Wordle: Rupert Murdoch’s optimism for print future

Rupert Murdoch gives the preface to this year’s World Association of Newspapers (WAN) Innovations in Newspapers 2009 World Report.

Below is a Wordle of Murdoch’s comments (as quoted in a WAN release), in which he said readership would grow for news consumption across print, social media and online outlets.

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Journalists killed worldwide – an online list from WAN

70 journalists were killed worldwide in 2008, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), said in a release today. The journalists and other media employees were killed worldwide ‘because of their professional activities in 2008, with the conflict in Iraq continuing to be the most deadly assignment for journalists’ the release said.

• The list for 2009 (nine deaths so far) can be viewed at this link

• The list for 2008 (70 deaths) can be viewed at this link

WAN said that several press freedom organisations track the number of journalists killed each year. “The numbers vary based on the criteria used by different associations. WAN’s figures include all media workers killed in the line of duty or targeted because of their work. It also includes cases where the motive for the killings is unsure or where official investigations have not been completed,” the release explained.

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Media Release: Six sports newspapers come together in new association

“Six of the world’s leading newspapers dedicated to sport have come together to form the International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN), to defend and promote the interests and freedom of the sports press,” the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) announced on Friday. Full release at this link.

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Archant’s director of business development, Ian Davies dies in plane crash

We just heard news that Ian Davies, director of business development at Archant, has died in a plane crash – as reported at the BBC, Press Gazette and in his group’s newspaper, the Norwich Evening News.

Journalism.co.uk is extremely sad to hear of this tragic accident.

On a personal note, I met Ian and some his colleagues for the first time, at the WAN conference in Amsterdam last fortnight.

Despite cornering him after a long conference session to badger him for information about Archant’s hyperlocal news plans, he was only too friendly towards me, happy to help and give suggestions for stories.

I later had opportunity to chat with him more informally and find a bit more out about his views on the media and what he does. He assured me he would always be willing to contribute to related articles.

True to his word, last week he was quick to contribute to an article I was working on at the last minute. I’m very saddened by the premature end to his life.

In an email he told me he was looking forward to working more flexibly at Archant from January, so that he could fit in more time for his passion, flying. His website shows some of his interests. That his life was cut so short, when he had so much enthusiasm for his projects, seems a particularly cruel hand of fate.

Our condolences go out to Ian’s family, friends and colleagues.

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World Association of Newspapers calls for press freedom in China

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the World Editors Forum have written to the Chinese government about international standards of press freedom in the country.

Laws in China restricting foreign journalists were temporarily relaxed during the Olympic Games in Beijing and have recently been extended by authorities.

In a letter dated October 21, WAN wrote to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in an attempt to change the laws permanently:

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to welcome the extension of the relaxation in media regulations, but also to call on you to take further steps to uphold international standards of press freedom.

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, your government introduced new rules that allowed foreign journalists greater freedom to travel in the country without prior government permission and to talk to anyone who was willing to be interviewed. Those regulations were set to expire on 17 October, however, shortly before they expired new regulations were introduced that recognise these rights.

While welcoming the extension of the more relaxed regulations for foreign journalists, we are concerned that they do not extend to domestic journalists and that many fundamental rights necessary for the proper functioning of a free press are not observed. For example, there is no protection of news sources, it is not possible to report freely on Tibet and hotels are obliged to report the arrival of a foreign journalist to police. Furthermore, with more than 30 journalists and at least 50 cyber reporters imprisoned, China jails more journalists than any other.

We respectfully call on you to extend the relaxed regulations to domestic journalists, to introduce further reforms so that your country might fully respect international standards of press freedom, and to ensure that all
those detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression are immediately released from prison.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

Xavier Vidal-Folch
President
World Editors Forum

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WAN Amsterdam: Digital will account for 43 per cent of newspaper advertising growth by 2012 according to PricewaterhouseCoopers

The global leader for the entertainment and media practice, at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Hong Kong, Marcel Fenez, argued that ‘traditional media isn’t dead’ on the last day of the WAN/World Editors Forum 11th Readership Conference (information courtesy of WAN conference updates).

The latest media and entertainment industry forecast from PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that global newspaper advertising will grow 2.9 per cent to 136.8 billion dollars in 2012, with digital advertising accounting for 43 per cent of the growth.

• Print advertising will grow 1.8 per cent to 123.3 billion dollars worldwide in 2012
• Digital advertising will grow 19.3 per cent to 13.4 billion dollars:
• While the growth rate for digital advertising will continue its impressive rise over the next five years, the total in 2012 will represent only 10 per cent of total print and digital newspaper advertising.

“Some people say that traditional media is dead. Well, it isn’t. For the next five years, it ain’t gonna be,” he said. “The death of traditional media is exaggerated, at least in a 5-year context.”

Fenez said the forecasts, based on consumer and industry sources, does not take into account the recent economic meltdown, which could have a negative impact on the figures.

Fenez reported:

• The generation that comes of age in 2012 will be the first that doesn’t know the pre-internet world. “We hear a lot about user generated content from the ‘net generation’. It’s very, very, very important. But premium content is still really valuable. Even the net generation values premium content. They’re tired of watching videos of a dog running up a tree.”
• Advertisers will take a ‘wait and see’ attitude and be cautious about spending in the first half of 2009. “They won’t do anything until mid-year. If they have the revenue, they’ll release their budgets.”
• Video games advertising is set to grow 17 per cent to 2012, though the revenue is still negligible. Most of the money being spent on game advertising is coming from television.
• “We’re on a journey of transition from traditional to digital: the first to probably go totally digital is the music industry. In 2011, the majority of revenues will be digital.”

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WAN Amsterdam: How a regional newspaper in Austria hopes to make half its revenue from digital by 2011

In the last session of the WAN/World Editors Forum 11th Readership Conference the speakers looked at shaping the future of the newspaper (information courtesy of WAN conference updates).

While Karen Wall, assistant managing director of Metro in the UK, focussed on good old print, arguing that the free newspaper model was growing, Christian Ortner the editor-in-chief of the regional newspaper Vorarlberger Nachrichten, in Austria, took the WAN audience through his newspaper’s decision to become the ‘Yahoo for local search’ in their area.

“Today Google has taken over search,” said Ortner. “Down to the small restaurant, Google is serving the local market.”

But he believes that “what happened in search need not happen for local news, services, parties, classifieds, restaurants, videos and other content.”

Vorarlberger Nachrichten Online is now aggressively pursuing online opportunities, forecasting that half its revenue will come from its digital platforms by 2011.

Here’s what the paper is developing, as told by Ortner:

• 17 citizen forums, which connect active citizens at the community level. “Politicians and journalists are also members of the list. The citizens’ ideas are picked up by the newspaper reporters, who try to communicate and solve the problems. VN now generates thousands of new and dedicated ‘freelance journalists.’”
• ‘MyVillage’ hyperlocal websites, which deliver fresh and useful information to the users about their immediate neighbourhoods. The strategy for the online platform calls for lots of micro-sites on niche topics.
• Video, video, video, from a variety of sources – local reporters, news agencies and the users themselves. “What works for YouTube can also be successful locally.”
• A ‘mobile journalist’ team covering breaking news, with videos and photos. The ‘mojos’ focus on ordinary people and local stories.
• A multi-brand strategy that focuses on target groups: “We believe the online upside is greater than the print downside.”

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WAN Amsterdam: What have newspapers done to build new audiences?

The 11th Readership Conference is addressing building new print, as well as digital audiences (not just stopping the old readers running away). So how exactly have newspapers across the world successfully built up new audiences? (Quotes and information courtesy of the WAN conference updates)

The Telegraaf in the Netherlands has used sport and social networking

• Using Hyves.net they used the network’s ’send to a friend’ function and a widget for users’ home pages that allowed them to see how they were performing against their friends. The contest had 170,000 participants: 110,000 through Hyves and 60,000 through the Telegraaf’s sports site, Telesport.
• For the Olympics, the Telegraaf provided editorial content to a Hyves web section dedicated to the events which included blogs from Telegraaf reporters in Beijing and other stories from the Telegraaf sports team in Amsterdam.

Lara Ankersmit, publisher for online media, at the paper, said the partnership provided strong branding tied to popular sports events, and more than 170,000 registrations and e-mail addresses.

The Verdens Gang newspaper company in Norway has increased revenue while losing readers

• A graph of VG’s print circulation decline over the past several years looks like a ski slope – it dropped 20 percent since 2002. But, at the same time, profit increased from 270 million Norwegian krone (31 million euros) to 365 million krone (41 million euros).
• The approach is ‘continuous product diversification and improving production efficiency considerably’ through new prodcucts such as social networks, and doing more marketing: VG spends 10 million euros annually on market examination.
• It pays more attention to distribution. Ensuring good product placement at sales outlet is one important focus, as is establishing new outlets, such as coffee shops.

Torry Pederson, CEO of VG said that good journalism that attracts attention, on all platforms. “Don’t cut down on journalistic resources to cover the important stories,” he said.

The Bakersfield Californian is focusing on who isn’t reading the paper

• In five years, it went from having no weekly newspapers to having three, from no magazines to three magazines, from one website to 11 websites. It created three subsidiaries and built its own social media software.
• Alongside market research there was commitment to invest in new product development – at least 1 per cent of revenues each.
• New products recaptured six of the eight percentage points in consumer reach lost by The Californian. It increased non-core revenue from 1 per cent to 12 per cent.

Mary Lou Fulton, vice president of audience development at the paper said “Before, we focused primarily on the circulation, profitability and content of our daily newspaper (…) The essential shift in thinking was to become interested in who was not reading the newspaper or advertising in it. That was a big wake-up call.”

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WAN Amsterdam: Print should be an ‘island in the chaos’

Journalism.co.uk is back in Brighton but still keenly following progress at WAN Amsterdam. The Digital Publishing Conference finished Thursday morning, and the event moved onto the WAN/ World Editors Forum 11th Readership Conference under the name ‘Building New Audiences in Print and on Digital Channels’.

The first two days gave ideas on how to build a Digital Revenue Goldmine: it was then time to ask how exactly can delegates build new audiences in print and on digital channels to support the revenue making methods?

William Powers, media columnnist for the Nation, said in his keynote speech on Thursday afternoon that print can be an ‘island in the chaos’:

“When you’re reading an article on a screen, your mind is conscious of all the other information that’s just a click away – from your inbox to the latest headlines to your bank account to a billion You Tube videos. Thus, instead of escaping other demands on your attention as you read, you are mentally fending off those demands every moment you’re at the screen.”

In a session today, as reported over at Forum4editors, Mario Garcia, president of Garcia Media in the US, said that newspaper has to be understood as something you do in a separate domain from web. Garcia said in his speech:

“Newspapers are something you read. The web is something you do. Once you learn this distinction, your job and the management of the newsroom will be different. The newspaper, you read. The web, you must have some kind of activity. Online allows you to get involved.”

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WAN Amsterdam: Little known fact?… Guardian special advisor@Digital Revenue Goldmine

Caroline Little, this year’s keynote speaker at the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) Digital Revenue Goldmine event, used her experiences at the Washington Post and Guardian to talk about the future of the web for newspapers.

Most delegates had probably heard the sentiments of Little’s speech before, unless they’ve been living on another media planet for the past five years, but were eager to ask how she had implemented changes at her two workplaces.

What was her budget? How would she have coped without the strength of brand? How to manage economically while making the changes?

Little did not really give concrete examples and afterwards she told me it was perhaps too early in the day to talk specifics – she’s only been in the role at the Guardian since August. I’ll be sure to follow up with her in a few months time… The news report on her speech can be read here.

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