Results matching “mobile will acc”

Californian paper the Orange County Register announced that all of its daily news articles are now available through Amazon's Kindle reader.

Reuters announces that it is spreading out its mobile journalism to include coverage of the US political conventions, so that the event is captured from "the ground up" and through "unique perspectives" reports Journalism.co.uk.

Earlier this year, UK paper the Daily Mail introduced its unlimited text messaging service MailTXT. The paper reports that new users will get to send 50 free international SMS messages if they sign up.   

MailTXT was launched in order to increase users on the Mail's mobile portal. Journalism.co.uk writes that the purpose of the new move is to "build a more interactive relationship with readers."

Internet users are charged for their network connection and a text message from one registered user to another costs 1.4 pence, whereas a message to a non-user costs 6.4 pence.

Users will receive 0.5 pence as "MailTXT Credit" each time a message is sent and received, and are urged to view Daily Mail material and special offers through their mobile phone.

The Mail said that tens of thousands of users have already signed up for the service.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

The iPhone, a combined phone, music player and computer, is flawed because of the absence of two common website programmes, Flash and Java.

As a result the iPhone cannot access the graphics, videos and games on many websites, including the BBC's, because of the absence of Flash. Java's absence prevents users from utilising website shortcuts, typically the copying of personal details on order forms.

This flaw has implications for Editors, as the content targeted at mobile-users will thus have to be adjusted accordingly.

IPhone have been prosecuted by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), as Apple claimed that the iPhone gave access to "all parts of the internet" in its advertisements, thereby misleading customers about its power as a web browser.

Source: The Independent

He may be an investigative journalist by trade, but Guardian (UK) writer Nick Davies is not shy to criticize his own profession. Davies made headlines across the globe with the February 2008 publication of his book, Flat Earth News, a searing indictment of investigative reporting and modern journalism. The book, which details issues such as illegal acts committed by journalists on the job and "churnalism", or barely fact-checked information rehashed from PR professionals and spin-doctors, turned the spotlight on the news industry, launching a debate within the ranks of news professionals about the challenges facing the industry.

Davies is the author of five books, has been named Journalist of the Year, Reporter of the Year, and Feature Writer of the Year. He was also the first winner of the Martha Gellhorn award for investigative reporting in 1999.

To launch our series on the Future of Investigative Journalism and the challenges ahead, the Editors Weblog spoke with Davies to see what all the controversy was about and to ask Davies his views on the future of his profession.

EW: What skills does it take to specifically be a good investigative journalist? How is it different to being a beat reporter or is it similar?

ND: In principle, the skills of investigative reporting are exactly the same as those of any other kind of reporting - because all reporting is investigative, all reporting is an attempt to get at the truth, so the distinction is a false one.

There is a sub-set of reporting where somebody is actively obstructing the reporter's access to information, which means the job will be more difficult and so the skills will be more obvious, but the key difference is not in the skills required but in the time that is required. The beat reporter is liable to be under pressure to produce several stories every shift and, therefore, will be unlikely to have the time to dig into anything which is being deliberately concealed.

EW: How has the business changed over the past 10 years, ie, skills necessary, training, and so forth?

ND: The big change in the business over the last ten years is precisely the reduction of time available for almost all reporters to do their work. The beat reporter as much as the 'investigative' specialist suffers from this, because so many news rooms have been taken over by profit-hungry corporations who have cut staff and increased output and thereby made it extremely difficult for any of their reporters to work effectively. The required skills have not changed (apart from the minor technical skills of dealing with websites).

The training, however, is in decline along with the industry as a whole, primarily because colleges now train students to fit with the demands of time-starved newsrooms, eg, the quick re-writing of press releases, the recycling of agency copy; and also because colleges set up courses with 'media' or 'journalism' in the title because they know it will attract student numbers even though they have nobody qualified to teach the course, so you have sociologists and literary specialists teaching the skills of a profession which they do not understand.

EW:  Is your job harder or easier with the advent of multi-platform news? Do you see podcasts and video content as useful?

ND: Multi-platform news has tended to make it more difficult for all reporters - beat, specialist, 'investigative' - to do their work because filing for audio, video and print
a) consumes precious time, and
b) dilutes concentration.
And I am not at all sure that our consumers are particularly interested in or attracted to the vodcasts and podcasts that we make available to them. Occasionally, there are stories where the print version is hugely enlivened by video - for example, the passenger video of the scenes inside the Qantas flight which blew a hole in its fuselage last month. But to make the production of audio and video versions a standard requirement for all stories is bad management and highly likely to accelerate the declining standard of our product.

EW: Do you use any of the new technologies in your reporting, ie, video, and mobile? Have these new technologies made your job easier or harder?

ND: As a reporter, I'm not concerned with the way in which my words are used. What I file may go into the print edition or onto the website or be subbed down for emails or mobile messages.

The one way in which electronic technology does impact me is my access to the worldwide web. That is a wonderful research tool, and I use it all the time. It is no substitute for dealing with human sources, but it enormously increases the amount of information that is available in the public domain. Personally, therefore, it has made my working life much easier.

However, for 'beat' reporters or for any reporter who has not been able to negotiate the time to do the job, the web does also represent a threat because it means they no longer have the benefit of a deadline at the end of the day: for most of them the deadline is always here and now because even if the printed edition is not calling for copy, the website is. Time - reporters can't do their job without it.

EW: What are your thoughts on lobby groups, such as the Taxpayers' Alliance, setting up investigative reporting units themselves and sending their articles direct to newspapers?

ND: The danger with funding by lobby groups is clear - that, at best, they will select story subjects and/or angles which suit their agenda and, at worst, that they will inject outright falsehood and distortion directly into them. But not all dangers are realised. I think most reporters would say that if they could find a lobby group which was prepared to back genuine journalism without imposing its agenda, they'd take it in a heartbeat.

The underlying point is that the inherent dangers of allowing corporations to take over ownership of news media are certainly being realised with highly destructive results for truth-telling journalism - and so any alternative is worth considering.

Over the coming weeks, The Editors Weblog will be examining how investigative reporting has been affected by multi-platform publication and the 24-hour news culture.  

Telkom Kenya will launch the iPhone in Kenya in September, following the release of a mobile phone service under the Orange name, reports Telecom Paper.

News outlets like IHT.com already offer mobile versions of their online editions as an iPhone application and the expanding iPhone global market may help in boosting audience figures.

Telkom Kenya has not determined yet whether it will launch the 3G version, an older one or both.

Source: Telecom Paper

See also:
France: Le Figaro launches iPhone site
US: NYT launches iPhone application
AP launches native iPhone application
IHT.com launches iPhone-optimized site
US: Mobile technology may be important to media outlets in the future
Belgium: Flemish newspapers offering mobile services

iPhone's debut in India didn't have any of the "mass hysteria" that accompanied its launch in other places such as Europe or the US, reports contentSutra.

However, there was relative enthusiasm in the reception of the iPhone, since those who can afford to get their hands on one can boast about the mobile phone that can boost their "status" and "success".

The lukewarm welcome was expected, since the US$ 700-800 price tag is about twice as much as the monthly salary of a white-collar middle manager.

Instead, the people buying the phone are mostly "maharajas", "rich kids" and "entrepreneurs".

Prior to its release last week, the phone already gained popularity through India's black market.

iPhone's official entry into the Indian market may offer news outlets the chance to reach a wider audience with the help of mobile applications, as France's Le Figaro and the Associated Press have done.

Source: contentSutra

See also:

France: Le Figaro launches iPhone site
US: NYT launches iPhone application
AP launches native iPhone application
IHT.com launches iPhone-optimized site
US: Mobile technology may be important to media outlets in the future

A digital signage device that uses e-paper to deliver news articles is being put to test in two Tokyo subway stations by Bridgestone Corp and The Mainichi Newspapers Co Ltd, with the cooperation of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Transportation.

The panels include breaking news reports with images, sections from the Mainichi Newspaper morning and evening editions, ads for Mainichi Newspaper periodic titles and announcements about any events the Mainichi is hosting. The two firms also intend to provide breaking news stories on the Beijing Olympic Games.

A fast mobile network updates the information, aided by a compact PC and a mobile phone that are connected to the back of the panel, writes Tech On.

An A3-sized color e-paper feature and a monochrome feature have been installed at the Shinbashi subway station (Toei Asakusa Line) and the Shinjuku-sanchome subway station (Toei Shinjuku Line).

The experiment will take place until the end of March 2009.

Source: Tech On through IFRA Executive News Service

Twitter reported this week that it is axing its SMS service outside India, the US and Canada, causing consternation across the Twitter community. Almost immediately after this was announced, reports emerged of IT entrepreneurs taking up the challenge to look for a solution. The Editors Weblog spoke to - we think - the first organisation to launch a solution to the Twitter SMS issue: Twitsms.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

The Editors Weblog spoke to Delia Timms and Jeff Bonnes (the founders of Twitsms) after receiving their email announcing the launch of Twitsms, which was just two days after our posting on the SMS issue. (Our interview with Delia and Jeff follows below.)

Twitsms buys the SMS in bulk in advance to keep costs low. Prices start at 7 pence in the UK and 11 cents in Australia per SMS.
 
The Editors Weblog also contacted Twitter, to find out how it feels about Twitsms and other such services helping out the Twitter fans that have been affected. Twitter has previously acknowledged that SMS is a key part of its service, saying: "We love SMS. The lowest common denominator aspect of this service is a defining part of Twitter."



Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter Inc, told me: "We do not officially endorse any one service. However, we are interested in seeing what the response to these services will be."

There has been a certain amount of annoyance in aspects of the Twitter community about how Twitter have handled this issue, especially following Biz Stone's blog on the Twitter website calling for "perspective" on the issue. Svetlana Gladkova (Vice President of Business Development at Profy) does not sugar coat her views in her blog on Twitter's reaction, stating: "In my opinion, the team over at Twitter has committed quite a number of mistakes in handling this situation."

Here at the Editors Weblog, we try not to dwell on the negative and focus instead on solutions to our readers' problems; and Delia and Jeff look like they might just have one:

What inspired you to launch this service?

We use Twitter ourselves to keep in touch with friends and family both in Australia and overseas.  Jeff is American and particularly liked Twitter for staying in contact with his friends overseas.  So we understood personally how important it was for some Twitter fans to keep getting their SMS - even if they had to pay a very small fee for it.  Living in Australia we already have to pay fees for our SMS, so it is not unusual for us to pay to get our Tweets too.  We felt Twitter fans should at least have the choice to get their SMS, rather than just being cut-off by Twitter altogether.
 
How did you manage to set this up so quickly?

Experience and enthusiasm. We have built a few other successful internet businesses and have gained valuable experience over the past few years.  So we were fortunate to start out with some knowledge, skills and code. Jeff was able to apply learning from previous projects to speed up the coding for www.twitsms.co.uk. One of our other businesses does messaging and SMS already, so we were one step ahead with this. We were also able to use hardware and hosting from our other internet operations. We crowd sourced the graphic design for a fast turnaround.
 
What technology are you using?

We use Java and a web development framework called Grails. This allowed us to build  a very robust site quickly.
 
Can you explain exactly what arrangement you have established with the mobile companies?

Currently we buy SMS in bulk to keep the cost for users as low as possible.  As the site grows, we will look for ways to reduce costs even further.
 
Have you had any contact with the Twitter team about your project?

No we have not made contact yet, but will in the future. We hope that Twitter is happy that www.twitsms.co.uk and www.twitsms.com.au are keeping their fan-base connected outside of the USA, Canada and India!
 
What have been the early indicators been for Twitsms?

Early business is very strong. We knew there was a solid Twitter community and we knew they were annoyed about being shut off.  But were not sure whether they'd pay for their Tweets. However we have been happily surprised by the immediate interest from Twitter fans. They are more annoyed about Twitter shutting their service down, than having to pay a few cents to get their SMSs. Another surprising aspect for us has been the global interest.  www.twitsms.co.uk has been live for 4 days now and we've had contact from customers in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Israel, Russia and France (of course!).
 
The use of Twitter itself has been a great springboard for www.twitsms.co.uk.  Twitter is a handy and powerful tool for communicating and getting immediate feedback from customers! It is also an efficient way to keep our customers updated as we are responding to requests and developing new features quickly.
 
What is your competition?

There is one site that has launched in competition and several still 'coming soon'. There has also been one site that has stopped development before they released. We are not worried by competition; we developed www.twitsms.co.uk because it is a service that we needed and wanted to share with the Twitter community.  Being first to market has been great. The feedback and early input from our customers is helping us ensure that www.twitsms.co.uk is the best alternative for the international Twitter community.

Sources: Twitsms, Twitter, Profy

See also:

Twitter reduces its mobile service, ends SMS updates service

 

London-oriented daily free newspaper The London Paper expects to re-launch its site in early 2009, as a revamped version that will feature a variety of user-generated content "as part of a shift towards providing users with more interactive content" as well as restructured editorial material that is more efficient, reported NMA.co.uk.

The paper has content agreements with around 20 companies and has also prolonged a mobile service deal with messaging provider Sponge.

Its dating service Lovestruck, which persuades users to send a text message asking for a date, remains popular despite being inaccessible on the mobile reception-less subway, where most Londoners read the paper.  

For the time being, thelondonpaper.com has nearly 330,000 unique users per month, according to NMA.co.uk.

Source: NMA.co.uk

After its parent company Trinity Mirror opted for centalized production and a reduction in editorial staff, the Birmingham Post announces that it will re-launch itself as a Monday to Friday tabloid this autumn, putting more emphasis on business coverage as well as having a mobile site.

"Moving to a new format gives us the opportunity for the print version of the Post to follow the website in attracting a new generation of younger - but no less serious - business readers," said Mark Reeves, the Post's editor.

The latest ABC figures (July 2, 2007 to December 30, 2007) show that the paper has a circulation of 12,997 from Monday to Friday, out of which 3,841 copies are given away. The Saturday edition, which will no longer be published after the re-launch, sold 10,329 copies, 2,289 of which were given away.

Source: Press Gazette, ABC.org

US broadcaster NBC reports "phenomenal" ratings for its multimedia coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal, saying the broadcaster has been "stunned" by the popularity of its mobile content.

On 8 August, 210,333 people accessed the NBC mobile service, but by Monday this had more than doubled to 476,062. "These Olympics are influencing how people are using new technology," Wurtzel said. "Half of the people viewing on mobile are using it for the first time. After the Olympics, it will be interesting if these habits become part of their behaviour."

NBC has been using a new measurement system to combine viewing figures across all media outlets.

The NBC website saw unique users increase from 4.2 million on 8 August, the first day of the games, to 7.8 million on Monday, August 11, when viewers wanted to replay Phelps' US swimming victory. NBC recorded 1.7 million downloads of the final 4x100 relay final.

Wurtzel said NBC had feared that online content would negatively impact its TV audience share, thereby hitting its most lucrative advertising. However, this has not been the case. NBC's research showed that just 0.2% of its audience used the web exclusively.

"The internet hardly cannibalises - it actually fuels interest," said Wurzel. He went on to say that half the online viewers were watching events they had missed and about 40% wanted to see replays.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

See also:

Media companies reporting the Olympics, Google launches online tool