Thursday, July 31, 2014

The New York Times still a model?

The results of the N Y Times for the second quarter were a cold shower on the hopes of the US media community. In his blog for Nieman Lab, Ken Doctor wonders whether the continuing decline of print ads, 4% less and the slowing increase of digital subscribers, 32000, mean that the Grey Lady is not succeeding its challenge.

If it were so, it would be a very bad signal for the European and American newspapers which have been following very closely the NYT strategy.

The big question is whether it will be possible one day to finance a large and efficient newsroom with a mostly digital income. To day, we get conflicting signals. On the positive side, it seems that more and more people get used to paywalls and digital subscriptions. On the negative side, there is a mssive transfer of the readership from computers to mobile devices, mainly smartphones where ads and easy reading are not easy to get. And also, there is in both Europe and the US a sharp fall of print advertising while big digital supports like Google or Facebook  dominate more and more the market. Presently, Google absorbs 30% of digital advertising in the world and print media cannot compete.

Now, advertising makes hardly 35% of the NYT income. 10 years ago, it was twice as much. Same thing with European newspapers. The safe financing of good information remains in doubt.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Does big money saves the press?

Patrick Drahi, the franco-israelian tycoon has decided to invest 20 millions euros in the ailing French daily Libération. For the newspaper newsroom it meant a narrow escape from a coming death. Libération is saved, at least for a while.

Does it mean that Drahi is a good willing benefactor, eager to save the voice of a center left opinion maker? Things look a bit different when watched more closely. The businessman, when he bought SFR, the second French telecom operator, was accused by several socialist politicians and notably, Arnaud Montebourg, of not beeing fully atuned to French interests. It was widely observed that he doesn't live in France but in Switzerland where he enjoys a privileged fiscal statute. Instead of transfering his fiscal home to Paris as suggested by Montebourg, he prefered to fill his civic duties by helping progovernment Libération. A good political investment, very cheap if compared to the huge SFR bill.

What is striking is that, in France, there are no huge media groups, the size of Springer or Schibsted. However, there are a lot of wealthy businessmen who have bought into newspapers, hoping probably to gain some influence in the tiny parisian establishment. They don't look for a broad international strategy, there is no Murdoch or Dopfner or Ringier among them. They are happy with their small property, on the margins of their main activities.

Should we blame Serge Dassault for buying le Figaro, Bernard Arnaud for les Echos, Xavier Niel for le Monde and Nouvel Observateur? Shall we blame Vincent Bolloré if he intends, one day, to enter the print world? No, in their own ways, they save newspapers in trouble. And yet, one wish they were more ambitious, and a bit younger.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Digital local news. Is there a hope?

I have often mentioned in this blog, the difficult challenge of local news trying to find some room in the new digital world.

On Gigaom website, Matew Ingram evokes the thankless task of the pioneers who have tried and failed to develop hyperlocal websites. A former journalist from the Washington Post, Jim Brady, is starting a new project brother.ly, set in Philadelphia and supported by a community of local bloggers able to inform about what is happening in their close surroundings.

Several other projects are launched in various parts of the US, all of them based on the contribution of bloggers who want to provide useful informations on their small community. It is worth noting that all large industrial projects of networks of local news sites have failed dismally.

It gives food for thought for the large regional newspapers that dominate the French scene. They were highly profitable when print advertising was triumphant and brought safe incomes. Now, this resource is fading away and their organization, heavy and costly fails to match the dwindling revenues from ads and sales. It seems that for local and hyperlocal information, small only is beautiful. The next ten years will bring a revolution to the European and American regional press.