Editors Weblog: Search Results

International Press Association hosts meeting to discuss future of foreign press in Belgium

Posted by Alexandra Jaffe on March 18, 2010 at 3:52 PM

The International Press Association, an organization representing all foreign reporters stationed in Belgium, is hosting a meeting today to discuss employment prospects for journalists reporting in Brussels.

The meeting, entitled "What does the future hold for Brussels-based journalists?" will attempt to address the exodus of much of the European Union press corps over the past five years and the diminishing presence of foreign press in Brussels. According to a press release, the API "considers an urgent taking stock and a broad debate are imperative." The group hopes to address three main concerns:

CNN more concerned with competition from Facebook than rival FOX News

Posted by Robert Eisenhart on March 11, 2010 at 11:55 AM

During a recent media summit held by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, David Kaplan of The Guardian reported on a surprising announcement CNN made concerning Facebook. Contrary to what many believe, CNN views Facebook as a bigger competitor than rival Fox News.

CNN's president Jon Klien was quoted as saying, "I'm more worried about the 500 million or so people on Facebook versus the 2 million on Fox."

Sly Bailey: Trinity Mirror against paywall strategy

Posted by Trafton Kenney on March 4, 2010 at 1:56 PM

The Trinity Mirror will not implement a broad paywall strategy on its websites, according to Sly Bailey, chief executive of the newspaper group.

Bailey discussed the group's stance on charging for online access to content with MediaGuardian, confirming there are no plans to install a broad paywall. The group favors charging for more specific online services and products instead.

"We certainly don't believe throwing up a paywall is the right strategy," said Bailey. "It won't be possible for general content, I can't see why people would pay for high quality content when it's free elsewhere...the BBC is an obvious one here."

UK: Highlights from the CMS report on libel, privacy, and press standards

Posted by Maria Conde on February 26, 2010 at 2:20 PM

After a long year of looking into the state of the press, the UK Culture, Media, Sports Select Committee has finally released its report on libel, privacy, and press standards, according to journalism.co.uk

The 167-page report completed by a committee appointed by the House of Commons offers recommendations on journalism ethnics to guarantee "a constructive way forward for a free and healthy UK press in the years to come."

According to the report's summary, this inquiry is the "product of the longest, most complex, and wide-ranging inquiry" the Committee has ever undertaken.

World's Best-Designed newspapers announced

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 18, 2010 at 12:16 PM

Two newspapers from Germany and one from the US have been awarded the title of World's Best-Designed for 2009, in a competition run by The Society for News Design. The awards went to der Freitag of Berlin, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and The New York Times.

An international panel of judges selected the winners from hundreds of entries from around the world. Overall, the judges said: "The overview of news design in 2009 is a fascinating mixture of bad news with good. The reality of distress in our business is obvious. There are many signs of reduced resources, including smaller news holes with crowded words, less local news, an abundance of feature stories on the front page, a continued shortage of good photojournalism and more use of stock illustration. An overall feeling of looking a little confused and perhaps a bit stuck, prevails."

"But wait. The good news is that far from going away or giving up, we saw much earnest effort towards reinvention." "We find the most successful results are those that went back to newspaper basics," they continued. "Rather than competing with the Web by mimicking it, the smarter route seems to partner with it while offering what the Internet can't provide." The judges also said that they found the newspapers outside the US generally appeared healthier. They added that advertising was important and should be seen as part of newspapers' product and visual strategy.

iPad deals with publishers face obstacles

Posted by Maria Conde on February 16, 2010 at 6:20 PM

The arrival of the iPad has generated much optimism in media circles that hope it will revitalize a struggling industry, but so far, there has been much talk over what the device could do, but little evidence that shows newspapers will actually benefit from the device.

In fact, newspaper and magazine publishers have not yet agreed upon the key issue of sharing subscription revenue, as they consider deals to offer digital versions of their publications on Apple's newly released tablet, the Financial Times reports.

This vital piece of the puzzle will decide whether publishers will succeed in cashing in on the iPad.

The Observer to relaunch with more news analysis, fewer supplements

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 15, 2010 at 3:52 PM

Sunday newspaper The Observer is set to relaunch this week with a greater focus on news analysis as well as culture and lifestyle.

The slimmed-down four-section paper will drop its separate Escape, Cash and Business sections. Instead, it will contain four sections: an expanded main newspaper, a Berliner-size New Review supplement, Sport, and Observer Magazine. The New Review will continue to focus on arts and culture with increased coverage of film, music, architecture and books. A new Discover section within the review will be devoted to science, nature and technology. Observer Magazine will cover food, fashion, relationships, gardening, ethical living and travel.

The main news section will include a new round-up of the week's news, called The Week, and the Focus section will be expanded for more news analysis and international affairs. Sport will be expanded as well. Three of its four monthly magazine supplements, Observer Sport Monthly, Observer Music Monthly and Observer Woman have ceased publication. Observer Food Monthly will continue to be published.

How much does an article cost?

Posted by Maria Conde on February 11, 2010 at 6:10 PM

How much would you pay for an opinion article by Paul Krugman? How much would you shell out for an article on a new RNA discovery?

As newspapers ponder the move to making readers pay for access to news content online, with many announcing that they will start to do so soon, the costs of running a newsroom and the value of news articles take center stage. With many wanting us to pay for content, we cannot help but to wonder how much that content is really worth.

ProPublica investigates politicians' Super Bowl fundraising

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 8, 2010 at 11:07 AM

Non-profit investigative journalism outfit ProPublica is taking advantage of the Super Bowl to dig into the fundraising efforts of politicians, Poynter Online reports.

Reporter Marcus Stern planned to use the football game, held yesterday, to spot members of Congress who were attending and figure out how they obtained their tickets. But since he knew that trying to contact 535 members of Congress would be too big a task for one person, he turned the investigation into a crowdsourcing effort and asked professional journalists and the public to help collaborate.

"To some extent, this is going to be a test of the privacy or the openness of members of Congress when it comes to fundraising," Stern told Poynter Online.

Freesheet London Weekly is here

Posted by Maria Conde on February 5, 2010 at 5:30 PM

Following a week of much speculation over whether the new London freesheet existed, and if so, if it would launch at all, the London Weekly is finally here, says Guardian.

The launch of the new freesheet was announced in November of last year, with its website opening in December. Executives at the Global Publishing Group, the company responsible for the publication, initially announced the freesheet would launch on February 1st, but later pushed back the start date to February 5th.

Twitter trending topics go local

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 29, 2010 at 5:40 PM

Twitter has introduced a 'Local Trends' filter, which allows users to see what others are posting about on the site in their area.

The official Twitter blog explained that the trends function began as a way to see what was popular on a global scale in real-time, but this would create another way for members to discover relevant topics to them.

"The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation," a spokesperson writes, "but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama's election victory, versus those (in) São Paulo, Brazil?"

After:The iPad is here, and what its arrival means

Posted by Maria Conde on January 28, 2010 at 2:29 PM

After months of much hype and speculation, Steve Jobs finally took to the stage to unveil Apple's new highly anticipated tablet computer - the iPad.

With its official introduction at an event in San Francisco yesterday, Steve Jobs has finally laid many rumors about what the electronic device can do to rest, while igniting hopes about the iPad's ability to bring new life to 'old media' and to revamp the e-reader market.

Before: Will newspapers cash in on Apple's tablet?

Posted by Maria Conde on January 26, 2010 at 4:31 PM

From dock connectors to web analytics to guessing the name of this elusive gadget, all speculation will reach its pinnacle when Apple's widely anticipated tablet is finally unveiled at an event in San Francisco Wednesday.

The much-hyped iSlate (the name of the actual device has not been confirmed) is rumored to have a sleek 10-inch color display and Wi-Fi capabilities allowing newspapers, magazines, and book publishers to deliver their products with an eye-catching design.

Jeff Jarvis' take on News Corp's latest move

Posted by Helena Humphrey on January 18, 2010 at 11:51 AM

Jeff Jarvis, author of What would Google do and media columnist at the Guardian, has spoken out against News Corp's recent decision to block NewsNow from linking to its content, condemning Murdoch's as empire "foolish".

In his column, Jarvis argues that permitting linking is not only in News Corp's interests - as (previously) it directed traffic to the likes of Times Online, Sun Online and NotW.co.uk - but is also in the interests of democracy, allowing the public access to public information. "What's public is public - that is, we, the public, have a right to observe, point to, share, and comment on it. And the internet is public," writes Jarvis. Denying NewsNow the right to link, by disabling its crawler using the robots.txt file, impedes free comment and therefore freedom of speech, he adds.

Thefanclub.com: Twitter for sports

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 15, 2010 at 5:58 PM

The future of Twitter is mobile phone applications, says Jean-Sébastien Cruz, CEO of Netco Sports, France, speaking at the WAN-IFRA conference 'Using sports news to optimise your revenues'.

He points to some important trends in the areas of social networking and mobile applications. Newspapers that create pages on Twitter find themselves on the same level as any user, he says. The iPhone has the fastest penetration we've seen, and is rapidly changing the way we use the web, pressing buttons rather than using URLs. The Apple tablet is coming soon. Apple makes payment easy through the centralised App store, and provides a robust software development kit. And sports apps make up a substantial part of the massive growth in app downloads.

So what is NetCo Sports' strategy? Their objective is to have 2500 apps in 15 sports worldwide by 2012. They have created 200 iPhone apps in the field of sport so far, and their first was launched in 2008. Each one is available in five languages, and recognises the language of the phone automatically. A search for football in the Apple store brings up their Football 10 app. He calls this an encouragement to arrive quickly and be present early. His company has a 25% market share in France, with 30 million pages read through their mobile apps. Canal+ is their advertising partner, and receives traffic and visibility from the arrangement.

QUE is finally here: Plastic Logic's new e-reader

Posted by Emma Heald on January 8, 2010 at 11:55 AM

Plastic Logic launched its long-awaited e-reader yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. QUE, described in a press release as "the world's first proReader" is a large screen product aimed at business people. For now, it is only available in the US, shipping in April, and there were no details about dates for launches in other countries.

The e-reader measures 8.5 by 11 inches and has a touch-screen 10.7 inch display. It is plastic, and therefore lighter and possibly more durable than a glass screen. Two models are available: 4GB and 8GB. Digital books are being supplied by Barnes and Noble, but selling books is not its primary goal.

It is very much being marketed at business people rather than leisure readers. The press release quotes Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta who said that "mobile professionals can look forward to a paperless briefcase, a lighter load and a better way to work." It supports reading and annotating documents, and also features a calendar that can import appointments from its owner's computer. It can even display emails, and Plastic Logic will have an app for BlackBerry phones so that users can wirelessly sync content from their phones, according to Wired.

PC World, whose reporter was at the show, described the QUE's interface as "much richer" than those of current products. "It feels a bit less like an electronic book, and a little more like a computing device that happens to be focused around reading." Its homepage seems to be aimed at more than just reading.

Its price is also definitely targeted at professionals: the QUE will be expensive compared to other e-readers on the market: the 4GB version, with wi-fi, USB and Bluetooth, is priced at $649 and the 8GB version, which also includes AT&T wireless, is $799. Amazon's Kindle DX, in comparison, is $489, Barnes and Noble's Nook is $259, Sony's Reader Touch is about $299.

So what's in it for newspapers?

Plastic Logic has sought to present itself as a suitable strategic partner for newspapers for some time. In an interview in March last year, Daren Benzi, Plastic Logic VP for business development, told the EW that "newspapers and magazines really are our core focus" and suggested that publications might also be able to bring in advertising revenue from the device.

Yesterday the company announced that, using its truVue technology, the QUE "enables newspapers, magazines, and other types of content to have a richer reading experience that is symbolic of their print editions, complete with photos and formatting." The press release quoted Dave Hunke, president and publisher of USA Today, who said that "it's really exciting that there is an eReader platform that delivers our content the way it's supposed to look and feel." PC World's reporter confirmed that USA Today on the QUE "preserved a USA Today-like personality," and said that the truVue formatting "looks like a big improvement on the drab, text-only presentation on the Kindle and Nook."

And several newspapers seem to have been convinced that getting their product on the QUE would be a good move. New content partners announced include the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Bee, Miami Herald, Oakland Tribune, Huffington Post, ProPublica and The Sporting News Today, Barron's, Fast Company and Forbes. These publications join previously announced strategic partnerships with USA Today, the Financial Times, Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.

The press release states that publications are available on the QUE store for one-time use or as an ongoing subscription. A subscription to the New York Times costs $24.99 per month, the Washington Post is $11.99, and the Chicago Tribune and LA Times are both $9.99, for example. Obviously a big question for newspapers is the revenue split: how much of this amount actually goes to the publisher. It has become well-known that the split on the Amazon-reader is not particularly favourable, with the publisher only receiving about 30%. Though exact figure have not been released, it has been suggested that Sony offers a better deal on its e-reading devices, and several publishers recently signed on.

The eReader market is undoubtedly expanding, with Samsung also launching e-reader products at the CES, and the Skiff made a preview appearance. It sounds as if the QUE is offering a high quality device that compares favourably to its rivals (although Skiff might turn out to be a good competitor). For newspapers, the fact that their products will be presented in a format that is more similar to their print edition is likely to be appealing, as is the fact that it allows for updates to the display page throughout the day as a newspaper that updates itself. The revenue split and potential for advertising are equally crucial, however, and these are as yet unknown to the public.

The pricing of the device is likely to be prohibitive for many and therefore it is likely that the QUE will indeed be a niche device for successful professionals, providing a smaller, though desirable, market for publishers. Of course, there is also the looming threat of tablet computers, which with increased functionality and not hugely higher price tags, might soon provide some serious competition.

Hyperlocal news to hit the Netherlands

Posted by Emma Heald on January 6, 2010 at 4:39 PM

The idea of providing news on a hyperlocal level has attracted much attention over the past year as news outlets look at how to tackle the ubiquity of free online news and try to find something that they can offer that is unique. In parts of the US, hyperlocal outfits are now plentiful, both start-ups and those run by traditional news organisations. In Europe, growth has been slower, but notable projects include Futuroom/Nase adresa in the Czech Republic (disclosure: WEF has been involved in the project as a consultant) and moves by various UK publishers to expand their offerings on a very local level.

And now it appears that the Netherlands is to see an attempt to integrate hyperlocal news more deeply into the news landscape. Bart Brouwers, former editor-in-chief of Dutch tabloid Sp!ts, recently made the decision to move away from print journalism after 25 years and start an online-only network of hyperlocal news outlets. The Editors Weblog spoke to Brouwers to find out more about his plans.

Brouwers himself made the decision to move into the hyperlocal field, and was prepared to do this alone, but his employer Telegraaf Media Groep decided to take on the project and appointed Brouwers to the newly-created position of managing editor of a digital network of hyperlocal news and information platforms. He hopes that his network can spread throughout the Netherlands.

Hyperlocal news is the future, believes Brouwers, because despite newspapers' problems with subscribers and advertisers, there is still a huge public need for information and people have a desire to inform others and thinks that "could be done in the best way on a very local level." It is on this level that people both need specific information, and have information that they can share with others in the community.

The idea for the network would be that it would ideally incorporate existing local bloggers and user interactivity would play a major role. One of the principles which Brouwers is working under is that an article is not finished when a journalist presses the publish button; rather, the process is just starting. "Every journalist must be aware that there will always be more knowledge out there than he could have found on his own, it's just a matter of finding the right people." So Brouwers wants to create some kind of system whereby people add to what has been provided by the journalists. The network is as yet unnamed, but Brouwers hopes to incorporate this idea of "not finished yet" into its name.

Brouwers feels that a hyperlocal network has the potential to make money from highly targeted advertising. Paid content is a possibility, but it would not be the basis of the network's revenue stream: "maybe 90% of what we are doing will be free." With regards to advertising, Brouwers thinks that there is potential for more innovative and profitable methods. "I do believe in intelligent ways of mixing advertising with journalistic content," he said, "as long as you are able to stay independent and be clear to your audience what is paid for." He referred to the way that True/Slant incorporates advertising: the ads are written in a blog style and provide more information than a banner or pop-up ad could, but they are clearly distinguished from other content (see here for an example.)

The type of advertising platform and audience that Brouwers hopes to offer could particularly appeal to local and regional governments, he said. "For them it's very worthwhile to get a very targeted audience for everything that they want to inform their citizens with."

The Telegraaf Media Groep has the advantage of already having a significant presence in the news landscape of the Netherlands, and Brouwers hopes that his new network can collaborate with Telegraaf's more traditional properties. He realises, however, that his platform is going to be very different, and also that the Telegraaf newspapers will be careful about how much of their content they give away.

As yet, many details of Brouwers' project need to be finalised and it is impossible to predict whether or not he will be successful. His idea has similarities to the redefined news eco-system proposed by Jeff Jarvis, where citizen journalists would be seen as important collaborators in the process of news distribution. These ideas make financial sense in the way that they plan to make use of information willingly provided for nothing by members of the public. And taking note of the fact that no one journalist knows as much as the community about what is going on seems wise. A fool-proof business model is yet to be found for hyperlocal news, but if such experimentation proves successful, it might well have an important role to play in the future of news.

The Times turns 225

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 4, 2010 at 11:02 AM

U.K. newspaper The Times celebrated its 225th birthday this week, making it the English-language record holder for longest continuous daily publication.

The paper was launched under the title The Daily Universal Register, then renamed The Times three years later to avoid confusion with other newspapers with "register" in the title.

THE YEAR IN NEWSPAPERS: top trends of 2009

Posted by Emma Heald on December 22, 2009 at 3:24 PM

2009 might well be remembered as a year of cutbacks and closures, but also a year when newspapers started to fight back, make changes and began to reassess unsatisfactory aspects of their business models. The world of journalism has indeed suffered some sad losses but there has also been much innovative thinking and progress in the way that news is gathered, reported and presented. Here are a few of the top trends that the Editors Weblog has noted this year.

Cuts, cuts, cuts: what are the consequences?

Some US cities have been left with just one daily newspaper, and speculation over which could be the first no-paper town was answered in July when the Ann Arbor News stopped printing. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer cut most of its staff and went online only, Denver lost the Rocky Mountain News. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle and Boston Globe have struggled through threats of closure.

And even those whose survival is assured have been cutting staff - the New York Times just lost 100 newsroom staff - or closing bureaux - the Washington Post now has no domestic bureaux outside the capital. Others have cut down on international reporting. Newspapers have got thinner, some losing sections or even cutting printing days.

News agencies have also been feeling the effect of the cuts as papers look at how to make savings. The Associated Press has seen 180 papers threaten to cancel their subscriptions, though many of these have since decided not to. The Chicago Tribune, for example, trialled reporting without the AP for a week. Over in France, government-subsidised Agence France-Presse has also seen papers drop its service.

Overall, the cutbacks in Europe do not seem as drastic as in the US, though that is not to say that papers have been immune: even the Guardian is attempting to make significant staff cuts.

Can newspapers continue to perform their democratic role in society? Fewer journalists means fewer stories covered, fewer copy/sub editors means a greater chance of mistakes.

Start-ups can help to fill the gaps in reporting, but without proper funding they too will languish. It is essential that outlets must focus on efficiencies and how to make the best of their resources, and endeavour not to sacrifice quality.

To charge or not to charge (online)?

As newspapers' advertising-based business model started to let them down, one of the biggest questions of the year has been whether or not newspapers should start charging for their online content. So far, there has been a lot of talk but not much action. Walter Isaacson brought the micropayments question onto the agenda in February, sparking immediate controversy. The debate started to heat up in April when Journalism Online was founded by three industry experts with an iTunes-inspired mission to facilitate charging for online content: it proposed to offer bundled packages of content from multiple publications. This was swiftly

followed by Murdoch's promise in early May that all News Corp papers would be charging online within the year. MediaNews Group followed suit. The New York Times also seems committed but is wavering with regards to how. The Newspaper Association of America's call for payment models elicited a considerable response.

Meanwhile, some smaller papers such as the Schenectady Daily Gazette and the Texas Valley Morning Star have quietly integrated paywalls: are there lessons to be learnt there?

Murdoch, undoubtedly one of paid online content's most vocal supporters, is insistent that news is a valuable product and should not just be given away. This might seem hard to argue with, but some publishers are resolute that charging online is not the answer to solving financial difficulties, and remain committed to high traffic and other schemes such as highly targeted advertising to sustain cash flow. The Guardian, for example, is one of these. A multitude of surveys carried out have suggested that, unsurprisingly, charging online will not be too popular among consumers.

A couple of news outlets have adopted a less direct paywall: for example, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has introduced a membership club that offers new additional content and special events to its committed readers. This seems like a possible option for publishers who fear sacrificing their ad revenue but want to experiment with paid online content.

Will Murdoch fulfil his promises? Could charging online be the norm by the end of 2010? And what has happened to Journalism Online: will 'bundled' charging be an option?

The TWITTER explosion

By now, the idea of a journalist not using Twitter is verging on inconceivable. After CNN and Ashton Kutcher first crossed the one million followers mark in April in a highly-publicised battle, multi-million follower accounts are now not uncommon.

Its advantages are multiple: finding news, advertising stories, curating your community of readers. Twitter's limitations, however, are that its information can be hard to verify. These uses and limitations became particularly clear during the aftermath of the Iranian election in June, when many journalists were prevented from reporting and news was increasingly spread by social networks and citizen journalists.

Twitter has had a significant impact on the trend towards up-to-the-minute, real time news. It changed its homepage in July to place more of a focus on search and its potential as a way to discover what people are talking about right now. Google recently announced that it was to integrate real-time social network updates into its search results.

Will it last? Following much debate over how it would actually bring in money, it was just announced that Twitter has indeed become profitable, so one can assume that for now, at least, it is here to stay. Its advantages for journalists are more clear-cut than those of Facebook, but Facebook is used regularly by a wider range of people. With increasing use of Facebook Connect, might this become more prominent in 2010?

HYPERLOCAL: just hype or the future for news?

The ubiquity of free online news has, quite understandably, led news outlets to contemplate what they can offer that is unique, and going very very local has appealed to many, particularly as regional papers have been suffering particularly badly and hyperlocal news has potential to offer highly-targeted local advertising.

Mainstream news outlets have been seeing the benefits of local news: US hyperlocal aggregator Outside.in has seen considerable investment from CNN, and Everyblock, originally created with a grant from the Knight Foundation, was bought by MSNBC. The New York Times introduced a blog called The Local, in an area already overwhelmed by a variety of hyperlocal offerings such as Patch and Maplewood Online. Community websites have also been springing up in the UK.

But, as recently questioned by Benji Lanyado, is hyperlocal actually making money? Has the right business model been found?

One noteworthy initiative is the Futuroom/Nase adresa project launched by PPF Media in the Czech Republic (disclosure: the World Editors Forum has been involved in the project in the role of consultant) which has taken news reporting directly into the community and constructed an unusual alternative revenue stream. 'News cafes,' which place the newsroom in a cafe in the centre of town, are at the centre of PPF's strategy: these both provide income (enough to cover overheads) and offer the public direct access to journalists, allowing the newsroom to become a real part of the community. Led from the Futuroom base in Prague, Nasa adresa weeklies and websites are produced, and it seems as if the papers are selling.

It is too early to say whether the project, launched in June, represents a solution that could be used more widely, but looks it promising. Hyperlocal undoubtedly has potential, but an innovative business model needs to be found.

i for innovation

One of 2009's success stories has been new Portuguese daily i. As newspapers around the world suffer from financial difficulties, launching a new publication could seem like madness. But, so far at least, i has proved any sceptics wrong. The impressively-designed magazine-style newspaper focused on politics and economics has been selling, and has managed to capture a new hard-to-reach audience.

The paper has willingly abandoned traditional topic sections to allow more freedom of coverage, and focuses on opinion and daily in-depth analysis on key issues, taking into account the fact that its readers are likely to already be well-informed via other platforms.

New ideas and experimentation are encouraged, and enthusiasm is high. And, the paper does not put all its print content online: the website aims to be kind of a social news portal rather than a digital reproduction of the news in the paper.

As a new paper, it has been easier for i to break the mould, but are there useful lessons that established newspapers could learn from what i is doing differently?

Does a nonprofit business model have a significant place in the media landscape?

Whether or not going nonprofit is an option for newspapers is a question that has been discussed at length by media commentators and even by the US Senate. The main advantage: protection from market forces, the main disadvantage: no freedom to endorse political candidates. And, of course, there is the challenge of finding a rich enough donor.

The idea that an entire newspaper could be funded by a foundation seems unlikely, but investigative public interest journalism has been relatively successful at attracting nonprofit support.

Several funds and start-ups aiming to produce high quality investigative journalism have sprung up, following in the footsteps of the likes of ProPublica and the VoiceOfSanDiego. Locally targeted nonprofits are becoming almost abundant in the US: over the past 3 months the Bay Area News Project began (in September), Oakland Local was founded in October, the Texas Tribune launched in November, as did the Chicago News Cooperative and California Watch appeared earlier this month.

All these launches are good news for news in these areas, but are they sustainable? It has been argued that the nonprofit concept is merely propping up a flawed business model and limiting potential innovation. Time will tell which are successful.

Is there money in mobile?

Smart phones are becoming more and more common and could start to become the norm in 2010. Many news applications that enable a better reading experience have been built for Apple's iPhone, and some for Google's Android operating system - those created by the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Associated Press seem to be generally considered to be among the best. The Guardian's paid for app sold more than 9000 in its first two days.

But can they actually be a significant stream of revenue?

Many are free, and those like the Guardian's which have a one-off download fee (something consumers are likely to be willing to pay for?) might be able to recoup the costs of development with this income, but it does not constitute regular revenue. Advertising is limited so far - there is not much space on the small screen, for a start. Briefly covering the whole screen seems to be the preferred method of some papers on the iPhone: Le Monde's app opens with a full-page ad, for example.

It is possible to make content available via subscription. The Financial Times iPhone app only allows full access to online subscribers, and the Wall Street Journal has implemented a specific application subscription charge: $1.50 per week.

Will more do this? Can consumers be persuaded to pay on their phones for what they can get free online?

E-readers: not all they promised, but could that change in 2010?

The Kindle, though widely adopted by many newspapers, might not quite have lived up to expectations. Publishers only receive about 30% of what subscribers pay, and besides, e-readers are still prohibitively expensive for many and far from being a "must-have" product. Kindle users are generally older.

But could this be about to change? New products such as the Nook and the improved Sony range are entering the market and the Plastic Logic e-reader Que is to be released in early January. A group of publishers have also come together with plans to develop their own e-reader. Could this competition improve e-reader offerings? Already, Sony is apparently offering a better revenue share than Amazon does, and presumably, giving publishers and consumers a choice will make pricing competitive.

Or might e-readers lose out to tablet computers? The Apple tablet is expected early next year - with more functionality, could it and similar products appeal more to the younger generation?

Google: friend or foe?

Conflict over copyright reached new heights this year. Attacks on Google and other 'copyright thieves' who have built a business model off newspaper content have come from many corners: with News Corp leading the fight in the US but Spanish and German publishers too. Google consistently responds that it is fact a friend to publishers, citing the 1 billion clicks that it sends to news websites each month via Google News, and pointing out that publishers can easily opt-out of Google's indexing. Publishers retort that Google's current quasi-monopoly on search would make that difficult.

But could a rapprochement be on the cards for 2010? Google has been making conciliatory moves - it has updated its 'First Click Free' program to allow publishers more control over how much of their site is accessible free, it launched its first project that shares revenue with publishers, Fast Flip, and created new ways to view news, such as Living Stories, which might offer advertising potential if developed further.

At the WAN-IFRA World Newspaper Congress in Hyderabad earlier this month, INM's Gavin O'Reilly and Google's David Drummond were far from reaching an agreement but did agree that they would continue meeting in the future to try and solve the issue. Will publishers and Google find a compromise? Or might Microsoft and Bing step into the fray and change everything?

Cooperation

One of the consequences of extreme financial difficulties has been unexpected cooperation between former rivals: it has become harder and less desirable to stand entirely alone. A few examples:

Between rivals: content sharing has become more widespread. For instance, the Ohio News Organisation, a collection of seven newspapers who began sharing content last year in an attempt to substitute Associated Press coverage, produced a collaborative story in November.

Between old and new media: even one of the US's most prestigious newspapers has accepted the need to collaborate with new media projects. In August, the New York Times partnered with nonprofit investigative journalism outlet Propublica to publish a 13,000 word article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that took two years and an estimated $400,000 to produce. The paper also published a story on the Great Pacific Garbage patch that was funded by crowd-funded journalism initiative Spot.Us. These were both stories that the paper would have been unlikely to publish otherwise

Between different platforms: at many papers, print and web are competing no longer, but are part of the one team. The Washington Post is the latest major paper to undergo integration.

For a list of top publishing strategies for 2010 please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com

Why your website should be using Facebook Connect to attract visitors

Posted by Betsey Reinsborough on December 18, 2009 at 1:03 PM

Two thousand and nine was undoubtedly the year of the Social Network. In a world of loose economic foundations and falling advertising revenue, the social aspect of the Internet became even more important in the lives of many people.

The largest name in social networking has some mind-blowing statistics behind it: Facebook just hit the 350 million user mark; the average member spends 25 minutes a day on the site; there are over 90 000 apps on the site and an astounding half of all users go to the site everyday.

So how can newspapers take advantage of this social boom?

One of the easiest, and more effective ways is to install Facebook Connect on their websites. Facebook Connect allows for user interaction from a larger source than a typical site or blog is capable of creating for itself. Facebook has the fifth highest level of traffic on the web; that's a lot of potential uniques waiting in the wings.

The only problem is how to direct all of those users to a site off of Facebook, and this is where Facebook Connect comes in to help. According to the Washington Post, over 80 000 websites have now installed Facebook Connect and more than 60 million Facebook users use the service each month. The universally available tool has heaps of potential to bring traffic to a site as well as spread the proverbial word virally across Facebook. Yet many sites, particularly those of newspapers, are not taking advantage of the free publicity. Why?

WHAT FACEBOOK CONNECT CAN DO

Once a blog or site has installed Connect, readers can log in to the site through their Facebook accounts. Users can then leave comments, have discussions, and post the link to the page directly to their news feeds through the plug-in. The links will be seen on Facebook by the user's friends, who can then click through to the site because of the link. This is how the majority of traffic from social networking sites is generated. The cycle continues to become even more viral when the friend posts the same link to his wall, and a third friend clicks through.

The reason that Connect increases interaction on a third-party site is because it cuts down on formalities and allows virtually instant access to a comment field. Most blogs have an individual screen that users must fill out in order to comment on the site. Many are lengthy or invasive, and then there is always the annoyance of having to remember which e-mail you used to sign-up for which site. By the time someone's logged it, they may well have completely forgotten their comment and lost interest.

Using Facebook Connect, however, will allow the user to log-in to Facebook instantly and will also carry over a log-in from another window. If you've already checked your Facebook that day, you're instantly ready to comment on Vimeo or to Digg something. Most comment boards will even show the user's profile picture next to her log-in name. (Though all Facebook privacy settings continue over to third-party sites: if your profile picture is only viewable by friends on Facebook, it stays that way on all other sites as well.)

Most notably, Connect is free. No money is exchanged between the social networking site and the sites or blogs that install Connect. Yet, according to Facebook, Connect increases traffic to sites and makes users up to 15-20 percent more active once they are on the site. According to Joost, as quoted on the Facebook Connect site, "Connected users watch 30 percent more videos, enter 15 percent more comments, and invite 38 percent more friends." That's more pageviews, more uniques, and more content. And it's free.

One of the most important advantages of Facebook Connect is the information about the users that is provided by the service. Once someone has logged into a third party site through Connect, that site can gain valuable information about the user. Their names, locations, genders, ages and even photos become fair game for the site. This can make an enormous difference in regards to advertising. If the third party site is privy to detailed statistics about its commenters, then it can use this information to coax potential advertisers looking for a specific demographic. For example, MTV is not going to be looking to advertise on sites where the commenters are primarily in their 40s, but would be much more anxious to put an ad up on a site with a high level of teenaged activity. The use of data from Facebook Connect is an invaluable survey of the most active users on any given site.

The use of Facebook Connect can also help to monitor comments as well. Because the users are logged in under their real names, it is easier to ban people for inappropriate comments or harassment. Additionally, most people are more cautious of what they write when they are required to take credit for it; thus, inappropriate comments would decrease thanks to the required log-in.

SOME EXAMPLES OF IMPLEMENTATION

Some newspaper sites have already begun to take advantage of the benefits that Facebook Conenct has to offer. An early partner, The San Francisco Chronicle, has used Connect on its web site, SFGate.com, since January 2009. In that time, the traffic to the site has grown exponentially. Between early 2008 when first creating a Facebook page and July of this year, SFGate experienced a 1597 percent growth in pageviews, with 397 percent just between June and July.

The ability of Facebook to drive new users to sites is undeniable. One of the most successful implementations by a news site has been by The Huffington Post. The site officially partnered with Facebook in August with the launch of "Social News," in which the HuffPost aggregates stories that Facebook friends of a user have recommended or commented on. It can also post the same info about the user on his Facebook profile.

Of course, as expected from the HuffPost, the launch had a two-pronged intention. At the time of the launch, HuffPost CEO Eric Hippeau said, "our goal is to make HuffPost Social News the go-to place for Facebook users to share news--both the stories they love and the stories they hate--with friends. It should also appeal to marketers interested in reaching passionate, savvy readers who care about the news and who want to share their interests with friends."

The integration aimed to bring in pageviews as well as advertisers: something it has most definitely done. Since integrating Facebook Connect, the HuffPost has seen an increase of 500 percent in referrals from Facebook, and over 15 percent of all comments to the site come directly from Facebook. According to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, "with the integration of Facebook Connect, HuffPost Social News is now leading the way to make news even more of a social experience, giving people new ways to share and filter news and current events through their networks of friends on Facebook." This is an example other news sites might do well to follow.

USING CONNECT WITH OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS

The New York Times uses Facebook Connect, but in conjunction with its own social network, TimesPeople. The network, which went public in September 2008, allows users to log in on the site and then share articles, collect friends, join networks, and even publish to Twitter. The network has an application on Facebook that allows for integration between the two social media, and once a user is logged into TimesPeople, he can use Facebook Connect through the Times' site. This uploads all of the user's contacts from Facebook who are also on TimesPeople instantly onto the user's page. Users can also import contacts from Gmail, Twitter, and other sites. Although usage numbers were unavailable (the most recent was the year old report of 100 000 users), the recent integration of Facebook Connect and Twitter into the mix is likely to have greatly increased usage.

The Independent recently launched its own social network site as well. Plotstar provides readers with information about "where to go and what to do near specified locations, see what deals local companies offer and plan events with their friends." Plotstar is accessible through the Independent's website as well as the mobile site.

Once a user is logged in, he can use Facebook Connect to send invitations to events to friends or post an exciting happening on his profile. Through it, users can buy tickets for events or make reservations at restaurants. These additional services involving purchases, along with the added advertising on the site, will help to raise extra revenue. This not only brings new users onto the site, it also helps to increase brand awareness and encourage the purchase of subscriptions.

WHY (NOT) CONNECT?

So why don't more sites use Facebook Connect? Some do, but not nearly as many as would be expected. Why is this? Why are many papers denying themselves free promotion and guaranteed pageviews? Especially in the current economic climate and state of publishing? It could be a lack of knowledge. The program is still only a year old- many editors may still be in the dark about the possibilities that are out there and the things that Connect can do.

Many sites already have a Share on Facebook button installed and may feel that that is adequate for promoting themselves on the social networking site; however, with Connect installed as well, the interaction on the site would rise along with the amount of shared links. Isn't this a can't lose situation: more pageviews, more visitors, more publicity?

Sources: MediaGuardian, Newspaper Association of America, Washington Post, CNET [1] , CNET [2], TheNextWeb.com, InsideFacebook.com, ClickZ, newmediaage,

iPhone users will pay for The Guardian, it seems

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on December 16, 2009 at 5:00 PM

The Guardian's new iPhone app sold 9000 units in its first two days, in a development that may point to a key future source of revenue for newspapers.

The app was launched on Monday, and it was uncertain whether or not consumers could be prepared to pay the £2.39 asking price. Many news apps are free, including those offered by The Telegraph, The Financial Times, Thomson Reuters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

NewsNow aggregator to pull some newspaper links

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 15, 2009 at 2:37 PM

NewsNow, an fully automated, 'homegrown' in the UK news aggregator, is to remove links to many national newspaper websites over failure to reach agreement on the Newspaper Licensing Agency Limited's (NLA) proposed "Web Database License" plan.

NewsNow's subscription service provides content snippets from about 37,000 sources in 141 countries for £75 a month; the service will now no longer include links from NLA members because of the disagreement.

The NLA issued a warning that if NewsNow did not sign the License plan, legal action would ensue. This follows the battle between the two organizations over the past year on whether the aggregator is copying other's news for their own profit; the usual aggregation gambit with the standard news source response.

Guardian launches paid-for iPhone app

Posted by Emma Heald on December 14, 2009 at 11:08 AM

The Guardian has launched a paid-for iPhone application, the paper reported, hoping to develop "the world's best content-based iPhone experience."

Key themes in the development were "speed, customisation, a great design aesthetic and ease of navigation through the full breadth of Guardian content," according to a blog post by mobile product manager Jonathon Moore. The app will refresh content every 15 minutes, and offline browsing will be possible. Content is organised by keyword, and users can customise their home page. As yet there is no video and no option to comment or read comments of others.

Regional publishers increasingly turn digital

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 11, 2009 at 1:21 PM

Many UK regional publishers have seen the opportunities of digital and internet publishing and have capitalized on it. But local presses are increasingly selling digital-format replicas of their print products, which is not quite the same thing as going 'fully digital.'

Local newspapers re-formatted for digital viewing, usually complete with page-turning 'technology,' have been popping up all over the UK and are beginning to outstrip traditional print editions.

Times Online to relaunch with paywall

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 10, 2009 at 1:16 PM

The Times head honchos realize that they must innovate to create a desirable and competitive product before they can put up paywalls.

Times Media's digital development head Hector Arthur and News International's strategy and product development director Dominic Young remained calm and confident of their new paid content strategy at a panel organized by Microsoft's MSN UK HQ.

In terms of the potential problems with advertisers that paywalls present, Arthur said that "It's important we talk with the ad agencies to figure out how things will be in that world ...we need a constructive dialogue."

Results matching “uk what is the”

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Editors Weblog Twitter Feed

Twitter Updates

Latest News

Analysis

Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Blog