Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Vinyl Resurgence Statistics

Vinyl enjoys two consecutive years of growth for the first time since the ‘90s; CD sales continue to decline at increasing rates:

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

2006-2007:
  • CD - 17.5 % units sold (- 20.5 % total revenue)
  • Vinyl + 36.6 % units sold (+ 46.2 % total revenue)
  • Digital Album + 54 % units sold (+ 54 % total revenue)
  • Vinyl’s % of total market 0.002 %
2007-2008:
  • CD - 24.7 % units sold (- 26.6 % total revenue)
  • Vinyl + 124.1 % units sold (+ 147.7 % total revenue)
  • Digital Album + 33.9 % units sold (+ 33.9 % total revenue)
  • Vinyl’s % of total market 0.007 %

Nielsen SoundScan (2009)

Predictions:
  • + 50 % units sold through 1st half of the year
  • 2.8 million total units by the end of the year (up from 1.9 million in 2008)
To date:
  • CD – 121.8 million units sold (down from 151.01 million in 2008)
  • Vinyl – + 1 million units sold (up from 701,000 in 2008)

Trickle-Down Piracy: How Everyone Can Steal Anything


Trickle-Down Piracy: How Everyone Can Steal Anything

1. First, there is an insider. We can't really know when or what is taken, but according to investigative reporting done on the subject before, usually someone inside of an organization is offered money for a copy of an album. Otherwise, music journalists who have been sent copies of an album may be distributing it as well.

2. August 23, 2009- The first track from Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 is leaked- "Off That (Ft. Drake)"- a full week and two days before the press conference with Jay-Z about the leak of his album and MTV's hosting of the album. This track may or may not have been leaked by the record companies on purpose; the album may have been circulating torrent web sites like www.piratebay.org for weeks now.

3. September 1, 2009, 10 AM- Jay-Z states that he is happy that people are enjoying his music despite the leak. The album is not yet released but the rapper and his record company allow MTV's The Leak to stream the album early.

4. The album is streaming on MTV, but the files for the whole album are easily available elsewhere. A quick search reveals several sites hosting the same files that The Leak is streaming, ripped straight from the media player that MTV.com is using.

5. Twitter accounts like 'diditleak,' (5:35 PM) and small, off-the-radar music and mp3 blogs are already critically dissecting the tracks while conveniently offering download links to copies of the album files beneath their reviews.

6. September 8, 2009- The album is released.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Rachel Bunn--Alternative story

Skills needed for new journalists entering the job market:


-accurate reporting

-good proofreading

-be able to edit yourself

-be able to cover several different beats/topics

-be able to write a story

-be able to take and use criticism

-work quickly and efficiently

-knowledge of photography/video production

-knowledge of new media

-layout design

-leadership

-teamwork

-creativity

degrees vs. job offers graph

Rebekah Baldwin

number of undergraduate journalism degrees granted vs. number of journalism graduate with at least 1 job offer

07-08: 50,599; 36,150
06-07: 49,932; 39,097
05-06: 49,092; 37,408
04-05: 48,983; 36,982
03-04: 47,923; 33,354
02-03: 45,839; 29,750
01-02: 42,060; 27,381
00-01: 38,432; 30,142
99-00: 38,294; 31,554
98-99: 35,311; 29,026

numbers rounded to nearest whole number

sources: 2008 annual survey of journalism & mass communication graduate and 2008 annual survey of journalism & mass communication enrollments; cox center for international mass communication training and research; grady college of journalism & mass communication; UGA

Becky Taylor: Alternative Story: Changes

Changes
By: Becky Taylor

Good news! For the most part, that’s what Georgia papers are talking about.

After hearing and reading the negative reports about the newspaper industry, readers might feel puzzled. If you live in Athens, you should be. The Banner-Herald has added one to their print edition in response to reader feedback.

Several newspapers across Georgia were asked about the state of their press. Papers included in the survey are weeklies and dailies and range in distribution from 5,000 (Morgan County Citizen) to 40,000 (The Macon Telegraph).

Their comments are divided into several categories.

GROWING
- The Eatonton Messenger is adding a new magazine, a new newspaper, and is adding real-time sports coverage to their Web site.
- Columbus Ledger-Enquirer is expanding coverage into cities that are looking for a daily paper after the departure of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Specifically, the Ledger-Enquirer is expanding into Troup County and LaGrange

IN THE MIDDLE
- The Morgan County Citizen is considering expanding their online advertising.
- The Greensboro Herald-Journal lost some advertising, but Jan Foster, general manager, said that is picking back up.
- Foster said that the Herald-Journal is considering increasing their online presence.
- Athens Banner-Herald is considering increasing distribution

NO CHANGE
- Sandy Sanders of the Valdosta Daily Times says if anything, they may have picked up single copy sales after the loss of the AJC

THE BAD
- The Macon Telegraph lost the business of being the AJC’s carrier.

[sidebars]
State map showing paper locations
Morgan County Citizen – 5,000
The Greensboro Herald-Journal – 5,200
The Eatonton Messenger – 7,000
The Valdosta Daily Times – 18,000 Mon-Sat; 19,000 Sun
Athens Banner-Herald – 30,000
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer – 35,000 Mon-Sat; 40,000 Sun
The Macon Telegraph – 50,000 Mon-Sat; 65,000 Sun


Sandra Taylor scans the Valdosta Daily Times

Video production on news sites


Chari Sutherland
Video production on news sites
Editor: Robert Burns
10/21/09

Kate Parham's Alt Story