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Media issue Extras, Specials on Nagasaki Mayor's Slaying
Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito, 61, was shot by a local gangster in front of his campaign office in Nagasaki City at around 7:50 p.m. on April 17. He was taken to a hospital but died at 2:28 a.m. the next day. Ito was running for a fourth term in the April 22 election.
The unprecedented murder of a candidate during an election campaign prompted Japanese media to report the breaking news in extra editions and special broadcasts as “an act of terrorism against democracy.”
The Nagasaki Shimbun delayed its morning issue of April 18 and changed all pages. Shortly after 7 a.m. on that day, the newspaper distributed about 23,000 copies of a four-page, full-color extra edition in front of the JR Nagasaki Station, the prefectural and municipal government offices and other spots in Nagasaki City, as well as in neighboring Sasebo City.
Among national newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun distributed 18,200 copies of a 1-page, full-color extra in downtown Nagasaki and in the neighboring cities of Sasebo, Fukuoka and Kitakyushu at around 8 a.m. on April 18. The Yomiuri Shimbun issued a 4-page, full-color extra in some 45,000 copies in the city of Nagasaki and in Fukuoka, as well as in front of the JR Tokyo Station and in Osaka’s Umeda district, on the morning of April 18.
Among major regional newspapers, the Nishi-Nippon Shimbun, of Fukuoka City, Kyushu, published a 2-page, full-color extra on the shooting, which at that time had only critically injured the mayor, as of 10 p.m. on April 17, and distributed some 2,000 copies in downtown Fukuoka City. In Okinawa, two local newspapers - Ｔhe Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo - issued extras on April 17.
In their editorials, in the morning issues of April 18 and April 19, newspapers condemned the shooting, using such strong expressions as “an act of terrorism against democracy” and “an outrageous act of barbarism.”
A senior domestic news editor of the Nagasaki Shimbun said that as a guardian of democracy, the newspaper had to look squarely at the harsh reality that the seeds of violence are deeply rooted in the city of Nagasaki, which has been appealing for world peace to the rest of the world as one of the only two cities ever attacked with nuclear weapons.
NHK ran text superimposed on the screen, as teletype, shortly after 8 p.m. on the day of the shooting, and suspended ordinary programs for a special program from 8:12 pm till 8:45 p.m. TV Asahi, one of the key TV broadcasting networks, aired a special news program for six minutes from 9:48 p.m. All local private TV broadcasters based in Nagasaki reported the news via superimposed teletype texts immediately after the shooting, and broadcast detailed reports in regular news programs before 9 p.m.
Discussions Center on Newspaper’s Role at NSK Symposium
About 580 people turned out at an NSK-sponsored open symposium held on April 6 in Tokyo, on the theme of “What Is Expected of Newspapers Today.”
Following the opening address by NSK Chairman Masato Kitamura, Tsutomu Hotta, president of the Sawayaka Welfare Foundation, delivered a keynote speech. Later, there was a panel discussion on the theme “The Power of the Newspaper in the Internet Era.”
The panel discussion featured Yoshiharu Fukuhara, the honorary chairman of Shiseido Co., writer Keiichiro Hirano, Norio Murakami, the president of Google Japan, Naoaki Okabe, an executive and editor-in-chief of the Nikkei, and Yutaka Ohishi, a professor at Keio University and panel coordinator.
Writer Hirano said that at issue today is what kinds of information newspapers should deliver in the face of the Internet’s functions. He warned that many readers just want to get accurate facts from newspapers and do not want editorials or other opinionated information, now that the Internet is providing a forum for exchanges of opinion and debates.
Shiseido’s Fukuhara attached importance to the delivery of diverse information, noting that newspapers are providing as much facts as possible as food for thought. Google Japan’s Murakami said that newspapers should aim for the people’s trust in terms of value judgments and accuracy of information.
Writer Hirano said people can not always make a reasonable judgment from accurate information, noting that newspapers should show the correct direction for people to take. “For readers who only get information to conduct discussions among themselves, newspapers will have to acquire skills to deliver opinions in the future,” he said.
Google Japan’s Murakami proposed the promotion of “cross-media” projects involving newspapers, TV and the Internet. “Japanese newspaper companies maintain close ties with TV broadcasters. Therefore, they should consider how to enhance their own influence through collaboration,” he said.
Hirano responded to that proposal, saying it is imperative for newspapers to make full use of the Internet in a mutually complementary way. Nikkei’s Okabe said that newspapers must transform themselves. “It is a new challenge for newspapers to create new business opportunities founded on the Internet. At the same time, newspapers must polish up on their original functions, ensuring their survival in a two-pronged strategy,” he said.
Shiseido’s Fukuhara said that now is the best and maybe the last chance for newspapers to work out a method to deliver the most appropriate information to people by utilizing various forms of media. Professor Oishi, the panel coordinator, concluded the debate by noting that the biggest challenge for newspapers is to learn how to embrace and utilize the Internet from now on.
“Happy News” Grand Prize Goes To Article on Emergency Life Guard
A ceremony in Tokyo on April 5 honored the winners of the “Happy News 2006” awards at the Press Center Hall in Tokyo. The recipients were chosen from among submissions received in an NSK campaign to solicit newspaper readers’ favorite articles that made them feel happy, with their comments attached.
For this campaign, the third so far, 10 winning “Happy News” submissions were selected, including one that took the grand prize, and three that got the “Happy News Young” prize for readers in high school and below.
A total of 9,069 submissions were received, well up from the previous campaign. The total included 5,169 submissions in the “Young” category, and about 50 from readers in Thailand, Britain and other countries.
A top official of the NSK Committee for the Promotion of Newspaper Media said in an address at the ceremony that the committee had chosen the most heartwarming articles that served as a link between readers and newspapers.
The top prize went to a submission by Katsuhito Kashiwagi, 19, a resident of Manazuru town, Kanagawa Prefecture, who sent in a news article from the Kanagawa Shimbun, based in Kanagawa Prefecture. The article is about Shigeo Yoshida, a local firefighter, who ran across a male participant in the Tokyo Marathon in the midst of cardiac and respiratory arrest near the finish line. Yoshida, himself a race participant, is a licensed emergency lifeguard. He administered emergency medical treatment to the man and then even managed to finish the race.
The 19-year-old reader said in his comment about the article that he could feel Yoshida’s warm heart as he stopped running to save the life of another runner. “Like Mr. Yoshida, I would like to become someone who could stand out clearly to perform a vital task with confidence,” he said.
Ami Nakagawa, 12, of Hiroshima City, submitted the winning article for the “Young” category for readers in elementary school and under, with an article from the Chugoku Shimbun about a paper balloon that traveled a distance of 100 km. The article described how an elementary school girl in Hiroshima Prefecture released a large helium-filled paper balloon at a ceremony to mark the completion of a launch tower for paper balloons at the summit of a local mountain four years ago. The balloon traveled about 100 km across the Inland Sea and reached a golf course in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, the next day. A female worker at the golf course found the balloon and kept it at her home without knowing where it came from, although the name of the girl and her message were written on its surface. Last summer, the woman happened to learn about the launch tower, contacted the local town office and returned the balloon to the girl, who is now a junior high school student. Nakagawa said in her comment that she was happy after reading the article about the long voyage of the balloon carrying the warm wishes of many people. In a video message shown at the ceremony, she said she would try to stay in tune with newspapers to enjoy the shared emotions derived from the power of words.
Shahana Rahman, 15, a junior high school girl from Bangladesh now resident in Fukuoka City, submitted the winning article for the “Young” category for junior high school students. It was a news article from the Nishi-Nippon Shimbun about Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus’ winning the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006.
Mamika Yanagihara, 16, of Osaka City, was rewarded in the “Young” category for senior high school students for her submission of an article from the Mainichi Shimbun about a young mother who grew vegetables on her apartment veranda to help teach her young daughter to value a healthy diet.
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Newspaper Ad Spending on Fashion Accessories Stays High
According to an annual ad sales report for 2006, issued by Dentsu Inc., Japan’s largest ad agency, advertising spending in newspapers on fashion accessories surged 23.0 percent over a year earlier, thanks to increased advertising for foreign brand-name goods.
Revenues from advertising for foreign brand-name goods in 2006 rose 1.5 times (since 2003) at the Yomiuri Shimbun and 1.4 times (since 2003) at the Nikkei. The Asahi Shimbun logged record-setting revenues from fashion-related advertising in fiscal 2006. Behind brisk ad revenues in the category of apparel/fashion accessories is a flurry of directly-operated flagship stores for upmarket foreign brand-name goods that have opened since 2003 in Tokyo’s Ginza and Omotesando districts. Prompted by robust sales of these foreign brand-name items, budgets for publicity drives have risen, causing newspaper advertising to soar.
Another factor is an improvement in the quality of color printing on the part of newspaper companies, as evidenced by the introduction of a next-generation FM (frequency modulation) screen-printing technology at the Asahi Shimbun and color printing equipment with higher resolution at the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Citing the color standards on a global scale adopted by makers of foreign brand-name goods, the Dentsu report attributed increased newspaper advertising in this category to the development of color printing technology, which enables newspapers to reproduce high-quality color images.
Tokyo-based major newspapers are offering “panorama-size” color advertising space or ad space of variant sizes and shapes to provide various options for prospective advertisers, while launching free papers and supplements targeted at specified markets. For instance, the Asahi followed the Yomiuri Shimbun and Nikkei and on March 21 launched a free paper titled “BUSINESS GOETHE,” a tabloid-size, 16-page, full-color lifestyle magazine for men, in collaboration with Gentosha, which publishes the monthly men's magazine “GOETHE.” An Asahi official said that the publication of the free paper has allowed the company to offer combined exposure in Asahi’s daily paid paper and the free paper for prospective advertisers.
According to Dentsu, advertising for apparel and fashion accessories accounted for only 1.4 percent of total newspaper advertising in 2006. But more new stores of foreign brand-name goods are expected to open in Tokyo’s Ginza district and other parts of the country in the near future, suggesting that there will be a further increase in orders for newspaper advertising.
Under the circumstances, the newspaper industry as a whole is expected to appeal to advertisers via improved printing technology, as shown by the formulation of the standardized color sample for newspaper advertising, known as the Nihon Shimbun Ad Color (NSAC).
A Nikkei official emphasized the importance of reinforcing the marketing prowess of sales forces to compete with magazine publishers and mobilizing writers who can prepare editorial contents about fashion to attract readers. Coupled with renewed appeal through newspaper advertising’s competitiveness, the rise in fashion-related newspaper advertising offers a chance to consolidate gains in this ad field.
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Story of the Month>>>
NSK Survey: Newspapers Highly Effective in Inducing Purchasing
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An NSK survey on consumer behavior by Internet users has found that the use of the Internet, combined with newspapers, raises the level of recognition and interest, thereby promoting purchasing behavior.
The survey covered Internet users of both genders, aged from 15 to 69. The number of respondents to the survey was 3,803.
It assessed the consumer behavior of Internet users in four processes - “recognition/interest,” “information searching,” “purchasing behavior” and “information sharing.”
When the respondents used the Internet just for “information searching” without the process of “recognition and interest,” the rate of induced actual purchasing was only 2.1 percent (multiple answers allowed). On the other hand, the corresponding rate was 10.6 percent, representing a five-fold increase, when they underwent the process of both “recognition/interest” and “information searching.” This result identified the process of “recognition/interest” as vital for consumer behavior.
In order to assess which type of media is most effective in raising consumer “recognition/interest,” the survey made a comparative assessment of newspapers, Web sites run by businesses, “word-of-mouth” Web sites/ranking Web sites, and TV on influencing consumer behavior.
To the question “How did you know of the availability of any particular good(s) or service(s) in the past year,” a leading 40.2 percent of respondents cited newspapers. Newspapers also ranked top in the questions on the “accuracy of information” (86.5 percent) and “the media to which you are most accustomed” (66.9 percent). The survey concluded that newspapers continue to be the best tool for providing both accurate and timely information.
On the other hand, the survey found that the Internet excels over other media as a tool for “information searching.” To the question “which type of media do you use most to obtain more information on a subject of interest,” the highest proportion of 61.4 percent of the respondents cited the Internet. Likewise, the Internet ranked top as the most frequently used tool to “obtain information of help to a hobby.”
Another finding of the survey was that those who read newspapers every day are also generally using the Internet positively in deciding how to spend their money.
Based on these findings, NSK officials concluded that newspapers are providing an ideal opportunity for many Internet users to enhance their recognition of, or interest in, businesses, goods and services, thereby motivating them to use the search function of the Internet to obtain more information, and finally inducing them to make purchases.
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Nihon Shinbun Kyokai
The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association
Nippon Press Center Bldg., 2-2-1 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo100-8543, Japan
bulletin@pressnet.or.jp
Copyright 2007 Nihon Shinbun Kyokai
All right reserved
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