Results matching “metro becomes t”

The Chicago Tribune is undergoing a radical overhaul which is scheduled to be launched in a matter of weeks.  Prototypes of the new pages and sections for this redeign were posted in Tribune Tower for review by employees on Thursday.

Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that the space devoted to news in the Chicago Tribune will be significantly reduced, with the paper's front section including national and international news, the local and business reports and the editorial page. The Tribune publishes freestanding sections for metro and business news currently.

The redesigned paper is set to have a three-section format, Tribune employees reported to the local rival newspaper. The newspaper's other sections would be for features, with a working title of Live, and Sports. According to the prototype, the pages for local news will be labeled Chicagoland, a term Tribune editors use to define the city and its suburbs.

The Chicago Tribune, is aiming to launch the revamp by the end of September.

The Tribune itself has refused to comment on the leaked information. The sources that spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the pages they saw were works in progress, with some section having several versions up for review. The recently leaked idea that the newspaper would be renamed The Trib has reportedly been abandoned.

Source: Chicago Sun-Tribune via IFRA Executive News

See also:

US: Chicago Tribune prototype redesign leaked

Social channels like Facebook, Digg, Flickr, Twitter and Youtube could help newspapers like the Chicago Tribune become "more approachable", according to The Huffington Post. After its entry into social media, the Tribune saw an instantaneous surge in traffic and an 8% growth in pageviews.

"Essentially, social media gives us a year-round, real-time focus group to monitor conversations and keep us in tune with what consumers are thinking," said Bill Adee, associate managing editor for innovation who also leads the Tribune's social media team

The Tribune came up with Colonel Tribune, a "web ambassador" whose purpose is to allow the social media team to "reach out and interact with online communities that congregate around similar interests", wrote the Post.

The Colonel was recently informed through Twitter about a bomb threat and building evacuation in Chicago's Daley Center. The paper's Metro writers looked into the story and it was soon published on the site. The story was then printed on the third page of the Metro section the next day.  

Source: The Huffington Post

See also:
Facebook: a modern tool for accessing news

Poland's Metro, a free daily paper, has launched a new design to increase credibility and look more like a quality paper.  

"The masthead shrunk to the size of the title, while every front page now opens with two 'horizontal' stories: one with a 'story-telling' picture," reports the Newspaper Innovation blog.

The paper is also rolling out a major advertising campaign to benefit from the buzz about the redesign.

Source: Newspaper Innovation

The latest circulation figures for UK newspapers (June 30 to July 27) indicate that the papers with the largest circulation were the popular national weekly The Sun and Sunday title News of the World. The lowest circulation figures for that time period, meanwhile, were seen at the weekly up-market nationals The Scotsman and the Sunday Herald.

Here are the figures for the weeklies from www.publicitas.com:

Popular national newspapers:
The Sun: 2,896,330
Daily Mirror: 1,318,168
Daily Star: 605,261

Middle market national newspapers:
The Daily Mail: 2,077,545
Daily Express: 687,069

Up-market national newspapers:
The Daily Telegraph: 799,021
The Times: 547,381
The Guardian: 292,909
The Independent: 178,576
Financial Times: 130,695 (worldwide circulation: 423,575)
The Herald: 61,317
The Scotsman: 49,417

Evening London newspapers:
Evening Standard: 292,455

Free daily newspapers:
Metro (all editions): 1,359,261
The London Paper: 500,068
London Life: 401,543
City AM: 88,042

The figures for the Sunday publications are:

Popular national newspapers:
News of the World: 2,918,661
Sunday Mirror: 1,212,838
The People: 577,718
Daily Star Sunday: 308,606

Middle market national newspapers:
The Mail on Sunday: 1,956,981
Sunday Express: 604,282
Sunday Post: 380,728

Up-market national newspapers:
The Sunday Times: 985,848
The Sunday Telegraph: 580,909
The Observer: 375,776
Independent on Sunday: 151,301
Scotland on Sunday: 60,024
Sunday Herald: 43,374

Source: Publicitas

After a court case between Metro Hungary and Metro Cash & Carry AG, the court has decided that free daily Metro Hungary will have to change its name to Metropol.



The Hungarian newspaper is still a monopoly in the country, which is not common in Europe. Busz, a competitor launched last year soon had to go weekly and Budapest 7 Nap - another free weekly launched a year ago - just closed last week.

Source: Newspaper Innovation via IFRA Executive News Service

The Polish free daily Metro will debut its new layout on 8 August, the same day as the opening of the Olympic Games.

The new design will feature more pictures and and is targeting young readers. The newspaper wants to become a platform for public debate, and be more transparent.

Source: Publicitas

Associated Newspapers' UK-based free daily, Metro, has launched a web based e-version of its newspaper.

The new e-version of the newspaper, which has 1.36mn distribution, allows readers to customise content based on their preferences.

The free-daily is distributed for free at train stations, tube stations and on buses in 16 UK ctities, this new version enables to access those readers who are unable to get their print version.

US company YUDU Media will power the many of the features on the ssite, such as zooming and an easy-share facility to email articles or entire pages to friends.
 
Stuart Wood, operations director for Metro, said: "e-Metro combines the strengths of digital publishing, the familiarity of our newspaper format and a simple delivery method to provide readers with a convenient new way of enjoying our quality content."

Source: Press Gazette
 

The German market at first appearance would seem the perfect place to start up a free daily newspaper, but the market remains untapped, report Newspaper Innovations. German publishers seem determinedly anti-free dailies, overlooking the chance they represent.

Metro and Schibsted wanted to go to Germany while Dagsbrun also (Iceland) made plans. These incumbents have met with difficulty in the home market. Springer reportedly has a 'war fund' of EUR300 million ready and could launch competitor Gratissimo 'within days', and WAZ - the second largest German publisher - also wants to fight a free daily launch.

FTD cites 'informed sources' who report that it would take at least six years for a German project to break even, and that it would cost at least EUR400 million. Newspaper Innovation ask how this figure is calculated as launching costs are between EUR10 and EUR20 million in Spain, France, UK and the Netherlands.

The article even states that the actions of some players in the market could be for the attention of the Bundeskartellambt, the German anti-competition agency.

Source: Newspaper Innovation via IFRA Executive News Search
 

Metro International is looking to increase original content in its international editions by creating a centralised "content agency". Metro will recruit up to 12 journalists to run the content hub, which will focus on global material.

Per Mikael Jensen, the company's CEO, said: "They will be looking at issues that are truly global, such as environment, health, beauty and celebrity".

The recently announced job cuts at the company's headquarters in London's Fleet Street are strictly non-editorial.

This move is controversial for the company as Metro recorded an 83 per cent fall in year-on-year quarterly operating earnings and weak advertising sales.

Per Mikael Jensen said: "When competing in the freesheet market you need to make sure you are the paper people pick up first. To accomplish this you need quality. What we are doing is adding content that it will be difficult for our competitors to get, simply because we can offer a truly global newspaper audience. If someone like Al Gore does one interview with us, he'll reach over 23 million people, and that is hard to match."

Source: Journalism.co.uk

Global traditional media outlets remain popular in Europe, In spite of the influx of online audiovisual content and the growing popularity of Internet portals as information sources.

A recent European Media and Marketing Survey (EMS) showed that The Financial Times remains the premier paid publication with 548,000 readers, with The International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal lagging behind.

Free dailies Metro and 20 Minutes have 2.5 million and 998,000 readers respectively.

A "solid performance" was also noted at the National Geographic, with its 2.14 million readers, making it the most popular magazine as it outranks Time, reported Le Figaro .

Inflight magazines such as Air France Magazine (1.1 million readers) and Lufthansa Magazine (1.4 million readers) are the most read, according to the survey.

Source: Le Figaro through IFRA Executive News Service

The New York Times will be expanding City Room, one of the news site's most popular blogs, to include public records.

NYT is currently developing a feature which will "highlight hard-to-get, but telling documents," such as court records and confessions, wills, law enforcement material, ancient city and financial records and "who knows what else."

"I have long been an admirer of The Smoking Gun Web site," said Metro Editor, Joe Sexton, in his recent Talk to the Newsroom column. "We're going to try to take a stab at having some of that fun and impact."

Sexton also noted that the blog will soon include "audio profiles -- short, unexpected narratives told in the first person by a wide range of New Yorkers... The first is a pharmacist who has worked on the Lower East Side for four decades, and so far survived the neighborhood's transformation."

Source: Poynter

Robert Murat has settled his libel action with eight British newspapers over claims he was involved in Madeleine McCain's disappearance. The Press Gazette raises an interesting point, does this win increase the pressure on journalists and Editors? Is the legal climate now worse?

Murat's action is the largest number of claims ever made against several different British media outlets in the same case. He initially launched his libel suit in April. Sky News reports that the damages total between £250,000 and £500,000.

Niri Shan, head of media at law firm Taylor Wessing said: "This was a perfectly legitimate story. The question is how can you write it in a safe way. There is a lot of pressure on newspapers now."

The Press Gazette reports that Shan went on to say that this case reflects a trend for suing several targets rather than just one. He also believes that the increasing popularity of "no-win, no fee" conditional fee agreement deals remove any financial concerns for claimants.

Murat was seeking a formal public apology and undisclosed damages from Sky, the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, Daily Mail, London Evening Standard, Metro, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, News of the World, Sun and the Scotsman.

Please let us know your thoughts.

Sources: Press Gazette and Guardian

The official Bari review of Greek readership during early 2008 published, in descending order, the popularity of daily newspapers in Greece:

-City Press (free) 271,000 readers
-Metro (free) 250,000 readers
-Ta Nea (paid) 185,000 readers
-Ethnos (paid) 180,000 readers
-Eleftherotypia (paid) 174,000 readers
-Metropolis (free) 167,000 readers
-Elefhteros Typos (paid) 138,000
-Kathimetini (paid) 107,000 readers

Over two weeks ago, the first free Sunday paper was launched in Greece, aptly named Free Sunday, and is published by the same firm that publishes City Press. It announced that it has a circulation of 220,000 copies.

Source: Newspaper Innovation through IFRA Executive News Service

Mark Potts, author of the Recovering Journalist blog, recently wrote about the ten changes he thinks newspapers need to make to thrive. What follows is an edited transcript of his post:

What would you do if you ran a newspaper?

Somebody asked me that question recently, and it made me pull together some of the thoughts I've had recently about the problems that newspapers are having and what they might do to pull out of their current spiral. This is hardly a complete list, but here's a 10-point prescription for ailing newspapers:

1. Make the Web the primary product.
Stop pasting the newspaper onto a screen. Reorganize the newsroom so that its work appears online as quickly as possible. ... And embrace the technology: news Web sites should be full of Web 2.0 goodness like interactive maps, social networking tools, RSS feeds, distribution to mobile devices, etc. Use the medium to its fullest.

2. Local, local, LOCAL!
There are a zillion places to get national and international news, in real time. But newspapers are virtually the only source of truly local news. ... Local news is the last unique franchise that newspapers own, and too many newspapers don't seem to understand this. ... (Why do you think local community newspapers are thriving when big metro dailies are shedding circulation?)

3. If it's widely available elsewhere, don't waste time re-creating it.
Does every newspaper really need its own movie critic? A TV critic? ... Book reviews? Stories from Washington that the AP already has? ... the answer is unequivocably no. Those resources are just wastd.

4. Zero-base the news operation.
Pretend you're starting from scratch. Look at everything that's in the paper and ask tough questions about whether it's still necessary in an age when readers have multiple sources of news and information.

5. Get the readers involved.
As Dan Gillmor has elegantly argued, the audience knows more than news people do. Much more. Tap that knowledge by encouraging reader participation in as many ways as possible: contributing news and information about their communities, sending in photos and videos, commenting on everything. This can't be a token effort, and you absolutely cannot be scared or controlling about it: let the readers get involved at every opportunity. It will greatly improve the product and increase readership.

6. Lose the editorial page.
Unsigned editorials are a relic of a bygone era when newspaper barons exerted power in their community... Here's a thought: Replace it with reader opinions!

7. Expand the advertising base.
In any market, there are thousands of small advertisers that would never consider advertising in the big local newspaper. It's too expensive and covers too broad an area. But those advertisers want to reach the same people the newspaper does. Find a way to make this happen: more focused zoning, cheaper ads, ad rep pay structures that encourage selling to smaller advertisers. This is another area where community papers are running rings around big dailies.

8. Rethink the classifieds.
Craigslist, Monster.com and countless other news competitors have decimated the newspaper classifieds business. ... Anybody who's used craigslist knows how much more effective it is than paid newspaper classifieds. Look hard at your classifieds ... Yes, that may include shifting most of the classifieds online and giving them away for free, in order to keep the critical mass of classifieds that makes them useful.

9. Find new ways to serve advertisers.
What newspapers offer advertisers--display ads, classifieds--really hasn't changed much in a century. Look for ways to change that. Get into the Yellow Pages directory business online. Aggressively offer contextual advertising. Use idle newspaper delivery resources to help local businesses with their delivery needs. Use subscription lists to help businesses find customer leads. Explore interactive advertising forms that go way beyond boring banner ads. Offer data services to help businesses manage their inventories or sell things online. It's not enough to simply sell space in the paper or on the Web site. Help advertisers make their businesses more successful.

10. Take chances. Innovate. Be fearless about trying things--and killing things.
...A wise editor once said to me, there's virtually no history of research and development in the newspaper business, which is odd considering that covering the news is a daily act of research and development. Let's face it: The single biggest innovation in print newspaper journalism in the past decade or so is...Sudoku. Newspapers can and must do better than that to survive.

Source: Recovering Journalist