Results matching “online publishe”

One month after its initial trial period, a meeting of about 30 editors will be held in Atlanta to hear about CNN's wire service.

CNN has made plans to broaden its service to provide coverage of national, international and possibly local events "on a smaller scale and at a lower cost" than the Associated Press, according to Editor and Publisher.

A new website devoted to NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams has been launched by Washingtonpost.com.

Press Break hosts related news, blogs, including one by sports reporter Eric Prisbell, and a forum "to compare area teams, players and coaches."  The site will also have special features to include stats, bracketed matchups, headlines, and message boards.

Source:  Editor and Publisher
 

The Online News Association, an organization for digital journalists has redesigned its website, Journalists.org.  According to Editor & Publisher, the site seeks to connect online media worldwide.

The redesigned site has several new features including a way in which members can connect by region and area of interest through chats and discussion groups, a training section and tips on multimedia storytelling.

The Associated Press has appointed Carole Feldman to lead the convergence of text, broadcast and online formats in its Washington bureau.

Feldman is currently the Assistant Chief of Bureau in Washington, which is the news cooperative's largest bureau.

As part of convergence, Feldman will develop "innovative news gathering, training, and production approaches, plan major news events, and oversee the budgets for both departments," according to Editor and Publisher.  She will be reporting to Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier and Acting Head of Domestic Broadcast News Kevin Roach.

Source:  Editor and Publisher

A renewed effort by Danish newspaper publishers to stop search engines from linking to individual articles rather than a newspaper's homepage has sparked controversy with blogging journalists in the country.

"Deep linking" is a blogger's bread and butter--it's how users are directed to their sites--and search engines, such as Google News, are facing pressure from the Danish Association of Newspaper Publishers who only want homepage links to "better control the user experience."

There was a decline in the average time spent per person on newspaper websites in October compared to last year, according to a Nielson Online report.

While monthly uniques increased, the data followed a similar September trend of a decrease in time spent on some sites.

The New York Times, the leader in time spent on newspaper's websites, saw an increase from 35 minutes in October 2007 to 40 minutes this year, the report says.  Politico increased its time spent from 9 minutes to 19, while its monthly uniques increased 178%.

Source:  Editor and Publisher

According to the International Herald Tribune, Microsoft plans to help "European media owners protect and profit from copyrighted material online."

Thomas Rubin, Microsoft's intellectual property lawyer, said that they were going to work with publisher to develop a technology that will allow them to have more control over their material after it has been referenced by search engines.

Helium is an online company that describes itself as, "the online spot to learn what you need to know and share what you know." It combines citizen journalism with peer rating in order to provide a plethora of articles on just about any topic.

Helium brings together a system of news and information combined with a place to submit articles. It even has a "marketplace" where publishers can post topics for people to write about - sort of like a publishers à la carte classified space.

It is a place for readers to find articles that interest them, writers to write about topics that they know and understand, publishers to find articles and non-profits to voice their issues.

It is a unique system of sharing content, ideas and knowledge. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Helium, if the current system will hold up and retain its credibility.

The Editors Weblog interviewed Peter Newton, the VP of business development at Helium.com to get a better idea of how the site works and what their goals are for the future. Newton has worked at Monster.com and The Boston Globe where he was the vice president of advertising.

EW: What is your selection process for articles and writers?

PN: Helium represents the first true meritocracy in the publishing industry. Helium welcomes anyone and everyone to join its community of writers.

We don't select writers; they naturally come to the site and write to areas in which they have an interest (in many cases, a passion) in sharing their knowledge or opinion. Once members join, their work is evaluated by other members though our peer-review rating system.  In essence, Helium brings order to the chaos of user generated content. Its patented peer review rating engine elevates the best quality articles.

After a writer submits an article, he/she is presented with two anonymous articles in the same topic area to rate in an "A versus B" comparison. Through the wisdom of the crowds, the best articles rise to the top, resulting in a rank-ordered list for every topic.

The end result is that the best writers are promoted, recognized and rewarded for their work.

New titles are introduced onto the Helium site through members, partners and directly by Helium staff.

EW: Where do you draw the line between journalist and citizen journalist?  What about between citizen journalist and blogger?

PN: Citizen Journalism is a very awkward term. Quality journalism demands its participants to be objective, ethical and methodical. Research, fact checking and skillful interviewing techniques are critical to the art. It's not obvious that what we are starting to call citizen journalism possesses any of these traits. I'm certain that the Columbia School of Journalism doesn't teach that the art of being a world class journalist is to be in the right place at the right time. Citizen Journalism seems to be migrating to each individual's "15 minutes of fame" and further and further away from journalism. It might be fun to watch - but so were the lions and Christians in the Roman Coliseum.

With that said, Helium is not really concerned with categorizing or labeling different types of writers.  We have created a platform for people to express themselves in writing across a wide variety of topics in a civilized and substantive way, and then have the community sort for quality.

Helium is a site for writers that fills a unique role in the publishing industry. In doing so, we are representing a new classification of online writers.

Our community of members includes professional writers, freelancers, subject matter experts, students and the expert next-door.

We are not attempting to replace investigative journalism or time sensitive reporting. Instead, Helium attracts and produces individuals who have the skill and insight on specific topics that they wish to share with others.

EW: Do you feel that the status of being an "expert" or a "professional journalist" is becoming less important?

PN: No, there will always be a need for professional journalists, especially in covering breaking news or conducting investigative journalism, and Helium is definitely not out to undermine established journalists or copywriters.

Instead, we are trying to expand the ranks of paid writers to include part-time talent that otherwise would be sitting fallow.

Our media solutions product offers newspapers a way for them to supplement what remains of their editorial staff, but is in effect driving down their content-creation costs. We are merely tapping into the notion of "social publishing," in which publishers ask their readership to contribute content.

EW: Do you apply any regulations for topics? style? content? etc...

PN: Yes, Helium has established regulations for topics, style, and acceptable content.

Beyond providing clarity to our members, the community is self moderating. Every new article submitted to Helium is rated by other members. The best content rises to the top. Our members often message each other with advice as to how to improve articles and items that don't fit the standards of the site are removed.

EW: Do you see a shift towards more citizen journalism in news reporting? Both online and print?  How will this affect the future of professional freelancers? Is it going to put a dent in the freelance market?

PN: When you say "news reporting", let's be clear that our focus is not breaking news or conducting investigative journalism.  With that said, there is a growing paradigm shift in content creation; publishers are increasingly sourcing content, not writers. As for how this will impact freelancers no one can say for sure but one thing is for sure-there will always be demand for quality writing.

EW: Can a person make a living from putting material on Helium the same way a freelance gains income?

PN: The short answer is no.  But with that said, there are thousands of Helium members who earn from $40-$100 each month, which is much more than chump change. In fact, some of Helium's highest earning members have made more than $3,000. It really depends on how much members use the site.

Earlier this month, Helium announced upfront payments for all new articles being written by starred writers on Helium.com. This change to Helium's Terms of Service is a move to reward the site's highest quality writers and to promote quality content at Helium.com.  In addition, the company's popular Marketplace product - used by publishers looking for top-notch content for their publications - now offers special access to the site's best writers. The move will improve content for Helium's publishing partners and help ensure that the site's best writers will be seen by those publishers.  

Many web 2.0 companies offer opportunity for incremental income. With these changes at Helium, highly-rated writers will have an opportunity to earn larger sums for sharing their expertise with the Helium community.

"Helium has grown by leaps and bounds these last two years; it has earned the respect of people and writers around the world," said Petra Newman, a 3-star writer on Helium.com "With the sky falling on our economy, Helium has again found a "pièce de résistance" for people who already have a passion for writing. Increasing the earnings for well-written articles is a win-win situation for both Helium and writers."

EW: What newspapers or websites do you work with?    

PN: Currently Helium is working with GateHouse Media's State Journal-Register(SJ-R) in Springfield, Ill. SJ-R recently begun using Helium's "Media Solutions" product to source writers for its op ed section-there are currently over 700 additional papers in the active funnel.

We also provide content for a wide a variety of other newspapers, magazines, online-only sites, etc.

EW: What about your competition? Who are they?

PN: As a producer of content and as a publisher of content, we compete with thousands of companies, yet in most ways, we have no competition.

That said, we really don't see anyone that directly competes with us, in terms of delivering a scalable solution to engage a community to produce high quality content.  

EW: Where do you see yourself in relation to news organizations such as the AP or the New York Times?

PN: The New York Times is the New York Times. Helium is not attempting to create a competitor to breaking news.  

EW: Where does a site like Helium envision itself in the future? How do you grow / expand ?

PN: Helium is rapidly building the world's largest community of writers. We plan to grow and expand the business in a number of ways over the next five years:

• Become the partner of choice to the publishing, non profit and broadcast industries for generating quality content at a low cost, while helping engage their audience in the process.

• Become the content source for any entity needing quality content.

• Expand internationally; international business represents 60% additional market opportunity

• Create a community of micro publishers

A Tennessee newspaper has redesigned its Monday edition, consolidating sections to cut costs, according to Editor and Publisher.

The Knoxville News Sentinel still ran 30 pages, merging its local news, national news, sports and features sections on Monday.  The paper will still have four sections for its Tuesday through Saturday editions.  

The paper is set to change other features, such as releasing most stock tables online only.
Jack McElroy, editor, said that the changes are "intended to reduce costs," but should make the paper "more engaging."

E.W. Scripps, the paper's parent company, recently cut back 400 employees, 50 of which were employed by the Knoxville News Sentinel, which has a circulation of 120,000 daily.

Source:  Editor and Publisher

News Corp. companies Sky News and Times Online have partnered in a content-sharing deal to co-produce videos set to appear on both websites, Press Gazette is reporting.

The deal will see Times Online articles include "co-branded video" produced by staff from Sky News and editorial staff from the Times.  Some videos will also appear on skynews.com.

Nielsen Online reports that the Huffington Post gained "the most unique readers among all outlets on a list of top 30 news destinations in October."

Nielsen Online states that traffic "can vary month to month based on several factors, including news events."

Nearly every news organization made gains in October due to the presidential election, but the Huffington Post grew its uniques year-by-year by 448%, going from number 20 to number 18.  Gannett newspapers were an exception, however, and fell 5% compared to October 2007.

MSNBC Digital Network is the current leader in online hits, however, CNN replaced Yahoo News at number 2 in October in the top 30 Online Current Events & Global News Destinations.  

Source:  Editor and Publisher

Daniil Kupsin, owner of Russian business radio station Business FM, has announced that he will launch an online business news site, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday. Bfm.ru will be run by Russian Internet journalist Anton Nosik and will have a team of nearly 30 reporters.

The Newseum's website broke single-day and weeklong traffic records following the 2008 presidential election, stemming from the "heavy interest in Page One images on November 5" declaring victor Barack Obama.

Paul Sparrow, vice president for broadcasting and education, said that traffic has more than doubled, with 229,000 visitors on Nov. 5, setting a new daily record of nearly four times its usual traffic.  The weeklong traffic nearly doubled to 919,300 visitors to the site.

By now the world knows who was elected the 44th US President - they may have found out online or followed television coverage throughout election night. However, the following morning, it was newsstands that made the headlines, selling more copies of newspapers than had ever been sold previously.

While publishers realized that there would be an increased demand, they didn't realize how much. Major newspapers were forced to rapidly order more copies, selling out in the early morning.  Is this a sign of things to come for the print business, or is it just a sign of the significance of the election and nothing more?

Columnist Steve Outing reports that in order to save print newspapers, "publishers must improve them with the older print loyalists in mind."