Editors Weblog: Search Results

UK: Council newspaper costs revealed

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 4, 2010 at 3:22 PM

There's more fuel for the debate over council-run newspapers in the UK today, with one local newspaper revealing that its council-supported rival costs taxpayers almost £28,000 a month.

In the town of Salford, near Manchester, the council magazine Life in Salford competes with newspapers the Salford Star and Salford Advertiser. The Salford Star filed a freedom of information request to determine the cost of producing the council magazine. It determined that the council spends £27,797 per month, or an average of £333,564 per year.

By contrast, outside advertising income for the paper totaled just over £19,000 for eight issues.

Lebedev to bring in billionaire partner for Independent deal?

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 3, 2010 at 10:51 AM

Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, in exclusive talks to purchase the Independent newspapers, may attempt to bring an Egyptian partner into the deal, according to reports in The Guardian.

Lebedev is trying to persuade Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris to join him in investing in The Independent and Independent on Sunday, according to sources close to the deal. The details of the proposed agreement are unknown.

More freesheet speculation as Lebedev's purchase of The Independent more likely

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 20, 2010 at 12:41 PM

Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev's purchase of The Independent is likely to go ahead, although a month later than planned, according to Media Week.

The two parties are in exclusive talks with a February 15 deadline, which is likely to be extended to mid-March as some aspects are yet to be agreed upon.

Printing contract issues are still being resolved. The Independent holds a long-running printing contract with Trinity Mirror.

Another point of discussion is that Lebedev is considering dropping The Independent's £1 cover price and making the paper free, according to unnamed sources cited by Media Week.

AFP launches paid iPhone app

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 18, 2010 at 5:14 PM

Amid all the buzz about the potential to make money from mobile news, news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has become the latest news organisation to launch an iPhone app.

The application also works on the iPod Touch and costs $1.99 from the Apple store.

"It gives access to the global news agency's multimedia content in English, Spanish, Portuguese and German, including breaking world news from wars and conflicts to politics, sport and entertainment, as well as the latest major developments in health, science and technology," AFP said in a statement.

Will Rod Liddle become editor of The Independent?

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 11, 2010 at 11:09 AM

If the sale of The Independent to Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev goes ahead, outspoken columnist Rod Liddle is in line to become the next editor, The Guardian reports. The news has attracted widespread criticism from Independent journalists and readers, Roy Greenslade writes.

Liddle was previously the editor of BBC Radio 4's Today program, but resigned in 2002 to continue writing a column for The Guardian that was in conflict with the BBC's impartiality rules. He later became a columnist for The Sunday Times and The Spectator. His work has been subject to criticisms of racism and misogyny.

WaPo's online presence set to increase in 2010

Posted by Helena Humphrey on January 5, 2010 at 11:15 AM

There is no denying that 2009 was an eventful year for both the staff at WaPo and its readers, and one that saw the newspaper lose tens of millions of dollars. In an attempt to counter this the publication implemented a number of significant changes to its newsroom operation, cut a fair few jobs, and underwent a complete redesign - receiving a lot of criticism and a little praise.

Yet the 132-year-old paper weathered the storm and looks set to bring about a number changes this year, too, which will mainly affect the look of things online.

Australia: publishers disagree on new readership survey

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on December 10, 2009 at 4:37 PM

Dissatisfaction with current readership surveys has led Australian newspaper publishers to tender a different research company to do the job. But one key publisher has withdrawn its support for the process, in a move that has left industry insiders wondering one thing: why?

Audience measurement research for Australian newspapers and magazines is currently undertaken by Roy Morgan Research. Their methods have received varied criticism from publishers, who complain of a lack of methodological transparency, the need for more frequent reporting, and the need for reporting on individual sections of newspapers. Publishers have also claimed that their surveys do not accurately measure audiences.

Publishers unite to challenge Kindle

Posted by Jennifer Lush on December 9, 2009 at 2:39 PM

Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp and Time Inc. have announced plans to jointly develop an e-reading device/service with publishers interests at heart. Disillusioned with the 30-70 per cent revenue split offered by current market dominator, Amazon's Kindle, the group of publishers have decided to unite in their cause to make the e-reader opportunity more profitable.

No details on how much each partner will invest in the venture have been released, though according to interim managing director, John Squires, there is enough in the kitty "to give us a good start". Information on staff size has similarly not been made public, nor has a company name been decided upon.

News Corp joins online newsstand

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 7, 2009 at 6:12 PM

News Corp is joining Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith and Time in putting its publications up for sale in a variety of digital formats for various platforms on an online newsstand for both magazines and newspapers.

Each of these major publishers are investing and creating a new company to run the digital newsstand. An official announcement is expected on Tuesday.

Hailed as an 'iTunes for magazines,' the new company and service will have the four rival publishers as equity partners.

Over 50 newspapers unite in common climate editorial

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on December 7, 2009 at 5:54 PM

Fifty-six newspapers in 45 countries have published the same editorial today, calling for delegates at the climate summit in Copenhagen to take action on climate change.

The editorial is published in 20 different languages. Most of the participating newspapers feature it on their front page.

Josh Cohen talks about Google's concession for news publishers

Posted by Jennifer Lush on December 3, 2009 at 12:15 PM

After announcing that it would make concessions to help newspapers earlier this week, Google's Josh Cohen, has given an interview with Media Guardian explaining that the move will help publications retain their relationship with the search engine, without inhibiting their attempts to put up paywalls.

Google has updated its First Click Free program, so that publishers can limit Google News users to look at no more than five pages of content a day without registering or subscribing beforehand. Previously, users have been able to continually view subscription articles for free by entering news websites via the search engine.

ImpreMedia outsources design, formatting and ad production to Mexico

Posted by Jennifer Lush on November 18, 2009 at 2:15 PM

ImpreMedia, the biggest Spanish-language newspaper publisher in the US, is the latest to reveal it will outsource a sector of its workforce. Yesterday the company announced that it will farm out the design, formatting and production of its advertisements and editorial pages to Business News Group (BNG), a publisher based in Monterrey, Mexico.

"This move is consistent with ImpreMedia's goal to concentrate resources on content creation, audience growth and revenue generation," stated John Paton, Chairman and CEO of ImpreMedia.

Sun and Times journalists to move into new offices next year

Posted by Helena Humphrey on October 28, 2009 at 1:23 PM

News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has today outlined a new plan, which will see journalists from the Times and the Sun relocate to new offices in a building across the road from News International's Wapping headquarters, the Guardian has reported. The Sunday Times and News of the World are to occupy the Times' former offices as soon as renovation has been completed.

'The Reconstruction of American Journalism' could leave newspapers behind

Posted by Nestor Bailly on October 21, 2009 at 4:35 PM

"The Reconstruction of American Journalism" is a 100-page report on the state of journalism in the United States. Written by Leonard Downie, the VP of The Washington Post, and Michael Schudson, a professor at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, it describes changes in the news media industry (i.e. the 'happening' of the internet) and its ultimately detrimental effect on traditional media news outlets, of course newspapers especially. Here we will briefly summarize some points, and there is a lot of material in the report that merits an in-depth read of the whole thing.

The report is quite detailed, and includes various examples and covers many topics, but focuses on local news and the value of quality journalism. Beginning with a history of the newspaper industry that culminates in its weakness in the face of internet news, Downie and Schudson explain the importance of investigative and accountability journalism for a democracy, holding it as a public good.

The internet, they say, has put under threat "independent reporting that provides information, investigation, analysis, and community knowledge, particularly in the coverage of local affairs" which has been traditionally the domain of newspaper reporting. Now with all the recent budget cuts papers have had to decrease support for investigative reporting, perhaps their most important role in society.

The BBC and global warming

Posted by Emma Heald on October 19, 2009 at 11:24 AM

Much commentary and debate has arisen surrounding BBC climate correspondent Paul Hudson's October 9 article entitled "What happened to global warming?" in which he stated that the warmest year recorded globally was 1998 and therefore suggested that climate change may not necessarily be caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, which have continued to increase since the late 90s.

Hudson outlined the arguments of climate change sceptics, who believe that natural cycles that humans do not influence are in fact responsible for how warm our planet is, such as solar output and ocean cycles. Some argue that we are now in fact in a period of global cooling, rather than warming.

Orange news aggregation service 2424actu looks to expand outside France

Posted by Emma Heald on October 15, 2009 at 10:02 AM

French telecoms operator Orange announced on Wednesday that it is to expand its online news aggregation service to countries outside France. 2424actu aggregates French language text, television and radio content, working in partnership with news organisations just as Agence France-Presse, RTL, RFI, Le Monde and Le Figaro, AFP reported.

AFP quoted Laurent Frisch, head of media at Orange's division for internet innovation, NexT.com, who said that the company is considering "expanding into other countries, in Europe or elsewhere. We envisage going into countries where the media and advertising markets allow us to make such a service work." He suggested the UK or Poland as examples.

Investigative journalism gone global

Posted by Helena Humphrey on October 12, 2009 at 1:28 PM

The image of the lone wolf journalist, sniffing out local crime and corruption, may be a thing of the past - that's according to the results of a new enquiry launched by the International Journalists' network, which has summarised the latest changes in the field of investigative journalism.

Hunting in packs

Collaborative efforts have proved both efficient and effective. Editor of the International Journalists' network, Jessica Weiss cites the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist's recent 13-month investigation into the illegal global tobacco trade as one such success. The investigative series, "Tobacco Underground", unearthed stories surrounding a multibillion-dollar business of trafficking, which has contributed to crime, corruption, terrorism and illness internationally. Its team was composed of some 22 reporters in 14 countries, spread across a dozen different time zones, reporting on anything from "counterfeiters in China and renegade factories in Russia to Indian reservations in New York and warlords in Pakistan and North Africa".

The pragmatics of "Tobacco Underground" were by no means unusual. In the Internet age many of today's investigative journalists are working in regional and cross-border networks, enabled by technology and tools that are revolutionising reporting. The European Fund for Investigative Journalism actively encourages this- providing research grants from a fund of €20,000 for stories that have the potential to make an impact; its main stipulation being that projects should include "cross-border research, networking between colleagues, established and innovative investigative methods" and be "original, innovative and intensive".

Without doubt, the web facilitates this: On a basic level journalists have the means to communicate with each other effectively and cheaply, benefiting from the use of a secure, online workplaces to communicate, share documents, photos and videos, and edit each other's work. But the web offers other advantages too: The information super highway is being tamed by social networking sites, such as the journalist's virtual grapevine, Twitter. Fans or otherwise, few journalists would refuse to acknowledge the speed with which the tool relays news stories globally, often providing important leads. Latest reports regarding the development of Wikileaks - "the online clearinghouse for leaked documents", permitting access to sensitive documents, is another exciting development for journalists and could provide a powerful investigative tool.

The importance of watchdog journalism

According to ICIJ director and Tobacco Underground lead editor David Kaplan, good investigative journalists delve "deeply into complex subjects, and look at whether people in a given society who have power are exercising that power in an accountable way". Put like that, one can hardly ignore its necessity as a direct means to regulate society. Yet newspapers seeking to cut costs have cut jobs, and with Investigative journalism proving to be time-consuming as well as costly, floundering local papers no longer have the means to support it.

As a result citizen start-ups have been cropping up around the globe, particularly in the U.S. The most well-known publications to date, MinnPost and Voice of San Diego, exist on a total budget of a little more than $1 million a year (with almost all of the budget going directly on reporting). The start-ups have done away with expensive print, delivery and ad sales costs as well as sports reports, breaking crime news and so on, in order to deliver serious reporting. A number of the n ew non-profit units, such as Pro Publica, focus exclusively on investigative reports also. The UK's newly set up "Investigations Fund" is also looking to support "risky, challenging reporting" for which it has recognised that there is a "crying demand".

The growing trend for Citizen start-ups is mirrored by non-profit investigative centres worldwide: The current number stands at 50, with more than half of those having been established since 2000. Though the first three non-profits dedicated to investigative journalism were American: the Fund for Investigative Journalism (1969), Investigative Reporters and Editors (1975), and the Center for Investigative Reporting (1977), it is an idea that is now taking off internationally: In August of this year, the Latin American Conference on Investigative Journalism lauded two exposés of public corruption in Brazil and the management of illicit accounts within the Catholic Church in Costa Rica - an important development for two countries where a tradition of investigative journalism does not exist.

Challenges

One of the biggest threats facing investigative journalism is simply that of not having enough trained professionals within the field to safeguard its survival. In countries where media freedom is seriously restricted, reporting of this kind can be dangerous - and even life threatening. Caijing, a Chinese magazine, has manoeuvred around this by training their investigators in the reportage of finance and financial investigations - which is permitted, as opposed to direct criticism of the country's Communist government. Similarly, Arab Reporters in Syria have sponsored consumer reporting on food safety in order to train people in the method. According to Kaplan "The important thing is that you establish a methodology - you get a generation of reporters trained in how to do this kind of reporting and the rest will come".

But even in countries with independent media, investigative stories have other hurdles to overcome. Kaplan commented that during "Tobacco Underground", language, cultural and technological barriers were often difficult to work with, as well as the fact that reporters were working across different time zones. Furthermore, reporters in different regions had different levels of training, varied reporting styles and standards.

A future rooted in its past

All in all however, technological advancements have had an positive effect on news reporting states Kaplan, which he refers to as the "great equaliser" at a time when so many other resources are being cut.

Technology aside, Kaplan maintains that "investigative journalism as a craft remains rooted in the same principles it was founded upon", calling upon its journalists to "think about stories systematically, think about multiple sourcing, look up public records, interview and follow trails - trails to people, trails of money, trails of accountability", drawing parallels between investigative reporters and "good cops and honest prosecutors" who ultimately, are "driven by the hope to leave the world a little better than how they found it."

With the emergence of non-profit start ups it is clear that these people do exist. But are there enough of them to fill in the gaps in reporting left by the recent financial crisis? By Poynter Media Business Analyst Rick Edmond's estimations, it would take roughly 1,600 MinnPosts or Voice of San Diegos to replace the spending on journalism newspapers have cut. Either non-profit grows or the newspaper industry faces facts, and accepts that investigative reporting is - and should continue to be - the backbone of journalism.

Sources: International Jounalists' Network, The Investigations Fund, European Fund for Investigative Journalism, Poynter

Turkey's Dogan Yayin's court challenge over guarantee rejected

Posted by Emma Heald on October 7, 2009 at 1:51 PM

Turkey's largest media company Dogan Yayin launched a court challenge yesterday to a demand by tax authorities for a guarantee for the $3.3 billion fine the group is facing, which was then rejected, according to Today's Zaman. The tax authorities are asking for the full value of the fine as collateral while the group makes an appeal in court. The company was ordered to pay $2.53 billion in early September for back-taxes and fines, a total which has since increased.

Dogan Yayin owns two out of the three top-selling newspapers in Turkey, Milliyet and Hurriyet, and two of the four most-watched television stations.

Journalism Online: more than just a pay wall, but will it work?

Posted by Emma Heald on October 7, 2009 at 10:39 AM

Poynter contributor Dorian Benkoil has written an article entitled Journalism Online: Not Just a Pay Wall, in which he tries to offer "a fairer portrayal" of what the start-up "says it intends to do," in reaction to much reporting on the venture which he believes has been incomplete. Journalism Online, due to launch a prototype in the near future, promises to facilitate charging online.

Benkoil stressed that rather than a simple attempt to put up pay walls around content, Journalism Online offers a more complex service, involving helping publishers figure out whether or not they can charge and if so, how. And the concept is very much designed around the idea of only charging for some content, and of providing data to publishers so that they can make the best decisions. Gordon Crovitz, co-founder of the venture and former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, told Benkoil that "we managed to talk a few of our affiliates out of putting a complete pay wall around all their content."

FT's How To Spend It goes online

Posted by Helena Humphrey on October 5, 2009 at 11:14 AM

This weekend saw the launch of the Financial Times' latest venture; a website version of the glossy supplement which appears alongside the newspaper 28 times a year - How To Spend it online, the Guardian reported. Launch sponsors for the standalone site include top end brands Rolex, Krug and Harry Winston.

The content of the unashamedly indulgent magazine has been replicated on the site in suitably stylish and innovative digital format thanks to its design partner, Razorfish. Gillian de Bono, the magazine and now online editor said:

"How To Spend set the benchmark for luxury lifestyle magazines 15 years ago and now we want to establish the brand as the benchmark for luxury lifestyle websites too. To this end, the print and online operations are fully integrated, produced and edited by a single in-house team using the same top tier writers, photographers and illustrators. The site will feature larger-format ads to appeal to luxury advertisers."

Editor-in-chief points finger at financial media for failing to predict recession

Posted by Helena Humphrey on September 16, 2009 at 2:05 PM

The question as the whether the media should have been able to predict the global financial crisis has been fiercely debated since the crash last year. The role of the British media was scrutinised during a debate entitled "Why did nobody see it coming?"; the Society of American Business Editors and Writers asked themselves the same question at their annual conference; and Financial Times editor Lionel Barber gave an answer in his Poynter Fellowship lecture at Yale University in April of this year.

Now it's Brian Caplen's turn to pronounce on the matter. Journalism.co.uk reported that the editor-in-chief of financial newspaper Banker has levelled criticism at financial journalists for failing to predict the biggest economic crisis in 70 years. According to his latest book, "Playing Footsie with the FTSE?", journalism put too great an emphasis on the reportage of news stories and stories regarding individual banks, when it should have been considering the bigger picture - referred to as "macroeconomics."

Dogan Yayin fined $2.53 billion; applies to negotiate with tax authorities

Posted by Emma Heald on September 9, 2009 at 3:09 PM

Dogan Yayin Holding AS, Turkey's biggest media group, has been ordered to pay 3.75 billion liras ($2.53 billion) in back-taxes and fines, Bloomberg and other outlets reported yesterday. Owner Aydin Dogan has been engaged in a "war of words" with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and this is the second penalty given to the group this year.

In a filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange yesterday, Dogan said that the government is asking for taxes that the company's units should have paid between 2005 and 2007 stemming from share transactions between group companies. Dogan Yayin has protested that it is not required to pay tax on the transactions because no sale took place and no cash changed hands, and will ask the government to re-evaluate the tax demand, according to Bloomberg. Reuters reported today that the Turkish tax authority is open to negotiating with Dogan Yayin, and that the publisher had already applied to negotiate a settlement of the fine. The company's share value had slumped considerably since the announcement of the fine but has since started to rise.

Berlusconi dismisses claims that press freedom is in danger as "a joke"

Posted by Emma Heald on September 8, 2009 at 10:45 AM

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has denied protests that press freedom is in danger in his country, dismissing such suggestions as "a little joke spread by the communist and Catholic-communist minority and their newspapers."

The protests have arisen following the prime minister's legal action against La Repubblica and L'Unita, as well as several foreign newspapers. The trade union National Press Federation (FNSI) has arranged a press freedom demonstration for 19 September in Rome, and a petition on La Repubblica's website presented by three judges, calling for an end to attempts to silence the free press, has attracted over 300,000 signatures.

Presidents on YouTube: what does this mean for traditional media?

Posted by Emma Heald on September 3, 2009 at 7:46 AM

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has launched his own YouTube channel, reported Media Network, apparently in a bid to reach out to the young. "We are very happy that the Russian president has opened his channel on YouTube," a Moscow-based spokeswoman for Google, which owns the popular video-sharing site, Alla Zabrovskaya, said.

Medvedev has been blogging since last year, and already has a video blog on the Kremlin website. His first video on YouTube addressed schoolchildren at the start of the academic year. Five videos have been uploaded so far, and the most popular so far has been watched more than 52,000 times.

James Murdoch vs. BBC

Posted by Emma Heald on August 31, 2009 at 2:01 PM

James Murdoch, head of News International and son of media mogul Rupert, strongly criticised the BBC in his speech at MediaGuardian's Edinburgh International Television Festival on Friday and during a Q&A session the following day, calling for the corporation licence fee funding to be significantly reduced. His attack on the BBC was accompanied by extensive criticism of the way the British media industry is regulated.

Murdoch described the "chilling" hold that the BBC has over the media landscape, stressing that its news channels and website were inhibiting the ability of commercial competitors to invest in news and implying that it would put newspapers out of business. He emphasised the size and extent of the corporation, which publishes material that he thinks a state-supported institution should not, referring to "Orwellian" state control.

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