Posted byAlisa Zykova on July 28, 2008 at 11:23 AM
Global traditional media outlets remain popular in Europe, In spite of the influx of online audiovisual content and the growing popularity of Internet portals as information sources.
A recent European Media and Marketing Survey (EMS) showed that The Financial Times remains the premier paid publication with 548,000 readers, with The International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal lagging behind.
Free dailies Metro and 20 Minutes have 2.5 million and 998,000 readers respectively.
A "solid performance" was also noted at the National Geographic, with its 2.14 million readers, making it the most popular magazine as it outranks Time, reported Le Figaro .
Inflight magazines such as Air France Magazine (1.1 million readers) and Lufthansa Magazine (1.4 million readers) are the most read, according to the survey.
Source: Le Figaro through IFRA Executive News Service
Posted bySarah Schewe on July 18, 2008 at 10:42 AM
New data released from Nielsen Mobile, in the "The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web" report, indicates that adoption of the mobile web has reached a critical mass and can now support "large-scale mobile marketing efforts."
According to Nielsen, as of May 2008, 15.6 percent of US mobile subscribers regularly use the internet on their mobile device - reaching a total of 40 million users. (In all, some 95 million US subscribers pay for access to the mobile internet, but the 40 million are regular users.)
The UK and Italy followed the US, with 12.9 percent and 11.9 percent respectively, of subscribers going online from a mobile device.
It's interesting that while the US leads in overall mobile internet usage (of total users), other nations are now using mobile devices as the primary mechanism for getting online. According to Ars Technica, "In Russia, Brazil, and India, mobile lines far outnumber landlines, and as those countries continue to flourish, they will become a greater driving force in mobile Internet use."
According to the Nielsen report, the most popular things to do online were to go through web portals for mobile sites, followed by e-mail, then weather, news/politics, search, city maps, and sports.
"All of this ads up to a significant marketing opportunity, if companies can learn how to do it right," reported Ars Technica. "Mobile users appear to be lukewarm towards advertising (although Nielsen says that self-reported advertising receptivity tends to be low across all mediums), and due to its more personal nature, could be even more difficult to sell. Still, it could be successful as long as mobile marketing can respect consumer privacy and actually engage users"
For more on mobile internet usage, read our sister SFN blog's post yesterday on reaching teen audiences.
At a time when any local or national news outlet can potentially become an international online brand, and as newsrooms adapt to a 24-hour news cycle, editors can learn from The New York Times' most recent attempt to 'kill' both birds with one stone.
Last week, top execs from The Times and the International Herald Tribuneannounced plans to mergeiht.com and nytimes.com into a co-branded international section, in order to increase both sites' reach and appeal to international advertisers.
In this two-part series, the Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.
Through these moves, The Times intends to accomplish at least four ostensible goals:
Part 1: - Build an outpost for its Continuous News Desk in Paris, and eventually Hong Kong. - Integrate operations, streamline some resources by increasing efficiency and avoiding overlap.
Part 2: - Reinforce its international reach and further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. - Use the strength of NYT's online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name. IHT: an outpost for the Times' continuous news
Although the proposed changes are currently undergoing a consultation process with the IHT's works council, as required by French law, the process of integration of both papers began ever since the NYT acquired full control of the IHT in 2003, and has accelerated in past months.
In Feb., NYT executive editor Bill Keller had already announced plans to integrate operations and develop an "organic, global, 24-hour news operation," in order "to create a Continuous News outpost in Paris."
In May, the IHT dropped its 142-year-old logo from its nameplate to replace it with the phrase "The Global Edition of the New York Times."
"That says, we are one, and we are," although both arms are managed separately, said Jim Roberts, digital editor at The Times.
Video: Roberts talks about the 'integration' of both newspapers. Footage was collected during an interview at the 15th World Editors Forum in Sweden.
Thanks to this outpost and the six-hour time difference, the NYT is now able to upload content to its site nearly 24 hours a day (from about 6am to 1am, New York time). The paper eventually hopes to establish a similar outpost at the IHT's Asian headquarters in Hong Kong in the next six months.
The creation of these outposts does not mean that the IHT is becoming a full-blown Paris bureau for The Times. "We have a Paris bureau," said Roberts, "and the newsroom of the IHT still has a print edition and right now they still have a website." Integration, streamlining resources: evolution, no revolution
Since all proposed changes are undergoing a consultation process, editors couldn't give any firm preview of how workflows could be affected.
In the past, there has been "very regular contact between individual desks at the Times and corresponding desks at the IHT," said Martin Gottlieb, newly appointed editor of the Global edition. Many IHT editors come from The Times, regularly do edits on NYT pieces, and this past year IHT-written articles have appeared on nytimes.com with no distinctive byline.
However, there is no formal process of exchange between both newsrooms, and "There have been a couple of occasions when we've had IHT and NYT reporters covering the same thing," said Roberts.
The appointment of Gottlieb as editor of the Global Edition - note, no mention of the IHT in his title - is significant in that respect. In addition to fulfilling the role of editor of the paper, his mission will be to ensure that staff understands both papers are "two parts of one news-gathering operation, that should work in unison as much as possible in delivering the news 24 hours a day seven days a week," said Gottlieb.
A series of new editorial appointments at the IHT will be the symbols of this top-down integration. "There will be people coordinating the work of both staffs to, pretty much, make them as much as possible act as one staff," said Gottlieb.
For example, Alison Smale, who becomes European editor of the global newsroom, will be responsible for "coordinating the work of all NYT and IHT reporters in the region from the IHT newsroom in Paris," said the memo. To oversee the process, The Times also named Alan Flippen "Editor, Newsroom Organization."
It seems too early to say whether the planned reforms will lead to radical changes in workflows or content. Evolution, not revolution, said Roberts.
Currently, an IHT reporter based in Hong Kong might build upon a Times' story about the rise of airline fuel prices by interviewing Asian carriers, whose input might not have been as relevant to the core readership of the Times in the US. Likewise, an IHT story published in the Times might be fine-tuned to be more pertinent to the American audience (see the example of Der Spiegel in Part 2, looking at different newspaper approaches towards international editions).
Future workflows will likely build upon these current processes, rather than start from scratch. "It's continuing synergies that are taking place and maximizing them and regularizing them," said Gottlieb.
The planned changes can also be seen as an attempt to streamline resources - terminology often equivocated with cost cuts and layoffs. But according to Gottlieb, there are no planned newsroom layoffs at this point (this is subject to change during the next six months). It is possible that an online merger of iht.com and nytimes.com could lead to redundancies for some technical Web production positions.
Editors couldn't comment on any upcoming changes concerning the IHT's planned print redesign.
Stay tuned for Part 2, which will examine The Times' international branding strategy, and how newspapers can grow a previously inaccessible international readership.
Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition
A "furious letter" was written to Mecom chairman David Montgomery by seven editors-in-chief from the Netherland's biggest regional newspaper publisher, Wegener, describing how worried they were about the future of their newspapers.
Wegener's editors are worried that job cuts will take place in their titles as well and hinder the editorial quality of their papers. Last year, Mecom took an 87% stake in the group.
"The employees are under extreme pressure. There are not enough people, resources and incentives to achieve product differentiation quickly in order to achieve the necessary large-scale success in the multimedia field," the editors stated in the letter.
"As the editors-in-chief, we would like to stress that our papers are not just an economic product.
The concerns of the Dutch editors echo similar situations in many countries where newspapers have been faced with declining ad revenues. Their letter serves as an important reminder that cutting costs and stripping newspapers of their resources can be more detrimental than helpful - editorially and commercially.
"We are also a cultural element, and this is the key factor in the core value of our product. The newspapers are more than an information provider for the inhabitants of the relevant regions - they are a bearer of historical and cultural awareness and social cohesion."
Mecom owns many titles in Europe, such as in Norway, Germany, Poland and Germany, including the "prestigious" Berliner Zeitung, where some 30 journalists positions were cut.
Although Mecom refused to comment on the letter, a senior official mentioned that the situation has improved since it was written and that issues like "local responsibility for publishing" will be resolved soon, the Guardian reported.
There will be an Enterprise, a National and an International team that will directly report to Thomson, the memo said. Matt Murray will become National Editor, Nikhil Deogum the International Editor and Mike Williams in charge of Enterprise.
All three will be Deputy Managing Editors, sitting "close together" in a "news hub". In this way they will be "streamlining commissioning and editing decisions" and will have " a central role in the production and presentation of copy for the paper and the website."
Mike Miller, who is feature editor, will become Senior Deputy Managing Editor and will be in charge of the paper in case Thomson is unavailable.
Cathy Panagoulias will be a Deputy Managing Editor and "will take a greater role in providing administrative support for bureau chiefs and in hiring decisions."
Jim Pensiero will be Deputy Managing Editor for operations and will be "masterminding" the Journal's "move to Midtown and the introduction of a new publishing system."
"Alix Freedman will have expanded authority as a defender of the paper's ethical and journalistic standards," Thomson said.
Alan Murray will become a Deputy Managing Editor but will also stay as an Executive Editor of the Journal Online, "which will have a more influential role at the heart of the reformed news structure," Thomson wrote.
Dan Hertzberg, Deputy Managing Editor, will be responsible for European and Asian editions and will be in charge of constructing the Journal's "editorial presence and profile in Europe and, in particular, in the U.K."
Reg Chua is appointed Senior Assistant Managing Editor and will be overlooking the Design Team and the evolution of data resources. Thompson announced that a new Director of Design would be chosen soon.
"Most news organizations in the U.S. and around the world are in retreat, but Dow Jones is expanding its reporting resources, rapidly developing its digital content and providing journalism of the highest integrity to an ever larger audience in The Wall Street Journal," said Thomson towards the end of the memo.
UPDATE: According to SmartMoney.com Deputy Managing Editor Laurie Hays is leaving to pursue a different career path after being with the WSJ for 23 years, which Thomson mentioned in a separte memo.
Dow Jones will also create a "central news desk", SmartMoney.com reports, which "will allow for significantly enhanced co-operation between print, web and Newswires journalists, in New York and around the world," said Thomson.
The New York Times launched an online feature that enables users to set up friends lists and receive a feed of the stories recommended, shared and commented on by those friends.
Until now, nytimes.com readers could comment on stories but couldn't recommend them.
Dubbed TimesPeople, the feature is currently only available as a Firefox browser plug-in, but it should be opened more widely soon.
The New York Times is moving in the direction of social networking by adding these features, although they remain at a very basic level compared to social networking experts like Facebook. Feeds from TimesPeople members can also be set up to appear simultaneously on a Facebook profile.
According to Cnet.com, it is conceivable that a most-recommended tab be eventually added on the Times' homepage next to the popular "most e-mailed" story list.
This is a smart move by the NYT, as they venture slightly deeper into social networking possibilities, while remaining strictly focused on news.
Source: Cnet.com - Beet.tv through European Journalism Centre
In the face of an economic downturn, experts predict that there will be an overall reduction in ad spending - but internet advertising will buck the trend and continue to expand rapidly, reports the IDC.
"Internet advertising will continue to grow in 2008 even though we expect marketers to pull back on ad spending across all media because of the current economic troubles," said Karsten Weide, program director, Digital Marketplace: New Media and Entertainment. "Video advertising will make great inroads online, while search advertising will lose some market share."
The IDC forecasts that the internet will go from the fifth to the second most popular advertising medium in just five years - beating newspapers, cable TV and broadcast TV, and second only to direct marketing.
Between 2008 and 2012, it's anticipated web advertising will grow at eight times the rate as advertising at large, while revenue will double to $51.1 billion.
As advertisers shift significant amounts of money from broadcast television and to a lesser extent from cable television, into web-based video ads, video advertising revenue is expected grow sevenfold from $500 million in 2007 to $3.8 billion in 2012, at a compound annual growth rate of 49.4 per cent.
Lemonde.fr organized an online chat with French new media and technology specialist Francis Pisani. The expert gave his views on multiple topics, including the future of the mobile Web, anonymity online, social networks, and the public's fear of a Big Brother digital society.
The following is an edited and translated version of what can be found on Le Monde's site.
Nowadays, massive social networks are becoming the norm on the Web. Will this continue or will there be new social networks that are smaller and more localized?
Both coexist and will continue to do so. I find the concept of the website ning.com very interesting. Instead of putting users in a global social network, it enables users to create micro networks.
Is anonymity online a defunct notion?
It's hard to say. Personally I think the possibility of being anonymous should be preserved, but the most important thing is to have direct control over information about us. This means that users should be able to know what kind of data a website has about them, and users should be given the possibility to destroy that data or migrate it to another site.
What are the trends for blogs in the future?
I think blogs will evolve in two directions: the 'old' one, which entails publishing postings in a Wiki-type database, which can be searched independently of chronology and categories. But today Twitter, Friendfeed and others are showing us the good things of being able to include conversations, in which the predominant role of bloggers is minimized.
How will the development of the mobile Web influence the way we use the Internet?
There are two big notions at play: the importance of location, and the highly specialized technologies necessary to understand the context around one's location.
This essentially means that once we will have these technologies, content providers (journalists, TV stations, institutions...) will have to provide content adapted to these circumstances.
We will also have to adapt to a new preset: the fact that we are becoming more and more nomadic.
Which mobile format do you think is most promising for news and information? Cell phones like the iPhone, e-books like Kindle, video game consoles like the PSP?
I would add a fourth category, UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PC), a format that is starting to seriously grow in Asia, and that we will probably see in the US and European markets very soon.
At this point, I can't say which of these forms will win. In fact, the increasing number of these machines should enable a large number of people to choose whichever format is convenient for them.
The latest report from JupiterResearch has good news for online news publishers: internet users have not jumped ship.
Around 42% of internauts in Europe regularly visit online news sites, versus the 28% who habitually go to video sites and the 15% who frequent social networking services.
Even more comforting for news websites: the report finds that the 25-34 demographic, who news organizations continually fear losing to the next big thing, "are most interested in visiting their sites," reports PaidContent UK.
In all European countries except for Germany, branded news websites are more popular than portals or search sites like Google. However, this does not hold true for the 25-34 year-old set, suggesting that while they are interested in news, they also "want to read it on their own terms."
Source: PaidContent UK through IFRA Executive News Service
Although some of the main findings of this year's Newsroom Barometer relate to trends of newsroom integration, the survey's results also revealed some major trends as to the future of the press and news in general.
The fact that a large share of editors believe the most common platform for news in the future will be online - and not print - is significant. It is also significant that a majority of them think the majority of news will be free in the future. Even more interesting though is the fact that these numbers have quickly grown since last year.
Among the main findings:
- A plurality - 44% - believe online will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. Thirty-one cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper. The rest were unsure. - A majority of editors - 56%- believe news in the future will be free, up from 48% from last year's survey. Only one third believe the news will remain paid for, while 11% were unsure. - Two-thirds believe some editorial functions will be outsourced, despite frequent newsroom opposition to the practice. - Perhaps one of the sadder findings of this year's Barometer, as only 45% of editors think journalism's quality will improve.
Looking 10 years into the future, what do you think will be the most common way of reading the news in your country?
Editors increasingly see online as the platform of reference for news in the future (44% compared to 40% last year), now significantly more so than print (30.6% compared to 35% last year). Overall, 63% thought a type of digital platform will be the most common format, including 11.5% for mobile and 7% for e-paper, a relatively high figure combined (18.5%) for technologies that are still relatively uncommon. Results for mobile and e-paper stayed stable, indicating that news executives perceived few major evolutions in these technologies over the last year.
Do you think that the majority of news (print and online) will be free in the future?
A clear majority of respondents (56%) believe that the majority of news will be free in the future, a significant evolution, as only 47% answered 'Yes' last year. Only a third of respondents (33%) believe news will remain paid for. The future of the paid-for model - paid by users directly - is increasingly put into question, even by those who produce it. Respondents from Western Europe, the cradle of the paid-for model, were less likely to believe in free news (48%). North American respondents were on par with the average, at 58.5%. The shift towards the free news model is more apparent when it comes to 'emerging' newspaper markets: in South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Asia combined, 61% of respondents believed news would be free.
One might have expected Western European and North American editors to be more open to the free news model (after giving birth to freesheets and free online news), but many still think that users should pay for a quality editorial product. Do you think it very likely, somewhat likely, not very likely, or not all likely that in the future some traditional editorial functions will be outsourced?
Surprisingly, nearly two thirds of respondents (64%) believed that in the future traditional editorial functions will be outsourced, despite frequent newsroom resistance to such announcements. Granted, 44% of editors thought it be merely "somewhat likely," but this shows editors are conscious of - maybe not thrilled by - the growing trend of outsourcing.
One might have expected that North Americans and Europeans (West and East) particularly believe in the outsourcing trend (as the ones primarily concerned by outsourcing due to higher staff costs), but the results pointed in the opposite direction. On average, respondents from other regions of the world were more likely to believe in the outsourcing of editorial tasks in the future.
Over the next 10 years, do you think that the quality of journalism will:
A near majority thought that journalism's quality would improve (45% versus 27% who thought it would worsen). Yet while this is positive, it also means 55% of respondents didn't affirm that journalism would improve: the finding illustrates both the relative confidence and the uncertainties of this transitional period for the newspaper industry. Furthermore, this number is slightly down from last year, when 50% of respondents thought the quality of journalism would improve.
The hardships for the North American newspaper industry continue to be felt, as a mere 30% of respondents thought that journalism's quality would improve. Similarly, Russians and Eastern Europeans (34%) and West Europeans (45.5%) were skeptical.
