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Independent News & Media will complete proposed restructuring plans having secured the support of a shareholder, the Guardian reported.

Investors at a meeting in Dublin yesterday gave the go ahead to all resolutions, including INM's rights issue under which shareholders can buy 59 shares at 5 cents each for every 50 they already own, in order to raise funds to complete the repayment of a €200m bond. The group's chief executive, Gavin O'Reilly, said: "We are pleased to announce the approval of all of the resolutions relating to our restructuring plan which can now proceed to final completion."

An alternative vision to the controversial plans for the redistribution of broadcasting funds outlined in the Labour government's Digital Britain Report has been proposed by the Conservative party. The opposition party suggested that local newspaper companies should be responsible for the production of local television news programmes on the ITV channel.  

The Conservatives would abandon the current government's plans to "top-slice" the BBC licensing fee from 2013.  The surplus money would be redirected to the creation of a chain of independent consortia offering local news provision. Instead, the Conservatives would establish a group of roughly 80 independent local media companies. These companies would serve regional and local communities with print, television, radio and online news and entertainment.

The latest issue of Courrier International to hit French newsstands gathers translated newspaper articles themed on the uncertain future of the press. From Washington, in a lengthy set of extracts from the New Republic, Paul Starr makes three strong cases for why democracy will be endangered without a newspaper. He hints that American democracy may already have been slighted seeing that national, regional and local newspapers are dwindling in terms of content they can run since printing costs have caused them to scale back on the numbers of pages they print.

He opens his debate by lamenting the fact that Americans have taken [American] journalism (in the form of a printed newspaper) for granted as newspapers have been such an ''integral part of daily life in America, so central to politics and culture and business, and so powerful and profitable in their own right, that it is easy to forget what a remarkable historical invention they are.''

The Guardian is due to drop its Thursday Technology supplement, paidContent:UK reports. The online edition will continue and it is possible that the supplement, a 'G3' production, will be merged with Media Guardian.  The reshuffle is potentially a result of a reduction of spending in technology advertising.  It is also feasible that the printed edition just could not compete with its online counterpart, which is updated daily.  Technology enthusiasts, moreover, are presumably more inclined to log on regularly than wait for the Thursday paper to land on the doorstep. 

Guardian News & Media told paidContent:UK: "We are, however, committed to expanding our technology coverage online to better meet the needs of the technology audience.   

The alternative weekly publications of the New Mass. Media group, the Hartford Advocate, New Haven Advocate and Fairfield County Weekly have outsourced all of their editorial content to freelance journalists in India.  

The first editions to have been created in this way will be released this Thursday.  And rather than trying to bury the use of these potentially problematic methods of journalism, the publishers are courting the controversy.  The cover of each paper will be emblazoned with the statement: "Sorry, we've Been Outsourced. This Issue Made In India."

Given the current economic climate in Great Britain, there was much interest as Alistair Darling delivered his budget speech today - and naturally there was much use of new media in the coverage.

In an unusual move, Gordon Brown chose to release a message the day before the budget was announced - but even more unusual was that he chose video to do it. Whilst the video does show the Prime Minister's willingness to use multimedia, it hasn't been well received by media pundits. The Guardian describes it as "uncomfortable viewing: restless swaying mixed with some dense policy details and a lot of forced smiling".

Last Friday the BBC Trust gave the go-ahead to increase the corporation's online budget spend to £145m per year - equivalent to a 27% increase - a decision which has been attacked by rivals.

Also, whilst the BBC Online budget increases over the next three years, the Trust also agreed to £400m worth of cutbacks which will see the salaries of some of the corporation's biggest stars slashed by up to 10%.

"All the talk about 'saving newspapers' is focused on finding new business models to keep doing what they've always done," writes blogger Scott Karp. "Which is like GM looking for a new business model to sell the kinds of cars they made in the 50s and 60s. What the newspaper industry, if it is to survive as such, must find is a radical new value proposition for news -- something so audacious, so self-evidently valuable that, if they can find a way to deliver it, would lead to the rebirth of newspaper journalism."

And that, the premise that journalism needs a fundamentally new model, means betting the farm, innovating - not to try to be the competition, but to be something not yet imagined by the competition, and in the process, perhaps learning from another "dying" industry.    

"Jonathan Rausch's piece on GM's last ditch effort to transform itself by producing the world's first mainstream electric car (after it failed to do so in the 90s)," writes Karp. "Is a tale of do or die innovation that everyone in the newspaper industry -- and media generally -- must read."
 
General Motors, after languishing for years in Toyota's shadow, following the mishandling of the EV1, and repeated cases of over-promising and under-delivering, needed not to create their own Prius, but get out of the catch-up game and write the rules to a new game.

"When one of the world's mightiest corporations throws everything it's got at a project, and when it shreds its rule book in the process, the results are likely to be impressive," writes Rausch.

Karp argues the journalism industry should be asking these same questions, "How can newspaper companies surpass the competition? How can they be better than Google?... and then pursuing bold answers... Newspapers need to stop trying to save the old business or searching amorphously for new business models and instead figure out what needs are going unmet in the market for news -- and then be first in the market to deliver breakthrough solutions."

Perhaps the "GM lesson" is to not fear ourselves and the capabilities within our industry, but also not fear the competition. Innovate, and do so openly.
   
If they fail, they will fail publicly, painfully so, but it is only in letting go that fear of failure, that they allow themselves grow beyond the industry they were, into the industry they will become.

Source: Publishing 2.0
 

In this section, John Zogby, CEO of Zogby International, and George Brock, World Editors Forum President and editor of the Saturday Times in the UK, comment on the results of the 2008 Newsroom Barometer. Both agree that the results show editors have opened to the new necessities of the digital age, while remaining strongly conscious of the possible threats to their newspapers and journalism.

(View the main results to this year's survey here.)

According to Brock, this year's survey points to the fact that "editors remain confident about a mixed-media future and have quietly got on with the business of integrating their newsrooms," but this is "tempered by anxiety that newspapers are not investing enough in recruitment and training for the future."

The path is clear for many editors: integrate the newsroom, think multimedia, train or hire a team of multi-skilled journalists. So are the threats: lack of investment, lack of training, lack of cultural change.

In the face of these deep changes for the newspaper industry and its organization, editors may often face managerial resistance to undergo these investments. But media companies must be bold. Their editors, for the most part, are ready to be. Said Brock: "I read the message of this year's Newsroom Barometer as an appeal from editors to their companies to be bold in the face of change and as a sign that they themselves intend to make the most of new opportunities."

For Zogby, who goes into more detail about the numeric results (see below), this year's results show that editors have adapted or are adapting to the current redefinition of the 4th Estate, the press, in light of the changes brought in part by the Internet.

"Perhaps the most important finding to emerge from the 2008 survey is that editors remain optimistic about the futures of their papers," as was the case for the previous edition of the Newsroom Barometer, wrote Zogby.

Yet this optimism shouldn't hide the urgency for newspapers to rethink their model. "For these editors the future is self-evident and our survey shows that they see the writing on the newsroom wall.  The evolution of the 4th Estate is no longer questions of if, when or how.  Editors now know the solution:  Innovate.  Integrate.  Or perish."

Read Brock and Zogby's full comments below.

Comments on the 2008 Newsroom Barometer by George Brock

Editors remain confident about a mixed-media future and have quietly got on with the business of integrating their newsrooms. The optimism is not universal and it is tempered by anxiety that newspapers are not investing enough in recruitment and training for the future.

Newspaper managements might reply that investment remains risky when it isn't yet clear where the income from digital publishing is supposed to come from. But newspaper businesses are made by content which creates and sustains demand. The first newspapers did not come about when someone assembled advertising platforms, distribution networks and hardware and afterwards looked for content to put into that system.

The sequence of events was the reverse. Somebody wants to tell as many people as possible something of interest or importance, discovers a sustained curiosity in that information or opinion and eventually a publishing operation grows up to supply the demand. The chain reaction is sparked by interest in the story, view, picture, interview, column, cartoon that's on offer. Without that first moment of ignition, nothing else happens.

You think this sounds a little basic? It is. But you would be surprised how often this simple reality is forgotten as today's media businesses struggle to adapt to a world in which digital technology is rewriting the economics of news publishing.

Online news and opinion has now been with us for long enough to see that no prediction about the future of news which is based on technology alone can tell us the future. Newspapers are not just ink marks on squashed trees: they are what people trust, they amuse people, in short they are a collection of ideas and information with which a reader forms a relationship. Where journalism - whether professional, citizen or any mixture of the two - creates that relationship, something lasting is born and can be sustained. You can see examples of success and failure both online and in print. As the first flush of online innovation and enthusiasm wears off, we can see more clearly that some of the online successes will grow very big indeed, but that only the best will prosper. Making information available - and the web makes it available as never before - does not make it wanted. Newspapers which innovate and adapt will also survive because their qualities are more important than the medium. Some of the failures in both online and print will be terminal.

I read the message of this year's Newsroom Barometer as an appeal from editors to their companies to be bold in the face of change and as a sign that they themselves intend to make the most of new opportunities. Most editors are clear that the essential qualities of good journalism can adapt to a new medium. They accept as a fact needing no further debate that their papers will now reach their constituency by several channels and not by one.

Redefining the 4th Estate: Opinions of the Editors by John Zogby

In the 550 years since the first pages of print rolled off the presses in the Bavarian town of Mainz, printed news evolved relatively unimpeded.  Even the invention and proliferation of radio and television failed to stymie the growth of newspapers, largely due to the ability of newspapers to provide more in-depth coverage.
    
The centuries-long hegemony of the ink and paper news model today faces its greatest threat--the advent of an independent and free Internet-based media.  This threat was evidenced at the height of the 2005 British elections with the publication of the 'Downing Street Memo' by The Sunday Times.  That short but potent document presented potentially damning evidence surrounding the planning in the run-up to the Iraq War, and while British papers seized the story, the leaked memo made only slight ripples in the American print media.  It did create, however, a surge within the rapidly developing blog community who used the lack of traditional media coverage as a call to arms.

Now, as the Internet struggles to define itself in the shadow of the Fourth Estate, the question remains: will these two mediums continue to battle for supremacy or will they find stability in an integrated symbiotic relationship? To help bring clarity to this question, Zogby International was commissioned by the World Editors Forum and Reuters to survey 704 newspaper editors worldwide for the second in a series of annual 'Newsroom Barometer Surveys.'

    Perhaps the most important finding to emerge from the 2008 survey is that editors remain optimistic about the futures of their papers.  As in the 2006 Newsroom Barometer, nearly all editors (84%) are optimistic about the future of their paper.  The editors surveyed are as aware of what the future may hold for their industry as they are unified in their recognition of the underlying threats and potential solutions.

The Future

    The majority of editors (56%) now believe that most news (print and online) will be free in the future--up from 48% in 2006.  Nearly two-in-three editors (63%) believe that within a decade the most common form of  news consumption will be some form of electronic media--whether online (44%), mobile (12%) or through newer electronic media like e-papers and tablets (7%).  Less than a third (31%) believe print will remain the most common form of consumption.

    The perception of editors with respect to the future is not limited to the news product itself.  The overwhelming majority (83%) agree that within 5 years their nation's journalist workforce will be expected to know how to produce content for all platforms (e.g., print, video, audio and web).  Still, perception of the future is but one dimension of the story -- the remainder is defined by the threats to the industry and  how editors address those threats. 

The Threats

    By-and-large editors agree on the nature of the threats posed to their industry.  The decline in youth readership (58%), the rise in Internet and digital media (38%) and the lack of editorial innovation (36%) all speak to the consensus that change is imminent.  These editors tell us their chief sources of pressure are from advertisers (22%), shareholders (20%) and political forces (19%).  All pressure, no doubt,  to confront the changing reality through innovation and integration. 

    On one issue editors paint a mixed picture--the current state of their newsroom.  For some (39%) circulation in the past year is up; for others (29%) it is down.  One-third of editors (33%) have added journalists, a quarter have lost journalists (24%) and for the rest (42%) the number of journalists on their staff remains unchanged from a year ago. 


The Solutions

    When a majority of editors (54%) report that they have an integrated newsroom, they may make such statements not necessarily based on the reality, but also out of necessity.  Regardless of whether integration has or has not occurred, nearly all (86%) agree that it will be the norm in the near future.  Editors also agree on the steps needed to address other threats.  Asked what investments they would make in their newsroom given the opportunity, the top two investments cited--training journalists in new media (36%) and recruitment of new journalists (31%)--demonstrate that editors are looking to make a commitment to the future.  And with the recognition that editorial innovation is needed, 69% of editors agree that opinion and analysis pages will play an increasingly larger role in the future. 


Yes, editors are optimistic about the future of their papers, but they are also aware of the potential danger on the horizon.  Less than half (45%) believe the quality of journalism will improve over the next year.  More than a quarter (28%) believe the quality will worsen; a finding reflected in the high level of importance editors place on the need for investment in training and recruitment. 

For these editors the future is self-evident and our survey shows that they see the writing on the newsroom wall.  The evolution of the 4th Estate is no longer questions of if, when or how.  Editors now know the solution:  Innovate.  Integrate.  Or perish.


Read Part 1: Presentation - main results, the integrated newsroom will be the norm
Read Part 2: Multimedia, multi-skilled and integrated
Read Part 3: The future of the press
Read Part 4: Who participated in the survey?
Read Part 5: Comments by John Zogby and WEF President George Brock
Read Part 6: Threats to newspapers, areas of investment, more results

Yesterday, the Express newspapers were forced to pay £550,000 in damages and issue front-page apologies after they published more than 100 articles claiming that Kate and Gerry McCann were responsible for their missing daughter Madeleine's death.

According to Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin, this case "reignites debate about press regulation," though it is wrong to try to draw broader conclusions from a "unique" case.

It was implicit at the Express newsrooms that there would be a front-page story about Madeleine, whether or not there were any developments. A journalist said the editorial decisions were "all driven by marketing" and "to suggest there was no Maddy story would be seen as absolute heresy ... the editor didn't have to say it to the news editor and the news editor didn't have to say it to the reporter."

Guardian media correspondent Owen Gibson wrote that market research conducted last summer had shown that there was an "insatiable desire for such stories."

But there are "wider implications for all media," said Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary. "The broader lesson is that if you put journalists under incredible pressure to deliver a certain kind of story, you risk this kind of outcome. That is highly damaging not only for that newspaper but for the whole industry."

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Robin Ackroyd, the UK journalist who refused to reveal the identity of a confidential source (see previous posting), declared he felt vindicated after a judge ruled he had acted responsibly. The judge in question, Mr. Justice Tugendhat, ruled that Mr. Ackroyd is a "responsible journalist whose purpose was to act in the public interest." He also added that there is "a vital public interest" in protecting journalists' sources.

iRex Technologies BV, a spin-off from Royal Philips Electronics, plans to launch an electronic paper (e-paper) application next April, reports Inside IT. The new gadget called Illiad combines an electronic paper display with touch screen and wireless networking technologies (see picture here).

Over the past few days, the New York Times Company and the Tribune Company announced that they will begin to integrate new types of advertising onto their pages. A New York Times Company press release reads that its flagship will begin to print "branded watermarks that will be superimposed over a Tuesday to Saturday page of its public company stock listings in the Business Day section of the newspaper" accompanied by the "advertiser's message on the bottom of the page." BtoB, a business marketing website reports that the Chicago-based Tribune Co. is launching a "marketing campaign this month to promote new print ad formats, including watermarked logos and cascading stairs" which will "coincide with enhanced color printing capacity at several Tribune papers." These two different types of advertising have different implications.

Thanks to Nicholas Watt and Leo Cendrowicz, The Guardian, for this thorough article on the latest European Commission's whim!

According to Franco Frattini, the vice-president of the commission who is in charge of the report called Violent Radicalisation and Terrorism Recruitment, "Europe's media should draw up a code of conduct to ensure that newspapers, television stations and the internet do not act as propagandists for terrorists. In a move which is likely to provoke a debate on state controls of the media, the commission warns that journalists pose "specific risks" in the fight against "violent radicalisation". The report warns that the media are taking an over-simplified view of the world, which plays into terrorist hands.

The warning to Europe's media will be issued today by Franco Frattini when he outlines a 12-page proposal calling on the EU to agree a Europe-wide strategy to tackle terrorism. Mr Frattini, a close ally of the rightwing Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, offers to host a conference with the media this year to discuss his criticisms."

... "One striking proposal is a call for people to refrain from talking about Islamic terrorism. In an attempt to ensure that the vast majority of peaceful Muslims are not portrayed as terrorist sympathisers, the paper says: "The commission believes there is no such thing as 'Islamic terrorism', nor 'Catholic', nor 'red' terrorism ... The fact that some individuals unscrupulously attempt to justify their crimes in the name of a religion or ideology cannot be allowed in any way ... to cast a shadow upon such a religion or ideology."

The criticisms of the media are contained in a draft drawn up in July, but seen by the Guardian. It has since been refined. Mr Frattini's office said the latest version is tougher in one key area - it names the al-Manar satellite station, run by Hizbullah in Lebanon, as an outlet for terrorist propaganda. The station has been banned in France, the Netherlands and Spain."

My comment: Europe doesn't need such a media code, this is an insult to all journalists and editors already aware that the "war of words" exists and that expressions as "terrorists" or "Islamism" need to be used very cautiously.

The second main drawback of the Frattini's report is that it is not acceptable to say that media - in general - are responsible for disseminating "violent radicalisation" ideas. It is too easy to assimilate Al Manar to the vast majority of European media outlets.

No, Mr Frattini, we are not aiding "terrorists" and we don't need any media code related to this issue. Editorial guidelines decided in every newsroom will be enough.

Source: MediaGuardian

As newspapers are not doing very well in terms of ad revenue (see previous posting), some think of new ways to attract advertisers. One such way is to accept shadow ads. 'Shadow ads', or 'watermark ads', are "shadowy images of corporate logos, movie characters, or other images" that turned up on stock tables, movie listings and sports data pages in newspapers (see Editor & Publisher from June). "News content is superimposed on images including corporate logos", writes The Philadelphia Inquirer. Shadow ads are not directly new and have been in sporadic use over the past years. In 2001, for example, Universal Studios had shadow-like ads in 15 newspapers in the US to promote its film "Jurassic Park II". "The images of flying dinosaurs appeared on tables of agate, or data, such as stock tables", reports Editor & Publisher . Such advertisements are, however, highly controversial with some editors being afraid that the line between editorial and advertising might be crossed.

As newspapers are not doing very well in terms of ad revenue (see previous posting), some think of new ways to attract advertisers. One such way is to accept shadow ads. 'Shadow ads', or 'watermark ads', are "shadowy images of corporate logos, movie characters, or other images" that turned up on stock tables, movie listings and sports data pages in newspapers (see Editor & Publisher from June). "News content is superimposed on images including corporate logos", writes The Philadelphia Inquirer. Shadow ads are not directly new and have been in sporadic use over the past years. In 2001, for example, Universal Studios had shadow-like ads in 15 newspapers in the US to promote its film "Jurassic Park II". "The images of flying dinosaurs appeared on tables of agate, or data, such as stock tables", reports Editor & Publisher . Such advertisements are, however, highly controversial with some editors being afraid that the line between editorial and advertising might be crossed.

As newspapers are not doing very well in terms of ad revenue (see previous posting), some think of new ways to attract advertisers. One such way is to accept shadow ads. 'Shadow ads', or 'watermark ads', are "shadowy images of corporate logos, movie characters, or other images" that turned up on stock tables, movie listings and sports data pages in newspapers (see Editor & Publisher from June). "News content is superimposed on images including corporate logos", writes The Philadelphia Inquirer. Shadow ads are not directly new and have been in sporadic use over the past years. In 2001, for example, Universal Studios had shadow-like ads in 15 newspapers in the US to promote its film "Jurassic Park II". "The images of flying dinosaurs appeared on tables of agate, or data, such as stock tables", reports Editor & Publisher . Such advertisements are, however, highly controversial with some editors being afraid that the line between editorial and advertising might be crossed.