Editors Weblog: Search Results

Three French dailies undergo redesigns

Posted by Helena Humphrey on January 27, 2010 at 5:07 PM

The Amaury group, responsible for both Le Parisien and L'Equipe, has given its publications a face life this week, with all 48 pages of the former appearing in colour for the first time on Tuesday, and divided into five new sections: Fact of the day, News, Local News, Sports and Leisure.

L'Equipe is set to integrate three new pages into its design, the first appearing today, the second in Thursday's edition and the third in Friday's, as a response to reader surveys. From March the publication will introduce a motoring section, which will appear every Monday- intended to deal with the production of cars as opposed to buying and selling.

Washington Post and Hindustan Times to share content

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 19, 2010 at 1:03 PM

News and reviews from the Washington Post are now published in the Hindustan Times, under a content-sharing agreement reached by the two organisations.

The Hindustan Times, the second-most read English language newspaper in India, will publish a special section with the stories from the Post. It will include reports from the paper's global bureaux, opinion pieces, book reviews and columnists. The option is also available to share content from the Post's magazine, Newsweek.

Going hyperlocal through community services in India: the Siasat Daily

Posted by Jean-Pierre Tailleur on December 21, 2009 at 2:32 PM

A half-dozen young men and a few women dressed in long Muslim outfits are sitting in an open space, repeating a few words in English. The instructor, a lady wearing a distinctive veil, sends one of her students to the board, and he starts writing a few words that his "schoolmates" have to repeat. We are in Hyderabad, India. Their native language is Urdu, a mix of Hindi with Arabic script, spoken by many Indian Muslims and widespread in Pakistan.

On the same floor, there is an insurance service office. On the opposite side, a TV studio with good, minimal equipment, with a large blue sheet on one of the back walls. The two rooms next door host a radio studio, for a station launched only a few days before, after months of waiting for the license. This is not a school of journalism, nor a social club, but The Siasat Daily's building, based in India's fifth-largest metropolis.

Murdoch sends staff seasonal greetings and looks to the year ahead

Posted by Helena Humphrey on December 16, 2009 at 4:10 PM

In a seasonal greetings email sent to US and UK branches of News Corp International, Rupert Murdoch has praised his staff for weathering a difficult financial year and pointed to the "steps" the company is taking today which will "define the character of our company for many years to come." - Namely Murdoch's intentions to protect all News Corp produced content behind paywalls, as well as removing these articles from Google's search index. Both the Huffington Post and the Guardian have published the full email, the contents of which is posted below:

Investigative journalism in India: Tehelka

Posted by Emma Heald on December 16, 2009 at 3:57 PM

Tehelka is an Indian English-language weekly news magazine whose motto is "free, fair, fearless." It focuses on investigative journalism in the public interest: stories that can make a difference. The Editors Weblog spoke to founder and editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal and Shoma Chaudhury, executive editor and one of the original Tehelka team, about the challenges that the news magazine faces within the Indian media landscape.

Humble beginnings

Tehelka began in an online-only form in 2000 with $750,000 of investment and Tejpal's desire to "bring back the hard journalism of the 1980s," which he said had been far more combative and adversarial than the softer journalism of the 1990s. Tejpal also hoped that the publication would be a "place for refined and complex writing," but that its journalists would retain "the ability to dirty our hands."

The power of print

Tejpal started Tehelka as an online-only news magazine because the dot.com boom seemed to offer great potential. However, after the website was forced to close due to a barrage of legal action after breaking what Tejpal described as "the biggest story in Indian journalism," Operation West End, Tejpal decided that the web was not the best medium for his publication. "It was not a weapon for battle in India," he said. "I realised if I had had a printed publication, even one with a small circulation, most of what was done to us would not have happened."

So when it came back in 2004, Tehelka appeared as a weekly news magazine. Tejpal had believed it was imperative that Tehelka did make a return: "if it didn't, it would send out a terrible message: if you take on power, you will be rendered extinct." But by making a new start, the message became "if you do the right thing, you might pay the price, but you could still win in the end."

Faced by a lack of investment, Tejpal travelled and addressed gatherings, and managed to persuade 15,000 Indians to write out cheques for advance subscriptions of Tehelka, stressing the importance of the journalism that the title had produced. The first edition of the magazine was launched with this money.

More than just a magazine

Some of Tehelka's 'sting' methods may be controversial, but it is clear that to its staff, the publication is an entity striving for justice that plays a fundamental role in society. "It has sort of acquired a character of its own in the Indian landscape," Chaudhury said, and added how heartening it is to meet people who equate Tehelka with "probity and uprightness and integrity and courage. There comes a kind of covenant that you have to keep."

Chaudhury explained how the experience of being shut down was "very important" for her and how she thought that the magazine shifted in its goals: from being adversarial to looking at any kind of public interest story: "covering the stories of the dispossessed and bringing these to the readership of the rich and powerful." The magazine looks at areas of the country that other urban journalists do not usually address, she said. Tejpal stressed the important he puts on not trying to simplify complex issues, but to respect their complexity.

Operation West End was a sting investigation into corruption in defence procurement, targeting several political figures who were then members of the ruling coalition. Tehelka reporters masqueraded as arms dealers and taped senior politicians and army officers accepting bribes to approve arms deals. "We became famous beyond all that was due to us," Tejpal said. "For the next three years we just combatted the state's onslaught."

Chaudhury highlighted a couple of important issues that Tehelka has since sought to address. One was exposing alleged state collusion in the Gujurat riots of 2002. "The immediate aftermath of that story was disappointing," Chaudhury said: "it was such a political hot potato that nobody wanted to touch it." But Tehelka's recordings made during their investigation have become part of the official investigation into the issue, and the story "has had a huge impact," she added.

Another story covered the government's plan to launch an operation to tackle Maoist influence in some areas of the country. Feeling that this was not getting enough attention and had the potential to cause civil war, Chaudhury wrote an article entitled "weapons of mass destruction," in which she argued that this operation was not the right way to address the problem. The government has now "back-peddled," she said.

Tehelka now has about 35 journalists, "a small but motivated team," Tejpal said. The journalists only produce original journalism.

The language question

India is a country of multiple languages and dialects, which raises different challenges for the media. English is spoken and read only by a small percentage of the population. For a publication such as Tehelka, which is so firmly committed to spreading awareness of its public interest journalism, this could appear to be a frustrating limitation. However, as Tejpal said, in such a vast country, even a million copies would be a drop in the ocean, and "the real job of journalism in India is to impact those who take decisions for millions of people: the people who wield political power, or corporate power." And for this, English is the most appropriate language.

A fortnightly Hindi edition of the magazine does also exist, including about 50% of the same content as the English edition, the other half being original. Half a dozen journalists make up its staff.

The pricing question

Tejpal described the low pricing of publications in India as "an Indian malady" as it has meant that proprietors have become "entirely dependent on advertising" and subsequently, "the reader gets the journalism that that advertiser wants, not that that the journalist wants." The business model "is badly skewed," he added. Chaudhury was equally vehement that current prices were unfeasible, pointing out that many people would spend far more on a bag of crisps than on a newspaper or magazine. The Times of India, for example, costs 2 rupees (€0.02) and Tehelka, though expensive by comparison at 15 rupees (€0.22) still does not cover its costs with its cover price.

Chaudhury said that it is impossible for one publication to tackle this problem alone, but she believes that if five or six powerful proprietors got together and decided to change the pricing strategy then they could make a difference. She is convinced that publishers need to free themselves from the stranglehold of advertising by generating enough income from their cover price to allow them to break even. "Advertising should be used to make a profit but not to survive," she stressed, "the entire construct of this business is wrong."

Hope for the future

Having recently received some investment that should mean that the publication is here to stay, at least for now, Tejpal hopes that Tehelka will be able to move beyond its struggle to survive, and start to grow. "We have a very very big reputation, we want to physically acquire a size that matches the reputation," he said. "We would like to have a much stronger web operation, some sort of a TV presence and even expand a little in the print space."

"I hope that the struggle for resources is behind us," he said, "it's been a tough nine years."

Chaudhury also holds much hope for the publication, taking into account the fact that "the idea of Tehelka exists outside me or Tarun or the others... it has sort of acquired a character of its own in the Indian landscape." She has hope that India's troubles will force other journalism "back to doing what it should be doing" and believes that the younger generation is likely to do this better.

Eyebrows raised over gender diversity as three female editors resign

Posted by Jennifer Lush on December 10, 2009 at 12:33 PM

Concerns have been raised over the level of gender diversity with the number of women in top newspaper positions dropping. The last week has seen three female newspaper editors resign from their positions 'indicating they are not likely to run a newsroom again,' reports Editor & Publisher.

Karin Winner, announced her retirement after 15 years as editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sixty-four years of age, the decision is not a surprising one- though many are waiting to see who will be named her replacement.

Industry forecasts predict online ad dollars to overtake print in 2015

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 9, 2009 at 3:35 PM

Three media industry analysts, Magna Global, ZenithOptimedia and GroupM, have raised expectations for next year's ad expeditures but mostly only for the internet and TV, paidContent reports.

Magna Global is predicting a 6% rise, GroupM just 0.8%, and ZenithOptimedia is raising its cross-media advertising forecast for the first time in 18 months, projecting a 0.9% 2010 uplift. Most of these overall figures are supported by continuing internet ad growth and the TV ad spending recovery.

In Zenith's analysis, the internet was only sector to receive sustained spending and constant growth in 2009, albeit at a much lower gradient than the early 2000's heydays of +40% growth at times.

Sports newspapers: the importance of multimedia and the potential for paid online content

Posted by Emma Heald on December 7, 2009 at 6:16 PM

At the International Association of Sports Newspapers workshop last week, editors spoke about the way that multimedia news has affected their newsrooms, and how they hope to make more money online. The workshop was held at the World Newspaper Congress in Hyderabad, India.

Gianni Valenti, deputy editor of Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport, described key steps for the transition to multimedia sports delivery: changing the mindset of journalists, training and convincing them to accept and exploit new media, increasingly integrating the newsrooms, and changing working structures of the organisation. He stressed the need for prompt action, saying that "multimedia is not something for the future, it is something here and now and must be developed and managed quickly."

Tehelka's Shoma Chaudhury on the 'pathetic' state of investigative journalism in India

Posted by Emma Heald on December 7, 2009 at 10:57 AM

Shoma Chaudhury, executive editor and co-founder of Tehelka, strongly criticised the state of the media in India in an extremely powerful speech at the 16th World Editors Forum. She was speaking on a panel on investigative journalism that included the Guardian's Nick Davies and opened her speech by saying that "contrary to some of the optimism on this panel, I think journalism in India is in a pathetic state."

One of the main problems that Chaudhury sees is that journalism has become "a corporate rather than a political act." She believes that news many outlets have moved away from their from their primary function, which is to focus on the public interest, and instead are doing stories just because they will bring in money. They are focusing on advertising revenue and neglecting the needs of their readers, she maintains. "Most news producers are masquerading as news outlets when in fact they are giving away entertainment."

Women at the top: is there a need for more female editors-in-chief?

Posted by Emma Heald on December 3, 2009 at 12:40 PM

A group of female editors and media experts from India, Sri Lanka, Russia and South Africa discussed the issue of whether more women editors-in-chief would generate more readers at the 16th World Editors Forum.

Bachi Karkaria, formerly with the Times of India and now an analyst of urban and social change and a media trainer, says that as an editor, she is totally against forms of gender-centric ideas. Journalism has too much emphasis on what is women issues and male issues, she said. Women issues consisting of housekeeping, entertainment and other light subjects and male issues consisting of heavier stories.

"Glass ceilings are sometimes actually creations of men," she said.

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.

Times Internet Ltd chief editor Rajesh Kalra details media 'bridge' in India

Posted by Spencer Jenkins on December 2, 2009 at 10:04 AM

An Indian digital journalist says the media divide in India is being bridged.

Chief editor of Times Internet Ltd, Rajesh Kalra, said the divide is being bridged and it has been happening within the last decade. He was speaking at the 16th World Editors Forum in Hyderabad, India.

Times of India editor: newspapers should be analytical

Posted by Spencer Jenkins on December 1, 2009 at 12:13 PM

Three months ago, the Times of India launched a new weekend edition of its publication called the Times of India Crest.

Editor in chief, Jaideep Bose, said the Times looks for pieces that are eccentric, unpredictable and engaging to address the needs of a globally sophisticated audience.

Societal role of newspapers and new media technologies kicked off Opening Ceremony

Posted by Shakia Harris on December 1, 2009 at 11:22 AM

The new trend of newspapers using new media technologies kicked off the opening ceremony today.

T Venkattram Reddy, president of the Indian Newspaper Society, discussed the economic downturn the newspaper industry is facing.

He said that by introducing new media, the internet has revolutionized newspaper publishing; however, the internet will not save newspapers.

The media's role in society was also discussed. The president of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, said that the media can play a crucial role in prompting societal behavior patterns.

Pakistan editor-in-chief Najam Sehti accepts Golden Pen of Freedom Award

Posted by Spencer Jenkins on December 1, 2009 at 7:56 AM

The editor-in-chief of two Pakistani newspapers received the Golden Pen of Freedom Award today at the WAN-IFRA 2009 World Newspaper Congress - World Editor's Forum.

Najam Sethi, editor-in-chief of the Daily Times and Friday Times accepted his award Tuesday, 1 December, in Hyderabad, India, at the opening ceremony of the conference.

Wikipedia sees huge decrease in number of editors

Posted by Betsey Reinsborough on November 26, 2009 at 11:54 AM

Wikipedia has been loosing editors at an alarming rate in recent months, reports the Wall Street Journal. In the first three months of this present year, Wikipedia lost 49 000 English-language editors, as compared to the 4 900 they lost during the same time frame the previous year. This has caused many to raise concern for the future of the fifth most-popular website on the Internet.

Roughly 325million people visit the online-encyclopaedia each month. Despite the drop in editors, the site traffic has grown considerably- traffic went up by 20 percent between September 2008 and 2009. So what's the rub? Is Wikipedia just out of things to write about?

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.

Times of India launches new weekender

Posted by Betsey Reinsborough on November 3, 2009 at 5:07 PM

As anticipated, the Times of India, the world's largest English speaking newspaper with a circulation of four million, has announced that it will be launching an elite weekend edition aimed at its well-educated, affluent readers. The new publication, called the Times of India Crest, was launched on 24 October. Circulation has already grown from 75 000 to 300 000 copies weekly.

The Crest is a 32-page spread, published each Saturday. It includes a round up of the news from the past week as well as articles on culture, technology, lifestyle, and entertainment. It also includes longer, more stylistic works. As the TOI's press release states, "we have long dreamt of a journal that allows us the luxury of the 2,000-word piece that's as rich in style as in substance. One that is serious and stimulating, but quirky and enjoyable too."

Times of India runs Yahoo ad on front page

Posted by Jennifer Lush on October 6, 2009 at 10:01 AM

The Times of India ran its Monday morning front page with a giant yellow advertisement for Yahoo, reports Michael Arrington in his blog, TechCrunch.

Closer inspection of the publication's e-paper does indeed prove this to be the case. Like decisions by publishers often raise eyebrows, given the sacred nature of the front page, a space traditionally reserved for 'hard news' and top stories.

Whilst Yahoo's new $100m global 'Yahoo. It's Y!ou' marketing campaign could be considered by some to be such news, the running of the actual advertisement nonetheless raises many questions.

Should publications maintain the editorial integrity of the front page? And would a front page ad even be considered by a publication such as the New York Times?

Times of India considers premium weekend edition

Posted by Emma Heald on September 8, 2009 at 2:30 PM

Publisher of the Times of India Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd is surveying readers about a possible premium weekend edition of the paper, reported contentSutra. The edition would come out on Saturdays and cost Rs6: cheaper than business daily The Economic Times' weekend edition at Rs10, but more expensive than other general interest newspapers.

Described in the survey material as "a lavish, 32-page weekend newspaper that provides an intelligent, in-depth, yet easy-to-read perspective on the week's news events," it would aim to offer background on major events, and a mix of Indian and global news, and sections such as business, sports, science and entertainment. The focus seems to be more on analysis and commentary on the week's events and less on breaking news.

Indian newspaper executives discuss raising cover prices

Posted by Emma Heald on September 1, 2009 at 8:51 AM

Indian newspaper industry representatives at the 3rd INMA Annual South Asia Newspaper Conference discussed raising cover prices to a more realistic level. As advertising growth slows, N. Murali, managing director of the Hindu, said that newspaper prices should begin a period of regular increases.

Indian newspapers have been flourishing, but Murali said that the newspaper industry 'bubble' is about to burst, and current paper prices do not even cover newsprint costsm which have shot up in recent yesars. The Times of India's Ravi Dhariwal agreed that "it is time for experimenting with the cover price and taking slow and small steps towards increasing it." However, he also reminded participants that very low prices had been essential in helping newspapers increase penetration and other participants expressed concern that hiking prices might lead to a drop in circulation.

Free serialised story offered to newspapers for International Literacy Day

Posted by Emma Heald on August 28, 2009 at 3:39 PM

In celebration of International Literacy Day on 8 September, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers is offering newspapers a free serialised children's story. The story aims to teach children aged around 9 to 12 about newspaper journalism and is accompanied by lesson ideas. The initiative is part of WAN-IFRA's Newspapers in Education Development Project supported by Norske Skog, the Norway-based global paper producer.

"Newspapers and literacy have gone hand in hand for eons," said Aralynn McMane, director of WAN-IFRA young readership development. "In many countries, teachers use newspapers to teach both children and adults how to read, and we constantly hear of new ways newspapers are working with , or even creating libraries. A serial story remains a great tool for all involved."

'The Future Lies in the Languages' for India's printed press

Posted by Christie Silk on July 15, 2009 at 1:32 PM

The future of India's printed press lies in the greater appreciation of the nation's extraordinary linguistic diversity, maintains a selection of Indian marketing and media experts. A panel convened at the Indian Newspaper Congress 2009 discussed the predominance of the English-language national press and strategies for how local language papers could proliferate and take a fair share of newspaper advertising revenue.

The panel illustrated the importance of a plural, vibrant local language press to a nation that has 23 officially recognised languages, as well as hundreds of other different tongues.

PWC's Global Entertainment and Media Outlook warns of difficult times ahead for print in the 'digital migration'.

Posted by Christie Silk on July 8, 2009 at 11:33 AM

The 2009 PricewaterhouseCooper report on consumer and advertising movements in the entertainment and media industry forecasts difficult times ahead for print publications as the "digital migration" gathers force. The Outlook frames the fate of the newspaper and magazine industry within the wider view of the global recession and the attendant structural changes to consumer and advertising habits. The geographical regions with the highest media development are forecast to suffer the most chronically. Marcel Fenez, global entertainment & media leader at PWC, spoke about the report in an interview with Publishing-lounge.

The economic recession, Fenez explains, is catalyzing the process of digitilisation, as consumers are increasingly concerned to obtain better value for their content. The financial benefits of digital material for the consumer will not expire, even when the global economy picks up. As a result, it is not expected that consumption habits, nor advertising patterns will revert back to previous norms. Consequently, the current economic climate is effecting, not a "cyclical recession but one that is going to result in fundamental structural change". Significant changes in consumption and advertising patterns will inevitably have direct reverberations on the news publishing industry.

Opinion: Do Indian newspapers need to worry about their future?

Posted by Christie Silk on July 6, 2009 at 4:26 PM

With the imminent start of the Indian Newspaper Congress 2009, it is a fitting time to assess the future challenges of the nation's printed press. Pradyuman Maheshwari has discussed the realities of an apparently healthy printed press and warns against complacency with regards to the irresistible rise of online alternatives.

Analysed with the general state of the world's printed media as a benchmark, the Indian press is for all intents and purposes buoyant. Ostensibly, the established papers are coping well with, what is considered to be a temporary, slump in advertising revenue, to the extent that their future existence is not under question. The humbler daily publications are undergoing commercial restructuring to cope with the global slump- many are either awaiting valuation or are being purchased by larger groups. Other publications subsist thanks to their political influence and/or revenue from retail initiatives.

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