18

Aug

News International Paywall To Expand

newmediaage and Marketing Week report today about the plans from NI for News Of The World to introduce a paywall in October, with plans for The Sun to follow. Details below…

Supporting this I have to recommend the cover story in today’s Marketing Week ‘The great media experiment’ which is an excellent read and a really decent summary of the different ways media owners are tackling the internet and evolving their business plans. The article’s full of great stats and is a very useful summary of what’s going on right now in many areas of the media owner landscape. It’s available online here – http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/in-depth-analysis/cover-stories/great-media-experiment-becomes-a-balancing-act/3017151.article if you have a subscription…

News of the World paywall planned for October launch

News of the World’s transition to a paid content model will hinge on exclusive video content, distributed across an overhauled site and app.

An introductory rate is expected for the first month, promoted via a high-profile marketing campaign.

Engine-owned WCRS, News of the World’s lead creative agency, and Glue Isobar are understood to be working on supporting campaigns, leveraging News of the World exposés.

Chime’s VCCP Search is also understood to have been appointed to work on a search strategy to drive subscriptions now that News International has withdrawn from conventional news search.

The move is an extension of News International’s paywall strategy, which has already seen The Times and The Sunday Times sites launch subscription models.

News of the World received 1.1m unique visitors in July viewing 14m pages for an average of 8.1 minutes a visit, according to ComScore.

In comparison, The Sun claimed 3.8m unique visitors with an average dwell time of 15 minutes, while online newspaper leader Mail Online claimed 8.9m unique visitors, with an average visit of 25 minutes in July.

The Times’ paywall came into effect on 2 July and although it has seen unique visitors almost halve since, according to ComScore, the decrease isn’t as drastic as some industry observers had previously predicted.

MediaCom managing partner Stefan Bardega said a subscription-only News of the World could be an attractive proposition for advertisers.

“One of the challenges around web and mobile for advertisers is that you can’t track between the two, unless users are registered across both,” he said. “What News of the World could offer is true cross-platform targeting, and that’s very interesting.”

Neither Engine, VCCP nor Glue was available for comment. News International declined to comment

1005 days ago Short URL Comments

Digital/Newspapers

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09

Aug

Opposition Nil, Smart PR Move?

It’s all kicked off in Southampton. Its decision last week to restrict access for photographers to home games to one exclusive agency has prompted a stinging response from media. Click here for a great example and the debate is rolling on…

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/3086600/Opposition-0-Plymouth-1.html

This throws up an interesting question about the balance which needs to be struck between sports brands and rights holders monetising their content versus reaching the widest possible audience in a positive fashion.

We have a Southampton fan in the Braben office and the consensus here is this has been a bad move, opening up the opportunity to criticise the management team and creating a hostility towards the club in a season when they were starting out favourites. Will be fascinating to see how long this type of restricted access lasts at the club with the breaking news that The Digital South (the exclusive picture agency for Southampton FC has pulled out).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/09/southampton-fc-photo-ban

1014 days ago Short URL Comments

Digital/Events/Sport

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27

May

World Cup 2010 – The Media Fest Is Kicking Off

Having shown off its capabilities for the most reported on UK election of all time, the media’s attention is turning to the World Cup.

How the world has changed since World Cup 2006 – it’s an opportunity for the media to show off its shiny new capabilities once more.

It’s also an opportunity for PRs to make the very most of the engaging opportunities which are on offer.

That in mind, it’s time to take a look at some of the ways the media will be engaging with its audience during the summer’s biggest sporting event, based on a straw-poll here with the Braben media and sports PR team.

http://www.bbc.co.uk – World Cup 2010

I first saw this showcased at last month’s Sport & Technology Conference and it’s interesting to see how the various different content elements are being fully integrated into this central section.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/default.stm

Sunonline & The Sun World Cup App

The nations’ favourite football paper with a special section online and a World Cup app to download to boot, get stuck in!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/worldcup2010/

ITV – new on-screen technology in the mix and lots of opportunities online…

Aside from Adrian Chiles joining the ITV team, the broadcaster is upping the ante on its technology that it will be using on-air and online. Full details here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/27/itv-world-cup-patrick-viera-francois-pienaar

The Times – http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/international/

If you haven’t already, get registered and track how The Times covers the World Cup before it disappears behind the pay-wall – this is the perfect time for the paper to demonstrate why its subscription online will be worth the money.

Fifa World Cup site: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/

Always worth checking out the official site around the major events as this will help you stay in tune with the ‘official’ agenda.

Telegraph.co.uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/teams/england/pick-england-team/7607233/England-World-Cup-squad-Pick-your-England-squad-for-the-World-Cup-finals-2010.html

The Telegraph continues to impress with its online offering and is heavily promoting its World Cup Squad selector currently.

Best World Cup ads

Hunting around for the best aggregator on World Cup ads, this looks like the best so far, so hop on to make sure you’ve seen the ads which will be setting the agenda over the coming weeks…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7745276/World-Cup-2010s-best-ads-Brazil-Beyonce-and-Little-Britain.html

Sportpost.com

This new sports social media site made by a bunch of sports-mad fans for a bunch of sports-mad mates is a useful place to tailor your online sports diet this summer to make sure you get everything you want.

http://www.sportpost.com/sports/football

For radio, we will, of course, be tuning into Five Live and probably putting our broadband connection under extreme pressure with live streaming of the games to all our Macs during the tournament…

Enjoy, cmon England and feel free to add any other faves…

1087 days ago Short URL Comments

Sport/World Cup 2010

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12

Nov

So Will The Sun Ever Shine Again On Brown?

Fascinating stuff, watching the spat play out between Labour and Murdoch, particularly with the speculated ‘backlash’ towards The Sun this week for its treatment of Brown over his letter and taped apology.

Today’s news on the Ashes being protected as a ‘Crown Jewel; is being seized upon by other media owners as evidence that the Government and Murdoch are going toe-to-toe.  It’s a lovely image… Gordon and Rupert circling each other in the ring trading blows with The Sun’s editorial team and Lord Mandelson in their respective corners as trainers and cutmen.

This is a heavyweight battle in the making in the run-up to next year’s election with significant implications for the media landscape and, I’m sure, some intriguing PR moves by both sides to be studied on the way.

1283 days ago Short URL Comments

Uncategorized

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