Newspaper ad $ drops
for 21st straight quarter
Other shorts: 41 percent still holiday shopping
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Dec 13, 2011
Newspaper ad $ drops for 21st straight quarter
Print media didn’t have much to celebrate during third quarter.
Magazine ad pages fell 5.6 percent during the July to September reporting period, according to previously reported numbers from the Publishers Information Bureau, and newspapers suffered their 21st straight quarterly decline in ad revenue, according to new data posted on the Newspaper Association of America site. Total print and online advertising totaled $5.56 billion, an 8.86 percent dip compared to third quarter 2010. Print revenue alone took a steeper slide, off 10.78 percent, to $4.82 billion. Online gains offset a bit of that dip, rising 6.2 percent to $733 million, but it was still the smallest web growth in a year and a half. There really weren't any silver linings to these numbers. It marked the worst third-quarter revenue total since 1983, continuing the pattern that started last quarter. The last time that newspaper ad revenue rose was 2006.
The word: 41 percent still holiday shopping
Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales saw a big jump this year over last, but not everyone got their shopping done then. Apparently there are still dollars out there waiting to be spent. That's according to a study from PriceGrabber, an online shopping comparison site, which found that 41 percent of consumers still have not finished their holiday shopping. Apparently some of them are waiting to find even more spectacular deals than the ones offered after Thanksgiving. Fully 43 percent of respondents say they expect to find bargains to buy. But some aren't influenced by discounting. An equal percentage said they've been too busy to shop, while 26 percent said they're simply procrastinating (respondents could choose more than one response). Twenty-two percent prefer waiting until the final days before Christmas to shop, and 10 percent cannot buy presents until they get their year-end bonus. PriceGrabber predicts that retailers will
continue to offer incentives like those seen before Thanksgiving to draw in the last-minute shoppers.
Drinking game: Bud slates show on ABC
It's hard to say who comes off looking more desperate out of this deal, Budweiser or ABC. The latter has agreed to run a Saturday afternoon reality show featuring the former as the title presenter starting next month, the latest in a very small but growing number of shows sponsored by a single brand. "Bud United Presents: The Big Time" will debut Jan. 21 for a seven-week run in which contestants (presumably beer guzzlers) will compete in sports, music and cooking challenges, interspersed with cameos from borderline celebrities like former major league pitcher Frank Viola, who will give them tips for the mound. Bud's angle is clear: Boosting sales. Sales for the brand have fallen for 22 years running, according to the Wall Street Journal, and now it's in danger of dropping to the country's No. 3 beer brand after Bud Light and challenger Coors Light. Bud promises it will keep the show tasteful, without extensive branding or logos littering the sets, because it doesn't want to turn off viewers, though contestants are expected to celebrate their triumphs with a Bud toast at the end of the show. This is ABC's second close collaboration with advertisers in the past two years, after Unilever and Sprint produced the 2009 comedy "In the Motherhood," based on a series of webisodes. ABC is not alone. And Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart produced several movies with NBC earlier this year.
Study: Millennials do embrace traditional ads
Millennial audiences are savvy with new media and want to use such channels to connect with brands, but there is still also room to reach them via traditional media as well. That's according to the latest survey from Ypulse, which tracks youth behavior and culture. The survey found that when shopping for back-to-school items, students mostly preferred to hear about deals and sales through traditional mail, email, TV and newspapers rather than newer options such as Facebook, text alerts and Twitter messages. That said, Millennials do expect brands to have a social media presence--56 percent say social media is a great way to find out what's new with brands, and 64 percent have "liked" a brand on Facebook. It is a bit of a balancing act for brands, however, with 14 percent of respondents reporting "un-liking" a brand on Facebook. Among the reasons why, 59 percent said the brand sent too many messages and 12 percent said they want their social network to be more personal.
Programming notes: 'Face the Nation' expands
After more than 50 years on the air, CBS's
Sunday morning news program "Face the Nation" is getting a facelift. Beginning in April the show will move from a half-hour to an hour-long format, matching NBC's "Meet the Press," ABC's "This Week" and "Fox News Sunday." Hour-long editions of "Face the Nation" will air for at least 20 weeks, and the network hopes to make the move permanent after that. Meanwhile, in other programming, Discovery Fit & Health will premiere a new season of "Dr. G: Medical Examiner" on Dec. 30, with the special "Dr. G: Inside the Caylee Anthony Case" airing on Jan. 1. Also on Dec. 30 Animal Planet will roll out the second season of "Infested!" with the first of nine new episodes. On Jan. 3 G4 will debut the fourth season of "Campus PD," which follows police officers in college towns. Five days later, on Jan. 8, Animal Planet will premiere the new series "Gator Boys," about a company that rescues alligators in South Florida. Discovery Channel on Jan. 9 will launch "First Week In," which follows first-time offenders during their opening days in prison. Syfy will bring back "Being Human" for a second season beginning on Jan. 16 at 9 p.m., followed by the series premiere of the new drama "Lost Girl." On Jan. 21 Investigation Discovery will debut "Scorned: Love Kills," with the first of 20 episodes. Oxygen on Feb. 7 will premiere the second season of "Jersey Couture," a reality show that follows a beauty shop in South New Jersey. Elsewhere, Lifetime has canceled its first-year drama "Against the Wall" starring Rachael Carpani, which averaged 1.6 million total viewers per episode. Style Network has opted not to pick up a fifth season of "Ruby" now but says it could be back in the future. And USA yesterday said it will hold its upfront presentation during the same week as the broadcast networks, with its event taking place on May 17 at Alice Tully Hall's Starr Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. Fellow cablers Turner Networks and ESPN also do their presentations that week.
Hola, Spain: HuffPost launches newest edition
Having seemingly
conquered the U.S., AOL's Huffington Post is about to invade Spain. The web site has come to an agreement with PRISA, parent company of the newspaper El Pais, to produce a new Madrid-based version of the site called El Huffington Post. The new web site, which is scheduled to launch during the first quarter of next year, won't be the first international edition of the Huffington Post. Earlier this year versions of the site launched in Canada and the UK, and it will soon launch French versions called Le Huffington Post France and Le Huffington Post Quebec. Founder Arianna Huffington is reportedly considering launching further international editions in Germany, Italy, Japan, Turkey and Brazil, according to Capital New York. The Huffington Post is currently hiring translators to work in New York who will translate stories for the international versions of the site.
|
|
|
