January 2008 Archives

An amateur video of former Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel, whose unauthorized activities caused the bank to lose €4.9bn, was sold to Paris Match and will bring in at least €100,000 in revenue. This is one of the first big deals for citizen imagery agency Citizenside.

The video depicts Kerviel as he signed his statement at the police station.

Paris Match bought the exclusivity of the video for the French press and was to publish excerpts today.

Citizenside was created in 2006 and is specialized in collecting footage and still pictures from amateurs, which it then sells to traditional media outlets.

“This video will generate at least €100,000 in revenues,” said Citizenside founder Matthieu Stefani. “The author will receive between 50% and 75% of this sum.”

Citizenside recently signed a partnership with news agency Agence France-Presse. “These images are a new source of information,” said Stefani, “we don’t do the same thing AFP does, we’re complementary.

Source: Le Monde

The Audit Bureau of Circulation has changed its regulations, enabling regional newspapers such as the Manchester Evening News to count free copies in their circulation figures, starting in August this year.

The Wall Street Journal is to move away from its 119-old home in lower Manhattan to join the offices of corporate parent News Corporation. The Journal is also planning to start a sports page.

BusinessWeek has developed a new standard for measuring reader engagement on its website. While publications like the New York Times and BusinessWeek have been known for taking big steps to promote audience participation, it now appears that BusinessWeek is set to reward top commenters on its website with t-shirts and a dinner in New York with senior editors.

Many US editors have written to the Associated Press to complain about its planned overhaul of pricing in 2009, as well as changes in news coverage practices.

20 minutes reports positive revenues for 2007, a first time occurrence for the French freesheet.

The Guardian boasts UK’s most popular newspaper site, yet its newsroom has been traditionally non-integrated – till the paper moves to its new premises next fall. In Part 2, several Guardian editors described the paper’s somewhat atypical approach toward its online redesign, video, blogs and user interaction.

Publishers Fairfax Media and News Ltd are joining forces to co-produce their rival car sales websites. Fairfax Digital’s drive.com.au sales team will manage all car dealer listings on New Ltd’s competing site, carguide.com.au. Listings will appear simultaneously on both websites.

La Tribuna, a Spanish-language weekly launched by the Greeley Tribune three years ago, will be merged with a sister publication, Greeley Now.

In an email sent by deputy editor Gianni Valenti, he says “it’s been an extraordinary year for the La Gazzetta dello Sport”, the Italian pink-colored sports newspaper. The paper grew its year-on-year circulation by 0.44%, and as much as 5.8% for circulation in November 2007 compared to 2006 (see graphic), thanks to a successful transition towards more general news coverage.

In the latest Nieman Report, Poynter Institute media analyst Rick Edmonds tries to make sense and point out the nonsense of newspapers’ hyperlocal strategies: hyperlocal content is sometimes news, but often not, business models so far aren’t very encouraging, and trimming down the traditional print edition can be risky.

Trinity Mirror has launched a new website for the Birmingham Mail, as part of a plan to overhaul its regional sites. The website will feature content from the print title, but also exclusive content from Mail journalists and users including links, picture galleries and video.

Newspapers were once, and still are, a preferred medium for political campaign advertising. But now Google is tapping those ad dollars, as all frontrunners have signed up to use Google’s Adwords and AdSense targeted advertising programs.

According to The Washington Post, Barack Obama’s popularity in the presidential campaign isn’t due to lofty spins and slick public relations with the press, quite to the contrary. The candidate’s relationship with the press isn’t ostensibly focused on driving the news agenda.

Iran’s leading women’s magazine, Zanan, was forced to close after 16 years of publication, after being accused of depicting Iran negatively.

The 8th Journalism Leaders Forum, organized by the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, is beginning today with a panel discussion and webinar on the theme “Spoiled Sports: will the digital media finish off sports reporting as a credible form of journalism?”

According to news site MediaPart, the French regional daily press (PQR) could be in talks with the government to benefit from some of France 3’s resources, in the wake of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s announcement that advertising would be suppressed on France Télévisions.

The Washington Post Co. is to launch a Web magazine, The Root, that will target African Americans. A "Slate for black readers," according to one of its founders, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.