media notes 11.02.13

02/11/2013

 
Media stories for Monday:

While gains in newspaper circulation in developing countries have to some extent offset the declines in other parts of the world, new data indicate it has not been enough. The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulation indicates newspaper circulation is officially on the decline, about 1.6 per cent monthly year over year between 2010 and 2011.

The publication late last week of hacked correspondence and images of paintings by George W. Bush drew a lot of public attention. But Paul Farhi the Washington Post raises the issue of the journalistic ethics of whether anything is off limits anymore. 

BuzzFeed published late last week what it believes is a clue to Twitter's future look and feel, a far richer stream of material that has a Facebook feel to it. Matt Buchanan examines the reasons behind the possible changes.
 

TBI Research: The Apple iPad won't save magazines

03/31/2010

 
The arrival this week of the iPad is being treated in some quarters as the turning point in the industry's search for a palatable business model.

In other words, a model ideal marriage of a device, platform and content. 

But TBI Research has punctured the balloon by noting the revenue magazine publishers will derive from their new iPad applications will by no means offset their declines in circulation and advertising revenue from the printed product.

"Even if iPads fly off the shelves, magazines will still realize only a small per cent of their overall revenue," it notes.

Even if there are more than 2.5 million of the devices in circulation, they'll yield only about 10 per cent of the revenue magazines now derive from circulation and advertising, TBI notes.
 

Newspaper circulation: A tale of two countries

04/27/2009

 

The Audit Bureau of Circulation released data today portraying two very different pictures of newspaper distribution in the U.S. and Canada.

In the U.S. the circulation decline was seven per cent, with all but two of the top 25 papers expressing a drop in sales.

In Canada, meanwhile, there were several bright spots in Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia.

Overall in Canada the picture was markedly better than that of the U.S., even though the Toronto-based newspapers experienced declines.


 

The Detroit solution and its implications

12/21/2008

 

I've been reading many takes on the decision by the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News to curtail home-delivery to Thursday, Friday and Sunday, to produce single-section newsstand editions other days, and to pitch heavily the digital editions.

For some it spells the beginning of the end. For some it seems a desperate cost-cutting scheme with no central principle. And for others it's a best-of-all-necessary-evils transition that might actually earn the venerable news organizations a lengthy stretch in which to transform.

In the U.S. context, it's a very serious move, more so than it would be in Canada, because U.S. advertising revenue is tied directly to circulation (in Canada it's largely tied to readership, based on surveys, not the hard circ number). And within the industry it's controversial for that very reason: It consciously pitches revenue over the side.

Ken Doctor's Content Bridges has the deepest look into the implications of the decision (although he doesn't touch on the circ/ad revenue issue). He looks at savings, circulation revenue loss, digital editions and new revenue streams through emerging vertical products. What he concludes is that the biggest thing on the table is habit, with the most questions.


 
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