US guidelines will require bloggers to disclose links with advertisers October 6, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentInteresting to see how this might work (or not?) — due to come into effect on 1 December. From CJR's The Kicker blog:
"In light of recent scandals involving bloggers, advertisers, and the merging of the two in the ethically precarious practice known as “blogger payola”…the Federal Trade Commission has voted on—and, by a margin of 4 to 0, voted for—new guidelines that will require bloggers to disclose any “material connection” to advertisers, including payments for endorsements and free product samples."
Google abandons Print Ads newspaper ad sales service after disappointing results | Media | guardian.co.uk January 21, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a comment"The Print Ads scheme let advertisers buy space in newspapers and magazines in the same way that Google auctions space through its other services: advertisers picked their ideal spot then submitted bids for space in the publications they had been matched with.
More than 800 publications in the US signed up to the scheme, including The New York Times, the Tribune company, Gannett and the Washington Post.[…]
But it never delivered the level of returns required – particularly for cash-strapped newspapers which had lost vast amounts of classified advertising to websites such as Craigslist and Google itself."
Jeff Jarvis: History in the making the LA Times's online ads hit target | Media | The Guardian January 12, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentJeff Jarvis heralds the prospect of major papers going online-only as online revenue makes the grade:
” …the editor of the Los Angeles Times, Russ Stanton, said the paper’s online advertising revenue is now sufficient to cover the Times’s entire editorial payroll, print and online. “Given where we were five years ago, I don’t think anyone thought that would ever happen,” he said in email. “But that day is here.” The same day has arrived for at least one more major US newspaper. What this tells me is that we are on the cusp of the moment when online revenue could sustain a substantial digital journalistic enterprise without the onerous cost of printing and distribution. Hallelujah.
There are caveats aplenty…”
Talking hyperlocal, ultralocal workshop at mashup* — Ultra Local Voice: communities, communicating November 5, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentHyperlocal publisher William Perrin on the paradoxes of local news, particularly the challenge — impossibility? — of making it pay, at least without drawing heavily on volunteers, UGC, citizen journalism etc:
“…it is hard to see how solo ultralocal or hyperlocal sites can support a paid member of staff (at the very lowest £25k inc overheads). So unless new sources of funding arise, a conventional paid for journalist model looks unlikely at an ultralocal level. The only way to gather hyperlocal news for an industrial era news model is by tapping into a volunteer base to write news for you.”
How the numbers (don’t) add up for newspapers if they axe print October 26, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Journalism, Newspapers, Online, USA , add a commentAlan Mutter (aka Newsosaur) picks up on a point from the ‘New Business Models for News’ summit at City University of New York, arguing that scrapping print isn’t a solution, given that 90% of US papers’ revenue comes from ads sold in the print product.
Assuming it would cut costs by 60%, scrapping the print paper would mean the following, he suggests, for a $100m-revenue publishing company with a 15% operating profit:
If the company abandoned print but were able to double its online sales to $20 million, it would lose $14 million in a year, for an operating margin of a negative 70%. To break even, the prototypical publication would have to more than triple its sales from the current levels. To make a profit of 15%, the company would have to quadruple it sales.
A particularly tough target, Mutter adds, because around two-thirds of online revenues typically come from add-on sales to advertisers who are buying space in the print edition.
But this kind of online-only operation is not a pipe-dream, maintains Tim Windsor. Responding in comments on Cory Bergman’s post, he says making it work would need a much smaller newsroom with one or two community managers to make the most of user-generated content, plus linked/licensed content. A core staff of 20 multimedia reporters, he suggests. (Those comments via Mark Hamilton.)
How will newspapers make money in future? Shopping? Travel? Sponsored editorial? October 24, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentMartin Moore catalogues some of the ways The Times is trying:
"Many of them [newspapers] are, and have been for some time, looking for ways to 'monetize' their reading public (i.e. milk readers for more cash).
You can get a pretty good idea of what this means by reading todays Times. I counted 21 ads for ways in which the paper could make additional revenue (not including encouraging people to buy the paper tomorrow or Saturday or one just promoting the brand). […]
And, one of the strangest, an ad for a weekly Times online 'streamlined' series with Tony Hawks – sponsored by VW Passat C (see 'A Life More Streamlined'). The remarkable thing about this is the deliberate melding of editorial and advertising – the tagline for the VW Passat is 'See the new streamlined coupe'. "
WAN: Traditional media has five years growth left – Press Gazette October 20, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentHave predictions of the death of traditional media been exaggerated? From the World Association of Newspapers conference:
"…Marcel Fenez [of PWC] said that although digital advertising will continue to soar over the next five years it will still only globally represent 10 per cent of total advertising for newspapers by 2012.
He forecast that global print advertising will grow 1.8 percent to $123.3 billion in 2012, while global digital advertising will grow 19.3 percent to $13.4 billion.
He said: "One of the things we need to get into context here is that traditional media isn't dead yet and won't be for the next five years."
"It's very important to think why. The over-50s are helping to sustain traditional media, and also in many of the emerging markets there is still plenty of room for traditional media. The death of traditional media is exaggerated, at least in a five-year context." "
Web 2.0: Chronicle of a death foretold | Media Money October 12, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentCrunch time is coming for Web2.0 companies, says Peter Kirwan:
"The business models underpinning social media and user-generated content are in big, big trouble.
Funding is drying up. The space available for experimentation in media planning is closing down rapidly. The cult of free looks decidedly vulnerable. […]
Suddenly, and rather miraculously, ad-funded web sites are becoming unfashionable. Paid content? It’s the new black. As one VC puts it: “Free is over; I am only interested in investing in services that customers pay for.”[…]
Welcome to the future. The breaking of web 2.0 will look a bit like the dot com crash of 2000 — only this time, everyone will be scared."
Roy Greenslade: Journalists cannot be blamed for newspaper industry's decline | Media | guardian.co.uk October 3, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a comment"We British journalists do tend to believe that American journalism is boring and unreadable. But the interesting fact – FACT – is that the declining sales and declining profits of US and UK newspapers are roughly similar in scale despite the differences between their journalism and our journalism. Here's Farhi again:
"The problem has little to do with the reporting, packaging and selling of information. It's much bigger than that. The gravest threats include the flight of classified advertisers, the deterioration of retail advertising and the indebtedness of newspaper owners.And then he moves on to the digital revolution's major effect on the business:
"The real revelation of the internet is not what it has done to newspaper readership – it has in fact expanded it – but how it has sapped newspapers' economic lifeblood. The most serious erosion has occurred in classified advertising, which once made up more than 40% of a newspaper's revenues and more than half its profits."