Results matching “uk some quick l”

As outlined in the first entry of this series, consumers will start using mobile electronic reading devices routinely. But will these versatile tools also become the preferred display for news and current affairs? Publishers' ability to inhabit this uncharted territory will matter greatly, but even more important is the decision of media consumers that news offered in this way best fits today's lifestyle and nicely blends in with their expectations and routines.
 
The readers' view is currently being explored and tested in several prototyping and/or pilot initiatives, although this effort is modest compared to the involvement of hardware and software engineers. Nevertheless, first results reveal the contours of what in the eyes of the digital reader will be the ideal form of electronic information delivery. Based on four recent research actions, this contribution will sketch the preconditions for successful deployment of e-readers and services, seen from the users perspective.

The eNews project, set up by Ifra, explored the consumer readiness for e-readers. Via focus groups in European and Japanese locations it was found that the use setting is different: more lean backward compared to the lean forward use of PC and print. This finding will have consequences for the kind of content that can be offered. Surprisingly, the consulted test persons appreciated the daylight readability of the e-readers, but by no means hyped it as heavily as the manufacturers themselves always do. The love for the device stems much more from its environment-friendly image.

Microsoft, partner in the design of the New York Times News Reader, has evaluated the user appreciation of this application in a field study. A selected group of readers worked for weeks with the NYTReader, especially while commuting, and was interviewed afterwards. Overall assessment was very positive: two-thirds, especially the serious travellers, would stick to the service. The kind of use however depended much on personal reading style: the news junkies appreciated the amount of detail, the skimmers the quickness of updates while the fun-seekers enjoyed the sophisticated layout. The synchronisation feature for permanent updating was less popular: too time-consuming and difficult to understand.
Conclusion: newspapers will have to bear in mind all these different use categories, and with an improved product.

In the Dutch MePaper project, the five participating newspapers are exploring novel journalistic formats for two types of e-readers: the e-ink devices and the mini laptops (UMPCs). New content models for mobile reading are developed in a joint design studio and these prototypes are tested in lab-based proof reading sessions. Here, it shows that there is a difference between what journalists think is important, for instance the addition of time frames to story overviews, and what the public wants (don't bother us with release hours). Also in this R&D effort, the variety of user demands is apparent. Many want both local (often hyper local) news, without loosing the global perspective. The preference can change from day to day, depending on personal circumstances and the attraction of news on offer. A definite outcome is the demand for customisation of the e-paper, ideally composed of sections, even editors from a range of different media. This result is in fact a cry-out for joint ventures between titles and across newspaper groups. Thus, e-reading will provoke unconventional business practices.
If the newspaper world manages to respond to these user requirements, there certainly is scope for a quick roll-out of the e-reading technology. In a Swedish large scale online survey (part of the UbiMedia project), 42 percent of the 3600 readers indicated to be ready for it now, and another 19 percent in the next five years.  Would these people want to change their trusted print edition for an electronic version? Two-thirds said yes, only one-third would be faithful to newsprint. The e-service however is expected to be considerably cheaper (says 58 percent), with a meagre 8 percent willing to pay extra for premium content.

The conclusion is obvious, the adoption potential for mobile electronic reading is certainly high, but it is a medium in its own right, not just another print or online edition spin-off. It needs to be well designed, fully user-driven, with convincing personalisation options. Valuable lessons in this respect are being learned by a Dutch paper, NRC. The e-reader service it launched last year based itself on simple copy streaming, and it obviously doesn't work. Disappointed users created an open forum in wiki format to voice their concerns, criticism and improvement suggestions. The company hasn't been able to respond to it adequately yet. E-reading clearly asks for special content formats, a different type of navigation architecture and innovative forms of news organisation. In the next entry, first design principles will be reviewed.

Director of the Euorpean Centre for Digital Communications and long-time journalist, Jan Bierhoff is currently conducting studies on e-reader technology and the consumer trends that will define their use. 
 

8, 000 miles away from the White House, a nation is celebrating President-elect Barack Obama's historic election win as a victory for a son of their country. 47-year-old Obama's father was born in Kenya and the celebrations following his win are ongoing from the streets of Nairobi to the village of Kogelo where Obama's grandmother still lives. Reflecting the importance of his victory, President Kibaki has declared a public holiday in Kenya to celebrate. The Kenyan media has reported every twist and turn of this nail-biting campaign, and its newspapers have covered this story on a scale never before seen for a US election.

The Editors Weblog spoke to Ian Fernandes, the head of Nation Media's Digital Division, about how Kenya's leading newspaper, the Daily Nation, followed the campaign, its importance to Kenya and the newspaper's future coverage of the USA.

Fernandes begins by saying that this election has captured the imagination of the entire country: "it has dominated the headlines for the past couple of weeks...the fact that someone who has his roots in Kenya can actually end up becoming the President of the United States." As victory was declared, inhabitants of Kogelo began singing "Jakogelo Yiengo Piny", which translates to "the one from Kogelo shakes the world".

Coverage online

From just a quick glance at the home page of the Daily Nation online edition, it is clear how important this election has been to Kenyans. The front page is dominated by a picture of President elect Barack Obama and his family taking to the stage for his post-victory speech under the headline "Win brings pride to Kenyan diaspora", with a lead article discussing the impact this victory has had on Kenyans across the USA. Feeder articles follow, as do photos of the election night and video footage from the Nation Media Group's NTV channel. Under the toolbar is a link for dedicated coverage, including the campaign, Obama's victory and the reaction in Kenya and the US.

The Daily Nation has an advantage on many news organisations in that it is part of media conglomerate, Nation Media Group, and one of the branches of this modern news organisations is a TV station: footage from the station has been an important edition to the Daily Nation's coverage.

Telling the story from a Kenyan perspective

Fernandes reports that the country and, in particular the village of Kogelo, has been inundated by news teams from across the globe. Expanding on this point, Fernandes says that most of these correspondents are based in London and only arrived in the country after the story had unfolded and thus found it difficult to cover it comprehensively, whereas the Nation's reporters were on the ground from the get go. The Daily Nation felt it was important to tell the story of Obama's campaign and victory from a Kenyan perspective, for example, the video footage section on the web edition not only includes Obama's speeches and footage of American reactions, there is also extensive coverage of the celebrations in Kenya following the result and reactions from Kenyan politicians. The small village of Kogelo in Western Kenya was at the heart of the Daily Nation's coverage and the site features interviews with Obama's grandmother and other members of his family who have had to rapidly get used to the media spotlight.

Increased resources, and now he has won?

During the campaign the Daily Nation had three reporters in the United States. Fernandes explains, "I think in order for us to be relevant - and just like foreign media houses having a presence in Kenya during the election - we decided that we should actually have our journalists in the USA, one following the McCain trail and one following the Obama trail, to know and to tell the story with a Kenyan perspective."

The newly elected US President will continue to be of interest to Kenyan citizens and Fernandes reports that the newspaper is considering maintaining a permanent presence in the US in the form of a full-time reporter or "at least a correspondent". He also confirms that the USA will now garner more attention from the Kenyan media, as citizens will want reports on how the new president is progressing.

Readership spike

Fernandes reports that 50% of the Daily Nations' readership is from the Kenyan diasporas across the USA and Europe.  The Daily Nation average 45,000 - 50,000 visits a day but it picked to about 90,000 visits on 4th November. The Daily Nation's coverage of an election thousands of miles away not only managed to cater to the audience at home, but also generated traffic from Kenyans located across the globe who sought a trusted name for the story of how a son of Kenya won the election to run the most powerful country in the world.

Michael Wolff, the founder of Newser, had a lot to say about his Website, the future of news, Google, The Daily Beast and more...

In case you haven't (already) heard of Newser...

Yet again, an old media man is trying to reinvent his craft with new media thinking. Wolff, who has been covering the media for quite a while as a contributor to Vanity Fair came up with the idea for Newser as a response to what he calls a "revolution in how people get their news."  Newser is a news aggregation website that launched one year ago and is based on the concept of more news in less time, by adding human intelligence to machine-driven aggregation.  According to Wolff, the idea is that Newser "searches the web, reads the stories and delivers concise and sharp summaries - along with links to the full text."

The Starting Point

Wolff is sure that newspapers and traditional broadcast media will fall to an imminent death.  So as a means feed the enormous demand for news he created the online news aggregation site.

Even though there are huge advantages to using technology in the media industry, Wolff argues that "nobody has really developed the user-friendly way for getting news," that is, until he created Newser. The idea behind Newser was to create something that could be fun, entertaining, interesting and all the while make sense - something that was essentially, user-friendly. With this in mind, combined with what he calls "an absolute place in the market" - he designed and launched the news platform, giving editors and writers the opportunity to use the technological tools at hand to produce news that would be both efficient and entertaining.

The News According to Newser: Its Visual, and General

The news aggregation system is set up in a visual grid format so that readers can see the day's happenings pass before their eyes.  He describes it as a real-time visual for the day's events, a "kind of narrative through which you can literally watch the day go by."

When asked if visuals take away from the content  -  Wolff was quick to state his position: visuals are essentially the life force of news.  "I think the visual presentation of news is the business we are in. Newspapers are visual media; obviously television is visual media. News is visual, if news is not visual (i.e., Google, or YahooNews) it's a lesser form."  Wolff believes that if you can't visualize (or have it visualized for you), then you are missing out on the world.  To him, Newser is a "window to an incredible experience of the moment...", and he believes this is part of what people want.  The other part that people want is drama.

If there exists a trend towards more niche news, as many media pundits postulate, Wolff feels that the trend is backward. In his opinion, general news, news that embraces everyone, is in demand.  As a result, Newser does not target a certain age group or demographic. In Wolff's words, "We are one of the few sites that target general interest news audiences. We are not serving up left wing news. We are not serving up right wing news. We're not serving up special interest news." He views it as an "old fashioned idea," something that works because, essentially, the audience wants "the news that everyone else wants -it doesn't want it to be specialized - they want that sort of pure view into the world."

The Newser System

Newser's system is somewhere between human and Googlebot. An algorithm searches sources for the news, then the editors and writers make the final decisions as to what to summarize and publish, summarizing being the site's primary purpose. Wolff sees Newser as a way to bring an "enormous amount of information" to readers, "which is significantly more consumable because we are the ones who are preparing, digesting it, summarizing it, condensing it."

Newser has 20 editors working rotating shifts so that hands are on deck 24/7. Outside of the main offices in Chicago and New York City, Wolff employs people throughout the world to keep up the pace. News has to be instantaneous, so his staff policy is, "if you are out of bed, we use you."  

Wolff also describes Newser as being in the business of sources; "If we are an expert on anything; its on sources."   Although many traditional publisher esteem that news aggregation sites are "stealing" content, Wolff does not view it that way.  He points out that Newser is sending readers back to the original source and "the world depends on directories and aggregators to locate and point original content...to present a literal infinity of information in a manageable form."  He sees Newser as doing a "more valuable act, or at least as valuable as the creators themselves."

Wolff"s categorizes sites that post purely original content as "relics of the past" because "nobody wants news from just one source." But he also doesn't see the point in purely automated aggregators that just produce headlines (such as Google or Yahoo) - he views them as "lesser forms."

Not Such a Beast After All

When asked how he compared Newser to other sites such as the Huffington Post, Drudge, or Tina Brown's recently launched The Daily Beast, Wolff highlighted the fact that his site is "pure news aggregation, we are not producing other content." In addition, Newser remains "agnostic to orientation" in order to present the news in "everybody's point of view."

When asked about his thoughts on The Daily Beast, he was quick to offer his apocalyptic view of yet another "relic"; "The Daily Beast...which I think is a complete error and hash and mismatch - is just trying to produce an old idea of a magazine, Tina Brown's old idea of a magazine online. So it's not even a new idea of a magazine - its Tina Brown's old idea, and in my view has no chance of success at all."  Wolff continued, opining that both the Huffington Post and The Daily Beast are spending more money that they can ever make back; "Someone is going to end up eating that," he said.

News Today Gone Tomorrow

As for hindsight, he is pleased with the outcome of Newser - but stated that as with any business dealing with the development of technology - there are always things that could have been done differently, but described it as a learning experience - with technology sometimes you don't know what the outcome will be of certain efforts. It's trial and error. He cites one of the "main management challenges (as) deciding where to focus and allocate brain resources."

Obviously he wants Newser's audience to grow and for them to become "a significant and possibly dominant news brand online." He has no plans to develop a print version of aggregated news and leaves it for the most part up to users' demands.  

Wolff imagines the future news landscape as being purely electronic-centric and sees the main challenge as figuring out what works. Opposed to those traditionalists that laud the power of traditional media, he believes that consumer behavior does change - people have always sought their news in the most efficient way possible.

As for print: "The advice is probably not to get up for work today, sleep in and, you know, hope your retirement account will take care of you."

Mario Garcia recently published an article discussing the future model of the newspaper.  He referenced Philip Meyers recent article in American Journalism Review, which also presented some ideas on where newspapers and journalism are headed.

Garcia uses a few examples to illustrate his view of the future.  First, The Economist, with its unique "information architecture and navigation", creative visuals, distinct personality, in-depth analysis and interpretation, and focused content is an example of what many people desire to read and enjoy reading today.

The Canadian newspaper, 24 hours, is unveiling its revamped look this week.

The thinking behind the newspapers redesign is to accommodate its readers busy lives, as a result the newspaper has launched a  quick read format of a front page with brief summaries of lead stories and highlights. The paper also has a navigation layout enabling the reader to easily pinpoint the stories they are interested in.

"Insights from our readers, prospective readers, advertisers and ad agencies set the course for the redesign," said Chris Brockbank, VP of marketing at Sun Media. "They want sharp and fast headline news and a consistent, quick navigation system to get to content they want."

Quebecor's Sun Media publishes 24 hours newspaper Monday to Friday. The publishers newspapers are read by approximately 6.5 million readers every week.

Source: Media Canada via IFRA Executive News

The Dallas Morning News says that it will be making "strategic" changes to its free tabloid paper Quick, geared towards young adults, reports dallasnews.com. By the end of next month, Quick will focus entirely on entertainment and nightlife, instead of the current news extracts and entertainment stories. Furthermore, it will be published only on Thursdays, as opposed to five times a week.

Quick intends to increase circulation from 95,000 to 100,000 copies, half of which will be distributed to young adults living in apartment complexes and half of which will be available in stands around entertainment and retail venues. Extra door-to-door delivery is expected to start from 2009. In addition,

Quick may also become available on mobile platforms by the end of this year.

The Dallas morning News also launched Briefing, a "quick-read" newspaper, in August. The new paper is intended for 200,000 "upscale" homes that don't get traditional titles.

Source: dallasnews.com

In today's newsroom, changes have become part of the daily norm.  Learning to work in a fast paced setting, understanding technology and being able to operate in a multimedia-saturated environment are key factors.  

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has adopted a new approach to deal with shifts in the newsroom; they gave the staff members a voice in change.  The Journal's editor Marty Kaiser and managing editor George Stanley developed a News Gathering Task Force the end of 2007.  The task force eventually gathered enough support and research to launch the Breaking News Hub, a newsroom team dedicated to producing a steady stream of stories for both their Website and the paper edition.

In an article published yesterday in The Huffington Post, Bob Guccione, Jr. presents an interesting series of predictions for the future of the media.  He predicts the endurance of print, the decline of Google, and that imagination will play a key role.

First, he believes that major city dailies will be transformed into free papers and that home delivery will require a paid subscription.  Also, the Sunday paper will continue to be sold, but will become a source of information for the weeks events.

Guccione also predicts that Google will loose significant market share because competitors will finally step up to the plate and create good or even better search engines.

His next prediction comes as somewhat of a surprise, "The Internet will not consume print, because it's not strong enough, it's not better, and it's too busy consuming itself."  Although, he does admit that print has a lot to worry about, but that their problems can be resolved.  

He s quick to highlight the fact that publishers need a new formula, what used to work is not working any longer.  "The Internet hit traditional publishing like the asteroid that struck the earth and killed the dinosaurs."  Publishers need to start getting creative.

Ultimately, Guccione theorizes that the future of media will come down to one thing, imagination. "So those in publishing should pick their collective chins up off the floor and realize that the future couldn't be brighter, as soon as we recognize that digital technology is the modern-day equivalent of color printing and faster presses, and that the thing that feeds the new machine is the same thing that fed the old one: imagination."

Sources:  Media Bistro, The Huffington Post

A recent article in The New York Observer discussed the changing dimensions of content in news reporting and how multimedia reporting is affecting journalists.  

In an email to the NYO, Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, admitted to his surprise that so many important "stories fail to resonate the way they deserve."

The Internet may be largely to blame for this.  It has changed the way we live and the way we receive news and information.  Quick, fast, and short.  As the NYO points out, "hyperlinks do not advertise their relative value or importance. Everything is equal, everything is a tie and nothing, it seems, is important anymore."

Reporter, Berny Morson, from the Rocky Mountain News used Twitter to post a live blog on the newspaper's website at the funeral of Marten Kudlis, a three-year-old boy killed in an ice-cream store last week.    

Twitter is a service that allows for the real-time exchange of quick, short messages. Some reporters use the service to send updates to their websites to offer readers blurbs about an event.

In this case, the media blasted the RMN for covering the funeral with Twitter and has called the decision "inappropriate," "misguided" and "tasteless."  Questions have been raised before about when it is appropriate to use Twitter and whether in some cases it is absolutely necessary.

Sources:  Poynter, Colorado Independent, The Standard, journalism.co.uk

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