Advertising Age
Los Angeles Times
If anything could slow the decline of evening news viewership, it should have been this year's riveting presidential campaign. The cable news networks benefited mightily, more than doubling their prime-time audiences this fall. But the overall number of people watching the network evening newscasts actually shrank slightly in the last months of the presidential campaign, despite the programs' heavy political focus. Viewership was down 280,000 since Sept. 22 compared with the same period last year, per Nielsen. Of the three programs, the top-rated "NBC Nightly News" was the only one to register an uptick in audience, growing …
Folio
Zinio, a vendor of digital magazines, is launching a service that enables publishers and users to search for content within digital magazine products. It then allows people to send the layout of the magazine page to others via email. The service -- which is free to users and publishers that have an account with Zinio -- also lets users post replicas of magazine pages on Web sites, blogs and social networking sites like Facebook. While the search and the individual pages are free, the service makes money by selling single issues and one-year subscriptions of the digital …
PBS/Media Shift
Here's another out-of-the-box idea for struggling newspapers. They should act as local ad agencies, helping local businesses buy key words for Google AdWords and place Facebook ads. Stephen Gray, former managing publisher of The Christian Science Monitor and now a director of the American Press Institute, thinks it would work. Gray says a key problem is that most newspapers cede all local search to Google or Yahoo, which tend to do it badly. Audiences have split in a million directions. By definition, regional newspapers are in a local market with the job of helping local businesses succeed. If …
The Economist
Since becoming MTV chief executive in 2004, Judy McGrath has pushed her company to grow in new ways, raising the number of countries that receive MTV's television programming to 162. To diversify revenue sources, she has pushed for designing and selling toys and clothing that tie into its shows. Plus, she embraced the potential of video games. But in the contest for the attention of her young audience, the Internet is a stubborn rival. MYV has expanded its digital offerings, but it is not yet clear if it will be able to change fast enough to fit its …
All Things Digital
Workers who have recently been let go from media companies can try blaming consumers for not buying more American cars in the last year, and auto companies for spending less to convince them. Car companies' spending cuts of 10% in the first half of 2008, per Nielsen, confirms all the anecdotal evidence media companies have been offering up throughout the year. It also means that the numbers for the second half of the year -- when the economy really collapsed -- are going to be brutal. That explains why everyone from Time Warner's Time Inc. to NBC is …
Editor & Publisher
Brandweek
Advertising Age
Magazine industry imperatives that existed before the financial meltdown -- like finding new ways to reach consumers -- probably matter even more now. Despite industry tumult, Rodale's Best Life is going ahead with plans to take over an airline lounge at New York JFK airport. Starting Nov. 24, the Delta Crown Room in Terminal 2 will host the Best Life Experience, where travelers will be offered product samples, a wine bar, driving simulators and other amenities. i>Best Life has sold 20 ad pages in conjunction with the program. Chief sponsors are Mercedes-Benz, Tommy Bahama, Kendall-Jackson and Clarins. …
New York Observer
You didn't have to visit the CNN Grill at election time to have experienced America's original cable news network laying it on thick. For much of the 2008 election, CNN's mission seems to have been to go over the top -- to swagger through "the leanest of times." The network sponsored seven debates, signed up a roster of all-star political pundits and unleashed an array of new audio-visual technology, some from military defense contractors. "When you have the wind at your back in the form of a very profitable streak, you've got to try things, to embrace innovation, …