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Part 1 discussed how the planned changes at The New York Times and International Herald Tribune will help the NYT's continuous news offerings, and how these changes could affect the organization and interaction between both newsrooms.

Part 2 examines how The New York Times intends to:
- Further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal internationally, and ways in which newspapers can reinforce their international reach.
- Use the strength of its online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name.

The Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.

How newspapers can become international brands, the NYT joins the race

Until now, the Times hasn't specifically catered to overseas advertisers and readers.

"We need to be agile," said IHT publisher Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, "to compete much more aggressively, nose to nose, with The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and anybody else who is competing for our readers and advertisers."

No doubt that the Times actually borrowed the continuous news outpost idea from the aforementioned competitors, which have been relying on their foreign bureaus to provide round the clock coverage.

The staff memo reaffirmed the NYT's "ambitious plans to expand in the region (Asia), particularly in India." In June, the IHT announced a partnership with the India-based Deccan Chronicle to print the Tribune's world business section in the Financial Chronicle.

With the rise of digital publishing, many news organizations are seeking to grow a previously inaccessible international readership by:

- launching a print edition abroad: several papers have rolled out editions away from home this past year, such as the FT's recently launched Middle East edition in Abu Dhabi, WSJ's partnership with business paper Mint in India, the Daily Mail's partnership with India Today to publish the Mail Today, or The Times of London's Polish edition.

- investing in an online international section: In Germany, referential weekly Der Spiegel launched an English-language International edition on its website in 2004. Five fulltime staffers are dedicated to translating Der Spiegel's content and rewriting it with an international perspective, as well as doing their own international-minded original reporting (the full case study is featured in Trends in Newsrooms 2008). The Guardian adopted a different approach, by launching a separate, foreign-based, US website, Guardian America. The Guardian is reportedly considering similar ventures in other regions.

- simply reinforcing their focus on international news in their regular coverage: the Daily Telegraph's website in the UK, which was neck to neck with the Guardian in terms of traffic in April, claims nearly two thirds of its visitors are from overseas. A well-indexed website helps to brings in a significant number of 'light' international users through search engines.

Merging "co-branded" websites but not print: a branding issue

The NYT's approach is a combination of the first two strategies: the print IHT now serves as The Times' 'global edition' (see picture), while maintaining its trademark brand name. With the proposed online merger, the NYT could also follow the second route, by hosting an international edition online, without having to extensively change its workflows (see Part 1).

The rationale to merge the websites is clearly explained in the memo: according to WebTrends, NYT's website boasts a strong international audience and 58 million global users, compared to iht.com's seven million.

"The global landscape for online news is highly competitive, making scale, speed and resources essential to success. Therefore we have determined that the best future online for the IHT and the NYT globally is through a joint international presence," said the memo.

However, the memo doesn't explicitly say why this won't be the case in print:

"The IHT should become the international print edition of the NYT, whether it is formally branded that way or not."

The main issue at stake is one of branding. "In print, there have been at least a couple of studies that show that among Tribune newspaper readers there is a great identification with the brand, that the brand means something to readers," said Gottlieb.

"More than the name, what accompanies the name, an international perspective, a sense of calling the best stories from The Times and augmenting them with unique reporting," was a combination that many readers liked.

As news organizations seek to grow their international reach, this consideration probably holds true for many that have established a reputable brand name on a local or national scale. However strong the brand name, its association with a particular place or country can potentially play against that news outlet on the international scene.

Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition

At a time when any local or national news outlet can potentially become an international online brand, and as newsrooms adapt to a 24-hour news cycle, editors can learn from The New York Times' most recent attempt to 'kill' both birds with one stone.

Last week, top execs from The Times and the International Herald Tribune announced plans to merge iht.com and nytimes.com into a co-branded international section, in order to increase both sites' reach and appeal to international advertisers.

In this two-part series, the Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.

Through these moves, The Times intends to accomplish at least four ostensible goals:

Part 1:
- Build an outpost for its Continuous News Desk in Paris, and eventually Hong Kong.
- Integrate operations, streamline some resources by increasing efficiency and avoiding overlap.

Part 2:
- Reinforce its international reach and further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal.
- Use the strength of NYT's online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name.

IHT: an outpost for the Times' continuous news

Although the proposed changes are currently undergoing a consultation process with the IHT's works council, as required by French law, the process of integration of both papers began ever since the NYT acquired full control of the IHT in 2003, and has accelerated in past months.

In Feb., NYT executive editor Bill Keller had already announced plans to integrate operations and develop an "organic, global, 24-hour news operation," in order "to create a Continuous News outpost in Paris."

In May, the IHT dropped its 142-year-old logo from its nameplate to replace it with the phrase "The Global Edition of the New York Times."

"That says, we are one, and we are," although both arms are managed separately, said Jim Roberts, digital editor at The Times.

Video: Roberts talks about the 'integration' of both newspapers. Footage was collected during an interview at the 15th World Editors Forum in Sweden.


Thanks to this outpost and the six-hour time difference, the NYT is now able to upload content to its site nearly 24 hours a day (from about 6am to 1am, New York time). The paper eventually hopes to establish a similar outpost at the IHT's Asian headquarters in Hong Kong in the next six months.

The creation of these outposts does not mean that the IHT is becoming a full-blown Paris bureau for The Times. "We have a Paris bureau," said Roberts, "and the newsroom of the IHT still has a print edition and right now they still have a website."

Integration, streamlining resources: evolution, no revolution

Since all proposed changes are undergoing a consultation process, editors couldn't give any firm preview of how workflows could be affected.

In the past, there has been "very regular contact between individual desks at the Times and corresponding desks at the IHT," said Martin Gottlieb, newly appointed editor of the Global edition. Many IHT editors come from The Times, regularly do edits on NYT pieces, and this past year IHT-written articles have appeared on nytimes.com with no distinctive byline.

However, there is no formal process of exchange between both newsrooms, and "There have been a couple of occasions when we've had IHT and NYT reporters covering the same thing," said Roberts.

The appointment of Gottlieb as editor of the Global Edition - note, no mention of the IHT in his title - is significant in that respect. In addition to fulfilling the role of editor of the paper, his mission will be to ensure that staff understands both papers are "two parts of one news-gathering operation, that should work in unison as much as possible in delivering the news 24 hours a day seven days a week," said Gottlieb.

A series of new editorial appointments at the IHT will be the symbols of this top-down integration. "There will be people coordinating the work of both staffs to, pretty much, make them as much as possible act as one staff," said Gottlieb.

For example, Alison Smale, who becomes European editor of the global newsroom, will be responsible for "coordinating the work of all NYT and IHT reporters in the region from the IHT newsroom in Paris," said the memo. To oversee the process, The Times also named Alan Flippen "Editor, Newsroom Organization."

It seems too early to say whether the planned reforms will lead to radical changes in workflows or content. Evolution, not revolution, said Roberts.

Currently, an IHT reporter based in Hong Kong might build upon a Times' story about the rise of airline fuel prices by interviewing Asian carriers, whose input might not have been as relevant to the core readership of the Times in the US. Likewise, an IHT story published in the Times might be fine-tuned to be more pertinent to the American audience (see the example of Der Spiegel in Part 2, looking at different newspaper approaches towards international editions).

Future workflows will likely build upon these current processes, rather than start from scratch. "It's continuing synergies that are taking place and maximizing them and regularizing them," said Gottlieb.

The planned changes can also be seen as an attempt to streamline resources - terminology often equivocated with cost cuts and layoffs. But according to Gottlieb, there are no planned newsroom layoffs at this point (this is subject to change during the next six months). It is possible that an online merger of iht.com and nytimes.com could lead to redundancies for some technical Web production positions.


Editors couldn't comment on any upcoming changes concerning the IHT's planned print redesign.

Stay tuned for Part 2, which will examine The Times' international branding strategy, and how newspapers can grow a previously inaccessible international readership.


Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition

A number of major media organizations in the US took a quote by retired general Wesley Clark about John McCain out of context, media watchdog Fair.Org reported.

This led to the publication of many misleading accounts about McCain's electability

A few days ago, CBS's Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer asked Clark about his previous declaration that McCain was "untested and untried", to which Clark replied:

"I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war."

Schieffer then said, "I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down."

Clark replied, "Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and NPR all wrote stories based on Clark's last quote, but without mentioning that he praised McCain's military service. News cable channels like MSNBC and Fox News also included false claims.

This issue serves as a timely reminder of the dangers of disregarding the facts for the sake of a great headline.
 
Source: Fair.Org
 

Newspaper opinion pages usually hire male academics who agree with the editorial page, Rutgers University research reported. The results point to the possibility that opinion pages don't necessarily advocate "diverse views", The New York Times (NYT) reported.  

Bob Summer, a public policy communications teacher and president of Observer Media, and John R. Maycroft, a graduate public policy student, did the study by looking through 366 opinion articles written by academics, published in The NYT, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and The Star-Ledger.

According to the study, most of the academics writing the opinion pieces were from "prestige" establishments like Harvard and Stanford, according to the NYT.

Between 90 to 95 % of the opinion articles agreed with the editorial opinion on a given topic and in case an opinion piece did disagree, it was in a "point/counterpoint" format where authors are required to have an opposing view, the NYT wrote.   

The study authors said the "most astonishing" find was that men wrote 78 % of The Star-Ledger, 82 % of the NYT and 97 % of the WSJ opinion pieces.

The NYT and WSJ editors refused to comment but John McMahon from the Star-Ledger said that he was "surprised" and that the results didn't "reflect conscious biases".

Source: The New York Times through World News Network

The Washington Post will release Fashion Washington this fall, AdAge.com reports. Publisher Katharine Weymouth hopes the fashion glossy can combat dropping ad revenue by targeting luxury-ad spenders.

"There's a huge market for that and there's a lot of our readers that I think would love it," Weymouth said. "It's just never been our forte."

Weymouth says the Post is actively pursuing new sources of advertising revenue, but maintains the paper is not desperate. According to Weymouth, the Post has turned down potentially lucrative advertising campaigns - like front-page and post-it note ads - for fear they would compromise the paper's integrity.

"We're not ready to do that," she said.

Click here to read AdAge.com's feature article on Katharine Weymouth.

Note: The Wall Street Journal plans to launch a fashion glossy (Pursuits) this fall as well.

Source: AdAge.com, New York Times

Last Sunday, the Orlando Sentinel's new layout was unveiled to readers (see top), including "more graphics, quick-read digests of top news, blog summaries and other changes" in order to make it more attractive to busy readers, Wall Street Journal reported.

Since December, Samuel Zell has been in charge of the Tribune Co., which owns Chicago Daily News, The Orlando Sentinel and the Los Angeles Times. Zell's eight billion dollar buyout left Tribune Co. with a 13 billion dollar debt "amid an industrywide meltdown", according to the WSJ.

Zell has scheduled for the Tribune Co. papers to be redesigned by September this year. Some of the changes to be made include "scaled-back page counts and further paring of employees", the WSJ said.

The new look of the Sentinel attempts to make the paper become more "eye-catching" and plentiful with interesting, "alluring" stories, WSJ wrote.

"Our community is fast moving, very modern. It's changing and growing. We need to have a paper that feels like that, too." said Charlotte Hall, Sentinel Editor.

In the last year, the Sentinel's circulation has decreased to 227, 593, compared to Miami Herald's 240,000 and St. Petersburg Times 300,000. However, the Sentinel's Sunday circulation is 332,000.

The general trend for newspaper redesign, according to the WSJ, is "splashier colour, simpler layouts and more digestible stories."

Although the new version of the Sentinel corresponds to the trend, it "isn't as radical as it could be", Hall said. Lee Abrams, in charge of innovation, "encouraged" the newspaper to "emphasize its stars" by adding front-page photographs of columnists with excerpts from columns, WSJ wrote.

Local news coverage, consumer information and "government-watchdog stories" all increased and reporters have been coached on different story-telling techniques.

According to the WSJ, Zell thinks Tribune Co.'s newspaper division is "stuck in the past", perhaps not accommodating "readers used to the pizzazz and immediacy of the Web."

It isn't clear whether a makeover will change the financial condition of Tribune Co., as ad sales have generally been declining in the newspaper industry. The Newspaper Association of America said that in the first quarter newspaper ads dropped by 13 %, Tribune Co.'s falling by 15%.

The Bakerfield Californian's redesign in March 2006 got the paper a short-paced circulation and revenue growth that soon worsened. Chief Executive Richard Beene said, "Don't expect it to turn around circulation or revenue overnight. It's not a magic bullet." In his blog, Howard Owens said that he is "surprised" that not a lot of people compared the Sentinel's revamping to the Californian, terming the makeover "shocking", "wild", "bold" but not "original".

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Baltimore Sun are next in line for the revamping; meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune is to "test new ideas" in Saturday editions. Abrams mentioned that even though the Orlando Sentinel's new design will be used as a prototype, "every paper will be left to chart its own course", WSJ wrote.

Design experts have generally given the Sentinel's new look a thumbs-up, WSJ reports. Howar Greenberg, Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel publisher, said advertisers are enthusiastic about the makeover, which he thought might help improve ad revenue.

Hall said that for the time being, the readers will be "listened" to "carefully", to observe the impact that the redesign has.

Source: Wall Street Journal Online, HowardOwens.com

See also:
US: Chicago Tribune's public editor on downsizing the paper: let the readers decide
US: Tribune Co. newspaper redesign, "abrupt" and "unconventional"

Newspaper websites saw the average time spent per person on their sites dwindle in May year-over-year comparisons.

The Wall Street Journal online fell to about 8-and-a-half minutes last month, from 15 in May 2007. Boston.com's average time spent per visitor dropped to 9 minutes and 39 seconds versus more than 18 minutes in May '07. And the website of the Chicago Tribune is down to about 8 and half minutes -- from 17 minutes a year ago.

There were some notable exceptions: the average time per person more than doubled at the Detroit Free Press website to almost 13 minutes. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer web site also doubled from about seven minutes in May 2007 to more than 15 minutes in May 2008.

You can view more complete results of the May Nielsen numbers here.

Nielsen Online measures the average time spent per person over the course of month (a change from their previous measure of page views), however, not all agree that this is the best metric for assessing news sites.

Primarily, because "time spent" doesn't gauge engagement. "Anybody who browses with several open tabs, or walked away from their computer knows how big a mistake it would be to assume that, just because the website is open, someone is actually paying attention," said Bryan Eisenberg, an online marketing and marketing analytics expert.

Limor Peer, research director of the Readership Institute, wrote about the conundrum in May.
 
"In our recent work with teens and young adults we heard many times that they go to news sites to get the news. That's it. They're not interested in spending time on these sites doing anything else. If that's the case...newspaper sites are at a disadvantage compared to many other sites when it comes to how much time people spend on them," explains Peer. "Shouldn't these sites be measured in terms of how well they serve their audience? How quickly people can find what they're looking for? How well they lay out issues, or provide added value to the news of the day with digests, timelines, maps, data banks, etc.? Just because you can measure time spent...doesn't mean you should, or that you only rely on that measurement. Newspaper sites are in essence trying to compete in a race that is not their own, and risk handicapping themselves by letting others define them."

Sources: Editor & Publisher, Readership Institute

Robert Thomson, recently appointed managing editor of News Corp.'s Wall Street Journal, replacing Marcus Brauchli who quit in April, announced in a memo key editorial changes to be made to the paper by the beginning of July.

There will be an Enterprise, a National and an International team that will directly report to Thomson, the memo said. Matt Murray will become National Editor, Nikhil Deogum the International Editor and Mike Williams in charge of Enterprise.

All three will be Deputy Managing Editors, sitting "close together" in a "news hub". In this way they will be "streamlining commissioning and editing decisions" and will have " a central role in the production and presentation of copy for the paper and the website."

Mike Miller, who is feature editor, will become Senior Deputy Managing Editor and will be in charge of the paper in case Thomson is unavailable.

Cathy Panagoulias will be a Deputy Managing Editor and "will take a greater role in providing administrative support for bureau chiefs and in hiring decisions."

Jim Pensiero will be Deputy Managing Editor for operations and will be "masterminding" the Journal's "move to Midtown and the introduction of a new publishing system."

"Alix Freedman will have expanded authority as a defender of the paper's ethical and journalistic standards," Thomson said.

Alan Murray will become a Deputy Managing Editor but will also stay as an Executive Editor of the Journal Online, "which will have a more influential role at the heart of the reformed news structure," Thomson wrote.

Dan Hertzberg, Deputy Managing Editor, will be responsible for European and Asian editions and will be in charge of constructing the Journal's "editorial presence and profile in Europe and, in particular, in the U.K."

Reg Chua is appointed Senior Assistant Managing Editor and will be overlooking the Design Team and the evolution of data resources. Thompson announced that a new Director of Design would be chosen soon.

"Most news organizations in the U.S. and around the world are in retreat, but Dow Jones is expanding its reporting resources, rapidly developing its digital content and providing journalism of the highest integrity to an ever larger audience in The Wall Street Journal," said Thomson towards the end of the memo.

UPDATE: According to SmartMoney.com Deputy Managing Editor Laurie Hays is leaving to pursue a different career path after being with the WSJ for 23 years, which Thomson mentioned in a separte memo.

Dow Jones will also create a "central news desk", SmartMoney.com reports, which "will allow for significantly enhanced co-operation between print, web and Newswires journalists, in New York and around the world," said Thomson.

Source: PaidContent.Org, SmartMoney.org through I Want Media

See also:

US: Top Wall Street Journal editor Brauchli resigns

As far as niches go, mothers represent one of advertisers' most coveted groups. Now, some newspapers are joining the chase.

Newspaper companies, including the New York Times Co., Journal Communication, and Gannett, are launching hyperlocal websites geared toward mothers. Billed as community centers, the sites hope to attract mothers looking to review restaurants, arrange play dates, or just meet other mothers.

"They're [mothers] using the Internet to reconstitute the social capital that would come from physical interaction in a dense urban environment," said Clay Shirky, an Internet analyst and adviser to MeetUp Inc., a social networking business.

For advertisers, the appeal of these sites is enormous. With such an active core - 86 percent of moms go online at least once a month - advertisers are almost guaranteed results. But the market for mom sites is crowded; similar ventures (see BabyCenter or CafeMom) already exist.

Newspapers, however, show no signs of conceding the market to pre-existing competition. Gannett has gradually increased the number of its mom sites, and hopes to unify them soon into a nationwide network; the Boston Globe, owned by the NYT, released BoMoms.com last month; the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Dayton Daily News are creating similar sites.

As the competition stiffens, the key to success for mom sites, says Stacy DeBroff, founder of Mom Central, a marketing consulting firm, will be maintaining the sites' hyperlocal appeal.

"People in different cities are really looking for different kinds of information," Debroff said. "If moms don't sense the sites are truly localized, then they'll find another place that is."

Source: Wall Street Journal, New York Times