UBS 35th Annual Global Media & Communications Conference Day 2 Highlights
By Erina Lin, Wednesday 5 December 2007 at 05:31 :: General :: #942 :: rss
UBS 35th Annual Global Media & Communications Conference was held in New York from Dec. 3 to Dec. 5. Presenting newspaper companies on the second day included Belo Corp., GroupM, Media General and Journal Communications.
Belo elaborated on its spin off plan of newspaper assets. This move, according to the company, can assure both of the corporations – A.H. Belo Corp. for the newspaper assets and Belo Corp. for the television businesses – are nimble and able to allocate capital effectively. It will also help provide insights to investors and attract discrete investments. When asked if the move will damage the collaboration between the two groups, the company said the two groups will keep on talking and partner to achieve maximal synergy.
UK-based GroupM indicated the engine of global ad growth will still be TV (with 50 percent of new investment in 2008), followed by the Internet (30 percent).
If broken down by countries, China will be the greatest contributor (with 21 percent), the United States will contribute 20 percent and Russia and Brazil both do for six percent. According to GroupM, the Internet will make up over 10 percent of global ad investment in 2008 for the first time, and search will represent the biggest chunk, which is between 65 and 70 percent of measured online advertising in 2008, growing from 50 percent in 2005.
Media General, a U.S. media group with print, broadcast and online operations, said now it has transformed itself to become a high-quality news provider in the southeastern area via diversified platforms.
As of this year, the publishing business is weak due to the classified and retail softness, especially in its top market, Tampa, Fla. However, broadcast local ad time has gone up. As for the outlook for 2008, Media General is quite optimistic about the broadcasting advertising due to the coming election and the Beijing Olympics. Interactive media is expected to grow continuously with the help of Yahoo! partnership and advergaming booming. Publishing will still be impacted by the softness of the Tampa market, however.
Journal Communications, which is focused on publishing, broadcasting and interactive media in mid-sized local market, has a significant multi-media presence in southeast Wisconsin. It finished some asset divestment this year in order to focus on core media business, and execute broadcasting expansion in selected markets. In terms of the overview for next year, Journal Communications will keep working on its cross-media platform, including new online initiatives, new media broadcast acquisitions and in-market media acquisitions.
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