Media News - Thursday, October 02, 2008

France: Sarkozy plans to shake up France’s ailing newspapers

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will launch crisis talks Thursday to save France's ailing newspaper industry, amid union concerns that he could loosen ownership laws, allowing his television baron friends to buy into the national press. Sarkozy, who is nicknamed the 'télé-président' for his media obsession and controversial influence over key parts of the TV and press, recently warned that 'democracy cannot function with a press permanently on the edge of an economic precipice'. The French press, among the least profitable in Europe, is lurching from crisis to crisis. The daily circulation of all French national papers totals 8m - half that of the UK and one third of Germany. The biggest daily seller in France is the sports paper L'Equipe. French newspapers' combined turnover plummeted from EUR 1.145bn in 2000 to EUR 848m last year, and crises have hit dailies such as Le Monde, Libération and Le Figaro. It costs more to print a national paper in France than its European neighbours because printworks are tightly controlled by the communist union, Le Livre, which has rigid hours and protections. Labyrinthine state controls of newspaper kiosks mean it is hard to find French papers on sale, especially beyond Paris. The French state gives EUR 1.5bn in direct and indirect state aid to the press each year. Keen to cut that budget, Sarkozy has ordered discussions on distribution, the role of journalists in society, and competition with free papers and the internet. (The Guardian)

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UK: ITV launch in-program ads

Troubled British broadcaster ITV could be on the verge of a commercial revolution after revealing a new form of advertising that displays during TV programs. The strategy would make advertising unavoidable for viewers and would combat the practice of recording shows and fast-forwarding through ad breaks. The broadcaster says it will use the technology, known as 'automatically placed overlay advertising', to superimpose company logos into clear spaces such as blue skies or blank walls. The technology is being given a three-month trial within the user-generated content on ITV Local's website. The broadcaster denies plans to use it on conventional broadcast channels. Television critic for The Times newspaper, Andrew Billen, said any move by broadcasters to use the advertising method on TV would most likely backfire due to public outrage. ITV will review plans for the technology after the trial, but refused to speculate on how it might be used. (Sky News)

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Netherlands: Tough times for leftwing newspapers

The circulation of most daily newspapers in the Netherlands dropped in the second quarter. The newspapers produced by publisher PCM were hit particularly hard, the HOI Institute for Media Auditing reports. The total circulation of De Telegraaf, including free copies, rose to more than 700,000 from more than 699,000 copies in the second quarter of 2007. The core circulation of purchased copies dropped slightly though, to over 623,000 from over 626,000 a year earlier. De Telegraaf, a newspaper with a rightwing orientation, is published by Telegraaf Media Groep (TMG). The primarily leftwing-orientated newspapers of PCM all lost readers. De Volkskrant dropped from 240,083 to 230,171 copies, down 4.1 percent. Evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad fell from 207,831 to 199,084, a loss of 4.2 percent. The circulation of Trouw also decreased: from 93,298 to 91,306. Het Financieele Dagblad (FD Media Groep) showed a striking climb however; the circulation in the second quarter was over 57,000 copies, a growth of 9.7 percent compared with the same period last year. A slight increase was also shown by Christian newspaper Nederlands Dagblad and the Amsterdam-focused newspaper Het Parool, HOI reported. The circulation of the free newspaper Spits published by TMG rose from almost 447,000 to over 452,000 copies. Spits is still smaller than Metro, though. Another free newspaper is De Pers. DAG also belonged to this genre, but it ceased to exist Wednesday 1 October. (NIS News)

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In a first, Japan’s biggest dailies to consolidate production

Japan's Jiji Press reported Wednesday that the country's two biggest newspaper publishers, Asahi Shimbun Co. and Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, have announced agreement to consolidate their printing as a cost-cutting measure. It is Japan's first production collaboration between competing dailies, and the companies are calling on other publishers to join their initiative. Beginning in 2011 and on a new offset press installed for the purpose, Asahi will print approximately 200,000 Yomiuri Shimbun copies at its Funabashi plant in Chiba, for readers in that prefecture and in eastern Tokyo. Yomiuri's Sakaide plant, in western Japan's Kagawa prefecture, will print about 150,000 Asahi Shimbun copies for the Shikoku region, including Kagawa, beginning before 2013. Joint deliveries from the two plants are under consideration. Asahi will close its Marugame plant in Kagawa and handle its work at another Asahi facility. (Editor and Publisher)

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US: Studios sue to bar a DVD copying program

Six major movie studios sued RealNetworks, the Seattle-based digital media company, on Tuesday over its new USD 30 software program that allows people to make digital copies of their DVDs. The studios have argued that it threatens their emerging business of digital downloads and can motivate buyers to rent, copy and return DVDs instead of buying them. RealNetworks said RealDVD gives users the freedom to do things like make backup copies of favorite discs or take movies along on a laptop while traveling. It has argued that RealDVD is now legal because of a favorable decision last year in a case against Kaleidescape, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of high-end media servers. RealNetworks also said that RealDVD conforms to Hollywood's rules on DVD protection by encrypting the digital copies, which prevents unlawful online file sharing. For their part, the studios argued in legal filings that the software violates the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it bypasses the anticopying mechanism built into DVDs. Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, the Walt Disney Company and Sony are suing RealNetworks, seeking an injunction that would prevent the company from selling the software. (International Herald Tribune)

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US backs down, will give Cuban journalists visas

The United States has reversed itself and decided to allow two journalists for the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina to return to their posts at the United Nations, the State Department said Wednesday. The department's original decision to deny re-entry to husband and wife team Tomas Granados Jimenez and Ilsa Rodriguez Santana had drawn condemnation from the press advocacy groups Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The couple have covered the United Nations for Prensa Latina since 2005. They have been on leave in Cuba. The agency said U.S. authorities in Havana had not explained why their return entry permission was rejected. (AP)

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