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES IS THE NEW FLEET STREET ACCORDING TO LONDON NEWSPAPER BOSSES
Former Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland is starting up an English-language Abu Dhabi newspaper from scratch, but in an interview with the Observer in the UK he declined to reveal neither the name of the paper nor expectations of circulation.
But he did reveal that the staff will comprise 175 journalists including 40 home news reporters and 25 foreign correspondents, with staff recruited from Fleet Street, the New Yorker, Wall Street Journal and Canada's National Post, which he launched 10 years ago.
The newspaper is one of a series of English-language publications being launched in the Gulf by British journalists. Earlier in December, Frank Kane, former Sunday Times and Observer business editor, launched Business 24/7 in Dubai.
Newland’s newspaper will help educate the outside world about the United Arab Emirates.
He said, “'People know a bit about the UAE but don't know that it's a free society. OK, it is not a one-man, one-vote democracy, but the rulers are very accountable, women have equal access to jobs, no one gets beaten for drinking alcohol. It is a society of immense sophistication with a huge, emerging middle class who have decided to make their lives here.
“There is a huge tendency to stereotype in the west about the Middle East but it is nuanced, very complex. Part of the idea is to build a media institution that reflects what is happening, to show that Abu Dhabi is not just about getting richer but is a good place to live.”
Newland's new paper is owned by the Abu Dhabi Media Company, recently set up by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ruler of the Emirate, and wholly government-owned. Other states in the region are operating similar models. Business 24/7 in Dubai is owned by the Arab Media Company, which also belongs eventually to the ruling family.
Fleet Street is certainly attracted to the United Arab Emirates and in late October Emirates Today online reported that age-old Fleet Street rivalries have resurfaced in the desert, with The Times and the Daily Telegraph going head-to-head to win the attention of its booming business community.
The Times has been printing 15,000 copies a day in Dubai since May, its business editor, James Harding, is currently hosting a week-long business forum in the city with a staff of nine. But the Telegraph hit back in October by launching a temporary Dubai online edition, a ‘click-and-carry’ pdf that can be downloaded and printed off.
James Harding said, “The area is transforming itself into a hub for investment, trade, travel and leisure. We have come here en masse to try to understand one of the world's biggest unfolding stories."
MONOCLE AN ECCENTRIC GLOBAL MAGAZINE TO KEEP AN EYE ON
BusinessWeek, on December 13, hailed Monocle as the possible future of magazines, given that it’s got a global thrust.
BusinessWeek said, “Martha Stewart sells order and comfort. Hugh Hefner sells hedonism. Tyler Brule sells the ideal of a life in which every aspect is excruciatingly curated and significant. This worldview formed the basis for Wallpaper*, the iconic design magazine he founded in 1996 and sold to Time Inc. shortly thereafter.”
Brule left Wallpaper in 2002 and now lives in London, where earlier this year he launched the monthly Monocle.
Brule’s global vision, as evidenced on the pages of Monocle is, according to BusinessWeek “so singular, so coolly global and far- reaching, it all but invites parody. Monocle is unquestionably the only publication to cover Taiwanese retail design, life in distant Arctic regions, and Swiss college architecture. It assumes of its audience a certain degree of wealth.”
The magazine also assumes that its readers are inveterate travelers, eager to explore the more remote destinations in the world. Recent destinations that have featured in Monocle include the breakaway Georgian republic Abkhazia and the Swedish-speaking Finnish archipelago, Aland.
The Guardian wrote that Monocle appears to target "departure-lounge divas."
Brule himself is somewhat of a legendary departure-lounge diva who travels 250 days of the year and, according to BusinessWeek, “at Time Inc his expense reports were notorious for including helicopter travel.”
Monocle, with its print run of 150,000, is a test case for a different publishing model, one that doesn’t target readers in a specific country but aims at a global readership.
Brule says the magazine’s 5,000 subscribers—who pay US$150 a year—are spread across 79 countries.
BuisnessWeek said, “In a manner almost wholly lost at American magazines, it cherishes the primacy of a print publication as physical object. Each issue contains startling photography, multiple kinds of paper stock, and, somewhat discordantly, concludes with a manga comic. Monocle is either prescient, or steering sharply toward an audience that doesn't exist.
Brule says he in catering for a niche market of people who want unusual international material and this has been helped by shrinking international coverage in outlets ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the BBC.
BuisnessWeek said, “This gap allows idiosyncratic and smaller media players to plunge in, particularly in online realms where distribution costs are minimal. Among the new breed of internationally minded web players is monocle.com, which smartly sidesteps putting its magazine articles online in favor of a video-heavy strategy.”
Monocle magazine makes a strong distinction between its print version and its online presence, the latter being more like TV than web.
MACQUARIE’S ARQIVA RESPONDS TO UK COMPETITION COMMISSION NOTICE OF REMEDIES
Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group informed the Australian Securities Exchange that Arqiva in the UK has submitted its response to the Competition Commission's notice of possible remedies concerning its inquiry into the completed acquisition of National Grid Wireless Group by Macquarie UK Broadcast Ventures Ltd, parent company of Arqiva.
Arqiva’s response addresses the possible remedies suggested by the commission, which range from behavioural remedies to some form of potential divestment.
Arqiva strongly believes that an effective behavioural remedy is the best way to maximise the benefits to the industry and minimise the risk to the digital switch over project.
In that spirit the company has put forward a comprehensive behavioural package which will share the synergies of the merger with customers and which will guarantee prices in the future.
As required by the notice of possible remedies, Arqiva has also put forward certain divestments. However the company maintains that even a limited divestment would significantly increase risk to the digital switch over project, and reduce the other benefits to customers.
Arqiva and National Grid Wireless remain subject to a hold separate arrangement during the review process and continue to operate as separate entities.
The Competition Commission has advised that the review process is now expected to be completed during March 2008.
ANOTHER PHILIPPINE JOURNALIST GUNNED DOWN ON CHRISTMAS EVE
Philippine radio program host and well-known critic of local officials, Ferdinand Lintuan, was gunned down on the morning of December 24, just after leaving his radio station, DXGO Radio, in Davao City, on the southern island of Mindanao.
According to Reporters Without Borders, station manager Raul Antopuesto said he had no doubt that Lintuan was murdered because of his work as a journalist.
He said, "On this Christmas Eve, the Philippine press community has again been hit by a terrible murder. The method used leaves no doubt that it was a targeted killing of a journalist who had criticised local politicians. President Arroyo and the national police chief have a duty to give the local investigators all the resources they need to catch the gunmen and those who put them up to it."
Lintuan, nicknamed Batman by his colleagues, is the fifth journalist to be killed this year in the Philippines.
Two men riding a motorcycle and wearing helmets shot Lintuan at close range as he drove away from the radio station in a car with two fellow journalists, Louie Ceniza and Edgar Banzon. Hit in the head, he died instantly.
Aged 51 and the father of four, Lintuan had often criticised local politicians, including the Davao City government, on the air. He had, in particular, accused local officials of corruption in connection with the People's Park, a local development project which he called the Crocodiles' Park.
Lintuan was the first president of the Davao Association of Sports Journalists.
National police chief Alevin Razon said he has ordered an investigation and the creation of a special Batman task force.
Presidential adviser Jesus Dureza said, “The government will not allow this criminal act to go unpunished."
FRENCH JOURNALIST KIDNAPPED IN SOMALIA RELEASED AFTER EIGHT DAYS
Somali gunmen released a French journalist they kidnapped eight days earlier in the northern Puntland region, a regional official said on Monday.
"The French journalist has just been released and is now staying with officials, local elders and some diplomats in the hotel," Puntland trade and industry minister Abdishamad Yusuf Abwan told Reuters.
Abdiaziz Said Mohamoud, Puntland police commissioner, told The Associated Press that,
"A kidnapped journalist was released this afternoon. He is now in Bossaso and is feeling well. No ransom was paid.
Cameraman Gwen Le Gouil was seized on December 16 outside Bossaso, the economic capital of Puntland, an area associated with coastal piracy and known as a staging post for human traffickers running boats into Yemen. Elders from Somalia's influential clans had intervened to try to win his release.
LeGouil had traveled to Bossasso to report on the human trafficking of African migrants from Bossasso to Saudi Arabia for the Franco-German TV network Arte Television.
BRITISH NEWSPAPER ONLINE SITES BOOMED IN NOVEMBER
Online Journalism UK said that British newspapers, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and the Sun recorded their highest number of unique users to their websites in November, according to the latest report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic.
The bureau’s latest figures show a 100 percent increase in unique users of Telegraph.co.uk over the past year, as the site clocked up another 1,692,602 unique users last month, breaking the 12 million barrier for the first time with a total of 12,800,627.
A rise of 884,550 (6.5 per cent) in unique users took the Daily Mail site beyond 14 million to 14,415,724 unique users.
Both sites also recorded their highest ever totals for page impressions: 109,278,179 for Telegraph.co.uk, and 115,184,974 for the Daily Mail.
The Sun’s site recorded a 26.3 percent gain in unique users in this area, taking its total for November to 11,608,707.
TRIBUNE CO TO ADMINISTER EIGHT US TV STATIONS SOLD BY NEWS CORP
News Corp’s US$1.1 billion sale of eight TV stations to private-equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners, owner of small broadcaster Local TV LLC, could benefit the Tribune Company, which last week struck a deal to take over administrative responsibilities for Local TV's stations.
The Wall Street Journal reported that News Corp and Oak Hill announced the station purchase last weekend, and an Oak Hill spokesman said the company will add the stations, all Fox affiliates, to the nine stations it owns through Local TV.
That means the number of stations Tribune administers will rise to 40. Tribune owns 23 stations directly.
The Wall Street Journal said, “Getting additional negotiating clout through the Local TV deal is significant for Tribune, which struck the Local TV deal on the same day it completed a going-private buyout. Because the buyout burdened Tribune with a heavy debt load, its ability to buy more stations on its own is likely limited.
“Local TV was headed until last week by veteran radio executive Randy Michaels. Thursday, Mr. Michaels was appointed to a senior post with Tribune. After that appointment, Tribune and Local TV announced that Tribune would take over "back-office services, administration, and a number of other functions" for the stations owned by both companies. Michaels will oversee the station group through a wholly owned Tribune subsidiary.”
US COMPANIES THOMSON AND DREAMWORKS IN STRATEGIC ALLIANCE TO DEVELOP ANIMATION IN INDIA
Two New York-listed companies, Thomson and its Technicolor Services division, and DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc have formed a strategic alliance to develop world-class animation capabilities in India.
Thomson said the alliance leverages its recent investment in Paprikaas Animation Studios, a leading animation and game content provider in Bangalore, India. Paprikaas Animation Studios offers creative, technical and production capabilities to design and produce computer-generated animation for feature films, television programming, commercials and video games, with a strong focus on digital 3D content.
Frank E. Dangeard, chairman and chief executive officer of Thomson, said, "We are committed to creating a center of animation excellence with DreamWorks in India. This strategic alliance is an important step for Thomson: animation represents a significant opportunity for us to expand our content services offering into the media and entertainment industries."
As part of the alliance and in collaboration with Thomson’s Technicolor Services division, DreamWorks Animation will assist Technicolor in the recruitment, training and development of top-tier animation talent to the Paprikaas facility in India.
The Paprikaas teams work on FARMkids, an animated children’s series, recently won a Best TV Series award at the Australian Effects and Animation Festival in Sydney.
Ann Daly, chief operating officer of DreamWorks Animation, said, "Through this strategic alliance, our objective is to tap into and further develop the gifted talent base in India, with the potential to do the kind of feature-level work for which we are renowned worldwide."
Paprikaas operations have recently relocated to Thomson’s new 100,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art digital content production facility in Bangalore. The expanded animation facility, which opened this summer, boasts impressive size and modern capabilities. The first of its kind in Asia, the facility will serve as Thomson’s post-production center of excellence in India.
The growth of the animation feature film market has spurred demand for animation design outsourcing.
According to India's National Association of Software and Service Companies, the global animation development market is expected to grow 9 percent yearly through 2009, to become a US$26 billion market. NASSCOM projects that in India, the animation development market will grow 34 percent yearly through 2009, to become a $950 million market. Meanwhile, the number of animated feature films released annually has grown from only one, in the 1995-97 timeframe, to 20, in the 2004-2006 timeframe.
DELHI HIGH COURT ISSUES ORDERS PREVENTING UNAUTHORISED INDIAN CABLE TELECAST OF AUSTRALIAN CRICKET SERIES
The Delhi High Court, in a landmark decision, has ordered in favour of ESPN Star Sports as the official broadcaster of the India tour of Australia which started yesterday.
Exchange4media reported that this order follows the suit filed by ESPN Star Sports for a permanent injunction against cable operators in India, preventing unauthorised broadcast of the series.
In the Delhi High Court, ESPN Star Sports claimed that it had the sole and exclusive rights from Cricket Australia to telecast exclusively in India, and contended that it expected rampant piracy in parts of India.
With this order in place, anyone showing India tour of Australia through any unauthorised means or any other channel will be held in contempt of court and liable for prosecution. The court has also permitted ESPN to take action against all other cable operators not party to the suit but found to be using the feed of ESPN and Star Cricket without license.
Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul of the Delhi High Court restrained the 100 named cable operators from transmitting and/or telecasting the tournament in any manner whatsoever without license from ESPN. The said cable operators have been restrained from telecasting/transmitting Fox Sports and Super Sports or any other channel, or in any other manner infringing the copyright/re-broadcast right of ESPN Star Sports.
NEW ZEALAND WEBSITE SCOOP CATCHES OUT TIME MAGAZINE ON COVERED-UP STUFF UP OVER PUTIN BIRTH DATE
A New Zealand website, Scoop.co.nz, lived up to its name with its international scoop of publishing the original transcript of the interview between Time magazine and Russia’s President Putin for Time’s Person of the Year award issue.
Time magazine was represented by editor in chief John Huey, Time managing editor Richard Stengel and deputy managing editor Adi Ignatius.
But between the three of them they didn’t get the year of Putin’s birth correct.
The New York Post reported, “Time Inc editor-in-chief John Huey got off on the wrong foot when he sat down to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with Time managing editor Rick Stengel and deputy managing editor Adi Ignatius.
“According to a ‘full and complete’ transcript of the interview that first turned up on a New Zealand web site, Huey started off a question about the Cold War by saying, ‘You were born in 1946 - I was born in 1948. We belong to the same generation.’
Putin gives the correct year of his birth, 1952. The exchange is missing from the ‘full transcript’ posted on Time's web site, and now some bloggers are screaming ‘fraudulent cover-up.’"
But Time spokeswoman Ali Zelenko told the New York Post that even ‘full’ transcripts need some editing, and said, "It's embarrassing, but it was a false start and they moved on. There's no cover-up. We knew the Kremlin was releasing its own transcript. It was a three-and-a-half-hour interview.”
The transcripts:
Version 1: The official version of the transcript, as it appears on Time’s web site begins this way:
TIME: Despite the cold war, Russia and the United States have found themselves aligned in many of history’s big conflicts: World War I, World War II and now, thanks in large part to your response to 9/11, there seems to be some alignment in the war against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. With that history in mind, how do you envision the relationship between Russia and the U.S. going forward?
PUTIN: Indeed, Russia and the U.S. were allies during the two tragic conflicts of the Second and the First World Wars, which allows us to think there’s something objectively bringing us together in difficult times, and I think—I believe—it has to do with geopolitical interests and also has a moral component. Of course, the cold war marked a tragedy in relations between our two countries, and I wouldn’t want to see the vestiges of those relations prevailing in the future…”
Version 2: The ‘more full and complete’ transcript begins entirely differently:
TIME: Mr. President! First of all, I would like to thank you on behalf of all my colleagues for your hospitality today. Second, we consider that it is a great honour for us to be able to conduct this interview. Your cooperation with Time magazine means a lot to us. Its result will be a serious material, and quite broad in nature and scope.
I want to start with the first question. You were born in 1946 - I was born in 1948. We belong to the same generation. We grew up in countries that lived with the unavoidable presence of the enemy. But historically, and in most major conflicts - World War One, World War Two - Russia and the United States have been allies. And now, in large part thanks to your role, Russia is cooperating in the struggle against Islamic terrorism.
In view of our history, how would you predict the development of relations between Russia and the United States as they resolve global problems in the future? How would our generation assess their future prospects for cooperation?
PUTIN: If you will allow me, I will correct you a little bit on certain dates. I could not have been born in 1946 because at that time my father was suffering from the wartime wounds and my mother survived the Leningrad blockade. After they had lost two children and their health it was unlikely that they could have thought of having another child right away. And I think it is for that reason that I was born a little later, in 1952. But this does not change the essence of the problems and the issues you raised - this is absolutely correct.”
- From MediaBlab
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