Media News - Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Press group says violence threatens Americas media

Violence and authoritarian governments are the biggest challenges to an independent press in Latin America, the Inter American Press Association said Tuesday at the end of its 68th General Assembly. IAPA said 13 journalists were murdered over the past six months in Mexico, Honduras, Brazil and Ecuador, "for the simple fact that they were doing their work." It accused the presidents of Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador of "trying to silence" independent journalism in their countries "through regulatory legislation, discrimination in official advertising, and immense state-run and private media mechanisms used to slander and carry out dirty campaigns." IAPA criticized Argentine President Cristina Fernandez for failing to appear at news conferences and said her plans to "advance against the audiovisual media of the Clarin group" are a threat to freedom of the press. The Argentine government has said Grupo Clarin must sell off most of its broadcast stations by Dec. 7. IAPA said high levels of violence against the press exist in Haiti, Venezuela, Honduras and Peru, while "fear-mongering" continues in Cuba where more than 500 dissidents were arrested in September. (AP)

Guardian News & Media names Wolfgang Blau digital strategy director

Guardian News & Media has appointed Wolfgang Blau, the editor of the online version of German weekly newspaper Die Zeit, to the role of digital strategy director. The 44-year-old, who has edited Zeit Online since March 2008, will start in April next year, reporting to Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger and chief executive Andrew Miller. Blau, who has been tasked with "creating and tailoring content for digital with a view to maximising revenue and audience," will also join Guardian News & Media's executive committee. He will work across GNM's editorial and commercial teams. In his five years at Zeit Online, Blau tripled the monthly unique user base, of which about 40 percent are under 29 years old. Up until 1997, Blau worked in Silicon Valley for German newspaper Die Welt and broadcaster ZDF and went on to found Audible.de, now part of Amazon. (The Guardian)

China critic to sell Taiwan media holdings to local businessman with close China ties

A Hong Kong media magnate highly critical of China is selling one of his Taiwanese companies to a group headed by a local businessman whose family has substantial interests on the mainland. A source at Hong Kong-listed Next Media Ltd said Tuesday that Jimmy Lai would sell Next Media Entertainment Services Ltd. to a group headed by Jeffrey Koo Jr. for New Taiwan dollars 17.5 billion (USD 580 million). The development comes on the heels of pro-China Taiwanese newspaper publisher Tsai Eng-meng's attempts to complete a USD 2.4 billion deal for a cable TV network system, underscoring growing Chinese influence on the island of 23 million people, especially in the free-wheeling media, where there is increasing soft-peddling of issues concerning China. Tsai's outspokenly pro-Beijing China Times newspaper balks at almost all direct criticism of the mainland. But even pro-opposition TV outlets sometimes dampen anti-China coverage amid efforts to complete potentially lucrative Chinese-language programming deals with Chinese media companies. Next Media's stable in Taiwan comprises the highly profitable Apple Daily newspaper, Next magazine, a muckraking weekly often critical of Taiwan's China-friendly government, and an Internet TV station. (AP)

Newspapers’ decline continues, while Pew study asks: Is TV news next?

Newspapers continue to suffer in the digital age, but a new study by the Pew Research Center finds that television news is also vulnerable to the technological revolution. The percentage of Americans who regularly watch local television news has dropped from 54 percent in 2006 to 48 percent today, the study found. But what's particularly troublesome is that the people who are tuning in for news broadcasts are graying. The number of 18-to-29 year-olds routinely turning on the local news has fallen from 42 percent in 2006 to 28 percent, and the situation on cable is not much better. The number of people aged 65 and older who regularly watch cable news shows is double that of people under the age of 30 (51 percent vs. 23 percent). CNN has been hardest hit. While regular viewership for rivals Fox News and MSNBC has held steady, the number of Americans who watch CNN has fallen from 24 percent in 2008 to 16 percent today. To survey news consumption habits, Pew polled 3,003 adults over nearly a month-long period. It is releasing its findings in a report entitled "The Explosion in Mobile Audiences and a Close Look at what it Means for News." (The Wrap)

Google privacy policy breaks law, EU data chiefs say

Search-engine Google has been ordered to re-write its data collection rules after EU regulators found that they were in breach of EU data protection laws. A letter to Google CEO Larry Page signed by 24 of the EU's 27 national data protection regulators said that the software-giant had "not demonstrated that your company endorses the key data protection principles of purpose limitation, data quality, data minimisation, proportionality and right to object." The regulators, who collectively make up the Article 29 working party on data protection, also spelt out a 12-point plan for Google to comply with EU law on data protection and retention as well as the e-privacy directive. These include requirements to get explicit consent from users to use and combine their data and create a simple opt-out mechanism for users. Google should also publish how it uses and processes personal data. However, they have steered clear of accusing the software-giant of intentionally breaking the law and of possible fines or other sanctions. The report concludes a long-running investigation into Google's practices led by French data regulator CNIL starting in March over the ways that Google collects personal data. (EU Observer)

Netherlands: Persgroep to bid for Wegener regional newspaper group

The publisher of three of the Netherlands big daily papers is one of the prospective buyers of the regional newspaper group Wegener, the Volkskrant reports on Monday. The Persgroep, founded by Belgian Christian Thillo, owns the Volkskrant, AD and Trouw. British newspaper group Mecom, which was trying to build up a European regional paper empire, has put Wegener up for sale. Sources close to the sale process say it is not clear if the Persgroep wants to keep all the Wegener papers. Wegener has seven regional papers and a large stable of weekly freesheets. One theory is that the Persgroep and TMG, which owns the Telegraaf, may split up Wegener's papers between them, to avoid competition concerns. The first phase of the takeover process involves making a non-binding offer to establish how many companies are in the running. According to the Volkskrant, Mecom paid EUR 800m for Wegener in 2007 but the company is now worth under EUR 150m. (Dutch News)

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