Saying the magazine with her name on the cover no longer reflects her “vision, values, and editorial direction,” Rosie O’Donnell has announced she is stepping away from the magazine Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing launched in her image from the remains of McCall’s some 16-months ago.Just last weekend, O’Donnell’s spokeswoman had said she intended to stay at the magazine, but ongoing tensions apparently escalated in the past few days. In an email to staff members this morning, O’Donnell called her decision a “difficult one,” going on to say that she “spent a long time wrestling with it.” G&J USA president/CEO Dan Brewster met with Rosie staff members this morning to discuss the future of the magazine, which appears in doubt. Legal action is highly likely, as well, since both sides have already enlisted outside counsel in their ongoing debate. G+J, a unit of Bertelsmann, is represented by George Frampton Jr., of the Boies, Shciller & Flexner law firm. O’Donnell is represented by former Manhattan U.S. attorney Mary Jo White. Through August, Rosie’s ad pages were up 103% compared to 2001. Its advertising revenues were up 125% to $90M.
After a three-year decline during the economic good times, classified-ad readership is returning strongly in print and online. The Media Audit finds 18.92 million people regularly reading newspaper classified ads, a jump to 29% from the 14.68 million who said so a year before. People who read the classifieds occasionally boost the number even higher. The findings are reported in the latest Media Audit of 85 metropolitan regions surveyed by International Demographics Inc. of Houston. Robert Jordan, president of International Demographics, said the reason for the jump is pretty simple: It’s the economy. With a lingering recession and massive layoffs in almost every type of industry, there are plenty of people looking for a new job or a better job. And that’s driving an increase in readership for employment classifieds, if not an increase in recruitment advertising. “What’s really changed is the employment factor. There’s been a lot going on in the economy since 9/11, massive layoffs, job insecurity,” Jordan said. The findings, which have stayed steady in every market, reverse an at least three-year decline in readership of classifieds studied by The Media Audit. There have been increases in automotive classifieds too but no concrete analysis of real estate so far. Employment advertising generally accounts for between 40% and 50% of a newspaper’s classified revenue, which is in itself a key part of overall revenues. In major metro markets, employment advertising accounts for between 50% and 60% of all classified revenue. The employment classified reader’s demographic has also changed. Jordan said there are more higher-income, college-educated people reading classifieds – particularly recruitment advertising – than there has been in a while. The percentage of readers with at least one college degree rose to more than 25% of the total classified audience. Households with annual incomes of more than $50,000 rose from 37.6% to 41.9%. The numbers of people who visit newspaper’s Web sites for classifieds was also tallied although it’s a recent addition to The Media Audit and can’t be looked at historically.
The new television season officially begins next week, although it got an early start Sunday night with The Sopranos premiere, which scored big for HBO, earning an 11 share/7.4 household rating with 13.4 million viewers, the leading show on Sunday night and one of the top shows of the week. The week's leader was Monday Night Football, which catapulted ABC to second in prime average, a place it has seldom been recently. It scored a 23 share/12.8 household with 19 million viewers. ABC's NFL Monday Showcase ranked second, giving ABC the top two shows for the week. CBS beat ABC in prime average (11/6.6 to 10/6), thanks to its stable of hits that continue to rank high even in reruns. Two episodes of CSI, Everybody Loves Raymond and Becker were ranked in the top 10 and CBS also scored with 9/11, its documentary on the terrorist attacks that ran on the anniversary, and 60 Minutes. An ABC News special on 9/11 also ranked in the top 10, along with Dateline NBC. NBC (10/5.8) and Fox (8/4.4) trailed CBS and ABC in prime average. Fox didn't have a single show in the top 25 after winning the top two spots last week with American Idol. It is introducing four new shows this week, which should be helped by the promotion they received on Idol. Football is the big story in virtually every category. It also won the top two cable spots for ESPN's games on Sunday and Thursday nights and it led the way in the sports category with two games on Fox and one on CBS. The top rating for ESPN was 7.8 household with 8.3 million households watching. Fox's top game scored a 27 share/13.2 household with 14 million households tuned in. Other cable leaders were Chevy Monte Carlo (TNT), ESPN's Sports Center and Trading Spaces (TLC). The other sports winner was US Open tennis (CBS). In other TV news, ABC will continue to run USA Network's Monk this fall. It plans a two month run beginning Sept. 26. ABC ran four episodes this summer, which scored well against American Idol, averaging 8.3 million viewers. UPN goes into the new fall season with a weaker distribution system, migrating to weaker UHF outlets in two top markets and losing primary affiliates in some markets that switched to the WB or CBS. Meanwhile, Fox's status improved, moving from UHF to VHF in Minneapolis and Portland, OR.
Yes, the media world is an awful mess. And yes, there is reason to be optimistic that the worst is over. Veronis Suhler Stevenson issued its annual Communications Industry Report yesterday, a report that shows “an industry under duress” but also an industry that is “poised for a recovery.” Most notably the report shows that their number of publicly reporting media companies has plunged 37% over the past two years. Call it a consolidation or a shakeout, but the report says the third consecutive year of communication industry declines was topped by a 20 % dive in overall operating income for 2001. “The industry snapshot presented in this year’s CIR is not a pretty picture. Across the board, financial numbers were disappointing, and the sheer number of companies tracked has contracted markedly, reflecting the high rate of casualties from the Internet bust,” said James Rutherfurd, executive vice president and head of investment banking at VSS. “On the other hand, we believe some signs are now pointing toward a stabilized recovery of the industry. What the CIR shows is the background to today’s environment: A technology meltdown and an economic recession that worsened following the September 11 terrorist attacks caused the first communications spending decline in decades. This combination of negative trends took a massive toll on the advertising industry, which trickled down into just about every communications sector. In the first half of 2002 we have seen some signs of a turnaround.” The report says that radio and broadcast TV saw a turnaround at the beginning of this year. Surprisingly, advertising, marketing services and specialty media was one of only a few categories in the report to show growth. A total of 59 companies combined saw a 3.6% gain in revenue in 2001 to $38.1 billion, a 15.1% advance in operating cash flow and a 10.7% increase in adjusted operating income, mainly contributed by growth among marketing services holding companies. The top three companies, according to revenues, were Omnicom Group, Interpublic Group of Companies and WPP Group. The report was blunt in its assessment of the publishing business. “Hammered by the worst advertising market in a decade,” VSS states, total revenues for the 20 publicly reporting companies in the sector declined 4.7% to $23.7 billion. Lower revenues helped operating cash flow decline 17.6% to $5.6 billion in 2001. Operating income also fell, plunging 25.8% to $3.9 billion while the value of assets slipped a modest 2.8% to $37.7 billion. Consumer magazines didn’t fare much better. The 16 publicly reporting companies, while posting adjusted revenue gains of 3.0% to $7.5 billion in 2001, operating cash flow declined 10.9% to $927.4 million and companies reported an operating loss of $204.9 million.
OneFN, a network of financial websites, has released a survey saying that affluent investors are more receptive to email than other forms of direct marketing. The survey, conducted at OneFN sites and released Monday, says that 55% of the audience is more receptive to email than they were a year ago, compared with 17% for direct mail, 11% for catalogs and only 1% for telemarketing. Twenty-six percent are less receptive to email, 36% are less receptive to direct mail, 28% less receptive to catalogs and 68% less receptive to telemarketing. "Email is more popular as a direct response vehicle," says Gary Kreissman, a consultant for OneFN who conducted the study. The survey only pertains to the OneFN audience, which is 89% male with an average income of $115,000 and average investment portfolio of $350,000. This prompts Ann Veller, vice president of information and special projects at the Direct Marketing Association, to label the survey as "biased." She says, "It looks like direct mail and telemarketing aren't effective for this particular audience, but it's not true for the whole world." She also says the financial services category is "a leading generator of direct mail," with so many credit card solicitations. She agrees that companies in the investment area use email as a retention tool. She also says it's popular in the investment area because "they don't want the intervention of a broker who wants a commission, so they do it directly for more control." The biggest loser in the survey is telemarketing. "Upscale people in particular don't want to get telemarketing calls," Kreissman says. Veller agrees, saying, "The target audience of this survey has an aversion to sales over the phone." The survey also says 30% are more comfortable making purchases with email and 36% say they would provide personal information if they receive fewer but more relevant email.