Adventures In Business Research & Media Culture With Don Mast

2012-01-14T12:43:00.000-08:00

2012 Year Of Consumer Power! 2012 will highlight the new power that consumers wield because of social media and why businesses need to be vigilant about the relationship with their customers.

2011-02-13T10:09:00.000-08:00

Web 2.0 Summit 2010: Mark Zuckerberg,

"A Conversation with Mark Zuckerberg"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czw-dtTP6oU

2011-02-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

How Great Entrepreneurs Think

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/how-great-entrepreneurs-think.html

2011-02-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

15 Essential Social Media Tools for PR Agencies

http://oneforty.com/blog/15-essential-social-media-tools-for-pr-agencies/

2011-01-09T06:53:00.000-08:00

Rise of the image men

PR Man has conquered the world. He still isn’t satisfied

http://www.economist.com/node/17722733?story_id=17722733

2011-01-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Labor wars in pro leagues now are fought through the media

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-labor-overview-20110102,0,2811119.column

2010-12-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

The complicated world of sports sponsorship!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/david-prosser-sports-sponsorship-has-never-been-so-complicated-2159695.html

2010-12-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

TRENDS: Silly Bandz fad fades

in a matter of months

USA Today had this marketing piece on the rise and fall of Silly Banz

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2010-12-17-sillybandz17_ST_N.htm

2010-11-11T17:45:00.000-08:00

NavSports.com - The Largest Searchable Sports Community

Connecting Athletes, Coaches, Teams, Fans, Events, And Sports Businesses. Join FREE!

2010-09-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

Best Global Brands Best%20Global%20Brands%202010

The definitive guide to the world’s most valuable brands

http://www.interbrand.com/en/Default.aspx

11-Year-Old Baseball Player Raising Money For Hospitalized Children - News Story - WJAC Johnstown

2010-03-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

11-Year-Old Baseball Player Raising Money For Hospitalized Children - News Story - WJAC Johnstown

2010-03-30T05:23:00.001-07:00

My son's story!

Youth dedicates season to hospitalized kids

Posted using ShareThis

2010-03-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

BRAND IDENTITY: The Value of a Business Name and Reputation

Today, March 16, 2010, 18 hours ago
Jason Grilli

The Swoosh says it all.

What‘s in a name, anyway? Plenty. Where it matters, a name says a lot. For a popular celebrity, a famous name may spell a blockbuster movie or a sold-out concert. For a giant soft drink company with a well-known brand name, it may mean instant product recall in the minds of it’s target consumers and multiple repeat sales. For all established, small and start-up businesses, a brand identity is predominant as it is an identifying mark which symbolizes the business and differentiates it from the competition.
Brand identity has a range of meanings, from your trade name and logo, to your type of business, company image, design feature, mission and vision, principles and values. From whatever viewpoint we take it, brand identity is simply a concept about comparison and contrast, individuality and specialization. Brand identity is a business tool you employ to create impact, attract attention and distinguish your business from among the throng of competition. It is both a differentiation tool and identification tool which your target consumers and your competitors make use of to highlight the similarities and differences of your company among other similar businesses.
Who are you? What do you do? What are you known for? What is your business all about? What do you stand for? What differentiates you from your competition? Brand identity comprises all these issues:
Your proposition, what your intention and purpose is

Your tone, how you state your message in your advertising through your sales pitches, offers and selling materials

The tools and channels for communication, the words and images you use to get your messages across to your public

Customer value, how you and the people you work with deal and interact with customers

Customer recognition, how your buyers know you and remember you as against your competition

A brand identity is generally regarded as effective if it triggers instant public recognition and recall, and always urges top choice selection from your target customers as against your competition. The caliber of a strong brand name is tested by it’s power to accomplish the following:

Get your message/proposition across to your public loud and clear

Back up your claim and your guarantee of reliability and trustworthiness

Trigger off instant recognition and recall among your target customers

Draw out an emotional association from your customers which results in a sale

Instill customer rapport and loyalty

Be a magnet for new customers

A strong brand identity is important in B2B because it differentiates you from your competition. It voices out your message of value and worth and can seal your market leadership position.

http://wildpitchmarketing.com/brand-identity-the-value-of-a-business-name-and-reputation

reBlog from pamorama.net: 35 Great Social Media Infographics

2010-03-04T16:23:00.001-08:00

I found this fascinating quote today:

Here’s a collection of terrific social media infographics that might come in handy. As you probably know, infographics are visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. They illustrate information that would be unwieldy in text form and they act as a kind of visual shorthand, making information easy to understand and consume. They are driven by the same information as charts, but they’re often a better form of communication because of their pleasant aesthetics — charts and graphs can communicate data, but infographics turn data into information.pamorama.net, 35 Great Social Media Infographics, Mar 2010

You should read the whole article.

2010-02-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

3 Components for Preventing Crises

Not all disasters can be prevented. Companies often face unforeseen or unpredictable circumstances. However, leaders need to ensure that their organizations are equipped to stop most crises before they happen. Prevention requires three things:

Pattern recognition. Encourage your people to share information and make connections so that you can recognize when a problem is forming.
Broader communication. Communication across silos is not easy, but it should be mandatory so that critical information reaches all parts of an organization.
Trusted leadership. Leaders need to react quickly when a problem surfaces. Showing that you care about an issue is critical to gaining your employees' trust in your ability to handle problems.

Find Out More Here:

http://blogs.hbr.org/kanter/2010/01/northwest-flight-253s-lessons.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-MANAGEMENT_TIP-_-FEB_2010-_-MTOD0216&referral=00203

2010-02-15T17:45:00.001-08:00

Sales Reps Get Hit with Double Whammy
67%. That's how many companies froze or reduced lead-generation budgets for sales reps last year, at a time when salespeople needed help the most, according to CSO Insights' survey of more than 2,800 companies worldwide. The percentage of reps making quota in 2009 dropped to 51.8% from 58.8% a year earlier, the survey shows.
Source: CSO Insights

2010-02-11T13:06:00.000-08:00

Some great things are happening in Elliot's world...

Follow & Tweet Via Twitter: http://twitter.com/Elliotmast

Elliot's Cool Blog: http://elliotmast.blogspot.com/

Wall Street Journal surpasses USA Today as No. 1

2009-10-14T15:58:00.001-07:00

Wall Street Journal surpasses USA Today as No. 1

Shared via AddThis

2009-10-05T14:46:00.001-07:00

Hello Friends, I am loving this book! I found this book while on a trip with my family. This is perfect for any father and son to read together... Have A Great Day! -- Don

Author: D. C. Beard

The Handy Book was the perfect survival manual, when it first came out in 1882 -- and remains a classic today in its 37th printing! It contains plans for 16 kinds of kites and hot-air balloons and fishing tackle. It tells you how to make and stock an aquarium, to construct a water telescope and how to camp out without a tent or in a hut made from pine boughs. How to build 10 kinds of boats, including a flatboat with a covered cabin. How to make bird calls and squirt guns with astonishing range!The ultimate pre-TV, anti-couch potato activity book, it answers the question,

"What's there to do?"

2009-10-01T16:01:00.001-07:00

Fantastic Article About Print Media

Four new strategies offer a path to future profits for today’s troubled newspaper and magazine companies.

Reinventing Print Media

Posted using ShareThis

2009-08-31T16:18:00.000-07:00

As US newspaper publishers mull charging readers on the Web, aPennsylvania daily announced plans on Monday to put some content behind a pay wall.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said "PG+" would be a "members-only website with interactive features and exclusive content" available to subscribers for 36 dollars a year or for 3.99 dollars a month.

It said "PG+" would not replace Post-Gazette.com, the newspaper's current website, but would feature "a new stream of exclusive blogs, videos, live chats and behind-the-scenes insights into the news of the day."

Post-Gazette.com will continue to provide its mix of content and would remain free, the newspaper said.

The Post-Gazette's move comes as newspapers across the United Statesgrapple with a steep plunge in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Rupert Murdoch's media giant News Corp. is holding talks with other leading newspaper publishers on forming a consortium that would charge for news online and on portable devices.

The newspaper said News Corp.'s chief digital officer, Jonathan Miller, is believed to have met with representatives of The New York Times Co.,Washington Post Co., Hearst Corp. and Tribune Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

Media analysts have been engaged in a fierce debate over whether readers would be willing to pay for news online after becoming accustomed for so many years to getting it for free.

2009-08-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

CBS to run video ad in magazine this fall!
by Caroline McCarthy

NEW YORK--Broadcast network CBS will be advertising its fall TV season with a video-chip ad embedded in an issue of Entertainment Weekly.

The September 18 issue of the Time Inc.-owned magazine will feature the first video ad to appear in print, George Schweitzer, CBS marketing president, said Wednesday at a press conference at the company's headquarters here.

The ad will be launched in partnership with PepsiCo to promote Pepsi Max soda and the TV network's Monday prime-time lineup. Not everyone will be seeing it: the ad will appear in a magazine insert sent to subscribers in the New York and Los Angeles areas--an edition without the video chip will be sent to subscribers elsewhere and show up on newsstands.

The technology for the battery-powered ads was manufactured by a Los Angeles-based company called Americhip, and each ad can handle about 40 minutes of video.

Here are some more details about the Americhip technology: the screen, which is 2.7 millimeters thick, has a 320x240 resolution. The battery lasts for about 65 to 70 minutes, and can be recharged, believe it or not, with a mini USB cord--there's a jack on the back of it. The screen, which uses thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD) technology, is enforced by protective polycarbonate. It's a product that has been in development at Americhip for about two years, spokesman Tim Clegg told CNET News via e-mail.

"It's leadership in innovation, which we really stress at CBS in every part of our company," Schweitzer said of the ads, which were developed with the collaboration of the Ignition Factory, a division of the Omnicom Group's OMD media agency.

PepsiCo has been experimenting with edgy, experimental ads for some time now, distributing millions of 3D glasses for its SoBe LifeWater Super Bowl ad earlier this year. It more recently launched a new Mountain Dew flavor by inviting prominent Twitter users to a party at a trendy Brooklyn venue.

Pepsi Max is the company's new diet soda geared toward men, advertised earlier this summer with bold print ads that declared, "Save the calories for bacon."

"The evolution of marketing television in the fall--it used to be as simple as this," Schweitzer said, holding up a vintage copy of TV Guide. "It was axiomatic in those days. If you took an ad in TV Guide, people watched your program. Not anymore."

Disclosure: CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.

This post was updated at 1:38 p.m. PT with more details about Americhip's technology.

Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline.

2009-07-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

Media moguls rethink Web advertising in downturn
By Gina Keating and Alex Dobuzinskis
PASADENA, Calif (Reuters) - The recession-fueled advertising downturn underlines the urgency of using the Web to glean data and target consumers directly, rather than blasting them with a barrage of TV-style ads, media executives say.

At the Fortune Brainstorm: TECH conference in Pasadena this week, Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Robert Iger opened a discussion about new ways to market to consumers, when he described himself as, "pretty bullish about what technology is going to allow in terms of behavioral tracking."

Executives from AOL, a division of Time Warner Inc, News Corp and IAC/InterActiveCorp echoed similar hopes about the potential to reach consumers online.

As advertising dollars grow ever more scarce, companies have been forced to rethink how they reach consumers and have moved away from the traditional 30-second spot to the kinds of targeted, Internet-driven marketing campaigns that have been talked about for years.

Internet advertising in the United States -- a $23.4 billion market in 2008 -- was down 5 percent in the first quarter of this year and Iger and other executives say the sector may not return to the historic growth trajectory seen before the recession.

Jonathan Miller, head of News Corp's Digital Media Group, believes advertising is undergoing, "fundamental changes ... and you have to tease them out of the recession effects.

"Marketing is on an arc to become more efficient. My dollar should go further. And that says the advertising pool may not grow at the rate that it's traditionally grown at, even out of this recession."

HITTING THE TARGET
Targeting consumers via demographics, profiling, and their social networks, "you learn a lot about people and you can identify them," Miller added.

The thinking among these media executives is that advances in technology is enabling them to build more detailed profiles of consumers -- which can then either be sold as a commodity or employed in their own marketing campaigns.

AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong, former sales chief at Google Inc, also sees new marketing opportunities from consumer referrals and tracking.

"Where people actually go, what they do, how they do it," he said. "It's not just about data, it's about the insight. If you're Procter & Gamble, or Kellogg's, or Coke or whatever, forget all the data.

What is the insight you get out of it? How does that actually change your perception?"

But Ed Moran, director of product innovation for Deloitte, said tracking tastes and developing profiles is fine, as long as advertisers do not make the old media mistake of finding their optimum consumers, only to show them a commercial.

Moran said next-generation advertising will be driven by the tastes and habits of 14 to 24 year-old "millennials" whose lives center on social networks and Internet-enabled handsets.
"A more effective way of reaching these young folks ... is to use their social networks as influencers, rather than bombarding them with ads," Moran said.

To that end, Barry Diller, chief executive of Web giant IAC/InterActiveCorp, said Internet advertising must evolve from displays and become integrated into the content of websites.
Even actor and media producer Ashton Kutcher chimed in at the conference, saying the billboard-style display ad is already outdated.

"People who have grown up on the Internet have trained themselves not to see it," he added.
(Reporting by Gina Keating and Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Edwin Chan and Andre Grenon))

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

2009-04-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

Convincing Consumers to Spend Again
by William J. Holstein

4/07/09
In a brutal sales environment, retailers and manufacturers, led by the auto industry, are finding that smarter marketing — not better products — may be the best way to a customer’s heart.

Joel Ewanick’s job as vice president of marketing for Hyundai Motor America put him on the front line last year in the effort to determine, in a bleak economic climate, what motivated people to buy cars and what frightened them away. As early as the summer of 2008, he began noticing in focus groups that more and more consumers were putting off vehicle purchases because they were worried about losing their jobs. “We had a consumer insight,” Ewanick recalls. “People were pulling back because of their long-term financial outlooks.”

Around the same time, Ewanick recalled getting unsolicited flyers in the mail from mortgage companies offering consumers relief from their monthly payments if they were to die or lose their jobs. He began to wonder if car companies could do the same thing.

He got the chance to test this possibility in the fall of 2008, as economic difficulties quickly deepened and credit dried up. It became clear “that this was no longer a garden variety recession,” Ewanick says. The industry’s sales plunged from what experts consider a healthy level of about 17 million units a year to a pace of about 9.2 million a year. Hyundai’s sales fell 41 percent in the fourth quarter. Traditional marketing clearly wasn’t enough.

Ewanick found a company called Walkaway USA, a subsidiary of EFG Companies in Irving, Tex., that specializes in helping auto dealers improve their sales. Walkaway was testing the concept of allowing financially troubled buyers in Canada to escape their purchase agreements. It was precisely the kind of innovation that Ewanick was looking for.

Ewanick signed Walkaway to manage a program in the U.S., calledHyundai Assurance, promising buyers that if they lost their jobs within a year, they could return their vehicles with no negative impact on their credit ratings. Walkaway would administer the program, which entails documenting that a customer has really lost his or her job. The program was launched in January 2009 via television commercials that feature an announcer soothing viewers: “These are tough times. We’re all going to get through it together.”

It seems to have worked. Hyundai’s sales in North America were up 4.9 percent in the first two months of 2009, when the overall market declined 39.4 percent from the comparable period in 2008.

Marketers today in all industries are forced to come up with similarly innovative ways to entice consumers to part with their money. Clothing retailers are offering two for the price of one sales, electronics stores are making extended warranties free, and airlines are offering deep fare discounts. But the auto industry has had to be particularly creative. Buying a big-ticket item like a car is a major commitment, and in difficult economic times consumers are more likely to avoid or delay such a purchase unless they can be convinced that they are getting a deal too good to turn down.

To make this case, in March, Ford Motor Company launched a two-month incentive program, the Ford Advantage Plan, that covers auto loan payments for up to a year if a customer loses his or her job. On the same day, the General Motors Corporation announced its Total Confidence plan, which picks up the tab on auto loans for laid-off customers for up to nine months. This program also provides up to US$5,000 to customers buying new GM vehicles to close out existing car loans if the value of the trade-in automobile has fallen below the loan payoff.

And last January, the Chrysler Corporation rolled out a program calledEmployee Pricing Plus, which expands on a marketing gimmick used before that offers customers the same price available to employees. In this twist, buyers also get cash rebates ranging from $3,500 to $6,000 and zero percent financing. Chrysler was also the first U.S. automaker to offer car buyers fuel cards that guaranteed fixed gasoline prices of no more than $2.99, with its Let’s Refuel America program.

That program was particularly popular when gasoline prices hovered near $4 a gallon. But now that prices have plunged, Pricelock Inc., the company administering the program, is adapting the offer to market it to companies that, for example, own fleets of commercial vehicles, says Robert Fell, Pricelock’s founder and chief executive officer. “In times of high gas prices, consumers are really interested in this product because they want peace of mind,” he explains. “But with lower prices, businesses are most interested because it’s a very effective cost insurance program.” Fell’s company, 20 percent of which is owned by the Goldman Sachs Group Inc., relies on Goldman to use derivatives to lock in gasoline prices.

Auto manufacturers also are being smarter about how they spend their hundreds of millions of marketing and advertising dollars, says Stephen Berkov, senior marketing analyst at the popular automotive Web sitewww.edmunds.com, based in Santa Monica, Calif. “When budgets are extremely constrained and the economy is in such dire straits, they are not going to market to people who are not in the market,” says Berkov, who is former head of marketing for Audi of America Inc.

One part of that effort is an attempt to use television advertising to drive potential buyers to Web sites, on the assumption that people who seek out information on the Internet have higher education levels and are more intent on actually purchasing a car, as opposed to merely browsing. Honda Motor Company, for example, is expected to launch an advertising effort in April to drive viewers to www.edmunds.com, which attracts 12.5 million users per month. The ads will urge customers to look at the “true cost to own,” an Edmunds-trademarked specialty, in considering whether to buy a Honda. The true cost of ownership, as the phrase suggests, adds up all the costs of operating and maintaining a vehicle over its lifetime, and the Edmunds site helps shoppers compare different models.

Companies are also spending more to engage with customers once they reach their Web sites. GM has increased the percentage of its advertising budget going to online outlets to 18 percent of its total, says Berkov, whereas a luxury and performance brand such as Porsche has hit the 50 percent threshold.

Overall, even luxury marques such as Mercedes-Benz USA Inc. and the BMW Group are stressing the value of their cars and financing packages. Some BMW dealerships in the New York metropolitan area are offering to pay the first three months of their customers’ leases. Berkov says it’s smart for the German luxury makers to offer such deals, at the risk of tarnishing their upscale images, because wealthy buyers now also need to validate their decision. “The luxury buyer needs to be able to justify to his friends why he pulled the trigger” and purchased or leased an expensive vehicle, Berkov explains.

Of all the new marketing efforts, the Hyundai Assurance program has attracted the most attention. In fact, the trend is already expanding beyond autos — Jet Blue Airways Corporation and home builders Toll Brothers Inc. and Lennar Corporation are offering similar programs. Hyundai does not require that a customer have a certain credit rating to enroll. If the buyer has a job and finances the purchase of a new Hyundai, whether through a bank or credit union or Hyundai itself, he or she qualifies. (Buyers who pay cash do not.) Until April 30, 2009, the company is also offering Assurance Plus, which covers the first three installment payments.

How long will automakers — and marketers in all industries — have to keep offering special marketing programs and incentives? “We hope we don’t need this forever,” Ewanick says of Hyundai Assurance. “I look forward to the day I can take it off.” Yet industry-wide annual car sales would have to reach the 12 million or 13 million unit-a-year level before marketers could even begin to ease back. From today’s perch, that seems a long way off; marketers are going to have to get used to seeking out solutions that are ever more inventive.

Author Profile:

William J. Holstein is the author of Why GM Matters: Inside the Race to Transform an American Icon (Walker, 2009). For more on his work, see www.williamjholstein.com.

2009-04-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

Study: Cutting Spending Hurts Brands Long Term
Following Boom/Bust Cycle Flirts With Danger
By Jack Neff Published: April 06, 2009

BATAVIA, Ohio (http://www.adage.com/) -- Household and personal care might once have seemed recession-resistant, but last year U.S.-based personal-care marketers actually cut ad spending faster than the general market. That could be potentially damaging for their brands, according to one study that shows that marketers that cut spending during a downturn lost share to private labels -- share they didn't regain.

Smaller, Nonpremium Brands at Risk? According to TNS Media Intelligence data analyzed by Sanford C. Bernstein last month, eight U.S.-based household and personal-care marketers covered by the company cut measured media spending an average of 8.8%, compared with a 5% cut among advertisers overall. The fourth quarter, in particular, was the culprit, according to separate research by Goldman Sachs based on TNS data, which found that U.S.-based household, personal-care and beauty marketers slashed spending 14% on average in the quarter, reversing a 3% year-on-year increase in the third quarter.

The reasons behind this surprising turn of events vary, but the implications are potentially dire. Research presented by University of North Carolina marketing professor Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp in a Bernstein conference call last month indicates that companies that maintained or hiked ad spending generally, and TV spending in particular, lost limited share to private labels in recessions between 1985 and 2005.

MARKETING IN A RECESSION Ad Age explores what marketers, media and agencies are doing to survive and even thrive in the downturn.Companies and brands that went with the flow of the boom-bust cycle by cutting ad spending -- as data suggest household and personal-care players did last year -- tended to lose more share to private labels both immediately and longer term.

Companies whose ad spending didn't vary according to economic cycles -- based on an analysis of Ad Age data on global ad spending -- also tended to increase their stock prices an average of 1.3 percentage points annually ahead of others from 1986 to 2006, said Mr. Steenkamp, who analyzed global results of 26 marketers across multiple industries.

'Takes courage'"Companies and categories that are able to turn a recession into an advantage are [those] going against economic trends," Mr. Steenkamp said. "Ultimately, it takes courage. But it pays off in share and in terms of the stock market."

About half the share lost to private labels in past recessions has never been recovered, he said.
A variety of factors likely played into last year's spending retreat by package-goods marketers, and some contend the U.S. measured-media numbers don't tell the whole story.

The pullback by U.S.-based marketers in the fourth quarter was likely prompted in part by the sudden strengthening of the dollar, which drained earnings from overseas almost overnight and spurred cuts in one of the only budgets that can be cut quickly: marketing. By contrast L'Oréal, a French company for which a stronger dollar boosted U.S. earnings in the fourth quarter, hiked media spending in the quarter.

TNS data showed only a 3.6% spending decline for personal-care marketers overall last year, according to an Information Resources Inc. presentation in March, vs. the 8.8% decline for the U.S.-based group covered by Bernstein. That suggests spending by foreign multinationals lifted results pulled down by U.S. companies.

The Goldman report showed some signs of strategic spending hikes in the fourth quarter. Procter & Gamble Co. -- and, to a lesser extent, Kimberly-Clark Corp. -- upped measured spending in paper categories facing the most erosion from private labels. And P&G hiked spending on laundry detergent, particularly on Gain, a midtier value brand that can benefit from trade-down but also is more vulnerable to private labels.

2009-01-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

2009: The Year of One-to-One Marketing
By KIM T. GORDON
Posted: 2009-01-06 17:33:01

As we kick off 2009, one thing is crystal clear: We're entering an entirely new era for marketers. Let's call this the year for building relationships. Right now, prospects want to make every purchase a safe one. That means they'll rely on companies or brands they know and trust. Closing sales will require a stronger emphasis on tactics that let you relate to customers one to one. And it's never been more important to craft a set of effective letters that you can customize for individual prospects.

Writing a great letter takes a bit of time and know-how. Whether you use it to follow up a lead, close a hot prospect or introduce your products and services, a well-crafted letter will be one of your most powerful marketing tools in the new year.These six rules will help you write letters that motivate your best prospects:

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Rule 1. Set a Measurable GoalEvery good letter must be written to make something happen. Focus on that goal before you begin, and decide what your letter must contain to produce the desired result. Make reading your letter worthwhile for your prospect, and it will reward you by advancing the sales process. If you're sending letters just to provide prospects with more information, you're wasting your postage and opportunity to move prospects to the next level.

Rule 2. Have a Strong HookYour letter has to immediately grab the reader's interest or it'll be discarded as junk mail. Depending on the type of business you're in and what you're marketing, your hook can be a special offer or a lead communicating a unique benefit. When your letter follows a phone call, highlight the benefits your prospect desires in the first paragraph.

Rule 3. Convey a Unique MessageHave you ever received letters from competing companies with virtually identical offers? Chances are you tossed them because you couldn't tell one company from the other. Take a look at one of your old letters. If it could have been sent by any of your closest competitors, rethink your approach. The message, pricing and offers contained in your letter must be unique to your business and tie into your branding.

Rule 4. Keep the Reader in MindImagine you were face to face with your prospect, reading your letter aloud. Would you be comfortable, or would the tone be all wrong? Your letter is a one-to-one communication with a real person. Don't come on too strong or overpromise. Use simple, direct language, not flowery prose or impressive vocabulary. And because you won't really be face to face with your prospect, the look of your letter alone must convey your professionalism, so double-check for errors.

Rule 5. Write About "You the Customer"Great letters are directed outward. That means they stress what "you the customer" will get and not what "we the company" provide. Highlight benefits front and center, and use the body of your letter to describe the features. Then summarize the key benefit once again, and close with a call to action that gives the prospect a reason to move to the next step in your sales process.

Rule 6. Make Responding EasyNo matter what type of marketing letter you're writing, close by providing a clear and actionable next step. In some cases, the responsibility for that action--such as sending a written proposal or contract--will rest with you. When a special offer has been made, your letter should make it quick and easy for the prospect to take advantage of it via phone, e-mail and postal mail. The fewer hurdles your prospect must jump, the more likely you are to close the sale.

Kim T. Gordon is the "Marketing" coach at Entrepreneur.com and a multifaceted marketing expert, speaker, author and media spokesperson. Over the past 26 years, she's helped millions of small-business owners increase their success through her company, National Marketing Federation Inc. Her latest book, Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars, is now available.
2009-01-06 17:23:04

2009-01-01T10:36:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! I Welcome 2009!

Looking Forward To A Great New Year!

Working Harder For You!

2008-10-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

Most Major Papers Continue Circ Decline

By Jennifer Saba Published:

October 27, 2008 7:55 AM ET

NEW YORK For those holding out for some improvement in print circulation, this morning brings disappointment. The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest figures for the six- month period ending September 2008 and the report shows major drops in circulation at the big metros.

According to ABC for the 507 newspapers reporting in this period, daily circulation slipped 4.6% to 38,165,848 copies. For the 571 papers, Sunday dropped 4.8% to 43,631,646 copies.

For comparison purposes, in September 2007 reporting period, daily circ fell 2.6% and Sunday was down 4.6%.

Across the country, publishers have put in place plans to cater to core readers and subscribers. It's too expensive to bulk up circulation in unprofitable areas such as third-party, newspapers in education, and bonus day copies.

Not in the core market defined by the newspaper? You are out of luck, at least for the print edition. All daily averages below are for Monday through Friday. The percent change compares this September period to the same period last year.

Daily circ at The New York Times fell 3.5% to 1,000,665 copies.

The Wall Street Journal (as we reported last week) was virtually flat, up about 1,800 copies on a daily basis to 2,011,999. USA Today was also up a fraction of a percent to 2,293,310 copies.

But The Washington Post's daily circulation declined 1.9% to 622,714. Sunday was down 3.1% to 866,057. At the Los Angeles Times circ decreased a little more 5% daily and on Sunday to 739,147 and 1,055,076, respectively. Daily circulation at the Chicago Tribune was down 7.7% to 516,032. Sunday declined 5.7% to 864,845 copies.

The San Francisco Chronicle lost 7% of its daily circulation to 339,430 copies while Sunday was down a hair more, 7.4% to 398,116. The San Jose Mercury News was down slightly, 1.9% to 224,199 and Sunday was down much more, 4.3% to 241,518.

On the East Coast, daily circulation at The Boston Globe plummeted 10.1% to 323,983 copies. Sunday circ was down 8.4% to 503,659. The Baltimore Sun’s daily circ declined 5.9% to 218,923 while Sunday fell 3.8% to 350,640.

Daily circulation at The Philadelphia Inquirer slipped 11.0% to 300,674 copies. Sunday plunged 13.7% to 556,426. At the Daily News in Philly, daily circ slipped 13.2% to 97,694.

Daily circ at The Arizona Republic declined 5.5% to 361,333 while Sunday 3.6% to 463,036. Its sister paper the Indianapolis Star lost 3.3% of its daily circ (244,796 copies) and 4.6% of Sunday to 321,760.

In Florida circulation fell steeply at the Miami Herald - its daily circ was down 11.8% to 210,884. Sunday was down 9% to 279,484. The Orlando Sentinel lost 3.3% of its daily circ to 206,363 and about the same on Sunday (-3.2%) to 307,976 copies.

Daily circ at the Denver Post dropped 6.5% to 210,585 and at the Rocky Mountain News it was down 6.6% to 210,281. The combined Sunday circulation for the JOA papers declined 9.1% to 545,442.

In Detroit, the Free Press lost 6.8% of its daily circ to 298,243 copies. The Detroit News’ daily circ plunged 10.0% to 178,280 copies.

Go here for the list of the top 25 daily newspapers in the country and the top 25 Sunday newspapers.

*CHECK OUT OUR TWO NEW BLOGS TODAY for political campaign news and views and business analysis:The E&P Pub Fitz&Jen

NEW YORK Here are the top 25 daily papers ranked for the six-month period ending September 2008 based on a Monday-through-Friday average, according to the new FAS-FAX from the Audit Bureau of Circulations released today. The percent change compares this period to the same period a year ago.

USA TODAY -- 2,293,310 -- 0.01%

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- 2,011,999 -- 0.01%

NEW YORK TIMES -- 1,000,665 -- (-3.58%)

LOS ANGELES TIMES -- 739,147 -- (-5.20%)

DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK -- 632,595 -- (-7.16%)

NEW YORK POST -- 625,421 -- (-6.25%)

THE WASHINGTON POST -- 622,714 -- (-1.94%)

CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- 516,032 -- (-7.75%)

HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 448,271 -- (-11.66%)

NEWSDAY -- 377,517 -- (-2.58%)

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC -- 361,333 -- (-5.51%)

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- 339,430 -- (-7.07%)

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS -- 338,933 -- (-9.28%)

BOSTON GLOBE -- 323,983 -- (-10.18%)

STAR TRIBUNE, MINNEAPOLIS -- 322,360 -- (-4.26%)

STAR-LEDGER, NEWARK, N.J. -- 316,280 -- (-10.40%)

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES -- 313,176 -- (-3.94%)

PLAIN DEALER, CLEVELAND -- 305,529 -- (-8.58%)

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER -- 300,674 -- (-11.06%)

DETROIT FREE PRESS -- 298,243 -- (-6.84%)

THE OREGONIAN -- 283,321 -- (-8.45%)

THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION -- 274,999 -- (-13.62%)

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE -- 269,819 -- (-3.00%)

ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES -- 268,935 -- (-6.88%)

THE SACRAMENTO BEE -- 253,249 -- (-4.22%)

Go here for more numbers and E&P’s coverage of the FAS-FAX and here for the top 25 Sunday papers.

2008-10-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

Google Profit Tops Estimates on Ad Sales; Shares Rise

By Crayton Harrison

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, said third-quarter profit climbed 26 percent as more customers used Web search ads to spur sales in a slowing economy, sending the shares higher.

Net income rose to $1.35 billion, or $4.24 a share, from $1.07 billion, or $3.38, a year earlier, the company said today in a statement. Leaving out costs such as stock-based compensation, profit was $4.92 a share, beating the $4.75 average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Advertisers are shifting budgets away from TV and print media toward ads that run alongside search listings, targeting online shoppers. The Internet will account for 8.7 percent of the $284 billion in U.S. ad spending this year, up from 7.2 percent in 2007, according to Barclays Capital.

This was exactly the kind of shot in the arm that investors need,'' said Jeff Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. ``People lost a lot of faith in the Internet, but this is exactly what the doctor ordered.''

Excluding revenue passed on to partner sites, sales expanded to $4.04 billion, compared with the $4.05 billion average estimate. Total revenue climbed 31 percent to $5.54 billion.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, rose $21.39, or 6.1 percent, to $374.41 in extended trading after closing at $353.02 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have dropped 49 percent this year.

Being `Realistic'

We are realistic about the poor state of the global economy, but it's Google, so we'll manage accordingly,'' Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said today in an interview. ``We had a good third quarter, with strong traffic and revenue growth.''

In the U.S., Google fielded 63 percent of online searches in August, double the market share of Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp. combined. That dominance has helped Google command higher prices for ads, according to Yahoo, which is awaiting government approval of an agreement to let Google sell some ads on its sites.

The economic situation is so fluid that we're all sort of in uncharted territory,'' Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said on a conference call. ``We've always been in this for the long term, and we believe that's even more important today than ever.''

Resilient Business

The slumping U.S. economy had been expected to drag down results, said Clay Moran, an analyst at Stanford Group Co. in Boca Raton, Florida. ``What we're seeing is that Google is a resilient business that's going to fare relatively well in this recession, but it's not immune from the overall macroeconomic environment,'' he said.

Google, which doesn't forecast results, is seeing a slowdown in spending from some types of customers, such as U.S. auto and home financing companies, Pichette said.

Google recorded $280 million in costs for stock-based pay, up from $273 million the previous quarter. Those costs will reach $1.1 billion in 2008, leaving out stock awards granted after Oct. 1, Google said.

Sales outside the U.S. made up 51 percent of Google's revenue, up from 48 percent a year earlier. If foreign exchange rates for currency had remained constant over that period, Google's third-quarter sales this year would have been $168 million lower, the company said.
Slower Growth?

The credit crisis may cost the Internet ad market $6.7 billion in lost sales through 2010, according to Collins Stewart Plc. Big and small businesses, from General Motors Corp. to Simplexity LLC, are reducing ad spending plans, while some financial companies, such as Wachovia Corp., have disappeared.

The reductions will push down growth in U.S. Internet ad outlays to less than 20 percent next year for the first time since 2002, said Sandeep Aggarwal, a Collins Stewart analyst in San Francisco.

Google, which gets almost all its revenue from search ads, is testing ways to advertise with images and video. The company struck a deal this month to offer full-length shows from CBS Corp., splitting revenue from the ads.

Microsoft, seeking to close the gap with Google, bid as much as $47.5 billion for Yahoo this year. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo rejected Microsoft's offer in May, opting instead to strike the advertising partnership with Google.

To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in Dallas at tharrison5@bloomberg.net Last Updated: October 16, 2008 17:03 EDT

2008-08-24T15:14:00.001-07:00

2008-08-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

Magazine 1st-half newsstand sales drop 6.3 percent

Monday August 11, 12:01 pm ET
By Jeremy Herron, AP Business Writer

Magazine circulation flattens, but newsstand sales slump 6.3 percent in 1st half

NEW YORK (AP) -- Newsstand sales of U.S. magazines fell 6.3 percent in the first half of 2008, an industry group said Monday, as rising gas and food costs led consumers to cut back on nonessential spending.

Most top titles, including best-selling Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine, had sharp declines. Of the top 10 newsstand sellers, only People, the entertainment news magazine, and In Style posted gains.

"This is nothing more than really just the impact of the economy," said John Harrington, an industry analyst with Harrington Associates. "People are shopping very cautiously and less frequently, avoiding impulse buys, which are what magazine purchases are."

Publishers redouble efforts to sign up subscribers during economic slowdowns because they know newsstand sales will ebb, which they need to offset because advertising rates are based on minimum circulation targets.

Newsstand sales are far more lucrative than subscriptions, though, meaning circulation revenue is dropping at most titles.

"It is easy to manipulate subscription numbers because publishers can sell them at a loss just to meet their rate base," Harrington said. "The growth may not be high-quality subscribers that will renew."

Overall magazine circulation, which includes subscription and newsstand sales, was flat at 349.9 million copies in the period, as paid subscriptions edged higher to 290.2 million copies, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in its biannual tally.

Single-copy magazine sales in the six months ended June 30 fell to 44.1 million copies from 47.1 million a year ago. The survey included 467 titles that reported results in both periods.

Like newspapers, magazines have been struggling with declining advertising revenue as readers increasingly go online for news and entertainment. In the second quarter, magazines had 8.2 percent fewer ad pages, the Publishers Information Bureau reported.

Hearst Corp.'s Cosmopolitan magazine, the top-seller on the country's newsstands, had a 6 percent decline to 1.75 million copies -- nearly 114,000 fewer magazines. Top 10 sellers US Weekly, Woman's World and O, The Oprah Magazine each posted a double-digit decline in newsstand sales.

People, published by Time Inc., boosted newsstand sales by 5.2 percent and remained the No. 2 best-selling magazine at kiosks around the country. In Style was also able to increase newsstand sales.

"People has been steady over the years and there's probably more quality to the magazine in terms of what they do" compared with the crowded field of celebrity gossip titles, Harrington said.

In Touch Weekly, down 28.7 percent at the newsstand, and Life & Style Weekly, down 30.2 percent, both added 50 percent to their cover prices in the period.

Everyday With Rachel Ray, the cooking magazine featuring the popular Food Network host, had 6 percent higher newsstand sales and a 36 percent increase in total circulation.

Rolling Stone, the venerable music magazine, said Monday that it will abandon its iconic size for a smaller, more rack-friendly format starting in fall.

Publisher Jann Wenner said the change is not to conserve costs, but partly to offer advertisers and sellers a more uniform size. Wenner Media said the new size will allow for more editorial pages and higher quality paper that will result in sharper photos.

The magazine had 6.6 percent lower newsstand sales of 115,644 issues in the latest period.

2008-06-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

TV viewers' average age hits 50
Study: Median age outside the 18-49 demo
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

Find The Story Here: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117988273.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

The broadcast networks have grown older than ever -- if they were a person, they wouldn't even be a part of TV's target demo anymore.

According to a study released by Magna Global's Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets' average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That's the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago -- and the first time the nets' median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo.

Fueling the graying of the networks: the rapid aging of ABC, NBC and Fox. The three nets continue to grow older, while CBS -- the oldest-skewing network -- has remained fairly steady.
"The median ages of the broadcast networks keep rising, as traditional television is no longer necessarily the first screen for the younger set," Sternberg wrote.

For the just-completed 2007-08 TV season, CBS was oldest in live viewing with a median age of 54. ABC clocked in at 50, followed by NBC (49), Fox (44), CW (34) and Univision (34).
When live-plus-7 DVR viewing is factored in, the nets (except CW and Univision) drop by a year -- which still reps the oldest median age ever for the nets.

Sternberg notes that Fox and CW maintain median ages that are closer to the actual age of the population. The median age for U.S. households is 38.

Among ad-supported cable nets, the news nets (along with older-skewing Hallmark Channel, Golf Channel and GSN's daytime sked) sport the most gray, with Fox News Channel's daytime and primetime skeds the absolute oldest, clocking in with a median age above 65. Youngest nets are the daytime skeds for Noggin and Nickelodeon, with a median age under 10.

At ABC, youngest series was "Supernanny" (with a median age of 41), while oldest was "Women's Murder Club" (57). At CBS, youngest was "How I Met Your Mother," "Kid Nation" and the Tuesday edition of "Big Brother," tied at 45; oldest was "60 Minutes" (60). NBC's youngest show was "Scrubs" (34), and oldest was "Monk" (58).

At Fox, the youngest shows were "American Dad" and "Family Guy" (29), while the oldest was "Canterbury's Law" (55). At CW, "One Tree Hill" was youngest (26), while "Life Is Wild" was oldest (45).

Among latenight gabbers, "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" is oldest, with a median age of 54, followed by "Late Show With David Letterman" at 53. Interestingly, "Nightline" -- which should conceivably be older than those talkers, is younger, at 52. ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," meanwhile, passed the 18-49 threshold for the first time, clocking in with a median of 50. "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" is getting closer at 46.

2008-06-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

Papers Facing Worst Year for Ad Revenue

Monday June 23, 11:35 pm ET By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

NY TIMES

For newspapers, the news has swiftly gone from bad to worse. This year is taking shape as their worst on record, with a double-digit drop in advertising revenue, raising serious questions about the survival of some papers and the solvency of their parent companies.

Ad revenue, the primary source of newspaper income, began sliding two years ago, and as hiring freezes turned to buyouts and then to layoffs, the decline has only accelerated.

On top of long-term changes in the industry, the weak economy is also hurting ad sales, especially in Florida and California, where the severe contraction of the housing markets has cut deeply into real estate ads. Executives at the Hearst Corporation say that one of their biggest papers, The San Francisco Chronicle, is losing $1 million a week.

Over all, ad revenue fell almost 8 percent last year. This year, it is running about 12 percent below that dismal performance, and company reports issued last week suggested a 14 percent to 15 percent decline in May.

“Never in my most bearish dreams six months ago did I think we’d be talking about negative 15 percent numbers against weak comps,” said Peter S. Appert, an analyst at Goldman Sachs. “I think the probability is very high that there will be a number of examples of individual newspapers and newspaper companies that fall into a loss position. And I think it’s inevitable that there will be closures in this industry, and maybe bankruptcies.”

Analysts and newspaper executives find themselves revising their forecasts downward every few months, unable to gain a stable footing on a sinking floor. Papers have cut costs by shedding thousands of workers, eliminating some distribution routes and printing fewer, smaller pages, but profit margins continue to shrink.

Since the fall, when Media General, the owner of a major newspaper chain in the South, set its 2008 budget, “We have pulled our thinking down twice with respect to revenue,” said Marshall N. Morton, the chief executive.

Over the next few years, he predicted, “There’s got to be some assimilation,” with some major American newspapers going out of business or merging. At the corporate level, he said, “I would guess that rather than bankruptcies, you’d see combinations.”

Analysts have issued warnings about several companies’ abilities to meet their debt obligations, though the companies insist that they are at no risk of default.

Most of those companies are privately held, like the Tribune Company, owner of The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and many other papers; MediaNews Group, whose papers include The Denver Post and The San Jose Mercury News; and Philadelphia Media Holdings, which publishes The Inquirer and The Daily News in that city.

Some analysts also see a lesser risk in a major publicly traded chain, the McClatchy Company, owner of The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee and others, which said last week that its ad revenue was down 15.4 percent through the first five months of the year.
The company announced plans to eliminate about 1,400 jobs, leaving it with 21 percent fewer employees than it had a year and a half ago. Some other newspaper chains had already made comparable cuts.

“It’s going a lot worse than anybody predicted, and if we have double-digit ad declines for two years, some newspapers will be in real financial jeopardy,” said Edward Atorino, an analyst at the Benchmark Company. Even with less severe losses, “You’re going to see structural changes: papers could drop a day or two per week, they could outsource printing.”

He said that he expected the decline in ad sales to slow, with 2008 producing a 10 percent drop for the year, but he cautioned that, like other analysts, he had not been pessimistic enough so far.

The primary long-term threat to newspapers is the Internet’s siphoning away of ad revenue, a trend that has been under way for more than a decade, but one that has picked up speed in the last year. Advertisers have vastly more choices online than on paper, so newspaper Web sites win only a fraction of the advertising that goes digital, and it pays much less than advertising in print.

At the same time, the Internet has drawn millions of new readers to papers, and the major ones reach far more readers than ever before.

“As long as we’ve got content, we’ve got something nobody else has,” said Mr. Morton, of Media General. The industry’s challenge, he said, is to keep expanding that audience, “proving to the advertiser that we, in fact, are the right link so that he can have his conversation with the customer through us.”

Online ad revenue for newspapers grew 20 percent to 30 percent annually for most of this decade. Most analysts think the industry will return to that growth rate when the economy picks up again, but for now, it is closer to 15 percent. The Internet still accounts for less than 10 percent of newspaper ad revenue.

Declining sales of printed papers and rising newsprint prices have also hurt the business.
The industry will not bottom out for another three or four years, analysts predict. The question, Mr. Appert of Goldman Sachs said, “is how far things will fall before then.”

2008-06-09T17:43:00.000-07:00

I am so proud... My son has hit two homeruns with his major league little league team. The first was about 205 ft and the second was 211 ft. Great Job Elliot!

2008-04-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

REPORT: NO PAGE TURNER
BIG MAGAZINE TITLES SEE AD PAGES DWINDLE DOWN IN Q1
By KEITH J. KELLY

http://www.nypost.com/
April 15, 2008 --
Magazines that cover news, business and luxury goods were sent reeling in the first quarter of the year, while food magazines offered a few rays of light for the publishing industry, according to just released figures.

Ad pages for BusinessWeek, which just went through its third round of cuts in three years, tumbled 19.4 percent in the quarter to 429.5 ad pages while rival Forbes dipped 13.2 percent to 504.8 ad pages, according to the latest figures reported to the Publishers Information Bureau.

MORE COVERAGE
MEDIA INK: O's Success at Hearst
Fortune looked like the best of the lot, with only a 1 percent drop in the quarter to 429.4.
The newsweeklies are also taking it hard. Newsweek, which recently unveiled plans to downsize 111 people, saw ad pages drop 13.9 percent to 339.

Ad pages for Time, which also continues to prune staffers, skidded 17.8 percent to 371.
U.S News & World Report dropped even further, with its ad pages tumbling 37.5 percent to 229.46 pages.

Most industry observers tend to discount the ad-revenue figures that were just released because it uses a formula based on a one-time ad-page rate that does not account for the steep discounts that all major advertisers receive from publishers.

That is why the ad-page tally is seen as a more accurate barometer of a magazine's performance year to year.

Overall, in the quarter, the PIB said that rate card reported advertising for the period was $5.2 billion, a 1.2 percent decline from the $5.3 billion in the year ago quarter.

The ad-page tally showed a steep 6.4 percent decline.

Ellen Oppenheim, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of The Magazine Publishers of America said, "food & food products," were the bright spots.

Every Day with Rachel Ray saw ad pages soar 38.1 percent to 135.6 ad pages.
Everyday Food from the Martha Stewart empire saw ad pages up 11 percent to 120.76. Martha Stewart Living, the company's flagship tile, was up 2.6 percent in ad pages.

2008-03-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

NAA Reveals Biggest Ad Revenue Plunge in More Than 50 Years By Jennifer Saba Published: March 28, 2008 12:55 PM ET NEW YORK

The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years. According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006

-- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950. The drop-off points to an economic slowdown on top of the secular challenges faced by the industry. The second worst decline in advertising revenue occurred in 2001 when it fell 9.0%.

Total advertising revenue in 2007 -- including online revenue -- decreased 7.9% to $45.3 billion compared to the prior year.

There are signs that online revenue is beginning to slow as well. Internet ad revenue in 2007 grew 18.8% to $3.2 billion compared to 2006. In 2006, online ad revenue had soared 31.4% to $2.6 billion. In 2005, it jumped 31.4% to $2 billion. As newspaper Web sites generate more advertising revenue, the growth rate naturally slows.

The NAA reported that online revenue now represents 7.5% of total newspaper ad revenue in 2007 compared to 5.7% in 2006. That growth could not stave off the losses in the print however. National print advertising revenue dropped 6.7% to $7 billion last year. Retail slipped 5% to $21 billion. Classified plunged 16.5% to $14.1 billion.

"Even with the near-term challenges posed to print media by a more fragmented information environment and the economic headwinds facing all advertising media, newspapers publishers are continuing to drive strong revenue growth from their increasingly robust Web platforms," John Sturm, president and CEO of the NAA, said in a statement.

* E&P Editor Greg Mitchell's new book is "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq" (Union Square Press). It includes a foreword by famed war reporter Joe Galloway and a preface by Bruce Springsteen and has been hailed by vets leader Paul Rieckhoff.

Jennifer Saba (jsaba@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P's associate editor.

2008-02-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

Study to Track All-Day Media Usage

What better way to track people's video consumption than to have someone follow them around all day?

Steve McClellan, AdweekFEBRUARY 25, 2008 -

What better way to track people's video consumption than to have someone follow them around all day -- literally from the time they wake up until they retire at night -- making detailed notes about when and how they watch, listen, surf, read, play video games, download, text and talk on the phone?

That's exactly how a new $3.5 million study--funded by the Nielsen Co.--will track the media usage habits of a panel of some 450 consumers in separate phases throughout this year beginning next month.

Ball State University--a pioneer in this type of shadow-the-consumer research--and Sequent Partners on behalf of the Committee for Research Excellence (CRE) are conducting the study. CRE, comprised of agency, media company and client executives, was formed in 2005 to develop studies that provide insights into consumer viewing habits and to help Nielsen sharpen the methodologies it uses to measure audiences across a growing array of media.

Results of the study will be released in stages beginning later this year. "We think this will be a landmark study with groundbreaking results," said Shari Anne Brill, svp, director of programming at Carat and chairwoman of CRE's media consumption and engagement committee. "It will give us a blueprint of consumers' access to media content across all screens, platforms and locations throughout their waking day.

"In addition to funding the study, Nielsen Media Research (like Adweek, a unit of the Nielsen Co.) will help recruit the consumer panels, which will be comprised of former participants in Nielsen's national TV ratings panel.

A panel of 350 consumers across five markets--Philadelphia, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago--will be monitored for a full day in the spring and fall of this year by trackers who will record (via electronic handheld note-taking devices) the use of 17 different media as the people use them alone and in multiple combinations. A separate panel of 100 users will also be tracked in the spring and fall. Before the second phase, that panel will have the option to purchase Slingboxes, DVRs and other state-of-the-art media units at discounted rates. The idea is to use the second panel as a predictor of how new media devices will affect future viewing patterns.

Ball State and Sequent won the contract to conduct the survey after a review that included two other undisclosed finalists. The researchers conducted a pre-test last year to prove to the CRE that a panel would cooperate and provide usable data that could be projected nationally, said Mike Bloxham, director of insight and research at Ball State's Center for Media Design. "The findings will provide an important platform for analysis and debate as the committee pursues its mission to inform future best practices in cross-platform video measurement," he said.

Links referenced within this article

Find this article at: http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/media_agencies/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003714901

2008-02-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

Advertising During a Recession

By Jake Swearingen

Article from: http://blogs.bnet.com

January 31st, 2008 @ 3:33 pm

What should marketers in a flat lining economy do? It’s clear that consumers are going to be watching their wallets a bit closer, and advertisers will have to try harder to pry pocketbooks back open in order to justify their budgets.

On Monday, the Times ran a story on how marketers are quickly moving to capitalize on consumer worry. Wal-Mart went back to focusing on Every Day Low Prices with the slogan, “Save money. Live better,” and became one of the few retailers to post growth in the holiday season. Nissan has taken to hyping the Altima’s miles per gallon over style or performance. But Avi Dan at Ad Age points out in his tips to CMOs that focusing on price for a campaign can have short-term benefits and long-term drawbacks. “Reliance on price incentives as a marketing tool is dangerous — it devalues the brand, and it’s hard to wean consumers off it.”

CEO Drew Reisser of marketing consulting group Renegade offers sound advice to MediaPost on what marketers can do during a recession:

Focus on advertising with clear and proven return on investment, such as Internet and promotional advertising.
Be prepared to cut budget bloaters like trade shows, which have a harder time proving ROI.
Focus on a brand’s core base, instead of going after more expensive new customers
If a brand has made its bones on humor, don’t be quick to change that. “Acknowledging bad times might feel right, particularly if a recession is protracted, but consumers may not want to be reminded of that fact. And a little entertainment can go a long way, Neisser says. ‘If humor was right for your brand in good times, it’s even more right for your brand in bad,’ he says.”

Online advertising could be one bright spot, with a bevy of news sources declaring that Google, and by extension Internet advertising, seems to resilient to economic downturns. The Times UK expects online advertising growth to perhaps slow down, but not even begin to touch the depths of the 2000 crash, while Wired News declares Google may be recession proof, comparing their AdWords program to direct mail:

“We looked at all the past recessions from 1950 on and we found that direct mail — Google’s most direct predecessor — actually grew during six recessions,” Cowen and Company’s Friedland says. “Given the current environment, there’s no reason to think Google will outperform. But there’s no reason to think it will underperform.”

Thinking that Internet advertising will be the industry’s savior is a bit rosy, however. While Internet ad spending is growing incredibly rapidly, it’s forecasted to slow to 30 percent in 2008, and it still makes up less than 10 percent of total ad spending.

(Image of the killer deal at Gray’s Papaya from flickr user aturkus, CC 2.0)

2007-11-21T18:01:00.000-08:00

Keeping Marketing’s Promises
by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II

11/13/07
Ads that trumpet, “We’re unique!” are meaningless if the stores say, “No, we’re not.”

Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business School Press. Excerpted from Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II. Copyright © 2007 James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II; All Rights Reserved. http://www.strategy-business.com

Why did the American Advertising Federation launch the campaign “Advertising. The way great brands get to be great brands.” in 2001? Because advertising no longer works as well as it once did. Companies in consumer and business markets now pay more and more to reach fewer and fewer households and executive decision makers.

Advertisements appear everywhere — we see ads online, on movie screens, on sports uniforms, on the sides of vehicles, on mobile phones, ads nauseam. London-based agency Cunning at one point even paid people, primarily college students, to wear its clients’ temporary-tattoo ads and logos on their foreheads. In an initiative dubbed “Fake Tourist,” Sony Ericsson employed actors, called “leaners,” to promote its picture-taking cell phones by frequenting tourist traps (e.g., the Empire State Building in New York, the Space Needle in Seattle) and asking tourists to take their pictures. The company also hired models to demonstrate video caller ID and interactive games at nightclubs. For its clients, DVC Experiential Marketing paid “commuters” to read new magazines aboard rush-hour trains; it also paid doormen to display “packages” from catalog merchants in their lobbies, as if tenants had not picked them up yet. Rob Walker, the Consumed columnist for the New York Times Magazine, noted that agencies “have concluded that the most powerful forum for consumer seduction is not TV ads or billboards but rather the conversations we have in our everyday lives.”

The authors of Buzz: Harness the Power of Influence and Create Demand distinguish between spontaneously generated buzz and buzz marketing, which “is the scripted use of action to generate buzz. It is deliberate. One of the factors that sets buzz marketing apart from other forms of marketing is the illusion, the invisibility of the marketer. Authenticity is the key driver!” A key driver, yes, but one that so often pushes consumers away; such activity creates the perception of phoniness because it is not what it says it is.

Consider clothing retailer Gap Inc. Its advertisements over the past decade, featuring line dancers and celebrities, have had several effects. First, they put off many current customers who saw images portraying Gap as different from how these individuals saw themselves. Gap no longer conformed to (and thereby confirmed) their own self-images. With each successive ad, the Wall Street Journal observed, such consumers grew “tired of [the] trendiness.” Second, in-store displays merely paid lip service to the advertisements — actual interactions with sales personnel fell far short of the energy and enthusiasm displayed in the ads. Third, Old Navy stores — also owned by Gap Inc. — carried essentially the same merchandise at a lower price, and without the overtrendiness. As a former Gap executive told the New York Times, “Being cool went to [Gap management’s] heads, and they lost their focus. They began putting Old Navys in malls right next to Gaps and undermining their own sales.” Finally, all Gap stores — thousands of them — look exactly alike. The process by which Gap grew revenues — adding more outlets while increasing advertising — became the process of killing the brand, as the perception of sameness permeated the marketplace. Gap’s advertising says “Unique,” but the in-store experience falls far short of what it says it is.

That is the fundamental problem with advertising: It’s a phoniness-generating machine. Think of the appeal of any hamburger in any advertisement versus the reality encountered in the actual establishment. Or think of any airline, hotel, or even hospital; if you could only check into the ads, you’d have a great experience. When you check into the actual place, however, it so often falls short of what the ads represented. When it comes to the Is What It Says It Is standard of authenticity, the easiest way to be perceived as phony is to advertise things you are not. This practice, endemic to the industry, may have worked when advertising could promote the availability of a new offering (even if not as new nor as improved as the ads said), when it could promulgate a cost advantage (even when it was short-lived or came with a catch), or when it could detail a distinction in quality (even though no one might be able to tell the difference). Today, however, wide availability, low costs, and high quality are merely “jacks to open” when what consumers want above all is authenticity.

What companies need, therefore, is a new approach to demand creation that actually enables — make that forces — a company to be what it says it is. To borrow the phrase architect Jon Jerde made famous, that discipline is placemaking. Places are what provide the primary means for companies to demonstrate exactly what they are for both current and potential customers. Companies that embrace placemaking understand a fundamental dictum for contending with authenticity: The experience is the marketing. In other words, the best way to generate demand for any offering — whether a commodity, good, service, other experience, or even a transformation — is for potential (and current) customers to experience that offering in a place so engaging that they can’t help but pay attention, and then pay up as a result by buying that offering. Stop saying what your offerings are through advertising, and start creating places — permanent or temporary, physical or virtual, fee-based or free — where people can experience what those offerings, as well as your enterprise, actually are.

Author Profiles:

James H. Gilmore (jimgilmore@aol.com) and B. Joseph Pine II (bjp2@aol.com) are cofounders of Strategic Horizons LLP.

2007-11-05T19:28:00.000-08:00

Poll finds nearly 80 percent of

U.S.

adults go online

NEW YORK (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/news/technology/internet - Do you find yourself going online more and more? You're not alone.

Four out of five U.S. adults go online now, according to a new Harris Poll.

The survey, which polled 2,062 adults in July and October, found that 79 percent of adults -- about 178 million -- go online, spending an average 11 hours a week on the Internet.

"We're up to almost 80 of adults who now are online, or are somehow gaining access to the Internet. That's a pretty impressive figure," said Regina Corso, director of the Harris Poll.

The results reflect a steady rise since 2000, when 57 percent of adults polled said they went online. In 2006, the number was 77 percent.

When Harris Interactive, a market research firm, first began tracking online use among adults in 1995, the group found that only nine percent of the population -- or 17.5 million -- said they went online.

The poll also found that adults are spending more time online at home and at work, up two percent each at 72 percent and 37 percent respectively, from 2006. More dramatically, 31 percent of those surveyed said they went online elsewhere, up from 22 percent in 2006.

"They are finding however possible to get online...A third of the people who are online, that's how they're getting there - some alternate way," said Corso.

Demographically, the poll showed the online population aligning more with the general population.

For example, the poll showed that 25 percent of adults who went online were between 18 and 29 years old -- the same age group makes up 22 percent of the U.S. adult population.

Hispanics make up 13 percent of the adult population, and also made up 13 percent of the online population surveyed.

The poll also found that while online access is still dominated by younger adults, nine percent of those that go online are 65 years old and older, compared to the 16 percent of adults who are 65 and over.

"We're getting closer. Every year it's getting more and more like the general population picture," said Corso.

"Baby boomers are online. As they become more and more part of that population, we're going to see larger swings there."

As the online population gets closer to 100 percent, Corso said the next step was to see how people are getting online.

"It's not just a laptop or a desktop anymore. How many of these people are using some kind of hand held device for all of their online activity?"

(Reporting by Solarina Ho)

2007-09-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

NBC to Offer a Free Video Download Service (TV meets the Internet!)

By BILL CARTER

NBC Universal, acknowledging that viewers are increasingly moving away from traditional television viewing, announced plans today for a service that will make popular NBC programs available to download free to personal computers and other devices.

The programs, including “Heroes” and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” will be offered for a week immediately after their initial broadcasts. Commercials will be embedded in the programs and viewers will not be able to skip through them.

The move comes less than three weeks after NBC Universal announced it was severing ties with Apple Inc. after a dispute over how Apple was selling NBC programs on its popular iTunes service.

NBC first contracted with Amazon to offer its programs for sale to downloading devices like MP3 players. Now it is establishing its own downloading service, which NBC executives say they expect to become a viable competitor to iTunes.

“With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consume their favorite entertainment,” said Vivi Zigler, the executive vice president of NBC Digital Entertainment. “Not only does this feature give them more control, but it also gives them a higher quality video experience.”

The NBC service, called NBC Direct, will begin a testing period in October with plans to be operational in November. The service will allow customers to download full episodes of NBC shows for seven days on Windows-based PCs. The file will expire after the seven days.

But NBC intends to transform the service into a model similar to iTunes by the middle of 2008 — that is, consumers will pay NBC directly to download episodes of the shows. “We did this to eliminate the middleman,” said Jeff Gaspin, the president of NBC’s digital division.

2007-08-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

Internet Advertising Will Soon Top Newspapers, Study Finds

Overall, communications spending increased 6.8% in 2006 to a record $885.2 billion, outpacing GDP growth for the fourth time in five years, the report says.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
August 8, 2007 04:00 PM

Consumers are spending less time with media and businesses are spending more, according to a report released by private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS). If current trends continue, Internet advertising will eclipse newspapers as the largest advertising medium by 2011.

Overall, communications spending increased 6.8% in 2006 to a record $885.2 billion, outpacing GDP growth for the fourth time in five years, the report says. VSS projects that the communications industry will grow 6.4% this year and will continue to do so at a compound annual growth rate of 6.7% through 2011. This would make communications the third fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy.

But when communications-related spending finally tops $1 trillion in 2008, it will be alternative media and institutional sectors driving growth. VSS divides the communications industry into four major end-user groups -- advertising, marketing, consumer, and institutional -- that spend money in 19 separate media segments.

"We are in the midst of a major shift in the media landscape that is being fueled by changes in technology, end-user behaviors, and the response by brand marketers and communications companies," said James Rutherfurd, EVP and Managing Director at VSS, in a statement. "We expect these shifts to continue over the next five years, as time and place shifting accelerate while consumers and businesses utilize more digital media alternatives, strengthening the new media pull model at the expense of the traditional media push model."

The good news, at least for those concerned about the health of the communications industry, is that spending is rising. The bad news is that less and less of that money is likely to go to traditional media providers as consumer attention shifts online.

Consumers are spending less time (-6.3% from 2001 through 2006) with ad-supported media and more time with consumer-supported platforms like cable TV and videogames (+19.8% from 2001 through 2006). And for the first time since 1997, consumers spent less time (-0.5%) with media overall in 2006 than the year before.

Media usage by institutional users, meanwhile, grew at a compound annual growth rate of 3.3% from 2001 through 2006, reflecting the increased use of online platforms to boost performance and workflow.

VSS attributes the drop in consumer media usage to the fact that online news and entertainment typically are engaging consumers for shorter periods of time than traditional media like broadcast or cable TV. "For example, consumers typically watch broadcast or cable television at least 30 minutes per session while they spend as little as five to seven minutes viewing consumer-generated video clips online," VSS explained.

The fastest-growing media segments in the next five years will be Internet and mobile services, branded entertainment, out-of-home media, outsourced custom publishing, and public relations, according to VSS.

2007-07-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

Young Adults Are Giving Newspapers Scant Notice
By JUSTON JONES
New York TIMES
Published: July 16, 2007

With the United States military fighting a protracted war in Iraq and a wide-open presidential campaign already making headlines daily, Americans of all ages are interested in current affairs and are consuming news like never before, right?

Not so, especially not teenagers and young adults, according to a report released last week by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

In fact, most teenagers and adults 30 and younger are not following the news closely at all, the report, titled “Young People and News,” concluded. It is based on a national sample of 1,800 Americans that included teenagers, young adults aged 18 to 30 and older adults.

Thomas Patterson, a professor of government and the press at Harvard who conducted the survey, said that young people today do not make an appointment with news every day the way older adults do.

“We found that most young adults don’t have an ingrained news habit,” he said. “Most children today, when watching television, are not watching the same TV set that their parents are watching. So even if their parents are watching the news every day, the children are likely to be in another room watching something else and aren’t acquiring the news habit.”

The survey went a step further to see what the respondents meant when they said that they did pay attention to the news. Those results, especially among the younger groups, were equally discouraging for the news industry, said Alex S. Jones, the director of the Shorenstein Center.

“What we found is that what people mean when they say they are engaged in the news has much more of a glancing, superficial basis than anything we would have hoped,” he said. “Young people seemed to think that just listening to the radio in the background was listening to the news.”

The results were especially grim for newspapers. Only 16 percent of the young adults surveyed aged 18 to 30 said that they read a newspaper every day and 9 percent of teenagers said that they did. That compared with 35 percent of adults over 30. Furthermore, despite the popular belief that young people are flocking to the Internet, the survey found that teenagers and young adults were twice as likely to get daily news from television than from the Web.
Despite this, some in the industry say the situation is not hopeless.

Jane Hirt, the editor of RedEye, a free daily newspaper that is published by The Chicago Tribune specifically for young, urban professionals, said that her publication had succeeded and had even expanded its audience by adopting some of the lessons learned from television and the Internet and by experimenting with ways to tell stories.

“We may have a short face-off with two sides of an issue,” she said. “We believe it is a way of delivering content in a form like younger people are used to getting on the Internet.”

She said that she reminds her editors that their younger readers are used to customizing their lives. “They pick and choose what they want on their iPods, what to TiVo and watch whenever they want, and so forth,” she said. “Therefore, because we are targeting that niche audience, we make story selections to really connect with them, and we can do that because we are thinking about them all day.”

Still, her publication and newspapers in general may be facing an uphill battle.

“My sense is that newspapers in their traditional form are not going to be able to recapture this audience,” said Professor Patterson. “What’s happened over time is that we have become more of a viewing nation than a reading nation, and the Internet is a little of both. My sense is that, like it or not, the future of news is going to be in the electronic media, but we don’t really know what that form is going to look like.”

2007-07-02T18:31:00.001-07:00

Advertising outlook weakens in US
By Carlos Grande
Published: July 2 2007 12:13 Last updated: July 2 2007 12:13

Advertising forecasters have downgraded prospects for the US, challenging expectations of a boost to the marketing industry from the presidential election race and the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics.

Zenith Optimedia, the international media buyer, on Monday shaved its 2007 expectations of US advertising expenditure growth to 3.3 per cent at constant currencies.

Zenith, part of Publicis, the Paris-headquartered marketing services group, says weak expenditure on US network television and trade magazines to reduce further its previous estimate of 3.4 per cent, which had already come down from 4.1 per cent in December.

Zenith follows recently reduced US forecasts by Carat, part of Aegis, the UK-listed media and research group, and a gloomy analysis by Universal McCann, part of Interpublic, the US-listed marketing services group.

Universal McCann said US businesses were cutting back to focus on improving productivity and profits and building up cash resources. It puts US advertising growth at 3.1 per cent this year.
The US is the world’s biggest advertising market and the key profit territory for the world’s two largest marketing services groups - Omnicom of the US and UK-listed WPP.

Worldwide, the industry would normally expect a jump in expenditure during a period which includes the run up to the US presidential elections, the Euro 2008 football championships and the summer Olympics in China.

The current downgrades for the US contrast with upbeat assessments from Zenith and others of prospects for global advertising, especially internet marketing.

Interest in online video advertising and localised marketing on search engines has encouraged Zenith to publish upgraded figures for expenditure on internet advertising.

It now believes internet advertising will grow by 82 per cent between 2006 and 2009, while the rest of the advertising sector grows by 13 per cent during the same period.

Zenith estimates worldwide advertising expenditure will grow by 5.5 per cent this year and by 6.4 per cent in 2008. It calculates that the Beijing Olympics will generate about $3bn of extra advertising expenditure globally in 2008.

Sentiment towards western european markets has also improved: Zenith estimates that German advertising last year experienced its fastest growth rate since 2000.
Carat estimates that global advertising expenditure will increase by 5.8 per cent this year and 6.4 per cent in 2008.

Univeral McCann predicts worldwide advertising will grow by 4.2 per cent in 2007.
The Financial Times Limited 2007

2007-06-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

I love this painting.

2007-06-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Mast Research Report Readers,

Below is one of the better articles I’ve seen regarding the shift in MARKETING strategies which is resulting in the shift in advertising strategy and revenue, accordingly. Sometimes we (as media people) tend to forget that our valuable ad dollars are only a portion of an advertiser's marketing budget. As economic pressures continue to dictate stronger ROI and less "waste" in marketing, greater emphasis is being placed on pricing, incentives, customer retention and loyalty programs as well as shifts in media and advertising strategies to digital and newer forms of communication. That, coupled with the fact that traditional ad agencies can make more money as marketing services partners versus traditional advertising consultants and providers, we can anticipate that this is a trend that will only get stronger…

Where's the Money Moving? Out of Media
Ad Dollars Drop, but That Doesn't Mean Marketers Have Stopped Spending
By Bradley Johnson Published: June 11, 2007

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- U.S. ad spending -- at least the measured kind -- fell 0.3% in the January-to-March period, the first down quarter since the ad recovery began in 2002. But a drop in reported ad spending does not mean a drop in marketing spending. That's because what marketers need isn't just measured media; it's measurable results.

Omnicom President-CEO John Wren said his firm's emphasis on marketing services has given it an edge over rivals recently.

Budgets are gravitating from old-line measured media to an array of marketing-services -- digital, direct, customer relationship management -- that offers better tools to quantify results. Marketing services includes some media offerings, such as online ads. But much of marketing services doesn't fit in the box of an ad to be sold. For companies in the business of selling media space and time, a shift to non-media forms of marketing poses a fundamental challenge.

Marketing services win outMarketing-services disciplines often fly under the radar, unmeasured by ad trackers such as TNS Media Intelligence, which put out the first-quarter data. But the shift is clear: In 2005, U.S. agencies generated more revenue from marketing services than from traditional advertising and media, according to Ad Age's DataCenter.

The trend has continued. In the first quarter, the top three agency holding companies -- Omnicom Group, WPP Group and Interpublic Group of Cos. -- collectively generated 53% of worldwide revenue from marketing services. Omnicom last quarter generated even more revenue -- 57% -- from marketing services, and President-CEO John Wren said those disciplines have helped the firm outperform its rivals. "We are much larger in the marketing-services area relative to any of our leading competitors," he told analysts in April. "You know, I definitely think that's been a significant advantage for Omnicom over probably forever, but definitely for the last five or six years, and maybe even accelerated over the past couple of years."

To be sure, the economy is soft -- first-quarter GDP rose at an annual clip of 0.6%, worst since 2002 -- and ex-Fed chief Alan Greenspan sees a one-in-three chance of recession this year. Advertising can be a leading indicator: Measured spending began to fall three months before the official start of the 2001 recession, and it didn't begin a sustained rebound until six months after the downturn ended. But the agency business, boosted by digital work, is growing: U.S. agency employment in April hit its highest point since the 2001 recession. In contrast, traditional media companies have slashed 40,500 jobs -- 4.6% of workers -- since the measured-ad-spending recovery took hold in 2002.

Good for the web As traditional media disciplines struggle to adapt, internet media are gaining share. The internet's share of measured spending rose to 8.1% in the first quarter from 5.4% five years ago, according to TNS data. Even when they lose share, disciplines still can grow revenue. Consider the advent of TV: Every other consumer medium lost share from 1950 to 1960, yet every medium still managed to gain revenue during that booming decade. Even radio, most threatened by TV, managed a small gain. And by one measure, first-quarter measured media spending actually rose a little: Jon Swallen, senior VP-director of research at TNS, said the 0.3% drop becomes a 2.2% gain if you factor out Olympics advertising that boosted year-ago figures.

(Advertising AGE - http://www.adage.com/ ) Crain Communications Privacy Statement Contact Us

2007-06-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

New York Times May Ad Revenue Drops
New York Times May Advertising Revenue Down 8.5 Percent, Internet Ad Sales Up

NEW YORK (AP) Thursday June 14 10:19AM ET -- The New York Times Co. said Thursday that advertising revenue from continuing operations dropped 8.5 percent in May as national, retail and classified ads all declined.

The company said its total revenue from continuing operations fell 5.8 percent compared with May of last year.

The New York Times' media properties include its namesake newspaper, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and more than 30 Web sites including NYTimes.com and About.com.

Advertising revenue for the New York Times Media Group dropped 9.1 percent as national, retail and classified advertising all declined. Ad revenue for the New England Media Group fell 8.8 percent. The Regional Media Group saw the largest decline, with a 14 percent drop in sales.
Internet ad revenue for the New York Times, New England and Regional media groups surged 21.4 percent as display and classified advertising increased.

Circulation revenue for May rose 0.1 percent, as increased sales at The New York Times Media Group offset declines at the New England and Regional Media Groups.

Advertising revenue at the company's About.com Internet business jumped 32.6 percent with more display and cost-per-click advertising. The company said the data reflects the acquisitions of ConsumerSearch.com in early May and UCompareHealthCare.com in late March.

Unique U.S. visitors to the company's Internet properties gained 11 percent at 43.8 million, from 39.3 million unique visitors in the prior year.

The company said TimesSelect, a fee-based product on NYTimes.com offering columns and archived articles, has about 741,000 subscribers.

New York Times shares fell 40 cents to $26.04 in morning trading.

2007-06-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

High Speed Internet Is Going High Speed!

China overtaking US for fast internet access as Africa gets left behind
One in five people in the world has high-speed lines but the gap is growing

Richard Wray, communications editorThursday June 14, 2007The Guardian

Almost 300 million people worldwide are now accessing the internet using fast broadband connections, fuelling the growth of social networking services such as MySpace and generating thousands of hours of video through websites such as YouTube.

There are more than 1.1 billion of the world's estimated 6.6 billion people online and almost a third of them are now accessing the internet on high-speed lines. According to the internet consultancy Point Topic, 298 million people had broadband at the end of March and that is already estimated to have shot over 300 million. The statistics, however, paint a picture of a divided digital world.

While there are high levels of broadband penetration in western Europe, North America and hi-tech economies such as South Korea, usage in developing countries, and especially in Africa, is pitiful. Many of these emerging economies lack telephone services, let alone the sort of broadband internet access that has become available to every household in Europe.

In terms of total broadband users, the US leads the pack with more than 60 million subscribers. But second-placed China is fast closing the gap. From 41 million users a year ago, China now has more than 56 million and looks set to overtake the US as the world's largest broadband market this year.

Katja Mueller, research director at Point Topic, said: "What amazed me when compiling these figures is that China has leapt ahead and actually had more people sign up to broadband in the first three months of this year than in any other earlier quarter."

China's rampant growth is a result of economic changes and government intervention. The country's economic boom has helped create an affluent urban middle class clamouring for the social aspects of internet access, while the government has been driving the roll-out of internet access in rural areas.

Next year's Beijing Olympics has provided a fillip to the market with the government demanding that every household in the capital has high-speed internet access in time for the games.

Japan ranked third, with 26.5 million broadband users at the end of March this year, while Germany is fourth at more than 16 million. France scored the highest growth (9%) in take-up among the top 10 broadband nations to leapfrog South Korea - at 14.1 million - to take the fifth spot with 15.3 million.

The UK came in sixth with just under 14 million broadband users at the end of March, up 6.4%. Demand in the UK has been driven by fierce competition from the satellite broadcaster Sky, which launched its broadband service last year, and the introduction of "free" broadband offers from firms such as TalkTalk.

But in terms of broadband usage as a percentage of households, the UK's position in the global rankings slips to number 17, with 55.5% of households connecting to the internet at high speed.
Based on broadband penetration, South Korea is by far the world's top broadband user with nearly 90% of households online. Several small, economically vibrant and densely populated states are also high on the list such as Hong Kong, Monaco and Macau. The US, with broadband penetration at just under 53%, is in 24th place. Penetration in China, meanwhile, is 14.35% while in India penetration stands at just 1.15% of the country's estimated 200 million households.

Penetration levels in eastern Europe, meanwhile, may be low but the region scored the highest overall level of growth in take-up, becoming the only area to show growth of more than 10%.
The region's economic rehabilitation, in part thanks to the inclusion of several states in an expanded EU, is driving take-up, according to Point Topic. Poland saw growth in new broadband connections of 9% in the first quarter, with Hungary at 10.38%, Bulgaria at 10.94%, Ukraine at nearly 15% and Croatia at a staggering 25%.

"Penetration of broadband in eastern Europe was really low, but it is starting to catch up with Europe and we expect eastern Europe to continue to grow," said Ms Mueller.

In fact, Indonesia scored the highest growth across the world in the first quarter - almost 28% - but from a very low base. Greece, meanwhile was second with growth of over 26% due to the rather late introduction of broadband by incumbent operator OTE.

The figures, however, show just how large the gap is between the digital haves and have nots. Many sub-Saharan African states do not register in the figures at all: only South Africa, Sudan, Senegal and Gabon make it on to the list, with household broadband penetration running from 1.79% in South Africa - with 215,000 users at the end of March - to just 0.05% in Sudan with a mere 3,000. North African states fare slightly better with Morocco scoring 6.78% penetration with 418,000 users, and Egypt at 1.55% or 240,000. Many African states are now looking to mobile phone companies to provide access to the internet as they struggle to find a place at the digital table.

2007-06-13T10:02:00.001-07:00

AD SPENDING COULD BE WEAKEST SINCE 2001
By HOLLY M. SANDERS

$LOWING SALES: In January ad growth for this year was projected
to be 2.6 percent. Now expectations are lowered to 1.7 percent growth over 2006 spending.June 13, 2007 -- After a bad start to the year, Madison Avenue is bracing for even worse news: Advertising spending in 2007 is expected to be the weakest since the ad recession in 2001.

Ad tracker TNS Media Intelligence predicts U.S. ad expenditures will grow just 1.7 percent to $152.3 billion, down from a previous forecast of 2.6 percent.

"Take two aspirin and wait for 2008," said Jon Swallen, senior vice president and director of research at TNS.

Swallen and other forecasters figured that ad spending would be down compared with last year, which had the double boost of the Olympics and election spending.

Still, TNS was forced to revise its full-year forecast after ad spending in the first quarter fell short of expectations.

"Spending through the first three months contracted at an even faster rate than we expected," Swallen said. "I'm coming up short on even my most pessimistic forecasts."

Swallen said marketers are being cautious, especially local advertisers that are sensitive to economic conditions and tend to pull back on advertising when faced with uncertainty.

The drop in dollars also reflects marketers that continue to shift their ad budgets away from traditional media such as TV toward less expensive digital alternatives including the Internet.

Television is a mixed bag. While ad spending on cable networks is expected to rise 5.9 percent, network TV expenditures will increase by just 1.3 percent. Without the Olympics-election combo, spot TV spending is expected to fall 5.5 percent.

Article Link (NY POST): http://www.nypost.com

2007-05-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

The case of the disappearing TV viewers...

Patterns, measurements define 2006-07 season

NEW YORK -- It has been a wild and in some cases wacky season for network TV, culminating in a hunt for millions of missing viewers that is so complicated that it's worthy of its own episode of "CSI."

On the surface, it is status quo CBS extended its winning streak in total viewers to five years, while "American Idol"-powered Fox bagged a third consecutive season victory among adults 18-49.

But underneath, a sea change has been brewing."I think we'll look back and see 2007 as the watershed when all the things we talked about viewing behavior and audience measurement of that behavior all came together to start the new era," NBC research chief Alan Wurtzel said.

"We've talked a lot about change and everything, but this is the first year we've seen it in a profound way."At the beginning of the season, Nielsen Media Research introduced "most current" ratings, cuming the audiences that watch a show live as well as those that record it on a DVR and watch it up to seven days later.

But even with those additional viewers counted this season, primetime television viewing dropped significantly compared with last season.The steepest decline was in live viewership, which fell 10% year-over-year among the four major broadcast networks. Adding in DVR viewership, which can boost shows' ratings by as much as 25% or more, the Big Four were still down 5%.

Things turned for the worse in the spring when many of TV's best and brightest fell to season or even series lows. That list includes "Desperate Housewives," "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI: Miami" and "ER," among others. Even "Idol" wasn't immune though it hasn't seen a year-over-year decline.

The reasons seem myriad. Explanations include poor comparisons with the Winter Olympics, which boosted viewership levels last year, the lack of stunt counter-programming, a three weeks' earlier start to daylight-saving time, an abnormally high amount of repeats in February and March and a shift in viewing behavior brought on by the DVR, streaming video and the growing number of ways network TV is consumed these days."It's never one thing," said Fox scheduling czar Preston Beckman, who acknowledged that the early start to daylight-saving time and the increase in DVR penetration has changed the game.

He thinks that the networks also have learned the hard way that viewers are annoyed by their favorite shows going on hiatus or repeating. It's something Fox took into consideration three years ago when it scheduled "24" straight through. Nielsen said that only 66% of program minutes in March were original compared with 80% a year ago.

Daylight-saving time generally shaves 3% or 4% off viewing, something the networks saw three weeks earlier this year. It particularly hit the 8-9 p.m. hour and such shows as NBC's "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office." But even when things started evening out, the ratings remained down."Probably the two had a compound effect and moved people away from their normal March viewing patterns into a lower general pattern of television viewing," CBS research chief David Poltrack said. "We haven't really recovered from that."Mindshare research director Debbie Solomon thinks that the long hiatus periods and schedule shifts are coming back to haunt the networks and turn off viewers."They're not leaving the set, they're leaving the shows," Solomon said. "It's important to make that distinction.

The networks have been playing so many games with scheduling and a lot of programs have gone on long hiatus periods and a lot of changed nights. ... I think viewers have given up trying to find their shows."And unlike the past two years, when several shows debuted in the winter and spring -- "Office," "The Unit," "The New Adventures of Old Christine," "Deal or No Deal" and, of course, "Grey's Anatomy" -- this year fewer programs were introduced and only three, ABC's "October Road," Fox's "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" and CBS' "Rules of Engagement" stuck."And certainly you wouldn't put them in the same class as 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Deal or No Deal' in terms of strength," Poltrack said. "This was a spring where the networks were not reinvigorated with new programming as in years past. Hence, more repeats.

This led to some lowering of overall viewing levels."Fox's Beckman doesn't think that the decline is as severe as it seems when just looking at live-plus-same day. It's a function of the fact that the average Nielsen home is three or four times more likely to be recording programming and playing it back later than it was a year ago."When you incorporate the live-plus-seven (ratings), you see that viewing isn't down as much as it appears to be," Beckman said. By that yardstick, such series as "24," "Lost" and "Idol" are flat or slightly up compared with a year ago.

NBC's Wurtzel doesn't think that there's a mass departure of network TV viewers. It's just that there are more choices and people are consuming media differently."It may well be that for a lot of people they don't feel the need to be there day-and-date for conventional television anymore," he said. "I do not believe that people aren't interested in television. That doesn't make any sense." But Beckman believes that with the networks putting so many shows on so many platforms, it is leading to a growing perception that viewers don't have to watch it on network TV. The trick, he said, is whether the loss in potential advertising revenue is offset by the gains in the other ways the shows are being sold.

NBC is asking Nielsen to look into its measurement to make sure that there's nothing hinky there, like a few years ago when young male viewership dropped precipitously. Nielsen said it's looking into NBC's concerns and plans to report to its clients before the Memorial Day holiday."What we've found is that people aren't watching less TV this season, they're watching slightly less live television," a Nielsen spokesman said.

Wurtzel is more concerned about the changes in the HUT (households using television) and PUT (persons using television) levels, upon which the viewership and ratings are based."I would be surprised if there was a proverbial smoking gun. I think it's going to be a lot of different things," he said. "But I think we really have to understand what the Nielsen situation is, either to say we've got to deal with it or to say it's been taken off the list."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com by Paul J. Gough May 25, 2007

2007-05-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 17, 2007
Newspaper Industry Proclaimed "Vibrant, Growing"

According to recent provisional data from the World Association of Newspapers Paid-for newspaper circulation went up 1.9 percent year-on-year to more than 510 million paid-for copies in 2006, and the number of new paid-for titles grew to more than 11,000 for the first time in history.

Gavin O'Reilly, President of WAN and Chief Operating Officer of Independent News & Media Ltd., said "The prognosis for newspapers is actually quite different to conventional wisdom... Those of us in the newspaper business are very confident in the future... producing relevant and compelling products for our local markets, aggregating growing audiences and showcasing them to advertisers."

Based on preliminary figures from more than 200 countries and territories, to be published next month:

Paid-for circulations grew 1.9 percent over 12 months and 8.7 percent over five years. With free newspapers, global circulation grew 4.3 percent year-on-year.

Free daily newspaper circulation more than doubled over five years, to 40.8 million copies a day
More than 1.4 billion people now read a newspaper daily

Paid-for daily titles surpassed 11,000

Print is the biggest advertising medium in the world, says the report, with a 42 percent share.

Newspapers alone are the second largest, with 29.4 percent of global advertising spend.

Advertising revenues rose 4 percent in 12 months and 15.6 percent over the past five years

More than 6 billion US dollars have been invested in newspaper printing and production equipment in the last 18 months

O'Reilly noted that "Hidden in those figures is the fact that newspapers... actually represent more than the combined advertising value of radio, cinema, magazines and the internet."

Click here for the full presentation; http://www.wan-press.org/article14023.html .

Research from Media Post www.mediapost.com : Center for Media Research research@mediapost.com

2007-05-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

Father & Son... Just relaxing.

This is a picture I took of my son Elliot, (and my feet) while we enjoyed a nice spring day on the porch. Very calm and cool.

I cherish my time with him! This picture reminds me of our fun times together.

I know this isn't research or media focused--however, my 9 year old son gives me creative ideas that only a child can imagine! I think outside the box more, thanks to him!

2007-05-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

2007-05-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

Old media turns combative against new media
Tue May 8, 2007 7:40PM EDT
By Kenneth Li

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Leading media executives took a combative tone against Internet companies on Tuesday, suggesting that Big Media increasingly considers new content distributors like Google Inc. to be more foe than friend.

At a panel discussion on the second day of the 56th annual National Cable & Telecommunications Association conference, top executives said talk of the demise of traditional media in the digital age was overblown.

While new distribution technologies like the Internet and mobile phones are siphoning television audiences, media companies argued that the Web also brings new revenue streams.

But the discussion quickly moved to criticism of the perception that traditional media businesses are dead, and to the rampant copyright offenses enabled by new digital technologies.

"The Googles of the world, they are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux nation," Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Richard Parsons said, referring to the Civil War American general George Custer who was defeated by Native Americans in a battle dubbed "Custer's Last Stand".

"They will lose this war if they go to war," Parsons added, "The notion that the new kids on the block have taken over is a false notion."

Time Warner defended its discussions on copyright protection with Internet search leader Google Inc., which another panel member, Viacom Inc., has sued.

Viacom, owner of the MTV and Comedy Central networks, is seeking more than $1 billion from Google and its online video site YouTube, accusing them in a lawsuit of "massive intentional copyright infringement."

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said on the panel his company had discussed working with Google and YouTube earlier than other major media companies, by virtue of the popularity of its programs on the Web and their resonance with young viewers.

Dauman said Viacom had little choice after failing to reach an agreement, as video clips of its shows were uploaded by YouTube users without its permission.

"So, it was only reluctantly after trying for a long period of time, to reach a deal that we found that we could not tolerate having our content taken, when we've got Brian and Dick and others compensating us for it," Dauman said, referring to Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Brian Roberts and Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons.
"We were forced into it," he added.

IfGoogle, whose advances in applying its Internet paid search technology to the television industry, radio and print has spooked traditional media companies, owns a 5 percent stake in Time Warner's AOL Internet unit.

"We're in a world where we're a partner with everybody and we're fighting everybody," News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin said on the panel.

Despite the attention from Wall Street, the media industry and the press, executives said the percentage of overall sales contributed by digital businesses remained small and they should be mindful of destroying existing lucrative businesses.

"The amount of money we get from those (Internet companies) are a fraction of those we get from the cable industry," Chernin said. "We have to be careful not to disaggregate."

News Corp. is likely in a position to know how enemies today could turn into friends tomorrow.
A source familiar with the matter said News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, which oversees its popular Internet social network MySpace, had reached a preliminary deal to buy photo sharing site Photobucket for an estimated $250 million.

MySpace last month blocked traffic coming from Photobucket after the photo service began running ads on photos displayed on MySpace sites. MySpace said it had violated its service terms.

"You'll see more acquisitions," Chernin said. "This is a world where the big get bigger. You'll see increased consolidation."

2007-05-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

Data Says 2.5 Million Less Watching TV

May 8 06:01 PM US/EasternBy DAVID BAUDERAP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Maybe they're outside in the garden. They could be playing softball. Or perhaps they're just plain bored. In TV's worst spring in recent memory, a startling number of Americans drifted away from television the past two months: More than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at the same time last year, statistics show.
Everyone has a theory to explain the plummeting ratings: early Daylight Savings Time, more reruns, bad shows, more shows being recorded or downloaded or streamed.

Scariest of all for the networks, however, is the idea that many people are now making their own television schedules. The industry isn't fully equipped to keep track of them, and as a result the networks are scrambling to hold on to the nearly $8.8 billion they collected during last spring's ad-buying season.

"This may be the spring where we see a radical shift in the way the culture thinks of watching TV," said Sarah Bunting, co-founder of the Web site Television Without Pity.
The viewer plunge couldn't have come at a worse time for the networks—next week they will showcase their fall schedules to advertisers in the annual "up front" presentations.

The networks argue that viewership is changing, not necessarily declining. Some advertisers respond that they are no longer willing to pay full price up front to reach viewers that may not tune in later.

This fall, both sides will be watching what happens with families like Tony Cort's. During prime-time, Cort, his wife and four kids tend to scatter to computers or other activities in different parts of their New Jersey home. (Not during "American Idol" or "Lost," though.) They're definitely watching less TV, said Cort, who runs a Web site for martial arts aficionados.
"I remember when `24' was on, that was something there was a lot of interest and excitement about," he said.

News flash: "24" is still on. Its ratings are down, too, amid a critically savaged season.
More bad news abounds. NBC set a record last month for its least- watched week during the past 20 years, and maybe ever—then broke it a week later. This is the least popular season ever for CBS' "Survivor." ABC's "Lost" has lost nearly half its live audience—more than 10 million people—from the days it was a sensation. "The Sopranos" is ending on HBO, and the response is a collective yawn.

Events like "American Idol" on Fox (which is owned by News Corp.) and "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC (owned by The Walt Disney Co.) are doing the most to prop up the industry. But still, in the six weeks after Daylight Savings Time started in early March, prime-time viewership for the four biggest broadcast networks was down to 37.6 million people, from 40.3 million during the same period in 2006, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Millions of missing viewers could translate into millions of missing dollars for the networks heading into the up-front sales season.

Advertisers don't believe that the drop in viewership is as dramatic as the numbers suggest, but they're no longer willing to spend what they once did in the spring market, said Brad Adgate of Horizon Media, an ad buying firm. Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola sat out the spring market last year—betting they could get lower prices later—and it's likely other companies will do the same this year, he said.

The early start to Daylight Savings Time has hurt ratings. Prime-time viewership traditionally dips then as people do more things outside, and this year folks had a three-week head start to get into the habit of doing something else. More network reruns during March and April dampened interest, too.

"We let them get out of the habit of watching television a little bit, and it's going to take some time to get these people back in front of their television sets," said David Poltrack, chief researcher for CBS (owned by CBS Corp.).

Strategic decisions to send some popular serial dramas on long hiatuses appeared to backfire. NBC's "Heroes," CBS' "Jericho" and "Lost" lost significant momentum when they returned. Besides HBO's "The Sopranos," there are no lengthy countdowns toward the end of very popular series, unless you count "The King of Queens."

There also are technical reasons that this apparent diminished interest in television may be overstated.

This year, for the first time, Nielsen is measuring viewership in the estimated 17 percent of homes with digital video recorders—but it only counts them in the ratings of a specific show if they watch it within 24 hours of the original air time.

If you recorded "Desperate Housewives" this spring and watched it two days later, you're not counted in the show's ratings. And you're not counted by Nielsen under any circumstances if you downloaded a show on iTunes and watched it on your iPod or cell phone, or streamed an episode from a network Web site.

Since last year's Nielsen sample contained no DVR homes and this year's sample does, logic dictates that fewer Nielsen families are watching TV live this year, deflating ratings.
"People are not consuming less television, they're watching it in different ways, and the measurements haven't caught up," said Alan Wurtzel, chief research executive at NBC (owned by General Electric Co.).

The numbers can be significant. When "The Office" aired on NBC on April 5, Nielsen said there were 5.8 million people watching. Add in the people who recorded the episode and watched it within the next week, and viewership swelled to 7.6 million, a 32 percent increase, Nielsen said.
"The Sopranos" is another interesting case study. For its first four episodes this season, the show averaged 7.4 million viewers for its weekly Sunday night premiere, down from 8.9 million at the same point its last season.

But HBO shows each new episode eight times a week. Between the multiple plays and DVR viewing, each episode this spring gets 11.1 million viewers, down from 13 million last year. And these figures don't count people who watch on demand.

Numbers for "The Sopranos" may be down because people can watch whenever they want. They may not be as interested in the show as they used to be—or it could be a combination of both.

Television has made billions based on how many people watch a show at its regular time. That idea may already be obsolete. So should the industry use DVR viewing when setting ad rates? If so, how quickly must people watch the shows—within two days? A week? What about people who watch shows on their cell phones or on network Web sites, which Nielsen doesn't measure yet? Later this month Nielsen will begin measuring how many people watch commercials. Should those be used to compute advertising costs?
Right now, none of those questions have answers.

However, "if we continue to do business assuming people will watch television as they always have," said NBC's Wurtzel, "it's a dead-end game."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

2007-04-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Newspaper Circulation Falls 2.1 Percent

Monday April 30, 10:26 am ET By Seth Sutel, AP Business Writer

Weekday Circulation at Daily Newspapers Falls 2.1 Percent in Latest Reporting Period

NEW YORK (AP) -- Weekday circulation at U.S. daily newspapers fell 2.1 percent in the latest six-month reporting period, according to figures released Monday, in the latest sign that people are turning to the Internet and other media for news.

Comparable figures for Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group. The calculations are based on reports that newspapers deliver to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Among large newspapers, the performance was mixed for the six months ending in March, with several showing gains, most notably The New York Post, which is locked in a fierce competition with the New York Daily News.

Those papers had the largest gains among the major dailies, with the Post's average weekday circulation rising 7.6 percent over the same period a year earlier, while the Daily News rose 1.4 percent.

The New York Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate News Corp., recently announced that it would double its weekday price as of Monday to 50 cents from 25 cents. The Daily News, owned by the real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman, charges 50 cents on weekdays.

Gannett Co.'s USA Today remained the largest daily in the country, with circulation of 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, ahead of The Wall Street Journal at 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent.

The Dallas Morning News, owned by Belo Corp., posted a 14.3 percent decline to 411,919, reporting for the first time since being censured in 2004 for misstating its circulation figures.

Newsday, based in New York's Long Island, had a 6.9 percent decline to 398,231. That paper, owned by Tribune Co., had also previously been censured for misstating circulation but returned to reporting circulation for the period ending in March 2006.

The Chicago Sun-Times remains the only major newspaper that had been censured by the Audit Bureau for misstatements in 2004 and has still not yet resumed reporting.

The Sun-Times' parent company had previously been known as Hollinger International Inc., run by the now-deposed press baron Conrad Black, and is now known as the Sun-Times Media Group Inc.

Newspaper circulation has been declining steadily for years amid changing reader habits and the emergence of other media for news, particularly 24-hour cable TV news and the Internet.

However the average weekday decline of 2.1 percent in the latest period was not as steep as the fall of 2.8 percent reported for the six-month period ending in October, or the six months ending in March 2006, when the decline was 2.5 percent.

Many newspapers are attracting readers and advertising dollars through their Web sites, but the growth in online revenues is generally outweighed by declines in print advertising, which still makes up the vast majority of newspapers' business.

Online readership of newspaper sites continues to grow. The NAA pointed to recently released data from Nielsen//NetRatings showing a 5.3 percent increase in the number of people who visited newspaper Web sites in the first quarter of 2007.

AP STORY: Circulation at the Top 20 Newspapers Monday

April 30, 10:59 am ET By The Associated Press

Average Weekday Circulation at the Top 20 U.S. Newspapers

Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.

1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent

2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent

3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent

4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent

5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent

6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent

7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent

8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent

9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent

10. The Arizona Republic, 433,731, down 1.1 percent

11. Dallas Morning News, 411,919, down 14.3 percent

12. Newsday, Long Island, 398,231, down 6.9 percent

13. San Francisco Chronicle, 386,564, down 2.9 percent

14. The Boston Globe, 382,503, down 3.7 percent

15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 372,629, down 6.1 percent

16. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 357,399, down 2.1 percent

17. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 352,593, up 0.6 percent

18. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 345,252, down 4.9 percent

19. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 344,704, up 0.5 percent

20. Detroit Free Press, 329,989, down 4.7 percent

The Dallas Morning News is reporting for the first time since being censured in 2004 for misstating circulation figures. The Chicago Sun-Times has not yet resumed reporting.
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations.

2006-12-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Automotive Clients: I found this article on Reuters today, Many interesting points--wanted to share with you!--Don

Honda set for record car sales, sees more growth
Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:39 AM ET
By Chang-Ran Kim, Asia auto correspondent (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Honda Motor Co. <7267.t> said on Tuesday it was heading for a 5 percent rise in global car sales to a record 3.55 million units this year and predicted continued growth in most regions for 2007.

Japan's no.3 auto maker, known for building fuel-efficient vehicles and power products, is enjoying runaway demand for the remodeled Civic sedan and CR-V crossover, keeping supply chronically short of orders, particularly in North America.

To alleviate the bottleneck, Honda will begin production of the CR-V at its plant in Mexico from the fall of 2007, Chief Executive Officer Takeo Fukui told a year-end news conference, adding the auto maker would also double annual capacity at its Brazilian car plant to 100,000 units by mid-2007.

The Tokyo-based car maker has already announced a slew of new factories and expansions over the past year, including plans for a car plant in Indiana to start operations in late 2008.

In the United States, its single-biggest market, Honda aims to increase sales by 3 percent to 1.56 million units in 2007, extending its record run to 11 straight years. Part of that will be fueled by an all-new Accord, which Honda said would hit North American showrooms next fall.

"Most customers around the world want value-for-money products, and in that sense we expect to sharpen our competitive edge and boost sales," Fukui said, playing down increasing competition from lower-cost South Korean and other brands.

Honda, the world's top motorcycle maker, also estimated its motorcycle sales to rise 3 percent to a record 12.7 million units this year, and power products to surge 15 percent to 6.4 million units.

Honda did not provide a global sales forecast for 2007, but said it expected its European car sales to jump 13 percent to 350,000 units, and sales in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan and China to also rise 13 percent, to 360,000 units.

In China, which most global car makers consider a strategically crucial market, Honda estimated its sales grew 23 percent this year to 320,000 units, short of the 350,000-unit target due to a delay in the sales network expansion at its smaller local joint venture, Dongfeng Honda.

For 2007, Executive Vice President Satoshi Aoki said Honda would aim for sales of around 400,000 units in China, outpacing his forecast for overall market growth of 10-15 percent.

To become more competitive, Honda said its main China joint venture, Ghuangzhou Honda, is looking at establishing a local automobile research and development center.

JAPAN MARKET TOUGH
Japanese auto makers are counting on sales expansion overseas to make up for tepid demand at home, where low-tax 660cc minivehicles are stealing all the growth.

Despite integrating its three sales channels into a single network this March, Honda estimated its domestic sales would fall 2 percent to 700,000 units this year, betraying the company's expectations for a rise.

Honda said it would aim to reverse that trend by launching a new seven-seater vehicle next spring, while developing more competitive minivehicles through its beefed-up collaboration with auto parts and minivehicle maker Yachiyo Industry Co. <7298.q>. Honda on Tuesday completed its purchase of more Yachiyo shares, boosting its stake to over half from 34.5 percent.

Fukui said Honda would also consider introducing in Japan a clean-diesel engine currently under development, after promising the powertrain for the U.S. market within three years.

Honda also said it would invest 25 billion yen ($212 million) to build a new engine plant in Saitama, north of Tokyo, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 units. The factory will employ about 500 people and supply Honda's car factories both inside and outside Japan.

Further out, Honda has said it wants to boost sales to 4.5 million cars and 18 million motorcycles in 2010 globally.

Shares in Honda have gained 27 percent in the year to date, outperforming the transport sector's <.ITEQP.T> 17 percent rise.

Banc of America this month named Honda its top pick in the autos sector for 2007, ahead of Toyota Motor Corp. <7203.t>, citing its upcoming new product pipeline, volume leverage and defensive nature.

After the news on Tuesday, Honda ended down 0.9 percent at 4,320 yen, in line with the main Nikkei average <.N225>.

($1=117.92 Yen)

(Additional reporting by Edwina Gibbs)

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If you would like to receive news articles delivered to your email address, please subscribe at www.reuters.com

2006-12-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

Again, Newspapers keep changing due to a shrinking audience. --Enjoy.. Don!

By William Spain Friday, Dec 15, 2006
Newspapers New Model Could Be PDF
Media LifeThe new model for newspapers could be a big departure from the one-size-fits-all, one edition per day, that is now standard practice. Instead, it could be a fully customized newspaper with a version for every possible need, in whatever format a reader might want. One new format is the PDF, which is emailed. While yet to catch on here, PDF editions are out in Canada, the UK and elsewhere. Publishers see real potential as the PDF is highly portable and easy to print on short notice. And at 8.5 inches x 11 inches, it fits easily into briefcases for reading during a commute. If a printout is lost, another can be done up quickly. For publishers, there's no real added cost for paper and ink and distribution, since it is delivered by email. And it offers yet another means of reaching readers and providing advertisers exposure. Read the whole story...

2006-12-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

I found this on www.mediapost.com . Interesting Story for media folks like me... Have a great day. Don Mast...

By William Spain Friday, Dec 15, 2006
Cable Looks To Top Nets In Prime Time
MediaweekFor the fifth straight year, ad-supported cable looks to top the broadcast nets in prime time, grabbing a 55.4% household share year-to-date, way ahead of the six broadcast nets' 40.4%, according to Nielsen Media Research data crunched by Turner chief research officer Jack Wakshlag. But if cable's dominance of prime time continued in 2006, growth appears to be easing. If the 69 measured cable channels reach a projected 55.5 share by the end of this year, that represents growth of just one-tenth of 1% over 2005. But if cable's surge over the last five years--up 15.8% in the 18-49 demo as opposed to a drop of 16% for the nets--is easing back, that may be because prime time has reached saturation. Viewership in the daypart hasn't changed and is holding at an average of 7.5 hours per week per person. Read the whole story...

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=52620

2006-12-14T18:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Mast Report Readers, This is a growing trend in advertising and communications--using TV and Internet to reach your customers... Try It!

Media Business
December 11, 2006

Capture Customers With Triangulation
Combine TV Spots With TV Station and Company Web Sites for Added Punch

By Adam Armbruster
Special to TelevisionWeek

Looking to stretch your television advertising budget in 2007? Then consider the proven power of a mixture of several media tools. Through the linking of television media choices in this way, you will enjoy improved profits and more specific campaign measurability, plus a higher sense of satisfaction with your campaign.

It is called "triangulation" and it is the powerful concept of "linking" your television commercial message, the Web site of the television station(s) with which you are advertising and your business Web site.

When these three media are properly triangulated, your campaign can become up to 50 percent more effective. It's got the power of television, plus the trackability of direct mail. It performs like television advertising on steroids.

To understand the importance of this concept, consider the following recent statistics:
According to the National Retail Federation, half of 2006 holiday shoppers will shop online (47.1 percent) and most (88.7 percent) also say they browse online before going to stores to shop. They'll begin by using a variety of search Web sites to begin their research and to compare products, among them Google (23.6 percent), Yahoo (7.2 percent), Amazon.com (5.5 percent) and eBay (3.7 percent).

We also know that they "preview" a business's Web site before visiting across all major spending categories: furniture stores (82 percent), auto dealers (78 percent to 91 percent) and homebuilders (90 percent).

See the trend? They shop virtually every major purchase online before even considering a store visit. This poses a big problem for advertisers: How to win over a consumer who won't even come into your store.

And here's a shocker: Buying search engine keyword ads is not the answer. This will not guarantee success. In our experience, keyword searches have not been proven to make mid-size or larger businesses successful in the long term. Keyword searches are far too vulnerable to being blunted by a competitor who can, and usually will, buy the same keywords against you. Many companies spend 30-plus percent of their marketing budget buying keyword searches, when these dollars could be used more efficiently to promote their business's Web site, thereby driving more "organic" traffic to the Web site. Google works on algorithms based on the popularity of a Web site.

So clearly the goal is to make your own Web site the destination for the consumer.
We know that new customers who were brought to a company through triangulated media have been on average a higher-quality lead, and therefore a more profitable lead. This could be attributed to the fact that these new consumers sought out and found your company based on a real personal need, versus a casual click-through from a Google ad.

So if you agree that the real goal is to get more consumers directly onto your Web site before they visit your business, we must begin to build our triangle.

Here are the three easy steps:

· Write and design your TV commercial to serve as a retail-driver and a Web-driver message. To do this you need to include the key proven elements for a successful television message and then add your Web site to the end of the message as the "closer." Forget listing addresses and phone numbers, since those should be readily available on your Web site anyway. Also, make the Web address prominent; many trendy producers are placing the Web address in a smaller font and placing it in the lower left- or right-hand corner of the screen. This is a mistake, as most viewers only "see" the middle of the television screen. When done right, significant new-customer Web contacts can occur.

Case in point: Recently a homebuilder client of ours reported that it is enjoying a sales pacing that is far superior to its local weakened housing marketplace thanks to its triangulated television and Internet media plan. Notably, its Web site exploded by 338 percent in local unique visitors when its newly designed TV commercial aired, thereby driving quality traffic to its business.

· Harness the power of local television station Web sites. These highly promoted Web sites are teeming with local customers who are worth far more to you than out-of-town traffic. However, think of local station Web sites as if they were actually a local newspaper: You need to design Web ads that are similar to print ads in a newspaper and not just logo ads.

This kind of ad can send a buyer around Google and directly to your Web site, thereby creating a faster route to you without the risk of the consumer encountering competitive Web messages.

· Optimize your own Web site to receive more local organic Web traffic by including the keywords, phrases, images and terms that are most often used by consumers to search the Internet. Also, the first page of your Web site must be what we call "retail-friendly," meaning that the consumer should not have to drill down to find out the basics of your business such as product offering, locations, phone numbers and the like. If the most exciting page on your Web site is still the "About Us" section, it's clearly time for a major overhaul.

Finally, the triangulation of these media must be activated. This is the process of linking the elements electronically so that a person driven to any Web element can "click over" to the next elements.

Consumers seeing your television commercial will instantly know where to go next online. If they miss your Web site address, they can go to the TV station site and find you there. Finally, by seeing your ad on the TV station Web site, they can instantly learn more about you on your own Web site by clicking the ad.

Planning a successful retail campaign incorporating true triangulation takes a little more time, but the steps are already proven to generate additional profit by connecting the media together for the benefit of the consumer.

As my mentor, Gerry Summers, once said: "Give the consumer what she wants, and she'll beat a path to your door." And these days, the front door she'll beat a path to is really your Web site.

Adam Armbruster is a partner in the Red Bank, N.J., retail and broadcasting consulting firm Eckstein, Summers, Armbruster and Co. He can be reached at adam@esacompany.com or 941-928-7192.

Additional sources: DM News (via MarketingVox), Home Builder Magazine, Ward's Dealer Business, Furniture Today.

2006-12-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

Dear reader, I found this article and thought it was very interest. My goal is to I find research that will assist you in making the right decisions regarding advertising and communications revenues. Enjoy.--Don.

Newspapers are finding that their Web sites, like this one for the News & Observer in North Carolina, are producing more of their ad revenue.

Troubling ’07 Forecast for the Old-Line Media but Not for the Online

By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: NEW YORK TIMES December 5, 2006

THE first Monday in October is known in legal circles as the start of the Supreme Court term. Similarly, on Madison Avenue, the first Monday in December has become familiar as the kickoff of the advertising forecast season.

And yesterday a flood of forecasts indeed flowed from analysts and agencies, all generally pointing to a challenging year ahead for the traditional media along with substantial growth for all things online.

(For those wondering why early December brings the predictions, it is because two brokerage firms, Credit Suisse and UBS, have long held their annual media conferences in the first week of the month. Other firms schedule the release of their forecasts at the same time, to ride the coattails of the competing conferences.)

Most forecasters are predicting growth in ad spending in the United States next year of 2 to 5 percent over 2006. That would represent a decline from the rate of growth in ad spending this year compared with 2005, which is expected to finish in the range of 3 to 6 percent. But it is not bad considering that 2007 will be missing two major events that help administer a hypodermic to ad budgets in even-numbered years: Olympics and national elections.

“You normally see a real drop-off in a non-Olympics, non-election year,” said Robert J. Coen, senior vice president and forecasting director at Universal McCann in New York, who opened the UBS conference.

Rather, Mr. Coen said, he believed that more marketers next year would increase ad budgets as they decide to “start turning their attention back to long-term communications” from a focus on cost-cutting.

Still, reactions to the predictions for 2007 depend upon the perch from which they are considered. Those in the traditional media like television and newspapers will no doubt frown after hearing that most forecasters expect at best flat growth in ad spending for them.
Those who sell ads on Web sites, on the other hand, are likely to be beaming at the high double-digit percentage gains being predicted for them.

“The trend that will continue to affect the media universe in 2007 is the ongoing shift in advertising dollars from traditional media into nontraditional media, most notably the Internet,” Fitch Ratings concluded in an outlook report.

Television, radio and newspapers will “experience slow growth and ongoing audience declines,” according to the report, “and ad spending continues to follow consumer patterns.”

For instance, the Newspaper Association of America is predicting that spending for ads on the Web sites of newspapers will increase a robust 22 percent next year from 2006. But ad spending in the print editions of those newspapers in 2007 will be flat, the association is forecasting, pulled down by a decline in classified advertising and no growth in demand from national advertisers.

An analyst for Credit Suisse, Debra Schwartz, questioned in a report whether even the prediction for an anemic gain of 1.2 percent was “too optimistic.”

A forecast from the Morton-Groves Newspaper Newsletter, issued last week, may be pessimistic enough for her. The publication predicted that ad spending in newspapers next year will fall 2 percent from 2006, a bigger decline than the 1.8 percent it is forecasting for this year compared with 2005.

(For ad spending on newspaper Web sites, the newsletter predicted an increase in 2007 of 23.3 percent from this year, coming after a gain of 34 percent it is forecasting for 2006.)
James Conaghan, vice president for business analysis and research at the newspaper association, offered a reason for the upbeat outlook for newspaper Web sites.

In a test recently started by Google to sell advertisements that appear in the print versions of 50 major newspapers, “the ad volume placed in the newspapers in the first three weeks has exceeded Google’s expectation for the entire three months of the test,” Mr. Conaghan said at the UBS conference.

“The advertisers and the publishers are also satisfied with the results,” he added.
Gordon Borrell, chief executive at Borrell Associates, who spoke with Mr. Conaghan, suggested that “10 years out, many newspaper Web sites could be as large as the newspapers that spawned them” in terms of ad revenue.

In another striking example of the divergence in forecasts for the traditional and new media, Mr. Coen, whose agency is part of the McCann Worldgroup unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies, predicted that ad spending on the four largest national broadcast television networks would increase just 3 percent next year from 2006.

In contrast, ad spending by national advertisers on the Internet will grow five times as fast, at 15 percent, Mr. Coen said.

Mr. Coen does not include search engine marketing in his estimates for Internet ad spending, classifying it as more promotional in nature. Another forecaster who does include it within his online totals — Steve King, worldwide chief executive at ZenithOptimedia, part of the Publicis Groupe — offered a prediction that Internet ad spending next year would grow 29 percent from 2006.

By comparison, Mr. King offered forecasts for many traditional media for percentage gains in low single digits like 1.5 percent for local radio and 2 percent for newspapers.
In fact, Mr. King said, he expected online ad revenue to grow at “seven times the rate for traditional ad growth.”

Internet ad spending as a percentage of the total for all American media will reach 7.1 percent this year, Mr. King said. He predicts that it will hit 10.4 percent in 2009.

Mr. Coen, who offers forecasts twice a year, predicted that American ad spending in 2007 would total $298.8 billion, up 4.8 percent from $285.1 billion in 2006. That is a full percentage point lower than the 5.8 percent increase he predicted last June when he gave his initial forecast for 2007.

Mr. Coen’s total for 2006 represents an increase of 5.2 percent from 2005. By contrast, last June he forecast a gain of 5.6 percent. Twice before, in June and December 2005, he predicted an increase of 5.8 percent.

Mr. Coen attributed the decline largely to “the beleaguered local sector” of ad spending, “which hasn’t done very well in traditional media,” he said, because local advertisers “continue to cut to the bone.”

Also, “consolidations are killing things” locally, Mr. Coen said, referring to combinations of local department stores, pharmacies and hardware chains, which are reducing the ranks of potential advertisers.

That was demonstrated — painfully, if you own a local newspaper — in Mr. Conaghan’s presentation. In the third quarter, when Federated Department Stores replaced a host of local retail names with the Macy’s brand, he said, the company’s ad spending in newspapers fell about 14 percent from the same period a year ago.

The declines were even more pronounced in certain Macy’s regional markets, Mr. Conaghan said, citing decreases of 34 percent in the South, 39 percent in the Midwest and 42 percent in the West.

2006-08-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

The great gap incollege TV watching Study:

Half of their vieiwing is untracked

By Samantha Melamed Aug 3, 2006

In their pursuit of the elusive young consumers, one of the gaps for advertisers has always been college kids and their use of media, in large part because their TV viewing was not tracked by Nielsen.

Somewhere, in dorm rooms or off-campus apartments or bars, a lot of college kids were watching TV. Just how many and how much they were watching was not known.
It turns out to be a sizable amount.

More than one-fifth of 18-34s are college students, and they do more than half of their TV watching outside of their parents' home. When that is included in 18-34 measures, the audience rises 15 percent.

The study, by Total-TV Audience Monitor, found that 54 percent of college student viewing takes place in venues not measured by Nielsen--those dorm rooms, off-campus apartments and bars--and that a third of all adults 18-34 who watch television in such venues in an average week watch no television at home.

Total-TV Audience Monitor conducted its research using a panel of 1,017 two- and four-year college students and graduate students. The panel tracked their viewing in diaries over the month of October 2005.

That sample group represents a significant population of young people: 22 percent of 18-34s are college students, or some 16.9 million Americans. And of that number, 74 percent live away from home during the school year, according to T-TAM.

"It's surprising how large the college student population actually is," says Lynnae Psaras, vice president at T-TAM. "I've always wondered how networks could talk about their 18-34-year-old audience and leave out so many viewers who are away at school."

In fact, T-TAM's report comes as Nielsen Media Research is preparing to include students' out of home viewing in ratings. According to a Nielsen spokesperson, a pilot study of college students' viewing confirms T-TAM's 15 percent out of home findings. But details as to the size and composition of Nielsen's upcoming college panel are uncertain as yet. Says the spokesperson: "The measurement that we're going to do is an extension of our in-home ratings, so if a panel household has a student in college, then we will include them."

Here are some other findings of the T-TAM study:
Male and female students watch at significantly different hours. Men are most likely to watch on weekends from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., while women are most likely to be watching any day from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

As to where they're watching, 46 percent of viewing takes place in permanent homes, 37 percent watch in off-campus housing, 16 percent watch at on-campus locations including dorms, and just 1 percent of TV viewing takes place in bars or restaurants.

Viewing also varies by place of residence. Students living on campus watch three hours less per week than those living off campus, according to the study. And on average, those who live on campus do only 1.32 hours, or 9 percent of their weekly viewing, in-home, while the rest of their viewing for now goes uncounted.

While students who live away from home watch less television than their counterparts, 81 percent have TV sets in their rooms, 68 percent have cable, 26 percent have digital cable and 9 percent have satellite television. Some 13 percent have digital video recorders.

The study also found that in the average 15-minute viewing span, the college audience was split between broadcast (48 percent) and ad-supported cable (46 percent) viewing. Pay cable, video on demand, public television and other content account for the other 6 percent.

Network series constitute 27 percent of students' viewing and were the top genre overall. Sports and sports-related programming was No. 2 at 18 percent overall but No. 1 for men. Syndicated programs was No. 3 at 13 percent, followed by movies (10 percent) and talk shows (9 percent).

Samantha Melamed is a staff writer for Media Life.

2006-06-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Study: Web is the No. 1 Media
By Candace Lombardi, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, News.comCNETJune 05, 2006

Web media is the dominant at-work media and No. 2 in the home, according to a new report from the Online Publishers Association.

The Web also ranked as the No. 1 daytime media.

A research project, conducted by Ball State University's Center for Media Design, tracked the media use of 350 people every 15 seconds. The subjects represented each gender, about equally, across three age groups: 18 to 34, 35 to 49 and 50-plus. The people were monitored by another person for approximately 13 hours, or 80 percent of their waking day.

"Someone actually came into their homes and workplaces and had a handheld computer, every 15 seconds registering their media consumption and life activities," Pam Horan, president of the Online Publishers Association (OPA), told CNET News.com.

According to Horan, this is the first type of study of its kind. Previously, consumers were monitored for media usage by phone survey or diary method.

Not surprisingly, newspaper use peaked in the morning; that print media was consumed by 17 percent of the subjects between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. When this media was combined with Web consumption, the potential reach for advertisers climbed to 44 percent. During the same morning period, the number of consumers using magazines jumped from 7 percent to 39 percent, and from 44 percent to 62 percent for television.

"The point is that there is an incremental reach that someone can gain by putting together a multimedia campaign," Horan said.

A conservative estimate from the study says 17 percent of overall media is consumed via the Internet, and Horan notes that other researchers like Forrester have placed that number even higher.

The OPA-commissioned study also used census data to determine the spending habits of its 350 monitored subjects. Web dominant consumers' retail spending averaged $26,450, while the TV-dominant group's spending averaged $21,401.

Yet, studies have shown that only about 8 percent of advertising goes to the Internet, Horan said.

"I hear more and more from marketers that they have shifted their business to be more responsive and realign. There is an active movement by traditional advertisers to be able to explore platform strategies," Horan said. She believes that research studies are attracting the attention of advertisers and media buyers and may result in a faster shift in advertising dollars to match the actual statistics of consumer media usage.

Others agree.

In March, the Pew Internet and American Life Project published a report that found more than 50 million Americans per day in 2005 used the Web as their primary news source. It also noted that news gathering was the third most popular Internet activity. A research report released that same month from the Association of National Advertisers, in conjunction with Forrester Research, indicated that advertising money would likely follow those people.

Researchers conducting the OPA study also found a consistently direct correlation between offline referrals to Web sites and Web traffic. When PBS tells people they can find more info about the topic being discussed on PBS.org, people do go to that Web site. The same was found for print media referrals to online counterparts like the New York Times and NYTimes.com.
CNET Networks is a member of the Online Publishers Association. OPA's Eyes on the Internet 2006 Tour is sponsored by CBS Digital Media, CNET Networks, the New York Times Media Company and Reuters.com, among others.

2006-05-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

Milestone: Cable Widens Lead in 18-49s

From Media Life, April 21, 2006By Kevin Downey

With just weeks to go before the upfront market breaks, the broadcast networks are facing yet more bad news: Their long dominance among adults 18-49 is all but over.For the first time, ad-supported cable can claim a larger share of the coveted 18-49 audience in primetime for the broadcast season through late March.

Further, broadcast’s prospects for reclaiming that lead in the last weeks of the season appear slight, all but ensuring cable’s first season win ever in the demographic.Much of cable’s rising share can be attributed to its own growth, as it commands increasing amounts of viewers’ attention.

But it also reflects the broadcast networks’ faltering on key nights. NBC’s 25 percent dip and CBS’s 7 percent decline on Thursdays this year, for example, have opened things up for cable on a night that was long the most powerful of the week for broadcast.

Cable’s share of the 18-49 audience is up to 42 percent for the period Sept. 19 through March 26, from 41 percent during the same timeframe last year. The six broadcast networks’ share dipped to 40 percent from 42 percent, according to an analysis of Nielsen Media Research data released last week by media buying agency MediaVest.

As a point of comparison, the networks claimed 46 percent of the 18-49 audience four years ago, when cable’s share was only 37 percent.To make matters worse, the broadcast networks aren’t likely to ever reclaim dominance in primetime, predicts John Spiropoulos, vice president and group research director at MediaVest.

“The number of cable networks out there that continue to grow is driving this,” he says. “This is not necessarily due to anything other than the fact that people are exercising their options in terms of expanding their viewing pool for the programs they are looking for.”

Cable’s share of the primetime audience has been steadily climbing for years. In fact, it has ranked No. 1 in households since the 2003-04 season.

In the past, cable’s growth largely reflected its growing penetration. As more subscribers signed on, ratings went up. But today, with cable and satellite penetration leveling off at about 85 percent, ratings are increasing simply because viewers in the 18-49 demographic increasingly prefer cable programs to network shows.

“Every year, more of the audience shifts from broadcast to cable, but recently cable has been picking up steam because of original programming, as opposed to the 1990s when it was due to coverage gains,” says Spiropoulos. “For cable to continue this kind of growth, it will become more dependent on the amount of money it invests in original programming.”

As a result, he says, the cable networks are touting a slew of original productions in this year’s upfront presentations.Cable’s lead in the 18-49 demographic this season has been exacerbated by the broadcast networks’ troubles, notably on Saturday and Thursday nights.

On Saturdays, the broadcast networks have essentially stopped programming in favor of putting costly productions on ad-rich weeknights. The broadcast networks’ aggregated rating on Saturdays so far this season is only a 7.2, compared to cable’s 16.1 rating.

Cable doesn’t yet have the lead on Thursday night, but its rating is growing as the broadcast networks are losing viewers. Cable’s 18-49 rating this season is a 14.4, up 6 percent, while the broadcast networks have a 17.6 rating, down 7 percent.

This trend began a few years back when NBC’s ratings tumbled after “Friends” went off the air.

Now, CBS is having problems on the night, says Spiropoulos.“Cable’s growth is not only on Saturday night, but it’s also on Monday and Thursday. Thursday is key,” he says. “That night is important for cable if they want to combat the broadcast networks. And in recent weeks, we’ve seen some pretty significant weakness with CBS’s lineup on that night.”

2006-02-08T05:29:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl improves with final ratings

Most-watched in 10 years with 90.7 million

By Diego Vasquez Feb 7, 2006

The Pittsburgh Steelers won their first Super Bowl title since the 1970s, and ABC also made a bit of history: the most-watched Super Bowl game since 1996.

According to updated ratings released late yesterday, the game averaged a 41.6 household rating, up a half a point from last year’s 41.1 rating for the game between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.

Early metered market ratings from 56 cities published yesterday by Media Life indicated that the game had slipped 3 percent year to year. But those don’t reflect the 210 total markets measured by Nielsen, nor do they reflect totally accurate time period data. It’s not uncommon for final ratings to flip for an event as big as the Super Bowl.

The game averaged 90.7 million total viewers, about 5 percent more than last year’s 86.1 million viewers. The 1996 Super Bowl averaged 94.1 million, the most in Super Bowl history.

The game got especially strong tune-in in Pittsburgh, which averaged a 57.1 household rating, and Seattle, which averaged a 55. The Steelers beat the Seahawks 21-10 in what many sportswriters described as a dull game, as Seattle never seriously threatened to score during the fourth quarter.

But positive buzz about the advertisements, as well as the somewhat close score, likely kept viewers tuning in.

Among adults 18-49, ABC's rating was up slightly over last year. The game averaged a 34.6 in that demo, up 4 percent over last year's 33.2 on Fox.

ABC easily finished first for the night among 18-49s, according to Nielsen overnights, with a 28.7 average rating and 57 share from 7-11 p.m. Fox was second at 2.1/4, CBS third at 1.6/3, NBC fourth at 1.3/3 and the WB fifth at 0.6/1. Ratings for Univision weren’t immediately available.

At 7 p.m. ABC led with a 32.3 rating among 18-49s for its coverage of Super Bowl XL. Fox was second that hour with a 1.4 for an hour of “Simpsons” repeats, NBC third with a 0.9 for “Dateline,” CBS fourth with a 0.7 for “60 Minutes” and WB fifth with a 0.4 for the first of three “Beauty and the Geek” repeats. ABC led again at 8 p.m. with a 31.8 average for its continued coverage of the Super Bowl.

Fox remained second with a 2.4 for repeats of “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy,” with CBS third with a 1.5 for a repeat of “Criminal Minds,” NBC fourth with a 0.8 for a “Crossing Jordan” rerun, and WB fifth with a 0.6 for another “Beauty and the Geek” repeat.

At 9 p.m. ABC led again with a 31.2 average for the Super Bowl. Fox held onto second place with a 2.4 rating for an hour of “Family Guy” repeats, with CBS third with a 2.0 for a repeat of “Cold Case,” NBC fourth with a 1.2 for another “Crossing Jordan” rerun and WB fifth with a 0.7 for its last repeat of “Beauty and the Geek.” During the 10 p.m. hour, ABC led once more with a 19.4 average rating for the end of its Super Bowl coverage and the beginning of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

NBC moved into second with a 2.4 for a repeat of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and CBS was third with a 2.2 for a repeat of “CSI: Miami.” Among households, ABC led the night with a 34.6 average rating and a 52 share. CBS was second at 4.1/6, NBC third at 3.5/5, Fox fourth at 2.7/4 and WB fifth at 0.9/1.

2005-12-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

Cable's big break: Winning in 18-49s

Now beating broadcast in the desired demo

By Kevin Downey Dec 9, 2005

The broadcast networks are accustomed to the drill by now, but familiarity certainly doesn’t make this latest setback any easier.Having lost its dominance in household ratings to cable television nearly four years ago, network TV is now losing its dominance in the 18-49 demographic that broadcasters rely on for a good chunk of revenue.Ad-supported cable TV for the first time ever at this point in the season is beating broadcast in 18-49s.

Cable has been ahead of broadcast for a week or two early in the season, but it’s never held onto that lead this late in the fall before.

Cable TV’s share of the 18-49 audience in primetime through the first 11 weeks of the season is 42.3 percent, compared to network TV’s 41.7 percent, according to a year-end ratings analysis issued on Wednesday by Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting. Cable is up from 40.5 percent the same time last season while the broadcasters have dipped from 42.8 percent.

What makes it all the more troubling is that it comes at a time when network TV is going through what some media people call a renaissance.ABC’s ratings, of course, are rebounding with hits like “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” CBS trails No. 1-ranked ABC by only one-tenth of a point in the demographic it had long struggled to attract. Fox had its first season-long win in 18-49s in 2004-'05 and, with “American Idol” returning next month, may very well do the same this year.Even NBC, with its dramatic ratings declines, has come out of a sitcom drought with hit “My Name is Earl.”

But, no matter, cable TV is continuing to chip away at the broadcast audience.“This does not surprise me, particularly the aggregate [ratings], because cable has a lot more programs for people to surf around within than the big six broadcast networks,” says Susan Hajny, broadcast research manager at GSD&M.“The younger demographic is more apt to be a channel-surfing demographic and it’s also more apt to be a program viewer as opposed to a network viewer.”

Cable’s climb has been steady and dramatic. In fact, at this point in the 2000-'01 season, cable’s share in the demographic was 33.9 percent to the networks’ 49.1 percent.Meanwhile, Turner reports that cable’s most-watched networks among adults 18-49 for the year so far are TNT, USA, TBS, ESPN, Spike, Lifetime, FX, MTV, Sci Fi and Comedy Central. Each network except ESPN and MTV is up from last year.Still, the broadcast networks can take consolation in remaining the dominant of the two in ad revenue.

While the broadcaster’s share of the household audience in primetime this year is 42 percent, its share of ad revenue is 69 percent. Ad-supported cable’s household share is 55 percent, but Turner estimates that its share of advertising is only 31 percent.That is directly linked to the continuing disparity between top-rated network and cable shows.Advertisers have few options outside of network TV to reach many millions of 18-49s in one shot. Individual cable programs aren’t making much headway in generating comparable numbers.

As a point of comparison, network’s most-watched show in 18-49s is “Desperate Housewives,” reaching an average 14.3 million people for the week ending Dec. 4. Cable’s top original series so far this year is FX’s “Nip/Tuck,” which averaged a sizeable but relatively paltry 2.6 million viewers.

“There are exceptions, there are cable programs that pop, but for the most part the networks are still providing the reach vehicles,” says Hajny. “And they have the big-rated shows like ‘Desperate’ that provide potential for reach and that have a higher dollar value than several smaller networks.”

Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life

2005-11-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

Newspaper Circulation Falls 2.6 Percent

Nov 07 10:12 AM US/Eastern
By SETH SUTELAP Business Writer
NEW YORK

Average weekday circulation at U.S. newspapers fell 2.6 percent in the six month-period ending in September, the latest sign of trouble in the newspaper business, an industry group reported Monday.

Sunday circulation also fell 3.1 percent at newspapers reporting to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, according to an analysis of the data by the Newspaper Association of America.
The declines show an acceleration of a years-long trend of falling circulation at daily newspapers as more people, especially young adults, turn to the Internet for news and as newspapers cut back on less profitable circulation.

In the previous six-month reporting period ending in March, weekday circulation fell 1.9 percent at U.S. daily newspapers and Sunday circulation fell 2.5 percent.
Circulation at the country's three largest newspapers was relatively stable, but many others showed significant declines.

Gannett Co.'s USA Today, the largest-selling daily, slipped 0.6 percent from the same period a year ago to 2,296,335; The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., fell 1.1 percent to 2,083,660; and The New York Times Co.'s flagship paper rose 0.5 percent to 1,126,190.

Of the rest of the top 20 newspapers reporting, all but one, the Star- Ledger of Newark, posted declines generally ranging between 1 percent and 8 percent. The San Francisco Chronicle, published by Hearst Corp., posted a 16.4 percent tumble in circulation.
___
On the Net:
Newspaper Association of America:
http://www.naa.org

MORE BAD NEWS!!! UPDATE!!!

Newspapers Appear to Be Dying, but Who Will Miss Them?
The Philadelphia Daily NewsNovember 29, 2005

I'm slightly embarrassed by the bagpipe dirges played when American newspapers drop employees like autumn leaves. Some columnists practically bawled over the accelerating decline and decay of American newspaper.

How many tears rolled down columnists' cheeks when GM announced it would cut 30,000 jobs by 2008? Their self-pity showed that some journalists believe the planets orbit around them.
Newspapers seem to be dying and that brings on the tears. When dinosaurs went extinct, who cried?

No one. Unlike newspapers, dinosaurs couldn't write their own obituaries.

Like dinosaurs, newspapers have massive bodies and brains the size of walnuts.

They give away their product for free on the Internet, then run in circles squawking like chickens when circulation goes down like the Titanic.

Even the dimmest hooker knows to get paid upfront. "Put the money on the dresser, honey."

But suicidal corporate geniuses leaped into the Internet before figuring how to get the money off the dresser. Because everyone else was doing it, newspapers raced to post content on the Net for free, which is like burning furniture to warm your house. Eventually you're left in the cold with no place to sit.

In addition to dumb, newspapers were dishonest. Some big ones falsified circulation numbers. Some reporters were revealed as cheats. Credibility tumbled.

Newspapers scrambled for circulation with futile schemes that could have been devised by Wile E. Coyote. Some offered sudoku, some tried Lucky Bucks, many inserted color posters of athletes. Nothing worked; the idea tank is dry.

Since a lingering death is painful (and embarrassing), newspapers should accept a quick, honorable death _ and just shut down. (Yes, my pension is safe.)

A "product" so out of touch with today shouldn't hang around like seagulls over a landfill.
And they're not. Daily newspapers are dropping dead almost as fast as daily newspaper readers.

Newspapers are an "old peoples'" medium in a youth-dominated market. Worst of all _ they are not cool.

Newspapers destroy forests and create litter.

Once printed, they are thrown into CO2-belching trucks that clog highways and irritate commuters. When you pick up the "product," your hands get dirty.

Newspapers are hobbled by the labor-intensive technology of Ben Franklin, a publisher who could ignore the baying of Wall Street wolves.

Anyway, most people now say they get their "news" from the Internet and TV. That's why everyone is so smart and so well-informed about the world around them.

If there were no stodgy newspapers to set the agenda with boring stuff like government, world news, politics and finance, TV news would be free to give viewers what they want _ more weather, cute animal videos, traffic accidents, house fires and "special reports" on the dangers (or promise) of cosmetic surgery.

The dilemma: While people get their news from the Internet, the Internet gets its news from newspapers. Without newspapers, who provides the content?
Bloggers!

Blogs are an excellent source of "news," much of it overheard and passed along by the blogger's girlfriend. If she's sick, the blogger can make something up. No editors or accountability gum up the works.

When you tire of the "news" (in a minute or two), you are just a mouse click away from porn.
Newspapers can't touch that.
___

ABOUT THE WRITER
Stu Bykofsky is a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. Readers may write to him at the Daily News, 400 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19130, or via e-mail at stubyko@phillynews.com.
___

(c) 2005, Philadelphia Daily News.
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2005-10-28T05:56:00.000-07:00

World Series Is Lowest-Rated Ever
Oct 27 10:44 PM US/NEW YORK --Associated Press

The Chicago White Sox's first world championship in 88 years was also the lowest-rated World Series ever.

Chicago's four-game sweep of the Houston Astros averaged an 11.1 national rating with a 19 share on Fox. That's down about 7 percent from the previous low, an 11.9 with a 20 share for the 2002 World Series between the Anaheim Angels and the San Francisco Giants.

While the 2002 World Series, which went seven games, rated higher overall, it was only averaging an 11.0 through four games.

This year was a drop of almost 30 percent from last year's series, in which the Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals for their first title in 86 years. That had a 15.8 rating with a 25 share.

Wednesday night's 1-0 Chicago win had a 13.0 preliminary national rating with a 21 share. It was the highest-rated prime-time show on Fox since the final of "American Idol" in May, but still not enough to save the series from being the lowest-rated. Despite rating so low in comparison to other World Series, the four games of this series were each the highest rated prime-time network programs on their respective nights.

**Note to Readers--I added this story to my blog to show the true POWER of cable over broadcast programming. Fox is a broadcast network--If the World Series games were shown on ESPN or ESPN 2--I am sure the ratings would have been higher. When looking at buying your television advertising--Cable is the Winning Investment! Low Cost/High Return! Buy advertising that your customers will see! The next time you need to advertise your business, organization, or event--Please call me (814) 235-1783 ext 286, I will share all of the local and national research information that will help you make quality advertising decisions. My goal is to work harder for you and make you successful!
---Don Mast ***

2005-10-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

Consumers aren't pulling in the reins
on Holiday spending

©2005 Radio Business Report/Television Business Report, Inc.

Consumers will be feeling the spirit of the season when they hit the stores for their holiday shopping, according to the findings of the latest National Retail Federation survey. The NRF 2005 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that the average consumer plans to spend 738.11 this holiday season, up 5.1% from the previous year. Furthermore, consumers will spend an additional 86.62 on themselves. The survey is in line with NRF's holiday sales forecast, announced last month, which expects total holiday retail sales to increase 5.0% over last year to 435.3 billion.

"Just as retailers plan ahead for holiday sales and promotions, consumers plan ahead and budget for the holidays," said Tracy Mullin NRF CEO. "With extra money tucked away to spend on what's important, shoppers will be hitting the stores and spending on their loved ones, and on themselves."

Shoppers will be scooping up a variety of merchandise this holiday season. According to the survey, consumers will be dedicating the majority of their holiday spending to gifts for family (421.30) and friends (78.99). Their generosity will also spread to the other people in their lives, with consumers planning to spend 21.05 on co-workers and 44.16 on gifts for other people, including babysitters, teachers and clergy. Other items holiday shoppers will purchase this year include decorations (40.86), greeting cards and postage (28.22), candy and food (87.75), and flowers (15.78).

Consumers aren't forgetting to pick up a few items for themselves while shopping. According to survey results, consumers will spend an additional 17.68 billion on non-gift purchases for themselves or their families this holiday season. Men will be the most generous when it comes to treating themselves, with the average male spending 108.87.

Consumers have not forgotten to add a few of their favorite items to their wish lists. Books, CDs, DVDs, videos, and video games once again remain popular items, with 55.5% of consumers hoping to receive something in that category. Apparel is also another gift favorite, with 54.4% hoping to receive clothing or accessories this year. Other popular items on their lists include gift cards (52.3%), consumer electronics (38.4%), jewelry (26.4%), and home décor (23.3%).
When it comes to choosing where to purchase holiday items, shoppers are looking for a deal.

More than one-third of consumers (37.9%) said that sales or price discounts are the most important factor in their decision to purchase from a particular store. Selection is also important, with nearly a quarter (23.1 %) of consumers polled ranking selection of merchandise as a top factor, while other consumers chose where to shop based on quality of merchandise (11.0%) or location (6.5%). Consumers also appreciate good, knowledgeable customer service, with 3.7% saying it was the most important factor when choosing where to shop.

Many consumers have already gotten head start on their holiday shopping. According to the survey, 15.3% of consumers started their holiday shopping before September with an additional 6.3% starting last month. Retailers are seeing more holiday shoppers in their stores, with 18.5% of consumers saying they planned to begin in October. More than one-third of consumers (37.4%) will begin their holiday shopping in November and nearly one in four (22.5%) will wait until December.

2005-10-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

Roaring Ratings

ESPN's Saturday pregame show before Penn State's upset of Ohio State drew a record audience and the game itself was the second most-watched of any regular-season match up on the cable network.

The Nittany Lions' 17-10 victory averaged 4,435,000 households and a 4.9 rating. Only the Florida State-Miami game on Oct. 8, 1994, drew a bigger audience.

The College Game Day telecast from State College, Pa., on Saturday averaged 1,861,000 households and a 2.1 rating.

- Associated Press

GO PENN STATE!!!

2005-09-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

In broadcast's big week, cable won out

winning premiere week for a second year!

By Abigail Azote Sep 28, 2005

The broadcast networks went gaga promoting their new shows to kick off the new season. But all the pomp and pageantry was not enough to steal viewers away from cable networks. Basic cable more than held its own against the broadcast networks in a time that’s usually one of broadcast’s strongest, premiere week.

For the week ended Sept. 25, the first full week of the new season, ad-supported cable averaged a 43 share among viewers 18-49 in primetime, compared to the 41 share by the six broadcast networks. Cable’s share was up 5 percent from the comparable week last season, while broadcast’s was down 7 percent.

The difference is more dramatic among households. Cable had a 54 share versus broadcast’s 45, representing a 20 percent difference between the two. This is the second year in which cable surpassed broadcast during premiere week. Says Lifetime executive vice president of research Tim Brooks: “Clearly, cable viewership isn’t even impacted by broadcast premieres.”

At least some of the credit for last week's viewing surge goes to Hurricane Rita, which drove up audience numbers for all the news networks. Fox News was the top-ranked cable network among households last week.

“People now habitually turn to cable for coverage of a breaking story,” says Brooks. “That, added to the strength of entertainment cable networks, is what’s driving the strong showing for cable.”

“It’s just a continuation of what happened the last year,” Ira Sussman, vice president of research for the Cable TV Ad Bureau, says.

Other factors that contributed to cable’s strong performance last week include the premiere of FX’s “Nip/Tuck,” which averaged a network record 5.3 million total viewers last Tuesday and outdelivered ABC among 18-49s, and ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” special to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims.

Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended Sept. 25:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): ESPN, USA, TNT, TBS, FX

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): ESPN, Fox News, CNN, USA, TNT

Top movie (18-49s): TBS’s “The Waterboy” (Sunday 11 a.m.) 1.55 million

Top sporting event (total viewers): ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football” (Sunday 8:28 p.m.) 9.75 million

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football” (Sunday, 8:28 p.m.); FX’s “Nip/Tuck” (Tuesday, 10 p.m.); Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 10 p.m.); ESPN’s NFL Game: Giants v. Saints (Monday, 8:50 p.m.); Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 9 p.m.); ESPN’s NFL Prime Time (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.)

Show on the rise: Yankees vs. Orioles, YES Network, Thursday, 7 p.m. There is something on cable that can beat “CSI,” at least in one market: With the New York Yankees in the playoff race, the YES Network drew huge ratings in New York among men 18-49 and 25-54 last week, culminating in Thursday’s game with the Orioles. The network outdelivered ABC, NBC, CBS and UPN that night, with a 4.6 men 18-49 rating and 5.0 men 25-54 rating.

Show on the decline: “Sportscenter,” ESPN, Sunday, 11:50 p.m. As the football season gets underway, “Sportscenter” will get a boost in ratings. But Sunday the ESPN show was down 11 percent from the week prior, to 2.1 million viewers 18-49.

Third quarter ratings: Katrina also boosted the news networks during third quarter. Though TNT was tops in primetime with 1.16 million viewers 18-49 and 2.7 million total viewers, the news networks saw some of the biggest gains.

Fox News rose 24 percent over last year in 18-49s, to a 14th-place 504,000, and placed second among total viewers at 2.27 million, up 29 percent over last year. CNN was 13th among total viewers with 1.13 million, up 28 percent, and 24th in 18-49s with an average 321,000, up 65 percent. CNN Headline News and MSNBC tied with an average 421,000 total primetime viewers, though Headline News was up 108 percent and MSNBC just 12 percent.

Oddly, the Weather Channel was down 12 percent to an average 513,000 total viewers.

Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s post-primetime lineup from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily except Friday, averaged a basic cable record 408,000 18-34s and also set a record among men 18-34 with 252,000.

2005-09-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

KATRINA DISASTER RELIEF

Support for Katrina Victims can be sent to the North American Mission Board of the SBC:
Online: www.namb.net/disasterelief -Or-
http://www.namb.net/root/beonmission/donations/

Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NLT).

Hurricane Katrina Response DonationsSouthern Baptist Disaster Relief FundToll-Free: 1 888 571-5895Mail: PO Box 116543, Atlanta, GA 30368-6543 (make checks payable to North American Mission Board)

Louisiana Disaster Relief Fundc/o Louisiana Baptist Convention PO Box 311 Alexandria, LA 71309

Mississippi Disaster Relief Fund c/o Mississippi Baptist Convention Board 515 Mississippi St. PO Box 530 Jackson, MS 39205-0530

Alabama Disaster Relief Fund Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions 2001 East South Blvd. Montgomery, AL 36116

At this time, in-kind donations (e.g. food, clothing, etc.) are not being received due to logistical issues. Please continue to check back, as we are working on a process to accept your in-kind donations.

(EVERY DOLLAR WILL GO TO DISASTER RELIEF--NO FUNDS WILL BE USED FOR ADMINISTRATION COSTS)

2005-08-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

Cable’s Summer Heating Up!!!
Ad-supported networks hope to ride momentum into fall
By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/22/2005

With just two weeks left in its high season, basic cable is on track to notch its fifth straight summer ratings triumph over broadcast, winning by its largest margin ever. From the beginning of summer through Aug. 15, cable averaged a 60.9 share to broadcast’s 32.4. That’s compared with a 58.1/34.6 split last year.

Cable’s summer task, beyond producing new hits, is to use those shows to create viewer loyalty. That way, viewers keep tuning in when the big boys in broadcast come out swinging with new fall series. Turner’s TNT, for example, has laid out plans to ride its summer ratings wave into fall. The network grew 16% over last summer in prime, averaging 2.9 million total viewers through Aug. 15 (and 1.21 million in 18-49)—the most of any basic-cable network.

That was due to a record-breaking ratings draw in The Closer and a second original hit in Wanted, along with successful Friday-Sunday scheduling of its $100 million limited series Into the West. TNT also buffeted its originals with acquired series and movies, such as Saving Private Ryan and Jurassic Park III, that fit into the drama niche it has carved out over the past few years.

“Cable Made a Lot of Fans”

The network will keep its summer characters top of mind by weaving them into promotional spots that will run throughout the year. It will also run Wanted into the fall, luring viewers into the premieres of three new acquired dramas: Alias, Cold Case and Las Vegas.
“Cable made a lot of fans this summer, not only eyeballs,” says TNT/TBS Executive VP/COO Steve Koonin. “We’re not only open three months a year.”

Lifetime also triumphed this summer, notching a 9% increase in total viewership over last summer with an average 1.81 million viewers in prime, 723,000 of those 18-49. Because the women’s network scored largely through Monday-night original movies (including Murder in the Hamptons and The Dive From Clausen’s Pier), Lifetime aims to hold viewers through the fall season with more flicks. It will pack early September with not only more Monday movies but some Sunday ones, too, sometimes preempting original dramas.

“We’re delivering on a promise we’ve made as a network to deliver a certain type of genre,” says Tim Brooks, executive VP of research at Lifetime. “You come back to the network, not the programming.”

Finding a Branding Niche

But not all basic-cable networks saw gains. USA, summer’s second-most-viewed, dipped 10% in prime from last year, averaging 2.3 million total viewers (1.07 million 18-49). Although the network brought back hit dramas Monk, The Dead Zone and The 4400, it still seems to be finding its branding niche. In July, USA introduced a new logo and slogan “Characters Welcome,” and it will drive home the catchphrase going into fall, with promos for U.S. Open tennis running in August and September, and WWE’s Monday Night Raw, which returns to USA in October after a five-year absence.

FX also dropped in the ratings, losing 8% of total viewers from last year, with an average 1.17 million in prime (681,000 in 18-49) this summer. Returning favorite Rescue Me performed well, but new comedies Starved and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, as well as Iraq-war drama Over There, saw dwindling audiences each week. FX will promote Nip/Tuck’s September return with promos that will run in three of the five commercial breaks during each hour-long episode of Over There, and graphics bugs for Nip during the credits.

Summer: TNT triumphed in the ratings with originals, including The Closer.
Fall: Turner’s drama network begins running a trio of new acquired shows, including Alias.
Summer: Lifetime scored with original movies, including Murder in the Hamptons.
Fall: The women’s network keeps flicks going with Human Trafficking Oct. 24.
Summer: USA’s originals, including Monk, performed, but the network dipped 10% in prime.
Fall: Newly rebranded, the network brings back WWE on Oct. 3.

2005-08-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

(Click on images to make larger)

WEEKLY TELEVISION AUDIENCE MEASURES

Week 46 of the 2004/05 Season (8/1-8/7/05)

Primetime:

During Week 46 of the 2004/05 Broadcast Season, Ad-Supported Cable's HH rating increased by 2.2 points to end at 34.3. Cable captured 62.0% of total TV viewing and outperformed the Broadcast 7-nets by 30.9 share points. Ad-Supported Cable’s delivery grew by 2.7 million homes. Broadcast experienced a decrease in all audience measures. CBS, NBC, UPN and WB had rating decreases.

Ad-Supported Cable is off to a great start in the Third Quarter of 2005. It is currently averaging a 33.7 rating, up 1.7 points from same time last year. Cable is also commanding 61.5% of total TV viewing. Broadcast on the other hand only captured 31.3% of total TV viewing.
Ad-Supported cable is performing strongly during the 2004/05 Broadcast Season. Delivery is averaging 35.5 million homes, up 2.2 million from last year and ratings have increased 1.7 to end at 32.4. Cable is demanding more than half of total TV viewing to date this season, with Broadcast falling 11.0 share points behind Cable.

Total Day:

Ad-Supported Cable delivered 21.3 million homes in the 46th week of the 04/05 Season, representing an increase of 1.6 million viewers from last year on a Total Day basis. Cable’s household ratings were up by 1.3 points from last year to end at 19.5 and the share increased by 2.6 points to end at 59.7. Cable’s share was once again greater than that of the Broadcast Networks (4 Net.), with the difference being a solid 30.4 points. The Broadcast Networks saw a decrease in all audience measures. Cable, to date, in the third quarter, has a very strong lead over the broadcast networks. It ended with a 59.9 share, 30.5 points above Broadcast’s level. Ratings increased by 1.5 to end at 19.8, and share increased 2.5 points from last year.

The Broadcast Networks have experienced decreases in all audience measures. For this season, Cable rose to 20.8 million homes, up 1.7 million homes from last year. Cable’s ratings increased by 1.3 points to end at 18.9 and its share rose to 55.5, an increase of 2.7 points from last year. The Broadcast Networks experienced losses across all audience measures.

Source: Nielsen Galaxy.

2005-08-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Can Newspapers Reverse Their Decline?
Michael SocolowThe Baltimore Sun August 14, 2005

THOSE OF YOU who paid for this newspaper, turned to this page and are reading these words are a dwindling breed. The newspaper industry is in trouble. Its future is precarious, and the social, political and cultural ramifications of the decline of this uniquely positioned business will affect everybody - not simply you and your colleagues who are reading this op-ed, but the entire public sphere.

How did daily newspapers reach this point? Those who work for them - journalists and those on the business side - point primarily to the impact of new communications technology. The Internet, cable TV news and cell phones that provide headlines have irretrievably altered news consumption habits.

Other arguments include the idea that the average American news consumer now favors celebrity news and gossip over the kind of robust public interest reporting that was once a hallmark of the daily press. American youths, in particular, are blamed for this trend. Demanding news at their convenience, they insist it conform to their interests.
These trends unquestionably factor into the widespread circulation declines. But something important is missing from this analysis: what the newspapers themselves contribute to the problem.

Newspapers sell you their credibility. That is the single most important value of any newspaper brand in the marketplace.

Newspapers compete in a market that is not solely limited to their product category; thus, recent changes in the media landscape have intensified the importance of credibility.

Several severely damaging ethical lapses over the past four years not only have hurt the specific newspapers involved but have created a widespread feeling that reporters are less accurate and ethical than they once were. This may or may not be true. But the veracity of the statement is less important than the fact that a large proportion of the industry's consumer base believes it.
Improving reporting and editing at daily newspapers is a key component of several initiatives within the business. So is being more honest - called "transparency" - with the audience.

Newspapers should be applauded for their attempts to repair the self-inflicted damage done to their product.

Yet other key, but too often ignored, issues in the history of the newspaper business have played a role in the industry's problems. Very few Americans - or even journalists - realize that Congress passed, and President Richard M. Nixon in 1970 signed into law, the Orwellian-titled Newspaper Preservation Act. That law (essentially) allowed local newspaper monopolies to flourish throughout the country. In all but a handful of markets, dominant newspapers would employ tactics that in other industries would be considered restraint of trade in order to corner their local markets for newspaper advertising.

Joint operating agreements between newspapers that otherwise would have been competitors became legal. The cost certainty of operating in a noncompetitive environment allowed these "hometown" newspapers to grow fat with advertising revenue. New sections were added. Newspaper chains such as Gannett and Knight-Ridder scooped up these profitable properties around America. The chains grew accustomed to profit margins that would have been impossible to achieve in a truly competitive environment.

By the early 1990s, newspaper companies and their corporate owners believed double-digit profit returns were normal for the business. They forgot the competitive - almost cutthroat - atmosphere of the newspaper business before the 1970 legislation. Worse, they took their monopoly for granted and assumed news consumers were satisfied.

As soon as the marketplace opened, and the news audience had new options, those consumers started going elsewhere. First cable news in the 1980s and then the Internet in the late 1990s revealed a hunger for new news sources. Many alternative weeklies, including the most influential, began offering their product for free. The very product that comprised the bedrock of this monopoly business - news - began to be seriously devalued.
How did newspapers react?

They brought in consultants, armed with MBAs and experience in other troubled industries, to evaluate their operations. Recommendations were simple: Cut staff, cooperate more closely with advertisers (i.e., create "partnerships") and offer the public more of what it wants to read - not what experienced editors believe the public needs to read.

Demographic studies are used to identify a core readership and to serve it by providing more "news you can use." This has meant an increase in medical, travel and lifestyle news, often at the cost of international reporting and investigative pieces.

The reinvented newspaper has failed to stem the readership losses. The consultants' reports are useless so long as the leadership of the industry clings to profit margin goals that are unrealistic and were originally an artificial creation of antitrust exemption.

By desperately trying to serve its core - but dwindling - audience, the newspaper business is shortchanging that audience. Most newspapers are offering little more than a comfortable rehash of events that their consumers are already aware of. Instead, newspapers should be challenging their readers by providing difficult-to-obtain firsthand reports from around the world that are unavailable anywhere else. They should combine that reporting with bracing, counterintuitive commentary that would provoke thought and discussion in the civic arena.
In other words, daily newspapers should drop the consultants, lower their unrealistic earnings targets and do what they do best. If they fail to do this, they will have nobody to blame for their demise but themselves.

Michael Socolow is an assistant professor of American studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where he directs the journalism program.

2005-08-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

TV viewing is actually rising Americans spend more
hours in front the tube
By Kevin Downey

Everyone knows that TV viewership has taken a big hit because of other media competing for viewers’ attention, especially the internet. Too bad it's not true. TV viewership is actually up over the past four years, according to new research from Turner Broadcasting, and it’s been climbing over the very same years that internet penetration has grown. People may be using the internet more, but they’re also turning on their TVs more. And they’re watching more broadcast as well as more cable. Indeed, while the presumption has long been that broadcast is suffering at the hands of cable, the reality is that they’re both doing well. “People are watching more television than ever before,” says Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer at Turner. He notes that while his analysis focuses on a comparison of viewing this year to 2001, the average amount of time people spend watching TV has steadily been increasing. “What’s happening is that the total amount of television viewing keeps going up, despite what other media types say or what people believe or what people tell you when you ask them in a survey.” In the just-concluded broadcast season the networks halted audience erosion in the 18-49 demographic on a season-to-season basis for the first time in as long as most people can remember. Among households broadcast's share stayed the same while cable rose. According to Turner, the average person watched 30.7 hours of television each week in second quarter through June 19, up 10 percent from 27.9 hours four years earlier. Viewing in the highly sought-after 18-34 demographic in that timeframe increased to 26.3 hours, up from 24.3 hours. Adults 35-49 watched 31.8 hours compared to 28.3 hours in second quarter 2001. Viewing among people 50 years or older jumped to nearly 40 hours in an average week, from 36.3 hours. Within the growing television audience, the networks this past season, on the strength of programs such as ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” CBS’s “CSI” and Fox’s “American Idol,” lost a scant 264,000 primetime viewers in the 18-49 demographic. That was essentially flat at down only 1 percent, compared to a 6 percent loss of 1.33 million viewers a season earlier. At the same time, cable TV’s 18-49 audience was up 1.2 million people over last season. That came on top of an increase of 580,000 adults 18-49 the previous season. Wakshlag attributes cable’s growth and the broadcast networks’ relatively good performance to more and better programming to keep viewers tuning in. “It’s because there are more choices, more options, more [television sets] and people are simply turning on the television more than ever before,” he says. “There has been an aggressive campaign to try to get advertisers to move money away from television. Other media are claiming there are losses. But the only data they’ve ever been able to show is that people think they are watching less television, but we know they’re not.” This summer, in the first three weeks since the regular broadcast season ended in late May, cable TV has averaged about 60 percent share of the primetime household audience, up from roughly 57 percent the same time last year. The network share has slightly dipped to about 34 percent from nearly 35 percent. Wakshlag says cable TV is off to a strong summer because of original programs like FX’s “The Shield” and TNT’s “The Closer.” “This is an ongoing trend,” he says. “You have larger cable networks investing the money they’ve been making in big-time original programming. And there has been a pretty good batting average for cable hits in the past few years.”

June 28, 2005 © 2005 Media Life
-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.

2005-06-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Mast Report Reader, As a senior cable advertising account executive, I thought this media story would help you with your advertising buying decision. Cable has beat local broadcast programming and newspaper! More and more viewers are coming to cable!

Sockeroo Summer indeed for Cable! Viewing hits record levels in key demographics!!!
By Toni Fitzgerald

Cable viewership always rises in the summer, but it’s never risen this sharply this early. Last week, boosted by big premieres and a major finale, ad-supported cable had what will likely be its best week ever among several demographics.

For the first three weeks of the summer, cable has matched its all-time high share levels among adults 18-49, 25-54 and households. Most significantly, ratings are up 5 to 6 percent in the major demographics compared with last year while the seven broadcast networks are down 4 to 10 percent.

The broadcast networks are averaging an 11.2 18-49 rating from May 26 to June 19, down 5.8 percent from last year’s 11.8, according to primetime cumulative ratings provided by the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau. Basic cable is up 5.4 percent to a 15.7 rating from a 14.9.

It’s up 5 percent to a 17.2 in 25-54s while broadcast has dipped 3.8 percent to a 12.6.

But the biggest swing is among 18-34s, where cable is up 6 percent to a 14.0 and broadcast is down 10.3 percent to a 9.4.

CAB won’t know for sure if last week set a record until it gets full numbers from Nielsen on June 28. But with TNT, FX and USA all boasting at least two big performers last week, it’s safe to assume there will be several records.

TNT’s “The Closer” set a total viewers record for an original cable series and also ranked No. 1 for the week among 18-49s and 25-54s. The network’s “Into the West,” while falling off quite a bit from its premiere, still averaged a healthy 4.8 million total viewers and placed eighth among 25-54s.

USA’s “The 4400” and “Dead Zone” both made the top 10 among 18-49s and 25-54s, while FX’s “The Shield” finale matched its best 18-49s performance of the season. FX also got a decent premiere from the new reality show “30 Days,” which placed No. 34 among 18-49s.

Other shows at or near record performances last week included WE’s “Bridezillas,” Comedy Central’s “Reno 911!” and Adult Swim’s “Family Guy.”

According to CAB, summer cable viewership usually peaks in July. But with so many premieres and finales coming this month, it will be interesting to see if cable can top this early peak. It may be difficult, as interest in the new shows is already leveling off and programs like “The Shield” will be over.

Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended June 19:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): TNT, USA, TBS, Spike, FX

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): TNT, USA, Fox News, Nick at Night, TBS

Top movie (18-49s): TBS’s “What Women Want” (Sunday 8 p.m.) 1.65 million

Top sporting event (total viewers): Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 10 p.m.) 5.2 million

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: Spike’s WWE Entertainment (Monday, 9 and 10 p.m.); USA’s “The 4400” (Sunday, 9 p.m.)

Show on the rise: “The Dead Zone,” USA, Sunday 10 p.m. Two episodes into its fourth season, “The Dead Zone” is showing lots of promise. Last week, it drew 2 million viewers 18-49, growing its audience in that demo by 11 percent week to week. That’s good news for a show that premiered to record-breaking ratings three years ago, only to see steep declines later in the season.

Show on the decline: “Into The West,” TNT, Friday 8 p.m. The epic from producer Steven Spielberg saw drastic declines in its second outing last week. Among 18-49s, the “West” averaged a 1.3, down 24 percent from a 1.7 for its debut. Oddly enough, the Sunday repeat of that episode rated better in that demo, averaging a 1.5.

June 22, 2005 © 2005 Media Life
- Toni Fitzgerald is a staff writer for Media Life.

If you need creative and effective cable advertising for your business or organization in Central Pennsylvania, contact me at don.mast@adelphia.com or (814) 235-1783 ext. 286 .

2005-06-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

CALL BACK OR FOLLOW UP WITHIN 24 HOURS!

Recently, my wife and I have been working diligently to hire a mason contractor. We needed a mason to repoint our chimney within two weeks. I placed atleast 8 to 10 calls to nearly all of the mason contractors in central Pennsylvania. Through all of the contractor visits and bids, we narrowed the decision to two competitive contractors. We called the first contractor and left a message saying "We are going to go with you, please put your estimate in writing and drop it off. We will then discuss the project start date. Call me at ###-####... He earned our business--then lost our business. He didn't return our call.

We waited for our first mason to call us back. After nearly a week of waiting, we called contractor number two and left a similar message. Guess what? He called back within 24 hours and earned our business.

Just when we thought our decision was final, the first contractor finally called back (Nearly Two Weeks Later!) He apologized and said "I received your message, I can come by tomorrow to do the job!" I had to apologize back to him and explain that we needed the project done quickly and we hired someone else to complete the project. I learned a valuable lesson through this communication...Follow up within 24 hours! If you don't follow up, you may lose clients and future business.

2005-05-31T13:25:00.000-07:00

STAY CONNECTED TO SUCCEED!

To succeed in today's business world, You NEED to stay connected and stay close with your customers, vendors, and prospects. How do you stay connected and close in our fast paced rapid response world? How can you stand out from competitors who want to communicate with your circle of contacts? The answer is simple...WRITE A LETTER OR SEND A CARD! Get personal and write the communication by hand. All too often, people send an email or fax to stay in touch (It doesn't work!)--or worse yet, a form letter! A personal hand-written letter will send the message that you care enough to take time from your day to think about the contact. Be sure to write about your current shared projects, family events, or topics of interest that the contact would enjoy! People are hammered by hundreds of spam emails, voicemails, form letters, and faxes...Send a personal note or letter and share your feelings and ideas. The art of handwriting is dying--Lets work harder together to bring back handwriting and create communications that STAND OUT and provide IMPACT! Check out this letter writing web site for help: www.business-letter-writing.com/ . If you need personal service and help with letter writing, contact me at dmast@atlanticbb.net or don.mast@adelphia.com , I have hundreds of sample letters to share.

2005-05-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

HIRING AN "EXTRA EMPLOYEE"

One of my clients shared this comparison with me this morning...

"An Advertising budget and plan is much like hiring an extra employee for your company. You hire them to go out and bring back new business."
--Lee, State College Business Manager

Advertising is an investment in your business. Look at advertising as hiring an extra employee! Selecting the right media and message is important. (Just like selecting the right employee!) You need to care for your advertising message and tools as you would a new employee. Constantly review and mold the message and media mix till you get the results you desire. Your "new employee" should help you research your market, your competition, and your customer. The new employee should generate long-term customers and measurable sales revenue! I'm here to help you with your "new employee"(Advertising Strategy), contact me -- don.mast@adelphia.com

2005-05-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

DOES NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING WORK HARDER FOR YOU? WHO READS THE PAPER TODAY?

Dear Mast Report Reader,

Is your newspaper advertising working harder to reach your target audience? Are people reading the newspaper? I’ve looked into these questions and I think my findings will surprise you.

Look at the incredible headlines I found during my research…

NEWSPAPERS SEE ONE OF WORST DECLINES, GROUP SAYS
Newsday.com by the Associated Press (May 02, 2005)

PAPER SINKING FURTHER CIRCULATION FIGURES FOR NEWSPAPERS INDICATE THE WORST FALL OFF IN A DECADE, A TREND EPERS SAY COULD WORSEN
By Richard J. Dalton Jr, Staff Writer
New York Newsday (May 03, 2005)

NEWSPAPER SALES CONTINUE TO SLIDE
By David Lieberman
USA Today (May 2005)

NEWSPAPERS DESPERATE TO REMAIN RELEVANT
By Frank Ahrens (February 27, 2005)
The Washington Post (Published in the Centre Daily Times)

NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION CONTINUES DECLINE, FORCING TOUGH DECISIONS
By Julia Angwin and Joseph T. Hallinan (May 02, 2005)
The Wall Street Journal

BALTIMORE SUN RECORDS 11.3 DROP IN CIRCULATION
By Andrea K. Walker
The Baltimore Sun, Maryland (May 2005)

SHAREHOLDERS FILE SUIT ALLEGE TRIBUNE CO. AWARE IT OVERSTATED CIRCULATION NUMBERS AT NEWSPAPERS INCLUDING NEWSDAY AND HOY
By James Bernstein, Staff Writer
New York Newsday (May 2005)

What is happening in the newspaper industry? It is changing and changing at the speed of light. Newspapers around the country are struggling to stay relevant. Baby boomers love reading it while the younger consumers are turning to other sources for news and information including 24-hour Cable News, Satellite Radio, News Radio, Ipods, and the Internet. By the time the newspaper gets to your house—the news is old and dated. Our society wants and craves instant news and information.

“The Newspaper industry has some breathing room left, but not much! The baby boomers are going to continue to drive print (sales) for some time. The problems we have are the 18-to35-year olds. They’re not replacing the baby boomers!” Quote from Frank A. Blethen, Publisher of the Seattle Times

*The losses come at a time when Americans have many news outlets that didn’t exist 20 years ago, including cable television news channels and internet sites, as well as email and cell phone alerts. Many newspapers have substantial and free online sites offering much of what is in the printed paper. These sites might not hurt readership overall, but they can erode a newspaper’s paying audience. *The Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2005

This is why the consumer trend is moving away from local newspaper and more towards electric media: television, cell phones, and the internet. Even billboard companies are utilizing electronic media with the new electronic flat screen TV billboards. Consumers want instant information. No waiting.

*“With changing work and lifestyle patterns from the 1970’s on has led to the demise of the evening newspaper in almost every city.” * By Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post

Newspapers are saying that the decline is due to the start and growth of the do-not-call legislation that was established in 2003—this sets guidelines that limit telemarketing calls to renew and recruit new subscribers. Telemarketing accounted for nearly 43.4% of new subscribers but fell to 30.0 last year according to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Click on the NAA website to learn more: http://www.naa.org/ . I don’t buy it! It seems to be a growing trend as electronic media continues to find new ways to reach consumers. (Again—instant information—not dated info/news!)

The lack of telemarketing doesn’t seem to be realistic. They are using guerilla marketing tactics to sell and distribute the newspaper. I see the local newspaper promoting subscriptions in booths at our local mall and giving customer FREE papers during community events.

*Daily circulation averaged 62 million newspapers in 1980, compared with 55 million in 2003, the latest figures from the newspaper association. The decline came as the country’s population grew from 226 million to 282 million during that period. *By Richard Dalton, Jr., Newsday

The average newspaper circulation fell 1.9% in the September through March period compared to that same period of time the year before according to analysis of circulation figures by the NAA.
Newspaper and media experts are saying that this trend seems to be getting worse…see the circulation numbers here-- http://www.naa.org/info/facts04/circulation-daily.html

Sunday sales of the newspaper have dropped more than 2.5% to 51.1 million—According to the NAA.

40% of 18-34-year-olds read a weekday newspaper in 2003 compared to 60% in 1982.

* "Newspapers are not clearly as attractive as they were eight or 10 years ago!” Quote from Bob Shamberg, Chief Executive of the media company whose clients include Sears Home Depot, and BMW (The Baltimore Sun, May 2005)

Today, people are watching more cable news for around-the-clock news coverage of major events. Since the coverage provided by CNN of the Gulf War, people are viewing cable news as one of the main sources for news and information. Now with Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg, ESPN, and others—Cable news is growing!

If you go into any restaurant or shopping location you see more and more that the merchant has one or more cable news networks or a local broadcast station on TVs for customer viewing.

*Newspaper Services of America, an Illinois media buyer and planner, said that although newspapers are still a good buy, its clients are increasingly looking to other outlets, such as the Internet, TV, Radio and direct mail. *The Baltimore Sun, May 2005

I recently participated in a Jim Doyle & Associates seminar on auto dealership usage of newspaper and here is what they found in there research:

Almost HALF of American Households do not subscribe to any newspaper: 48% do not subscribe, while 37% subscribe to daily or Sunday papers, 10% subscribe to Sunday only, and 3% subscribe daily and not Sunday!

Here is Jim Doyle & Associates newspaper research comparison by age: (Harris Poll 2004)

Age 18-24
8% Sunday Subscription only
25% Daily & Sunday Subscription
1% Daily Subscription only
65% No Subscription at all

Age 25-34
10% Sunday Subscription only
27% Daily & Sunday Subscription
2% Daily Subscription only
60% No Subscription at all

Age 35-44
12% Sunday Subscription only
28% Daily & Sunday Subscription
0% Daily Subscription only
58% No Subscription at all

Age 45-54
12% Sunday Subscription only
38% Daily & Sunday Subscription
6% Daily Subscription only
42% No Subscription at all

Age 55-64
8% Sunday Subscription only
49% Daily & Sunday Subscription
5% Daily Subscription only
37% No Subscription at all

Age 65+
5% Sunday Subscription only
61% Daily & Sunday Subscription
2% Daily Subscription only
31% No Subscription at all

Here is Jim Doyle & Associates newspaper research comparison by income: (Harris Poll 2004)

$1,000-$15,000
7% Sunday Subscription only
23% Daily & Sunday Subscription
2% Daily Subscription only
66% No Subscription at all

$15,000-$25,000
5% Sunday Subscription only
31% Daily & Sunday Subscription
3% Daily Subscription only
58% No Subscription at all

$25,000 -$35,000
10% Sunday Subscription only
40% Daily & Sunday Subscription
5% Daily Subscription only
44% No Subscription at all

$35,000 -$50,000
13% Sunday Subscription only
40% Daily & Sunday Subscription
3% Daily Subscription only
42% No Subscription at all

$50,000+
10% Sunday Subscription only
58% Daily & Sunday Subscription
0% Daily Subscription only
32% No Subscription at all

Here is Jim Doyle & Associates newspaper research comparison by education: (Harris Poll 2004)

Non-High School to High School
1% Sunday Subscription only
23% Daily & Sunday Subscription
4% Daily Subscription only
68% No Subscription at all

High School Grad
8% Sunday Subscription only
36% Daily & Sunday Subscription
3% Daily Subscription only
50% No Subscription at all

Some College
9% Sunday Subscription only
38% Daily & Sunday Subscription
4% Daily Subscription only
48% No Subscription at all

College Grad
10% Sunday Subscription only
40% Daily & Sunday Subscription
2% Daily Subscription only
46% No Subscription at all

With the Internet explosion, people are getting the latest headlines from news web sites and internet blogs such as http://www.drudgereport.com/ , http://www.cnn.com/ , http://www.foxnews.com/ , and thousands of other sites.

Businesses are also moving print money by using the Internet for employment classifieds. Revenue in local newspapers is beginning to drop thanks due to Monster.com and other internet employment sites.

*Increasingly, employers are using other resources to recruit workers. Morgan Stanley estimated that, from 1988 through the end of last year, revenue generated by Internet help-wanted ads would grow 400%. During the same time, revenue from newspaper help-wanted ads is projected to drop 40%! * Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post, Feb 27th 2005

“T-Mobile USA is still happy with the results it gets from newspaper help-wanted listings, but such listings amount to only about 30% of T-Mobiles total recruitment-ad budget. The Company has moved most of its help-wanted advertising from newspapers to our own Web Site.” Quote from Randall Birkwood, Director of Recruitment, T-Mobile

So to conclude, the answer to my questions is “No!” You can’t use newspaper to target your customer! It seems to be too expensive for the very little return on investment. Newspaper advertising rates continue to increase each year while the subscribers who read the paper are shrinking.

It is time to change your strategy and focus on television and other forms of media to make your advertising budget work harder for you!

When looking at managing your total advertising and marketing budgets you should consider my research from this report carefully and explore the electronic media. You must understand who you are trying to reach and study your target demographic. Buying habits and lifestyles have changed. If you are targeting a 25-54 demo, use the electronic media without paper. If you are targeting a baby boomer or a more seasoned citizen, reach out to the newspaper on SUNDAY only as a last resort. Instead, use targeted electronic media or billboards to enforce your message to seniors. Keep in mind—this all depends on what type of product, company, or service you are promoting. Know your product and know who needs it. Get your sales message to that person by researching them and knowing how they shop and how they live.

With families busier than ever and our time moving by us at lightning speed—You need to reach people when they are out, when they are home, and when they are on the move.

Keep in mind, cable advertising targets specific key demos for each cable network—the opportunity is great to truly target your buying directly towards the consumer. By targeting you get a great return on your advertising buy. Save money and reach more customers! Only cable advertising can target your audience: Geographically and Demographically!

If you need to make your advertising budget work harder for your business everyday—Contact me to research the trends, research your competition, and research your target consumer. If you need personalized advertising advice, research help, or want to offer your opinion, please contact me at don.mast@adelphia.com or dmast@atlanticbb.net .

Click on donmast.blogspot.com monthly for Mast Report updates.

Thank you for reading!
I am working harder for you!

Don Mast

UPDATED ARTICLE from NOV 2nd 2005:

Shareholder urges Knight Ridder to sell Private Capital Management, based in Naples, is urging the newspaper publisher to aggressively pursue a sale.

BY TONY GNOFFO AND JOSEPH N. DISTEFANOPhiladelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA - A private investor group with a 19 percent stake in Knight Ridder, the nation's second-largest newspaper chain, called Tuesday for the sale of all or parts of the company to boost its sagging market value.

Private Capital Management, of Naples, owned by Legg Mason, of Baltimore, said in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has asked Knight Ridder's board to ``promptly pursue a competitive sale of the company.''

It threatened less friendly approaches if it is unhappy with Knight Ridder's response.
''In the absence of such action,'' PCM said, it would ``strongly consider supporting more aggressive efforts that might be initiated by other parties seeking to change the composition of the board, install new management, acquire a majority of the company's voting shares, or take other action to maximize shareholder value.''

Pounded by difficult times in the newspaper business, shares of Knight Ridder, which owns The Herald, have lost 18 percent of their value since Nov. 9, 2004, when they hit their 52-week high of $71.07.

On the news of PCM's filing Tuesday, Knight Ridder shares gained $4.62, or more than 8 percent, closing at $58 in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The PCM filing included a letter from its chief executive, Bruce S. Sherman, to Knight Ridder's board of directors in San Jose, Calif., saying shareholders would be best served ``by the board soliciting competitive bids for the company, either from financial buyers willing to pay fair value or industry participants that would realize synergies and increased market presence through the acquisition of Knight Ridder's highly desirable local newspaper and online advertising assets.''
Sherman's letter did not name any potential buyers.

Knight Ridder spokesman Polk Laffoon IV said Tuesday that the company had no immediate comment.

PCM began boosting its ownership stake in Knight Ridder in September, after meeting with the newspaper company's board in July. It is now Knight Ridder's biggest shareholder.
Since the July meeting, Knight Ridder's board has repurchased five million shares and authorized the repurchase of five million more. It also sold and swapped a number of its newspapers, including a deal that sent The Detroit Free Press to Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper company.

In September, two major Knight Ridder papers, The Philadelphia Inquirer and San Jose Mercury News, announced buyout programs.

Despite the gloom about the business on Wall Street, Knight Ridder and other newspaper companies remain profitable. In the third quarter of 2005, Knight Ridder reported operating income of $96.3 million, down from $126.5 million for the same period last year. Revenue for the quarter grew to $723.8 million from $708 million a year earlier.
Still, the company's stock continued to sag.

The investment group has also been buying shares of other newspaper companies, and is now the biggest shareholder of Gannett, owner of USA Today; Tribune Co., the third-largest newspaper publisher; and The New York Times Co.

2005-05-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Mast Report Reader,

Welcome! This monthly report will become your number one resource for advertising and media information. I am working harder for you to provide valuable information that will help you improve your business or organization each month. My goal is to help you succeed in business and in Life.

About Me:
I offer YOU over 14 years of dynamic sales, account management and business development career experienceS! Delivering solid and sustainable revenue, market and profit contributions through expertise in business / territory development, competitive market positioning, community and media relations strategies, organizational development, team building, sales leadership and performance management. I've exceeded sales goals within every territory position ever held. When it comes to advertising, I am your business solutions provider. Ambition. Passion. Courage. Driven. These are the words that my business associates use to describe my work ethic and style.

My Working Harder Award Winning Background Includes:

·(NGT) Nominal Focus Group Facilitation
·Business Planning and Strategy
·Sales and Marketing Proposal Writing
·Transportation & Government Advisory Board Coordination
·Mass Media Communications Strategies
·Diversity in the Workplace
·Creation of Brochures & Newsletters
·Non Profit Organization Fundraising
·Customer Satisfaction & Enrichment
·Visionary Management & Organizational Leadership Seminar
·PennDOT Malcolm Baldrige Quality Training (EBAT)
·Comprehensive Media Planning & Buying (Roy Williams Wizard of Ads Training)
·Human Resources Recruitment Campaigns through Media / Career Fair Training
·CBICC - Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County Marketing University
·Hands-on experience with Internet, Radio, TV, Print, and Billboard Advertising.

Community Projects & Involvement:

Member-Penn State University Grassroots Network

Member-Penn State University Partnership against Dangerous Drinking

Member-The Leadership Honors Society of Omicron Kappa Society

(1999–2001 Term) City of Altoona Goodman Trust Advisory Committee

(1999–2000 Term) City of Altoona Sesquicentennial Member

(Dec. 99–May 1999) March of Dimes Director for Blair & Bedford Counties

(1998 Seminar) PENNDOT Statewide Management Seminar Guest Speaker,Topic:“Customers”

(1997 Ballot) Altoona City Council Candidate

(Nov.97–Jan. 99) 1st & 2nd Annual City of Altoona Tree Lighting Ceremony & Festival Chairman

(1997–1998) Blair County Chamber of Commerce Ambassador

(1996–1997 Term) City of Altoona Shade Tree Commission Treasurer/Advisor

(1995–1997) Altoona Kiwanis Club Member

(1994 Graduate) Leadership Blair County Inaugural Class (Chamber of Commerce Class)

(1994 Honor) J.C. Penney Golden Rule Award for Volunteer Leadership

(1994 Member) Pennsylvania Department of Education Student Leadership Board

Altoona First Southern Baptist Men's Ministry Founder-- http://menofcourage.blogspot.com/

Volunteer and Friend-Altoona First Southern Baptist Church

I reside in Altoona, Pennsylvania with my Beautiful wife Angelina, Wonderful son Elliot and three crazy dogs, Daisy, Peanut, and Dudley. As a Christian, I attend Altoona First Southern Baptist Church. You will see in my writings that my Personal Christian faith is important and is included in my everyday business operations. Check out my resume website at: http://donmastresume.blogspot.com/

Come back often and enjoy all of the information. I am your business solutions provider! You are welcome to join my monthly mailing list or share your feedback. CONTACT ME:

donaldmast@gmail.com . I am working harder for you!