Editors Weblog: Search Results

I from the Independent has arrived: affordable, concise, but will it complement or replace its parent paper?

Posted by Emma Heald on October 26, 2010 at 10:16 AM

The Independent's new daily i launches today. Billed as the first quality daily to launch in Britain in 25 years, it aims to provide a full news service "in a way that is fully accessible," Independent deputy editor Adam Leigh told the Editors Weblog. It is not a new paper in terms of content, rather will almost entirely consist of repurposed and repackaged Independent content, presented in a new and more concise format. Media commentator for the Guardian Roy Greenslade described it as "quite simply, a populist alter ego to the Independent."

"Daily briefing is a phrase that we've used a lot while we've been developing it," said Leigh, who will be specifically involved with i, while the Independent's other deputy editor Dan Gledhill focuses on the main edition of the Independent. However, he stressed, it is more than that, it is "a newspaper first and foremost and it will cover a range of different content for a range of moments throughout the day." Many of the news stories near the front of the paper will only be one paragraph long, but throughout the 56-page paper there will also be longer pieces, or "places to pause," as Leigh put it.

"In essence, it's a different way to consume Independent content: a different mechanism for getting the same stuff," said Leigh.

The paper is targeted at people "who have, for a variety of reasons, fallen out of the habit of reading a quality daily every day." It is not specifically targeted at younger people, said Leigh, although many young people are indeed less likely than their parents to read a quality daily each day and therefore comprise some of this target group.

"I is going to be a paper for everyone, we hope, and we would like to think that all readers of all ages, from all professions and all socio-economic groups, would find it interesting," Leigh stressed.

He explained that rather than competing with the other national dailies, with i the Independent is actually trying to expand the market, to recapture those people who feel either that "newspapers have become too unwieldy and contain too much content that they don't have time to get to grips with in their daily lives," or that "they feel that they can't justify the purchase cost of the newspaper." The more concise, affordable i, at 20p, is designed to address both of these issues.

Who's making it happen?

There will be no staff specifically dedicated to writing solely for i, said Leigh. Reporters will file different versions of the same story for the different papers. For example, Leigh said, "if our science editor writes an 800-word story about the genetic modification of salmon for the Independent, he will file a 400-word story at the same time for i." The shorter version may leave out some detail, sources or background, being designed to provide the essential information on the story: "the emphasis is on getting to the point," Leigh said.

Simon Kelner, current editor of the Independent who returned to the position after the paper was purchased by the Lebedevs in March, after a spell as editor-in-chief and managing editor, will edit both papers. I hopes to have the same editorial voice as its sister paper.

A small number of new production staff have been hired, to enable the company to put out two papers each day. The design and layout is very different to that of the Independent, Leigh said, resulting in a unique look and feel. "It challenges many of the ways in which newspaper have traditionally been laid out and constructed," he added.

Apps but no website

The new paper will not have a dedicated website, but any original content that is produced for it will appear on the Independent's site, where the new paper will also be promoted.

Launching a new print product is surely a bold move in today's increasingly digital age, when circulation is falling at quality UK dailies, as it is at papers around the Western world. Leigh believes that "print is still a very convenient and powerful thing," noting that "when there's a major news event, people turn very quickly to print: they want to hold something in their hands."

That said, a subscription-based i iPad app will also be launched in the next couple of weeks, followed by "at least one or two" iPhone products around i, Leigh said.

Will it work? What are the implications for the UK newspaper industry?

Inevitably, comparisons have been drawn with the Portuguese paper of the same name (though different pronunciation and meaning in Portuguese), which launched in spring 2009, also aiming to provide a 'daily briefing' and capture people who haven't been reading newspapers before. Leigh was clear, however, that he hadn't even heard of this paper until very recently, and that the only even vaguely similar paper of which staff were aware during the development process was the RedEye in Chicago: a free daily put out by the Chicago Tribune aimed at the under-35 market.

The Portuguese i, although boasting of early successes, and receiving international acclaim for its innovative design and forward-thinking approach, has been losing a good deal of money, reported the Guardian. Welt Kompact is another paper with a similar aim from Germany's Die Welt, to provide "essential news on politics, business, finance and world events - and the highest standards of journalism - all in a handy tabloid format." NRC next is another, a Dutch daily that targets young well-educated people who have not read newspapers before.

"As the profitability of daily papers has declined, publishers have tried shrinking and distilling the contents, both to lower their costs and try to appeal to younger readers who are time-poor," George Brock, head of journalism at London's City University and former Saturday editor at the Times, commented to the EW. "Portugal's i, Germany's Welt Kompakt and NRC Next in the Netherlands are all examples of this trend. But it's not a big trend and not all the experiments have worked; these isolated cases have not reversed the fall in print readership among younger people in Europe," he continued.

Are most newspapers too full/too big to make sense in today's fragmented media landscape? Do people have time for them any more? If it is really the case that a smaller, more concise product is more relevant for the ever-growing digital generation, and others, then does it make sense to maintain the others?

As Brock said, "I'd guess that if The Independent does succeed with its own "i", the larger, older version of the paper will disappear." The Independent is also undergoing a redesign, presumably to further separate it from its new younger sibling paper.

Although its editors insist it is targeting a new audience, there is a clear risk that i's success could be dependent on its capturing Independent readers. If a substantial number of people start to buy the new paper for 20p rather than the old for £1, this cannot be good news for the company. Greenslade speculates that the new paper is preparation for the not-imminent-but-one-day-inevitable death of the Independent, which has a smaller and falling circulation than other UK quality dailies. Press Gazette's Dominic Ponsford suggests a similar thing.

The Observer's Peter Preston described the new paper as more of a threat than the other quality dailies seem to realise. "Suppose 20p on the morning train in from Beckenham or Blackburn buys you a brisk, intelligent, briefing of a read you can put in the bin when you leave the station. It's a slightly upmarket, marginally more expensive alternative to the ubiquitous Metro. It does the mind-filling job for one-fifth of the £1 the full Indy would cost - solid gold in an era of crunch," he wrote.

Independent owner Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny also own London's daily The Evening Standard, which they took free in October 2009. The addition of i to their stable gives them a range of papers with which to experiment: whether or not the new paper succeeds, it is something different and will be an extremely interesting project to watch for the rest of the UK newspaper market.

For more visuals of the first edition of i please see here, courtesy of the Guardian.

World's press calls for end to criminal defamation, insult laws

Posted by Emma Heald on October 4, 2010 at 6:40 PM

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) today called on African nations to immediately abolish criminal defamation and "insult" laws that are widely used to silence criticism and intimidate free reporting across the continent.

"The repeal of insult and criminal defamation laws is crucial for the advancement of press freedom across Africa, and is necessary to allow the press to carry out its work as the guarantor of public accountability without fear of imprisonment or reprisal," said a resolution from the Board of WAN-IFRA, meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

Female readership trends require training women journalists in computer programming

Posted by Stefanie Chernow on August 23, 2010 at 11:57 AM

Women are underrepresented in both the creation and consumption of newspapers, but this trend is changing fast. The statistics are slowly rising of news consumption by women, especially concerning electronic media. A recent study by ComScore released data suggesting that women stay online longer than men and spend their time chatting and purchasing goods and services. "They're embracing the internet in a way that men are not," says a spokesperson from ComScore.

InPublishing electronic magazine has also seen a trend of women accounting for a larger portion of their readership. In 1999, 62% of American men read a newspaper, while only 44% of women accounted for the American newspapers' readership. Ten years later in 2009, the number of men who read newspaper decreased to 47%, while the percentage of women who reader newspapers remained the same at 44%. This gender gap is decreasing globally, with Japan's gender difference shrinking from 25% to 2% within the same ten year period. Germany is the only country in the developed markets which has a widening of this gap between the genders. Yet Japan has only had a 7% drop in newspaper revenue in the last decade, while Germany's sales have taken a major drop in revenue at 20%.

WikiLeaks floods again with the help of major newspapers

Posted by Stefanie Chernow on July 26, 2010 at 4:40 PM

WikiLeaks has struck again, with the biggest intelligence leak in history. Several weeks ago, WikiLeaks received about 91,000 reports concerning raw information of the war in Afghanistan. In an unprecedented decision WikiLeaks decided not to immediately release the highly classified reports, but instead shared its findings first with the New York Times, The Guardian, and the Der Spiegel.

It can be speculated that these three newspapers where chosen as a prestigious validity check on the reports, as they are top media outlets in the US, the UK, and Germany respectively. Conversely The Telegraph criticizes WikiLeaks for its supposed stance on being politically neutral while only releasing the reports to left-wing newspapers.

Poland: Covering the media with several revenue streams

Posted by Jean-Pierre Tailleur on May 12, 2010 at 12:25 PM

A recent issue of Polish monthly Press, picked up at random, featured a respected cartoonist and satirist, Henryk Sawka. On the front page, his face was half split between a picture shot on the right and a sketch on the left, showing his glasses and his grayish hair covering his chin up to his head. Inside that December 2009 edition, the five page article devoted to the illustrator through an interview, showed staged portraits produced in a photo studio, making fun of his moustache for instance, and conveying his sense of humor and provocation.

The other sections of the 100-page magazine were less glossy, illustrated with archived and agency pictures, or graphs and charts on economic trends and statistics. The most glamorous photos came from ads featuring luxury products, banks, or the cities of Gdansk and Lodz. As to the texts, they were edited with a special concern for added value information, as reported by Polish language speakers and checked with a Google-translation of some of them.

Press follows the vibrant Polish media outlets, providing in-depth analyses, profiles or figures on readerships and audiences for example. It sells close to 6000 copies on average in this country of 37 million inhabitants, mostly in kiosks. It is therefore critical for its editors to present high profile media players on the cover page, and in a sophisticated way. In newsstands, the trade publication sometimes looks as attractive and glossy as many home and entertainment magazines.

In addition to print media, its historical base, Press covers the content and economic dimensions of broadcast and internet outlets, as well as public relations and advertising. It has been an authoritative source of information on Poland's media for nearly 15 years, even though some news executives complain off the record that like in many trade publications, the fire-wall between journalistic content and advertising is not always hermetic.

The monthly's specialization on journalism and communication is rare in central and eastern Europe. In Poland, another magazine called Brief, created 11 years ago, covers the industry more from a marketing perspective and the announcers' stand-point. In Hungary, Lapkiadás es Mediapac (which means "page edition and media market") was launched in 2004, and is sent for free to the local news and communication players; its owner also publishes trade magazines on distribution, on wine. In the Balkans, the South East Europe Media Organization releases a quarterly called De Scripto, produced with the University of Vienna. But its coverage is narrower, each edition being focused on a specific country. In Austria, Der Österreichische Journalist has been a reference for many years. Bimonthly magazine Edito, launched recently in Switzerland, is also a noteworthy initiative, as most of its constituency is the less than two million people strong French speaking community.

The Press project started in 1995, just a few years after Poland's switch from communism to democracy, and the first issue was released in February 1996. Andrzej Skworz, the editor-in-chief and founder, created the publishing house of the same name in his home town of Poznan. After running the regional newsroom of Gazeta Wyborcza in the previous years, he had created his own media consulting firm. As he was advising local newspapers, he realized that in his post-dictatorial country, people working in media and in advertising "needed to be informed and to share opinions about journalism standards."

Discussions on ethical issues and on the best practices were relatively new at that time. There was a willingness to scrutinize examples from abroad, as Skworz did for the concept of his new magazine. Press was initially inspired by two publications established since the 1970s and following the publishing industry in Italy and in the United States, Prima comunicazione and Folio respectively.

Since then, Press has in some ways outdone its western models, trying not to be dull like many B-to-B publications. The Polish magazine is also very demanding in text quality, as now many outlets write about media and its readers are very good targets for announcers. In Germany, the "Medienmagazin" Journalist, also a monthly, lags behind in terms of attractiveness and supply of facts on the industry. In France, quarterly Medias may appear to be close to Press in glossiness, but it informs from an abstract, social rather than professional perspective, tending to offer articles on general topics like press freedom or political pressure. It typically gives the voice to intellectuals whose main merit is to be well known, and who observe the media without necessarily being experts on them. Unlike Press, most articles are single-sourced and less is invested in the illustration of the leading story. In its spring 2009 issue, a few months before the piece on Henryk Sawka, Medias also devoted its cover to a high-profile political cartoonist, Plantu, who works for Le Monde. The interviews were comparable but the illustrations not. Medias' were less costly and creative, with monotonous drawings and pictures, and plain reproductions of Plantu's works.

Press employs about 50 people now, split between a Warsaw office housing the journalists and most of the advertising team, and the central office based about 300 kilometers west in Poznan, mostly for the administrative and marketing departments. Andrzej Skworz is known in the industry for flying his own plane - which can make his working days easier - but the publishing house is by no means a gold mine. He had to fight along the years in order to break even.

Skworz started the project with few funds, and asked several highly rated journalists - many of whom being contributors still - to help Press build its brand. They included former dissidents like Stefan Bratkowski, the president of the Society of Journalists closed in 1981 and reactivated after the collapse of communism. Or Leopold Unger, an international affairs specialist exiled many years in Belgium and working for Le Soir. His columns also appeared in The International Herald Tribune and Gazeta Wyborcza. The participation of Mariusz Ziomecki - another well known, exiled publicist who worked for a newspaper in Detroit during the 1980s - were also instrumental in bringing about seven partners to Press, advertisers and bankers in particular. The same for the younger Boguslaw Chrabota, a writer associated with Polsat television.

Press' founder also called his former Gazeta Wyborcza colleagues, who were reliable professionals and could speak a foreign language. Renata Gluza, now the monthly's chief editor running the Warsaw newsroom and directly in charge of the content, started contributing for the fourth issue. She was then a GW staff journalist in Krakow, Poland's second city, and Skworz asked her to go to Germany and prepare a cover story about the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She joined Press in October 1997 full time, covering print and broadcast media in Poland and also foreign journalism in particular from German and English-language countries.

"At that time, Polish independent newspapers and stations were still workds in process," Skworz remembers. "We described the best European and American journalism practices, and explained how to be as good." The interest in foreign journalism has waned, however, as the gap between media in Poland and in western democracies has narrowed significantly.

As the trade magazine had to extend its revenue streams, it created the "Grand Press Award" in 1997, inspired by Columbia University's Pulitzer Price in the United States. It celebrates the best journalists of the country every year, during the biggest event in the industry. The publishing house also launched the "Grand Press Photo" awards in 2005, in association with the World Press Photo contest. It is organized in May and followed by the publication in September of a book showing the selected photos.

These activities beyond the trade magazine help nourish the publishing house's brand with money making special products. Since 2003 however, through Presserwis, a daily newsletter about media and advertising, the Skworz-Gluza duo has built another recognized brand which provides a more constant revenue stream. "I was against because it was not at the pace of our monthly, with which you cannot cover breaking news", Gluza says. "But Presserwis turned out to be a great idea because it preserves some freshness, with about 30-40 news items every day."

The electronic newsletter was initially offered free for a one month promotional period, which attracted paid subscribers. All the big media came, as for media player they also learnt about their own companies. The Agora group, owner of numerous media outlets including GW, which is dominant in Poland and controls as many niches as possible, was reluctant to join but did so after one year. "We try to provide value-added info rather than gossip. Real news, basic journalistic work, and no PR materials from companies, with no excuses for mistakes," says Gluza.

Of course, a paid e-newsletter does not bring much money. A banner in Presserwis brings a small fraction of the revenues you get in a full ad page in a monthly. But the advertisers usually buy one-month banner campaigns, which bring in as much as one page in Press. "Today our e-newsletter is not only a well known brand on the internet, but it brings to the Press company about one third of its income," adds Gluza.

"So far my greatest challenge was to create and run my own publishing house," Skworz concludes. "For the future, we have to establish Press in the digital era according to our motto, which is not only covering, but also putting the pressure on the media".

Event: World Newspaper Congress called off, World Editors Forum postponed

Posted by Emma Heald on May 11, 2010 at 12:04 PM

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has been forced to call off the World Newspaper Congress and postpone the World Editors Forum, planned for Beirut from 7 to 10 June next, due to the failure of the Lebanese host organisation to meet its financial commitments.

"It is with immense disappointment that we are forced to call off our events in Beirut, but it was simply impossible to go ahead without the commitment of our Lebanese colleagues, who were responsible for security and other significant infrastructural and service expenses," said Gavin O'Reilly, President of WAN-IFRA. "We deeply regret that we cannot bring these events to Lebanon, particularly as this will cause immense inconvenience for our members, but this is not feasible without a local partner."

Albania: a dream country for newspapers in terms of number of dailies, if not of readers

Posted by Jean-Pierre Tailleur on January 11, 2010 at 1:26 PM

In many streets corners of Tirana, newspaper stands are illustrations of how the time of Albania's monolithic communist press has become history, also contradicting the gloomy future often predicted for the industry worldwide. In the capital's hip Blokku district, for instance, the kiosks show glossy magazines with their assortments of automobile, women, computer, and leisure titles. They are less numerous than in developed democracies, but leave a feeling of a vibrant industry.

Similar publications, some of which are familiar to western European and American readers, can be spotted in other limited places like the commercial streets of Durres, the second city and main port. Some Albanian names convey a local exotic touch (Klan, Spekter, Psikologji), unlike other magazines spotted even in areas not so much visited by foreigners (the original English-language, Italian, French, and even Spanish versions of Gente, Femme actuelle, Cosmopolitan).

More intriguing are the political dailies often displayed horizontally on tables - or vertically, hanging like cloths from a string - in front of the newsstands. They are plentiful, easily numbering more than a dozen, which is considerable for a country with only 3.6 million inhabitants. Their cover pages are also widely visible on Albanian television channels,which fill their news program every morning with endless press reviews quoting the main headlines.

Not less remarkable is the fact that print media's oversupply is not enhanced by low brow, yellow journalism. One can spot gossip outlets called Paloma or Intervista, but their presence is somewhat discrete, for the moment at least. Albania does not seem to have followed a strong pattern prevalent in other Balkan countries from Croatia to Romania, with the splashy presence of graphic papers. "One can say that of Kosovo [also primarily populated by ethnic Albanians], where most newspapers are based on a British concept, more tabloid-like. This could not succeed in Albania, because of the communist mentality and not because of Islam [the dominant religion]," comments Albert Gjoka, quality daily Albania's deputy editor-in-chief. "Rather we follow the Italian model with small pictures, big texts, and classical design."

Other serious newspapers with well-established brands include Shekulli ["Century"], Gazeta Shqiptare ["Albanian newspaper"], Zeri i Popullit ["Voice of the People"]. These names are familiar to anyone who wiki-googled the country's press before discovering it directly on the screens or in the streets. Other dailies may ring less a bell, whether they are called Panorama, Republika, or Tirana Observer (not written in English despite its name, and unlike the Albanian Daily News).

In the sport niche, the titles are far from being limited to Sporti Shqiptar [="Albanian sport"]. This is not surprising for a nation where soccer is worshipped everywhere, from district and village matches to international encounters (enhanced by highly visible betting stores and billboards). The self-described oldest Balkan sport paper - created in the 1930s before being shut down when the country became hermetically closed from the rest of the world - has been facing new competitors. Passerbys can spot names like Ekspres Sport, Metropol sport, Sporti & basti, Panorama sport. With its black and white cover page, the so-called Bota e sportit gives a now rare arch-communist flavor to the few kiosks where it is available.

At least 20 general news dailies

Even more than in soccer leagues, it is hard to establish a definitive ranking between the more than 20 general news dailies published in a country lacking audited circulation figures. Positions can change as quickly as the way players change clubs or editors switch to other newsrooms. From watching people in the streets or talking to journalists, however, the press league champion at the end of this first decade of the millennium seems to be Panorama. Shekulli has been at the top of the podium in the past years (if not the most profitable as its cover price is lower than many of its competitors'), but it is now joined - and maybe overtaken - by Panorama with circulation of 20,000.

Their closest and most respected followers, selling less than 10,000 copies, include the Italian-owned Gazeta Shqiptare (which set the tone for the new democracy's media, as many of its former editors now control other important outlets), Shqip or (same name in English) Albania. "Our price is about the double of the two best sellers', and the quantity of news we provide is longer, with 32 pages," says Dori Daka, Shqip's deputy editor-in-chief.

Panorama does not differ much from its peers in appearance, but it seems to be the most popular daily as also shown by an aged cloths seller met at the bazaar. A much younger journalism student, Elida Rustemi, says that she reads it "because it is more factual, less politicized." The would-be reporter attends the so-called UFO University, a private school based on Tirana's central Skanderbeg Square. "UFO" means "Universitas Fabrefacta Optime", and the institution is recognized by established journalists. But these abbreviations convey a feeling of strangeness.

There is definitely a sci-fi dimension in Albania's general news dailies, as they number immeasurably more than in European countries which are 15 to 20-times bigger in terms of population, such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and nearby Italy. Even including its multi-states 5 million-plus nationals living in Kosovo, Macedonia and other countries - who have their own dailies and can hardly have access to the print copies coming from Tirana anyway - the profusion of newspapers seems based on a model which could also be called UFO for "unlimited financing oddity".

Albania's high literacy rate of 99 percent may account for this huge number of publications, totaling about 70 for magazines and 90 for newspapers (the general news dailies representing one quarter of them). But western democracies have comparable education levels, and even considering a positive upshot after decades of tight dictatorship, it is hard to understand this business model.

A more valid explanation may be found in the sums invested by advertisers, at least for some activities. In the past weeks for instance, full pages have been taken over by a telephone company featuring Jim Belushi, the American actor. He is subject of national pride in this part of south-eastern Europe, as the son native Albanians. But this explains his widespread presence far more than the announcers' deep pockets. "Rates are very low, between 200 and 300 euros for a full back page color ad. Maybe 500 euros for the two dailies selling over 15,000 copies," comments Gjoka, who also manages online news agency www.alblink.com.

Many businessmen want to control their own daily

Just because there are so many papers, there are not necessarily that many readers. Circulation numbers rarely exceed 4,000 and subscriptions are non-existent or of a few hundred maximum; these dailies' newsrooms are usually not staffed by more than 10 reporters. "Only four or five out of the about 23 are really sold, and the total circulation is 100,000 maximum [which is comparable, per capita, to French national dailies' sales]," believes Robert Rakipllari, Panorama's editor-in-chief. "We have many newspapers because we are a new democracy and some businessmen want to have their own. It is good for their ego to see their cover pages mentioned on TV every morning, and they also like to have a pressure instrument on the government."

As a matter of fact, two of the three businessmen who founded Panorama in 2003, active in the construction industry, left shortly after to launch their own dailies, Tirana Observer and Metropol. "There will be a consolidation in three-five years, however, with less than ten dailies left on the market," Rakipllari anticipates.

Beyond this Darwinian fate, the Albanian printed media have also to cope with a malfunctioning distribution system due to the poor infrastructure in a land where half of the population is still rural. Despite some European Union pressure and assistance, there is a lack of cooperation within the industry. "The EU people did nothing to help improve Albanian papers' distribution," Gjoka says.

Albania has been a parliamentary republic since 1990, lagging behind its Balkan neighbors in their efforts to turn into a more modern economy and democracy. Unlike in most eastern European countries, only a few weeklies are available in many regions, and there was no media privatization after communism. The only papers which continued after the communist collapse are the Socialist Party controlled Zeri i Popullit and a few state-owned specialized periodicals (in military, education, research). "There are no regional dailies because the concept is connected to communist propaganda. They were about 26 in 1990," recalls Shqip's editor-in-chief Aleksander Cipa, who also presides over Albania's Union of Journalists and comes from Gjirokaster, a southern city close to the border with Greece. "This absence is mostly linked to market conditions, lack of demand, lack of resources", thinks Ilda Londo, the research coordinator of the Albanian Media Institute (AMI), which manages monitoring and training projects.

Most newspapers have to follow a political or business agenda, as pointed out in the rare surveys on the industry. There are no public subsidies officially, but print media are indirectly assisted through free or cheap access to office facilities, and through state advertising. This represents most of their revenues according to daily Korrieri's editor-in-chief, quoted in one of the last studies, released five years ago by AMI.

Last November, the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), the network of editors and media owners, organized for the first time in Tirana a major international journalism event, its yearly "South East Europe Media Forum", focused on marketing and new platforms. The two day conference, hosted in conjunction with AMI, attracted over 300 media executives, journalists and press analysts from the region, and Albania's President Bamir Topi opened it. It was a major achievement indeed, symbolically at least, for a country confined in a safe rather than just behind an iron curtain until 20 years ago.

The event was co-sponsored by Germany's press conglomerate WAZ Medien Gruppe, which is very active in the Balkans and, interesting to note, has no assets in Albania's print media, only in television. Italy's Edisud Media, which publishes La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno just across the channel separating the two countries, is practically the only foreign investor as the owner of Gazeta Shqiptare. Unlike in other central-European countries, foreign control of the media is limited in Albania. The access is unrestricted, but in print journalism at least, they are still not attractive for potential investors from abroad.

Just two days before the conference, an incident in Tirana also highlighted the difficulties of running a newspaper: daily Tema's editor Mero Baze was physically attacked by an oil tycoon and his bodyguards. It was the most notable act of violence in months, by coincidence. Baze is known for denouncing cases of corruption also on television, and had to be brought to a hospital. This was not the first time that he was a victim of an aggression (and earlier in the same year, his daily had also been expelled from its offices based in a state-owned building).

The violence was widely condemned within and outside the conference, not the least by Tema's competitors. It also served as a reminder of past habits, when intimidation and self-censorship was notwithstanding much more widespread. "Albania is between the Bulgarian, organized crime, and the Russian, oligarchs' model," says Gjoka, whose newspaper promptly reacted, devoting its cover and the full page three to the attack. "We are also having new journalism schools created, like UFO University's, and our investigative journalism is in its first steps."

Going back to Tirana's fashion district, the boutiques hardly hide the old decrepit buildings behind or over them, which are like vestiges of communism. But the numerous titles on display in newsstands are not just façades either. In spite of being mostly financed by businessmen with agendas, or sometimes threatened by thugs who do not understand there are more subtle ways to defend their interests, Albanian dailies are definitely symptoms of a democracy in progress, where what is on print - more than on internet for the moment - is part of the political debate.

AP sells German news service

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on December 11, 2009 at 11:20 AM

A German news agency has bought the German-language news service of the Associated Press (AP), Deutsche Welle reports.

News agency Deutscher Depeschendienst (ddp) reportedly paid tens of millions of Euros for the German-language service of AP. The agreement includes the right for ddp to use English-language news from AP's extensive global network, which will allow the agency to provide more international coverage.

German "North Sea" newspaper stays local to cast net further

Posted by Helena Humphrey on October 5, 2009 at 1:09 PM

October 3rd saw the relaunch of Nordsee- Zeitung, a daily newspaper in Bremen, Germany, covering local news, sports, business, jobs, and community events, reported Kress. The publication, which underwent a complete visual, content and organisational overhaul, now collaborates with a news desk organisation and uses a new layout created by chief visual designer of Dortmunder newspaper, Peter Johansmeier. In a press release, Editor-in-Chief, Jost Lübben, indicated a desire to "work more regionally and locally, and have a stronger presence across various city districts and towns." The revamp follows that of various other German titles, including Handelsblatt in November, but goes against the current trend to move away from hyper-local news coverage.

With the support of a full editorial team -again, unusual in the current climate - Nordsee hopes to establish greater in-house effort and a reduced reliance on advertising for revenue. Amongst other changes saw the addition of two new economy pages "My Money", offering consumer advice and "Concrete Economy" providing analysis on the regional, national and international economy. The Nordsee also serves eight further smaller publications with content, bringing its current circulation up to an impressive130.000 daily - which looks set to increase.

Source: Kress

Event: The 2015 Newsroom, High Standards with Low-Cost Solutions

Posted by Emma Heald on September 10, 2009 at 4:15 PM

Ezio Mauro, the Italian editor whose newspaper is being sued for defamation by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for questioning his behaviour, and Mario Garcia, who defines contemporary newspaper design, have joined the programme of "The 2015 Newsroom: High Standards & Low Cost Solutions," to be held on 1 and 2 October in Prague, Czech Republic.

Mr Mauro is Editor-in-Chief of La Repubblica, which is being sued for defamation by Mr Berlusconi for repeatedly publishing 10 questions asking the Prime Minister to explain his extra-marital relationships, the subject of widely reported public scandals this year. "This is the first time in memory of a free country that a politician is suing because of questions directed at him," Mr Mauro has said.

World Young Reader Prize winners announced

Posted by Emma Heald on August 5, 2009 at 10:17 AM

The winners of the 2009 World Young Reader Prize have been announced: Zero Hora of Brazil and Express & Echo of the United Kingdom have been named World Young Reader Newspapers of the Year for two vital kinds of excellence in the annual competition organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

The awards are part of WAN-IFRA's annual World Young Reader Prize competition, which honours innovative newspapers that have devised the best project or activity to attract young readers. The awards are made in six categories: branding, public service, press freedom, editorial, and in "making the news".

Could a government bailout be a short term solution for the struggling newspaper industry?

Posted by Emma Heald on February 13, 2009 at 4:18 PM

Various ideas to overhaul the business model of newspapers have been debated in recent weeks, such as the possibility of a return to paid online content, or a non-profit endowment scheme. Both have potential, but both are long term solutions that would take some time to implement, and for the immediate crisis at hand, could government help be the answer? At the end of January French President Nicolas Sarkozy approved a 600 million euro package of measures to save the beleaguered French press. Ideas for some kind of bailout plan have been floated in the US for several months now, following those for banks and the car industry, and similar discussion has taken place in the UK. Is a similar bailout likely to happen anywhere else? Could it save the struggling industry, or is such government involvement in the media too dangerous?

The French way

The French measures announced came largely from recommendations in a three-month study into the industry's health that was released in early January. The proposals were largely based on reducing productions costs, but the study also recommended that newspapers restructure their finances and that journalists be better trained for multiple forms of media, including online. Sarkozy's speech instructed newspapers to improve the content of their articles, bring in younger readers and transform business models

Arguably the most controversial measure was the decision to give 18 year olds a year-long subscription to a newspaper of their choice. This is clearly a direct subsidy, and one which many people do not think will work. It does seem optimistic to imagine that thousands of teenagers are going to find the time in their day to sit down and read a broadsheet rather than scan news online, and then be inspired to continue such a subscription. The package also included a major increase in state expenditure to support newspaper and magazine deliveries: 70 million euro from 8 million last year. The government will double its spending on advertisements in print publications. The state will also defer some fees the publications face, and Sarkozy announced a freeze on the cost of postal distribution and a reduction in payroll taxes for newsagents. He also extended tax breaks for investors in online journalism.

France's press is among the least profitable in Europe, with circulation figures of around half those of the UK and Germany, and national newspapers suffering particularly. According to the Guardian, it is "stifled by rigid communist press unions, a lack of kiosks selling papers and a declining readership far below that of the UK or Germany." Sarkozy has promised to increase points of sale, and work to improve newspaper delivery to both kiosks and homes. Another major problem is high printing costs, as presses are controlled by communist union Le Livre. Sarkozy announced that the state is aiming to reduce printing costs by 30-40 per cent by negotiating with the union.

Sarkozy insisted that the aid package was not an attack on press freedom, the Guardian reported. "I don't understand how anyone could doubt the legitimacy of the state in this process," he claimed, comparing the press to any other industry in need of aid, such as the automobile sector. Incidentally, the French car industry just received a 6.5 billion euro loan from the government. And the French state already gives 1.5 billion euro in direct and indirect aid to the press each year. The Guardian asserted in January that "the public's trust in the media is at an all-time low in a climate where politicians rewrite their own interviews for publication and the president's powerful business friends, from construction to arms manufacturing, own several major papers or TV stations." Which does not really sound like ideal circumstances for the government to get further involved in the media. It is too early to assess the effects of the bailout on newspapers, though it seems to have been received favourably by editors.

UK's regional focus

Another country where public trust in the media is at an all time low is the UK. Research by the Media Standards Trust revealed on 9 February that only 7% of the public trust national newspapers to behave responsibly. "Without urgent reform we believe that self-regulation of the press will become increasingly ineffective at both protecting the public and promoting good journalism and, without prompt action, there is real danger that it will become increasingly irrelevant," said Martin Moore, director of the Trust. The report calls for government intervention to ensure press accuracy and to limit intrusion on people's private lives. But would such government intervention be accompanied by financial aid?

In response to Sarkozy's announcement of the French plan, a spokesman for publisher Trinity Mirror said: "We don't believe that direct subsidies are a safe or sensible way forward. There are two easy things for the government to do. The first is to indicate that they will intervene and allow consolidation of regional newspapers on public interest grounds. The second is to return to using local newspapers for public notices and public sector job advertising." Many papers have called for changes to competition regulations in the local and regional sectors to more easily facilitate mergers, and the UK's Office of Fair Trading has confirmed it is to launch a full consultation on the local media ownership regime next month. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger went a step further and raised the question of public subsidies for newspapers in November 2008, arguing that as broadcasters compete for government funding, why shouldn't local newspapers too? "There has never been less certainty about the future of local news in this country," he said. Roy Greenslade, amongst others, criticised this view, saying that information should not all be funded "through the mechanism of the state."

American opposition

Across the pond in the US, Connecticut legislators sparked debate at the end of 2008 by petitioning the state government to help local papers whose publisher Journal Register said it could not afford to keep them open any more. Journal Register has been forced to close 'dozens' of newspapers in recent months. Connecticut's Department of Economic and Community Development is offering tax breaks, training funds, financing opportunities and other incentives for publishers, but not cash. According to economic development commissioner Joan McDonald, Connecticut does not see trying to find a buyer and offering tax breaks as exerting influence on the press. In January, the publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News were in discussions with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell about getting the two largest state employee pension funds to help bail out the papers.

But there has been considerable opposition to any such notion, as could be expected in a country which prides itself on its free market attitude. The Wall Street Journal asserted that a newspaper bailout was "the worst bailout idea so far," and stressed that "independent journalism is valuable, but only if it is truly independent." Editor & Publisher editors warned that although it could be tempting to seek government assistance, "Uncle Sam's purse comes with lots of strings attached." Paul Janensch, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and a former reporter and editor, commented "you can't expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it."

There is already some unobtrusive government assistance to American newspapers, for example the US Postal Service has offered discounted postage rates. Also, several cities have papers running under Joint Operating Agreements, created following the congressional Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 to keep competing urban dailies viable despite circulation declines.

Can a bailout be justified?

It is possible that other European countries will follow the French example, but an American bailout seems to be extremely unlikely. The British people are used to the idea of public funding for news, given the prevalence of the BBC, so maybe they would be more open to the idea of more government subsidies. But it could also be argued that given the major presence of the BBC, there is enough government involvement in news already.

It is undeniable that as one of the main roles of the press in a democracy is to criticise the government, it must remain entirely free of any government influence, and there is always the risk that government support could lead to influence. The idea of the press relying on the government to any extent is extremely unappealing to many people. But another valid point is that given the importance to any democracy of an active press, it is the government's duty to support the press in time of need.

Making sure that press friendly laws are in place, rather than offering a cash injection, is probably as far as the government should go, in 'normal' circumstances. But perhaps given the current problems plaguing the industry, some limited, short-term government assistance could be justified, to help papers make the necessary adjustments to working online, until an appropriate business model can be found, or until the economy starts to recover. In any kind of bailout, help should be given in such a way where there would be no risk that it could be considered as an attempt to influence. It would be essential to ensure that any help offered to newspapers was offered country-wide, and that it did not give any papers advantages over others. And government support should not be a substitute for innovation, and should not stifle entrepreneurship.

Day 2: Highlights from the 2008 World Digital Publishing Conference

Posted by Lauren Drablier on October 17, 2008 at 8:35 AM

The 'Secret Weapon' of Newspapers in the Digital Age? Paper!
William Powers, Media Columnist, The Nation, USA

Paper is an island of peace in the digital 'chaos' and an 'emerging strength' for media which demands much more examination, William Powers said in his keynote address to the annual Readership Conference.

"The world needs - desperately needs - what newspapers do," said Mr Powers, the media columnist for The Nation magazine in the United States and author of "Hamlet's Blackberry," an essay on the enduring power of paper.

Germany: Newspaper network OMS announces deal with online video platform Brightcove

Posted by Alisa Zykova on September 4, 2008 at 11:01 AM

Online video platform Brightcove Inc. announces a deal with OMS, Germany's Web-based sales and marketing network for regional newspaper titles, which will permit the latter to establish an online video network for member titles. Video content would be taken from international and national media outlets as well as from which is produced by local newspapers.

Part 2: The New York Times' international bid, in print and online

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on July 3, 2008 at 2:59 PM

Part 1 discussed how the planned changes at The New York Times and International Herald Tribune will help the NYT's continuous news offerings, and how these changes could affect the organization and interaction between both newsrooms.

Part 2 examines how The New York Times intends to:
- Further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal internationally, and ways in which newspapers can reinforce their international reach.
- Use the strength of its online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name.

The Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.

How newspapers can become international brands, the NYT joins the race

Until now, the Times hasn't specifically catered to overseas advertisers and readers.

"We need to be agile," said IHT publisher Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, "to compete much more aggressively, nose to nose, with The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and anybody else who is competing for our readers and advertisers."

No doubt that the Times actually borrowed the continuous news outpost idea from the aforementioned competitors, which have been relying on their foreign bureaus to provide round the clock coverage.

The staff memo reaffirmed the NYT's "ambitious plans to expand in the region (Asia), particularly in India." In June, the IHT announced a partnership with the India-based Deccan Chronicle to print the Tribune's world business section in the Financial Chronicle.

With the rise of digital publishing, many news organizations are seeking to grow a previously inaccessible international readership by:

- launching a print edition abroad: several papers have rolled out editions away from home this past year, such as the FT's recently launched Middle East edition in Abu Dhabi, WSJ's partnership with business paper Mint in India, the Daily Mail's partnership with India Today to publish the Mail Today, or The Times of London's Polish edition.

- investing in an online international section: In Germany, referential weekly Der Spiegel launched an English-language International edition on its website in 2004. Five fulltime staffers are dedicated to translating Der Spiegel's content and rewriting it with an international perspective, as well as doing their own international-minded original reporting (the full case study is featured in Trends in Newsrooms 2008). The Guardian adopted a different approach, by launching a separate, foreign-based, US website, Guardian America. The Guardian is reportedly considering similar ventures in other regions.

- simply reinforcing their focus on international news in their regular coverage: the Daily Telegraph's website in the UK, which was neck to neck with the Guardian in terms of traffic in April, claims nearly two thirds of its visitors are from overseas. A well-indexed website helps to brings in a significant number of 'light' international users through search engines.

Merging "co-branded" websites but not print: a branding issue

The NYT's approach is a combination of the first two strategies: the print IHT now serves as The Times' 'global edition' (see picture), while maintaining its trademark brand name. With the proposed online merger, the NYT could also follow the second route, by hosting an international edition online, without having to extensively change its workflows (see Part 1).

The rationale to merge the websites is clearly explained in the memo: according to WebTrends, NYT's website boasts a strong international audience and 58 million global users, compared to iht.com's seven million.

"The global landscape for online news is highly competitive, making scale, speed and resources essential to success. Therefore we have determined that the best future online for the IHT and the NYT globally is through a joint international presence," said the memo.

However, the memo doesn't explicitly say why this won't be the case in print:

"The IHT should become the international print edition of the NYT, whether it is formally branded that way or not."

The main issue at stake is one of branding. "In print, there have been at least a couple of studies that show that among Tribune newspaper readers there is a great identification with the brand, that the brand means something to readers," said Gottlieb.

"More than the name, what accompanies the name, an international perspective, a sense of calling the best stories from The Times and augmenting them with unique reporting," was a combination that many readers liked.

As news organizations seek to grow their international reach, this consideration probably holds true for many that have established a reputable brand name on a local or national scale. However strong the brand name, its association with a particular place or country can potentially play against that news outlet on the international scene.

Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition

US: L.A. Times launches Kindle edition

Posted by Alisa Zykova on July 3, 2008 at 8:59 AM

The Los Angeles Times announced that it is the first Tribune Company paper to be available for Amazon's Kindle Reader. This is a further step in the reinvention process that newspapers worldwide are adhering to.

The Kindle Reader offers newspapers a chance to adapt to today's world laden with mobile technology, by offering an e-reader-compatible version of their paper. Some editors, however, do not trust in the full-fledged future of the e-paper the 2008 Newsroom Barometer showed.

Kindle e-papers are offered by top US papers like The New York Times and the Washington Post as well as international papers like France's Le Monde, Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine and China's Shanghai Daily.

Source: Los Angeles Times Blog

See also:

A Paperless world?
Are we heading for all-elecronic papers?

**Future of journalism series: Financial Times - Dan Bogler**

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on April 28, 2008 at 6:59 AM

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with Dan Bogler, Managing Editor of the Financial Times in the UK.

Click here to view all interviews in this series. Other titles include The New York Times, the Guardian, Fairfax Media, the Hindustan Times, etc. (full list at the bottom of the interview).

Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

- How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We see ourselves as a news organization and we're becoming much more agnostic about our distribution channels. We're becoming much more interested in creating relevant information for our readers and much less interested in how it gets to the readers. Pearson, the parent company, clearly is an education company with a print publishing arm and an information division, which includes the FT. At the FT level, we consider ourselves to be a financial news business more than a newspaper. Our mission is to be the gold standard for global business news in print and online - and in any other formats.

- At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

Largely but not completely. 10 years from now - 2014 may be slightly too short a time frame - we will still have printed newspapers, because people like reading things in print. Newspapers, just like the book, are convenient to read in places you can't do with a computer; but my belief is that a lot of what will be printed will be analysis, comment, analysis and opinion. The actual news will be more or less online or in other more timely formats. In a way the FT will split in two, with FT.com for all the news that's breaking and some immediate reactions and opinion. The more considered analysis will be almost an Economist-type publication. Maybe it wouldn't have to be broadsheet anymore, it could be tabloid or even magazine format. To put it very crudely, you'd have all the news online, and you'd have 12 pages of Martin Wolf the next day in print, and all the editorials, columnists, features and more.

- In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

There's one thing that's old and one thing that's new. What's old and part of the continuum is that traditional companies are going online. Our journalists are now fully integrated and write online and in print. I'm sure that in 2 years time they'll all be carrying video cameras. We've gone from zero videos website to over 100 per month in the last 18 months. That's part of the continuum: it's us doing the same thing in different distribution channels.

What's new is the blogosphere, citizen journalists and the idea that anyone - people who are not qualified journalists, either experts in a narrow field or just interested citizens - can start a blog or website and distribute it. For the FT, you would think it's negative in the sense that there's more news and opinion and more competitors. In fact, that's not really true, it almost enhances the position of leading media brands for several reasons. One is we are trusted, people believe the news they read with us. Secondly, we select and edit, which becomes an increasingly crucial function as there is more information out there. The more 'over-informed' people are, the more likely people who want to know what's actually going on will turn to a few sources that tell them what s actually important. That's what professional newspapers do really well.

- Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

I do believe in their increasingly active role of users: very often readers are more informed than us. If you look at an old format like the letters page in the newspaper, the amount of expertise that our readers have, who are often professionals in the City, is just incredible. They know more about it in certain aspects than our journalists. That's why we get CEOs, academics, lawyers, heads of accountancy firms and more writing in to us to say what's actually happening. They can do this online with comments or take part in Q&As, or print their views in the pages of the FT and FT.com. That sort of content is very helpful. We also have a function for any user to comment on the website's stories.

Is it a threat? Sure, to some extent. But as long as it's happening on our site or in the pages of our newspaper, it's been bundled, monitored, checked for quality and therefore is important. We're not going to turn into a place where we just repeat hundreds of readers' letters and have no journalists of our own. It's more of an opportunity for our journalists to become more informed and build contacts among readers. And it's amazing that all these readers are willing to give this information for free.

- Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

I don't know. That's a really hard one. I might say it's already past.

There's so much more information out there and it's so much harder for companies to hide information. Take the Northern Rock story, which was broken by BBC journalists, and there was a bank run as a result. It's harder to hide information. The idea that journalists have to do long-term, deep, undercover investigations where they reveal something months later - I don't think it works like that anymore. Journalists still have scoops and still break important stories, but it tends to be in a much shorter time frame. It tends to be a single development that they're breaking rather than a long series of connections.

But frankly, newspapers and media organizations are under pressure. It's hard for us to send a journalist or a group of journalists off three months investigating something - and if nothing works that's a shame but nevermind. We don't have resources to let people go off and do that for such a long time. I think The Golden Age of journalists working undercover, developing sources and breaking big scandals is less likely; but revealing news that people don't want out there, on a short term basis, uncovering a scandal and having it come to light, that's more likely. As soon as a tiny thing breaks now, it gets distributed so quickly that it's hard to see a journalist working undercover for a long time and gradually piecing something together without having it go public much earlier in the process.

Stay tuned for more interviews in our series. Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times - Dan Bogler (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)

Future of journalism series: Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on March 3, 2008 at 9:12 AM

For its relaunch, the Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews with some top editors at leading newspapers around the world about the future of journalism. We kick off the series with Ed Greenspon, Editor-in-Chief of the Globe & Mail in Canada.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)

- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)

"News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We no longer define our company as a newspaper or print company. We define ourselves as a news organization. I would say we began to do so about two years ago. In fact, I can almost pin it down to the day.

We had what in Canada was a major exclusive on a deal that would end the lockout of professional hockey. We were able to confirm the story at about 3:00 in the afternoon. We decided to put it up on the web rather than wait for the next day's paper, even though we would be tipping off our competitors.

While this wasn't the first time we had ever done this, it was a pretty major story and "giving it away" generated some internal debate. Two things happened:

    1. Over a hundred other media around the world cited globeandmail.com as the source of the story in their own reports.

    2. The scoop held in the Canadian newspapers. Even though we had posted it in the afternoon, nobody was able to match it. They also had to cite us in the next day's papers.

The moment presented a good opportunity to truly define what we knew we were becoming - a news organization with a strong base and history in print and a strong presence and future in digital.

At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

Not a whole lot. Printed material has been around for centuries and newspapers have encountered many incursions. The web and mobile have impressive technological and story-telling strengths. They extend our creative and physical reach.

But the newspaper also boasts unique attributes. It is a thing of beauty that you can touch and take with you. It is filled with information you didn't know you wanted to know. It is an entity with which a reader can enjoy an intimate, emotional relationship.   It is a daily one-stop validation of the world around you.

Some forms of newspapers may not continue to exist, but in one form or another, newspapers will survive the internet age as they have survived other ages.

In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

I see it more as part of the continuity. I like to say that the platform isn't print or the web or mobile but that the platform is the journalism. That's the distinguishing factor and the competitive advantage of most news organizations.

The role of story telling goes back centuries and isn't going away. The craft of journalism, the skill of finding out and communicating important information and sorting the wheat from the chaff for your readers, will be in even higher demand as stories become more complex. Digital provides extra-ordinary new ways to tell stories in our world and for readers to take control of distribution and share with one another. So new opportunities abound.

It's only a break if we aren't clever enough to earn the money from the web necessary to finance our journalistic undertakings. I don't see that as an impossible challenge.

Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

First off, the closer a journalist can be to his or her audience the better. Users do not replace journalists, they supplement them. We have to stop being afraid to tap into the intelligence of our readers. We also have to understand that we play a unique role as full-time and fully-trained fact finders and story tellers. We now have a new tool at our disposal: the relationship we can build with readers.

Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

I think, for news organizations that are confident enough to invest in their journalistic resources, this should be a great age for investigative journalism. In the clutter and clatter of a 500-million channel universe, it is a great differentiator and in an age in which a non-deferential public demands greater public transparency, the place for investigative journalism should be secure.

The fact that it is not speaks to how fear and fragmentation overwhelm many in the industry. It is great that a non-profit, philanthropic entity in the United States is being established to pursue investigative journalism. But I believe there is also a commercial case to be made. The fact that so many news organizations are cutting resources actually creates even more room in the marketplace for those willing to pursue this kind of journalistic-intensive, public-interest approach.

Stay tuned for upcoming interviews about the future of journalism.

Source: Ed Greespon, editor Globe & Mail

Integration and online “storybuilding” helped Financial Times increase circulation

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on January 22, 2008 at 1:49 PM

Since the Financial Times integrated its newsroom in 2006 and moved into a new one in 2007, it has been among the few British newspapers to increase its circulation, ad revenue and profits. Changes in the editorial process resulting from integration included “storybuilding,” new work shifts and lunch-hour training sessions.

Survey on importance of press freedom is divided, Arab countries still struggle

Posted by Evan Fell on December 11, 2007 at 11:47 AM

According to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service, 56% of the 11,344 people interviewed in 14 countries thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society. But 40% said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully.

Germany: Volksfreund's online local TV

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on December 10, 2007 at 12:16 PM

There’s no question that video is one of this year’s biggest priorities for newspapers, whether national or local. In this Q&A, the Editors Weblog interviewed Alexander Houben, editor of volksfreund.tv, an online local TV channel launched by the German local paper Volksfreund. Houben describes video’s costs, its effects on journalists and how the editorial content fits the paper's strategy.

Océ offers international newspapers digital full-color printing

Posted by Mica Swyers on June 25, 2007 at 11:39 AM

Recently, The Financial Times and other internationally well-known papers such The Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Spanish newspaper El Pais, and Germany’s Mitteldeutsche Zeitung displayed digital full-color samples produced by Océ at Poing, near Munich, Germany, Europe’s largest annual digital printing exhibition.

14th World Editors Forum: discover everything you missed!

Posted by John Burke on June 20, 2007 at 3:01 PM

The 14th World Editors Forum in Cape Town was full of great speakers and events. Below you'll find your one-stop-shop to the best the Forum had to offer: all of the blog postings and videos produced by our student teams from the University of Stellenbosch and Wits University. Just find the session and speaker that interest you and click on the link to find a summary of his or her presentation or the videos we posted on YouTube.

Harris Survey: Adult readers prefer online to print for daily news information

Posted by Mica Swyers on June 14, 2007 at 9:37 AM

According to a recent Harris Poll of five European nations, the United States, and Australia, 39% of American adults read the newspaper on a daily basis, down from 54% in 2000. The ease and convenience of online information are the main reasons cited for the drop in daily readership.

World Editors Annual Forum: Early Bird registration offer for Editors Weblog readers

Posted by Elena Perotti on February 26, 2007 at 9:40 AM

This year the Editors Weblog is rewarding the loyalty of its readers with an exceptional offer for the annual Editors Forum (see below). But the condition is: you need to register before March 31!

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