Free Press, Hispanic Media Coaltion: We Can Make Own Net-Neutrality Decisions

Free Press and the National Hispanic Media Coalition have joined in the call for a kinder, gentler network neutrality debate.

In an open letter e-mailed to the press and others Monday, the two said that the fact that some civil rights organizations "along with many other groups" get money from cable and phone companies "does not mean those groups are somehow incapable of making their own policy decisions."

Some recent articles and comments have been perceived as painting all civil rights groups as "sell outs" for opposing or otherwise expressing concern over network neutrality regulation. This has ignited an equally strong response. We've also seen groups denounced as radicals, communists and enemies of America for their positions on this question," wrote NHMC President Alex Nogales and Free Press policy director Ben Scott. "We would like to see the debate shift back to the substance of the issues. We will all benefit from a clear and transparent discussion of what this policy is and will do. A commitment to civility will benefit everyone involved."

The rhetoric has gotten heated, particularly after some civil rights groups expressed concerns about the FCC's network neutrality proposal in a letter to the commission. Included in those concerns was that network neutrality regs "might discourage investment, raise prices and potentially widen the digital divide."

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Tortuphina Press Announces New Book by Ana Munoz-Jordan: 'How Turtle Became a Dolphin'

JUPITER, Fla., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- How Turtle became a Dolphin is a powerful adult tale about personal change and how we adapt to a new way of life, even if that means transforming ourselves and completely changing the way we live.

Author, Ana S. Munoz-Jordan, takes us to a magical journey with Turtle. This ordinary creature has grown up in a world filled with subtle changes. However, one day, things do change in a way she had never expected. She realizes the world she once knew has now changed forever. That moment in time when the unexpected change happens, this ordinary creature, slow by nature, slowly walks throughout many phases in trying to adapt to what she sees as a tragic change in her life.

In a magical transformation, Turtle becomes a Dolphin and discovers a brand new world. Her magical jungle becomes an ocean of unlimited discovery. This beautifully illustrated book by artist Adriana Elisa Rabassa, is filled with imagery that will transport you to a world that will make readers smile and bring warmth to their hearts!

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Hispanic company makes news profitable

NEW YORK–If there was a way to monetize a butterfly's wings – or any other yet-to-be-considered profitable space – John Paton would probably figure it out.

Take phone calling cards, for example. Paton, the Glasgow-born, London, Ont.-raised former editor of the Toronto Sun, is now CEO of Brooklyn-based impreMedia.

In July, impreMedia was named the best and most influential Hispanic media company in the United States by Cambio 16, a leading Spanish magazine. Industry trade publication Editor & Publisher named Paton Publisher of the Year.

His audience is American Hispanics, whether they read El Mensajero, a 22-year-old Sunday paper in San Francisco, or El Diario La Prensa, the oldest Spanish-language newspaper in America, founded in 1913 in New York City, the second-largest Latino market in the U.S.

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New England’s 7th Spanish-language paper begins publishing

At a time when the recession is battering newspapers, a group of Latino journalists in Massachusetts has launched New England’s seventh Spanish-language weekly newspaper.

El Tiempo de Boston, or The Boston Times, began publishing last week as a free paper that focuses on communities with large Latino populations. Coverage also includes local immigration, financial consumer stories, and articles about Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

“We saw that there was little coverage and information in other media and we wanted to respond to the needs of the Latino community,’’ said Maximo Torres, 60, founding director of the paper, a native of Peru where he was a journalism professor, and former city editor of Boston’s oldest Spanish-language paper, El Mundo.

But El Tiempo de Boston, which draws its revenue from advertising alone, is starting up at a time when many papers are scaling back as the weak economy exacerbates an ad slump. Advertising overall is down 28 percent for newspapers for the first half of the year, according to the Newspaper Association of America. And a new study of multicultural advertising found that national ad spending for Spanish-language media declined about 6 percent from July 2008 to July 2009, according to the Nielsen Co.

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Murdoch admits delay in introducing newspaper website charges

Rupert Murdoch is finding it harder than expected to introduce charges for readers browsing his newspaper websites and may miss a target of next June for the introduction of so-called "pay walls".

Murdoch admitted last night that the schedule was slipping for the start of online charging at papers including the Sun, the Times, the New York Post and the Australian. The initiative, which has divided the media industry, is an attempt to recalibrate the business model for struggling print media.

Three months ago, Murdoch announced that he intended to introduce website charges by the end of News Corporation's financial year, which runs to June next year. Certain rivals, including the New York Times, are planning similar moves But others, including the Guardian, intend to remain free and pose a potential competitive threat.

When asked about his self-imposed deadline yesterday, Murdoch said: "I wouldn't promise that we're going to meet that date."

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‘Internet, Good for Newspaper Business’

Chairman/CEO, ImpreMedia LLC, the number one Hispanic news and information company in the United States, John Paton, has said digital news distribution is the single best thing that has happened to news business in the last quarter of a century."Its certainly been good for the company.

Even in this disastrous economy, we are now projecting for every one of our divisions a higher profit for 2009 over last year. Some will have their highest profits ever.

We fully expect 25 per cent of our profits to be non-print by 2011 and half by the following year," Paton said.

Paton will explain how impreMedia is achieving such impressive results at the World Newspaper Congress, the global summit meeting of the world's press, to be held in Hyderabad, India, from December 1 to 3."I hope what we are doing here at impreMedia is instructive for others. I truly believe we have crafted a process that grows our brands, embraces platform change, protects and enhances journalism and services our communities.

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The New Front Page

Noncommercial news ventures sprouting around the country are feeling some blowback from their for-profit cousins, who don't seem inspired by the new journalism paternalism.

When Bay Area financier Warren Hellman said in a Forbes.com interview that he may seek city funding for his nonprofit Bay Area News Project, the San Francisco Business Times lobbed this volley: "William Randolph Hearst must be rolling anxiously in his grave. To say nothing of folks like Thomas Jefferson, who wanted journalism to protect us from government, not government to 'protect' an enfeebled Fourth Estate."

New financing models for news don't impress the Austin Chronicle. "A spotty track record" is how the alternative newsweekly describes their history thus far. Slate's Jack Shafer weighed in with this broadside: "In the current arrangement, we're substituting one flawed business model for another. For-profit newspapers lose money accidentally. Nonprofit news operations lose money deliberately."

The newest nonprofit news outfit to launch, the Texas Tribune, debuts Tuesday. Tribune's chairman, venture capitalist John Thornton, says of the criticism, "I call it the Stockholm Syndrome. They are sympathizing with their advertiser-captors."

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E-Readers May Not Solve Publisher Woes Yet

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Publishers hoping to halt a slide in sales with new electronic reading devices will struggle to get consumers to embrace them until the technology improves, experts say.

The gadgets — such as Amazon.com’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s new $259 Nook — have created an enormous buzz in the publishing world and marketers hope they will become popular Christmas gifts.

In some respects the new devices still compare unfavorably to the tactile experience of the printed page and lack multiple functions of more advanced technology such as smartphones, industry experts say.

Joe Wikert of O’Reilly Media, a publishing company and media consultant firm, said e-readers are mostly “one-trick ponies,” an extra device with only one function, in contrast to multifaceted products such as Apple’s iPhone.

So far, e-readers mostly provide “static reproductions of the print version,” minus the advantages of hard-copy books that readers have grown accustomed to over the years, such as easily being able to pass a book on to a friend, Wikert said. The Nook, however, lets users share books.

Still, 2009 sales of e-readers are expected to reach 3 million units, according to Forrester Research.

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Univision-Time Warner Cable Tally 10,000 For VOD Event Launch

More than 10,000 gathered in Times Square to help Time Warner Cable and Univision Communications, Inc. celebrate the launch of the operator's first free Hispanic on-demand channel.

Fans of the U.S. leading Spanish-language media company and pedestrians ambling through the "crossroads of the world" on Oct. 23 watched as Univision and broadcast brethren TeleFutura showcased live broadcasts of Despierta América (Wake-Up America), and entertainment shows Escándalo TV (ShowBiz TV) and El Gordo y La Flaca (The Scoop and The Skinny).

Additionally, Univision and Time Warner Cable commemorated the official launch of Lo Mejor On Demand by treating fans to musical performances from top Latino stars, notably a "Despierta América" performance by Paulina Rubio, capped off with songs by Lupillo Rivera. There was also a first-time performance by contestants in Univision's primetime reality music series, ¡Viva El Sueño! (Live the Dream!).
Among the executives participating in the event were Sam Howe, chief marketing officer, Time Warner Cable, and Joe Uva, president and CEO, Univision Communications, Inc.

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Times Publisher Compares Print Media to the Titanic

So, we asked New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. at last night's benefit for The News Literacy Project, what advice did he have for young people who want to go into journalism these days, you know, given the job market? "Why don't we not go there?" he laughed. Then he went there anyway. "Um, what I would tell them is the industry is in the midst of a massive transition," he said. "But the core of the fundamental job is critical. We have to re-create ourselves, but the heart of what we're going to re-create is still journalism. The way people get information is changing, but the need for information will remain constant."

He thinks that physical newspapers will stick around as well. "The best analogy I can think of is — have you ever heard of the Titanic Fallacy?" he asked. We hadn't. "What was the critical flaw to the Titanic?" We tried to answer: Poor construction? Not enough life boats? Crashing into stuff? "A captain trying to set a world speed record through an iceberg field?" he said, shaking his head. "Even if the Titanic came in safely to New York Harbor, it was still doomed," he said. "Twelve years earlier, two brothers invented the airplane."

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Online Rally May Sidestep Newspapers

It was a good day for newspaper Web sites when Mercedes-Benz USA introduced its updated E-Class cars this summer. Mercedes bought out the ad space on the home pages of The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and had those sites create special 3-D ads for them, at an estimated cost of $100,000 a site.

The days after were not as good. While Mercedes was happy with the newspaper sites’ performance, it shifted money to cheaper, more tightly aimed ads bought through networks, which bundle ad space from many Web sites.

When Mercedes advertises its more basic models next year, it will largely avoid newspaper Web sites and rely on networks. That lets Mercedes “be very targeted and efficient with our dollars,” said Beth Lange, digital media specialist for Mercedes-Benz USA.

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LATV Expands Programming Lineup to Include World Wide UFO Expert Jaime Maussan

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- LATV, the nation's first bilingual entertainment/music network distributed via digital multicast, announced today that, beginning October 19, it was adding to its lineup, Los Archivos Secretos de Jaime Maussan, a weekly investigative show regarding UFO sightings. In addition, El Glam Show, Discografias, Onces, Motel Diablito, Rockstar and Sobre Expuesto, will debut October 19 exclusively on LATV. Returning to the network this fall are audience favorites En Concierto, En la Zona, L-Flik, Nocturninos, Kiu and Ras de Lona.

"Our fall programming schedule reflects the tastes of our audience-young, cutting-edge Latinos that are interested in all that is current and hip. And our lineup is just that, featuring in-house music concerts, entertainment talk shows as well as new movies for LATV's showcase L-Flik. We are especially excited to add the worldwide sensation, Jaime Maussan, an international expert in UFO sightings with an exclusive LATV weekly show, Los Archivos Secretos de Jaime Maussan," said Luca Bentivoglio, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Programming, LATV. "As the alternative Network for the new Latino , we want to be the top destination for U.S. Hispanics to turn to for their entertainment, be it on their TV or on the web. We are a media company with smart, fun, and alternative programming."

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IAB to take part in LatinVision Convergence 2009 Digital & Social Media Conference, Oct. 14, in New York

Join the leaders of the IAB Hispanic Committee as they "Make the Case for Hispanic." AOL Advertising, Terra Networks, Vidal and Ford Motors will present case studies that showcase successful campaigns. This one-day event is a place to share and enhance a broader knowledge of industry's best practices to transform businesses and to better meet the demands of an increasingly mobile, fragmented and elusive target audience. For more information visit www.latinvision.com/conference.

Siempre Mujer's 2009 Siempre Inspiran Honorees Revealed in October/November Issue

NEW YORK, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Siempre Mujer's fourth-annual "Always Inspiring" Latina women are revealed in the magazine's October/November issue. The 2009 honorees -- Shakira, Maria Celeste Arraras, Teresa Rodriguez, Charytin Goyco, Karen Hoyos, Doctor Ana Maria Polo and Amelia Toro -- were chosen for their hands-on commitment to important causes in the Hispanic community.

In her introduction, co-anchor of Noticiero Univision and 2008 "Siempre Inspiran" honoree Maria Elena Salinas discusses the great strides Latina women made in the year of Justice Sonia Sotomayor's appointment to the Supreme Court, saying about her now-famous "wise Latina" comment: "That small phrase has given the Hispanic woman a major reason to keep pushing ahead, to feel proud of her heritage, to feel strong and wise." And what about Sotomayor's controversial statement that Latina women come to better conclusions than white men? Salinas says: "It is precisely our experiences in the United States that give us a unique perspective. We've learned to succeed in a sexist world. We're raised in a world of two cultures, two languages and two sets of traditions."

This year's honorees are:

-- Cover Star Shakira - This superstar singer's "Pies Descalzos" foundation has built two schools for kids in her hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia. She believes that a good education allows kids to "break the chains of poverty and achieve equal opportunities and, ultimately, peace."

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Key publishers unite to create a digital reader

IT will be just weeks before the launch of a new joint venture that will bring together executives from Time Inc., Hearst, Condé Nast and several other major publishers to create a new e-reader for magazines and newspapers.

Rumor now has it that Meredith Corp. is on board, but that could not be confirmed at press time.

"We're trying to legally and appropriately come together to help create digital content aimed at readers who we don't reach with traditional ink-on-paper content," said Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend, one of the first executives to go on the record about the new enterprise.

Executives said that the companies are not only trying to develop new hardware, but software as well, that is more magazine- and newspaper-friendly than the Amazon Kindle, which renders in black and white and does not replicate four-color ads. They plan to create content compatible with Hewlett-Packard and Sony devices, and the new Apple reader when it is available.

Townsend said it will probably involve the establishment of a "separate entity" to avoid running afoul of antitrust laws.

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FTC Tells Amateur Bloggers to Disclose Freebies or Be Fined

Gadget bloggers and Amazon.com reviewers now must disclose freebies and financial interests or face fines up to $11,000, according to rules announced by federal regulators Monday in an attempt to make word-of-mouth endorsements on the net easier to believe.

The Federal Trade Commission introduced the rules to prevent the net from being flooded with paid-for reviews which appear to be the work of everyday netizens, but are actually paid for with free products. But the new rules (.pdf) are confusing, ambiguous and likely unenforceable in the real world, given the size of the net, the sheer number of blogs and reviewers, and the difficulty of making distinctions between media professionals and amateurs, and between sponsored posts and pure reviews.

Under the new rules, a hiking enthusiast with a personal blog who got a free backpack would have to tell her readers about the gift and also disclose it in any online review. By contrast, established review sites such as Consumer Reports or Wired.com’s Gadget Lab do not need to disclose whether or not they get freebies or what they do with them. (For the record, at Wired.com, most anything of value that can be returned is.)

The FTC’s logic is that people trust established sites. They can’t do the same for a blog or reviewer, so disclosures are a must.

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Publishers Try to offer More Value with Web-enabled Ads

Three years ago, Web-enabled print ads were all the rage as publishers tried to shed their old-media image. Bar codes and tags started popping up in titles, inviting cell-phone-equipped readers to shop or get product information by texting or snapping a photo of an ad.

But those “snappable” ads quickly got a bad rap from media buyers, publishers and even the technology providers themselves, who blamed clunky user experiences on long software download times and poor execution.

“I think a lot of magazines last year did it wrong,” said Carlos Lamadrid, senior vp, chief brand officer, Hachette Filipacchi Media’s Woman’s Day Group, who published four Web-enabled ads issues of Woman’s Day this year. Some didn’t explain the ads well to readers, while advertisers fumbled with what types of offers would drive the highest response. (Not surprisingly, free samples and coupons worked the best.) Said Lamadrid: “Just to say ‘Go to my Web site’ doesn’t work.”

Brenda White, senior vp, publishing activation director, Starcom USA, said the technology is still new to the consumer and cumbersome to use. “It needs to take some time to catch on a little bit,” she said.

Providers admit the execution needs work. “Too often, the response has been the URL of the company,” said Adam Shapiro, vp, business development, North America, LinkMe Mobile, formerly SnapNow. “It’s really a lousy experience.”

Magazines say they—and their clients—have learned from experience. Rather than giving up on the technology, they’re committed to using it more in hopes it will show print’s ability to drive reader response.

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Convergence 2009 Digital & Social Media Conference Releases Prestigious Speaker Line up for October 14th Event

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LatinVision Media, together with the New York City Latin Media & Entertainment Commission (LMEC), releases its prestigious speaker line up for the Converge 2009 Digital & Social Media Conference. The event will take place at TheTimesCenter in the New York Times headquarters on October 14, 2009, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., followed by a business networking reception.

As one of the most anticipated Hispanic conferences on the east coast, this one-day event will once again summon the big players of change in the Latin and Hispanic market. Similar to its previous year, the conference will feature thematic panels with questions from the audience and moderated by experts in their respective fields.

Among this year’s speakers include:

•Nancy Hill, President & CEO, American Association of Advertising Agencies
•Olivia Maloney, Director, US Hispanic Sales & Solutions, AOL Latino/AOL
•Gisela Girard, President & CEO, Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies
•Cathy Baron Tamraz, Presidente & CEO de Business Wire
•Luis Santos, President & CEO, El Tiempo - Colombia
•John Paton, CEO, impreMedia
•Randall Rothenberg, President & CEO, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
•Ivan Braiker, CEO, HipCricket
•Ruth Gaviria, CEO, Hispanic Business Ventures Meredith Corporation
•Mike Wehrs, CEO, Mobile Marketing Association
•Janet Robinson, CEO, New York Times
•Felipe Machado, Director Digital, O’Estado de Sao Paulo
•Diana Sanchez, President & CEO, Telefónica USA
•Peter Blacker, EVP Digital Media & Emerging Business, Telemundo
•Juan Saldivar, CEO, Televisa Interactive Media
•Mark Lopez, COO, Terra Networks
•Kevin Conroy, President Interactive Media Univision Communications
•Joe Uva, President & CEO, Univision Communications
•Mario Baeza, Founder & President, V-me Media

“This year’s Convergence Conference will bring together the best minds of the country’s Latin media, entertainment, technology and advertising sectors to the center of the world’s greatest stage – New York City,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “This collaboration between our City’s Latin Media and Entertainment Commission and LatinVision Media is another example of the great work our City is doing to solidify our position as the Latin media and entertainment capital of the world.”

The keynote address will be given by Mr. Joe Uva, President and CEO of Univision Communications. “Hispanics are expanding their representation and influence across every industry sector in this country,” said Uva. “We commend New York City’s Latin Media and Entertainment Commission and LatinVision Media for once again bringing to the forefront the important role the Latino community, Spanish-language media and the city of New York are playing in shaping the future of the media, entertainment, technology and advertising sectors.”

To learn more about the conference, to register and sponsor www.latinvision.com/conference.

About LatinVision Media

LatinVision Media, Inc. is a New York-based company that operates business portals targeting U.S. Hispanic and Latin American entrepreneurs, business owners, executives and professionals in small and medium-sized companies. LatinVision portals include: www.latinvision.com; www.latinvision.com/finance; www.latinvision.com/jobs; www.latinvision.com/digital among others.

For more information: http://tinyurl.com/LatinVision

About the Latin Media & Entertainment Commission (LMEC)

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg established the LMEC in 2003 to make New York the capital of Latin media and entertainment in the world. The Commission is made up of leaders from the Latin and mainstream media industry, community leaders from nonprofit and cultural sectors, and leading executives from the financial, advertising and real estate sectors. For more information: www.nyc.gov/lmec.

Newspaper Subscribers Stick Around Longer, Pay More

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Amid all the bleak news for newspapers, there's something good going on: Subscribers are sticking with their papers for longer -- and frequently paying more.

The cancellation rate for newspaper subscribers has plunged pretty incredibly, to 31.8% last year from 54.5% in 2000 and from 36.6% in 2006, according to new statistics out from the Newspaper Association of America. That's despite price increases for home delivery, which brought the average seven-day delivery price to $3.66 in 2007 from $3.37 in 2006.

How are newspapers -- frequently cast as the internet's saddest victims -- pulling this off during the terrible economic times?

It was necessity: They couldn't keep running up paid circulation numbers at any cost and expecting advertisers to pay all the bills.

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Mega TV Signs Multi-market Affiliation Agreements with HDTV Inc.

MIAMI, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) (NASDAQ: SBSA) announced today that Mega TV has signed three multi-market affiliation agreements with HDTV, Inc. in the key markets of Tampa, Florida, Charleston, South Carolina, and Palm Springs, California. With these new affiliates, Mega TV is now in eight markets, reaching more than 3.5 million homes of the Hispanic population.

These new Mega TV affiliates are scheduled to launch during the month of October 2009, and will broadcast Mega TV's critically acclaimed programming including, "Papparazzi TV Sensacional," "Maria Elvira Live!" "Esta Noche Tu Night" with Alexis Valdes and "Los Implicados," among others.

Mega TV will air on WFHD, Channel 36.2 in Tampa, WHDC Channel 40.2 in Charleston, and KLPS, Channel 19.2 in Palm Springs CA.

"Tampa, Charleston and Palm Springs are perfect markets to further build the Mega TV brand," said Cynthia Hudson, EVP/CCO of SBS and the Managing Director of Mega TV. "We have a unique style and take an original approach to Spanish-language content by using renowned talent and fresh formats. Our growing footprint across the country is proof that our original and relevant programming is resonating with US Latinos, and we expect the network to continue its successful track record of ratings on a national level."

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What’s in a Retail E-Mail?

With social media presence rapidly becoming a must for online retailers, Email Data Source and Goodmail Systems studied how often retailers were including social media marketing links in their e-mail campaigns.

Large majorities of the top 100 companies according to Internet Retailer had a profile on Facebook (79%), Twitter (69%) or both (59%). Formerly hyped technologies such as blogs and RSS feeds were much less popular among these online retail leaders—fewer than one in five used either.

But many of those that had a Facebook or Twitter account did not promote it. Just over one-half of social media participants included links in their e-mail campaigns. Further, less than 30% mentioned their Facebook and Twitter accounts on their company Website prominently.

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Myriam Marquez Makes History as the Miami Herald's First Hispanic Editorial Page Editor

When Myriam Marquez was named the editorial page editor of the Miami Herald this summer, she became the first Hispanic -- and the first woman -- to lead the Herald's editorial department since the paper's inception in 1903.

It's no small responsibility. Through the decades, the Miami Herald has garnered 20 Pulitzer Prizes. Two of those belong to the editorial department -- one for cartooning in 1996 and one for writing in 1983 about the federal detention of illegal Haitian immigrants.

Over the past couple weeks, the editorial department has gone toe-to-toe with the mayor of Miami-Dade County, blasting him for giving generous raises to a dozen staff members during a time of deep financial malaise.

In October, Marquez -- who fled Cuba for the United States with her parents as a toddler during the country's Communist revolution in 1959 -- will be among the 100 people mentioned in HispanicBusiness Magazine's annual list of influential Hispanics.

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The Moguls’ New Clothes

Media executives lament what the Web has done to their business. But that complaint conveniently ignores the dismal financial performance of most media conglomerates in the pre-digital era. Until media companies are willing to get back to basics and jettison the flawed thinking that has guided them over the past two decades, they will continue to disappoint their shareholders.

Time Warner announced in May that it plans to spin off its AOL division by year end. The new AOL’s value will likely be barely 1 percent of the market price of the inflated stock that Time Warner accepted in the original $175 billion merger almost a decade ago—despite the inclusion of numerous subsequent expensive add-on acquisitions. While extreme, the Time Warner–AOL combination was no aberration. The deal represents less than half the financial damage done during an unprecedented era of excess in the media business. Since 2000, the largest media conglomerates have collectively written down more than $200 billion in assets, a record that would make even Citigroup blush. These write-downs reflect a broad-based legacy of value destruction from relentlessly overpriced acquisitions, “strategic” investments, and contracts for content and talent.

One might be tempted to give media executives a pass because of the impact of the Internet. If we take Netscape’s public offering in 1995 as the birth of the Internet era, on average over the next 10 years the biggest media conglomerates achieved less than a third of the returns available from the S&P as a whole. But even more telling is that these companies, as a group, had also underperformed the S&P for much of the previous decade, before the Internet upended their industry. Indeed, one aspect of the media business has remained largely unchanged for a generation: the lousy performance of its leading companies.

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Print and online 'could work in tandem'

The exclusive paidContent:UK/Harris Interactive poll has this week shown how resistant most consumers are to charging for online newspapers.

But, for publishers, one possible hope that arises on our final day of results is to consider print and online in tandem. While only 5% of people who read a news site at least once a month told us they would pay for online access, when you throw in a free or discounted subscription to the printed paper, that rises to a combined 48%...

While the proportion of respondents who said they would still not pay remains a majority, it's a slight one – it seems the printed edition could leverage online subscriptions; not just among existing readers of the paper, but also among those who don't already buy it.

The message is loud and clear – people continue to believe that touchable products command tangible economic value but, divorced from physicality and its associated costs, digital content should manifest itself cheaper.

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NYT Explores New Twitter Search Products

The New York Times has big plans for Twitter.

The venerable news organization is exploring plans to build search products which can sift through thousands of Twitter feeds and pull together commentary on specific narrow topics. According to Martin Nisenholtz, senior vp of digital operations for The New York Times Company, the company has built such a product for its popular fashion-themed blog The Moment which aggregates Twitter commentary from both editors and readers related to the high-end fashion world.

To date The Moment has built an audience of over 1.2 million followers on Twitter, due in part to the popular of the Times’ tool. According to Nisenholtz, during a keynote address on Monday (Sept. 21) at the OMMA conference in New York, the Times has a unique opportunity to serve in prominent intermediary role on Twitter—as part guide and part editor.

“If you go out and search Twitter, it doesn’t work very well,” he said. “It’s very literal.” But if The Times can build multiple search products for Twitter that better understand context, there “is a lot of power in organizing and curating this world.” Therefore, the company is looking into building similar Twitter aggregators for what could be “thousands of categories,” he said

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Three Screens of Increased Viewing

Americans are consuming more video content across their three screens—television, Internet and mobile—according to The Nielsen Company.

The research firm’s “A2/M2 Three Screen Report—2nd Quarter 2009” indicates the screen to gain the most US video viewers was mobile, with a 70% year-over-year increase. Traditional television viewing climbed by 0.9% between Q2 2008 and Q2 2009, while online video viewing was up significantly in June (due to changes in methodology, online figures should be used for directional purposes only). Timeshifted TV viewing was on the rise as well, with 32.2% more viewers in Q2 2009 than the prior year.

Most video viewing channels also saw quarterly gains. Traditional television, however, is subject to seasonal viewing patterns that led to a decrease from Q1 2009 to Q2 2009, despite the rise over 2008.

Americans spent significantly more time watching video content on the Internet in June 2009 than a year earlier. Average mobile viewing was down 10%, however, with mobile subscribers watching 3 hours and 15 minutes of video per month. Consumers also reported watching more than 141 monthly hours of traditional TV, and 7 hours and 16 minutes of timeshifted TV per month.

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Online Ad Spending Slows but Grabs Market Share

Print will lose even more US ad spending share than previously forecast but remain on top, while online is set to grab the second-largest slice of the ad spending pie this year, according to estimates by Myers Publishing.

2009 will be the first year that ad spending online is greater than local and national spot TV, with online expenditures rising from 10.6% of the total in 2008 to 12.2% this year. The rise in market share will occur despite a 0.5% drop in spending forecast for online in 2009, to $24.55 billion.

Myers predicts online’s share will continue to climb, hitting 13.4% in 2011—when it will surpass print to become the top medium—and reaching 13.6% of total ad spending in 2012.

The fastest growth in 2009 is expected to occur in video game advertising, at 12%, followed by mobile (9%). Branded entertainment/product placement and satellite radio advertising will inch upward.

Internet ad spending will start climbing again in 2010, with 0.7% growth, picking up the pace to see 5.1% and 7.2% gains in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

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Networks Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

TV viewers are in for a healthy dosage of Hispanic fare starting Sept. 15, as networks gear up to mark this year's Hispanic Heritage Month.

On tap for the period, which runs through Oct. 15, are specials and documentaries, as well as grassroots and marketing campaigns aimed at the estimated 46.9 million Hispanics living in the U.S.

Special programming includes Discovery en Español's Sept. 20 premiere of La Marcha de las Uvas. The hourlong documentary follows the 1966 protest by Mexican-American farm workers in Delano Fields, Calif., that led to the rise of labor activist César Chávez. The 25-day pilgrimage of protest was the longest in U.S. history.

"We are always looking for relevant programming targeting Hispanics, but we wanted to do something big for this year's Hispanic Heritage Month; something that inspires viewers," said Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic director of prodduction Michela Giorelli, executive producer of La Marcha de las Uvas.

Also in the coming month, Discovery en Español will premiere Un Continente Tiembla, about some of the worst natural disasters in such countries as Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Peru.

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Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Public Domain Books

What’s hot off the presses come Thursday?

Any one of the more than 2 million books old enough to fall out of copyright into the public domain.

Over the last seven years, Google has scanned millions of dusty tomes from deep in the stacks of the nation’s leading university libraries and turned them into searchable documents available anywhere in the world through its search box.

And now Google Book Search, in partnership with On Demand Books, is letting readers turn those digital copies back into paper copies, individually printed by bookstores around the world.

Or at least by those booksellers that have ordered its $100,000 Espresso Book Machine, which cranks out a 300 page gray-scale book with a color cover in about 4 minutes, at a cost to the bookstore of about $3 for materials. The machine prints the pages, binds them together perfectly, and then cuts the book to size and then dumps a book out, literally hot off the press, with a satisfying clunk. (The company says a machine can print about 60,000 books a year.)

That means you can stop into the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, and for less than $10, custom-order your own copy of Dame Curtsey’s Book of Candy Making, the third edition of which was published in 1920 and which can only be found online for $47.00 used.

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Media Dollars Shift to Digital in Downturn

The economic downturn is causing most marketers to decrease media spending budgets, and the remaining expenditures are shifting further toward digital, according to a Q2 2009 survey by Round2.

More than two-thirds of senior executives in the Western US responding to the “2009 Media Survey Results & Analysis” reported their media budgets would decrease at least somewhat in 2009 compared with 2008. Still, almost one-quarter expected spending to climb by up to 10%, and a few respondents reported even greater increases.

While a majority of respondents said they would hold budgets for each medium except print steady in 2009 compared with 2008, digital was still the clear winner. Budgets were more likely to be cut than increased for traditional media such as TV, radio and direct mail, but more respondents said they would up their investments in e-mail marketing, search and interactive than said spending would be reduced.

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Sulzberger, Robinson Explain Why Readers Embrace Print

Less than a week after their rocky visit to The Boston Globe, New York Times Co. execs Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Janet Robinson have issued an internal memo discussing circulation at The New York Times, the Globe and some of the Times Co.'s regional papers.

Despite the fact that one reader has apparently offered to pay $70 million to access "the most important paper in the free world," Sulzberger and Robinson assure their employees that it hasn't quite come to that yet. However, they have been asking their readers to bear more of the cost to produce their papers. Surprisingly, readers have chipped in and circulation has actually risen at the Times, the Globe and some other regional papers.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but the news shows promise:

"We don't mean to suggest that there have not been any cancellations or that circulation volume hasn't declined. It has. But there have been far fewer cancellations from price increases than we expected at both The Times and the Globe. The reader retention rates for The Times and the Globe are enviable -- for subscribers of two years or more, the rate is roughly 90 percent for both papers. In fact, The Times has more than 830,000 readers who have subscribed for two years or more, up from 650,000 in 2000."

Ultimately, the readers of the Times, the Globe and the other papers "continue to embrace print" because newspapers "work," the Times Co. execs said.

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Google Releases News-Reading Service

SAN FRANCISCO — Google, long seen as an enemy by many in the news industry, is making a bold attempt to be seen as a friend with a new service it hopes will make it easier for readers to read newspaper and magazine articles.

On Monday, the company introduced an experimental news hub called Fast Flip that allows users to view news articles from dozens of major publishers and flip through them as quickly as they would the pages of a magazine. Google will place ads around the news articles and share resulting revenue with publishers.

Fast Flip, which is based on Google News, tries to address what Google considers a major problem with news sites: they often are slow to load, and so they turn off many readers. Google, the leader in Web search services and advertising, argues that if reading news online was closer to the experience of scanning through physical newspapers or magazines, people would read more.

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Hispanic TV Households Outpace Average

The Nielsen Company is estimating the smallest increase in the past 10 years for the number of television homes this season.

In 2009–2010, 114.9 million US homes will have a television. The designated market area (DMA) with the largest increase in TV households is New York.

Broken down by race and ethnicity, Nielsen predicts the number of Hispanic TV households will grow fastest between 2009 and 2010, with a 2.3% increase to almost 13 million. Asian-American and African-American TV households will inch up more slowly, at 0.8% and 0.3%, respectively.

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Online Publishers Get Social

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Kevin Conroy, president of Univision Interactive Media, and Mark Lopez, COO of Terra Networks, about the current state of the Hispanic online market and how the each company is responding to the fact that Hispanics are extremely engaged with social media.

Both Mark and Kevin are upbeat about the market and acknowledge that the key to effectively providing value to Hispanics online is being able to tap into their strong cultural propensity to share with one another. That said, many advertisers have been hesitant to invest in online advertising within a social context representing a challenge for Hispanic online publishers.

Hispanics are in the online driver's seat

Kevin, a long-term executive of AOL, joined Univision early this year and was "blown away by the opportunity" to join the company. "I see the Univision brand more like a consumer products brand than a media brand," he explained. "We have a unique opportunity to leverage our relationship with Hispanics to endorse other brands." Kevin has implemented many changes at Univision.com but the addition of direct links on the Univision.com page to Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Facebook and other third-party providers represents a radical shift for the company. He points out that "there is a culture of family and sharing" among online Hispanics and that Univision "is striving to redefine the circle of online activity." Univision, he says, "embraces today's online behavior and gives its users easy access to the things they want."

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Future Trends In Sponsorship

Based on our work with a large number of U.S. and global sponsors, here are our top four trends to watch in sponsorships over the next five to ten years.

1. Growth in social and mobile media will change sponsorship activation plans forever.

Five years ago clients were warned to begin to abandon print media and PR around a sponsorship since sports fans were making a wholesale switch to consuming sports information online, due to the far greater immediacy and richer content available.

REvolution's warning now is to begin to abandon traditional .com advertising support since sports fans are quickly moving to social media (Facebook/Twitter/blogs) and mobile media (iPhone apps). These media offer even greater immediacy and ease of access than traditional websites. Agencies that can get ahead of the curve and build in social/mobile media activation to sponsorship deals will prosper.

2. The present global recession will have no long-term impact on the sponsorship market.

Many of the commentators who followed sports business within the past decade have issued gloomy prognostications that the current recession marks "the death of corporate entertainment" or, at best, they predict a long-term negative correction of its pricing across the board.

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What Social Media Can Learn From Multicultural Marketing

Listing: Blue Chip company seeks experienced Online Community Manager/Social Media Strategist/person who understands the Internet to develop company's integrated marketing initiatives across new media channels. S/he will be responsible for monitoring Twitter, making a Youtube channel, adding friends on Facebook, and managing intermittent "blogger outreach". 3+ years experience in updating status messages required.

Sound familiar? If you're working for any brand with a half-functioning marketing department, it should. Even amidst the downturn, companies are clamoring to get in the social-media game by hiring social-media managers or looking in-house to indoctrinate their own. The question around social-media strategies is no longer if, but how: How can we acquire more Twitter followers than rival Brand Y? How can we tap into our Facebook fans to promote our new product? How can we use social media to tell our story?

Any brand that considers itself competitive is already engaging in social media on several levels. And even if they haven't answered the "why" of it all, many have already launched headfirst into the how, getting their logos and well-briefed spokespeople on every social networking site/platform/channel they can, spreading the message of their latest promotion or new campaign.

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SMBs More Likely to Use Digital than Traditional Media

As of August 2009, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the US are more likely to advertise online than via traditional media.

Based on the “Local Commerce Monitor Wave XIII,” from The Kelsey Group and ConStat, 77% of US SMBs used online for advertising in August 2009, compared with just 69% that used traditional media. This is the first time penetration of online advertising surpassed traditional. In an earlier survey from August 2008, 73% advertised online while 74% used traditional media.

“We have been tracking the trend of digital/online media replacing traditional media over four waves of the Local Commerce Monitor study,” said Steve Marshall, director of research at The Kelsey Group. “The milestone of digital/online surpassing traditional media among SMBs is an indicator of the broad shift to online platforms.”

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Gadgets Go Ethnic - Your next cell phone or MP3 player could be culturally in tune with you.

It's not surprising that with the advent of technology and computers, advertisers and businesses are using surveys and statistics to create and push products on target audiences. Recently, PC Magazine wrote an article on the topic of tech companies appealing to customers' cultural backgrounds.

PC Mag said that Microsoft in this past October, released a Zune digital media player that was aimed at Hispanic consumers. This particular Zune was preloaded with the latest recordings from Wisin y Yandel, a popular Puerto Rican reggaeton duo. Sprint-Nextel has a subsidiary named Boost Mobile that states their users break down into 43% African-American and 27% Latino. Their latest campaign of the Anthem 2.0, featured rappers Jermaine Dupri, Young Jeezy and Mickey Avalon to push the company's newest pay-as-you-go Motorola i425 handset.

Javier Farfan, the multi-cultural marketing manager of the Zune, represented that these campaigns and products are positive for the tech companies and the targeted groups as long as everything is kept real. Farfan speaks to the huge marketing opportunities that exist in a large Hispanic marketing group that has been under-developed and under-utilized at this time.

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Digital&Social Media Convergence2009 Conference: Attracts Influential Lineup of Speakers to Explore the Transformation & Breakdown of These Industries

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- The Latin Media and Entertainment Commission of the City of New York (LMEC - http://www.nyc.gov/html/lmec/html/home/home.shtml) and LatinVision Media announced today the full lineup of participants in this year's Wednesday, October 14, 2009, Digital and Social Media Convergence 2009 Conference. Janet Robinson, CEO of The New York Times, will do the opening remarks. A two-hour Business Networking Reception follows, where industry, talent and investors will be able to connect in a more relaxed environment at the crossroads of the world.

The 2009 Convergence Conference is the premier event for Latin media, entertainment, technology and advertising CEOs and executives looking to grow their business and explore new opportunities with Latin audiences and to reach the mainstream, which spotlights the constant state of creation and evolution required of business leaders in today's rapidly changing digital and social media landscape.

"This year's Convergence Conference will bring together the best minds of the country's Latin media, entertainment, technology and advertising sectors to the center of the world's greatest stage -- New York City," said Mayor Bloomberg. "This collaboration between our City's Latin Media and Entertainment Commission and LatinVision is another example of the great work our City is doing to solidify our position as the Latin media and entertainment capital of the world."

Speakers are going to explore ideas and offer wisdom on the constant changes that are taking place within these industries. Among the varied topics are what creativity means in a digital world; whether the Web can support quality content; and how technology can change not only the way a company sends messages to consumers, but also the way a company operates locally, regionally and internationally.

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Spanish language media have obligation

The power and influence of Spanish-language media is undeniable. According to Forbes Magazine, Spanish-language media in the U.S. continues to boom with a broadcast market that has grown from about 200 television stations six years ago to more than 350 today. Spanish language print circulation has been growing steadily in the last several decades from about 140,000 in the 1970s to well over 2 million today.

In many communities across the U.S., Spanish language television stations, radio broadcasts, newspapers, magazines and Web sites have become commonplace. The growth of Spanish language media has seen impressive increases in advertising dollars every year for the last 10 years.

In 2008, U.S. businesses spent almost $2.5 billion on Spanish-language advertising, according to TNS Media Intelligence Data. For many American companies, Spanish-language advertising has become a critical part of their marketing efforts.

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The Price of a Marketing Lead

Pay-for-performance ad pricing models are catching on among marketers dealing with issues of measurability and audience engagement. Impression-based media buys are giving way, in some cases, to cost-per-lead advertising.

Cost-per-lead advertising brings a new dimension to lead generation. Rather than turning to brokers of generic sales leads, marketers can entice consumers to opt in based on specific ads—and only pay for valid sign-ups.

According to the “Cost-per-Lead Advertising Data Report” from Pontiflex, marketers in North America were most likely to engage those leads via brand or community sites (51%). E-newsletters (31%) and free trial offers (9%) were also popular engagement vehicles.

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Geraldo on Hispanics’ new era of prosperity

In his new book “The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity,” award-winning journalist Geraldo Rivera details the evolving role of Hispanics in shaping every facet of American culture. Read an excerpt on how the Hispanic community has socially, economically and politically impacted our future.

Introduction
For the first time in modern world history a powerful nation is changing complexion right before the eyes of its citizens. In real time it is possible to watch America become more culturally diverse, its face physically darker. The United States has vastly more Latinos than it did just a relatively few years ago, and their numbers are increasing at an explosive rate, on average almost four thousand per day.

This book is about what that dramatic trend means for the country.

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Best Buy Eyes Hispanic Market

Best Buy has a multi-pronged strategy for increasing its sales among Hispanic and Latin American customers, the company's vice president of business initiatives told a retail conference, the dotGlobal Web site reported.

Company executive Christine Webster-Moore told the Hispanic Retail 360 conference that the company plans to pursue three goals for increasing business in that community: a greater emphasis on mobile and social media, more creative ways to help poor and no-credit customers buy and greater fluidity in appealing to Spanish-speaking customers.

Webster-Moore said at the conference that the company has begun pre-configuring computers in Spanish and Portuguese in some markets.

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USTA Launches New Programming And Fan Enhancements For 2009 US Open

FLUSHING, N.Y., August 20, 2009 – The USTA announced today a series of expanded fan enhancements and programming for the 2009 US Open. This year’s Opening Night ceremony will celebrate athletes who “give back” with a special appearance by Andre Agassi and other notable athletes. Other on-court ceremonies during the tournament will pay tribute to Arthur Ashe and Pancho Gonzalez. New features at the US Open this year include the recently opened USTA Indoor Training Center that will host an array of US Open activities, hundreds of hours of US Open programming on new cable broadcasters ESPN2 and Tennis Channel, and for the first time a live reveal show of the US Open Draw on ESPNews.

Other fan enhancements include the return of SmashZone, the premier interactive fan experience in tennis, and the return of wheelchair tennis to the US Open. The USTA will host its first-ever Family Day at the US Open, with reserved family courtside seating in Louis Armstrong Stadium. Also at the 2009 US Open, the country’s Best Tennis Town will be announced on-site, and the nighttime order of play will be reformatted so the men take the court before the women during some evening sessions. Instant replay also has been added to the Grandstand, meaning the US Open will now feature the system on all three primary show courts.

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Latino: the New Guru of Success and Personal Achievement in the United States

MIAMI, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- It is inevitable that in a nation such as the United States -- which has the third largest Hispanic population in the world -- many Latino writers and artists whose Spanish-language works have been successful would sooner or later make the crossover into the English-speaking market. Artists such as Shakira and Enrique Iglesias, and writers like Isabel Allende and Don Miguel Ruiz, are proof that the books and music that have captivated millions of Spanish speakers can just as easily attract an English-speaking audience.

This is what led Dr. Camilo Cruz to translate his most famous work La Vaca into English. "Many of those who have read my books in Spanish want their spouse or children who do not read Spanish to enjoy the teachings of this fantastic story," said Dr. Cruz.

Coinciding with the celebration of Hispanic Heritage month, the book has been released this September with the title ONCE UPON A COW: Eliminating Excuses and Settling for Nothing but Success. The publisher Penguin Books is one of the largest in the world, with a list of authors that includes personalities such Al Gore, the Dalai Lama, Lance Armstrong, and Eckhart Tolle.

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Do You Know Who’s on Twitter?

Twitter has experienced explosive growth in 2009. According to “An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World,” from Sysomos, 72.5% of all Twitter users joined the service in the first five months of this year. Who are they?

More than one-half of all Twitter users (53%) are women, and the majority are young. Among users who disclose their age, 66% are under 25, and another 15% are ages 25 to 29.

Most Twitter users are quiet: 85.37% tweet less than once per day. Only about 1.1% of users update their timeline an average of more than 10 times daily. This means a small group of users dominate the Twitter timeline—75% of all Twitter activity comes from just 5% of users.

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Summer Surge for Online Video

Online video viewing is up by all metrics, according to The Nielsen Co.’s July 2009 “VideoCensus.”

The measurement firm recorded a 14.2% year-over-year increase in unique viewers to nearly 136 million. Total streams climbed 31.4% to more than 11.2 billion and average streams per viewer were up to 82.4, a 15.1% gain. Viewers spent an average of about 3.5 hours watching online video in July, a jump of 42.2% over the prior year.

The top site for watching video, according to Nielsen, was YouTube—way out in front with more than 7 billion streams and 104 million unique viewers. Hulu ranked second in number of streams, but was surpassed by Yahoo!, MSN, CNN and Fox Interactive Media properties in unique viewers.

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University of Miami Announces a New Comprehensive Online Program in Journalism

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, the University of Miami Koubek Center announced the opening of its online course “Journalism in the 21st Century.” This is the first time that a comprehensive course of this kind has been offered, in Spanish, in the United States.

The objective of the course is to offer basic tools, from a theoretical-practical perspective, for efficiently preparing traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet), and for undertaking personal projects, such as web pages and blogs, among others. The course, which begins September 28, is designed for media workers as well as other professionals who want to break into the world of communications.

“As a pioneer in the teaching of Spanish language journalism in the United States, the Koubek Center is proud to maintain that leadership, this time offering courses over the Internet, which is so relevant in our increasingly digital world – for Hispanics as well,” declared Pablo Chao, Director of the Koubek Center, which he has headed for over 28 years.

Though there is no age limit; the course is intensive and demands complete dedication. Knowledge and skills are fostered through novel online teaching techniques.

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Display Ad Success Beyond the Click

While display ad success has traditionally been measured by click-through rates, online marketers have begun looking beyond such direct-response metrics for ways to measure branding.

A panel-based study from comScore and dunnhumbyUSA set out to do just that, by monitoring online ad exposure and subsequent supermarket purchases.

The research firms found that online ads were more effective than advertising on TV for increasing sales lift for consumer packaged goods (CPG). The CPG sales lift among US consumers exposed to online ads in 2009 was 9% over three months, with 80% of campaigns studied showing a statistically significant lift.

That compares to 8% lift over 12 months for TV ads, according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI). Just 36% of the TV campaigns studied by IRI in its “How Advertising Works” research paper induced a statistically significant sales lift.

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JPMorgan Now Nation's No.1 Publisher

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, considered by many to be the country's most influential and successful bank executive, can add another title to his resume: Accidental media mogul.

That's right. The banker, thanks to the sagging economy, which has cratered several media giants leaving the lender in the driver's seat, now holds sway over Readers Digest, Source Interlink Media and American Media Inc. -- which have combined revenues of about $5.04 billion.

That's more than Time Inc., generally considered the nation's No. 1 magazine publisher with its stable-leading Sports Illustrated and People titles helping it ring up $4.6 billion in revenue last year, and the combined revenue of Hearst, publisher of Esquire, and Condé Nast, the parent of Vogue.

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