The Times: Media deals at risk as banks struggle to spread lending that backed Emap move
“Media deals such as the Reed Business Information sale could come under pressure, especially because a large part of Reed’s revenues come from advertising. It accounts for 56 per cent of the division’s £906 million turnover.
Banks are becoming increasingly nervous about putting their money into businesses that are dependent on advertising.”
Morgan Stanley has slashed its profits forecasts for the media sector in 2009 and 2010. (From Peter Kirwan in Press Gazette)
From the wonderfully titled Newspaper Death Watch: “advertising sales by US newspapers fell a record 14% in the first quarter, with real estate and recruitment ads both shrinking 35%. The results are worse than even the most pessimistic skeptics predicted.”
Run Wild Media has closed Royal Docks CityLife (“the ultimate guide to life in the Docklands area”) and SE CityLife (“a cutting edge lifestyle magazine that promotes South London as a modern, vibrant area”).
Free junk distribution (“SE CityLife is distributed to all major residential developments, businesses and estate agencies … It is also available in local bars, pubs and restaurants.”) mags full of estate agents’ adverts. No property, no adverts, no point.
Next!
Shoot closes as weekly bid fails (Media Week)
You’ve got a title that’s just about surviving as a £3.10 monthly. It’s a kids’ title, so it’s not big in advertising although it’s got a few subscriptions. You relaunch as a weekly, so all your costs go up, but your advertising doesn’t. To sell as a weekly you have to cut the cover price so your per copy revenue goes down. But the kids (and their parents) who subscribed for a year as a monthly now find their subs running out and a bill for £65 turning up. What could possibly go wrong?
It also seems not to have had much attention from IPC. The ‘latest issue’ on the website is 14 March. If they can’t be bothered to update this in the closest finish to a premiership season either side of the border has seen in years, they don’t really seem to be trying.
As indicated previously, News International have decided that they don’t know how to publish magazines and look as if they’re just going to bring their ‘contract’ operation in-house (article here in the Guardian).
Latest figures from the US market, courtesy of Folio: “First quarter national magazine advertising spending slipped 1.3% over the same period last year, … B-to-B advertising declined 6.1%.”
Huveaux has sold its e-learning division to reduce its debt. This comes on top of the sale of its French healthcare division earlier in the month, and a trading statement in March that saw EBITDA down 19% and profit down over 80%.
The key phrase in the chairman’s bullish statement to investors is this: “the Group’s trading remains heavily weighted to the second half of the year”. This, fo all yearts, is not a good time to be back-weighting your revenue projections.
