Further de-emphasizing its Magna brand name, Interpublic Group has confirmed that its Magna Global Entertainment division, which was responsible for producing a number of television shows for its clients, has closed. An IPG spokesman said Magna Global Entertainment stopped operation in September of this year. The division, which launched in 2001, was most recently headed by Bill Hilary, president of the division and based in Los Angeles. One of its biggest ongoing programs efforts was its longtime made-for-TNT movie series "Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Presentation." Recent films included "The Ron Clark Story" with Matthew Perry and "A Perfect Day" with Rob Lowe. In 2003, Magna Global Entertainment teamed with Ben Silverman's Universal-based Reveille and Mark Burnett Productions in producing the summer reality series "The Restaurant" on NBC, for which American Express, Coors Brewing Company and Mitsubishi Motors were co-sponsors. The change at Magna is part of Interpublic's restructuring of its media assets, which included the recent launch of its new media umbrella Mediabrands unit, which houses IPG's main media agencies: Initiative, Universal McCann and Magna Global. When Magna Global started, one of its primary functions was as a media-buying operation--especially in buying national television, working with Initiative and Universal McCann. Magna Global also included TV production/brand entertainment and research activities. What now remains of the Magna brand is a research and consultancy area for its clients. An IPG spokesman wrote in an email: "Increasingly, it has become apparent that our creative and media agencies believe that this capability must be embedded into their operations, so that branded content becomes an integral part of brand strategy and communications planning, as well as the creative process." Not only would these activities be done at the clients' agencies, but with two branded entertainment IPG agencies: Endeavour Marketing and Translation. Initiative clients also have a resource in the media agency's Los Angeles-based Initiative Innovations and Entertainment units. The last of Magna's media-buying activities ended when Larry Blasius, executive vice president and director of negotiations for Magna Global, departed the group this past summer. Two years before, Bill Cella, who helped found Magna Global, and was chairman-CEO, left to become vice chairman of DraftFCB. Last December, Cella left IPG. Media analysts have long speculated that there were some redundancies and overlap of activities at Magna Global and its media agencies.
2008 is wrapping up pretty poorly for The Associated Press, which this week saw two more setbacks: an employee byline strike and a new online distribution deal for Reuters, its competitor. The latest developments follow a series of bad news over the last couple of months, including newspaper publishers canceling their memberships and new competition from a wire service launched by CNN. The strike isn't a work outage--rather, it's a "byline" strike by 1,400 Associated Press employees who are members of the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America. They are withholding their bylines as the guild negotiates with the AP about a planned freeze on salary increases and spiraling medical costs. The byline strike is mostly symbolic, but it will be noticed by readers used to seeing a journalist's name associated with news content. It also reminds AP executives of the potential scope of a real work outage. Also this week, Reuters struck a deal with Politico, the online political news emporium, that gives publishers in Politico's news-sharing network access to Reuters' articles alongside Politico's original content in return for a portion of the ad proceeds. Online publishers can use up to 10 Reuters stories and 10 photos from the news service every day; they can also use Reuters' content free in their print publications for six months, after which they have to start paying for it. The Politico Network counts more than 100 online and print publishers as members, including 67 newspapers that have joined the network since it launched in early September. Among these are The Arizona Republic, Des Moines Register, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as all 27 dailies owned by Advance Publications, including the Star-Ledger, based in Newark, NJ, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, and the Times-Picayune of New Orleans. These are just the latest in a series of setbacks for the AP. In late October, the beleaguered Tribune Co. said it was dropping its AP membership, and E.W. Scripps is said to be considering the same. Earlier this year, The Columbus Dispatch, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, and several other regional newspapers said they were canceling their AP memberships. Eight Ohio newspapers formed their own news-sharing service, hinting that they might drop the AP, and Pennsylvania papers are considering a similar move. In November, CNN announced the launch of a new wire service, which the cable network is pushing as a low-cost alternative to the AP. CNN Wire will draw on reporting from about 3,000 journalists around the world, according to CNN. More recently, the McClatchy Co. said it will share foreign news stories written with The Christian Science Monitor on a trial basis; the temporary three-month deal may be extended and even expanded in the future. Feeling the squeeze from all this competition, the AP announced in late November that it will cut 10% of its total workforce in the coming year, or about 400 positions out of a total 4,100. Chief executive Tom Curley said that a substantial proportion of the cuts will have to come from the newsroom, since journalists already make up three-quarters of the AP's staff.
In a further sign that media businesses targeting a U.S. Hispanic audience are struggling along with the general market, a station group partly owned by Univision has been threatened with delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Entravision Communications, the owner of Univision affiliates in a run of top markets including Washington and San Diego, has seen its share price plummet over the past year to below $1--prompting the NYSE to issue a notification that trading could be halted. The company, however, said it would inform the Exchange by next week that it will use the next six months to meet the minimum-listings standards. Entravision shares closed at 70 cents Wednesday, down from a 52-week high of $8.50. The company is the largest affiliate group of both the Univision and TeleFutura networks (both owned by Univision Communications), as well as 48 Spanish-language radio stations (all but one of which are in the top-50 Hispanic markets). Entravision's difficulties with the NYSE stand in contrast to pre-recession suggestions that the sky was the limit for Spanish-language media's growth prospects--particularly Univision, the subject of a massive buyout by a slew of private-equity groups. Entravision's troubles intersect with Univision Communications on several levels. Univision owns less than 15% of the struggling company, and per an agreement with the federal government, must reduce its stake to below 10% by March 26. That divestiture will no doubt provide much less than what the company could have obtained only months ago. As of Feb. 4, Univision owned 15.7 million shares in Entravision, valued that day at about $101.7 million. Presuming that it held the same amount of shares Wednesday, that value would have slid to $11 million. Univision Communications also serves as the sales rep for national spot sales for all the Univision and TeleFutura affiliates that Entravision owns. Showing a decline on that front, Entravision paid Univision commissions of some $7.1 million for the first nine months of this year, down from $7.6 million in 2007. The Entravision portfolio of 51 stations includes Univision-TeleFutura duopolies in Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando, Corpus Christi, Texas and a slew of other markets. Univision Communications expressed some weakness in its business when it reported third-quarter results. Net revenue was down, and CFO Andy Hobson said then that the current October-through-December period looked to be "really tough." But both Univision and Entravision's hurdles seem to be in line with what the general market is grappling with. Univision was hurt in the third quarter by a TV auto advertising decline of 23%, while Entravision's businesses--local TV and radio--have been under siege recently. In the third quarter, Entravision reported net revenue down 5% to $61 million, with ad revenues for TV operations down 6%. In line with Entravision, general-market station groups Young Broadcasting and Gray Television have also been threatened with delisting recently. Acme Communications, with its stock also trading below $1 a share, pulled itself off the NASDAQ voluntarily.
Former Nike marketing executive Liz Dolan has been named chief marketing officer of OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. Dolan will be responsible for all on-air, print, radio and online marketing efforts, as well as integrated strategies. The OWN network is a partnership between Harpo Productions, Oprah Winfrey's production company, and Discovery Communications. The channel intends to start up in late 2009 or early 2010. Dolan had been corporate vice president and director of global marketing for Nike in the 1990s. After her stint there, she formed a marketing consultancy with one of her biggest efforts, working on the FIFA Women's World Cup in 1999. After that, Dolan produced a national radio show starting in 2001, called "Satellite Sisters," which she co-hosted along with her four sisters. The show was distributed by Public Radio International and ABC Radio Networks. She also managed all sponsorship sales and online content for the show. "At Nike, I learned how to build strong emotional connections between individuals and a big brand with big ideas," said Dolan, in a release. "Since then, most of my work has been in smaller, multiplatform start-ups that served very focused audiences, including 'Satellite Sisters.' This role at OWN will call upon all of those combined skills."
In March, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, published by Gannett and MediaNews Group under a joint operating agreement, will cut back home delivery from seven to just three days and two days a week, respectively. The reductions are part of a larger trend that will see more newspapers moving to less frequent publication, smaller editions and narrower distribution, according to newspaper analysts, who say the cutbacks are inevitable in the face of collapsing advertising revenue. Under the new distribution arrangement, the Detroit Free Press will be delivered to subscribers' homes on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, while The Detroit News will be delivered only on Thursdays and Fridays. The newspapers will also be getting smaller. On the days when it is not delivered, the Detroit Free Press will produce a slimmed-down newsstand edition with just one section. Earlier this month, E.W. Scripps hinted that it may close the Rocky Mountain News, one of two dailies serving the Denver metro area, if it does not find a buyer for the paper by mid-January. Like the Detroit Free Press, the Rocky Mountain News is published by Scripps under a joint operating agreement with MediaNews, which publishes the Denver Post. Threats of newspaper closures have become more common over the last year: the Star-Ledger, based in Newark, retreated from the precipice at the last second when union holdouts agreed to more layoffs, and the Journal Register Co. said it may close up to 13 newspapers in Connecticut if it doesn't find buyers by Jan. 13. On that note, a report from Fitch Ratings warned that "more newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010." However, Ken Doctor, a newspaper analyst with Outsell Inc., does not expect closings to become common events. Rather, like the Detroit Free Press, "most of these newspapers are simply becoming small enterprises," he said, predicting "shrinking staff, shrinking of individual daily editions" and reductions in frequency. For example, the East Valley Tribune in Arizona recently cut back its publication schedule from seven days a week to four.
Although consumers are determined to do their holiday shopping by focusing on the best prices, they actually like ads that appeal to their softer side. The big hits this year, according to a new poll from the National Retail Federation, are spots from Target and Wal-Mart. The study, fielded by the NRF's Retail Advertising and Marketing Association and BIG Research, asked consumers to name their favorite ads. Among consumers, 24.2% cited Target's spots, while 21.1% named Wal-Mart. Best Buy--which recently launched an ad campaign featuring blue-shirted associates sharing their touching customer stories--was the third-most-mentioned chain with 8.4%, followed by Macy's, with its heartstring-tugging "Believe" campaign, at 8%. Almost one in five consumers--or 17.5%--say the specific commercials they mentioned motivated them to shop with a retailer, while 39% say they are already shopping there. Young adults are most likely to head to a store after seeing an ad they like (29.6%), with the 65-plus least affected (8.7%.) Women say they are more likely to be motivated to shop by these ads (19.2%) than men (15.7%). The study's biggest news, however, is that overall, TV has less impact on shoppers than other media. Coupons are the big winners, with 44.6% of consumers agreeing that store coupons motivate them to shop at a particular store (50.6% of women and 38.2% of men), followed by word-of-mouth, with 32.3% (roughly equal for both genders), and advertising inserts 30.1% (33.7% of women and 26.3% of men). TV came in fourth, with 26.5% of respondents agreeing that it influences their store selection. Affluent shoppers are more likely than average to be motivated by coupons, inserts and word of mouth, and less likely to be swayed by TV ads.
As researchers clamor for (arguably) firmer viewing metrics that come directly from set-top boxes, Discovery Communications has become the first programmer to purchase data from DirecTV holding that promise. The data--part of a service tabbed DirectView--offers insight into a range of viewing behaviors, notably how much ad-skipping DTV subscribers do. The data emanates from the boxes of the nearly 17 million DTV homes. Research service TNS, via a deal with DTV, will interpret and distribute it. Like a similar service offered by TiVo, DirectView provides second-by-second ratings for both live and DVR-enabled viewing. However, the DirectView data will not come from all 17 million DTV homes. Instead, TNS will evaluate what takes place in a subset of 100,000 of them, then extrapolate to apply behaviors to the full 17 million. (Residents of the 100,000 homes opt-in to participate.) Some researchers may express dismay that the sample size is not the full 17 million, although the 100,000 is greater than the Nielsen sample. Another hitch: DTV subscribers may be more upscale than the general population, which would mean the data would not necessarily offer an accurate reflection of the population at large. TNS said the Discovery deal calls for data to be provided for all of its networks, including those that offer HD simulcasts. Advertisers could benefit from obtaining metrics for networks such as Planet Green that are unrated by Nielsen. Discovery covers an array of reality-based shows, including "Deadliest Catch." Wonya Lucas, Discovery's CMO, said the deal allows the company "to provide more precise and detailed viewer research ... [and] satisfy curiosity and support marketers' goals for increased value and accountability." Discovery had a previous deal with TNS that provided second-by-second viewing data for its HD Theater channel. That research came from set-top boxes in 300,000 homes served by MSO Charter in Los Angeles--but included live-viewing only, not what occurred with DVRs. To help TNS offer analysis of the DTV set-top data, it will employ the InfoSys analytics system. On the agency side, Starcom has signed up for the DirectView service.
Media magazine has selected MediaVest as its Agency of the Year for 2008. It is the sixth time in the six years Media has been bestowing the award that it has gone to at least some part of Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group. Last year, MediaVest tied with Starcom as Media's 2007 Agency of the Year. In 2006, the first year that Media asked those agencies to compete separately, the top honor went to Starcom. For the preceding three years, it was awarded to Starcom MediaVest Group. Unlike other industry Agency of the Year award competitions, Media does not place a great deal of emphasis on new business wins and media billings gains, but bases its selection on three primary criteria--strategic vision, innovation and industry leadership--and especially in the ability of contending agencies to demonstrate those qualities in material ways. In what could be the makings of another dynasty, San Francisco agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners was named Media's media department of the year for the second year in a row--although the agency claims it no longer has a media department, but has fully integrated media into a strategy planning group that has realized breakthrough media strategies and executions. In a similar vein, Media picked Michaelides & Bednash as its Media Boutique of the Year, even though--and largely because--the London-based communications planning shop was acquired by GroupM, merged into Mindshare, and no longer exists as a free-standing entity. Michaelides & Bednash--which popularized, if not conceived of, the modern communications planning agency--will now work from the inside out to transform Mindshare's organization and product. WPP's GroupM, meanwhile, for the second time was named Media's Holding Company of the Year--this time in a tie with Publicis' new VivaKi unit. The two agency holding company entities won for very different--indeed seemingly opposing--reasons. GroupM advanced the industry through proprietary moves and strategic investments including the acquisition of Michaelides & Bednash and a stake in next-generation addressable TV advertising developer Invidi Technologies, while VivaKi has fostered an "open source" approach to innovation that could be the new model for Madison Avenue. For its 2008 Client of the Year, Media has selected Barack Obama, whose presidential campaign broke new media ground both online and offline, and may have redefined U.S. political media in the process. Media's Supplier of the Year--the Apple App Store--was no less inspired, developing an entirely new platform for creating, distributing and networking media, and for helping to make the iPhone--indeed the entire mobile industry--a genuine consumer marketing platform. All of this year's honorees will be recognized during an exclusive awards ceremony Jan. 21st in New York City. A Publicis agency, Digitas, also dominated the Agency of the Year awards for Media's sister magazine, OMMA. Digitas took "gold," while Omnicom's OMD Digital was named "silver." Bronze awards were given to agencies in the following categories: WPP's Schematic for "Web Design and Development;" Havas Digital for "Media Buying and Planning;" Firstborn for "Creative;" and GroupM Search for "Search." The OMMA magazine winners will be celebrated at an awards ceremony on Jan. 20th in New York. The editors of MediaPost's Marketing Daily, meanwhile, are awarding no overall Marketer of the Year for 2008. "The industry is struggling to find its balance between the Old World, traditional media and methods and the New World, full of technological promise and ideas such as mobile coupons and social media," explains Marketing Daily Editor Nina Lentini. "Doing all this in an economy that is stretching budgets and energy to their limits does not make for the best in creativity, innovation and sales." Despite the apparent marketing stasis, Marketing Daily has named 2008 marketers of the year in specific industry categories, including: Campbell Soup in the food category; HP in the technology category; Walmart in the retail category; ING in the financial services category; and Subaru in the automotive category.
The folks at DirecTV, Dish Network, and Sirius and XM owe a debt of gratitude this morning, to a secret satellite project that celebrates its 50th Anniversary today. I learned about Project SCORE while watching an exceptional documentary film, "Sputnik Mania," which aired recently on The History Channel. If it's repeated again, I strongly recommend that you DVR it, and set aside the 90 minutes it takes to watch it. (On a side note, the DVR is critical here; nothing disrupts the transporting entertainment power of a period piece more than a Billy Mays commercial hawking a household cleaner between black and white news reels...) Produced by Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary film producer David Hoffman, "Sputnik Mania" provides an incredible, insightful and somewhat unsettling look at the impact the former Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik had on America's psyche. It's reported, for example, that Sputnik's launch led to widespread panic - 60% of Americans thought that nuclear war was imminent and that 50% of the American population would likely die. Even using Nielsen-like margins of error, that's a staggering statistic of gloom. At the end of the documentary, Hoffman touches on President Dwight Eisenhower's secret project to lift America's spirits - a project so top secret, in fact, that only a handful of people were aware of it before the rocket had already been launched on December 18th. Project SCORE (Signal Communications Orbit Relay Equipment) became the world's first communication satellite - a momentous day for the media world, yet an event that virtually no one knew about until the satellite was designed, deployed, and operational. And one most of us never knew about, even today. Certainly, SCORE had its propaganda purposes, beyond the technological breakthrough it represented. SCORE proved, for example, that the U.S. could hurtle a heavy object into space, and keep it there, for an extended period; something of vital national concern when so many felt that satellites would soon evolve into unseen bomb dropping devices. But more importantly, in the instance of SCORE, the satellite contained two onboard tape recorders (one main and one redundant), which were able to receive, record, and transmit a voice to those with radio receivers below. And it was there, against the backdrop of near trigger-finger world tension, and the clear need to propagandize the achievement, that President Eisenhower's "broadcast" message instead personified an American ideal worth recalling: "This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you via a satellite circling in outer space. My message is a simple one: Through this unique means I convey to you and all mankind, America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill toward men everywhere." In times like this, perhaps we should all reflect a moment, rekindle our "marvel of our advances," and exert just a bit more energy in using our media to advance the cause of peace and goodwill. Ike would be proud. Frank Maggio is founder of several media concerns, including 7.TV, LLC, and erinMedia, LLC, a TV ratings company. Frank can be contacted at FM@7.TV.