Washington Post: the latest example of print ad plunge
Just when you think things can’t possibly get any worse for newspapers, it somehow manages to get even bleaker. Today’s example is provided by the Washington Post Co and its flagship paper (and the online site Slate). The company reported third quarter earnings including results from its newspaper division today.
Print advertising revenue fell 20 percent to $57.6 million — quite a stunning plunge even as newspapers across the U.S. manage to post quarter after quarter of print ad revenue declines. Even more disturbing is that online revenue, which includes washingtonpost.com and Slate, plunged 14 percent to $23.3 million. Display online ad revenue dropped 17 percent.
The Washington Post is one of those curious oddities in the industry that manages to be extremely local — it’s market penetration of the D.C. area has always been one of the highest in the U.S. — and also draws the interest of a large national audience. So while it may compete with the “nationals” i.e. New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, on the news front, it is very dependent on local advertising. The NYT, USAT and WSJ get a hefty portion of their advertising revenue through national advertisers.
The local advertising category hasn’t been holding up as well as national advertising. It’s taking it on the chin as the housing market struggles, unemployment remains high and retail outlets are going out of business or simply taking their advertising elsewhere.
That’s not to say that national advertising revenue isn’t hurting as well. It’s more of a mixed bag. At the New York Times, for example, the division that mainly includes its flagship paper reported advertising revenue fell 6 percent to $156.1 million in Q3.
Gannett, which publishes USAT, used to give some information on how that paper was doing by reporting paid ad pages, but the company ceased — to use the parlance of research analysts — to provide more color on the USAT front. Instead, Gannett reports that national advertising, including USAT, fell 17 percent. USAT represents a big chunk of Gannett’s national advertising.
The Wall Street Journal manages somehow to defy these trends. Ad revenue rose 13 percent in the third quarter– that includes print and online – according to a memo from Dow Jones’ top executive Todd Larsen to employees.
Struggling Kodak had to pay for CEO’s vacations in Spain
Over the four years that Kodak’s stock fell 80 percent, the photography icon’s private jet made its way several times a year to Vigo, Spain — the balmy fishing town that is the hometown of CEO Antonio Perez.
The Wall Street Journal’s flight tracker for private jet travel makes it easy to trace Perez’s vacations in Spain. It also estimates that the cost of each roundtrip was more than $50,000 a pop.
Starting Jan 1, 2011, Perez’s personal trips on the jet were limited to $100,000 a year. If his flights exceed that amount, Perez has to reimburse Kodak, according to the company’s latest proxy statement. That might come as some relief to investors concerned about the rate that Kodak is burning cash.
But before the limits on personal use went into place, Perez didn’t seem to hold back. In 2007, he flew to Vigo in April, returned over the summer and then rang in the New Year over there as well.
Until 2010, he made several more trips, according to the database. The Galician costal city town in northwestern Spain is a major fishing port on the Atlantic Ocean, according to the city’s website. Cruise line Royal Carribbean says on its website: “If you’re a beach-lover, then Vigo is for you. You can soak up the rays at one of several sparkling beaches, including Samil, Alcabre and Canido.”
Speculation Kodak was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy flared at the end of September and its shares fell more than half after news emerged that the company had hired law firm and restructuring specialist Jones Day. Kodak denies it is going to file for bankruptcy.
As for the perks, Kodak said personal use of the company aircraft has been enshrined in contracts for its CEOs for years and points out most big companies also let their CEOs avoid commercial airlines.
unfortunately its a dead business. Upper management will be the paid employee till they close the coffin.
Silly management they had a good brand name that could have been used wisely!
WSJ pushes further into video with free app
The Wall Street Journal has launched a new video application “WSJ Live” that pulls from the content from its stable of live programming.
WSJ Live is another push from the Journal into video programming — which represents some of its most valuable advertising inventory, said Alisa Bowen, general manager of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network. Ad inventory on the video network has been sold out and WSJ Live is free to watch on WSJ.com. That is part of the reason that the Journal plans to keep WSJ Live free of charge, unlike some of its other content, but that could change in the future, Bowen said.
Six advertisers have signed up for the sponsorship of the app: Aetna, AT&T, Citi Simplicity, Cognizant, FedEx, and Fidelity.
The Journal has been one of the longest running newspapers in the U.S. to charge for online content, a hybrid model that allows readers to access some content for free.
WSJ Live draws upon the staff of the Dow Jones’ newsroom and currently airs about four hours of live programming (which is also available on demand) every day that includes News Hub, Lunch Break and Mean Street.
The free app is available in Apple’s app store for the iPad and is also pre-installed on Boxee and some TV sets from the likes of Samsung, Panasonic and Sony.
The app will be distributed in the coming weeks on other devices and distribution networks including Google TV, Hulu, and Roku.
Wall Street Journal snags another hotel chain
Under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the Wall Street Journal has made no bones that the New York Times is enemy No.1. But that hit list doesn’t stop at the Gray Lady. From time to time, the Journal pivots to set USA Today in its crosshairs — and its latest actions mark a move in that direction.
The most recent flag the Journal captured involves Choice Hotels. Earlier this week, the Journal announced it will become the “preferred newspaper” beginning in January for guests at more than 3,700 Choice Hotel properties including Comfort Inn, Quality Inn and Clarion Hotel. What was the “preferred newspaper” before the Journal swooped in? That would be USA Today.
USA Today begs to differ. A spokeswoman for the paper emailed the following: “USA Today remains a preferred vendor for Choice Hotels in 2011.”
It’s a matter of semantics because guests have to request copies of newspapers. According to the Journal, the paper will be delivered as a “complimentary amenity” to guests who ask for it come Jan. 1.
There’s some history here. In April 2009, Marriott Hotels announced it would no longer automatically drop newspapers at the doorsteps of guests. Instead, it made copies of USA Today, the Journal and other local metros available upon request. What seemed like an innocuous, eco-conscious move on the part of Marriott only served to hurt the circulation of USA Today, which built a large part of its circulation on hotel-distributed copies.
Indeed, later that year in October 2009, the Journal overtook USA Today as the largest newspaper by circulation in the United States, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
(Photo: Reuters)
New York Times introduces film club
Nothing else seems to have helped newspapers reflect the stronger economic recovery of the rest of media. Old films can’t hurt.
The New York Times forged another path to the club-based membership service — a trend that has grown in popularity among newspapers. Today the newspaper debuted the New York Times Film Club, created for “an audience passionate about movies,” according to the press release.
Membership to the club affords you two red-carpet screenings of remastered Hollywood classics as well as six preview viewings for upcoming releases. The yearly membership costs $100 for individuals and $175 to add another person.
The first red carpet screening is for Paramount Pictures “The Godfather” on Jan. 5, 2011 in New York City.
The NYT, along with other newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, are launching clubs — wine is especially popular — as way to reap some extra revenue and strike a deeper relationship with readers.
Newspapers in the U.K are particulary adept at at this taking it way beyond wine and film. Mark Fitzgerald, the former editor of E&P, reported in April on the trend noting the Guardian extends offers for a wide-range of stuff including cottage rentals, duvets, and plant seeds.
WSJ defies newspaper ad trends
Newspaper publishers are still laboring to reverse a massive decline in advertising revenue – the Newspaper Association of America reported that total industry ad revenue fell 6% in Q2 — but you sure wouldn’t know it over at The Wall Street Journal.
Wall Street Journal Publisher Les Hinton sent around an email (posted on Romenesko) touting the paper’s eye-popping 17% increase in print and online ad revenue in the quarter ending September versus the same period a year ago. Print advertising jumped 21% while online ad revenue advanced 29%.
Hinton notes that this is the Journal’s fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth and attributes the rise in ad revenue to the new products and sections such as Greater New York.
Meanwhile the Journal’s main competitors, USA Today and The New York Times, are not experiencing the same lift in print. In Q2, USA Today’s paid ad pages fell. The New York Times Co., which includes the flagship Boston Globe and other regional papers like the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida, warned that overall print ad revenue will decline around 5% while online ad revenue is expected to rise 14%.
We’ve been keep stacks of the Greater New York edition and the checks we made find the ad count slim on some days. Our informal hoard consists mainly of sections from the summer which is a light season for advertising typically. Today’s Greater New York looks thicker with ads from the jeweler Kwiat, conEdison, sister broadcast station FOX (full page) among a smattering of others.
Top 10 newspaper websites in May
Keeping track of how many people visit websites is something that should have been hashed out long ago. Yet for years keeping tabs on such matters has produced results that can vary wildly for each site depending on who is doing the measuring.
Nielsen Online and comScore, for example, are two companies that rely on panels of people to determine the popularity of a website and are often criticized for under-counting visitors. Many critics claim that panels barely account for people’s Internet habits at work since often companies do not allow outside software to be installed on work computers. (Nielsen and comScore require panelists to install software on their computers.)
This has been a problem for newspapers websites since many read the news during the work day hours.
ComScore, though, had announced a new methodology that relies on panels as well as counting direct hits from a website’s server. Eighteen of the top 20 newspaper entities are now on board with the new methodology. Here are the top 10 ranked by uniques for May.
WSJ to NYT: We meant to rip you off!
Season four of Mad Men can’t start soon enough. Till July 25, all we have is the ad-related brawl raging between The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Yesterday, the Times accused the Journal of ripping off one of their ad slogans: “Not just Wall Street. Every Street.”
Indeed, the Journal meant to do exactly that, according to the following letter from Dow Jones Senior Vice President of Marketing Jennifer Jehn to Richard Samson of the New York Times legal department.
A Times spokeswoman said they don’t think “theft of intellectual property is a joke.”
******
Dear Mr. Samson:
We half-expected to hear from you. The other half thought you might have more important things to worry about.
Hizzoner Roasts Murdoch
Last night, The Wall Street Journal held a party at Gotham Hall for a slew of media, advertisers, bigwigs (Barry Diller, the cast of In the Heights!) to introduce Greater New York, a souped up metro section that debuted on Monday. Perhaps you have heard of it.
Usually at events like these, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is roped into saying some words about how great the Big Apple is followed by a note of thanks for creating new jobs for the city. Last night was no exception.
What made Bloomberg’s speech – really a roast of News Corp Chief Rupert Murdoch – kind of cringe-worthy was the fact that Bloomberg News is a huge competitor of Dow Jones. It’s not entirely clear if Bloomberg was joking when he said that his company had considered purchasing Dow Jones before he held up a mock-up of the Greater New York edition showing the audience how Bloomberg would have gone about things.
Also awkward: apparently Bloomberg isn’t thrilled about another outlet covering his administration. He quipped: “In the media capital of the world the more competition we have, I think the better. Of course that also means we will have a Journal reporter at my press conference every day from now on asking another ridiculous question. Hey, there’s always room for one more.”
To make things even weirder, meanwhile, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported from the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills on Monday that Viacom Chief Sumner Redstone took potshots at Murdoch, predicting that newspapers will be out of business in two years. And then he said this about Murdoch: “He lives in ink, and I live in movies and television. Ink is going to go away, and movies and television will be here forever, like me.”
Huh.
We approached Murdoch last night and asked him how long it will take before the Greater New York edition will be profitable. “It’s already profitable!” he said before the crowd swallowed him up.
Watch Gannett layoffs in slow motion
It’s layoff week at Gannett — even the second N and T might be redundant.
The largest U.S. newspaper publisher and owner of USA Today, the nation’s biggest-selling daily paper, is slashing payroll just in time for the holidays. We read about layoffs everywhere these days, but if you want to see the slow-motion car crash version of how Gannett is doing it, look to Gannett Blog, run by former company reporter Jim Hopkins.
With no newspaper job to keep him busy, Hopkins chronicles nearly every event that he hears about Gannett. That includes a dose of rumor, but much of what he reports is more right than wrong.
Here is one of his latest reports:
Gannett launched what is likely the biggest mass layoff in newspaper industry history yesterday, slashing 655 jobs by early this morning, in an increasingly desperate bid to return the troubled 102-year-old publisher to prosperity. The final tally could run into the thousands.
Many more layoffs are expected today and tomorrow across the 85-daily community newspaper division, plus USA Today and the Detroit Free Press. As of 1:25 a.m. ET, only 17 papers had been accounted for, based on published accounts and Gannett Blog reader reports.
(My Gannett newsroom sources are telling me the same story.)
How sad. Even sadder is that employees have to learn of it from outside sources. The company usually notifies shareholders first before releasing such news. Not this time!
Hmmmm. Guess WaPo/Slate subscribers and readers are getting tired of paying for and reading biased reporting and outright lies, and the advertisers don’t want to waste their money in venues where readers and subscribers are fleeing in droves.