2011 highlights: Tablets, social media stole the show

The newsmedia landscape continued to change in 2011, shaped by tablets, social media, and the advancement of how digital content is served up the world over.

The devices upon which news and other content is accessed has been a running theme for years, but 2011 saw tablets and e-readers becoming more mainstream, with increasing market penetration. Thanks to smart phones and tablet devices, media consumers’ habits are shifting increasingly to using apps to sift through news and information.

Proving this, Yahoo! and Google released news reader apps this year, competing with already popular apps like Flipboard.

A study out in July showed tablet owners in the United States prefer to read content including news, weather, music, games and information on their tablets instead of their PCs.

The study also showed that tablets contribute to an increase in social network usage, but also significantly cannibalized the usage of print media, and to a lesser degree, mobile devices.

Social media also saw high usage and the first signs of saturation in many markets this year. Facebook, for example, found that in some of its biggest markets, including U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, the usage for activities, such as status updates, sharing content, messaging and installing apps, has plunged. By contrast, total active usage of all social network sites has boosted significantly worldwide across all age groups. For example, usage was up 26 percent among group ages 16 to 24 and up 35 percent among those ages 35 to 44.

In general, emerging markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia are the driving forces for the growth of social networks, while users in more mature markets, including U.S. and the U.K. are shifting focus on e-commerce. Some markets, such as Singapore and Turkey, have both activities significantly popular, but tend to skew slightly one way or the other,

Attempting to compete with Facebook in the social media realm, Google launched Google+ this year. However, the battle against its rival won’t be easy. “Facebook is an entrenched rival with more than 750 million users,” analyst Charlene Li pointed out to Bloomberg.

Another social media site that did well in 2011 was LinkedIn. Its revenue was up 120 percent to $121 million from $54.9 million as membership gained 61 percent to 116 million, while profit totaled $4.5 million, or 4 cents a share, versus $4.3 million year-over-year. Since filing for an IPO in May, the site’s shares more than doubled from the initial price of $45.

Image of 2011: Topleftpixel.com

Times Co. to sell regional newspapers

As it continues its “transformation to a digitally focused, multiplatform media company,” the New York Times Co. will sell its Regional Media Group to Halifax Media Holdings for US$143 million, the company announced this week.

The Florida-based Halifax is paying cash, and after-tax proceeds from the sale are expected to be about $150 million. The regional group is made up of 16 regional newspapers, including The Gainesville Sun, The Sarasota Herald Tribune and The Tuscaloosa News.

The deal follows the announcement that Times CEO Janet Robinson will leave at the end of the year, but will be paid $4.5 million to continue on as a consultant for 12 months. Chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. will take over Robinson’s role on an interim basis.

Image: The Herald-Tribune, of Sarasota, Florida, is among one of the newspapers being sold.

UK has highest mobile news consumption

Mobile news usage is climbing worldwide, but it is the highest in the United Kingdom, where about 8 percent of all traffic to UK newspaper websites comes from devices other than computers, paidContent reported today.

In addition, 25 percent of people have accessed mobile news in general, up from 15 percent just six months ago, according to comScore Device Essentials research in Ofcom’s International Communications Market Report 2011.

“One factor that might contribute to the popularity of newspaper websites on mobile devices in the UK is the availability of mobile versions of newspaper websites,” Ofcom concluded. “These mobile sub- sites format the width of the page and navigation to suit the smaller screens of mobile devices, while some newspapers offer mobile applications which allow the content of newspapers to be downloaded to mobile devices and read offline.

“Eight of the top ten national newspaper websites in the UK had mobile-specific websites, and these eight sites accounted for 99% of page views of the top ten sites.”

Netflix partners with BBC for UK launch

Online film provider Netflix has signed a deal with BBC Worldwide to offer UK television programmes at its launch in the United Kingdom and Ireland in early 2012.

Netflix will give users a chance to stream shows like Little Britain, Top Gear and Fawlty Towers, among others, and allow them to watch programmes from six months after they have been broadcast on television, MediaGuardian reported.

The deal with BBC is not exclusive, and BBC Worldwide has made similar digital licensing agreements with other companies, such as Virgin Media and BlinkBox. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"BBC shows are a big favourite of our over 20 million streaming members in the U.S., Canada and Latin America," said Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, in a press release. "Members love watching back-to-back episodes of BBC series where and when they want, at the click of a button. We are incredibly proud to make these high quality programmes available to Netflix members in the UK and Ireland."

AP steps into digital age with Stylebook tool

The Associated Press last week unveiled software that will make it a little easier for journalists and editors to follow AP Style.

AP StyleGuard proofreads content using the AP Stylebook’s guidelines spelling, punctuation, language, usage and style, Mashable reported. Just as Microsoft Word checks spelling and grammar, the new software saves time so users don’t have to refer to the print copy, and also “offers recommendations on items you might not have realized are covered by AP style,” the AP stated.

The StyleGuard is currently only operates on Windows XP and higher, and on Microsoft Office 2007 and higher. Unfortunately, it is only available for non-Mac computers, and many newsrooms use Macs. However, @APStylebook hinted in a tweet that it might release a version for Macs, Mashable noted.

The tool is available in beta for online Stylebook subscribers Dec. 16; print subscribers will be able to access it Jan. 16.

Study: Special effects make video ads more successful

Advertisers have more success when they use visual effects in their online videos, compared with no visual effects, a new study from visual special effects software maker GenArts has found.

When ads contained specialised video effects, they saw a 13 percent increase in downloading a coupon, 9 percent lower abandonment rate, and a 12 percent increase in purchase intent, the study found.

GenArts used videos featuring sports company Puma to measure the impact visual effects have on the overall effectiveness of video promotions. The study tested two versions of the same Puma sneaker promotion, one with visual effects and one without. The video with effects significantly outperformed the one without.

“Advertisers are challenged to make their ads as effective as possible, but it's not always clear which tools enable you to do that. This case study shows that visual effects are a cost-effective and actionable way to significantly increase the appeal and credibility of your brand, and ultimately increase viewer purchase intent by as much as 12 percent,” Katherine Hays, CEO of GenArts, said in a statement.

According to comScore, advertising currently makes up 15 percent of online video. In October alone, 7.5 billion video ads were viewed in the United States, MediaPost reported.

Study: TV, Internet and mobile gain in viewing time

U.S. adults spend most time on traditional TV and video, including DVR and DVD, up 10 minutes from last year to about 4 hours and 34 minutes each day. Internet consumption is about 2 hours and 47 minutes, up 7.7 percent year-over-year, according to a recent study by eMarketer.

Time spent on mobile phones also increase 30 percent to 1 hour and 5 minutes, which surpasses print magazines and newspapers combined, with only 44 minutes.

Adults spend less time on radio and print publications compared to last year, while the increases to TV and digital contribute to the increase of the total time spent with media, to 11 hours and 33 minutes.

While comparing the U.S. ad spending share to the time spent on individual medium, TV is the one getting its fair share. Internet, radio and mobile, however, has higher share on average time spent but lower ad spending share, which indicate an unmet market. Mobile, for example, accounts for more than 10 percent share of adults’ media time each day, but only makes up less than 1 percent of ad dollars.

On the other side, print media continue to command ad dollars far ahead of their share of time spent, eMarketer reported.

Image: eMarketer

Facebook app enables Web TV viewing on site

Facebook now allows users to watch Web-based TV channels directly within Facebook, through an app. The service is all free, FreeCast.com, the service provider, said.

FreeCast did not specify any channels but said the service includes "content originates from numerous sources around the world, such as TV and cable networks, YouTube, Vimeo, movie channels and radio stations -- all major content distributors."

The revenue will stream from display advertising, not video advertising, Media Post reported.

Facebook users can opt in for getting alerts when the new contents they are interested are available.

Apart from Facebook, FreeCast recently launched as a program guide targeting users' networks and videos that are free.

Netflix wants to tell your friends what you’re watching

Hoping to become the video version of Spotify, Netflix wants to let your friends know what you’ve watched, sending a constant stream of updates via Facebook.

However, a U.S. law requires a company to have permission before it discloses videos you have watched, and Netflix is backing a bill that would change the law from requiring permission each time you watch a video to giving blanket permission once.

The Video Privacy Protection Act states a customer must get written consent from a customer when disclosing personal information, such as rental history. The new bill was past by the House last week, The New York Times reported.

The bill is “really is meant to empower the consumer to be able to share with their friends,” said David Hyman, Netflix’s general council, according to The NY Times.

But not everyone agrees. Privacy advocates say the bill takes away an individual’s ability to decide what to share, and with whom. Should the Senate pass the bill, the law would “undermine consumers’ control over information collected about them even as it empowers customers to create and share more detailed customer profiles. Netflix isn’t lobbying for a mere amendment, they argue; it wants Congress to dismantle a gold standard among privacy statutes,” the article explained.

Legal and privacy issues aside, this also means streaming media with friends via Facebook could happen soon, PCWorld reported.

There are already many ways to share movie choices on Facebook, whether through link-sharing, likes or third-party apps, and a blanket permission from users to automatically share what they’re watching via Netflix streaming is the next logical step, the article stated.

HuffPo partners with El País for Spanish version

The Huffington Post has made a deal with Spanish newspaper El País to launch a new version in Spain.

El Huffington Post will have a space in the Madrid offices of the market-leading newspaper for its local website team. The Spanish version will be “very, very rooted in Spanish culture and politics, but with The Huffington Post template of curation, original reporting and blogging,” Arianna Huffington told Capital New York.

HuffPo has “reached a mass audience in America thanks to a mixture of original content, news aggregation, involvement of users and an important platform for bloggers and experts from all areas,” said Rosalia Lloret, CEO of PRISA Digital Development News, which owns El País, according to the newspaper.

“Both partners will also enhance the original editorial content through a network of journalists and blogger affiliates. The Huffington Post is bringing together an editorial team before its release,” the article explained.

In the United States, HuffPo hasn’t always had a smooth relationship with newsmedia companies, as its aggregation practices make up a good portion of the website’s traffic. However, outside the U.S. HuffPo will benefit from partners’ “infrastructure, credibility and resources; their partners in turn benefit from HuffPo’s digital savvy and from having access to the prodigious volume of content it is known to churn out on a daily basis,” Capital New York reported.

HuffPo has already partnered with Le Monde Group and Les Nouvelles Editions Indépendante for a French version of the site; however, in that deal, the French publishers will share equity with AOL in the site. The Spanish version does not appear to be sharing equity, paidContent noted. The French site has not yet launched. Huffington Post UK launched in the summer.

China’s state TV pursuing international audience

China’s state broadcaster is expanding, increasing its overseas staff by fivefold by the end of 2012, and almost tenfold by 2016, MediaGuardian reported today.

China Central Television is going after an international audience, especially in the United States and Africa, with its English-language services produced in Washington and Nairobi.

Not content to be a global economic powerhouse, China wants to compete culturally as well, MediaGuardian noted.

But will audiences be interested? The new president of CCTV has not won friends lately, when he urged journalists to “drop their pretensions of professionalism and submit to being mouthpieces of the government,” The Lede NY Times blog pointed out Monday. Hu Zhanfan, a former newspaper editor and former vice minister of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, has been compared to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

While Hu’s comments may reflect the norm in Chinese media, the public wants “objective, neutral, and diverse media,” said Jiao Guobiao, a former journalism professor at Peking University, according to The Lede.

Image via Popsci: CCTV’s headquarters went under construction in 2004 in Beijing

Amazon adds self-publishers to Lending Library

User generated content’s new frontier, book publishing, is expanding even further.

When self-published authors make their e-books available exclusively on Kindle for 90 days, Amazon is allowing them to add their books to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which gives them a chance to earn extra money.

This is part of the new KDP Select, an annual US$6 million fund for Kindle Direct Publishing Authors and Publishers, which gives independent authors and publishers a way to reach more readers and royalties, Amazon said in a statement.  The authors can earn money from the $6 million fund when they agree to the deal. The fund for this month is $500,000.

Authors can enroll a single book, select items or their entire catalog.

Amazon launched the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library last month. With this system, customers with a yearly $79 Amazon Prime membership and a Kindle device can borrow e-books for free. They are limited to one e-book per month, one at a time, and any notes or bookmarks are saved if the reader re-borrows the book later on, PCMag reported.

"By choosing KDP Select, independent authors and publishers have an opportunity to make money in a whole new way and reach the growing audience of Amazon Prime members," Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content, said in a statement. "A short 90-day commitment allows authors and publishers to experiment at very low risk. In addition, free promotions are a new tool for KDP Select authors, and we hope to add more such tools over time."

Mobile opens the doors for Google Maps

Just when you thought Google Maps was finished mapping every inch of the globe, they’ve opened up a whole new world to map: the indoors.

The latest version of the Google Maps application for Android phones and tablets offers floorplans of some large indoor public spaces, such as airports and shopping malls.

Google Maps 6.0 for Android also shows users where they are within the floor plan, with a blue dot that updates as the person moves, PC World reported. The app refreshes when users move to different floors within the building. Labels within the maps include bathrooms, ATMs, airport gates, store names and more.

Although only a handful of indoor spaces have been mapped so far, Google accepts floor plans from any venue that wishes to be included, so the space is sure to grow quickly.

Google Maps went indoors for two main reasons: the spread of mobile accompanied by the increasing privitisation of public space, according to Fortune. The move also “further solidifies Google’s lead over AOL’s MapQuest.”

Image: Before and after Google Maps went indoors at the Mall of America

News Summit: Balancing cost cutting with great journalism

HONG KONG - Staff reductions have been the rule for the last 10 years and many times, the “do more with less” motto has threatened editorial quality.

“Managers have to cut costs but continue to produce great journalism pieces,” Martha Stone, CEO of World Newsmedia Network in the USA, told the Tuesday morning session of News World Summit 2011, hosted by the Global Editors Network, in Hong Kong.

Stone also revealed the results of the latest World Newsmedia Innovation Study 2011, which indicates that “on the top of the heap for investment is the notion of developing journalism skills,” followed by developing skills of sales people and iPad/tablet products.

According to the study, the top areas for media companies to cut costs include printing, administration, materials, distribution, office spaces, as well as content generation.

More than 50 percent of the media companies who participated the study pointed out social media and paid-for e-reader/tablet products as opportunities, while 47 percent said so for paid-for mobile services.

Within the next five years, over half of the respondents said more than 20 percent of the revenue will come from sources other than traditional media.

The global study is in its third year and available in 9 languages.

Economist’s digital successes translating into profit

More than a million readers access the Economist on a mobile device each month, and more than three million of its iOS and Android apps have been downloaded, the magazine announced. At the same time, its digital-only subscribers now total more than 100,000.

At the same time, its half-year operating profit is up 6 percent, to £26.2 million, and its revenues are up 4 percent, to £164.3 million, according to the interim financial report, released by The Economist Group.

The success with increasing its digital readership across platforms and seeing increased profits can be attributed to investing in digital editions, launching new apps for Android smartphones, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s new Fire reader, in addition to apps already available for the iPad, iPhone and Kindle devices. At the same time, the demand for digital editions has “exceeded our expectations,” Rupert Pennant-Rea, the group’s chairman, said in a statement.

Tablets, e-readers and smartphones aren’t the only devices attributing to digital success; The Economist’s website is also growing, with a 45 percent rise in monthly visitors, to more than seven million, since September 2010.

And, up to a point, The Economist’s success is also due in part to “being in the right place at the right time with the right product” – an international magazine, written in English, Roy Greenslade wrote today for MediaGuardian. Add an aggressive digital strategy to that mix of good fortune, and we arrive at where The Economist is today.

“We suddenly realised that if we were making a distinction between lean-back and lean-forward, here was lean-back digital or lean-back 2.0. We made a conscious choice to avoid the web-style interactive approach. Instead, we saw the potential of delivering a better lean-back experience than we have ever achieved in print,” Economist group Chief Executive Andrew Rashbass told Greenslade.

News Summit: Bye-bye mass media

HONG KONG - The media landscape is changing thanks to the Internet. It has not only produced a new way of sharing, but also changed the ways media were traditionally consumed. Now consumers become journalists themselves and can produce content.

“The linear stories become conversations. The audience gets more active. They re-use and even alter our content,” Robert Amlung, head of Digital Strategy of ZDF TV in Germany, told the Monday morning’s session of News World Summit 2011, hosted by the Global Editors Network, in Hong Kong.

“We have to accept that the old ways of doing things [are] not being replaced, but there are new ways.”

“Media have lost control. We have to change to stay who we are. Media needs to let go the content, not keeping the content like before, and keep their way from mass communication to communication of the masses,” Amlung added.

“The media ecosystem in the 21^st century is more diverse, but healthier. We need to move from knowing everything, or pretending [to know] everything, to be willing to try everything, and perhaps, fail,” said Dan Gillmor, director of the U.S.-based Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism.

“The good news: trying new things is inexpensive,” Gillmor added.

British users don’t like to engage with brands on social networks

Almost two out of three British online users do not want to engage with brands on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, according to a recent survey by TNS.

The study surveyed more than 72,000 Internet users worldwide, and found that Britons are less willing to embrace online marketing messages and corporate blogposts compared to those in other countries.

61 percent of British Internet users reject with brands on social networks, compared with 57 percent across other developed countries and 45 percent in Latin America, Media Guardian reported.

There is a big digital divide in attitudes towards the expenses of online access. About half of the population in fast-growing markets, such as Egypt, Nigeria and India, said they would use the Internet more if it was cheaper, while 81 percent in Ghana and 71 percent in Nigeria also said so.

20 percent of the 2,093 Britons surveyed said that social networks are a good place to buy products, lower than the global average of 40 percent. A further 60 percent disagree that social networks were a good place to learn about brands, according to TNS.

Users in fast-growing markets tend to be more open with brands on social networks - only one out of three Columbians and 37 percent of Mexicans don’t like to be bothered by brands.

The Digital Life study was conducted between June and September, 2011, by TNS.

Did Romenesko plagiarize, or is Poynter in the wrong?

A name synonymous with all things journalism, Jim Romenesko, has resigned after 12 years at the Poynter Institute.

Romanesko’s departure comes after questions were raised about his use of quotation marks when summarizing articles in his daily round-up of media stories. Poynter Online Director Julie Moos wrote that he displayed “a pattern of incomplete attribution” in his posts. Not fully quoting the words of others “is incomplete and inconsistent with our publishing practices and standards,” she wrote.

Some say Poynter was correct in its move to cite the missing quotation marks as plagiarism. Others are insisting Poynter is the guilty party, pointing out that Romenesko’s blog is the main reason for Poynter Online’s success, and that the site is trying to make Romenesko look bad just as he was scheduled to depart to launch a competing product.

What it comes down to, The New York Times’s Jeremy Peters noted, was that Poynter, “an organization that teaches journalistic ethics and practices, had scolded its most famous writer for a technical infraction of its guidelines.” The result of which was Poynter being accused of “being school-marmish and petty, and for tarnishing the name of a man who is deeply admired by his colleagues.”

“FWIW, as someone who Romenesko has linked various times, I have never given, nor could I imagine giving, a crap about this practice. Even in the supposedly damning example cited above [this comment appeared below Poynter's post on the story], the bulk of the quoted material appears in quotes. The bolded phrases not in quotes are, to be charitable, boilerplate. Unless there are far more egregious examples out there--which I strain to imagine, since the practice and intent of Romenesko's blog is self-evident--this is a nothingburger,” TIME columnist James Poniewozik commented.

Romenesko had offered his resignation twice before, but Poynter had refused to accept it, he said, according to The Times. He had planned on going part-time at Poynter and starting his own website in just a couple of months.

His new site will continue covering media news, but will also discuss “other things I’m interested in.”

RIM makes deal with NewspaperDirect

RIM has inked an agreement with e-editions distributor NewspaperDirect for its PressReader app to be preloaded on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the firms announced today.

PressReader gives users access to more than 2,000 news publications from 95 countries. Most newspapers and magazines can be bought for US$0.99 per issue, or downloaded as part of a paid subscription on PressDisplay.com.

The app basically reproduces publications as PDFs, which “means potentially a significantly less interactive experience than an app but also one that costs less to put on a device,” paidContent explained.

Hearst experiments with side projects

Hearst this week sold a majority stake in its topics app LMK to digital holding company Black Ocean. The size of the deal wasn’t especially noteworthy, but it does show that the publisher is looking to businesses outside of traditional editorial, and is trying its hand at “becoming incubators of startups that can then be sold,” paidContent pointed out today.

Earlier this year, Hearst launched organizational service Manilla, which helps users keep track of finances, rewards programs and subscriptions.

Late last month, Hearst Magazines UK announced a partnership with Zappar, an “augmented reality” app. Consumers who buy the print products can use the app to “bring the covers to life.” The app is free from iTunes or the Android Market Place, and when used, plays exclusive content on handheld devices from each magazine cover.

Just last week Hearst announced it would back YouTube’s new original channels, according to ClickZ. The channels are a way for Hearst to maximize its editorial brands, with staffers from titles like Car and Driver and Popular Mechanics offering their expertise on the Automotive channel, and staffers from titles like Marie Claire and Seventeen offering their advice on a Fashion and Beauty Channel.

comScore: Google’s U.S. search market share up; Yahoo down

Google widened its lead over Yahoo in the U.S. online search market in October, according to the latest data from comScore.

Google’s share was up to 65.6 percent last month from 65.3 percent in September, while Yahoo’s dropped to 15.2 percent from 15.5 percent. Microsoft gained a tenth of a percentage point, making it 14.8 percent share of the U.S. market, Bloomberg reported.

Google, which revenues mostly came from query- result-based advertising, is trying to improve its search engine facing competition from Yahoo and Microsoft after they signed a 10-year partnership. Google announced earlier this month that it is making results “fresher” by adding more recent links on some subjects, which affects about 35 percent of searches.

According to eMarkter, Microsoft and Yahoo together will account for about 16 percent of spending on search-based advertising in U.S. in 2011, while Google is expected to grab about 76 percent.

Barnes & Noble unveils Nook Tablet

Barnes & Noble today launched a new Nook Tablet for US$249. The device has double the memory and internal storage of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, expected to be released soon for $199, Computerworld reported.

Although the Nook is “superior” to the Kindle Fire, its over-$200 price tag is likely to push consumers away, analysts said, according to the report. Amazon is a more recognised brand name, and the access to Amazon content is expected to sell better to holiday shoppers.

However, the Nook Color was also priced at $249 and “sold millions,” paidContent reported. It now costs $199. The Nook Simple Touch e-reader, initially priced at $139, is now $99.

B&N currently has about a 27 percent cut of the U.S. e-reader market.

Image: Ars Technica

Search leads U.S. mobile ad revenues in 2012

As search is the top marketing spending on the Web, it leads on mobile platforms, too, according to the latest estimates from British market researcher mobileSquared.

The company said total mobile ad revenues will reach $2.35 billion in U.S. for 2012, up 65 percent from $1.42 billion this year, Media Post reported.

Search revenues, the growth driver, will top $1 billion itself and represent 43.1 percent of all mobile ad revenues in 2012, up 90 percent from the previous year.

SMS and other opt-in messaging used to dominate mobile advertising in early years, but banner ads now have become the second largest format, accounting for 27.8 percent in 2012. Mobile display will follow with 48 percent gain in value next year, making it $442.2 million in total revenues.

Opt-in messaging will be up 47 percent to $383.8 million, or 23.9 percent of revenues, while ad-related app revenue will represent 2.4 percent and video and mobile TV advertising will make up 2.7 percent of revenues, Media Post reported.

Image: mobileSquared

Yahoo! and Google to release news readers

Yahoo! is expected to launch a news and social reader, called Livestand, next Wednesday, All Things D reported today. And hot on its heels will be Google’s reader, code named Propeller, which could be unveiled as early as next week as well.

The online giants will be competing with Flipboard and others like it, as digital media consumers’ habits shift increasingly to using apps to sift through news and information.

Flipboard currently is the most used social and news reader. It has been downloaded four million times and partners with more than 50 publishers, according to PCMag.

Image: Livestand

Study: Digital video advertising to grow 25% in 1 year

A survey of advertisers and agencies shows that digital video advertising is expected to increase 25 percent over the next 12 months in the United States, Casale Media Research announced today.

This means that in the next 12 months, digital video advertising will make up about 23.8 percent of total online ad budgets, according to the study, “Digital Video Advertising: Removing Barriers Equals Greater Opportunities.”

Video is the fastest growing spending category for online media, and although this study shows just how fast that is, it is not without barriers, the study stated. Planning, creative and execution of video ad campaigns would likely be booked more often if they were “more simple and painless.” Survey respondents said that planning (38 percent), creative (40 percent) and execution (35 percent), continue to pose problems.

The most common reasons marketers don’t use digital video ads is because they are too difficult to measure ROI (40 percent) and there is “not enough ROI to justify increasing spend (38 percent), the survey found.

However, despite these drawbacks, 80 percent of the survey respondents said they use video ads to increase awareness of traditional and new brands, products and services.

Image: Coldplay American Express video ad on YouTube

U.S. leads in mobile app usage; Asia wins in mobile Web adoption

In terms of mobile application use, U.S. takes the lead, but China and other Asian countries wins in other types of advanced mobile activities, according to a new study by Forrester.

The study shows that mobile Internet adoption is highest in the Asia-Pacific region –about 50 percent of the population in Japan and metropolitan China do so at least once a month. In countries including U.S., Australia, Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands, the rate is between 28 and 36 percent, and even lower in other countries.

In countries such as India, cost and infrastructure challenges may be the causes of low mobile Internet penetration. However, according to Forrester, low rates in wealthier nations like Germany, Spain, France and Italy are more surprising.

China also had the highest percentage of “SuperConnecteds,” the most sophisticated mobile phone users who access Internet on mobile devices at least weekly and make regular use of multiple advanced mobile services and applications. 52 percent of Chinese mobile users in metro areas are SuperConnecteds, versus 33 percent in U.S., 17 percent in the largest seven European countries, and 11 percent in metro India, Media Post reported.

Asia also leads in mobile social networking, with penetration of 34 percent in China, 28 percent in Japan, and 25 percent in Hong Kong and U.S.

However, U.S. is the leader in using apps, with nine out of 10 mobile users having downloaded one in the last three months, followed by the UK at 66 percent, the Netherlands at 63 percent and France at 62 percent. The EU-7 as a whole stands at 61 percent.

The study finds similarities in mobile commerce on either side of the world. One out of four mobile Web users in U.S. and metro China have researched products on their phones, but only between nine and 16 percent have actually purchased something online in both markets.

The Forrester study were based on separate surveys conducted in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific earlier this year, with 10,802, 22,501 and 11,461 participants, respectively, in each region, Media Post reported.

Image: 2ndlook

Street Fight Summit Explores Hyperlocal Phenomenon

In the United States alone, the hyperlocal media business is worth US$32 billion in 2011, according to BIA/Kelsey. A growing group of technologists, ecommerce businesses, advertisers and publishers are jockeying to acquire that revenue.

More than 200 hyperlocal media business afficianados are gathering at the first Street Fight Summit in New York's SoHo neighborhood. Hyperlocal entrepreneurs and publishers from around the world have heard from the industry's gurus, including Fwix CEO Darian Shirazi, Patch president Warren Websiter and FourSquare's general manager Evan Cohen.

WNMN is attending the conference, which started Tuesday, The speakers are exploring the opportunities in daily deals, location-based targeting, granular content on hyperlocal sites, partnerships and reasons for early failures, such as Backfence as a slew of daily deals sites.

“AOL believes in hyperlocal content. Patch will be a big part of their future going forward,” said Warren Webster, Patch’s founder and president. Patch is in more than 800 markets in the United States.

"In many cases, these hyperlocal businesses fail because the revenue does not add up against the costs," said Ezra Kucharz, president of CBS Local Digital Media. CBS has ramped up its hyperlocal presence on its portals in 25 markets in the United States. "You have to have great content in order to be successful."

Newspaper website traffic up 20% in last year

As newspapers across the United States increasingly seek to engage digital audiences, the Newspaper Association of America today released some encouraging news: traffic to newspaper websites has increased 20 percent in the last year.

Average daily visits by adults ages 18 and older were up 21 percent, according to the analysis by comScore for the NAA. Total page views were up 10 percent; total minutes spent on the sites increased 11 percent; and unique visitors were up 9 percent year-on-year.

“This strong audience growth coincided with the introduction of paywalls at many newspaper companies,” Caroline Little, NAA president and CEO, stated in a press release. “Clearly, consumers place high value upon the content that newspapers create – and they are seeking out newspaper websites to get it. Not only do online platforms deliver reach and engagement, they attract the demographics that advertisers want, which bodes well for the continued growth of this revenue stream.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times today also released some good news on the digital pay front; paying digital subscribers reached 324,000 in the third quarter this year, compared to 281,000 at the end of the second quarter. Its online paywall was put up in March.

Image: rmg.bz

Guardian launches iPad edition

The Guardian today announced the launch of its first full iPad app, which is a daily download of the newspaper's print edition.

The app is also available on Newsstand, a feature of the new iOS5, and users use it for a free three-month trial period, after which it will cost £9.99 a month. This is one of the first times the English newspaper has charged for a digital service. Its other paid digital content is its £9.99 per month Kindle app, launched in July.

The price is has been viewed as high by some. However, The New York Times' digital subscription is more expensive yet, at US$5 per week.

“The app will not please everyone. We've consciously set out, with this version, to deliver the Guardian newspaper edition, something that will work for some of our most loyal and passionate readers. It's a reflective once-a-day Guardian, designed and edited for iPad,” the Guardian stated in its introduction to the app.

eNewspaper sales to mobile devices to reach $1.1 billion by 2016

Annual revenues from eNewspapers delivered to portable devices will top $1.1 billion by 2016, as publishers increasingly deliver content via subscription-based applications to compensate the loss from print sales, according to a new study by Juniper Research, cellular-news reported.

The report said one of the key drivers for newspaper publishers to move beyond standalone smartphone apps towards integrated digital strategies is the surge of iPad adoption. Companies such as News International have started to offer a single subscription price, with which users can access content across all digital platforms.

Also, shifting to a paywall model would almost cause a substantial decline in the digital user base. In spite of this, “for many publishers the revenues that accrued from a moderate user base paying a modest subscription charge would outweigh initial loss of CPM (cost per mille)-based advertising revenue,” the report stated.

However, many publishers would struggle to bridge the gap caused by the serious downturn in print sales. Moreover, the ubiquity of free news and online sources force publishers to set digital subscription prices markedly lower than print in order to reach a critical mass of users. This, in turn, would put further pressure on margins, according to Juniper Research.

Meanwhile, pressure could also comes from the emergence of 'NeoNewspapers', such as The Early Edition and Flipboard which essentially create newspaper/magazine-style content on tablets derived from social media, RSS feeds and brand partners, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

“The problem facing publishers is twofold. Firstly; is their content sufficiently attractive to create a viable paying audience? Secondly, can they continue to sustain the costs of a print proposition during the migration to digital?” said the report author Dr. Windsor Holden.

Image: Paulino Figueirido DPP

NY Times sues U.S. government over Patriot Act secrecy

In an effort to find out how a controversial act by the U.S. Congress is used by law enforcement, The New York Times has sued the federal government, ZD Net reported today.

The suit comes after the government declined a series of Freedom of Information requests that may have shown a secret way in which law enforcement interprets the USA Patriot Act.

The suit stems from a report in May by reporter Charlie Savage, when two senators “referenced secret elements to the Patriot Act and offered an amendment to make public the details that had previously been withheld,” a report by Politico explained. “In other words, the senators said, there was one version of the anti-terrorism measure presented to the public, and another withheld by the government. They proposed making the 'secret' version public.”

The act, which has expanded the FBI's powers, was first signed into law in 2001 under the Bush administration, and was renewed in 2009 under the Obama administration.

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WSJ Europe publisher resigns amid ethics scandal

The Wall Street Journal Europe's publisher has left his post after a deal between the newspaper and another company caused concern over a “breach of ethical standards,” said Dow Jones, which owns the paper, The Associated Press reported.

Andrew Langhoff's resignation comes following a deal between the newspaper's circulation department and Executive Learning Partnership, a consultancy based in the Netherlands.

Two articles in the WSJ's Special Reports section were published because of the deal between the circulation department and ELP, The New York Times reported. The articles, which appeard on Oct. 14, 2010 and March 14 of this year, were reported and written by the News Department. “However, any action that creates an impression that news coverage can be influenced by commercial interests is a breach of the ethical standards of Dow Jones & Co.,” the clarification, published today, stated.

The deal “could give the impression that news coverage can be influenced by commercial relationships,” and even the appearance of an ethical breach would not be tolerated, Dow Jones said in a statement, according to the AP.

The agreement between ELP and the WSJ, part of News Corporation, is now expired, according to the WSJ's clarification.

In addition, the Guardian reported it had “found evidence that the Journal had been channelling money through European companies in order to secretly buy thousands of copies of its own paper at a knock-down rate, misleading readers and advertisers about the Journal's true circulation.”

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