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Industry Moves: Venrock-eMusic CEO; ESPN; Linden Lab; Evri; WSJ; eBay-- Venrock-eMusic CEO: Outgoing eMusic CEO David Pakman is joining the venerated VC firm Venrock as a Partner in New York City, where he will be part of the recently enhanced Digital Media team led by David Siminoff in Palo Alto. He announced his departure from the online music service earlier this week, though he will be there until end of this year. Pakman will be looking at investing in digital media startups, as he explains here. -- ESPN: ESPN appointed Renee Plato its VP of digital video distribution . She'll now oversee multiplatform distribution efforts for ESPN Media and Disney (NYSE: DIS), including broadband, electronic sell through, ITV and VOD, and report to SVP-digital distribution, Matt Murphy. Plato joins from Sony) BMG, where she served as senior director of business development. -- Linden Lab: The company behind Second Life has appointed Tom Hale its chief product officer, reporting directly to CEO Mark Kingdon. Hale most recently served as SVP and GM-knowledge worker business at Adobe. Release. -- Evri: Former Facebook general counsel Rudy Gadrew has joined Evri to take on the new position of VP-business operations. He'll be charged with overseeing legal and intellectual property, building audience and driving customer acquisition. Before spending two years at Facebook, he held tech and IP law positions at Beacon Law Advisors, Amazon and others. -- WSJ & DJ: Tomaso Capuano has been promoted to lead design across online and print platforms as the company's design director, having previously served as creative director for the recently launched WSJ magazine. Prior to joining Dow Jones, he was the art director of new projects at The Times of London, and was instrumental in several launches and redesigns. -- eBay: Netscape co-founder Marc Andreesen has joined the company's board of directors, effective immediately. Currently, his other focus is social net platform Ning, which he co-founded in 2004 with Gina Bianchini. He also sits on Facebook's board and has invested in entities like Digg, Twitter, LinkedIn, Meebo, FunnyorDie, Scribd, among several others. Release. Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page Early Bird Sales Extended For Future of Business Media, Oct. 28 in NYCWe're pleased to announce that we've extended early bird ticket sales for our Future of Business Media conference on October 28 in New York. No doubt that after yesterday's bloodbath, our discussion of the future of the business and trade media industry will be even more interesting. Norman Pearlstine, Bloomberg's chief content officer, will be featured on our keynote Q&A and tons more big names will be making appearances on panels during our full-day conference at the Edison Ballroom. Until then, full coverage of last year's conference at Waldorf=Astoria is on our FOBM channel. Also, join us for our two half-day conferences the following day, on October 29, for EconSports in the morning and EconWomen in the afternoon. Early bird tickets for $595 will be available until next week—full price tickets will be going for $895. Thanks to our platiunum sponsor, the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. and our partners, American Business Media and WebbyConnect. If you have any questions about the program, email us at events AT contentnext.com. For sponsorship queries, email our business side at advertising AT contentnext.com. A Complimentary Webinar from Innodata Isogen--Beyond Cost Arbitrage: Best Practices for Delivering Large-Scale Editorial Outsourcing Services. Register now. Don't Miss Our EconWomen Keynotes: Cathie Black and Wenda Harris MillardOur speaker lineup for EconWomen is bursting at the seams with women's media executives eager to discuss this burgeoning market. Along with a few panels, we're going to feature two keynote Q&As at the event, one with Hearst Magazines President Cathie Black and the other with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Co-CEO Wenda Harris Millard. Come hear Cathie and Wenda discuss the state of the women's media market, their companies' own efforts and much more at the conference taking place on the afternoon of Oct. 29 at the Edison Ballroom in New York. EconWomen is one part of our trio of conferences taking place at the Edison Ballroom Oct. 28-29. We'll also be holding the full-day conference Future of Business Media on Oct. 28 and EconSports in the morning on Oct. 29. Ticket sales for FOBM and EconSports are open as well. Thanks to our silver sponsor, SheKnows. If you have any questions about the program, email us at events AT contentnext.com. For sponsorship queries, email our business side at advertising AT contentnext.com.
Apple Threatens To Shut Down iTunes Store (Really) If Forced To Pay Higher RatesWhile we're on the subject of music royalty rates… Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) says it might pull the plug on its uber-popular iTunes store if the Copyright Royalty Board jacks up the amount it owes per track that it sells. Yep, the company made the "don't come near me or I'll jump" threat in a statement submitted to the board last year, now being reported by Fortune's Devin Leonard. He notes that the CRB is set to resolve a price dispute between online music retailers and the National Music Publishers Association, which wants to collect 15 cents per track, up from 9 cents, currently. Apple, represented by the Digital Media Association, would actually like the rate lowered to 4.6 cents or 6 percent of "applicable revenue." It's understandable that Apple would want to fight this—based on analyst Gene Muster's estimated 2.5 billion tracks sold in the coming year, the hike would cost it $144 million. But the notion that it would willingly give up its dominant position in online music retailing, as well as a key ingredient in what makes the iPod/iPhone franchise so successful, is basically implausible. Perhaps iTunes could go on, sans-music, but then its name would be absurd. If the worse came to worst, and the royalty rate were hiked and Apple could not stomach the $144 million hit to profit, then the company could always raise the cost of music. Apple argues that this would lower music sales—thus obviating any gain to the publisher—but for Apple, it would at least preserve the complementary store and device, which has brought the company such incredible fortune. For more skepticism that Apple would really shut down iTunes, Greg Sandoval at CNET has a sharp take: "I have to question why it has taken 18 months for Cue's comments to come to light, and why are they popping up just two days before the board is supposed to rule on a possible rate hike? Maybe it's coincidence. Or maybe Apple is firing a public-relations shot across the bow of the music industry and CRB. When it comes down mass appeal, Apple holds all the cards. If word gets out that music publishers is trying to stick it to consumers, and Apple is fighting to keep prices down on their behalf, well, there's liable to be public backlash against the labels. If this thing follows the normal course, there would be calls for boycotts, protests, and so on." A Complimentary Webinar from Innodata Isogen--Beyond Cost Arbitrage: Best Practices for Delivering Large-Scale Editorial Outsourcing Services. Register now. Reed's RBI Sell-Off In The Balance? A Victim Of Credit Crunch?When Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) last spoke on the subject, it told the market it hoped to sell off its Reed Business Information (RBI) B2B publishing unit as early as October. But that was August - in the intervening period, a little thing has happened called "the credit crunch". Could the crunch munch the planned divestment, which Reed announced a whole seven months ago? paidContent:UK has been told Reed is finding it much harder to sell the Variety and New Scientist publisher than it was even three weeks ago. Not even a $1.6 billion "sweetener" loan offered to potential bidders is helping much. There's now some question over whether the sell-off will go ahead at all, we understand. B2B publishers have been in-play for M&A, but the leading bid for Lloyd's List publisher Informa also collapsed in September after the consortium of private equity houses in the hunt found itself unable to raise the extra cash for Informa's asking price. There would be dollops of irony if RBI's sale was scuppered, too - Reed's original motivation for selling was to "reduce exposure to cyclicality"; in other words, to get the hell out of an ad-funded publishing model that's looking far too fragile at the moment. Related Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board. Urban Communications Buys African American Social Net NiggaSpace.comBaltimore-based Urban Communications has added a third entity to its portfolio, with the acquisition of African American social network NiggaSpace.com. Financials were not disclosed. NiggaSpace.com, which Google Analytics says garnered 7,000,000 visits in 2007, says it now aims to better its technology with enhanced content filters and privacy controls. Launched in 2008, Urban Communications also recently launched social net OurSpace.com for "historically black college and university students," and online magazine BlackPower.com. Release. NiggaSpace.com and OurSpace.com join a crowded space which includes IAC's RushmoreDrive.com and WaPo's TheRoot, as well as niche ad networks from BET and Glam Media. Related A Complimentary Webinar from Innodata Isogen--Beyond Cost Arbitrage: Best Practices for Delivering Large-Scale Editorial Outsourcing Services. Register now. @ AOP: Our Coverage In LinksOur UK editor Robert Andrews spent the day at AOP's seventh Digital Publishing Summit, covering what AOP calls the "3 C's"—content, convergence and creativity in digital media. Earlier in the day, CondeNet international president Stefano Maruzzi announced the company would debut more sites in several languages. More highlights:
-- @ AOP: Sly Bailey: Dark 2009 Will Be Groundhog Day For Publishers
The rest is on our Digital Publishing Summit channel. Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download. @ AOP: CondeNet Plans More Wired Roll-Outs, Including ChinaWired's resurrection in the UK and Italy will also come with more new sites offered in several new languages. International president Stefano Maruzzi said the new operation, which was announced in June and will debut early next year, will also add Chinese, French and more, each produced in London. "We're not going to limit our online experience to those two languages (English and Italian) - we're going to add more languages at the very beginning," he told paidContent.org at the Association of Online Publishers conference in London. "We will have a team here in London who will deliver content in French and Chinese and other languages." Will there be distinct "Wired UK", "Wired Francais" websites? "The editorial personality and identity of the linguistic versions will be similar, then we have to adapt it a little bit to the local culture and local needs. It will be one single concept articulated in multiple languages. Some content will be originally created in Chinese, for example, and some content will be localised, translation from English in to the local language." More detail at paidContent:UK… Related A Complimentary Webinar from Innodata Isogen--Beyond Cost Arbitrage: Best Practices for Delivering Large-Scale Editorial Outsourcing Services. Register now. Warner Bros. To Release Films On Demand In South Korea Two Weeks Before DVD ReleaseEven though Sony (NYSE: SNE), Paramount, Universal, Buena Vista and 20th Century Fox have all shuttered domestic operations in South Korea following years of sagging sales, Warner Bros. thinks it can reclaim some lost ground in the market by releasing films on demand two weeks before their DVD release. South Koreans are so accustomed to downloading films over peer-to-peer networks that it might be too little too late, but the studio is willing to give it a go before throwing in the towel it appears. Almost half of all people surveyed by the Korean Film Council said they've downloaded films online at least once, according to the company. Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, calls South Korea, with its broad base of tech-savvy consumers, the ideal market to try something new. But is it the DVD format that South Koreans have been increasingly avoiding for years or is it the price being charged for the copyrighted material? DVD sales in the country have fallen to an estimated $285 million this year from $673 million in 2002, The Korea Times reported last month. If Warner Bros. can re-gain some of that business through on-demand services, it will be a success by any measure, but there's a lot to suggest that South Koreans will shun prices charged by entertainment companies regardless of the format. Release. Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page Widget's Parellel Economy: Gigya Gets $11 Million FundingMeanwhile, the widget economy is functioning in a parallel, oblivious universe: Widget distribution firm Gigya has received $11 million in its third round of funding. The round was led by DAG Ventures and included previous investors Benchmark Capital, First Round Capital, and Mayfield Fund. The round brings the Palo Alto CA and Israel-based startup's total funding to about $23.5 million since it was founded two years ago. Gigya's technology allows widgets makers such as RockYou and online publishers to helps monitor ads across their widgets...it also helps in distribution and development of these widgets. It competes against the likes of Clearsping, or Slide. It recently added a new service to allow sites to integrate various social networking services within their sites. More details in release.
This comes as rival Clearsping just acquired social bookmarking service AddThis, after its $18 million round in the summer. Another competitor Slide announced a slew of video clip deals to distribute content from Warner Bros, CBS and E! Entertainment channel, among others using its widget network. And oh, the Senate will vote on the $700 billion real economy bailout plan today....
Related Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board. Doctor Finder ZocDoc Adds Bezos, Benioff As InvestorsZocDoc, the doctor search and reservation service, which just raised a $3 million first round, has added two impressive names to its roster of investors: Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and Amazon's (NSDQ: AMZN) Jeff Bezos (through his Bezos Expeditions) have added an unspecified amount to the round. The round, initially announced last month, was led by Khosla Ventures. In addition, ZocDoc says it's increasing its specialty areas from three to six, and releasing a Facebook app, allowing users to book doctors appointments through Facebook. Related Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download. Music Royalty Battles: Activision CEO Touts Guitar Heros' Value To LabelsThis is becoming a core music industry argument: Music labels want to get paid when people use or listen to their music. Other parties think the labels need to better appreciate new distribution models as opportunity to promote their music. The labels counter that promotion is great, but they still need to get paid. And so on, and so on, and so on. This debate continues to play out in one hot area, music-based videogames, like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. The labels want to get paid more for the music used in these games. The game publishers counter that these games provide a great promotional avenue for the tracks. In a recent interview with the WSJ, Activision (NSDQ: ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick hinted at taking it further: "We compensate artists and publishers extremely well. There are millions and millions of dollars that are being made and paid. There's a misunderstanding of the value we bring to the catalog. What happens to your catalog in digital downloads? What happens to your merchandise? What happens to your ticket sales? When you look at the impact it can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant, so much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse." To back this up, he argues that gamers don't really care what songs are in the game—just that the game is fun (that's probably true to an extent, but overall, people mainly like to rock out to the songs they're familiar with). The real problem, it seems, is similar to the tension between labels and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). It's not that the labels aren't getting a fair rate (necessarily), but they're tired of seeing all these other companies engaged in high-margin, rapid growth businesses based on music, while their core product stagnates. This may be a fair concern, though it's hard to see them lawyering their way into the promised land. -- Meanwhile, if you need further evidence of these games' ascendancy, this week Wal-Mart announced it would be the exclusive purveyor of a new AC/DC Rock Band pack. The agreement was reached between the retailer, MTV, and AC/DC's label, Columbia Records. Both the label and the band will be compensated for sale of the discs, which will be priced at $40, compared to the normal $60. Note that AC/DC already has a deal to sell its CD exclusively through the retailer. What's the lesson here? Sure, part of it is that a band and a label can have a direct stake in a Rock Band disk, so that's good (though this wouldn't work for the vast majority of bands). The other lesson: Just like with the rest of the industry, the Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) exclusive holds some allure, even for a video game.
Star-Tribune Skips Debt Payment; S&P May Downgrade GannettThis is a rough time if for any company that's debt dependent, and few industries are in more desperate need of restructuring there than ailing newspapers. Just last week, McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) gave itself some breathing room, restructuring its debt at the cost of higher interest rates. Today the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said it skipped a $9 million payment in an attempt to preserve cash while it restructured itself. The company added that bankruptcy is an option being considered, and indeed it may not have much choice now that it's not paying its debt holders. The paper is owned by PE fund Avista, which in May wrote down 75 percent of the $530 million investment it made. Also today, S&P said it may downgrade the debt of USAToday publisher Gannett (NYSE: GCI). The ratings agency said it was watching the company's "A-2" commercial paper rating, though it added that it's not yet worried about the company's liquidity. That prompted the company to issue this statement: " As a prudent liquidity measure in light of the ongoing credit market dislocations, Gannett partially drew down on its committed revolving credit facilities sufficient funds to cover all of its commercial paper obligations outstanding. This action was taken prior to—and was completely unrelated to—Standard & Poor's actions today." It noted that it has been able to tap the commercial paper market, even as reports say it has seized up. We've mentioned several times that newspapers face a double whammy right now: The cyclical economic declines, as well as the secular shift away from print to lower-margin digital. It might be time to add a third issue, as the credit tightening specifically hits at one of their soft spots: their desire to restructure debt on favorable times. Related A Complimentary Webinar from Innodata Isogen--Beyond Cost Arbitrage: Best Practices for Delivering Large-Scale Editorial Outsourcing Services. Register now. AOL Shutters Blog Hub Hometown, JournalsAs it indicated in a leaked memo back in July, AOL (NYSE: TWX) announced (via Wired) the closing of its community blogs, Hometown and Journal. The two will disappear completely by the end of the month. The reasoning behind the shuttering of Journal and Hometown was due to AOL's need to put an end to products and services that continued to lag, as the Time Warner unit had entered a period of financial difficulty this summer. Even still, the old community tools were largely superfluous since AOL acquired social net working tool Socialthing in August and formed the People Networks business unit after its $850 million purchase of Bebo in May. Additionally, AOL has spent the past few months building up its individual stable of blogs, which tend to downplay the AOL brand in favor of giving sites a more distinct identity. Related
With Demand For Financial News Surging, Bloomberg Brings Its Online Video To AOLJust in time for the financial market's wild ups and downs this week, Bloomberg Television is making a tentative step toward syndicating its videos outside of its own website in a deal with AOL (NYSE: TWX). The business news network will run about 20 videos a day on the AOL Money and Finance channel. The Bloomberg videos will have its own distinct, branded broadband site on AOL's portal as well. Bloomberg television hasn't been too active on the online side, but that could be changing. The unit just struck a deal with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) TV Ads, involving audience measurement and targeted ads through satellite company EchoStar's (NSDQ: DISH) set-top boxes. While that partnership doesn't have any online applications at the moment, it does represent the beginning of a formal relationship between Bloomberg and the search giant. For AOL, which has been trying to build up its Money and Finance channel since giving it a major overhaul in July 2007, gives it bragging rights that it's the first online destination outside of Bloomberg.com to house financial news company's television coverage. Bloomberg's coverage will also augment its other online news video from partners such as CNBC, Reuters, CBS Business and Minyanville at a time of economic worry.
Hear more about Bloomberg's plans during a keynote Q&A with Norm Pearlstine, chief content officer of Bloomberg, at our Future of Business Media conference on Oct. 28 in NYC.
Related Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board. Netflix Adding Movies From Starz; Live Feed of Channels TooStarz Entertainment, owned by Liberty Entertainment, which recently closed down its consumer online movie service Vongo, is now adding its bunch of movies to Netflix's (NSDQ: NFLX) growing online movie service. This will add about 2,500 movies, TV shows and music concerts to Netflix's library of about 12,000 videos available for viewing online, reports WSJ. Netflix has been on a deal spree as of late, cutting deals with TV set-top box and game console providers to embed its online service within these devices...just last week it announced deals with CBS and Disney for making their TV shows available on the online version. Of course the online catalog is still small compared to its DVD catalog of over 100,000. Under the new three-year deal, Starz will grant Netflix movie rights from Disney and Sony, and includes some big name movies...the first 1,000 of those videos are already on the Netflix service, with more coming soon. Also included: Netflix subscribers will be able to watch a live feed of all Starz channels online through the service. Netflix also said that as part of the deal it will offer a Starz Play-only subscription for $7.99 a month. For Starz, which is now pushing its white-label Starz Play service for third party providers, this is the second major deal: the first one was with Verizon Communications through its FiOS TV service.
Related Our mobile application for Blackberry and other Smartphones brings you the latest headlines when you're on the go. Go here to download. Broadband Content Bits: FoxSports Shows; 'Heroes'-G4;' Easy To Assemble'-CBS; Nippon-Amuse-- FoxSports.com streaming Vuguru show; launching poker series: Michael Eisner's digital studio has found a home for its latest offering, a—you guessed it—comedy series called Back On Topps, Mediaweek reports. Fox.Sports.com will broadcast each new episode for an exclusive, 12-hour distribution window each Tuesday and Thursday begininning Sept. 30, before other syndication partners, YouTube, Hulu, Veoh, Metacafe, iTunes, Dailymotion, Bebo and Blip air the episodes. The show features former hosts of *ESPN's* Cheap Seats Randy and Jason Sklar struggling to deal with the family company as they are filmed by a documentary crew, a la The Office. Sports stars, such as Dennis Rodman, will make appearances as well. In other Fox Sports news, the company has teamed up with World Poker Tour to launch a poker and blackjack series, says Variety. ClubWPT.com will feature six amateurs who have won spots on the show through designated "TVtournaments" on ClubWPT.com. FSN sportscaster Barry Tompkins, "Live at the Bike" announcer Bart Hansen and ALison Waite will provide commentary as the series will debut on Oct. 5. -- 'Heroes' unfolds on gaming and video site G4: Now Heroes fans can relive past seasons and watch current episodes on video and multimedia site G4. The site secured off-network rights to the show last year and the deal extends through six seasons with the entire Heroes library available in 2010. G4 also obtained the show's exclusive cable rights and VOF rights in 2010. -- CBS picks up YouTube show: Comedy series Easy to Assemble, has just been picked up by CBS (NYSE: CBS), after having garnered 300,000 views on YouTube and spending just five days on the video sharing site. CBS's TV.com will be broadcasting the new episodes, which spoof Ikea employee training videos featuring Illeana Douglas, Jeff Goldbum, Tom Arnold and more. -- Japan's Nippon and Amuse team up for drama series: One of Japan's five major networks, Nippon Television Broadcasting, has inked a deal with talent and media company Amuse to webcast a new drama series, reports Variety. Using music from Amuse pop band Southern All-Stars and casting it mainly with Amuse talent, The Surf Rider Restaurant, will begin its 33-episode season in November on TV broadcaster NTV. A day after the terrestrial broadcasts, episodes will also be available for free download on NTV's mobile phone site.
AT&T Reorganizes; Wireless Head De La Vega Now Oversees All Consumer ServicesAT&T (NYSE: T) has placed wireless head Ralph de la Vega in charge of all consumer services including landline phone, broadband, IPTV and mobile, WSJ reports. AT&T is now organized in four divisions: consumer, business, infrastructure and diversified businesses. De la Vega retains the CEO role at the company's wireless unit, but it's now been folded into a broader group that includes landline, internet and TV. The company says the move is an attempt to bolster creative bundled packages that might include wireless and broadband or all four services, but the company has already been offering discounts for bundled services for years. Cable companies are clearly the most targeted competitors under these management changes, since they've been more successful at selling multiple services to customers thus far, particularly because of their typically faster broadband connections. But it could also improve the company's plans to begin licensing more media and selling ads that would run across all screens.
-- Other management changes: Ronald Spears, who headed up the Global Business Services unit, will now be the point man for the re-organized business unit that also includes small business customers. John Stankey, former president of telecom operations, will become CEO of technology operations. Ray Wilkins will remain CEO of the diversified businesses unit, which oversees yellowpages.com and international investments among others.
Senate Passes Webcaster Act; Now Onto The President For ApprovalThis wasn't much in doubt once the NAB dropped its opposition to it, but the Senate has passed the Webcaster Settlement Act, which the House passed a few days ago. The bill gives a little bit of life to internet radio stations, like Pandora, which had warned that if internet broadcasters were not allowed to negotiate royalties, the economics of their business wouldn't be feasible. Once President Bush gives his rubber stamp, er, signature, internet broadcasters can get back to other pressing issues—like how they can make their businesses work, even with better royalty rates. More here on the Pandora blog. Related Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page AP Challenges Grow As Cost-Cutting Papers Look For Line Items To SlashThe Associated Press, a co-operative started by newspapers to share costs and news, has been getting cancellation notices from papers as large as the Minneapolis Star Tribune since its new rates were distributed in July and now the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., is challenging the two-year cancellation notice that's part of the current contract. The argument, according to E&P: the new rate structure that starts in 2009 is actually a new contract and the paper should not be bound by the old agreement.
AP takes a different stance, as you can imagine, with spokesman Paul Colford telling us: "There is no new contract involved in what is a service upgrade.
More after the jump… AP says its outlets include 1,500 daily English-language U.S. newspapers and that most are members. The wire service also has considerable clients in TV, radio, international, and online. As of April, newspapers represented 27 percent of the co-op's revenues; International (broadcast, newspaper services, etc.), 22 percent; U.S. broadcast, 17 percent; digital, 17 percent; non-member photos/graphics and tech services, 17 percent. In a letter excerpted by E&P, a lawyer for the Spokesman-Review says the paper "will not be executing a new contract reflecting the changes as required by the AP in the new Member Choice program. ... The new contractual arrangement represents a continued and material shift by the AP of separating services from the basic package so that some services will be available only by signing up for supplemental programs. Thus, AP services that formerly were part of a basic plan will now only be available through a supplemental plan approach. This dilutes the value of the basic Breaking News plan and constitutes a material change in the quality and breadth of the services offered by the AP under the basic contract." For good measure, the Spokesman-Review also claims local and state service has deteriorated and that the new rate is too high. One translation: we wanted more options and now that we have them, we have an early out. Spokesman-Review editor Steve Smith e-mailed E&P: "On that basis, the old contract will expire Dec. 31 and we'll not sign a new one. In a sense, it's not a cancellation at all, but a decision to decline signing any new contracts." Star-Trib: Meanwhile, MinnPost.com reported that the Star Tribune has served its 2-year notice. For a sense of what readers their might be missing in 2010, the site counted 18 AP stories or photos in the Strib's news sections the day of its report; a wire-service credit on nearly all national sports news and briefs, plus a half-dozen other items. Strib editor Nancy Barnes has been an outspoken critic of AP pricing but her managing editor Rene Sanchez told MinnPost.com this is "not a hostile gesture, by any means. It's the beginning of an assessment of our business model, not the end." Translation: give us better terms. Conventional wisdom would say that wire services, particularly one that covers all levels of news, gain importance as gap-fillers when newspapers cut newsroom staffs. But they're also handy budget tools, allowing managers to slash large line items in a single move. Expect more along this line. Related Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board. |
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