As Gannett’s brand morphs, print still top of mind
For a handful of years now, several newspaper companies have attempted to re-brand themselves into something — anything! — that doesn’t associate them with newspapers. Gannett is one of the latest examples trying to put some distance between itself and the industry despite the fact that it is still the largest newspaper chain by circulation in the U.S., it still derives the heft of its revenue from ink on paper, and it still is a bellwether for other companies that count big iron as an asset.
The USA Today publisher trips all over itself with its description. Here is part of the boiler plate the publisher and broadcaster uses:
“Gannett Co., Inc. is an international media and marketing solutions company that informs and engages more than 100 million people every month through its powerful network of broadcast, digital, mobile and publishing properties.”
The Street isn’t buying it at least today. Shares of Gannett fell about 9 percent so far after the company announced its Q1 results. It’s EPS beat Wall Street’s view by a long-shot. Its revenue was pretty much in line with expectations. So what gives? It’s the company’s slide in advertising revenue, specifically at its publishing division where it declined a little more than 8 percent, that accounts for the beating.
In fairness, Gannett’s CEO Gracia Martore said it is going to take some time for the company to start reaping results from the plan it rolled out to investors in February that included a pay model at its newspaper properties. On a call with analysts this morning about Gannett’s results, Martore said Gannett is “working to stabilize our Publishing business,” but that the effort is not a ” quick fix.”
“This isn’t a one- or two-quarter solution. Rather, it is a continuous effort which is going to begin to show results later this year,” she said.
EA cuts out middleman, launches video game download service
It might be a few days before a stampede of people will storm into the LA convention center to catch the video game industry’s latest wares but EA wasted no time in getting out the word about its new digital download service, dubbed “Origin.”
“Origin”, which EA announced on Friday, lets consumers buy and download PC games directly from the publisher online, as well as track all of their games across different platforms.
Publishers like digital delivery of games to consumers because they offer higher margins than games sold in brick and mortar stores like GameStop. EA has been pushing its digital strategy hard to investors and its digital business is now growing faster than the company’s overall business.
Sales of online games, including digital downloads, Facebook games, online subscriptions and other forms, is expected to grow to $18 billion by the end of this year, according to DFC Intelligence, while regular sales of games sold in stores is expected to slip.
Users can find games on Origin the same time they come out in stores.
While there are other ways to download PC titles on services such as Steam, EA is offering exclusive titles on the new service. It will be the only place to find a digital version of “Star Wars: The Old Republic,” the highly-anticipated massive multiplayer game that will come out later this year.
Today In Music: MySpace’s entertainment focus to lead to job cuts. Tomorrow perhaps?
We’d previously heard that MySpace is on course to cut jobs soon and AllThingsD today put that number at around 550 to 600 jobs and promises the announcement will be coming tomorrow.
The way one person familiar with the company’s thinking puts it, MySpace will be restructuring to realign its staff better with its new focus as a social entertainment site targeting Generation Y. It would also give it an opportunity to resolve various legacy issues. Being a social entertainment site would probably be an easier path than as a social networking site on a hiding to nothing versus the all mighty Facebook but there are probably still questions about how it will make its money beyond advertising. MySpace despite its troubles still remains a key venue for promoting established bands and thousands of aspiring musicians.
The other story from AllThingsD is that News Corp, as we’ve reported, is also being considered for sale but ATD (which is also owned by News Corp) points out that the parent company is shopping MySpace primarily to private equity buyers though Yahoo is also being considered.
Currently, no talks are happening at News Corp with outsiders on this but it’s a very fluid situation which could change very rapidly once the ‘realignment’ has happened.
It seemed only a few years ago MySpace was the new hot thing on the block but times change rapidly in social media. Below is a pic of News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch and MySpace founder Chris De Wolfe in happier times in 2007.(Photo: Reuters)
from UK News:
Jeremy Hunt unveils Tory technology platform
As the three main UK political parties vie for positioning ahead of a general election to be held by June, the Conservatives unveiled their "Technology Manifesto" on Thursday in London outlining the key issues they would address if they form the next government.
Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude presented ideas on everything from improving broadband speeds to making government data accessible online.
Boosting broadband speeds would play a crucial role in stimulating growth by providing new areas of financial competitiveness, they said.
"This is central to the growth of the UK economy and will create hundreds of thousands of jobs," Hunt said.
The Conservatives say they would break up the dominance BT has over the Internet and find a way to open up access to other firms.
"Our plans will stimulate a massive increase of investment in our digital structure by allowing anyone to invest in BT's ducts and pipes," Hunt told Reuters.
Hunt spoke with Reuters about Conservative plans in the video clip below.
brilliant IF its realistic to bring 100 Mbgs to most citizens – given so many now have very slow (or no) speeds, due to the old BT infrastructure of landlines – in particular aluminium lines, not fit for purpose for broadband.
will some citizens, who already are failed, continue to be left with very slow broadband, while the lucky ones will rush ahead with 100Mbgs?
i would argue for the universal human right to broadband, so that this provision is available to all, wherever one lives in the UK….broadband is a utility, not a luxury.
Digital, Life, Design 2010 Live Coverage
DLD (Digital – Life – Design) is a three-day experience gathering 800 entrepreneurs, investors, philantropists, scientists, artists and creative minds from all over the world. With global diversity in attendees and an interdisciplinary perspective of digital, media, design, art, science, brands, consumers and society, the conference is known as the European forum for the “creative class”.
Follow live coverage of the conference here
from The Great Debate UK:
Remembering how to forget in the Web 2.0 era
Amid ongoing debates over the hazards of excessive digital exposure through such Web 2.0 social networking platforms as Facebook and Twitter, a new book by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger extols the virtues of forgetfulness.
Since the emergence of digital technology and global networks, forgetting has become an exception, Mayer-Schonberger writes in "Delete".
"Forgetting plays a central role in human decision-making," he argues. "It lets us act in time, cognizant of, but not shackled by, past events."
Mayer-Schonberger shared his theory on how to fight back against the digital panopticon with Reuters before giving a lecture at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London.
Interesting concept, even though I dont quite agree that “forgetting” is a virtue.
Since it’s easy to find information as and when we want it through Internet, that means we do not have to try our best to memorize. We can free our brain cells to focus on application of information, rather than memorizing the information.
This does not imply “forgetting”. It just means that we utilize our brain cells in other way.
Friday media highlights
Here are some of the day’s top stories in the media industry:
TV Networks Fight Drug-Ad Measure (WSJ) “Advertising costs are deductible to any company as a business expense. The plan being considered by Rep. Rangel’s Ways and Means committee would eliminate the deduction with respect to prescription drug advertising,” writes Martin Vaughan.
Big media seek 21st century business models (Reuters) “Media moguls at this week’s Sun Valley conference have spent as much time discussing how to reconfigure business models disrupted by the Web as they have worrying about the weak economy,” reports Yinka Adegoke.
Zucker Says Marketplace Has Reached Bottom (B&C) Ben Grossman writes: “NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker said Thursday that while the overall marketplace is still challenged, he thinks it may have bottomed out. ‘It’s still quite uncertain and we don’t really see the full recovery we are all hoping for,’ he said. ’It’s still tough out there, but I think we have seen a bottom.’”
The Financial Times and New York Times make further syndication deals (Editors Weblog) “Both the Financial Times and the New York Times have announced their international syndications will include additional countries. The FT has confirmed content sharing arrangements with publications based in Turkey, France, and South Korea,” writes Christie Silk.
NBC Reveals Displeasure as U.S.O.C. Unveils Plan (NYT) Richard Sandomir writes: “The head of NBC Sports said Thursday that he broke off talks in April about combining the Olympic channel that it partly owns with the one being planned by the United States Olympic Committee.”
AP Works Toward Universal Online News Format (Mediapost) Gavin O’Malley writes: “The Associated Press, along with fellow non-profit The Media Standards Trust, on Friday unveiled a digital news “microformat” to effectively encapsulate the content and key meta-data of every news story online.”
Thursday media highlights
Here are some of the day’s top stories in the media industry:
New York Times Asks Subscribers: Is It Wrong to Charge for Online Content? (Poynter) Bill Mitchell writes: “The New York Times is testing a price point of $5 a month for access to nytimes.com, with a 50 percent discount for print subscribers. The Times e-mailed a survey to print subscribers Thursday afternoon inviting their reaction to that pricing plan and asking a range of questions about online pricing.”
Murdoch papers paid £1m to gag phone-hacking victims (Guardian) “The payments secured secrecy over out-of-court settlements in three cases that threatened to expose evidence of Murdoch journalists using private investigators who illegally hacked into the mobile phone messages of numerous public figures to gain unlawful access to confidential personal data, including tax records, social security files, bank statements and itemised phone bills,” writes Nick Davies. > UK police won’t reopen Murdoch paper phonetap case (Reuters)
A is for abattoir; Z is for ZULU: All in the Handbook of Journalism (Reuters) Dean Wright writes: “The handbook is the guidance Reuters journalists live by — and we’re proud of it. Until now, it hasn’t been freely available to the public. In the early 1990s, a printed handbook was published and in 2006 the Reuters Foundation published a relatively short PDF online that gave some basic guidance to reporters. But it’s only now that we’re putting the full handbook online.”
As Gannett’s Newspapers Suffer, Digital Side Sees Growth, More Hiring And Acquisitions (paidContent) “As Gannett continues to be roiled with huge debt problems, an absent CEO, and hundreds more layoffs across its community newspapers, its digital division appears to be a sea of calm. In fact [...] things are going just fine on their respective ends,” writes David Kaplan.
Analyst Admits to Being ‘Dead Wrong’ After Disney’s ‘Up’ Is Big Earner (NYT) “Dead wrong” is how Richard Greenfield of Pali Research put his related analysis in a research note. “The recent success of Pixar’s ‘Up’ (well ahead of our forecasts) has renewed investor confidence in Disney’s creative capabilities,” he added. “Up” has so far sold $265.9 million in tickets in North America and $35.4 million overseas, where it has only begun to arrive in theaters,” writes Brooks Barnes.
TiVo, Best Buy Form Alliance To Boost DVRs Available In Stores (WSJ) David B. Wilkerson writes: “Best Buy also will use TiVo’s platform to market directly to consumers, offering tips and other information to help customers get more out of the two-way possibilities TV now offers. The company said it will ‘substantially increase the levels of marketing and merchandising of retail TiVo DVR devices, as well as other devices that may feature the TiVo user interface and platform in the future.’”
Wednesday media highlights
News about the media industry:
Netflix looks to future but still going strong with DVD rentals (USA Today) “Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings doesn’t think his 58 distribution centers are in immediate danger of becoming obsolete, but he knows that day will come. He believes DVD rentals have four to nine years to keep growing, despite inroads in Internet delivery of movies to set-top TV boxes and other video-on-demand options,” writes Jefferson Graham.
Is the bell tolling for Clear Channel? (San Antonio Express-News) David Hendricks writes: “Analysts believe Clear Channel, now with about $22 billion in total debts, will have trouble making scheduled payments later this year. The company, already down to about 800 stations from its peak of about 1,200 stations, either will have to start selling stations itself or go into bankruptcy, where lenders will put stations up for sale.”
Foes No More, Ad Agencies Unite With Internet Firms (NYT) Eric Pfanner writes: “With consumers spending more and more time online, analysts say Internet companies and ad agencies have no choice but to work together to develop ways to make money from digital media.”
In other news:
Digital Britain vision lacks political roadmap
The UK government’s grand reworking of digital policy, due out Tuesday, has something for every one to chatter about — from funding for a further broadband buildout to reworking television licensing fees to how the country faces up to the issue of media piracy.
But final publication of the Digital Britain report on Tuesday follows the marked deterioration of the economic environment as well as the collapse of the political muscle needed to marshall the report’ more ambitious changes through Parliament.
Stephen Carter, the former U.K. cable executive, named as U.K.’s Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting only nine months ago, plans to leave the government soon after releasing the report.
The current political crisis has Gordon Brown’s government running scared even from the restructuring of the post office. It’s hard to see the Prime Minister creating a major digital legacy for his administration starting from here.
Sanford C. Bernstein has repeatedly argued that British policy is “inching toward a managed economy” in communications. The investment firm makes a rather extreme case that the hobbled fixed-line operator BT Group could win at the expense of successful satellite TV provider BSkyB. It’s hard to see how.
The hefty interim report (click here for 86-page PDF file) calls for, among its 22 action points, a universal service commitment to broadband. But no analyst who closely follows the subject is prepared to make a commercial case for broadband buildout to underserved areas. The closest thing to business case is for high-definition video delivered over landlines. But less costly alternatives exist in most populated parts of Britain, either from satellite or terrestrial providers.
That’s why the government is involved in the first place. While cheap, plentiful broadband may sound like a great vote-getter heading into the next election, the issue is just as likely to produce a backlash when voters tally up the potential costs. At 2-megabits per second, January’s interim Digital Britain report did little to answer the broadband industry’s complaints that Britain has fallen behind in terms of the competitiveness of Internet speeds.
