Amir Kurtovic

Freelance Journalist, Writer and Social Media Victim

Murdoch Starts Charging for Online Content – Will it Work?

Leading UK newspapers The Times and The Sunday Times, both owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, have announced plans to start charging for online content starting in June.

The announcement was made Friday, March 26, on the Times website.

News International, the newspapers’ parent company, announced that readers will be offered a day’s use for £1, or £2 for a week’s subscription. Readers who have a seven-day subscription to the print editions will not be charged extra for access to the websites. International pricing has been set at $2/€1.5 a day or $4/€3 for a week.

The two titles will launch new websites in early May, separating their digital presence for the first time and replacing the existing site. There will be a free trial period and payment will allow access to both thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk.

The move to start charging for online news content does not come as a surprise. Rupert Murdoch has long been hinting at his distaste for giving away news articles for free. The move follows a recent announcement by The New York Times that it will start charging frequent readers in what is known as a metered model. Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is one of the newspaper that has so far been successful is charging for online content, but experts attribute that to the Journal’s position as the leading financial newspaper and having niche information needed by people who can afford it.

The questions, of course, is whether the UK papers will be successful in getting readers to pay after they have had access to the newspapers for free for such a long time. Comments on The Times website seem to indicate that some people understand the move, others are not so friendly.

Geoff Fighterpilot wrote:
I love reading Timesonline, but I really don’t care that much that I would pay for it. Even if it were free to register and you had to log in each time I wouldn’t bother.

There are so many other free UK online newspapers, and you can also get UK news for free on Australian, Irish and US websites, just to name a few.

Goodbye the Times. I’ll probably see you in July when you change your mind.

This reader’s comment strikes the nerve: Why would people pay for The Times when every other newspaper in the UK is free online?
One thing is certain, if Murdoch’s plan is even mildly successful, a lot of newspapers will consider following suit. If, however, this plan fails and The Times and Sunday Times go back to being free, nobody will experiment with making people pay for online news for a long time.

No Comments by AmirKurtovic  /  March 26, 2010  /  Posted in: Journalism
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New Advertising Report Shows Possible Recovery in Media

2009 was a bad year for the media, but the worst may be over.

Overall advertising expenditures were down 12.3% in 2009, when compared to 2008 levels, according to a new report recently release by Kantar media.

And while 12.3% seems like a big drop, the report shows advertising has gone up toward the end of 2009.

Advertising Revenue 2009 vs 2008

Chart created by Amir Kurtovic. Information source: Kantar Media

“The advertising recession began to ease in the final two months of 2009; and preliminary figures from the first quarter of 2010, when compared against the abyss of a year ago, indicate many sectors are experiencing growth,” said Jon Swallen, SVP of research at Kantar Media.

“Given the restraint in consumer spending, it appears marketers have more confidence right now than their customers. As we get deeper into 2010, the pace of consumer activity will be a key determinant of the strength and durability of the advertising recovery.”

Percent Change in Measured Ad Spending1
MEDIA SECTOR
– Media Type
(Sectors and types listed in rank order of spending)		 Full Year
2009 vs 2008		 4th Quarter
2009 vs 2008
TELEVISION MEDIA -9.5% -2.4%
– Network TV -7.6% 4.1%
– Cable TV2 -1.4% 2.7%
– Spot TV3 -23.7% -13.9%
– Spanish Language TV4 -8.9% -4.7%
– Syndication – National -4.9% -10.7%
MAGAZINE MEDIA5 -17.4% -11.5%
– Consumer Magazines -16.6% -11.1%
– B-to-B Magazines -26.2% -22.7%
– Sunday Magazines -11.0% 3.6%
– Local Magazines -27.7% -18.2%
– Spanish Language Magazines -21.6% -12.8%
NEWSPAPER MEDIA6 -19.7% -8.9%
– Newspapers (Local) -20.0% -10.3%
– National Newspapers -17.8% 0.4%
– Spanish Language Newspapers -16.4% -10.7%
INTERNET (display ads only) 7.3% -2.1%
RADIO MEDIA -20.3% -12.5%
– Local Radio7 -20.6% -11.7%
– National Spot Radio -24.6% -16.9%
– Network Radio -8.7% -7.9%
OUTDOOR -13.2% -5.4%
FSIs8 3.0% 0.0%
TOTAL9 -12.3% -6.0%

Source: Kantar Media

1. Figures are based on the Kantar Media Stradegy™ multimedia ad expenditure database across all measured media, including: Network TV (6 networks); Spot TV (123 DMAs); Cable TV (71 networks); Syndication TV; Hispanic Network TV (4 networks); Consumer Magazines (231 publications);,Sunday Magazines (7 publications); Local Magazines (19 publications); Hispanic Magazines (14 publications); Business-to-Business Magazines (260 publications); Local Newspapers (147 publications); National Newspapers (3 publications); Hispanic Newspapers (47 publications); Network Radio (5 networks); Spot Radio; Local Radio (32 markets); Internet; and Outdoor. Figures do not include public service announcement (PSA) data.

2. Cable TV figures do not include Hispanic cable networks.

3. Spot TV figures do not include Hispanic stations.

4. Spanish Language TV includes 4 Hispanic broadcast networks, 4 Hispanic cable network and 70 local Hispanic TV stations.

5. Magazine media includes Publishers Information Bureau (PIB) data and reflect print editions of publications.

6. Newspaper media figures reflect print editions of publications.

7. Local Radio includes expenditures for 32 markets in the U.S.

8. FSI data represents distribution costs only.

No Comments by AmirKurtovic  /  March 20, 2010  /  Posted in: News
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Twitter Users Want People To @DumpCNN

CNN was one of the first mainstream adopters and promoters of Twitter. From Rick Sanchez’s constant use of social media sites to get viewer feedback and CNN’s race to 1 million followers against Ashton Kutcher, you could say that CNN and Twitter have had a cozy relationship.

But now a group of upset Twitter users is trying to get people to stopping watch the cable news network. @dumpCNN is a Twitter account that was started yesterday, March 16, in protest of CNN’s announcement that they hired conservative blogger Erick Erickson as a political contributor.

@DumpCNN

The first few tweets from @DumpCNN criticize the cable network for its choice of commentators.

The Twitter account has 345 followers and 56 tweets so far, but is getting a lot of retweets and mentions.

I’ll follow this over the next couple of days and update this posts. Would be interesting to see how CNN will respond, considering how much weight they have put into talking with their viewers via Twitter.

No Comments by AmirKurtovic  /  March 17, 2010  /  Posted in: Digital Media
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Learning To Love Twitter Lists

Twitter ListsI must admit, I was a slow adopter of Twitter’s List feature when it was first rolled out. But now I can’t imagine how I got by without it.

Every person I follow or am followed by now is on a list. I have about a dozen lists, to separate local people, national news sources, journalists, politicians, friends and others. And increasingly I have started thinking of my Twitter lists as a digital Rolodex, allowing me to tune in to the people I need to talk to for certain topics.

It would be interesting to see how many Twitter lists actually exist, including the private ones. Only one of my lists is public, and I assume that a lot of other Twitter users keep their lists private.

And increasingly I think another use for Twitter lists will be to aggregate opinions during major news stories. As more politicians, celebrities, political activists and business leaders adopt Twitter, news organizations will be able to create Twitter lists about specific news stories. These can be used to can a quick glance at how the different sides feel about a story, but can also be embedded into a article but give readers a real time look at the discussion about a certain topic.

No Comments by AmirKurtovic  /  March 16, 2010  /  Posted in: Digital Media
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Why Does This Census Letter Look So Intimidating?

I just got my first census form in the mail. I was barely a teenager the last time these were sent out, so I don’t remember ever seeing an actual census form. But I do have one question? Why do they have to make it look so intimidating?

As you can see in the photo below, there is a box that states, in bold, “Your Response Is Required By Law.” For some reason, I feel like I did something wrong. Also, what if I fill it out the wrong way? Am I going to jail just for posting this photo online?

Ok, I don’t want to blow this out of proportion, but I think you get my point. If you want everybody to fill out the Census, maybe you shouldn’t make it look scary. Even if you want to keep that “you’re going to jail” text on there, a little smiley face or emoticon would help.

The 2010 Census Form

No Comments by AmirKurtovic  /  March 15, 2010  /  Posted in: News
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