The magazine with challenging humour and master piece photos will have one third of its content covering Estonian topics written mainly by the Chief Editor of the new magazine, Urmas Oja. Oja will have co-writers from among Estonian top journalists specialized in cars.

The Estonian language publication will include also the freshest British Top Gear stories, however the editorial board will have free hands in picking the articles. The magazine is not a coverage of the TV programme, where Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May entertain the audience, but it will include their opinions or reviews on some specific cars.

Currently available magazines in the market that are specialized on technical issue hope that the new competitor will not create turmoil in the market. The biggest influence will be felt by the car magazine Autoleht, as the other magazine in this sector, Tehnikamaailm writes also about other topics, not only cars. The publishers of Autoleht hope that they will maintain their position in the market thanks to the bigger emphasise on local matters and practical hints. „Top Gear is an entertaining reading, we have more practical value for readers and we pay more attention to Estonian rally stars,“ acknowledged the Chief Editor of Autoleht, Kristjan Sooper.

Top Gear will be published on 160-pages. The exact number of circulation is expected to be 20 000. In Lithuania, country with 3.2 million population the car magazine has a circulation of 10 000 copies.

In Latvia Top Gear will also be launched in March.  Lithuanian publisher SC Baltic Media has the licence to publish Top Gear in Estonia and they do it in cooperation with local Ajakirjade Kirjastus. Top Gear was launched in Lithuania in 2011 and became a huge success. Top Gear is published in 30 countries.

At the same time with Top Gear another new magazine will be launched in March in Estonia, Forbes Estonia, which is  an Estonian edition of American economy magazine Forbes. The most famous and best selling product of this publication is the Top of the World’s and local richest people. Publishing is done in cooperation with a Latvian publisher SK Group, and the circulation of the first edition will be 20 000 copies. Forbes Estonia will have 60% of the content on Estonian economy news and 40% covering content from US Forbes.

Background

European Commission proposed a new “General Data Protection Regulation” that will revisit the previous and outdated ’95 Directive by promoting a single harmonized set of rules across Europe. The EU government will now slowly over the next two years move towards a “new era” in data regulation. In the meantime, the online industry is moving forward with their own self-regulation, with most embracing the US opt-out model (www.youronlinechoices.com) in the hope of avoiding more draconian EU mandated measures. In fact, companies like Google are already in the process of implementing a unified data policy across all their properties.

Details

The new proposed regulation introduces quite a few major changes that have to be taken into consideration particularly by data-driven advertising businesses, because it will provide for a stronger data protection regime across EU markets, stricter conditions and heavier fines. Briefly:

• All internet users will have to explicitly give their consent to the processing of personal data for targeted advertising purposes based on a widening of the definition of “personal data” to any information relating to an identified individual or an individual who can be identified Introduces the “right to be forgotten” that will allow people to delete their personal data if there are no legitimate reasons for retaining it. (In its new policy Google seems to have left out the opt-out button, which raised many eyebrows and even more questions)
• There will be a “one-stop-shop”, meaning that businesses will only have to deal with one single data protection authority, which will be in their home base country
• It will strengthen national data protection authorities to better enforce the new rules. This means that the Information Commissioner’s Office has the power to fine companies that violate the new rules of up to €1m or 2% of global turnover.
• Of course the proposed regulation is highly complex and far reaching. Mindshare suggests all clients take some time to digest it thoroughly, and seek your own legal advice over time as it begins to take shape. We will continue to share details as they develop over the next few years.

The European Commission says that the reform will modernize, simplify and strengthen the data protection framework. It also will drastically cut red tape allowing businesses to save up to €2.3 billion per year. Plus, they claim that this change will enable companies to better gain consumer trust. On the other hand, the continued push for explicit consent could cause further headaches. Any further change to cookie use could make targeted brand advertising increasingly difficult and negatively impact on the effectiveness of digital advertising.

Summary
The IAB states that these new proposals are not final and eventually will need to be adopted by the various European institutions. When the final proposals are adopted they will not come into force for another two years. Unlike the recent revised ePrivacy Directive, which needed to be implemented into national laws, these proposals are defined as a “Regulation, which means that once adopted at EU level there is very little flexibility at national level. For now marketers should work with their agencies and the IAB to support the existing self-regulation initiatives while closely monitoring and influencing the new proposed changes.

Useful Links

You can see the press release here

Link to supporting documents, including legislation, the directive and research here

Most notably users and lawyers are concerned about the absence of an opt-out button. Naturally Google competitors like Microsoft are exploiting the controversy and doing nothing to diminish the views that Google is being disingenuous in its claims that the changes are largely for simplicity and consistency's sake. These competitors essentially assert that Google is putting its own interests above those of users, and that its real aim is to track what users do across its portfolio of products and to lure more advertising with better data.

Details

The new policy changes mean new opportunities for users and advertisers. Companies will be able to run ads across Google’s products based on a consumers’ Web history. Only activity logged while consumers are signed into their accounts can be used for this cross product targeting; Google has clearly taken note of Facebook recent run-in with the US Congress over their always-on tracking approach. The major news here is that it is the first time Google is offering such cross-product targeting opportunities.

To summarize:

• The new policy replaces more than 60 existing product-specific privacy documents
• They have rewritten the main Google Privacy Policy from top to bottom to be simpler and more readable.
• Google now states more clearly what data they collect and how they use it.
• Clarity that when you’re signed in, Google will use data to “refine and improve your own personal experience on Google. “
• Google are trying to be more upfront about personal data capture.

Implications

The benefits to advertisers will be abundant. For example, marketers will be able to target specific searchers with paid keyword ads based on their You Tube browsing history, e.g., only put Ford paid search ads in front of automotive video viewers. Such an integrated targeting platform will appeal to agencies and advertisers given the breadth and depth of Google’s data and asset portfolio. Furthermore, it will be help Google bolster sales on its display network, which has lagged behind others such as Facebook. The change will also continue to support their efforts in Google+ as advertisers will have will be able to leverage personalized data for targeting in the world’s top search and video destinations, something Facebook can’t do at the moment.

Summary

The new privacy changes may raise concerns amongst Googlers about how the company will use the tracking information that it collects. Google competitors will be quick to put more fuel on the fire, although they may end up undermining their own ambitions as they attempt to use data for similar cross-platform targeting. However, Google will mostly likely remain defiant in the wake of these new changes both for competitive reasons as well as their belief that its approach is ethical, clear, and in the end creating a richer more personal experience for its consumers.

According to Tarvo Ulejev, board member of AS Eesti Ajalehed, Eesti Ekspress has 19400 and Maaleht 27450 subscribers at the beginning of January; in January 2011, the number of subscribers to these newspapers was 21000 and 29000, respectively. The number of subscribers to Eesti Päevaleht in early January this year is 24400, while last year it was 26600. “This year we expect the level of existing subscribers to be maintained,” said Ulejev.

According to Kristjan Mauer, chairman of the board of SL Õhtuleht AS, there are 35000 subscribers to Õhtuleht as of January 4 and at the beginning of last year, there were three per cent more subscribers.  “As far as the subscriptions to newspapers are concerned, we are expecting the continuation of the current stability,” he added.

Rain Väät, marketing director of AS Äripäev, told BNS that there are 10832 subscribers to Äripäev as of January 2012. He also said that at the beginning of January 2011, the newspaper had 12693 subscribers. This implies a 15 per cent decrease in the number of subscribers. “The number of subscriptions to Äripäev will remain within five per cent give or take compared to the beginning of the year,” predicted Väät for the year 2012.

The four most popular shows were all aired on ETV. “Edekabel” had 256000 viewers per minute, the sketch comedy “Tujurikkuja” 238000 viewers, the sketch comedy “Kolm õde ehk killer tšikid” 214000 viewers and “Rohke Debelaki libauudised” 195000 viewers. “Võsareporteri aastalõpp” on Kanal 2 was viewed by 179000 people and the show “Mida toob aasta 2012” on the same channel had 177000 viewers. The seventh most viewed show was ETV’s award ceremony “Spordiaasta tähed 2011 gala” which had 172000 viewers. This was followed by the comedy show “Eestlane, venelane ja Moskva miljardär” on Kanal 2 with 165000 viewers.

The ninth most viewed show was the only show aired on TV3 that made it to the list – “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown” which had 164000 viewers. “Aktuaalne kaamera” and “Õnne 13” on ETV shared the tenth and eleventh places with 159000 viewers.

The result of 9 months in 2011 totals 51.7 million euro and that is 11% increase compared to 9 months in 2010. The biggest increase in the third quarter was in magazines (32.4%) and outdoor (14.5%). Faster than average market raise was experienced by internet (9.3%), slight increase was also in television (0.9%).

Estonian advertising market in Q3 2011

Source: TNS Emor

One of the biggest Lithuanian mobile network providers “Omnitel” reports that Smartphone trade numbers have increased by 38% since the last year.

Such surge is driven by the achievements and intentions of mobile service businesses, which hold numerous offers for users and present a chance to exchange their old mobile phones for Smartphones at a discount price.

Room for growth

Smartphones are accountable for at least 60% of all sold mobile devices, though Smartphone owners constitute only 7% of all mobile users. Traditional Smartphone users are young professionals (15-35 year olds), owners or CEO's of companies.

As much as 226 000 users choose to use mobile internet. 48% of all views come from Symbian (Lithuanians still love NOKIA),  Apple is gaining prominence with 37% (with iPhone and iPad users splitting this figure in half) and Sony Ericsson taking almost 9%.

Mobile advertising in Lithuania - definitely

It is doubtful that next year will bring the same growth of Smartphone numbers. Nevertheless it is a steady claim for the Baltic advertisers and agencies to look forward for the increasing significance of mobile advertising and application market. Already, news portal applications (m.15min.lt) are used by nearly 130 000 real users and constitute more than 2 mln pageviews.

With market increasing and with clients able to grasp their mobile audience we will surely see Mobile advertising surge coming to Lithuania.

partial source: verslozinios.lt

During the whole of 2010 and also during the first half of 2011 television was holding the leading position with the exception of third quarter in 2010. During the previous years (2008 and 2009) newspapers were the leader in the market in each quarter.

With the results in 2010 and start of 2011 not many dared to believe that newspapers would pass television again. For a very long period in our advertising media history newspapers were the biggest media type, in the beginning of the century their share reached to 40-45%. However the total volume of the market was considerably smaller at that time.

In 2011 there is more money in the market than in 2010, but still not as much as in 2008. Although the biggest raise in the third quarter came from magazines and outdoor advertising, the biggest amount of money is still in newspapers and television, the share of them being almost equal.

The competition between newspapers and television seems to stay. It would not be correct to say that one keeps increasing and the other decreasing – the situation where those two split more than half of the money available in the market seems to continue for the coming years in the near future.

Many leading media experts believe newspaper advertising will stay. Newspapers have a strong position in the communication strategies. Newspapers are the place to advertise when an advertiser wants to expose explaining and describing material with relevant visual component. Printed media is suitable for different types of messages, be it image, promotion or social advertising.

In Estonia it is not a question if traditional printed journalism would be giving in to web portals.  Such a path would rather be for those newspapers that do not have a decent online platform, which would be more a case in US. Both Postimees Online and Delfi are nicely profiting in Estonia.

Source: E24.ee