October 2006 Archives

Recently the Press Complaints Commission rejected complaints from the pro-Israel lobby group Camera regarding two Guardian articles published last February. The articles discussed comparisons between Israel and apartheid South Africa causing Camera to file numerous complaints.

Popular social networking site MySpace.com may no longer be keeping teen interest. The site that has been running for 2 1/2 years was bought last year by News Corp for $580 million dollars and recently signed a $900 million dollar advertising deal with Google Inc. Both of these moves may have been premature; Nielsen/Net-Ratings just released a study saying MySpace participation has dropped 4%.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations has released their fourth consecutive semi-annual report registering a steep decline in newspaper circulation numbers.  The circulation numbers form the recently completed quarter shows a 2.8% drop for daily circulation. Larger newspapers are feeling harsh effects especially when specifically looking at the Sunday Edition which is recorded to have a 3.4% drop.  Many attribute the circulation decline to the increase of readers getting their news from other media outlets.

As more Middle Eastern Journalists look to enter Europe for training and research programs, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ) complain that European authorities are creating stricter restrictions to keep them out.

It's no secret that the Internet is rapidly and radically changing the traditional news landscape of top-down journalism. For over a century, the pipes through which information is distributed have generally been one-way. Now that everyone has a voice on the Internet, the pipes have been siphoned and the flow has become reciprocal, causing a monumental change in news production and consumption. Having tracked these transformations, New York University professor Jay Rosen and PressThink blogger has embarked on an ambitious project to mold a new form of journalism adjusted for the digital media world.

Daily children's newspapers seem to be popping up across the globe, most recently in Bolivia and soon in Mexico, Panama, and Ecuador. Now, Play Bac Presse, the French publisher of the most successful children's dailies to date, plan to launch a new kids paper directed at 8-10-year-olds in the United States.

In New York City, a recent report launched by the MTA board has concluded that the free newspapers handed out in subway stations are largely responsible for the recent growth in subway floods and fires. The two papers, amNew York and Metro, were found to be the main cause in the 2004 subway flood because the discarded papers clogged metro drains.

Dow Jones & Co recently announced the future sale of 6 local newspapers.  The papers are a part of the Ottaway community newspapers group, which owns a dozen local newspapers around the North Eastern United States, and are being sold to Community Newspaper Holdings, a private publisher located in Birmingham, Alabama.  The sale is expected to cost $US282.5 million and will go towards the Dow Jones' purchase of Reuters Group's stake in the Factiva news archive service.

Three new dailies were recently granted license in Kuwait under the Press and Publication Law approved earlier this year. Al-Rai Newspaper, Al-Jareeda Company and the National Group for Information were the first ever to obtain a license under the law approved in March: to date the applications pending are 118.

The BBC is often cited as one of the traditional organizations that has taken advantage of the Internet to expand its already monumental influence. The company’s head of News Interactive, Pete Clifton, detailed his employer’s strategy when it came to developing its internationally acclaimed website at the World Digital Publishing Conference.

The Bakersfield Californian is regularly used as the example of a local paper that has embraced and succeeded in the world of new media. Dan Pacheco, Senior Manager of Digital Products for the paper addressed the audience at the first World Digital Publishing Conference in London.

Head of the Continuous Newsdesk at the New York Times, Neil Chase, joined the speakers at the first World Digital Publishing Conference to talk about the latest innovations at what is becoming the world’s paper of record thanks to its website.

Great Britain's leading newspaper trade magazine, Press Gazette, has fallen into more trouble.  The weekly publication focuses on Great Britain's changing newspaper industry.  After being bought and re-modeled last year by Matthew Freud and Piers Morgan, Press Gazette has lost £500,000 and is up for sale again.

On 19 October 2006, French broadcaster France 2 won a libel case over accusations it faked a report into the killing of Mohammed Al-Dura, a Palestinian boy whose death in 2000 became a symbol of the uprising known as the second intifada. The Court of First Instance in Paris ordered Philippe Karsenty, director of Media Ratings, a website that comments on the media, to pay France 2 and its Israel correspondent Charles Enderlin symbolic damages of one euro each. Immediately, Media Ratings made an appeal and there will be a new lawsuit.

French media - especially newspapers - supported a lot France Televisions (see former posting) and its journalist during the last six years. The Editors Weblog prefers to ask the other part about the consequences of this - first - judgment and what it reveals about fairness in French media.

Speaker vignettes from the World Digital Publishing Conference.

Robb Montgomery reports from London in this video blog for the World Editors Forum.

Two Boston businessmen have been working with investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. to prepare a bid for The Boston Globe.  Retired General Electric chief exec Jack Welch and advertising exec Jack Connors would make no comment on the potential bid for their beleaguered hometown paper, which is owned by The New York Times Company.  Despite the paper’s increasingly poor performance, the NYT Co. has repeatedly denied that the Globe is for sale.