State of the News Media in 2010-Newspapers
Last night I had the privilege of attending the DC chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators meeting headlined by Amy Mitchell of the Pew Center on the State of the News Media in 2010.
In our 2007 report covering America’s Newspapers and the Internet, we argued that the Internet does not necessarily have to be a threatening competitor for newspapers. In 2007 the most glaring shortcomings of newspaper websites largely stemmed from a failure to see the benefits of not only allowing, but actually encouraging reader participation and the sharing of content across the web. Rather than worrying about attracting visitors, we sought to establish that newspapers needed to take steps to: 1. Lengthen the amount of time users spend on their websites. 2. Expand the purpose behind website visits. 3. Convert page views and stickiness into revenue. 4. Improve advertiser incentives for purchasing online ads. To achieve these objectives, we argued that newspaper websites needed to become strategically and visually better than that of their competitors.
Some of the key findings from The Pew Research Center’s “State of the News Media 2010” analysis concerning newspapers include:
Digital Audience
“Online audience continued to be a positive counterpoint for the industry. Monthly unique visitors to newspapers rose 14% in 2009, according to Nielsen Online to roughly 74 million."
Economics
“Advertising during the year declined for the first time since 2002, according to data from eMarketer. The firm’s updated August projections put the declines at 4.6%, to $22.4 billion in total revenues."
"But some categories fared better than others. Search, which flows mostly to aggregators like Google, was projected to grow 3% in 2009 to $10.8 billion, But display advertising revenue, which news sites rely on, was expected to fall 2% to $4.8 billion. Classified revenue was projected to plummet 31% to $2.2 billion in 2009. Accounting for 17% of online ad spending in 2003, classified are now just 9%.”
Are Users Willing to Pay for Their Favorite News Sites?
“A new survey by PEJ and Pew Internet and American Life Project suggests there is a difficult hill to climb in putting content behind a pay wall. Of those that have a favorite Web site (just a third of online news users), only 19% said they would continue to visit if that site put up a pay wall."
"The prospects for growth in conventional display advertising also look difficult. The vast majority of Internet users, 79%, say they never or rarely had clicked on an online advertisement. They don’t mind them. They simply ignore them.”
News Investment
"Of the top roughly 200 sites analyzed by PEJ, fully 67% are tied to a legacy media outlet, meaning that they are at least partly funded by another platform such as cable TV or newspapers.”
Gary Bivings Interview- Digital Politics Show on WS Radio
On March 6th Karen Jagoda of the E Voter Institute interviewed our President and founder, Gary Bivings live on WS Radio. Karen and Gary discussed our firm’s web strategy with the Pickens Plan and the impact of social media on energy policy and legislation. Karen and Gary also discussed the complexities of the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its impact on communications strategies and politics.
Highlights included:
KJ:: Can you tell us about what the Pickens Plan is and who that coalition is?
A: The Pickens plan started in July 20808 around the time when the price of gasoline was $4 /gallon or higher. At the time energy independence, or reducing need for so much foreign oil was not on presidential campaign agenda, T. Boone Pickens put it there…
2:05- KJ: We haven’t seen any TV commercials lately, but you continue to have a pretty healthy online presence. You have a site called push.pickensplan.com – Can you say a little bit about that?
GB: That is the actual social action network. It’s a Ning platform, with about 203k people…It’s a very vibrant community of folks from all different walks of life who engage in talking about alternative energy and it is those people who will sign petitions, show up at a rally, meet a Congressman when he is back on break. Its been amazing to watch online network of people continue without ads or promotion.
3:10- KJ: How would you explain that popularity?
GB: It’s like an open Facebook for groups So people, while they are there can be blogging, taking part in discussion forums, shooting video, sharing pictures, talking with one person, 100 people or large group within the network
3:52- KJ: Are you finding this is standing out amongst the competition? Is the Pickens Plan momentum part of the reason people are going there?
GB: At the time it caught a nerve, it was supported by a personality, it became a unique place on the net for people to participate and engage and talk about alternative energy. It is one of the bigger social action network around policy / energy issues. It has kept itself going because it has the right people in the right places who are willing to share ideas and thoughts with each other.
5:12 KJ: With this oil disaster in the Gulf, is the social media world paying attention to this disaster?
GB: I would say that the social media world, Twitter and Facebook from all sides is very much engaged in it. It is one of the trending topics #oilspill, BP and all their various players have Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, everyone on the ground from affected areas are participating in this… BP spent 10-15 years trying to get us to see them as “Beyond Petroleum;” as different from just an oil company and all that effort has been dumped into the Gulf of Mexico… The crisis right now is stopping the leak…
7:18-KJ: In the old days, they could protect the brand by putting out press releases or on national news-. Those days have passed haven’t they?
A: You could say so. You can’t hold just a simple press conference once a day and put out your side of the story and take a few questions from journalists, not with the visibility and transparency of major events as they are today. What they do try to do, as best they can, is to try and get their facts out and dispel the more egregious myths about what is going on, but they cannot control the dialogue at all…
8:25- KJ: And we would have to say the same thing about President Obama- He can’t really control the message can he?
NG: In some ways they do try… They have to make sure that this is not seen as Obama’s Katrina, and I don’t think it’s being seen that way. They have gone to great strides and being very transparent in what they are doing…
9:14- KJ: What kind of advice for companies that are going to be effected by this oil disaster?
In terms of a communication perspective- You can’t do what BP tried to do and get the fisherman to sign agreements to limit their liability because that showed up on the Daily Beast in a matter of hours…Corporations start have to acting like authentic people. And we hope that at the heart, we have real people running thee companies whose real concerns are for the people affected, and engage in ways that you wouldn’t expect. Not only to fix the situation as it is, but to build some trust, because in the end its all about trust, or the social compact companies have with the economy that they work in…
When Social Meets Media
Members of The Bivings Group had the pleasure of attending the White House Correspondents Garden Brunch on Saturday, May 1.
The annual event, considered one of the major galas related to the WHC weekend raised awareness for two organizations, Mothers Day Every Day and CURE Epilepsy, a cause dear to Susan Axelrod, who spoke about the need to find a cure.
While the opportunity to mingle with luminaries was high, so was the chance to reflect on some of the work The Bivings Group has done of late, ranging from the Pickens Plan to websites for Haddad Media, and Jayni and Chevy Chase’s Green Community Schools Initiative.
The mid-day assortment of individuals mingling made the brunch seem more like the main event rather than an undercard. Where else could you find T. Boone Pickens conversing with the Jonas Brothers? Or notables such as Rupert Murdoch and David Axelrod in the presence of TV hostess Wendy Williams and the ubiquitous Kim Kardasian?
In fact, the whole event felt as if the worlds of entertainment, politics and news had collided. There is indeed a reason why the White House Correspondents weekend is affectionately referred to as either the “nerd prom” or “Washington DC’s version of the Oscars.” News personalities such as Greta Van Susteren, Chris Matthews, David Gregory, Ed Schultz and Gwen Ifill were spotted alongside television and film favorites Chace Crawford of “Gossip Girl,” Matthew Morrison of “Glee,” Joe Mazzello of HBO’s “The Pacific,” Sherri Shepard of “The View,” Omar Epps of “House, MD,” as well as funnyman Marlon Wayans and Oprah BFF Gayle King. Other actors in attendance included Rosario Dawson, Elisabeth Shue, Steven Weber, Cheryl Hines and tween star Demi Lovato.
We at The Bivings Group would like to extend a special thank you to co-host Tammy Haddad for including us in the weekend festivities.
For more photos and videos from the WHC Garden Brunch, we encourage you to visit http://www.whitehousecorrespondentsweekendinsider.com/ and check out photos on TBG’s Facebook page.
Facebook Chat-A Window to Your Soul!
If you have been online at all today, you probably noticed that for most of the morning, Facebook chat was “down for maintenance.” If you inquired further or happened to be following TechCrunch you were probably astonished to find out that the reason Facebook chat was down was because of a:
”Major security flaw in the social networking site that, with just a few mouse clicks, enables any user to view the live chats of their ‘friends’. Using what sounds like a simple trick, a user can also access their friends’ latest pending friend-requests and which friends they share in common. That’s a lot of potentially sensitive information… The irony is that the exploit is enabled by they way that Facebook lets you preview your own privacy settings. In other words, a privacy feature contains a flaw that lets others view private information if they are aware of the exploit.” Steve O’Hear TechCrunch Europe
Several hours later, Facebook released their statement as a status update on their wall:
“For a limited period of time, a bug permitted some users’ chat messages and pending friend requests to be made visible to their friends by manipulating the “preview my profile” feature of Facebook privacy settings. When we received reports of the problem, our engineers promptly diagnosed it and temporarily disabled the chat function. We also pushed out a fix to take care of the visible friend requests which is now complete. Chat will be turned back on across the site shortly. We worked quickly to resolve this matter, ensuring that once the bug was reported to us, a solution was quickly found and implemented.” (emphasis added).
A couple things about this statement: First, as any longtime Windows user knows, even with a vigorous quality control program, some pretty glaring security loopholes can come to light due to unforeseen advancements and the greater creativity / incentive of those in the cloud to find loopholes.
Secondly although many of us have come to accept that you have no expectation of privacy visiting a site you do not own or otherwise pay for, this is still more than a little unsettling. In Facebook’s defense, there is some personal responsibility on the part of the end user to be selective about what they share online and which friend requests they accept. While there has no word on how long this vulnerability existed, one would hope that Facebook would be a little more forthcoming about exactly how long this “bug” existed for, and more importantly- What, if any steps they have taken or are taking to prevent any such future mishaps. Is it our responsibility to discover and report any future such issues?
Finally, do you agree with Facebook’s characterization of this major security flaw as a “bug” ? On the one hand, to characterize such as major flaw as merely a “bug” seems to trivialize the issue. Dictionary.com has multiple definitions of the word “bug,” but in this instance these three definitions seem particularly appropriate:
- “An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, especially one that causes it to malfunction.”
- “A hidden microphone or other electronic eavesdropping device.”
- “To avoid a responsibility or duty. Often used with on or of:bugged out on his partners at the first sign of trouble.”
On a somewhat related note, Dan Yoder’s post on Business Insider- “10 Reasons to Delete Your Facebook Account” is a particularly good read, even if you have no intention of canceling your account.