November 2004 Archives

On January, "Google released a social networking service called Orkut, named after Orkut Buyukkokten, a Google software engineer who developed the project during personal time allowed to him by Google," according to a SearchEngineWatch article . "All employees at Google are allowed to spend twenty percent of their time working on personal interests, a policy Google has to encourage creativity. Buyukkokten had an interest in social networking and so developed his service, Google says. The company then decided to open it to the public." "Until now, the company has resolutely opposed creating content, as some rival portals do, in favor of simply connecting users to information from other Web sites" reports Verne Kopytoff of the San Francisco Chronicle. However, "The debut of several columnists on Google's social networking Web site, Orkut, has some in the Internet industry scratching their heads. Is the popular search engine's first foray into generating content simply an anomaly or a sign of bigger things to come?"

On January, "Google released a social networking service called Orkut, named after Orkut Buyukkokten, a Google software engineer who developed the project during personal time allowed to him by Google," according to a SearchEngineWatch article . "All employees at Google are allowed to spend twenty percent of their time working on personal interests, a policy Google has to encourage creativity. Buyukkokten had an interest in social networking and so developed his service, Google says. The company then decided to open it to the public." "Until now, the company has resolutely opposed creating content, as some rival portals do, in favor of simply connecting users to information from other Web sites" reports Verne Kopytoff of the San Francisco Chronicle. However, "The debut of several columnists on Google's social networking Web site, Orkut, has some in the Internet industry scratching their heads. Is the popular search engine's first foray into generating content simply an anomaly or a sign of bigger things to come?"

On January, "Google released a social networking service called Orkut, named after Orkut Buyukkokten, a Google software engineer who developed the project during personal time allowed to him by Google," according to a SearchEngineWatch article . "All employees at Google are allowed to spend twenty percent of their time working on personal interests, a policy Google has to encourage creativity. Buyukkokten had an interest in social networking and so developed his service, Google says. The company then decided to open it to the public." "Until now, the company has resolutely opposed creating content, as some rival portals do, in favor of simply connecting users to information from other Web sites" reports Verne Kopytoff of the San Francisco Chronicle. However, "The debut of several columnists on Google's social networking Web site, Orkut, has some in the Internet industry scratching their heads. Is the popular search engine's first foray into generating content simply an anomaly or a sign of bigger things to come?"

According to PCM Uitgevers, "the daily newspaper Trouw will be issued in compact size starting February 3, 2005. Trouw will be the first quality daily newspaper in the Netherlands to move to the tabloid format. A survey has confirmed that readers of the newspaper are enthusiastic about the change.The newspaper will maintain the quality of its editorial content, but it will bring more colour and pictures as well as a better and varied presentation. The articles will be not shorter, but more accessible."

Source: PCM Uitgevers through Publicitas

The Spanish daily El Mundo launched El Mundo Málaga last week. "This new edition is the fourth of El Mundo in the Andalusia region (Andalusia, Seville and Huelva). The general manager of this edition will be Rafael Porras, who will work with 8 editors. The regular issues will have 12 pages, the front and back pages will be in color."

Source: El Mundo through Publicitas

Thanks to Hans Kullin, Marketing Communications Manager in Stockholm, Sweden, for this interesting posting explaining why a Swedish leading newspaper turns 180° its web registration strategy. It is insightful, especially in that its strategy is the total opposite of British newspapers'. (see former posting). "Svenska Dagbladet has stopped offering premium content to registered visitors of svd.se and is instead aiming for increased reach to attract advertisers. The paper has broken a downward trend and recently increased the number of visitors to the site, in terms of unique web browsers. According to Mattias Fyrenius, Manager of New Media at SvD, the paper has redesigned the web site to make it clearer and added content like travel, wine and stock information. In addition, Fyrenius tells Dagens Media, SvD has started a weekly newsletter with game and music reviews to attract more readers. With the launch of the newsletter SvD also dropped the demands for registration to access premium content because registration became a big obstacle for the readers. SvD.se had 676,000 unique visitors during October wich is an increase with 39 per cent from the same period last year. SvD also launched Sweden's first op-ed blog this fall and is one of a number of Swedish media that has started distributing content via RSS .

Source: Hans Kullin, Marketing Communications Manager, Linklaters, Stockholm

Thanks to Hans Kullin, Marketing Communications Manager in Stockholm, Sweden, for this interesting posting explaining why a Swedish leading newspaper turns 180° its web registration strategy. It is insightful, especially in that its strategy is the total opposite of British newspapers'. (see former posting). "Svenska Dagbladet has stopped offering premium content to registered visitors of svd.se and is instead aiming for increased reach to attract advertisers. The paper has broken a downward trend and recently increased the number of visitors to the site, in terms of unique web browsers. According to Mattias Fyrenius, Manager of New Media at SvD, the paper has redesigned the web site to make it clearer and added content like travel, wine and stock information. In addition, Fyrenius tells Dagens Media, SvD has started a weekly newsletter with game and music reviews to attract more readers. With the launch of the newsletter SvD also dropped the demands for registration to access premium content because registration became a big obstacle for the readers. SvD.se had 676,000 unique visitors during October wich is an increase with 39 per cent from the same period last year. SvD also launched Sweden's first op-ed blog this fall and is one of a number of Swedish media that has started distributing content via RSS .

Source: Hans Kullin, Marketing Communications Manager, Linklaters, Stockholm

We have already written about the Korean news website Ohmynews a few times on the Editors' weblog, but until now we didn't know the precise figures concerning this website. "According to Min, director of international development, OhmyNews is generating almost US$500,000 a month in advertising revenue."We broke even last year and since then kept generating a monthly profit of about $27,000," The website is ranked in the top 15 in South Korea. According to a website message from the founder, Oh Yeon-ho, after three years OhmyNews was breaking even, with 2004 anticipated to yield a modest profit. According to OhmyNews sources, only 20% of the site's copy each day is written by staff journalists. The balance is totally dependent on outside contributors, including professors, police officers, students, housewives, business people - everyone. "OhmyNews citizen-reporters are paid from US$20 to as little as $5, depending on the place [each article] is assigned by our editors," Min said. The site was recently recognized at the fifth World Forum on E-Democracy hosted by PoliticsOnline, in a ceremony in France, as one of the global players instrumental in changing the world of the Internet and politics.

Source: Asia Times

The Hindu reports on a memorandum written by major media employees, which stands out by its strong anti-foreign vocabulary. "Three major Indian newspaper and news agency employees organisations have opposed the entry of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Indian media. In a memorandum to to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the All India Newspaper Employees' Federation, the Federation of PTI Employee Unions and the UNI Workers Union said that the 1955 cabinet decision taken under the Prime Ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru, to keep the FDI out of the Indian media should be given the sanctity of law through an Act of Parliament. "

Source: The Hindu

The report conducted by media buying group Initiative involving 44 markets around the world brings out both good and bad news: on the one hand it confirms the strength of newspapers, and on the other, it predicts an inevitable breaking point as to advertisment costs. According to the Media Cost and Inflation report, "the cost of buying space in newspapers and magazines will surge 9.2% in the next year, far above the inflation rate." reports The Guardian's Stephen Brook. "The predicted rise in the cost of buying print advertisements comes despite falling newspaper and magazine circulations and a predicted 2.3% rise in inflation. Initiative's 2004 report measured the price of buying advertising on TV, newspapers, cinema, internet and radio by the cost of reaching 1,000 people in 44 different markets around the world. The rise in costs pointed to the strength of traditional media despite a fragmented media market, said Sue Moseley, the managing director of Initiative Futures Worldwide, research arm of Initiative. "It's good news for the media owners and something that the media buying industry has lived with for many years."

Anti-racist laws seem to be respected in Putin's Russia. According to the St Petersburg Times, "The Moskovsky District Prosecutor's Office this week initiated a criminal case against newspaper Nashe Otechestvo, or Our Fatherland, which is charged with inciting national, racial or religious hatred under Article No. 282.1 of the Criminal Code. The charge follows a request in summer by the Democratic Russia party and human rights organization Citizens' Watch after the paper was identified as anti-Semitic by racism expert Nikolai Girenko, who was killed in June, allegedly by nationalists. "National Mighty Party of Russia is the party of those who are ready to fight against the Jewish yoke," one slogan in the paper said... The most recent similar case was completed Wednesday this week when Moscow's Timiryazevsky District Court issued a suspended sentence of one year in prison for Viktor Korchagin, editor of Rusich magazine, who was charged with inciting national hatred.

Soure: St Petersburg Times

IFEX reveals that "Chinese authorities are reportedly about to release dissident and founder of the underground magazine "Tansuo" ("Investigation") Liu Jingsheng, on 27 November. Liu has been imprisoned since 28 May 1992. The surprise commute in his sentence would appear to be a conciliatory gesture towards the international community, Human rights organisations in China, have said."

Source: IFEX through the ejc newsletter.

Interesting remark from Robert Thomson, The Times editor, in the Globe and Mail, Canada about the new tabloid quality newspapers: "We have to understand that for a great many of our readers, the Internet is part of their daily experience, and I think that in the past, newspapers have been rather arrogant about this, attempting to fashion websites that look like newspapers," he said. "To be honest, we've reached a point where newspapers, in terms of how they look, have to be influenced by Internet iconography. I would argue that the compact [format], while not the same size as a computer screen, has a look of familiarity to the digital reader."

Source: Globe and Mail

Congratulations to Maidan, the 4 year old website of the Ukrainian opposition, updated every twenty minutes in these difficult days (and to Mykhaylo Svystovych, one of the network's founder): "Maiidanua.org a leading on-line based non-profit group involves hundreds of thousands of ukrainians into a democratic political process on the eve of the crucial presidential election. Thousands of civic activists, recruited on-line, now work as election committee workers, independent observers and grassroots reporters. maidanua.org was created 4 years ago in Ukraine, where only 5 percent of population has access to Internet. Now Maidan rallies massive participation of its 250,000 monthly audience in organized political protests in Ukraine".