Results matching “charging for rs”

In the latest stage of reinvigorating the Wall Street Journal brand, its online edition - WSJ.com - has undergone a huge makeover, relaunching on Tuesday.

The parent company, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., appears determined to put its mark on its latest acquisition; the President of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, Gordon McLeod, reportedly said that the investment into the website revamp is a "big financial commitment."

The Editors Weblog spoke with the Deputy Editor of the Wall Street Journal, Alan Murray, about the shake up occurring at the newspaper. Murray was bullish about the changes, saying, "The new owners have made it clear that they no longer want people to look at the Wall Street Journal as a second read. It should be their primary read, it should suit all their information needs. We want it to be the ultimate news source for our engaged, affluent and educated readers."

Murray went on to speak about the redesign of WSJ.com, the recent changes in newsroom layout and management, and the ambitious plans for the future of the Wall Street Journal brand. He made it clear that, "(The website relaunch) is not a finishing point. This is the launching pad." 

Murray was particularly excited about the relaunch occuring at the same time as the Lehman Brothers story breaking, saying "We are delighted that the biggest financial news story since 1929 happens to coincide with the launch of our revamped site!"

"Newsreel" revolutionizes site navigation
For the new, sleek look of WSJ.com, News Corp's primary design motivation was to take advantage of users who "come in through the side door". Individual article pages mostly found through search engines, have been equipped with multiple navigation tools, to keep readers on the WSJ site.

Arguably the most interesting navigation feature is "Newsreel", essentially a news ticker placed at the top of the article. As the reader browses an article page, Newsreel scrolls through the days most important stories from the section the user is in. For example, if a user is in the business section, the Newsreel displays the top business stories of the day.    

In addition to the new layout and navigation functions, the Journal's newsroom is upping its content production to help keep readers on the site. The redesign also aims to be more colourful with more photos and includes an enhanced video player, an increasingly prevalent aspect of all news websites. Further features are set to roll out over the coming months. 

Social network for the business community
Perhaps most important for the WSJ's new owners is maintaining WSJ.com's impressive online subscription base, which has reached over 1 million paying members. Apart from increasing content, News Corp hopes to hold on to these subscribers with exclusive features such as WSJ Community, a social network for WSJ subscribers.

The key feature of this new social networking tool is that members must use their real names, which is aimed at cutting out any random, anonymous comments or useless noise found on other Internet news sites. Murray believes the quality of the site's subscriber base will create "a higher quality conversation". He acknowledges WSJ.com will not achieve the numbers of a chat on Yahoo Finance but, "we think the usefulness and quality is going to be key". The Journal is considering opening up the Community to non-subscribers in the future, who, just like subscribers, would only be able to join and interact with their real name.

WSJ.com has been the world's most successful subscription newssite for years and its membership keeps growing. According to Murray, online subscriptions have increased 26% in the past two years. And the number of unique user is skyrocketing too: "By our numbers, we now have 17 million visitors to WSJ.com" - 8 million more than two years ago - "and in September it is going to be even bigger than that. Therefore, Murray doesn't see any conflict in bringing more people in and letting them sample WSJ content.


Integrated Newsroom

Murray revealed that the Wall Street Journal is not only undergoing a radical change on its website, but is also changing in its newsroom, "The relaunch coincides with a complete integration and reorganisation of the reporting and editing staff."

Managing Editor, Robert Thomson, has spearheaded the integration programme, which has brought together the online and print staff. Last week, Thomson debuted a news hub in the newsroom where the senior editors from print, online, Dow Jones Newswires and MarketWatch all sit together and co-ordinate the coverage throughout the day.

The morning news meeting has been "totally turned upside down," according to Murray. It now begins with a report from the online team, then from Dow Jones Newswires, then MarketWatch and, only after discussing the coverage for real-time news, do they look at coverage for the day's paper.

The substantial Dow Jones Newswire team is also being moved to make the integration process physical, with the whole team being brought across the river to sit alongside their New York print colleagues. This move will happen, "sometime next Spring" Murray said.

The Wall Street Journal team has been undergoing training to prepare for the integration process. Murray reported, "A simple example is headlines. You have to write a different kind of headline in the online world and in the print world. We will continue to do that kind of training."

The future of the Wall Street Journal

The Editors Weblog asked if this process was the beginning of a long term-reinvigoration process for the Wall Street Journal brand, Murray said: "You bet! We have very ambitious plans for international, we have very ambitious plans for premium products on top of this online platform and we have a whole schedule of online innovations that we are planning over the course of the next 18 months. This is just the beginning"

"Look for us forming closer links with all the social networks because we are not trying to compete with social networks, we want to make it as easy as possible for our users to share our content over social networks and to bring their friends and connection into our community"

Murray also added that News Corp is confident about the future of print, stating, "The Wall Street Journal under its new management is investing in both print and online, so I would say we are very optimistic about the future of newspapers. We may be the only people who are optimistic! We are dedicated to delivering our news on all platforms"

Source: Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, paidcontent.org

See also:

US: Murdoch on the future of newspapers
US: Wall Street Journal to launch new website on Tuesday
Wall Street Journal unveils magazine supplement, WSJ
US: Wall Street Journal launches new mobile application
Murdoch: Newspapers willing to invest in new forms of delivery will prosper

The Times Online announced beginning Thursday they will charge for access to their archives.  Free access to their archives was launched in June.  This follows Google's announcement of their plans to digitize newspapers.

According The Guardian, an email was sent to Times Online users describing the first three months access to archives as a "free introductory period."  The email went on to say, "On Thursday September 18, the free introductory period will end, so we're writing to let you know how you can continue to enjoy this wonderful resource."

The 200-year archive includes news stories from 1785 to 1985 including the Battle of Waterloo, the arrival of convicts at Botany Bay and the execution of Marie Antoinette.

Paid access to sites, rather than relying purely on advertising, is seen as a more stable revenue stream.  However, according to online editor, Anne Spackman, this is not the case, the trial is designed to allow the paper to see what kind of content people are visiting the archives for.

Access charges will be £4.95 for a day, £14.95 for one month and £74.95 for a year.

Sources:  The Guardian, EJC

News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch said today, when announcing News Corp's fourth quarter results, "That the newspaper sector is changing is clear - but companies willing to invest in new forms of delivery, which have a commitment to quality, will prosper."

Murdoch went on to say that he has been cautious in the past about charging for viewing a website. However, Murdoch's recently acquired  Wall Street Journal pay-to-view website www.wsj.com has seen an 88 per cent increase in subscriptions, which start at £44.50 for a year.

News Corp.'s newspapers experienced a revenue boost this year, which may be due to the acquisition of Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Source: Press Gazette

Telegraph.co.uk is upgrading its mobile site and switching from paid-for to free mobile content.



The new mobile site will carry images alongside text stories. The improved site, which is compatible with "all major handheld devices" according to a Telegraph Media Group (TMG) release, will contain Telegraph news, sport and travel updates.

Telegraph.co.uk have simplified the navigation to make it easier to access lead stories. Furthermore, at launch, the site will not have any adverts, but they may be introduced at a later date.

The group used new content management and digital publishing system Escenic to develop its site. Escenic's technology will enable developers to monitor traffic user figures and the popularity of mobile content.

TMG previously offered a paid-for mobile site, charging £5 per month.

Source: Journalism.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk and guardian.co.uk

The subpoenas issued to fifteen Pennsylvania journalists have been thrown out by a Harrisburg judge. The subpoenas were served to reporters who covered the grand jury investigation that resulted in state police charging casino owner Louis DeNaples with four counts of perjury in January.

The reporters were summoned to testify at a hearing on whether a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate alleged violations of grand jury secrecy.

DeNaples' legal team issued subpoenas to journalists from The Associated Press and various other organisations.

Source: Editor & Publisher

Bruno Thomas, a French journalist working for Auto Plus, was charged with industrial espionage after his magazine published photos of a new Renault model that is to be released in three years and risks being imprisoned for five years, AFP reported.

Laurent Chiapello, Auto Plus's editor-in-chief, said that the matter was "blown out of proportion" and that the journalist was "simply doing his job, that is finding new information to better  inform the reader."

Police raided the Auto Plus Paris offices on Tuesday, taking away computer hard disks and photos. The reporter was then detained for two days by the police.

"Holding Thomas for 48 hours was outrageous, and charging him on five counts is just a ploy by the police and judicial authorities to get him to reveal his sources. Once again, a basic principle of journalism is being flouted," said Reporters Without Borders.

A Renault employee who helped Thomas get the photographs was charged on Friday.

Source: AFP, Reporters Without Borders

Google News cannot be compared to other news sites like Yahoo News or CNN.com, according to PaidContent.org.

Google News gathers content with the help of computers who scan news on the Web and does not contain any ads. Meanwhile, other news sites like CNN.com create licensed material that passes through editors.

Google News groups articles by subject and ranks article by importance based on factors like  authority of publisher or placement of article in site. NYT writes that Google "packages the results as a set of links, sending readers to the sites where the articles appear."

According to the New York Times, Google executives claim that traffic is not the primary aim but that Google News "helps the company produce better search results and helps users find news sources that they might not know about otherwise."

According to the NYT, the growth rate of Google News is only 10 %, compared to MSNBC.com's 42 %, which got the site 10.4 million in traffic.

Dan Gillmor, who is director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at the Arizona State University School of Journalism, said that he is surprised "how little" Google News "evolved, at least on the surface", NYT wrote.

Marissa Meyer, vice president for Google search and user experience, said that Google News is one of "the most innovative" Google features and that its users actively employ the  Google search engine  and other services, NYT wrote.

She also mentioned that news results do emerge on the main Google search page, alongside adverts.  According to Meyer, "it directly feeds the main business."

Google News is sometimes seen as a competitor to other news providers, even if it brings traffic to the news site. Industry executives, according to NYT, think that because Google News links to a remote article, the readers are not likely to stay on the news site.

According to Braig Moffett, a Sanford C; Bernstein & Copany analyst, the Internet "made it possible to aggregate news cheaply". Consequently, news providers stopped charging for content. "Google may be doing more to accelerate this trend than anyone, but they are not doing it out of malice,"  Moffett said.

Tribune Co. owner Samuel Zell accused Google of stealing news stories for their own gains. In Europe, Belgian prosecutors said that Google News had "violated copyright laws" without asking for permission to link to the articles, NYT reported.

Google said that the company wishes "to help, not hurt, journalism", NYT wrote. Its chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, said that the company has "a huge moral imperative" to aid news outlets in becoming more "successful online", NYT wrote.

Last year, several features were added, such as different country and language versions of Google News. The number of "duplicate articles" is being reduced, as "authoritative" and "original" news stories are being displayed, according to NYT.

There is also the chance to personalize Google News, by focusing on local news and mapping the news event sites on Google Earth. Users can also post comments and search quotes.

Different sides to the same story are being provided by the news search engine, helping to make people "wake up and think," said Krishna Bharat, the research scientist behind Google News. "That's what makes people news junkies," she added.

NYT wrote that even if there have been some innovations, Google News "still lacks many of the flashier features that have attracted users to more conventional news sites, including interactive graphics and video."

Analysts have begun to question automated products and their limitations. Mark Glaser, PBS MediaShift editor said, "there is only so far you can go with an algorithm" because , "in the long run, people want a human touch."

Source: PaidContent.org, New York Times

See Also:

8 efficient and visual ways to present your online news
How to maximize your site's visiility in Google search ranking

Yahoo has partnered with Adobe PDF to create a new ad product called “Ads for Adobe PDF powered by Yahoo!” The project aims to allow publishers the chance to include contextual, text-based ads next to PDF-based content.

Since November 3rd and the declared state of emergency in Pakistan, crackdowns on the press have worsened- in a country where the press freedom had reportedly improved in recent years.

On Sunday the Wall Street Journal announced that their website, which charges for their online subscriptions, reached 1 million subscribers.

The New York Times announced the shuttering of its online subscription service, TimesSelect. The obvious question: is this the end of the paid-for online model altogether? How will the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) website, the Web’s largest paid-for subscription website, react? The Editors Weblog collected the insight of media analyst Philip Stone, Ali Rahnema, Corporate Development Director at the Irish Times, and Daniel Bernard, General Manager of WSJ Online.

Biloxi, Mississippi’s the Sun Herald is the first selection on Editor and Publisher’s “10 That Do It Right” annual list of weekly and daily newspapers exhibiting excellence.

Columnist David Lazarus of the San Francisco Gate recently defended his position that newspapers should charge for online content against the host of bloggers who attacked him.

TarifMedia interviews Maxime Baffert, financial inspector and co-author of a recent report on the press handed over to the French minister of Culture. Baffert leaves no ambiguity: the press as a whole must convert to digital, in order to survive. Baffert also explains how different online business models are effective for different audiences.