Industry headlines:
Week ending Friday 5th March
Digital:
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05/03/10 Condé Nast prepares to put its top magazines on Apple's iPad
Condé Nast is to create Apple iPad versions of its Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour magazines. It has already publicly shown a demo version of what its technology magazine Wired could look like on a tablet computer device like an Apple iPad in a test with Adobe. The first magazine to be publicly available will be men's magazine GQ, which will join the Apple iPhone app it launched last year. An iPad version of GQ will be ready next month shortly after Apple begins shipping its first tablet computers later this month.
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05/03/10 Google backs HTC over Apple lawsuit
Google has come out in support of its Android manufacturer HTC, following the lawsuit filed by Apple against the maker of Google's Nexus One smartphone over infringement rights. Apple, the company behind the iPhone, has filed a lawsuit against HTC over 20 patent infringements of the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. Google launched its smartphone Nexus One at the beginning of the year, with HTC as its manufacturing partner.
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05/03/10 Lords' change to copyright law could see content sites blocked
A proposed change to copyright law could force ISPs to block access to content sites such as YouTube. An amendment to the Digital Economy Bill proposed yesterday by the House of Lords could give a High Court judge the right to issue an injunction against a website hosting a "substantial" amount of copyright-infringing material.
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05/03/10 Mobile internet competing with print media consumption
People who have mobile internet are spending more time using it every week than the average person reads newspapers or magazines, according to new research. Overall, 10 million people in the UK browse the mobile internet in a typical week, according to the European Interactive Advertising Association. These people are spending 6.3 hours a week using mobile internet compared to 4.6 hours a week reading newspapers and 3.9 hours a week reading magazines.
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05/03/10 Rise of social networking killing off loyalty to news brands
The increasingly large role that social networks are playing in how people get their news is killing off loyalty to individual news organisations, according to a major US study. The Pew Internet study found that more than 90% of Americans were getting their news from multiple sources and almost 60% were getting at least some online. Three quarters of those accessing news online said they were consuming it socially and it is being forwarded to them via email or posts on social networking sites. As many as 52% were reciprocating and sharing news of their own.
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05/03/10 Twitter ad model finds favour with big brands
Lloyds and Virgin Media are among the brands that say they will run paid-for text ads on Twitter if the microblog implements its commercial strategy. According to industry insiders, the social network will make its first foray into online advertising this summer with the launch of Google-style sponsored listings around its real-time search results. These would take the form of text ads that will use Twitter's 140-character format. Brands will be able to place ads only next to search results and not directly within Twitter feeds so that disruption for users would be minimised.
Outdoor:
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05/03/10 FirstGroup rail contract stays with CBS Outdoor
After a competitive pitch, CBS Outdoor has secured the FirstGroup rail stations £30million account for the next five years, covering a quarter of the UK passenger rail network. CBS will manage the on-station advertising for First Capital Connect, First Great Western, ScotRail and First TransPennine Express. They will also manage the on-train advertising on ScotRail.
Press:
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05/03/10 The Times scraps Times2 supplement
The Times has scrapped its daily Times2 supplement and added a series of new pullouts and a four-page puzzles section in its place. From this week onwards, features fromTimes2 including news, daily arts reviews and TV listings, will be incorporated into the main paper.
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05/03/10 Trinity Mirror reports 41% fall in pre-tax profits
Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror has reported a 41% fall in pre-tax profits for the 53 weeks ending 3 January 2010, to £72.7 million. Group revenues were down £108.4 million to £763.3 million, with advertising revenues contributing £94.7 million of this fall, said Trinity in a statement released today. Digital revenue was down from £43.6m to £35.6m, although average monthly unique users increased by 41% year on year and 15% from the first half of 2009, to reach 17 million in the second half. Advertising revenue at Trinity Mirror's regional division was down 29.5% on 2008, to £198.9 million, with overall revenues down 23.5% year on year to £302.9 million. Its national newspaper division, which publishes titles including the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People, saw revenues fall 3.2% to £460.4 million, with ad revenues down 7.8% year on year to £132.9 million.
Radio:
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05/03/10 Mark Thompson: "The BBC will not retreat into an analogue past"
The BBC will not retreat into an analogue past", the Corporation's director general Mark Thompson told delegates at today's Financial Times Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference. Speaking after this week' announcement
that the BBC is closing digital radio stations BBC 6 Music and Asian Network, and slashing its online budget and spending on imports, Thompson said that the strategic review is intended to make the "licence fee work harder" and define what the BBC is for.
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05/03/10 MP Julia Goldsworthy calls for BBC to scrap Radio 1
The Lib Dem communities spokeswoman was responding in a BBC3 debate, First Time Voters' Question Time, about the BBC's strategic review. The review, announced on Tuesday, says radio stations 6 Music and Asian Network should be closed. But Ms Goldsworthy said: "They should be looking at other areas where there is already competition in the market, like Radio 1."
Television:
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05/03/10 Pop Idol creator launches multi-platform TV show
Simon Fuller, creator of Pop Idol, is launching a new multi-platform reality TV show that encourages viewers to interact in real-time via blogs, social networks and mobile. If I Can Dream,which follows five contestants as they attempt to make it in Hollywood, airs live 24 hours a day at www.ificandream.com, with a recap show available for viewers on Hulu.com. The show launched on 2nd March, and lets a live global online audience interact in-real time through text, blogs, MySpace, twitter and Facebook. Viewers will also be able to introduce new contestants, visitors and other characters.