Tuesday, 13 October 2015
The future of newspapers
The article states that by 2043 the newspaper will die in North America. That could be due to the fact that the younger generation spends 30% less time on traditional media once they start using the internet, and since the internet is constantly developing and improving it's a matter of time before everyone turns to digital media ditching the outdated newspapers. I agree with the statement that it's 'a cause for concern, but not for panic’ because right now there are a couple newspapers that are rising in circulation due to the changes that were made in order to maintain/increase their circulations. That being said, majority of papers are on a massive decline and right now this is supporting the idea that newspapers will die out very soon. In conclusion I believe that the newspaper will stay however it will require a lot of innovation and experimenting with new digital media as well so there can be synergy between the two different media texts.
Newspapers: The effect of online technology
1) Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online? Why?
I disagree as I believe we should have access to that kind of information for free. It's not right for a corporation to charge the public for something that should be free and accessed by anyone. Even if the BBC did charge for their news, there still would be people on blogs and social networks talking about it and informing others for free and there's not much Murdoch could say to that. He states that newspapers need to adapt yet ironically he's the one that needs to adapt to the new digital era and allow free access to information.
2) Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sun) behind a paywall?
No, right now all of these are failing, their circulation is in massive decline because there are newspapers and news websites that are available for free so why would anyone bother paying a fee for something that we can find for free on a different website which is a few clicks away.
3) Choose two comments from below the Times paywall article - one that argues in favour of the paywall and one that argues against. Copy a quote from each and explain which YOU agree with and why.
"Mike Darcey may be sceptical about advertising-funded websites, but MailOnline makes a small profit and is on course to make £45 million this year, thanks to its six million browsers a day. Conversely, Times Newspapers Ltd lost £28.7 million for the year to July 1, on turnover of £361 million.
That 20 jobs are to go from the Times shows the costbase still isn't quite right."
"To go from zero to 140,000 digital customers is a significant achievement and was made in the face of vocal opposition and a tempestuous political atmosphere for the company. The company now has lifetime value and renewable revenue attached to its digital customers where previously it had none."
I agree more with the first quote because even though The Times has 140k subscriptions and is growing quite slowly, it will get to a point where there'll only be people that do not want to pay for newspapers left, and these people will not subscribe to the times with the assumption that other reliable news sources such as the BBC stay free. Only middle class and higher class people are willing to pay for this, young people and lower classes are very unlikely to waste money on a subscription to a news corporation when they're very likely to have free access to other sources of information.
4) Why do you think the Evening Standard has bucked the trend and increased circulation and profit in the last two years?
I think it's because it realised in time that charging money for something that is accessible on the internet for free is clearly a plan for disaster, so them making their newspaper free and having advertising causes circulation to increase which in turn increases income from advertising. People who love reading newspapers are more likely to go for a good quality paper that's free rather than paying for a tacky tabloid and getting their information from there.
5) Is there any hope for the newspaper industry or will it eventually die out? Provide a detailed response to this question explaining and justifying your opinion.
I believe there is, just like how the internet will never be able to replace books neither will it be able to replace the traditional newspaper. Even though it will be a lot harder for newspapers to be more appealing than the internet, there are circumstances where a newspaper cannot be replaced. For example phones have no reception underground, therefore a newspaper is the only thing that's available for us to use for a source of news. There's definitely a spot for the newspaper however companies need to ensure that they come for free and that they're of high quality.
I disagree as I believe we should have access to that kind of information for free. It's not right for a corporation to charge the public for something that should be free and accessed by anyone. Even if the BBC did charge for their news, there still would be people on blogs and social networks talking about it and informing others for free and there's not much Murdoch could say to that. He states that newspapers need to adapt yet ironically he's the one that needs to adapt to the new digital era and allow free access to information.
2) Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sun) behind a paywall?
No, right now all of these are failing, their circulation is in massive decline because there are newspapers and news websites that are available for free so why would anyone bother paying a fee for something that we can find for free on a different website which is a few clicks away.
3) Choose two comments from below the Times paywall article - one that argues in favour of the paywall and one that argues against. Copy a quote from each and explain which YOU agree with and why.
"Mike Darcey may be sceptical about advertising-funded websites, but MailOnline makes a small profit and is on course to make £45 million this year, thanks to its six million browsers a day. Conversely, Times Newspapers Ltd lost £28.7 million for the year to July 1, on turnover of £361 million.
That 20 jobs are to go from the Times shows the costbase still isn't quite right."
"To go from zero to 140,000 digital customers is a significant achievement and was made in the face of vocal opposition and a tempestuous political atmosphere for the company. The company now has lifetime value and renewable revenue attached to its digital customers where previously it had none."
I agree more with the first quote because even though The Times has 140k subscriptions and is growing quite slowly, it will get to a point where there'll only be people that do not want to pay for newspapers left, and these people will not subscribe to the times with the assumption that other reliable news sources such as the BBC stay free. Only middle class and higher class people are willing to pay for this, young people and lower classes are very unlikely to waste money on a subscription to a news corporation when they're very likely to have free access to other sources of information.
4) Why do you think the Evening Standard has bucked the trend and increased circulation and profit in the last two years?
I think it's because it realised in time that charging money for something that is accessible on the internet for free is clearly a plan for disaster, so them making their newspaper free and having advertising causes circulation to increase which in turn increases income from advertising. People who love reading newspapers are more likely to go for a good quality paper that's free rather than paying for a tacky tabloid and getting their information from there.
5) Is there any hope for the newspaper industry or will it eventually die out? Provide a detailed response to this question explaining and justifying your opinion.
I believe there is, just like how the internet will never be able to replace books neither will it be able to replace the traditional newspaper. Even though it will be a lot harder for newspapers to be more appealing than the internet, there are circumstances where a newspaper cannot be replaced. For example phones have no reception underground, therefore a newspaper is the only thing that's available for us to use for a source of news. There's definitely a spot for the newspaper however companies need to ensure that they come for free and that they're of high quality.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
HWK 8
How low is Facebook's corporation tax bill?
- Even though Facebook paid its 362 UK employees an average of £210,000 in pay and bonuses, the company's corporation tax bill was less than the average UK worker pays in income tax.
- According to figures from DueDil, Facebook UK's most recent turnover (according to 2014 figures) was £105 million - however, in Ireland, the company turned over almost €3 billion (£2.2 billion) in 2013.
- And even though £4,327 of tax seems low, it's a higher figure than in previous years - in 2012, Facebook UK paid no corporation tax at all, according to The Guardian.
HWK 7
Sky Sports vs BT
- BT and SKY are showing too much football games and football related things
- Not a good representation of TV
- Should football games even be shown on TV?
- Sport related shows are overtaking news and gov. affairs, problem?
- BT Sport has bought the rights to show 42 Premier League games from the 2016-17 season
- Sky Sports have retained the majority of Premier League matches shown on TV with 116 games this season
Tuesday, 29 September 2015
NDM News case study: Audience and Institution
News Consumption
- 95% of Adults say they follow the news
- 75% say TV is the main source (decrease of 3% from 2013)
- 41% use internet apps for news in 2014 (32% in 2013)
- Use of internet apps for news in the 16-34 age group has increased from 44% in 2013 to 60% in 2014
- 28% said BBC 1 is the most important news outlet in 2014 (decrease from 34% the previous year)
- Almost half (45%) of 16-24s say their most important news source is a website/app, up by 15% since 2013 (30%).
- Average adult watched 115hrs of news on TV in 2013, same as year before 64% was on BBC One or BBC Two and a further 12% on the BBC News channel.
- 16-24yr old only watched 27hrs in the same period
- 196hrs for 55+yr olds in the same period
- When asked what they considered to be news, UK adults nominated crime (53%), worldwide current affairs (53%), UK-wide current affairs (51%) and UK-wide politics (49%). UK politics and current affairs, and worldwide current affairs, are seen to have societal importance by half (49%) of UK adults, crime by 48% and weather by 45%.
- Almost three in five (58%) UK adults say they follow the news to find out “what’s going on in the world”. The next most-cited reason is to know “what’s going on across the UK” (56%), followed by to know “what’s going on in my local area” (49%), then to know “what’s going on in respective nations” (46%) and “because I feel it’s important to keep informed about certain issues” (42%).
2) News papers such as The Evening Standard have benefited the most because majority of people aren't willing to pay a fee for news stories that are available for free on the internet. Therefore newspapers that are free of charge have had an increase of circulation in the past 5 years, whereas those that you have to pay for are on a decrease. Even though the paper is free, the owners still receive a lot of revenue from the advertising that's in the paper, whereas those papers that aren't free are technically making more money from advertising and the physical price of the paper, that soon will change as those papers will have very low circulation in a few years therefore they'll be making a loss rather that earning profit.
3) The Sun has taken a huge impact on it's circulation, in 2010 it had 3,006,565 papers in circulation whereas now it decreased to only 1,978,702. The Sun was the kingpin of British newspapers, it had the highest circulation rates for over 15 years and ever since the development of the internet and the build up of the digital media it's losing it's position very quickly. That's because it's a paid newspaper and now people have access to internet everywhere they go due to their smartphones, therefore they have unlimited access to free news stories that have been published on the internet which make The Sun look very redundant and unnecessary.
Monday, 28 September 2015
hwk 6
Junk food advertising faces ruling on marketing to children
- The body responsible for setting UK advertising rules is to launch a public consultation that will evaluate whether a ban on advertising junk food to children online, in the press, on billboards and poster sites should be introduced.
- looking at the introduction of tighter rules on how food and drinks high in fat, salt and sugar are marketed to children.
- Last year, there were 13,477 complaints about 10,202 digital ads in the UK.
- In addition, The use of celebrities and licensed characters are banned from junk food ads targeting younger children, and ads are not allowed to encourage “pester power”.
hwk 5
Doctor Who lead role could be taken by woman, says BBC1 chief
- Doctor Who returned for its new series two weeks ago with 4.6 million viewers, the lowest audience for a launch show since its new incarnation in 2005. It dipped further last Saturday to 3.7 million viewers, up against Wales’ Rugby World Cup win over England on ITV.
- “The day it will work is when somebody says, ‘That person would be amazing,’ and the most conservative, most traditional member of the audience says, ‘Oh God, yes. I would hate the idea of a lady Doctor, but that one would be great.’”
- However, the launch programme added another 2 million viewers – nearly 50% of its total audience, in the consolidated figures, which include people who recorded it and watched it in the following seven days, up to 6.5 million. It has also had 1.5 million requests to watch it on the iPlayer to date.
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