Forbes repors that the Australian newspaper publisher John Fairfax Holdings Ltd. "expects profit for the first half of this fiscal year to grow between 12 percent and 15 percent." This bright forecast is due to increased earnings stemming from new newspaper acquisitions in New Zealand; as well as good performance of their Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers. Forbes informs further that "the company's net profit for the year ended June 30 was 276 million Australian dollars (US$195 million; euro 161 million), up from A$125.5 million a year earlier."

Their success has also been stimulated by the prospect of relaxed media laws as prime Minister John Howard is now controlling both upper and lower house of the federal parliament. Dow Jones relates: "Fairfax Chairman Dean Wills said the reforms will provide the company an "opportunity to pursue new options for growth." Further Wills told shareholders at the group's annual meeting in Sydney, "as a leading newspaper publisher, with vigorous businesses in Australia and New Zealand, we believe Fairfax is well placed strategically to participate in new opportunities that may be afforded by changes to the media ownership laws." Sources: Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires

The Spanish daily El Mundo launched El Mundo Málaga last week. "This new edition is the fourth of El Mundo in the Andalusia region (Andalusia, Seville and Huelva). The general manager of this edition will be Rafael Porras, who will work with 8 editors. The regular issues will have 12 pages, the front and back pages will be in color."

Source: El Mundo through Publicitas

According to John N. Wilcox, president and chief operating officer of Ottaway, "Now, people expect to get the news on their desktops, laptops and cell phones not only once a day, but whenever it breaks." Ottaway, the parent company of The Daily Item, recently signed contracts to install a new content management system for print and online services at its daily and weekly newspapers in nine states. The project has been in the planning stage for more than two years. At The Daily Item, installation of the new equipment will commence in July 2005 and will offer the Susquehanna Valley area innovative ways to receive information and advertising messages electronically throughout the day, using a variety of electronic devices. The content management system will also streamline the traditional printing methods that are used to generate this newspaper daily, while offering expanded archiving capabilities.

Ottaway Newspapers Inc. is the community newspaper subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company. Ottaway publishes 15 daily newspapers, 12 Sunday newspapers, 18 weeklies and numerous specialty publications and web sites in nine states.

Source: Daily Item

Top editors at the Chicago Tribune tried desperately to stop publication Tuesday of a prominent feature story exploring usage of a vulgar slang term for a woman's anatomy. After discovering Tuesday morning that the story, which contained a provocative headline, had already hit the presses at the newspaper's Freedom Center printing plant, Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski ordered a team of high-ranking editors to manually pull the section out of pre-printed packages... An editor's note in today's edition offered an apology. "Senior editors determined that the story was inappropriate after the preprinted section went to press. Most copies were removed from Wednesday's edition of the paper, though a relatively small number of copies may still contain it."

Source: Wall Street Journal

As revealed by the comparative sales statistics 2003/2004 for Germany, published by Zeitungs Marketing Gesellschaft (organization for the marketing of Newspapers) on wednesday, the sales of daily newspapers in Germany have been reduced by 2.91% to 27.97 million. during the third quarter of 2004. The sector, which was hit worst is that of newsstand sales with a reduction of 5.36%, while subscription sales have only diminished by 2.26% according to ZMG.

Source: ZMG (registration required)

Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and a vice president of Dow Jones & Company, has been elected vice chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the organization announced today. "Paul Steiger is one of America's most respected editors," said David Laventhol, chairman of CPJ's board of directors. "His additional responsibilities at CPJ will strengthen the cause of press freedom everywhere."

Source: CPJ

In The Guardian, Claire Cozens wrote about the third worldwide press freedom ranking conducted by Reporters Without Borders . 167 countries were included in the survey. "The US authorities in Iraq have been ranked as one of the biggest dangers to journalists in the world, worse than the regime in Georgia and Afghanistan in a new global survey of press freedom. They have been ranked 108th by Reporters Without Borders, putting them just above Cambodia and only 11 places ahead of the Palestinian Authority in terms of safety. The press freedom organisation said it had given the US its own separate ranking in the war-torn country because of the number of journalists killed by US army gunfire. Overall, Iraq was ranked 148th in the world. "

Alain Neuville's ANIMA newsletter announced on Friday that the leading Danish daily newspaper in October was the free MetroXpress with 681.000 readers. The readership of MetroXpress has steadily increased, in September they boosted 787.000 readers in comparison to Jivlands-Posten with 671.000 readers in September and October. The trend seems to continue since the third newspaper on the list of most-read dailies in Denmark was also a free paper: Urban, published by Berlingske Officins with 633.000 readers.

Source: ANIMA newsletter

Global content provider Factiva, a joint subsidiary of Dow Jones and the Reuters Group, will deliver a series of free really simple syndication feeds that relate to the U.S. Presidential election, the company said Monday. The feeds cover election-related topics including jobs, the economy, health care, the war in Iraq, and budget and taxes. "RSS seemed like a natural complement to our news content," said Diane Thieke, director of public relations for Factiva Inc. By adding Factiva's feeds to their RSS readers, consumers will have instant access to presidential campaign news as it happens... Factiva's editorial staff will trawl information from over 4,000 public Web sites covering the Presidential election.

Sources: MediaDailyNews and Factiva. See also the very good "dossier" from the Poynter Institute about "all information you need regarding the American elections" (fraud, results...)

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html">Cnews reports that Canada's seventh largest publishing company Transcontinental Inc. will acquire three new printing presses in Owen Sound, Ontario, as well as Boucherville and Beauceville, Quebec. These three presses will replace seven presses that are currently in use, displacing 135 jobs.

Sad news (but not really surprising) from Tunisia. According to AFP, "An independent organization that monitored local media coverage of Tunisia's general elections said Monday the ruling party of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had enjoyed overwhelming exposure during the campaign leading up to the vote while opposition parties had been largely ignored. "I think it would be false to say that the public was well served by the media during this campaign," said David Ward, part of a team of observers from the Danish-based International Media Support (IMS) that conducted the study over an eight-day period beginning October 15. The IMS is an organization that promotes press freedom. According to the IMS study, Ben Ali's party had a considerable advantage over other parties in the national press which devoted 85 percent of its campaign coverage to the RCD or members of the government. As for coverage of the four candidates who stood in the presidential polls, Ben Ali enjoyed 94 percent of the coverage in the state press and 90 percent in the private press." And in my opinion, the worst is that UNO and some other international organisations have agreed that, late next year, Tunisia is scheduled to host the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Strange world!