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Keep informed and on top of the latest multimedia news stories by checking out the industry scoop page. Articles will be updated weekly.
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Online Ambitions, and a Dash of Real Estate, Drive Newspaper Deals (January 29, 2012)If the future of media is digital, who would want to buy a newspaper? Many people, it turns out. Investors acquired the newspapers in several major American cities in the second half of 2011, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Omaha World-Herald, The San Francisco Examiner and the 16 newspapers that made up The New York Times Company’s Regional Media Group. Read the full story
Tablet and E-Reader Sales Soar (January 22, 2012)There was no must-have toy of Christmas 2011 — for youngsters, anyway. For adults, tablet computers and e-readers were the gifts of choice, judging by a new report that indicates the number of adults in the United States who own tablets and e-readers nearly doubled from mid-December to early January. Read the full story
Online Ad Spending to Pass Print for the First Time, Forecast Says (January 19, 2012)Online advertising spending will cruise past print in the United States this year for the first time, according to a new forecast by eMarketer. Online ad spending in the U.S. grew 23% to $32.03 billion in 2011 and will grow 23.3% more to $39.5 billion in 2012, eMarketer said. That will put it above total U.S. magazine and newspaper spending, which will fall 6.1% to $36 billion this year, said the report. Read the full story
What 2012 holds for consumer magazines (January 18, 2012)Brenda White, senior vice president and publishing activation director at Starcom, talks to Media Life about magazines' digital past, their digital future. and how healthy the industry is right now. Read the full story
Digital first? Backers firm in belief that future is clear (January 17, 2012)If it's 2012, it looks like it's digital first. Fueled in part by the strategies put in place by such industry iconoclasts as John Paton at Digital First Media and Clark Gilbert at the Deseret News, publishers large and small are busily unveiling initiatives aimed at repositioning their businesses to reflect the importance of mobile and Web consumption. Read the full story
ABCi Releases First Standalone Mobile Media Audit, Verifies Sizeable Mobile Audience For Orange County Register (January 12, 2012)ABC Interactive has released its first standalone audit of a mobile media publisher. The report, dubbed an "m.Audit," is for the mobile editions of the The Orange County Register, and purports to verify the key metrics covering how the newspapers app and mobile websites deliver. According to the report, m.OCRegister.com averaged more than 4.5 million total monthly page impressions during the period measured (July to September 2011), and the paper's mobile app had an additional 2 million stories read monthly. Read the full story
The Tablet Market: What We Know and What It Means For the Future (January 11, 2012)A recent Pew Research Center study found that the majority of tablet owners — 77 percent — use their device every day, and an average session lasts 90 minutes. With numerous tablet manufacturers and operating systems coming into play, readers have more choices than ever for how they receive their news. Some publishers and media companies have adapted by developing apps or making their publications available on digital newsstands. Then there’s Philadelphia Media Network, which is offering Android tablets in the U.S. preloaded with proprietary news content. Tribune Co. has also announced plans to develop a tablet device of its own. Only time will tell if these strategies are hits or misses, but one thing is for sure: Tablets need to be recognized. So, what should publishers keep in mind when it comes to these devices in 2012? Here’s what we know so far and a peek at what is yet to come. Read the full story
What 2012 holds for U.S. newspapers (January 10, 2012)Ken Doctor, newspaper analyst and author of "Newsonomics: Twelve Laws That Will Shape the News We Get," talks to Media Life about 2012's most important trends, what media people can expect from the industry, and why digital needs an identity separate from print. Read the full story
Online Metrics Inch Closer to Standardization (December 14, 2011)Nine months into an industrywide initiative to overhaul and standardize the Wild West landscape of online metrics, organizers are taking cautious steps into a pilot testing phase through 2012, acknowledging the profound implications of their work for everyone on the buying and selling sides of the media ecosystem, not to mention those who currently measure its traffic. Read the full story
Apple's Newsstand Gives Publishers A Push (December 5, 2011)Newspaper publishers are raving about Apple Newsstand, saying they have seen a drastic increase in app downloads since its Oct. 12 launch. Newsstand, a feature included in iOS 5, provides a portal for tablet users to select which newspaper and magazine apps they want to read on a daily basis, and automatically downloads them in the background to users’ tablets and smartphones. It also brings renewed importance to the newspaper cover. When users enter Newsstand, they see an image of an empty shelf. After they select from the App Store what publications to subscribe to in Newsstand, they click on the cover image to access the content. Read the full story
Cross-Platform Readers On the Rise for Consumer Mags (December 2, 2011)After all its efforts, the consumer magazine industry is beginning to see results of its cross-platform conquests. In Affinity’s recent American Magazine Study, 12 magazine publishing brands were tracked. Audience consumption behaviors are categorized by print-only, digital-only and print and digital readers. Read the full story
New Newspaper Association CEO Caroline Little on 2012 Priorities, Pay Walls and the British Invasion (December 1, 2011)In many ways this year for newspapers has unfortunately resembled the one that came before, with a sullen economy and sprawling competition for readers and advertisers keeping the pressure on. In other ways, though, newspapers have seemed to improve their fortunes, primarily by beginning to charge for unfettered access to their websites. As publishers now turn their focus to next year, they also have a new president and CEO at the Newspaper Association of America for the first time in 16 years: Caroline Little, who took over on Sept. 6. Read the full story
The State of the Digital Edition Industry in 2011 (November 30, 2011)We’re only about a year into the tablet age but more than a decade of using digital editions. Today, with the rise of ever increasingly sophisticated mobile devices and apps, digital editions are poised to leap to the forefront of publishers’ revenue generation plans and serve as their flagship on devices such as the iPad. Read the full story
Meredith Signs Kimberly-Clark For ROI Guarantees (November 29, 2011)After a test period that began earlier this year, Meredith Corp. is unveiling the first major advertising client for its “Engagement Dividend” program -- a pioneering new service created by the women-targeted publisher that guarantees that print advertising in its magazines will result in a certain amount of sales lift. Consumer packaged goods giant Kimberly-Clark, which owns brands including Kleenex, Huggies and Cottonelle, will be the “premiere advertising partner” for Engagement Dividend when it debuts early next year. Read the full story
Will Dailies Stay Daily? (November 22, 2011)Mark Medici, then-vice president of audience for the Dallas Morning News, triggered a brief media frenzy in October when he said at a conference that within three years the Morning News wouldn't be publishing seven days a week. Though the paper quickly backed away from his remark, with Publisher Jim Moroney asserting that the Belo-owned paper has no intention of cutting back, the flap raised the question of whether daily newspapers will soon cease to be daily. The rationale is that eliminating editions that bring in little ad revenue will allow papers to save on production and distribution costs, stave off additional cutbacks in the newsroom and bolster the bottom line in a challenging environment for newspapers. Read the full story
How news becomes more like cable TV as paywalls and meters give way to bundled subscriptions (November 21, 2011)Helsingin Sanomat, the leading national daily in Finland, decided back in 2006 to offer a “Combo” subscription to print and all digital versions of the paper. Five years later (with an iPad version now in play too) Helsingen Sanomat has 120,000 subscribers to the combo, a third of its subscription base. Now, 80 percent of new subscription sales are for that package. Read the full story
Digital Readers 11 Percent of Total Magazine Audience (November 18, 2011)For those who still doubt that magazine content has a place in the digital world, new data proves magazines’ growing digital prowess. According to GfK MRI, adults who read magazines only on digital platforms (including desktop/laptop computers, tablets, e-readers and smartphones) make up 11 percent of the gross magazine audience. Read the full story
ABC Names New Board Leaders (November 15, 2011)The board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations has elected Sunni Boot, CEO of ZenithOptimedia Canada, as its new Chairman. Boot has served on the ABC board since 2008 and most recently served as chairman of the ABC Canada Board Committee. Read the full story
Conde Nast To Put All 18 Titles on NOOK Tablet (November 14, 2011)Conde Nast announced today that all 18 of its magazines will soon be available on the Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color. Seventeen of those magazines will be available on NOOK by the end of November while Vogue will join the platform in early 2012. Read the full story
ABCi: Pubs bullish on mobile (November 7, 2011)North American newspaper and magazine publishers are becoming more confident in their strategic mobile plans as they roll out new offerings, according to a study released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations and ABC Interactive. Read the full story
Publishers diversifying to cross-media devices, monetizing mobile (November 7, 2011)Can mobile reading devices such as tablets, e-readers, and other devices give the ailing magazine and newspaper industry a boost? Magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and Canada are becoming more confident in their strategic mobile plans as they diversify their offerings and discover new ways to derive revenue. Read the full story
ABC, Adobe team up to add new digital audience measurement capabilities (November 7, 2011)ABC Interactive, the digital arm of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, has announced it is working with Adobe Systems to make it easier for newspaper and magazine publishers to report audited website, mobile app and digital publication data. ABCi is working with Adobe to accredit the company's AudienceResearch, a new digital audience measurement tool that helps tabulate online usage metrics via Adobe SiteCatalyst, an analytics application. The goal is to help publishers add more digital audience data to ABC's Consolidate Media Reports. Read the full story
With Newsstand, Apple Finally Does Publishers A Favor (November 7, 2011)Thanks to Apple's Newsstand, sales of magazines' tablet editions have been soaring. Now comes the real test: Can publishers turn those editions into viable ad vehicles? Publishers do see that kind of dual-revenue stream in their future, but it could be a year or more off. Consistent sales volumes, engagement data, and buying standards will have to be established before advertisers make regular commitments to the medium. Read the full story
Magazine publishers divided over giving digital issues for free (November 3, 2011)Offering full, digital copies of magazines on tablets for free to existing print subscribers is a critical misstep, basically destroying economic model for publishing, according to John Loughlin, executive vice president and general manager of Hearst Magazines. “We are at a critical juncture for magazine publishers to reassert value of content, and that value needs to be paid for,” argued Loughlin, while speaking during a panel discussion about the future of publishing at the Open Mobile Summit on Thursday. Read the full story
Yahoo Comes to Tablets With Livestand (November 2, 2011)Yahoo is making a big move onto tablets. It's launching an iPad news reading app called Livestand (which was announced earlier this year), with a new ad unit called "Living Ads." Read the full story
Major changes in newspaper circ tallies (November 1, 2011)The long decline in newspaper circulation has stopped, at least temporarily. It's not because newspapers are no longer losing readership; they still are. Rather this stoppage is due to a change in the way the Audit Bureau of Circulations tallies its numbers. Read the full story
More Proof That Paywalls Work From...Newsday? (November 1, 2011)A new semi-annual report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations contains yet more evidence that the digital paywall The New York Times erected in March is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. To wit, it’s not only getting people to subscribe for access via computers, tablets and smartphones, it’s also getting them to subscribe to the print edition of the paper thanks to a smart pricing plan. The circulation of the Sunday Times squeaked up 0.2% in the six months ending Sept. 30, averaging 992,383. “This marks the first increase in print home delivery circulation in five years,” announced the Times Tuesday. Read the full story
Fas-Fax: Major Newspapers’ Total Digital Editions Rise 63 Percent (November 1, 2011)Digital editions of the top 25 newspapers rose 63 percent to 2,169,843 for the six months ending in September, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Fas-Fax tally. For the most part, the numbers reflect newspapers’ and consumers’ relatively new embrace of digital editions across a growing number of mobile devices. While there’s a lot of excitement about these gains newspapers are seeing—at time when print circulation continues to fall—the industry is still a way off from getting digital to offset the declines. Read the full story
Newspaper Circulation Figures Show Some Digital Growth (November 1, 2011)Some of the nation’s largest newspapers are recording gains in digital circulation as print circulation continues to weaken, a trend that is helping to ease what has become a relentless overall decline in recent years. According to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which reported data on Tuesday for the six months through Sept. 30, newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Denver Post and The Dallas Morning News all experienced some digital circulation growth. Read the full story
Discoverability Central to Big Numbers on Apple’s Newsstand (October 26, 2011)n the past two weeks since Apple Inc. launched iOS 5 on Oct. 12, magazine publishers have been racing to announce the availability of titles on Apple’s new Newsstand. The feature automatically delivers new magazine issues directly to the homepage of an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. “It’s kind of like having the paper delivered to your front door. Only better,” the company’s Web site says. This instant delivery, among the other features of Newsstand, is not only a key aspect of the new technology, but a likely reason for the industry’s rush to get involved. Read the full story
Apple’s Newsstand a Huge Success for Digital Publishers (October 26, 2011)Newsstand, a new feature of iOS 5, is hitting it big with traditional media publishers thanks to its windfall delivery of new digital subscriptions. Newsstand appears as a folder on the iOS home screen, funneling all your digital magazine and newspaper app subscriptions into a single location. It provides easy access to these apps, automatically updates them in the background when new issues are released, and — here’s the payoff — includes a built-in store for purchasing subscriptions. Purchased titles are displayed individually on Newsstand’s virtual bookshelf. Read the full story
Group Says Newspapers Aren’t Dead, They’re Alluring (October 23, 2011)With more people getting their daily dose of news online through blogs and social media sites, traditional newspapers have gotten short shrift. Print is dead or dying, say media experts, and advertising can’t keep pace. A new advertising campaign from the Newspaper Association of America seeks to change those views and focus on how reading newspapers — in their digital or print incarnations — actually makes users sexy. Read the full story
Popular Science First Mag Brand to Use ABC's Consolidated Media Report (October 20, 2011)As publishers have expanded their brands onto multiple platforms–especially all the variations of digital content—their total audiences have grown right along with them. And regardless of the difficulties in determining exactly, say, who is visiting a web site or interacting with a brand via social media, publishers are keen on promoting that total audience reach, and the auditing firms have been keeping up by expanding their reporting services. Read the full story
Popular Science Receives First ABC Consolidated Media Report (October 20, 2011)The Audit Bureau of Circulations has released its first Consolidated Media Report, a customizable report for U.S. and Canadian consumer magazines to present their total brand with a range of print, digital and mobile products. The first CMR to be released is for Bonnier’s Popular Science, covering the flagship magazine, interactive digital editions, email newsletters, Web sites and mobile apps. Read the full story
The Daily Is No. 1 on Apple's Newsstand (October 19, 2011)Apple‘s Newsstand app seems to be a boon for publishers, and no one’s benefiting from it more than The Daily. News Corp.’s eight-month-old iPad-only publication has been the No. 1 seller in the digital storefront since it launched last week, edging out, in order, National Geographic, Wired, The New York Times and The New Yorker. The Daily’s publisher, Greg Clayman, emailed staffers Tuesday notifying them of the win. Read the full story
Publishers Optimistic About Tablet Business (October 13, 2011)TABLET TALK: Publishers have spent the last two weeks declaring that they just love their tablet businesses, and Hearst Magazines president David Carey did it again on Wednesday morning, telling an audience at the Paley Center, “That business is flying.” Why are they so optimistic? The Kindle Fire has a lot to do with it. Read the full story
Mag Executives See Gold in Tablets (October 4, 2011)Magazines have been heavily criticized in recent years for their practice of deeply discounting the price of subscriptions. But industry leaders see the potential in tablet devices to change that model. Speaking on the opening panel at the 2011 American Magazine Conference, Bob Sauerberg, president of Condé Nast, said the luxe publishing company looks at the tablet as a way to evolve how people buy its content. Read the full story
Apple introduces Newsstand today at iPhone event, available Oct. 12 with iOS 5 (October 4, 2011)Apple is announcing the latest version of its phone and mobile operating system today, which among many upgrades includes a new Newsstand section for buying and organizing newspaper and magazine apps. Read the full story
Murdoch's Tablet Newspaper Experiment Shows Some Promise (October 3, 2011)Can you build a general-news publication exclusively for tablets and gain an audience of paying subscribers? That was Rupert Murdoch's gamble seven months ago when he launched The Daily, the first (and still only) "iPad newspaper." It was a $30 million bet on both the tablet as a medium and the public's willingness to pay for news. Today The Daily has 120,000 active weekly readers, 80,000 of whom are actually paying for the app, according to Publisher Greg Clayman. The bigger number includes 40,000 non-paying readers on a two-week introductory trial period. About 25% of people who sign up for a trial ultimately end up subscribing, he said. "The numbers are telling us people are responding well to original content designed for the platform. Premium content seems to work well on a tablet device." Read the full story
Magazines to Marketers: We'll Prove It (October 3, 2011)Can magazines prove that their ads make cash registers ring? In its latest attempt to prove its worth to marketers, Time Inc. will regularly gauge the retail sales results from advertising in its titles and on its websites. "There was a call for getting more solutions to advertisers so they could see their return on investment," said Stephanie George, exec VP and CMO at Time Inc., "so we're increasing our footprint in the research area." Read the full story
Google Takes Page From Sunday Newspaper (October 2, 2011)Google Inc. (GOOG) is on a quest to make Internet advertising look more like the Sunday paper. The online-search giant is working with advertisers such as Best Buy Co. and Macy’s Inc. (M) to create Web-based circulars, similar to the ad inserts included in newspapers. The new service will be available starting tomorrow, Mountain View, California-based Google said. Read the full story
Amazon announces Kindle Fire tablet for $199 (September 28, 2011)Even before Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the Kindle Fire reader tablet at a packed New York press conference Wednesday morning, the market for tablets appeared to be on fire. Practically every tech manufacturer under the sun had brought one out. Truth is, only Apple's iPad has been a piping hot bestseller, dousing the tablet dreams for companies ranging from Research In Motion to Hewlett Packard. Read the full story
Firm Offers Insight Into Tablet Mag Sales (September 22, 2011)Publishers have big hopes that tablet editions will help offset what have been soft sales of their ink on paper magazines. But digital magazine sales have been slow to take off. Some are testing a new service that could help them get more out of their sales efforts though. Read the full story
AP, newspapers to redeem their share of coupon business with mobile app iCircular, starting today (September 19, 2011)The Associated Press and most major newspaper companies will roll out a test run today that offers one of their healthiest revenue sources — preprinted inserts — in a mobile format. Can the bargain-hunting and planning/shopping experiences be squeezed down to small-screen format? Will customers stand up and cheer? Or yawn that their geo-specific couponing needs are pretty well taken care of already by the stores’ own sites and other earlier-to-market competitors? The product will be known in the trade as iCircular, but it will appear to consumers as a house-branded ”app-within-an-app,” embedded in individual newspapers’ mobile sites. Read the full story
For Suburban Papers, Digital All About Local (September 15, 2011)John Humenik, SNA chairman of the board, says that for the small daily and weekly newspapers that make up the trade association's members, local is key to their success: "The further you get away from the mission of local, you dilute the real advantage we have as an industry." Read the full story
New Details on Philly Papers' Bold Tablet Plan (September 12, 2011)Making a big bet on the tablet market, the Philadelphia Inquirer and sibling paper Philadelphia Daily News in July announced a plan to sell deeply discounted tablets containing subscriptions to its digital editions. Now, with the program set to kick off Sept. 13, Greg Osberg, the papers’ publisher, shared details of the program along with device and pricing information. The tablets are Arnova 10 G2 Android devices made by French consumer electronics company Archos. They will come loaded with the dailies’ three paid apps and access to the papers’ free site, Philly.com. Read the full story
Extreme Couponing Goes Too Far (August 29, 2011)Coupons have made a comeback. Reality TV shows have recently portrayed consumers hoarding newspaper coupon inserts. Those “couponers” use stacks of coupons to buy thousands of dollars in groceries for a fraction of their value. The trend has spread,and consumers are going to great lengths to retrieve coupon inserts — even climbing into dumpsters. But their extreme savings tactics may be costing those who supply the coupons. Read the full story
Newspapers Gird For Online Circular Battle (August 28, 2011)Media analyst Gordon Borrell once saw a woman go into a convenience store and buy the Sunday newspaper only to walk outside and throw it away immediately -- after she removed the wedge of preprints from the middle. When Borrell asked her why she just spent $4 only to toss the paper in the garbage, she said, “There’s at least $20 of savings right here,” gesturing to the clutch of coupon-laden preprints in her hand. Such is -- or at least was -- the power of the preprint, or free-standing insert (FSI). Read the full story
Who Is Making Money ‘Now’ in the App Store Subscription Era? (August 19, 2011)Now that the subscription model for fee-based content in the Apple App store has been embraced both by Apple and by most of its major publishing partners, we wondered who is making bank. It looks as if the new model is paying off for content. In fact when we did our last spot check the Top Grossing Apps in the iPad section of iTunes back in January, the highest ranking publication we found was People at # 34. Read the full story
Fewer Magazines to Read in Doctors' Offices and Hair Salons -- With Some Exceptions (August 19, 2011)Readers are finding fewer magazines lying around doctors' offices and hair salons so far this year -- with exceptions such as Details, Reader's Digest and Ebony. That's because magazines began the year by significantly pulling back on "verified" circulation, which includes public-place copies as well as certain free distribution to individuals. Read the full story
Retail, CPG Pour Most New Dollars into Online Ads (August 15, 2011)The US online ad market is on a sharp trajectory this year, eMarketer estimates, with spending set to increase 20.2% to $31.3 billion. And based on an updated industry breakdown, retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) will account for the largest shares of new spending. Read the full story
How These Magazines Increased Circulation While the Industry Declined (August 9, 2011)Here's the bad news that everyone was expecting: Magazines' paid and verified circulation in the first half slipped 1.36% from the first half of last year as the ongoing plunge in newsstand sales erased 9.25% of single-copy sales, the Audit Bureau of Circulations said today. But how did the magazines that grew find their gains? Read the full story
Newspaper giant Tribune Co. developing tablet device (August 9, 2011)Hoping to take a small slice from Apple's big pie, newspaper publishers are developing tablet computers of their own. The Tribune Co., one of the largest U.S. news enterprises, is working on a touchscreen tablet that it plans to offer to newspaper subscribers, according to people briefed on the plans. Read the full story
Many Magazines Eke Out Gains, or at Least Hold Their Ground, in New Circ Report (August 5, 2011)Most magazines won't put grand slams up on the scoreboard when the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases figures for the first half of the year on Tuesday, but many are grinding out gains -- or at least maintaining position -- despite a very difficult newsstand environment. Others fell, however, as newsstand struggles took their toll. Read the full story
All 21 Time Inc. Magazines To Have Tablet Editions By Year-End (August 3, 2011)With 11 million downloads of its digital magazines and other content apps to date, Time Inc. is moving its entire magazine portfolio to the tablet platform. By year’s end, all 21 Time Inc. titles will be available for download. Read the full story
Conde Nast: 242,000 iPad Subs In First 6 Weeks (August 1, 2011)Conde Nast said Monday it has attracted 242,000 subscribers for iPad editions of its titles in the first six weeks after launching in May. The bulk of the digital sign-ups -- 136,000 -- have come from print subscribers adding the iPad app version at no extra cost. Read the full story
For New Yorker on iPad, Words Are the Thing (July 31, 2011)When magazine publishers began pouring their resources and hopes into the iPad, their thinking was that readers wanted something substantially more than just words on a screen. A simple PDF of a page just would not do. The app had to dazzle the senses. But some consumers, it turns out, just want to read. Read the full story
NOOK for iPad To Offer More Than 175 Digital Magazines (July 26, 2011)In an attempt to be everywhere readers are, Barnes & Noble is updating its NOOK for iPad app to offer digital periodicals to consumers. Simulating the experience of the NOOK Color e-reading device, B & N will offer over 175 magazine and newspaper titles through its updated apps, which are available for free for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Read the full story
Conde Nast, Other Publishers Look to Standardize Audience Metrics In Digital Editions (July 21, 2011)Digital editions, the oft-dubbed “Wild West” of the publishing world, may be charted in the near future. Many publishers are investing large amounts of time and resources to navigating user behavior in tablet editions of magazines, and this data is being used in a variety of ways. Read the full story
TIME Magazine Grants ‘All Access’ to Subscribers (July 19, 2011)Beginning this week, TIME is offering subscribers “All Access” on its multiple platforms. For one price, TIME readers will be able to access the print edition, a new TIME.com magazine channel (pictured) featuring magazine-only content previously not available on the Web and digital issues on the iPad, HP Touchpad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Read the full story
Amazon to Battle Apple iPad With Tablet (July 14, 2011)Amazon.com Inc. has battled Apple Inc. over digital books, digital music and mobile applications. Now the two companies are taking their clash to another front: the tablet market. Amazon plans to release a tablet computer by October, people familiar with the matter said, intensifying its rivalry with Apple's iPad. Read the full story
NAA: Paywalls Pay Off, Tabs Show Promise (July 13, 2011)Newspapers may yet flourish through a combination of revenue diversification, paywall strategies and strategic circulation pricing, the publisher and CEO of the Dallas Morning News said on Wednesday, noting that the tablet platform also offers the industry untapped prospects. Read the full story
Business magazines post strong ad page gains (July 12, 2011)Consumer business magazines posted strong gains in ad pages in the first half of the year, outperforming consumer publications overall, according to Publishers Information Bureau data released by the MPA. Read the full story
Philly Papers to Sell Android Tablets (July 11, 2011)Publishers, desperate to prop up their legacy print business, have been scrambling to put their content on tablet devices. Now the Philadelphia Inquirer and its sibling Philadelphia Daily News are making what may be the boldest tablet push yet. Read the full story
Tablet owners read print newspapers, magazines less often (June 30, 2011)People who use an iPad or other tablet device read printed newspapers, books and magazines less than they used to, according to a recent study by Forrester Research. Almost one-third (32 percent) of tablet owners say they read printed newspapers less often, according to the market research company’s survey of 210 U.S. adults who own tablets. Interestingly, 8 percent said they read newspapers more often now, while 60 percent said there was no change. Read the full story
Magazine joint venture Next Issue Media is adding six titles to its digital storefront on the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android-powered Samsung Galaxy as it unveils an integrated app that allows users to keep their digital reads from any participating magazine in a single place. Read the full story
Tablet Users to Nearly Double by Early Next Year, According to Study (June 22, 2011)Americans with tablets such as the Apple iPad remain a distinct minority among U.S. internet users, a new study said today, but they're growing quickly and very often using their tablets to pay for digital content. Some 28 million U.S. web users between 8 and 64 years old own or use tablets -- 12% of the U.S. "internet population" in that age range -- according to the study from the Online Publishers Association and Frank N. Magid Associates. And their ranks will grow to 54 million, 23% of the U.S. internet population from 8 to 64, by early next year, the study found. Read the full story
Digital Subscriptions Will Lift Magazines But Not Newspapers (June 14, 2011)Publishers of magazines and newspapers are investing millions in tablet-based editions and online paywalls in the hopes that digital subscriptions will offset the steady erosion they’ve been seeing in circulation revenues. The magazine publishers are right, but the newspaper publishers are not, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers, which just released its annual global entertainment and media outlook. Read the full story
Mobile-TV Advertising to Reach $1.4 Billion by 2015, PricewaterhouseCoopers Projects (June 14, 2011)Magazines may be the media sector most visibly jumping into tablet computers like the iPad, but tablets will affect other major media as well. Tablets are poised to help U.S. newspapers increase paid digital circulation to 4.6 million in 2015, for example, with most of the growth coming at general interest newspapers, from 1.5 million last year, primarily at the Wall Street Journal, according to annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was released today. Read the full story
The Times They Are A-Changin’ (June 1, 2011)The complexities of the modern media landscape pose a number of challenges to advertisers and publishers seeking an objective measurement of a newspaper’s audience. Moreover, it’s not so much about the number of readers, but how engaged they are in the content and how they chose to receive that content. With readership migrating to online and mobile distribution, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has made significant rule changes, which took effect with the May 3 release of the semiannual FAS-FAX reports, to reflect the advancements in content distribution. Read the full story
Female Magazine Fans Flock to Nook Color (May 22, 2011)Even as the iPad remains the favorite son of the magazine business, publishers are discovering that the Barnes & Noble Nook Color is a very promising younger daughter. The Nook Color has surprised publishers of women’s magazines like O, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health by igniting strong sales that rival — and in some cases surpass — sales on the iPad. Read the full story
Next Issue Media Newsstand Revealed (May 18, 2011)The publishing industry’s digital newsstand, which has been in the works for two years, is finally up and running. Next Issue Media, a joint venture of Time Inc., Hearst, Condé Nast, Meredith, and News Corp., was set to unveil a “preview” of its digital store Wednesday. Read the full story
Barnes & Noble Brings Periodicals to Android Tablets (May 16, 2011)Barnes & Noble updated its Nook for Android app Friday, adding support for digital periodicals on a variety of Android tablets. Previously, the Nook app only offered digital magazines and newspapers on the Android-powered Nook Color. Now, it will now be available on Android tablets 7 inches and larger, running Android OS 2.1 and higher, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom. It will not be available on Android smartphones. Read the full story
Tablet as Savior? Not So Fast (May 11, 2011)Eleven months ago, when Condé Nast launched its Wired app on the iPad and revealed its impressively strong 100,000 downloads, the company’s chief executive officer Chuck Townsend was extremely proud. “Ca-ching, thank you very much, if you will,” he said a month after the app’s launch. The cash machine then promptly shut off for any title in the industry. The so-called “Jesus Tablet” wasn’t acting very magical. Advertisers stopped returning iPad-related calls. The conventional wisdom from magazine publishers switched to: We can’t have a conversation about this being a business until subscriptions start. Read the full story
Is the iPad Just a New Way to Give Away Magazines? (May 10, 2011)In the last few days, there have been a flurry of deals that suggest that a level of détente between Apple and the Big Three Manhattan publishers (Condé Nast, Time Inc. and Hearst) has finally been reached. For veteran industry watchers, the announcement that Condé had finally agreed to release an iPad version of The New Yorker seemed like the signing of the Salt treaty. The question is what publishers may be giving up to attract new consumers. Read the full story
Now to Sell Advertisers on Tablets (May 8, 2011)If you wanted to get your message in front of a reader of The New Yorker, it would cost you $141,174 for a full-page ad in the magazine’s glossy pages. What would it be worth to reach the same reader if he or she were on an iPad? More, less or the same? Read the full story
The newsonomics of the new ABCs of journalism (May 5, 2011)This week brought us the long-worked-on new counting metrics for American daily newspaper journalism. ABC, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, has long provided The Number. Read the full story
Today’s circulation numbers bring new baseline for measuring newspaper growth or decline (May 3, 2011)Years in the making, a complex new set of rules for measuring newspaper circulation will officially launch with the release today of results for the six-month period that ended March 31. Total paid circulation is gone as the top-line measure. In its place will be a summary number for total average circulation, both paid and "verified." The Audit Bureau of Circulations, which compiles the reports, and the Newspaper Association of America, have both cautioned that the many rule changes mean the results at a given paper cannot be intelligibly compared to those of a year ago. The same is true for a total figure for the industry. But the figures, still reported separately for daily and Sunday, do establish a baseline to measure industry growth or contraction, beginning a year from now and on into the future. Read the full story
'WSJ' Remains Top-Selling U.S. Paper (May 3, 2011)The Wall Street Journal, boosted by a 22 percent increase in sales of its electronic edition, has held on to its crown as the top-selling U.S. newspaper. The WSJ’s total average circulation rose 1.2 percent, to 2.1 million, which included 504,734 digital non-replica copies. The figures came out today as part of the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Fas-Fax circulation report covering the six months ended March 31. Read the full story
Fas-Fax: Major Newspaper E-Editions Circ Rose 20 Percent (May 3, 2011)It looks like the combination of the iPad, Kindle, iPhone and Android is quickly having a positive impact on newspaper e-editions, as the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Fas-Fax numbers shows that the top 25 papers with digital editions rose about 20 percent from last March. While the ABC (NYSE: DIS) is not offering official comparisons for e-editions due to a change in methodology, as of March 31, the top 25 newspapers with e-editions had total digital circ of 1,630,125 compared to the previous year’s 1,363,212. Read the full story
Digital saves day for newspaper subscriptions (May 3, 2011)Thanks to double-digit growth in its digital editions, The Wall Street Journal remains the nation's leading newspaper, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which on Tuesday released results for the six-month period ending March 31. The Dow Jones & Co. paper had total average circulation of 2,117,796 copies Monday through Friday, beating out USA Today, which had 1,829,099. Read the full story
Newspaper circulation reports for six months ending March 31 to be released Tuesday (April 26, 2011)Next week’s FAS-FAX circulation report will reflect new Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) rules and will look different than previous versions. Read the full story
Apple makes bid to become gatekeeper for newspapers and magazines (April 3, 2011)Apple's (AAPL) bold foray into the world of digital publishing could make it the online gatekeeper for newspaper and magazine content, just as it is for music. But for a plan ostensibly designed to help ailing print publishers sign up new readers and thrive in the digital jungle, the Cupertino giant's new subscription model has met with push-back from the industry, mixed reviews from analysts, and rants from bloggers calling the company everything from monopolist to Mafioso. "Apple envisions a world,'' Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey told the BBC, "in which people don't consume any kind of digital media without its help." Read the full story
Digital Editions: Different Ads, Same Circulation (March 23, 2011)Digital editions of magazines don't have to carry the same advertising as print versions to be counted toward total circulation figures, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations board of directors. Read the full story
New ranking combines print-digital reach of metro papers, revealing surprising winners (March 22, 2011)Which American newspaper reaches the most readers in its market if print and online audiences are combined? That seems a fundamental question in an era of hybrid print/digital business models. But in preparing the annual State of the News Media report released last Monday, my colleagues at the Project for Excellence in Journalism and I could not find a ready answer. Read the full story
ABC Board Changes Advertising Requirement for Digital Magazines (March 22, 2011)ecognizing the fluid state of digital magazine publishing, the ABC board of directors has just modified a key requirement for qualifying a "replica" digital edition. Advertising in the print and digital editions no longer needs to be identical. The board's vote at their mid-March meeting was unanimous and the adjustment took effect March 21. Read the full story
ABC to introduce newspaper circulation tool (March 21, 2011)The Audit Bureau of Circulations will launch a tool May 3 that will allow marketers, agencies and publishers to search daily newspaper circulation figures and create customer evaluations from the company's eFAS-FAX report. Read the full story
New York Times to Launch Pay Wall March 28 (March 18, 2011)The New York Times will begin charging readers for unlimited access to the paper's website March 28, an ambitious effort to get consumers to pay for digital news that the paper has long been giving away. Online readers will be able to read as many as 20 articles per month free. At that threshold, they will be offered one of several subscription plans: $15 a month for unlimited visits to the Times online and access to the Times's various apps for smartphones; $20 a month for the Times online and its app on Apple Inc.'s iPad; and for $35 a month, an "All Digital Access" package. Subscribers to the print edition will get full online and mobile privileges. Read the full story
Online readership and ad revenue overtake newspapers (March 14, 2011)For the first time, online readership and advertising revenue has surpassed that of print newspapers. Online advertising revenue in the United States is projected to overtake print newspaper ad revenue in 2010, according to the latest report, the State of the News Media, from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Read the full story
New Research on Ads in Magazine iPad Editions Strengthens Publishers' Case (March 4, 2011)Regular third-party research on ads in magazines' iPad editions is finally taking off and, happily for magazines, is reinforcing the results of publishers' own research and one-off studies. How much of the iPad ads' impressive effects reflects novelty or other factors, however, remains unclear. Ads in the iPad edition of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue were more memorable to readers than ads in the print edition and generated more reader actions, according Affinity's syndicated Vista service. Read the full story
Google Woos Publishers With Payment Service (February 16, 2011)Google Inc. announced a new payment system for online paid content that will give newspaper and magazine publishers a significantly larger share of revenues than a rival service offered by Apple Inc. Under the new service, called Google One Pass, Google will keep 10% of revenues, compared to the 30% cut demanded by Apple for subscriptions sold through its online store. Google's service will also give publishers control of consumer data, something Apple has refused to do. Read the full story
Apple Opens a Door, Keeps Keys (February 16, 2011)Apple Inc. laid out a new subscription service and broad rules cementing its power as gatekeeper for most of the digital content sold through the iPhone and iPad, setting up a battle with media companies that may be thrown off the devices if they won't share revenue or cede control of customer data. Some media companies criticized the plan, saying that the restrictions stack the cards too much in Apple's favor. Read the full story
Despite HP Deal With Time Inc., Magazines and Apple Still Stuck on iPad Subscriptions (February 11, 2011)It suddenly feels like Apple and publishers must be close to a deal on selling subscriptions to magazines' iPad editions. You've got new pressure on Apple in the form of Time Inc.'s deal to sell tablet edition subscriptions on HP's forthcoming TouchPad. You've got a reported compromise on offer from Apple in which publishers' apps could ask new subscribers for all the data they want as long as there's a simpler, side-by-side iTunes subscription method also available right there. And you've got the iPad newspaper The Daily selling subscriptions through iTunes and sharing some of the subscriber data that publishers and Apple both want to control. Read the full story
Yahoo Builds a 'Digital Newsstand' (February 11, 2011)Yahoo Inc. unveiled software for tablet PCs and other mobile devices that serves up a selection of news and entertainment content based on individual user interests, the latest move by the Internet pioneer to ride growth of mobile-device ads. The Yahoo application, called Livestand, is intended initially to showcase content offered by Yahoo, which owns popular news, finance and sports websites. But Yahoo is also offering up the software to other content providers, such as magazines, giving them a chance to have a presence on tablet computers without having to write any apps themselves. Read the full story
Sports Illustrated to sell digital subscriptions (February 10, 2011)Sports Illustrated will start selling digital subscriptions tomorrow afternoon on smartphones and tablets that run on Google’s Android mobile operating system. It marks the first Time Inc. title to have a digital subscription version and is likely to put some pressure on Apple to come to terms with publishers for its iPad apps. The move comes just in time to make SI's best-selling swimsuit issue available as the first digital subscription edition. Read the full story
Consumer Magazine Circulation Falls 1.2 Percent In Second Half 2010 (February 7, 2011)Consumer magazines slowed their general circulation skid, with total paid and verified circ dropping 1.2 percent for the second half of 2010 (compared to a 2.3 percent drop in the first half of the year), according to preliminary figures reported in the Audit Bureau of Circulations' most recent FAS-FAX, which was released Monday. Read the full story
Will millions of people pay for iPad news? (February 4, 2011)Media companies are making big bets on tablet-friendly newspapers and magazines -- even as they bleed cash chasing a still-tiny audience. "I've never seen anything quite like tablets taking off. I don't think you can afford not to make those investments," said Scott Ellison, mobile/connected platforms analyst at IDC. Read the full story
Publishers have tough choices ahead with Apple’s new subscription program (February 4, 2011)With the unveiling of The Daily, we got our first look at Apple’s new iTunes-based periodical subscription service. The feature has been long awaited by publishers, but its implementation is likely to leave many unsatisfied. To its credit, Apple has made it as easy to purchase a weekly newspaper subscription as it is to purchase a hit single for your iPod. In The Daily’s case, the 99-cent weekly price (after a two-week sponsorship by Verizon) is even the same. Read the full story
Apple to Tighten Control on Content (February 3, 2011)Apple Inc. is working to funnel more electronic sales of magazines, newspapers and other content through its iTunes store, an effort that is making some publishers uneasy. The effort is aimed largely at spurring more subscription sales of digital content for Apple's hit iPad, which the company hopes to accelerate with the aid of a coming new delivery and billing system that it discussed at an event Wednesday. At the same time, Apple is tightening enforcement of a rule governing how some apps for the iPad must handle sales, a shift that affects online books as well as other electronic publications. Read the full story
News Corporation Introduces The Daily, a Digital-Only Newspaper (February 2, 2011)Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday pushed the send button on The Daily, a news application designed for the iPad that he hopes will position his News Corporation front and center in the digital newsstand of the future. Read the full story
