On International Media

One of my fave reads is Richard's blog... always plenty of good thoughts... here are some on the evolution of international media:

1. The New York Times web site is attracting 37 million monthly unique visitors from outside of the US, almost twice as many as the 21 million from the US. The non-US circulation for Time’s print products is about ¼ of the total of 4 million.
2. The content of Time outside of the US is more skewed to business. Fifty percent of the content for each edition is generated from the US, the balance from regional bureaus. According to Elliott, “the reader is interested in issues outside of the region. He or she is a globally minded person.”
3. The Time International reader is making at least 100,000 Euros, is a frequent flyer, and speaks a second language fluently.
4. Time has folded its Time Asia and Time Europe web sites into a single global Time.com web site as of 18 months ago.
5. Both companies are exploring the expansion of the brand to encompass special dinners and conferences. Time has worked with Shell (disclosure: Edelman client) on a global series of salon dinners on the future of energy, including a recent event for 100 opinion leaders in Singapore.
6. Time has kept separate the on-line and mainstream units. The NY Times has effectively merged the operations.
7. The need for speed in posting content has led to a fundamental re-ordering of the editor’s job. Bowley told me about one of his reporters was in Berlin covering Senator Obama, moving from event to event. The reporter received a copy of the speech in advance and had written some parts of the story. The reporter called Bowley from the scene and gave his impressions. Bowley then wrote several paragraphs to provide context to the article, which was then posted to the web site. The reporter later edits the piece from the field with observations from third parties or participants.