MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST APRIL 21: FAIRFAX MOGUL SHARE MELTDOWN; TESCO'S THAI LIBEL WRITS
April 21st 2008 03:34
BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS PRINT GOING DOWN THE TOILET IN US
The business-to-business print business seems heaped down the toilet in a big way, at least in the US, following Folio’s announcement that the state of this publishing sector “has gone from bad to worse—in a hurry.”
As Folio recounted, last week Nielsen laid of an undisclosed number of staff members as part of a vast restructuring plan that calls for an elimination of some 4,000 jobs – roughly 10 percent of the workforce – in order to lessen its US$8.25 billion debt.
The following day, new Ziff Davis Enterprise ceo Steve Weitzner said he was laying off a number of employees, also as part of restructuring.
Plus the release of the final 2007 Business Information Network numbers show an overall advertising revenue decline of 2 percent, after essentially finishing flat at the end of 2006.
What’s the answer? Go digital, say some.
“B-to-b companies that have been working on their transition from print to digital are in good shape today,” says DeSilva Phillips managing partner Reed Phillips. “I don’t think it’s time to panic, unless the company has had its head in the sand for the past three to five years about its digital strategy.”
GOOGLE STOCK SOARS AFTER BETTER THAN PREDICTED FIRST QUARTER RESULTS
Media Daily Online reports that Google's stock soared by nearly US$80, or more than 17 percent, in after-hours trading after it delivered first-quarter results for revenues, paid-click growth and earnings that exceeded Wall Street's expectations.
INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE CRICKET NOW BEING BROADCAST IN CANADA
Media in Canada reports that Asian Television Network International has "hit it for six" by landing exclusive broadcasting rights for the newest addition to world-class cricket, the Indian Premier League.
Actually if the Canadians wish to embrace cricket they should get their jargon correct and instead report that the network has “hit a six.’
But such quibbles aside, Asian Television Network International president and ceo Shan Chandrasekar said, “Indian Premier League is the most exciting new phenomenon in world cricket, and we are delighted to acquire the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights,"
During the five-year deal, league matches, which debuted last week, will be broadcast live on the Commonwealth Broadcasting Network's Cricket Plus - with repeats airing on Asian Television Network, whose satellite radio station will also broadcast audio commentary across Canada and the US.
Asian Television Network, which reaches 600,000-700,000 viewers daily, expects large numbers of families to watch daytime broadcasts of Indian Premier League matches.
FOUR MYANMAR JOURNALISTS ARRESTED IN NEW DELHI DURING OLYMPIC TORCH RALLY
Four more Myanmar journalists were detained last week – but this time the detaining happened not in Yangon but in New Delhi India.
Mizzima News reported that the four detained Myanmar journalists were freed on bail after they were produced in court on Friday.
The four Myanmar were arrested on Thursday for trespassing in restricted areas while covering a demonstration by Tibetan activists against the Beijing Olympics along with nearly 300 Tibetan activists during the torch rally in New Delhi.
"We were released after we produced our refugee cards. But we have been given another court date on May 1," Kyaw Thura, one of the detained Myanmar journalists told Mizzima.
The four Myanmar journalists are Khin Maung Latt, a correspondent of Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma; Myo Myint Aung, editor of the Mizoram-based Khonumthung News Group; Kyaw Thura, a freelancer for the BBC Burmese service; and Nay Lin, a stringer of the Washington based Radio Free Asia.
CABLE TV IN THE US BENEFITED STRONGLY FROM THE WRITERS’ STRIKE
TV Week reports that American cable networks added viewers at an accelerated pace during the Writers Guild of America strike, and when it ended, they continued to post record high ratings, the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau said in a report released Friday.
Among adults 18-49 the gap in average nightly prime-time viewing between ad-supported cable network and broadcast grew to a 23 percent advantage in favor of cable. That’s up from a 3 percent advantage in the first half of the previous year. The gap grew in a similar fashion across other demographic groups, the CAB said.
“The midterm data demonstrates that cable programming drove the growth of the television audience during the first half of this year—with the viewing of cable steadily rising,” Sean Cunningham, president and ceo of the CAB, said in a statement. “Moreover, as we move into the ’08 upfront season, cable’s original programming slate and ratings strength have never been more evident.”
The CAB said the growth in overall prime time television viewing is notable because it comes despite increased use of alternate video sources such as internet video and mobile devices.
TESCO LASHES OUT WITH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF DEFAMATION WRITS IN THAILAND
Don’t mess with Tesco is the message in Asia following news that Tesco in Thailand is suing a second columnist from a Bangkok business newspaper for Baht 100 million $A3.4 million in libel damages.
The Guardian report that the global retailer, trading as Tesco Lotus, claims the business gossip writer for Bangkok Business News damaged the company's reputation when she said the company did not "love" Thailand.
The offending article in Nongnart Harnvilai's tongue-in-cheek "Buzz" column was part of a collection of short stories on page 28 of the paper, and ran to just a few sentences.
Six weeks after the article appeared on January 29, the journalist on the Thai-language business daily, part of the Nation newspaper group, received a writ from Tesco Lotus.
Another of the paper's columnists, Kamol Kamoltrakul, had also been served with a libel writ from Tesco Lotus seeking Baht 100 million in damages 11 days earlier.
A third Tesco Lotus critic, Jit Siratranont, former MP and now vice-general secretary of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, faces two years in jail accused of criminal libel, and a damages claim of Baht 1.1 billion.
The Guardian reports that Thai free speech campaigners said the writs are evidence of Tesco Lotus's determination to stamp out criticism of its rapid expansion, which has been hotly debated for nearly a
A committee of the Thai Journalists Association concerned with the potential erosion of press freedom is determining how to combat Tesco Lotus's tactics.
This week, Thailand's Human Rights Commission is set to address the company's multiple libel writs and the tactic of going after individuals rather than the organisations they represent.
NEWS INTERNATIONAL LONDON FREESHEET LOSES 17 MILLION QUID IN ITS FIRST TEN MONTHS
Ouch. News International's London freesheet the London Paper lost nearly 17 million pounds ($A36.5 million) in its first 10 months of publication, according to the Guardian.
The London Paper, launched in September 2006, recorded a pre-tax loss of 16.8 million pounds in the year to the end of June 2007, with a turnover of just over 8 million and costs totaling 24.6 million , including 3.1 million in advertising and promotion expenses and 2.4 million listed as general and administration expenses.
The figures were included in accounts prepared for NI Free Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, the UK newspaper group owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
NI Free Newspapers' directors, who include News International group managing director Clive Milner, said the paper would benefit from greater advertising revenue in the 2007-2008 financial year.
News International's freesheet is handed out every weekday evening across central London and has a distribution of about 500,000 copies daily compared to London Lite's 400,000.
FAIRFAX MEDIA FAMILY MOGUL MAY HAVE LOST TENS OF MILLIONS IN MARKET MELTDOWN
The Australian reports that a move by John B. Fairfax to cement his influence on the company that bears his name, Fairfax Media, “appears to have cost him tens of millions of dollars because of the meltdown in both the general market and the Fairfax share price.”
Fairfax and siblings, including brother Timothy, have, since the merger of Fairfax with Rural Press in May last year, been the media group's largest shareholders through their private family company, Marinya Media.
Marinya's dominant asset is the 211 million Fairfax shares it holds, or just under 14 per cent of the company. But it is believed Fairfax has taken his personal stake in Marinya to 75 per cent through the purchase of Timothy's mooted 37.5 per cent holding in Marinya, indirectly representing more than 79 million Fairfax shares, in February when Fairfax's share price was above $4. Since the mooted date of the transaction, the Fairfax share price has fallen from $4.05 a share to yesterday's closing level of $3.44.
Based on the effective purchase of just over 79 million Fairfax shares, this would represent a loss of $48 million in two months. But there were suggestions yesterday the deal may have been struck on late-2007 levels, when Fairfax shares were closer to $4.50, potentially crystallising an even larger loss.
TIME OUT MAGAZINE TO LAUNCH IN HONG KONG ON WEDNESDAY FOLLOWING VIRAL VIDEO PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
DigitalMedia reports that Time Out Hong Kong magazine will conduct a viral video campaign on YouTube and on a mock site in preparation for its launch.
The campaign aims to "show what happens when you don't keep your eyes or your ears fresh" via 15- to 20-second video clips, said Victor Manggunio, group creative director at Leo Burnett.
"One video shows a person watching something boring on TV and as the clip continues, his eyeballs pop out. Another shows somebody listening to repetitive, boring music, and both their ears drop off.”
The magazine launches in Hong Kong on Wednesday, and will extend online via a content site. While the magazine has a cover price, most, but not all, of the content will be available free on the website, said editor-in-chief Paul Kay.
Kay added the publication's team is confident readers will buy the magazine regardless of free-of-charge alternatives from Time Out's own website and competitors such as HK Magazine, Chicago and Sydney, where there are both paid and free publications," he said.
Last year Time Out successfully launched in Sydney.
JAPANESE NEWS AGENCY PRESSING FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE OVER SLAYING OF ITS VIDEO JOURNALIST IN MYANMAR
Six months after APF video journalist Kenji Nagai was killed in Myanmar, APF News president Toru Yamaji tellsAsiaMedia that the company is waiting for the Japanese Foreign Ministry's support for a lawsuit against Myanmar over the killing.
He said, “As yet, there has been no response from the ministry. We'd like to bring the lawsuit to the International Criminal Court, but without the Japanese government, we cannot do anything.”
He said the company is also trying to get Nagai's camera returned, and this is “still under police investigation. Last month in Yangon, there was a meeting with Myanmar foreign ministry. Negotiation is in progress.
“We can't do too much without the Japanese government in regards to the lawsuit. But, even though the lawsuit is being halted, we can continue to pursue answers for basic questions like how did he die and why? These questions are not asking for much. We are asking for the truth.
“More importantly, though Nagai's life was cut short, we can continue his legacy through our own actions. His life was based on service. As a reporter, he felt a duty to go to places in need and expose the injustices to the rest of the world. He told these stories through the eyes of the people. Danger and fear never stopped him because lives were at risk. Nagai hoped Japan and the media could embrace this mindset. Now, with him gone, I feel we owe it to Nagai to carry on his mission.
“Nagai had many news projects before his death. He did much of his research on North Korea and Palestine and Iraq. We are actively continuing his work.”
INTERNET VIDEO PRODUCERS OF LONELYGIRL GET US$5 MILLION TO DEVELOP MORE ONLINE SHOWS
The Wall Street Journal reports that the producers of the internet-video serial lonelygirl15 have raised US$5 million from prominent technology investors to expand and introduce new online shows.
The new funding for EQAL, the Los Angeles company behind lonelygirl and another popular internet drama, "KateModern," illustrates Silicon Valley's continuing push to move video onto the web and find better ways to make money from it, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Many companies are still struggling to come up with viable revenue models.
Todd Dagres, a partner at Spark Capital, the Boston-based firm that led EQAL's round of financing, said the studio understands that "the Web is not TV, and you can't advertise like you do on TV."
Instead, EQAL will weave advertising into the content of their shows.
Other investors putting cash into EQAL include Silicon Valley's Ron Conway, who backed Google in its early days; Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of browser pioneer Netscape Communications; Conrad Riggs, a Hollywood producer involved with TV shows such as Survivor and The Apprentice, and Georges Harik, a former Google executive.
Lonelygirl, which was once thought to be an amateur project but later revealed to be the product of professionals, gained popularity on YouTube
In the original lonelygirl season in 2006, Johnson & Johnson's Neutrogena got a plug when a scientist from the company was woven into the plot.
The show's main first-season character, Bree, was killed off last year.
KateModern, set in London, will be distributed by Bebo, the social-networking site recently purchased by Time Warner Inc’s AOL.
MANHATTAN JUDGE ASKS LITIGANTS TO SETTLE HARRY POTTER FAIR USE CASE
The federal judge in the trial over a planned publication of a lengthy reference guide to the Harry Potter novels called on the parties on Tuesday to settle, saying he was concerned the case was "more lawyer-driven than it is client-driven."
The Wall Street Journal said Judge Robert Patterson, Jr, at the end of the day's session in US District in Manhattan, said, "The fair-use people are on one side, and a large company is on the other side...The parties ought to see if there's not a way to work this out, because there are strong issues in this case and it could come out one way or the other. The fair-use doctrine is not clear.
"Maybe it's too late. Maybe we've gone too far down the road," the judge continued. "But a settlement is better than a lawsuit."
AFTER LONDON, THE US VERSION OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL COULD BE LAUNCHED IN OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE
The US version of the Wall Street Journal could be launched in other parts of Europe following its launch in London, according to the Guardian
The US edition of the financial paper went on sale in London for the first time on Wednesday as part of new owner News Corporation's global expansion plans.
It is being sold alongside the 25-year-old European edition of the US business bible, the Wall Street Journal Europe.
Les Hinton, the chief executive of the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones, suggested the US edition could become available across Europe. The two versions would go ‘hand in hand’, Hinton said at a party to celebrate the European edition's 25th anniversary.
He said the Wall Street Journal Europe would continue to meet a ‘specialised and local need’, while the US version would attract a loyal core of readers in London ‘and I hope eventually other financial centres in Europe’. With a UK print run of 3,500, the Wall Street Journal US edition is available at 250 newsagents across central London and the capital's airports, five hours ahead of publication in the US.
ASSOCIATED PRESS TO UPGRADE ITS COPYRIGHT PROTECTION SYSTEM
Journalism.co.uk reports that the Associated Press (AP) is to adopt a new copyright protection system for online users of its content. The organisation, which already uses tracking service attributor to find unlicensed use of its content online, has signed a deal with online copyright rights service iCopyright to create a web-based licensing system for AP content.
Links directing users to the iCopyright service will feature at the top and bottom of every AP-hosted story.
The links will give AP content users the option to email content, request copies, purchase photos or publish to their own websites. The new feature will also guide users through the appropriate licensing arrangement or payment process for aggregating content.
News sites will be encouraged to add these links to AP stories on their own websites to promote an industry-wide standard for online copyright protection.
NEW YORK TIMES MAIN REVENUE SUFFERS THE SHARPEST LOSS “IN MEMORY”
The New York Times Company, the parent of The New York Times, posted a US$335,000 loss in the first quarter.
The International Herald Tribune reports that this is one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen. It falls far short of both analysts' expectations and the company’s US$ 23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier.
The company's main revenue source, advertising in print and online, fell 10.6 percent, the sharpest drop in memory, as the industry suffers an economic downturn and the continuing long-term shift of readers and advertisers to the internet.
The poor showing stemmed from The Times Company's core news media group, which includes The Times, The Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune, as well as several regional newspapers.
Across the industry, newspaper ad revenue – print and online, combined –
fell almost 8 percent last year, the second-worst decline in more than half a century, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
FRANCE’S LARGEST BROADCASTER TF1 SUES YOUTUBE OVER COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
Reuters reports that France's largest commercial broadcaster, TF1, has filed a lawsuit against the video-sharing site YouTube and is seeking damages of Euro100 million (A$170 million.)
Reuters said this was revealed last week on the website of French business daily Les Echos.
Reuters said a YouTube spokesman quoted by the newspaper said the suit had been received a few days ago in California but would be judged in Paris. A TF1 spokesman declined to comment on the report.
YouTube, acquired by Google in 2006, is facing a US$1 billion copyright infringement suit from entertainment group Viacom that accuses it of profiting from clips from Viacom shows illegally uploaded by YouTube users.
PORTNOY”S COMPLAINT REVISITED: NEW ZEALAND SUNDAY PAPER RIPS OUT PAGES CONTAINING EDITORS LETTER ABOUT BLOGGER SUZANNE PORTNOY’S SEXUAL EXPLOITS
Peter Ong, regional director for the Society for News Design and a newspaper consultant in Australia reports that thousands of copies of New Zealand's Sunday Star-Times' Sunday magazine were distributed to subscribers with four pages ripped off, costing the paper a large sum of money in advertising and labour cost.
Ong said The paper had to call in emergency workers to tear out the pages because one of them contained the editor's letter which some senior editors thought was too offensive for conservative New Zealanders.
Emily Simpson, the editor, had written about blogger Suzanne Portnoy's sexual exploits, detailed on her blog, in the Sunday magazine of March 16. She quoted a chunk of the blog, using asterisks to replace some of the vulgar words. But even then, it was thought to be too explicit.
Someone then decided to call in dozens of workers to remove the four pages from the Sunday magazine.
One page contained the contents, another the editor's and readers' letters, and two featured full-page advertisements.
Ong said the episode has raised some questions among journalists in New Zealand and Australia about the limits of freedom.
A senior editor with a leading paper in New Zealand wondered how the editor's letter got into print in the first place.
"Anyone with some sense of decorum would not have quoted the blogger," he said. "It left little to readers' imagination."
Another editor thought the decision would be viewed as high-handed on the part of some senior editors, especially among journalists in Fairfax, which owns the Sunday Star-Times.
INDIA LAUNCHES YET ANOTHER BUSINESS PAPER, THE FINANCIAL CHRONICLE
While business-to-business publications are struggling in the US, business newspapers themselves seem to be booming in India.
Last week Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd, one of India’s biggest media groups and publisher of the leading English daily, Deccan Chronicle, has launched its newest print publication Financial Chronicle, simultaneously from Hyderabad and Chennai.
This, as Agencyfaqs! points out, makes it the sixth business newspaper in the market after The Financial Express, The Economic Times, Business Standard, Business Line and Mint.
DNA Money is a separate daily in some markets, but it continues to be a supplement to the main newspaper in Mumbai.
The newspaper has appointed some big names on its advisory board and it has former Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman M Damodaran as its ombudsman.
Damodaran will represent the readers’ interest in the newsroom, forewarn the editorial team of the pitfalls of frontline reporting, address readers’ grievances and uphold the values of clean and honest journalism. The board consists of agricultural scientist Prof. MS Swaminathan, TRAI chairman Nripendra Mishra, MindTree’s Subroto Bagchi, member of Parliament Sachin Pilot and Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd managing director PK Iyer. Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd chairman T Venkattram Reddy is the chairman of the advisory board.
Venkattram Reddy says, “Financial Chronicle has been crafted as a pure play business daily to build on the aspirations of a young and prosperous India. FC simplifies business journalism to the basic principle of business, which is transaction. It looks at transaction from the simple premises of buy, sell, spend and save. It reduces business to a clutter free enterprise, shorn of jargon, addressing the concerns of ordinary investors and consumers.
An e-version of the paper is available on www.mydigitalfc.com, and this features an in-built message reader application which reads out the story selected by the reader.
According to the newspaper, this is the first time that any newspaper in the country has launched a message reader service on its e-paper.
TIBETAN SINGER AND TV PRESENTER STILL UNDER ARREST IN CHINA
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of Tibetan singer and TV presenter Jamyang Kyi, who was arrested on April 1 in her office in the state-owned Qinghai Television station in Xining, the capital of the western province of Qinghai, which borders the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Her husband and two daughters have received no news of her since April 7.
"Jamyang's arrest by the Chinese security forces is very disturbing," the press freedom organisation said. "European ambassadors based in Beijing must ask the Chinese authorities for news about her. The lack of any foreign journalists or observers in Tibet increases our fears about the treatment reserved for Tibetans held by the police or army."
According to the Phayul.com website and Radio Free Asia, Jamyang was arrested on April 1, and the last contact with her was on April 7.
She was arrested for questioning about a trip she made to the US during which she sang to a Tibetan audience. Police also went to her home and took documents and her computer.
Well known as a presenter of Tibetan-language programmes on Qinghai Television, Jamyang, 42, has also made several records in which she sings a fusion of Tibetan traditional music with pop.
She has written news reports about the fate of Tibetan women and, until last year, kept a blog Really Long Link in which she wrote about such subjects as education, inter-ethnic relations and Tibetan culture.
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