Total Posts: 7 - Pages (1): [1]
| andyJ2 | Jan 24 2006 - 02 51 PM |
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I buy news week and or times magazine for the following reasons:- 1. can be read in bath 2. Doesnt matter if you splat the page with burger juice. 3. Good indepth analysis of the major world issues of the day 4. Excellent photography 5. Good tech/new innovations articles. Except for points 1 and 2 these reasons to buy do not apply to Bud Sun. Sadly I must agree with Erik that as a long term expat and barring Explosions, revolution, the grubby gossip now delivered by pestiside and unexpected big changes in exchange rates I have 0 interest in Hungarian news. |
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| Duncan | Jan 24 2006 - 01 24 PM |
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Indeed - much to be discussed and ranted about over a few beers. Agree with much of what you say, disagree with some. Some of your line of thinking actually fits with why our publication works... really ;-) For those reading who have time to answer, I have a question that's been bugging me for a year or so. Time and Newsweek - do any of you fellow expats buy them here in Hu? If so, what's the reasoning behind the purchase? If you don't buy them, why not? |
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| CaboodleErik | Jan 24 2006 - 10 08 AM |
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Not going to get drawn into a long insider discussion on this - that's for over drinks! - but there are a few observations I would make for the general reader. First, the most important global development in media - and I think this applies to the second-language market here in Hungary - is segmentation. So there is, within reason, no fixed limit on the number of "publications," as long as they appeal strongly to a group of readers of a certain size, and are done efficiently (i.e., one or two employees per 1,000 daily readers). But by "publications" I include different channels of the same overall publisher... for example, look at Index.hu, which has velvet and totalcar. Same model will be applied here. Second, I am extremely dubious about the whole business of supplying "news" to second-language readers in Hungary, for the simple reason that there is no news in Hungary that second-language readers actually care about. (Really - in my experience only around 5%-10% of expats in Hungary have even the slightest interest in local news.) Meanwhile, if they do care, they are going to want to see it when it happens, not a week later. And remember, the one thing virtually all English-speaking expats have in common is that they are online. Moreover, they are more likely than not to be way ahead of the curve in terms of affinity for online-vs-offline, as they are increasingly unlikely to get their regular (i.e. global) news experience in printed form. Third, I agree that many or most of the advertisers interested in reaching foreigners are deeply old-school, and prefer even dubious print buys to professional online ones. But that will change in line with the local market, which is getting more sophisticated by the day. Meanwhile, Caboodle's business model is very much *not* about glomming onto those same advertisers. Instead of looking to get a lot of money off of a few key advertisers (car rental, real estate, etc) the idea is to get a little bit of money off of a much larger array of advertisers, especially those who are a little more progressive in their thinking. And, of course, there is the issue of classified ads, and the fact that the migration of such ads online, where they properly belong (and where they will be free) will come as a blow to those print publishers that continue to rely on this revenue stream. In the end, I think that print still has promise, but were I to chuck time or money at it, it would be at stuff aimed at tourists, which means nightlife etc instead of news. (If resident English-speakers don't care about local news, why would tourists?) But this is, of course, the most overcrowded segment of all. |
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| Duncan | Jan 19 2006 - 04 05 PM |
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I agree, with so many portals popping up the market 'is' saturated - Caboodle will work where the others fail if it can provide the means to bring together (or, one could say, to 'create') a community. This works well through forums... so good luck to this site. The future of English language print media? Well, it's a complex issue and the future will be decided more by a newspaper's additional extras (such as websites). Obviously to the point where websites and what they offer are not seen as 'additional' anything. Speaking in relation to the BPSUN, we face more printed competition than ever before, yet are doing better financially than in previous years when the competition was slim. Print media (or dead tree media as Erik calls it :-) is still where the paying ads are. Regardless of website hits and page impressions, advertisers still see more worth in print media than in websites. One day this is bound to change, but I think it's a fair way off and will be decided, more than anything else, by our ability (ease and cost) to use decent (quality) mobile gadgets to access the web. Roll-up flexible screens, (free) WiFi everywhere etc. When everyone can get real-time news on the move (and it's the same 'reading' experience as a mag/newspaper), then print media will decline. But until then... |
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| andyJ2 | Jan 19 2006 - 03 37 PM |
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Personally cant see much future for the English print media here....flogging 1 week old news these days must be an uphill strugel. Agree about the Expat Portal new design is yuk. Have you seen the xpatlooping thing? whats this all about? trying to find your way around the site is a nightmare but it seems full of ads. As long as the content stays fresh I think this site could do very well as it really does stand apart from the rest. I guess that the initiall problem will be to break through advertisers "...what yet another one!" mindset. |
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| Vándorló | Jan 18 2006 - 08 29 PM |
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Seems to me most of these are someone's private vesszőparipa and hardly expected to bring home anything of value. The Expat portal has had a recent make-over (ugly as sin, mind) that has sorted out their back-end CMS (content management system). This seems to have gone to their heads and they have now added categories/tabs for Romania, Ukraine... without actually adding any real content. If any of these are trying to make money they are scraping by on Google ads, but I don't fancy their chances. Why have a site based on Budapest and Hungary with low dollar/cent bids when you can set one up for something more profitable for the same input? Of the old established types there is a serious integration mess. If this thing takes off (as I hope it does) I hope it will clean out the detritus from the rest of the sites - but I doubt they'll roll over and die. Of any of them, I can only see the BpSun making any real money based on their ads and Search engine rankings. |
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| andyJ2 | Jan 18 2006 - 07 26 PM |
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There are over 1o online English newspapers and portals, in addittion to print media all vying for the advertisers dollar all selling the same audience.....how many can the market sustain as viable, profitable businesses? Which of the existing English media in Hungary are most likely to succeed or fail? |
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Total Posts: 7 - Pages (1): [1]
