The Motley Fool says it hears the death rattle for McClatchy Company stock.
“Don’t assume that all such companies are goners. Some will barely cling to life, while others will make a full recovery. Sure it happens, but here we’re seeking companies that have all but given up the ghost.”
Forty-eight percent of regular Internet users in the United States say they would pay for online news content, fewer than in other countries. The U.S. number tied with Britain for the lowest figure among nine countries where Boston Consulting commissioned surveys, says The New York Times.
In several Western European countries, more than 60 percent said they would pay.
Americans who would pay say on average they’d pony up $3 a month for online news, also the lowest figure in the study.
“The question is of crucial interest to the American newspaper industry, which is weighing whether and how to put toll gates on its Web sites, to make up for plummeting print advertising,” The Times says.
After an article Sunday that said several general interest magazines have gained strength toward year’s end, The New York Times on Wednesday showed numbers that say most Conde Nast publications aren’t among that group.
The firm posted a 31.6 percent drop in ad revenue from last year, The Times says. “The worst hit were Architectural Digest, where ad pages fell 49.9 percent; W, where ad pages fell 46 percent; and Condé Nast Traveler, where pages fell 41.1 percent. Details and Wired both fell about 39 percent.”
Glamour’s lineage for December was up 6.6 percent, and Traveler and Lucky fell by “only” 5.4 and 8.8 percent, respectively, from last December’s issue, “but others were hard hit in the December issue.”
The McClatchy Co.’s newspaper sites are notifying registered users of a service agreement change that hints at coming charges for content.
McClatchy Watch posted an item about the e-mail and the vague language in the Terms of Service at the publisher’s sites on Tuesday, and Editor & Publisher’s Fitz & Jen blog took a look at it Wednesday.
Says Fitz & Jen: “Christian Hendricks, McClatchy’s vice president of interactive media, cautioned not to read too much into it. The notifications went out with such language so they don’t have to keep pinging readers about service updates. McClatchy, he said, has not made any decisions on whether to charge for content (or some content.) ‘Nothing is imminent. We are studying it like everybody else.’”
The new pertinent language, as spelled out on Raleigh’s newsobserver.com under Cost says, “From time to time, and at NewsObserver.com’s sole discretion, there may be certain content available via subscription or surcharge, and such content will be clearly marked.” The site adds, “Note that currently most news articles remain available for 30 days in the pages of NewsObserver.com. The News & Observer’s electronic archives may carry a fee per full-text article downloaded.”
Several general interest magazines “have more ad pages in December 2009 than a year ago. Some magazines even ended the year with an overall increase in ad pages,” the New York Times said Sunday.
The Times says that InStyle, Glamour, Real Simple, Southern Living and Cooking Light did better this December than last, and that the Des Moines-based publisher Meredith saw gains for the year at Family Circle, Fitness, Ladies’ Home Journal, Better Homes & Gardens and More magazines.
Gains are attributed to food advertising. “In the third quarter, magazine advertising in every category except food declined compared with the third quarter of last year,” the Times says, citing the Publishers Information Bureau. “Ad pages about food and food products rose by 3.9 percent.”
A Wall Street Journal analysis of newspapers’ economic woes says publishers need to stop relying on cost cuts and year-to-year comparisons and instead “they need to show some real ad-revenue gains soon.”
“The reality is that newspapers are suffering severe declines in ad revenue this year on top of the double-digit percentage declines they suffered last year.
“Compared with the first half of 2009, their recent performance doesn’t appear to be getting much worse, but it has yet to show any real recovery.”
“… Mike Simonton, analyst with Fitch Ratings, said that while newspaper ad declines are ‘relentless,’ the circulation data suggest that ‘even more stable revenue streams are becoming vulnerable’ and that ‘it’s possible that newspapers are cutting costs to a level that accelerates the departure of their audiences towards other outlets.’
“Meanwhile, newspaper publishers that succeeded in postponing heavy debt maturities earlier this year — like Gannett, New York Times and McClatchy — will still face steep maturities in the years to come,” the newspaper says.
We were thinking about putting together a roundup of the discussion of pay walls at online news sites, and found that Alan D. Mutter, at Reflections of a Newsosaur, has already done it better.
“Despite determined statements by several publishers earlier this year that they intended to make consumers pay for the valuable content newspapers have given away for more than a decade, the managers of some newspapers have come to realize that they can’t afford to lose the traffic that pay walls almost certainly would turn away,” he writes.
“So, the executives are scrapping plans to charge for most, if any, of their content.”
Update: MediaNews Group plans to put up pay walls at two of its newspapers in early 2010, but with only some content requiring a fee, Editor & Publisher says. The changes will take place at the Enterprise-Record in Chico, Ca., and the York (Pa.) Daily Record, and may occur later at other company sites – such as The Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News.
McClatchy’s Miami Herald is looking for more exposure for its online advertising through partnerships with independent news sites springing up in the wake of industry layoffs.
A report from the South Florida Business Journal about laid-off reporters who have started their own online publications says the newspaper has cut deals with “about five” local sites. The Herald will link to the sites, “including Miami’s Community Newspapers chain and the River Cities Gazette in Miami-Dade County” — both of which are decades old – in exchange for the opportunity to sell ads on them, Rick Hirsch, the newspaper’s multimedia editor said.
Currently, The Herald’s “Partners” page links to a handful of local TV and radio station sites listed as media partners in addition to other McClatchy sites and international papers.
The SFBJ report is about a Society of Professional Journalists panel discussion among now-independent journalists/entrepreneurs — including former Herald investigative reporter Dan Christensen, who publishes the not-for-profit Broward Bulldog investigative reporting Web site — about finding money to launch their new careers.
The Newspaper Association of America says that, on average, newspaper Web sites attracted more than 74 million monthly unique visitors in the third quarter of 2009, more than one-third (38 percent) of all Internet users. This translates into more than 3.5 billion page views during the quarter, and 2.7 billion minutes spent browsing the sites during more than 596 million total sessions.
The figures come from a custom analysis provided by Nielsen Online.
The NAA also says newspaper companies have been able to command higher newsstand and home-delivery prices for print editions, while subscriber “churn” – the rate of subscribers canceling – has fallen dramatically to 31.8 percent in 2008, compared with 54.5 percent in 2000.
Though it applauds subscription and newsstand sales, Thursday’s NAA report does not explain how to make the online readership pay. Unless we missed it:
“Newspaper publishers continue to aggressively reinvent their business models, leveraging trusted brands to attract a growing and sophisticated audience in the digital space,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “At the same time, industry executives have adopted smarter circulation strategies that are growing circulation revenues even though paid circulation numbers are lower. This places the focus where it belongs: retaining core readers who deliver maximum value to advertisers while harnessing digital platforms to broaden our medium’s audience and position us strongly for the future.”
Maybe in the future.
Political advertising in 2010 is projected in a Wells Fargo report to increase by 11 percent over 2008, with TV and direct mail getting nearly nine out of every 10 dollars spent, according to Editor & Publisher.
Next year brings us the election of 37 governors, 38 senators, every member of the House of Representatives, and issue advertising (which could approach $1 billion) on hot-button issues such as health care.
“Broadcast TV will reap the lion’s share at $2.2 billion or 67 percent of the total, with $2 billion going to local TV, $150 million to cable and $50 million to network TV,” E&P says. “Direct mail will get $650 million or 20 percent of the ad spend, followed by radio at $250 million or 8 percent, and newspaper at $95 million or 3 percent. Outdoor and the Internet are forecast to reach $55 million and $50 million, respectively.”
At least one newspaper publisher has attributed part of its 3Q ad revenue decline to “the absence of Olympic [that's TV advertising] and political ads that fattened results a year ago.”