• To The Rescue: Newspaper Content Cops
    Newspaper executives often complain that bloggers and small Web sites are stealing their content and, as a result, their advertising revenue. But solutions are rare. Now, news is out that two San Francisco area start-up companies have developed tools that could reshape how news content is distributed and monetized on the Web. Scribd has unveiled a system for publishing secure bodies of text and distributing them. The product allows publishers to post documents on their Web sites in a secured widget. Redistributors, such as bloggers, can repost the document on their sites only through the widget and cannot …
  • Age of Mag, Newspaper Readers is Rising Quickly
    The average age of magazine readers is rising faster than the overall population. The median age of U.S. adults increased 1.3 years to 45.2 since spring 2004, per Mediamark Research. But the median age of adult readers at nearly 200 U.S. publications went up 1.6 years to 44. At many titles, the audience is getting older even faster. The median reader age rose 3.7 years at the Sunday Chicago Tribune since 2004, for example. For magazines that want to keep their readers young, this article offers a few tips. They include: Go bigger in supermarket checkouts and at …
  • 'L.A. Times' Suspends Spinoff Magazine At Launch
    One of the shortest-lived magazines in recent memory is based in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times suspended publication of LAetcetera, a weekly spinoff magazine, just before the first issue hit subscribers' mailboxes last Sunday, May 24. According to the paper's CMO John T. O'Loughlin, LAetcetera was suspended "for the foreseeable future while we revise the overall L.A. planning calendar." At the same time, Penn Jones, publisher of LA, Los Angeles Times Magazine, the group's monthly publication, made plans to leave the company. Featuring pop culture, shopping, fashion and home features, LAetcetera was expected to have a …
  • Google TV Ads System Hits the Upfront
    For the first time Google TV Ads has begun booking upfront deals with major agencies and advertisers. Deutsch, Saatchi & Saatchi and other agencies, as well as advertisers such as Coldwell Banker are "coming to the table," says Mike Steib, director of Google TV Ads. Yesterday Google hosted an event at its offices in New York with more than 100 chief marketing officers of Fortune 500 companies and their agencies. Tens of millions have been committed through the TV spot buying system in the year ahead, say executives. Many of the commitments run for a year starting in …
  • Newspapers Book Ads Online Thanks to Yahoo
    Newspapers are reporting success chasing local online advertising with technology and ad inventory from Yahoo. The Yahoo newspaper consortium has reportedly sold nearly $50 million in Yahoo inventory so far, with sales running several million dollars a week. About 150 papers started using the new Yahoo platform last fall. Another 350 have signed up since. At Scripps newspapers, the new platform was largely responsible for a 30% increase in online-only ad sales in the first quarter, say company execs. The Yahoo partnership helped the Atlanta Journal Constitution line up fast-food and telecom accounts previously devoted to broadcast and …
  • Local Advertising to Hit Bottom in 2010, Per BIA
    Local advertising media are collectively forecast to decline to $144.4 billion in 2013, down from $155 billion last year, per BIA and its sister company The Kelsey Group. This year, local ad revenue will drop to $141.3 billion and hit bottom at $135.8 billion in 2010, before reversing direction in 2011. The forecast includes newspapers, direct mail, TV, radio, yellow pages, traditional outdoor, cable TV, magazines and digital/online. On the plus side, new media presents opportunities for new revenue streams for all the media groups, say the forecasters. New media's share of total ad spend is forecast to …
  • McClatchy Plans Debt Exchange To Buy Time
    McClatchy is changing key aspects of its debt agreements in a bid to stay afloat. The publisher of The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, and more than two dozen other U.S. newspapers is planning to exchange $1.15 billion worth of existing debt for cash and new debt. The new debt comes with a higher interest rate of 15.75%, versus about 5%-7%, on existing obligations, but allows the publisher to pay it off several years later. McClatchy also will be able to use its revolving credit line for up to $60 million to pay off some debt, the company says. …
  • Newspapers: Less Liked Than Airlines?
    The American Customer Satisfaction Index, which tracks customer satisfaction across a wide range of industries, has unsettling news for newspapers. According to its "satisfaction index," in the first quarter '09, newspaper customers' satisfaction rating was lower than airlines and cell phone providers. Newspapers also had the steepest "satisfaction" drop of any industry in the quarter, per the survey. That's bad enough, but what's worse is how much newspapers' rating has slipped since the surveys began. It's off 12.5% since the survey's debut in 1994. In contrast, the most-satisfactory segment for the first quarter was the full-service restaurant industry. …
  • E! Puts Celebrity Tweeters On News Crawl
    The TV network E! hopes to benefit from the power of Twitter by running tweets from a number of celebrities during its programming. The "Celebri-Tweets" will appear in the news crawl at the bottom of the screen. TV networks have been aggressively exploring the potential of Twitter lately. In addition to encouraging celebrities and executives to tweet, networks have been making official announcements via the service. E! will also feature a "Celebri-Tweet" widget on its homepage keeping users up to date on what the celebrity Twitterati are saying in 140 characters or less. Other networks are creating …
  • NBC Went To Oprah Before Leno for Prime Time
    NBC offered its 8 p.m. timeslot to Oprah Winfrey before deciding to put Jay Leno in prime time. NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker says NBC talked to Winfrey about two years ago. She passed, but said she might have considered it earlier in her career, he says. NBC also discussed an 8 p.m. show with David Letterman when the "Late Show" host's contract was coming up at CBS. Zucker told affiliates on Wednesday, that even back in 1981, research was done on moving the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson to 10 p.m. The most popular show at …
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