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ALFONSO SÁNCHEZ TABERNERO
THE CONTENT OF MEDIA QUALITY, PROFIT AND COMPETITION
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TITLE
THE CONTENT OF MEDIA QUALITY, PROFIT AND COMPETITION AUTHOR Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero TRANSLATOR Teresa Bernardes PROOFREADING Guilherme Pires | Media XXI LAYOUT DESIGN AND COVER ART André Dias Janicas PUBLISHED BY Media XXI | Formalpress, Publicações e Marketing, lda. PRINT Publidisa ORIGINAL TITLE
LOS CONTENIDOS DE LOS MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN CALIDAD, RENTABILIDAD Y COMPETENCIA (2008), Ediciones Deusto, Planeta DeAgostini Profesional y Formación, SL
This book is copyright. All rights reserved. Material in this book may not be published, broadcasted, rewritten or redistributed in any form without the written consent of the Author and the Publisher.
FORMALPRESS PUBLICAÇÕES E MARKETING, LDA. Rua Dr. Egas Moniz, n.º 11 AB, 2675-341 Odivelas | Lisboa Telefone: 00 217 573 459 | Fax: 00 217 576 316 formalpress@gmail.com
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1st Edition – April 2009 ISBN: 978-989-8143-11-2 Legal Deposit:
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CONTENTS PREFACE
9
INTRODUCTION
13
CHAPTER I OFFER EVOLUTION
19
Spectation and Segmentation
20
Improverishment of Contents
32
Quality and Costs
42
Offer Configuration and Changes in Property
54
CHAPTER II EXECUTIVE PROTAGONISM
69
Publishing Project
71
Information and Entertainment
80
General and Niche Products
92
Gratis and «Direct Payment»
104
CHAPTER III PUBLIC DEMANDS
119
Consume Level and Degree of Satisfaction
121
Audience Investigation
121
Implicit Requests
141
Creation of Values and Consumption Habits
152
CHAPTER IV NARRATOR’S INFLUENCE
167
The Last Mercenaries
169
Professional Standards
177
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Talent Substitutes
188
Innovation and Imitation
198
CHAPTER V THE COMPETITORS
209
Monopolies, Oligopolies and Competitors Proliferation
211
Procedures for Market Maintenance
222
The Publicity Sector
234
Mending the Mistakes of the Market
242
CHAPTER VI STRATEGY REVIEW
255
The Long Distance Runner Perspective
257
Misson, Projects and Human Resources
267
Search for the Public’s Loyalty
275
Protect the Value of the Brand
286
APPENDIX I Campaigns and Quoted Cases
299
APPENDIX II Tables Index
303
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PREFACE
PREFACE
Dr. Alan B. Albarran,
The University of North Texas
The Content of Media - Quality, Profitability and Competence is the latest work by the distinguished Spanish media scholar Alfonso Sanchez-Tabernero, and will break new ground in our understanding of these important topics. Rather than take a critical approach as so many previous authors do in describing what is wrong with the media industries, why the content offered tends to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and why media industries need more oversight and regulation, Sanchez-Tabernero uses this book to attempt to explain why the situation exists, by looking at the underlying factors that have led to the current situation. Dr. Sanchez-Tabernero has spent several years studying media management issues, leadership, media content, and the issue of quality in the audiovisual sector. This book is the result of many years of study and research, and will be a welcome addition to the scholarly literature on the media industries. The author attacks these topics by building on three hypotheses which I will hopefully paraphrase correctly here in this preface. First, the quality of media content in the audiovisual sector has declined over the last several decades. Second, public demand has not contributed to this decline; in fact, most of the public does not care (the latter are my words, not those of the author). Third, the author posits that the vulgarity of the content is risky for the content producer. Sanchez-Tabernero builds on these hypotheses driving this research to come to some basic realizations: If the hypotheses are true, the author claims it is
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probably due to the lack of competitors producing quality content, a lack of talent from those who make the products, and a lack of professionalism on the part of the management and executives of media companies. Further, if this framework holds, it provides an opportunity to develop strategies to not just improve the quality of media content, but the competence of media companies, especially from a managerial perspective. The author delves in to this discussion in six, well-developed chapters that make up this work. In Chapter 1, the author looks at the many changes that have taken place within the media over the past few years as the focus for media companies has moved to more specialization and segmentation, lowering costs, and diminished quality. Chapter 2 looks at the various criteria used by media companies in making content decisions; whether the product offer should be information or entertainment; if it targets a general population or a specific niche, and whether the content will be offered free or require some sort of payment by the consumer. In Chapter 3, the author examines the topic of public demand. What are the explicit and implicit demands of the public concerning media content and quality? How satisfied is the public with media products? How do values affect consumption patterns? These are just some of the areas discussed in this chapter. Chapter 4 looks at what the author calls the «Narrator’s Influence» on these topics. How much influence do media executives and companies actually have over the content? What professional standards, if any, are employed? What is the role of innovation versus simply imitation of existing content products? Chapter 5 considers the competitive environment in which media companies are engaged. Many media companies operate in oligopolistic markets, where there are just a few competitors, while some operate as monopolists. Another important part of this discussion is that of the publicity or advertising sector that supports many media enterprises. In the summary, Chapter 6, Sanchez-Tabernero discusses the importance of strategy, predicated by the development of new competition and a better evaluation of the media sector’s characteristics in a 21st century environment. The author encourages adoption of a strategy of a «long-distance runner» as opposed to only being concerned with the short term. The book is supplemented with over 30 tables and figures to explain and expand key concepts and arguments presented in the text, as well as several campaigns and case studies used for discussion. This makes the book suitable for both researchers and for students engaged in studying the media industries.
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PREFACE
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Alfonso Sanchez-Tabernero since 1997, and have heard him present papers at many scholarly conferences as well as read most of his research. Over time, he has developed in to one of the leading media scholars in Spain, and is internationally recognized for his work, and his co ncer n for the promotion of human values and morals among the media industries. The Contents of Communication Media Quality, Profitability and Competence tackles challenging issues and offers an analytical approach and ideas to improve the media industries. Media professionals will learn a lot by reading this book, and will help even more by acting on the ideas presented in this work.
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INTRODUCTION
In a sunny Summer morning of August, I went to the Barnes & Noble bookshop in Union Square, where Broadway and Park Avenue cross: I stood there with two colleagues to take a look at some recently published books, before going for a walk in New York. We were not thinking of staying too long, because the three of us had already had a few weeks of study, and we had decided to take the weekend to visit the city. In the section of «Media & Journalism», on the 3rd floor of the bookshop, we stayed longer then we expected: the stock of novelties was abundant, but, above all, we noticed that most of the books reflected the same worries: the media were not accomplishing their task of informing the public, the entertainment content was deteriorating, the obsession of improving the last line of the results account – the one that indicates the benefits achievement – demonstrating that the Executive staff was more concerned in reducing costs instead of improving quality. Wall Street emphasized the commitment of the company managers in improving their short-term results, the journalists and in general the creative part of the companies were loosing their prominence against managers and financial Directors and the mergers were causing a decrease in the number of competitors in the market, since the proliferation of means would help the increase of offers. When we realized that it was a concern shared by so many authors, we
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took a look at the shelves again. Effectively, the same concerns and warnings were being repeated again and again: «Our Unfree Press (R. McChesney y B. Scott); «Amusing Ourselves to Death» (N. Postman); «A Public Betrayed» (A. Gamble y T. Watanabe); «Media Unlimted» (T. Gitlin); «The New Media Monopoly» (B. Bagdikian); «News Flash. Journalism, Infotainment and the Bottom-Line Business of Broadcast News» (B. Anderson); «Killed. Great Journalism too Hot to Print» (D. Wallis, ed.); «Manufacturing Consent» (E. Herman y N. Chomsky); «Our Media, not Theirs. The Democratic Struggle against Corporate Media» (R. McChesney y J. Nicols); «Tell me Lies» (D. Miller, ed.); «Censored 2004» (P. Phillips); «Free Culture. How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity» (L. Lessig)… In many cases, the titles of the recently published books were clear enough: the panorama of the media was getting worse. However, when one looked carefully at the chapters and conclusions, there were only proposals. The authors only wanted to point out the problems, were thinking that that complaint would already be enough to solve the situation or maybe they were not finding a proper solution. Possibly the standard tone of those publications, the coincidences o f the diagnosis and the alternative absence would not have caught my attention if I had gone to Barnes & Noble in another moment. But precisely in that month of August, I was stating to write a book, to which I had given the title: «The Content of Media - Quality, Profitability and Competence». I had decided to dedicate almost all my investigation time of the following years to that matter, because I was it worried about the course things were taking and the popularity that some communication media had reached: superficial and coarse TV-shows attracted great audiences. In the most heard radio discussions, the same «experts» gave opinions about several different matters, for example, about the economical and social effects of immigration, the advances on cellular therapy or the influence of the Gold Century of the contemporary literature, with a remarkable conviction. The newspapers reduced their staff to neutralize the stagnation of sales. In the kiosks, some of the magazines emphasized their sensationalism and vulgarity and some new ones also had that ability to attract the readers’ attention. Similar deeds
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were produced in the editorial sector, in music industry and in the contents available on the internet. Not everybody assesses negatively this phenomenon: the fact of millions of people devoting their time contemplating the behaviour and listening to the discussions of a group of volunteers closed in a house and that have nothing to say, can be interpreted as an interesting sociological experiment, or, for some, the idea of the hostess of a news program to take off her clothes as she reads the news – the program «Naked News», with that title or similar ones, is broadcasted in several countries – can be seen as an impulse to creativity and freedom of expression. Nevertheless, the fact that human beings are capable of justifying what they want, does not nullify the effects of our actions, and, in the media territory, for better and for worse – the consequences are almost never small. As the British producer David Puttnam states, «the images that we see affect us in each turn of our lives». A good decision in moral judgements demands precision in the individual ethical behaviour. Therefore, as far as communication is concerned, generous and supportive people are better prepared to understand how they should act then the others that are only interested in their personal benefit. And, in the field of communication, as in any other, the possibilities of making a mistake and of degradation are unbelievable: when Goebbels, during his twelve years at the head of the Nazi Propaganda Office, managed to create in Germany a trend of favourable thought in his macabre plans for through manipulation, blackmail and press and radio control, he was not doing more then taking his project to an end in a terribly effective way. But – as this and many other examples show – the projects, ideas and opinions of people are not always right or valuable. Notwithstanding, it is not easy to solve the problem of the communication media content from a moral perspective, since the appeal to the right decision is not taken into account by people who are already walking in another direction. The «legal decisions» – specified in rules or prohibitions – do not seem to be efficient enough, among other reasons, because technology – above all internet and the satellites used to transmit pages and radio and TV signals – make it difficult for governments to control the offer of products and information services and entertainment.
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Therefore, we must recognise that the media content can only improve in a significant way if that possibility is not opposed to the market logic and the companies interests. To use other words, the proposals will be more effective, the more they are based in the knowledge of the «rules of the game» of communication companies and of the other actors in the business. When we consider the media evolution, we detected some actions that cannot be argued: the average time of consumption has increased, the expenses per person in information and entertainment products has grown, new competitors have showed up, technological innovations have generated a further market dynamics, legal barriers that stopped the investment in other countries have become weaker and the profit encouragement is more present in the communication sector. Other phenomena, inversely, generate more controversy: has the quality of the
products
and
services
diminished?
How
does
the
increasing
commercialisation of the media affect the quality of the contents? Is there more or less pluralism and change capacity? Up until what point is the public happy with the available offers in the market? In these aspects, as in many others, it is not easy to measure reality because the public´s answers have the tendency to favour the «politically correct» answers: if we believed that the spectator sees the programs that they say they do, documentaries would reach very high audience rates and «reality shows» would get extremely low ratings. Their inclusion in television's schedule grids would only be explained as a whim or the obsession of the programmer... In this research, I start from three hypothesis: 1) In the last decades the content of the media has impoverished, particularly in the audiovisual sector. 2) The public demands are not the main cause for that tendency. 3) The vulgarisation of the contents is a high-risk company bet. This triple starting point, that, in a certain way, contradicts the dominant opinion among the company’s executive staff and the sector analysts, is based on the study of the communication industry evolution in the most developed countries: changes in the offers, in the consumption habits, in the role played by regulating agencies and in the media and distribution systems. If the three hypotheses are confirmed, we can conclude that the deterioration
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of the news and entertainment contents obey mainly to factors that we have not clearly detected : insufficient number of competitors, lack of talent from those who make the products or lack of professionalism in the executive staff or management. Therefore, if we go through that path, we can open a door to hope: instead of contemplating, in astonishment, the news superficiality and the rudeness of many entertainment programs, we find out that there are possibilities to recover part of the lost land. In order to increase the quality of the contents, it will be enough to manage a more intense competence, some better prepared professionals or an executive staff oriented to the protection of the future of their companies. And, in any case, it is more attractive to try it then to stay at home and whining because things aren’t going well. To verify the hypothesis, I have selected a descriptive method, based in geographical market studies, sectors and significant cases. I would have liked to have other methodological options – like polling the public or Delphi studies with interviews to the main actors of the communication industry – because the obtained data would not allow the consequences to be applied to the goals of this research. Nevertheless, occasionally, the argumentation is supported by an external quantitative analysis, made by other authors or by the investigating services of a few communication companies. In the first chapter of the book, I describe the main changes tried by the contents of the media in the last years: the offer tends to impoverish and to break up. Continuing, I try to determine the causes for that evolution: I analyse which criteria do the companies apply when they decide the type of content and I raise the question if those criteria are reasonable and if they are going to continue (chapter 2). I investigate which are public’s demands (chapter 3), assess the influence of the narrators in determining the content (chapter 4), identify how it is going to affect the offer configuration in the increase of the number of competitors and the development of the publicity sector (chapter 5), and finally, I conclude that both a new competition development and a better understanding of the sector’s characteristics should take to a revision of the strategies of many communication companies (chapter 6).
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