Marketing in Catholic Media

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MaRKETing in caThoLic MEDia

Terézia Rončáková

introduction

The question whether catholic media fulfill their role in the so-ciety and the way they use media communication channels to spread religious messages raises another question, which is of no lesser impor-tance – the problem of marketing. For the purpose hereof, by market-ing we mean anything directed to increasing the demand for a given product with respect to both the media’s advertisers and the audience.

The situation in slovakia in the field of marketing in catholic media is of special importance due to a kind of general feeling that marketing in those media is of poor quality, insufficient, unmanaged, disregarded or neglected. The question of whether this is a prejudice or the reality is yet to be examined herein.

as we examine this question in more detail, we will reflect upon the following seven areas of concern: advertising, self-promotion, mar-keting department staffing, attitudes of concerned stakeholders, ap-proach to the gathering and evaluation of feedback, subsidies of media obtained from managing entities, and distribution of media product.

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Methodology

we will center our examination on the three most important slo-vak catholic media: Katolícke noviny weekly, Rádio Lumen and TV LUX. These media draw attention of a great part of audience, includ-ing the church hierarchy, to which all three of them are – although un-der different arrangements – de jure or de facto subordinated. They can be regarded as the only three catholic media operating on a national level. it should be noted that the existing magazines of the monastic orders or magazines of lesser importance available across slovakia will not be considered since they play a minor role in the slovak media market due to their periodicity and/or circulation. analogically, the press agency of the slovak Bishops’ conference will not be considered as it fulfills the function of a press department of a specific institution and lacks journalistic attributes.

Data and information was obtained from qualitative structured interviews with competent professionals working in individual media and our own observations from inside these institutions.1 The inter-views can be divided into official and unofficial. The latter were done mainly in TV LUX, where persons officially in charge refused to pro-vide the requested information.

in Rádio Lumen2 and Katolícke noviny3, we have found helpful rep-resentatives who were ready to answer our questions, including the head of the radio4 and chief editor in the newspaper5. Both of them regarded

1 i would like to thank postgradual students of the Department of Journalism at the catholic university, Faculty of arts and Letters in Ružomberok, slovakia, namely Danka Jacečková, Václav Bobáň and Lukáš Marťák, for assistance in collecting information.

2 More on marketing in the Katolícke noviny in: Jacečková, Danka. 2011. Marketing of Radio Lumen. Lecture at the conference “Do the catholic media meet their task in the society iii?” sepember 26, 2011. it will be published in the conference volume.

3 More on marketing in the Katolícke noviny in: Marťák, Lukáš. 2011. Marketing of Katolícke noviny. Lecture at the conference “Do the catholic media meet their task in the society iii?” sepember 26, 2011. it will be published in the conference volume.

4 Juraj spuchľák, priest.5 ivan Šulík, priest.

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Marketing in catholic Media

some questions too sensitive and refused to disclose the data, or decided to disclose them in less concrete form, but overall, they have put in effort to provide us with all the information they thought could be disclosed.

at the time of our research, TV LUX undergone several changes of personnel related to an internal conflict between the three partners who run the station (salesians of Don Bosco, Lux communication civic association, and slovak Bishops’ conference).6 about a half of the employees was discharged, there was a change of both the com-pany’s executive representative and director, and the company moved. we received an answer from a marketing employee7 that the television decided not to answer any questions, and, what is more, that questions about advertising (rules of conduct, pricelist, advertising revenue) and the amount of subsidies obtained from the managing entities (i.e. con-tributions from the church) were too ‘straightforward’ and ‘delicate’. “i presume other companies, which are also run based on a similar scheme defined in their statute would respond similarly,” said M. hirnerová. we were also advised to focus on more important questions such as “whether the television station addresses current social needs, cultural or religious issues, whether we protect our believers against various unwelcome modern influences harmful to the teaching of the church, and whether we do enough to increase awareness of our believers to the teaching of the church, etc.”.

6 The individual partners financing the television company were represented proportionate to the ratio of 4:4:2 (sDB: Lux communication: slovak Bishop’s conference – KBs). on the third anniversary of the foundation of TV LUX (4 May 2011), KBs agreed with Lux communication that KBs will have 60% of the voting rights for a period of one year. Following the announcement, the director with a salesian background, Dárius hatok, was dismissed, and various internal tensions have leaked to the public in respect of the company’s financing, communication and internal decision-making process. at the time of this report (24 august 2011) the company’s website stated only two partners – KBs and Lux communication.

7 Michaela hirnerová.

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advertising

Code of Ethics

advertisers may encounter ethical principles in all three catholic media under review. TV Lux disclosed these ethical rules in a separate code of ethics available on its webpage; the radio station regards it as an unwritten rule, and the newspaper presents it as part of a three-line announcement in its pricelist.

all three media emphasize principles related to their mission, which is catholic in its nature. according to the chief editor, Katolícke noviny only disclose ads, which “is in accordance with the teaching of the catholic church.” The director of Rádio Lumen noted that they do not promote things like “sunday buying offers, contraception, and do not offer space for paid political ads”. The advertising rules in Katolícke novin regard “ads which promote the use of alcohol, cigarettes, products harmful to health, violence, erotic, and ads which are morally and ethically unsuitable or graphically tasteless (directly or indirectly), promote anti-christian lifestyle or false idea (in the form of image, word, or context)” unacceptable. The code of TV LUX excludes the tobacco products and alcoholic beverages and points to decency, morality, human dignity, in general, and prohibits offences against religion, race or nationality. in one case, for example, TV LUX had to apply these principles and considered to exclude an ad on natural lozenges marketed as ‘golden Tablets’ with references to Eastern spirituality.

Pricelist

Pricelists of all three media are available on individual websites, and they are structured based on readership/listenership/viewership (for more detailed account of the market share, please refer to the section on distribution). Katolícke noviny also disclosed their discount policy, which is based exclusively on the frequency of placing ads. Discounts are very rare at Rádio Lumen, according to its director, but they are always set out in the contract. at TV LUX, discounts are agreed individually.

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Katolícke noviny offer a one page advertisement for € 2,4908, and prices of smaller square ads are based thereupon, e.g. a quarter page of any format costs € 630. There exists no comparable weekly (in terms of form, content and circulation) in slovakia, but as an example, prices charged by the conservative Týždeň weekly published in a magazine lay-out with a circulation of one fifth of that of Katolícke noviny, are stated in the below table, including the right-wing liberal sME daily with an average circulation at 72,000 pieces and annual sales of 56,600 pieces.

Tab. 1Comparison of advertising rates in selected print media

Name periodicity circulation one page* ¼ pageKatolícke noviny weekly 80,000 2,490 630

Týždeň weekly 15,000 3,983 1,328

SME daily 72,000 5,900 2,100

* All prices in euros excl. VAT

The discrepancies outlined in the above table reflect differences in the structure of readers. Katolícke noviny are less attractive for advertis-ers aimed at more affluent target segment.

within radio broadcasting, advertising is traditionally divided into advertising spots and ad announcements; the former represent dramatized pieces of work consolidated into advertising blocks and aired in the agreed intervals; the latter are promotional texts read by a presenter and also read in specified intervals. in Rádio Lumen, a usual 30-second spot and announcement is aired for € 50 and € 20, respectively, regardless of the time of airing. other radio stations differentiate their rates based on five basic time bands: early morning, later morning, afternoon, evening and night. For the sake of comparison, the table below summarizes the rates charged by the slovak public radio – Rádio Slovensko with a five times higher listenership (second most listened to station); the most listened to radio station in slovakia, Rádio Expres

8 all amounts excluding VaT.

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(almost six times higher listenership compared to Rádio Lumen) and public Rádio Regina with twice as high listenership.

Tab. 2Comparison of advertising rates in selected radio media

Name listenership* Morning** afternoon evening

spot announc. spot announc. spot announc.

Rádio Lumen 140 50 20 50 20 50 20

Rádio Slovensko 750 570 290 470 240 500 250

Rádio Expres 900 860 430 660 340 490 260

Rádio Regina 300 270 150 210 120 210 120

* Estimated average number of listeners (thousands).** All rates in euros excluding VAT.

The station with a six times higher listenership (Rádio Expres) charges 17- to 10-times higher rates for spots, and 21- to 13-times higher rates for announcements. The station with a five times higher listenership (Rádio Slovensko) charges 11- to 10-times higher rates for spots and 15- to 13-times higher rates for announcements. The sta-tion with a two times higher listenership (Rádio Regina) charges 5- to 4-times higher rates for spots and 8- to 6-times higher rates for the announcements. This discrepancy can be explained by more attractive target groups. “we feel our target group is less affluent,” says the head of the radio. however, he does not see it as a negative. Quite the op-posite: “it is a correctly targeted group. we have a community. okay, they’re not rich, but they’re ours.”

a 30-second spot at TV LUX regardless of the time of airing costs € 180. other televisions carefully distinguish between individual time bands, types of programs on individual days, or based on airing prior to or after a show, or, in the middle of a show or a movie. The below table summarizes rates for the most expensive spots in the slovak public televi-sion (Jednotka) with a more than 20% viewership, the third most viewed television in slovakia, and rates charged by the most popular slovak com-mercial television, Televízia Markíza (viewership of almost 60%).

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Tab. 3Comparison of advertising rates in selected television media

Name Viewership* Most expensive spot (primetime) **

TV LUX less than 1 180

TV Markíza 60 4,400 (occasionally 5,000)

STV (Jednotka) 20 1,935 (occasionally 2,790)

* Stated in percentages.** All rates in euros excluding VAT

The rates of spots aired on TV LUX represent just fractions of the rates charged by the big players. however, considering the viewership figures (TV LUX is not included in the viewership surveys, so we may only estimate – and to a certain extent overstate its viewership at a maximum of 1 percentage of viewers), in the case of a 60-times high-er viewership the maximum rates of spots are from 24- to 20-times higher; in the case of a 20-times viewership, rates are 11-times higher. Thus, this suggests overstated advertising rates offered by TV LUX.

Income

over the last five years, advertising income has grown from 9 to 16 percent of the total income of Katolícke noviny, according to the news-paper’s chief editor. The previous level of 9% represented the amount of € 148,000 for the year (of the total income of € 1.648 million), and the last available figure of 16% represented € 286,000 for the year (of the total income of € 1.786 million).

over the last five years, Rádio Lumen has reported annual adver-tising income of € 30,000. with the reported annual operating cost of the radio station 9 amounting to about € 1 million, advertising income accounts for 3% of operating expenses.

9 it should be noted that in the case of Katolícke noviny, income is used as basis for calculation, however, in the case of Rádio Lumen and TV LUX, operating cost is considered as a basis. From the accounting perspective, this is also income (since

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TV LUX was founded less than three years ago, and during the first two years, advertising income has remained muted, below the an-nual level of € 3,000. in the last year, advertising income has increased to over € 10,000. with the annual budget of TV LUX estimated at approximately € 1 million, this represents only 0.3% of the expenses incurred in the first years, and little more than 1% of last year’s expens-es. These figures are significantly lower than expected by individual partners and managing entities. The original plan was that the share of advertising income during the first three years of operation would account for as much as 30% of expenses.10

Tab. 4Advertising income of Catholic media

Name annual advertising income*

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Katolícke noviny 148,000 growth growth growth 286,000

Rádio Lumen 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000

TV LUX - - 3,000 3,000 >10,000

* In euros excluding VAT.

Tab. 5Current share of advertising income of Catholic media on annual total income/expenses

Name share of advertising income on total income /expenses*

Katolícke noviny 16

Rádio Lumen 3

TV LUX >1

* Percentages.

income is equal to expenses), but the difference is that whereas the income of Katolícke noviny comes exclusively from its business operations and includes a profit, the income of Rádio Lumen and TV LUX comes from business activities (advertising), donations (clubs of friends) and subsidies (managing entities), and it should be noted that these two undertakings do not generate profit.

10 same level of operating expenses in radio and television station is due to inter alia the cost of signal distribution. while TV LUX makes use of the cheapest satellite availble, Rádio Lumen has to pay for the operation of the costly terrestrial transmitters.

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Barter

advertising is important for the media, mainly because it generates direct cash inflows. according to the chief editor of Katolícke noviny, they use barters only exceptionally, mostly in cooperation with other catholic media, or when they procure items for the winners of various competitions.

according to the head of Rádio Lumen, there was no barter cooperation in place, nevertheless, we may assume that there will be some negligible barter forms in place similar to Katolícke noviny.

TV LUX uses more barter schemes than direct advertising, which also includes, for example, presenters’ dresses, iT systems, cable net-work cooperation, or specific consumer goods such as coffee used in individual shows, or the doors used in the company’s premises.

Therefore we may conclude that barter schemes are not used in the more established media, and they are often employed due to mu-tual support in pursuing a common cause, and not based on commer-cial arrangements. Financially strapped institutions make use of this cooperation scheme more often and for various purposes.

Promotion

From all the media under review, the biggest amount on self-promotion was invested by Katolícke noviny, which, according to the data provided by the chief editor, assigned as much as three percent of its 2010 income, which amounts to about € 53,500. This is a remark-able figure compared to the investments of the radio broadcasting and television peers. according to the head of Rádio Lumen, the annual investments in promotion amount to € 3,000, i.e. 0.3% of the total operating expenses; TV LUX invests even less, and for the most part, indirectly, i.e. through the activities of the club of friends and through its marketing department. if we estimate the total annual budget of the club of friends at € 2,000, such investments would represent 0.2% of the station’s operating expenses.

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Tab. 6Investments of Catholic media in self-promotion

Name investments in promotion* share on total income/expenses**

Katolícke noviny 53 500 3

Rádio Lumen 3 000 0,3

TV LUX 2 000 0,2

* In euros per year.** Percentages.

Katolícke noviny massively investing in promotion can boast with the most focused promotional activities. They focus almost exclusively on the distribution of their own product for free. in addition, they also produce and distribute small advertising items, and, of course, as in every (media) company, they organize competitions for readers of various age categories. according to the chief editor, free issues are distributed “where possible” – at pilgrimages, conferences, seminars. Free issues are then sent and distributed at the event, and they may also be accompanied by other items distributed in a separate mobile stand. For several years, Katolícke noviny have been using the advertising services of the slovak railways. Every year, a monthly advertising campaign is conducted in selected trains with newspaper issues distributed for free.

Rádio Lumen performs a broad range of promotional activities: outdoor posters (various forms of posters in public places), indoor (in-terior posters), promotion (ads, public relations, etc.) – all of which are limited by the financial constraints outlined above. similarly, for Katolícke noviny the idea is to maintain their presence at various events attended by their potential audience.

TV LUX used to place more emphasis on self-promotion at the time of its founding. Marketing activity was later curbed, and for the most part, transferred to the club of friends, which, to a considerable extent, acted as a substitute for the marketing department, and took on the following two forms: the production of self-promotional spots and fieldwork. The spots were aired as part of own broadcasting. The fieldwork included its presence at various events, where the television station set up its promotional stands. The work of the club also in-cluded the production of small promotional items. all these activities

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were covered from the club’s annual budget of approximately € 2,000. in addition, the station also focused on its PR activities on the in-ternet (placing banners on related websites), and on communication of the information about the broadcast schedules through magazines, internet websites, etc. Due to a generally positive response from view-ers, some magazines later requested the schedule themselves. The big-gest promotional effort of the television was the billboard campaign related to the launch of a new program structure in september 2010 in Bratislava, Košice, Prešov, Žilina and Banská Bystrica. The cam-paign was promoted feature films aired on saturday evening (family, biographical, animated, etc.). as mentioned by the head of TV LUX’s marketing department on July 2010 for medialne.sk, Peter novák (Krasko 2010), another campaign had been in the pipeline aimed at TV LUX broadcast in prisons, however, the plan did not materialize.

catholic media also use barter arrangements for their self-promo-tion, either in the form of a mutual support, as already mentioned, or through cooperation with organizers of various religious events. The so-called media partnerships are used by all three media under review. TV LUX regards such arrangements as quite unbalanced, since the company’s input is, usually, far greater than the input of their part-ners. “we see this as a way to support good ideas,” explained the chief editor of Katolícke noviny. however, compared to the newspaper, TV LUX incurs much higher expenses in providing a journalistic coverage of various small events organized by parish communities, thus, due to inefficiencies, company had to withdraw from these partnerships alto-gether. co-financing by church organizations or fellowships managing the event might seem to be a solution, however, this is not a viable option, since organizers automatically expect ‘their’ catholic television provides the service for free.

staffing

all three media under review sustain separate departments per-forming marketing functions. as to Katolícke noviny, the department takes charge of the distribution, marketing and advertising; Rádio Lu-

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men has an advertising department, and TV LUX a marketing depart-ment. in the first year of existence, the club of friends was a part of the department, however, it was later made separate, and, to a great extent, took over the activities of the marketing department. There-fore, we may consider this as two separate departments – marketing department and club section. The realignment of tasks was probably pushed forward because the management did not see marketing activi-ties as a priority, unlike the activities of the club as a potentially crucial in co-financing entity the company’s operations. Thus, the club has been in direct contact with viewers and supporters, and gradually got familiarized with all the marketing-related concerns and, within its competence, tried to take up the challenge.

There are three employees in charge of marketing in Katolícke no-viny (plus additional three in charge of distribution), and marketing activities are partially also included in the agenda of the deputy chief editor. Rádio Lumen has two employees at the advertising department. Prior to the restructuring, two employees worked at the marketing de-partment of TV LUX, and two, later four, employees were engaged in the activities of the club. after restructuring, one part-time employee with a 1/2 working schedule works at marketing, and one part-time employee with a 1/3 working schedule at the club.

all employees at the marketing departments of the media under review have university education. The representatives of the newspaper and radio station did not specify this piece of information and no em-ployee with a specialty in marketing worked there. The company’s em-ployees graduated various other specialties without any connection to marketing, and they usually joined the company with some experience from their previous jobs at different positions in television networks or advertising agencies.

all three media representatives regard the information about the salaries paid out at the marketing department too sensitive and confi-dential. Katolícke noviny refused to disclose also the information about the ratio of fixed salary and commission, however, it is a known fact that salaries of full-time employees are fixed, and employees working under their trade license receive some percentages. in Rádio Lumen, fixed pay is supplemented by a commission of about 6%. in TV LUX,

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marketing department staff does not receive any commission on top of the fixed payroll. with respect to best practice in marketing, the ap-proach of the catholic media should be regarded as harmful, since it circumvents the use of a crucial instrument of motivation.

Response of advertisers

The response from advertisers or potential advertisers could not be examined in much detail due to lack of data. however, in principle, the experience of TV LUX may provide a rough picture. The marketing department staff which offer advertising space to potential customers usually grapple with disinterest of bigger, more significant companies. They simply find the audience of these media uninteresting. This can be also supported by the figures summarized on the part dealing with advertising above. Low advertising rates in these media indicate that despite relatively solid circulations or listenerships, the structure of the receivers cannot be seen as an ‘asset’.

“The initial reactions [to our offers] can be characterized as re-luctant, hesitant, but when [advertisers] finally decide to enter into cooperation, the impression changes to very positive experience,” says chief editor of Katolícke noviny. The publisher also cooperates with advertising agencies, which also helped the newspaper to attract more advertisers. The catholic media also need to deal with anti-church at-titudes, rejection and prejudices. according to the chief editor, adver-tisers are sometimes surprised when they see the professionalism and openness in a medium like ours. according to the head of Rádio Lumen marketing staff often needs to withstand negative reactions, even in the form of verbal assaults on the church.

Both Katolícke noviny and Rádio Lumen, however, report a high degree of satisfaction in advertisers who decided to place their ads with their media. according to the chief editor, Katolícke noviny have re-corded a surprisingly high response from booksellers or travel agencies. The head of Rádio Lumen is also positive about the fact that advertisers return, which is a proof in itself that the response from the advertisers’ audience must be favorable.

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TV LUX struggles with disinterest on the part of advertisers. During a marketing campaign launched shortly after the founding of the company, about 500 e-mail offers were sent out with a response rate of as little as 10%, many them included the phrase ‘thank you, not interested’ and the like. similar diplomatic reactions were recorded in the second wave of the campaign in the last (third) year of its existence, in which the company significantly increased its efforts in this area. according to the original plan of the founding partners, the company should have been fully financed from advertising income and members’ donations within three years of its founding at the ratio of 30:70. numerous e-mails and other marketing department activities did not bring a significant success.

with respect to the development of advertising income, for quite some time, there have been some speculations about the idea to found a common ‘advertising house’ for all relevant catholic media players. in an interview for Hospodárske noviny (Krasko 2011) on July 2011, the chief editor of Katolícke noviny made the following comment: “as of yet, this is not on the agenda”. “There were and there will be specula-tions. … it is a worthwhile idea, but at the moment, we don’t see it feasible from tomorrow or, say, in the next half.”

Response of audience

The response of the audience is not measured or monitored pro-fessionally by any media under review. Thus, it is only evaluated based on internal opinion polls and surveys of less reliable informative value. according to the chief editor of Katolícke noviny, the periodical pre-sumes that children become aware of the medium within the environ-ment of their own families. Economically active age group (30 – 40) does not read it, but later they tend to return to it. The newspaper maintains its family format and wants to offer something for each age group. The publisher likes to see when readers from every age group find three or four pages for themselves. There are no plans for a change in strategy, not even if a new specialized youth or senior periodical is launched. according to the chief editor of Katolícke noviny, a maga-

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zine-format periodical within the catholic environment (quality pa-per and photographs) would be inevitably unprofitable and require an investor. Katolícke noviny is planning to stick to the newspaper format also due to the low price (Krasko 2011).

The family format offering something for all age categories is also the strategy of Rádio Lumen. The estimated structure of audience is similar to Katolícke noviny. a particularly strong audience response came from the sick and elderly who appreciate the broadcast as a spiri-tual service.

This attitude of the receivers of the catholic media translates into highest popularity of broadcast of holy Masses, which are covered by both Rádio Lumen and TV LUX. The latter refers to a questionnaire completed by the members of the club of friends. The questionnaire is also available on the company’s webpage. The response rate of the ques-tionnaire was, however, less than 10%. with the number of club mem-bers at 4,000, this represents a sample of less than 400 respondents.

TV LUX, as the only medium under review, ordered a professional audience measurement services using people meters. The company, however, regards the results of this survey confidential. we will at least outline the results in the part dealing with distribution below (includ-ing market shares).

The catholic media may boast with a high level of audience feed-back, although the sample of those who make phone calls or write let-ters is largely unrepresentative. Even though half of the feedback can be regarded as ‘unconstructive groaning’, the second half – apart from practical communication by club members – also includes some con-structive criticism. This criticism, however, is not followed up system-atically by any of the media under review. For example, in TV LUX, the viewers’ phone calls are handled by a receptionist, and the subject of the feedback is not followed up at all.

Financing

The electronic media under review (radio, television) derive their income from three sources – advertising, contributions of the clubs of

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friends, and subsidies from dioceses or the slovak Bishops’ confer-ence. Katolícke noviny derives its income from two sources – sales from own products and advertising. with respect to our examination, we were interested mainly in contributions from the managing entities, i.e. from the church.

There are no such contributions made to Katolícke noviny, nor does the medium receive any proceeds from annual catholic media fundraising campaign organized on the seventh Easter sunday and celebrated as the Day of social communication Media. according to the chief editor, the newspaper can earn money for itself. The pub-lisher of the newspaper, society of st. adalbert, can use this profitable undertaking to finance various other activities (essentially publishing), and, from time to time, reports of financing different unprofitable ac-tivities of the society from the profit of Katolícke noviny leak to the public. as reiterated by the chief editor, despite the authority of the society, Katolícke noviny, in practice, manage their own profit, and use additional income to cover their own cost (print, distribution, wages and salaries, operating expenses, promotion, etc.).

Rádio Lumen receives funds from individual dioceses from various sources, whether it is direct contributions of dioceses, or fundraising during the Media sunday bound to a specific project. according to the head of the radio, the church support accounts for one third of the station’s total income, i.e. approximately € 330,000. The share of individual dioceses is proportionate to the number of believers in the respective diocese.

TV LUX is subsidized by its three partners (after the restructuring in May 2011, by only two partners): 40% salesians of Don Bosco11, 40% Lux communication, and 20% slovak Bishop’s conference. apart from the 20% contribution of the slovak Bishop’s conference, the company does not receive any other church subsidies. according to the original plan, the financial subsidies of project partners were expected to

11 Following the conflict of partners in May 2011, salesians requested the deletion from the list of partners on the company’s webpage, and remained potential suppliers of content without any financial contribution. The television company’s annual budget was therefore cut by 40% (from € 1 million to € 600,000).

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decrease gradually over the first three years, and by the third year they were to cease completely. By the third year, as much as 70% of income was to be covered through contributions of the members of the club of friends and 30% through advertising. as stated above, advertising income has reached 1% at the best, and income from the club of friends has reached 50 percent. Thus, the original expectations were not met, which resulted in tensions between individual partners, which in turn, led to the aforementioned restructuring earlier in May 2011.

Distribution

since the print, radio and television broadcast media offer a differ-ent product, the distribution thereof varies accordingly.

Katolícke noviny are distributed via three channels: subscription, kiosks (and retail chain stores), and bulk supplies to parishes. sub-scriptions represent 54% of the total sold circulation, kiosks and chain stores account for 10%, and bulk supplies account for another 36%. Katolícke noviny distribute a portion of the circulation through its own distribution network, the rest is performed by the postal and distribu-tion service (kiosks and chain stores). some parish communities also work with paperboys, who distribute newspapers into mailboxes.

at the time of our research, Rádio Lumen broadcasts through 29 transmitters and covers 75% of the territory of slovakia. as informed by the director, the station has to compete with other candidates for frequencies, and in case a frequency is assigned the radio, they need to start broadcasting within half a year, which is sometimes rather difficult. overall, however, he finds the competition for frequencies fair, and the key is to prove the radio station’s past financial discipline and demon-strate the ability to repay its obligations in future. TV LUX broadcasts over satellite, cable networks, and over the internet. satellite broadcast-ing is tied to the Thor satellite, which is quite unpractical for slovak viewers, since most of them are tuned to astra. The television station has therefore published a guide on its webpage which explains how the viewers should connect to Thor or receive signal from both satellites (by using a satellite dish positioner or by installing two satellite dishes).

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almost all cable network operators have included TV LUX in their offer (at the time of our research, the company’s webpage included a list 89 different companies, from operators operating nationally, to regional and local operators). however, TV LUX has been listed for only about a year, as previously, network operators had not included the television company in their offer. Finally, the breaking point was a move of the biggest distributor to include the station on the offer.

Market share

in determining the market share, we will refer to the official figures on readership/ listenership/viewership published for individual media.

Katolícke noviny report a printed and sold circulation of approximately 80,000 issues with an almost zero return. according to the Median.sk survey, the readership of the newspaper hovers around four percent, which gives it the sixth or seventh place in the slovak weekly rankings. according to the chief editor, in terms of sold circulation, the newspaper maintains its long-term sixth position.

according to the data provided by the head of Rádio Lumen, the listenership of the radio is just under 5%. according to the Median.sk survey, average listenership is at 3%, which gives Rádio Lumen more-or-less stable eighth place among the slovak radio stations.

TV LUX viewership is too small to be included in official surveys. Based on the results of the people meter measurements performed by PMT during a one-month period in the strongest christmas and Eas-ter season, daily viewership were deep below one percent, and only attacked the 1% mark during the live broadcasts of the holy Masses. Based on our experience and communication with employees of the television company, significant differences in viewership of TV LUX can be expected between individual regions. This is because of uneven distribution of religious population and accessibility of the channel.

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conclusions

Based on the above, we may conclude there are significant differ-ences between individual catholic media under review in terms of ad-vertising income. The Katolícke noviny weekly derives five to ten times more income from advertising than Rádio Lumen, and the radio station derives three to ten times more income from advertising than TV LUX. Katolícke noviny are self-supporting, and so the publisher is not pressed for increasing advertising income. on the other hand, both Rádio Lu-men and TV LUX grapple with the finances and more advertising in-come would definitely help them. Rádio Lumen considers its advertis-ing income adequate to market opportunities given the nature of the radio station and listeners’ profile. as the head of the radio station puts it, it is obvious that the electronic catholic media incur higher expens-es compared to income, and that the founders subsidize their operation to enable them to fulfill their mission. The catholic media do not exist in order to generate profit, and thus income derived from sources other than advertising is necessary. “all of this is reflected in the attitudes of the employees, listeners, and in the actions they take,” concludes the head of the radio station. “if we are able to combine the non-commer-cial type of mission – something which all of us should embrace – with maximum possible professionalism and effort in marketing, then, we have found an approach that is perfectly alright.” it seems, however, this is not the case of TV LUX, the management of which is discon-tented with poor advertising income. The share of advertising income planed at 30% of operating expenses within three years of operation could not be achieved. on the contrary, income remained far below the plan at little more than 1% of expenses. The requirement to “step up efforts to attract more advertisers” was also declared by Dárius hatok in January 2010 shortly after becoming the head of the television com-pany in an interview for medialne.sk (augustín 2010).

The key issue at play here, which the marketing staff needs to take into account in their effort to attract more advertisers, is the nature of their audience. This is what discourages the advertisers from using these media for communicating their product, however, the media them-selves, considering their mission, do not wish – and have no reason –

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to change it. on the contrary, they see it as a crucial point that their audience is neither a ‘market segment of consumers’ nor products that can be sold to the advertisers, but a community. all three media under review also develop their family concept, and want to offer something to every age category. Therefore, they are satisfied when individual target groups – in view of their age and other characteristics – follow at least a fraction of the content they offer. The courage to found a slovak catholic medium with a more specific focus is lacking, and this kind of project is envisaged as necessarily loss-making. The audience profile of the existing catholic media resembles a ‘multi-grade class’12, which, from advertising perspective, is difficult to handle.

self-promotion by the catholic media in slovakia focuses on ad-vertising own products within own environment (such as spots aired as part of own broadcast, and mutual support in related catholic media) and fieldwork. This pertains mainly to establishing the clubs of friends, which should be a significant co-financing mechanism for electronic media, as well as a vehicle to promote brand awareness among their potential audience. This is done mainly through presentations at vari-ous religious events such as pilgrimages, conferences, seminars, etc.

The emphasis on self-promotion in the media under review is relatively muted, with Katolícke noviny surpassing its peers by investing 18-times the amount of Rádio Lumen, and 27-times the amount of TV LUX. This, of course, results from the fact that Katolícke noviny is a self-supporting organization, while the remaining two electronic me-dia are heavily subsidized. nevertheless, there is room for more profes-sionalism in the field of marketing. This is the issue of marketing staff. all three media require university education from their employees, however, the selection process is not focused specifically on marketing skills, experience, creativity, and room for self-assertion. Motivation in the form of commission, for instance, should – according to media

12 ‘Multi-grade class is a class where one teacher teaches all grades in one class simultaneously. The scheme was common in slovak villages until 1970s. The analogy was introduced by Petr Kolář, a czech Jesuit and editor of the Vatican Radio. cf.: Rončáková, Terézia. 2010. at the intersection of Religious and Journalistic style iii. can the church speak Media Language? Prague: Paolines, pp. 110 – 119.

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theory – account for a significant share of marketing staff paycheck. however, commissions are either ignored completely, or used only to a limited extent such as in Rádio Lumen. The level of significance (and support) attributed to marketing by the management is also an impor-tant point. whereas marketing activities of TV LUX are, to a greater extant, performed by the department of the club of friends, the mar-keting functions in Katolícke noviny, are of utmost importance.

one of the most crucial problems of the slovak catholic media with respect to marketing is their poor knowledge of their own audi-ence. There exist no professional surveys of the structure of audience and other audience characteristics, which has a repressive impact on any marketing initiative. all of the media under review keep referring to their own unrepresentative questionnaires of low informative value, however, the prejudices of the public towards these media prevail. a professional survey would most probably confirm the already identi-fied patterns, however, it would also provide a firm ground under the characteristics, and help advertisers gain control over whom they com-municate their products through the medium.

as already mentioned, Katolícke noviny is financially self-supporting, while the electronic media depend heavily on subsidies. Rádio Lumen finances 30% of its operations from the funds transferred from slovak dioceses; TV LUX is 20% subsidized. These amounts are combined with the annual media fundraising campaign on the Day of social communication Media used to finance purpose-specific projects. in the case of Rádio Lumen, the discontinuation of such a support is not on the agenda. however, in the case of TV LUX, the three managing entities (including the slovak Bishops’ conference) planned to achieve the company’s self-financing through advertising and the club of friends within three years of the founding. however, this plan has failed. Thus, we can speak of a certain form of financing of these media from, so-to-speak, public money, and subsequently, consider their responsibility towards the ‘taxpayers’, which include the donors from the club of friends and all believers who contribute through their dioceses. in this sense, the only independent medium is Katolícke noviny, and both the radio and television media are bound by a certain obligation of transparency and reporting requirements toward

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‘investment community’. This should translate into more open and transparent disclosure of information about the use of the entrusted funds. This is especially the case of TV LUX, which, as mentioned earlier, refused to disclose any information for the purpose hereof.

with respect to the market share (for this purpose, we consider readership / listenership /viewership being equal to market share), both Katolícke noviny and Rádio Lumen are quite content with their performance as their ranking is comparable with the leading slovak media in their category. TV LUX has not managed to become subject to surveys of audience measurement agencies due to poor viewership figures. understandably, the managing entities of TV LUX are not satisfied with viewership levels far below 1% on a usual day. This can be inferred from the fact that the head of marketing department of TV LUX, Peter novák, refused to disclose specific outcomes of the people meter measurements performed by PMT in an interview for medialne.sk. instead, he argued that the television station was a new player on the market and should not be subject to comparison and evaluation (Krasko 2010). Despite repeated measurements, the figures have remained undisclosed.

as to the strategies to improve the situation in the catholic media and slovak market environment, the idea of a common ‘media house’ has stirred some discussion. such an entity might offer advertising space on behalf of several relevant catholic media simultaneously, and thus, attain considerable synergies. This might also include more pro-fessional marketing efforts and more emphasis on marketing on the part of managers. This idea, however, remains a proposition, and is not much discussed or envisaged. Thus, this point should be construed as an impulse for a broader discussion. combined with other impulses implicitly or explicitly discussed herein, such as efforts to professional-ize marketing teams and approaches, investments in self-promotion, investments in professionals well versed in marketing, professional au-dience surveys, and subsequent realignment of strategies based there-upon, more transparent processes related to the public nature of media institutions, and, last but not least, more focus on marketing and the opportunities it entails to enhance media products.

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Bibliography

augustín, Radoslav. 2010. TV Lux with a new structure in september. it already has People Meter Data. in: medialne.sk, 21. 1. 2010, available at: http://medialne.etrend.sk/televizia-spravy/tv-lux-bude-mat-novu-strukturu-v-septembri-ma-uz-aj-peoplemetrove-data.html.

Jacečková, Danka. 2011. Marketing of Radio Lumen. Lecture at the conference “Do the catholic media meet their task in the society iii?” sepember 26, 2011. it will be published in the conference volume.

Krasko, ivan. 2010. small slovak TV Lux Launches a campaign – and Plans to continue. in: medialne.etrend.sk, 23. 7. 2010; available at: http://medialne.etrend.sk/televizia-spravy/mala-slovenska-tv-lux-spusta-najvacsiu-kampan-a-planuje-pokracovat.html.

Krasko, ivan. 2011. head of Katolícke noviny: Room for a new christian Magazine. a subsidized one. in: hnonline.sk, 15. 7. 2011, available at: http://hnonline.sk/marketer/c1-52299050-sef-katolickych-novin-na-trhu-je-priestor-pre-novy-krestansky-magazin-ale-dotovany.

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Marketing in Catholic Media

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