Results matching “the media vs we”

The Guardian reported that a senior editorial staff member at Express Newspapers wrote an email to colleagues at the Sunday Express voicing his opinion about the declining quality of the paper.

The email stated that, "last week's Sunday Express was riddled with appalling, slapdash and lazy writing and subbing", and goes on to outline a number of errors in the paper.

The memo highlights the impact of years of budget cuts at the Sunday Express.  Most recently Express Newspapers fired 80 subeditors and placed reporters in charge of inputting copy directly on to pages.

Fairfax Digital's portfolio of BusinessDay websites attracts one-and-a-half million UBs, which is a 61% increase in the 12 months to September. This figure makes it the leading business site in Australia.

As Australians sought information on the unfolding turmoil in global financial markets throughout September, BusinessDay's traffic surged.

Pippa Leary, Fairfax Digital's Managing Director - Media, says, "As global finance markets have experienced dramatic developments in recent weeks, with important news each day, the demand for BusinessDay's expert reporting and commentary has sky rocketed."

Business sites around the world have seen their traffic surge in the wake of the current market turmoil, with the UK's FT.com also reporting increased traffic in recent weeks.

The site is both a stand alone site and a section of the Fairfax Digital news mastheads including smh.com.au/businessday, theage.com.au/businessday, brisbanetimes.com.au/businessday and WAtoday.com.au/businessday.

Source: Fairfax Media

The Saturday edition of UK paper the Daily Mail will undergo a 10p price surge to 80p, which means that it will cost 20p more than its competitor the Daily Express. The cover price of the weekday and Sunday editions will stay the same at 50p and £1.50 respectively.

The previous time that Associated Newspapers augmented the cover price of the Saturday issue was five years ago, when it went from 60p to 70p. Earlier this year, the weekday editions of the Daily Mail underwent a 5p jump to 50p.

Other UK titles to increase cover prices include the Independent, the Times and the Telegraph.

Source: The Guardian

With the World's financial markets nose-diving and talk of an imminent deep recession, people are turning to newspapers to cut through the jargon and market turmoil and to tell them the truth. However, some newspapers stand accused of sensationalising the crisis in the pursuit of a dramatic front page and of being ill informed on the subject matter. General sentiment in the City of London, for instance, ranged from financial workers accusing the press of creating "complete hysteria" to "fanning the flames of the crisis". These severe reactions in the City, combined with an utterly confused public, sparks the question: how should a newspaper cover a global financial crisis?

The Financial Times has proved to be a port in the storm of screamer headlines and misinformed commentary. The Editors Weblog spoke to the Managing Editor of the FT, Daniel Bogler (left), about his views on the coverage and how his newspaper reacted as the crisis unfolded.

Firstly, Bogler agreed with the City's negative view on some of the mainstream media's coverage, saying, "It's unfortunate that the financial literacy and understanding of how things work in the City and of basic accounting and so on, is actually very thin in financial journalism. The FT, because we are a financial newspaper, take the stuff a lot more seriously. We hire people from the City... and also spend a lot of time, effort and money on training our people."

Rethinking the layout

Bogler reported that one of the key things the FT did when the magnitude of the story unfolding became clear was rethink the entire layout of the paper. To ensure that the FT provided enough space to deliver comprehensive coverage, it cleared the first four pages of previously planned stories and bumped them further inside. This shift in focus did result in other key news getting squeezed, but this highlights the newspapers keen news judgement on the significance of what was unfolding on trading screens throughout the world. The bar for a story to get onto the front page was suddenly raised.

Bogler said that not only did the FT clear the first four pages, but it also redesigned the front page to emphasise and reflect the newspaper's focused coverage. The FT's template for its front page is usually three or four stories and a taster section (long column down the side) for stories within (left). However, with its decision to provide focused coverage on the rapidly changing story, it now featured two stories on the financial meltdown and leads to the rest of its coverage.

To further provide space for reporting the story, it reorganised the letters page and also largely cleared its flagship Markets pages at the back.

Since the story broke, half of the Financial Times coverage in print and online has been entirely focused on the credit crisis. The paper is not only featuring pieces to assist and inform investment bankers, but also pieces that will be useful for the average individual. The Personal Finance section last Saturday did a special on how to manage your finances during the credit crash, with practical advice for everyone, from savers to those seeking information on their mortgage.
 
This flexibility in terms of layout is another key reason for its success in its treatment of the story; templates and layout do not dictate to the newspaper when a big story breaks.

Refocusing the team

Layout flexibility followed into the newsroom itself. From what Bogler reports, it appears that three key teams spearheaded the newspapers response to the global financial crisis. The teams were the Crisis Counsel (Chief Editors and senior editors), The Leader Conference (meeting for in-depth coverage) and, specifically, the Hit Team (the financial services (banks) reporters).

Crisis Counsel
As the story hit, a Crisis Counsel was called at around 10am with the Editor Lionel Barber, News Editor Robert Shrimsley and other senior editorial staff. It was here that the decision to clear the first four pages of the newspaper to focus on the meltdown was taken and a senior news editor was appointed to manage the pages. Furthermore, the decision to make this story the focal point for the newspaper was made, with the senior team then notifying the rest of the staffers.

Leader Conference
The team then moved on to the Leader Conference to inform them that in depth and "Leader" stories would now be on the market meltdown. Previously planned articles on the UK's Conservative political party were shelved and resources shifted for optimal reporting.

The Hit Team
The Hit Team strategy had previously been utilised by the FT during the Iraq War. The Hit Team - which consists of reporters and editors from the relevant beat for a story - co-ordinate the entire newsroom: deploying reporters, co-ordinating news flow, writing the front-page splash and managing the opening pages. The Team can also pull reporters off their beat to boost coverage of a topic, ie, an autos journalist can be drafted in to aid coverage of a banks story. The core of this unit for the crisis was, and still is - as this rapidly developing story still has legs - made up of ten financial services reporters in London and six or seven in New York. Staffers around the world also called in with their regions' story and any new angles developing. Bogler reported that the news editor and reporters around the world "shaped these pages relatively quickly."

The highly respected "Lex Column" was also given priority. It is a column that features widely read analysis and commentary from a group of reporters who previously worked in hedge funds and investment banks.

The payoff

As a result of its dedicated focus and clear and comprehensible content, FT.com's traffic has exploded. Page views have risen 300 per cent. Unique users are also up by 250 per cent.

When asked about the FT's competition, Bogler said, "Its unfortunate perhaps for the Wall Street Journal, having just been bought by Murdoch, that they have switched their interest to general news, political news and focusing on US politics at a time when US politics is just not the story. We have looked a bit more nimble."

Responsibility and ethics

Reflecting on this fast-changing story, the media coverage it has received, and the perceived "sensationalist" angle taken by other papers, Bogler said he is aware of the added pressure on the FT, "We do have an extra responsibility and we take it very seriously.  We do not 'fan the flames' of the crisis."

He went on to say, "It is in the nature of newspapers to write the most dramatic headline, the most dramatic copy and have the most dramatic picture, so you have impact on your readers.... this irresponsibility is kind of bred into the industry. You have to be very careful, you have to take a step back. A picture of someone with their head in their hands in front of a trading screen, is that the right picture?"
 

Mario Garcia recently published an article discussing the future model of the newspaper.  He referenced Philip Meyers recent article in American Journalism Review, which also presented some ideas on where newspapers and journalism are headed.

Garcia uses a few examples to illustrate his view of the future.  First, The Economist, with its unique "information architecture and navigation", creative visuals, distinct personality, in-depth analysis and interpretation, and focused content is an example of what many people desire to read and enjoy reading today.

A recent article in the Examiner explored what the future job of a journalist may look like in a climate where journalism is thriving and newspapers are not.  

According to the article, journalists will not only have to learn to interview sources, but also write stories for different media platforms, and understand basic business principles so they can market themselves. Journalists will have to continuously market themselves to multiple news organizations, rather than just writing for a single news organization exclusively.  

According to Amar Bakshi, a reporter and filmmaker for washingtonpost.com, "what's nice about the Web ... is you can develop a brand for yourself for people to engage with you."

Kevin Blaickistone, a sports writer and professor at Maryland's College of Journalism believes that "journalism is not dead.  Journalism is alive and well. I would argue [that] journalism is thriving."

Sources: Examiner

Yesterday, Forbes announced that The New York Times was planning to shut down the website of its sister paper, International Herald Tribune. According to Paid Content, the sight will not be shut down. Instead, it will be co-branded as a global edition of The New York Times.  

Vivian Schiller, SVP and GM of NYTimes.com told Paid Content that the idea is to have one global brand. According to Schiller, users will be able to choose between a US and a Global edition of the website.

Staff changes are also planned, but the editorial team will remain in Paris while the production will be based in New York, since the two will share a single platform.

Sources: Paid Content

A new initiative is being taken up by The Washington Post, Thomson Reuters, Digg, Twitter, Last.FM, Amie Street, amongst others. The newly launched WISE (Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions), from the people behind Wikia Search, is a platform that allows the creation of applications and customization of search results. An application created is called a WISEapp.

There is already a similar product in the market, SearchMonkey, from Yahoo!, however, this is still in closed beta testing. Could the newly launched WISE steal a march on SearchMonkey?

The man behind the project is called Jimmy Wales, who has a reputation for bringing his products to the market quickly. However, this rush to market plan did backfire in the case of Wiki Search, as the product came in for some stingingly negative reviews in its early days.

Source: EJC Media and Mashable

The Chicago Tribune announced this week that it will no longer have its stand-alone book review section.  The Tribune's book review section was one of the few remaining in the United States.

It will now combine books and media into a section in the Saturday paper.  The "books and media" section will include comics, movie theater ads and the weather page.  The book section was moved out of the Sunday paper and into the Saturday edition last year.  

Other recently eliminated sections include The New York Times' stand-alone Metro section.  Metro stories are now included in the paper's first section, just after international and national news.  The Los Angeles Times eliminated its stand-alone book review section in 2007.

Source: Media Post, Editor & Publisher

The New York Times announced plans to shut down the Web site of its sister paper the International Herald Tribune, according to Forbes.  Content from the IHT website will now be hosted by nytimes.com.

According to General Manager, Vivian Schiller the decision is "absolutely, positively not about cost savings.  Rather, it's about growth."

Schiller believes that the move will increase the times traffic and give it more content allowing them to sell more ads.  

Sources: European Journalism Centre, Editor & Publisher, Forbes

In a recent article in the American Journalism Review, Philip Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discussed the survival strategy for newspapers of the future.

Meyer beings by noting that just as printing changed everything, so has the Internet.  Print "made the size of the audience theoretically limitless and, by the creation of multiple records, enabled more reliable preservation of knowledge."  

Meyer believes that 'the Internet wrecks the old newspaper business model in two ways. It moves information with zero variable cost, which means it has no barriers to growth, unlike a newspaper, which has to pay for paper, ink and transportation in direct proportion to the number of copies produced.  And the Internet's entry costs are low."

While many internet-based news operations have been struggling, Newsmax.com, a conservative website based in Florida has been thriving. With a monthly readership of 3.86 million Newsmax.com and sister magazine will produce about $25 million in revenue this year.  This raises the question as to whether they will replace traditional newspapers or complement them.

According to the Palm Beach Post, "since 1998, Chris Ruddy, editor in chief and owner, has delivered one principal product: news and opinion from a conservative viewpoint to offset what he sees as the liberal mainstream media."

In an interview Ruddy stated, "I'm first of all a businessman.  The key to success is to find out who your readers are and build a database. We are more into financial news and health news that will appeal to a clientele that also likes politics."

Sources:  Palm Beach Post

Bertrand Pecquerie wrote in an article in Le Monde yesterday that the French newspaper industry is in crisis and, worryingly, turning to the State for help. Newspapers have been subsidized in France for the past ten years and, in those ten years, the situation has not improved, it has actually worsened.

Pecquerie believes that there are four core problems facing the industry and these are not being addressed. The four core issues are method, diagnosis, objective and means.