July 2004 Archives

Have you seen the site newsdesigner.com? It's a great little blog, well written and perfectly designed (of course), all about news design and photojournalism. Useful postings show how multiple front pages approach the same story (ex; Lance Armstrong's Tour de France victory).

From cnet.com: Microsoft's Newsbot aggregator entered its test period today. The site is a competitor to Google News and runs on MSN's newly developed web search technology. Check out Newsbot and let us know what you think - I think the design is terrible, with the huge MSNBC logo running down the left-hand side. When I arrived at the home page, I didn't even see the search query box until I scrolled down the page and back up again.

Source: cnet.com

From cnet.com: Microsoft's Newsbot aggregator entered its test period today. The site is a competitor to Google News and runs on MSN's newly developed web search technology. Check out Newsbot and let us know what you think - I think the design is terrible, with the huge MSNBC logo running down the left-hand side. When I arrived at the home page, I didn't even see the search query box until I scrolled down the page and back up again.

Source: cnet.com

Just because I was in their offices ten days ago: according to New York Post, "Al-Jazeera, the Arab news network, will cover both the Republican and Democratic national conventions alongside other major TV networks for the first time. "They will be treated the same as all other media," RNC spokesman Lenny Alcivar told The Post yesterday, adding the Qatar-based satellite channel will be issued press credentials and a skybox just like CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and CNN for the late August convention at Madison Square Garden. Al-Jazeera will have similar access in Boston next week at the Democratic convention, according to the Boston Herald. It will be fun to watch how American media will cover Al Jazeera covering the conventions...

Source: New York Post

Axel Springer, Germany's biggest newspaper publisher, wants to expand the formula of the Polish newspaper "Fakt" to other countries, such as Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic. "Fakt" is the Polish version of the German newspaper "Bild" and was launched eight months ago. Within two months the paper became Poland's best selling daily, with 500,000 copies. Its editor, Grzegorz Jankowski, was invited as a speaker for the 11th World Editors Forum in Istanbul on 1 June 2004.

Source: - Financial Times via Libération/ Villamedia (Belgium) and the European Journalism Centre

Englishman Andrew Jaspan is the new editor-in-chief of The Age. Mr Jaspan, 52, will quit as editor of the Sunday Herald in Scotland to move to Melbourne. Fred Hilmer, chief executive of Fairfax, owner of The Age, told Age staff this afternoon that Mr Jaspan will take up his role in October. "We have appointed a world class editor for a world class newspaper," said Mr Hilmer. Mr Jaspan's appointment ends a three-month search for a successor to current editor-in-chief Michael Gawenda, who will take up a senior correspondent role in the United States for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. Mr Jaspan's newspaper philosophy has been described as liberal, but also "pro-enterprise and in favour of wealth creation", according to him. Mr Jaspan becomes the 21st editor of The Age, which is celebrating its 150th year in operation.

Source: The Age

New York Times.com has expanded its Really Simple Syndication (RSS) offerings to 27 categories, including new feeds such as Most E-mailed Articles, Multimedia and Week in Review. You can find all of the Times's RSS feeds at NYTimes.com/rss

Source: cyberjournalist.net

Through mediabistro: "In a surprise announcement, the Tribune Company yesterday replaced its publishers at the two newspapers, Newsday and Hoy, both of which are reeling from circulation scandals (see former posting).

Source: Editor & Publisher

According to New York Times, "There will be roughly 15,000 news media representatives in New York - more than three times the number of delegates - at the Republican convention... The press center at the convention, which is scheduled to take place Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, is being set up in the general post office in Midtown, an imposing fortress of a building that sprawls across two city blocks. The center has been connected to the convention site at Madison Square Garden by a $1 million temporary covered bridge over Eighth Avenue. Organizers are already comparing the complex to the Olympic village for the athletes competing in Athens this summer.

Source: New York Times

From Dagblad van het Noorden and the Dutch Commissariaat voor de Media (PDF file): In Britain and other European countries, the "compact revolution" refers to the trend of quality newspapers adopting the tabloid format, but that's not to say that all newly launched tabloids are in this genre. Dutch newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden reports that newspaper group Noordelijke Dagblad Combinatie (NDC) is planning to bring a tabloid to the market that will feature entertainment, action news and celebrities. The paper, tentatively titled NL NWS, borrows from the more traditional British tabloid model, featuring a "page 3 girl." Another tidbit from the Netherlands: did you know media consolidation there exceeds that in other European countries, with two groups, PCM and De Telegraaf, sharing 95.5% of the newspaper market? This report, in PDF format, examines the phenomenon.

Source: Dagblad van het Noorden and the Dutch Commissariaat voor de Media (PDF file)

From Dagblad van het Noorden and the Dutch Commissariaat voor de Media (PDF file): In Britain and other European countries, the "compact revolution" refers to the trend of quality newspapers adopting the tabloid format, but that's not to say that all newly launched tabloids are in this genre. Dutch newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden reports that newspaper group Noordelijke Dagblad Combinatie (NDC) is planning to bring a tabloid to the market that will feature entertainment, action news and celebrities. The paper, tentatively titled NL NWS, borrows from the more traditional British tabloid model, featuring a "page 3 girl." Another tidbit from the Netherlands: did you know media consolidation there exceeds that in other European countries, with two groups, PCM and De Telegraaf, sharing 95.5% of the newspaper market? This report, in PDF format, examines the phenomenon.

Source: Dagblad van het Noorden and the Dutch Commissariaat voor de Media (PDF file)

Seen on CBSmarketwatch: "An online bidder has offered $150,000 to buy the Web address KerryEdwards.com, according to a German firm hired to sell the politically-charged domain name. Matt Bentley, chief executive of Sedo, declined to reveal details about the bid, but said he expects additional, higher offers to be received during the scheduled two-week auction, which began Monday. KerryEdwards.com is owned by a 34-year-old man named Kerry Edwards, a part-time bail bondsman in Indianapolis. He registered KerryEdwards.com two years ago as a personal site for family and friends. "He's sitting on a lottery ticket," Bentley said. Last week, Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign said it had considered buying KerryEdwards.com, but it balked at the price. "We're very happy with our site, JohnKerry.com," a campaign spokeswoman said."

Source: CBSmarketwatch / Franck Barnabo

According to Jemima Kiss, dotjournalism.co.uk, "Africa's male-dominated media organisations often leave female journalists without adequate training and support, according to the African Women's Media Centre (AWMC), which has launched a new online resource. Under the slogan 'no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice', the first edition of the site provides information on training, networking groups and professional support, with a forum for discussion and advice. The site also includes information on awards, scholarship schemes and press freedom issues. The AWMC was founded in 1997 by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and is believed to be the only organisation working for African women in the media."

Sources: dotjournalism.co.uk and AWMC

In a long article dedicated to the UK broadcast industry, The Guardian reveals that "The BBC board of governors approved the strengthening of producer guidelines for journalists - including a new rule designed to prevent a repeat of the calamitous Radio 4 broadcast by Andrew Gilligan, in which he claimed the government had knowingly exaggerated intelligence on Iraq's weapons. In the new guidelines, reporters will be obliged to alert their department head if they do not intend to give the subject of the stories adequate time to respond to their allegations... In the new guidelines, journalists will be forced to refer upwards "if it is intended to broadcast an allegation in the public interest which we believe to be true, but where we do not propose to put the allegation to the persons or organisation concerned by the programme in time for a considered response before transmission in order to get the report into the public domain". There is also a mandatory referral if the reporter does not intend to alert a subject of an investigation as to the real purpose of their programme. These two rules are designed to reinforce the BBC's right to continue to make controversial investigative documentaries... The new guidelines also stipulate that programme makers also refer decisions to broadcast films where the central allegations are not put to third parties in time for a "considered response".

Source: MediaGuardian

For abcnews "The American editor of the Russian edition of Forbes said he believed the troubled country was entering a new era where businesses would not be run like mafia crime families, but when he was gunned down outside his Moscow office, the killing had all the signs of a mob hit. Paul Klebnikov, 41, who opened the Russian edition of Forbes this spring, was gunned down Friday as he was leaving work. The professional-style slaying of a journalist is all too common in Russia, where by some counts as many as 200 reporters have been killed since the collapse of the Soviet Union 13 years ago. In just a handful of those cases has anyone been convicted, a failure that human and journalists' rights groups say is a result of a combination of police and governmental corruption and an antipathy among officials toward journalists, especially those doing investigative work. "There is a problem that those in power don't want a free press," said Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalists in Extreme Situations, a Moscow-based group that works to promote the development of free, independent media in Russia.

Source: abcnews. See also Moscow News and former posting.

According to Presstime-NAA, "In the high-stakes race for political advertising dollars, never have US newspapers been better positioned to capture some of the spoils that traditionally fatten the coffers of television and radio. Recent changes in campaign finance laws, an increasingly fragmented broadcast landscape, and a desire to return to old-fashioned grass-roots politics could be a winning trifecta for newspaper executives. The multibillion-dollar political advertising category grows at a rate of about 10 percent every four years, but newspapers traditionally receive very little of the winnings. During the 2000 presidential campaign, the heartiest chunk of the political advertising pie, $807 million, went to TV, while newspapers got nothing more than an estimated $30 million piece of crust."

According to Presstime-NAA, "In the high-stakes race for political advertising dollars, never have US newspapers been better positioned to capture some of the spoils that traditionally fatten the coffers of television and radio. Recent changes in campaign finance laws, an increasingly fragmented broadcast landscape, and a desire to return to old-fashioned grass-roots politics could be a winning trifecta for newspaper executives. The multibillion-dollar political advertising category grows at a rate of about 10 percent every four years, but newspapers traditionally receive very little of the winnings. During the 2000 presidential campaign, the heartiest chunk of the political advertising pie, $807 million, went to TV, while newspapers got nothing more than an estimated $30 million piece of crust."

"In its last quarter, Apple shipped 876,000 Macs and 860,000 iPods, according to the press release about its financial results." Always more entertainment... If you know the way to put news in a ipod, tell me.

Source: Guardian blog

According to AFP, "Dakar's beleaguered independent Le Quotidien daily has been fined for defamation amid a week-long campaign to secure the release of its editor jailed on politically-motivated charges. A municipal court late Thursday found the daily guilty of publishing false information about former customs chief Boubacar Camara and slapped the managing editor, the jailed Madiambal Diagne, and publisher Mamadou Biaye with a 760-euros fine and a one-month suspended sentence... Diagne was jailed last week for publishing confidential reports and correspondence, false information and news "which could cause serious political problems". Diagne's incarceration has sparked outrage across Senegal, normally considered a bastion of democracy in Africa though it has been rapped of late for its inattention to press freedom by groups such as Amnesty International."

According to Chicago Tribune, "Tribune Co. said Thursday that it uncovered more circulation misstatements at its two New York newspapers and set aside $35 million to compensate advertisers who were overcharged. The revelations came as the Chicago-based publisher and broadcaster reported its second-quarter earnings, which plunged 58 percent from the year-earlier period. The decline was driven largely by charges for the circulation problems and for layoffs forced by lower-than-expected advertising revenue. In a conference call, Tribune said it had launched a number of steps to correct the inflated 2003 and 2004 circulation figures, disclosed last month at Newsday on New York's Long Island and at the New York edition of Hoy, a Spanish-language paper. But the company also said it found new circulation misstatements at the papers in those years, as well as in 2001 and 2002.

In the current American debate about "liberal media" and "liberal bias" in the media, this is a good counterpoint. "Outfoxed" is a documentary about how news is produced at the most successful network in the US, Fox Television. According to the Washington Post, Robert Greenwald - the producer - got the idea for the film after hearing other journalists talk about the "Foxification" of the business, a trend he defines as other news outlets becoming more conservative, sensational and dumbed down. He also had conversations with MoveOn President Wes Boyd, and former Clinton White House official John Podesta of the American Progress think tank, both of which helped finance his Iraq film. Getting insiders and ex-staffers to cooperate, says Greenwald, was "brutally hard." "Outfoxed" accuses Fox of blurring the line between news coverage and the high-decibel opinions of its commentators and hosts, especially Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity (who each night counts the days "until George W. Bush is reelected")."

In the current American debate about "liberal media" and "liberal bias" in the media, this is a good counterpoint. "Outfoxed" is a documentary about how news is produced at the most successful network in the US, Fox Television. According to the Washington Post, Robert Greenwald - the producer - got the idea for the film after hearing other journalists talk about the "Foxification" of the business, a trend he defines as other news outlets becoming more conservative, sensational and dumbed down. He also had conversations with MoveOn President Wes Boyd, and former Clinton White House official John Podesta of the American Progress think tank, both of which helped finance his Iraq film. Getting insiders and ex-staffers to cooperate, says Greenwald, was "brutally hard." "Outfoxed" accuses Fox of blurring the line between news coverage and the high-decibel opinions of its commentators and hosts, especially Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity (who each night counts the days "until George W. Bush is reelected")."

3 out of 10 Korean high school students who carry mobile phones are reported to be addicted to mobile phones. They feel anxious without their cell phones. According to the result of survey carried by the Hospital of Seoul National University, 21% of 270 high school students carrying cell phones responded that they feel anxious when their handsets are not in their hands and 8% of them said that they feel very frustrated without mobile phones. 10% of the respondents said that they have ever felt pain in the shoulder or wrist when they send SMS or play games on their phones.

This is not done by Gulf newspapers but it's important for them. For the first time a Gulf media outlet has unveiled a code of ethics and I hope it will be done by more Arab newspapers in the future. I am presently in Doha, Qatar and I have met Waddah Khanfar, Al Jazeera Managing Director. He told me this code of ethics (click here for the text) was a first step and that in 2005 there will be new attemps to answer to viewers asking for more professionalism and more ethics among the TV staff.

According to the Washington Post, "In a rare rebuke of an ally, the Bush administration announced yesterday that it will cut $18 million in military and economic aid to the authoritarian government of Uzbekistan because it has failed to take a series of promised steps to improve its human rights record... Among the steps expected were the introduction of free and fair elections, a free press, economic reforms and an end to torture in prisons...

From BrandRepublic: "The Times Online is giving readers the chance to hear what is believed to be an undiscovered Beatles track, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon and called 'I'm in Love', which has not been heard in more than 30 years." Peter Bale, Times Online's editorial director, said: "This is the first time that this recording of 'I'm in Love' has been heard in more than 30 years. We are very excited to give Times Online readers and Beatles fans the opportunity to judge for themselves and decide whether this track is part of this lost Beatles archive." Source: BrandRepublic - Media Bulletin

From BrandRepublic: "The Times Online is giving readers the chance to hear what is believed to be an undiscovered Beatles track, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon and called 'I'm in Love', which has not been heard in more than 30 years." Peter Bale, Times Online's editorial director, said: "This is the first time that this recording of 'I'm in Love' has been heard in more than 30 years. We are very excited to give Times Online readers and Beatles fans the opportunity to judge for themselves and decide whether this track is part of this lost Beatles archive." Source: BrandRepublic - Media Bulletin

According to AFP, "The agency that audits newspaper circulation figures has sanctioned three US newspapers, including Hollinger's Chicago Sun-Times, for inflating sales figures. The Audit Bureau of Circulations said Monday that it will tighten oversight of the Sun-Times, Newsday and the Spanish-language daily Hoy in response to the newspapers' "deceptive and fraudulent circulation practices." The Illinois-based agency plans to exclude them from its semi-annual report of "top-line" publisher circulation, FAS-FAX. "The relationship between publisher and advertiser is based upon trust," ABC board chairman Robert Troutbeck said in a statement in which he spelled out the sanctions.

Source: AFP

Dana is on holiday and I will be in Bahrain and Qatar for the rest of the week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to update the blog until the "Bastille day" (remember I'm French!) on 14 July. So, the better is to consider the blog suspended for five days... I will do my best if something important happens. You can always contact me at: bpecquerie@wan.asso.fr

Dana is on holiday and I will be in Bahrain and Qatar for the rest of the week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to update the blog until the "Bastille day" (remember I'm French!) on 14 July. So, the better is to consider the blog suspended for five days... I will do my best if something important happens. You can always contact me at: bpecquerie@wan.asso.fr

Cyberjournalist reveals that "The Democrats have started issuing credentials to bloggers. Some of the ones credentialed with hall passes include: • Dave Winer of Scripting News • Dave Weinberger • Taegan Goddard's Political Wire • NYU's Jay Rosen, who has lengthy essay about the incoherence of modern conventions and the freshness bloggers may bring. • Markos Moulitsas Zuniga from the Daily Kos" and...

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell joins the blogosphere at Always on Network. Nevertheless, more related to the TV industry than the newspaper industry. But with media convergence, it will be the same issue in 2010, isn't it?

Source: Always on Network

Paul Khlebnikov, a prominent American journalist who had written about the connections of politics, business and crime in Russia is dead Friday. Gunmen have shot dead the Russian editor of Forbes magazine, who earned notoriety by writing a book about exiled magnate Boris Berezovsky. Khlebnikov, 41, had walked out of his office late on Friday in north-eastern Moscow when a car pulled up and several shots were fired at him. Khlebnikov, a US citizen of Russian origin, died on his way to hospital. He was the latest victim of post-Soviet city-centre killings which have struck down officials, businessmen and journalists. Forbes, the magazine which tracks the worth of the world's wealthy, started publication in Russia in April 2004 and a month later issued a list of Russia's biggest fortunes. Dominated by oil magnates and metals tycoons, it revealed Moscow to be the city with the world's most billionaires.

From the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas: "A report by the magazine Noticias alleged that the federal government has used an advertising fund of $27 million to pressure the media to provide favorable coverage, according to Noticias and Crónica. According to Noticias, a private audit into official publicity claimed that media that publish paid government announcements are more likely to support President Néstor Kirchner. The investigation also claimed that the newspapers and TV channels with smaller audiences have received more money than larger media.

Source: Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

According to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, "An Argentine reporter and Brazilian photographer have won awards by the Foundation for a New Ibero-American Journalism (FNPI in Spanish), the organization led by Colombian author and journalist Gabriel García Márquez, El Nuevo Herald (Miami Herald) and El Tiempo reported. FNPI's 2004 FNPI-CEMEX prize was awarded to Josefina Licitra in the print category for a story about a 15-year-old kidnapperwho escaped from prison several times. In the photography category, Mauricio Lima won for his photo "Hope without a Home" taken for the French news agency Agence France-Presse.

Source: Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

Jemima Kiss, dotjournalism, reveals that in England, "the website of controversial documentary maker Michael Moore has seen a dramatic increase in traffic ahead of Fahrenheit 911's release on 9 July. Web intelligence firm Hitwise reports that MichaelMoore.com's UK market share of visits has increased 148 per cent since 12 June. The site was also the seventh most visited political website among UK web users and 'Michael Moore' was the sixth most popular political search term. MichaelMoore.com was recently redesigned and will soon feature a blog written by Mr Moore.

Source: dotjournalism

Very bad news from the Netherlands. According to Expatica News - Novum Nieuws 2004, "Dutch national newspapers experienced large losses in circulation in the first quarter of 2004 compared with the same period last year, media institute HOI said on Tuesday. The biggest loser was liberal Christian daily Trouw, which saw its circulation fall 9.6 percent to 110,686. The Rotterdam-based Algemeen Dagblad lost 8.6 percent and the daily circulation of De Volkskrant fell 6 percent. The best-selling newspaper De Telegraaf saw its circulation decline 3.8 percent to 732,455, while Amsterdam's Het Parool recorded a 5.5 percent fall to 85,101."

According to MediaWeek, "A European survey of business titles has found the Financial Times is way ahead of its rivals in terms of readership and audience coverage among the business community. Both print and online versions of the Financial Times were ranked number one in the Europe 2004 survey, conducted by Ipsos-RSL, covering 10 million business executives in 16 European countries. According to the survey, the Financial Times now reaches approximately 664,000 leading professionals and executives each day, and has 20% more readers than its closest competitor, Time, 46% more than the Economist and four times that of the Wall Street Journal Europe. The website, FT.com was found to be the fastest growing site, reaching almost eight per cent of the overall online European business audience - double that of Economist.com.

Source: MediaWeek

According to Netimperative, "Guardian Newspapers will take its 'Soulmates' dating service online next week. The launch comes on the back of its existing telephone dating service in conjunction with automated service provider, Telecom Express, and follows a recent surge in UK activity for services providing romance via the internet. Design of the site is being handled in-house at the Guardian, while 'original' editorial will include real life stories, dating advice, and features written by Guardian reporters. After the announcement of the possibility to download music from newspapers' websites, this is another online service provided by traditional media. Business is business.

According to Netimperative, "Guardian Newspapers will take its 'Soulmates' dating service online next week. The launch comes on the back of its existing telephone dating service in conjunction with automated service provider, Telecom Express, and follows a recent surge in UK activity for services providing romance via the internet. Design of the site is being handled in-house at the Guardian, while 'original' editorial will include real life stories, dating advice, and features written by Guardian reporters. After the announcement of the possibility to download music from newspapers' websites, this is another online service provided by traditional media. Business is business.

A very good synthesis from Louis Jebb, The Independent, about the "compact fever" across Europe, Russia, Egypt... I'll just mention the timeline at the end of the article: "30 September 2003 The Independent becomes the first dual-format newspaper, December 2003 The Times goes dual-format, 21 January 2004, The Belgian regional Gazet van Antwerpen goes dual-format, switching to compact format only in March, February 2004 The Irish Independent launches a compact edition, adding 10 per cent to sales, 6 March 2004 The Scotsman launches a Saturday compact edition, May 2004 Switzerland's largest-selling title, Blick, goes dual-format, 24 May 2004 Axel Springer, the German publisher, launches trial for Welt Kompakt, taking stories from its broadsheets, Die Welt and the Berliner Morgenpost, 17 May 2004 The Independent drops broadsheet format and becomes the first quality compact newspaper, June 2004 The Guardian and The Observer will adopt Le Monde-size format in 2006, autumn 2004 three of Sweden's main newspapers plan to go compact, January 2005, Norway's leading daily, Aftenposten, plans to go compact.

Source: The Independent

German newspaper publishers say they expect further losses this year, but see improved results to come. "We will have to report sales losses for the fourth year in a row in 2004, but the crisis is past," Volker Schulze, head of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers said Tuesday, the Financial Times Deutschland reports. Schulze said he expects German newspaper sales, which fell 5.5 percent in 2003, will stabilize in 2004. He would not speculate about 2005. German newspaper publishers have been severely suffering for several years. In 2003, overall advertising earnings fell 10 percent, with daily newspapers taking the brunt of the hit.

Source: Washington Times via FT Deutschland

Good column from Cynthia Webb, Washington Post: "The Internet's role in politics continues to solidify with Democratic presidential contender John Kerry's announcement this morning that he picked North Carolina Sen. John Edwards as his running mate. The Kerry campaign last week said it would first announce its vice-presidential pick on its Web site and via e-mail, a leap forward for the Internet as a viable campaign tool. The campaign did just that this morning, just before Kerry delivered the news at a speech in Pittsburgh. After that, the Kerry team added the news to his Web site, fresh with a picture of Kerry and Edwards together. The announcement was also posted on Kerry's official blog."

Sources: Washington Post and official John Kerry weblog. See also a good interview in Poynter online.

Journal Register Co., publisher of the New Haven Register, said on Tuesday it would buy privately held 21st Century Newspapers Inc. for $415 million in cash, extending its presence to markets throughout Michigan. Following the deal, Michigan will become the Journal Register's No. 2 regional newspaper cluster based on revenue -- number 1 is the greater Philadelphia area. 21st Century, based in Pontiac, Michigan, publishes four daily newspapers and 87 other publications including weeklies and real estate guides. Journal Register, based in Trenton, New Jersey, currently publishes 23 daily newspapers focused on smaller cities and suburban areas. It also publishes 240 non-daily publications.

Source: Reuters through Yahoo

From La Repubblica via Fashiongates.com: "Ex-Gucci designer Tom Ford is reportedly trying his hand at cinema: Ford is planning a shoot at Cinecitta studios in Rome. His film is set in a glamorous and cruel world of fashion. The story unfolds around two powerful magazine editors ready to use all means to dominate the fashion scene... La Repubblica newspaper said on Friday the Texan-born fashion-designer had a script ready and was due to shoot.

Source: La Repubblica via Fashiongates.com

From the Washington Post: Last week, we noted the Washington Post's explanation for why it decided to publish the "F-word" following a confrontation between Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy. Now, Post ombudsman Michael Getler writes that while he backs the paper's decision to print the word, he doesn't support the way Post reporters framed the story: "Having obviously put a lot of thought and deliberation into deciding to use Cheney's exact language, Post editors then proceeded to neglect their responsibilities, in my view and those of several readers, by failing to take out some smart-aleck and tendentious writing by the reporters. I'm not going to repeat the word, but the key sentence read: '"[Expletive] yourself," said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency.' Why not just say, 'said the vice president,' as one reader asked. ... This was guaranteed to be an explosive story because of the language. It should have been done in a way that was beyond reproach journalistically."

Source: The Washington Post

Maybe the first good news in Algeria since the Bouteflika re-election... According to Reuters, "The Algerian Government has held rare talks with dozens of independent newspaper editors to try to end a long-running feud, only a day after another editor was jailed for slandering an official. Relations between President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the north African country's leading national dailies hit new lows this month after the imprisonment of several journalists... Until now the Government has refused any discussions with the media but diplomats said Sunday's discussions suggest it may be feeling pressure from critics abroad as Algeria re-enters the international community after years of isolation."

Source: Reuters via ABC. See also our former posting.

Farhan el-Zoghbi has been in jail since 1970! And it happens in Syria... His wife, Sabah el-Turkmani, told Elaph magazine (in Arabic) that she hoped he would be liberated in the coming months by Syrian president Bachir El Assad. But who knows -- it is possible that there is an even longer-serving prisoning in China!

Source: Courrier International

According to MediaBulletin, "Stephen Glover's plans to launch a new quality tabloid newspaper have been put into question after the City rebuffed his latest fundraising attempts. According to reports, Glover, founder of The Independent and columnist for The Daily Mail and The Spectator, is planning to approach the private equity bidders who lost out in the race for the Telegraph Group. However, these groups, including 3i and Collins Stewart, declined the approach for backing three months ago. According to the Daily Telegraph, Glover has appointed investment firm, Cardona Lloyd, to assist him with fundraising efforts... Insiders claim that private equity groups 3i, Candover and Cinven, as well as stockbroker Collins Stewart and German media firm Axel Springer, will not support the project. The position of Express Newspaper owner Richard Desmond and the Daily Mail & General Trust is unclear, as is that of private equity groups Apax and CVC, which were all in the running for the Telegraph Group."

Source: MediaBulletin

UK: Stephen Parker, managing director of Trinity Mirror's regional newspapers, has been appointed as The Newspaper Society's new president. Stephen joined the board of Trinity Mirror in 1993 and was appointed executive director of regional newspapers (North) in September 1999. He was appointed managing director in September 2000. Parker took over the presidency from John Robertson, deputy chairman of the Newbury Weekly News. A new president is elected from the membership each July.

Source: Holdthefrontpage and The Newspaper Society website.

Just one quote in a very good essay by Francis Fukuyama in the Observer: "In what now seems like the distant era of the dotcom revolution, a lot of Silicon Valley techno-libertarians saw an increasingly stateless world in which governments 'got out of the way' of wealth creators. Unfortunately, that world is one in which a lot of other, less beneficent actors run free as well. Radical Islamists can make good use of the web to post videos of their beheaded captives. With globalisation, coercive technologies have become democratised and more freely available to 'super-empowered individuals'." Now Francis Fukuyama wants a stronger government! Better late than never.

Source: The Observer / The Guardian

Just posted on Hans Kullin's weblog: "Here is a brilliant example, maybe the most ambitious, of blogs as media watchdogs in Sweden so far... Stockholm Spectator accuses Dagens Nyheter of plagiarism and claim that a reporter has copied at least four articles from the New York Times without giving the original author or the paper any credit. The full story here is quite interesting and contains correspondence between The Spectator and the editor of DN Kultur. The story is now spreading across the blogosphere and it doesn't seem that DN are willing to do a media culpa, which leads me to believe that we haven't heard the end of it yet." To be continued.

Sources: Media Culpa and Stockholm Spectator