Media job cuts
Fairfax started slashing jobs before the recession kicked in. Now Rupert Murdoch is promising cuts “across the board” as News Corporation earnings diminish.
I question this strategy. I thought we learnt a lesson from the 1990s that people are important?
Murdoch is implying that he ran his business inefficiently while times were good.
When times are bad you should closely examine all your costs and look at what you can do without.
It worries me though that bean counters will say, for example, 10 percent of jobs must go, and not give adequate thought to the consequences for product quality. Read more
PANPA website overhauled
The PANPA website has undergone a significant and long-overdue overhaul.
The site includes features, blogs and podcasts. It promises to publish industry news daily.
“The six key-area blogs are a major part of the site, giving you a chance to publish your own article or comment on the views of others about our industry,” chief executive Mark Hollands said.
The blogs focus on journalism, sales and marketing, print and production, digital Business, media student view, and CEO view.
PANPA will be producing a regular podcast, featuring industry leaders and focusing on the big topics and events for the industry.
Small ads can be effective
This probably sounds like heresy to advertising managers, but in my past life as a communications consultant I was happy to advise clients to advertise on the left-hand page.
From my Rural Press layout training (when training was compulsory under Paul Keating) I learnt from a publishing guru that right-hand pages are read by something like one percent more people than left-hand pages.
It’s such a small number to be meaningless, but newspapers get away with charging loadings for right-hand pages because of it and the misconstrued belief among marketing people. Read more
Newspapers work online too
The Newspaper Works website has been revamped. It’s a much better effort than the previous incarnation.
In fact, the previous site should never have been launched given its lack of content.
This collaborative effort of the nation’s major publishers is gaining momentum and will hopefully serve the purpose of convincing advertisers that newspapers offer the best deal in web and print.