financial times
Future of Media in Asia - blogosphere reacts
Thanks to the blogosphere, we have a full audio recording and blog reactions to last week’s sold out lunch on the Future of Media in Asia.
Audio blogger Matthew Driskill recorded a full version of the event on his blog, The View from Here
Why Newspapers can start Online TV
The event started with Felix Soh, director of the Singapore Straits Times’ Razor TV project, giving the first-ever public overview of soon-to-be-launched service.
Blogger Rebecca MacKinnon asked Felix Soh why it was that his newspaper, the Straits Times, is launching an online TV station rather than a Singapore TV station.
Mike Savage of Asia Media Journal blogged the response given by Ivy Wong, COO of tvb.com, the website of Hong Kong television giant TVB:
It’s easier for a publisher to jump into online TV, Wong explained, because there’s little danger of cannibalizing existing revenues. For a TV company, the shift is a little trickier – something that TVB for instance, as a dominant TV player, is still trying to figure out.
The challenge faced by existing media players as they adapt to the digital world was a theme that resonated throughout the lunch.
Financial Times’ “Third Way” for online charging
Angela Mackay, executive director of the Financial Times’ Asia operations who also sits on the FT board, spoke about the “third way” approach that the newspaper has taken with their website.
Instead of charging upfront, the ft.com incrementally asks for information once users start using the site regularly. If you are an FT addict, they will start to charge you.
Advertising’s Digital Divide
Any media company’s hopes for digital ad spend immediately making up for offline losses were dashed by Torie Henderson, Hong Kong Managing Director of OMD International. Torie said that while digital budgets are increasing, many advertising clients remain reluctant to commit huge portions of their budgets to online video and other innovative platforms.
Future Search Trends
Anna Chan, the head of search for Asia Pacific at Universal McCann, spoke about how search will be getting more all-encompassing, with images, text and video all mixed together. She also said that search-related advertising has been growing fast.
Many thanks to the Society of Publisher in Asia, Asia Digital Marketing Association and Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong for co-sponsoring this event.
Update: Matt Eaton wrote in Marketing wrote about the FT.com’s “third way” between offering a free website and charging.
Angela Mackay
Angela Mackay is a former journalist who describes her journey into business operations as a voyage “to the dark side” from which she has never looked back.
“I feel like I’ve come out of a convent,” Angela Mackay told the IFRA’s Publish Asia 2008 conference. “Working in a sheltered world where you comment on things is very different from doing things.”
One such effort she cited in the speech was creation of a specialized unit within the Hong Kong sales team that make advertisements for the web. “We built this team to deal with two to three clients per week in order not to lose out on a revenue stream.”
Mackay was appointed executive director of the Financial Times for Asia Pacific in May 2007. Prior to that role, she managed advertising sales revenues for both the print and online FT in the Asia Pacific region. Mackay joined the business side of the Financial Times in 2003 as Asia investment editor.
In her journalism career, Mackay was the Asia editor for the Financial Times’ Sunday Business. She also wrote for The Economist, CNBC, The Times newspaper in London and the Australian Financial Review in Sydney.
Angela Mackay on ftchinese.com reaching one million users
Angela Mackay, executive director of the Financial Times Asia Pacific, announced today that the Chinese-language ftchinese.com, which was launched in mid-2005, has now reached one million registered users. Users are not charged for using the website, but in the below video she hints at how the company plans to make money from the site.
Other things of note in her speech to IFRA’s Publish Asia conference in Macau:
* The average Financial Times subscription has lasted for 13 years. (Shows incredible loyalty and the importance of not alienating longtime readers)
* The FT cover price was raised twice in the last year, but circulation still increased.
* FT has an interesting take on whether to charge for site usage: Free up to 30 articles, then you must subscribe.
Link up:
My newspaper articles:
Random Faceroll
