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The new trend of newspapers using new media technologies kicked off the opening ceremony today. 

A new breed of journalists is quietly but effectively shaping the way newspapers develop their online editions. The presently small, elite core has been labelled the Robocop editors, indicative of their technology-touting, rapid-moving news provision abilities. This super hack is at once a techie, a journalist and an editor, and it moves efficiently within the digital creation, Daylife.

Daylife is, according to the New York Observer, an anomaly in its field, as a news aggregator, which "newspapers actually like". The tension between news publishers and online news aggregators is a well-known dynamic in the current media ecology, thus Daylife stands out as a welcome dove in an arguably, cut-throat sector of the industry where the hawks reign.           

The departure of the Agence France-Presse bureau from Fleet Street on Sunday, the last international desk remaining on the strip, is a further reminder that home of British journalism is now history and shorthand.

The image of Fleet Street today, filled with investment bankers and lawyers, is radically to different to that of thirty years ago, when the street was bustling with British and international newspaper hacks moving in and out of their headquaters. As of Sunday, Scottish publishers D. C. Thomson's London bureau will be the only newsroom left standing in the street, laments the South Africa's The Times.

It is a common refrain in the news industry: readers paid for printed news content, so they should pay for the same thing online. To the overwhelmingly majority publishers, this principle appears fair and logical. Thus, the justifications apparently resolved, business managers are now grappling with the choice of payment structures most appropriate for their products.

Yet, according to News Futurist's, Jeff Sonderman, such convictions ignore the fundamentals of newspaper production and distribution, namely: marginal-cost pricing. Subscriptions to online content are entirely unworkable, largely because the concept is antithetical to the way that newspapers have functioned for the past 180 years.

The deal was 18 months in the making, but Richard Connor has finally succeeded in buying up the Maine-based properties of the Seattle Times Co. Connor's acquisitions include the dailies the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel, as well as MaineToday.com, the Coastal Journal and The Maine Switch.

As part of his new role as editor and publisher of the three dailies, Connor will write a weekly column, although he said he's not going to "foist" his opinions on the newspapers. Connor aims to make the group profitable by the end of the year - in part by slashing jobs. This week, 31 non-union workers were let go, and up to 100 more could meet the same fate.

"Who guards the Guardian?" went the headline in last week's edition of political magazine, New Statesman, who asked if the Guardian was abusing its status to damage commercial rivals.

The New Statesman referred to the Guardian as "influential" "imposing" and "corporate" and suggested that the MediaGuardian, in particular, was being used by owner Guardian Media Group as an editorial battleaxe to discredit competitors.

Demotix, the citizen journalism agency and openDemocracy, an open-sourced news site have agreed a new partnership, reports journalism.co.uk. openDemocracy will carry the Demotix widget and run its pictures alongside their stories and analysis.

The arrangement is a "perfect synergy" according to the Demotix announcement, "on the one hand, oD's razor-sharp, individual textual analysis, and on the other, Demotix's collective, collaborative visual representation of the world. Opposites attract".

Though most of India's daily newspapers do have an online presence, Indian online publications have not evolved the same purpose and format as U.S. and European news sites. In an afaqs.com article reporter Kapil Ohri examines the reasons for Indian newspapers' failure to create profitable online ventures.

"Online editions are considered merely as an extension of the newspaper and are not treated as a separate source of revenue," says K. Srinvas, senior manager of Internet operations of Eeandu. While some online editions have tried innovative approaches to news, most Indian print dailies have not effectively harnessed the web to optimally reach and engage their readers.

Unlike many major newspapers across Europe and the United States who are jumping on the integration bandwagon, Le Figaro has kept its print and online operations separate and intends for them to stay that way. It is, however, working hard to develop its website and keep up with online trends, as well as investing in printing plants. The Editors Weblog spoke with Bertrand Gié, Director of the department of new media at Le Figaro and Luc De Barochez, Editor in Chief at Figaro.fr, to get a better understanding of the paper's unique strategy for print, online and new media.

Strategy: Le Système Figaro

According to De Barochez, Le Figaro is unique because integration is not its objective, it has no interest in fusing print and online together.  De Barochez explained that it was a matter of specializing in two different types of media; to him print journalism is something entirely different from online journalism.  "We think that the web journalists have a specific job, that the Internet is a specific media and it's a new type of journalism that is developing - a multimedia journalism. Journalism for the daily paper is something completely different," De Barochez told the EW.  At Le Figaro, although print and online journalists work closely together, they remain independent of one another.

Investing in print    

This separation echoes the universal strategy of Le Figaro; they believe in both media and strongly support the development and integration of new media and their website, however they also believe that print is a core foundation of the brand.  Gié confirmed this belief when he described the construction of a new printing plant in the north of France due to open in September of this year.  Last year they completed a new plant in the south of France; their aim this time around is to recreate the same thing in the north, but also allowing them to "produce a brand new Figaro with a new format, and significantly reduce printing hours."

Gié went on to explain what a monumental investment this is; "In an epoch where everyone talks only of online editions and the disappearance of paper, we are, without a doubt, the only group in France to have constructed two new ultra-modern plants.  So it is very important to understand that there is a strong investment in new media, but that doesn't mean that the paper is dead."  Of course, as Gié confirmed, there is a lot of work involved in making a paper profitable while retaining its high quality, "there were a few layoffs in 2008, but that's doesn't signify the end of the paper, we are not abandoning our paper, absolutely the opposite."

Newsroom

The newsroom of Le Figaro's paper edition is made up of nearly 300 journalists, while just 30 work for the online edition. De Barochez described the layout of the web newsroom: it is a large open space is divided into four sections, economy and finance, women, sport, and news (which covers everything else, including managing the homepage).  The online newsroom is in the same building as the daily paper, allowing them to communicate easily with the print journalists.

The website

Figaro.fr was relaunched in 2005, before then, according to Gié, "it basically didn't exist," with only five people working on the site and no clear strategy of how to develop the content.  Now, Figaro.fr is the number one site in France with 5.3 million unique visitors per month, leading second place Le Monde with 4.4 unique visitors monthly.  Gié explained that the goal was for the site to be the biggest and most comprehensive portal, so they combined all of the sites and publications of the Figaro Group on Figaro.fr.  

Together but not connected

According to De Barochez, much of the online content comes from the print version and magazines owned by Le Figaro.  Although the print and online journalists work separately, they collaborate fairly often.  The print journalists are not required to write for the website and have the choice to place their articles online or not.

 De Barochez explained the different ways in which the work of print journalists goes online. Firstly, an article written for the print version could be simply reproduced online.  Secondly, when exclusive, breaking news is obtained by a print journalist, they would collaborate with the online department in order to put the news up quickly.  They write a short summary and go back and produce a more in-depth analysis.  A third possibility concerns Le Figaro's online video content, which is all created and edited in-house at its television and editing studio.  For example, a print journalist will interview a person for an online video, or a print journalist will be interviewed on a certain subject that he or she is a specialist in.

Integration

Gié acknowledged that building the website and all of its content was a lot of work, but they did it "step by step," never forcing print journalists into the realm of new media, rather allowing them to voluntarily adapt and work in collaboration when they wished.

Gié maintains that the key to successfully integrating the site into the daily workings of the newspaper was to produce a high quality website that remained independent from the print version.  "We were able to make a good site on our own and slowly we have introduced it to the print journalists and they have grown to accept it as part of the paper."  According to Gié, as of today still not all print journalists contribute to the website, but most of them are drawn to the quality of the site and they are "eager to participate."

The other new media: E-papers and Mobile technology

As for the electronic newspaper, Gié believes (for now) it is a niche technology, and "as long as the designs remain as they are, a little heavy, in black and white, with a navigation system that is not very intuitive, it will remain a niche technology - for businessmen and for people who travel."  But, he finds the e-paper to be a technology that has the potential to develop into something very interesting for newspapers.

Gié believes that mobile phones are "very different, because traffic on mobiles is very important," and there have been significant improvements in mobile technology in the last few years.  Before, all the "operations and platforms were locked by the operators, you had to pass through the operators, it was complicated and expensive."  But now, there are mobile sites and portals that are designed for mobile users and allow them to easily access content online.  According to Gié, because of this, Le Figaro's iPhone site now has an audience of over 100,000 per month and growing since its launch.

Social Networking with Mon Figaro

Gié explained that interaction with readers is key at Le Figaro.  So in 2007, Le Figaro became the first mainstream news site in France to open all of its articles to comments.  Because it worked so well, with over one million comments on the site in the first year, they realized that it was a system that was very important to their readers - their ability to express themselves and interact with the content.  

They also realized that "people really wanted to communicate amongst themselves, and they started to communicate with each other and we really wanted to give them the tools to better manage their commentary."  So in November 2008, Le Figaro launched social networking tool Mon Figaro using a basic platform, which allows "users on Figaro.fr to place other users as favorites and to follow their activities."  Gié confirmed that 2009 will bring additional developments to Mon Figaro.

Personalized News

Gié believes that personalized news is "important but not fundamental."  For the last two years, Le Figaro has been allowing readers to personalize their page through Net Vibes.  However, Gié feels that because there is so much information on the Internet, it is hard for users to select what is worth reading.  For the most part, they select who is going to organize and sort the information for them, in most cases a trusted site like Le Figaro or The New York Times.  Otherwise, they have to select and find the information themselves, which is always  time consuming.  Gié sees Le Figaro's online role as a trusted brand that "provides news based on the notion that our readers want us to select it for them."

Le Figaro's active development of both its print product and website is admirable, and it will be interesting to see whether the paper maintains its separated operations or follows the example of other high profile papers such as the Washington Post, the Guardian, and El Pais, who, after initial reluctance, eventually caved in and integrated their newsrooms. 

With the evidence growing that readers want customisation instead of pre-packaged portfolios, the newspaper sector is challenged to develop alternative publishing formats (see Part 1 and Part 2 of our eReader series). A recent McKinsey survey (August 2007 newsletter) revealed the growing habit of 'brand promiscuity', with consumers using up to 16 different news sources weekly. Moreover, readers classified internet as much more useful compared to established media such as print. Modern news junkies go for convenience, comprehensiveness and timeliness rather than the traditional quality standards.

Is the print industry taking up the challenge? Not really. When it comes to using the Net, many newspapers feel more comfortable with direct transfer of existing copy onto the new medium. Companies like NewspaperDirect make a business out it; from next year on this company will start its PressDisplay news portal for delivery of associated papers on e-readers, tapping directly into the pre-print workflow and keeping the trusted appearance.

Not surprisingly, the innovative formats come from media outsiders. These startups have one thing in common, they believe in the electronic newspaper as a composite product, made up of a variety of professional and non-professional sources, tailored to the requirements and profiles of the individual news consumer. The New York-based start-up Daylife, which experiments with new editorial and financial models for online news, offers a mix of traditional and innovative formats for news distribution. A range of reputed titles is already using this platform for additional content delivery, but the site itself features an attractive and constantly updated news overview, produced by an amalgamation of contributors. Already closer to the network-driven medium of the future is FeedJournal, an RSS syndicating newspaper producing a digital daily building on defined user preferences. A comparable initiative, but now based on profile-steered net-crawling, is Newser. This service delivers summaries of hot news from across the globe and links to the original stories. The Radus New Media Platform follows the same philosophy, be it that additionally social networking sites are integrated: Personal highlights blend in with world events.

The aggregation game is on - so much is clear. But these applications don't change the content itself. Ultimately, the very nature of news needs to be reexamined and adjusted to the principles of digital delivery. Research at the Poynter Institute pointed out that alternative story forms are more effective than classical narrative, especially in an electronic information context. An equally interesting study was conducted by Associated Press. AP worked out 'A New Model for News' after observing the reading habits of a group of young-adults, the generation that has meanwhile grown up with or migrated to the Net. The study demonstrated that consumers are accessing the news from a range of different entry points, as much by chance as by design. The need for multiple entry points challenges the conventional container approach and article architecture. The AP model moves news into a new space - a universe of stories made up from different spheres, each ranging in size and scope (facts, updates, back stories, spin offs) - and readers interacting with story particles from different entry points and platforms. What these 'spheres' exactly should look like needs to worked out in practice.

One project exploring the journalistic formats for multi-entry news is the Dutch MePaper project. In a design studio jointly manned by journalists and researchers, key concepts are being developed and tested with proofreader panels. The project uses the term 'collection' to describe the journalistic raw material of the digital era, a loosely defined and ever changing combination of story elements. Quite a contrast with the well-defined nature of the standard article. News collections can be combined into news clouds, according to readers' general preferences and actual reading habits. This leads to four types of newspapers based on:
1. the editor's choice
2. the personal profile
3. the reading pattern of the preferred social network
4. the most read stories at a given time.
While reading, you can switch from one type of newspaper to another. The traditional line up of story titles is replaced by revolving cylinders in which stories, pictures and video are grouped according to theme or genre. In the test groups, the net-native proof readers almost intuitively roamed the presented information space.

Clearly there will be more solutions and design principles popping up. The main thing is that newspaper publishers stop with the easy repackaging and start digging for authentic formats which fully exploit the vast opportunities of electronic news delivery. Things can only get better, eh?

Director of the Euorpean Centre for Digital Communications and long-time journalist, Jan Bierhoff is currently conducting studies on e-reader technology and the consumer trends that will define their use.

De Telegraaf, one of the Netherlands' leading newspapers, is aggressively moving ahead with its multi-platform publication strategy with the launch of a new Java application on 15 December and a new real-time stock quote service.

Lara Ankersmitt, Telegraaf.nl's Publisher, contacted the Editors Weblog to talk about De Telegraaf's new offering, charging for content, and attracting female users in The Netherlands.

Java application - building on growth

De Telegraaf has seen approximately 40% growth in the number of users accessing its mobile content over the past year since it redesigned its mobile site. Ankersmitt firmly believes that improving the user experience on the mobile platform is crucial to its success: "At the beginning of this year we redesigned the whole mobile site to get a better user experience and that has really worked. After the redesign we saw a growth in users and the time they spent on the site. People were reading more and more."  To maintain this momentum, De Telegraaf is launching a new Java application - after several months of testing - to improve the user experience on mobile and expand on the content provided.

What is also assisting this rapid growth in mobile take-up is mobile operators' introduction of a flat-fee subscription for the Internet on mobiles, costing approximately €10 a month. This reduction in cost has democratised the consumption of mobile content, moving it away from being a tool for just business people. "A few years ago most of the mobile traffic accessed financial news and came from Blackberries and that kind of device. However, since the mobile flat fee was introduced we have seen more normal phone traffic - such as Samsung and Nokia - and more traffic to our entertainment and news sections. The user group is expanding... Finance is still the most important user group, but this is changing."

The Java application will undoubtedly improve the user experience as it will make reading De Telegraaf content on a mobile similar to the user experience on the Internet. With this new application, people will be able to surf and navigate rather than simply scroll. It will contain all the same content as the Internet and digital version of the daily newspaper itself without cost (barring internet and an initial one-off cost).

However, there are legitimate concerns about how consumers will react to this new application. Users will have to request an SMS from De Telegraaf in order to download Java before they can access the new Java platform, furthermore they will have to a pay for the SMS on top of the usual cost of Internet access. These may seem like small issues, but they could prove to be significant. The Internet platform has been popular because it makes getting your daily news fix very easy. Consumers may find downloading Java too fiddly or time consuming for something that they can already get on their laptop or PC. Ankersmitt is aware of this, and it is part of the reason that after the initial one-off cost, the service will be free.

Gaining the technological knowledge

De Telegraaf works with an outside mobile consultancy company - Service2Media - and Ankersmitt believes that this is vital. Service2Media built the site, hosts it, and gives the newspaper knowledge on mobile. She reports, "We of course know everything about bringing people the news and we know what our readers like and dislike, and (Surface2Media) brings the technical expertise and shows us what is ahead for mobile. They help us with the strategy: when we should launch and when a technology will move into the mainstream" This relationship helps De Telegraaf plan strategically for the future and plan what its next move for its mobile platform will be. "Working with them helped us see the possibilities of mobile."

How do users consume mobile news?

De Telegraaf has been analysing user activity of its mobile platform, and has noticed significant differences between its mobile and website. The mobile platform usage peaks during the evening and is relatively flat and consistent during the day. On the website usage peaks during the day and declines during the evening. This study into user activity resulted in De Telegraaf keeping its website not only continually updated during the day, but also well into the evening.

Attracting female readers in a difficult market

Newspapers in The Netherlands do not traditionally tailor content for female readers, but De Telegraaf last year launched a magazine called "Woman" and following this launched a section on its Website dedicated to female readers. Other news providers who have launched this Java application are attracting approximately a 5% female readership, but De Telegraaf is already attracting up to 30%. This data reflects that De Telegraaf is rapidly moving towards attracting the same demographic split on its Mobile site as on its Website and print edition (approximately 54% male readership and 46% female readership). This female content will also be made available this week on the mobile platform.

Real-time news service

Alongside the introduction of the Java application, De Telegraaf is launching a real-time financial news service, whereby bond and share prices and graphics will be updated in real-time from all bourses.  This information will be available on the mobile site in the first quarter of next year, but it was launched last week on the website. Reuters is providing this information to De Financial Telegraaf (DFT).

The future - can news providers charge for content?

The big question facing all news organisations is how to monetise these new platforms. At this stage it does not look like advertising revenue will generate enough income to support the operation of running a newsroom: so what can newspapers do? De Telegraaf is considering testing the charging-for-content waters early next year. "We are thinking of launching some iPhone applications and maybe we will charge for these if we see success on the Java application. The user experience at the moment is OK. It's not brilliant because mobile is so small and there is a lot of scrolling for the user. There are two things: we want to get as many people as possible to download the Java application and we want to see if, and how, people are using it so w can learn from this. We will then use this knowledge to introduce something further down the line for the iPhone." Ankersmitt reports. Ankersmitt feels that there is scope for charging on the mobile platform if the user experience is good enough, but De Telegraaf has no plans for charging for its website content. Ankersmitt says on the issue, "I don't think it is realistic to charge people for the Website news because news they can get everywhere for free. So it is no use to us to charge people for reading our news. We have to make money from advertising."

Lesson learned

De Telegraaf moved into the mobile arena back in 2001, the whole process has been a steep learning curve for the broadsheet but it has so far navigated these uncharted waters successfully. To other newspapers considering entering the mobile arena, Ankersmitt says, "Think of how you can extend your brand with this new platform and find a good partner who can serve you for all the technical needs. It is vital to have a good and knowledgeable technical partner, we have one person focusing on the mobile platform, but our partner had 40 people focusing on it. They are always ahead of us technically speaking. Really think what you want to bring to this platform and what kind of news you want to present."

The media stands accused of failing to foresee the global financial crisis, of a lack of understanding of the issues, and even of having a hand in the problems we now face. The Editors Weblog has been following the debate, beginning with an interview with the Managing Editor of the Financial Times, Daniel Bogler, who highlighted the problem of the media "fanning the flames" of the crisis. Is the media responsible, or are these accusations merely a knee-jerk reaction?

Danny Schechter is a respected investigative journalist and the author of Plunder, a searing indictment of the modern banking system, the role of government in finance, and the greed-is-good mentality. Schechter's book was published one week before the collapse of Lehman Brothers on the 1st of September, and it examines the very problems that were about to unfold. The Editors Weblog spoke to Schechter about the media's failure, the ethics of advertising, responsible journalism, and the cult of the CEO.

Two key failures

Schechter believes that there were two key areas where the media failed. He says that there was little or no examination into the new breed of exotic financial products that caused many of the problems, such as CDO's, and that the media ignored the warnings from community housing organisations of the predatory lending practises in some of America's poorest communities. "This was a big media failure, we were not warned about it" says Schechter. If Schechter's assertion is correct, why did the media fail to fulfil its role? Newspapers, and the media in general, are supposed to be the fourth estate, a watchdog for citizens. Is it a lack of knowledge on the workings of high finance or has the media lost its way and become part of the problem?

Why did the media fail in its early warning role?

Schechter believes that the media failed in its role because of vested interests. He points out that one of the key sources of revenue for newspapers is real estate advertising in weekend supplements and classifieds, as well as advertisements for credit card and refinancing companies. As a result, he argues there is a connection between the real estate and newspaper industry, their future and success are intertwined. Schechter says, "The newspaper industry is the marketing arm of the real estate industry. In some cities you actually had newspapers getting a piece of the action of sales through the ads that they generated. So they were actually part of the corruption of this whole relationship. So of course there was little real scrutiny about what was actually happening in the neighbourhoods where houses were flipping, where people who couldn't afford to buy houses were buying them with bogus mortgages. Newspapers were making money on the sales of these homes."

Schechter argues that after the dot.com bubble burst back in 2000, all the advertisements from these new emerging businesses stopped, so the $3 billion in lost advertising revenue for the media industry had to be found somewhere. Schechter puts forth that credit card companies and refinancing firms stepped into the gap. He points out that the majority of people do not automatically spend money that they don't have, but it was marketed to them through the media in advertising and life-style supplements. Most of the money that the media makes in advertising is in the last quarter in the run up to Christmas, newspapers run articles on the best presents to buy, and so forth, all of it driving a concept of "buy and shop" which "stimulates consumption." Schechter says, "for me, on the consumer front newspaper's are a marketing instrument and on the investment front it's a confidence building instrument. The media was part of this whole sales machine, and it happened at the same time that newspapers were cutting back on investigative reporting, and ironically expanding business news targeted at the business world; not at the general public, not on the economy and how it affects you and me."

Has financial journalism lost its teeth?

Another criticism levelled at business reporters is that they are too close to Wall Street and the City, and have too much respect for the institutions they are supposed to be examining. John Friedman of MarketWatch was at the press conference announcing the Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch and wrote, "the media were so polite and deferential to the two CEOs; they behaved as if the press conference were a victory lap for the financial services industry." Schechter believes that "business men are seen as heroes" and it's all part of the "cult of masters of the universe"; he cites the endless sycophantic articles about Bill Gates of MicroSoft and Richard Branson of Virgin. He argues that there is a kind of "cultural embedding, as financial journalists cover business, they become part of the scene, they identify with the players, go to the parties, they are increasingly in a world of fewer and fewer people that is cut off from the mainstream of American life." He believes that many financial journalists want to be like these Masters of the Universe that they write about every day.

Schechter also says that there is no real pressure at the top of media organisations to thoroughly investigate these companies. Thee reason being that they would be investigating their advertisers. As a result, there is no impetus behind financial reporting, no push for the truth and the heart of the story, not enough cynicism.

Furthermore, with the advent of multi-platform publishing and shrinking newsrooms, journalists are frequently, "fireman, going from one fire to the next. When you are doing that, there is very little time for reflective analytical reporting."

Where is the counter-narrative?

During an interview recently on the Editors Weblog, the FT's Managing Editor Daniel Bogler said, "It's unfortunate that the financial literacy and understanding of how things work in the City and of basic accounting and so on, is actually very thin in financial journalism." Schechter agrees with Bogler's point saying, "You have people who are not really very well educated covering these issues. Hence they go to a briefing and a company gives them a story, and they don't really have a counter-narrative."

Reviewing his argument, Schechter's assessment of the media is damning indeed; but it is not unilateral. Schechter points out that many newspapers and bloggers are asking the right questions and searching for the truth in this financial crisis. He cites the UK's Telegraph and Guardian newspapers, saying they "have been way ahead. I find the coverage of the British media better, and increasingly much more critical of what is happening."
 
Omission and Commission

Looking back over the rapid collapse of the world's financial markets, and the uncertainty ahead, Schechter says it is, "a financial system failure, a regulatory failure and a media failure. Everyone is willing to talk about the first two, but they are not willing to discuss the last one. We are all in this. It's a media failure of omission and commission."
 

It isn't a secret that the American newspaper industry is experiencing difficult times, as core print revenues and circulation are falling. Many think that online news, which has been accompanied by double-digit online advertising growth in recent years, can make up for the decline in print. But several studies and articles think otherwise.

"The Web audience is growing at a great clip, while print circulation is not. And online revenues are growing faster, too, albeit from a smaller base. If the trend continues, there's little doubt that -- "eventually" -- online becomes the main business," said Bill Keller, the New York Times Executive Editor, in a 2007 interview with IwantMedia.

But as sanguinity faces off with the numbers, perhaps we shouldn't hold our breath for "eventually."

Internet revenue is growing -- in 2003, newspapers collected a mere $1.2 billion from online advertising; last year the figure was nearly $2.7 billion. "We're growing at a double-digit rate," said Randy Bennett, of the Newspaper Association of America.

But there's a problem. Scott Karp, of Publishing 2.0, has dubbed it the "10% problem." Karp explains that looking at New York Times print and web circulation numbers, "What you find, with some modest rounding, is that print circulation is about 10% of total audience reach, while online advertising revenue is 10% of total ad revenue -- the economics are nearly the perfect inverse of what they should be."

Why, as audiences shift to the web, are advertisers not following?

Although newspaper websites are attracting a lot of visitors, they aren't keeping them there.

According to the American Journalism Review (AJR), the typical visitor to nytimes.com, which attracts over 10 percent of the entire newspaper industry's online traffic, spent an average of just 34 minutes and 53 seconds browsing its extensive editorial and interactive offerings in October. That's 34 minutes and 53 seconds per month - just 68 seconds per day online. By contrast, according to Scarborough Research, print readers report spending 16 minutes a day with their newspapers.

And as small as 68 seconds a day is -- it's actually about three times longer than the average of the next nine largest newspaper sites.

Although a minority of news hounds linger on the sites, Greg Harmon, director of Belden Interactive, estimates that as many as 60 percent of online newspaper visitors are "fly-bys," people who use the site briefly and irregularly. "Everyone has the same problem," explains Jim Brady, editor of washingtonpost.com. The news industry's continuing challenge, Brady says, is to turn "visitors into residents."
 
Thomas E. Patterson, of Harvard University, who has conducted a yearlong study of 160 news sites, also offers an intriguing, if not unsettling, theory: the web is a fundamentally different way of viewing information, and as such, web ads may not be as effective as the traditional kind. "I'm not sure [advertisers] are convinced yet about how terrific a sales tool [a Web display ad] is," said Patterson. "The evidence isn't strong yet that it can drive people into a store the way a full-page newspaper ad can. They're less confident about what they're getting online."
 
To add insult to injury, online newspapers face these challenges in a fiercely competitive new medium. "Unlike the print business, in which newspaper publishers generally enjoy near-monopoly status, the online news world is littered with entrants - from giants like MSNBC.com and AOL.com, to news aggregators like drudgereport.com, to blogs by the millions," writes Paul Farhi of AJR. "This makes it tough for any online ad seller to do what newspaper publishers have done for years - keep raising their ad rates." "Ultimately, it comes down to supply and demand," said Leon Levitt, vice president of digital media for Cox Newspapers. "And there's an awful lot of supply out there."

In the midst of this, the online ad growth is beginning to slow. The confidence-building, double-digit increases are fading fast. In the first quarter of 2007, the newspaper industry saw a 22 percent gain in online revenue - impressive, but less so when seen as the smallest uptick (in percentage terms) since the NAA started keeping records in 2003. In the second quarter, the industry rate slipped yet again, to 19 percent.

And even with these double-digit increases, newspapers' print ads still draw more than 20 times the revenue from online sales, having collected  $46.6 billion in print ads last year.

The New York Times Co., the leading online newspaper company, derives just 11 percent of its revenue from the Web, and it not public how much of that 11% comes from nytimes.com vs. its other digital holdings, such as the popular about.com.

The challenge news sites face now is how to continue to move online, but bring advertisers with them.

It's "in the interest of both newspapers and advertisers to shift content to the Internet," said Philip Meyer, author of The Vanishing Newspaper.

Advertisers can focus their target audiences and can monitor consumers' behavior online, Meyer points out. At the same time, "newspapers can at last grow their businesses without being held back by the variable costs of newsprint, ink and transportation...In the recent past, newspaper owners have preferred to cut fixed costs, like editorial staff, which gives a quick boost to the bottom line but weakens their hold on the audience. Using technology to cut the variable costs is a better strategy even though the payoff takes longer."

Sources: The American Journalism Review, The State of the News Media 2007, Publishing 2.0, The New York Times
 

The Washington Post won a record six Pulitzer prizes on April 7th, topping the paper's previous record of four Pulitzers in 2006.

The Post took home the public service medal honoring its expose on Walter Reed hospital, which revealed the negligent care of American war casualties.

"It's a reminder of what basic journalism can get you involved in," said Washington Post reporter Dana Priest, one of reporters on the Walter Reed story. "At a time when journalism is under this cloud of financial uncertainty, reporters have to stay focused, and if we don't, we sort of doom people like the Army specialist who lived with the cockroaches in Building 18. We can do better than that."

Other awards for the Post included the breaking-news award for its coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings, as well as a prize in national reporting for an examination of Vice President Dick Cheney's behind the scenes influence.

The New York Times received two Pulitzers, recognizing the paper's investigative reporting about toxins in medicine and consumer products from China, and for explanatory reporting on an article targeting the ethical dilemmas of DNA testing.

Others in the winner's circle included The Chicago Tribune, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Boston Globe, and Investor's Business Daily, Reuters, and The Concord Monitor.  

No prize was awarded for editorial writing this year.

Go here for a complete list of winners.

Source: Associated Press

As print newspaper revenues continue to fall, Bill Richards of Crosscut, suggests that papers look to devices such as Amazon’s Kindle, which use E ink technology.

When he started in 1994, David Dunkley Gyimah was one of the first video journalists in the UK. An academic lecturer and avid videojournalist who has advised newsrooms internationally, he explains how ‘any old’ newspaper can put up a regular video feed within weeks. Even better: newspapers have the assets to potentially produce better videojournalism (VJ) than their TV counterparts, both in terms of internal organization and marketwise.

Ten years ago, the Associated Press (AP) was a “collection of different companies.” The online and print teams were independent units, its video team was largely set apart in London, and its international branches all had different logos and cultures. Since then, AP has moved to become a fully digital multimedia platform, following the “one name, one logo, one story” precept. The Editors Weblog interviewed Tom Kent, AP’s deputy managing editor, who insisted on the importance of cultural change and communication for smooth newsroom integration. More than that though, Kent details the strategies put into place, explains the changes in the editorial process, and gives a preview of the future of the integrated newsroom.

Challenges for old media in the digital age – what Reuters has to say.

USAToday.com is about to unveil its revamped version, starting this week-end. Upgrades will focus on building a community and developing a ‘network journalism’ concept, through increased interactivity, the use of personal profiles and more. This might be the next step for newspaper websites.

One of this year’s major trends in newsrooms was the generalized evolution of the newsroom itself, into what was dubbed ‘integrated newsrooms’. Gannett came up with its own innovative version though, the Local Information Center (IC). The Editors Weblog interviewed one of the main engines of this venture, Jennifer Carroll, Vice President of New Media Content at Gannett Corporation.

The big newsroom story of 2006 was the transformation at The Telegraph in the UK – the layout, the building and most importantly, attitude. There are a number of different ways to present news to an audience – popular means such as newspapers, radio and television – and now, more than ever, online. The Telegraph was looking for a way to improve their product whilst embracing audio and visual to greater effect. And so, The Telegraph integrated newsroom was born.

Web-first policies have come under scrutiny for the balance between getting a story published quickly and getting the right, fact-checked, edited story published. Newspapers often struggle through this delicate balance when deciding what goes on-line when. That’s to say nothing of the sometimes not so invisible division between print and on-line departments. Neil Chase, Continuous News Editor at the New York Times, talks to the Editors Weblog about their continuous news-desk and why it’s a model that works not just for the on-line product but benefits the print product and journalists too.

 
Thanks to the Internet, anyone with a computer can put his or her ideas on a world platform.  This has created new citizen power never felt by individuals nor the communities in which they live.  For the first time, writers are truly paying attention to what citizens want to read, rejuvenating news in local communities who feel a lack of local coverage from traditional sources. Debbie Galant, a Montclair, New Jersey Local, saw a desire for news in her community that made her decide to try her hand at online reporting. Hoping to fill the local news void in their community Galant and co-founder Liz George started a local news site, Baristanet.com.

Friday 24^th of November, a good 80 Dutch and Flemish editors and researchers gathered in the European Journalism Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands, to assess and discuss several prototypes of novel newspaper products or services. All are web-based one way or another, and ready for the Web 2.0 publishing environments. The in total six demonstrators feature remote reporting tools, video content based on strategic alliances with non-journalistic partners, e-paper trials and online reader communities. Most were developed in close cooperation with specialised R&D centres. Together, the prototypes reveal the contours of the future electronic newspaper.
Al least half of the demonstrators will make it to real applications, the other are subject to further testing in living lab conditions.
General conclusion of the event: we need further experimentation to capture the essence of digital presence. In the conference report, the applications as well as the editors’ appraisal are described more in detail.