Editors' Blog | Journalism.co.uk » Publishing

Voluntary redundancies as Future Publishing focuses on digital

Andy Halls — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:31:31 +0000

Magazine publisher Future PLC is to cut around 100 jobs based in the UK and worldwide – in a move favouring digital over print.

The job losses are expected due to “restructuring” in the company, following a 5 per cent circulation revenue fall in the past nine months.

In a statement, it said the websites were performing well and the main problems were in America.

In an email to staff, Future Publishing UK CEO, Mark Wood, said restructure would be likely to result in about 10 per cent of the firm’s workforce being made redundant. This however, would mostly be through voluntary redundancies.

The company – which publishes around 80 magazines and has 1,000 staff in Bath – said advertising revenue from its websites has offset a decline in print-related income.

The business is executing its operational review of geography and function, to accelerate the move of the US business to one that is a primarily digital business model, simultaneously reducing volatility associated with print data flows, and to reorganise the UK business, re-calibrating it to ensure faster adaptation to digital and more efficient execution of print.

The benefit of these steps will be to improve efficiency, reduce headcount, reduce property requirements, and help accelerate the most promising areas of digital product development.

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Trinity Mirror reports 10 per cent drop in advertising revenue

Rachel McAthy — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:58:11 +0000

Advertising revenues at Trinity Mirror dropped by 10 percent in the first four months of the year, according to an interim management statement published today.

Overall revenues decreased by six per cent year-on-year, excluding the revenues from GMG Regional Media, acquired by Trinity Mirror last year. Within its regional division Trinity Mirror’s digital revenues grew on an adjusted basis by three per cent, while national digital revenues fell by nine per cent, which the company put down to continued declines in Bingo revenue.

The trading environment remains challenging due to the fragile economic environment and the adverse effect of public sector spending cuts and tax increases. These factors continue to adversely impact the key drivers of our business, such as consumer confidence, unemployment and the property market and are contributing to revenue declines.

In March, Trinity Mirror reported a 17 per cent rise in operating profit for 2010, following the acquisition of GMG Regional Media.

Trinity Mirror’s report follows Johnston Press’ results published earlier this week, which showed a 10.6 per cent drop in advertising revenue across print and digital.Similar Posts:

Clay Shirky: WikiLeaks has created a new media landscape

Joel Gunter — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:43:50 +0000

Clay Shirky, author and professor at New York University’s interactive telecommunications programme, has contributed to the Guardian’s Comment if Free with an analysis of WikiLeaks’ effect on the media and publishing environment.

WikiLeaks, as my colleague Jay Rosen points out, is a truly transnational media organisation. We have many international media organisations, of course, Havas and the BBC and al-Jazeera, but all of those are still headquartered in one country. WikiLeaks is headquartered on the web; there is no one set of national laws that can be brought to bear on it, nor is there any one national regime that can shut it down

…

WikiLeaks has not been a series of unfortunate events, and Assange is not a magician – he is simply an early and brilliant executor of what is being revealed as a much more general pattern, now spreading.

Full post on Guardian.co.uk at this link.Similar Posts:

#WEFHamburg: Values at the heart of a news organisation’s journalism, structure and business

Laura Oliver — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:22:03 +0000

The panel was called “How to break away from the “he said yesterday” journalism?”, but the discussion moved on to what values should be at the heart of a news organisation’s journalism, structure and business.

Some valuable advice came from Francisco Amarai, director of design studio and media consultancy Cases i Associats and formerly artistic director of and executive editor of Correio Braziliense

Successful newspapers see the news through the eyes of their readers, he said. And through print and online design and editorial choices, newspapers can rethink the relationship that they have with their readers.

According to Amarai, newspapers that are successful:

have well-defined values;
know their readers;
are newsy;
have talented staff in their newsrooms, who can offer their own points of view as well as news;
and have time.

In discussing time, he referred to the restructuring of O Estado de Sao Paulo in March this year. The paper decided to lengthen its editing time, starting checks, editing and layouts earlier in the day. Since the change in working patterns, circulation has increased by eight per cent in six months and page views have grown by 110 per cent over the past 12 months.

For fellow panellist, Abdel-Moneim Said, chair of the Al Ahram Group in Egypt, said newspapers need to see themselves as part of a media house not just a publishing house.

“We’re not journalists, we’re part of a larger family called media, which means to inform people in a variety of ways,” he said, adding that “different moods [of people] will call for different ways of getting information” and different means of deriving revenue.

Click here for more information on how to follow the World Editors Forum with Journalism.co.uk.Similar Posts:

paidContent:UK: FT print sunset or Abu Dhabi sunrise?

Laura Oliver — Thu, 27 May 2010 09:08:43 +0000

The Financial Times parent company Pearson has distanced itself from comments made on Tuesday by its director of global content standards Madi Solomon that the newspaper was “already pulling back” from print (read full PC report here). Solomon said he could see the FT stopping most of its printing within five years.

Pearson has now told paidContent:UK that it has no plans to scale back print operations and has opened a print site in Abu Dhabi this year with plans to commence printing in India soon.

Full story at this link…Similar Posts:

American Society of News Editors fights back with ‘mythbusting’ columns

Laura Oliver — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:00:34 +0000

In the US, the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) is publishing a series of opinion pieces aimed at “reinforcing the vitally important role of newspapers and professional journalism in the digital age”. The pieces will be available for reproduction by ASNE members and news outlets and will address the following “myths”, says the Society:

Newspapers are washed up;
Newspapers are no longer relevant;
News media are biased;
Newspapers are not connected to community;
The web and digital technologies are killing news organizations.

In April 2009 the ASNE changed its N from newspapers to news; three of the five myths up for busting, however, focus on newspapers…

Full release at this link…Similar Posts:

WAN-IFRA: Ringier and Axel Springer join forces in eastern Europe

Laura Oliver — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:56:44 +0000

The two publishing groups will combine their operations in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia and create a new business with headquarters in Switzerland.

Between them Ringier and Axel Springer have 100 print and 70 online publications in these markets, including tabloid newspapers Fakt in Poland and Blesk in the Czech Republic.

Full story at this link…Similar Posts:

The Future of Publishing reversed – Dorling Kindersley’s clever video

Laura Oliver — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:59:16 +0000

UK educational publisher Dorling Kindersley has had this inventive video commissioned – its contribution to the ‘is print dead?’ argument:

(via CNET.com).Similar Posts:

AFP: Online pay model will be ‘critical second revenue stream’ says Sulzberger

Joel Gunter — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:10:44 +0000

New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger says that charging for the paper’s online content will provide a “critical second revenue stream”.

Speaking at the Bloomberg BusinessWeek 2010 Media Summit, Sulzberger also reassured readers that the print edition of the paper will continue for many years to come:

It’s a critical part of today, it will be a critical part I think for many years to come (…) The iPad is also going to be a critical part just the way the Kindle’s a critical part.

At the end of the day we can’t define ourselves by our method of distribution (…) What we care about at the end of day is our journalism, our quality journalism.

Full story at this link…Similar Posts:

Media Business: New bidder in talks to buy RBI’s US magazines

Laura Oliver — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:34:48 +0000

Canon Communications is reportedly in talks with Reed Business Information to buy a number of trade publications from the publisher, which last year announced the divestment of its controlled circulation business titles in the US.

The titles being discussed, according to Media Business, could include Control Engineering, EDN, Design News, Packaging Digest and Test & Measurement World.

Full story at this link…Similar Posts:

MediaShift: Environmental impact of newspapers

Judith Townend — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:04:29 +0000

For this 5Across video feature, Mark Glasier gathered a group of experts to examine the environmental impact of print media, e-waste and the energy used by web servers:

Most surprisingly, I learned that newspaper publishers use mostly recycled paper, as well as “virgin paper” that comes from the refuse generated by saw mills when creating lumber for houses. Could it be that over time newspapers are actually the greener option versus using electronic devices? No one knows for sure yet, but it’s a fascinating question to ponder.

Full post at this link…

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – freelancing for a book publisher

Laura Oliver — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:55 +0000

Freelance: Looking for advice on getting freelance work in book publishing? Read Mary James’ ‘how to’ for a publisher’s perspective. Tipster: Laura Oliver.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts:

InPublishing survey: ‘Behind the turnover figures, the industry is essentially still in profit’

Laura Oliver — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:38:22 +0000

The publishing industry is in ‘remarkably robust’ health, according to a new survey of 187 companies – encompassing 911 consumer magazines, 855 B2B magazines and newsletters, 413 newspapers (both regional and national) and a total of 1,056 individual websites.

The survey, which was a joint project between Wide Area, Wessenden Marketing and InPublishing magazine, suggests a slide rather than plunge in industry turnover – partly a result of ‘headcount reduction and ruthless cost control, where marketing budgets in particular have suffered’.

“Online growth is clearly outstripping print revenue trends; circulation revenues are performing better than advertising sales; and subscription sales better than retail copy sales. ‘Other revenues’ (which include reader offers, events & services, as well as contract publishing) are showing medium growth, behind online, but ahead of print revenue streams,” the survey suggests.

This is an extensive piece of work, well worth a read (you’ll need to register), and includes sub-sections dealing with:
Online opportunities and threats
Website profitability and costs
How publishers are planning to ‘manage the future’

Some key findings from the report are below:

59 per cent of those surveyed have under 10 per cent of their turnover coming from online/digital activities;
Online revenue streams are showing the most growth with paid-for online content, classified online and display advertising ranking above print revenue streams;
20 per cent of publishers surveyed are looking to grow staff numbers, while 54 per cent will hold steady;
Online, the highest threat publishers are facing is a lack of resources/focus/knowledge e.g. not having the skills in-house to adapt to new technologies or resources to develop online offerings;
Cutting costs and overheads and developing more innovative, multimedia advertising strategies are seen as the most critical tasks for publishers going forward.

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David Byrne Journal: No more news

John Thompson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:40:53 +0000

Musician David Byrne makes an intelligent analysis of the current state of the news industry, comparing it to what happened to the music industry in the 1980s.

“What will happen when most of the country has nothing but entertainment, gossip and sports as sources of information? It’s a country ripe for takeover, if you ask me… Blogs and Internet news sites can’t fill the gap, as they don’t have the resources to sustain a team of reporters working and digging into a story — sometimes for months before anything sees the light of day.”Similar Posts:

ABCe opens six month audit option to all publishers

Fred Friedrich — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:04:09 +0000

Following the release of six month certificates for the regional press, media auditors ABC are extending the offer of twice yearly online audits to all media owners, from January 2009.

An ABC press release said yesterday that the new certificates will detail monthly and daily unique users or browsers for media publishers. Visual charts will also be available.

The existing monthly audits can still be conducted using ABCe.

The ABC statement explained that by choosing to report their online figures on a six month basis, publishers ‘are committing to continuous reporting of their online activity’.

Speaking in the release, Jan Pitt, director of magazines, ABC, said: “The response has been good so far, these changes are to give publishers more options and enable them to demonstrate to advertisers and media buyers their cross platform performance.”

A guide to how the reporting options work can be downloaded from the ABC website at www.abce.org.uk.

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