30 October

US:
- Time Inc. to Cut 600 Jobs
Time Inc., the world's largest magazine publisher with over 10, 200 employees and 24 magazines globally announced its plan to cut 6% of its staff to save costs. The cuts would result in 600 job losses in the Time Inc. In a memo to the staff, Ann. S. Moore, Time Inc.'s chairman and chief executive acknowledged that the company is facing challenging conditions due to the ‘sharp decreases in advertising spending' and this trend is expected to continue for the rest of the year. For the second quarter of this year, Time Inc. recorded a decline of 6% in revenue and 15% drop in operation income. The restructuring will take effect in two weeks. Time Inc. will revamp its 24 magazines into three groups into news, illustrated and style and entertainment. It will share writers among different groups to reduce costs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/business/media/29mag.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-call-of-the-times-time-inc-to-cut-600-jobs-6-percent-of-staff/

- WSJ to Close Boston Bureau due to ‘Profound Downturn' in Advertising Revenue
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) announced its plan to close its Boston bureau by the end of this year. Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of the WSJ told its staff that the closure is due to the ‘profound downturn' in advertising revenue and he ‘must think the unthinkable'. The investigation teams in the Boston bureau will be disbanded and the nine reporters will be able to apply for openings in the company. Robert also reassured the staff saying that the WSJ has no further plan to close any other US or international bureaus.  
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/10/30/wall_street_journal_to_close_boston_bureau/

29 October

Germany
-  Broadcaster Considers Pay-TV as  New Source of Revenue
As the traditional business model which heavily relies on revenue generated from advertising in the media industry is gradually collapsing (see MCJ 23 October), German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 announced its plan to introduce new pay-TV services and other initiatives to generate more revenues from viewers rather than relying on advertising. ProSiebenSat.1 aims to generate 30% of its revenue from other sources within the next five years.  Unions and staff say that the channel should invest in quality rather than look for different sources of income as audience is declining.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/business/global/29broadcast.html?_r=1&ref=media
http://www.djv.de/SingleNews.20+M57b09017668.0.html

 -  Government Looks for ‘Novel Way' to Protect Online Journalism
In response to the media crisis and the structural transition to a digital age in the media industry, the new governing coalition led by the Christian Democratic Party and the Free Democratic Party  (Liberals) in Germany has pledged to create a new kind of copyright to protect online journalism. The proposal includes the creation of a new online business model which enables newspaper and magazine publishers to claim royalties from Google or other news aggregators for the use of their content online.  However, like the deal on micro-payments with Google in the US, it is unclear how journalists and creators will have their work fairly remunurated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/business/global/29copy.html?_r=1&ref=media

UK: BBC to Cut Senior Management Budget by 25%
At the same time as BBC world service journalists protested outside their London headquarters in solidarity with sacked canteen staff, the BBC Trust announced it is cutting the senior management budget by 25%, saving £20m over the next three-and-half years. The cost-savings measures include reducing the number of senior managers by 18%, freezing the pay of Executive Directors and members of the BBC Direction Group and an indefinite suspension of bonuses for all Executive Directors and members of the BBC Direction Group.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/october/management_pay.shtml
http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=1401

28 October

UK: 36 Jobs at Risk as London Lits Faces Closure
The Associated Newspapers, one of the largest UK publishers announced the closure of  its freesheet London Lits, putting 36 jobs at risk. The decision came two weeks after the London Evening Standard went free, leading to widespread speculation that London Lits would soon go out of business. Steve Auckland, managing director of Associated Newspapers, said the paper is no longer commercially viable in long term in the highly competitive market despite the paper reaching a large audience. Staff at the London Lits were shocked by the closure and they were told that Associated will try to find jobs within its titles for them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/27/london-lite-associated-newspapers

Spain: Award-winning News site is to Close
The 22-month-old, award-winning news site Soitu.es announced its closure due to unsustainable advertising revenues. Soitu.es has won two Online News Association's annual awards for general excellence for non-English news site. Faced with the expanding and increasingly competitive online market, Soitu.es struggles to attract advertisers in the current media crisis, said the founder of the site, Gumersindo Lafuente.
http://www.soitu.es/soitu/2009/10/27/actualidad/1256642105_453965.html
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-pioneering-spanish-news-site-soitu.es-bites-the-dust/

27 October

Singapore: MediaCorp Launches Convergent Newsroom
Singapore's largest media broadcaster and providers, MediaCorp announced plans to launch a convergent newsroom as a ‘one-stop shop' to distribute news across print, radio, television and online media platforms. Chitra Rajaram, director of MediaCorp NewsHub believes the convergent newsroom will show the ‘new dynamism and synergies' across the newsroom. "a new facet of reporting the news has been opened, and all of them will become conversant in more than one medium," he said.  The convergent newsroom in the MediaCorp will be the first of its kind in Asia.
http://www.abu.org.my/abu/index.cfm/elementid/56128/MediaCorp-unveils-convergent-newsroom

US: Newspaper Circulations Continue to Drop
Recent figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) show that the average daily newspaper circulations fell by more than 10% in the second and third quarters this year. The average Sunday circulation for 562 newspapers also dropped by 7.49%. Of the top 25 US newspapers, the Wall Street journal was the only one to increase, gaining 0.61% to 2.02 million copies (despite the fact that it begun charging for online contents in May) and became the largest US newspaper by weekday circulation taking the lead from USA Today. Rick Edmonds, a US media business analyst said the drop in newspaper circulations reflects the impact of the economic crisis on the media industry and the transitional changes from print to online media.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gSD-ZvZJf7wiZ6L_avmPy1OQSMQQ

23 October

UK: News Aggregator Faces Legal Threats for Linking
News aggregator News Now may face legal actions for linking stories from newspapers. A group of UK newspapers warned the news aggregator News Now of  legal actions for linking their news content for commercial use. Some of the publishers demanded compensation  from the site .  Stuart Barlett, the managing director of News Now published an open letter to the newspaper groups (including The Times, The Sun, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Express) asking them to drop the legal threats. He defended that the site, saying it is operating ‘within the law' and does no harm to anyone.
http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/536219.php

US:
- Circulation Revenue Takes the Lead at NYT  
The changing media landscape has made the media industry rethink the traditional business model which heavily relies on revenue generated from advertising as, for the first time, the New York Times (NYT) recorded a higher growth in circulation revenue than the ad revenue. The Times reported its third quarter earnings today and its circulation revenue increased by 6% to $175 million while its ad revenue plummeted by 27 % to just $164 million. This is a drastic change of revenue ratio and it may point to a new model for the news industry as many news organisations adopted a paid-content model online.
http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/circulation_surpasses_ad_reven.php

- Journalists Are Ready to Go Digital and Bring Hope for the Profession
In a survey conducted by the Media Management Centre, it shows that US journalists are eager to go digital. Almost half of the journalists surveyed (3,800 journalists in the survey) think that their newsroom's transition from print to digital is moving too slowly. The survey also shows a positive outlook of the US journalists as the vast majority of them said they were satisfied with their jobs and believed that they would still be in the news business in two years time.
http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/research/lifebeyondprint.asp

22 October
Canada: Public Broadcaster Rebrands to Compete with Rivals
In response to the increasingly competitive media market, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is to rebrand its news channel CBS Newsworld to a round-the-clock news channel called CBC Network News (CBC NN). The rebranded news channel will feature more breaking news and business and consumers news to cater for young audiences and on-the-go viewers. CBC NN will also introduce a multiplatform assignment desk to provide radio, TV and online news to younger consumers simultaneously. Faced with the changing media landscape and increasing competition from global media outlets, the CBC and the Canadian private broadcasters are lobbying Ottawa for bailout funds and regulatory relief to maintain local TV stations news operations.
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCATRE59L03G20091022

UK: ITV to Cut 18 Jobs in ‘Tonight' Show
ITV announced plans to cut 18 jobs in the current affair news show Tonight as another cost-saving measure. Staff affected in the Tonight show felt ‘decimated' and ‘demoralised' after they have learned their fate. The editor and deputy editor of Tonight show will also go, leaving a team of only three producers and three assistant producers for the production. It is expected that ITV will work more closely with its news supplier ITN and regional news team to maintain the quality of the show.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/21/tonight-itv-18-job-cuts

21 October

UK: Birmingham Post Goes Weekly, Resulting 82 Job Losses 
Trinity Mirror , the UK media group which plans to close nine newspapers across the midlands announced  yesterday that the Birmingham Post will go weekly from 12 November. The decision followed a lengthy consultation process. About 82 jobs are under threat with 40 journalistic redundancies from the Post and 42 redundancies from the transport, distribution and newspaper sales departments. Both editors, Marc Reeves and Steve Dyson, will be leaving the Post. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is shocked at the ‘savage cuts', saying the editorial job losses were worse than anticipated.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/oct/20/trinity-mirror-birmingham-mail
NUJ's response: http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=1380

20th October

UK: BBC Recruiting Social Media Editor

As social media has become part of the news-gathering process, news organisations are recruiting journalists who have expertise in technology and social media as a response to the changing media landscape. The BBC is establishing a new post of 'social media editor' to 'help the organisation to learn how to explore and navigate in social media'. Nic Newman, the BBC's future media and technology controller said, 'We recognise social media plays an important part . the decision to appoint a social media editor is the best way to understand what works.' Last spring, Skype news appointed its 'Twitter correspondent' and ITV also appointed a social media and online engagement manager.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/oct/19/bbb-creates-social-media-editor

US:
- NYT to Cut 100 Jobs

The New York Times announced its plan to cut 100 jobs by the end of this year. The Times will offer voluntary buyouts at first and resort to layoffs if it cannot reach its 8% cut by the end of this year. The Times already trimmed 100 jobs last year but the continuous drop in advertising revenue has forced the Times to have further cuts in its news operations. Bill Keller, the executive editor of the Times said, 'Like you, I yearn for the day when we can do our job without looking over our shoulders for economic thunderstorms'. He added that the cut will certainly add to the burdens and responsibilities of existing journalists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/business/media/20times.html

- Report Urges to 'Preserve Independent, Original & Credible Reporting'

In a report co-authored by the Washington Post's former executive editor, Len Downie and Michael Schudson, a professor of Columbia University Journalism School urged the US federal government, non-profit organisations and civil society to work together to 'preserve independent, original and credible reporting'. The report warned that independent reporting that provides information, investigation, analysis and community knowledge are under threat. It also stressed that the focus for media professions and civil society is to find 'workable alternatives' as the means of reporting are being re-invented. Alan Rusbridger, editor of Guardian said there is an emerging collaborative journalism and the future of newspapers is 'mutualised'.
http://www.cjr.org/reconstruction/the_reconstruction_of_american.php
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5icYJGk3hGr1wKGMk77yih8Qxb0ZwD9BEFAAG0

19 October

The Netherlands: Dutch Journalism Students Become De Volkskrant's Fact-Checkers

De Volkskrant, the large Dutch newspaper launched an innovative programme with Tilburg School of Journalism to invite journalism students to do  " fact-checking " . In a single day, the four journalism students found around 80% of the stories checked contained some form of factual mistake. Journalists are making more mistakes than ever before as they have less time to do fact-checking. Monique Hamers, a mass communication professor at Tilburg School of Journalism, said 'journalism organisations are cutting down on staff and some of the first employees to leave the building are fact checkers.' She hopes the programme will make media organisations realised that creating an internal fact checking system would be much easier than they think.
http://www.cjr.org/regret_the_error/meet_the_tilburg_checkers.php

UK: National Newspaper Circulations Keep Dropping
UK national newspaper circulations recorded a further drop in September this year, according to the figures published by ABC. The Independent experienced the greatest drop at 15.6% after it had increased its price at £1 a copy. The Times and the Guardian also saw a sharp drop of 10.43 and 9.73 respectively. The Daily Star is the only UK daily which experienced a rise of 18.06% in the difficult time. The Sunday paper, Daily Star Sunday also experienced a mild increase of 0.61 while the rest of the UK Sunday papers experienced a drop in circulations.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44481&c=1

16 October

UK: YouTube to Stream Channel 4 for Free
As internet TV and online videos become more and more popular, Channel 4 announced its partnership with YouTube to stream its TV shows free by early 2010. Andy Duncan, the Channel 4 chief executive said the partnership will ‘financially benefit both Channel 4 and our [sic] independent production partners and help bolster our [sic] investment in quality British content'. Under the partnership, Channel 4 will share the advertising revenues with YouTube ‘on an agreed formula'. Channel 4 expects to make its programmes directly accessible to YouTube's 20 million UK users and exploit the rapidly expanding online advertising market.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/15/youtube-channel-4-google-deal

15 October

Australia: ABC Content Will Remain Free
As many news organisations start charging readers for their online news content, the Australian national news service ABC announced that its content will remain free to its audiences. Mark Scott, the managing director of ABC spoke against the paid-content model at the annual AN Smith Memorial Lecture in Journalism in Melbourne. He said, ‘A fully paid online content model for media organisations is doomed to fail and the ABC will not bow to pressure from commercial media outlets to go down this path.'
http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2009/10/abc_content_will_always_remain_free.php

Germany: Advertising Spending in Traditional Media Continues to Fall
The recent figures on advertising expenditure in Germany show a gloomy picture of traditional media orgainsations. The figures published by Nielsen showed that advertising spending in traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and television in Germany fell by 2.4% in the first nine months of this year to €14.3 billion. However, online media experienced a surge of revenue from advertising. It has recorded a 16.8% increase in online revenue to a total of €1.1bn.
http://www.warc.com/news/topnews.asp?ID=25814

Global: Facts are Free, but Comments are Sacred?
In a rapidly changing media landscape, commentary is more sacred when news is available to readers at no costs. The global media giant, Thomson Reuters struck a deal with the online financial commentary site, Breakingviews.com at a huge price tag of £13m and broke the traditional belief that ‘comment is free but facts are sacred'. News organisations have been turning their attention to the value of commentary and the potential to charge for it. The acquisition of Breakingnews.com will fulfill Reuters' ambition to build a global commentary service. David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Reuters said, ‘We expect the combined talent and editorial strength of the enlarged team to enable us to become the world's premier financial commentary service.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/14/thomson-reuters-breakingviews 

14 October

Germany: First ‘Personalised' Newspaper in Europe
The first  "Personal News" in Europe will be launched in Germany on 16 November. The paper called ‘Niiu' will include news from major German papers such as Handelsblatt, Bild and Tagesspiegel, foreign titles such as the Herald Tribune and the New York Times, as well as major blogs and Internet news sources. The paper will be in both English and German. Customers can choose the length of their customised paper from only 8 pages to 60 pages per daily. Its target audiences will mainly be students as it offers students a much lower price of €1.20 per day  (while ordinary customers have to pay €1.80). The two young German entrepreneurs who introduced the personalised newspaper are optimistic about the business model as they expect that advertising revenue can be generated from the targeted young audiences. However, they also acknowledged that this would be ‘a risky venture' when traditional media are suffering fierce competition online.  
http://www.niiu.de/ 
http://www.kress.de/cont/story.php?id=130776

US: NYT Cancels Newspapers and Magazines Subscriptions to Cut Costs
In time of crisis, any cost-saving measure counts. In a recent memo from the New York Times (NYT) to its staff, it candidly told the staff that the company is getting ‘tight'. As a cost-cutting measure, the NYT cancelled all newspapers and magazines subscriptions to its staff. Staffs at the NYT were informed that they have to pay for their own newspapers or magazines even if they buy them for checking out their rivals. The NYT also suggested staff share their newspapers and magazines and put them to the ‘share and share alike' system.
http://www.observer.com/2009/media/times-metro-desk-cancels-all-newspaper-magazine-subscriptions

13 October

Germany: No More Free Newspapers
The era of free newspapers in Germany has ended with the announcement of the closure of the last German free newspaper, SZ Primetime. The A4-sized afternoon paper was launched in January 2007 with a circulation of 13, 000. It is owned by the German newspaper  publisher  Süddeutsche Zeitung. Free newspapers were first launched in Germany in 1997. Since then, many have been closed, including die Sportzeitung, Business News, FTD Kompakt, etc.  

http://www.newspaperinnovation.com/index.php/2009/10/12/last-german-free-daily-closed/ 

UK:  Guardian to Recruit Bloggers and Citizen Journalists for Community News
After much discussion and experiment of the hyperlocal news model (see MCJ on 5 Oct), the Guardian announced plans to launch its community websites early next year as an experimental project starting in Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh. The community websites will mainly be run by bloggers and citizen journalists. Emily Bell, the director of digital development at Guardian News & Media, said she was impressed by the range and depth of coverage from local websites and blogs; and this experimental project ‘reflects both the shifting nature of journalism and the reality on the ground'. The launch of community news websites is also expected  to turn the trend of declining local news and to restore public scrutiny on corruption in public institutions by keeping up local coverage.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/oct/12/guardian-local-news-bloggers-emily-bell

12 October

China: Beijing Holds a Three-day "Win-Win" World Media Summit
Beijing held a three-day (8 - 10 Oct) World Media Summit, gathering over 170 media organisations from over 70 countries. Participants included some of the media giants like News Corporations, Google, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Turner Broadcasting System, ITAR-TASS Kyodo and Associated Press (AP). They also made a joint statement with the biggest state-owned agency in China, Xinhua News Agency, to urge media outlets to provide ‘accurate, objective, impartial and fair' coverage of news events. The Chinese President Hu Jintao addressed the opening ceremony and highlighted the theme of the summit on ‘Cooperation, Action, Win-Win and Development'. The summit also discussed challenges and opportunities in the current changing media landscape around the world.
Source: http://www.worldmediasummit.org/
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/china-unveils-its-global-media-ambitions-20091011-gs41.html

South America: Brazilian Newspapers Celebrate Their Booms
While newspapers across Europe and the US are struggling to maintain readership, Brazilian newspapers are experiencing the biggest boom ever. According to the Instituto Verificador de Circulacao, the total circulation of Brazilian newspapers rose 12% in 2007 compared to a worldwide average rise of 2.7%. There are more people in Brazil reading newspapers than ever before. Brazilian newspapers have enjoyed rising advertising revenue every year since 2001. The boom of Brazilian newspapers is due to the rapid growth of the country's economy. Marcelo Salomon, the chief Brazilian economist at Barclays Capital in Sao Paulo, explained, ‘There's a new, emerging group in Brazil with much more consumption power than in the past and a great deal of pent-up demand.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/12/brazil-newspapers-circulation

9 October

Netherlands: De Telegraaf to Close its Sunday Edition
The Dutch newspaper group Telegraaf Media Group (TMG) announced the closure of its Sunday edition due to drop of advertising revenue. De Telegraaf, the Dutch daily morning newspapers with the highest circulation in the Netherlands will stop the publication of the Telegraaf op Zondag at the end of the year.  
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/5030037/__De_Telegraaf_stopt_met_zondagkrant__.html
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2009/10/hollands_only_sunday_paper_to.php

Europe: EAO Casts Doubt over the Future of the Burgeoning News Channels
André Lange, the head of markets and financing at the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) warns that some of the European TV news channels will ‘go bust in the next few years'. Recent statistics published by the EAO show the doubling of TV news channels in the past five years with 162 national and international news channels. However, faced with the growing popularity of the Internet, the Internet advertising is starting to overtake TV advertising (see the case in the UK in previous MCJ). As a result, TV industry will be competing head-on with newspapers on the Internet.  
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/tv-news-channels-explode-in-europe-but-future-unsure

8 October

Europe: Montgomery Predicts "End of Editors-in-Chief"
It was not long ago when people considered the loss of sub-editors would put an end to quality journalism. But what's left for the future of journalism if even the editors-in-chief are dropped? David Montgomery, the CEO of the Pan-European newspaper group, Mecom, indicated that he would get rid of the editors-in-chief and replaces them with ‘content directors'. Speaking in the AOP Publishing Summit 2009, Montgomery , the former editor for the Sun, the Daily Mirror, the News of the Word and  Today said, ‘ A couple of years ago I said sub-editors were going to go out of business. But now I'm saying that editors-in-chief are going to go out of business...I see very shortly that editors-in-chief will be replaced by content directors...' Early this year, Montgomery already announced that the traditional newspaper model was ‘bankrupt, unviable, and finished'. His corporation reported a 75% fall in operating profits in the first six months of 2009 and a cost savings target for €100m is set for the year. In January, it already sold its German titles, as well as some of its Norwegian papers in February.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44447&c=1
http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/536061.php

Ireland: 17 Journalists Face Redundancies as INN Faces Closure
The Irish-based radio news service, Independent Network News (INN), will be closed on 30^th October and 17 journalists will lose their jobs. Journalists made redundant by the INN will only receive a minimum payment under Ireland's redundancy laws. In response to the announcement, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) expressed its ‘shock and anger'.  Séamus Dooley, the Irish Secretary said that the announcement was handled in a ‘disgraceful manner'. He said the closure of INN would have ‘serious implications for media diversity and competition within the independent commercial radio sector'. The NUJ initiated an online petition to seek alternative options to closure and ways of savings jobs. 
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1001/breaking48.html?via=mr
Join the petition: http://www.nujcampaigns.org.uk/cgi-bin/show_campaign.cgi?c=7

 6 October

UK:
- The Times and Sunday Times Launch Membership Scheme
Following Rupert Murdoch's plan to charge for online content, the Times and Sunday Times launched a membership scheme called ‘Times +' at an annual fee of £50 offering readers special offers and access to exclusive events. The scheme seeks to retain customer ‘loyalty' and open another revenue stream for the corporations apart from paid-online content. It is expected that other publications will soon follow suit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/05/times-sunday-times-membership-scheme

- NUJ Campaign - Fighting Job cuts in the Publishing Industry
Faced with the media crisis, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in London is organizing a two-day job summit for the publishing industry as part of a union-wide campaign against job cuts. The campaign aims at helping colleagues in the magazines and books industries who face redundancies by providing them with a practical guide to deal with cuts collectively in their work place. The summit will take place at the NUJ headquarters, on Saturday 10 October from 11.30 am.
http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=1354

US: Magazines Publishers Discuss Joint Venture with Time Inc for Digital Newsstand
The magazines industry in the US is finding new way to make money online by starting a joint venture with the media conglomerate Time Inc. The US magazines publishers are in talks with Time Inc to discuss the possibility of starting a joint venture launching a digital newsstand to deliver their titles to mobile devices and electronic book readers, Reuter UK reported. Users of the digital devices could buy subscriptions on a monthly or annual basis through a digital newsstand. This joint venture would provide a better deal to publishers as they can set their own terms for dealing with their readers. Currently newspaper publishers have to give away 70% of the subscription revenue to Amazon for periodicals sold to the Kindle users.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE59207320091003?sp=true 

5 October

Czech Republic: Media MacDonald's, the Future Newsroom?
As the media industry struggles to find solutions to the changing media landscape, a two-day (1 - 2 Oct) World Editor Forum Conference held in the Czech Republic came up with some ‘high quality standards and low cost solutions'. One of these solutions is ‘Media MacDonald's', where newsrooms become ‘Starbucks-style news cafes' based in local communities and , journalists act as ‘community managers', ‘trainers' or ‘coaches' managing news content provided by local communities and "citizen" journalists. Thirteen weeks after the launch of the Media MacDonald's in Czech Republic, the circulation of the paid-for weekly newspaper keeps growing. Bertrand Pecquerie, Director of the World Editors Forum expects the launch a year-long  rollout of 220 weeklies, 89 news cafes and 700 websites. http://www.2015newsroom.com/opening/en/index.html
http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2009/10/journalists_become_trainers_coaches_for.php

China to Build its Media Empire
As the country's economy is blooming, China sets its vision to build the next media empire by pouring billions of dollars in the next few years, according to the plan revealed by China's State Council. The plan will loosen the rules on foreign investment (though foreign companies are still under the state scrutiny in a partnership regime with state-owned media companies) and allows Chinese media companies to be listed in the stock market. Recently, China has been updating its state-run news media, increasing foreign language publications, wire services and television programmes to reach overseas audiences. The Shanghai Media Group (SMG), one of the country's biggest state-run news and media conglomerates, just recorded around $1 billion in revenue and $100 million in profit last year. The plan to boost the media industry will further benefit SMG with an injection of $1.5 billion from China Development Bank and the government policy bank will become a partner with SMG on a separate $735 million private equity fund.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/business/global/05yuan.html?_r=2&ref=media

United Arab Emirates: ARN Expects Stronger Growth in 2009
While media organisations in the West are struggling to survive, the Dubai-based Arabian Radio Network (ARN) is expecting stronger revenue growth in 2009. Steven Smith, the chief operating officer at ARN said, ‘Ad revenue has been really good...Still, we are going to be up on 2008 for the year.' The ARN is the largest group of radio stations in the UAE which caters to three major regions including Arab, the West and Asia.
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/

2 October

UK: London Evening Standard: First Broadsheet to Become Freesheet
The London Evening Standard today announced that it will be the first  " quality newspaper"  in the world to become a freesheet. The announcement was a ‘historic moment' ending its 182-year history of a paid-for title, said Geordie Greig, editor of the Standard. The decision causes fear of job losses. However, Alexander Lebedev, the Russian billionaire and the owner of the paper said that the editorial quality of the paper will not be compromised. He said, ‘I want to invest in newspapers in general...the Standard has been producing exceptional journalism since 1872 and that is not going to change under my ownership'. Further, the switch is expected to double the circulation from around 250,000 to more than 600,000.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=44419&c=1

US: The Washington Post Partners with Bloomberg
The Washington Post announced that it will launch a global service with Bloomberg in January 2010. The service called ‘the Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News' will offer news organisations a selection of 120 stories including photos and graphics. The Post's entire news content will also be available to subscribers to the Bloomberg Professional service over Bloomberg terminal.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004017985

1^st October

US: Tax-break Plan  for Press Buildings Adopted  in Wisconsin 
After a series of debates and speculations on the future of newspapers (see MCJ on 22 & 24 Sept), a tax-break plan has finally been adopted by the US state of Wisconsin. According to the plan, any building associated with a news publication will be exempted from property taxes. However, the scale of the plan is criticised as ‘too little, too late' to save many of the newspapers, which either have closed down or merged. Currently, only the printed press can benefit from the tax-break plan. Other media organizations are still struggling because of the crisis.
http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2009/09/proposed_tax_breaks_for_newspapers_in_wi.php

UK: Survey Shows 70% Digital Publishers Will Charge for Online Content
Since the News Corporations announced the plan to charge online news content in August this year, more online news publishers are adopting the pay-content model. The annual survey by the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) shows that about 70% of digital publishers in the newspapers, magazines and TV industries will charge for online content. This marks a major shift when comparing to the survey results in 2007, where only 48% news organisations considered online charge. The increasingly easy access of mobile internet is considered to be the driving force as 69% of publishers think mobile phone will become the most important distribution channel for news.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/01/aop-digital-publishing-charging-for-content