Weekly new and digital media story 1

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/stephen-foster-futures-online-rupert-murdoch-shows-print-isnt-dead-times-newspapers-turn-1478643

Stephen Foster: The future's online but Rupert Murdoch shows print isn't dead as Times Newspapers turn a profit

Foster comments on the recent profits made by Rupert Murdoch through the Times newspaper and his use of the paywall, as mentioned in a previous news post.

The article states Foster's beliefs as to why newspapers still use the print format despite online content clearly looking like the future of newspapers.

He states that the first reason is the sense of prestige and tradition that comes with the print format.

The second reason is due to money, as hundreds of journalists at newspapers such as the Guardian would be made redundant.

He also states that newspapers are still the popular format with the older generations.

Weekly new and digital media story 2

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/01/gadget-obsessed-uk-top-digital-advertising-spend

UK set to be first country in which more than half of ad spend goes digital

More than 50% of £15.7bn advertiser spend will go on digital and online media in 2015 beating print, cinema, buses, billboards, TV and radio combined

The UK is predicted to become the first country in the world where more than half of all advertising spend goes to digital media – thanks to a national obsession with gadgets, social media and online shopping.

Group M, the worldwide media buying arm of the market services company WPP, has forecast that the total UK ad market will hit £15.7bn in 2015. Within this online spend is forecast to grow 12.7% year-on-year to break the £8bn mark, making the UK the first in which more than £1 in every £2 of ad spend will go on digital media.

Next year more money will be spent on internet advertising than in traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, TV, cinema, radio, and billboards, posters and buses combined.

According to Group M paid search advertising will grow to £4.2bn, with about 29% of that on mobile devices, most of which is hoovered up by Google, which has more than 90% share of the UK market.

The fastest-growing part of the internet market is display advertising, which is forecast to surge 20% next year to £2.7bn, with 39% of that mobile display advertising.

The next closest countries likely to reach the milestone are Sweden (47% of total ad spend will be digital), Denmark (43%), Australia (42%) and Norway (40%).

• Group M is forecasting that more than £160m in print advertising will be lost from the UK newspaper market next year.

• National newspaper advertising is predicted to decline 8.3% to £908m next year, and £80m year-on-year fall.

• Regional newspapers are expected to see a 9.1% fall in print ad revenues to £820m, a fall of £82m year-on-year.

In my opinion this highlights the massive impact new and digital media is having on society and advertisers realise that online is now the best place to advertise their products.

This links to the issue of newspaper funding and constant losses, as advertisers no longer see newspapers as a major form of media in which they can advertise their rpoducts due to the decline of print media, causing newspapers to make constant losses and proven by the fact that broadsheets are predicted to lose 160m in print advertising due to advertisers faouring the internet. 

I think that this is further evidence that the only way newspapers can hope to survive is to move online and possibly scrap the print format entirely as it is not economically viable, and the only way they can gain income from advertising is if they move online, which would result in more ads, in addition to possibly adding a paywall like some institutions have done such as The Times.

Weekly new and digital media story 1

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be412f12-7a1d-11e4-8958-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3KoONdJcS

Times newspaper turns first operating profit since 2001

Rupert Murdoch’s Times newspaper titles have reported their first operating profit in 13 years, bringing an end to a stretch of losses that totalled nearly £400m.

Times Newspapers, publisher of The Times and the Sunday Times, made an operating profit of £1.7m in the year ending June 2014. That compares with an operating loss of £5.9m last year.

Chris Duncan, chief marketing officer of parent company News UK, said the figures vindicated its strategy of charging for online content. But he added that the financial performance was still insufficient for the newspapers’ journalism to be sustainable.

Newspapers across Europe are struggling to maintain profitability, as they compete for readers’ time and advertisers’ budgets online. Among UK broadsheets, the Times, the Guardian and the Independent titles have all reported operating losses in recent years, while the Daily Telegraph has consistently made an operating profit.

• The Times’ total paid sales rose 3 per cent year-on-year to 545,000 in October, including digital subscriptions which increased 8 per cent to 152,000.

• The Sunday Times, which is more reliant on news-stand sales than the Times, saw a 2 per cent fall in sales over the same period. Total paid sales were 958,000 in October, with digital subscribers increasing 12 per cent to 154,000.

• The Times and The Sunday Times have both prioritised their own tablet apps, rather than relying on readers finding articles via search engines or social media.

In my opinion I think the profits made by the Times from subscriptions and by utilising new media by focusing on their tablet apps highlights the direction that newspapers and journalism is going in and that this is one of the first signs of many changes to come within the news industry. 

I think that these profits made by the times, even if they are not substantial, still prove that major newspaper institutions can survive under the pay wall, subscription format despite the free content offered by the BBC with the Times likely to have these profits increase annually. Therefore I think that other institutions that are constantly making losses are eventually going to take a similar approach to survive, and the fact that the Times is benefiting from this switch to the pay wall will encourage others who will have been apprehensive.

Although, aside from the Times and other major news institutions, I do think that the switch to pay walls will eventually lead to the end of many local newspapers, as they too will be unable to run without one eventually and people are unlikely to pay a subscription fee for a local newspapers, only the major institutions will benefit from it.  

Marxism & Pluralism - To What Extent.. (essay)

Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values.  To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

In my opinion audiences are not empowered by the developments of new and digital media and instead the media has provided a convenient platform for the elite to control the masses.

A pluralist view however would argue that the internet and new media has empowered us, providing a platform for anyone, irrelevant of race or social standing, can express their views online and therefore empowering us by giving everyone a voice. This is highlighted by the emergence of social media sites such as Facebook, twitter and blogger in which people can express any views or information they wish to share. The recent dapper laughs incident in which the internet star had his show taken off the air on ITV2 due to sexist and offensive remarks proves this, as it was an online petition and social media outrage that heavily influenced the decision to pull the show.

However I believe in the marxist and hegemonic view that this idea of empowerment online through free speech is false, as it is the elite, major institutions who hold the opinions that are actually recognised and viewed by people. New media may enable people to express their views on various issues, but how many people are going to view, and be influenced by a view expressed by someone's blog, as opposed to one expressed on a major institution such as The Guardian or the BBC. Therefore most opinions online are insignificant and have almost no affect on the majority of people, instead it is only the elite who have their voices heard and influence people. An example of this is the BBC's coverage of the Scottish referendum. The BBC, supposedly an impartial organisation, was heavily criticised for its coverage which heavily sided against independence. This highlights the power of major institutions and their influence on people, as being such a large institution the bias coverage surely would have influenced people to be anti independence, as opposed to a tweet or blog of someone pro independence, who's views will have barely influenced anyone. Also it can be argued that any blog or social network message can be easily removed and deleted by the major institution the message was posted on, without the publishers knowledge or consent highlighting the hegemonic structure in place online.

 Another pluralistic argument of new media empowerment would be that the internet provides us with an array of information almost instantly, with websites such as Wikipedia allowing us to be enriched my information on virtually every subject online.

However much of the information available online is false, with websites such as Wikipedia negatively impacting younger students by not only providing them with false information, but introducing a culture of plaguarism in which online material can be easily copied and handed in as someone else's work. A marxist would argue this is a ploy by the elite to keep the masses on a lower level than themselves, limiting their intelligence by creating this culture of plagiarism and as a result solidifying their status at the top.