Google's plan to digitise books could be bad news for newspaper industry

MEDIA & MARKETING: As ad revenue slumps, publishers feel a change in copyright law would threaten the industry

NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING revenue is in freefall across Europe. According to the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, advertising revenue among its members in July and August fell by 20-50 per cent, the worst drop ever. To prevent a bad situation becoming worse, publishers are asking the European Commission to keep EU copyright rules as they are.

Newspaper publishers are concerned at moves by commissioners Charlie McCreevy and Viviane Reding to reform the “fragmented” EU copyright system, in particular with regard to out-of-print books which represent about 90 per cent of collections in libraries across Europe.

The commission wants copyright reform to deal with the digitisation of books across the EU and to facilitate a regulatory framework that enables a rapid roll-out of services, similar to those made possible in the US by a settlement with Google.

Under that settlement, which still requires US court approval, US authors and publishers could receive 63 per cent of the online revenue from digitised books generated by Google.

For Google’s digitised books plan to progress in Europe, something must be done about 27 different national copyright regimes in the union.

McCreevy says: “Digitisation of books is a task of Herculean proportions which the public sector needs to guide, but where it also needs private sector support. If we are too slow to go digital, Europe’s culture could suffer in the future.”

McCreevy and Reding though are on a collision course with Europe’s newspaper and magazine publishers, who contend that any change in the EU’s copyright framework to facilitate Google would represent “a direct threat to the viability of the publishing industry”.

The European Publishers Council, which represents the main EU publishers, is against any change to copyright law because it believes less creative content would be made available online if users were able to help themselves to parts of it under new exceptions to copyright without either paying for it in the first place, or getting a licence to re-use it in new “transformative” user-created content.

Council director Angela Mills Wade argues: “Every element of our business is under pressure and the fundamental challenge is how to take advantage of the limitless possibilities offered by digital technology and distribution for the benefit of our readers, whilst ensuring that publishing businesses remain profitable enough to continue to invest in professional journalism and the creative process.

“Now is not the time to pull the rug from under us by changing copyright law just at the very moment when publishers are more commercially vulnerable than ever before.”

Irish ads fail to snap up top Shark awards

Gold awards for creativity by Irish ad agencies were thin on the ground at last weekend’s Shark Awards in Kinsale, an international advertising event that attracts thousands of entries from around the world.

In the Ireland section, silver and bronze awards went to Young Euro RSCG, Cawley Nea, DDFHB, Leo Burnett and McCann Erickson. The sole gold award went to production company Blinder for its work on an AIB TV commercial.

Senior judge Roger Kennedy, creative director of art and design in Saatchi Saatchi in London, noted: “All the entries were good and nicely done, but you’re looking for something better than nice. What we want is a brilliant original idea beautifully executed. AIB’s surfer ad stood out because it was great.”

The Sharks Grand Prix award went to a bottled water commercial made by Brussels ad agency Duval Guillaume. Bar Fight, available to view on YouTube, is fantastic, though one suspects that the underwater action sequences were not cheap.

Due to the downturn, agencies have less money to spend on making commercials. So is this hampering creativity?

Says Kennedy: “Not at all. In my view, a recession fosters greater creativity. My favourite advertisement this year was one for Fiat. Cheap as chips to make, it showed a Fiat car in a garage forecourt with a sale price on the car. Two gorgeous girls opened the boot of the car and with each designer bag they took out of the boot, the sale price of the car fell.”

Dublin agency Young Euro RSCG picked up a number of awards for its work on behalf of Bulmers Pear, without striking gold. John Peacock, creative director in London ad agency Inferno and a member of the judging panel, commented:

“Bulmers submitted entries in a lot of categories for the Pear campaign. It was good work and consistent across different media, but we were conscious of not giving out the top awards like sweets.”

siobhan@businessplus.ie