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On Social Media and the Brand Experience

Diego Vasquez - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:00:00 GMT

It's no wonder that social media seems inescapable right now. A few weeks ago, Facebook announced that it had hit 800 million users worldwide. Last week Google+ said that it has 40 million, and Twitter has 200 million. And now 98 percent of all adults ages 18-24 are engaged with social media of some sort, according to a new analysis from Experian Simmons, which charts the growth of social media over recent years and examines attitudes toward marketing on those sites. The report finds that 129 million U.S. residents used social media regularly during 2010, including 73 percent of online seniors, up from 49 percent in 2008. Fifty-eight percent of online adults visit Facebook each month, and their visits last an average of 20 minutes, compared to 12 minutes for Twitter users and 5 minutes for Google+ users. John Fetto, senior marketing manager at Experian Simmons, talks to Media Life about Facebook's dominance, social media's explosive growth, and what advertisers need to know about reaching people on social media.

What did you find most interesting or most surprising about this report?

The rapid rise of social media across consumers of all age is astounding. Nearly all online young adults (98 percent) today and even the vast majority of online seniors (73 percent) access social media in a given month.

It is also impressive the number of people who now also use social media to connect with media and brands and to share product reviews and recommendations.

This trend is only going to continue to grow, and forward-thinking marketers need to quickly understand and monitor the rapidly changing state of social media in order to better connect with consumers.

How much more likely are Hispanics than non-Hispanics to interact with brands on social media sites? Why?

Experian Simmons found that nearly a third of Hispanic adults (30 percent) who use social media say that they like to connect with brands via such sites compared with 18 percent of their non-Hispanic counterparts.

Hispanic consumers tend to rely more often and place more weight on opinions from family and friends when it comes to brands and products than non-Hispanics. This propensity to rely more upon social connections when selecting brands appears to be amplified within social networking environments, such as Facebook.

Why do you say, "Companies looking to drive traffic to their core brand sites should strongly consider a social media campaign promoted by email?"

Experian CheetahMail reports that the typical company’s email list is fully 32 times larger than the number of “fans” that they have on social media sites, like Facebook.

With that being the case, a well-timed email tied to a social media campaign can not only increase the size of the audience of the social media campaign but also has been proven to boost traffic and time spent on a company’s branded web site.

What have been some of the effects of increased mobile social network usage? (I.e., more picture uploads, more frequent visits to the site, etc.)

The worlds of social and mobile are increasingly intertwined. In fact, 20 percent of social media users today say they access their account from a cell phone, up from just 11 percent who did so in 2009.

As people access social media from their phones, frequency of usage also increases. Over half of social media users who access their account from their phone (52 percent) say they use social media multiple times per day compared with 42 percent of those social media users who don’t access their account via a phone.

Likewise, 28 percent of mobile social media users upload pictures or videos from their phones to a social media or photo sharing site in a typical month compared with 11 percent of social media users who don’t access their account through their phone.

Why is social media use growing so quickly among seniors? What do you see as the saturation point -- will as many seniors eventually use social media as young people?

Like many technology-related products, younger consumers are quicker to join in. But as word spreads and as the scope of social media expands to include the ability to connect with brands and media as well as a platform for playing games, it becomes more attractive to people of all ages.

Seniors will probably always use social media at somewhat lower rates than younger adults, but the gap between the groups is certainly closing.

Why is Facebook so dominant? And why does that seem to hold for every demographic?

Facebook is the preeminent social media site receiving nearly 10 percent of all U.S. internet visits each week, per Experian Hitwise.

No matter your age, given the fact that we go to social media sites to connect with others, it makes sense to go to a social media site with a large number of users, which Facebook obviously does.

How does dwell time on Facebook relate to other social media sites? Why does it vary so much between sites?

When you look at the average time spent for all social networking sites per Experian Hitwise, it is the same as the time spent for Facebook.com. Different sites offer different experiences, which can factor in to how long users will spend time on a site.

Visits to Google+ soared when it went public last month. Do you expect it to sustain the high level of traffic? Why or why not?

That is the million-dollar question.

Google+ definitely has some advantages to help with that in having the No. 1 search engine to refer traffic to the site. The site recently saw tremendous growth since opening up and we’ll see whether they can sustain that traffic going forward.

Why do you think the percentage of parents communicating with children via social networks has increased so sharply?

Firstly, as social media expands to include older users, it becomes an increasingly multi-generational space making such connections natural.

But also, there have been numerous high-profile cases where individuals have put themselves or others in danger through social media connections or exposed reputation-damaging behaviors on social media sites. These worst-case situations have likely lead to parents taking a more proactive approach in monitoring what their children do and share through social media and who they are connected to.

What conclusions can you draw about people's Facebook activities based on the top downstream sites after visiting the social network?

Entertainment sites have grown in popularity as a top downstream destination after Facebook, 99 percent comparing September 2011 versus September 2008, per Experian Hitwise. That could be a result of Facebook making it easier to share entertainment stories with friends and/or just the growing popularity of entertainment sites in general over time.

Another example of this is that downstream traffic from Facebook to news and media sites has increased 57 percent year-over-year.

18-Oct-11 10:00 AM

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.

It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.

18-Oct-11 10:00 AM

Shaking Things Up at Coca-Cola

Adi Ignatius - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Since Muhtar Kent took the helm of Coca-Cola, in July 2008, he has set a course for ambitious, long-term growth—even in a supposedly mature U.S. market—with the goal of doubling revenue by 2020. Kent has tried to rejuvenate an inward-looking, “arrogant” corporate culture and has reinvested cost-cutting dividends in brand development. In an edited interview with HBR’s editor in chief, Adi Ignatius, he talks about the company’s sustainability initiatives, the value of having 33 million Facebook fans, and why an executive should never have dinner alone.

“Most of the meetings we were holding were just with ourselves. We we ren’t going out to see how the world was changing.”

HBR: Since Roberto Goizueta died, in 1997, his successors as CEO at Coca-Cola have had pretty short tenures. Why is that? Is Coke a particularly challenging company to run?

Kent: Well, tenures had been very long up until Roberto’s death. But then we had two successive short-term CEOs at a time when we weren’t cracking the code for growth. And my immediate predecessor, Neville Isdell, said from the beginning that he was returning to the company from retirement just for a fixed period. He saw that the company had lost its soul. We had lost belief in ourselves and in our core business. We had become arrogant. Neville turned that around and got us out of the ditch.

When you became CEO, in 2008, what was your top priority?

There were two: establishing a long-term vision and restoring growth in North America. I felt that we needed a vision, a shared picture of success—both for us and for our bottling partners. We call it 2020 Vision, and it calls for us to double the business in 10 years. It’s not for the fainthearted, but it’s clearly doable.

What were some of the problems you saw?

We had become ingrown. Most of the meetings we were holding were just with ourselves. We weren’t going out to see how the world was changing.

How did you try to turn things around?

We brought in people from all over the world—the top 400 people in the company—to talk about how we had got into this position and how we were going to get out. We started working more closely with our bottling partners. We put a stop to all those internal meetings. We put new people in place. And we stabilized the company.

How are you doing so far?

We’ve still got eight years to go in 2020 Vision. So far we’re on track. We have not wasted this crisis. We’ve saved more than half a billion dollars in unnecessary expenses and reallocated some of that to help fuel our brands. Our metrics are good, and we’ve been able to restore growth in our biggest market, which is the United States. When you start creating proof points like that, it’s great for your credibility. When our brands are strong, our bottling partners want to invest in the business, too.

6-Oct-11 10:00 AM

Slightly Brighter outlook for U.S. media

Diego Vasquez - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:00:00 GMT

After all the economic gloom and doom in recent months, there's finally some encouraging news. One major forecaster, ZenithOptimedia, thinks things are looking up very slightly for the U.S. media economy. The London-based agency raised its forecast for 2011 U.S. ad spending by 0.1 percent earlier this week, to 2.2 percent growth. In July it had forecast 2.1 percent growth. It cited the strength of the financial, retail and automotive markets in part for the bump, as well as the end of the debt ceiling crisis, which clouded the outlook earlier this year. ZenithOptimedia has more concerns about the recovery in the rest of the world, slashing its outlook for 2011 global ad spending growth from 4.1 percent in July to 3.6 percent now. Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at ZenithOptimedia, talks to Media Life about why his team upgraded the U.S. forecast, why media people should keep an eye on Greece, and whether 2012 will produce another record political advertising haul.

Are you more or less optimistic about the U.S. ad economy than you were three months ago, and why or why not?

We are actually more positive than we were three months ago, thanks to the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis and the fact that most of the large financial, retail and automotive advertisers have returned to the market.

How does the outlook for U.S. ad spending compare with global? Are they on roughly the same recovery path, or is global recovering more quickly?

For the first time in many years we are now more optimistic about the U.S. than Western Europe, which is suffering from fears of default by Greece and other peripheral Eurozone countries, leading to a loss of confidence in the region as a whole.

What do you think of fears about a double-dip recession in the U.S.? Are those fears still warranted?

These fears are warranted, and we think there is certainly a risk of double-dip recession, though for the moment we assume economic growth will continue at a low pace.

What needs to happen for consumers and advertisers to gain more confidence in the economy?

They need to see sustained economic growth that's strong enough to cause a substantial reduction in the unemployment rate.

Why did you reduce your outlook for network TV?

This is because network TV is suffering from stronger competition from cable and online video.

What has been advertisers' reaction to cable experiments like "podbusters?"

Advertisers have generally reacted positively to experiments that make their messages stand out more. Cable is an innovative medium, and this innovation has been a strong driver of its recent gains in market share.

What will draw more advertisers to the medium?

Better content, attracting higher-value viewers, better research, allowing advertisers to target particular demographics.

Do you think presidential advertising will drive another record year for political dollars in 2012?

Yes, we expect this to be another intensely fought election, with record expenditure, particular in online media.

What is driving the decreases in syndicated TV spending? How much of that is due to Oprah's exit?

Syndicated TV is always vulnerable to the disappearance of long-standing popular series, and the loss of "Oprah" has certainly been a big factor in its recent decline.

What's the most important thing media buyers and planners should keep in mind about the media economy in the coming months?

Keep a close eye on Europe.

If Greece defaults and the debt crisis spreads, the effects will be felt everywhere.

6-Oct-11 10:00 AM

[firstname], Media Alliance of Houston - Sept. Luncheon When Your Passion and Career Collide

Crystal Halliburton - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:23:48 GMT

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Crystal Halliburton, KHOU-TV

Hello [firstname],

Ever wonder what might happen if BOOM! your passion and career were to collide? Join Media Alliance of Houston for lunch next Wednesday and find out!

Guest speaker Caroline Devine will be chronicling her career path which began in a classroom and made its way into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. Caroline will also share tips on how to bridge passion and business sense to re-imagine your career.

We look forward to seeing you next Wednesday, September 14th, for what is sure to be a fun, thought-provoking and inspirational luncheon.

CLICK HERE to register.

Many thanks to JCG Graphics for designing this month's flyer!

Calendar Events for September 2011

Boom! When Your Passion and Career Collide!
Speaker's Name: Caroline Devine, Retired Regional VP & Market Manager, Cox Radio
Day: Wednesday 14-Sep-11 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Location: HESS CLUB

5430 Westheimer Road Houston, Tx 77056

IS Conference / Online Marketing Summit
Speaker's Name:
Day: Thursday 15-Sep-11 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM
Location: HOTEL ZAZA

5701 Main Street HOUSTON, TX 77005
Summary: Make the Climb to the Summit! The Interactive Strategies / Online Marketing Summit is coming to Houston this September with a flexible three day Super Regional format. This new expanded format enables you to choos...

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7-Sep-11 4:23 PM

Oscars name Eddie Murphy 2012 Oscar host

Toni Fitzgerald - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:00:00 GMT

After a disastrous attempt to draw in young viewers with a pair of youthful and painfully inexperienced hosts last winter, the Academy Awards are returning to their comedic roots.

Today the Academy announced that Eddie Murphy will host the 2012 Oscars, airing in February on ABC.

His selection is notable for many reasons, foremost because it represents a wise change in strategy for the telecast. More recently the emphasis has been on picking young hosts in an effort to attract younger viewers.

This year's awards were hosted by Anne Hathaway and James Franco, two Generation Y actors who had no hosting experience and were tapped mainly in hopes that their youth and energy would draw in viewers 18-34 who have long since stopped watching awards shows.

The plan backfired big time.

Franco was so laid-back and apathetic that social media sites lit up with speculation that he was high. Hathaway, trying to balance out her co-host's lackadaisical manner, became louder and more manic by the minute in her attempts to add some pizzazz to the show.

The duo had a poisonous effect on ratings, with the show's adults 18-49 rating dipping from a 13.3 to an 11.8, according to Nielsen.

It seemed in the months after the show aired that the Academy had learned nothing from this year's hosting blunder when it named as co-producer of this year's show Brett Ratner, the director of "Rush Hour" and "X Men: The Last Stand."

It was presumed Ratner would follow the pattern of last year and scout out a young host.

That turned out not to be the case.

Ratner just directed Murphy in the movie "Tower Heist," the comedian's first live-action film in two years, and was undoubtedly instrumental in convincing Murphy, who has shunned public attention in recent years, to take the Oscar gig.

The fact is that the Oscars are at their best when hosted by an old-school comedian who understands the film world.

Past hosts such as Jon Stewart and David Letterman, while terrific in their TV element, were awkward and clumsy in hosting Hollywood's biggest night.

By contrast, Murphy ranks among the top comic box office stars, despite his recent string of flops. He's respected by Hollywood in a way Franco and Hathaway are not, and he will presumably preside over a telecast that's actually funny.

The 50-year-old former "Saturday Night Live" star is a gifted stand-up and will be able to steer the show deftly in the same way Billy Crystal and Bob Hope, the gold standards of Oscar hosting, always did, reacting to unexpected moments with ease.

7-Sep-11 11:00 AM

Three Ways to Have a More Prosperous Fourth Quarter

Spike Santee - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:00:00 GMT

It seems like more and more people are developing a negative attitude about the economy. Recent surveys report that consumer sentiment is lower than it has ever been. Many people are worried that the country is headed into a double dip recession. In the business of reporting the news, there is an old saying “If it bleeds, it leads”. The saying means that the news media will report the bad news first, at the beginning of the newscast. Media studies show that bad news far outweighs good news by as much as seventeen negative news reports for every one good news report.

Psychologists and neuroscientists have discovered that humans instinctively seek out news of dramatic and or negative events. Our brains evolved in a hunter-gatherer environment when something that was novel or dramatic had to be dealt with immediately in order for us to survive. Thankfully, our world has evolved but our brains still have this instinctive behavior. So while we no longer defend ourselves against saber-toothed tigers, our brains still have the same basic instinctual characteristics.

Negative news has a cascading effect on consumer behavior that can lead a person to feel as if there is no hope. If a person can’t rationalize the cause and effect of the bad news, they can develop a condition known as learned helplessness. That’s when a person becomes paralyzed by the bad news to the point they lose their ability to recognize new opportunities for relief or gain when those opportunities present themselves. In other words, the person suffering from learned helplessness develops the perception that things are always going to be bad and there is nothing they can do to change the situation.

You don’t have to let the bad news lead you to lose hope. Human beings have the remarkable ability to imagine things that don’t yet exist and then take steps to turn that imagination into a reality. Here are three things you can specifically do right now to ensure that you have a more prosperous fourth quarter and set you on the right path for a brighter future.

Step 1 - Start Planning to Be Better Off

Whenever someone sells a stock on the stock market, they think the time is right to get out of the stock. But on the other hand, the other person buying the very same share of stock thinks it is a good time to get in to the market. There are two completely different opinions about the very same transaction. In other words, one person thinks the glass is half empty and the other person thinks the glass is half full.

Stop paying attention to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That is the number quoted most often when a newscaster is describing how the stock market performed that day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is made up of only thirty companies. Yes, they are fine companies indeed, but hardly a reflection of the broad range of companies that make up the American economy.

Start paying attention to what you are planning to do with your future. If the future is going to be tough, then plan accordingly. You don’t have to be a victim of circumstance; you can make specific decisions today about how you are going to deal with forecast conditions tomorrow.

One of the easiest and most fulfilling things you can do to have a more prosperous fourth quarter is to start making your plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Planning for future events is the most effective way to create a better future. It’s a proven fact that the better the plan, the better the results will be. Unfortunately for many people, they don’t make enough plans for these two major holidays. We are so busy with our daily activities that for many, holiday plans come together at the last minute and we don’t have the opportunity of enjoying the planning and the anticipation of those plans coming to fruition.

Start making your plans now about what you want to do at Thanksgiving. Start making plans now about what you want to do at Christmas. Don’t fall into the trap of repeating “that’s want we’ve always done”. Maybe the significant others in your decision circle are eager to try something new. Maybe they are tired of the same old thing year after year.

Don’t let “we can’t afford it” to creep into your thinking! That’s why you are planning. You have time to redeploy your resources in such a way so that you can afford to do what you want to do on Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

Make a plan for your Christmas and Thanksgiving. Decide what you need to do to make those plans a reality. Then do everything you can to turn those plans into a reality. If you need to cut back on this or that to afford the new plan, then do it.

A few years ago, I made plans to be sitting in front of my fireplace playing board games with my family at Thanksgiving. I didn’t have a fireplace when I made those plans. I had always wanted a fireplace in the family room but I didn’t have one. I didn’t know how I could afford one either.

Making plans to sit in front of the fireplace and play board games at Thanksgiving was my way of visualizing my goal. I made those plans in July. A lot happened between that day in July and Thanksgiving Day. My father came down with cancer and died on Sunday November 14, 2010. My father-in-law had suffered from Parkinson’s for years and died on Friday November 19, 2010. Despite all of our tragic challenges, on Thanksgiving Day, my family and I were playing Scrabble in front of the fireplace, just as I had planned. As an added bonus, my sister-in-law, who was in town for the funeral, was able to be a part of the plans. It was one of the best Thanksgiving get-togethers we have ever had.

Step 2 - Start Doing Something New

One of the most effective ways to create a brand new future is to start doing something new that will help turn your future plans into your future reality. There are many productive things you could start doing today that can have a significant impact on your future. The one you choose is a personal decision that is up to you. That’s right; you must decide what it is you will do to make your dreams come true. But that is the key; you must do something new and do it consistently well if you want to achieve something new.

Albert Einstein once said, “You can’t fix today’s problems at the same level of thinking that created them”. You have to elevate your level of thinking if you want to elevate your level of success.

Motivational Speaker Jeffrey Gitomer encourages people to get up an hour earlier each day and devote that time to self-improvement by either reading or writing.

Expanding your knowledge base through reading is a most productive way of elevating your level of thinking to handle today’s challenges. When you make a commitment to a routine of continuous self-improvement you quickly learn helpful new information that you can begin using immediately. Positive change comes more quickly when you have more positive options to choose from. Educating yourself to the many choices you have can quickly eliminate any feelings of learned helplessness and get you back on the road to a positive future.

Make better use of the time you spend in the car by listening to audio books. Think about how much time you spend in your car every day. Zig Ziglar says that researchers at the University of Southern California have found that the average person spends so much time in their car that listening to audio books in your car for just one year is the equivalent to two years of formal study at a university.

A commitment to continuous self-improvement is not easy to make. After a few days you may be filled with enough new information to see some immediate improvement in your life. In fact, the improvement you feel may be so significant that you could easily become complacent and abandon your new commitment to continuous self-improvement.

Most experts on self-improvement coach us that it takes a minimum of 21 days to make a new activity turn into a new routine. You must stick with your new self-improvement program for a minimum of 21 days if you want to have any hope of making it a habit.

Pick something new to start doing and then stick with it if you want to see a more prosperous fourth quarter.

Step 3 - Stop Doing Something Old

Human beings are creatures of habit. That means we keep doing things long after we conclude that it’s not helpful or productive. If you want to have a more prosperous fourth quarter, identify something that is holding you back and STOP DOING IT.

If you’re going to start doing something new they you have to stop doing something old. You only have so many hours in a day. If you are going to get up an hour earlier each day to read and write the perhaps you need to stop staying up so late to watch the news. Most of the news is negative as we’ve already established.

One of the major symptoms of learned helplessness is the feeling of having no control over the events around us. Someone suffering from learned helplessness can make their situation even worse by worrying about those things they cannot control.

Stop worrying!

You should only worry about the things you can affect. Don’t take on the worry of the world. Just stay focused on your own plans. Devote your attention to those things that are important to you and leave the rest for tomorrow. When you pay too much attention to the negative news in the world, you open the doors in your mind and let the seeds of learned helplessness take root.

If you want to have a more prosperous fourth quarter and set the stage for a brighter future, make some specific plans for your future prosperity. Start by doing something new that will help you turn your plans for future prosperity into a reality. Stop doing something old that is holding you back.

7-Sep-11 11:00 AM

Media Alliance of Houston August Luncheon-Social Media Landscape

Crystal Halliburton - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:30:16 GMT

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Crystal Halliburton, KHOU-TV

Hello [firstname],

Have you ever felt like these guys? You know you should be using social media to benefit your clients or your own brand, but you just can't quite figure it out? Or, you figured it out on Friday and by Monday it had all changed?

Media Alliance of Houston is excited to partner with the Houston Interactive Marketing Association to bring you a panel of social media gurus including a local brand, a local agency and Facebook to educate and enlighten us on the proper use, strategies and practical application of social media environments into our respective business models.

You will learn:

The current issues, strengths and challenges of social media
How to successfully integrate traditional media with social media
What lies next on the social media horizon

This month's luncheon is a "don't miss" for anyone who strives to stay ahead of the competition and deliver innovative, cutting edge ideas to clients that will drive success and lengthen the business relationship.

Online registration ends Monday, August 8th, at 530PM.

Click Here to register now!!!

MAH August Luncheon-Social Media Landscape
Wednesday August 10, 2011 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
H.E.S.S. Club 5430 Westheimer Rd. Houston, Tx 77056
Register Mapquest | Add to Calendar

Robust upfront for the Hispanic networks

Diego Vasquez - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Univision and Telemundo were two of the only broadcast networks to see ratings growth this year, and that's reflected in the recently wrapped Hispanic upfront. The two networks led the market with CPM gains in the low-double-digit to high-single-digit percentage range, and overall volume sold for the upfront was up 15 to 20 percent, according to buyer estimates, to $2.2 billion. Hispanic networks were eager to work with advertisers on the cross-platform digital deals that have become increasingly important to advertisers, who note that Hispanics are more receptive to online advertising than the general online population. The recent census also confirmed the rapid growth of the Hispanic population, which now includes one in every six Americans. Scott Gassert, director of media interception at Hispanic agency Dieste in Dallas, talks to Media Life about the Hispanic upfront, how it compares to last year, and what the hot ad categories are.

Has the Hispanic upfront wrapped up yet? If not, which networks are still negotiating?

Most of the networks have wrapped up their upfronts with deals on hold and waiting to go to order. Some of the cable nets may still be negotiating but for the most part the upfronts seemed to move a bit faster this year.

Did you see greater demand generally in the Spanish-language upfront this year?

Hard to answer when there are more options this year than ever before in regards to rated networks as well as coming off of two consecutive years in high-profile soccer tournaments such as the World Cup in 2010 and Copa de Oro and Copa America in 2011.

These tournaments tend to put extra demand on inventory.

Networks seemed to hit their goal in selling a majority of their inventory in the upfront, so we know there was definitely demand for the inventory. So that helped disperse some of the demand on inventory.

What sort of CPM gains did Univision see? How about Telemundo, Telefutura or the others?

We believe that Univision came in at single high to low double-digit gains while their other networks will post a point or two below Univision. Smaller-rated networks may see lower CPMs gains that range from middle single digits to high single-digit gains.

How much overall will the Spanish-language upfront take in?

The upfront is expected to hit $2.2 billion. The top two networks may bring in an incremental 15-20 percent.

How much more advertiser interest have you seen in Spanish-language TV this year, with the results of the census coming out?

Without a doubt the latest census data has sparked a great deal of interest in the Hispanic market from existing advertisers as well as ones looking to enter for the first time. Many variables can contribute to the growth and interest of the Hispanic market, but the census had helped gain more interest.

Are you seeing more cross-platform deals from Univision and Telemundo? Why and what type?

Yes, as digital has become a great focus for many advertisers, the networks have been working very hard to figure out how to develop more cross-platform deals.

For many clients, the communication goes far beyond TV, and the need is great to expand across many platforms. A lot of the cross-platform [deals] are from TV and digital, but we have seen other clients embrace TV, radio, digital and print into one deal.

What ad categories were hottest during the Hispanic upfront? Why?

The big categories that remain hot are automotive, insurance, beverage and telecom.

What sort of advertiser interest has there been in emerging networks like Azteca?

We have seen interest in all networks, some based on content/environment, others based on pricing. With more rated networks to choose from, advertisers have more options to help meet their goals.

How much larger will Hispanic TV upfronts grow over the next few years? Has it gotten to the point where most major advertisers are in this market?

I think the upfronts will continue to grow as long as the economy can hold on. There is still a lot of room to build dynamic programs with and with the new networks being launched, more becoming rated, and media companies working to build solutions for advertisers, we see a strong future in the Hispanic market as well as the upfront market.

2-Aug-11 3:00 PM

Fox erects a paywall around its TV shows

Bill Cromwell - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:00:00 GMT

When the broadcast networks began streaming their TV shows online five years ago, the move was widely derided by local network affiliates, who worried about losing viewers to the internet.

All these years later, the networks are having their own concerns about streaming.

Yesterday Fox became the first network to effectively put its shows behind a paywall.

Up until now, the network had posted episodes of popular shows such as "Glee" and "Family Guy" on its web site 24 hours after they aired on television, free to anyone who wanted to watch.

No longer.

Starting Aug. 15, Fox will make those shows available to stream the next day only to paying subscribers of a cable or satellite provider that carries Fox or to subscribers to Hulu Plus, the video streaming site's premium service.

They will only become free again, available to all on the web, eight days after the original episode airs.

Dish Network has already agreed to partner with Fox on the deal, and the network indicated that a number of other pay TV services seem likely to follow.

It's a bold move on the part of Fox as free TV content on the web becomes a hotter and hotter issue.

Cable and satellite providers have long been frustrated by the availability of free shows online, arguing that it undermines their ability to attract and retain subscribers if the content they charge for is available elsewhere at no cost.

Cable networks, which reap huge carriage fees from cable and satellite providers, have lagged well behind the broadcast networks in offering their shows for free, and some of the major cable providers have debuted services that allow paying customers to watch those shows on the web.

But Fox is the first broadcast network to wall off its shows, after years of the networks posting practically everything online for free.

The move is mainly aimed at thwarting cord cutting.

Millions of people are expected to cut or drastically reduce their cable or satellite subscriptions in the coming years, lured by the increasing amount of video content that's available for free over the web.

The Fox paywall comes as little surprise.

Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of Fox parent company News Corp., has been one of the major proponents for media paywalls, which he has initiated on a number of News Corp.-owned publications.

Fox's other aim, in addition to keeping cable and satellite companies happy, is to preserve ratings of its original TV broadcasts, which is where the broadcast networks make most of their money.

The thought is that viewers probably won't be willing to wait more than a week to catch their favorite shows online and will instead tune into the TV broadcast when it airs.

27-Jul-11 12:00 PM

The Business of Communicating Values

Rosanna Fiske - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:00:00 GMT

If a company doesn't take the time and effort to communicate its values in a meaningful way, then it's like the old tree-falling-in-the-forest cliché: It makes a big splash, but no one is around to appreciate its impact.

I was reminded of this while reading David Rock's "The Business of Values" here on HBR.org. Rock outlines three common approaches to how business schools teach corporate values: values as ethics; identifying a set of universal values; and the recognition of values. He concludes, resolutely, that it "may be time to take the whole business of values, and the values of our businesses, a lot more seriously."

Recent high-profile scandals and crises have made it clear that many businesses do not properly or openly communicate their values. That has direct and indirect effects on the economy, which is made all the worse by rising fears of a double-dip recession and angst over the state of global markets.

Just look at how The News of the World phone-hacking scandal has exposed News Corp. to accusations over the company's values and the efficacy of its leadership. Had the company more openly communicated what it stands for and the moral compass its employees follow, it likely would not have been vilified so thoroughly in the press. Despite numerous protestations from Rupert Murdoch and his top lieutenants that the company's values align perfectly with the public's best interests, the damage has been done. The public is left questioning what, if anything, does this company stand for?

Even NewsCorp. purports to have values, but like many other companies it fails to effectively communicate them to the outside world. Having strong corporate values is admirable, but values without proactive employee communication of their importance might as well not exist. A firm might host a company-wide meeting to reaffirm the employee-engagement program or to deliver the annual report, but how often have you seen that effort start with a bang and quickly fizzle out as people move on with their day-to-day tasks? Employee communications has never been a more important component of a CEO's management toolbox, and we must educate our employees on how to effectively communicate values and make them resonate.

What else can businesses do to better communicate their values? A few key ideas to keep in mind:

Ask employees what is important to them. Seek their input on how well the company's work, and in turn, its employees, reflect their value system. Remember that generalized concepts — even oft-used words found in mission statements like "integrity" and "commitment" — have different meanings to people from different cultures and backgrounds.

Establish core values across the company, not just within management. If management sets values, who would own them? You need buy-in from employees; they have to feel a certain ownership over value creation.

Develop a values communications plan. Employee communications has to be at the forefront of your value-setting agenda; too often, executives fail to proactively seek employee input and buy-in before values are put in place. This leads to antipathy and resentment among those employees who don't feel a company's values align with their personal and professional aspirations.

Live your values. Embrace the corporate values and be mindful of them in every decision you make — both in good and bad times. Never forget that actions speak louder than words.

Few companies get every component of "the business of values" just right. Value setting is a tough business, often fraught with multiple challenges and divergent agendas. But once those values are set, right or wrong, every CEO would be wise to communicate them and live them as though his business depends on it. Because it just might.

27-Jul-11 12:00 PM

Fresh Dirt in UK Phone Hacking Scandal

Bill Cromwell - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:00:00 GMT

The phone hacking scandal that brought down the News of the World is now spreading to other British newspapers beyond those owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Trinity Mirror, which owns the Daily Mirror and the Daily Record, said yesterday that it has opened a review of its own editorial practices.

The company denied conducting an investigation into phone hacking per se, but the timing is no coincidence. The inquiry comes days after a former Daily Mirror employee claimed that phone hacking took place under the paper's former editor, Piers Morgan, now a CNN host.

Separately, a BBC2 report has alleged that the Sunday Mirror not only hacked phones but hired private detectives to dig dirt on the paper's subjects.

Trinity Mirror described the inquiry yesterday as "good corporate governance," undertaken in the wake of revelations of widespread hacking at the NOTW, including the phone of a 12-year-old murder victim.

Accusations of hacking at Trinity Mirror reach beyond the flagship publication. In a New York Times story last week, five former reporters at The People, a sports and celebrity title, said that phone hacking was commonplace during the late 1990s.

The Trinity Mirror review will focus on editors' awareness of where certain stories came from, which would seem to cover phone hacking, as well as whether the papers paid for some stories and why they did so.

Trinity Mirror director of risk and audit Charmian Steven will chair the review panel.

Meanwhile, here are the other most recent developments in the phone hacking scandal:

* Guardian reporter Nick Davies, who pursued the phone hacking story for years before landing the scoop that broke it open this month, has landed a book deal for "Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up With the World's Most Powerful Man." It will be published in fall 2012.

* A week after an ill-received editorial defending News Corp., the Wall Street Journal yesterday published a report from the paper's editorial committee criticizing the newspaper's coverage of the scandal and accusing it of being too soft on chief executive Rupert Murdoch in an interview that ran just a day before the publisher of the paper, Les Hinton, was forced to resign related to the scandal.

"[The Journal] could have done a better job with a recent story allowing Mr. Murdoch to get his side of the story on the record without tougher questioning. We have discussed this with the involved editors," the report said.

26-Jul-11 9:00 AM

Ten Principles to Live by in Fiercely Complex Times

Tony Schwartz - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:00:00 GMT

If you're like most people I work with in companies, the demands come at you from every angle, all day long, and you have to make difficult decisions without much time to think about them. What enduring principles can you rely on to make choices that reflect openness, integrity and authenticity?

Here are ten that work for me:

1. Always challenge certainty, especially your own. When you think you're undeniably right, ask yourself "What might I be missing here?" If we could truly figure it all out, what else would there be left to do?

2. Excellence is an unrelenting struggle, but it's also the surest route to enduring satisfaction. Amy Chua, the over-the-top "Tiger Mother," was right that there's no shortcut to excellence. Getting there requires practicing deliberately, delaying gratification, and forever challenging your current comfort zone.

3. Emotions are contagious, so it pays to know what you're feeling. Think of the best boss you ever had. How did he or she make you feel? That's the way you want to make others feel.

4. When in doubt, ask yourself, "How would I behave here at my best?" We know instinctively what it means to do the right thing, even when we're inclined to do the opposite. If you find it impossible, in a challenging moment, to envision how you'd behave at your best, try imagining how someone you admire would respond.

5. If you do what you love, the money may or may not follow, but you'll love what you do. It's magical thinking to assume you'll be rewarded with riches for following your heart. What it will give you is a richer life. If material riches don't follow, and you decide they're important, there's always time for Plan B.

6. You need less than you think you do. All your life, you've been led to believe that more is better, and that whatever you have isn't enough. It's a prescription for disappointment. Instead ask yourself this: How much of what you already have truly adds value in your life? What could you do without?

7. Accept yourself exactly as you are but never stop trying to learn and grow. One without the other just doesn't cut it. The first, by itself, leads to complacency, the second to self-flagellation. The paradoxical trick is to embrace these opposites, using self-acceptance as an antidote to fear and as a cushion in the face of setbacks.

8. Meaning isn't something you discover, it's something you create, one step at a time. Meaning is derived from finding a way to express your unique skills and passion in the service of something larger than yourself. Figuring out how best to contribute is a lifelong challenge, reborn every day.

9. You can't change what you don't notice and not noticing won't make it go away. Each of us has an infinite capacity for self-deception. To avoid pain, we rationalize, minimize, deny, and go numb. The antidote is the willingness to look at yourself with unsparing honesty, and to hold yourself accountable to the person you want to be.

10. When in doubt, take responsibility. It's called being a true adult.

26-Jul-11 9:00 AM

Behind the Blitz in Back-to-School Ads

Diego Vasquez - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Every year the back-to-school advertising blitz seems to start earlier, and this year it seemed the kids had barely been dismissed from class when the first back-to-school specials began being advertised. After gas prices soared during the spring, retailers are eager to connect with consumers during the recent decline in gas pricing. The reasoning is that if people are paying less for gas, they'll have extra money to spend elsewhere. According to several polls, most consumers plan to spend the same amount as last year on this year's back-to-school supplies. A good deal of that spending will be funneled toward electronics, with Apple's iPad the hot buy of the summer for college students, even with the continuing economic woes. Overall retail sales have held up pretty well this year, considering the concern over high unemployment and low housing sales. Though consumer confidence has taken a noticeable hit this year, June retail sales were slightly up over last year. Frank Badillo, senior economist and vice president at Kantar Retail, talks to Media Life about the outlook for 2011 back-to-school ad spending, which categories will be most active, and why online stores stand to benefit.

How would you characterize retail spending year to date? Is it up or down, and have you seen the momentum rising or falling over recent months?

Retail sales growth has been up, it's sustained relatively healthy growth.

In some ways it's a bit surprising given the increase in food and fuel prices, which has put a strain on households. What we tend to see from an economic perspective is shoppers tend to react first in terms of shopping behavior--how they shop and where they shop. The change in terms of how much they spend, those changes happen with a lag.

We don't have specific numbers for ad spending.

Which retail categories have been strongest this year?

What we've continued to see is a lot of discretionary categories, particularly apparel, that have held up pretty well over the past year. In June, just looking at the same-store sales, they show for example that sales for apparel specialists held up very well in June.

And of course you can look at whether it's some of the electronics categories, gadgets certainly.

Which have been weakest?

When you look in inflation-adjusted terms, taking out the impact to jump in prices, shoppers have pulled back in various food categories. Whether it's meats and produce, fresh vegetables, those have been most affected by the jump in food commodity prices.

If you drill down you'll likely see the impact in terms of volume happen in categories most affected by jumps in prices.

When does back-to-school ad spending generally begin?

It's a good question. I don’t know if I can give you the exact timing, but it seems to me it's happening sooner this year than in the past. The chief months are August into September. But in June and early July we've seen some retailers launching into back to school campaigns several weeks ahead of what we typically expect.

Our expectation is that because we know that lower-income households are most impacted by the high inflation environment, those shoppers and the value-mass-retail channels that serve them will see some of the earliest activity. They know their shoppers are affected, and so those retailers are trying to get their messages in front of shoppers as early as possible.

Which back-to-school retail categories will see the strongest spending this year and why?

That's a good question. We typically ask what categories people are buying, and year-to-year those key categories don’t change too much. Apparel leads the pack, along with electronics, For college students, home-related categories also [are popular]. And I don’t expect that to be any different this year.

The encouraging thing this year is there may be concerns that shoppers will pull back significantly, but we did have a little sign that gives reason for encouragement in our recent survey.

For shopping intentions for the coming month, those numbers had been deteriorating since fuel prices began to rise in March, and those have started to level out in June. So that maybe signals shoppers won't be cutting back as much as when gas prices were still rising.

We also asked a question on spending plans for back-to-school, and generally those numbers didn't change too much. There were fewer people saying they were going to spend about the same as last year, but the change was split between those who will spend more and those who will spend less.

Which back-to-school retail categories will see weaker spending this year and why?

Well, I probably want to look to where we'll see impact from higher prices. There will be some higher apparel prices in coming months, so that may be one to keep an eye on, a tempered demand for apparel. I think that's the chief one.

Otherwise in most other categories I think the hottest is electronics. It will be interesting to see if these students just have to have the latest tablet or iPad, even with the tough economy.

Are you seeing people try to find more bargains on back-to-school supplies over the past few years?

Definitely. And it's kind of cyclical depending on the economic environment. We saw it during the recession period when shoppers told us they were depending on more deal-seeking behavior. That leveled off when we came out of the recession, but in the last month with the inflation pressures we've seen some shoppers are returning to those behaviors.

Are people doing more online shopping for back to school? How much has that increased in the past three to five years?

Well, across the board over the past year we're seeing very strong growth in online retailing, and expect that to be the case and even more for back-to-school.

Part of what's encouraging that in the short term is high fuel prices. People go online to search for products instead of hopping in a car and going to a store.

26-Jul-11 9:00 AM

Univision Boss Wants Affils Along for Ride

John Consoli - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:00:00 GMT

When the Univision board in March chose not to renew the contract of president and CEO Joe Uva, it did not search far or long for a replacement. Three weeks ago, it tapped COO Randy Falco for the top job, even though Falco had been brought in by Uva just six months earlier.

Falco's last executive post was not a particularly happy one — three years as chairman and CEO of AOL that ended in March 2009. But before that, he enjoyed a successful 30-year run at NBC and NBC Universal, topping out as president and COO of the NBC Universal Television Group.

At Univision, Falco inherits a company with 62 TV stations, 70 radio stations, two broadcast networks (Univision and TeleFutura) and eight cable networks that brings in about $2.5 billion a year in advertising revenue. The Univision broadcast network is the fifth-largest in the country. While the English-language networks continue to lose viewers, Unvision has shown ratings growth over the past several years.

Univision has been struggling with a heavy debt load taken on when it was acquired by a conglomerate of investors in 2006. It got help with that burden late last year, when Mexico's Groupo Televisa, Univision's principal provider of programming, invested $1.2 billion that gave it a 5% stake, a few seats on the board and some behind-the-scenes say in how the company is run.

The deal also cements the relationship between Univision and Televisa, which had been feuding in court over their programming arrangement.

In this interview with TVNewsCheck Contributing Editor John Consoli, Falco talks about his new role, the Televisa investment, cable expansion plans, aiding affiliates in providing local news and retransmission consent.

An edited transcript:

How has your role changed since becoming the COO?

When I was chief operating officer I was responsible for all revenue-driving functions for the company, including advertising, marketing, research, business development, distribution, affiliate relations, and had oversight in that regard over all local and national TV and cable properties and radio. Now I still have all of those responsibilities, but oversight over programming has also been added to my duties.

How important a player is Televisa within Univision now that it has an extended agreement to provide novelas to the company through 2025 and has a 5%ownership stake and seats on the board following its loaning Univision $1.2 billion last fall to help the company meet a short-term debt payment?

Televisa has been a great partner for us and a big supporter of mine since I joined the company. We have regular conversations with them about our programming. They are a strategic partner of ours because they are an investor. But they are only one of six owners and they are not trying to micro-manage the company.

One of your areas of expertise from your many years at NBC and NBC Universal was advertising. Univision is spending a sizable amount of money to create internal units like client development teams and agency development teams to help bring in more advertising dollars across all your media platforms. Can you talk about this?

It’s one of the more exciting things we are doing here.The client development group works with advertising executives like chief marketing officers, while the agency development group works with media buyers and planners. They provide consulting and help execute strategic development for clients’ brands. They offer Hispanic consumer insights. They offer creative and marketing help, and they provide audience measurement data.
The main goal of these two groups is to activate new brands at Univision and to grow the ad dollar share of existing brands. In the past year they are responsible for bringing in some 150 new clients, including Microsoft, Samsung and Starbucks.

They are responsible not only for helping to grow our national network advertising, but also for local advertising for our affiliate stations. With everything they do nationally, they are trying to tie in with local ad and marketing strategies. And they talk to clients holistically across all platforms: TV, radio and online. They are the main reason we experienced sizable ad growth over last year.

I can’t take credit for starting them. They were initiated a year ago, but when I got here in January I expanded them in size by allocating dollars to fund them. We have added more people to each group and have authorized more proprietary research projects. There are more than 50 employees in this initiative and the two groups have a combined budget of between $40 million and $50 million a year. It is a sizable allocation, but it is paying great dividends for us.

Can you talk a little about the cooperation that goes on between Univision network and its affiliates?

ln general, we have a very positive relationship with our affiliates. We want our affiliates to be No. 1 in each of their markets and particularly with their local newscasts. Our head of stations and head of news talk to our affiliates on a regular basis about news and content. Whatever we can do to help, we do.

A Univision TV affiliate in Kansas recently began a nightly local newscast in Spanish, the first in the state. Is this going to spur an effort by Univision headquarters to get other affiliates to make similar moves in states with growing Hispanic populations?

Hispanic population and demographics are growing across the country, not only in California and Texas, but in all states. Our goal is to expand local news in markets where there is a demand by the Hispanic community. It’s a discussion that would start at the local station level. They would come up with a plan and come to us with it and ask us for funding. Servicing the local Hispanic community is one of our goals. If it makes sense to expand our news locally, we will do it.

Univision has made a major commitment to public service in the Hispanic community for a long time. What is your view on that?

As broadcasters, our mission and job one is to serve the community. We’ve created award-winning initiatives that we are committed to. We have our Peabody Award-winning Salud es Vida °EntÈrate! [Lead a Healthy Life, Get the Facts] campaign; Es El Momento [The Moment is Now], a multiplatform, multimillion dollar national education initiative aimed at improving academic achievement among Hispanic students; and our voter registration initiatives. Our employees have a real passion and sense of service to the Hispanic community. All of these initiatives are at the core of our mission and everyone here will continue to focus on them.

In your new role as president and CEO, you also now have oversight over programming. How do you see your mission going forward in that area?

There are three passion points among viewers of Univision: novelas, news and sports. At our upfront in May we announced we are going to launch three new cable channels targeting each of those passion points. The timetable right now is to launch a novela channel sometime in third quarter of this year, the sports network in the first quarter of 2012, and the best-case scenario for the news channel is sometime before the November 2012 presidential election. News continues to be a very important part of that three-legged stool with novelas and sports. We are going to intensify our coverage of the presidential election campaign and also make sure through our coverage that all the issues affecting Hispanics are identified, explored and explained.

Speaking of sports, Univision currently has Hispanic TV rights in the U.S. for the men’s and women’s World Cup telecasts through the 2014 Men’s Cup. Do you plan on bidding on the next series of TV rights to soccer’s most notable tournament?

We’re committed to bidding again and committed to being the home of the best soccer coverage year round for U.S. Hispanics.

What impact will the extended agreement with Televisa to provide novelas to Univision through 2025 have on the new Univsion Studios’ production of novelas and the amount of programming now supplied to Univision by Venevision?

There will be no negative impact. We are planning to produce more than 500 hours of new programming in-house over the next year. We are also going to have our new novela, news and sports cable channels down the road and we will need more programming than just the novelas that Televisa supplies to us. As far as producing our own novelas at Univision studios, in some instances, we may wind up co-producing them, but in many cases we will also produce our own individually.

What is the status of your retransmission consent deals with the cable operators? Is Univision, like the English-language broadcast networks, seeking retransmission fees from the cable operators as well as from your affiliates to cover some of the costs of the programming you are providing?

Most of our subscriber fee deals with the cable operators are long-term deals that are already in place. Most go on for several more years before they come up for renegotiation. When those deals are up, we will have discussions about retrains fees. As far as approaching our affiliates to help pay for programming costs, we have not had those discussions yet. Will we? It’s too early to tell.

Right now, you are beating all the English-language networks among viewers 18-34 on Friday nights in primetime. On most other nights you beat at least one, if not more, of the English-language networks among viewers 18-49. How long do you think it will take to pass the fourth ranked English-language network [currently NBC] in 18-49 and in total primetime viewers?

Well, we’re growing our audience each year while the other networks continue to decline. And the Hispanic population is the fastest growing segment. In the past few weeks during the summer, we were No. 1 among all networks in 18-34 viewers. And our viewers are also more engaged across all platforms, not only on television, but also online and with mobile. Our goal is to have the most engaged audience of all the media outlets. But how long that will take, I don’t know. We are going to keep working at it.

18-Jul-11 9:00 AM

The future of news: Back to the Coffee House

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:00:00 GMT

THREE hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or letter, and circulated in taverns and coffee houses in the form of pamphlets, newsletters and broadsides. “The Coffee houses particularly are very commodious for a free Conversation, and for reading at an easie Rate all manner of printed News,” noted one observer. Everything changed in 1833 when the first mass-audience newspaper, the New York Sun, pioneered the use of advertising to reduce the cost of news, thus giving advertisers access to a wider audience. At the time of the launch America’s bestselling paper sold just 4,500 copies a day; the Sun, with its steam press, soon reached 15,000. The penny press, followed by radio and television, turned news from a two-way conversation into a one-way broadcast, with a relatively small number of firms controlling the media.

Now, as our special report explains, the news industry is returning to something closer to the coffee house. The internet is making news more participatory, social, diverse and partisan, reviving the discursive ethos of the era before mass media. That will have profound effects on society and politics.

In much of the world, the mass media are flourishing. Newspaper circulation rose globally by 6% between 2005 and 2009, helped by particularly strong demand in places like India, where 110m papers are now sold daily. But those global figures mask a sharp decline in readership in rich countries.

Over the past decade, throughout the Western world, people have been giving up newspapers and TV news and keeping up with events in profoundly different ways. Most strikingly, ordinary people are increasingly involved in compiling, sharing, filtering, discussing and distributing news. Twitter lets people anywhere report what they are seeing. Classified documents are published in their thousands online. Mobile-phone footage of Arab uprisings and American tornadoes is posted on social-networking sites and shown on television newscasts. An amateur video taken during the Japanese earthquake has been watched 15m times on YouTube. “Crowdsourcing” projects bring readers and journalists together to sift through troves of documents, from the expense claims of British politicians to Sarah Palin’s e-mails. Social-networking sites help people find, discuss and share news with their friends.

And it is not just readers who are challenging the media elite. Technology firms including Google, Facebook and Twitter have become important (some say too important) conduits of news. Celebrities and world leaders, including Barack Obama and Hugo Chávez, publish updates directly via social networks; many countries now make raw data available through “open government” initiatives. The internet lets people read newspapers or watch television channels from around the world: the Guardian, a British newspaper, now has more online readers abroad than at home. The web has allowed new providers of news, from individual bloggers to sites such as the Huffington Post, to rise to prominence in a very short space of time. And it has made possible entirely new approaches to journalism, such as that practised by WikiLeaks, which provides an anonymous way for whistleblowers to publish documents. The news agenda is no longer controlled by a few press barons and state outlets, like the BBC.

We contort, you deride

In principle, every liberal should celebrate this. A more participatory and social news environment, with a remarkable diversity and range of news sources, is a good thing. A Texan who once had to rely on the Houston Chronicle to interpret the world can now collect information from myriad different sources. Authoritarian rulers everywhere have more to fear. So what, many will say, if journalists have less stable careers? All the same, two areas of concern stand out.

The first worry is the loss of “accountability journalism”, which holds the powerful to account. Shrinking revenues have reduced the amount and quality of investigative and local political reporting in the print press.

But old-style journalism was never quite as morally upstanding as journalists like to think. Indeed, the News of the World, a British newspaper which has been caught hacking into people’s mobile phones, is a very traditional sort of scandal sheet (see article). Meantime, the internet is spawning new forms of accountability. A growing band of non-profit outfits such as ProPublica, the Sunlight Foundation and WikiLeaks are helping to fill the gap left by the decline of watchdog media. This is still a work in progress, but the degree of activity and experimentation provides cause for optimism.

The second concern has to do with partisanship. In the mass-media era local monopolies often had to be relatively impartial to maximise their appeal to readers and advertisers. In a more competitive world the money seems to be in creating an echo chamber for people’s prejudices: thus Fox News, a conservative American cable-news channel, makes more profits than its less strident rivals, CNN and MSNBC, combined.

In one way the increasing availability of partisan news is to be welcomed. In the past many people—especially right-wing Americans, since most American television was left-leaning—had nothing to watch that reflected their views. But as news is becoming more opinionated, both politics and the facts are suffering: witness some American conservatives’ insistence that Barack Obama was born outside America, and others’ refusal to accept that taxes must rise (see article).

What is to be done? At a societal level, not much. The transformation of the news business is unstoppable, and attempts to reverse it are doomed to failure. But there are steps individuals can take to mitigate these worries. As producers of new journalism, they can be scrupulous with facts and transparent with their sources. As consumers, they can be catholic in their tastes and demanding in their standards. And although this transformation does raise concerns, there is much to celebrate in the noisy, diverse, vociferous, argumentative and stridently alive environment of the news business in the age of the internet. The coffee house is back. Enjoy it.

13-Jul-11 3:00 PM

REMINDER: Meeting the Changing Needs of News Consumers

Crystal Halliburton - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:15:36 GMT

Message from the President

Crystal Halliburton

KHOU-TV

Hello [firstname],

On behalf of the Media Alliance of Houston, I would like to personally invite you to join us for lunch tomorrow, July 13th, at The H.E.S.S. Club, where we will engage in a lively discussion of how local newspaper, radio and television outlets strive to meet the ever changing demands of news consumers.

You will learn:

How social media is used in connecting with the audience
If rating points, circulation or impressions affect the way news outlets report on the news
Why we as news consumers care so much about news, and why there is more of it than ever in today’s society

Please see below for details, and contact Starr Danner at starr.danner@foxtv.com by 2:00pm TODAY to register. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow for networking beginning at 11:30am. The program will begin promptly at noon.

How do you consume news?

TV, Radio, Print, Online or via Social Media?

Staying relevant in today’s fast paced news environment is challenging to news outlets due to the multiple ways we keep ourselves informed on local, regional and world news.

Please join us Wednesday, July 13^th, at the H.E.S.S. Club as we engage with leaders in the Houston news industry about their latest and sometimes unconventional ways of gaining eyes and ears.

Houston News Leader Panel

Houston Chronicle - Kyrie O’Connor, Deputy Managing Editor and a frequent panelist on NPR’s “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!”
KPRC TV - Geoff Dankert, News Content Director
KIAH TV – Steve Simon, News Executive Producer
KTRH AM – Roger Hudson, News Director/Assistant Program Director
Moderator – Kevin Kline, KKBQ FM Q Morning Zoo Team

Luncheon will be held Wednesday, July 13th, 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

H.E.S.S. Club

5430 Westheimer Road

Houston, TX 77056

12-Jul-11 11:15 AM

REMINDER: Meeting the Changing Needs of News Consumers

Crystal Halliburton - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:03:49 GMT

Message from the President

Crystal Halliburton

KHOU-TV

Hello [firstname],

You will learn:

How social media is used in connecting with the audience
If rating points, circulation or impressions affect the way news outlets report on the news
Why we as news consumers care so much about news, and why there is more of it than ever in today’s society

How do you consume news?

TV, Radio, Print, Online or via Social Media?

Staying relevant in today’s fast paced news environment is challenging to news outlets due to the multiple ways we keep ourselves informed on local, regional and world news.

Please join us Wednesday, July 13^th, at the H.E.S.S. Club as we engage with leaders in the Houston news industry about their latest and sometimes unconventional ways of gaining eyes and ears.

Houston News Leader Panel

Houston Chronicle - Kyrie O’Connor, Deputy Managing Editor and a frequent panelist on NPR’s “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!”
KPRC TV - Geoff Dankert, News Content Director
KIAH TV – Steve Simon, News Executive Producer
KTRH AM – Roger Hudson, News Director/Assistant Program Director
Moderator – Kevin Kline, KKBQ FM Q Morning Zoo Team

Luncheon will be held Wednesday, July 13th, 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

H.E.S.S. Club

5430 Westheimer Road

Houston, TX 77056

12-Jul-11 11:03 AM

Are Beat Reporters Key To Better TV News?

Diana Marszalek - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Remember the rush of earning and covering a coveted beat?

Cops, crime. Or perhaps City Hall, schools or consumer fraud — meaty subjects, all ripe and ready to sink your teeth into, accumulating contacts and sources along the way.

But those formal beats under which TV newsrooms used to operate are fast disappearing at the majority of stations. And the dismantling of the system may be taking broadcast journalism down with it.

In the FCC’s Future of Media report released in June, author Steve Waldman takes a swipe at the declining use of the beats, saying it is one of the primary reasons why in-depth, public service stories have declined.

Way too often, local TV reporters follow stories rather than find them. Today, a reporter is more likely to recap a hospital-issued press release or news feed than uncover a public health concern, the report says. Local election coverage is particularly lacking, the report claims.

Greg Caputo, the news director at WGN, Tribune’s flagship CW affiliate in Chicago (DMA 3), says the beat system, under which reporters cover their beats — and only their beats — hasn’t existed in many TV newsrooms for years and the reason behind that make perfect sense.

“A beat reporter may go days without filing a story,” says Caputo.

Instead, WGN reporters with particular expertise or interests track certain beats, but do not cover them exclusively, he says.

“It’s not a traditional beat system, but they know what’s going on,” Caputo says. The only WGN reporter dedicated to particular coverage is a medical specialist.

It comes as no surprise that money and time constraints are cited as reasons for the demise of exclusive beats.

The concept of reporters spending the bulk of their time working a beat for stories, often coming up empty handed, would be considered a luxury at best and an impossibility by many.

Jerry Gumbert, CEO of AR&D, a local media strategy firm, says the No. 1 reason why TV news is flagging “has been a failure of news management to sustain focus on a formal beat system.”

News leaders have to realign priorities and reinstitute beat systems — and the kind of enterprise reporting that comes with them — if broadcast journalism is going to survive, he says.

Otherwise, TV newscasts will become increasingly indistinguishable from one another — a phenomenon already underway — as they become outlets for regurgitated or old news, he says.

“The result of this is catastrophic. It’s killing us because it dictates that we can only do superficial or reactive storytelling.”

In the last 15 years, the number of TV newsrooms operating with beat systems has plummeted to just one in 10, he says.

Stations in top 20 markets largely maintain beats, as do the “the great shops out there,” Gumbert says. Other stations may assign reporters to beats but require them to do general assignment reporting as well, he adds.

Today, Gumbert and others say, reporters will react in full-force to breaking news like fires and car crashes, but the concept of breaking stories through discovery is increasingly obsolete.

Bill Hoffman, EVP, Cox Media Group, sees the situation differently. “I see a world out there where there is more local news coverage going on by strong news brands than ever before.”

However, Hoffman says the kind of “beat reporter” labeling that once tied a reporter to one particular area of coverage has indeed changed. New systems, such as assigning reporters to particular geographic areas, have the same merits, such as fostering a familiarity among reporters, sources and community members.

And creating such relationships is even more important now then in the past, he says. “If you are a super brand in the marketplace, if you are the market leader, you are trying to super serve your viewers more than ever before because the contact points of that station are richer than ever before."

Proponents of beat systems say the structure is indeed fundamental to their success.

Susan Sullivan, news director at NBC O&O WNBC New York (DMA 1), says the proof is in the number of top-tier news stories that WNBC reporters have broken on issues including widespread political corruption in New Jersey and the Martha Stewart insider trading case.

The station is reestablishing the consumer affairs and health beats, which were cut when business was bad, she says.

Greg Dawson, Sullivan’s counterpart at KNSD, the NBC O&O in San Diego (DMA 28), says he understands “if you have fewer resources it’s certainly hard to carve out beats.”

But during recent tough times his station consciously invested more in building a beat structure to distinguish KNSD from its market rivals, he says.

Dawson says station executives figured there would be bigger payoff in producing the kind of in-depth and enterprise reporting that beat reporters are known for than making everyone a general assignment reporter just to get the job of basic news coverage done.

“We have the only political reporter, the only education and only military reporters for TV and we have one of a couple of consumer reporters in the market.”

KNSD reporters spend at least four out of five days on their beats, “more time and more days then they used to,” Dawson says. “These are important issues, so covering them I think was what helped set us apart.”

Diana Marszalek writes about local TV news every other week in her Air Check column. You can reach her for comment on this column or with ideas for upcoming ones at diana.marszalek@verizon.net.

12-Jul-11 9:00 AM

Still a Bright Outlook for Automotive

Diego Vasquez - noemail@mediaalliancehouston.org — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Automakers and dealerships have hit the brakes on auto spending this year, after roaring back in 2010 following a dismal 2009. But the category will still see healthy gains in 2011, despite a recent slowdown in auto sales, continued concern about the economy, and a huge reduction in spending by Japanese companies hit hard by March's earthquake and tsunami. Borrell Associates, the local advertising research firm, predicts that overall auto advertising will rise 7.2 percent this year, from $21.1 billion last year to $22.6 billion this year, with every category except for yellow pages and outdoor seeing a bump. That's down from the double-digit percentage gains seen last year, but it's actually a pretty decent clip when you consider that over the past four years, the auto category has lost 17,000 advertisers, with an average of 86 new- and used-car dealerships closing every week. Auto has seen especially big jumps in online advertising, which will grow 11 percent this year, to $7.3 billion, becoming the third-biggest online advertising category. Gordon Borrell, chief executive officer at Borrell Associates, talks to Media Life about where auto advertising is growing, why newspapers are included in that lot, and what's driving the shift to online spending.

Is it possible to say how much auto advertising is for new cars and how much is for used?

Used-car advertising accounted for about one-fourth of the $21 billion spent last year.

Franchise dealers account for about half of all the advertising spent on used cars, while independent dealers account for the lion’s share, 51 percent. Private-party advertising adds up to about 7 percent, or about $400 million.

You note that "the economy has shaken the basic underpinnings of the entire dealership system." Has auto been impacted more than other ad categories in this area? Why or why not?

Two other advertising categories have been hit more dramatically: Real estate and recruitment advertising.

On average, local business owners spend 15 percent of their ad budgets on some form of online media. Auto dealers are spending at twice that rate, or 32 percent. That’s a lot. But recruiters are now spending 57 percent of their ad budgets on online media, and real estate agents 44 percent.

Why is automotive so large? For the same reason real estate is. The potential payoff is huge. It’s about $6,000 for an agent (3 percent share of commission on a home sale), and $3,000 in profit on a car sale. So the advertiser is willing to gamble more.

And you can’t negate the fact that the audience for these two items – homes and cars – does its research online. People need a lot of information before they make a purchase like that, and when they’re ready to buy a car or a home they look like fat wildebeest to agents and dealers. (Recruitment is the largest category simply because finding new job can be scary and also requires a great level of research, so recruiters are intersecting with herds of job-seekers on the internet.)

How has the large number of dealership closures over the past few years impacted advertising?

It’s hurt newspapers and radio the most. On average, we’ve seen 10 to 12 new-car dealerships shut their doors per market in the past four years. When a dozen dealerships fall off the client list, and the remaining dealerships aren’t taking up the slack, that might take $15 to $20 million in annual advertising out of a midsize market.

The number of smaller new-car dealerships has held up well, while the number of larger dealerships has been hit with all the closings. The rainbow in that storm is that large dealerships spend about half as much to advertise one vehicle (about $570) as the smallest dealerships (over $1,000).

You might think that incentive spending would be up coming out of the recession, but it's not. Why?

Manufacturers have been inflating prices every year, then discounting them in order to stimulate sales with big incentives. They got caught in a trap when the recession forced them to slash prices.

Now they really can’t afford to offer incentives. They even shifted a small but significant part of the regional advertising responsibility over to the dealerships, so the manufacturers are clearly putting the more of the marketing responsibility on the local dealer.

Have you seen the public's desire for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles affect advertising at all?

We really didn’t analyze that, other than to say that words like “efficient” and “savings” seem to have the same effect on car buyers as ringing a bell did on Pavlov’s dogs.

Why does auto ad spending continue to rise in newspapers (up 9.4 percent this year)? Obviously that's not a category that is doing well overall.

The main reason it’s going up is that it’s gone way down for the past several years. So this is a minor bounce-back.

But there’s also a large and undeniable car-buying audience with their noses in the newspaper every week. Nearly two-thirds of the American public read a newspaper last week (according to Scarborough Research) – and it’s typically a very engaged, educated and wealthier two-thirds than might be watching TV or listening to radio.

Newspapers play at the lower end of the car-buying funnel, when people might be a few weeks or a few days from purchase. The Friday, Saturday and Sunday newspaper is still the definitive compendium of "big sale!" information, and both the consumers and the dealers know that. Not even the internet can match that.

What are the biggest growth areas for auto advertising this year and why?

Everything but yellow pages and outdoor is trending up this year in the auto category. But the biggest growth is being seen in cinema advertising. We have it roughly doubling this year, to $246 million, for automotive. Companies like Screenvision and National Cinemedia are peeling away some TV, cable and radio dollars by selling dealers on reaching a very captive and local audience.

The biggest increase in terms of dollar volume goes to online media, which we’re forecasting to be up by almost $730 million this year, to $7.3 billion. Dealers are moving quickly to online video and targeted banner advertising. We also see them experimenting a lot with mobile platforms, though that’s still a fairly insignificant amount of money.

7-Jul-11 5:00 PM