Free As Standard
Hopefully all those of you with no direct interest in the London market will forgive me for kicking off with one of the most significant media stories of recent months: on the 12th of October the Evening Standard went from paid to free distribution, increasing its print run by more than double, to 600,000 copies. Distribution is still handled by the existing staff of sales people as well as through pick up bins at train and tube stations, in WHSmiths and supermarkets across London. In terms of setting a precedent this piece of news has implications for all of us: as they've been so keen to point out, the Standard is "the first quality paper in the world to go free", and publishers everywhere will no doubt be following events in the capital closely.
Captain Kickback says: "Given that the Standard has sacrificed its paper sales revenue and incurred extra print and distribution charges in order to increase its sales revenue, it's reasonable to assume that rate increases are in the offing but, as you'd expect, the team at Space and Time Towers will be working to ensure that the paper remains an affordable option."
Morning Time in North WestThe Evening Leader group, covering Wrexham, Chester and Flintshire, has announced plans to rename itself The Leader and move to morning distribution. Following a period of circulation decline the shift in publication time will accompany a general revamp of the group's titles. This change represents the latest in a string of regional papers shifting from evening to morning publication, including the Brighton Argus, Lancs Telegraph, Southend Echo, Derby Telegraph, Plymouth Herald and Portsmouth News.
Change Afoot in Birmingham
A raft of changes to Trinity Mirror's presence in the west midlands has been unveiled, including a move from paid daily to paid weekly distribution for the Birmingham Post, and the Birmingham Evening Mail dropping the "Evening" from its title as it switches to morning distribution.
Metro
In a move that threatens to limit the local relevance of various editions of Metro around the country, the commuter freesheet has closed five of its regional editorial offices, namely Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham and Bristol. The centralisation of the editorial process will primarily have an impact on the local arts, entertainment and food sections of the paper.
Captain Kickback says: "This is one of the unfortunate effects of the recession- where publishers are being forced to cut costs and consolidate roles, it is inevitable that content will be rolled out from a central source and that the local media consumer will miss out. We can see the same thing happening with the rise in syndicated content across the new Heart radio network as well as in Manchester where the likes of the Rochdale Observer, Salford Advertiser and the Macclesfield Express are now all written from the centre of Manchester following the closure of the firm's satellite offices."
How do Online and Offline Media Work Together?Some research undertaken at Space and Time demonstrates rather aptly how advertising in the local press drives increases in web traffic and changes the nature of the terms searched for on Google. By overlaying press schedules with Google Adwords reports, it's possible to see how site-specific press ads increase the number of searches carried out for that site's marketing name ("The Towers Reigate" for example), while during periods with no other advertising activity the site-specific searches decline and the most common relevant search terms refer instead to the development's location (such as "New Homes in Reigate").
Captain Kickback says: "At a time when Online ad spend has overtaken TV's advertising revenue, it's important to remember that for all its strength, online media is only a part of the ideal media mix and doesn't necessarily represent a campaign in its entirety. Although online is an extremely hardworking medium and PPC is ultimately accountable, this shows how there's still a space for press advertising on the average schedule. It also provides a useful lesson that your last point of contact with a new lead before they visit the showroom wasn't necessarily the same medium through which they first heard about your site."
Property Factoids
1 in 97 - proportion of UK homes valued at more than £1m at the height of the housing boom in 2007 according to website Zoopla
1 in 150 - proportion of UK homes valued at over £1m today
Print 2.0The ridiculously long-memoried among you will remember a story from August 07 (yes, that's issue 34 for all you Kickback aficionados, a rather lovely epistle you'll remember, with a delicate turn of phrase, black body text and a striking blue title font) about "reverse published" titles in the North East composed entirely from editorial already published on hyper local websites. Now a similar idea has reached London, with the launch of The Blogpaper (no, I said "BLOGpaper", "BLOG", oh nevermind), which is, as you may have guessed, a print version of the best the blogosphere has to offer. The composition of the paper is dictated by the result of online votes at theblogpaper.co.uk. The bloggers work for free, but the publication will carry paid-for advertising, so someone's doing well somewhere.
Local Papers Save the DayHow do you stay in touch with local community news when there's no power, your router's soggy and the broadband exchange is 3 feet under the swollen eddies of the river Cocker? Local Press of course! The awful events seen in Cumbria over recent days have demonstrated that there's life in the old dog yet, as the Times and Star, the weekly title covering Workington and Cockermouth, overcame supply, power and transport difficulties to publish three issues in one week, keeping the local people up to date with vital information about their community.
That's your lot for another issue. If you'd like any more information on any of these stories, you can either reply to this email or contact your Space and Time team.
See you next time!!
Captain Kickback
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Monday, 14 September 2009
Happy New Homes Week
As the whole nation prepares to spend the next week enthusiastically celebrating the wonderful world of new homes, we thought this might be a good opportunity to take stock of the market and cross some optimistic fingers that we might all be headed in the right direction at last.
It can’t go unmentioned that the start of New Homes Week, September 12th, is two years to the day since the board of Northern Rock first asked the Bank of England for a “liquidity support facility” (a sub, to you and me), due to its exposure to bad debt in the American sub-prime mortgage market. Within a few days worried savers had withdrawn £2 billion from Northern Rock and in February of the following year the bank was privatised.
If we can see this event as the start of the enormous downturn we’ve all been enduring these last two years, perhaps it’s not too early to look back over more recent months and ask whether we aren’t starting to climb our way out of trouble: there aren’t many green shoots around yet, but are we starting to lay down their roots?
Housebuilder Magazine for one has found some fairly substantial reasons to be cheerful. Obviously there’s a vested interest here, but even considering the source, the news is significant nonetheless. Reported recently alongside a “reservation surge for Bovis”, a “sales boost for Taylor Wimpey” and a “reservations boost” for both Miller and Galliford Try, were the results of an online poll carried out by the magazine, according to which 86% of respondents believed the market had bottomed out.
For a less biased but still really rather positive view, we might look at the most recent figures posted by the Land Registry’s house price index, which recorded a month on month house price rise for August of 1.7%. Across the country the year on year movement is still in negative figures, but the performance in August has begun to chip away at this, and in Wales the average house price has even had a year on year increase, of 3.1%.
Elsewhere, the Nationwide has also reported a rise in prices, for the fourth consecutive month. The lender has recorded a 3.2% rise in the average sale price over the first 8 months of 2009 and highlights the quarter on quarter rise of 3.3% seen for August as the highest increase since February 2007.
So, we might not be all the way there yet, but good things do appear to be happening at last. A heady mix of low prices (an average of 17% down on January 2008’s peak), cheap - albeit still difficult to come by- credit, realistic valuations from private sellers, pent up demand and under supply seems to be doing the trick.
See you next time!!
CAPTAIN KICKBACK
It can’t go unmentioned that the start of New Homes Week, September 12th, is two years to the day since the board of Northern Rock first asked the Bank of England for a “liquidity support facility” (a sub, to you and me), due to its exposure to bad debt in the American sub-prime mortgage market. Within a few days worried savers had withdrawn £2 billion from Northern Rock and in February of the following year the bank was privatised.
If we can see this event as the start of the enormous downturn we’ve all been enduring these last two years, perhaps it’s not too early to look back over more recent months and ask whether we aren’t starting to climb our way out of trouble: there aren’t many green shoots around yet, but are we starting to lay down their roots?
Housebuilder Magazine for one has found some fairly substantial reasons to be cheerful. Obviously there’s a vested interest here, but even considering the source, the news is significant nonetheless. Reported recently alongside a “reservation surge for Bovis”, a “sales boost for Taylor Wimpey” and a “reservations boost” for both Miller and Galliford Try, were the results of an online poll carried out by the magazine, according to which 86% of respondents believed the market had bottomed out.
For a less biased but still really rather positive view, we might look at the most recent figures posted by the Land Registry’s house price index, which recorded a month on month house price rise for August of 1.7%. Across the country the year on year movement is still in negative figures, but the performance in August has begun to chip away at this, and in Wales the average house price has even had a year on year increase, of 3.1%.
Elsewhere, the Nationwide has also reported a rise in prices, for the fourth consecutive month. The lender has recorded a 3.2% rise in the average sale price over the first 8 months of 2009 and highlights the quarter on quarter rise of 3.3% seen for August as the highest increase since February 2007.
So, we might not be all the way there yet, but good things do appear to be happening at last. A heady mix of low prices (an average of 17% down on January 2008’s peak), cheap - albeit still difficult to come by- credit, realistic valuations from private sellers, pent up demand and under supply seems to be doing the trick.
See you next time!!
CAPTAIN KICKBACK
Monday, 1 June 2009
Watch this Space, Issue 42
Tory Pay Per Budget
In a superb demonstration of how quickly paid search marketing can be used to good effect, the Conservative Party recently used Google Adwords to promote their real-time rebuttal of Alistair Darling's budget. Buying up keywords as soon as the chancellor used them during his speech to Parliament, the campaign directed webusers to the Conservative Party website, where they could read the opposition's budget response.
Captain Kickback says: "This shows just how quickly Pay Per Click advertising can be arranged and altered to target a precise audience. If a bunch of fusty old ex-Etonians can get the hang of it, so can we all."
Good News in a Downturn
BSkyB have managed to bag an extra 80,000 customers during quarter one. Presumably due to cash-strapped consumers opting to stay in and entertain themselves, the satellite broadcaster has increased its reach to over 9.3 million households, 15% of whom also rely on Rupert Murdoch's firm for their broadband and phone services. Over the same three-month period, 243,000 of Sky's existing customers upgraded to its HD service.
Google Growth Slows
The last three months have shown a marked slow down in the growth of the search giant's revenue. Year on year, Google's Q1 revenues grew 6.2% from £3.5 billion to £3.7 billion- this is 3% lower than the growth in revenue year on year for Q4 of 2008. Despite the slow down in takings, however, the media giant's profits grew over the some period due to job cuts and a significant reduction in overheads.
In a similar story, recent research has shown the first ever decline in total paid-for search marketing spend. According to a study by Efficient Frontier, the spend over the first three months of 2009 was 6% lower than that of the same period 12 months ago.
YouTrouble
More Google Grief, as speculation grows that its subsidiary You Tube might never turn a profit. A report by Credit Suisse has suggested that the video sharing giant is set to lose $470 million in 2009. Enormous operating costs caused by the website's bandwidth and storage needs mean that even its expected ad revenue of $240 million this year won't touch the sides.
Ask Who?
Having ditched its smarmy butler character Jeeves three years ago, search engine Ask.com is re-branding itself and bringing the self satisfied servant out of retirement. During his break Jeeves has had a bit of a makeover, including a suit designed by Gieves & Hawkes of Savile Row, and his presence is now being trumpeted across national TV, radio, press, and online. Bringing the character fully up to date with Web 2.0, Jeeves will even have his own accounts on Facebook and Twitter, which he will use to show users what he's been up to during the last three years.
According to a story promulgated by the people at Ask.com, changes to their list of popular searches during Jeeves' sabbatical speak volumes about changes to the wider world since 2006, so terms such have "private school fees", "fake tan" and "flight upgrades" have ceded ground to the likes of "Primark", "property auctions", "Robert Peston" and "left-over recipes." Seems a trifle contrived to me, but believe what you will.
Captain Kickback says: "It's all very well getting the gentleman's gentleman involved with search again, but doesn't that mean that we're all Bertie?"
The Independent in Trouble
It might seem as though I'm picking on the poor old Indie recently, but with the thrashing it has been taking in the ABC figures over the last few months, it's difficult not to see the vultures circling. The daily paper's circulation for March was 16.7% lower than it was last March, while the Sunday Independent has suffered even more, with its circulation declining 24.3% over the same period. Looking at the papers' distribution stripped of the helping hand given by their considerable bulk figures reveals that the Independent now sells only 119,927 copies at the full price, and its Sunday counterpart sells just 79,286. To put this into context, consider that the West Mids Express and Star sells 130,000 copies each week.
Captain Kickback says: "I've predicted before that not all our national press titles will survive this economic downturn. Unless something drastic is done at Indie Towers, it looks like this paper's ahead by a nose in the race to the bottom. The recent price hike to £1 was spectacularly short-sighted, and the paper's switch to the tabloid format might also have been a blunder. In a recession it's always the middle ground that suffers: some people will always pay a premium price for a high quality product, while at the other end of the scale, slashing the costs on a mass market product will ensure that there's still money coming in the door. Unfortunately the newly tabloid Indie is neither fish nor fowl- not a strong enough product to compete with the likes of the Times, yet far too dear to stand alongside its red top tabloid competition." That's all for this time, if you'd like more information on anything covered in this bulletin, reply to this email or contact your Account team.
See you next time!!
CAPTAIN KICKBACK
In a superb demonstration of how quickly paid search marketing can be used to good effect, the Conservative Party recently used Google Adwords to promote their real-time rebuttal of Alistair Darling's budget. Buying up keywords as soon as the chancellor used them during his speech to Parliament, the campaign directed webusers to the Conservative Party website, where they could read the opposition's budget response.
Captain Kickback says: "This shows just how quickly Pay Per Click advertising can be arranged and altered to target a precise audience. If a bunch of fusty old ex-Etonians can get the hang of it, so can we all."
Good News in a Downturn
BSkyB have managed to bag an extra 80,000 customers during quarter one. Presumably due to cash-strapped consumers opting to stay in and entertain themselves, the satellite broadcaster has increased its reach to over 9.3 million households, 15% of whom also rely on Rupert Murdoch's firm for their broadband and phone services. Over the same three-month period, 243,000 of Sky's existing customers upgraded to its HD service.
Google Growth Slows
The last three months have shown a marked slow down in the growth of the search giant's revenue. Year on year, Google's Q1 revenues grew 6.2% from £3.5 billion to £3.7 billion- this is 3% lower than the growth in revenue year on year for Q4 of 2008. Despite the slow down in takings, however, the media giant's profits grew over the some period due to job cuts and a significant reduction in overheads.
In a similar story, recent research has shown the first ever decline in total paid-for search marketing spend. According to a study by Efficient Frontier, the spend over the first three months of 2009 was 6% lower than that of the same period 12 months ago.
YouTrouble
More Google Grief, as speculation grows that its subsidiary You Tube might never turn a profit. A report by Credit Suisse has suggested that the video sharing giant is set to lose $470 million in 2009. Enormous operating costs caused by the website's bandwidth and storage needs mean that even its expected ad revenue of $240 million this year won't touch the sides.
Ask Who?
Having ditched its smarmy butler character Jeeves three years ago, search engine Ask.com is re-branding itself and bringing the self satisfied servant out of retirement. During his break Jeeves has had a bit of a makeover, including a suit designed by Gieves & Hawkes of Savile Row, and his presence is now being trumpeted across national TV, radio, press, and online. Bringing the character fully up to date with Web 2.0, Jeeves will even have his own accounts on Facebook and Twitter, which he will use to show users what he's been up to during the last three years.
According to a story promulgated by the people at Ask.com, changes to their list of popular searches during Jeeves' sabbatical speak volumes about changes to the wider world since 2006, so terms such have "private school fees", "fake tan" and "flight upgrades" have ceded ground to the likes of "Primark", "property auctions", "Robert Peston" and "left-over recipes." Seems a trifle contrived to me, but believe what you will.
Captain Kickback says: "It's all very well getting the gentleman's gentleman involved with search again, but doesn't that mean that we're all Bertie?"
The Independent in Trouble
It might seem as though I'm picking on the poor old Indie recently, but with the thrashing it has been taking in the ABC figures over the last few months, it's difficult not to see the vultures circling. The daily paper's circulation for March was 16.7% lower than it was last March, while the Sunday Independent has suffered even more, with its circulation declining 24.3% over the same period. Looking at the papers' distribution stripped of the helping hand given by their considerable bulk figures reveals that the Independent now sells only 119,927 copies at the full price, and its Sunday counterpart sells just 79,286. To put this into context, consider that the West Mids Express and Star sells 130,000 copies each week.
Captain Kickback says: "I've predicted before that not all our national press titles will survive this economic downturn. Unless something drastic is done at Indie Towers, it looks like this paper's ahead by a nose in the race to the bottom. The recent price hike to £1 was spectacularly short-sighted, and the paper's switch to the tabloid format might also have been a blunder. In a recession it's always the middle ground that suffers: some people will always pay a premium price for a high quality product, while at the other end of the scale, slashing the costs on a mass market product will ensure that there's still money coming in the door. Unfortunately the newly tabloid Indie is neither fish nor fowl- not a strong enough product to compete with the likes of the Times, yet far too dear to stand alongside its red top tabloid competition." That's all for this time, if you'd like more information on anything covered in this bulletin, reply to this email or contact your Account team.
See you next time!!
CAPTAIN KICKBACK
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Watch This Space Issue 40!!
To commemorate last month's mammoth milestone 39th edition of Watch This Space, I decided to write a 40th...
Trouble at t‘mill…
Following a 28% year on year drop in revenue in October, Northcliffe Media is to be the subject of ‘significant cuts’ in the new year. Daily Mail General Trust, owner of the regional publisher, as well as of Associated Newspapers, revealed a poor trading position as financial results were announced recently, with Associated suffering a 10% year on year fall in ad revenue.
Following a 28% year on year drop in revenue in October, Northcliffe Media is to be the subject of ‘significant cuts’ in the new year. Daily Mail General Trust, owner of the regional publisher, as well as of Associated Newspapers, revealed a poor trading position as financial results were announced recently, with Associated suffering a 10% year on year fall in ad revenue.
Ahead by a nose in the DMGT disappearing ad revenue 12-month dash, property advertising saw a 52% year on year fall in October, while recruitment advertising fell at the last, with a 37% decline over the same period. To combat the decline in revenue, the publishers are planning to reduce costs by £100m.
Captain Kickback says: "depressing as it is, this sort of news is only to be expected. Similar announcements have been made by Newsquest North East, who will be closing five offices and making 17 redundancies in the coming weeks. Interestingly though, over the last twelve months DMGT’s digital ad revenue grew by 42% to £17m, now accounting for 6% of the group’s advertising income."
Given all the news of impending redundancies, cutbacks and general glowering doom at local publishers across the land, coupled with the glut of moaning it’s collated over the last few weeks from Basil-Fawlty-loving Daily Mail readers everywhere, you might expect the Beeb to keep quiet on the provincial news front, tacitly thankful for its recession-proof funding. Choosing instead to announce an investment of £68 million in a network of 65 regional news and sports video websites, therefore, might seem like a bit of an own goal. With local publishers struggling just to stay afloat, as well as trying to find funds to invest in online media of their own, the BBC’s announcement was met with a large round of irritation. After a few weeks of not very muted complaining from the BBC’s private-sector competition, however, the BBC Trust has announced that these plans are to be shelved indefinitely.
Captain Kickback says: "this is very good news for local publishers- although the BBC’s proposed websites might have been terrific for the consumer, Aunty’s unique place in the marketplace gives it an unfair advantage over commercial media, and this proposal would have caused a lot of trouble for local newspapers everywhere. This is the first time the BBC Trust has exercised its considerable power in so definite a fashion- perhaps in answer to some critics who see its dual role of both guardian and watchdog- defending and overseeing the Beeb- as mutually conflicting."
For reasons best known to themselves, certain foolhardy elements among Space and Time Media's illustrious and beautifully manicured staff have decided to climb Ben Nevis. Risking anything from blistered feet or getting rained on to being in Scotland or falling to a cold and lonely death, these fearless philanthropists will be making the ascent on May 16th for the sake of Cancer Research UK, and they would be thoroughly grateful for your support. Visit www.justgiving.com/spaceandtime if you'd like to help.
The Independent prices itself out of the market
At a time when everybody’s counting the pennies and all its rivals are making big noises about their cover price cuts, national tabloid The Independent recently took the strange decision to increase its cover price to £1. This is already looking like a foolish move, as rather than increase circulation revenue it has only hastened the Independent’s decline in circulation- causing revenue from paper sales to plateau and cash from ad sales to plummet. The Independent’s circulation fell 16.29% year on year last month, while the Independent on Sunday lost 21.41% of its circulation over the same period.
Captain Kickback says: "I’d be amazed if we left this recession with the national newspaper marketplace looking the same as it does now. At least one of the big names will either change hands or go to the wall, and at the moment the Indy is looking like a prime candidate."
Captain Clickback’s update…
Google still leading from the front
During the third quarter of 2008, Google continued to increase its dominance of the UK paid-for search market. Google’s share rose to a whopping 86.7% while Yahoo accounted for 9.6% of the market and Microsoft Live just 3.6%.
During the third quarter of 2008, Google continued to increase its dominance of the UK paid-for search market. Google’s share rose to a whopping 86.7% while Yahoo accounted for 9.6% of the market and Microsoft Live just 3.6%.
Mobile Internet use is really taking off
A Nielsen Online study has shown that mobile internet use has grown substantially over the last year, growing 8 times faster than more traditional PC internet use. Over Q2 and Q3, mobile phone internet use rocketed 25% from 5.8m to 7.3m users, while PC internet use grew by just 3%. The most popular websites among mobile users by far are BBC news and Google, followed by Facebook and Hotmail.
Captain Clickback says: "Do you have a mobisite? Allowing people access to the information on your website while on the move is an increasingly important marketing tool, especially if they’re stood outside your development after hours wondering what the prices are like. Forcing them to try to navigate their way round your normal website with a mobile phone is only going to alienate potential customers and could damage the brand."
Property search website Nestoria has added another major news website to the growing list of portals for which it supplies property search facilities. The site has been quietly snagging itself a raft of strong partner websites this year, including Channel 4 and the Independent.
Captain Clickback says: "There’s a glut of new property portals vying for the attention of estate agents, media owners and potential buyers alike. This might be one to keep an eye on. Try it for yourself at www.nestoria.co.uk"
Web 2.0 to help businesses keep in touch
Recent research by online publisher E-consultancy and digital agency eScape has revealed that businesses are planning to invest more heavily in online social media including blogging, user-generated content and community-based websites, in a bid to increase engagement with their customers. The financial downturn has heightened the importance of speaking to customers and potential customers directly and allowing them to speak back, and the web provides several extremely powerful tools to do this. 41% of companies polled in the research said they were looking at allowing user ratings and feedback on their website, while 37% were looking at user-generated content and 36% were considering having a blogging function.
Recent research by online publisher E-consultancy and digital agency eScape has revealed that businesses are planning to invest more heavily in online social media including blogging, user-generated content and community-based websites, in a bid to increase engagement with their customers. The financial downturn has heightened the importance of speaking to customers and potential customers directly and allowing them to speak back, and the web provides several extremely powerful tools to do this. 41% of companies polled in the research said they were looking at allowing user ratings and feedback on their website, while 37% were looking at user-generated content and 36% were considering having a blogging function.
Captain Clickback says: "All marketing is at root about speaking to potential and existing customers through whichever medium they prefer. Increasingly these days, that medium is the interactive website. Either by allowing users to add content to your corporate website, by getting involved with social networking sites, or by joining independent forums that discuss (and perhaps even criticise) your industry generally or your company specifically, you should be thinking about all the new ways there are for you to communicate with and get feedback from your customers."
That's your lot for this time. Feel free to reply to this email or to contact your S&TM team if you'd like any more information on anything discused here.
See you next time!!
CAPTAIN KICKBACK
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Watch this Space Issue 39!!
It's time for more marvellous media updates! Enlightenment follows.
This is progress
September 16th saw the launch of 45 new websites in Northcliffe's "This Is" network, increasing the publisher's digital offering to 151 sites as it overtook for the first time the number of regional newspapers the publisher prints. A great deal of these new sites are hyper-local offerings, providing news updates at the local level in areas already covered by Northcliffe's newspapers and by its larger, regional websites. Burghers of Beeston, habitants of Hucknall, citizens of Sherwood and, um… people who live in Long Eaton, for example, can now get news of their local area from their own suburb's individual This Is site, and then catch up on wider Nottingham news from the larger ThisIsNottingham site: the digital arm of the Nottingham Evening Post.
Captain Kickback says: "Digital media are one area that regional publishers still seem keen to invest in: relatively low production and overhead costs and the sharing of newsrooms and journalists between print and online publishing mean that the smallest of areas, whose potential revenues might never support their own printed newspaper, can now have their own local web publication."
This is Troubling
While workers at Trinity Mirror's midland branch have cancelled at the last minute a planned two-day strike, ITV has announced that it will shortly be making 1,000 journalists redundant. Workers at Trinity Mirror's Midland Weekly Media, Coventry and Birmingham offices had planned a walk out on October 7th and 8th, but plans for industrial action were shelved in return for their employers' agreement that there will be no mandatory redundancies in the near future. Meanwhile, following de-restriction of the amount of public service broadcasting that ITV is required to provide, and in light of falling advertising revenues, the broadcaster has announced plans to save money by reducing the amount of local news it broadcasts, and will accordingly be laying off journalists all over the place.
Mobile Mayhem Afoot
There have been advances aplenty in the mobile advertising arena recently: I hardly know where to begin! News in brief:
- Google has launched its own mobile phone, a rival to the Iphone.
- Nokia has unveiled a mobile television channel available online to users of Nokia handsets, capable of showing 96-second programs (or "Mobisodes") and giving access to the BBC's catch up service, iPlayer.
- The five largest UK mobile phone operators have banded together to work with the Internet Advertising Bureau to develop and publish research into mobile advertising and form a steering group to develop this nascent sector's massive advertising potential
- Google are busy preparing to launch a UK version of their Google Maps for Mobile with Streetview, which is already available in the USA. This fantastic bit of gadgetry will doubtless prove extremely useful to the property industry among many others. Visit YouTube to see how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IXC5A1ZoV4
Captain Kickback says: "the ways of accessing consumers through their mobile phone handsets are manifold and of varying worth. Even though the medium is still in its infancy, there's potential here for the latest technologies to be used creatively to good effect in both response-driven and awareness campaigns."
Independent Goes Colour
Having moved to new print presses in Watford, Oldham, Glasgow and Belfast, the Independent has reshuffled its supplements (including the moving of property from its own supplement to an in-paper section), and is now printed in full colour throughout. Other changes included the replacement of the old "Extra" section with the new "Independent Life" supplement.
Captain Kickback says: "For such a trendy young newspaper The Independent has always had a hefty preponderance of stuffy old mono pages. No More!"
Five News
Following The Independent into the barbers this month, terrestrial TV channel Five has also announced a bit of a re-design, the first for the brand since it dropped the "Channel" from its moniker and replaced the "5" with the more grown up "Five" back in 2002. Also unveiled was a new strap-line, "We Are Five", which must have taken a marketing agency somewhere a good couple of minutes to think up: presumably they were still puzzling away at it by the time the office junior got back from the old rope shop.
That's your lot for another month. Reply to this email or contact your Space and Time Team if you'd like more information on any of the stories covered this month.
See You Next Time!!
Captain Kickback
This is progress
September 16th saw the launch of 45 new websites in Northcliffe's "This Is" network, increasing the publisher's digital offering to 151 sites as it overtook for the first time the number of regional newspapers the publisher prints. A great deal of these new sites are hyper-local offerings, providing news updates at the local level in areas already covered by Northcliffe's newspapers and by its larger, regional websites. Burghers of Beeston, habitants of Hucknall, citizens of Sherwood and, um… people who live in Long Eaton, for example, can now get news of their local area from their own suburb's individual This Is site, and then catch up on wider Nottingham news from the larger ThisIsNottingham site: the digital arm of the Nottingham Evening Post.
Captain Kickback says: "Digital media are one area that regional publishers still seem keen to invest in: relatively low production and overhead costs and the sharing of newsrooms and journalists between print and online publishing mean that the smallest of areas, whose potential revenues might never support their own printed newspaper, can now have their own local web publication."
This is Troubling
While workers at Trinity Mirror's midland branch have cancelled at the last minute a planned two-day strike, ITV has announced that it will shortly be making 1,000 journalists redundant. Workers at Trinity Mirror's Midland Weekly Media, Coventry and Birmingham offices had planned a walk out on October 7th and 8th, but plans for industrial action were shelved in return for their employers' agreement that there will be no mandatory redundancies in the near future. Meanwhile, following de-restriction of the amount of public service broadcasting that ITV is required to provide, and in light of falling advertising revenues, the broadcaster has announced plans to save money by reducing the amount of local news it broadcasts, and will accordingly be laying off journalists all over the place.
Mobile Mayhem Afoot
There have been advances aplenty in the mobile advertising arena recently: I hardly know where to begin! News in brief:
- Google has launched its own mobile phone, a rival to the Iphone.
- Nokia has unveiled a mobile television channel available online to users of Nokia handsets, capable of showing 96-second programs (or "Mobisodes") and giving access to the BBC's catch up service, iPlayer.
- The five largest UK mobile phone operators have banded together to work with the Internet Advertising Bureau to develop and publish research into mobile advertising and form a steering group to develop this nascent sector's massive advertising potential
- Google are busy preparing to launch a UK version of their Google Maps for Mobile with Streetview, which is already available in the USA. This fantastic bit of gadgetry will doubtless prove extremely useful to the property industry among many others. Visit YouTube to see how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IXC5A1ZoV4
Captain Kickback says: "the ways of accessing consumers through their mobile phone handsets are manifold and of varying worth. Even though the medium is still in its infancy, there's potential here for the latest technologies to be used creatively to good effect in both response-driven and awareness campaigns."
Independent Goes Colour
Having moved to new print presses in Watford, Oldham, Glasgow and Belfast, the Independent has reshuffled its supplements (including the moving of property from its own supplement to an in-paper section), and is now printed in full colour throughout. Other changes included the replacement of the old "Extra" section with the new "Independent Life" supplement.
Captain Kickback says: "For such a trendy young newspaper The Independent has always had a hefty preponderance of stuffy old mono pages. No More!"
Five News
Following The Independent into the barbers this month, terrestrial TV channel Five has also announced a bit of a re-design, the first for the brand since it dropped the "Channel" from its moniker and replaced the "5" with the more grown up "Five" back in 2002. Also unveiled was a new strap-line, "We Are Five", which must have taken a marketing agency somewhere a good couple of minutes to think up: presumably they were still puzzling away at it by the time the office junior got back from the old rope shop.
That's your lot for another month. Reply to this email or contact your Space and Time Team if you'd like more information on any of the stories covered this month.
See You Next Time!!
Captain Kickback
Friday, 22 August 2008
Watch this Space Issue 38
Another batch of marvellous media news for you all. Enjoy.
Don’t worry: it’s not just you
If it’s any consolation, media owners’ pockets are also being hit hard this summer. The slump in the property market as well as a similar downturn in the motors market, fueled (sorry) by rising prices at the pumps, have both put a substantial dent into revenues from papers’ classified sections. With less money in peoples’ pockets, revenue from circulation is also dropping off. Evincing financial strife as worrying as any other publisher, Trinity Mirror recently announced a 15% year on year decline in revenue.
On the national level, The Sun has announced a reduction in its cover price to 30p from 35p. Already sold at the lower value in Scotland, London and the South East, the paper will now cost 30p nationwide, as part of a "credit crunch defying cut" (top red-top in paper price slash shocker).
Daily Mail Does The Splits
It’s now possible to target the Daily Mail’s quality readership without having to mortgage your kids! Whereas until recently regional splits were only available on a North/South basis, or very occasionally as a North West/North East & Yorkshire split, you can now break the southern distribution up into four separate areas.
Captain Kickback says: "Since the Mail’s readership is weighted heavily towards the South, buying into this half of the country has long been prohibitively expensive for many. Breaking up the southern distribution allows the advertiser a cheaper, more focused way to access all those up-market Mail readers."
E-Metro
Free commuter tabloid Metro is now available in full online. While a number of other publishers offer a similar product in return for a subscription fee, the E-Metro is the first free-of-charge online national newspaper. Print editions of the paper carry advertisements inviting the reader to sign up for an email each day with a link to that day’s paper.
Captain Kickback says: "This is a terrific data capture opportunity for Metro, and no doubt they will make this audience available to the advertiser. Watch this space for more details."
Not All Bad News for Outdoor
Figures just released for quarter 2 revealed a year on year decrease in ad spend on outdoor media for the third successive quarter. However, the decline of 1.6% was less than seen during quarter one of this year, and some analysts are expecting to see this turned into a growth in the market by the end of 2008. Although the medium's share of adspend has been in decline, to the benefit of the likes of online media and radio, the decline in ad spend over recent months follows six years of consecutive and substantial quarterly growth in revenues. The fall during quarter 2 was mostly down to a 39.4% drop in outdoor advertising spend by food producers and retailers, although increased spends from other areas, such as financial and motors, helped to offset this.
Midlands Radio Stations for Sale
Having acquired GCAP Media, radio group Global Radio has announced plans to sell off most of its stations in the Midlands in order to avoid a referral to the Competition Commission. The stations likely to go on the market include GCAP’s BRMB, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern, as these target an audience similar to that of the group’s existing Heart and Galaxy stations. Although there were also overlaps in London, with the new group owning Heart, LBC and Capital, the OFT has agreed that there was no monopoly here as each station targets a different audience group.
Hooray for the Credit Crunch!
At last, a positive consequence of all that manic over-lending. The Halifax has announced plans to shelve Howard, their resident singing idiot, in favour of a more serious advertising message. The idea is to adopt a tone more in keeping with a tougher, harder financial climate.
Captain Kickback says: " If belt tightening all-round means we won’t be subjected any longer to the glib wailings of a gurning talentless chucklewit, then I’m all for it."
That There Interweb
Always a useful mine of information that you didn't know you didn't know, the internet has come up trumps again. When looking at the popularity of specific terms put into search engines, we can see a keen correlation between the rise and fall of a given market and the number of times its related search terms are used. The recent difficulties in the property market, for example, have seen a similar downturn in the number of people searching for 'house prices'. At the same time, the number of searches for 'house price crash' have trebled over the last year. The few remaining people searching for 'house prices' are these days more likely to click on news websites for information on the market, whereas before it was property sites that got the most attention, perhaps suggesting that whereas people used to search for this term to find out by how much their house has increased in value, they now search to check the news and find out just how bad things have become.
More Good News
On a par with the disappearance of Howard from our screens is the announcement of another new website set to offer a service to rival Rightmove's. The National Association of Estate Agents has announced plans to create its own online property portal. Dubbed Property Live (someone cleary spent a good five or six minutes thinking that one up), the website will be launched in October with the backing of the Association's 10,000 members. If the new site finds its feet and demonstrates its worth, the likes of Rightmove and FindaProperty may have to re-examine their business models.
Captain Kickback says: "Although there are no plans for this new site to cater for property developers, its success might still be good news for builders, as it would make their custom all the more valuable to existing property portals. There's a long way to go though: Rightmove in particular is a massively powerful tool which offers a lot more to its estate agents than a simple listings facility, and Property Live has a job on its hands if it is to compete on an even keel. This move does smell a bit of desparation in a struggling market: the number of leads estate agents get through Rightmove will have dropped off massively over the last 6-8 months, just as it will have for other platforms, and although Property Live will definitely save them money, there's no reason to suspect it will be able to tap into a secret gold mine of cash-rich and well-postitioned purchasers."
That's your lot for another month. If you'd like more details on anything discussed here, feel free to reply to this email, or speak to your Space and Time team.
See you next time!!
Captain Kickback
Don’t worry: it’s not just you
If it’s any consolation, media owners’ pockets are also being hit hard this summer. The slump in the property market as well as a similar downturn in the motors market, fueled (sorry) by rising prices at the pumps, have both put a substantial dent into revenues from papers’ classified sections. With less money in peoples’ pockets, revenue from circulation is also dropping off. Evincing financial strife as worrying as any other publisher, Trinity Mirror recently announced a 15% year on year decline in revenue.
On the national level, The Sun has announced a reduction in its cover price to 30p from 35p. Already sold at the lower value in Scotland, London and the South East, the paper will now cost 30p nationwide, as part of a "credit crunch defying cut" (top red-top in paper price slash shocker).
Daily Mail Does The Splits
It’s now possible to target the Daily Mail’s quality readership without having to mortgage your kids! Whereas until recently regional splits were only available on a North/South basis, or very occasionally as a North West/North East & Yorkshire split, you can now break the southern distribution up into four separate areas.
Captain Kickback says: "Since the Mail’s readership is weighted heavily towards the South, buying into this half of the country has long been prohibitively expensive for many. Breaking up the southern distribution allows the advertiser a cheaper, more focused way to access all those up-market Mail readers."
E-Metro
Free commuter tabloid Metro is now available in full online. While a number of other publishers offer a similar product in return for a subscription fee, the E-Metro is the first free-of-charge online national newspaper. Print editions of the paper carry advertisements inviting the reader to sign up for an email each day with a link to that day’s paper.
Captain Kickback says: "This is a terrific data capture opportunity for Metro, and no doubt they will make this audience available to the advertiser. Watch this space for more details."
Not All Bad News for Outdoor
Figures just released for quarter 2 revealed a year on year decrease in ad spend on outdoor media for the third successive quarter. However, the decline of 1.6% was less than seen during quarter one of this year, and some analysts are expecting to see this turned into a growth in the market by the end of 2008. Although the medium's share of adspend has been in decline, to the benefit of the likes of online media and radio, the decline in ad spend over recent months follows six years of consecutive and substantial quarterly growth in revenues. The fall during quarter 2 was mostly down to a 39.4% drop in outdoor advertising spend by food producers and retailers, although increased spends from other areas, such as financial and motors, helped to offset this.
Midlands Radio Stations for Sale
Having acquired GCAP Media, radio group Global Radio has announced plans to sell off most of its stations in the Midlands in order to avoid a referral to the Competition Commission. The stations likely to go on the market include GCAP’s BRMB, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern, as these target an audience similar to that of the group’s existing Heart and Galaxy stations. Although there were also overlaps in London, with the new group owning Heart, LBC and Capital, the OFT has agreed that there was no monopoly here as each station targets a different audience group.
Hooray for the Credit Crunch!
At last, a positive consequence of all that manic over-lending. The Halifax has announced plans to shelve Howard, their resident singing idiot, in favour of a more serious advertising message. The idea is to adopt a tone more in keeping with a tougher, harder financial climate.
Captain Kickback says: " If belt tightening all-round means we won’t be subjected any longer to the glib wailings of a gurning talentless chucklewit, then I’m all for it."
That There Interweb
Always a useful mine of information that you didn't know you didn't know, the internet has come up trumps again. When looking at the popularity of specific terms put into search engines, we can see a keen correlation between the rise and fall of a given market and the number of times its related search terms are used. The recent difficulties in the property market, for example, have seen a similar downturn in the number of people searching for 'house prices'. At the same time, the number of searches for 'house price crash' have trebled over the last year. The few remaining people searching for 'house prices' are these days more likely to click on news websites for information on the market, whereas before it was property sites that got the most attention, perhaps suggesting that whereas people used to search for this term to find out by how much their house has increased in value, they now search to check the news and find out just how bad things have become.
More Good News
On a par with the disappearance of Howard from our screens is the announcement of another new website set to offer a service to rival Rightmove's. The National Association of Estate Agents has announced plans to create its own online property portal. Dubbed Property Live (someone cleary spent a good five or six minutes thinking that one up), the website will be launched in October with the backing of the Association's 10,000 members. If the new site finds its feet and demonstrates its worth, the likes of Rightmove and FindaProperty may have to re-examine their business models.
Captain Kickback says: "Although there are no plans for this new site to cater for property developers, its success might still be good news for builders, as it would make their custom all the more valuable to existing property portals. There's a long way to go though: Rightmove in particular is a massively powerful tool which offers a lot more to its estate agents than a simple listings facility, and Property Live has a job on its hands if it is to compete on an even keel. This move does smell a bit of desparation in a struggling market: the number of leads estate agents get through Rightmove will have dropped off massively over the last 6-8 months, just as it will have for other platforms, and although Property Live will definitely save them money, there's no reason to suspect it will be able to tap into a secret gold mine of cash-rich and well-postitioned purchasers."
That's your lot for another month. If you'd like more details on anything discussed here, feel free to reply to this email, or speak to your Space and Time team.
See you next time!!
Captain Kickback
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Watch this Space Issue 37
Another fantastic round up media news goodies.....
Iplayer rival for ITV
As part of a major re-think of its online offering, ITV is planning to overhaul its online video player. Launched less than a year ago, the online catch up service is being re-examined following the success of the BBC’s Iplayer product. A major marketing campaign is proposed to promote the revamp, as well as pushing the idea of watching television online generally, and using the ITV website in particular.
Captain Kickback says: “with your licence fee money paving the way, the internet is changing the way that televisual media are consumed. Similarly, the increased availability of streamed content is changing the way the internet is used. While ITV are clearly playing catch-up here, it won’t be long before their video player, as well as Channel 4’s OD product, the BBC’s Iplayer and the likes of YouTube attract as many British viewers as Satellite television.”
Big Change
Also undergoing a change at the moment, charitable magazine The Big Issue was recently redesigned. The magazine has been seeing a fair amount of success recently, with a year on year circulation increase of 21% nationally, and is seeking to expand on this success following the addition of columns on the internet, living ethically and food, as well as the addition of a changing cast of columnists including Rod Liddle and Iain Duncan Smith.
Captain Kickback says: “If you’re truly committed to bringing rates down, and really haggle with the vendors, you can get the price of the magazine down to 70p, or perhaps even swap it for the remains of a cup of tea. But perhaps I’m missing the point.”
London Loser
Faring slightly less well on the streets than The Big Issue, The London Paper turned over just £8m in its first 10 months of distribution, recording a loss of over £16m. The clear winner of the battle for supremacy among London’s free sheets, The London Paper distributes around 500,000 copies each day as compared with roughly 400,000 copies of London Lite. Despite this success, the paper has failed to generate enough advertising revenue in its first year of trading to meet the substantial costs of setting up shop. Publishers News International expect to be able to turn a profit during the paper’s second year.
Captain Kickback says: “Losing the race for readers will be a double blow for Associated, as the glut of free newspapers has also put a sizeable dent into the number of paid-for copies of the Evening Standard they distribute each weekday. Following a significant drop off in sales immediately after the launch of London Lite and The London Paper, the number of copies of the Standard given away free of charge or sold cheaply for bulk distribution was increased so as to prop up its ailing distribution.”
Boom for AND
A happier story for the Daily Mail and General Trust Group sees Associated Northcliffe Digital announcing that it now reaches 22 million people in the UK. Following its largest investigation of readership web use to date, in which a whopping 60,000 people were surveyed, the publisher has stated that it reaches 17% more consumers than it previously believed.
Captain Kickback says: “Measuring combined online and print reach is a contentious issue, as it is difficult to say with any accuracy whether people who purchase your printed product aren’t also the people who log on to your website. There are also technical aspects to consider, such as the percentage of people who delete their cookies regularly. Doing so prevents websites from recognising users who have already visited the site, and so has a significant impact on reach figures. As yet attempts by the Audit Bureau of Circulation Electronic to standardise web measurements have achieved little.”
HomesMine
Eager to provide a local alternative to RightMove, Manchester publishers MEN Media are soon to launch a local property listings portal. Much like many local online offerings, the MEN website currently has a searchable database with the properties provided by Fish4Homes.
Going live in late June, HomesMine will offer a searchable database to which local property developers and estate agents will be invited to subscribe to show their wares. The launch of the website will coincide with a re-branding of the property section in the Manchester Evening News and each of the publisher’s weekly titles.
That's your lot for another month. If you'd like more details on any of the offerings mentioned here, reply to this email or contact your team at Space and Time.
See you next time!!
Captain Kickback
Iplayer rival for ITV
As part of a major re-think of its online offering, ITV is planning to overhaul its online video player. Launched less than a year ago, the online catch up service is being re-examined following the success of the BBC’s Iplayer product. A major marketing campaign is proposed to promote the revamp, as well as pushing the idea of watching television online generally, and using the ITV website in particular.
Captain Kickback says: “with your licence fee money paving the way, the internet is changing the way that televisual media are consumed. Similarly, the increased availability of streamed content is changing the way the internet is used. While ITV are clearly playing catch-up here, it won’t be long before their video player, as well as Channel 4’s OD product, the BBC’s Iplayer and the likes of YouTube attract as many British viewers as Satellite television.”
Big Change
Also undergoing a change at the moment, charitable magazine The Big Issue was recently redesigned. The magazine has been seeing a fair amount of success recently, with a year on year circulation increase of 21% nationally, and is seeking to expand on this success following the addition of columns on the internet, living ethically and food, as well as the addition of a changing cast of columnists including Rod Liddle and Iain Duncan Smith.
Captain Kickback says: “If you’re truly committed to bringing rates down, and really haggle with the vendors, you can get the price of the magazine down to 70p, or perhaps even swap it for the remains of a cup of tea. But perhaps I’m missing the point.”
London Loser
Faring slightly less well on the streets than The Big Issue, The London Paper turned over just £8m in its first 10 months of distribution, recording a loss of over £16m. The clear winner of the battle for supremacy among London’s free sheets, The London Paper distributes around 500,000 copies each day as compared with roughly 400,000 copies of London Lite. Despite this success, the paper has failed to generate enough advertising revenue in its first year of trading to meet the substantial costs of setting up shop. Publishers News International expect to be able to turn a profit during the paper’s second year.
Captain Kickback says: “Losing the race for readers will be a double blow for Associated, as the glut of free newspapers has also put a sizeable dent into the number of paid-for copies of the Evening Standard they distribute each weekday. Following a significant drop off in sales immediately after the launch of London Lite and The London Paper, the number of copies of the Standard given away free of charge or sold cheaply for bulk distribution was increased so as to prop up its ailing distribution.”
Boom for AND
A happier story for the Daily Mail and General Trust Group sees Associated Northcliffe Digital announcing that it now reaches 22 million people in the UK. Following its largest investigation of readership web use to date, in which a whopping 60,000 people were surveyed, the publisher has stated that it reaches 17% more consumers than it previously believed.
Captain Kickback says: “Measuring combined online and print reach is a contentious issue, as it is difficult to say with any accuracy whether people who purchase your printed product aren’t also the people who log on to your website. There are also technical aspects to consider, such as the percentage of people who delete their cookies regularly. Doing so prevents websites from recognising users who have already visited the site, and so has a significant impact on reach figures. As yet attempts by the Audit Bureau of Circulation Electronic to standardise web measurements have achieved little.”
HomesMine
Eager to provide a local alternative to RightMove, Manchester publishers MEN Media are soon to launch a local property listings portal. Much like many local online offerings, the MEN website currently has a searchable database with the properties provided by Fish4Homes.
Going live in late June, HomesMine will offer a searchable database to which local property developers and estate agents will be invited to subscribe to show their wares. The launch of the website will coincide with a re-branding of the property section in the Manchester Evening News and each of the publisher’s weekly titles.
That's your lot for another month. If you'd like more details on any of the offerings mentioned here, reply to this email or contact your team at Space and Time.
See you next time!!
Captain Kickback
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