Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Philippines Here We Come
Merly and I are headed to Ontario Airport for the long flight to the Philippines.
Interactive Advertising Bureau: Digital ad spending at record
The figure represents the most advertisers
have ever spent on digital media in a first half of a year and a “dramatic 23
percent year-over-year increase from the $40.3 billion reported for the same
period in 2017,” according to IAB.
The report cites the direct brand economy and
the related increase in mCommerce as partly responsible for the growth.
“This landmark figure cements digital
advertising — whether display, search or mobile video — as one of the most
powerful mechanisms of all time for brands to build relationships with
consumers,” said Randall Rothenberg, CEO of IAB. "It’s a truth upon which
direct-to-consumer brands have built their businesses, and from which all
businesses can benefit.”
Other details from the report include: digital
video advertising revenue reached $7 billion in the first half of 2018, up 35
percent from a year ago, with 60 percent of this revenue was from mobile video;
mobile, which now accounts for nearly two-thirds of all digital ad revenue,
continues to be the internet’s leading ad platform, up from 54 percent of total
revenues in half-year 2017; and social media revenue was $13.1 billion in the
first half, up 38 percent year-over-year.
Association of Magazine Media: Magazine ‘pie’ growing
The total audience for magazine media — at 1.7 billion —
continues to grow year-over-year (+1.4 percent), according to the Association
of Magazine Media’s September 2018 Magazine Media 360° Brand Audience Report.
Performance by media platform mirrored that of
the previous month and demonstrates that the magazine audience “pie” is growing
overall, according to the Association of Magazine Media.
Twenty-seven magazine media brands have
monthly video audiences of more than a million, out of the 112 magazine brands
in the report, MediaPost points out.
Tuesday Morning in the Blogosphere
We fly tonight at 10:30 PM to the Philippines
How to fight information overload and find signals in the noise - Poynter
Trump’s Lies Are a Virus, and News Organizations Are the Host - Atlantic
Southwest suburban newspapers seek aid for Malibu - The Mokena Messenger
Why the Decline of Newspapers Is Bad for the Environment - Pacific Standard
How a Small-Town Newspaper Editor Won a Pulitzer Prize - New York Times
Announcing the Quartz AI Studio, designed to help journalists use machine learning - Quartz
Collaborative effort between student newspapers explores cannabis policies - University Affairs
Why Covering the Environment is One of the Most Dangerous Beats in Journalism - Nieman Lab
Facebook-NY Times fight gets ugly: Social network slams newspaper's 'inaccuracies' - Fox News
IFRA, DCX expo going to two days
The 2019 IFRA World Publishing Expo and DCX Digital
Content Expo will be a two-day affair. The move comes after requests by
exhibitors, the organizers said.
“The industry needs the trade fair as a
platform in an even more concentrated format,” said Expo Project Manager Alena
Kluge. “That’s why we decided to focus the event for the coming year on two
packed days on 8 and 9 October 2019 at Messe Berlin Berlin
The Final Report of Expo 2018 is available.
Also, presentation slides can be downloaded from
the Expo website, the organizers said.
Kodak selling Flexographic Packaging Division to Montagu
Eastman Kodak Company has agreed to sell its
Flexographic Packaging Division to Montagu Private Equity, a Europe-based
private equity firm, Kodak announced Nov. 12. The business will operate as a
standalone company that will develop, manufacture and sell flexographic
products, including the flagship Kodak Flexcel NX System, to the packaging
print segment.
Under its new ownership, the business will have the same organizational structure and management team that has served Kodak’s Flexographic Packaging Division in recent years, the company said. Chris Payne, who has served as president of the Flexographic Packaging Division for the last three years, will lead the new company as CEO.
Kodak expects to receive total value of up to $390 million from the sale, the company says. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.
“Over the past five years, the Flexographic Packaging business has grown and thrived within Kodak and has become a significant player in the packaging print industry,” said a news release from Kodak on the sale.
Proceeds from the transaction will be used by Kodak to reduce outstanding term debt, Kodak says.
“Following this transaction, Kodak will continue to focus on the demonstrated growth areas ofSonora
Visit News and Tech
Under its new ownership, the business will have the same organizational structure and management team that has served Kodak’s Flexographic Packaging Division in recent years, the company said. Chris Payne, who has served as president of the Flexographic Packaging Division for the last three years, will lead the new company as CEO.
Kodak expects to receive total value of up to $390 million from the sale, the company says. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.
“Over the past five years, the Flexographic Packaging business has grown and thrived within Kodak and has become a significant player in the packaging print industry,” said a news release from Kodak on the sale.
Proceeds from the transaction will be used by Kodak to reduce outstanding term debt, Kodak says.
“Following this transaction, Kodak will continue to focus on the demonstrated growth areas of
Visit News and Tech
Today in Labor History
Rose Pesotta
First use of the term “scab,” by Albany Typographical Society. – 1816
Norman Thomas was born on this day. Thomas was a Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. – 1884
The time clock was invented by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, NewYork. Bundy’s brother Harlow started mass producing them a year later. – 1888
A mine fire in Telluride, Colorado, killed 28 miners, prompting a union call for safer work conditions. – 1901
Rose Pesotta, union organizer, anarchist, and vice president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, was bornCLICK TO TWEET. Pesotta began working in a shirtwaist factory in New York in 1913 and there became involved with ILGWU Local 25. She went on to organize tirelessly for the union around the country and in 1934 was elected vice president of the ILGWU, the first woman to hold that position. – 1896
Bituminous coal workers went on strike directly against the US government, which had seized all the bituminous coal mines on May 21. The government secured an injunction against the strike, resulting in $3.5 million fine against the UMW. – 1946
The Consolidated Coal Company’s No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, exploded, killing 78 miners. The explosion was large enough to be felt in Fairmont, almost 12 miles away. At the time, 99 miners were inside. Over the course of the next few hours, 21 miners were able to escape the mine, but 78 were still trapped. The bodies of 19 of the dead were never recovered. – 1968
The Great Recession hit high gear when the stock market fell to its lowest level since 1997. Adding to the mess: a burst housing bubble and total incompetence and greed, some of it criminal, on the part of the nation’s largest banks and Wall Street investment firms. Officially, the recession lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. – 2008
Monday, November 19, 2018
National Newspaper Association has new management team
The National Newspaper Association has engaged Lynne Lance
Association Management (LLAM) to operate its headquarters after Jan. 1, 2019.
NNA is an organization of 2,400 members representing community newspapers
around the country.
Lance previously served as NNA’s chief
operating officer during its management by Illinois Press Association. NNA’s
management relationship with IPA ends December 31.
“NNA has benefitted from the solid expertise
of newspaper people during our term with IPA,” NNA President Andrew Johnson,
publisher of the Dodge County Pionier (Wisconsin
NNA’s headquarters moved to IPA in Springfield , Illinois , in
2015 after a period with split office locations in Columbia ,
Missouri , and Falls Church , Virginia Washington
Borsen-Zeitung moves production to Methode platform
German financial daily Borsen-Zeitung, based in Frankfurt , has transferred its editorial production to
EidosMedia’s digital publishing platform Methode.
Borsen-Zeitung’s portfolio includes a daily
broadsheet edition, a web portal, an e-paper edition and a mobile app. The
paper’s readership in the German financial markets is mainly subscription-based.
“We were looking for a system that would allow
us to edit our daily print and digital editions integrally,” said Stephan Lorz,
head of the Borsen-Zeitung newsroom. “And we wanted to improve the connection
to our external correspondents by better integrating them into the editorial
system.”
Using the new solution, correspondents will be
able to participate in the newsroom workflow via the Swing web-based interface.
Swing enables remote employees to create multimedia stories from any location,
according to EidosMedia.
In the first phase of the project, the
Borsen-Zeitung moved production of the print daily to the new platform. In the
next phases, an e-paper will be launched, generated directly from the Methode
workflow.
The system serves around 80 users in
Frankfurt’s central editorial office and external correspondents’ offices in Germany
Monday Night in the Blogosphere
Trump's gift to newspapers - Arkansas Times
Johnston Press: Publisher of i paper bought out - BBC News
Gustavo Arellano, many others join LA Times staff - LAObserved
Shedding Some Light on Tribune Publishing Company - Hawthorn Caller
Seventeen Magazine Eliminating Frequency After 74 Years in Print - Folio
Facebook Gives £4.5m to Fund 80 Local Newspaper Jobs in UK - Guardian
American newsrooms still don’t represent their diverse communities - Poynter
If You Hate the Media, You’re More Likely to be Fooled by a Fake Headline - NL
Political polarization increases after local newspapers close - Journalist's Resource
With Five New Hires, Hearst UK Merges Print and Digital Branded Content Teams - Digiday
Meredith sells Fortune
Meredith announced an agreement to sell the Fortune media
brand for $150 million cash to Fortune Media Group Holdings Limited,
owned by Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon. The deal was announced Nov. 9
and is expected to close in 2018.
Jiaravanon is affiliated with the Charoen
Pokphand Group, an international conglomerate with businesses in telecom and
media, agro-food and other sectors.
Jiaravanon will own Fortune as a personal
private investment independent of C.P. Group's family businesses.
Meredith acquired Fortune as part of its
purchase of Time Inc., which closed on January 31, 2018. Meredith
announced Sept. 16 that it has agreed to sell the Time media brand to Marc and
Lynne Benioff for $190 million in cash.
In spring, Meredith had announced it was
selling Fortune, Time, Money and Sports Illustrated.
Quartz launches app, paid membership product
News platform Quartz has introduced a new app and a
membership product.
The new Quartz app delivers the news with the
help of the community it covers, complementing Quartz’s journalism at qz.com and across its
email newsletters, bots, and existing chat app, the company says.
At launch, the app will feature commentary and
selections from the Quartz Pros, a selection of business and thought leaders,
including Richard Branson, Ian Bremmer, Joe Lubin, Sallie Krawcheck, Kai-Fu
Lee, Dawn Airey, Reshma Saujani, and Adam Grant.
The Quartz app’s launch is supported by
founding sponsors Deloitte and Prudential Financial.
The other new product is Quartz membership, a
paid offering for readers.
Members will have access to content on both qz.com and the Quartz
app as well as events and conference calls with Quartz journalists, the company
says. Memberships are $14.99 per month, or $99.99 per year for founding
members.
“Over Quartz’s first six years, we’ve served a
community of business people obsessed with the global forces reshaping our work
and our lives,” said Kevin J. Delaney, Quartz editor-in-chief and co-CEO. “The
new membership and platform products will deepen the journalism we’re providing
to users, and provide a way for them to continuously engage around the news
with us, the Quartz Pros, and each other.”
The offerings come three months after Quartz,
with headquarters in New York and London
Today in Labor History
6,000 members of the United Garment Workers of America struck at 27 wholesale houses in Chicago, which were then members of the National Wholesale Tailors’ Association. – 1904
Joe Hill, IWW organizer and songwriter was executed by a Utah firing squad after being convicted of murder on trumped-up charges.CLICK TO TWEETWhile in prison, Hill sent a telegram to IWW leader Big Bill Haywood: “Goodbye Bill. I die like a true blue rebel. Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize!” In a later telegram, he added, “Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line to be buried? I don’t want to be found dead in Utah. His ashes were supposedly sprinkled in every state of the union, except Utah. However, it is said that the IWWstill keeps a small vial of some of his remaining ashes. – 1915
The nation’s first automatic toll collection machine was used at the Union Toll Plaza on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway. – 1954
The National Writers Union was founded, representing freelance and contract writers and others in the trade. In 1992 it merged into and became a local of the United Auto Workers. – 1981
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Saturday Morning in the Blogosphere
Los Angeles Times kittens adopted by the staff
Imperial partners with Times newspapers - Imperial College London
A lot of sales circulars coming Thanksgiving Day - Lock Haven Express
Owner of the Scotsman and i newspapers enters administration - Guardian
New Business Models No Longer Rely on Large Profits or Staff Sizes - IJNET
How McClatchy Plans to Pursue National Advertisers’ Digital Budgets - Digiday
'Los Angeles Times' Photographer On Documenting California's Wildfires - NPR
CIA Concludes Saudi Crown Prince Ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s Assassination - WaPo
Seven weekly newspapers within the River Media stable have been sold - The Irish News
Judge orders Jim Acosta's 'hard pass' be restored in CNN lawsuit against Trump - Poynter
Passions can help sell subscriptions
The newspaper industry is learning how to better
understand the passions of readers to attract and retain subscribers. The New
York Times reportedly now earns two-thirds of its revenue from subscriptions.
Hearst is targeting having 30 percent of its revenue come from subscribers.
One of the
more innovative efforts to attract paying subscribers is under way at the Omaha
World-Herald, flagship daily of BH Media Group. Omaha
“Our
company has invested in technology and taken other actions to improve digital
subscribers’ user experience,” Publisher Terry Kroeger said in a column to
readers when Subscriber Plus launched. “Digital subscribers will enjoy faster
loading web pages, fewer advertisements and special offers. ... Digital
subscribers also will enjoy first access to all of The World-Herald’s content,
including a handful of stories and photo galleries designated for subscribers
only.”
Understatement:
Football is important in Nebraska
The state
is home of perhaps the most passionate fans in the nation.
A shroud of
sadness rolled over the state last fall from Omaha
to Kimball, and from Chadron to Falls City when Nebraska
So when, in
December, Nebraska
The
World-Herald’s news staff jumped all over the story. And once Omaha
The
World-Herald doubled down on the program in early February as National Signing
Day approached. Fans who wanted to know the full story of each recruit signed –
or lost – by the Cornhuskers, had to establish a business relationship with Omaha.com.
Under the
Subscriber Plus program, the World-Herald offers a first-month rate of 99 cents
that converts to $9.95 a month on an auto-renewing basis. Omaha
Today in Labor History
Martin Irons
The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen was founded on this date in 1785 in a tavern in New York City. The Society, which still exists today, created a library, clubhouse, bank and school for their apprentices, mechanics, tradesmen and their families. – 1785
Martin Irons died near Waco, Texas. Born in Dundee, Scotland, he emigrated to the U.S. at age 14. He joined the Knights of Labor and in 1886 led a strike of 200,000 workers against the Jay Gould-owned Union Pacific and MissouriCLICK TO TWEETrailroad. The strike was crushed, Irons was blacklisted and he died broken-down and penniless. Said Mother Jones: “The capitalist class hounded him as if he had been a wild beast.” – 1900
To the huge relief of Post Office Department employees, the service set a limit of 200 pounds a day to be shipped by any one customer. Builders were finding it cheaper to send supplies via post than via wagon freight. In one instance, 80,000 bricks for a new bank were shipped parcel post from Salt Lake City to Vernal, Utah, 170 miles away. The new directive also barred the shipment of humans: a child involved in a couple’s custody fight was shipped—for 17¢—from Stillwell to South Bend, Indiana, in a crate labeled “live baby” – 1916
Ben Reitman, hobo organizer, anarchist and one time partner of Emma Goldman, died on this date. Reitman served as a doctor for hobos and the downtrodden and participated in numerous free speech fights and anarchist causes, getting beaten, tarred and feathered, jailed, and run out of town for his troubles, most notably during the San Diego free speech fight. He also wrote the book, Boxcar Bertha. – 1942
With many U.S. political leaders gripped by the fear of communism and questioning citizen loyalties in the years following World War II, the Screen Actors Guild voted to force its officers to take a “non-communist” pledge. A few days earlier the Hollywood Ten had been called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. – 1947
The National Football League Association, which represents the nation’s professional football players, ended a strike that lasted 57 days. The labor action was effective: while it was ongoing, not a single major league football game was played. Because of the strike, the football season lasted only nine games per team, an almost 50 percent reduction from the originally scheduled 16. The players were demanding a percentage of profit revenues, which the NFL refused. Eventually, the players won a new contract, which provided an increase in salaries and post-season pay, as well as bonuses and severance packages for retiring players. – 1982
The U.S. House of Representatives approved the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 234 for, 200 against. It passed in the U.S. Senate by 61 for, 38 against. President Bill Clinton signed the agreement into law on December 8, 1993, stating that “NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs”. What it actually meant was job losses, decreased wages, and attacks on public interest laws. – 1993
Friday, November 16, 2018
Memorial Service for Harold Rios
Memorial service for Harold Rios, retired pressman
at the Los Angeles Times, will be held on November 30th, 2018 at 10:00 A.M.
La Cresenta ,Calif.
91214
818-249-6131
Immediately following Mr.
Rios’ service a gathering will be held at the
AmericanLegion-Post 377 located at 10039
Pinewood Ave
Tribune Publishing extends partnership with Taboola
Discovery platform Taboola has announced an exclusive
three-year partnership with Tribune Publishing Company, bringing the Taboola
Feed to Tribune Publishing’s digital audiences. The deal builds on an existing
partnership between Taboola and Tribune Publishing with the goal of increasing
user engagement and generating revenue across its digital portfolio, according
to a release from Taboola.
Under the partnership, Tribune Publishing will
launch the Taboola Feed on all digital properties, which include the Chicago
Tribune, the Baltimore
Tribune Publishing’s New York Daily News was
the first publisher partner to test Taboola Feed on mobile and desktop in May
2017.
Taboola Feed is a vertical-scrolling feed that
enables users to access content including articles, in-feed video, app
downloads, premium content and more on mobile web and in-app. Similar to how
people experience social networks, Taboola Feed encourages audiences to stay
engaged on a publisher’s site by scrolling through a personalized stream of
content, video and other experiences the user might be interested in
discovering next, according to the company.
Taboola is headquartered in New York City
Today in Labor History
The Ravensdale
Coal Mine
The Ravensdale coal mine explosion killed 31 workers in Washington
A county judge in Punxsutawney ,
Pennsylvania
New York Magazine to have digital subscription offering
New York Magazine will have a digital subscription offering
starting later this month, the magazine announced.
The offering will involve Vulture, the Cut, Intelligencer, the Strategist, and Grub Street, which produce around 150 stories daily. “The product is conceived as a general-interest magazine applied to digital — short and long stories, serious and funny, highbrow and lowbrow,” according to the magazine.
A new nymag.com homepage will be posted in coordination with the subscription product, to highlight content from around the New York Media network.
New York Media says it has a global audience of 45 million readers per month.
Its latest site is Intelligencer, which started covering politics, tech, and business last month. A new listings product covering the best restaurants and bars in
The cost of the digital subscription will be $5 per month, with a dynamic meter (versus a static paywall based on a set number of articles). Readers will be prompted to subscribe based on a mix of data points and they will be alerted as they near the limit of free articles.
Existing print subscribers will have access to the digital product at no added cost. New digital plus print subscriptions will be $70 per year.
“We’re aiming to separate casual browsers from superfans, and forge a deeper relationship with those fans who are passionate about what we do,” says New York Media CEO Pam Wasserstein.