What happened to Emap?

Future-gazers are floundering. The only thing we know for sure; today’s media world is not for the faint-hearted. The speed with which the landscape is shifting is well-documented, yet still largely misunderstood.

Take the world of B2B by way of example, it is the week of PPA’s annual naval-gazing shindig after all. For those of a certain age, the name Emap will forever be associated with the towering leadership of, and inspired by, David Arculus.

In its full pomp, Emap was an unbridled multimedia, multi-market consumer and business powerhouse, with annual revenues in excess of £1.1 billion. It was a public company willing and able to take-on anything in its path. Magazines, radio, TV, websites, exhibitions, conferences, licensing and syndication were all part of the mix, and much more besides.

By comparison, today’s Emap is a shadow of its former self. Since splitting from the consumer side of the business (now part of Bauer) in 2007 – consolidation, redundancies and write-downs have formed too much of the narrative (as they have at many of its rivals).

The remaining chunk of the business, (revenues of £244m filed in 2011), was rebranded Top Right Group at the end of March.

The Emap name will continue to be used for its magazines operation, now the smallest and least profitable part of the business, accounting for less than 20% of the group’s turnover.

The events unit, re-named i2i Events Group, commands 44% of group revenues, and its database division, 4C Group, takes 38%. Both are enjoying strong growth, but it’s interesting that neither could see any benefit in being aligned to Emap’s old publishing heritage going forward.

When the restructure was announced in March, pragmatic chief executive Duncan Painter, said: “This business moved on from being a publishing business at its core three years ago.”

Last week, Top Right sold its automotive information business, CAP, to the owner of Maplin Electronics, Montagu Private Equity. Some view it as the first in a number of sales across the portfolio, if possible. Shareholders Apax and GMG no doubt hope so.

For Top Right Group, the core growth areas are centred around international events and international databases. For Emap the future is less certain – and as such it’s more industry bellwether than black sheep.

Ad spend for B2B magazines has plummeted by two-thirds in the last decade, from £1,022 million in 2001 to just £347 million in 2011, according to ZenithOptimedia.

Losing such a significant portion of your core business within this time frame is seat of the pants stuff for anyone. Today’s B2B publishers should be credited for even staying on the ride.

We know at least some of the lost hundreds of millions of pounds over the last 10 years have been partially offset by new digital revenue, the problem is nobody can yet calculate, as a sector, just how much. 

Advertisers increasingly run multiplatform campaigns, involving print, websites, e-editions, events and other such creative solutions; how any revenue is divided and credited within a group remains, in most cases, more political than scientific.

Meanwhile, in an age of multimedia sales teams, and when journalists write for both print and digital as standard, recording costs and gains can be a moveable feast.

Such opacity is frustrating from an insights level, but understandable from an operational one.

The future of B2B businesses will not depend on any one individual platform, but rather the ability to connect and service specific audiences, via ways that are most convenient to them. It’s reassuring to know such business fundamentals remain unchanged, even in an age when brand’s like Emap can morph from being a behemoth to a specialist’s specialism in the blink of an eye.

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Facebook UK's fifth floor area, referred to as the Doctor Who floor, for meetings, shoots and thinking space

Something stirs in the heart of Covent Garden. An unassuming office façade a stone’s throw from the Seven Dials is now home to the ever-expanding UK arm of one of the world’s most talked about companies.

It’s been two weeks since Facebook UK moved into its new home, having outgrown the previous space in Carnaby Street following a year in which Stephen Haines’ team is believed to have generated around £180 million in ad revenues.  Stacked boxes and busy delivery men reflect the transition that’s in the air.

Upon arrival I’m forced to sign an on-site visitor “non-disclosure agreement”, just in case I become aware of any “non-public information relating to Facebook and its products…” In which case, “I agree not to disclose” and “to take all reasonable precautions to prevent its unauthorised dissemination”.

It’s an interesting form to present a journalist. The agreement is not just binding upon me but my “heirs, legal representatives and assigns” too – blimey.

First impressions are everything you’d expect. A smiley Joanna Shields flickers acknowledgement as she descends to the free café on the mezzanine level dropping down from reception. An army marches on its stomach, mused Napoleon.

BBC News beams from a nearby flat-screen and two lifts opposite the main desk are a hive of activity as bright, young(ish), things pass through, talking excitedly and with purpose.

Those seasoned in more traditional media offices might be relieved to hear it’s not all picture perfect at Facebook’s shiny new building. The front door’s intercom is not working (yet), and once inside you’re greeted by a lobby that can best be described as functional.

The lifts are similarly cosy considering they need to handle the footfall of nearly 150 staff already, a figure that has ballooned from 100 just a few months earlier. Due to an idiosyncrasy of central London buildings, the second floor actually belongs to next door, ensuring a heavy demand on the limited space.

The smell of poached salmon and steamed veg lingers as eager employees transport plates of food from the café to places more conducive to continuing their work.

But I’m quibbling, the general mood is undeniably upbeat and alive – no apparent fears of a double-dip or scars of recent cost-cutting initiatives here. Even the guy on the reception desk is decidedly perky: “Yes, there’s still loads to do but everyone’s really excited y’know, a good atmosphere.”

A recent recruitment survey placed Facebook among the most desirable media companies to work for, suggesting it should have pick of the crop when it comes to talent. This perception is maintained by the presence of Facebook’s European press officer, Iain MacKenzie, formerly of BBC fame.

Appointed five months ago, the tech hack from the Beeb had to endure a gruelling 13-stage interview process, despite having been approached by Facebook for the role.

An exciting media space it’s not

In addition to the good quality free food, another outstanding feature of the café is the beginning of the UK’s own version of the ‘Facebook Wall’, with scribbles and musings daubed across a large whitewashed wall. It’s a nice touch that can be viewed from reception and reminds everyone of the company’s already legendary Silicon Valley heritage.

Facebook UK's balcony on the Doctor Who floor

The bustling entrance leads to three sprawling levels, including a cavernous fifth floor area, referred to as the Doctor Who floor, for meetings and thinking room, complete with decked out balcony.

The third floor is called the Harry Potter floor and houses platform development, finance, communications, PR, marketing and human resources. The fourth floor is referred to as the James Bond floor and hosts what is simply referred to as “monetisation”, including pan Euro and EMEA sales, UK sales and IT.

It all represents an exciting new media space. Except, of course, it isn’t, at least according to Facebook.

For despite being predominantly driven by ad revenues, fuelled by agencies spending on behalf of marketers around content displayed and distributed in channels to individuals, the media tag doesn’t sit well with Facebook. Sound familiar? It should, Google’s positioning has always been similarly ambiguous.

Are both merely “masquerading as technology companies” as WPP’s Martin Sorrell repeatedly suggests, or do they really just symbolise how the old rules of engagement and categorisations simply no longer fit in the age of disruption?

“We don’t think of ourselves as a media owner,” admits Carolyn Everson, global vice president of marketing solutions at Facebook. “We think of ourselves as a technology company that provides an open platform that businesses can take advantage of for their own good.

Carolyn Everson, global vice president of marketing, Facebook

“We have assets that are like media. Yes, we have impressions, and the ability for a marketer to reach a significant audience. But I think that for people who just use us for that are missing the bigger opportunity – to actually think about how business is going to change on top of social.”

Regardless, Facebook is fast becoming a destination for brand campaigns, with the world’s largest advertiser, Procter & Gamble, notably turning to it only last week to launch its first global corporate marketing campaign to coincide with 100 days until the London 2012 Olympics.

Advertising represented 85% of Facebook’s total $3.7bn revenues in 2011, and that was before any fMC initiatives and the ability to monetise its mobile offering. Everson, for her part, has been saying all the right things about the “critical” lead role agencies and clients can play in the company’s future journey.

Marketers and rival media owners should be in no doubt as we edge ever closer towards the largest internet IPO in history; Facebook UK is open and ready for business.

Read my interview with Carolyn Everson here.

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MPs propose new powers to ensure self regulation of the press

Does Richard Desmond value his circulation audits for the Daily Express and OK! enough to rejoin a “bunch of fucking phone hackers”, his own inimitable term for those involved with the Press Complaints Commission?

Perhaps, but ask the same question in relation to his advertising revenue, and the answer from the media mogul, and any of his counterparts, is likely to be more certain.

Ad spend remains the essential lifeblood of the UK press industry, still representing the lions share of total revenues for most of its players. Lose the trust and support of your advertisers, and you might as well pack-up shop, or at least that was the overriding message in the aftermath of the scandal that engulfed News of the World.

Leaving aside for a moment suspicions there were more strategic processes at play in the closure of the Sunday tabloid (clearing overheads to realise the economies of a seven-day a week brand), it’s this perceived ‘advertiser power’ that has led senior politicians to stop short of recommending statutory regulation of the press this week, but only just.

The backbench MPs and peers on the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions, chaired by John Whittingdale, said it was “clear” that media self-regulation under the previous PCC had failed. To avoid statutory regulation, they said, a “stronger” system with “teeth” was needed going forward.

Such views chime with what others have already expressed, not least the new PCC chairman, Lord Hunt. Where it moved the debate on was in its proposals about how to ensure “all major news publishers” opt-in to any new-look PCC, to avoid the current situation in which Desmond’s Northern & Shell portfolio has refused to participate since last January.

Without statutory regulation, ensuring industry compliance will be no easy feat. “I don’t want to be with a bunch of fucking phone hackers,” Desmond whispered to me last June, and that was before any damning revelations had surfaced about Miller Dowler’s phone being hacked.

Plans to introduce a kite-mark backed by ISBA
Publishers should be enticed to join the PCC by a “kite-mark” system, with those falling outside it “penalised in terms of their advertising rates”, suggest the MPs.

Collaborating with ISBA was recommended to explore this, and the advertising body has already begun canvassing its members.

Further incentives detailed in the report include allowing only PCC stakeholders to receive ABC figures, and giving those in the kite-marked gang “privileged access to information”, such as membership of the parliamentary lobby or government press accreditation.

The MPs also support the PCC’s own recommendation that it should be given the power to fine organisations and be able to control the size and location of any published apology.

Make no mistake, this all amounts to a serious step-change for our press industry, and if it’d been expressed any other year, it would most likely have been dismissed for being too heavy-handed.

But as Whittingdale himself reminded me last week, “the world has changed” since then. Now there are doubts about whether the combined recommendations go far enough.

Will it be enough to save the independent press?
The 13 MPs and 13 Lords sitting on the committee struggled to reach a unanimous agreement, with a contingent pressing for ‘statutory oversight of the reformed regulator’, including the former newspaper publisher, Lord Hollick.

The idea of imposing a self-regulation-type system supported by a ‘light-statutory touch’ is gaining momentum outside of Westminster too, not least by Hacked-Off’s star campaigner Hugh Grant.

For proof of its viability, inspiration is being drawn from next door, where a similar system already operates in Ireland.

It’s a model that has worked well for another industry body, the Advertising Standards Authority, to which Ofcom acts as a backstop government body.

The idea of having advertisers exercise indirect power over the press is not one that immediately appeals, but the general consensus among the newspapers atleast, seems to be it’d be a price worth paying if it ensures independence.

At the Oxford Media Convention earlier this year, MP Harriet Harman urged press editors to “frame their own solution”, noting it should be “independent, citizen-centric and apply to all”. Can the press yet dig its own way out of this mess?

For industry news and views follow me on Twitter @DurraniMix

We should celebrate agency success

Belated congratulations to WPP agencies MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare, and Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest Group, all named among the best companies to work for in the UK.

More than 1,000 businesses took part in ‘The Sunday Times’ 100 Best Companies to Work For’ survey and I don’t see any harm in celebrating the strong agency contingent at a time of such industry flux. The rankings are based, in part, on direct staff feedback, and so provide an insight into something that’s still incredibly difficult to manipulate; team spirit.

Those operating in media today all know the challenges of the current climate. Clients want more for less, competition is as fierce as ever, and agencies, like the wider media fraternity, are evolving at pace to better position themselves in the new world order of paid, earned and owned media. Meanwhile, the economy continues to bump along the bottom, doing just enough to keep us out of recession.

As The Sunday Times’ business editor, Dominic O’Connell, notes, it’s relatively easy to provide a great working environment when times are good, but when times are hard that’s when leadership and management come into their own.

So credit where it’s due to Steve Hatch, Karen Blackett, Stewart Easterbrook and Jed Glanvill, for managing to foster clear leadership and purpose in such a climate. In a consolidating environment, where one of the biggest criticisms is that many agencies look and feel the same, talent remains a key differentiator and those who invest in it stand to to reap the benefits.

Nourishing and flourishing

MEC, ranked 21st, invested £430,000 on training in the past year, and achieved the fourth best score for personal growth of any company of similar size. Despite being with the agency for 13 years now, Hatch personally still achieved top five national scores from staff who have a great deal of faith (86%), and still find inspiration in him (82%).

At number 52, MediaCom and its four pillars of “creativity, citizenship, new business and bravery” prove it can still be fun at the top. It achieved top marks on its social side, with employees believing people care, have room for personal growth and are supported by an £850,000 investment in training.

Starcom MediaVest Group, at 66, demonstrated a commitment to creating new opportunities for staff to learn and grow by focusing on the future needs of the industry. Flexible working is a high priority at this agency, as is training and personal growth.

Mindshare, ranked at 73, also scored well for social events, accessible mangers, a commitment to coaching and learning. Its staff are proud to work for the agency and feel they can make a valuable contribution to the success of the organisation.

Such recognition comes during an ever fragmenting environment in which media agencies now find themselves. The demands of traditional planning and buying remain, but have been supplemented with the likes of website optimisation, buzz monitoring, large scale data analysis and social media content management and creation.

MEC calculated it had 64 distinct, significant revenue streams in 2011, this compares to less than 20 just four years earlier. It’s a typical trend being played out across the board by an industry in transition.

MPG Media Contacts and its meaningful positioning

I can’t talk of transition and repositioning without highlighting MPG Media Contacts’ new ‘Meaningful Brands’ proposition, too. It’s a move that has captured the new direction many clients now hope to travel, propelled by consumers empowered by social media.

As Havas chief executive David Jones notes in his new book, ‘Who Cares Wins’, in a world of connected consumers with information at their fingers tips, clients more than ever need to “be fast, be authentic, and be transparent”. The 45-year-old marketing leader provides strong evidence to believe the rise of social media and social responsibility are “totally interlinked”.

Jones’ observations about the symbiotic relationship between authentic brand positioning and social media echo the views of MediaCom’s Sue Unerman in her first book, ‘Tell the Truth‘. In an update to David Ogilvy’s quote, “the consumer is not a moron, she’s your wife”, Unerman notes: “Now, the consumer is the expert who knows everything about your brand. What’s missing can be uncovered in 30 seconds on a smartphone from a variety of sources.”

For MPG’s repositioning, grounded in Havas research involving more than 50,000 consumers, I think they might have just encapsulated what everyone else has been working towards, in much the same way ZenithOptimedia did almost 10 years earlier when calling itself the ‘ROI agency’.

It might feel obvious but it’s also clear and succinct. Agencies, as chief strategists for clients, should have a key role to play in a digitally connected world, as PR spin and bluster make way for something altogether more meaningful.

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The Artist scooped 7 Baftas

If you think the landslide success of the silent French movie, The Artist, at the Bafta’s on Sunday is something of an anomaly in an age of shrinking attention spans and dumbed-down media, then you haven’t been paying attention.

There appears to be something of a trend in media owners recognising that many people have a thirst for something more than that pitched at the lowest common denominator, at least some of the time.

It may seem at odds with our celebrity-obsessed era, more readily defined by umpteen variations of the X Factor, the resurrection of Big Brother, shorter written copy, larger pictures and louder headlines, but could it be the two trends can co-exist?

In a recent address in Oxford, the BBC Trust’s Lord Patten recognised that while some decry the “debasement of public sensibility and a decline in contemporary culture”, there continues to be an audience for intelligent, quality programming, and it needn’t be niche.

“It’s a false dichotomy to say that the BBC must seek either to be popular or to be intelligent,” he said. “It ought to be both.”

The sentiment would have struck a chord with The Economist’s group chief executive Andrew Rashbass, who this month talked to me at length about his group’s positioning around the idea of “mass intelligence”.

By way of example he pointed to nearly eight million visitors to the Louvre each year, and, closer to home, queues around the block for Leonardo da Vinci’s exhibition at The National.

The success of cable TV broadcaster HBO, home to The Wire and The Sopranos, was provided as further evidence, along with the time when the The Sun realised the value in buying all the tickets to the opening night of Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House for readers in 2008.

Rashbass could just as easily identified the queues that grow each year for the Proms, and, now, the ensuing accolades for the largely black and white 1920s/30s throwback, The Artist.

All of which seems a far cry from the real life horror that is MTV’s Geordie Shore, but Rashbass cautions against putting people into silos. He said: “We’re all watching the Kings Speech and we’re all seeing Spider Man, those two things are not in conflict. We mix and match.”

The Economist has been developing its new positioning for the past few years, but we shouldn’t down-play the seismic shift it represents.

The generous, optimistic assumptions of “mass intelligence” jar with much of the elitist ad campaigns the brand spent much of the previous three decades honing.

All those witty straplines that almost implicitly required a sneer: “You can so tell the people who like don’t read The Economist’, “Is it a superiority complex if you really are?”, “Leader’s digest’… have now been replaced by provocative, topical questions designed to spark debate.

Rashbass himself describes the shift as moving away from defining readers in terms of basic, traditional demographics, towards a more sophisticated psychographic approach – one which attempts to tap into the way people like to think and try and make sense of the world, regardless of job titles.

The idea that people’s love of the arts, or knowledge and informed opinion is increasing as access to information and reference points multiply is an attractive one.

Of course, in the case of Lord Patten and Rashbass, it also conveniently extends the limits of their professional ambitions too.

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Channel 4’s chief executive David Abraham is curiously upbeat about the broadcaster’s prospects for 2012, thanks in no small part to what he considers to be “very successful deals with all the major agencies” secured this trading period.

It was a bullish Abraham who spoke at the Oxford Media Convention this week, despite the ongoing uncertainty in the wider economy and admitting he expects to report Channel 4’s first deficit in more than a decade for this year.

On the back of reporting annual profits of £40m last May, Abraham said he is preparing to dip into “transitional reserves” to invest in the future. He explained: “By using surpluses built up over the last few years, we are able to smooth our investment into 2012 and beyond.

“We want to grow Channel 4 and we want to grow the UK creative economy. To do that we need to invest and, as every entrepreneur knows, ‘you need to put down in order to pick up’.”

And so in a breath, the messy business of improving the books is consigned to the back burner for the next 12 months, in favour of a bold investment strategy you have to admire.

The piggy bank is being raided to free-up money to spend on UK content. Channel 4’s UK budget is set to increase from an estimated £400m in 2011 to nearly £450m in 2012.

Questions over “actual growth” in investment aside, it’s a move that has to be welcomed by UK indies and TV viewers alike in the current climate. It represents the highest investment in home grown content in Channel 4′s 30 year history, and – in case the point was missed Chancellor Osborne – Abraham spelt out it’s implications:

“This means that, since I joined Channel 4, we will have increased the annual level of investment in the British creative economy by over £80m – and across a wide spread of companies, both large and small, and throughout the UK.

“It means jobs for British companies, especially the critical SMEs. And it means the creation of IP, which indies can use to generate additional export revenue, further boosting the UK economy.”

Creative output, led by Jay Hunt, will be based on “innovation, diversity and seeing the modern world in new ways”, or, for want of a soundbyte, “Mission with Mischief”, some of which has been covered here.

But as we know, it’s not just Channel 4’s content that has undergone a major overhaul in recent months. The high-level departures of Mick Perry, Mike Parker, David Charlesworth and Errol Baran, has left a newly restructured commercial team, led by Jonathan Allan, with much to prove. For many, a C4 without Andy Barnes feels like a Clear Channel without an Atkinson: different. But I guess that’s the point.

One person already suitably impressed is boss Abraham. Mapping out the broadcaster’s outlook in Oxford, he said: “Most importantly for 2012, our new director of sales Jonathan Allan has concluded very successful deals with all the major agencies, who are really embracing the thinking and the sharing of information that we’re starting to bring into these conversations.”

Seems like the main channel’s slight dip in share to 6.8%, and loss of 16-34 year olds post Big Brother, has not been enough to prevent JA’s former agency peers buying into the new vision. His case would have been helped by a slight rise across the portfolio, which includes Film4, E4 and More4.

Morale in Allan’s team also received a timely boost when it topped the £100m mark in ad revenue in November, a record for C4 in a single month. Meanwhile, the broadcaster’s partnership with UKTV continues to pay dividends and PBS has been added to the commercial portfolio too.

Meanwhile, explosions in social media and second screen opportunities are credited with helping to increase the “discoverability and the magnetism” of C4 content, and ongoing investment in data capture should form the bedrock of better ad targeting in the future.

“Things are shaping-up quite nicely for 2012,” announced Abraham – maybe he’s right.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey addresses more than 350 media and advertising execs at Absolute Radio's 'Redefining Radio' event

We’re off, 2012 is up and running, and among the fastest out the blocks has been culture minister Ed Vaizey, or as IPA’s president Nicola Mendelsohn prefers to think of him, ‘My Minister’ (batting eyelashes optional).

On Thursday, the minister for culture, communications and the creative industries chose to forgo breakfast to provide a rousing speech to more than 350 advertising and media delegates at Absolute Radio’s stellar Redefining Radio event.

Recognised as the ‘most met minister’ last time anyone counted, Vaziey shows no sign of letting up in 2012, with back to back industry appearances and commitments the norm.

Opening Absolute’s event he resisted the siren call of all-things-shiny-and-new, and chose instead to celebrate the enduring strengths of the UK’s traditional media.

“One of my themes of 2012 is the future is not going to arrive as quickly as people think it is,” he said. “What I mean by that is that the future is not going to be what people think it is.

“People who think about the future in a lazy way think that everything’s going to change, we’re all going to somehow be completely different people and do things very differently. But actually I was struck by a statistic over Christmas that showed that linear television viewing has increased by something like 8% in the last two years, so people who predicted the death of television are wrong…”

Vaziey, a former speech writer for Tory leader Michael Howard, went on to identify how the impact of social media, and in particular Twitter, has helped maintain linear TV’s popularity, despite doommongers predicting its demise.

What this demonstrates for me, apart from the fact that Tess and co over at Thinkbox can infiltrate even a specialist radio event, is a good dose of realism so often overlooked at many digitally-dominated events today; much in traditional media still works.

Vaizey did go on to ‘talk radio’, believing it too had stood the test of time and was now well positioned to prosper from the digital revolution.

“Video has not killed the radio star, and technology is not going to kill the radio star,” he said. “Video technology is actually going to enhance the radio star… that’s why I’m a passionate fan about digital radio.”

To recap, Vaizey is now leading the Government’s ambitions to secure a digital future for radio by 2015 through a controversial switchover initiative instigated by the previous Labour Government. Despite the 2015 date being softened to a “target”, as opposed to a deadline, Vaizey’s commitment to a digital future for radio is clear.

He called digital radio “a massive opportunity” for the commercial radio sector, and added that the marriage of radio and technology is “going to be transformative”. He went on to hail emerging opportunities to tailor advertising to listeners as an “absolute game-changer”.

It set the stage nicely for a demo of Absolute’s upcoming in-stream targeting capabilities, by head of digital sales, James Wigley. The broadcaster’s registered online users can soon be served fewer, more bespoke ads, based on their demographic information. The mantra was “broadcast one to many, advertise one to one”.

According to Wigley: “In the same way as pre-roll advertising has not cannibalised linear TV spot ads, we don’t see in-stream replacing linear radio ads, but complementing them.” [Maisie McCabe reveals more, including its February launch date here].

Transforming nature of digital content & broadcast

Absolute’s chief operating officer, Clive Dickens, meanwhile, had more transcendental matters on his mind. He declared a “fundamental belief” that radio has the potential to redefine itself by getting a better understanding of the way in which the internet is redefining human interaction and content consumption.

To some extent, consumers have already redefined what radio means to them, with more than 44% of listeners already not using AM or FM at some point in the week to listen to their stations. However, the economic realities urge against complacency – despite commercial radio revenue rising in 2011, it still lags behind figures enjoyed in 2007.

Dickens cited voice-activated innovations, like iPhone’s Siri beta and Xbox’s Connect, as evidence that the next digital leap will bring the “natural human interactions of speak, listen and gesture to the internet”. Absolute Radio’s leader expects mass adoption of these services to do nothing less than “transform our relationship with digital content and broadcast forever”.

Extending an earlier observation of Vaizey’s that one of radio’s key strengths is that people can do almost anything else whilst listening to it, Dickens said: “Radio has always been the medium that’s been most commonly consumed whilst doing something else – [whether that's] driving, cooking, relaxing, washing… and in the digital economy that something else is ‘being online’.

“The internet is helping to redefine radio, and one of the reasons for that is because you can’t close your ears.”

…Some 11 hours later, Vaizey was providing yet another keynote address, this time to the IPA’s packed-to-the rafters President’s Reception. In a tub-thumping speech to the UK’s “creative pioneers” the Government minister offered his full backing to the IPA’s new hunt to find the next generation of leading lights, through its Creative Pioneers Challenge.

Elsewhere, the 43-year-old MP has also been promoting the importance of digital literacy and is chalked to make more industry podium appearances over the next week.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State minister is starting to build the rather unusual reputation of being both passionate and engaged in what he’s actually talking about.

Rupert Murdoch began 2012 by joining Twitter

This time last year I made the prediction that the media in 2011 would be dominated by the 80 year old media mogul at the helm of News International, things have moved on a bit since then.

If the first week of 2012 has confirmed anything, it is how the hold of traditional media outlets like Rupert Murdoch’s on setting the news agenda is increasingly being superseded by Twitter.The first week of the New Year brought us the media furore over Labour MP’s Diane Abbott’s tweet about “white people”, followed by Labour leader Ed Miliband tweeting what should have been an innocuous tribute to the late Blockbusters presenter Bob Holness. An unfortunate typo which left the show’s title being referred to as ‘blackbusters’ formed the basis of The Sun’s front page on Saturday.

In a short-space of time we’ve become accustomed to quotes from Twitter forming the basis of many newspaper and TV stories, and that’s before we even delve into the small matter of Twitter’s role  in the Arab Spring Uprisings.

Twitter and its impact on sport

And in this London Olympic year, Twitter is already having a profound impact on sporting coverage too.

Outside of the revelations of sordid affairs and locker room posturing, Twitter has started to play an instrumental role in some sporting occasions.

The mysterious ‘man in the hat’, inexplicably interfering with ringside officials at Amir Khan’s WBA and IBF boxing ‘defeat’ last month has been smoked out, not by the diligence of the international governing bodies, but after weeks of speculation and revelations on Twitter.

we are just hoping for answers now, and we have left it with our promoters and legal team, apparently the ruling for someone interfering

— Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan) January 7, 2012

The former light welterweight champion of the world now looks set to get his rematch.

Elsewhere, Manchester City’s captain Vinnie Kompany spent much of last week asking fans to tweet what they think he should say in his motivational team talk during yesterday’s FA Cup derby match against Manchester United.

The winning entry is being made into a poster:

In the end, City’s captain undoubtedly did play a pivotal role in Sunday’s cup qualifier, having got himself sent off for a tackle on Nani in the 12^th minute. Manchester City went on to lose 3-2. Too pumped up perhaps?

Murdoch himself began 2012 by joining Twitter’s 100 million chattering users too, although his partner Wendi Deng definitely did not.

The revenue side of Twitter may still be in its infancy, but with two gigantic social events on the horizon – Euro 2012 and the Olympics – the network’s reach and influence is only set to increase.

Follow my musings and breaking news on UK’s media scene: @DurraniMix

In a media year dominated by phone hacking and the rise of social media, it’s all too easy to overlook the unlikely success of one of our oldest contingents: radio.

Radio ends 2011 in a far healthier state than many of us, including myself, believed possible. I’m in good company, Martin Sorrell’s media buying powerhouse GroupM, also failed to recognise how well radio has sold itself this year, and has been forced to make a significant last gasp revision to its annual forecast.

Instead of the stagnant ‘zero growth’ tipped only in the summer, GroupM now expects radio ad revenues will grow 5% in 2011. Similarly, ZenithOptimedia also admitted to underestimating the success of commercial radio this year, lifting its own forecast from 0.9% predicted two months ago, to 2.3% growth.

Both revisions provide early recognition that the sector has successfully generated additional revenue since losing its biggest advertiser, COI, last year.

It came as no surprise that in the new ‘age of austerity’, the government’s position as the country’s largest advertiser, which it had held the previous two years, was deemed simply untenable for the debt-ridden Tories.

For years radio had been among the main beneficiaries of government spend, with major campaigns from Change4Life to anti-smoking and alcohol abuse, all relying heavily on the efficient, mass reach radio has to offer.

Deep cuts from government spend via COI meant big losses for radio. In the 12 months to Feb 2010, COI had been responsible for almost a quarter of radio advertising revenue, some £58 million worth. Today, as 2011 draws to an end, this has shrunk by more than two thirds, to less than £15m (Nielsen).

The year started ominously, with broadcasters battling up to 15% drops in ad revenues during the first quarter. However, as I noted at the time, from the second quarter onwards, those in commercial radio were in more control of their own destiny, as the previous year’s COI spend was flushed from the system and yearly comparatives became easier.

Radio sales outperform the market

And we have to conclude those in the business have risen to the challenge. In the third quarter of 2011, some 350 brands spent more than £60,000 on radio, the highest number on record, and a 10% rise over the same period in 2010.

Underpinning this commercial success is the UK’s enduring and often overlooked love of radio.

The latest Rajar figures highlight that more than 90% of the UK population, some 47 million adults, tune into radio every week. This is up more than a third of a million listeners (375,000) on the same period last year.

What ITV’s flailing new breakfast show DayBreak would give to have Johnny Vaughan’s 1.13 million people tuning in each morning. As the IPA’s Touchpoints 3 study highlights, radio is still the nation’s second most-consumed medium after TV, accounting for more than a quarter of the average adult’s time spent with media a day.

No real surprise then that commercial radio continues to be a talent hotbed regularly trawled by those in need – most notably this year by ITV, who poached former Absolute star Chris Goldson.

Simon Redican, managing director of the Radio Advertising Bureau, credits radio’s record audiences with giving broadcasters more confidence exactly when they needed it this year, and providing clients and agencies a timely pause for thought.

Redican also believes the sector’s market leader, Global Radio, deserves recognition for its part in driving innovation. Between June 2010 and June 2011, the home of Capital, Gold and Heart generated £17 million worth of new business, a 30% lift year on year, despite the wider economic restraints.

The strategic decision to position radio brands as part of a national sell also appears to be paying off across the board, with Global’s Capital and Heart, GMG’s Smooth, and Bauer’s Kiss networks all reporting positive rises in yields.

“The success of the creation of the national networks is testament to the insight that brands were moving away from localised campaigns,” says RAB’s leader. “It has made it easier for clients to navigate their way around national radio brands and they have been well sold, client gets them.”

The RAB itself deserves its fair share of credit too, through research like Media and the Mood of the Nation, and hosting industry debates, the radio body has helped galvanise all concerned precisely when they needed it most.

There has also been the welcome arrival of the digital Radioplayer interface, a joint venture between commercial and BBC stations in March, which is now believed to be attracting around 7 million unique users per month. And its momentum looks set to continue, with potential new audiences being sought all the time through innovations like Radioplayer’s Facebook app.

Total internet listening hours were up 15.4% in the last quarter, while access via mobile phones continues to climb, currently up 24.2% year on year.

A further fillip to radio’s coffers this year has come from the relaxation of the sponsorship and promotions (S&P) regulations. Mark Banham provides a roundup of the doors S&P is opening up here.

All of which means the outlook for radio as we enter 2012 – with audiences up, ad revenues rising, platforms increasing, innovation apparent, industry body active, and regulation relaxed – is all decidedly optimistic.

And that all makes for a far more positive review of 2011 than if I’d focused on any other traditional media.

Sells: 'I’m pretty boring, very unremarkable, and so are almost all of my friends”

ITV’s commercial managing director Fru Hazlitt was right when she called most people “boring” from the AOP stage last month, and the social element of TV is being overplayed, says Peter Sells, head of mobile at Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

Speaking at a thought-provoking Thinkbox event last week, Sells warned against over emphasising the value and interest in user generated content.

“Basically I agree with Fru,” [most people are boring] he said. “I’m pretty boring, very unremarkable, and so are almost all of my friends.”
The BBH strategist  added that from what he’s seen to-date, and despite the huge amount of noise around “social TV”,  he thinks “the social element is being overplayed a little bit”.

Sells was not trying to deny the shift towards creating and sharing experiences, but wanted to stress that “everything is social, this is hygiene now”, and professional content was still paramount.

He said: “Social promotes sharing, but you’ve still got to create a compelling experience to share. Social without content, is an unregulated Twitterfeed during X Factor, it’s repetitive, rarely interesting and noisy.”

Hazlitt attracted heavy criticism from some quarters following her comments last month, with many UGC advocates believing them to be outmoded and offensive.

However, Sells, whose BBH clients include social trailblazers Heineken and Yeo Valley, as well as ITV, said:  “There is a lie, still-perpetuated, that talent is uniformly distributed, and the democratisation of technology and access to distribution means that that talent will emerge and generate content on path with so-called social content elite.

“Creating good content is actually pretty hard, and it has very little to do with access to technology, and almost everything to do with talent.”

Sells’ comments come as many established media owners are trying to navigate a position and value for themselves in the new media landscape.

He said: “This is good news for content creators, programme-makers, broadcasters, creative agencies and creative brands, because it means really they will continue to control the value available in this new environment.”

Also at the event. Anthony Rose, of BBC iPlayer fame, presented his vision of a connected TV future following the launch of his second screen social app zeebox, earlier this month.

He forecast, among other things, the death of the TV ad break and the rise of the tweet break.

Drawing on his own recent research, Rose said people’s attitude to social media largely depends on how old they are: “People over 35 are worried about privacy issues, while people under 35 can’t live without social.”

Unsurprisingly Louise Brown, head of cross platform commissioning at youthful broadcaster Channel 4, is among the early adopters. “It’s completely transformed how we think about linear television for Channel 4,” she said.

“We are now following what people say on Twitter, what hashtags they use, to go along with our Barb figures, and sometimes it’s as important that something trends on Twitter as to how many and what your audience was, and what was your demographics of them.”

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