Auto ad dollars suffer most at The New York Times Co.
During the third quarter of 2010 print advertising revenue at The New York Times Company decreased 5.8 percent from the prior year, while digital ad dollars went up 14.6 percent. Circulation revenues dropped 4.8 percent. Company overall revenue drop was 2.7 percent from Q209.
Classified advertising dropped 9.6 percent, with a slight YOY improvement in recruitment – it was up .3 percent. Automotive tanked, down 20.7 percent, and real estate advertising dropped 8.9 percent.
Has Fairfax Digital started building a pay wall?
When News Corp. Chairman, Rupert Murdoch declared his intention to begin charging subscribers for content last year, Fairfax CEO Brian McCarthy couldn’t resist the chance to swipe at his great rival, suggesting it was unlikely News Corp’s online content was “unique and compelling” enough to warrant paying for when so much free content was available.
It seems, however, Mr McCarthy might now believe his company’s is. He’s just signed the services of Transaction Network Services (TNS), a US company which provides “IP service, card data management and transaction security”. And the word on the street is that this means just one thing: pay wall.
Fairfax says it’s not the case, telling AIM Group there are no current plans to start charging for its masthead sites. But last week smh.com.au ran a piece which speculated on its mother company’s relationship with TNS. The article noted Mr McCarthy’s softened view on pay-to-read services, evident in his comments at the company’s most recent AGM.
“Fairfax already charges for content online in a number of areas and is constantly reviewing further opportunities to charge for content in the digital space where it makes economic and strategic sense to do so,” Mr McCarthy said last November.
Smh.com.au also pointed to comments made by Mr Murdoch who recently told George Washington University’s Kalb Report that it would not be long before all newspapers started charging. “You’ll find, I think, most newspapers in this country [the United States] are going to be putting up a pay wall,” he said.
”Now, how high does it go, does it allow (visitors) to have the first couple paragraphs or certain feature articles, we’ll see.”
If Fairfax does start charging for content, Mr Murdoch might be entitled to at least a smile.
OMMA panelists joust over free vs. paid
By Mark Whittaker
SAN FRANCISCO — A panel discussion about free vs. paid content turned raucous at the OMMA Global conference here Wednesday when one panelist questioned whether sites like HuffingtonPost.com and PopSugar.com provide quality content like that produced in large newspapers.
David Moore, chairman and founder of 24/7 Real Media, said advertising alone will not pay for the creation of good content. “Good content costs,” Moore said, adding that declining advertising rates only increase the pressure to charge subscriptions.
When Brian Sugar, CEO and publisher of Sugar Inc., disagreed, Moore said “What you do is not premium content.” It was no surprise when Sugar bristled along with Greg Coleman, president and chief revenue officer for the Huffington Post. Sugar, whose company produces lifestyle and entertainment sites such as PopSugar.com and FabSugar.com, shot back that he would be sure to pass that along to his company’s 50 paid editors around the world.
Coleman also said that Huffington Post intended to survive without subscription revenue.
And to add fuel to the fire, Moore said “I would be astounded if HuffPo ever makes money!”
On the other hand, Sugar and Coleman both gleefully encouraged legacy news companies to erect pay walls. They figure they’ll gain readers who abandon sites that charge.
Laura Martin, managing director and senior analyst: entertainment, cable, media for Needham & Co., and Merrill Brown, senior strategist for Press+ (Journalism Online LLC), also sat on the panel moderated by Andre Heyward, senior advisor for Marketspace LLC. Brown’s company is encouraging newspapers to build subscription models and develop products that will be bought by online newspapers’ most loyal readers.
The panel debate illustrated the deep differences between those who believe legacy media companies should charge for online content and those who believe online readers are too used to free content to pay for news.
Despite that, however, there was agreement on some basic premises. First, publishers who simply try to repurpose print content for new devices (such as the new iPad from Apple) are doomed to failure. Second, some content is already commoditized — sports scores, stock prices, national government news — and readers will definitely not pay for that.
Nikkei president offers to show off his pay-per-view model
Nikkei Inc., the Japanese publisher whose brands include business publications the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun and the Nikkei Weekly, has announced it will soon begin charging users to access certain content. And Nikkei President, Tsuneo Kita, says if it the new model works, he’ll happily share his experiences with other newspaper groups.
From March 23, Nikkei’s flagship web site, Nikkei.Net, will begin charging customers ¥4,000 (US$45) a monthfor users to access all its web content, including news flashes and some articles appearing in its morning and evening publications. The fee also includes access to the digital version of the Nikkei Shimbun.Print subscribers can also access all areas of the site by paying ¥1,000 a month on top of their standard subscription fee.
Meanwhile, registered users of the site will still have access to up to 20 restricted articles a month without having to pay.
Mr Kita said the move to start charging users will ensure its content is easily distinguished from the “flood of [online] information” whose “credibility has become more difficult to judge”.
“I think news media have an important role to provide good journalism to those who are more familiar with computers and cell phones than newspapers,” he said. “If our service becomes successful, we’ll share our know-how with other newspaper companies.”
Nikkei is not the first Japanese publisher to experiment with a pay-per-view model. In October 2009, another of Japan’s leading newspaper houses, The Sankei Shimbun started charging users to access its medical site, yomiDr. But Nikkei is attempting to go one better by charging users for non-specialist content.
If Mr Kita can pull it off, newspapers around the world will be queuing to hear how he did it: New York-based News Day’s attempt at introducing paid content led to just 35 people signing up in the first three months.
You can read more about Nikkei In.’s vision for the future of news here.
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