Friday 24th of November, a good 80 Dutch and Flemish editors and researchers gathered in the European Journalism Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands, to assess and discuss several prototypes of novel newspaper products or services. All are web-based one way or another, and ready for the Web 2.0 publishing environments. The in total six demonstrators feature remote reporting tools, video content based on strategic alliances with non-journalistic partners, e-paper trials and online reader communities. Most were developed in close cooperation with specialised R&D centres. Together, the prototypes reveal the contours of the future electronic newspaper.
Al least half of the demonstrators will make it to real applications, the other are subject to further testing in living lab conditions.
General conclusion of the event: we need further experimentation to capture the essence of digital presence. In the conference report, the applications as well as the editors’ appraisal are described more in detail.
In an era of rising, nearly generalized, citizen journalism, some websites are going further than giving a voice to users and paving the way to the future of journalism and news content. A future that would not only be user-generated, but also customized to target tastes and interests. Among those progressive websites,
Newsvine’s innovative process puts it in a leading position (alongside others such as
NewsTrust).
Martin Newland, co-founder of the National Post in Canada and former editor of the London Daily Telegraph, has done much to bring light forth to the general gloom surrounding Canadian media. But upon returning to Canada, to give university lectures on the decline of quality papers in Europe and in Canada, Newland faced the grim reality of his lecture topic.
For the first time ever officially, journalists from North Korea and South Korea meet next week to discuss reconciliation between both sides.
Today, The New York Times has introduced a new electronic reader for its online edition. The Times hopes the new reader will help their digital publishing capabilities to continue to move forward.
A recent survey by the Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Pune, found that a majority of online English edition readers are Indian residents.
Certain US news sources have decided to call the current Iraq situation a “civil war” saying that the conflict between the Sunnis and Shiites fits the general definition. White House officials are insisting that the strife has not reached the civil war stage and should be labeled accordingly.
The Pulitzer Prize board has changed subject entry rules to include online content in certain areas. The new guidelines allow newspapers submit a range of online entries including databases, interactive graphics, and streaming video to be judged for the awards.
The selection process of the 15th edition of the Lorenzo Natali Prize, a journalism award sponsored by the European Commission, has begun. It was created by the EU Commission in 1992 to promote the right to information, a prerequisite to freedom of expression.
Six French regional newspapers got an interview from Nicolas Sarkozy, minister of Interior for their Thursday 30 November edition. And it was an important interview because it was his official declaration of candidature for the next year presidential election as UMP candidate (the rightist / conservative party) against Ségolène Royal, the leftist / socialist candidate.
On Wednesday 29 November afternoon, Libération decided to break the embargo and to publish the whole interview. Everybody can read the interview on the Libération website (in French). A real scoop, but with many ethical issues behind: when a newspaper wants to publish an exclusive interview done by its own reporters or editors, is it possible to another newspaper to publish it?
After TV star comic actor Walid Hassan Djahaz was murdered earlier this month, media observers got interested in the reality of Iraqi cartoonists too. Today’s issue of French Le Monde interviews Yasser Abdulrahim and Khoudair Al-Hemyare, who have published cartoons in Iraqi newspapers since Saddam Hussein was in power.
Reporters Without Borders voiced “surprise and concern” at the decision by a court in The Hague to jail two De Telegraaf journalists. Bart Mos and Joost de Haas were convicted to 2 days in prison earlier this week for refusing to unveil the name of one of their sources in a criminal trial. After paying the 48 hours sentence, a new court will decide whether the two editors should stay in prison for another 12 days.
If no agreement is reached by the end of Thursday, the employees from Philadelphia’s two largest dailies – The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News – threaten to go on strike and launch an online newspaper, which would compete against their own newspaper’s website.
A recent study by Microsoft's MSN and Windows Live Online Services Business has determined that Asian blog use is rapidly growing. Though not all businesses have adapted to the Internet blogs countries such as Korea and India have integrated blogs in to most areas of everyday life.
After further inquires from private buyers the Tribune Co. has pushed back their decision date for selling until the first quarter of next year. Tribune has declined the most recent offer from Baltimore Businessmen hoping to buy the Baltimore Sun.
Guardian Unlimited opened its new travel site on Nov. 28th. This new feature is representative of the redesign and rebuild undergone by the whole Guardian website, and shows how priorities have evolved to focus on online specialization.
In a recent agreement with Verizon Wireless, YouTube has made videos available on select phones. Using a new YouTube V Cast channel, certain clips will be available to Verizon users who subscribe to the service.
Looking at both Google and Yahoo’s recent connections with traditional print media leaves some questions. Google’s move is understandable since executives have always expressed interest in expanding into print media, but in the wake of Yahoo’s downsizing rumors and low quarterly performance the recent expansion to create partnerships with 176 papers is a bit of a shocking business move.
