Editors Weblog: Search Results

Press release: World's most dangerous region for journalists: the Arab World

Posted by Federica Cherubini on January 5, 2012 at 3:41 PM

Repression of uprisings makes the region the world's most dangerous place for journalists.

Sixty-four journalists and other media workers were killed world-wide because of their professional activities in 2011, with nearly half of them killed in Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) said Thursday.

Ten journalists were killed in Pakistan for the second consecutive year, making it again the most deadly country for journalists.

The Arab region was the world's most dangerous region for media professionals, with twenty-two journalists killed. The brutal repression that followed widespread popular uprisings in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen cost the lives of sixteen journalists. Journalism in Iraq remains a dangerous profession, as six journalists lost their lives in the country last year.

Will printed newspapers be extinct in 5 years?

Posted by Katherine Travers on December 16, 2011 at 3:18 PM

A new study from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future states that the majority of newspapers in the USA will cease to exist in printed form within the next five years. The report asked whether America had arrived at a "digital turning point" and examined the role of new, often disruptive, digital technologies in American politics, media, communication and the American lifestyle in general.

The report concluded that, as print circulation continues to drop, most newspapers will suffer, causing them to terminate printing operations altogether. Whether publications stand a chance of maintaining printed editions seems to be a question of size; large organisations, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, could potentially keep their printed editions, whilst local weeklies presumably thanks to their small numbers of staff and dedicated readerships, could also keep their printed editions.

How did Il Fatto Quotidiano achieve popularity and profitability in just two years?

Posted by Federica Cherubini on December 7, 2011 at 11:47 AM

The newspaper industry is in a time of upheaval, with mainstream newspapers looking for innovative strategies to survive and thrive, to re-affirm their importance and their role in the news landscape.

Cost cutting is increasingly prevalent throughout news organisations in Europe and the US, with many publications putting more and more emphasis on digital products as they lose print readers.

Launching a new print publication in 2009 might have seemed therefore like a risky step, but it's exactly what Italian journalists Marco Travaglio, Antonio Padellaro and Peter Gomez decided to do. Il Fatto Quotidiano was launched in September 2009 and in the past two years it has managed to both establish itself as a respected newspaper brand and actually make some money, with a profit of €5.8 million in 2010.

How has it achieved this?

The Guardian launches Reading the Riots project

Posted by Katherine Travers on December 5, 2011 at 4:42 PM

Today The Guardian began the first day of its week-long "Reading the Riots" coverage, which addresses the causes of the riots that took place in England in August. The project draws on months of research undertaken by a team of 60 people, including Guardian journalists, academics from the London School of Economics and specially selected interviewers.

It is worth noting that this piece of invaluable investigative reporting, which aims to expose the causes of the largest displays of civil unrest in the UK for a generation, was financed with the aid of foundations, The Rowntree and The Open Society Foundations in particular. It is interesting to note that investigative projects like this one, are often reliant on charitable funding in this way.

Here is what the research team accomplished:

The Independent and The Evening Standard merge business and sports desks

Posted by Katherine Travers on November 21, 2011 at 3:01 PM

The London Evening Standard and The Independent have announced a merger that will crate joint business and sports desks shared between the two publications. Independent staff will head the sports desk up while London Evening Standard writers will man the business desk.

The merger is an effort to economise in response to the increasingly difficult financial situation faced by the majority of print newspapers - including these two titles, that are published by Independent Print Ltd. and owned by the Lebedev family.

Print and online are "different animals" - the argument against newsroom integration

Posted by Louise Hallman on October 17, 2011 at 6:11 PM

Newsroom integration has been hailed in recent years as somewhat of a panacea of newsroom management in the multimedia digital age, but not all newspapers have chosen to go this route. Regional newspaper Vorarlberger Nachrichten, based in western Austria, has chosen not to integrate the newsrooms of their newspaper and online portal VOL.at.

Why? VN has two separate brands for online and print, so management believes they deserve separate teams. "You can't work for Coca-Cola and Sprite at the same time," explains Editor-in-Chief Christian Ortner, speaking in session 5 of the World Editors Forum, "Integration: the latest experiments in a multi-platform age."

"You need to concentrate on that one brand," he adds.

Rooted in the belief that online and print are two "different animals," Ortner lists the many different challenges and conditions that the two media encounter on a daily basis. Most obviously, since newspapers have just one deadline, rather than online's constant 24/7 drive, they are able to write more time-consuming investigative pieces rather than meeting the group's three-minute-rule for online publication.

To maintain a reason for readers to buy the paper, the print product incorporates exclusive content not available elsewhere, including on the group's own website. However, Ortner believes that, besides different content, the newspaper offers a very different experience to the reader.

A printed newspaper "has a beginning and an end," rather than the ongoing, developing news narration available online. The paper yields an overview of the local area's daily news in just one 30-minute sitting.

Although the vast majority of the newspaper's content appears online as well as in print, it is the choice of the online editor as to where on the website this content appears. In addition to this content, the online team also has its own editorial team of 10 people, including four mobile journalists, tasked with finding news stories that can be published immediately.

Those mobile journalists also provide the website with hyperlocal news. This news is then reprinted as smaller hyperlocal newspapers, proving that whilst it is possible to keep the two brands separate, the two media - print and online - even in an unintegrated newsroom, still need one another.

Media development work hindered by sector's own shortcomings

Posted by Alexandra Iselin Waldhorn on October 13, 2011 at 11:43 AM

Media development experts have a hard time gauging progress made in improving access to information. Part of the problem lies in the media development sector itself.

"We've made a difference. A significant difference, sometimes yes, but sometimes no," says Marguerite Sullivan, director of the Center for International Media Assistance. "But we don't know well enough what we're doing and we don't speak the same language."

Media links of the day

Posted by Katherine Travers on August 22, 2011 at 6:00 PM

Social Media Monthly, a new glossy about the ever changing world of e-communication, has just published its first edition. Does it make sense for social media to be advertised is print?

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has put forward a proposal which suggests regulating all current affairs commentary across all platforms. Julian Disney, the Chairman, has stated that the proposal has been made in order to "trigger thinking" and start a debate.

A new PEW study raises questions about the so called 'data divide', as it discovers that the majority of News Applications users are white, Poynter reports.

A comprehensive overview of the mobile market: how Google's bid for Motorola affects other major players in the industry.

Sources: BBC , The Australian.com , PaidContent.org , Poynter ,

Study: readers' online sharing motivated primarily by relationship-building

Posted by Teemu Henriksson on July 20, 2011 at 1:39 PM

No news website can ignore the fact that making it easy for readers to share news articles can provide a significant boost to their traffic. Most news sites have already implemented sharing tools at least for Facebook and Twitter, and many support a number of other social networks as well. Considering how important news sharing is - and signs are that importance is only to grow - news organisations are most probably researching their readers' sharing habits keenly.

Poynter reported on one such study, commissioned by the New York Times and titled "The Psychology of Sharing: Why Do People Share Online?" According to the survey, which was presented at a recent marketing conference and can be accessed here, the main motivator that drives news sharing is not so much news content itself as it is the impulse to build and maintain relationships. And that is something news outlets would do well to remember.

Guardian's digital-first strategy to include "significant" job cuts

Posted by Teemu Henriksson on June 24, 2011 at 11:43 AM

Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, spoke to BBC Radio 4's Media Show about the paper's recent decision to face the future with a "digital-first" strategy. He confirmed what most commentators already suspected, namely that the new strategy would result in "significant" job cuts.

According to Rusbridger, The Guardian's declining revenues and print readership are in line with the developments in the industry in general. He described the new strategy as a response to a "pre-crisis moment", a change of course before the newspaper is forced to make vicious editorial cuts, resulting in a lower-quality paper: "You don't want to get into that spiral of decline that we've seen with a lot of American newspapers."

Paywalls still divide opinions

Posted by Federica Cherubini on May 26, 2011 at 3:56 PM

2010 was the year of the paywall.
Trying to figure out how to transit newspapers' print businesses to the digital world, one of the big questions was: is charging online the way to go?

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp was one of those to lead the way in charging for online content, putting the UK Times and Sunday Times behind a paywall in July 2010.

Before the News Corp group, the German publisher Alex Springer began charging for online access with some of its newspapers.

It was actually a path already chosen by some niche publications, which provided (and still provide) specialized content, like financial and business news.
Within financial news publications, amongst the first ones to charge for content were the Wall Street Journal, which Murdoch originally pointed as a model to follow, and the Economist, which introduced between the end of 2009 and beginning 2010 a paywall for the print-edition content on its website.
It has to be noted however that financial news is an area in which subscribers might be more willing to pay for online.

Five Italian newscasts fined by Communication Authority for pro-Berlusconi bias

Posted by Federica Cherubini on May 24, 2011 at 5:42 PM

AGCOM, the Italian communications watchdog authority, has imposed fines on five national newscasts for violating elections rules by allowing prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to rally voter on air ahead of a second round of local polls without including opposition views, adnkronos reported.

The regulator body imposed the maximum permitted fine of €258,230 on the TG1, the newscast of the principal public broadcasting channel RAI, and on TG4, one of the Berlusconi's private Mediaset news bulletins, since they are repeat offenders, and fines of €100,000 each on TG2, the second public channel, TG5 and Studio Aperto, again owned by Berlusconi's Mediaset, Corriere della Sera reported.

As the adnkronos article explained, in a series of interviews aired 20 May, Berlusconi sought to mobilise his centre-right political base for the mayoral run-offs being held this weekend in many Italian cities, branding the centre-left opposition as "extremist".

Paywalls at small newspapers

Posted by Teemu Henriksson on May 17, 2011 at 5:49 PM

When reporting on the current paywall frenzy within the newspaper industry, the media's eye is mostly set on developments at major newspapers, most obvious example being The New York Times. What is often missing is the point of view of smaller newspapers.

Now, there is new information on how effectively such papers are adopting models for paid online content. Nieman Journalism Lab reported on a survey that had a sample of almost 1,400 small or mid-size (77 percent had circulation under 25,000) daily US newspapers.

Perhaps surprisingly, smaller papers have been very active in starting to charge for online access: 46 percent of newspapers with circulation under 25,000 said that they are already doing so. Of papers with a circulation over 25,000, only 24 percent said the same.

Study shows female readership dominates 8 of the 25 top news sites

Posted by Meghan Hartsell on May 11, 2011 at 1:20 PM

The number of women reading newspapers has steadily grown over the years. They have become "the fastest-growing, most advertised attractive audience in town." A study from ComScore noted, "They're embracing the internet in a way that men are not." A new survey by Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that they also make up the majority of readers for 8 out of the top 25 news sites.

The 8 websites are (in order from highest percentage to lowest) Topix, Aol News, Examiner.com, Bing News, Yahoo, MSNBC, ABC News, and Huffington Post. Poynter posted a chart of the numbers here.

World Press Freedom Day today

Posted by Federica Cherubini on May 3, 2011 at 3:48 PM

3 May is World Press Freedom Day, established as such by the UN General Assembly in 1993.

The day is celebrated worldwide by different international organizations such the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and here, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

"Every year, May 3rd is a date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession", announces UNESCO's website.

Bloomberg View to debut in late May

Posted by Federica Cherubini on May 2, 2011 at 5:44 PM

Last December Bloomberg announced that it would begin publishing editorials within an initiative called "Bloomberg View". As reported earlier, the aim is to broaden the company's influence on national affairs.

The new opinion section will debut in late May, according to Poynter, which published a press release announcing the latest section's hires.

"Daily editorials will be written and edited by the Bloomberg View editorial board. (...) The new opinion section will also publish Op-Ed articles by outside contributors. Bloomberg View will debut on Bloomberg.com, which reaches more than 13 million unique visitors per month, and on the Bloomberg Professional service, which reaches over 300,000 of the most influential business and finance professionals globally. Content will appear across Bloomberg's media platforms, including Bloomberg Government, the company's Washington-based data and news website that provides insight into the business implications of government action", the press release announced.

The thin line of credibility: how to report on your boss

Posted by Federica Cherubini on April 22, 2011 at 9:57 AM

Being paid to write about the person who actually pays your salary is quite a big challenge, especially if you care about maintaining your credibility.

The issue is the focus of a New York Times article about the difficult position of Henry Goldman, the journalist within Bloomberg who is charge of writing about Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

For ten years - the article highlighted - his assignment has included chronicling Bloomberg's ups and downs for the global New York news service. Now Goldman is facing hard times as the mayor had a rough start of his third term and his approval ratings are the lowest of the last eight years.

The Pulitzer Prize winners: business coverage and ProPublica's web-only series stand out

Posted by Federica Cherubini on April 19, 2011 at 1:00 PM

The 2011 winners of the Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday, April 18, and for the first time, a web-only piece won one of the coveted awards.

Other peculiarities this year included the fact that no newsroom dominated the Prizes - 11 split 13 awards between them - as Poynter underlined. And despite the jury recommending three finalists, the Pulitzer Board decided not to award any news organization for the Breaking News Reporting category.

The New York Times and Los Angeles Times won two prizes each, and surprisingly the investigative report award went to Paige St. John of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for a property insurance investigation.

Most interesting is the prominence of online-only news organizations, as the independent and non-profit ProPublica took home its second Pulitzer. As Nieman noted, unlike the last year prize, won by Sheri Fink for Investigative Reporting, which was published in partnership with The New York Times Magazine, this year's prize was for a web-only series and it didn't move through a partner newspaper.

Some of Slovakia's leading media companies form joint paywall

Posted by Meghan Hartsell on April 18, 2011 at 12:42 PM

Paywalls have been erected by various news organizations over the past few years, but never has a paywall extended over a whole country. Nieman Lab reports that a group of media companies in Slovakia are attempting to do just that.

Nine major news organizations- including three broadsheet newspapers, a tabloid, two magazines and a television station- have partnered together through Piano Media for the project. The project launches today, April 18th, and will be free for the first two weeks. After that, users will pay €0.99 ($1.41/£0.87) per week or €2.90 ($4.14/£2.54) per month.

Hand-written Japanese newspaper from the tsunami to be displayed in a museum

Posted by Meghan Hartsell on April 15, 2011 at 5:05 PM

An earthquake and tsunami didn't stop the press. In Ishinomaki, Japan, the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, the town's only newspaper, refused to be thwarted. Even though it had no power, staff hand-wrote papers for residents. They were handed out at local relief centers.

Now, those hand-written copies have been attained by Newseum to be displayed in a future exhibit at the Time Warner World News Gallery, according to its site.

Survey: Canadians overwhelmingly opposed to digital subscriptions

Posted by Teemu Henriksson on April 13, 2011 at 12:50 PM

According to a recent online survey by the University of British Columbia, 81% of Canadian adults would not pay to read news online and 90% would find free alternatives if their preferred news services started charging for content.

"These results should give pause to any news corporations in Canada or abroad that are considering erecting paywalls around their content," said Donna Logan, a professor emerita of UBC's Graduate School of Journalism and the lead author of the study Canadian Consumers Unwilling to Pay for News Online. Almost 1,700 adults took part in the survey.

Press release: Newspapers world-wide to commemorate World Press Freedom Day

Posted by Emma Heald on April 6, 2011 at 4:29 PM

What do the Nobel Committee, Google, a Tunisian novelist and a Mexican journalist on the front lines of a drug war all have in common? They all have contributed to a package of editorials, essays and other materials being offered to newspapers world-wide to commemorate World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.

The wide ranging editorial and advertising materials, provided to newspapers and other media for publication on or around 3 May, are offered free of charge by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Thousands of newspapers publish WAN-IFRA materials each year to remind readers of the central role a free press plays in democracy and in economic, cultural, social and political development.

It's a question of timing and social timing

Posted by Federica Cherubini on March 30, 2011 at 1:26 PM

"That's the press baby, the press."
Once it was the press and the noise of the rotary printing press. Now it is social media strategy and the sound of tweets.

In the struggle to find a suitable social media strategy to follow, many researches provide data, analysis and advice on how to surf the social media world and try to find out how Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks really count in driving attention to news organizations websites.

"Tweet more and embrace the weekends" is the message coming out of research by Dan Zarrella , a social media scientist from HubSpot, a marketing software platform, reported by Nieman Lab. Zarrella has 33,000 Twitter followers himself.

Twitter vs Facebook: the "battle" of sharing on Mashable

Posted by Federica Cherubini on March 28, 2011 at 5:37 PM

It often happens that Twitter and Facebook are pointed out indiscriminately as examples of social media. And although they obviously both are, they have very different social environments and their users have very different behaviour patterns.

With these preliminary remarks, Mashable compared the click-per share of the two social platforms to find out how many people are actually reading what you tweet or share on Facebook and see, looking at its own data, how user behaviour compares between Facebook and Twitter, the two social media sites that generate the most referral traffic to Mashable.com.

Dutch Media landscape annual review

Posted by Federica Cherubini on March 23, 2011 at 5:45 PM

The Dutch Media Authority has been publishing an annual Media Monitor since 2002 on on-going trends in the Dutch media landscape.

As RNW's Media Network reported, a special edition for an international audience in English in now available: Media Monitor - The Dutch media in 2010.

Based on the concept of the importance of pluralism, the report analyses the media concentration in the country, the protagonists of the newspapers, television, radio and Internet market as well as the recent developments in the news media field.

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