March 20th, 2006

Message From Michael (image placeholder)
March 20, 2006

• THE STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA – 2006


• HARRIS INTERACTIVE -- NEWS USE AMONG YOUNG


• IBM -- THE END OF TV AS WE KNOW IT


• NIELSEN – GETTING MORE, WATCHING LESS

More is less. That’s the basic theme of a series of reports have come out over the last week, examining Americans use of news media. More media; less coverage. The largest (that’s why it’s in bigger font in the headline) was the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual report on the state of the news media. But three other reports also came out that offer some interesting insights. Frankly there is just too much to cover in a brief MfM. So, we will hit the highlights and maybe re-visit this in a later report.
Major Trends

• The new paradox of Journalism is more outlets covering fewer stories. There are more outlets for news, but that means the audience for each is smaller and along with it, the number of journalists. The report notes that when there is a major story, the reporters are ‘herded’ into press areas away from the news. The result is the newsmakers control the news. The report authors argue that one of the reasons coverage of Katrina was exceptional was that officials weren’t able to do that.


• The species of newspaper that is most threatened is the big-city metro paper. The report says they were the ones to suffer the greatest circulation and revenue loss. National newspapers did not and small newspapers had only modest losses. The big-city metro is being replaced in part by niche publications serving smaller communities and targeted audiences. Yet it is those papers, the report argues, that have the resources to act as watchdogs over government, identify trends and “define the larger community public square.”


• At many old-media companies, though not all, the decades-long battle at the top between idealists and the accountants is now over. The idealists have lost. And mainly because of the financial struggles the news media faced and are facing, the report argues. It quotes a corporate spokesman for Knight-Ridder who says, “I wish there were an identifiable and strong correlation between quality journalism and newspaper sales. It isn’t… that simple.”


• Traditional media do appear to be moving toward technological innovation – finally. The report notes that its earlier studies indicated more creative innovation came from non-news sources while traditional media treated the Internet as a platform to repurpose old material. The report says it saw signs that attitude is changing, but there is still a question whether the traditional media will make the cultural change necessary and whether younger audiences care about the traditional news brands.


• How long will it take online journalism to become a major economic engine and will it ever be as big as print and television. The report notes that even if online revenues grew at an improbable 33% a year while print revenue grew at 3% a year, it would be 2017 before they match. Most likely, the authors say, producers of old media will challenge the new media to compensate them for content.

Content Analysis

This year the study focused on a single day, May 11, 2005, to see, as the authors put it, how 19th century print outlets, 20th century radio and TV outlets and 21st century Web sites and blogs “distill and order events into an account of the day” in three cities across the U.S. Again, some highlights, followed by specifics.

• What people learn depends heavily on where they go for news. The report says that while the medium may not be the message, there is no doubt the medium influences the message. Different medium; different stories covered. So much so that the authors say consumers must choose carefully to get a good media diet and that “the notion of relying on a single or primary source of news – one-stop shopping – may no longer make sense.”


• Even when audiences did hear the same story on different outlets, the number of sources was ‘surprisingly small.” For example, the report said that every cable and network morning news program covering a security scare involving President Bush used the same security expert. The same thing happened on national broadcasts when the local prosecutor in an Illinois murder case appeared on all the newscasts.


• The incremental and ephemeral nature of what the media defines as news is striking. Few of the top stories covered on that day would get much coverage even a day or two later, or would be remembered a month later. Instead of context, the media, especially cable, focused on the immediate, or as the report put it, “news that breaks rather than news that bends.”


• While the news is on, there is not a constant flow of news events. The report says the most striking thing they noted during the day was the amount of repetition. For example, Google offered 14,000 stories on its front page that day, but in reality there were only 24 news events involved, while on cable only half of the news stories monitored over the 12 hour period were new.

The Specifics

• Online: The authors make the point that the Internet is technology. It does not represent a style of media, a set of values or a journalistic approach. The Internet has added more outlets from which to choose, but it has not added new topics to the agenda.


• Blogs: The report says the blogs actually acted as ‘navigators’ to the media culture, sifting through the mainstream media to come up with things important, curious, absent, interesting or objectionable. The blogs were less interested in breaking news and more interested in long-term issues, but the bloggers didn’t do anything one would call journalism or sourcing.


• Cable News: The report says the most striking feature of cable news is its fixation on whatever is happening at the moment. The result is a good deal of repetition and a good deal that is ephemeral. But the report noted the cable channels have become distinct from each other with FOX trying to help viewers put the news in order, albeit a conservative order while CNN is more earnest, tied to the immediate but less sure what the difference is between its different programs and MSNBC seemed to be a different channel virtually from program to program.


• Network: The report says that the contrast between the nightly news on the network and the morning news on the network is so striking that “the term network TV news seems almost a misnomer.” The authors say their one-day analysis showed the three evening newscasts were virtually identical to each other and very different from their network siblings in the morning. The morning news agenda is more focused on lighter stories and emotion.


• Local TV: The report says the focus was on what news managers thought people could use -- traffic, weather, and what news managers thought they were worried about -- accidents and crime. In style and format, the authors say, the newscasts were ‘strikingly’ (a word the authors seem to like a lot) similar, even across cities. The stories were just the facts, little opinion, but also the ‘shallowest’ sourcing and fewest angles.


• Newspapers: This is the medium that is covering the most topics, has the deepest sourcing, explores the most angles and provides most of the content to the Internet, according to the report, although it tilted toward elites. In part, the authors say it is because of the “number of boots on the ground.” The question is whether in the shift toward online, the newspapers will lose that advantage of more time to spend on a story and, with lower online revenue, more money to spend on a story.


• Radio: The report says that contrary to some expectations, the news wasn’t all national syndicated material but in fact was very local, if somewhat limited in scope. Of course it was brief, except for the talk shows which provide some depth of coverage. Again, like TV, the report says the eight stations monitored in three cities are ‘strikingly’ (there’s that word again) alike.

Other Studies

• Harris Interactive: On a related note, a Harris Poll found that while there may be more outlets, most people choose to get their news most frequently from broadcast mediums. Three-quarters (77%) say they watch local broadcast news several times a week or daily while 71% say they watch network news or cable news that often. On the other hand, only one in five (19%) of U.S. adults say they listen to satellite news programming or read a newspaper (18%) several times a week or daily. The Poll divided the survey group into matures (59 and older), baby boomers (40 to 58), Generation Xers (28 to 39) and ‘Echo Boomers” (18 to 27). Not surprisingly matures rely primarily on traditional media while baby boomers use the most varied types of media. Boomers and Gen Xers are more likely to go online for news while, surprisingly, Echo Boomers are the least likely to go online for news although they also are the least frequent users of media.


• Nielsen: Americans are getting more TV channels than ever before, but they’re watching a smaller percentage of them, especially those from broadcasters. In a report released in Orlando, the company says the number of TV channels received jumped 50% in the last five years, from 61.4 in 2000 to 96.4 in 2005. In comparison, in 2004, there were 92.6 channels received but only 15.0 tuned in. In 2005, the number of channels received increased to 96.4, but the number ‘tuned in’ only increased to 15.4. In the same period, Nielsen says the average household tuned to TV 56 hours and 7 minutes a week in 2004 but 57 hours and 17 minutes in 2005. By way of comparison, in 1975 the average was 43 hours and 42 minutes a week.


• IBM: Citing the well-known fragmentation and myriad media choices, the report goes several steps further saying we are seeing “the end of TV as we know it” as viewers go from not just niche viewing but to individualized viewing. The report talks about “consumer bimodality,” meaning there are two types of viewers. The largest group is the massive passives who watch what they are given. But the other group represents a ‘generation chasm’ of what IBM classifies as “kool kids” and “gadgetiers.” These are the leading edge users who are demanding the medium be more interactive.

Finally

Aren’t you glad to see that word. A long report. But a lot of information. The State of the News Media report alone is actually more than 178,000 words. So, cutting it down to 15oo words isn’t bad. You can access the full report at stateofthemedia.org. And, as I said at the start, we may look at this again in future editions of MfM. And, as always, any feedback or comments are welcome.

• SUBSCRIPTIONS: We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM from 2006 are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.

March 13th, 2006

Message From Michael
March 13, 2006

• CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY AND DOING GOOD


• DEVELOPMENTS IN STUDENT TELEVISION


• BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF GOOGLES


• MEDIA MUSINGS: ELEVATOR TV AND AL JAZERRA


• COCKTAIL CHATTER: WEBSITES WEIRD AND WONDERFUL


• KICKER: DOGS VERSUS DADS

• CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY AND DOING GOOD: Pop Star Peter Gabriel has co-founded a website called witness.org which he says is a ‘viewer advocacy’ development. It helps people to film human rights violations so that “the world can see what’s really going on.” New York Times technology writer David Pogue said it was so “cool and important” that he focused on it in a recent on-line article and it was so interesting that I decided it was worth repeating. The group has supplied 200 camcorders to human rights groups in 60 countries. When you visit the site, you will see a story about torture and displacement in northern Uganda. The site banner says, “see it… film it… change it.”


• INTERNATIONAL MEDIA: As long as we’re on an international bent… Rolling Stone has launched a mainland China version of its pop culture magazine with an initial print run of 120,000 selling out in days. The inaugural issue had articles about U2 frontman Bono, the influence of rock music on ending the cold war, with a front cover about Chinese rock pioneer Cui Jian, (No, I haven’t heard of him either.) Editor in Chief Hao Fang wrote in the initial issue “from today onward, let us summon our readers so that we may in the East also create a miracle worthy of this era.” The article on ABC News noted this is the 11th international version of the magazine.Famous, or in-famous depending on your point of view, Arab language network Al Jazeera is set to launch an International version of its channel in May, and while Westerners are worried about the controversy it will generate, employees are worried it won’t be controversial enough. Interestingly the Al Jazeera journalists are banned from speaking publicly, but an article by Hannah Allam of Knight Ridder newspapers quotes long-time employees who say they are afraid the international edition will be a watered-down version of what they had built up “with their blood, sweat and tears for 10 years.” The employees note few of the journalists and not enough of the managers are Arab. British managing director Nigel Parsons is quoted as saying the International version will build on Al Jazeera’s heritage “and bring their brand of fearless journalism to a wider audience.”


• DEVELOPMENTS IN STUDENT TELEVISION: Students remember the advertisements better than they do the news stories on Channel One, the daily ‘public affairs’ program shown in 12,000 U.S. schools. Researchers surveyed 7th and 8th graders in a school in Washington state. The students remember 3.5 ads, according to the study, compared to 2.7 news stories. However, they don’t remember much of either with only 13% ‘retaining’ the news stories during a week and 11% ‘retaining’ the ads. Students at Boston University have created a “riches-to-rags” comedy pilot called Roller Palace in collaboration with MSN. The program will air online March 20th on MTVU. Professors at the University of Minnesota have turned the fantasy game Neverwinter Nights into a tool for journalism students. Instead of slaying monsters and gathering gold, the players gather information and tackle sources, according to an article carried by the Associated Press. Game designer Matt Taylor and Journalism professor Kathleen Hansen have modified the game graphics to create a town where there is a train accident spilling toxic chemicals and players have to dig up the information.


• BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF GOOGLES: Executives with Google have set an immodest goal of $100 Billion in worldwide revenue. Keep in mind that total worldwide advertising market is ‘only’ $800 Billion. In an article in the Times of London, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying they plan to get into every segment of the media market from television and radio to print and direct marketing. The company presently has annual revenues of $6 Billion and is worth $100 Billion on the stock market. Competing giant Yahoo! meanwhile says it is backing away from its original plan to create a lot of original content. The head of the company’s media group, Lloyd Braun, says that instead they will focus on content acquired from other media companies or submitted by users.Meanwhile, you’ve no doubt already heard that the Associated Press has launched its own Video Online Network, using MSN video. The ad-supported service will allow the 4,000 AP newspaper and broadcast members to offer breaking news video content. You probably heard about their launch video. It was the video of President Bush being warned about Katrina a day before the disaster hit.


• THE MESSAGE IS THE MEDIA: At least it is for Microsoft and several other Fortune 500 companies when it comes to “free media coverage.” Research firm Delahaye, a unit of the Bacon’s research group, does an analysis in which it registers the number of impressions a company generates in the media, how many of those are negative and positive, and from that, determines a corporate reputation index. Microsoft with nearly 53 BILLION impressions in print and electronic media ended up with a corporate reputation index of 1,592.4. Others on the top ten list Disney, Verizon, Intel, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner. Two semi-surprises were Wal-Mart which actually came in #2 with an index of 1,229.4 based on nearly 42 Billion impressions and GM which came in #9 with an 528.9 based on more than 46 Billion impressions. Delahaye director Matthew Merlin says Wal-Mart managed to overcome the negatives about dominating local communities and costing jobs by ‘acknowledging the negative feedback,’ advertising on local television about how it supports local communities and through its quick response to the Katrina tragedy. GM managed to “stop the flow of negative news by delivering the message of stability.”


• COCKTAIL CHATTER: For this week’s edition, I decided to share a series of unusual or different websites that you might find interesting. Want some help writing and reporting? Try newscollege.ca (That’s right - ca, not com. It’s Canadian.) Website author Gregg McLachlan has put together a compendium of tips and ideas to help you become better reporters and writers. McLachlan is associate managing editor of a daily newspaper in Ontario and writes a weekly newsletter titled The Write Way. Looking for an old CD you can’t find anywhere? Try lala.com. It is a website where, for $1, you can trade your Elton John CD for a Barry Manilow CD, or whatever. The four guys who created the website say copyright laws don’t prohibit trading and, in fact, they discourage pirating and donate 20% of the proceeds to musicians. Complaint about a business? Try buzzophone.com. Website creator Matt Galloway runs a service where you dial an 800-number, rant or rave about a business or service. Galloway selects the ‘best’ and posts them as podcasts. Galloway says it’s his way of proving that through CGM (Consumer Generated Media) the consumer is in control, not the marketer. What if you’re one of those marketers? Try marketingexperiments.com. The website, a division of Digital Trust Inc., has a simple premise – “to discover what really works.” You can subscribe at the website to its monthly newsletter and delve into its research archives. Or if you are looking for a little entertainment with an edge, try productinvasion.com. Created by the Writers Guild of America/ West, the site provides a parody of product placement gone wild in programs. But the best part is the “subservient Donald” which is a variation of the ‘subservient chicken’ website, except in this case it is Donald Trump who will do whatever you command him to do. Okay, one last one. All you fans of The Simpsons television show will want to visit this website: http://youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw. It is the opening sequence of the show, but using real life actors instead of animation. Okay, a kicker I couldn’t ignore. According to Pew Research, 85% of dog owners consider their pet a member of the family while 78% of cat owners feel the same way. But what makes it interesting, say the researchers, is that dog and cat owners describe their relationship with their pets as ‘close’ rather than ‘distant’ -- closer even than their relationship with ‘real’ family members. The Pew folks say a comparison shows the ‘family intimacy standings’ as: dog 94%, mom 87%, cat 84%, dad 74%.


• SUBSCRIPTIONS: We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM from 2006 are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.

Media Strategies and Tactics Inc 

March 6th, 2006

Message From Michael (image placeholder)
March 6, 2006

• NEWS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER


• ADVERTISING IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER


• EDUCATION IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER


• INTERNET AD GROWTH


• OSCARS AND OLYMPICS


• MOVIE FOOTNOTE


• COCKTAIL CHATTER – REBATES AND CELL PHONES

• NEWS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: More people get their news through a local broadcast than any other way, according to a Harris Interactive poll reported by United Press International. Three out of four (77%) U.S. adults report watching local broadcast news, followed closely by 71% who say they watch network news. In comparison, 63% say they read a local daily newspaper while only 18% say they read a national newspaper. But 64% say they get their news by going online either daily or several times a week. Other figures: 54% listen to radio news; 37% listen to talk radio and 19% listen to satellite news.And to prove my headline, another survey found that more people see their local newspaper as the best source for LOCAL news. The survey by market research firm Outsell Inc. and reported in The Baltimore Sun found that 61% see their newspaper as the “essential” source for local news, events and sports, compared to 58% who cited television and 35% who said radio. Only about 6% turned to the Internet and, again, it should be emphasized, for LOCAL news and information. The survey did say that more people (71%) saw television as the primary source for national news.On a somewhat related note, MediaWeek reports that the “smaller” cable news outlets showed the greatest growth in ratings with CNN Headline News scoring a whopping 73% increase, followed by CNBC with a 37% jump and MSNBC with a 24% increase. CNN was only up 3% while Fox News Channel was actually off 5% in overall ratings but 21% in the adult 25-54 demo. Now, for a reality check, FNC still was the ratings king with 1.45 million viewers compared to CNN’s 657,000 and CNN-HN’s 347,000, MSNBC’s 357,000 and CNBC’s 164,000.


• ADVERTISING IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: Some prime time shows now have more minutes of product placement time than they do TV commercial time, according to a study by TNS Media Intelligence. The study reported in Media Daily News showed the average prime-time network show had 4 minutes and 25 seconds of branded appearances versus 17 minutes and 35 seconds of actual commercial time. In reality shows, the figures are more dramatic with product placement scoring an average 11 minutes and 5 seconds of brand exposure versus 17 minutes and 4 seconds of actual commercial time. But the ‘worst’ was CBS’s King of Queens which had 18 minutes and 13 seconds of branded exposure versus 16 minutes and 49 seconds of commercial time; NBC’s The Apprentice: Marta Stewart had what the article called an “egregious” 33 minutes and 51 seconds of branded exposure versus 16 minutes and 32 seconds of commercial time. The study says nearly 11% of all programming minutes now include some kind of branded reference.


• EDUCATION IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: Okay, that’s the last one of these headlines, but it is applicable. Congress has dropped a restriction requiring colleges and universities to deliver at least half of their courses on campus instead of on-line in order to qualify for federal student aid. As the New York Times notes, many colleges and universities are moving into the on-line education business, but the real beneficiaries of the change are the for-profit education institutions. The restrictions were imposed in 1992 after a Congressional investigation showed that some for-profit trade schools were little more than diploma mills. The argument for dropping the restriction is to make it easier for non-traditional students to get an education. The article notes that the assistant secretary for education who oversees higher education is a former lobbyist for the University of Phoenix, the nation’s largest for-profit college.


• INTERNET AD GROWTH: An advertising analysis by Merrill Lynch shows that, based on the first two months of this year, the Internet is the only medium showing any real advertising growth. The firm is standing by its modest projection that advertising will only grow 4.6% this year. Media Daily News notes in an article on advertising that other firms project a higher rate, between 5.1% and 5.8%. Merrill Lynch analysts project Internet advertising growth to be 27.4%. The only other segment coming close to that figure is cable TV advertising which the firm projects to increase 7%.


• OSCARS AND OLYMPICS: Okay, by now, you’ve probably heard about the Olympics ratings. The best summary comes from the Cynopsis daily programming report which said simply that this Winter Olympics scored a bronze, averaging 20.2 Million viewers, behind Salt Lake City’s Gold of 31.9 Million and Nagano’s silver of 25.1 Million. Continuing the analogy, ABC won the gold in the 18-49 ratings battle with a two-tenths of a rating point victory over second place Fox. Of course, NBC won the sweeps with total average viewers for the month of 15.7 Million but ABC was close behind with 14.4 Million. NBC can take consolation though that its website set online traffic records for visits.Crash won best picture of the year in last night’s Oscar ceremony which, as a reminder, sold for $1.68 Million a spot. Jon Stewart scored with his usual acerbic wit. In a night of great one-liners, his possible best came when he talked about the movies Capote and Good Night and Good Luck which he noted were both about the journalistic search for truth and justice. Then he added that needless to say, they were both period pieces.


• MOVIE FOONOTE: All The President’s Men, often described as one of the best political films and best journalist films, has come out in a special two DVD set. Like today’s Good Night and Good Luck with George Clooney, the Woodward-Bernstein affair was made into a movie because of an actor’s interest – Robert Redford who played opposite Dustin Hoffman. The DVD set contains a series of features and interviews, including ones with Woodward, Bernstein, Ben Bradlee, Walter Cronkite, Linda Ellerbee and Newsweek’s Jonathon Alter who all argue the story might not make it today because reporters would be subpoenaed, notes would be quashed, publishers would get greater pressure, disinformation blogs and administration ‘smokescreens’ would confuse the issue AND because television isn’t built to follow such stories any more in this 24-hour news cycle and that newspapers no longer have the influence they once had. In a more surreal but nevertheless real fashion, also coming out in a two-set DVD edition is the 1976 satirical film Network which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. As reported by the Associated Press’s entertainment reporter, Jake Coyle, the story about Howard Beale – “the first known instance of a man killed for lousy ratings” – remains the pre-eminent satire about the encroachment of entertainment values into TV News. In an interview with director Sidney Lumet, the 81-year-old director argues that everything depicted in the film – except for the on-air death of Beale – has come to pass. Of course the iconic scene in the movie is when actor Peter Finch portraying Beale shouts, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more.”


• FOLLOW-UP: In response to last week’s MfM about media delivery to screens micro and maxi, former CNN technology guru and now consultant Ken Tiven suggests an idea which he modestly calls Tiven’s Theorem. The size of the video monitor you can live with is the inverse of the desire to watch the program. i.e., Great Desire – Ipod screen; No desire – 60” Plasma.


• COCKTAIL CHATTER: More than 40% of rebate offers are never redeemed, according to research by consulting company Vericours Inc. In an article in the New York Times, the company reports that manufacturers are saving $10 Billion annually in unpaid rebates. One out of every five cell phone users switch providers each year, according to market research firm the Yankee Group. That translates into 45 million customers. In an article also in the New York Times, the firm says concern over customer service is a growing factor in that turnover. Proctor and Gamble remains the nation’s “alpha advertiser” just ahead of General Motors even though P&G cut its advertising budget by 4.6% while GM increased its by 7.1% in 2005. Dollars spent by P&G? Just under $3 Billion. In a profile of MP3 users, BIGResearch says, as you would expect, they are young (80% are below age 44), higher income ($67,854 a year versus $50,000 for the average American), heavy TV and Internet users BUT their primary retail destination is Wal-Mart and they are more likely to buy a Ford or Chevy than an import.


• Subscriptions: We encourage readers to forward on this newsletter to friends and colleagues. If you are receiving this newsletter from someone else, you can get your own by sending an e-mail to newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line. If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail newsconsultant@aol.com with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line.