January 2005 Archives

From the Blog Herald: "In perhaps a sign old media is finally realising that articles of interest to bloggers are worthy of printing (as opposed to about them), the Washington Post has run a light, yet informative piece on the opportunities to make money from blogs."

Source: Washington Post through the Blog Herald

From the Blog Herald: "In perhaps a sign old media is finally realising that articles of interest to bloggers are worthy of printing (as opposed to about them), the Washington Post has run a light, yet informative piece on the opportunities to make money from blogs."

Source: Washington Post through the Blog Herald

Nothing to add to this very good paper from Hassan M. Fattah and The New York Times : "After nearly two years of providing up-to-the-minute images of explosions and mayhem, and despite months of predictions of a blood bath on election day, some news directors said they found the decision surprisingly easy to make. The violence simply was not the story on Sunday morning; the voting was. Overwhelmingly, Arab channels and newspapers greeted the elections as a critical event with major implications for the region, and many put significant resources into reporting on the voting, providing blanket coverage throughout the country that started about a week ago. Newspapers kept wide swaths of their pages open, and the satellite channels dedicated most of the day to coverage of the polls."

Source: The New York Times

Nothing to add to this very good paper from Hassan M. Fattah and The New York Times : "After nearly two years of providing up-to-the-minute images of explosions and mayhem, and despite months of predictions of a blood bath on election day, some news directors said they found the decision surprisingly easy to make. The violence simply was not the story on Sunday morning; the voting was. Overwhelmingly, Arab channels and newspapers greeted the elections as a critical event with major implications for the region, and many put significant resources into reporting on the voting, providing blanket coverage throughout the country that started about a week ago. Newspapers kept wide swaths of their pages open, and the satellite channels dedicated most of the day to coverage of the polls."

Source: The New York Times

Since my first trip to the Al Jazeera headquarters in July 2004, I'm convinced that the future of the TV station will impact the whole Arab media landscape: Al Jazeera has introduced something new in the news gathering process and it will be very difficult to go backwards. Al Arabiya has already changed its coverage of Arab news - in the sense that it is more conventional - and it could happen to Al Jazeera according to this New York Times article: "Bush administration officials have complained heatedly to Qatari leaders that Al Jazeera's broadcasts have been inflammatory, misleading and occasionally false, especially on Iraq. The pressure has been so intense, a senior Qatari official said, that the government is accelerating plans to put Al Jazeera on the market, though Bush administration officials counter that a privately owned station in the region may be no better from their point of view. "We have recently added new members to the Al Jazeera editorial board, and one of their tasks is to explore the best way to sell it," said the Qatari official, who said he could be more candid about the situation if he was not identified. "We really have a headache, not just from the United States but from advertisers and from other countries as well." Asked if the sale might dilute Al Jazeera's content, the official said, "I hope not."

This is a very convincing article on how newsrooms' staffs need to understand the new business model of the newspaper industry. Thanks to Robert Niles and the Online Journalism Review for this analysis: "Technology that allows advertisers and readers to better connect continues to drive economic changes in the news business. The Internet hammered the newspaper classified business over the past decade, and now new technology for placing display advertising on Web sites promises to challenge remaining news industry business models. Many journalists don't give much thought to what happened on the other side of "the wall." But advertising pays the bills – including reporters' salaries – in almost all news organizations. And changes that interrupt the flow of money from advertisers to publishers ultimately result in less cash for newsrooms.

"If a newspaper had umpteen million dollars in revenue from employment advertising, which was the most lucrative category of advertising at newspapers, bar none, and that category has dropped by 40, 50, 60, 80 percent -- that has a significant impact on everything at the newspaper," said industry analyst Peter Zollman, founding principal of Advanced Interactive Media Group...

This is a very convincing article on how newsrooms' staffs need to understand the new business model of the newspaper industry. Thanks to Robert Niles and the Online Journalism Review for this analysis: "Technology that allows advertisers and readers to better connect continues to drive economic changes in the news business. The Internet hammered the newspaper classified business over the past decade, and now new technology for placing display advertising on Web sites promises to challenge remaining news industry business models. Many journalists don't give much thought to what happened on the other side of "the wall." But advertising pays the bills – including reporters' salaries – in almost all news organizations. And changes that interrupt the flow of money from advertisers to publishers ultimately result in less cash for newsrooms.

"If a newspaper had umpteen million dollars in revenue from employment advertising, which was the most lucrative category of advertising at newspapers, bar none, and that category has dropped by 40, 50, 60, 80 percent -- that has a significant impact on everything at the newspaper," said industry analyst Peter Zollman, founding principal of Advanced Interactive Media Group...

This is a very convincing article on how newsrooms' staffs need to understand the new business model of the newspaper industry. Thanks to Robert Niles and the Online Journalism Review for this analysis: "Technology that allows advertisers and readers to better connect continues to drive economic changes in the news business. The Internet hammered the newspaper classified business over the past decade, and now new technology for placing display advertising on Web sites promises to challenge remaining news industry business models. Many journalists don't give much thought to what happened on the other side of "the wall." But advertising pays the bills – including reporters' salaries – in almost all news organizations. And changes that interrupt the flow of money from advertisers to publishers ultimately result in less cash for newsrooms.

"If a newspaper had umpteen million dollars in revenue from employment advertising, which was the most lucrative category of advertising at newspapers, bar none, and that category has dropped by 40, 50, 60, 80 percent -- that has a significant impact on everything at the newspaper," said industry analyst Peter Zollman, founding principal of Advanced Interactive Media Group...

First there was the trend to compact newspapers, and then an explosion of new titles to compete with free papers and attract young readers. But what will be the defining newsroom trends in 2005? The answer is certain to emerge at the 12th World Editors Forum, to be held in Seoul, South Korea, from 29 May to 1 June.

Among the topics to be examined at the Forum, the annual global meeting for senior newsroom executives, will be:
- The rise of the "citizen journalist." Call it what you will -- participatory journalism, public journalism or open source journalism -- it is becoming a clear that more and more readers are becoming involved in the news gathering and debating process. Conference participants will be able to discuss the subject with keynote speaker Dan Gillmor, ex-columnist of the San Jose Mercury News, major blogger and author of "We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People."
- The risks and challenges posed by RSS (Real Simple Syndication) and news aggregators such as Google News and Google Alerts, in which general and personalised news is provided by machines, not editors. "Personalised news" has moved from being a slogan to reality, but very few newspapers are ready for this revolution. The session will feature Rich Skrenta, CEO of Topix.net, Susan Mernit, a US-based consultant and former senior executive with AOL, and a representative from Google.
- An audit of changing formats. The rush to compact newspapers is well documented, but what is less clear are the results of the latest format and design changes. The WEF conference will examine the innovations that have worked and those that have not in a session featuring newspaper designer Mario Garcia and Didier Pillet, Editor of France's largest circulation general interest newspaper, Ouest France.

First there was the trend to compact newspapers, and then an explosion of new titles to compete with free papers and attract young readers. But what will be the defining newsroom trends in 2005? The answer is certain to emerge at the 12th World Editors Forum, to be held in Seoul, South Korea, from 29 May to 1 June.

Among the topics to be examined at the Forum, the annual global meeting for senior newsroom executives, will be:
- The rise of the "citizen journalist." Call it what you will -- participatory journalism, public journalism or open source journalism -- it is becoming a clear that more and more readers are becoming involved in the news gathering and debating process. Conference participants will be able to discuss the subject with keynote speaker Dan Gillmor, ex-columnist of the San Jose Mercury News, major blogger and author of "We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People."
- The risks and challenges posed by RSS (Real Simple Syndication) and news aggregators such as Google News and Google Alerts, in which general and personalised news is provided by machines, not editors. "Personalised news" has moved from being a slogan to reality, but very few newspapers are ready for this revolution. The session will feature Rich Skrenta, CEO of Topix.net, Susan Mernit, a US-based consultant and former senior executive with AOL, and a representative from Google.
- An audit of changing formats. The rush to compact newspapers is well documented, but what is less clear are the results of the latest format and design changes. The WEF conference will examine the innovations that have worked and those that have not in a session featuring newspaper designer Mario Garcia and Didier Pillet, Editor of France's largest circulation general interest newspaper, Ouest France.

A fact-finding mission to Tunisia undertaken by members of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) has found "serious cause for concern" about the current state of freedom of expression and of civil liberties in the country, including gross restrictions on freedom of the press, media, publishing and the Internet. The visit, which took place from 14 to 19 January 2005, was the first of the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group and was organised in preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a United Nations intergovernmental conference to be held in Tunis in November 2005.

On January 27, the province of Alicante in Spain will be introduced to a new paper... written exclusively in German. Gaceta de Prensa reports that the new 96-page weekly, called the Costa Blanca Rundschau, will provide primarily local and provincial news but will also include national and international sections as well as social and cultural pages for the region's significant German population and tourists. Wolfgang Schonborn, an experienced journalist and economist and now the paper's director, says, "We want to tell our readers what's happening in the region in a manner that they can understand... news impossible to find in any normal tourist guide... but including information on services." The paper's staff will be composed of 14 journalists and designers, as well as commercial team. They will strive to stay close with their readers, incorporating exchanges of opinions, letters to the editor, and an online edition. The paper's inaugural edition will print 20,000 copies and will include 64 extra color pages. It will then be distributed every Thursday at a cost of 1.50 euro.

Source: Gaceta de Prensa

On January 27, the province of Alicante in Spain will be introduced to a new paper... written exclusively in German. Gaceta de Prensa reports that the new 96-page weekly, called the Costa Blanca Rundschau, will provide primarily local and provincial news but will also include national and international sections as well as social and cultural pages for the region's significant German population and tourists. Wolfgang Schonborn, an experienced journalist and economist and now the paper's director, says, "We want to tell our readers what's happening in the region in a manner that they can understand... news impossible to find in any normal tourist guide... but including information on services." The paper's staff will be composed of 14 journalists and designers, as well as commercial team. They will strive to stay close with their readers, incorporating exchanges of opinions, letters to the editor, and an online edition. The paper's inaugural edition will print 20,000 copies and will include 64 extra color pages. It will then be distributed every Thursday at a cost of 1.50 euro.

Source: Gaceta de Prensa

From blogherald.com: "News.com is reporting that blogs have helped caused the imminent death of the AOL Newsgroups service. “AOL’s decision to scrap newsgroup support comes as other forms of online community have taken favor, according to company spokeswoman Jaymelina Esmele. “We are seeing that traffic on newsgroups is pretty minimal at this point,” she said. “With features like message boards, chat rooms and AOL Blogs, the majority of our members are turning to these to engage in topics of interest to them.”

Source: blogherald.com

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