Dissertation topic

Dear readers, I’m asking you some help with my thesis topic (master of science in media management). I’d like to write about the free paper market in Italy but I haven’t found the research question to follow yet. Do you have some suggestions? My intention is to investigate on a current topic, which might be of real interest for the media research community.

Some ideas I came up with:

- the free press business model (a case history) - a bit too old as a topic

- the free press reader profile (why is he a valuable target for advertisers? Was he a non-reader? Does he read also paid newspapers?) - few data I think

- the role of the marketing department in a free daily

Thank you for your comments.

Relativism in hits rating

An interesting article published on the New York Times reports on site hits: media companies internal count might differ hugely from the statistics provided by Nielsen/Netratings and ComScore. And these discrepancies might affect badly the development of online advertising.

New look for Corriere.it

Il Corriere della Sera has totally renewed its web site: a new header design, the navigation bar on the top, more videocast updates and other web 2.0 tools make it similar to other important newspapers’ web sites (see the New York Times’s appearance).

The new version has just been implemented and still unstable (some sections are from the old version). Some readers are complaining because it’s still impossible to navigate through the pages of corriere.it on a PocketPc and other mobile devices, but Pratellesi has promised they are working on it.

Source: Marco Pratellesi (Corriere.it)

What consumers want from online news

News consumers are keen on “brand promiscuity”, their favourite information platforms are television and the Internet and usefulness, timeliness and easyness in getting news appear to be more important than quality and accuracy. These are the basic findings of the McKinsey Quarterly reasearch about online readers.

Media companies should be aware that the reader’s behaviour is changing: as he prefers relying on a variety of different sources, he appreciates quick and targeted informations, some solutions could be to offer multisource aggregators directly from a newspaper’s website, to thighten links and partnership with local institutions and within the different media companies, to invest in the development of new products for unsatisfied niches.

N.Y.Times online to give up charges

After two years of charging for access to some parts of its website, The New York Times decided to provide its digital content for free. The reasons are simple: on one hand the readers are less and less willing to pay for online content (and most of them have already given up buying the newspaper), on the other hand advertising expenditure on the net is increasing and revenues from this source appear to be more consistent than the few the TimeSelect program brought in the Times in two years.

E-Polis is back… in telecommute mode!

The new publisher of E-Polis, Alberto Rigotti, has decided to bring back the title on the editorial market, introducing an innovation: no more newrooms, the editors will work at home (pc and mobile granted as benefits).

The publisher presented the solution as a plus for his employees (not caring about law and contract infringments):

“The journalist is one dimension of our project for whom we would like to do more. Journalism has gone through a gene mutation due to many factors, not only the technological ones, and great possibilities are opening up: the journalist is becoming a knowledge vehicle and not only an information vehicle. The idea is provide the conditions to our reporters to participate in the editorial tasks, also the paging ones, everywhere they are”.

Congratulations for recognizing the digital revolution affected also journalism in 2007! Concerning the knowledge stuff, it’s a pathetic attempt to gild the pill: no newsrooms means cutting editorial costs. The publisher might have no money (again??) or be simply trying to rise revenues, anyway that’s not a good re-start…

The end of an era

Diario, an italian center-left weekly magazine, is closing down. The main factors that brought the publisher to this hard decision are few copies sold and not enough advertising revenues.

As market analyst I should judge the management of a company impartially, but this time I’m emotionally involved and it’s tougher. I started my (brief) carrer in journalism as a Diario intern and I continued writing as correspondent every now and then. I know all the people working in the newsroom, I know some of their families and I can understand the gravity of losing one’s job. But I’ll try my best analysing the situation.

I think the main problems of Diario are the lack of a marketing department, which would promote the editorial product, and an “homemade” publicity management, only recently externalized to a press agency.

In a market environment where the trends are decreasing revenues from copies sold and fierce competition with tv and new media in advertising, the solution italian publishers found is secondary products, like books and dvds, which increase revenues.

Also Diario tried this way. In fact, the financial report for year 2006 looks “better” compared to the one of the previous year, because the revenues from the chief editor’s self-produced movie lowered the debts. It ends up with a net loss of 644.708 euros anyway.

I drafted a ratio analisys. Please correct me if there’s something wrong (I’m just a student, after all )

2006 2005

ROA -19,89% -54,19%
ROE -52,48% -128,22%
ROD 1,44% 3,41%
ACID TEST 130,47% 110,06%
CURRENT RATIO 131,61% 116,75%
DEBT TO CAPITAL 47,32% 36,84%

The level of receivables looks too high and the liabilities increased in 2006. Even if the revenues from goods sold doubled, the costs of production were still higher than revenues.

The acid test ratio appears to be ok, above 1, so the company should be able to pay its short-term obligations and the debt to capital is acceptable. But the return on debt seems to be too high. The current ratio is low (maybe due to the receivables?), while it should be around 200%…

Concerning ROA and ROE, well, they’re negative. The company is losing 0,20 euro for each euro in the assets. Plus ROE should be between 13% and 15% while it’s -54,48%.

I can’t say more, I would need the statement of cash flow…

I would really appreciate feedback on this, because it’s just a challenge to test my financial accounting skills

Online editions are complementary

According to a research of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, online editions of english newspapers don’t cannibalize the copies sold at the newsstands. The reader appear to go online to know more about what he has already read in the print edition, instead.

ABC’s data show that the majority of the unique users of the online edition of the Times come from abroad. Only 33% of users are from UK.

Source: PRnoticias

ps: I couldn’t find the entire study. If you can, please link it in a comment. Thanks!

I think it’s time for publisher to stop blaming readers for going online instead of buying their copy, and start investing in crossmedia to gain new readers. Online editions are not second class editorial products! Especially, if they benefit of high quality and accuracy that belogs to the ‘editorial giants’…

El País for free

New distribution strategy for the Spanish national paid daily: readers can find free copies of the morning edition in Madrid, at the cinema Kiniépolis. The circulation war with El Mundo has just begun.

Source: PRNoticias

E-Polis suspended publication

E-Polis, an italian free paper, has suspended publication until an undetermined date. The measure is due to a difficult deal to reach between the publisher, Nicola Grauso, and the printmaker, concerning the recapitalization of the daily.