Survival Blueprint for Newspapers

Opinion:  From Diane Mermigas, seekingalpha.com:

Peel back the layers of contentious bankruptcy, scandalous management and Sam Zell’s 2007 leveraged buyout gone bad at the Tribune Co. and there is an intriguing story about media survival and the larger reinvention beginning to resonate within the beleaguered publishing industry. 

That the Tribune Co. now refers to its self as a media and business services company that happens to publish a few newspapers underscores its shift from print to digital and from conventional news headlines to activist hyper local journalism that positions it for a new owner in 2011.

The new guard could include former Walt Disney (DIS) chairman CEO Michael Eisner, who has been buying the private media company’s debt, perhaps to endear himself to angry creditors and be able to step in when Zell walks away post-bankruptcy. “I don’t envision having any role going forward,” Zell said recently. “I'll turn it over to whoever the creditors decide they want to run it.”

Uncertainty was crippling when all of Tribune Co.’s businesses, including the flagship Chicago Tribune, cut about 30 percent cost from their budgets and some 4,200 jobs companywide. In the past 19 months, there have been no layoffs at the Chicago Tribune Media Group (CTMG), which has increased staff 12 percent, adding nearly 60 jobs to its investigative units, and its universal digital media on demand newsroom.

The ubiquitous newsroom manages at least 25 percent of the feature news for the Tribune Co.’s seven other cash flow positive newspapers. The 75 percent of the editing and production mechanics CTMG does for Tribune’s Newport Daily News is the shape of things to come.

Read more here.

Diane Mermigas is an award-winning business writer, analyst and consultant specializing in media, entertainment, telecommunications and the Internet, as well as the economics, trends and issues that drive them. She is a “must-read” for her unique contextual big-picture analysis, strategic forecasts, and high-level executive interviews for a better understanding of the dramatic and rapid change reshaping these industries.

OWN Draws Large Opening-Night Audience

Chicago Sun-Times photo

Oprah Winfrey's new cable network made a splash in its debut Saturday night, reporting more than 1 million viewers for its first prime-time shows over a holiday weekend, according to Sam Schechner at wsj.com.

The new channel, dubbed OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, launched at noon on New Year's Day, replacing little-watched cable network Discovery Health in around 80 million homes. At its peak Saturday night, the channel says more women between the ages of 25 and 54 were watching OWN than were watching all but two other cable networks—Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and General Electric Co.'s USA.

A 50-50 joint venture between Ms. Winfrey and Discovery Communications Inc., the channel is a big bet that Ms. Winfrey can convert the nearly 7 million people who watch her syndicated "The Oprah Winfrey Show." into loyal viewers of a cable channel. The network launched a big promotional campaign, and Ms. Winfrey devoted two episodes of her daytime show last week to plugs for the new network.

Read more here.

WSYR Simulcast Starts In Syracuse

But how long will it last?

As expected Clear Channel Radio has started an FM simulcasts of its heritage WSYR in Syracuse, NY. on 570AM and 106.9 FM  However, market watchers are wondering if the simulcast will last.  The FM is branded as “FM Newsradio 106.9 WSYR”.

The AM isn’t being mentioned.

Speculation: the simulcast is temporary and 570 will become the new home of Fox Sports in the market.

The changes began Dec. 22nd when CC dumped Fox Sports Radio on 620 AM WHEN and started a simulcast of its Urban format "Power" on 106.9 FM and 620 AM.  Then, Sunday night at 7p Power disappeared from 106.9, replaced by the news/talk format of WSYR-AM.

The 106.9 FM calls are WSYR-FM, which had been parked on a CC-owned in the West Palm Beach, FL market.  The WSYR-FM calls were last used in Syracuse on 94.5, which is now WYYY.

Trends in Consumers’ Time Spent with Media

There are only so many hours per day that consumers can spend watching TV, reading newspapers and surfing the internet. But as marketers may suspect, the time devoted to media is undergoing some not-so-subtle changes, according ro Lisa E. Phillips, Senior Analyst at emarketeer.com.

eMarketer recently conducted a meta-analysis of data from dozens of research firms using a variety of methodologies. The result is a series of estimates of how much time consumers spend with all major media, regardless of multitasking or simultaneous usage, from 2008 to 2010. The estimates apply to average media usage of the general public, not solely to the users of each medium.

The average time spent with all major media combined increased from about 10.6 hours in 2008 to 11 hours in 2010, according to eMarketer. TV and video (not including online video) captured the lion’s share of all media time, about 40% each year. The internet’s share of media time increased over the same period, from 21.5% to 23.5%, as did mobile’s share, from 5% to 7.5%. The share of time spent with magazines and newspapers fluctuated between 10% and 7.5%, while radio and all other media—video games, movies in theaters and outdoor media—declined.

Read more here.

Also read here:

Average Time with Radio Declines 2% – But So What? (Mark Ramsey blog)

Social Media Reaches Important Life Stages

A preliminary analysis of The Media Audit's soon-to-be released 2010 National Report reveals for the first time how social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace have reached critical mass with consumers who are in important life stages.  The study, conducted among more than 65,000 consumers across the U.S., reveals that consumers, especially those who are younger and single, or who have young children living at home are visiting Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace at a higher rate when compared to the general population.

The significance of these findings lies in the fact that consumers who are single tend to have a higher disposable income while those who are married with young children are entering the "age of acquisition" in which they are consuming large ticket items such as automobiles, furniture and real estate for the first time. As a result, these audiences represent significant buying power and validate the lure that more and more advertisers are beginning to have with these social sites.

According to the national study, 51.3% of U.S. adults surveyed across The Media Audit's 80 measured markets have visited Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace in the last month. The figure represents more than 71 million adults who are 18 or over.  However, among adults who are single, under 35 years old, and with no children, 80.6% have visited these sites. As a result, those consumers in this group are 57% more likely than the general population to visit Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter in a typical month.

The same report reveals that adults under the age of 35 years who are single and have no children have extremely active lifestyles and exhibit upscale shopping behavior, likely the result of not having children, and thus higher disposable income. Furthermore, these consumers are less likely to own a home, thus freeing up more income.

According to the study, adults who are single, under 35 years with no children are 60% more likely to visit bars or night clubs, 51% more likely to frequently attend college or professional sports events and 48% more likely to frequently visit a movie theatre. Furthermore, this group is 25% more likely than the general population to shop at upscale Neiman Marcus and 20% more likely to shop at Nordstrom. Not only is this audience attractive to advertisers, but it is also elusive. According to the same study, adults who are under 35, with no children and single are 47% more likely to be heavy internet users, however they are 12% less likely to be heavily exposed to outdoor billboards, 52% less likely to be  heavily exposed to a newspaper, and 13% less likely to be heavily exposed to TV.

Among those adults who have children under the age of six years old, 71% visit Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter in a typical month, a figure that is 38% higher when compared to the general population. Furthermore, households with children under the age of six visit these social websites at a higher rate when compared to households with children older than six years old.

Read more here.

Getting Social Media To Spike Audience

How  a small TV station drives audience

KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Ark., is a small station with a large social media presence.

According to Regina McCombs at poynter.org, the station, which is in the 180th television market (out of 210) in a metro area with a population somewhere around 150,000, has found ways to gain about the same number of fans and followers as some of the country’s top newspapers.

The station had 19,447 Facebook fans and 2,828 Twitter followers the last I checked. By comparison, a new Bivings Group study found that the top 100 newspapers (by circulation) have an average of 21,214 Facebook fans.

KAIT News Director Hatton Weeks told me by phone what the station has done to attract such a large audience on Facebook and Twitter.

In the spring of 2009, Weeks went to a fellow Raycom station in Memphis and met with the station’s “Internet guru,” who introduced him to social media. He came home, began his own blog, set up station Facebook and Twitter accounts,  and introduced them to the newsroom.

“Early on, it was mostly RSS driven, and we realized we had to be a lot more interactive,” Weeks said. “You’ve got to be conversational, and it’s got to be participatory, or it won’t work.”

It took some trial and error. But now the morning show, which airs from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., is the most regular user of Facebook. Monday through Friday, a “Hot Topic” related to the news of the day is posted by one of the anchors at 4:30 a.m. for people to comment on. Weeks says it’s rare to have less than 50 comments by 7. During the show, the anchors talk on the air about the question and user responses.

Click here to read more and for examples of the morning show’s recent Facebook posts.

Franklin To Female ESPNer: ‘Sweetcakes’, ‘A–hole’

Longtime ESPN announcer Ron Franklin was pulled off ESPN’s Saturday Fiesta Bowl radio broadcast by ESPN executives after an incident involving the veteran broadcaster and ESPN-TV sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards, according to sportsbybrooks.com.

Scheduled to work on the ESPN-TV broadcast of the Chick-fil-A Bowl Friday, Franklin and Edwards were part of a production meeting before the game that was also attended by ESPN announcers Ed Cunningham and Rod Gilmore. During the meeting, the subject of Gilmore’s wife Marie being elected Alameda (CA) mayor came up.

As Gilmore, Cunningham and Franklin discussed the subject, Edwards tried to join the conversation.

When she did, Franklin said to her, “Why don’t you leave this to the boys, sweetcakes.”

Edwards responded to Franklin by saying, “don’t call me sweetcakes, I don’t like being talked to like that.”
Franklin then said, “okay then, a–hole.”

After the meeting Edwards reported Franklin’s comments to ESPN management.

Once ESPN college football coordinating producer Ed Placey confirmed Franklin’s comments to Edwards with Cunningham, ESPN executives made an attempt to pull Franklin off the Chick-fil-A Bowl broadcast the same day. Because of late notice, no replacement for Franklin was found and the longtime play-by-play announcer called the game - without incident - with Cunningham and Edwards.

With Edwards and Franklin scheduled to work together the next night in Arizona, top ESPN programming executives - including Norby Williamson and Mark Gross - were involved in the decision to pull Franklin off the Fiesta Bowl radio broadcast.

Dave Lamont filled in for Franklin.

Read more here.

Wi-Fi Overload at High-Tech Meetings

Last June, Steven Jobs of Apple asked people to turn off laptops and phones because a strained network was interfering with his presentation. Reuters photo..

Internet entrepreneurs climb on stage at technology conferences and praise a world in which everyone is perpetually connected to the Web.

But, according to Verne G. Kopytoff at nytimes.com,  down in the audience, where people are busy typing and transmitting this wisdom, getting a Wi-Fi connection is often downright impossible.

“I’ve been to 50 events where the organizer gets on stage and says, ‘It will work,’ ” said Jason Calacanis, chief executive of Mahalo, a Web search company. “It never does.”

Last month in San Francisco at the Web 2.0 Summit, where about 1,000 people heard such luminaries as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and Eric E. Schmidt of Google talk about the digital future, the Wi-Fi slowed or stalled at times.

Earlier this year, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, had to ask the audience at his company’s developer conference to turn off their laptops and phones after his introduction of the iPhone 4 was derailed because of an overloaded Wi-Fi network.

The problem is that Wi-Fi was never intended for large halls and thousands of people, many of them bristling with an arsenal of laptops, iPhones and iPads. Mr. Calacanis went to the extreme at the Web 2.0 Summit by bringing six devices to get online — a laptop, two smartphones and three wireless routers.

Read more here.

Opinion: So Fox News Makes You Stoopid?

From Brent Bozell, Newsbusters.com

There is nothing the Left believes in more robotically than the stupidity of conservatives. Otherwise, they would not be conservatives. When liberals get routed in an election, they do not question themselves. The first, and for most, only verdict is that the American people were disastrously flooded by a tsunami of stupidity and misinformation.

So it’s not surprising that left-wing bloggers would rejoice when they can write the headline “New Study Proves That Fox News Makes You Stupid.” That’s the Daily Kos headline. According to them, Fox News is “deliberately misinforming their viewers” to help Republicans, who “benefited from the ignorance Fox News helped to proliferate,” as voters “based their decisions on demonstrably false information.”

The liberal pranksters masquerading as pollsters at the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) are at it again. In a new survey, they claim that those who watched Fox News Channel on a daily basis were significantly more likely to believe in “misinformation.” But how is that word defined? Look at the details and you will be floored by the misinformation – coming from the pollsters themselves.

Read more here.

Also read here:

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable News Ratings Competition in 2010 (The Wrap)

TV Stations' Online Assistant

Internet Broadcasting's Web mix: TV news, what's popular, home video

Jeff Kimball, COO of Internet Broadcasting Inc. in front of a new web page of Channel 4000. Through a partnership with software company Core Media, they are marketing a new website service that simplifies news updates and more precisely aims Web advertising (Star-Tribune photo)

As the Internet plays an increasing role in the delivery of news, media companies are looking for better ways to aim news and advertising at specific audiences.

But, according to Steve Alexander at startribune.com,  this can be difficult for television stations because they deal largely in high-quality video that, on a website, becomes a series of huge computer files that aren't as easy to store, publish and search as text and photos are.

So TV stations have turned to customized website software from companies such as Internet Broadcasting Systems of St. Paul, which creates and maintains Web pages for 84 TV stations around the country.
Internet Broadcasting's newest "Web content management" software, now being tested before use by client TV stations, allows station employees to spend fewer hours running the website, even though the Web page content is more complicated than ever, said Jeff Kimball, chief operating officer of the privately owned, 14-year-old firm.

The software allows TV station websites to serve up a richer stew of information, consisting of editor-chosen stories, most-popular stories and consumer-created video, he said. In addition, the software allows advertising to be more precisely aimed at viewers based on their interests or location, he said.

Read more here.

Charlotte Station Ready For An Attack

End of the world? Tune into WBT-AM

Oh, great.

There's a new doomsday bunker in Charlotte, according to Mark Washburn at thesunnews.com.

It's just a precaution, if you're the optimistic type. End of the world stuff, if you're not.

First,  a history lesson:

In 1963, just months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, federal engineers dug a bomb-proof shelter beneath the 1929 transmitter building for WBT-AM (1110) in south Charlotte.

There, 16 feet beneath the soil, workers installed a radio studio and outfitted it with a radiation suit, Geiger counter and barrels of water. Station lore holds that a shotgun or two also went into the refuge, just in case.

It was one of several such installations at major radio stations across the country, and their mission was grim. It would be the place that survivors of a nuclear holocaust would get emergency information.

That was the Cold War era. Things change. This is the age of terrorism.

A new shelter rises.

In July, federal contractors returned to the WBT-AM transmitter in the 9200 block of Nation's Ford Road.

Read more here.

The Sunday Funny

A collection of newspaper headlines from The Simpsons.

Oprah’s Cable Channel Flickers to Life

At precisely twelve o’clock on New Year’s Day, Oprah Winfrey welcomed television viewers to OWN, a cable channel that she says will espouse her “live your best life” mantra.

According to Brian Stelter's Media Decorder blog at nytimes.com, OWN, short for The Oprah Winfrey Network, flickered to life in about 85 million television households in the United States, replacing the Discovery Health Channel. It is the highest-profile new cable channel in over a decade, and it represents an enormous risk for Ms. Winfrey, who is ending her daytime talk show later in the year.

“Happy new year,” Ms. Winfrey said, “and welcome to OWN.”

“This, as you can imagine, is a very exciting day for me, kicking off the next chapter of my life with all of you,” she said in an introduction that she taped in Chicago in November. The introduction previewed some of OWN’s shows, like “Oprah Presents Master Class,” featuring the life lessons of celebrities; “In the Bedroom With Laura Berman,” about couples’ sex lives; and “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star,” a competition show.



The channel will essentially play a highlight reel this weekend in the hopes that viewers will come back for specific shows on a regular basis. The normal schedule will start on Jan. 3.

Read more here.

Saturday's Aircheck

Broadway Bill Lee is now doing PM Drive at CBS Radio's WCBS 101.1 in NYC.

PD Resolutions For 2011

With the new year just around the corner, here are a few ideas for all programmers to reflect and think on, from radio program consultant Gary Berkowitz:

First and foremost, aircheck your jocks. As our business evolves and PD's are busier and multi-tasking more than ever, this art seems to be falling in-between the cracks. We all want and crave feedback. There is no better way to build relationships and help jocks sound better than to close your door, turn off the phone, listen to their show and offer constructive feedback.

Sell the product. Hard to believe, but many radio stations sell  everything but their number one product...the music. Promote the quantity, quality, and benefits of listening to your station. Moreover, please remember the power of titles and artists. Listeners always rate this very high. They want to know the names and artists of the music you are playing.If you think they know all the titles and artists, please re-think this.

Do not worry about liners burning out. Let them "BURN IN." Sure, they need to be updated and freshened but make sure you do not lose the focus in the process.

Be involved with the daily editing of the music log. Since music is #1, there is nobody more qualified than the PD to make sure that ever segue, every song and every 15 minute cluster of music is right on target. Constantly look at songs to make sure they are rotating properly. Not only through the dayparts, but the hours as well. Lookout for "vertical rotation" problems. Delegating music editing to a less qualified person could cost valuable rating points. Remember with the music, safe, familiar and smooth always wins in AC.

Make sure your station is not dull and boring. Jocks, jingles, sweepers, and promotions give you a great opportunity to keep your station alive and vibrant. Make this week the week to invent some new imaging.

Remember, personality is all about "the way you sound", not in the "amount of words" you use. Take a tip from the PPM markets. Keep talk elements to the point, and always make sure they are delivered with sincerity in the jocks voice.

Review and improve your website. Is there a reason for listeners to visit you more than once? With marketing budgets at a premium, do all you can to maximize this free marketing tool. The competition for web hits is greater than ever. If you do not have a Facebook fan page for the station, get it going asap.Same for Twitter.

Work on technical improvements now. Do not wait for the start of the spring book to work on your audio processing or any other technical issues you may have.Check with the jocks and production people to see if there are technical issues that need repair.

Plan ahead. Do not wait until the last minute to plan research, promotions, or marketing programs. We all know the upcoming Arbitron dates. Be ahead of them. If you are planning music testing for the spring book, plan to have it on the air between 3-4 weeks prior to the books start.

Review Christmas now. While its still fresh in your mind, look back at how this Christmas season went. Take notes for improvements for next year. Make lists of songs you'll need, and believe it or not, start working now on clock grids, so they are ready next year

Gary Berkowitz can be reached at (248) 737-3727