When researchers embarked on an initiative to upgrade media measurement, the fund-raising process looked reasonably easy. CEOs at the likes of NBC Universal and WPP Group were enthusiastic backers. But that was before the economic tailspin. "This was pre-Lehman Brothers, pre-recession and we got a tremendous amount of support from the CEOs financially," NBCU research chief Alan Wurtzel said last month. "We honestly had to scale that back." Despite the retrenchment, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) has 14 charter members committed to annually putting up $100,000 apiece for two years. The group includes seven owners of TV networks; four agency holding groups; and three advertisers. But CIMM is actively searching for more members, hoping to increase its budget beyond the $1.4 million a year ($2.8 million over two) it appears to have in pocket. CIMM is looking to seed pilot studies on how best to capitalize on set-top-box data -- and measure viewing across the TV, Internet and handheld devices. "The whole idea is -- let's just start from the beginning," said Wurtzel, a driving force behind CIMM. "If you were inventing measurement today for a world that exists now and is going forward, what is the best way to do it." CIMM's funding, however, could leave it with only a modest amount to accomplish its goals. Its $1.4 million annual budget (so far) must cover the salary of a soon-to-be-hired managing director and general operating expenses. Recruiting new members could prove challenging, and at least in one instance, not because of the economy. An executive at one company said the business would take a pass because it was left out of initial conversations. "Now they are looking for additional members to get enough money to do the research ... we do not plan on joining," the person said. But Scripps Networks Interactive, the parent of Food Network and HGTV, is set to sign on. "We expect to become a member in the next several months," said research chief Mike Pardee in a statement. "It is a long-term initiative and commitment with great potential for the media and advertising business." Agency Carat is also expected to officially join soon. Separately, at least one other major entity is moving through the application process and another is mulling it over. CIMM, which is incorporated in Delaware as an LLC, has adopted a two-tier system for membership. Voting members pay the $100,000 a year and gain a seat on the board of directors, while non-voting participants can join for $25,000 annually. The voting members will determine the projects that CIMM green-lights. CIMM is committed to a membership that draws from the three legs of TV media-buying -- the networks, agencies and advertisers. Network operators include ESPN/ABC and Discovery, while agency owners include Publicis and WPP. But most major content providers and agencies are already on board, so the most fertile area for attracting new members -- and money -- would seem to be from marketers. Only three leading advertisers - Procter & Gamble, AT&T and Unilever -- have signed on. "We are considering the opportunity," said State Farm Advertising Director Ed Gold. "But I believe since OMD -- our long-time media agency -- is going to be a part of this, they're going to be looking out for our best interests." But Jack Wakshlag, head of research at CIMM member Turner Broadcasting, indicated that the coalition is on firm financial ground during a conference call last month. "We've got enough to begin and a commitment to do more when the time comes," he said. In September, when Wurtzel appeared at an Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) event, he made an appeal for new members and said he hoped to announce a significantly larger member base by the end of the year. The NBCU veteran has been serving as CIMM's de facto chief. Once the permanent managing director is hired, the group will issue requests for proposal (RFPs) in both the three-screen measurement and set-top-box areas. Independent research firms will then apply for funding to work on projects. The RFPs will be placed on CIMM's yet-to-be-launched Web site. CIMM has already spent some of its budget. Working as a consultant, former Lifetime executive Tim Brooks helped develop a framework for the RFPs, canvassing the CIMM members to get a sense of what they hoped the research would yield and whether they had any specific goals. However, if CIMM finds it difficult to increase its budget, will it get the results it seeks? Its projected figure is considerably less than the $3.5 million the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) gave Ball State University's Center for Media Design and Sequent Partners for a year-long, high-profile study on video use. The CRE is backed by Nielsen, but functions as an independent industry think tank. One CIMM board member said it is too early to speculate on what can or can't be accomplished. The group is committed to being nimble and working creatively with what it has. "(But) hopefully we will get more people to want to participate, which will make the money a non-issue," the person said. "It's possible to be careful and considerate and come up with some tests within the budgets that they have," said Bruce Goerlich, chief researcher at Rentrak. With a likely interest in applying for a CIMM contract, Rentrak has experience in both multi-screen and set-top-box measurement. Other established research companies -- TNS, TRA Inc. and even Nielsen -- could also seek CIMM funding and maybe supplement projects with their own funds. "We look forward to seeing that RFP to determine how we might respond," said Mark Lieberman, who heads TRA, a company that uses set-top-box data as a platform to explore a link between TV viewing and in-store purchases. Nonetheless, when he spoke at the ARF event, Wurtzel seemed intrigued by the prospect of CIMM moving beyond the establishment. Maybe finding a better mousetrap off the beaten path where Apple or YouTube got going. "There's a guy in a garage in Silicon Valley that might be producing some sort of technology right now that we could apply, but we don't know where he is and he doesn't know how to get to us," he said. The likes of TNS and Nielsen can easily get meetings with top media buyers and sellers to market their services, Wurtzel said, but CIMM can help new kids on the block gain exposure. In a sense, CIMM could be tabbed as an angel investor -- with one major difference. It wants insight and guidance, not profit. Researchers that receive its funding and develop promising new systems can sell them on the open market. CIMM will hold no financial stake, or own any patents. In a twist, CIMM members might even have to buy the services they paid to develop. "If one of these germinate into a viable company, then they will have something to go out and sell to the media companies, agencies and clients," said Lyle Schwartz, head of research at GroupM and a CIMM board member. In addition to the full board, CIMM has an eight-member executive board. The managing director will report to that group, which will have a greater role in nuts-and-bolts oversight. The executive board seeks a balance representing the three industries involved in CIMM. Four members come from media companies (which make up the bulk of the membership) -- and two each from agencies and advertisers. MTV Networks researcher Colleen Fahey Rush and Fox's Audrey Steele are two representatives on the media side. Executives from Unilever and AT&T occupy the two "advertiser" seats. Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, from Interpublic, is CIMM's treasurer and has one of the agency seats. Wurtzel has elected not to sit on the executive board. While some CIMM members have been reluctant to comment about their involvement in the initiative, Wurtzel said "the whole idea of this thing is not to have it be a secret club." At the ARF gathering, he emphasized it will take a so-called sunshine approach. Results from the research and studies it funds will be made available widely and for free. Which raises the question, why would a network or advertiser pony up the CIMM membership dues? Wurtzel acknowledged the conundrum at the ARF meeting, but likened the group to "public television" -- or an industry service, and said he hoped companies would join because "they think it's important to underwrite this and they want to have a better involvement." Only full CIMM voting members will have final say on which research projects are funded. There have been a host of unsuccessful efforts to get the industry to work jointly to find smarter methodologies and technologies. But Wurtzel said at the ARF event that what distinguishes CIMM is the involvement of networks, agencies and advertisers. Also setting it apart is the hoopla caused when it was first billed as a Nielsen challenger. "It isn't," Wurtzel said. But he recognized the spotlight it is under. "These things begin with a lot of publicity, a lot of interest, a lot of excitement -- and then the question is do they have legs," he said.
Like several other major newspaper publishers, the New York Times Co. posted an increase in profits in the third quarter, but this good news was offset by continued double-digit declines in overall revenue and advertising revenue. In other words, while the company has managed to maintain profitability by cutting costs, the big picture is still one of steady contraction. NYTCO's operating profit grew 30% from $61.9 million in the third quarter of 2008, to $80.6 million in the same quarter this year. This was mostly due to a 21.6% drop in operating costs, which are expected to yield a total $475 million in savings in 2009. The company has also raised circulation revenues by increasing the cost of newsstand copies and home delivery. However, total revenue continued to decline, falling 17% from $687 million in the third quarter of 2008 to $570.6 million in the third quarter of this year. The drop was due mostly to a 26.9% decline in advertising revenues, which fell from $398.2 million in the third quarter of 2008 to $291 million this year. This is the fourteenth straight quarter in which NYTCO's overall revenue has declined on a year-over-year basis. Total revenue in the third quarter of 2009 is down 28% from the third quarter of 2005, when it came to $791.1 million. The third-quarter report comes just a few days after NYTCO announced it would be cutting 100 newsroom positions at the flagship New York Times, equaling about 8% of the newsroom staff. Earlier this year, the newspaper also laid off 100 employees of its business operations division. A gradual reduction has also been accomplished through attrition. The New York Times Co. instituted a 5% pay cut earlier this year, and obtained significant concessions from unions at The Boston Globe amid threats to sell the newspaper. At the end of 2008, NYTCO's payroll totaled 9,346 full-time employees. Subtracting the 200 positions cut this year leaves a current total of 9,146 -- down 33.7% from 13,800 in 2000.
Late-night network shows are suddenly in hot demand of national TV advertisers. "We've been seeing double-digit price increases over upfront pricing," says Chris Simon, executive vice president of advertising sales for CBS, for the "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson." Simon says active advertisers include automotives, consumer electronics, and pharmaceuticals. Among all categories, Simon says, he is emboldened that financial services TV marketers have also been making a comeback. Overall, "it's a very nice vote for the daypart -- especially for us at CBS," adds Simon. "Marketers are starting to feel a little bit better about how we are as a country." Media buyers also say NBC is completely sold out of its inventory in "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." An NBC spokeswoman would not comment. "It's really hot; virtually everyone is sold out," says Ira Berger, director of national broadcast for the Dallas-based The Richards Group, says of the time period. Much of NBC's gains may have to do with the network giving back some makegood inventory to marketers. For example, O'Brien is down 22% among 18-49 viewers for the first four weeks of the season; "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" is down 16% in 18-49 viewers. Both CBS's late shows have seen about flat viewership against a similar time frame a year ago. But CBS' "Late Show" can now be found to beat or tie "The Tonight Show" among key 18-49 viewers -- something it wasn't able to do when Jay Leno hosted the show for virtually the entire run of the program. The Letterman scandal has had virtually no negative effect among advertisers, according to media buyers. Media buyers also say an overall lowering of late-night ratings points could be creating a favorable supply and demand situation for the networks. Media executives also note that ABC's "Nightline" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" are seeing pricing benefits. Pricing for big late-night shows such as those hosted by Conan O'Brien and David Letterman can command $45,000 to $55,000 per 30-second commercial. Gary Carr, senior vp and executive director of national broadcast for media agency TargetCast TCM, says some of the shift of advertising dollars into the daypart could be from national advertisers holding back money in the first half of the year or from summertime's upfront process. Similarly, network prime-time scatter pricing is higher than the upfront marketplace deals. Jo Ann Ross, president of advertising sales for CBS, says scatter prime-time pricing is seeing double-digit percentage CPM (cost per thousand viewers) increases. With only four weeks of the season so far, CBS and Fox are two networks that have witnessed better results versus other networks -- thus grabbing scatter money might be less problematic. "For us, it's a little bit easier, because our numbers are good," says Ross. A General Electric executive said during a recent earnings call that scatter pricing on the NBC network was 10% higher than during the upfront selling period and 20% higher on NBC Universal's cable networks. As with late night, media buyers say some of this is misleading, since NBC's primetime prices for selective inventory could be boosted by giving away commercial time to TV marketers for shortfalls in promised in upfront advertising deals. One veteran media agency executive says of TV marketers moving now: "There is a tremendous amount of pressure to show growth in the fourth quarter for most companies-- not bottom-line growth, but top-line."
Are network viewers already bored on Wednesday -- or just looking to screen those shows later in the week? In analyzing Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewing results, total viewers slipped 3% on Wednesday, October 20 to 33.8 million total viewers at the five English-language networks versus the same day a week ago -- all this while the networks are still airing virtually all fresh episodes. TV analysts have noted that DVR playback has grown this year over last season -- now in 33% of U.S. TV homes, and up from 28% a year ago, much of it having an effect on live prime-time viewing. Preliminarily, CBS and Fox tied for the top spot among 18-49 viewers with a Nielsen 2.9 rating/8 share on Wednesday this week. A week ago, the two networks tied in final ratings, each with a 3.1/9. CBS' "Criminal Minds" slipped a bit to a 3.6/9 from 3.8/10 -- still good for the best-performing network show of the night. ABC's "Modern Family" and Fox's "Glee" continued to be hot on the heels of the CBS drama this week -- with a 3.3/9 and a 3.2/8, respectively. A week earlier, "Modern Family" was at a 3.6/10 and "Glee", at a 3.4/9. Other shows posting in the three-plus rating range were ABC's "Cougar Town" -- now at a 3.0/8, down from a 3.3/8 the week before -- and "CSI:NY" -- now at a 3.0/8, off from a 3.2/9 the week before. After this group, the best of middling new performers looks to be ABC's "The Middle" -- at a 2.0/6, running at 8:30 p.m. -- and NBC's "Mercy," also at a 2.0/6, running at 8 p.m. ABC's "Eastwick" continues a bit lower -- a 1.7/5, a little less than half of the "CSI: NY" numbers at 10 p.m., but better than NBC's "Jay Leno Show" at a 1.5/4. ABC's earlier-evening comedy, "Hank," is also still in a struggling mode -- coming in at fourth place at 8 p.m. with a 1.5/5. For the night overall, ABC came in third place at an average 2.2/6 among 18-49 viewers. NBC was right behind at 2.1/6, followed by Univision at a 1.5/4, and the CW at 1.0/3.
Playboy Will Cut Base By Over One-Third The nation's largest men's magazine soon won't be, as Playboy plans to cut its rate base from 2.6 million to 1.5 million beginning in January -- a 38% drop, according to Mediaweek, which reported the news earlier this week. As part of the circulation shakeup, the famed title is also planning to combine its upcoming January and February issues, following an earlier frequency reduction which combined its July and August issues. The rate base cutback means that Playboy will cede the top spot to Maxim, with a rate base of 2.5 million, as the nation's largest men's magazine. With the exception of Playboy , most major men's lifestyle magazines have held steady or increased over the last couple of years, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. At 2,537,130 in the six-month period ending June 2009, Maxim is virtually unchanged from 2,579,116 in the first half of 2006. In the same comparison, Details increased 12.8%, from 418,137 to 471,860, Esquire hardly moved from 710,826 to 712,942, and GQ grew 9.5% from 852,510 to 934,033. Men's Health is also virtually unchanged, going from 1,856,161 in 2006 to 1,859,643 in 2009. The situation is quite different for more risqué titles, however. According to ABC, Playboy's total paid circulation tumbled from just over 3 million in the first half of 2006 to 2.45 million in the first half of 2009 -- an 18.4% drop. In the same period, Penthouse's total circulation fell 37% from 366,024 to 231,073. Meanwhile, FHM -- another risqué (although minimally clothed) title -- closed in December 2006. In terms of ad pages, men's lifestyle magazines have had mixed fortunes in 2009, with some faring (relatively) well while others are taking big hits. In the third quarter of 2009, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, ad pages fell 33.6% at Details, 34.4% at GQ, 14.8% at Maxim, 23.7% at Men's Health -- and a whopping 47.3% at Playboy. Conde Nast Unveils iPhone App Conde Nast has developed an app to allow users to read magazines on their iPhones, according to Folio. The program will allow readers to download the entire magazine for $2.99 per month, beginning with the November issue of GQ. After an initial testing period, Conde Nast may extend the offering to include other big titles. Earlier this month, Time Inc., Conde Nast, and Hearst said they were collaborating to develop a new, proprietary e-reader for magazines and newspapers that will compete with Amazon's Kindle, which is viewed as unsatisfactory for magazine content by some publishers and readers. The Knot Ups Frequency The print version of The Knot (which began as an online portal for all things wedding-related) is increasing its frequency, moving from a semi-annual to quarterly publication schedule beginning next year, says Folio. The publisher is touting an innovative editorial scheme, in which content will be selected based on the preferences of the Web site's users -- hewing toward more realistic, affordable wedding ideas. Conde Nast Cuts Keep Coming The closing of Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride and Modern Bride two weeks ago was hardly the end of the bloodshed at Conde Nast. Following close on the heels of their demise, the high-end publisher also saw varying numbers of layoffs at Brides (the remaining bridal title), Glamour, Vanity Fair, Vogue, W, and Wired, as well as Conde's digital division and sales staff. Although the number keeps changing with each swing of the axe, it seems likely that the total number of layoffs will be in the hundreds. BusinessWeek EIC Adler Out Just days after the news of its acquisition by Bloomberg LLC, BusinessWeek magazine experienced its first job cut with the departure of Editor in Chief Stephen Adler. Adler told employees that he will give up his post by the time Bloomberg takes control of the venerable but troubled business title. In his memo announcing the decision, Adler evinced pleasure that BusinessWeek was going into good hands: "It was hugely important to me to help find the right home for BusinessWeek and to work closely with our business-side colleagues to ensure that staffers would be provided appropriate benefits under any circumstance. Now that these goals have been accomplished, I'm considering other opportunities, and I believe it makes sense for a new owner to move forward with a new editor."
Havas, the parent of MPG, Media Contacts, and agencies such as EURO RSCG, Thursday reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter results, reflecting the lagging effects of the global economic recession on the major agency holding companies. Paris-based Havas said organic revenues fell 9.3% from the third-quarter of 2008, though it net income remained relatively stable. Havas noted that the rate of revenue erosion appears to be easing, and that as bad as the third-quarter was, it was an improvement from the second quarter of the year, when organic revenues fell 9.8%. North America actually performed somewhat better, declining only 7.8% during the second quarter, while Europe was off 10.5%. Havas attributed its North American results to stronger performance from its Euro RSCG network, especially in the healthcare and financial services sectors. Havas' results mirror those of other major agency holding companies that have reported recently. On Wednesday, Omnicom reported that worldwide revenues declined 14.4% during the third quarter of 2009.