December 2005 Archives

Citizen journalism has been haunting newsrooms since Dan Gillmor wrote We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People in 2004. Suddenly, for Gillmor epigone and imitators (not for Gillmor himself), there was a new hero, the citizen journalist, struggling against a bad guy called the traditional journalist.

In fact a very bad guy this old journo: outdated, working for a mainstream media – disgusting, isn’t it ? -, linked to corporate interests, limited by the newsroom horizon, not very well connected (nor well educated) and with no knowledge of what can interest average people! Moreover, truth and accuracy were no longer his cup of tea…

On the contrary, the citizen journalist had so many qualities: as a newcomer, he was young, fresh, innocent, independent, with a lot of new ideas on journalism and democracy and on top of that a real love of truth.

But the problem is that this ideal citizen journalist only exists in some bloggers’ views.

Whew! What a turbulent year for the newspaper industry. One would think that after so many developments, positive and negative, that the storm would be ebbing. But 2005 may be just the beginning.

Below are eight trends that the Editors Weblog feels will have major effects on newsrooms in 2006:

1. Print/Online integration becoming the norm
2. Threats against investigative journalism growing
3. More transparency needed
4. Breaches appearing in the free news ideology
5. News agencies competing with newspapers
   
6. Social networking: advantages for newspapers
   
7. Mobile TV threatening mobile news
8. News organizations becoming entertainment companies

Explanations are followed by links to previous related postings. 

Please feel free to comment and add your own ideas.

Happy New Year to all!

 

The International Federation of Journalists announced the winners of the 2005 South Asiai Journalism for Tolerance prize. The prize "is about promoting tolerance, combating racism and discrimination and contributing to an understanding of cultural, religious and ethnic differences." Eminent Soth Asian journalists make up the jury.

A new Arabic language full colour tabloid targeting youth is to be launched in Saudi Arabia before the end of the year. The tabloid is to be called Sun; the three letters in Arabic stand for youth variety and Saudi. The initial print run will be 120 000 copies. Sun will offer a "fresh approach to news, sport, music and technology."

WashingtonPost.com will now offer articles for free for 60 days, instead of the previous 14, before putting them behind the paid for subscription wall. The objective of the initiative is to increase traffic and advertising revenues.

Zhao Yan, who worked in The New York Times' Beijing bureau, has been indicted for "revealing state secrets" and for fraud. Mr. Yan's has been in prison without trial for 15 months, his lawyer has said the indictment means the trial will most likely begin within the next six weeks.

The Editors Weblog is taking a short holiday break. We will be back on Tuesday 27 December with a fresh selection of media news. In the meantime we wish all our readers and website visitors happy holidays!

iRex Technologies BV, a spin-off from Royal Philips Electronics, plans to launch an electronic paper (e-paper) application next April, reports Inside IT. The new gadget called Illiad combines an electronic paper display with touch screen and wireless networking technologies (see picture here).

The spokesman for the Hezbollah party in Iran Mojtaba Bigdeli has announced that it will launch its own newspaper on 9, January 2006. The paper will be distributed across the country; its editorial staff has been appointed.

Kevin Sweeny of business journalism.org interviewed the Times Picayune's Money editor Kim Quillen, who spok eabout the challenges of reporting post-Katrina.

Sweeny began by asserting that in the aftermath of Katrina "Readers and businesses depended on their local papers to deliver the news they could get from no other source." He then proceeded to ask Ms. Quillen how her paper responded to this "monumental task."

Independent News and Media expects to report revenue growth of over 7.5% and double digit earnings for 2005. Adiitionally, the group has experienced a year on year increase in advertising and expects to announce a 3% growth in circulation for 2005.

Approximately 10 jobs that were to be eliminated by Trinity Mirror in Scotland have been saved. Under the revised plan a total of 32 jobs will be eliminated at four papers: The Scottish Daily Mirror The Sunday Mirror, The Daily Record and The Sunday Mail.

The four news stories most searched for on the internet in 2005 were the Aian tsunami, Iraq, the Michael Jackson trial and Apple I-Pod. Hurrican Katrina came in at seventh place. The impact of US President Bush's foreign policy was also a popular news item.

Editorial cartoonists across the US recently staged a protest called 'Black Ink Monday' (a series of 106 great cartoons) in response to the loss of editorial cartoonist positions at a number of Tribune Co. newspapers and more generally "as a commentary on newspapers everywhere who have lost sight of the value of having a staff editorial cartoonist."

Dan Gillmor writes at Bayosphere that he will be organizing a nonprofit Center for Citizen Media in 2006. The project will be a joint venture with the University of California's Graduate School of Journalism and Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Robert Niles of the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review asked a number of web editors and publshers the following question: "Why do i love online publishing?"

Niles first gives us his own view: "the people of this country finally have a medium at their disposal which allows any person to speak and be heard by a global audience. If freedom of the press belongs to those who own one, now, we all do. And the world, ultimately, will be the better for it."

Responding to the high and rising paper prices in Germany, four big German publishers, Axel Springer, Holtzbrinck, WAZ and Madsack, are planning to build a paper mill in Russia, reports Netzeitung.

In November, the Sacremento Bee published a multimedia report that received much prai