Publishers Hesitant on Amazon Live
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 4:02 PM
In the news: Amazon Live falls short of expectations this holiday
season. Why aren't more publishers jumping aboard?
The
holiday shopping season was Amazon's best hope for its Amazon Live video
platform. But things got off to a lackluster start. Writes Max Willens
of Digiday.com last week: "Amazon had hoped to celebrate Cyber Monday
with a big helping of publisher-supplied shoppable live video this year.
With one notable exception, those hopes went unfulfilled."
Publisher
recruitment efforts have, thus far, fallen flat. Although Amazon is a
key affiliate, many media companies remain skeptical of its intentions,
says Willens: "In sizing up Amazon's Live entreaties, many heard
something that was unfocused and vague, with the only real clear
priority being training publishers' audiences to use Amazon Live,
according to sources at four publishers that Amazon pitched." What's
more, Amazon subsidies to help offset video production costs are smaller
than publishers had hoped. Read more here.
Also
Notable
The Key to Retaining Employees
It's
an employee's market right now, and publishers across all the major
industries are seeing turnover as employees seek better pay, more
flexibility, and more generous benefits. So what can publishers do to
keep their best talent? It's about more than just a paycheck. Al
Tompkins of Poynter.org cites a recent Gallup poll showing that "52
percent of people who left their job during the pandemic said their
employer could have done something to make them stay." Tompkins' advice
to publishers is simple: "Tell the people that you want to stick around
that you want them to stick around.... How many journalists who left
their job in the last year needed the flexibility to manage children's
schooling, care for parents and deal with COVID-19 concerns but had a
boss who was clueless about these pressures?" Read more here.
Mixed
News for Print Magazines
Some print magazines temporarily
shuttered by the 2020 lockdowns are slowly making comebacks, but others
have yet to return. Kathryn Hopkins of Women's Wear Daily
examines some of the challenges publishers have faced and some of the
iconic magazines still absent from newsstands. In addition to "a slide
in advertising, producing certain magazines became almost impossible in
some months during lockdowns," Hopkins writes, "with only limited
numbers of people allowed in studios and fashion items hard to come by
as factories produced hand sanitizer instead of apparel and handbags."
She highlights four titles that shuttered during the pandemic and have
yet to return: Paper, Love, Time Out New York, and Nylon.
Read more here.
Publishers
Speak Out Against State Censorship
"States starve publishers
of ad dollars if they refuse to pledge political allegiance," reads a
recent Editor & Publisher headline. The story focuses on a
recent dust-up at the Arkansas Times, which recently saw
essential funding cut off at the state level. "When Arkansas passed an
anti-boycott law, it sought to prevent state funds from going to any
business partner that refused to sign an agreement -- a pledge of
allegiance, really -- to support Israel," reports Mike Blinder in the E&P
Reports Vodcast. Alan Leveritt, publisher of the newsweekly, refused
to sign any such pledge, which he saw as a First Amendment infringement.
As a result, Blinder reports, "the University of Arkansas yanked its ad
spend" and the ACLU quickly intervened to challenge the decision. The
controversy highlights the growing number of anti-BDS laws in the United
States, currently in 33 states. Read more here.
Buzzfeed
Goes Public
Last week Buzzfeed issued a press release
announcing that the company was to become the first publicly traded
digital-only news outlet. The company hit the NASDAQ this week and is
off to a slow start. Todd Spangler of Variety reports that stock is down
11 percent on its first day: "BuzzFeed stock started trading on Nasdaq
under the symbol "BZFD" on Monday. Shares opened at $10.95 per share and
rose as much as $14.77 (up more than 50 percent), before slipping into
negative territory in late-morning trading. The stock closed at
$8.56/share, down 11 percent for the day, amid a rise in broader market
indices. BuzzFeed's market cap currently stands at $363.85 million."
Read more here.
Architectural
Digest Goes Global
Condé Nast title Architectural
Digest is publishing its first global print edition in December, as
part of its company-wide global content initiative. Sara Guaglione of
Digiday.com reports: "Editors from AD's U.S. and nine international
editions came together to work on the brand's biggest issue of the year,
as parent company Condé Nast continues to shift to a consolidated global
content strategy that has editorial teams around the world working more
closely together." The publisher sees myriad benefits of a global
publishing program, particularly in terms of increased editorial
collaboration and integration, cost savings. Read more here.
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