These days, the buzz is all about "multi-platform futures". The theory behind it is that just having your content in "dead tree" format is little outdated. We need content on phones, PDAs, the web, digital TV - everywhere!
As has been blogged previously, Tridion, a new whiz-bang CMS, is coming to some divisions of the company. Emap is also responding by setting up a number of centralised "design factories"
This will mean the merging of some subbing, production and design jobs.Traditionally, individual magazines had their own dedicated production team, it now seems that many of these areas will be pooled.
Some jobs will definitely be axed. In my view, staff at Emap's main offices in Peterborough desperately need a union to defend them. Unfortunately, Emap has a poor reputation when it comes to negotiating with the NUJ.
Other staff will be retrained to deliver content across multi-platforms. This could lead to more jobs. Or it could mean a lot more work for existing staff and no more pay.
All of this bangs home the point that journalist students need to be "fully converged". It's now no longer possible just to build a career in "print" or "radio" - the journalists of the future must do it all and do it well.
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
information about Emap's finances & income
Emap, the publisher of FHM, Smash Hits and owner of Kiss FM, has painted a gloomy picture for its radio businesses after admitting World Cup fever had bypassed its stations.
The media group said there was no sign of an upturn in the radio advertising market, and it expected a further fall in sales between April and June.
"There is little evidence of any real recovery in radio advertising, and airtime revenues are expected to show negative growth in the first quarter of the new fiscal year," said Emap.
Full-year turnover at the radio business, Emap Performance, fell 1% to £139m for the 12 months to March 2002, with radio advertising revenues falling 8%.
National revenues were down 14%, with local turnover slipping 2%. It said the downturn was distorted by a boom in government and telecoms spending in the previous year, making the revenue decline even steeper.
Emap Performance includes the Magic FM network, Key 103 in Manchester and Metro Radio in Newcastle. Kiss FM, the third largest commercial radio station in London, is Emap's biggest radio brand and one of the group's most coveted assets.
It is one of four radio groups jockeying for position in the anticipated shake-up following the relaxation of media ownership laws.
It will consider itself a predator but is also being seen as potential prey and a target of groups such as Capital Radio.
Elsewhere in the full-year results, Emap posted a pre-tax loss of £69m, due to a loss of £144m on the disposal of its US magazines business last year. In 2001 Emap made a loss of £527m on its disastrous foray into the US market.
However, total group turnover, excluding the US business, rose 3% to £938m, with revenues at the biggest division, Emap consumer media, rising 8% to £324m as Heat, FHM and Red continued to do well on newsstands.
But Emap said markets outside radio, such as consumer magazines and business-to-business display advertising, were either reasonable or improving and, overall, it had made a good start to its new financial year.
"Current trading patterns provide the board with cautious optimism for the year ahead," it said.
But the company added: "Although the last 12 months have proved to be a difficult trading environment for most media companies, there are signs that in the first quarter of the new fiscal year market conditions for certain of the group's businesses are improving."
The group has become a persistent target of break-up rumours. However the market remains fond of focused media groups, despite the woes experienced by Granada and United Business Media since they spun off non-core assets. But Emap was bullish about its prospects as a unified business.
"Emap's forward direction is simple - more of what we do, better and deeper. The group comprises four excellent divisions with good organic growth prospects and development potential, and it is management's intention to realise this potential to the full," said Emap.
The media group said there was no sign of an upturn in the radio advertising market, and it expected a further fall in sales between April and June.
"There is little evidence of any real recovery in radio advertising, and airtime revenues are expected to show negative growth in the first quarter of the new fiscal year," said Emap.
Full-year turnover at the radio business, Emap Performance, fell 1% to £139m for the 12 months to March 2002, with radio advertising revenues falling 8%.
National revenues were down 14%, with local turnover slipping 2%. It said the downturn was distorted by a boom in government and telecoms spending in the previous year, making the revenue decline even steeper.
Emap Performance includes the Magic FM network, Key 103 in Manchester and Metro Radio in Newcastle. Kiss FM, the third largest commercial radio station in London, is Emap's biggest radio brand and one of the group's most coveted assets.
It is one of four radio groups jockeying for position in the anticipated shake-up following the relaxation of media ownership laws.
It will consider itself a predator but is also being seen as potential prey and a target of groups such as Capital Radio.
Elsewhere in the full-year results, Emap posted a pre-tax loss of £69m, due to a loss of £144m on the disposal of its US magazines business last year. In 2001 Emap made a loss of £527m on its disastrous foray into the US market.
However, total group turnover, excluding the US business, rose 3% to £938m, with revenues at the biggest division, Emap consumer media, rising 8% to £324m as Heat, FHM and Red continued to do well on newsstands.
But Emap said markets outside radio, such as consumer magazines and business-to-business display advertising, were either reasonable or improving and, overall, it had made a good start to its new financial year.
"Current trading patterns provide the board with cautious optimism for the year ahead," it said.
But the company added: "Although the last 12 months have proved to be a difficult trading environment for most media companies, there are signs that in the first quarter of the new fiscal year market conditions for certain of the group's businesses are improving."
The group has become a persistent target of break-up rumours. However the market remains fond of focused media groups, despite the woes experienced by Granada and United Business Media since they spun off non-core assets. But Emap was bullish about its prospects as a unified business.
"Emap's forward direction is simple - more of what we do, better and deeper. The group comprises four excellent divisions with good organic growth prospects and development potential, and it is management's intention to realise this potential to the full," said Emap.
Monday, 24 September 2007
History of Emap
Magazines:
1947= Emap was formed as a regional newspaper company, operating out of Peterborough (where the head office still is).
1953= Emap's first consumer magazine Angling Times was published
1956= Motor Cycle News was obtained for just £100.
1978=Smash!Hits w
as launched.
Radio:
1990: Emap's first achievement in radio was Kiss FM
1991= with Tim Schoonmaker in control, Emap's next foray into radio was buying Radio City in Liverpool, and taking over Owen Oyston's Trans World Communication group (Preston's Red Rose Radio, Manchester's Piccadilly Radio, and Leeds's Radio Aire).
1992= Kiss FM's Gordon Mac sold most of his shares to Emap and the station continued to have an arms-length relationship with their new owners for many years, finally moving from their studios in Holloway Road to Mappin House in 1999.
Mid 1990s= The Metro Radio Group was taken over by Emap, creating a problem for Emap executives. Bradford's The Pulse, and their AMer Great Yorkshire Radio, overlapped a large percentage of Aire FM and Magic 828 from Leeds, which blocked their purchase on regulatory grounds. The Pulse was disposed of, to a management buyout mostly formed out of ex Metro Radio Group management,The Radio Partnership.
1947= Emap was formed as a regional newspaper company, operating out of Peterborough (where the head office still is).
1953= Emap's first consumer magazine Angling Times was published
1956= Motor Cycle News was obtained for just £100.
1978=Smash!Hits w
as launched.
Radio:
1990: Emap's first achievement in radio was Kiss FM
1991= with Tim Schoonmaker in control, Emap's next foray into radio was buying Radio City in Liverpool, and taking over Owen Oyston's Trans World Communication group (Preston's Red Rose Radio, Manchester's Piccadilly Radio, and Leeds's Radio Aire).
1992= Kiss FM's Gordon Mac sold most of his shares to Emap and the station continued to have an arms-length relationship with their new owners for many years, finally moving from their studios in Holloway Road to Mappin House in 1999.
Mid 1990s= The Metro Radio Group was taken over by Emap, creating a problem for Emap executives. Bradford's The Pulse, and their AMer Great Yorkshire Radio, overlapped a large percentage of Aire FM and Magic 828 from Leeds, which blocked their purchase on regulatory grounds. The Pulse was disposed of, to a management buyout mostly formed out of ex Metro Radio Group management,The Radio Partnership.
Television
- Emap's first purchase in television was cable music channel The Box, which was purchased in 1996 - the year the group sold their newspaper business to Johnston Press .
- 'Middle youth women' were all the rage in 1997. Emap launched Red, a magazine aimed at 30-something 'feel-young' women; and a 1998 takeover of Melody FM was followed by its re-branding to a radio station aimed at a similar audience - Magic. The AM stations the group inherited in the northern cities were also re-branded. The 'less talk, more music' format was initially not too successful, replacing oldies stations.
- In 1998, Emap acquired Petersen, a publisher in the US - much to the concern of some staff, Petersen published such politically-correct titles as "Guns'n'Ammo" - and launched FHM there two years later. However, the US experience was not a good one. Emap ended up closing their USA operations in 2001: gaining £366m for the sale. (Petersen's purchase price was £1bn).
- 2000 to 2002 saw large expansion in music television and digital radio.
Emap won its first analogue radio franchise in its own right in 2003, with Kerrang! 105.2 in the West Midlands.
2004 saw Emap acquire 28% of shares in SRH from SMG; a full takeover of the company occurred the next year.
What is Emap?
- Emap is a large media institution which is mainly involved in radio, magazines and television
- In the UK it is the second largest consumer magazine publisher.
- In the UK it’s the second biggest commercial radio group.
The name of the original company, which included newspapers until their sale in the late 1990s to Johnston Press, was 'East Midlands Allied Press'. This has been shortened to Emap.
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