Programmatic buying comes to print

A new venture has been launched under the auspices of media auditing firm BPA Worldwide to allow for automatic buying of print media ads on behalf member publishers and to the benefit of their clients. 

In other words it allows for "offline" media buying, including print, e-letters, directory ads and other products in addition to the usual online digital ads. It expands the B2B Media Exchange which was earlier launched by BPAWW and is the result of a collaboration between BPA and Paris-based Adwanted.com. (See story presented in Publishing Executive.) 

Publishers are able to offer advertisers the entire buying process, including media insertion orders, terms and conditions -- in fact the entire menu of services to clients -- only expanded to include traditional print products. Similar automated services are being offered in Europe at Lagardere (Elle, Paris Match, etc.), Group Marie Claire (Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan), Mondadori (Grazia, Auto Plus), as well as Le Monde and Les Echos.

Bonnier Corp cuts 70 positions in the U.S. and converts five titles to all-digital

Bonnier Corp., the U.S. arm of the Swedish media company, has cut 70 positions, or about 17% of its U.S. workforce, according to a story in the New York Post. About 370 people will remain with the company. It has converted five of its print magazines to all-digital and reduced the frequency of foodie title Saveur to quarterly from six times a year.

Among the titles going all-digital are Wakeboarding, WaterSki , Sport Diver  and motorcycle titles Dirt Riders and Baggers.

Adam Sachs, the editor-in-chief, photo editor Michelle Heimerman and creative director Richard Baker were among those laid off at Saveur.

Bonnier AB is a privately held Swedish media group of 175 companies operating in 15 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family.

dig! ,the Winnipeg jazz magazine, ceasing print publication

Jazz Winnipeg's dig! magazine for jazz musicians and fans will cease print publication after its next issue, some 14 years after it was launched. According to a story on the MyToba website, the end of the bi-monthly doesn't mean the end of coverage; everyone involved will be working on independent projects. Jazz Winnipeg will continue to do digital features and other new media hosted on its own website, rolling out later this fall."

 “We have a vibrant jazz community," says editor Charlene Diehl, "and it has been a delight to meet so many enthusiasts – both musicians and audiences. I’m sad to step away, but eager to tackle new projects!”

British Press Association accepts €706,000 from Google to fund robot reporting

The Press Association in Britain has accepted €706,000 from Google to develop a robot local reporting project. (PA is the British equivalent of the Canadian Press wire service.) The grant will fund Reporters and Data and Robots (RADAR) starting in early 2018 as part of Google's €150m three-year Digital News Initiative. PA said in a statement: 

“RADAR is intended to meet the increasing demand for consistent, fact-based insights into local communities, for the benefit of established regional media outlets, as well as the growing sector of independent publishers, hyperlocal outlets and bloggers.” 

A team of five journalists working on project will use open government and local authority databases, and story templates, to create automatic stories about health, crime, employment and other subjects.“Natural Language Generation” software will be used to produce multiple versions of stories, to “scale up the mass localisation of news content”.

PA Editor Pete Clifton said

“At a time when many media outlets are experiencing commercial pressures, RADAR will provide the news ecosystem with a cost-effective way to provide incisive local stories, enabling audiences to hold democratic bodies to account. We have already provided an outline of our plans to some of our regional customers, and they have been universally positive. One described it as ‘genius’. 

“Skilled human journalists will still be vital in the process, but RADAR allows us to harness artificial intelligence to scale up to a volume of local stories that would be impossible to provide manually.”

Layoffs and reassignments underway in Rogers Media's English language mag division

Layoffs and reassignments are underway in the English language magazine division of Rogers Media. According to a story in the Financial Post, one of the most high profile departures is Mark Stevenson, the editor-in-chief of Maclean's magazine. His role is being taken over by deputy editor Alison Uncles. 

Some unspecified staff are being severed entirely; others are being told they are no longer working for a particular title, but reporting and editing for a "vertical" division of the operation, which may mean writing for a variety of digital and publications remaining in print form. Reports are that 27 people are being let go. The company said it would have further announcements soon.

Rogers announced in September that, as of the end of December, Flare, Sportsnet, MoneySense, and Canadian Business will no longer produce print magazines and their content will only be available in digital form. The whole of the business to business division of the company was put up for sale (and many have been sold) as are several well-known French language brands such as L’actualité. Titles which don't find buyers will be closed down; one such casualty is to be LouLou, English and French.

Related posts:

• 60 will be laid off at Rogers Media's French magazines by year end
• Most of Rogers's b2b titles now sold; a few titles remain in play
• Rogers Media goes digital-first with a bang in its magazine division

Is transitioning from print to digital a myth? Ken Whyte thinks so

There has been some low-level buzz about a recent personal blog post by Ken Whyte, the former publisher of Maclean's and head of Rogers Publishing and, latterly, founding president of Next Issue Canada (now, Texture). While he is careful to say his blog reflects his personal viewpoint alone, given his history a certain startle reflex is to be expected in the industry. 

First, he said that transitioning from print to digital is a myth.

"There is no transition from print to digital. There is print, and there is digital. Period. I find this depressing but it needs to be confronted. Show me a single title that has stood up and said, "Here, we've done it, we've made the leap from print to a flourishing digital operation that can support the expense of what's left of this newsroom."

Then, the very next day, in "a more optimistic scenario" he said there may be an upside to the crash of print legacy companies, such as making room for new ventures in the digital realm.

"Hundreds of newspapers and magazines are set to crash in the next few years. As this happens, we will see two things. First, the remains of these companies, and castoffs from these companies, will begin building digital operations if not from scratch, at least untethered to print. Freed of the burden of their legacy businesses, they will embrace their new realities, try many things, and learn a lot, and some of them may find their way to sustainable new business models. This huge new wave of effort by desperate practitioners of former print journalists may well produce something interesting."

Sounds like what Rogers Publishing is doing by eschewing print for several of its better-known titles, including Canadian Business, MoneySense, FLARE and Sportsnet, Doubtless this will be part of the chatter over pints at a forthcoming "End of Print" drink-up being hosted by art director John Montgomery. It's aimed at designers, photo editors and photographers and takes place December 15 at 7:30 p.m. at No One Writes to the Colonel at 460 College Street. 

Rogers Media goes digital-first with a bang in its magazine division

[This post has been updated] In a digital-first bombshell, Rogers Media today announced major changes to its magazine publishing operations that will mix wholesale divestment of titles, getting out of the French language and business-to-business market altogether and shifting several well-known titles to digital only.

It will divest itself of Châtelaine, LOULOU, and L'actualité and all of its business-to-business titles. It is discontinuing print publication of FLARE, Sportsnet, MoneySense, and Canadian Business and making them available exclusively on the web and on apps beginning in January.

Magazines that will remain in print will do so with reduced frequency: Maclean's will appear monthly, Chatelaine and Today's Parent 6 times a year. 

"We are going where our audiences are, and doubling-down on digital to grow our consumer magazine brands," said Rick Brace, president, Rogers Media. "We have already made significant investments in creating content and making it available on digital platforms, including Texture, Sportsnet NOW, and Rogers NHL GameCentre LIVE, and today's announcement builds on that."

Steve Maich, senior vice president of digital content & publishing, Rogers Media, said

"It's been clear for some time now that Canadians are moving from print to digital, and our job is to keep pace with the changes our audiences are demanding.  We are so much more than a collection of magazine brands, and we've seen rapid growth on our digital platforms over the past few years.  Now is the time for us to accelerate that shift." 

Rogers says it has committed more than $35 million in capital and marketing to create and promote digital content and transition the business to a digital-first infrastructure. 
The company's release said that it has a combined digital reach of 3.8 million Canadians a month for the first half of 2016, up 30% year over year.

Print subscribers will continue to receive their magazines until the end of the year and may choose to choose among several options thereafter, including receiving a full refund on their accounts.

There was no immediate information about staff attrition at the magazines that remain or are going digital only, nor any information about the employment impact on b2b and French language publishing staff. 

[Update] Among the b2b publications now on the block: The Medical Post, Marketing, Canadian Grocer,  Benefits Canada, Canadian Insurance Broker, Advisor's Edge, Avantages, Corporate Risk and Conseiller.