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May 2004
- Google Threat to Trade Publishers?
An AdAge.com article is offering an analysis of how Google's AdWords
pay-per-click advertising model could harm business to business trade
publications and magazines. The Google threat was first discussed
by IDG's CEO Pat Kenealy at an American Business Media conference.
Source: AdAge.com 5-31-04
- Online Film Critics Threaten Papers
The Christian Science Monitor reports that online film critics
could threaten newspaper film critics.
Film sites like darkhorizons.com, aintitcoolnews.com,
rottentomatoes.com and filmthreat.com
have an advantage in that they can post news and reviews of films more quickly
than newspapers. Websites like these can also post more reviews of more
movies and reach a larger, younger audience than newspapers.
This is a significant threat to newspaper critics because there are
thousands of websites, blogs and forums offering movie reviews.
However, as some industry insiders in the Monitor article
suggest, many of the online reviews are amateurish and not well written.
Source: Christian Science Monitor 5-28-04
- Publishers Weekly reported that some small publishers are
complaining Amazon.com is forcing them to pay co-op funds by
threatening to remove their discount prices, block their titles
from advertising programs and make it more difficult for their
books to be found in Amazon.com searches.
Source: Publishers Weekly (subscription) 5-26-04
- The Summit County Independent Daily is ceasing publication.
The local newspaper was launched in November, 2002.
Source: SummitDaily.com 5-25-04
- 80% of All U.S. Email is Spam
MessageLabs Inc., an email monitoring firm, has found that 2/3 of all
email worldwide is spam and 80% of all email in the United States is
spam. Brian Czarny, vice president of marketing at Message Labs, said
that within one year spam could be over 95% of all email messages.
Source: MSNBC 5-22-04
- Fairfax is planning layoffs at its two Sydney, Australia newspapers,
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald.
35-45 layoffs are expected -- about 7% of the total editorial
workforce at the papers.
Source: Dow Jones 5-20-04
- Andromeda and Mutant X Cancelled
Two science fiction adventure television series, Andromeda and Mutant X,
have been cancelled despite good ratings. CanWest Global Communications
plans to shut down its Fireworks division which produces the shows
and sell off the Fireworks library. Fans of the shows are hopeful
the programs will be picked up somewhere else.
Source: IGN, Slashdot 5-20-04
- Creative Game Jobs Outsourced
Game developers are starting to outsource some game programming
work overseas.
Countries like Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, China,
Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Malaysia, Chile and Brazil
are all possibilities for outsourced game jobs as developers
seek cost savings of 50% to 75%.
Source: BBC 5-19-04
- Martha Stewart's TV Show, Martha Stewart Living, is going on
hiatus for the 2004-2005 season. The media company,
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
(MSO), is also laying off about 40 employees.
Source: BusinessWeek 5-18-04
- A budget cut is expected at The Christian Science Monitor because
of financial difficulties at First Church of Christ, Scientist, which
owns the Monitor. According to Editor & Publisher, the financial
burden facing the Monitor could result in job losses, increased
subscription rates, fees for online access or all three of these options.
Source: Editor & Publisher 5-18-04
- Local Search Providers Threaten Newspapers
Pay-per-click ad sales from search engines like Yahoo and Google
could have a greater impact on newspaper classified sales than
job websites like Monster and HotJobs.com, according to a recent
study. The damage to local newspapers could increase as the search engine
focus more and more on local markets for revenues.
Source: The Write
News 5-14-04
- Big Drop in Book Sales
23 million fewer books were sold last year than in 2002, according
to the Book Industry Study Group. This diminishing trend could
escalate as people, especially children and young adults, turn to
games and movies for entertainment. Used book sales were also blamed
for the drop in sales of new hardcovers and paperbacks.
Source: Associated Press 5-12-04
- The Telegraph Publishing Co. in Nashua is laying off about
a dozen employees. The company will also stop printing a local edition of
the Financial Times.
Source:
The Union Leader 5-12-04
- TechTV has eliminated 285
positions in San Francisco. The layoffs came shortly after Comcast's
acquisition of the technology cable network.
Source: News.com 5-10-04
- Newspapers See Danger in Text Messaging
Newspaper publishers see text messaging as a potential threat.
The rapid delivery of text messages can deliver news to
consumers much faster than print or even a web news story.
However, the amount of detail in a text message seems unlikely
to be enough for someone really interested in the story.
Source: eWeek.com 5-8-04
- Los Angeles Times
At the annual Ruhl Lecture Editor John S. Carroll said that the media industry
is threatened by pseudo-journalism. Carroll said that "journalists"
practicing pseudo-journalism "view their audience as something to be manipulated."
Carroll labeled Fox's Bill O'Reilly as a pseudo-journalist.
Source: Daily Emerald 5-7-04
- Fakes Sites Created as Marketing Ploys
Marketing companies are creating fake sites to promote movies,
burgers and other products. Many of the websites are harmless fun like
Burger King's subservientchicken.com
promotion. Fictional websites are also made for movies
like the Godsend Institute website,
created for the movie Godsend, or the fictional Katz, Cohen
and Phelps attorney website created to promote
the film Laws of Attraction.
So far the websites are harmless fun, but companies will have to keep a
close eye on their phony websites to make sure they don't cross the line
and end up damaging their brand names.
Source: WashingtonPost.com 5-3-04
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