October 2005 Archives

Two of the biggest Swiss publishers, Edipresse and Tamedia, are gearing up for intense free-paper competition.

On October 31, Edipresse became the first of the two to launch a freesheet. The paper entitled Le Matin Bleu, complements the publishers' flagship, Le Matin, which has a paid circulation of 350,000 copies per day.  

The Online News Association held its annual conference last week. Visit the website for a wrap-up. Highlights include New York Times' Chairman Arthur Sulzberger's keynote speech during which he said, "Information does not yearn to be free," how Hurricane Katrina affected online journalism and the future of participatory journalism.

Source: Online News Association 

There have been many discussions about the contradiction between the huge profits that media giants demand and their newsrooms' role of producing quality journalism. Journalists feel that their publications, and their communities, are suffering greatly because of newsroom staff cuts which their corporate benefactors deem necessary in order to increase revenues as much of their audience and advertising migrates to new media, especially the Internet.

The Internet also furnishes a platform for journalism, but it has not yet been determined if it will be able to provide society with the kind of reporting it needs to remain informed.

In this respect, journalism is caught in a tug-of-war whose opposing sides are the old guard, which is seemingly cannibalizing it, and new media, which isn't quite yet sure how to embrace it. Depending on which side wins, either a brand new news model will emerge or journalism will be torn apart in the fight?

After receiving a number of comments from bloggers, USA Today decided to edit a photo it had placed on its website. The image of United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, which the bloggers deemed to make her look demonic, was not published in the paper's print version.

The image, posted on October 19, was not changed until the 26th.   

First reported in March 2005 (see previous postings), an investment deal between Spain's Prisa group and the French paper Le Monde has been finalized. The Spanish group gains at least a 14% stake in the French daily.

Formerly, the Prisa held 1% of the French berliner.  It is planned to inject 24.35 million euros into Le Monde, which has had circulation problems as of late.

Sources: Reuters France (in French), El Mundo (in Spanish), Forbes

A proposed federal shield law would protect bloggers that gather news, according to one of the bill's author, Congressman Mike Pence.  Pence distinguished between those bloggers who merely link to other articles and those who perform the functions of professional journalists.

A change in tune of the New York Times management has led to resignation negotiations with its reporter, Judith Miller. The Times' editor, Bill Keller, and publisher, Arthur Sulzbeger Jr., who had given their complete backing to Miller in her fight to protect the identities of an anonymous source, have both stated publicly that they regret not having investigated her reporting more thoroughly.

"Saying, well, the next generation, my kids, and my grandkids, are going to have very different media consumption patterns is a little bit of a cop-out. It's actually happening now."  These words from Sir Martin Sorrell, C.E.O. of the advertising group WPP, describe why many media owners are scared of the rapid changes their domain is undergoing.

At first, they were reluctant to accept the coming storm.  But now some, especially Rupert Murdoch, seem to be on an Internet holdings spending spree.

Last month in Moscow, the Russian Guild of Press Publishers held the First Russian Publishers Conference.  During the Press Freedom Seminar, President of the World Editors Forum and Saturday Editor of The Times (London), George Brock, gave a talk discussing the freedom of the press in Russia, whose text is posted below. 

The week of November 7 to 12, The Wall Street Journal Online, which with close to 800,000 subscribers is the biggest paid site on the web, will hold an open house. The promotion is a move to attract new subscribers.

Adding to previous rumors, (see posting) there is more speculation circulating about a new product from Google, called Google Base, that could affect newspaper classifieds even more.

Photo: Reuters journalists camp in the grounds of the Muzaffarabad Press Club.  For the first time, foreign journalists are able to travel to into Muzaffarabad without "minders" or official permission. Muzaffarabad is the capital of the Pakistani part of Kashmir called "liberated Kashmir", the other part - with Srinagar as capital - is called"occupied Kashmir" in the country. (Photo: Lisa Upton/Internews)

The British Broadcasting Company, which has been lauded for its use of citizen contributions especially during July's London bombings, has made its interactive site, Have Your Say, freer from editing.  Previously, the site's staff reviewed emails submitted by readers and viewers and published only a selected few. Now, the multitudes of reader comments the BBC receives will be posted directly to the website by its public. 

Microsoft guru and philanthropist Bill Gates sat down with the French daily, Le Figaro, for a chat about the digital revolution.  At one point he was asked about the future of the printed word:

Seven Scottish publishers have united to promote newspaper reading within the country.  The GBP 200,000 campaign will use half-page newspaper and billboard ads.  The theme of the campaign is that "You get MORE out of a PAPER." Said Jim Raeburn, director of the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society, "The campaign is trying to promote the concept that newspapers provide a depth of coverage and offer a lot more than competing media."

Source: The Herald

Australian publisher John Fairfax has announced that it will eliminate 55 journalists' jobs.  The cuts will amount to about a 7.5% loss in editorial staff between its main papers, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age. 

Last year, the publisher accepted the voluntary redundancy of 36 journalists.  The most recent cuts are blamed on "laclustre revenue performance." 

The cuts come only ten days after a popular former rugby coach took over as CEO of Fairfax.  His sign on bonus was $A1.2 million, a sum that many journalists feel contributed to their job losses.

Source: The Guardian 

 

Following up on our recent postings about the current problem that newspapers are having charging readers, especially younger ones (postings here and here), for online and print content, David Carr in the New York Times has also written about the problem, using his young daughters as an example. When being scoffed at after having suggested that they go to the store and buy a magazine, Carr realized, 'Their message was clear: only suckers pay for content."