Thursday 7 April 2011

News Case Studies

-Rupert Murdoch vs Google (IP theft?)
-Researcg a particular online news provision
-Murdoch monopoly

Music Case Studies

-Study how artists have used the online age to further their career
-Zavvi/virgin and HMV
-Wikileaks (cost of free)
-illegal downloads

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Stop Press? Media Revolution (BBC2)

Media Revolution is a documentary on BBC2 which has an in-depth look at the decline in newspaper circulation sales and the rise of technology and how this has effect the print journalism.
As an example of this the 'dailies' have lost over 2.25 million readers over the past 10 years; The Mirror lost 750,000; The Sun lost 400,000; The Telegraph has went down 17%; The Guardian down 10% and the Sunday papers have lost 500,000 readers. The only newspaper which did not lose readers between 2008 and 2009 was The Sun, who effectively had to cut their cover price to keep sales of their newspaper up. The percentage of revenue for local papers is up to a 3/4 of revenue from advertising, and is down 23%.
Due to technology advances over the 80's, newspapers from the USA and Japan already using this advanced technology, Rupert Murdoch revolutionized newspaper production by moving his printing press in Fleet Street to computer operators in Wapping.
Also newspapers attempt to attract readers, or hold their existing readers, through giving away freebies with their papers, especially CDs and DVDs. In 2008 McFly gave away their new CD with the Mail on Sunday which caused the tabloid's sales to rise from the average 2.1 million up to 2.4 million on the day it was sold.
Some newspapers are 'free', for example the Metro which is given away on trains across the country, and this has numerous effects on the industry; some good, some bad. The good points are that the news is given for free and reaches the niche group of young people a lot easier than other newspapers, these young people often have a lot of disposable income and this appeals to the advertises. However other newspapers criticize the Metro due to its apparent 'dumbing down' of the headlines, making the articles take up a lot less room, therefore saving money - only 55% of the Metro is actual news, a giant 45% is advertisements. Also the free newspapers cause problems for the other newspapers as the potential customers could well be more inclined to read the Metro, a smaller and easier to handle newspaper on trains and other forms of transport rather than the larger broadsheets.
The internet has also had a heavy impact on newspaper sales as more people can read their news online and due to the media convergence of such gadgets as the iPad, and smart/android phones they can read it on the go. Online you can look up the exact articles you would like read, or the topic it s about rather than having to flick through a newspaper trying to find it, therefore the immediacy is more relevant to the younger people of today. The internet is also, for the most part, free content - however now some newspaper sites are charging for their news to be read online; for example the Times online chargers £6 for a weeks content.
Some newspapers have tried to embrace this such as the Telegraph which has embraced the digital world through moving to a high-tech office which has a 'projection wall' which shows the articles which are currently online over a large wall for all the journalist to see whilst working, also a video studio, and a tally which shows what the most read articles are to motivate the writers. Showing that newspapers are not just printing presses anymore, they are multimedia offices. This online access has had a major impact on some newspapers, for example the Guardian which has 1/3 of their readers from the UK, 1/3 from America and 1/3 from the rest of the world (2009 approximate figures), therefore the newspapers need to think even further globally. Advertises may not be willing to share their adverts with countries to which their adverts or products is invalid, and the newspapers companies will need to altercate this, as before the digital world took over the newspaper printed copies, were they would be more locally printed, had advertisements which were applicable to that area. Whereas now, due to the online age, as people are reading all over the world their adverts would be useless.

Technologies which have changed the way which we access our news include the Amazon Kindle and iPad as well as 'apps' for the smart/android phones which are also internet accessible so people can buy subscriptions from the websites. I personally don't pay for news a lot, it is easy to access the main headlines through TV broadcasting or Radio bulletins, however I occasionally purchase the Times newspaper, but I never buy news online.

Stop Press?


Full breakdown of national newspaper circulation figures for December 2010:
(average sale; percentage change year on year - source ABC)

Dailes

Daily Mirror ; 1,133,440 ; -7.51

Daily Record ; 290,247 ; -7.79

Daily Star ; 713,602 ; -9.09

The Sun ; 2,717,013 ; -5.10

Daily Express ; 623,689 ; -7.98

Daily Mail ; 2,030,968 ; -3.89

The Daily Telegraph ; 631,280 ; -10.23

Financial Times ; 390,121 ; -2.67

The Herald ; 51,469 ; -7.78

The Guardian ; 264,819 ; -11.89

The Independent ; 175,002 ; -6.39

The Scotsman ; 41,572 ; -7.56

The Times ; 448,463 ; -14.01

Racing Post ; 49,274 ; -12.39

Sunday titles

Daily Star Sunday ; 336,868 ; -4.64

News of the World ; 2,600,985 ; -6.83

Sunday Mail ; 352,300 ; -8.95

Sunday Mirror ; 1,047,363 ; -5.92

The People ; 486,669 ; -8.64

Sunday Express ; 544,870 ; -7.74

Sunday Post ; 309,456 ; -7.55

The Mail on Sunday ; 1,951,783 ; -2.43

Independent on Sunday ; 150,437 ; -3.23

The Observer ; 301,457 ; -14.12

Scotland on Sunday ; 48,480 ; -11.77

Sunday Herald ; 39,831 ; -1.94

The Sunday Telegraph ; 490,322 ; -6.62

The Sunday Times ; 1,008,163 ; -9.44