Your TIME is up...
Posted on 07/11/2008 4:40:53 AM PDT by abb
As the economy stumbled in the second quarter, magazine ad sales fell more than 8 percent, with the steepest drops in ads for vehicles and for computers and related equipment, according to a report released Thursday.
The report, compiled by the Publishers Information Bureau, shows the industry’s troubles growing worse. Ad pages sold in magazines in the United States declined slightly last year, 0.8 percent, then fell 6.4 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the period a year earlier, and 8.2 percent in the second quarter.
For the first six months of the year, automotive ad pages in magazines were down 21.3 percent and technology ad pages fell 17.5 percent.
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But news magazines and some business magazines were battered by the ad slump. Ad pages dropped 21.1 percent at Time magazine over the first half of the year, 22.4 percent at Newsweek, 14.8 percent at BusinessWeek, 12.6 percent at Forbes and 12.2 percent at The Week, according to the bureau’s report.
Some of the biggest-circulation magazines, including several women’s magazines, were among the hardest-hit; Reader’s Digest, Cosmopolitan, Ladies’ Home Journal and Family Circle each lost more than 14 percent of their ad pages, and AARP magazine lost more than 20 percent.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Your TIME is up...
The numbers are here:
ping
The Future of TIME
Watch for even a bigger push for the fairness doctrine. The Dems major message machines are breaking down.
...
OK, I'm over it.
Time, Newsweek, etc used to be good reads - albeit a bit simple. Now, they’re little better than 10th grade level (and that’s public-school 10th grade level, not a real school 10th grade level). Good riddance. They will not be missed.
What a nice way to end the week.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=86408
Prime-Time Costs Fall
by David Goetzl, Friday, Jul 11, 2008 8:15 AM ET
The upfront may have shown high demand, but prime-time prices were significantly lower in the second quarter, according to a new analysis. Those results were noteworthy, considering scatter prices were believed to be considerably up over 2007 upfront costs back in the early spring — though that market has slowed. Overall, average network prime-time unit costs for the April-June period fell 11.1% to $139,728, with all Big Four networks experiencing a decline.
“American Idol”-fueled Fox, and ABC saw pricing dips on the lower end, while NBC and CBS saw double-digit drops, according to the research from independent media agency TargetCast tcm.
According to the analysis, CBS average pricing fell 18% year-over-year to $118,294, followed by NBC, which declined 15.1% to $103,693. ABC saw a 5.1% drop to $142,194, while Fox declined the least (by 2.7%) and had the highest unit costs at $254,852. (While “American Idol” no doubt propelled Fox, “24” did not air due to the strike.)
The “rankings” of highest-lowest-priced networks on average unit costs were the same as a year ago.
The research is derived from NetCosts data. The service, run by SQAD, gets reports on spending from some 390 advertisers and agencies. (SQAD has said NetCosts tracks 40% of national TV ad expenditures.)
TargetCast executive Gary Carr said the writers’ strike may have had an impact in the declines, since though the strike ended, new episodes of hit shows did not return until the latter part of the April-May period. Some of the series saw ratings declines, even with the fresh episodes.
Only 21.1%? Typo?
Wasn’t Time the rag that recently ran the article about the positive points of $4.00 gas? Yeah, one of the positive points is that people have dropped their subscriptions to pay for gas.
2008* 2007* 2008* 2007*
Publication Dollars Dollars %CHG Pages Pages %CHG
NEWSWEEK 82,074,743 126,109,393 -34.9 348.58 492.85 -29.3
TIME 114,319,122 140,047,558 -18.4 427.45 560.56 -23.7
USN&WR 54,913,731 67,431,047 -18.6 313.42 412.28 -24.0
.....CBS average pricing fell 18% year-over-year to $118,294....
EWWW! That has to be hurting baadd!
That should cause several heads to roll. None of this reducing page sizes or cutting news room staff. That should mean the top boss is gone.
Tired, fallacious sales pitch:
“But your ad message will be reaching America’s most intelligent readers! You will be appearing in the pages alongside intellectual giants such as Evan Thomas and Maggie Carlson!”
I give TIME, Newsweek and USN&WR less than 18 months to live.
Forbes is a good magazine. Pity it’s down as well.
By the same token, The Washington Times is suffering the same fate as liberal newspapers - they're losing advertising. This indicates a deeper structural problem than just the liberal publications antagonizing conservative readers. Certainly it doesn't help to pizz off 1/2 your customers, but I don't see anything any paper information distribution system (often wrongly called 'newspaper' or 'newsmagazine') can do to turn things around.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07112008/business/seems_theres_less_of_us_119435.htm?page=0
SEEMS THERE’S LESS OF US
By KEITH J. KELLY
July 11, 2008 —
NOW we have an inkling as to why 62-year-old Jann Wenner might want to take the money and run when it comes to Us Weekly.
In a just-released industry report, it appears that the magazine, which has grown by leaps and bounds for most of the past eight years, may finally be reaching its peak.
Based on the first five months of this year, Us Weekly is having a little trouble meeting its commitment to advertisers to sell 1.9 million copies a week via subscriptions or newsstand sales.
According to the industry newsletter Circ Matters, Us Weekly is 4.1 percent below its new 2008 rate-base promise for the January-to-May period. The report is based on sales for the 19 issues that the Wenner Media-owned magazine has on file with the Audit Bureau of Circulations Rapid Report.
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Dentist offices and Florida Assisted Living facilities are the only ones buying the sTime crappola, soon, they too, will find their patients don’t read it and even (one, that is moi)some complain that Time gives them a headache on top of the tooth ache. Good riddance to them!
With a little luck these rag mags will go the way of look.
You really have to reach back into the dusty pages of history to find “LOOK.”
“Analysts and industry executives say that although the cyclical economic forces are similar, magazines so far have not been seriously hurt by the shift of readers and advertisers to the Internet, as newspapers have.”
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003826774
Organizer of Newspaper Guild Unit Laid Off
By Joe Strupp
Published: July 11, 2008 11:15 AM ET
NEW YORK A chief organizer of the new Newspaper Guild unit at the Bay Area Newspaper Group-East Bay outside San Francisco is being laid off, and she claims management is ousting her in part for her union activities.
Sara Steffens, a nine-year reporter at the Contra Costa Times of Walnut Creek, was just voted unit chair of the New BANG-EB guild unit on Wednesday. The unit represents nine BANG-EB papers that are part of MediaNews Group, including the Times and the Oakland Tribune.
Two weeks ago, however, Steffens and 28 other guild employees found out they would be laid off. Most are expected to depart today. The layoffs come almost a month after BANG-EB employees voted in the guild, 104 to 92.
“There are several active [union] organizers on the [layoff] list and several who were very outspoken,” says Steffens, 36, who was co-chair of the guild organizing effort. “We haven’t been satisfied with the company’s rationale about some of their choices.”
John Armstrong, BANG-EB president and publisher, declined comment and referred calls to BANG-EB Editor Kevin Keane, who was not reachable for comment.
When BANG-EB announced the layoffs, it also said an undisclosed number of non-union staffers would be let go. The reductions will bring the 226-person news staff down to 197.
“They told us they intended to do them without regard to merit or job performance, simply eliminate positions,” Steffens said. “That is when I started to worry about myself a little bit.”
The first notice of layoffs came on June 27, a day after the National Labor Relations Board formally certified the guild unit. The new unit is the first guild effort at the chain since MediaNews in August withdrew recognition of the former Alameda Newspaper Guild, which had represented some 130 staffers at the former four-paper ANG, including the Oakland Tribune.
The union recognition change followed MediaNews’ consolidation of ANG’s editorial functions with its neighboring five-paper Contra Costa Newspapers, led by the Contra Costa Times.
The consolidation of editorial operations from the two groups came one year after MediaNews purchased the Contra Costa papers from McClatchy as part of its takeover of 31 daily and community papers in the area.
Company officials said at the time that the move was proper because the consolidated editorial unit included fewer than 50% guild members. Since the ANG unit, which had been under a guild contract since 1998, had only 130 staffers and the Contra Costa staff, which was union-free, included about 170, the guild unit could be removed because it did not represent a majority of the combined workers.
Steffens said union leaders met with management on June 30 and she was informed on July 2 that she would be laid off. “I think it was important to them to show that they could make an effort to sit down and bargain,” she says about the meeting. “But our influence is limited in these mattes.”
She said that, without a contract, the Guild unit has little power to intervene in the layoff plan, which will pay one week’s salary for each year of service up to 12 weeks, along with three months of health benefits. “I think we could have had a lot more protection,” she said.
Married to San Francisco Chronicle photographer Mike Kepka and the mother of a two-year-old, Steffens said she is considering formal action against the paper, but would not elaborate: “The guild is definitely interested in continuing to pursue this.”
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.
Liberals have long hated cars and big oil, they are reaping what they sowed.
Perhaps the paid ads for light rail will make up the difference... oops, they gave those ads away free in the editorial pages.
The New York Times manages to put a positive spin on all this, noting, "Magazines continue to do significantly better than newspapers.... Analysts and industry executives say that although the cyclical economic forces are similar, magazines so far have not been seriously hurt by the shift of readers and advertisers to the Internet, as newspapers have."
Well, sure, if you're going to use newspapers as your yardstick, everything looks good. But for a better sense of where the magazine business is headed, look at the weeklies, which, owing to their shorter lead time, tend to experience ad declines, and recoveries, first:
Time..............................................-21.1 percent
Newsweek.....................................-22.4 percent
U.S. News.....................................-30.3 percent
BusinessWeek...............................-14.8 percent
Entertainment Weekly...................-16.8 percent
The New Yorker............................-20.1 percent
The New York Times Magazine......-8.4 percent
Of course there are exceptions -- The Economist, TV Guide, OK. But does anyone want to bet pages won't be down still more in the third quarter?
SAG rejects producers' 'final' offer
LOS ANGELES, July 10 () -- A group of Hollywood TV and film producers said the Screen Actors Guild declined to accept its final offer for a new contract Thursday.
"Today's meeting demonstrated that SAG's Membership First contingent unreasonably expects to obtain more in these negotiations than directors, writers and other actors obtained during their negotiations," the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement Thursday.
AMPTP said its final offer included more than $250 million in additional compensation, important new media rights and protection for pension and health benefits.
"The refusal of SAG's Hollywood leadership to accept this offer is the latest in a series of actions by SAG leaders that, in our opinion, puts labor peace at risk," the producers said. "SAG's Hollywood leaders have already pursued a time-consuming, divisive, costly, and unsuccessful anti-(American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) campaign. Any further delay in reaching a reasonable and comprehensive agreement does a disservice to the thousands of working people of our industry who are already being seriously harmed by the ever worsening de facto strike."
AMPTP urged SAG's Hollywood leaders to put its final offer to SAG members for ratification.
"The last thing we need is a long, hot summer of labor strife that puts even more pressure on a badly struggling economy and deprives audiences of the entertainment they clearly desire in such difficult times," the producers said.
S&P cuts McClatchy rating on weakened revenue
By Wallace Witkowski
Last update: 1:45 p.m. EDT July 11, 2008
Comments: 1
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)— Standard & Poor’s on Friday lowered its corporate credit rating on McClatchy Co. (MNI) to B+ from BB- on lower revenue. The rating outlook is negative. “The downgrade reflects meaningful declines in revenue and EBITDA in McClatchy’s newspaper publishing business and the likelihood for further declines over the intermediate term,” said Emile Courtney, an S&P credit analyst, in a statement
Hopefully we can say the same about newsweak and Time too.
Plus I’m getting old Eric.
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/07/times_newsroom_gets_an_up.php
Times newsroom gets an update
Kevin Roderick • Bio • Email
Today’s email from California Editor David Lauter about the preparations for layoffs at the Los Angeles Times. (The number hasn’t risen above 150, he says.) It looks like next week now, and he urges calm:
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http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/07/turns_out_abrams_copies_h.php
‘Profound malaise’ at L.A. Times
Kevin Roderick • Bio • Email
That’s how one staffer describes the mood around the Los Angeles Times offices, where editors were believed to be working last night on their final lists of staffers — 150 or possibly more — expected to get downZelled starting almost immediately. Bullet points from 1st and Spring streets:
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These last two posts are of interest.
You are invited to guess the date on which the price of NY Times stock sinks through the $10.00 floor to single digit territory.
Post your best guesses here. I'm predicting Oct 20th, 2008..Oh yeah, the winner gets an autographed (photoshopped) picture of Punch...
hmm, I think Freepers should come up with the lists of layoffs.
http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/burlington-among-papers-boosting-price.html
Friday, July 11, 2008
Burlington among papers boosting price 50%
The Burlington Free Press is raising its daily cover price a whopping 50%, to 75 cents, the Vermont paper said today — the first in a wave of similar hikes across the company, my readers say.
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http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2008/07/6-newspaper-stocks-hit-record-lows.html
Friday, July 11, 2008
7 newspaper stocks hit record lows in 1 day
The shares of seven publicly held newspaper companies today plunged to the lowest point in modern history in perhaps the worst single trading day ever for the industry.
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SWEET!
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