Hello, goodbye
to Detroit Daily Press
Other shorts: Friday overnights: 'Ice Age' boosts Fox to No. 1
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Nov 30, 2009
Detroit paper shuts down days after launch
There have been a lot of newspaper closures over the past year, but this may set a record for shortest lifespan. Less than a week after the Detroit Daily Press launched, the paper has suspended operations, citing a number of business-side problems. A statement on the newspaper's Facebook page promises that the paper will be back, though that certainly seems difficult to believe, given the generally sour economy and poor advertising climate for newspapers in particular. "Due to circumstances beyond our control, lack of advertising, lateness of our press runs and lack of distribution and sales, we find it necessary to temporarily suspend publication of the Detroit Daily Press" until next year, the statement says. The paper launched Nov. 23 and was slated to begin home delivery today, hoping to attract readers of the Detroit News and Free Press, which have eliminated home delivery on most weekdays. At launch, Daily Press publishers Mark and Gary Stern had promised to charge lower ad rates than their competitors. But critics questioned the wisdom of launching anything, much less a newspaper, in a year when publications such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News have already shut down.
Friday overnights: 'Ice Age' boosts Fox to No. 1
Perhaps Fox should just air movies on Friday nights instead of original scripted fare. They certainly deliver better numbers.
Fox’s “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown” on Friday night led the network to a rare victory on the night and its best numbers in months, a 1.4 average adults 18-49 overnight rating and a 4 share. Univision was second at 1.3/4, CBS third at 1.2/4, ABC and NBC tied for fourth at 1.1/4 and CW sixth at 0.5/1.
As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Thirty-three percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.
At 8 p.m. Fox and CBS tied for first a 1.3, Fox for the first half of its movie and CBS for a repeat of “Ghost Whisperer,” with Univision third with a 1.2 for “El Nombre del Amor.” NBC was fourth with a 1.1 for the first hour of the movie “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” ABC fifth with a 0.9 for “Supernanny” and CW sixth with a 0.6 for a repeat of “Smallville.”
Fox and Univision tied for first at 9 p.m., each with a 1.5 rating, Fox for the end of “Ice” and Univision for “Sortilegio.” NBC was third with a 1.3 for the end of its movie, CBS fourth with a 1.1 for a “Medium” rerun, ABC fifth with a 0.9 for “Ugly Betty” and CW sixth with a 0.3 for a repeat of “America’s Next Top Model.”
At 10 p.m. ABC took the lead with a 1.6 for “20/20,” with CBS and Univision tied for second at 1.1, CBS for a repeat of “Numb3rs” and Univision for “Rosa de Guadalupe.” NBC was fourth with a 1.0 for a repeat of “The Jay Leno Show.”
CBS led the night among households with a 3.5 average overnight rating and a 6 share. ABC was second at 2.9/5, Fox third at 2.6/5, NBC fourth at 2.4/4, Univision fifth at 1.7/3 and CW sixth at 0.8/1.
Saturday overnights: Irish eyes smile on ABC
Notre Dame football may not be what it once was, but it did help bring in a few extra viewers to ABC’s Saturday night college football coverage.
ABC’s football coverage on Saturday, which featured Notre Dame versus Stanford in 74 percent of the country (with Georgia Tech-Georgia in the remaining 26 percent), averaged a 1.7 overnight rating among viewers 18-49 and just under 6.0 million total viewers, according to Nielsen overnights, up slightly from the previous week’s 1.6 rating and 5.3 million total viewers.
ABC averaged a 1.7 18-49 rating and 5 share for the night for first place, with Fox a close second at 1.6/5. NBC was third at 1.3/4, CBS fourth at 1.0/3 and Univision fifth at 0.8/2.
As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Thirty-three percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.
Also, ratings for ABC’s football coverage are approximate as fast nationals measure timeslot and not actual program data.
At 8 p.m. ABC and Fox tied for the lead, each with a 1.7 rating, ABC for football and Fox for an hour of “Cops.” NBC was third that hour with a 1.1 for a rerun of the special “Merry Madagascar” (1.0) and the first half hour of the movie “The Incredibles,” with CBS and Univision tied for fourth at 0.6, CBS for a repeat of “The Good Wife” and Univision for the first of three hours of “Sabado Gigante.”
ABC and Fox tied for first again at 9 p.m., each with a 1.6, ABC for football and Fox for “America’s Most Wanted.” NBC was third with a 1.4 for “The Incredibles,” CBS fourth with a 1.2 for a “Criminal Minds” rerun and Univision fifth with a 0.8 for more “Sabado.”
At 10 p.m. ABC was first with a 1.7 for football, with NBC second with a 1.5 for the end of its movie. CBS was third with a 1.3 for “48 Hours Mystery” and Univision fourth with a 0.9 for the last hour of “Sabado.”
ABC also led the night among households with a 3.8 average overnight rating and a 7 share. CBS was second at 3.7/7, Fox third at 3.1/6, NBC fourth at 2.0/4 and Univision fifth at 1.3/2.
IAB: Web ad sales off 5.4 percent in 3Q
Online ad sales were off compared to 2008 for the third time this year, but there's some reason for optimism. For the first time since 2008, revenue was up on a quarter-to-quarter basis, according to numbers released Wednesday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Third quarter online ad revenue was almost $5.5 billion, down 5.4 percent from the same period last year. But compared to second quarter, revenue was up 1.7 percent, from $5.43 billion. It was the biggest quarter yet this year, and it was the latest indicator that the media economy is starting to come back, however slowly, after an atrocious first half. Economists have been saying that ad sales likely bottomed out during second quarter, when just about every media category was down compared to 2008. Online sales have not been hit nearly as hard as other sectors; up until this year, it was a segment that had seen rapid year-to-year growth, and in fact many advertisers are still moving their money to the web from more expensive media like television, magazines and radio.
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