Results matching “us why young pe”

The current Israeli-Gaza conflict has proved ground-breaking in terms of the way that news is being spread. For a start, Israel has blocked foreign journalists from entering Gaza since launching its air attacks on December 27, so although Al Jazeera has been reporting extensively as it had correspondents already inside, as does the AP, many media organizations have no reliable source of independent information.  It is the perfect time for blogs, Twitter, and other forms of citizen journalism to show their merits.

 

The online edition of Next, a new newspaper, has been launched in Lagos, Nigeria before the print publication.

Garcia Media describes it as a "light launch," or beta version, of the publication.  The site will not be run up to its full potential for some time, according to the blog.

The publication is under the leadership of publisher and creator Dele Olojede, a Nigerian Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former foreign editor for Newsday.  He plans to recruit young journalistic talent to produce a "youthful, inspiring and service-oriented" newspaper.

The Web site, www.234next.com, used resources from the Garcia Media team to help with development of layout and content, as well as newsroom training.

Source: Garcia Media via IFRA

Four online community news sites will be expanding their staff and coverage after receiving a $390,000 grant by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Given the current state of the news industry, who is cutting costs by cutting staff and coverage, "citizens are receiving less of the news they need to lead informed lives and hold their governments accountable," Knight Foundation journalism program director Gary Kebbel said in a statement.  

The "young, online-only sites" that Knight has funded, investigative ventures the MinnPost, Voice of San Diego, Chi-town Daily News and the St. Louis Beacon, help "fill the void" for readers, Kebbel said.

The foundation has announced its efforts to find "new models for delivering news and information," adding to its $100 million in grants for initiatives.

Source: Editor and Publisher

With the evidence growing that readers want customisation instead of pre-packaged portfolios, the newspaper sector is challenged to develop alternative publishing formats (see Part 1 and Part 2 of our eReader series). A recent McKinsey survey (August 2007 newsletter) revealed the growing habit of 'brand promiscuity', with consumers using up to 16 different news sources weekly. Moreover, readers classified internet as much more useful compared to established media such as print. Modern news junkies go for convenience, comprehensiveness and timeliness rather than the traditional quality standards.

Is the print industry taking up the challenge? Not really. When it comes to using the Net, many newspapers feel more comfortable with direct transfer of existing copy onto the new medium. Companies like NewspaperDirect make a business out it; from next year on this company will start its PressDisplay news portal for delivery of associated papers on e-readers, tapping directly into the pre-print workflow and keeping the trusted appearance.

Not surprisingly, the innovative formats come from media outsiders. These startups have one thing in common, they believe in the electronic newspaper as a composite product, made up of a variety of professional and non-professional sources, tailored to the requirements and profiles of the individual news consumer. The New York-based start-up Daylife, which experiments with new editorial and financial models for online news, offers a mix of traditional and innovative formats for news distribution. A range of reputed titles is already using this platform for additional content delivery, but the site itself features an attractive and constantly updated news overview, produced by an amalgamation of contributors. Already closer to the network-driven medium of the future is FeedJournal, an RSS syndicating newspaper producing a digital daily building on defined user preferences. A comparable initiative, but now based on profile-steered net-crawling, is Newser. This service delivers summaries of hot news from across the globe and links to the original stories. The Radus New Media Platform follows the same philosophy, be it that additionally social networking sites are integrated: Personal highlights blend in with world events.

The aggregation game is on - so much is clear. But these applications don't change the content itself. Ultimately, the very nature of news needs to be reexamined and adjusted to the principles of digital delivery. Research at the Poynter Institute pointed out that alternative story forms are more effective than classical narrative, especially in an electronic information context. An equally interesting study was conducted by Associated Press. AP worked out 'A New Model for News' after observing the reading habits of a group of young-adults, the generation that has meanwhile grown up with or migrated to the Net. The study demonstrated that consumers are accessing the news from a range of different entry points, as much by chance as by design. The need for multiple entry points challenges the conventional container approach and article architecture. The AP model moves news into a new space - a universe of stories made up from different spheres, each ranging in size and scope (facts, updates, back stories, spin offs) - and readers interacting with story particles from different entry points and platforms. What these 'spheres' exactly should look like needs to worked out in practice.

One project exploring the journalistic formats for multi-entry news is the Dutch MePaper project. In a design studio jointly manned by journalists and researchers, key concepts are being developed and tested with proofreader panels. The project uses the term 'collection' to describe the journalistic raw material of the digital era, a loosely defined and ever changing combination of story elements. Quite a contrast with the well-defined nature of the standard article. News collections can be combined into news clouds, according to readers' general preferences and actual reading habits. This leads to four types of newspapers based on:
1. the editor's choice
2. the personal profile
3. the reading pattern of the preferred social network
4. the most read stories at a given time.
While reading, you can switch from one type of newspaper to another. The traditional line up of story titles is replaced by revolving cylinders in which stories, pictures and video are grouped according to theme or genre. In the test groups, the net-native proof readers almost intuitively roamed the presented information space.

Clearly there will be more solutions and design principles popping up. The main thing is that newspaper publishers stop with the easy repackaging and start digging for authentic formats which fully exploit the vast opportunities of electronic news delivery. Things can only get better, eh?

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.

In an attempt to draw young readers to its website, the Register-Mail has created a page on social networking site Facebook, according to editor Tom Martin.

The page is aimed at some of the audience who do not check the paper's website every day, but may check Facebook multiple times per day. 

According to Roger Ebert, newspapers are declining in quality and becoming less like "town criers" and more like "neighborhood gossip."  Ebert believes the latest evidence of this trend came this week when the Associated Press imposed a 500-word limit on all entertainment interviews.

The word limit applies to all reviews, interviews, news stories, trend pieces and "thinkers," according to Ebert.

The number of British people accessing the Internet via mobile rose by 25% in the third quarter of 2008, Nielsen Online report.

The study, Mobile Media View, highlighted that mobile internet use is increasing eight times faster than PC-based internet growth, growing from 5.8 million to 7.3 million between the second and third quarters of 2008.

The most popular site is BBC News, which is visited by 24% of British mobile internet users, then BBC Weather, Sky Sports and Gmail. On computers, Google Search (23%) and eBay (43%) are the most popular.

Following the announcement that Reuters, AP and AFP were suspending cricket coverage due to unacceptable accreditation terms from Australia's governing body, Cricket Australia, New Zealand's largest newspapers remained barred from covering cricket matches.

According to Cricket Australia spokesman, Peter Young, "The New Zealand Herald, Fairfax Media-owned titles and the New Zealand Press Association have not received accreditation after failing to join a scheduled teleconference." 

Yesterday, The Christian Science Monitor announced that it will cease publication of its daily print edition as of next year.   However, the CSM will launch a weekly magazine.  The new version will be printed on heavy, semi-gloss paper.  

According to the CSM website, "Each issue's cover story will feature an in-depth look at a key global issue or trend. This example includes profiles of young Russians who support their leader, Vladimir Putin, for delivering what they want: prosperity, security, and global respect. It also explains how Russia's rise is affecting the global balance of power."

The 'Secret Weapon' of Newspapers in the Digital Age? Paper!
William Powers, Media Columnist, The Nation, USA

Paper is an island of peace in the digital 'chaos' and an 'emerging strength' for media which demands much more examination, William Powers said in his keynote address to the annual Readership Conference.

"The world needs - desperately needs - what newspapers do," said Mr Powers, the media columnist for The Nation magazine in the United States and author of "Hamlet's Blackberry," an essay on the enduring power of paper.

The World Association of Newspapers presented its annual World Young Reader
Newspaper of the Year award Thursday (16 October) to the Polish daily Gazeta
Wyborcza for its successful initiatives to attract younger readers in a
country where half the population in under 35.

The newspaper, which received the award at the WAN Readership Conference in
Amsterdam, also won Jury Commendations for two projects: a tie-in for young
readers with the Euro 2008 football matches, and for a campaign that helped
readers protest against Chinese policies in Tibet.

"This is a total 'youth think' newspaper. They do everything right for young
people," said Aralynn McMane, Director of Young Reader Programmes at WAN, in
presenting the award.

A recent survey in South Africa found that the young readers are contributing significantly to the growth of print media.

According to SARF CEO, Dr Paul Haupt the youth are "techno-savvy and so will readily turn to the Net or cellphones to get the information they need, but they enjoy reading print for the same reason older generations do."

The survey shows an increase in readership from 58.2% to 62.6% of the 16-24 age group.  According the survey, both newspapers and magazine sectors have seen an increase in readership.  

Younger generations have also contributed to the growth of new media and Internet consumption.

Sources: Africa Bizcommunity

For the past two years French free-daily, Ouest-France has been able to attract young readers and maintain high readership. 

According to Herve Barbot, Marketing Research & Development Manager at Ouest-France, "Many young people don't have newspapers at home, so they cannot read them even if they want. That's why we deliver our newspaper for free to schools and universities." 

Abu Dhabi-based The National, launched in April, has a circulation between 70,000 and 90,000 copies but pertains to "grand ambitions" and "leaders who are bullish on print journalism," writes The Los Angeles Times. A seven-section Saturday issue is scheduled to be launched in the future.