contentSutra news watch | Magazines

Comparing The New Aggregators, Part 2

2011-11-29T21:00:34Z

As tablets become more of a increasingly popular household fixture, the companies that package content for the devices continue make their own upgrades. Flipboard, often seen as the top dog among news aggregation apps, recently added an iPhone app, multiple accounts and larger social media footprint. Meantime, some new apps have rolled out or gained momentum, including Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Livestand, News Republic, NewsMix and News360. They’re going up against players like Zite, Pulse, Ongo and Float. Here’s an update to our chart from September that includes all the latest changes from the new-style news aggregators.

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paidContent Advertising Video: Flipboard's McCue Wants To Paginate The Web

2011-09-28T11:00:04Z

One of iPad’s flagship apps wants to help publishers sell ads by flipping back to familiar old print rules. “One of the big problems with the web is that it scrolls,” Flipboard CEO Mike McCue told our recent paidContent Advertising conference.

» Watch the video of McCue’s Q&A with paidContent UK Editor Robert Andrews, embedded below. Full coverage of the conference is available in our archives.

“When something scrolls, you can’t put a full-page ad there,” McCue said. “We want to create a paginated experience. That allows for full-page, print-style ads.

“The web, as wonderful as it is, is not able to render content beautifully, the monetization model has been challenging, it’s not a good experience for readers. Print is flat; it doesn’t move - there’s a lot of good things about that.

“Don’t have infinite inventory,” McCue told advertisers in the audience. “There should be scarcity to the inventory. Sell to the people who are buying print ads from you.”

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Comparing The New Aggregators: Flipboard, Pulse, Zite, Float And More

2011-09-21T18:53:17Z

From Flipboard and Aol Editions, to Ongo and News.me, the rise of tablets and apps is changing how we gather and consume content. A couple of apps have grabbed the headlines in recent months. Flipboard has closed over $60 million in funding and has a $200 million valuation. More recently, Zite was snapped up by CNN. Even Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is jumping on this bandwagon, based on reports of Google Propeller designed so Android and iOS users can curate content.

But is there a business in new-style aggregation?

Probably not for all of these or many of the versions we have yet to see. But the blend of style with the right devices and the right business model offers a decent foundation. Flipboard CEO Mike McCue thinks his company can do it with advertising revenue and, for now, all within Apple’s operating system. The Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) Co.‘s Trove is banking on mixing advertising revenue with being completely cross platform. Others, like News.me and Ongo are counting on a blend of subscription fees and advertising. What they all have going for them: a plethora of information and sources and, thanks to HTML5 and other innovations, formats that are far more pleasing to use than the batches of linked headlines that keep some away from RSS. It also helps that they have consumer-friendly names, some more so than others, and an easy threshold for use.

For consumers, there are now so many of these next-generation RSS readers that it can be daunting to keep them straight. But they have distinct differences. Some curate content with an algorithm, while others use a team of editors. Some have made partnerships with publishers, while some are charging ahead without them. And there are other differences too, in areas like customization, sharing and price. To see how some of the new aggregators stack up, check out our chart below.

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BBC Bows Out Of Print For £121 Million, Sells Magazine Business To Exponent

2011-08-16T15:10:27Z

Finally, closure on the long-running question of what would happen to the BBC‘s magazine business, the biggest publisher of subscription magazines in the UK: commercial division BBC Worldwide has agreed on a multi-faceted sale of its assets, covering 34 magazine titles, to the private equity group Exponent. BBCWW has also agreed to sell its 50-percent stake in its publishing JV in India, Worldwide Media, to another shareholder—Bennett, Coleman and Co., owner of the Times of India. The total value of these transactions is £121 million ($198 million).

Exponent already controls several other businesses in the media world, including PR services firm Gorkana, the parenting/motorcycle/outdoor publishers Magicalia, and graduate recruitment publisher gti. It also used to control the Times Educational Supplement. It also has a wide range of other holdings that are quite some distance from publishing—including the Ambassador Theatre Group, Quorn meat substitute and high-end bag and luggage company Radley.

Talks between the BBC and Exponent were first reported back in April of this year.

There are a few layers to the deal reached today:

» Non-BBC branded magazines. These include the oldest of them all (first published in 1923), Radio Times, as well as Olive and Gardens Illustrated. Exponent will be acquiring these in full.

» Magazines aligned to BBC shows. These include titles like Gardeners’ World and BBC Wildlife. Exponent gets full rights to publish these under a licensing deal. BBC says it will retain some involvement: “BBC Worldwide will create a small in-house unit to oversee the management, editorial compliance and contractual relationship between BBC Worldwide and the new company,” the company noted in the release.

» Magazines aligned to “key brands.” These include Top Gear (which is actually a TV show but has spawned a number of other ventures eg on mobile), Good Food and Lonely Planet. These are going to be retained by BBC Worldwide but published by Exponent under contract publishing arrangements.

» Dovetail and Frontline. These are respectively subscriptions fulfillment and distribution houses, and Exponent will be acquiring BBC’s stake in each of them.

» Origin. BBC is also giving full control of specialist publisher Origin to Exponent. (BBC will acquire the 60 percent it does not already own and will pass that on.)

Because the deal already got full approval the BBC Trust in July, the transaction is expected to complete this autumn, pending approval from the Office of Fair Trading.

BBC Magazines staff and operations are all getting transferred to Exponent.

Separately, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd is buying BBC Magazines’ 50% shareholding in Indian joint venture Worldwide Media Ltd.

BBC notes that in the last set of ABC (NYSE: DIS) results from July-December 2010, the circulation of its titles grew by 0.5 percent (which it says is a “best-in-class” figure), with total annual sales now at nearly 85 million copies, with licensed editions of the magazines being published in 60 different markets.

The Latest 'State Of Digital Media' Report Shines Spotlight On Social Media

2010-01-06T19:09:23Z

If 2009 in the digital-media world needed a title, you could argue it would likely be something to the effect of: “Social media goes mainstream.” Indeed, it’s no secret that social media is a huge force these days, but big questions remain about how companies – even the biggest, buzziest players – are going to make money. ContentNext, Media Industry Newsletter and The Jordan, Edmiston Group have co-produced a new report that helps shed light on that debate. The report, six months in the making, not only chronicles all the deal activity in social media over the last 18 months, but also includes:

* Profiles of a select group of digital brands, including how they’re faring and their strategies and likely challenges moving ahead

* A points-of-view section featuring contributions from thought leaders like Samir Arora (Glam Media), and Mitchell Berman (ZillionTV) and Domenic Venuto (Razorfish)

* Deep analysis of traffic metrics

The 200-plus-page book, available in either print or digital versions, is the second annual “State of Digital Media” report.

Visit our reports page to read the full report.

How Your Favourite Newspapers And Magazines Fared In The Readership Survey

2009-11-25T10:40:31Z

The results of the latest round of Indian Readership Survey is out and here’s a compilation of how some of the most popular English newspapers and magazines fared. All figures in this story are all-India average issue readership.

Of the 25 English newspapers covered by this round, 12 registered an increase in readership, three remained static, nine registered a drop and one could not be compared as it wasn’t covered during the previous round.

Three newspapers—The New Indian Express (11.26%), The Tribune (15.73%), The Hitavada (13.49%)—enjoyed double digit percentage growth in readership while only Mid-Day (-10.02%) suffered a double-digit percentage decline in readership, apart from Metro Now (-34.93%), which has ceased to be a daily.

The Times of India, the country’s most read English daily, saw a 4.02% rise in countrywide readership and now has 7.1 million readers. The second most read daily, Hindustan Times, dropped 4.21% and now has 3.34 million readers. DNA rose 4.76% to 7.93 lakh readers. The Indian Express, currently on a high with its exclusive publication of the controversal Liberhan report, gained 3.02% and now has 2.05 lakh readers. The Hindu saw a decline of 2.95% and now has 21.69 lakh readers.

Among business dailies, The Economic Times leads the pack by a big margin with 7.57 lakh readers, down 3.32% from the previous round. Mint is the second largest business daily with 1.59 lakh readers, down 9.14% from the previous round. Business Standard, which was not covered during the previous rounds, has 1.48 lakh readers, while Hindu Business Line gained 9.73% and now has 1.24 lakh readers. The readership of The Financial Express stayed the same with 38,000 readers.

Mint’s readership decline is seen as surprising by some observers. “...the trend in Mint’s readership in Maharashtra (Mumbai, the financial capital of India) is surprising; IRS R2 2009 reports Mint’s Maharashtra AIR at a modest 15,000, a sharp drop from 25,000 readers in IRS R2 2008. We note that IRS has had issues in capturing the high-end readership of niche publications, which limits its utility,” Kotak Institutional Equities analyst Amit Kumar wrote in a report.

Here’s the complete picture for key English dailies.

Magazines

While some specialty and lifestyle magazines scored impressive gains in readership, most news and business news magazines saw a decline.

The readership of Femina Girl grew nearly ten fold from 1.03 lakh to 10.72 lakh during this round. Readership of Elle grew 135.42% to 1.13 lakh. Society (32.23%), Digit (22.07%), Auto Car (15.08%), Overdrive (19.72%) and Savvy (23.08%) were among publications that saw a double-digit percentage growth in readership. Outlook Money grew 25% and now has 1.05 lakh readers. Business and Economy gained 14.63% and now has 94,000 readers.

Among the news magazines, India Today dropped 3.94% to 18.78 lakh readers, while Outlook fell 6.75% to 4.97 lakh readers. The Week fell 4.04% to 3.09 lakh readers.

Among business mags, Business Today lost 5.92% and now has 2.7 lakh readers. Business India fell 2.7% to 2.16 lakh readers, while Business World dropped 3.64% to 1.59 lakh readers. Outlook Business grew 9.04% to 1.81 lakh readers.

Among the magazines that saw double digit percentage falls are General Knowledge Today (-93.04%), Champak (-16.06%) and New Woman (-17.39%).

Here are the complete figures for English magazines.

9.9 Media Launches CFO India, Monthly Targeted At Finance Professionals

2009-10-26T16:51:32Z

9.9 Media, the New Delhi-headquartered B2B publisher, today launched CFO India, a monthly targeted at finance professionals. The title is under a controlled circulation model right now and will be shortly available on select newsstands at Rs50, 9.9 Media co-founder and director Anuradha Das Mathur said. The magazine has about 50 pages and a print run of 5,000, Mathur said.

“There is no product or service in India that is dedicated to grooming the next generation of finance leaders. We are attempting to fill that void through a 360-degree approach that involves the CFO Institute, annual summits, bimonthly briefings, professional networks targetted at both junior and senior professionals and now this magazine. CFO India will be focussed on the Indian finance leader who increasingly has a global outlook,” Mathur said.

She added that the firm has received a healthy response from advertisers. “Anyone who is aiming to reach top management or senior professionals in finance roles, is a potential advertiser,” Mathur said.

Launched in September 2007, 9.9 Media is headed by former ABP CEO Pramath Raj Sinha and has raised funding from Helion Ventures and TVS Shriram. It publishes titles such as Skoar and Digit.

Bloomberg's Acquisition Of BusinessWeek: A Summary Of Our Coverage

2009-10-14T04:51:37Z

Bloomberg LP, which came in late into the race for the troubled BusinessWeek, has emerged the winning bidder. The magazine, BusinessWeek.com and other assets will go to Bloomberg for a reported $3-5 million in cash and liabilities.

Here’s a round up of our close coverage of the deal:

——Bloomberg Wins BusinessWeek; Pearlstine Will Be Chairman

—Interview: Bloomberg’s Pearlstine: Buying BusinessWeek Matches Need—And Desire

—BusinessWeek’s Sale To Bloomberg: A History In Links

Bloomberg Wins BusinessWeek; Pearlstine Will Be Chairman

2009-10-13T22:12:42Z

Last-minute entrant Bloomberg L.P. has won the bidding for BusinessWeek, agreeing to acquire the venerable business magazine, BusinessWeek.com and other assets from McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) for an undisclosed amount. BW puts the deal in the “$2 million to $5 million range” plus liabilities, including potential severance payments—not the $1 some joked about but the moral equivalent. Norman Pearlstine, the Time Inc. and Wall Street Journal vet who joined Bloomberg last year as chief content officer, will become chairman of BusinessWeek. Plans call for the deal to close quickly, with Dec. 1 as the target. (The full text of the Bloomberg and McGraw-Hill press releases is below.)

With the move, Bloomberg takes on BusinessWeek’s faltering financial situation, plummeting ad sales and all—and gains its resources, products, standing and valuable brand. Bloomberg’s execs expect to strengthen Bloomberg Television, using that brand and the magazine’s “world-class” journalists, and the company’s web presence; Bloomberg Chairman Peter Grauer said “the BusinessWeek.com and the Bloomberg.com web sites will have more unique visitors than any non-portal business and financial site.” (Rafat’s pre-sale take on the digital value is here.) According to BW, the sites have 20 million-plus uniques and combines revenues of $60 million.

The notion that Bloomberg will replace the BusinessWeek staff with its own has been a recurring theme since the company founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to make a run for what would be its first acquisition. But Daniel L. Doctoroff, president of Bloomberg LP, told BW: “We are not buying BusinessWeekto gut it. We are buying it to build it.” Pearlstine will be the liaison between the two staffs, with a BW publisher and editor-in-chief reporting to him. Eventually, the “Bloomberg” name will be added to the masthead.

On the surface, it may look like McGraw-Hill opted for a buyer from journalism over ZelnickMedia, which had some involvement from Thomson Reuters (NSDQ: TRIN) but is still a private equity firm. But it more likely came down to valuations—and the amount of liability a bidder was willing to assume. I haven’t heard a specific number on liability but was told to think of it in the “tens of millions.” (An earlier report showed more than $30 million in liabilities at the end of April.) But it’s hard to discount the importance to McGraw-Hill of appearing to do everything it can to ensure that the magazine founded in 1929 continues as a journalism enterprise.

BW President Keith Fox told the staff in a hastily called late-afternoon meeting tweeted by Executive Editor John Byrne that the company met with 25 prospective buyers, handled 420 due diligence requests and Bloomberg was the best possible buyer. He also said there would be no layoffs between now and the close, small solace since that may only be six weeks or so. According to details reported by the NYT during the sale process, BW said it had identified about 20 percent of its 421-person staff to be cut in 2009.

Under McGraw-Hill, BusinessWeek has been bleeding money. The magazine lost $43 million in 2008—$17 million plus $26 million in overhead and rent to McGraw-Hill, according to the sale-process memo, and is on track to lose $41 million this year. That number could be skewed by severance charges.

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BLOOMBERG AGREES TO ACQUIRE BUSINESSWEEK
Combination Will Create the Definitive Multimedia Business News Source

New York, October 13 - Bloomberg L.P., the leading provider of news and information for financial professionals, has agreed to purchase BusinessWeek, publisher of the world’s most-read business weekly, from The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“The BusinessWeek acquisition will yield huge benefits for users of the Bloomberg terminal, and for our television, online and mobile properties,” said Daniel L. Doctoroff, president of Bloomberg L.P. “We couldn’t be more excited.”

“Although Bloomberg has built one of the world’s largest news organizations with more than 2,200 journalists, our primary audience has been our 300,000 BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL® service subscribers. They rely on us for high-value, market-moving news and insightful analysis.

“BusinessWeek helps better serve our customers by reaching into the corporate suite and corridors of power in government, where news that affects markets and business is made by CEOs, CFOs, deal lawyers, bankers and government officials who typically are not terminal customers,” Doctoroff noted.

Bloomberg L.P. Chairman Peter T. Grauer said, “The acquisition of BusinessWeek will strengthen Bloomberg’s online, television and mobile products. Together, the BusinessWeek.com and the BLOOMBERG.COM®Web sites will have more unique visitors than any non-portal business and financial site. We also expect to build BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® content around the powerful BusinessWeek brand and its world-class journalists.

“Bloomberg’s universe of market makers and BusinessWeek’s readership of decision makers create a powerful audience and a unique value proposition for advertisers. The reporting and analytical resources of Bloomberg and BusinessWeek are unparalleled in their ability to
deliver timely, distinctive and credible content to an influential and highly sought-after audience,” Grauer added.

Matthew Winkler, Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News said, “BusinessWeek, with its extraordinary context and perspective on the economy and companies, presents a giant opportunity for the BLOOMBERG NEWS® service to reach decision makers in the most important industries. We are thrilled to have such experienced journalists as our colleagues.’‘

To facilitate integration of the two news organizations, Norman Pearlstine will become Chairman of BusinessWeek. Pearlstine, Bloomberg’s Chief Content Officer, joined Bloomberg last year, building on a distinguished career as Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal and
Editor in Chief of Time Inc. “Norm’s role will ensure that we fully capitalize on the combined strengths of Bloomberg and BusinessWeek,” Winkler said.

“Bloomberg looks forward to becoming steward of the great BusinessWeek franchise that McGraw-Hill has built over the past 80 years,” said Pearlstine. “We are uniquely positioned to preserve and build the market presence of BusinessWeek. Our shared values and complementary resources give us the editorial and technological expertise, data, analysis and depth of reporting to create a new model for the business weekly.”

BusinessWeek magazine, founded in 1929, is the market leader among business periodicals with more than 4.8 million readers each week in 140 countries, local language editions in Chinese, Thai and Bahasa Indonesian and licensees in 15 countries. Bloomberg is the number one source of essential breaking news stories, market coverage, investigative and enterprise reporting on global financial markets and the businesses, governments and individuals that rely on them.

In addition to BusinessWeek magazine, the BusinessWeek brand encompasses the BusinessWeek.com Web site, the Business Exchange online news and information service, SmallBiz magazine and BusinessWeek Events.

————————————————————-
NEW YORK, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/—The McGraw-Hill Companies today announced it has agreed to sell BusinessWeek to Bloomberg L.P. The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2009. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“I am very proud of the tremendous contributions BusinessWeek has made to The McGraw-Hill Companies throughout its rich history. It is a truly outstanding franchise and the best source of business reporting in the world,” said Harold McGraw III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies. “We are pleased that we have reached an agreement for BusinessWeek to be acquired by Bloomberg, which shares the same high standards for editorial independence, integrity and excellence that have long defined BusinessWeek.”

“BusinessWeek will be a powerful addition to our portfolio of leading news and information services,” said Peter T. Grauer, chairman of Bloomberg L.P. “BusinessWeek is one of the business world’s most recognized and trusted sources of news and insight, and we believe that it will be highly valued by our customers worldwide.”

The transaction will enable The McGraw-Hill Companies to continue focusing resources on building the size, scale and global presence of its leading brands across fast-growing worldwide markets in financial services, education and business information.

Amazon Goes Global With Kindle; Cuts U.S. Price

2009-10-07T05:10:58Z

For all of you who have asked over the years when the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Kindle would be available outside the U.S., the answer is finally “now.” The Amazon World Kindle, aimed at English-language readers, is now being sold for $279 with international 3G wireless from AT&T (NYSE: T) covering more than 100 countries and territories—and it can be shipped outside the U.S. Shipping starts Oct. 19. At the same time, Amazon dropped the price of its U.S. Kindle 2 by $40, bringing it to $259 just in time to undercut Sony’s upcoming wireless e-Reader. It’s the second price cut this year; it dropped to $299 in July after launching in February for $349.

The announcement comes via the now-familiar letter to customers from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—playing up how U.S. buyers will be able to download wireless when traveling internationally along with the first international shipping of the device. Instead of downloading purchases to a PC and moving them to a Kindle when traveling, Kindle users will be able to mimic their U.S. wireless behavior overseas. It’s not completely the same, though—reading the fine print, international downloading of books or even already purchased material from your archives will run $1.99. The promo material includes the reminder that you can sample free chapters; not clear if there’s a fee for that or for downloading newspapers and magazines.

Just this weekend, I was on a panel about mobile journalism where I brought my K2 and the moderator from Holland, Roeland Stekelenburg of NOS, showed me his sleeker Sony (NYSE: SNE) model with a mention being able to buy it and fill it in Europe. The other advantage for him: Sony’s support of the EPUB file format. Amazon’s Stanza iPhone app supports the format but not the Kindle. That Sony, however, didn’t have wireless. The 3G Daily Edition Sony, due for the holidays, lists for $399—and, so far, is wireless only in the U.S.

New content: The launch includes first-time access to many international publications, including La Stampa (Italy), El País (Spain), El Universal (Mexico), O Globo (Brazil), The Daily Telegraph (UK), bringing the total newspapers and magazines to nearly 90. The BBC’s Lonely Planet guides are now in the Kindle store, which Amazon says has added 75,000-plus books in the past five months. The U.S. store has more than 350,000 titles but global customers will have access to less than two-thirds of that. Even so, Bezos told USA Today, “It’s a substantial market.”

Bezos told AP: “I think that ultimately we will sell more books in Kindle editions than we do in physical editions.” But much of that will rely on increasing sales of e-Readers—and that lower price of $259 is still too high for most buyers. Ditto for the $489 large-format Kindle DX, which reads native PDF files and can pivot to landscape, slated for international sales next year.

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Dow Jones Closing Pioneering Far Eastern Economic Review; Calls Losses 'Unsustainable'

2009-09-22T00:35:15Z

Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) is closing the historic Far Eastern Economic Review in December, already a shell of itself, saying the “continued losses in advertising revenue and readers are now unsustainable.” The company introduced the news with the statement starting this fall, it “will focus on its core publications to better serve readers and advertisers in key markets both in print and online, to catapult the company’s growth in the burgeoning Asian marketplace.” Killing off FEER, founded in 1946, will allow “opinion and commentary resources from Asia” to expand across all DJ properties, or so the reasoning goes. Subscribers will be offered one-year subscriptions to asia.wsj.com. In a statement, Todd Larsen, COO at Dow Jones Consumer Media Group, explained: “The decision to cease publication of the REVIEW is a difficult one made after a careful study of the magazine’s prospects in a challenging business climate.”

Hugo Restall, the editor since late 2004, will keep his job on the WSJ Editorial Board; his small staff of six is being offered jobs elsewhere in the company, according to spokesman Robert Christie. The website will be shut down with its archives available through asia.wsj.com. As for the brand, says Christie, “It all comes to an end. It goes on long-term hiatus. We may at some point revisit it, but not likely any point in the near future.” He couldn’t provide a dollar amount for the losses but said it was losing too much money for its circulation of about 20,000.

The move comes five years after a complete overhaul gutted the China-based magazine, turning it into a monthly rather than a staff-written weekly, well before DJ was acquired by News Corp. and Peter Kann was still chairman and CEO. For some, the magazine effectively died then. The Pacific Media Watch called it “death-by-corporate-downsizing” Murdoch’s interests in expanding in Asia and in coverage of Asia may have helped it survive until now.

Meanwhile, feer.com is still promoting subscriptions and the Twitter feed has yet to pass along the news; the last update was 20 hours ago as I type. The WSJ has the news.

Live India's Markand Adhikari Launching Magazine On Governance; B.V. Rao Is Editor

2009-09-18T15:09:52Z

Markand Adhikari, promoter of Broadcast Initiatives Ltd, is launching a magazine that will focus on matters related to government and governance. The magazine is expected to launch in late October. B. Venkat Rao, former group editor at Zee News, has been hired as editor.

“The magazine will be targetted at stakeholders in the process of governance—think tanks, bureaucrats, politicians, activists, etc. We want to bring in more journalism into public policy,” Rao said.

Details such as title, pricing, etc., are still being firmed up, Rao said.

Broadcast Initiatives runs the news channel Live India, which found itself in the middle of a fake sting controversy in 2007.

New Youth Congress Magazine; National Herald To Be Resurrected?

2009-08-13T11:26:25Z

The youth wing of the ruling Indian National Congress party is launching a monthly magazine that is said to be the brainchild of party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, IANS reports. Young March will be the mouth piece of the Youth Congress the way Sandesh is to Congress.

Youth Congress general secretary Chayanika Uniyal will be the editor of the magazine. If it is positioned as Rahul Gandhi’s magazine, Young March will no doubt be keenly followed by thousands of party men across India. Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family that has produced three prime ministers, is widely expected to head India’s government one day. For now, the 39-year old politician is busy rejuvenating the Congress organization, with special focus on the youth unit.

There has also been speculation among the Capital’s journos that National Herald, which had temporarily suspended operations last year, will be resurrected soon. The Herald House on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, New Delhi’s Fleet Street, is being renovated. Journalists who were associated with the paper say don’t know of any concrete plans. Congress treasurer Motilal Vohra, who heads the board of Associated Journals Ltd, publisher of the erstwhile Herald, could not be reached for comment. Herald was founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, iconic Congress leader and India’s first prime minister.

BusinessWeek's Future: Potential Buyers and Uses; TVGuide Sale A Guide

2009-07-13T21:05:00Z

The official word is out from MGH, in a carefully worded release: “The McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) Companies today announced that it is exploring strategic options for BusinessWeek. BusinessWeek is a globally respected brand and one of the world’s leading sources of essential and trusted content that informs and inspires business leaders to make smarter decisions in their professional and personal lives.”

So who would buy BusinessWeek in this environment, and under what conditions? For one, the number of strategic and interested buyers is low, and the names we have thrown out before include Bloomberg and Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS). But that’s if we only look at options for BW as the print brand with lots of legacy issues. The topline revenues at BW are in the $125 million and above range, as I understand it. Online contributes about a quarter to that.

One top-level source at a rival mag I spoke to said that “no one with full intelligence would buy the whole magazine as is.” For the print, the path is clear: the changes and decline in the revenues and circulation is secular, NOT cyclical. Another source told me the TVGuide magazine sale would be a good ballpark; the magazine sold for $1, with the assumption of liabilities by the PE buyer. That’s harsh.

Which means that there would be some hard decisions to make, both by McGraw-Hill as the sale process goes on, and for the eventual buyer, if they find one. This could involve reducing the frequency of publication for the weekly mag, or, if someone’s brave enough, ditching the print piece altogether, and focusing on the website and data business. The data side is interesting, but complicated: MGH also owns S&P and CapitalIQ (the latter is a division of the former, technically), two of the main sources of data for BusinessWeek, the website and the mag, and they aren’t likely to be on the market anytime soon. This could also mean that MGH may not be able to cut off the BW ties completely, and the buyer may not want to either. It has a small events-and-training-programs business as well, but not enough to move the needle for a buyer.

One buyer could be AOL (NYSE: TWX), if the print part gets cut out completely: AOL, as it is spinning out from Time Warner, has upped its focus on original content and blogging. On the finance vertical, it has added vertical sites like DailyFinance and BloggingStocks, for which it has hired a number of traditional journalists in the last year or so. It also owns Relegence, the real-time alerting system, which was initially focused on the B2B/finance markets, though now the tech is only used for internal purposes. Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Finance may also have a look, if it can deal with the other internal issues.

By the same token, an online-only brand may also attract other buyers like Reuters Media, which has been boosting its online presence by adding commentary and blogs. Unlikely that Reuters would consider buying the print mag, but certainly has the data assets to plug in if needed. Same with Bloomberg. For Dow Jones, my thought has been that one of its weekend Journals could be integrated with a weekly print mag, but then again, the question is: what does WSJ gain by doing it? It has the audience it needs, and BW isn’t accretive enough, either on the revenue or audience side.

It is not as if BW‘s online site has been stellar either. It has been solid, but nothing more, despite the redesign. The site has been flat in traffic over the last year, and two redesigns in two years don’t inspire much confidence. Compare that to competitors: Fortune has no pretenses and has given up online (with parent Time, Inc focusing on CNNMoney.com instead) and Forbes.com is still hustling, among the leaders at least in terms of traffic and revenues (though the trouble at Forbes the company is a whole different ballgame and topic).

As for reinventing BW, some good ideas that BW‘s own Stephen Baker has collected, here (in response to a tweet question by Jeff Jarvis). One suggestion: “change the name from BusinessWeek to BusinessSecond.” Which points to another branding issue with BW—whether it keeps the print side or not—and it may just have to do that, rebrand as BW and de-emphasize BusinessWeek.

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Budget 09: FBT Gone; 5% Excise Duty On Set Top Boxes; Higher DAVP Rates To Stay; Reactions

2009-07-06T14:00:10Z

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee delivered a budget that brought some cheer and some additional taxation to the media sector. Key points:

1) Fringe Benefit Tax abolished: This was a key demand from many players in contentSutra’s Wishlist For The New I&B Minister. Many key overheads for media houses, such as travel, come under Fringe Benefit Tax. The proposed introduction of a Goods and Services Taxes (GST) regime is seen as a positive for all media companies.

2) Excise duty of 5% on Set Top Boxes (STBs) reintroduced: The government had exempted STBs from duty last year to encourage digitization. Most of the STBs used by the DTH and digital cable industry are imported from China and Korea.

3) Increased DAVP rates to stay: During the height of economic slowdown and ahead of general elections, the government had increased discounted ad rates paid by various government agencies by 10%, in addition to discontinuing a 15% agency commission. These waivers will stay for another six months.

Reactions:

Anjan Mitra, Executive Director-India, Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA):

“Any additional tax imposed on (import of) set-top boxes (STBs) is like taking a step back. Imposition of an additional 5% duty on STBs will hit the spread and process of digitalization in India, which had been flagged by TRAI, MIB and the PMO as a priority area. With boxes becoming likely to become costlier, the consumer ultimately will have to shell out more.”

Salil Kumar, COO, Dish TV India Ltd:

“The additional burden of 5% tax on STB will hinder the growth and will discourage the DTH industry from expanding business; this tax hike will be passed on the customers. Although we do welcome the removal of FBT (NYSE: BT) and introduction of GST (Goods & services tax), which will provide some relief to DTH industry from multiple taxes from Centre & the states.”

Anand Shah, analyst, Angel Broking:

“THE Budget is overall positive for the Media industry, particularly Print Media and marginally negative for Distribution companies. The six month extension of stimuli package for Print Media (10% hike in DAVP rates and waiver of 15% agency commission) is positive for Print Media companies. However, a 5% hike in customs duty on Set Top Boxes comes as a marginal negative for Distribution companies (Dish TV, WWIL). Finally, a complete exemption from FBT, currently at 20%, and confirmation of implementation of GST by April 2010 will be of a great boost for both Print and Broadcasting sector, apart from the Film Industry.”

Amit Kumar, analyst, Kotak Securities:

“Negative for TV distribution. The basic customs duty rate on digital STBs was set at 5%. We note that nearly the entire consumption of STBs in India is imported. This would be negative for companies such as DITV (LSE: ITV), WWIL, HVL given (1) pass through of higher STB cost to consumers will result in lower volumes and (2) absorption of incremental STB cost will impact already stretched financials.”

ABP Group To Launch India Edition Of Spectator Magazine; MIB Approval Received

2009-07-06T09:23:10Z

Taking advantage of policy changes late last year that allows Indian editions of foreign titles, the British magazine Spectator, owned by the publishers of The Daily Telegraph, will launch an Indian edition. The magazine is being launched here by the Anandabazar Patrika Group. The 181-year-old magazine will be the second foreign publication in the ‘news and current affairs’ segment after Forbes India, launched by the Network18 Group. Spectator India will be a monthly.

On Friday, the govt granted permission to Telegraph Publications Pvt. Ltd, a unit of ABP that publishes Kolkata-based The Telegraph, to publish the Indian edition of the magazine that focuses on Politics, Arts and Culture. In late 2008, the magazine had launched an Australian edition.

Spectator India’s website currently takes you to a survey. The publication received approval for its title ‘Spectator India’ from the Registrar Of Newspapers In India in April. We are awaiting comment from the ABP Group.

ABP Group is also in agreement with Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) to launch the Indian edition of Fortune magazine. We reported last month that the company was making the first moves on the project.

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ABP Group Sets The Ball Rolling On Fortune Magazine's India Edition; To Hire 20-25 Staffers

2009-06-01T08:02:37Z

Nineteen months after it entered into an arrangement with Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) to launch an Indian edition of Fortune magazine, the Kolkata-based ABP Group has set the ball in motion for the launch of the fortnightly business magazine, known for its annual ranking of the world’s 500 biggest corporations. According to a person familiar with the situation, the company was likely to launch the magazine in “a few months”. The company has started meeting potential editorial staffers with an intention to hire, the person said, adding that it will likely hire 20-25 reporting and editing employees. Two other people independently confirmed such meetings. All three sources spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The ABP Group, which publishes The Telegraph, Anandabazar Patrika and BusinessWorld, among others, said in October 2007 that it has reached an agreement with the Fortune|Money Group group of Time Inc. to publish the third country-specific edition of Fortune after China and Turkey. Group publication The Telegraph reported then that the magazine was likely to be launched in February 2008. The company hadn’t updated on the status of the project since then.

An ABP spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Even though ABP has been tightlipped about the project, it is understood that Pavan Varshnei, president, English magazines, at ABP is overseeing the business side and D.N. Mukerjea is heading the editorial side of the project.

The 2009 KPMG-Ficci report on India’s media industry pegged the size of the country’s magazine publishing industry at Rs1,390 crore and said it would grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 8.1% to become a Rs2,060 crore business by 2013. The size of the print media business (newspapers plus magazines) in 2008 was pegged at Rs17,260 crore.

Fortune‘s global competitor Forbes entered into a licensing arrangement with Network18 Group in December 2007 and the magazine hit newsstands on 21 May. An international edition of Businessweek, the third big international business magazine, is marketed in India by the Outlook group. According to an industry source, while Businessweek earlier had plans to launch an India edition, those have been abandoned following difficulties in their US publishing operations.

Fortune will be the third major magazine to launch this year, after RPG Enterprises launched Open in April and TV18 introduced Forbes in May. And among global business news brands that are making a beeline for India, it will be counted, apart from Forbes, among The Wall Street Journal, which launched a facsimile edition in India last month, and Financial Times, which recently applied for permissions to launch a facsimile edition here, but is caught in a legal tussle with Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd over rights to its title.

Two key policy changes made by the government during the past eight months are helping fuel the slew of print launches. In January this year, the government said publishers of foreign newspapers could set up wholly owned subsidiaries in India to publish a facsimile edition here. In September last year, the government allowed publication of Indian editions of foreign magazines.

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Markets Rejoice Poll Outcome; Media Stocks Rise In Line

2009-05-18T09:46:50Z

Reacting to the outcome of general elections that were known Saturday, India’s markets breached the upper circuit within a minute of opening trade on Monday and had to be halted for the day when they were reopened two hours later. In country-wide elections, whose results were announced on Saturday, the United Progressive Alliance, led by the Indian National Congress party, was returned to power with a stronger mandate than what they won five years ago. The results mean that the government can rule without having to accomodate the interests of political allies who are ideological opponents, clearing the way for potential reforms and fewer investment restrictions in several sectors.

Sensex, the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, rose 2110.79 points, or 17.34%, to close at 14,284.21 when trading was halted, and on the National Stock Exchange, Nifty rose 651.5 points, or 17.74%, to close at 4323.15. The chart shows how some key media stocks performed. Sun TV Network, TV18, Adlabs Films, Deccan Chronicle and Wire and Wireless India were among major gainers.

“It’s clearly a strong and uncluttered positive verdict from the market, of a kind that we haven’t seen in a long time. What we have got is possibly the strongest actionable government. The euphoria that we saw today will subside incrementally, but the trend will remain positive,” said Nikhil Vora, managing director, IDFC-SSKI Securities. “FDI (foreign direct investment) relaxation is more of an issue in sectors such as retail and aviation, and not so much in media. I don’t think news media is going to see any relaxation soon, and in sectors such as DTH, markets have already taken it into account. Today we had just 47 seconds of trading, so it’s pointless to discuss any specifics before a few market sessions,” Vora added.

Smita Jha, associate director with consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the industry will benefit if the new government utilizes the mandate to move swiftly on policymaking. “There are several pending policy decisions in the media sector and the delay in decision making is significantly hurting certain sectors. The delay in deciding on CAS, for instance, is hurting the television industry very badly. Is FDI cap being raised to 74% to bring it at par with telecom? Is the government going to restrict cross media ownership, or not? Uncertaintly and the lack of clarity on policy are holding up investment decisions both by domestic entrepreneurs as well as foreign investors. With the stronger mandate, the new government has an opportunity to move swiftly on all these fronts. Otherwise, we also risk losing the momentum on gaining the confidence of foreign investors,” Jha said.

Indian Readership Survey R1 2009: Some Highlights

2009-05-13T11:23:43Z

The 2009 Round One of the Indian Readership Survey is out, with mixed trends. Only nine of the top 25 most read publications (including dailies and periodicals) registered a growth in readership. The combined percentage decline in readership, for the 16 publications that registered a drop, was 51.89%. In the elite top 25 club, Marathi daily Pudhari grew the most, at 8.83%, while Saras Salil, a weekly magazine from Delhi Press, dropped the most, at 12.95%. These figures are total readership and all figures are in thousands. Depending on how their publications fared, media houses typically support total readership, or the other metric, average issue readership. Here’s the complete data on the top 25 publications. All comparisons are with Round two of IRS 2008.

Segment-wise Readership

This category measures the universe of readers who reads any publication in a segment. So the universe of readers who read any English daily, grew 0.47% to 3.1 crore. There are no definitive trends across categories, but weeklies in all languages, except Malayalam, registered a drop.
Here’s the full segment-wise readership.

Gainers and Losers:

Some of the most read publications also figure in the list that lost the most readers. Dainik Jagran, India’s most read publication, for instance, lost some 1.1 million readers. Telugu daily Vartha lost the most, 1.3 million readers, or 21% of its readership. Vartha has presumably been cannibalized by Saakshi, the new Telugu daily that was launched by chief minister Y.S.R. Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy. Here’s a list of top 20 gainers and losers. Please note that this is in absolute numbers and not in percentages.

English dailies:

Of the top 24 most read English dailies, only six registered a gain in readership. Mint, HT Media’s business daily, grew the most, posting a 15.67% growth in readership. This, is however, not counting Metro Now, which grew its readership by 103%, but has since been discontinued as a daily by its joint promoters Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd and HT Media Ltd. DNA, which grew 11.37%, comes second. The New Indian Express, lost 14.19% of its readers, followed by The Indian Express, which lost 11.37%. Here’s the complete picture.

English magazines:

Magazines present an alarming picture, with every single magazine in the top 25 registering a drop. Here’s a list of top 25 English magazines and how they fared.

TV18 Gets License To Publish Forbes India Edition; To Hit Newsstands In May

2009-04-24T10:53:16Z

TV18 India Ltd has received the requisite license from the ministry of information and broadcasting to publish the Indian edition of Forbes magazine, according to a person familiar with the situation. The magazine will hit newsstands by the third week of May, our source said. TV18, part of Raghav Bahl-promoted Network18 Group, entered into an agreement with Forbes Media in December 2007 to launch a business magazine for the Indian market. In December 2008, the government issued new guidelines allowing Indian editions of foreign magazines. American designers Walter Bernard and Milton Glacer have designed Forbes India.

A TV18 spokesperson was unavailable for comment.