May 2006 Archives

Weekend winners: Saturday/Sunday editions and supplements will be the topic of the fourth session of the 13th World Editors Forum, set to begin June 4 in Moscow. The statistics are clear: in recent years, many newspapers have maintained high circulations by launching or re-launching weekend editions and supplements. Saturday and Sunday editors have assumed an increasingly important role in the overall success of a newspaper. But what are the consequences for newsrooms? Is lifestyle coverage changing the newspaper and its journalism?

The editorial staff of Germany’s Berliner Zeitung published a reduced 12-page edition Tuesday to protest David Montgomery’s selection of Josef Depenbrock as editor-in-chief, the latest and most extreme move in the staff’s actions against Montgomery.

Citizen journalism could achieve a new level of prominence with the International Herald Tribune’s decision to carry stories written by members of the public. The global newspaper run by the New York Times recently struck a deal with South Korean news Web site OhmyNews International, described as the news equivalent of Wikipedia.

“Increasingly sober.”

That’s how Merrill Lynch analysts describe the outlook for the US newspaper industry in a report entitled “Deep Depressive Dive” — a finding that hardly comes as a surprise, given the seemingly omnipresent anxiety surrounding the future of traditional print journalism.

The Iraqi media sector has experienced significant change post-Saddam Hussein, the plurality of media outlets being its strongest element, but a new Media Sustainability Index says the ideas of press freedom and journalistic professionalism are only beginning to take hold in Iraq.

Arrested in May during a demonstration in Cairo, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, one of the most popular pro-democracy voices in Egypt, is continuing to blog from his jail cell by sending postings via cell phone, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

From the 6th June to the 10th July French sport lovers will be kept up to date about the Football World Cup thanks to the new initiative of Metro. The person responsible for the project is Metro chief editor François Bourboulon. Metro Sport will not be a supplement, but a separate 12 page publication, and its distribution will happen independently from Metro.

Web portals and news agencies: new threats to newspapers? The question will be explored at the third session of the 13th World Editors Forum, which begins June 4 in Moscow. New media mean new competition for newspapers. News aggregators lead readers to other sources and Internet companies produce original content. News agencies directly access the public though their websites, skipping the newspaper middleman. Can newspapers adjust their business models and find the resources to compete or will web portals and news agencies dominate Internet news?

While most paid newspapers are trying to cope with staggering circulation drops, last week, the Rupert Murdoch-owned, London-based Times announced plans to start publishing in the U.S. Now it’s talking about potential partnerships around the world.

The Central Daily News, once Taiwan’s most influential newspaper and founded in China almost 80 years ago, will suspend printing on June 1 when the Kuomintang stops funding its publication. It’s yet another example of a paper struggling with the onslaught of online news and new media. The Chinese-language daily is financially unstable, and so is the KMT. The party is seeking a buyer, hoping to maintain at least the debt-ridden paper’s Web site.

Source: The China Post (through Ifra Executive News Service)

Western newspaper editors are oversimplifying Africa, South Africa’s Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said yesterday, and ignoring the continent’s successes.

Circulation among major US paid newspapers fell 1.9 percent in the six-month period ending in March, the Newspaper Association of America reported yesterday, a statistic that has put many people in the traditional print news industry on edge, especially given the up-and-coming free paper business.

When the Enron verdict was announced yesterday, the Houston Chronicle slapped a fat “Guilty! Guilty!” on its extra edition, a two-pager hand-wrapped by Chronicle reporters around that morning’s paper at approximately 2 p.m. The 10,000 extras were the product of three hours of work and an unspecified chunk of change, a decision made by editor Jeff Cohen to get the breaking news out to the community.

It makes you wonder: With more and more people getting news from online sources updated 24-7, was it really worth it for the Chronicle to get the update out on paper?

Source: The New York Times 

Ethnic newspapers are a growing trend, with established papers trying to expand into the niche markets of their communities. But ethnic podcasts? That’s the approach the San Francisco Chronicle is taking with Pinoy Pod, a new weekly podcast of interviews, news features and other information for the Filipino community.

German publisher Holtzbrinck is planning a complete relaunch of its compact News, which is currently published only in the city of Frankfurt on the Main, reports the Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag and other German media. The relaunch plans are disputed. The new paper will have another name; the working title is currently Business News. The launch of the new paper is expected as soon as August 1 and is planned to be sold throughout Germany. Editor in chief Klaus Madzia, together with his newsroom, will move from Frankfurt on the Main to Berlin.

Convergence II: Multimedia is now ready for print. The second session of the 13th World Editors Forum, which begins June 4 in Moscow, will address this topic. Multimedia convergence is back and this time, powered by broadband, it appears to be here for good. One of the most pressing dilemmas newspapers face today is how to integrate audio, video and interactivity into their news production. Should print journalists be trained on multiple platforms? Or should newspapers join forces with other media companies to provide multimedia news?