News Corporation también se une al consorcio de revistas

News Corporation ha decidido unirse al reciente consorcio de revistas creado en EE.UU. por los grupos Hearst, Time, Conde Nast y Meredith, y cuyos planes pasan por crear un kiosko digital que explore las posibilidades de suscripción o cargo por contenidos.

El grupo edita, entre otras muchas, las revistas Time, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Marie Claire, SmartMoney, Vogue, Wired, The New Yorker o Vanity Fair.

Más, aquí.

Google se defiende: estamos aquí para ayudar a la prensa

Erich Schmidt, consejero delegado de Google, se defiende en las páginas del WSJ.com de las críticas recibidas en las últimas semanas por parte de la industria de medios. En pocas palabras su artículo viene a decir que saben que Internet está acabando con su negocio pero no deberían culpar a Google: está aquí para ayudarles:

Google is a great source of promotion. We send online news publishers a billion clicks a month from Google News and more than three billion extra visits from our other services, such as Web Search and iGoogle. That is 100,000 opportunities a minute to win loyal readers and generate revenue—for free. In terms of copyright, another bone of contention, we only show a headline and a couple of lines from each story. If readers want to read on they have to click through to the newspaper's Web site (...) And if they wish, publishers can remove their content from our search index, or from Google News.

El artículo, aquí.

Nueve preguntas para entender el mercado de medios

Ken Doctor explica en Seeking Alpha nueve cuestiones claves para entender el actual mercado de empresas informativas y de qué manera Google cambió las reglas del juego:

Google has repeatedly said: If you don't want us to index your content, just tell us, and we'll be happy to stop. Just use our on/off switch. End of discussion. End of “negotiation.” In fact, its twin moves this week – allowing publishers more flexibility in news search rules and in its Five Clicks Free program – are the latest expressions of that public pose. It knows that the publishers’ current addiction to search traffic makes the on/off choice (even with this week’s nuances) not much of a choice at all. So in part, Murdoch (and more quietly, AP’s) move to bring the anti-Google, Microsoft, to the table creates a sense of real negotiation, competition for perhaps scarce assets.

Most news publishers will tell you that about 25-35% of their traffic is driven by Google and that more than 50% of it is driven by search engines generally. They'll also say that about a quarter to a third comes directly to their sites -- and that these are the regular customers they care about.

Si andan justos de tiempo, vayan directamente a la novena pregunta: ¿pueden los medios negociar en 2009 como en 1999?:

As newspaper publishers debate various schemes, they are valuing their news output as if it were 1999. Back in 1999, they were quite dominant, largely daily print monopolies across the USA. In addition, they produced great quantities of news content ---with at least 12,000 more newsroom staff -- and had little competition in their marketplaces....

Todo el artículo, aquí.

Google nos recuerda que el contenido es el rey

Toni Piqué, un habitual del Máster en Gestión de Empresas de Comunicación (MGEC) de la Universidad de Navarra, analiza en Paper Papers el reciente anuncio de que Google News limitará a cinco el número de noticias que los usuarios puedan acceder gratuitamente cada día:

Google no regala nada –los contenidos no son suyos– y tampoco tiene nada que temer, especialmente a largo plazo, de unas Empresas Generadoras de Contenido saneadas. Al contrario: mejor y más contenido –ciudadano o no– llevará más tráfico…

Sí, es lo mismo de siempre. ¿Creían que el mundo digital tenía una economía diferente a la analógica? Pues no se dejen engañar más. La base de todo es la misma: los contenidos. El recurso escaso es el de siempre: capacidad de edición. Los beneficios vienen de donde solían: de la publicidad. Y la distribución, que es de lo que hablan los gurús (ondas, cables y cacharritos), es lo que menos importa: cada vez más barata, cada vez más en manos de la gente, cada vez más invisible. Y habrá excepciones extraordinarias a todo esto, por suerte (los gurús tienen que vivir de algo ¿no les parece?).

Todo el comentario, aquí.

Vivendi vende el 20% de NBC Universal a General Electric por 3.8M€

Vivendi ha alcanzado un principio de acuerdo para vender a  General Electric su participación del 20% en NBC Universal por 5.800 millones de dólares (3.850 millones de euros. La multinacional estadounidense controlaría  el 100% de la compañía y podrá llevar a cabo sus planes para vender dicha filial al operador de televisión por cable Comcast.

Vía El Confidencial

10 predicciones para el mercado de e-books y e-readers en 2010

Un clásico del final de año son las predicciones sobre diferentes mercados para el año venidero. En Paid Content Sarah Rotman Epps y James McQuivey publican sus 10 predicciones para el mercado de libros electrónicos y e-readers en 2010. De todas, me quedo con estas tres:

7. E-book content sales will top $500 million in the U.S. In the first three quarters of 2009 (through September), U.S. e-book content sales have more than doubled from a year ago: Wholesale revenues reported to the AAP for January through September 2009 top $109 million, compared with $52.4 million for all of 2008.

9. Magazine and newspaper publishers will launch their own apps and devices. Magazine and newspaper publishers aren’t satisfied with the way their content looks and acts on the Kindle and Sony Readers—they want color, video, interactivity, the ability to sell ads and control the subscriber relationship. Old media moves slowly, but in 2010 we’ll see them crawling towards some solutions.

10. China, India, Brazil, and the EU will propel global growth, but the U.S. will still be the biggest market. Right now, the U.S. is the biggest market for e-readers and e-books, and that won’t change in 2010. But the rest of the world will start to catch up. (...) According to a recent Forrester survey of 14,536 online consumers in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden, 4% of consumers in these countries reported having paid for e-books in the past month, and 19% said they’d be willing to pay for e-books in the future.

El artículo completo, aquí.

La ganga de AOL

Almost 10 years ago, in January 2000, America Online CEO Steve Case announced one of the boldest, craziest ideas in modern business history: a $182 billion stock-and-debt deal to buy mighty Time Warner, creating an Internet and media colossus with a combined market cap of $350 billion. It was the largest takeover ever, and a symbol of the turn-of-the-millennium power of the Internet. "Together, they represent an unprecedented powerhouse," Bear Stearns analyst Scott Ehrens told CNNfn at the time. "If their mantra is content, this alliance is unbeatable."

Well, as it turned out, that wasn't even close to true. Almost a decade later, Bear Stearns is gone, and so is CNNfn. Steve Case quit as AOL Time Warner chairman in January 2003, and left the board for good in 2005. A few weeks ago, he sold a company called Revolution Money to American Express. Gerald Levin, the former Time Warner CEO who engineered the deal with Case, now helps his wife run a holistic health center in Los Angeles. And in less than two weeks, the great and terrible combination of AOL and Time Warner, mighty destroyer of careers and shareholder wealth, and vivid reminder of the excesses of the Internet bubble, finally will be undone.

Más sobre la separación AOL y Time Warner, en Barrons.

¿Unos medios independientes del gobierno? Anda ya...

Geoffrey Cowan y David Westphal desmitifican en The Online Journalism Review la idea de unos medios de comunicación independientes del gobierno y analizan las tres principales fuentes de intervención pública en esta industria:

A mythology about the relationship between American government and the news business is again making the rounds, and it needs a corrective jolt. The myth is that the commercial press in this country stands wholly independent of governmental sustenance. Here's the jolt: There's never been a time in U.S. history when government dollars weren't propping up the news business. This year, federal, state and local governments will spend well over $1 billion to support commercial news publishers through tax breaks, postal subsidies and the printing of public notices. And the amount used to be much higher.

Más, aquí.

¿Regalamos las suscripciones?

"With consumers anchored to free content, advertising not footing the bill and pay to play on shaky grounds, what is the path forward? I believe the model should focus on subscriptions as a reward for other consumer purchases or behaviors. Customers are anchored to water being free at restaurants and would be insulted if they had to pay for it. But no water would be provided if no food was ordered."

"Content originators must be content with consumers paying indirectly for their work. Trying to change a consumer behavior as strong as free internet content is futile. But purchasing $3,000 a year on VISA (V) or MasterCard (MA) to earn an online newspaper subscription follows established behavior."

Michael Steinberg lo propone en Seeking Alpha.

Metro y 20 Minutos se alían

Alejandro Armesto comenta en Media Markets Studies la reciente alianza estratégica entre Metro y 20 Minutos:

The agreement means that every advertising campaign managed by Metro in the world could include Spain as a country and 20 Minutos as a medium. Until now, international campaigns had very little representation in the Spanish paper.

During the third quarter of 2009, the advertising incomes of 20 Minutos shrunk 12.5%. These figures complicate the future of Schibsted in Spain. Even though the free daily reduced costs dramatically, including staff, the effects are still not evident.

Schibsted and Metro International maintain good relations since May 2008, when Metro divested 35 percent ofMetro Sweden to Schibsted, who then decided to close their title Punkt.se.

 Más, aquí.

El papel de los generadores de contenido

Mercedes Medina, directora del Máster en Gestión de Empresas de Comunicación (MGEC), pregunta en voz alta en el blog Media Markets Studies cuál debería ser el rol de los productores de contenidos en el nuevo entorno que rodea al mercado de medios de comunicación:

Media companies are not any more companies that only deliver contents. Media managers have to set departments of marketing, retailing, and stores, or to signed agreements with external firms. So, in this new context what is the role of the content producers? How do they have to produce or create media goods? What is going to be the core business of media companies? Will be still important to have good contents that satisfied the information and entertaining needs of the audience?

Más, aquí.

La nueva legislación sobre televisión en España

El profesor Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero resume en el blog Media Market Studies los cambios producidos en los últimos 15 meses en la normativa que regula el mercado de la televisión en España:

"(...) TVE will not broadcast more advertising from 1 January 2010. That decission will means that the 700 million euros of TVE’s advertising income will go to other media. (...)

Therefore, six private operators can increase the level of competition in a market where Sogecale has a dominant position (with 2 million subscribers and more than 70% of the pay TV market) (...)

Now two commercial chanels can merge, provided the combined audience does not overcomes the limit of 27%."

Todo el comentario, aquí.

Algunas claves en la dirección de medios de comunicación

Algunas perlas extraídas de las últimas sesiones con directivos mantenidas en el Máster en Gestión de Empresas de Comunicación (MGEC):
Pilar Santaolalla (Directora de Onda Cero Rioja) e Idoia Altadil (Directora de Onda Cero Pamplona):

"Hay que entender la radio para gestionarla; no basta con saber de números".
“La autoridad se construye con directivos bien formados que saben no sólo mandar sino también alabar y felicitar a los suyos” (...) Cuidar a la gente es la mejor manera de ser eficaz: cuando tu equipo está contento, trabaja y rinde mucho mejor”. [+]

Paz Alvarez (Directora de Investigación del Grupo Unidad Editorial):

"Cada vez triunfan más los contenidos dirigidos a nichos de mercado".
" Si normalmente uno debería testar y analizar cualquier posible toma de decisiones, más todavía en un momento como en el que nos encontramos”. [+]

Antonio Irisarri, presidente de Savia CP:

"La mejor inversión que un directivo puede hacer es en talento e innovación".
“Cuando la honestidad prima sobre todo lo demás, se convierte a largo plazo en una inversión de confianza de valor incalculable”. [+]

Todas las noticias, aquí.

Nuevas estrategias para la radio española

Radio advertising income was 641 million € in 2008, 9% of total above the market advertising and 5,3% lower than the previous year. (The decrease in the US market was 7,4%). Managers of Spanish radio companies should look for new strategies to face the increasing competition. Consolidation, new distribution windows (like Internet), pay services and more innovation in programming are some options to pay attention to.

Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero, en Media Markets Studies.

La publicidad: ¿gasto o inversión?

When firms face bad times, one of the first expenses to be cut are those allocated to the advertising budget. This indicates that, in spite of the large importance given to communication in society, many companies consider that advertising is an expense and not an investment aimed to achieve better performance in the long term.

Cristina Etayo, en Media Markets Studies.
Más, aquí.

El mercado de medios en India, en auge

Según un reciente estudio elaborado por la consultora KPMG y la Cámara de Comercio e Industria de India, el sector de medios de comunicación crecerá un 7% este año y un 10% en el 2010. El informe estima que durante los próximos cinco años la industria de medios tendrá un crecimiento medio anual del 12,5% en ese país como consecuencia de la aparición de una emergente clase media, la incipiente penetración de los medios y al incremento del gasto en publicidad.

Más, aquí.

El órdago de Murdoch

In times where charging is not considered the better strategy, the decission of Murdoch goes beyond the means. Regardless paper or Intenet, what matters is that there are people who are willing to pay for the information that “The Wall Stree Journal” provides.

La profesora Mónica Herrero, en Media Markets Studies.

¿Dañan las televisiones públicas la competencia?

Robert Picard se plantea en su blog The Media Business algunos de los riesgos que las televisiones públicas pueden suponer para la competencia y la pluralidad de los mercados:

"If competition among commercial firms, between commercial and non-commercial firms, and among non-commercial firms is good for pluralism and diversity, cannot concentration and reductions in sources of news and entertainment due to acts of large not-for-profit firms also harm competition, pluralism and diversity?"

El artículo completo, aquí.

Claves del éxito de elmundo.es

Alejandro Armesto cuenta en Media Markets Studies algunas de las claves del éxito de elmundo.es:

The keys which explain the success of “elmundo.es” are the following:
- They arrived first.
- “elpais.es”, their main competitor, did not manage very good its business model online and lost users because it was a paid model. When they changed this it was too late. Now, “elpais.es” is recovering.
- To be a modern newspaper helped inside the company and among the readers to look at El Mundo as a company able to leader a newspaper on Internet.
- To go to the international public, not only Spain.
The aim now is to make profit of this business model. How to turn 23 million unique users into money.

El resto del análisis, aquí.

Cierra el último gratuito alemán

The number of countries with free dailies has witnessed a decline, dropping from 59 in 2008 to 56 in 2009 - and is a continuing trend: Lithuania and India have recently lost theirs, and the last German free daily, SZ Primetime, has announced its closure. (...) With this closure, the concept of the free German daily has all but evaporated. Ten free papers have tested the water since 1997, with some lasting no more than a couple of months, others more than twelve years.

The question now is, with the last free daily in Germany closing; will anything pop up to take its place?

Helena Humphrey, en EditorsWeblog