Week commencing 13th October 2008

International: This week saw the launch of BE:EUROPE (including CEBRS), The Media Survey of Europe's Business Elite. It is the successor to The European Businessmen's Research Survey, which launched in 1973 and measured the working lives and media consumption of Europe's most important and influential business people, bi-annually. The new version reflects the changing business landscape and the opportunities now available through the revolution in information technology. The universe consists of almost 458,000 senior business individuals working in 62,324 companies in seventeen European countries. BE:Central Europe 2008 covers a universe of 41,473 in 5,817 companies in three central European counties: Hungary, Poland and the Czech epublic. Three quarters of the respondents were at vice-president or director level or above. 40% of senior business decision makers across Europe are now reading International news titles, up 9% on 2006. Titles showing increases in 2008, when compared to 2006 data include the FT, up to 14.3% from 13,1%, The Economist, up 2% to 12.3% and National Geographic, up to 9.3% from 6.9%. Daily papers stayed strong with 17% of respondents reading at least one, up from 16% in 2006, one in five of respondents read weekly publications, up two points from the previous year and monthly publications increased 4% to 24%. New media is also used by the business leaders: 70% getting updates online and 50% receive daily news updates. The total library of Elite Surveys now covers 42 markets across Europe, Asia, Japan, Australia, USA, Middle East and Latin America. Source: Total Media International

Shine Group is working up plans to launch a Middle Eastern production office in the United Arab Emirates where it would focus on making shows for the Arab world. Company founder Liz Murdoch and managing director Alex Mahon have already been to the region for talks, following an approach by Abu Dhabi's new media content creation zone, Twofour54, earlier this year. A source close to the project said Shine was considering its options, which could see it reversion its most successful shows for the Arabic-speaking world. "It could be another serious revenue stream for Shine," said the source. "There are around 300 million Arabic speakers out there." The BBC has already agreed to help build up broadcast production expertise at the Twofour54 hub. The BBC will initially send some staff and qualified freelancers out to Abu Dhabi to train locals, who will in turn become trainers themselves. "It fits into the BBC's primary purpose of informing, educating and entertaining," said Stephen Kelly, director of BBC People, the corporation's human resource division. The BBC will take a cut of the training revenues generated at the development, which is being funded entirely by the Abu Dhabi government. Twofour54 will open on a temporary site early next year before moving to its permanent 200,000sq m permanent home in the middle of the year. It has already signed up the likes of CNN, The Financial Times, and publishers Random House and Harper Collins to take space. The centre will be CNN's fourth global hub after Atlanta, London and Hong Kong. A spokesman for Shine Group said: "I can confirm that the Shine Group was approached by Twofour54, but talks regarding any possible future involvement are purely exploratory and a way off being concrete." Source: Broadcast Now

Trinity Mirror is relaunching the Birmingham Post. The newspaper is dropping "The" from its name and changing from broadsheet to the "compact" size from Monday (20 October). The publication is to target younger readers, particularly those in the business community. It will also introduce a new masthead, a focus on business news, a new layout and is overhauling its web offering with news updates every three minutes. The campaign will launch with a regional TV and press campaign featuring the strapline "All new Birmingham Post. Compact, concise, connected". The ad shows an animated electronic circuit with a number of glowing pulses travelling towards the horizon and flying over words such as "lifestyle", "breaking news" and "finance" which sum up the values of the newspaper. A copy of the newspaper is connected to the centre of the circuit where all the tracks converge. There will also be a digital transvision display at Birmingham New Street and International stations and taxi supersides. Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey recently stated that digital had to be at the core of a newspaper operation and that "hyper-local" was the way forward for regional publications. Source: Mad.co.uk

Commercial radio increased its listening share for the second consecutive quarter to 43.1% in Q3 2008, according to the latest Rajars. Commercial radio's growth means the BBC's market lead is at its smallest for a year. While national commercial stations had a relatively stable quarter, local commercial stations performed well, increasing their share year on year and quarter on quarter to hit 32%. Commercial radio's weekly reach remains at 31 million adults tuning into a commercial station. Within the key 15-44 demographic, 70% listened every week to commercial radio in Q3, rising to 73% within 15-24 demographic. Meanwhile, reach and hours among 4-to-14 year olds rose in the quarter with 72% of all children listening every week to commercial radio in Q3. Commercial radio dominates radio listening in London, according to the RadioCentre, the commercial radio lobby, commanding a 52.3% share of listening, compared with the BBC's 45.7%. Source: Brandrepublic.com

Discussions between JCDecaux and News Corporation about the potential purchase of its Russian and eastern European outdoor company, News Outdoor Group, have ended without an agreement. Economic market conditions have been blamed for the failure to secure a deal, despite assurances by Jean-Charles Decaux, joint chief executive and chairman, that the economic crisis would not affect the deal last Wednesday (8 October).
A joint statement today stated: "Economic and capital market conditions have made it increasingly difficult to conclude strategic partnership on this scale." The chief executive had said the current economic climate would be likely to prompt mergers and JCDecaux was well placed to take advantage of the situation. He also said that, as a whole, growth should stand at between 6% and 7% this year.
The two companies had entered into "exclusive discussions" relating to the business on 11 September, which included cash and shares. JCDecaux is currently the largest out-of-home group in Europe and Asia Pacific, and number two worldwide. It is believed the merger with News Outdoor, the leading outdoor advertising company in Russia, would have made JCDecaux the largest outdoor company worldwide. Source: Media Week

Lads' brand Nuts has overhauled its website, Nuts.co.uk, with the revamped site boasting new features including an entertainment reviews section. The move comes as Nuts, which is suffering a loss in circulation of its magazine, looks to drive more consumers to its website.Owner IPC said the new-look site, which it said will be easier for users to navigate, follows extensive research and will offer clients new ad opportunities. New features include a "Ten-second Reviews" section, which will cover reviews of movies, games, DVDs, gadgets and music for young men; Spambanks, which will house humorous content; and a relaunched Football section, including a daily blog.According to ABCe figures, www.nuts.co.uk saw a 121% year-on-year increase, to 1,398,243 unique users in June.Andrew Sanders, digital sales director, said Nuts has "created a host of new high impact formats that will engage the audience and deliver results for advertisers without disrupting the user experience". Source: Brandrepublic.com

Channel 4's initiative to kick-start a wave of new investment in public service digital media, 4 Innovation for the Public, (4IP), opened up to the public today. The ideas submission system at the heart of the new venture's website, designed by social media company NinetyTen, is now officially live. It allows anyone to submit new digital business ideas at 4IP.org.uk. Channel 4's digital team will fine-tune the ideas and attempt to turn them into viable businesses. In the first stage, the ideas will be reviewed by the broadcaster's digital managers, who will suggest ways in which the ideas could be improved upon. The second stage will see the stronger ideas taken further and use the knowledge base of Channel 4 to help build a business plan around the ideas. The most viable ideas will pass through the 4IP network and be supported by Channel 4.Channel 4 announced in March that it would launch a new £50m creative fund, Next on 4, to show its commitment to develop public service digital media. The broadcaster has committed up to £20m of this money to the 4IP fund on a pilot basis in the two years after launch. Source: Brandrepublic.com

Molson Coors Brewing and Beattie McGuinness Bungay face a $12.5m (£7.1m) lawsuit for allegedly using a novelty iPhone application that allows users to drink a virtual beer. iPhone application creator Hottrix is suing the brewer and ad agency for apparently ripping off its "iBeer" iPhone application and creating their own version called "iPint". According to the lawsuit, Beattie McGuinness Bungay contacted Hottrix in order to license its iBeer application and the accelerometer technology that causes the virtual beer to appear as its being drunk as the phone is tipped. Source: Brandrepublic.com

Newsletter edited by Ed Hockey