Results matching “incentive to in”

Bertrand Pecquerie wrote in an article in Le Monde yesterday that the French newspaper industry is in crisis and, worryingly, turning to the State for help. Newspapers have been subsidized in France for the past ten years and, in those ten years, the situation has not improved, it has actually worsened.

Pecquerie believes that there are four core problems facing the industry and these are not being addressed. The four core issues are method, diagnosis, objective and means.

Lowell Bergmann is a ground breaking investigative reporter, a producer/correspondent for the PBS documentary series "Frontline" in the US and spent 14 years as a producer with CBS's "60 Minutes".

Bergman shared a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service with The New York Times in 2004 for "A Dangerous Business," (which detailed a record of egregious worker safety violations coupled with the systematic violation of environmental laws in the iron sewer and water pipe industry) and is a Professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Furthermore, he is a co-founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism and a consultant at ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

The story of Bergman's investigation of the tobacco industry for 60 Minutes was chronicled in the 1999 Academy Award-nominated feature film "The Insider", in which Bergman was portrayed by Al Pacino (below left).

The Editors Weblog contacted Lowell Bergman - who was an early adopter and advocate of the multimedia model - to discover his views on the key issues facing investigative reporting and its future.

EW: What do you see in the future for investigative journalism? Do you still see it as having a home at newspapers?

LB: Investigative journalism in America has always been done by magazines and in books as well as in newspaper. For many years newspapers were not doing much of it. It was a 'freelance' occupation usually with writers like I.F. Stone and others who left newspapers because they were too restrictive. Personally, I have been using the web and been 'online' for more than a decade.

But it remains true that it is newspapers and traditional news organizations that produce almost all the new information everyday.

Pure web based operations with a few new exceptions recycle information they get from those organizations. We will see web based sites becoming the providers of more and more news and quality information in the future, but the transition will take time.

EB: What do you see as the key issue facing your profession?

LB: I am not sure it is a 'profession' in the traditional sense. In this country it is open to everyone. It is not licensed. Right now the transformation of the media endangers the collective experience of news people who chose to make gathering, investigating and presenting quality information their life work. That is why non-profits and educational institutions [Universities] will become more and more important. They do not have the same pressures. Its a time of transition, a kind of "Middle Age", that will not see a resurgence of real reporting until the economic questions are resolved.

EW: How has new media changed the way you work?

LB: Obviously, the availability of databases, newspaper archives and all sorts of information on the Web makes many things easier. But the old techniques and standards have not been replaced. To do investigative or in depth reporting you have take the time to meet people, and not meet them in a chat room.

Confidentiality on the internet is virtually impossible. It depends on trust. And trust is the weakest link in terms of the reliability of information offered up on the Web by so called 'new media'.

EW: Do you think there is more pressure from editors with the advent of the 24-hour news culture? Are investigative journalists getting the time and resources necessary?

LB: At a certain point you are a stenographer, if you don't have enough time to do the kind of reporting that advances what we know. This is not just true of 'investigative' reporters.

All good reporting involves asking some skeptical questions and not assuming what you are told is true. When I think of 'investigative reporting' I mean reporting in the public interest that looks deeply into a subject or story. Often it involves developing sources or hunting for documents or both and having the time to explore what they mean. At the same time in the best of all world's your editor is happy if you come back and say there is no story, or the story you originally went in pursuit of changed.

So, in answer to your question the pressure of a failing economic model by definition means there is less time. Prior to the decline of newspapers, broadcasters in the U.S. freed from the strictures around licensing that once forced them to present programming in the public interest along with operating with the threat of punishment created worldwide news gathering organizations. They had the incentive to do documentaries and present them even if the ratings were far below those of entertainment. That is no longer the case so you have less in depth reporting on the air as well.

EW: Is the law now having an impact on your profession? Is the law becoming more restrictive for journalists in general, and investigative journalists in particular?

LB: Not really. There has been a squeeze on the confidential source privilege, but it appears that Congress and a new President will sign a federal 'shield law'. The issues surrounding what is called national security reporting and/or criminal cases where a prosecutor or defendant has no where else to turn for information are unlikely to be resolved by the legislation. It is more of a question of the attitude/discretion of the prosecutors.

EW: Do you feel protected by the law?

LB: I never expect 'protection'. My sources do.

EW: How do you think an editor should best manage an investigative reporting team or reporter?

LB: Briefly, they should provide insight, encouragement and support, especially when the going gets tough.

EW: Who are the main competition to newspaper investigative reporters now? What are your thoughts on groups such as ProPublica?

This work is non profit. I have even called it 'anti-profit' by its very nature. So ProPublica, I am a consultant, or the Center for Investigative Reporting, I am one of the founders, are non profits working the public interest. Basically, that is what a very good newspaper newsroom does: report stories without fear or favor, and without considering the resources needed to do that. It is at its root a non-profit activity.

India's new financial daily, Mint, was launched in February last year and since then has expanded from 80,000 to 122,000 copies (see our previous interview with its editor here). As the Financial Times readies an Indian edition, it is unknown as to how it will be accepted in the market.

In an interview with famed newspaper designer Dr. Mario Garcia, Mint's editor, Raju Narisetti, said he was uncertain whether "there is real room for more than a couple of business dailies" and that there is "a bubble quality" to the "segment" issue.

According to Narisetti, there has been growth in business media such as financial channels and dailies. However, how the FT/TV18 paper will be accepted is not yet evident. There is a question of time and appetite with regard to readers.

Until recently, the FT has been excluded from India "thanks to a brazen misappropriation of its brand." Narisetti said, "If the FT/TV18 paper can raise the bar on Indian business journalism and also bring in strong ethics and journalistic standards, it would be a good addition to Mint."

Narisetti mentioned that non-business newspapers like the Hindustan Times and DNA are investing the most in business coverage. Other local newspapers have not shown the incentive to bring forth a "sizable increase in resources being devoted" for it.

Narisetti is also a World Editors Forum Board member.

Source: www.garciamedia.com through IFRA Executive News Service

Yesterday, following a historical newsroom strike at the print paper on April 14 (in the wake of a planned 129 layoffs), Le Monde's board discussed projects to save 1,000 pages of content per year.

According to CBNews, this will be achieved by a better distribution of pages between the mid-week and weekend print editions, as well as the "rebalancing" of supplements.

In reality, Le Monde will simply have less staff to produce content. Of the 129 job cuts, 89 will affect the newsroom, including 45 for staff in charge of producing written content.

Although many papers around the world have been forced to trim down their print editions in an effort to cut costs, the situation in France is critical: every year, quality papers cut back on content, thus giving less incentive for readers to buy them, leading to decreased revenues and further cost and content cuts...

Some of London's freesheets already carry more content than many of France's quality, paid-for dailies.

Le Monde's plan to restructure could also call on the currently non-integrated journalists to work both for the print paper, supplements and the online edition.

Update: Journalists at Le Monde voted in a general staff assembly today, on April 16, to stage their second one-day strike in a week, protesting against the planned layoffs. Le Monde is scheduled not to appear on Thursday, April 17.

Source: CB News (link in French), AFP

Many startups such as Local Edition and Backyard Post are attempting to claim the "hyperlocal" news market. OurTown is the newest player, which boasts 70,000 hyperlocal websites across the country. George Blake, former editor and 20 year veteran of the Cincinnati Enquirer is now chief news officer for OurTown.

Blake believes that the best definition of "hard news" is the news "most important to your readers." Thus, editors must discover what people want to read and respond accordingly: if people want local entertainment and activities, provide a community calendar, if people want school, church, kids sports news, provide links to their specific-interest site. There will also be chat rooms for people to discuss local issues, according to Blake. He hopes that this very local content will distinguish OurTown from bigger local sites such as Yelp.

"You want to know about the local festival 10 minutes from your home, not the one 50 miles away," said Blake. " When you go to your OurTown website, you will read stories about places and people you recognize in your community."

Local editors, who are from the community they represent, oversee the content of their sites and keep almost all of their local ad revenue, which Blake hopes to be enough incentive for them to make their site "the best it can be." Editors will also receive help from an advisory board of journalists and will receive updates on what is working and what can be done to make the sites better. Their licenses can be pulled if the site is not regularly updated or contains inappropriate content.

Blake hopes that OurTown websites will attract local advertisers who want to build close-to-home businesses. "Unlike the daily newspaper that needs to sell the $100,000 ad contract, OurTown editors can sell $100-a-month contracts and create significant income," he said.

OurTown is marketing through "word of mouth" and through sites like Google, Yahoo, Craigslist.

Blake stated that while OurTown does not plan on becoming a social networking site, it will connect people with common interests and common goals.

"Everyone will be able to go on their OurTown site to see what all those sirens were about last night, or if their neighbor's kid threw the winning pitch in that little league game," Blake said.

Source: OJR through David Black

Steve Lopez of the LA Times is inviting readers to help him write a serial novel. His column in next Sunday's paper will be the first chapter of "Birds of Paradise: A Novel Collaboration." Readers will write the following chapters with a chapter a day appearing in the Times and on the Times's website into the L.A. Times Festival of Books on April 26 and 27 at UCLA.

Each day, a panel of judges will pick the winners, who will be invited to the book festival to read their chapters.

This "novel collaboration" is a good example of participatory media by engaging readers into the writing process, though the content is not exactly news worthy. Not only does it encourage quality writing, but also provides more incentive for people to pick up the Times to see their/friends'/family members' writing in print.

For contest rules and more information, go here.

Source: LA Times

Mobile may be the future of the web and news, and Myspace has embraced this possibility by launching a free-access mobile version of its website, which is monetized by ads. YouTube had made this move in January.

Currently, Myspace is using subscription-based, carrier-specific applications, but the new mobile site will be offered on any network.

Some news sites, such as The New York Times, offer mobile news through text messages, while others such as CNN has for now rejected the idea of changing its content for mobile phones. If the world's number one social networking site succeeds with its mobile site, perhaps it will give news site an incentive in going mobile.

Source: Mobile Burn.com through I Want Media

What if newspapers were liable for content published by users? This could happen if the US Congress takes away the protections of Section 230, if newspapers continue to encourage anonymous - and abusive - comments.

Section 230 for Internet postings protects providers and users of an "interactive computer service" that publishes information provided by others.

"Section 230 is important to our industry. It gives us a greater latitude in creating community than we would have without such protections. Losing that protection would be a serious blow to our audience growth prospects," write journalist and media blogger Howard Owens.

However, as many newspapers open up online comments with little incentive for users to register or provide real identification, or with insufficient guardrails, they are potentially jeopardizing their Section 230 protection.

Newspaper consultant Mark Potts offers tips to promote healthy online interaction, in light of Philly.com's recent (re)opening of comments, after having shut them down at the end of last year.

"Anytime a newspaper has problems with comments, it doesn't take long to figure out why: It happens because the site managers allowed anonymity, or they didn't think to employ a profanity filter, or they didn't put "report abuse" buttons on the comments to let readers self-police the feature."

Potts also warns of excessive moderation, citing The New York Times, which screens every single comment editorially, but this can become a huge cost, especially considering that "99.9 percent of comments are fine if you have the proper protections in place."

Philly.com has established an array of new protections to safeguard it from abusive comments, including:

- Required registration with a confirmable email address.
- Unique usernames, preferably real names.
- Automated profanity filters.
- "Report Abuse" buttons that enable the community to police abusive comments.
- An explicit commenting policy for all readers.
- Enabling comments a story-by-story basis. Some items and themes, such as immigration or race, will systematically lead to abusive reactions.
- Don't moderate all comments but react swiftly when any abuse is reported.

Source: Recovering Journalist - Howard Owens through journerdism

Follow the Media’s Philip Stone takes a look at ACAP, the recently launched Automatic Content Access Protocol designed to help publishers control the way search engines crawl their content. Unfortunately, while many publishers support ACAP, major search engines have yet to adopt it.

Publishers everywhere are being asked to implement ACAP, Automated Content Access Protocol, developed at the initiative of the World Association of Newspapers, the International Publishers Association and the European Publishers Council.

Are podcasts here to stay? Once described as the next craze and a possible future for on-demand news, podcasts haven’t implanted themselves in mass consumption, competing against other more popular media.

After over a year in beta, NYTimes.com has opened its ‘My Times’ service to all registered users. It serves as an entertaining and sticky incentive for users to stay on the site and personalize their page.

A new book, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy by Andrew Keen challenges blogs, citizen journalism and social networking sites, saying that they destroy culture and create “digital narcissism.”

Poynter reports on The Philadelphia Inquirer’s latest risk-taking with advertising money and editorial independence. The paper’s writers and editors are producing a new column to run in green-colored box carrying a Citizens Bank (green-colored) label.

The Financial Times (FT) has abandoned its project to establish a staff rating system, after staff complaints, which had been picked up and heavily criticized by blogs, other news sources and its own management.