Editors Weblog: Search Results

New York Times paywall: will it work?

Posted by Emma Heald on January 21, 2010 at 1:01 PM

Yesterday, following months of deliberation, the New York Times announced that it was to go forward with charging online, with a plan to implement a metre system in 2011. It is the biggest publisher yet to lay out paywall plans, and the move is undoubtedly highly significant for the newspaper industry as it struggles with a failing business model. Will this save the New York Times? Could it signal the end for free online content?

Similar to that used by the Financial Times, a metered payment system would allow readers to access a certain number of articles free per month, and then request payment for more: a flat fee for unlimited access. Print subscribers will continue to have free access, even those who subscribe to just the Sunday paper. An online subscription will also cover access via smartphones. The first click free from search engines, which is used by the Wall Street Journal, will also apply. More details such as pricing have been released yet, and the publisher's statement said that the next year will be used to build "a new online infrastructure designed to provide consumers with a frictionless experience across multiple platforms."

A metered system rather than a more fixed paywall has the advantage of not alienating the casual reader who can still visit the site free on occasion, and not angering journalists by blocking off specific articles (an issue with the Times' previous attempt at charging online, TimesSelect). "It allows NYTimes.com to remain a vibrant part of the search-driven Web," reads the Times memo sent to staff by executives Arthur Sulzberger and Janet Robinson, published by Poynter.

It does have potential flaws, however. Before the NYT's announcement, Reuters writer Felix Salmon criticized the way that the FT's flat fee system does not actually work like a metre: suggesting that instead the New York Times should implement a payment process under which readers are charged depending on how much content they consume. And presumably those who are determined not to pay will find ways around the paywall, using multiple accounts, for example.

The Financial Times welcomed the New York Times' decision, according to the Guardian, with CEO John Ridding saying "We welcome the New York Times' new online business model, which is similar to the FT's. We believe in the value of quality journalism and we are pleased that others feel the same way." The FT recently announced that for the first time, its content revenue was greater than its advertising revenue in 2009, after raised cover prices and more online subscribers signing on.

The FT now has 121,000 subscribers. Going by the pricing on the FT's website, it seems that they pay between €186 and €363 per year (depending on whether they choose a standard or premium subscription). Working on the assumption that about half of subscribers pay for each (and that the FT is not counting joint print-online subscribers in this figure), that would mean that the paper could be bringing in something in the region of €33 million from its paywall in direct revenue from readers. And the Wall Street Journal, which offers a different kind of paywall, has an estimated one million paying online subscribers.

This figure is encouragingly high, but how much encouragement can the NYT take from this? As a general interest paper with the most popular website out of all US papers, the Times has a far bigger pool of potential subscribers. But the FT's specialist financial content is something that more people might see as worth paying for. Indeed for some, it is news that is necessary for their business. And with the FT's main international rival the WSJ also charging, there is not an ubiquity of similar news free on the web.

The New York Times does seem to have a better shot at making charging for online content work than other US general interest newspapers. Its status as the number one national paper is largely unquestioned. It has always made a greater proportion of its revenue from content than most newspapers do, receiving 55-60% of its income from advertising compared to a typical figure of 80-85%. The current price for a print subscription is high, at between $550 and $770 a year, depending on location and offers, but many people are still prepared to pay this: more than 800,000 continue to renew their subscriptions, according to the NYT's David Carr.

Given the paper's financial situation, it is unsurprisingly that the paper is looking at changing its business model. Despite its reputation and high number of website visitors, financial constraints have pushed the New York Times into carrying out lay-offs and pay cuts. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim came to the publisher's aid last year with a $250 million loan, but if the paper is to continue to produce top-quality journalism, it needs a steady revenue stream.

Poynter writer Rick Edmonds maintains that the NYT's decision to charge "makes business sense." He believes that the Times will not "lose any meaningful number of unique visitors," and agrees with Ken Doctor that paying users represent a significant targeting advertising opportunity. The Times' memo sent to employees said that executives expect that "digital advertising will continue to be the major contributor to our success on the Web."

Slate editor Jack Shafter is critical of the NYT's strategy, judging it "too easy for freeloaders to game their way around it" and "a waste of the gargantuan audience they've attracted." He suggests that looking into improving web advertising would be a better way to go forward. Jeff Jarvis argues on his blog BuzzMachine that the NYT's plan will end up charging "the readers who are worth the most while serving free those who are worth least," which he believes does not make sense.

With the New York Times on board, efforts to charge online are likely to speed up. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp publications are expected to introduce paid online content in coming months, and there is an increasing sentiment that it just doesn't make sense to give away content that should be seen as valuable. Not everybody agrees, however, and over at the UK paper with the most popular website, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has said that his publication will remain free online. Others will undoubtedly stick to a similar course and provide free alternatives, making it harder for those who do charge. Which business model will eventually prove more successful?

The future is digital for Mecom newspapers

Posted by Helena Humphrey on January 15, 2010 at 12:23 PM

Mecom, a 'content and consumer business' under David Montgomery, publishes 25 million newspapers per week across Europe; thrice as many as the UK's Johnston Press. In 2007 the company's share price plunged a disastrous 97 percent due to weak advertising and debt, an unfortunate turn of events the news publisher been struggling to recover from ever since.

Trading up yesterday however, revealed an altogether brighter outlook for the publisher of some 300 titles, its share price jumping 14.8 percent, topping the FTSE Small Cap .FTSC leaders board.

Albania: a dream country for newspapers in terms of number of dailies, if not of readers

Posted by Jean-Pierre Tailleur on January 11, 2010 at 1:26 PM

In many streets corners of Tirana, newspaper stands are illustrations of how the time of Albania's monolithic communist press has become history, also contradicting the gloomy future often predicted for the industry worldwide. In the capital's hip Blokku district, for instance, the kiosks show glossy magazines with their assortments of automobile, women, computer, and leisure titles. They are less numerous than in developed democracies, but leave a feeling of a vibrant industry.

Similar publications, some of which are familiar to western European and American readers, can be spotted in other limited places like the commercial streets of Durres, the second city and main port. Some Albanian names convey a local exotic touch (Klan, Spekter, Psikologji), unlike other magazines spotted even in areas not so much visited by foreigners (the original English-language, Italian, French, and even Spanish versions of Gente, Femme actuelle, Cosmopolitan).

More intriguing are the political dailies often displayed horizontally on tables - or vertically, hanging like cloths from a string - in front of the newsstands. They are plentiful, easily numbering more than a dozen, which is considerable for a country with only 3.6 million inhabitants. Their cover pages are also widely visible on Albanian television channels,which fill their news program every morning with endless press reviews quoting the main headlines.

Not less remarkable is the fact that print media's oversupply is not enhanced by low brow, yellow journalism. One can spot gossip outlets called Paloma or Intervista, but their presence is somewhat discrete, for the moment at least. Albania does not seem to have followed a strong pattern prevalent in other Balkan countries from Croatia to Romania, with the splashy presence of graphic papers. "One can say that of Kosovo [also primarily populated by ethnic Albanians], where most newspapers are based on a British concept, more tabloid-like. This could not succeed in Albania, because of the communist mentality and not because of Islam [the dominant religion]," comments Albert Gjoka, quality daily Albania's deputy editor-in-chief. "Rather we follow the Italian model with small pictures, big texts, and classical design."

Other serious newspapers with well-established brands include Shekulli ["Century"], Gazeta Shqiptare ["Albanian newspaper"], Zeri i Popullit ["Voice of the People"]. These names are familiar to anyone who wiki-googled the country's press before discovering it directly on the screens or in the streets. Other dailies may ring less a bell, whether they are called Panorama, Republika, or Tirana Observer (not written in English despite its name, and unlike the Albanian Daily News).

In the sport niche, the titles are far from being limited to Sporti Shqiptar [="Albanian sport"]. This is not surprising for a nation where soccer is worshipped everywhere, from district and village matches to international encounters (enhanced by highly visible betting stores and billboards). The self-described oldest Balkan sport paper - created in the 1930s before being shut down when the country became hermetically closed from the rest of the world - has been facing new competitors. Passerbys can spot names like Ekspres Sport, Metropol sport, Sporti & basti, Panorama sport. With its black and white cover page, the so-called Bota e sportit gives a now rare arch-communist flavor to the few kiosks where it is available.

At least 20 general news dailies

Even more than in soccer leagues, it is hard to establish a definitive ranking between the more than 20 general news dailies published in a country lacking audited circulation figures. Positions can change as quickly as the way players change clubs or editors switch to other newsrooms. From watching people in the streets or talking to journalists, however, the press league champion at the end of this first decade of the millennium seems to be Panorama. Shekulli has been at the top of the podium in the past years (if not the most profitable as its cover price is lower than many of its competitors'), but it is now joined - and maybe overtaken - by Panorama with circulation of 20,000.

Their closest and most respected followers, selling less than 10,000 copies, include the Italian-owned Gazeta Shqiptare (which set the tone for the new democracy's media, as many of its former editors now control other important outlets), Shqip or (same name in English) Albania. "Our price is about the double of the two best sellers', and the quantity of news we provide is longer, with 32 pages," says Dori Daka, Shqip's deputy editor-in-chief.

Panorama does not differ much from its peers in appearance, but it seems to be the most popular daily as also shown by an aged cloths seller met at the bazaar. A much younger journalism student, Elida Rustemi, says that she reads it "because it is more factual, less politicized." The would-be reporter attends the so-called UFO University, a private school based on Tirana's central Skanderbeg Square. "UFO" means "Universitas Fabrefacta Optime", and the institution is recognized by established journalists. But these abbreviations convey a feeling of strangeness.

There is definitely a sci-fi dimension in Albania's general news dailies, as they number immeasurably more than in European countries which are 15 to 20-times bigger in terms of population, such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and nearby Italy. Even including its multi-states 5 million-plus nationals living in Kosovo, Macedonia and other countries - who have their own dailies and can hardly have access to the print copies coming from Tirana anyway - the profusion of newspapers seems based on a model which could also be called UFO for "unlimited financing oddity".

Albania's high literacy rate of 99 percent may account for this huge number of publications, totaling about 70 for magazines and 90 for newspapers (the general news dailies representing one quarter of them). But western democracies have comparable education levels, and even considering a positive upshot after decades of tight dictatorship, it is hard to understand this business model.

A more valid explanation may be found in the sums invested by advertisers, at least for some activities. In the past weeks for instance, full pages have been taken over by a telephone company featuring Jim Belushi, the American actor. He is subject of national pride in this part of south-eastern Europe, as the son native Albanians. But this explains his widespread presence far more than the announcers' deep pockets. "Rates are very low, between 200 and 300 euros for a full back page color ad. Maybe 500 euros for the two dailies selling over 15,000 copies," comments Gjoka, who also manages online news agency www.alblink.com.

Many businessmen want to control their own daily

Just because there are so many papers, there are not necessarily that many readers. Circulation numbers rarely exceed 4,000 and subscriptions are non-existent or of a few hundred maximum; these dailies' newsrooms are usually not staffed by more than 10 reporters. "Only four or five out of the about 23 are really sold, and the total circulation is 100,000 maximum [which is comparable, per capita, to French national dailies' sales]," believes Robert Rakipllari, Panorama's editor-in-chief. "We have many newspapers because we are a new democracy and some businessmen want to have their own. It is good for their ego to see their cover pages mentioned on TV every morning, and they also like to have a pressure instrument on the government."

As a matter of fact, two of the three businessmen who founded Panorama in 2003, active in the construction industry, left shortly after to launch their own dailies, Tirana Observer and Metropol. "There will be a consolidation in three-five years, however, with less than ten dailies left on the market," Rakipllari anticipates.

Beyond this Darwinian fate, the Albanian printed media have also to cope with a malfunctioning distribution system due to the poor infrastructure in a land where half of the population is still rural. Despite some European Union pressure and assistance, there is a lack of cooperation within the industry. "The EU people did nothing to help improve Albanian papers' distribution," Gjoka says.

Albania has been a parliamentary republic since 1990, lagging behind its Balkan neighbors in their efforts to turn into a more modern economy and democracy. Unlike in most eastern European countries, only a few weeklies are available in many regions, and there was no media privatization after communism. The only papers which continued after the communist collapse are the Socialist Party controlled Zeri i Popullit and a few state-owned specialized periodicals (in military, education, research). "There are no regional dailies because the concept is connected to communist propaganda. They were about 26 in 1990," recalls Shqip's editor-in-chief Aleksander Cipa, who also presides over Albania's Union of Journalists and comes from Gjirokaster, a southern city close to the border with Greece. "This absence is mostly linked to market conditions, lack of demand, lack of resources", thinks Ilda Londo, the research coordinator of the Albanian Media Institute (AMI), which manages monitoring and training projects.

Most newspapers have to follow a political or business agenda, as pointed out in the rare surveys on the industry. There are no public subsidies officially, but print media are indirectly assisted through free or cheap access to office facilities, and through state advertising. This represents most of their revenues according to daily Korrieri's editor-in-chief, quoted in one of the last studies, released five years ago by AMI.

Last November, the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), the network of editors and media owners, organized for the first time in Tirana a major international journalism event, its yearly "South East Europe Media Forum", focused on marketing and new platforms. The two day conference, hosted in conjunction with AMI, attracted over 300 media executives, journalists and press analysts from the region, and Albania's President Bamir Topi opened it. It was a major achievement indeed, symbolically at least, for a country confined in a safe rather than just behind an iron curtain until 20 years ago.

The event was co-sponsored by Germany's press conglomerate WAZ Medien Gruppe, which is very active in the Balkans and, interesting to note, has no assets in Albania's print media, only in television. Italy's Edisud Media, which publishes La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno just across the channel separating the two countries, is practically the only foreign investor as the owner of Gazeta Shqiptare. Unlike in other central-European countries, foreign control of the media is limited in Albania. The access is unrestricted, but in print journalism at least, they are still not attractive for potential investors from abroad.

Just two days before the conference, an incident in Tirana also highlighted the difficulties of running a newspaper: daily Tema's editor Mero Baze was physically attacked by an oil tycoon and his bodyguards. It was the most notable act of violence in months, by coincidence. Baze is known for denouncing cases of corruption also on television, and had to be brought to a hospital. This was not the first time that he was a victim of an aggression (and earlier in the same year, his daily had also been expelled from its offices based in a state-owned building).

The violence was widely condemned within and outside the conference, not the least by Tema's competitors. It also served as a reminder of past habits, when intimidation and self-censorship was notwithstanding much more widespread. "Albania is between the Bulgarian, organized crime, and the Russian, oligarchs' model," says Gjoka, whose newspaper promptly reacted, devoting its cover and the full page three to the attack. "We are also having new journalism schools created, like UFO University's, and our investigative journalism is in its first steps."

Going back to Tirana's fashion district, the boutiques hardly hide the old decrepit buildings behind or over them, which are like vestiges of communism. But the numerous titles on display in newsstands are not just façades either. In spite of being mostly financed by businessmen with agendas, or sometimes threatened by thugs who do not understand there are more subtle ways to defend their interests, Albanian dailies are definitely symptoms of a democracy in progress, where what is on print - more than on internet for the moment - is part of the political debate.

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

Circulation falls for UK quality press

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on December 14, 2009 at 4:05 PM

It's not just the UK tabloids that saw a fall in circulation in November, as News of the World and the Sun dropped below 3 million copies each. Quality daily newspapers in the UK are suffering falling daily circulation as well, Peter Preston reports in The Guardian.

Circulation for national dailies is down 4.2% this year, while Sunday papers are down 7%. Circulation for The Guardian is down 14.8%, the Independent is down 7.2%, the Times has fallen 9.4%, and the Financial Times has dropped 9.2%.

Over 50 newspapers unite in common climate editorial

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on December 7, 2009 at 5:54 PM

Fifty-six newspapers in 45 countries have published the same editorial today, calling for delegates at the climate summit in Copenhagen to take action on climate change.

The editorial is published in 20 different languages. Most of the participating newspapers feature it on their front page.

Internet a threat to press freedom accuses Kennedy

Posted by Jennifer Lush on November 27, 2009 at 2:44 PM

Irish Times editor, Geraldine Kennedy has said that the freedom of the press 'depends on responsibility, protection of sources, and a newspaper's financial security,' accusing the Internet of posing a "huge threat" to the latter.

Speaking at a public discourse on press freedom at NUI Galway's Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies yesterday, Kennedy said that the world wide web had put a serious dent in the 'traditional structure and financing of the newspaper industry'.

eBay founder Omidyar to start local news service for profit

Posted by Nestor Bailly on November 19, 2009 at 12:00 PM

Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, announced in a blog post that he plans on starting a local news service for Hawaii.

The service aims to cover public affairs and civic matters across the Hawaiian Islands and will launch in early 2010. At the moment, however, it is still in the planning phase and lacks a name and an editor, a position for which Omidyar tweeted an open call for applicants.

The online-only original-content news site aims, like the many other online news services popping up these days, to fill the void left by the cuts of traditional newspapers; Hawaii is no exception, with its two major papers having axed hundreds of jobs over the years (see papercuts for a neat map of who's being fired where).

Detroit to get new daily

Posted by Betsey Reinsborough on November 16, 2009 at 11:30 AM

Brothers Mark and Gary Stern announced Friday that they will begin publishing a daily in Detroit, Michigan, starting 23 November. The Detroit Daily Press, as the new paper will be known, was conceived by the brothers following the announcement that the two major papers in the Detroit area, The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, would be scaling back home delivery to two and three days a week, respectively.

The announcement has been in the works since June, though technical difficulties caused the launch to be a bit later than the originally intended 60 day timeline.

The daily will cost 50 cents a copy on weekdays and the Sunday edition will be 1$. This is half the price of its two major competitors.

A Portuguese success story: could i be the future of newspapers?

Posted by Emma Heald on November 5, 2009 at 11:33 AM

Portugal's newest daily newspaper, i, was launched in early May and has attracted a significant amount of attention due to its rising circulation figures and innovative approach. It recently won a design award from the Society of News Design. The Editors Weblog spoke to editor-in-chief Martim Avillez Figueiredo, managing editor for online Mónica Bello and art director Nick Mrozowski, to find out more about i's approach and the reasons behind its success.

I's circulation in August was over 16,000 copies, up from just under 11,000 in its first month, May. As a comparison, the country's top selling papers, Público and Diário de Notícias, sold 36,000 and 30,000 respectively that month. So for a new paper, i seems to be doing well. How, when the newspaper industry is struggling worldwide from falling income as readers move online and advertising rates fall, is a new newspaper seemingly thriving?

What i is doing differently

I is not structured like a traditional paper. The paper's team worked with media consultancy Innovation to come up with a new way to organise the product. "Our feeling was," said Figueiredo, who came on board at an early stage, moving from Diário Económico, "that people were not concerned about traditional sections any more. Traditionally, journalists have to fill a politics section even if there is nothing relevant going on in politics. We wanted to come up with something different." So the team came up with five key needs that they wanted the paper to address, with five key words.

1. Opinion is the first section of the paper, based on the key word think. No other Portuguese paper starts out with opinion.
2. Radar is the second, accompanied by the key word know. Figueiredo said the assumption was that readers will already know a lot from other sources, but Radar aims to offer a quick overview of everything that has happened in the past 24 hours. The section is eight pages long, and the longest article is half a page.
3. Zoom is the third section, connected to the key word understand. The 22-26 page section looks at between eight and 13 topics in depth, with articles taking up one to ten pages. "We deal with these subjects with a lot of care, and we use the best teams," Figueiredo said.
4. The fourth section is called More, linked to the key concept feel. This is where anything about people's private, cultural, social lives goes. Figueiredo explained that the team did not want to give the section a more specific name, or the content would be limited. More encompasses the fifth need that the paper wanted to address: sports, about 80% of which is focused on football - "this is very important in Portugal," Figueiredo said.

Design...

Nick Mrozowski, i's American art director, said that "I think the overriding concept, not just in the design but in the newspaper as a whole, is that we want to try to set out to produce a magazine every day." The 56- to 64-page paper is tabloid size and stapled, so looks as much like a magazine as a newspaper.

A huge amount of work goes into designing the paper every day. At first, Mrozowski explained, the idea was that the paper would have a template that would leave some pages fixed each time, meaning that some pages would require no design work on a daily basis and that editors would simply put their content into the pre-designed format. "But from day one that strategy fell apart," he said. "We realised that the sort of paper we were making had a lot of very specialised content and each page would have to be custom-made to the needs of a reporter or editor."

"From a design perspective it's a little intense," Mrozowski said. The design team are challenged to find magazine-quality visual solutions every day. For example, unlike most daily newspapers, i strives to include high quality portrait photography rather than just that for events, which means finding the time to sit down with sources. The paper also has a lot of illustration, something which many newspapers have been cutting back on in recent months, Mrozowski pointed out. "I think people notice this," he said. "You can't go a day reading i without coming across at least one commissioned illustration, rather than just back art."

I has a team design team of seven, two infographic artists and a group of photographers. This visual team is "like one unit," Mrozowsi stressed. "We all sit at one big arching table, so it's very easy to communicate."

Despite the strong focus on the visual side of the paper, Mrozowski stressed that this is never at the expense of the content. He was trained as a journalist as well as a designer, so "I've always worked in newspapers with a journalistic eye." And he makes sure that his design team also understand that "the design should come from the content." He clarified, "it's not enough to design a page, you have to know what's going on it, what type of photo is going to be there and how it should best be played." The designers and editors therefore work very closely together, requiring the design team to have a journalistic understanding of each page that they work on.

Not just print...

I also has an increasingly significant web presence at www.ionline.pt: online editor-in-chief Mónica Bello said that the site recently passed 900,000 uniques per month. The paper's print and online operations are broadly integrated: journalists write for both platforms. "It's a work in progress," said Bello, "it's getting better and better all the time." Two editors are just focused on the website, and many journalists work on breaking news online for a few hours and then move on to writing for the paper. 40% of content from the paper also goes online, explained Figueiredo, with the other 60% being exclusive to the print product.

I's website is an aggregator as well as displaying original content. Figueiredo described how the paper is happy to link to competitors' content, and how aim is that people come to I as a base for their news exploration. "We want to make sure that people on Facebook and Twitter are using i as their main information source," he said, adding that i has a presence on many social networks. The paper has, in effect, six different homepages online. One is a portal of general news, one is focused on Portuguese political news, a third is economic and financial, a fourth is world news, fifth is sports and the last is the 'good life' homepage

There seems to be a general acceptance at i of the fact that online news is not profitable, at least for the moment. "You can't make any money there," said Figueiredo, "but you have to be there in order to grow your brand." Bello said that "the print edition is of course the priority, and will be at lease for the next few years." This means that the designers do not contribute so much to the website, which has a far more fixed template compared to the paper.

The advantages of youth: potential for constant innovation

Being a new newspaper, part of a new brand, gives I the freedom to experiment and it seems that this freedom has been passed on to all the staff. Mrozowski and Bello were extremely enthusiastic about their working environment and what it allows them to do. "There's this motivating feeling," Bello said. Mrozowski said that the two senior editors, Figueiredo and André Macedo, "have imparted this feeling of accomplishing the impossible at every step... There is no cap to how big these guys will dream and it presses you to do things that you wouldn't do at another newspaper."

One of Mrozowski's favourite projects at the paper so far was for the European elections: with the help of an outside illustrator, the team produced a double page spread the night of the election depicting the politicians involved as fish in the ocean, with their position in the water showing how well they had done. "It worked out beautifully, and speaks to this ambition that we have," Mrozowski commented. "It's something that I don't think another newspaper would try."

"We told them that they have the responsibility to be innovative because they don't have a set newspaper in which they have to fill the gaps, rather it is a newspaper that they have to create everyday in order to focus on the real issues," Figueiredo said.

The paper chose to hire not just experienced professional journalists, but decided to bring in some young people who did not necessarily have any experience in the field but who were technologically adept and very knowledgeable about social media.

So who is the audience?

I's specialised focus on politics and economics attracts educated, ambitious readers, Figueiredo said. 69% of readers have a university degree, 39% are top management. What is particularly exciting, he added, is that 22% of i's readers had not been regular newspaper buyers before. A key target audience, "that we are still learning to deal with," is aged between 23 and 29: they have a university degree, they have started their professional careers and have ambition, they are unmarried, they travel frequently and have a full social and cultural life, Figueiredo explained. "And they want to know what's going on. We have been dedicated to studying this new audience that nobody else has."

Why do they like it?

According to Figueiredo, "we've created a product that goes directly to the way they think and interact with news." Most of these readers are well informed via other media and already know a lot about what's going on, but they look to i to "help organise all the mixed and disparate information that they have to deal with." He believes that the in-depth articles on politics and economics, providing essential background to current issues, are one of the main reasons why people like the paper. The sports section is "very creative," unlike those in most newspapers, Figueiredo added. He does not think that the rest of the More section is a key motivation for buyers to choose i specifically, pointing out that one of the paper's competitors, Público, was very strong on culture.

Finally, he suggested that the format of the paper was particularly attractive, being small and stapled means that "people can read it anywhere," even on the beach. Lisbon is not a major commuter city, however, meaning that this audience, crucial to the success of many papers in many countries, does not exist.

What's next?

The i staff seemed excited about the paper's future. Mrozowski plans to further improve the work of his design team, to take it "to the next level." The team has mastered the basics, he feels, and is now "going to start focusing on certain areas of the paper one at a time and try to make them better so that we are at the highest level."

Bello said that one of her hopes for the website is to expand readership outside of Portugal. Currently 80-90% of traffic comes from within Portugal, the largest percentage of the remainder coming from Brazil. She would like to reach Portuguese immigrant communities around the rest of the world.

Figueiredo intends to work on strengthening the paper's brand, to "create a fantastic dynamic around the brand." Distribution of the paper is something that Figueiredo said i was hoping to improve. "It's a nightmare in Portugal," he explained, "but we are trying to come up with some more good ideas in order to be very efficient in terms of distribution."

I's shareholders have given it five years to break even financially. In a time of falling profits, when many papers are making huge losses, this is a significant challenge for a new newspaper. However, i does seem to be off to a pretty good start. The decision to move away from the traditional structure of a newspaper and provide something different definitely makes sense, as does embracing creativity and innovative thinking in the workplace. The paper has made inroads with a young, successful demographic that would often be attracted by online news rather than print, and reaching about half of the circulation of the major daily papers in a few months is impressive. However, it remains to be seen whether i can be successful over a longer period, and if it can indeed become profitable.

If i does succeed, will others follow it down the path of innovation?

To see what i's first day was like, watch:

Wall Street Journal launches new Bay Area edition

Posted by Betsey Reinsborough on November 5, 2009 at 11:30 AM

The Wall Street Journal will launch its new Bay Area Edition today, reports MediaBistro. The new format will contain Bay Area specific news to be published once weekly, on Thursday, into the A Section. In addition, the Journal is also launching WSJ.com/SF, a Bay Area specific section of its web site. Most of the content on the web site, as it is general news, will be free; however, business and finance news will be placed behind a pay wall. The Journal currently has 92 000 subscribers in the Bay Area.

The New York Times recently launched its Bay Area edition, a two-page spread published each Friday and Sunday. The Times sells more papers daily in San Francisco- 40 080 copies- than anywhere else in the US outside of the Northeast, a statistic the Journal is undoubtedly looking to change following its launch.

Wall Street Journal to hire a dozen reporters to cover local New York news

Posted by Emma Heald on November 4, 2009 at 10:18 AM

The Wall Street Journal is to hire about a dozen reporters in New York to cover local news, the New York Times reported. The news comes just days after the paper announced the closure of its Boston bureau, for financial reasons.

It was reported earlier this year that the Wall Street Journal was planning to start a New York edition, and the new staff will presumably be working for this. They are to cover traditional city desk beats like courthouses, City Hall and the state capital, according to the New York Times. The new edition is expected to have a strong arts and culture focus, it was reported this summer.

Patch expands into New York State

Posted by Emma Heald on October 29, 2009 at 9:54 AM

Patch has announced its plan to expand into New York State, with eleven new sites in Long Island and Westchester County scheduled for launch in the next three months, according to a press release. Patch already has twelve community sites in New Jersey and Connecticut and is starting two more this week, in Livingston, NJ and Ridgefield, CT.

Patch, owned by AOL, aims to provide local news coupled with information about local events, local businesses and more, the idea being that it is a one-stop shop for people wanting to know what's going on in their local community. Each site has one professional journalist/editor who is based in or near the community and whose work is supplemented by that of local contributors. A management team is based in New York City and Phil Meyer and Jeff Jarvis comprise the editorial advisory board.

"My Free Newspaper" launched for youths in France

Posted by Jennifer Lush on October 28, 2009 at 1:57 PM

French Minister for Culture and Communication Frédéric Mitterrand officially launched the program "Mon journal offert" « My free newspaper » yesterday, which offers readers aged between 18 and 24 a free yearly subscription to a newspaper of their choice.

It had been known for some time that the French government has been considering a proposal to offer free newspapers to youths as part of wider scheme to help boost newspaper readership and attempt to bail out the industry.

New York Times reports Q3 loss; beats forecast, shares rise, circulation outweighs ad revenue

Posted by Nestor Bailly on October 23, 2009 at 12:29 PM

The New York Times beat quarterly forecasts by reporting a third quarter loss of $35.6 million yesterday. This mixed news is the result of deep continuing cost cutting, and the better than expected results sent the company's shares up 22.5%, a $1.97 gain and the stock's highest close in 12 months; but there was still a net loss of 25 cents a share.

This comes just a few days after the Times announced a cut of 100 jobs in its newsroom, and it expects to raise expense cuts to $475 million. The company cut costs 22.4 percent, to $525.1 million. It lowered outstanding debt by $140 million since the start of the year.

Advertising revenue still continues to fall at the company and across the print industry, but the general feeling is that the market is bottoming out, or at least the decline is slowing.

Evening Standard starts its life as a freesheet, makes distribution deals

Posted by Emma Heald on October 13, 2009 at 2:11 PM

London's major afternoon daily the Evening Standard dropped its 50 pence cover price and went free yesterday. The paper, 75.1% of which is owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev (described by the Guardian as 'the spy who loves media), has been a paid-for daily for 182 years. The remaining percentage was retained by the Daily Mail and General Trust.

The move is an attempt to address declines in circulation and distribution will be upped from from 250,000 to around 600,000 in the hope that increased advertising revenue will make up for lost of income from the cover price.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution will no longer endorse political candidates

Posted by Emma Heald on October 12, 2009 at 10:06 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is to take a new approach to election coverage, and will no longer endorse political candidates, the paper's editorial board announced in an article on its website. The new policy will begin with November's munipical elections.

"We have heard from readers -- and we agree -- that you don't need us to tell you how to vote," the article says. "What readers tell us they need is information on who the candidates are, what they have done and what they want to do in the new job." The board promises to pursue with candidates the issues "that are critical to the future of our community" and to provide "clear, concise information about candidates' positions and records."

Proposed tax breaks for newspapers in Wisconsin

Posted by Jennifer Lush on September 30, 2009 at 12:30 PM

Democratic state Rep. Marlin Schneider, a 39-year Wisconsin state lawmaker, has announced a plan to make any building associated with a news publication exempt from property taxes, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.

The plan was announced by Schneider on Tuesday, following the appearance of John Sturm, of the Newspaper Association of America, at a Congress hearing into the 'Furture of Newspapers,' earlier this month. Whilst Sturm rejected the idea of a government bailout, he did suggest that some 'targeted tax breaks' could be helpful.

The Slatest: Slate's new aggregation service tries to keep up with the news cycle

Posted by Emma Heald on August 25, 2009 at 9:30 AM

In a nod to the fact that the speed of the news cycle has increased dramatically in recent years, Slate has dispensed with its Today's Papers morning aggregation service based on print newspapers, replacing it with updates three times a day called The Slatest. It will be available on The Slatest home page and by email newsletter.

Rather than a lengthy summary of what the five major US papers have covered in their print editions, The Slatest presents a list of summaries of 12 top news stories, including blog entries, magazine features, and web videos, entitled the Slate Dozen. This is published at 7am, noon and 5pm US east coast time. Slate editor David Plotz explains on the site that these times correspond to when newspapers launch the news overnight, then in the morning web media reacts to the news, and during the afternoon the news develops as events of the day unfold.

Politico's print product crucial to its financial success?

Posted by Emma Heald on August 6, 2009 at 5:23 PM

Michael Wolff has studied the impressive success of Politico, and concluded that its print version is the key to its profitability. Writing in Vanity Fair, the founder of news aggregator Newser.com discusses how Politico has swiftly become a key player in Washington politics.

Politico's website is "defying all reason and expectations by continuing to prosper beyond the election season." Wolff describes how Politico has brought the length of the news cycle down to 15 or 20 minutes and how "it is constant, unrelenting, second by second" as only a website can be. He believes that Politico has played crucial role in making Washington politics back into "the true Hollywood of billion-dollar deals and iconic careers."

BBC to share video news with UK newspapers

Posted by Emma Heald on July 28, 2009 at 9:16 AM

The BBC is to share video news with major British newspapers, in what the Guardian described as a "landmark deal." The first papers involved are the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Independent and the Telegraph, but the publicly funded corporation plans to make the video news content available to other UK-based news websites also.

The BBC will provide a limited range of video news content in four public service areas: UK politics, business, health and science and technology. The material will be given to the papers at no cost and is intended to supplement their own work. According to the Guardian, the BBC has been clear that it has "no intention" of extending the range of content to genres such as entertainment and sports news.

Publishers vs Google: what are the issues? Can a solution be found?

Posted by Emma Heald on July 21, 2009 at 11:13 AM

Last week Josh Cohen, Senior Business Product manager at Google, published a response to newspaper publishers' Hamburg Declaration which was made public on 9 July. The Declaration states that "going forward we no longer wish to be forced to give away property without having granted permission." It discusses ACAP, or Automated Content Access Protocol, which is a tool created by WAN-IFRA and the European Publishers Council to enable content providers to communicate their copyright terms and conditions online in a machine-readable way. Cooperation from search engines is essential for such an initiative.

Cohen contends that publishers do in fact have to give permission before their content appears on search engines, pointing to a technical standard known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol which tells search engines what can and cannot be crawled. He points out, correctly, that news organisations make their content available because they want it to be found and read via Google, which does deliver many consumer visits to newspaper websites each month.

The dilemma

And herein lies the publishers' dilemma: making their content unavailable to Google would undoubtedly decrease their traffic, given the nature of online news reading which frequently involves jumping around between publications and searching for more information. But they view Google's business model as unjust, as the search engine seemingly makes a fortune from displaying content that it did not create, via search results and the aggregation service Google News. Criticism of Google has grown steeply in the last few months due to news publishers' growing resentment. Recent reports that Google's profits are soaring despite the recession are likely to fuel more backlash.

A solution seems hard to find. Would Google be willing to offer a share of its income to newspaper publishers, when it created a business model that arguably benefits both publisher and reader? But can it defend its use of others' content for its own financial gain?

Fighting for what's 'fair'

In the Columbia Journalism Review, Peter Osnos has written a thorough summary of the issues of conflict between content providers and Google "in the link economy." As well as stressing Google's crucial and dominant role in the organisation of the Internet and noting that the traffic sent to newspaper websites via Google has been "inextricable from their audiences' lives," he expressing is a common view amongst traditional media that the Google system seems to be facilitating a shift away from paying content providers for their work.

Osnos questions the often-cited phrase "information wants to be free," pointing out that the original quote from which this sound bite is taken is not so straightforward. In fact, Stewart Brand, the man who coined the line, followed it in his 1987 book with "information also wants to be expensive." Brand highlights the tension between these two opposite ideas: information wants to be free "because it has become so cheap to distribute, copy, and recombine" but expensive "because it can be immeasurably valuable to the recipient." Brand's assumption that this tension would lead to "endless wrenching debate about price, copyright, 'intellectual property,' the moral rightness of casual distribution" has become increasingly accurate.

So the question is, how to make sure all stakeholders in the content economy have a fair share? Taking into account evolving technology, changes in consumer habits and developing business models, this is no easy task. The free online content model which virtually all newspapers adopted is no longer working, Osnos stresses, as papers' profits are falling despite healthy traffic. And although he has not been able to come up with a clear solution to the problem, he did manage to explain the 'fairness' issues clearly and precisely, and suggest what needs to be changed.

Fair Conduct

- Problem: traffic via Google does not necessarily end up on the site of whomever originally produced the content. The Huffington Post, for example, which aggregates much content, is highly skilled at search optimisation and can therefore often send its reproductions of stories to the top of a Google search. Osnos offers the example of a Sports Illustrated scoop which was broken via the website but did not lead Google searches. SI approached Google about this but did not receive a positive response.
- Solution: algorithms that distribute Internet traffic need to include recognition of who got the story, with human help if necessary. Incidentally, this relates to a project that the Associated Press is working on, to create search landing pages that direct traffic to the original content producer.

Fair Use

- Problem: Osmos notes that fair use in the US (the standards one must meet in order to use copyrighted content without the permission of rights holders) is far more flexible than he had first thought, as well as being extremely complicated. In the US, copyright law involves considering whether quoting the material is for commercial gain, the nature and scale of the work, the amount being used in relation to the whole, and the impact on the value of the material by its secondary use. In terms of aggregating links, Osmos states that the Google position is that a link and a small snippet is fair use, and the site that generated the content is a beneficiary of the traffic. However, news organisations feel that aggregators should pay for use of the content when they sell advertising around the links, which Google News started to do earlier this year. The issue becomes more complicated when taking into account whether aggregation enhances or detracts from the value of the original content, Osnos adds.
- Solution: Negotiation seems to be Osnos's advice. A trial would take years, he believes. Newspaper executives have already been in talks with Google, but no details have been made public.

Fair compensation

- Problem: how to monetise content which is currently free and make sure that the those who produced it are compensated?
- Solution: as well as charging for content on individual websites, Osnos suggests that users could pay for content via telecom providers. Google could be a "kind of meter," Osnos proposes, helping to determine what percentage should go to the content originators.

Enthusiasm to protect intellectual property throughout the web, not just on aggregators such as Google, has been soaring in recent months. As well as ACAP, other possible solutions include US-based start-up Attributor, which is promising to monitor digital content and prevent its unlawful usage. The company is part of the Fair Syndication Consortium in the US, and has just made an agreement with Deutsche Presse-Agentur that allows the latter to promote and sell Attributor's services in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The Associated Press announced plans to stop misappropriation of content in April (although this is not directed at Google, with whom it has a licensing deal) and the organisation recently announced the adoption of a new microformat which includes usage information.

Going on the offensive?

Howard Weaver, former editor and McClatchy Vice President thinks that it is "time for news to play offense" and take on the search engines. He highlights the big advantage that news outlets can offer: "curated, edited, verified, sorted news" that focuses on what is most important and most reliable, and points out that this is something that Google cannot do. Google's lead, however, comes from the fact that it spans the globe, and newspapers "lack the scale and internet savvy to put that product in front of consumers who want it and for whom advertisers will pay." His solution therefore seems to be a new kind of search engine organised by newspapers themselves: they "will have to work together and win by offering a better product." Weaver reveals that he is on the board of a company that is putting together a proposal for such a product, which would give 50% of revenue back to those who create the stories.

Topix CEO Chris Tolles, however, disputes Weaver's calculations that led him to believe that the major aggregators and search engines make $15billion from news and news-related content and argues that rather, "news is a crap search product, and a loss leader, which is a big reason why Google news is pretty much a non revenue product." He points out that smaller news aggregators powered by journalists do exist and are not making "a ton of money" and he is convinced that "there is no money in building a news aggregator focused on trust."

Does Google, as Osnos suggests, as a major player in the way that news is presented to the audience, have a responsibility to help ensure that this news is suitably funded? If Google did not exist, would newspapers be making more money? Could an industry-run alternative work? How can publishers and search engines work together to ensure that news is read and monetised as much as possible?

New York Times considering seeking support from foundations, but does not intend to go nonprofit

Posted by Emma Heald on July 20, 2009 at 10:02 AM

Poynter's Bill Mitchell reported that the New York Times is considering seeking funding from foundations to help support some of its news-gathering costs. Nothing is definite, however, and the paper has no intentions of becoming fully nonprofit, Mitchell was told by Craig Whitney, an assistant managing editor at the Times who serves as the paper's standards editor.

Whitney said the paper's editors "haven't reached any conclusions and haven't gone to any foundations" but that "we've begun to ask ourselves whether it would be possible to get the kind of support that NPR does from foundations for its journalism." He specified that such discussions began around the time that ProPublica launched early last year but have picked up in 2009.

FT editor Lionel Barber: almost all news outlets will charge online within a year

Posted by Emma Heald on July 16, 2009 at 1:19 PM

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber has predicted that "almost all" news organisations will be charging for online content within the next 12 months, in a speech given at a Media Standards Trust event in London last night. While discussing how the Internet has affected journalism, Barber highlighted the need to "radically rethink" the business model that has sustained it thus far.

The path that he suggests is "figuring out what is special, distinctive and original" about a news organisation's content and focussing on that in terms of charging. Barber stressed the necessity for news outlets to establish an online platform "capable of charging for content, whether on a payment per article basis or a package subscription." Although "how these online payment models work and how much revenue they can generate is still up in the air," it is essential to take this step, he believes, as "without new revenue streams, quality journalism will wither."

Search engine optimisation: teaching journalists to write for the web

Posted by Emma Heald on June 19, 2009 at 4:52 PM

As online news becomes more and more prevalent, with an unimaginable amount of information available at users' fingertips and Internet now ranked as US consumers' top way to access their news, how can media organisations make sure that readers find their articles? Part of the answer is search engine optimisation, which is becoming an essential part of the daily life of a newsroom. For the printed product, newspapers must try to sell the paper as a whole; online, articles can attract traffic individually as readers come across them while searching for specific topics. It is therefore important that each story, rather than simply the site as a whole, is 'optimised' to appear higher in search results. Aside from highly technical aspects like HTML meta tagging, URL structure or site navigation, what can a newspaper do to optimise its content for search engines?

How to introduce SEO to the newsroom

One major potential stumbling block is that journalists might view SEO as a way to manipulate their stories and take away their true value. So the way it is presented to staff is extremely important. And indeed, it is crucial that newspapers do not get carried away with prioritising SEO above all else. Even Google advises creating content "primarily for your users, not search engines:" it is important to make your site easily accessible to search engines but still remain focused on your visitors' needs.

Clearly, it is important for all reporters to be aware of the ways that they can make each individual article more search-friendly. After all, journalists have always wanted their stories to be as widely read as possible, in print as well as online, and are likely to be willing to help make that happen. And often, the principles of SEO echo the principles of writing a good story: such as the idea that the first sentence should be a summary of the rest of the article, containing relevant concepts or keywords. One difference is that less generic, more specific works for SEO in terms of names or concepts. Google recommends shorter rather than longer titles.

Esa Peltonen, who has been working as a web analyst at the largest Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat for three years, said that he has worked extensively with editorial staff, for example on how to use Google, to get an idea of how users will be searching and what kind of search words people are using. Head of audience development at the Telegraph, Julian Sambles, said in March that the paper was trying to give journalists "the knowledge and understanding that they need so they can apply it to their daily production process and make informed decisions about content when they're writing or publishing it." Thinking about SEO should be second nature, he added.

Papers must also consider their goals in optimising content for search engines. As Drew Broomhall, head of search at the Times explained, if you rank success by sheer volume of traffic, then you should "write the same as everyone else but more of it and more frequently updated." However, if you are looking to increase engagement on a specific subject you need more detailed keyword analysis and niche research.

One straightforward course is the need to stay ahead of the trends: predict what people are going to be talking about in upcoming months and provide appropriate content. "Fix SEO requirements into the editorial calendar," Broomhall suggests. Obviously much news is unpredictable, but there are some events that are year-in-year-out, or which are easy to prepare for in advance, such as an election or a festival. It is necessary to consider both specific, distinct events, such as religious holidays, and longer, less defined periods such as winter travel. Articles that contain links and that have been linked to by others appear higher in search results. Therefore, with annual events, it is beneficial to link to last year's coverage and make use of old content that already has inbound links to help promote the new content.

Hiring a SEO specialist?

As well as training all reporters to be aware of the principles of search engine optimisation, many newspapers have taken the step of hiring an in-house specialist. Ideally such a person would have deep technical knowledge combined with considerable journalistic experience, but such candidates might be hard to find. Peltonen comes from a business background, Broomhall from journalism and technology.

There are also many third party services available to news outlets, supplementary to the guidance of an in-house expert, such as Thomson Reuters' OpenCalais which recently announced deals made with the Huffington Post, DailyMe and the Mail Online. OpenCalais offers an 'Archive Express' feature which can tag an archive of up to 20 million documents in 24 hours. The service 'reads' and breaks down articles into their essential elements - who, what, when, where, how - and tags and sorts them so that it is easier to bring archived articles into 'related stories' sections and improve their search relevance.

Analysing traffic

A SEO specialist would be responsible for analysing traffic to a news outlet's site, looking at how readers find content, readership patterns and what methods of optimisation work best. Peltonen explained how he started off looking at basic data such as what are the top news stories, how many people are going where on the site, and started to work out how to increase traffic. His paper partnered with Microsoft to further analyse traffic data. Such traffic data analysis can be used to spot and develop potential niche verticals to focus on, for example, by looking at repeat visitor figures.

Google keywords

Purchasing Google keywords to guarantee that news articles appear higher on search results is one of the more costly ways for news outlets to promote their content. Peltonen said that his paper frequently buys specific words, for instance for sports events, but stressed that it would be cheaper to improve the paper's SEO. Buying keywords could also raise ethical issues, depending on the words and their context. The Sun, for example, reportedly purchased the key words 'Natasha Richardson' immediately after the British actress's sudden death in March, in what appears to be a blatant attempt to profit from the tragedy. The Guardian came under considerable criticism last August when, apparently accidentally, it purchased the Google keywords "Madeleine McCann," giving any searchers the link to its coverage of the child's disappearance. The Guardian promptly relinquished the rights, and said it would review its list of keywords. Purchasing Google keywords in order to promote a product is common practice, but is it ethical for newspapers?

Evidently, SEO strategies are necessary in today's media landscape, not only to make more money but also to spread awareness of stories and help readers find what they are looking for and therefore should be embraced by journalists and editors as well as publishers. Search engine 'friendliness' should not be prioritised over good, accurate stories but it should be used to promote such content. Journalistic training is vital in order to optimise each individual article, and larger strategic steps should be taken by editors in conjunction with SEO specialists.

On Tuesday 23 June at 14.00 London time, Drew Broomhall, Head of Search at the Times of London will be speaking at a WEF webinar on "How to teach your journalists to write for the web." More details here.

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