April 2008 Archives

The Online Journalism Blog (OJB) has created the European News Interactivity Index, adapting Joanna Geary's analysis of interactivity on UK business news websites to newspapers across Europe.

The index itself is interactive; in a feature created by Nicolas Kayser-Brill, users can compare head-to-head the interactivity ranking of different European countries (go here to see the tool). The results look like the image to the left of a comparison between BBC News and El Pais.

The European Index conserves most of Geary's original interactivity indicators, including RSS, Bookmarking, Twitter, and easy to find contact information. By morphing into a group blog, the OJB has recruited contributors from various countries across the continent. In order to expand the service, it is continuing to invite further contributions and analysis about any European paper.

Source: Online Journalism Blog through IFRA Executive News Service  

Press freedom appears to be shrinking in eastern Europe, as evidenced by a series of recent laws constraining free speech rights.  

The latest repressive legislation comes out of Slovakia, where a new media law, set to come into practice on June 1, will give anyone named in an article "sweeping rights to an equally prominent rebuttal," reports the Economist.  Media watchdogs have condemned the law and Slovakian newspapers are protesting by publishing issues with blank, black-framed front pages.

Right-of-reply rules are common in some European nations, but Slovakia's is the most punitive. While the Slovakian government insists the law will make the media more responsible, the concern is the potential exploitation of the law by Slovakia's Prime Minister, Robert Fico, who has a tumultuous relationship with the media.  

Bulgaria and Romania as well have laws on the books that criminalize defamation of public figures. In 2007, 100 cases went to court in Bulgaria for attacks against "honor and dignity," up from 60 the year before. And as of last year, Romania's constitutional court restored legislation making "insult" illegal, although press freedom is also curtailed by the ownership of mainstream media by politically active tycoons.   

Moreover, the annual report of Freedom House, a New York-based lobby group, shows the sharpest decline in media freedom in the world in eastern Europe, behind Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Granted the situation is not as bad as in Russia, where Vladimir Putin shut down a paper after it ran a scandalous story on his love life. It is though a worrisome trend in a region has prided itself on its newfound freedom.

Source: Economist   

When the Telegraph recently posted a sizable online traffic surge for the month of March, the paper attributed the success to better new stories and successful multimedia strategy.

That may be part of the explanation, but the Telegraph figures are also an example of the imprecise nature of online traffic measurement. According to MediaGuardian, audit certificates published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) reveal that the site switched its internal measurement tool between February and March this year, replacing HBX SiteCatalyst with WebTrends 7.

A source said that the site had been under-reporting its figures for sometime because certain page views were not being recorded. Richard Foan, the ABCe managing director, did not directly comment on the Telegraph's audit but confirmed that a publisher could be under-reporting its traffic if it had not tagged all the pages on its site.

Edward Roussel, the digital editor for the Telegraph Media Group, maintained however that the different measurement system had little effect on traffic figures because "both systems use the same methodology."

"The old measurement system missed some users, as did the new system. But the new system still showed rapid growth in user numbers," Roussel said. "There was leakage on both systems because we weren't able to tag everything with WebTrends during March."

Source: MediaGuardian

Northcliffe-owned daily newspapers in the East Midlands are pooling together resources to publish a new regional business website, thisisbusiness-eastmidlands.co.uk.

Participating papers The Evening Telegraph in Derby, Leicester Mercury, Lincolnshire Echo, Nottingham Evening Post and The Sentinel in Stoke will all provide business stories to the site in an effort to give readers a complete picture of the business events across the region.
 
The main focus is local, allowing users to search stories by region and providing access to a special commercial property section. The site, however, plans to balance out frequent updates on East Midland business news with a dose of national and international news, which is in line with the recent caution by a Washington Post business columnist that too much local news can be unsophisticated.

Source: HoldtheFrontPage

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post business columnist Steve Pearlstein has a word of caution for newspapers that are planning to jump on the hyperlocal bandwagon: "Too much local news is not sophisticated."

Speaking at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers annual conference, Pearlstein maintained that while local news was important, it can't come at the expense of a business section.

"Every newspaper should have a business section. If your business page is not as good as USA Today's business page, there ought to be a good reason for that."

Pearlstein questioned why editors would choose to run copy written by a "young journalist writing about a local news story" in lieu of a syndicated business column from a well-respected source.
 
"You may feel good as an editor because you're localizing a story... and you have done the best with the resources you have, but it is a mistake to confuse what you can do with the resources you have with what your readers want and need," Pearlstein said. "And what they want and need is a single source every day, basic comprehensive file of news and analysis from a credible source in convenient form."

He also offered up an assessment of the newspaper industry and more specifically the business news field, contending that "there are too many newspapers." In Pearlstein's view, a reduction in the number of newspapers will lead to improvements in business journalism because, in a hyper-competitive journalism market, business sections are the first to go in the name of cost-cutting.
 
"Things will probably get worse [for newspapers] before they get better, but they will get better," Pearlstein said. And they will get better because people will pay for news. Not everyone. We won't have as many customers as before, I suppose. But we will have customers, and they will pay more."

Sources: Poynter Romenesko,  Talking Biz News

A FAITHful voice blog details "The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism, a step-by-step approach in dealing with the changing landscape of journalism by integrating the professional with the amateur."

1) Opening up to public comment: This gives the newspaper an interactivity and enhances the news story with things the reporter may have missed or with additional sources. 

2) "Citizens add-on approach:" Citizens can add personal experiences or information to a story. These can be made into a side bar.

3) Open source reporting: Citizens can be part of the reporting process by researching, interviewing, reporting, and writing.

4) "Citizen Bloghouse:" Invite "outstanding and prominent bloggers to blog for your news website." Then your news site will not only have quality blogs, but your online traffic will  probably increase. 

5) "Newsroom citizens transparency blog:" An online ombudsmen who will respond faster to you.

6) "The stand-alone citizen-journalism site - Edited Version:" For more localized and specific news, let citizens blog with minimal editing.

7) "The stand-alone citizen-journalism site - Unedited version:" Citizens have complete freedom to blog and moderate themselves

8) "Add a print edition:"  Publish the best stories and photos in different sections, like a newspaper. This may motivate the bloggers to work harder.

9) "The hybrid:" Both professionals and citizen journalists work together on news website content.

10) "Integrating citizen and pro journalism under one roof:" Both professionals and citizen journalists "work alongside each other to complement the content of the paper."

11) "Wiki-journalism": Horizontal structure where everyone is an editor and journalist.

A FAITHful voice concedes that these layers are truly ideal and questions if they will work in reality. A citizen journalist site Scribblesheet had shut down earlier this month because of financial troubles.

Source: A FAITHful voice

Next Monday, 24-page Indonesian newspaper Koran Jakarta will be available at newsstands with a target of selling 80,000 copies.

The paper is published by PT Berita Nusantara and will have a special economics section.

"We're not head to head with any other newspapers because ours is unique. It is a morning newspaper with more news on the economy," said chief editor Marthen Selamet Susanto.

According to Selamet, 40% of the paper will focus on business.

"We have a concept and we offered it to businessmen. There are at least 10 businessmen providing us with capital, but they don't determine our editorial," he said. Instead, Selamet says the paper belongs to its reporters.

The newspaper's readership would be people "with salaries above Rp 1 million with at least a high school education," according to Selamet.

The newspaper will be available in Greater Jakarta, South Sumatra's Palembang, and West Java's Bandung.

Source: JakartaPost.com through IFRA Executive News Service

Last week, Nebraskan newspaper the Grand Island Independent used live blogging tool CoverItLive after the relaunch of its site for a live Q&A session between readers and web staff. It remained available for an additional two days because of its popularity.

The feature was advertised in the print edition of the newspaper and as a link on the site's homepage. It garnered a lot of reader feedback, including reports of glitches in the new site, which were quickly fixed, according to Stephanie Romanski, web editor of the Independent.

"The whole errors issue surprised me and was an unexpected bonus to holding the Q&A. I mostly expected either 'Love it/Hate it responses or a lot of 'I can't find...' questions. I think we impressed some readers by being able to respond to their issues so quickly," said Romanski.

The Independent may be experimenting with other tools for sports and political coverage and for setting up a regular weekly chat with staff.

"I believe that newspapers that embrace the web and the awesome and often free tools available out there will be the newspapers that make it through the current slump the industry is experiencing and will thrive in the future," Romanski remarked.

Source: Journalism.co.uk through IFRA Executive News Service

The Norwegian press is experimenting with innovative Google news mash-ups and online databases, an effort that is spearheaded by, among others, Epsen Anderson, who is charged with modernizing NRK 's (Norway's public broadcaster) flagship program Brennpunkt,  the Norwegian equivalent of Panorama.

Andersen, who regularly designs new technology methods for "doing journalism", feels that "computer programming is also journalism." He is a strong advocate for making programming know-how a necessary and commonplace skill in a newsroom. 

His latest project for NRK is Politikerdatabasen (see image), a database that currently contains information on all members of parliament in Norway and will expand to include information on the country's 11,000 local politicians in May, reports Journalism.co.uk's Kristine Lowe.
 
"I think it is absolutely key to bring programmers into the newsrooms so they can get involved in journalistic projects at an early stage," Andersen said. "Programmers can create solutions to process large quantities of information, e.g. from public sources, and present it in an engaging and orderly manner."

Before working with NRK, Andersen created several high-profile online databases and mash-ups for local newspaper Budstikka, discovering along the way that maps which touched on issues close to readers found the most success. Examples included a map of parking fines showing the parking lots with the highest fines, and one detailing which parts of the region were troubled by snails killing off plants, a concern for gardeners.

Andersen is not the only Norwegian on the cutting edge of multimedia journalism; two journalists at VG were recently honored for a complex multimedia project focused on domestic homicide.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

During the week, Florida's St. Petersburg Times will drop its stand alone business section but will combine its Sunday business section with the paper's metro section.

The paper will have a full page for business news, but will cut its stock listings and use three-quarters of a page for market data, modeled after the Associated Press. The bottom of the market data page will be used for jumps and briefs.

The St. Petersburg Times will also cut its Floridian features section during the week and combine it with the metro section.

The changes is expected to occur with the May 19 paper.

Source: Talking Biz News through LA Times News Alert

Twitter, which Jeff Jarvis calls the "next evolutionary step in blogging," has been put to good use for a variety of different types of reporting. Add sports coverage to the list, thanks to an initiative from local UK newspaper The Evening Leader.

The Leader used Twitter to provide live coverage of Wrexham FC's April 26 home match against Accrington Stanley, reports Journalism.co.uk. The tweets, texted every few minutes by deputy editor Martin Wright, appeared both on a widget on the Leader website and on the paper's Wrexham Twitter account.

"I go to as many Wrexham home games as I can, but inevitably I end up missing some," Wright said. "When I'm at work this can be a bit of a problem because I want to know the score and what's happening all the time - not just when the final whistle goes."

Source: Journalism.co.uk through IFRA Executive News Service

BBC's first phase of integrating their news operation across media was completed on Monday with a common newsrooms in which journalists from the corporation's television news service started to work with their colleagues from radio and television news bulletins.

This move is due to a  "smaller than expected lisence fee settlement," according to Press Gazette journalist Martin Stabe, which made BBC want to "reduce duplication of its newsgathering operations."

"The number of roles has been reduced significantly because we've had to make these big savings," said BBC head of newsroom Peter Horrocks. "We've introduced some multimedia roles, but as people develop multimedia skills and once we've got all the platforms sitting alongside each other they can work together most effectively."

There is a a centralized "Media Wire" desk, which monitors audio and video feeds, then transfers stories to the most appropriate outlets, and there is also a centralized planning desk that controls assignments. There will also be a senior editor who will be the "multimedia editor," who will coordinate the different media and mediate conflicts. Each desk will also have a "web conversion producer," who will be responsible for extending stories that were originally produced for online platforms.

The next steps include integrating journalists from the BBC's international news channel, BBC World News, and those responsible for the text-based sections of the BBC News website.

In June, BBC Online journalists will join the converged newsroom, then the online news operation will split into two sections: one will cover world news and move to the second floor of the newsroom with the BBC World News television team, and the other will be the UK operation on the first floor, producing domestic radio and television bulletins.

Most journalists will "continue to work primarily in the media that they have traditionally worked," says Horrocks, "though over time, producers will increasingly work across television, radio and online as staff are put through a training program."

Source: Press Gazette through IFRA Executive News Service

Figures released on April 28 by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show a 3.6% drop in U.S. newspaper circulation over a six-month period from October 2007 to March 2008, reports Reuters.

Reflecting the readers' move to online news, most of the top 25 American papers experienced circulation reduction, although Gannett Co. and the Wall Street Journal reported gains of less than one percent. 

According to blogger Alan Mutter, the figure represents sales of around 50 million, the lowest level since 1949 when newspapers moved 50.9 million copies. The latest report also shows that Sunday papers, which have thus far been fairly resistant to circulation drops, were more affected than weekday papers, experiencing a decline of 4.5%. 

Why the circulation fall? In addition to online migration, the lower figure is also partially the fault of newspapers, who have tried to cut costs by no longer shipping to far away locations.

Mutter also brings up PR-related issue: "Will the tailspin in circulation and ad sales be accelerated by the growing accumulation of bad press about the press?" It is a legitimate concern given the publication of doom and gloom stories like Advertising Age's latest cover story, "The Newspaper Death Watch."

Sources: Reuters, Reflections of a Newsosaur

With elite papers, such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times cutting staff, the few "No. 2" papers left are struggling to survive.

A No. 2 paper "usually keeps the dominant daily on its toes," writes Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz, by reporting overlooked stories, which are typically more popular in poorer neighborhoods.

The only major cities left with head-to-head competition, excluding those where two papers have the same owner or share business operations with federal approval, are New York, Washington, Chicago, and perhaps Los Angeles, according to Kurtz. The Cincinnati Post is the latest second-place paper to close, when its operations shut down last year.

The Boston Herald's, Boston's No. 2 paper, daily circulation shrunk to 203,000 and on Sunday, it fell to 113,000, in comparison with the Boston Globe's 384,000. The Herald only has 10 city reporters left in addition to those in the feature, business, and sports sections.

"It's almost as if Boston doesn't have a place for its second daily anymore," Boston magazine columnist Joe Keohane wrote, "particularly one that features a constant parade of pervs, solons, swindlers, bums and punks."

Kevin Convey, the Herald's editor says, "The Globe is more likely to write a story about how some government program is going to assist the poor and downtrodden. We're more likely to suggest it's a boondoggle that ought to be bounced off the face of the Earth."

Tabloids are more irreverent and prone to report on big names and scandals (a headline for former governor Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the presidential race was "MITT HAPPENS.") But with blogs unconcerned about newsprint costs, there appears to be little room left for tabloids. And with cities such as Boston becoming more "upscale," it is a question whether tabloids are desired anymore.

"Tabloids in some cases say what other papers only think," says Convey. But, "a lot of people find tabloids to be beneath them. In Boston, where the air is a bit more rarefied and you're closer to Harvard, some people have a problem with tabloids. I think there's a certain nobility in tabloids."

"I don't think it's that Massachusetts has become snootier. The old Herald readers are just leaving the state. The blue-collar exodus has affected the paper," says Herald columnist Howie Carr.

The Herald depends on street sales for three-quarters of its circulation. It shut down its Washington bureau, has old presses that break down, and a 125 person staff that struggles to cover the suburbs or out-of-town reports. Moreover, the Herald plans to outsource its printing and move out of its headquarters into rented space. However, it does not plan on changing its snarky tone.

"I don't think it's time to give up the ghost," Convey says.

The Globe, which won a Pulitzer for arts criticism this month, is not thriving either. The paper, has already cut jobs and accepted buyouts. Its only remaining foreign and domestic correspondents are in Washington.

"We're facing the same challenges everyone else is, trying to figure out what the future of the newspaper is going to look like," says Globe editor Martin Baron. "We have become more local. We have significantly scaled back what we do outside the Boston area. We're realists here. We realize the business is changing."

Source: WashingtonPost.com

The Local Media Group has published eight issues of the Burton Local News, a new monthly free newspaper in Staffordshire, and is planning on launching more editions due to the paper's success.

The exact locations for the new papers is unknown, but Doug Price, who co-owns Local Media Group with Kevin Curtis, revealed that "the five-year business plan could see a total of ten new monthly titles."

The title had an initial print run of 33,000 copies, but it has now increased by 2,000 copies because of its popularity. Readers are also able to download an electronic version of the paper on Burton Local News' website.

Price and Curtis began the Local Media Group last year when they decided to combine their experiences at local newspapers for a new business venture. The Burton Local News is produced by a team of ten in Derby, but receives its content from local councils, the police, freelancers, and volunteer photographers and writers in the town.

"It's all voluntary and freelance which keeps cost down," says Price. "But we would never carry any overtly political stuff or spin - and we're not trying to rival the Burton Mail or Burton Trader."

Source: Hold the Front Page

PicLens is a plug-in that transforms browsers such as Firefox into "a 3D environment where you can search, drag, and zoom around thousands of images and videos across the web," according to Alec Jeong from Cooliris, the company that developed PicLens.

Journalist can use this plug-in to search and view thousands of online photos and videos instantly instead of browsing and clicking through web pages and search engines.

The photos can be viewed through thumbnails or on a full screen and can the page the image is on can be automatically accessed. In the future, PicLens plans to allow users to save images directly from the plug-in and to view the images on the users' local hard drives.

PicLens is a free plug-in and available for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. The "3D Wall" interface is available now for Firefox and IE and will soon be available for Safari.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

Last week, Thomson Reuters established an ethics code that forbids its staff from using blogs for internal communications and from communicating with competitors.

Mentioning the company in a personal blog is allowed, but blogging about "confidential info and company clients" is not. Also, a personal blog should not be used as a platform to express differences with co-workers, the company, or those that Thomas Reuters does business with. Furthermore, the staff cannot take gifts.

The code includes suggestions to make sure that people nearby will not be able to see employees' laptop screens, such as: "a nondescript bag will draw less attention than a traditional laptop bag."

Thomson Reuters also has a section devoted to fair competition. It states that employees who attend a conference, trade show, association event, or meeting  should "limit informal contact to the extent possible and keep a written summary of any discussions that may have taken place."

Source: Paidcontent

Pearson is launching a Middle Eastern edition of its business newspaper the Financial Times to meet "increasing reader and advertiser demand for global business news in the Gulf following its emergence as a major international finance and business center," according to Brand Republic. It will be available tomorrow.

"This edition is a further step in our successful global strategy, reflecting the rapidly deepening interface between the region and the international economy," said John Ridding, chief executive of the Financial Times. ""It will provide a further boost to our global circulation and a quality advertising vehicle for businesses seeking to reach senior decision makers in the Middle East."

The staff will consist of Roula Khalaf, Middle East editor in London, and three full-time journalists in Abu Dhabi: Andrew England, Middle East correspondent, James Drummond, Gulf News editor, and Simeon Kerr, Gulf business correspondent. Other journalists will be recruited in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 

FT already has a network of offices in Cairo, Tehran, Jerusalem and Beirut, and they hope to expand with Kerr based in Dubai.

FT also hopes to gain more coverage on the Middle East on its website, as well as revamp the webpage so that is has more video and audio content.

Former Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland launched UAE newspaper The National about two weeks ago, thus making the FT's Middle East edition the second national title to launch in the area this month.

Source: Brand Republic

The Sunderland Echo has teamed up with local commercial radio station Magic to give radio listeners an opportunity to come up with headlines in a weekly competition.

Every Friday morning Steve Colman, radio presenter and Echo columnist, gives listeners a teaser from one of the day's stories, so that they can come up with a witty headline.

"It gives us chance to say what's in the paper that day and it's a nice way to work hand-in-hand with the station," said deputy editor Richard Ord.

Some of the entries are printed in Saturday's Echo and the Echo's editorial team decides if their headline or the listener's headline is better. As of now, the radio listeners are winning with a score of 11 to the Echo's 8.

"It's a great marketing tool and gets the readers' names in the paper," said Ord. "It's just for fun, no prizes, but it's causing much consternation among the subs.

Ord adds that the Echo plans on working with the radio station on many more projects.

Source: Hold the Front Page

Earlier this month, Mayhill Fowler, a citizen journalist, had reported comments made by U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, describing rural, white voters as "bitter," to Huffington Post's blog "Off the Bus." Guardian America editor Michael Tomasky believes there is a need for blogging rules and questions the ethics of citizen journalism, while Jeff Jarvis of the blog Buzzmachine has similar beliefs as Robert Niles that "nothing is off-the-record anymore" and that citizen journalists are now necessary.

Jarvis: "Openness for all"
Jarvis begins by saying that rules are "corrupting" for journalism. Journalists should not engage in off-the-record talks and list unnamed sources because they should not help public officials hide anything from the public. Though some exclusives may be lost, there will be more stories with more openness and more reporting, "and politicians will learn that anything and everything they say and do can (and should) be reported," according to Jarvis. 

Furthermore, Fowler knew Obama's remarks "would be newsworthy," says Jarvis, and though she is an Obama supporter, she chose to let the public know about those remarks so that they could form their own opinions. Also, even if Fowler did not blog for the Huffington Post, she could have reported the story through YouTube or other platforms.

Essentially, journalism is evolving, says Jarvis, with coverage expanding from journalists, witnesses, readers, bloggers, etc.  "Journalism becomes less of a product and more of a process," he remarks.

Tomasky: "Call them "witnesses" and drop the whole conceit that they're journalists"
Though he embraces blogs, mostly for elevating debate, Tomasky cannot see the importance of knowing every single word public people say, since people misspeak and say things they don't really mean.

He argues that though "rules" may cause corruption and secrets, anonymity is sometimes the only way a source with important information will come forward, for example, the Pentagon Papers and intelligence assessments about Iraq before the war

Also, he concedes that most journalists would not be for "hiding" things from the public, but they would favor verifying something before it is published, which is "scarcely complicity in secret-keeping," but rather,  "just being responsible."

As for the Obama incident, Tomasky points out that Fowler got through the doors because she donated money to Obama's campaign, but "veteran journalists" were not allowed in the door. Had those journalists been allowed, they would not have kept those remarks secret.

Jarvis counters, "There's also a difference between verifying such a tip with reporting - which we'll all agree is necessary - and playing that tape-recording, which itself was the verification anyone needed. Obama's words and voice spoke for themselves."

He says that these "witnesses," or citizen journalists, now start the story with papers expanding on them and doing more in-depth research. Because veteran journalists may not be allowed through the door, they must rely on "witnessing," which "will still add up to journalism in the end."

Tomasky remarks that "it's a little sneaky and sleazy to be a citizen ... and then getting to be a journalist for the purposes of writing it up."

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Early February, The Capital Times announced that would reduce its print to and shift most of its content to its website. On Saturday, the paper published its final printed edition with the headline "Beam Us Up."

WISC-TV reported that The Capital Times is down to a daily circulation of 17,000.

"(The circulation decline) really brought into focus for us a conversation about irrelevancy. How can we still be relevant if we have so few printed copies, particularly in a market of this size," said editor Paul Fanlund.

Its free publication will print twice weekly distributed within the Wisconsin State Journal with about 48 pages of in-depth stories, analysis, and commentary on Wednesdays with a circulation of about 80,000 and a revamped Rhythm arts and entertainment insert on Thursdays, with a distribution of at least 115,000.

"The sad part is being able to hold that newspaper in your hand, which for me, is going to be a big loss, personally," said Dave Zweifel, the newspaper's editor emeritus.

The Capital Times, printing since December 13, 1917, is believed to be the first daily newspaper to "make this kind of a transition to the Web," according to WISC-TV. "If it's successful, it's likely other struggling papers will follow suit."

For more information, visit our partner blog SFN.

Source: WISC-TV, Madison.com

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with Dan Bogler, Managing Editor of the Financial Times in the UK.

Click here to view all interviews in this series. Other titles include The New York Times, the Guardian, Fairfax Media, the Hindustan Times, etc. (full list at the bottom of the interview).


Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"


- How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We see ourselves as a news organization and we're becoming much more agnostic about our distribution channels. We're becoming much more interested in creating relevant information for our readers and much less interested in how it gets to the readers. Pearson, the parent company, clearly is an education company with a print publishing arm and an information division, which includes the FT. At the FT level, we consider ourselves to be a financial news business more than a newspaper. Our mission is to be the gold standard for global business news in print and online - and in any other formats.

- At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

Largely but not completely. 10 years from now - 2014 may be slightly too short a time frame - we will still have printed newspapers, because people like reading  things in print. Newspapers, just like the book, are convenient to read in places you can't do with a computer; but my belief is that a lot of what will be printed will be analysis, comment, analysis and opinion. The actual news will be more or less online or in other more timely formats. In a way the FT will split in two, with FT.com for all the news that's breaking and some immediate reactions and  opinion. The more considered analysis will be almost an Economist-type publication. Maybe it wouldn't have to be broadsheet anymore, it could be tabloid or even magazine format. To put it very crudely, you'd have all the news online, and you'd have 12 pages of Martin Wolf the next day in print, and all the editorials, columnists, features and more.

- In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

There's one thing that's old and one thing that's new. What's old and part of the continuum is that traditional companies are going online. Our journalists are now fully integrated and write online and in print. I'm sure that in 2 years time they'll all be carrying video cameras. We've gone from zero videos website to over 100 per month in the last 18 months. That's part of the continuum: it's us doing the same thing in different distribution channels.

What's new is the blogosphere, citizen journalists and the idea that anyone - people who are not qualified journalists, either experts in a narrow field or just interested citizens - can start a blog or website and distribute it. For the FT, you would think it's negative in the sense that there's more news and opinion and more competitors. In fact, that's not really true, it almost enhances the position of leading media brands for several reasons. One is we are trusted, people believe the news they read with us. Secondly, we select and edit, which becomes an increasingly crucial function as there is more information out there. The more 'over-informed' people are, the more likely people who want to know what's actually going on will turn to a few sources that tell them what s actually important. That's what professional newspapers do really well.

- Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

I do believe in their increasingly active role of users: very often readers are more informed than us. If you look at an old format like the letters page in the newspaper, the amount of expertise that our readers have, who are often professionals in the City, is just incredible. They know more about it in certain aspects than our journalists. That's why we get CEOs, academics, lawyers, heads of accountancy firms and more writing in to us to say what's actually happening. They can do this online with comments or take part in Q&As, or print their views in the pages of the FT and FT.com. That sort of content is very helpful. We also have a function for any user to comment on the website's stories.

Is it a threat? Sure, to some extent. But as long as it's happening on our site or in the pages of our newspaper, it's been bundled, monitored, checked for quality and therefore is important. We're not going to turn into a place where we just repeat hundreds of readers' letters and have no journalists of our own. It's more of an opportunity for our journalists to become more informed and build contacts among readers. And it's amazing that all these readers are willing to give this information for free.

- Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

I don't know. That's a really hard one. I might say it's already past.

There's so much more information out there and it's so much harder for companies to hide information. Take the Northern Rock story, which was broken by BBC journalists, and there was a bank run as a result. It's harder to hide information. The idea that journalists have to do long-term, deep, undercover investigations where they reveal something months later - I don't think it works like that anymore. Journalists still have scoops and still break important stories, but it tends to be in a much shorter time frame. It tends to be a single development that they're breaking rather than a long series of connections.

But frankly, newspapers and media organizations are under pressure. It's hard for us to send a journalist or a group of journalists off three months investigating something - and if nothing works that's a shame but nevermind. We don't have resources to let people go off and do that for such a long time. I think The Golden Age of journalists working undercover, developing sources and breaking big scandals is less likely; but revealing news that people don't want out there, on a short term basis, uncovering a scandal and having it come to light, that's more likely. As soon as a tiny thing breaks now, it gets distributed so quickly that it's hard to see a journalist working undercover for a long time and gradually piecing something together without having it go public much earlier in the process.


Stay tuned for more interviews in our series. Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times - Dan Bogler (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)

Newspapers are currently very good at text and photography.

But, said Chet Rhodes, Assistant Managing Editor for News Video at washingtonpost.com: "I think of the news organization of the future as being a stool with three legs, the third leg is video. Right now we're all learning how to build the third leg of that stool so we can sit on it."

Will video ever be more important than text on the Post's site? No, he said. But the combination of all three media will make the news organization stool stable.

The Post currently has 175 print reporters trained to shoot news videos. All training was done in-house, on the online side, with Rhodes and his team of three dedicated video staffers.

The reporters use handheld Canon AS 570IS cameras, about 50 of which are deployed across the various desks. On a typical day, washingtonpost.com can get 3-5 videos, although sometimes there are none. Washingtonpost.com also has a department for documentary, enterprise-type video, with staffers using Sony HDDV professional equipment.

So here are a few tips and strategies from Rhodes and the Washington Post for effective news video training and shooting.

Shooting and organization:
 
- At the beginning, in order to make people comfortable, "We're willing to accept 'bad' quality as long as the content is interesting," said Rhodes. Within three years though, he hopes to have 300 trained print journalists who produce high quality video.
- "We keep editing expertise here (at washingtonpost.com) because video doesn't appear in the newspaper," as editing for reporters remains a challenge and specialized skill.
- "We don't want reporters to try to shoot documentaries." One minute video interviews and a few simple shots of a breaking news scene are perfect.
- In fact, on the Web, videos featuring a standup reporter in TV fashion don't work.
- The "WP, WH, WN" rule: Videos should be introduced by a presentation of the outlet, in this case the Washington Post. Then comes the story and "WH" (what's happening). Lastly, reporters conclude videos by giving their insight on "what's next." "Our reporters can tell people what's next in a way that no television reporters can do," because for the most part they don't have the same deep knowledge as do newspaper reporters," said Rhodes. And few broadcasters can afford to have journalistic staffs comparable to those of newspapers.

Training:

- keep training on a voluntary basis. If the newsroom culture is open to the requirements of digital reporting, there will be many volunteers.
- the bulk of training isn't about teaching reporters to do good journalism: it's about them learning which stories are good for video. So reporters learn to pick up a camera on their own when they go on an assignment and file the videos.
- Print reporters come in for a hands-on, personable, four-hour training session. But importantly, this short session should be "the start of a conversation that lasts several years."
- Reassure reporters worried they'll miss out on traditional reporting: "if you feel you're going to miss something, don't do the video," Rhodes tells reporters. Video shouldn't come in the way of text reporting: "Let them decide that, give them the power."

Is video in itself currently profitable for the Post? He couldn't say, but video is costly to produce: consider that washingtonpost.com has a team of four dedicated staffers just for news videos, including Rhodes, as well as contracted shooters. Videos bought from the Associated Press and other outlets are also expensive.

However, looking at US industry standards, a typical video pre-roll ad brings the equivalent in revenue of 7-10 page views (typical pre-roll ad CPM is $20-50, compared to 2-5$ for a typical web Page).

Therefore, on paper, the future of newspaper Web video is viable. Up to newspapers to make the third leg sturdy.

These tips were gathered during the World Editors Forum study tour in the US. More videos, tips and interviews will be published soon.
 

Trinity Mirror will shut down eight free weekly newspapers in Derby and Peterborough due to a lack of a buyer for its Midlands division last year. 23 employees, six in editorial, will reportedly be made redundant.

Trinity reported that it had no plans to close any other publications in the division, including the Birmingham Mail and the Coventry Evening Telegraph.

"It is a very sad day when newspaper titles close and we looked hard at alternative measures to try and prevent this decision," said Steve Brown, the regional managing director of Trinity Mirror Midlands.

"However, the remaining titles in the Trinity Mirror Midlands marketplace remain strong and the management team is focused on continuing to grow audiences and products across the rest of the region."

The eight papers that will close are: the Derby Trader, the Peterborough Herald and Post, the Ilkeston Trader, Ripley Trader, Belper Bugle, Stamford Herald and Post, Whittlesey Standard, and Deepings Standard.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Are newspapers always objective in their reporting, giving their readers all the perspectives  so that the readers can developed an informed opinion of their own? The Hoot, based in New Delhi, looked at four Indian newspapers, the Times of India, the Hindustan Times, the Hindu, and the Indian Express, from March 15 to April 7 to examine the coverage on the Tibetan protests in Lhasa and other places and the Chinese and international response.

The Hoot found that the Hindu and Indian Express were "narrower in their breadth of coverage and less inclined to give all sides of the story." The Indian Express had catchy headlines that supported Tibet, but did not cover other aspects of the story. The Hindu had less than half of the number of items on this story than the Times of India and was the only paper that did not have a story on Tibet everyday and that had a pro-China headline.

The four papers also shaped each story differently, evident on the March 17 headlines: Hindustan Times: "Unrest spreads to Sichuan.", Times Of India: "Lhasa lockdown, violence continues.", Indian Express: "Beijing declares  'peoples war', troops pour into Lhasa", and the Hindu: Lhasa returns to normal.

Examining the bias in each paper through their editorials, the Hoot found that The Hindu was "the most unequivocal one."  On March 26, they ran a story called "The question of Tibet," which included a statement on the violence by Tibetans in Lhasa, critics of China's handling, and a look at China's options. The story concluded with a negative slant toward New Delhi for giving the Dalai Lama and his followers too much freedom for their political activities in India. The Hindu also described the Tibetans as "rioters," while the other three papers called them "protesters."

The Indian Express was also explicit in its stance, by writing that democracies must allow peaceful protests on their soil in their Olympic Torch editorials on March 29 and April 5.

The Times of India "urged China to talk to the Dalai Lama, and urged India to stand up to Chinese threats and ensure that "Beijing respects the differences between the political systems in the two countries."

The Hindustan Times highlighted India's interests by reminding its readers that the conflict was taking place on Indian ground. It recommended "deepening Sino-Indian relations through economic engagement."

On April 14, The Hindu's readers editor acknowledged that the paper's coverage lacked balance, and "that there was a surprising absence of letters to the Editor on the issue," according to the Hoot. He quoted from readers' complaints on the type and amount of coverage on the issue, wrote his own thoughts on the situation, and gave the chief editor space to respond.

The Hoot also found that what is newsworthy for some, is not for others. For example, The Hindustan Times had three stories on the disruption of the Olympic torch ceremony in Greece on March 25, while the Times of India had two. The Hindu and Indian Express chose not to cover this incident.

A survey conducted earlier this year found that 70.8% of the respondents believed that stories were "sensationalized" by the media and that 57.1% felt there were "many obstacles to practicing value-based journalism. All news stories have an angle, but should newspapers be completely objective or should newspapers have strong opinions? "

Source: The Hoot through AMF
 

The Telegraph Media Group's websites had a big rise in traffic last month with almost 5 million more unique users from February to March, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Guardian.co.uk was the most popular UK national newspaper website, though it fell from 19.5 million users in February to 18.7 million in March, a 4.18% drop. Year-on-year, it was up 35.92%.

Mail/Mail on Sunday gained 5.50% from February, moving from 17.0 million to almost 18 million unique users.

The Telegraph had a record 17 million unique users in March, a 38.69% month-on-month increase up from 12.2 million in February. It is now the third most popular UK national newspaper website, behind Guardian.co.uk and the Mail/Mail on Sunday.

The paper partly attributed to this success "to a string of major news stories" and "in depth coverage of the Budget for which it built a micro-site and commissioned exclusive videos on Telegraph TV," according to journalism.co.uk.

"March has been a tremendous month for us, with UK and global traffic more than doubling year on year," said Barry Flanigan, marketing director, Telegraph Media Group. "We are extremely pleased with the way our multimedia strategy has helped drive performance and our Budget coverage is a great example of this."

Mirror Group Digital debuted its ABCe figures this month with 4.4 million unique users for March.

For more statistics, go here and here.

Source: Guardian.co.uk, Journalism.co.uk

Digital Journal has relaunched its citizen journalism site, where regular contributors are now eligible for a share of the "moneypot," an initiative comprised of advertising revenue.

Being the first online community to share a portion of revenue to users distinguishes Digital Journal from competitors such as Newsvine and Norg.

The initiative applies to news stories instead of blogs, journals, groups, photos or video. Also, rather than the popularity of individual posts, the initiative calculates the number of news stories uploaded by each citizen journalists.

That system is interesting since it could encourage quantity instead of quality, but the Digital Journal board must approve the work of each citizen journalist who wants to be paid, in order to check spelling and grammar, as well as to judge the journalist's ability to "find and research relevant news,"  according to Journalism.co.uk.

The site has reportedly doled out $38,000 to citizen journalists.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

In a joint venture, free daily De Pers and Internet business platform IEX.nl launched De Financiële Pers, a business daily spin-off on Thursday.

The first issue counted 32 pages and is handed out in business centers in major cities.

This is the fifth national free daily in the Netherlands.

For more information, visit our partner site SFN.

Source: Newspaper Innovation

The Boston Globe has accepted at least 23 applications for buyouts from the newsroom and editorial staffers, according to a memo from editor Martin Baron. The paper has avoided layoffs and has reduced staff through "ordinary departures and frozen positions," reads the memo.

Baron writes that the list of those taking the buyout will not be disclosed "out of respect for employees who prefer not to have their names widely disseminated."

Adam Reilly from the Boston Phoenix concedes that this move is sensitive to the employees, but does not fully consider the readers who "may be wondering which of their favorite writers might be leaving."

Boston Daily has revealed some names: Steve Bailey left the Globe, though not through the buyout, and Jackie MacMullan took the buyout to spend more time with her family. The Daily also speculates that Gordon Edes will move to Yahoo! Sports, and that basketball writer Peter May will also leave.

The next few weeks, the Globe anticipates to internally fill positions that are necessary, giving "new opportunities for staffers," but also creating "some additional uncertainty," writes Baron.

Sources: Poynter Romenesko, Boston Phoenix through Poynter Romenesko, Boston Daily, Editor & Publisher

The new Wall Street Journal was rolled out earlier this week with some significant changes. Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) examines how the 119-year-old WSJ has changed since Rupert Murdoch took control, focusing on the front page every other weekday, and how the WSJ stands up next to The New York Times, Murdoch's declared competitor.

- The front page changed focus in the first four months from business coverage to domestic politics and international issues.
- From Dec. 13, 2007 to March 13, 2008, the front page covered politics and the presidential campaign three times as much, from 5% (four months before Murdoch) to 18%.
- Consequently, coverage of corporate American decreased more than half to 14% of front page space, compared to 30% pre-Murdoch.
- Coverage of foreign events that "do not directly involve the U.S." jumped from 18% to 25%. 9% of that relates to overseas economic and business affairs.
- Health and medicine dropped from 5% to less than 1%.
- Transportation issues dropped from 3% to 0%.
- Environmental topics dropped from 3% to 1%.

Categories that seemingly remain unchanged:
- Economics stayed at 15%.
- Coverage of foreign events "in which the U.S. played a major role" remained at 4%.
- Lifestyle coverage stayed at about 4% as well as education at 3%.

An example of the "changing news agenda" was the front page on April 21, the day before the presidential election Pennsylvania primary. There were two campaign stories and the headline: T "Latest Attacks Roil Democrats." A "more traditional Journal story," about problems at smaller-to-midsize banks was pushed to the bottom half of the page with a story about "easing tensions between China and a small island controlled by Taiwan," according to PEJ.


PEJ observes that the front pages of the WSJ and NY Times from Dec. 13, 2007 to March 13, 2008 are "not the same, certainly not yet."
- Politics: WSJ devotes 18% of the newshole to politics, but the Times filled 27% of its newshole with politics.
- Business: WSJ still gave more coverage with 14%  than the Times with 4%.
- Economics: WSJ covered it more with 15%, compared to the Times with 9%.
- Foreign affairs involving the U.S.:  The Times at 8% produced about twice as much coverage as the Journal at 4%.
- International events not directly related to the U.S.: The Journal had more coverage at 25% to the Times attention at 17%.

For the complete list of statistics, visit PEJ's website.

Source: PEJ (photos) through LA Times News Alerts

Now German speakers don't need a computer to look up something on Wikipedia. Major German publisher Bertelsmann, whose divisions include Random House Inc. and Sony BMG, is publishing "The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia," a collection of the most popular German language Wikipedia entries.

The project is not meant to be a re-creation of the site in book form, but rather "as an attempt to harness the collective wisdom of Wikipedia's users," according to Bertelsmann.

"We think of it as an encyclopedic yearbook," Dr. Beate Varnhorn, the editor in charge of Bertelsmann's reference works said. "A yearbook really can be a documentation of the zeitgeist."

There are more restrictions in a printed version: Wikipedia online features hyperlinks that takes a user from topic to topic, but a reader of the printed version will have to manually get to different entries. Whereas the German version of the website has more than 750,000 different articles, the 992 paged printed version will have 25,000 articles with about 1,000 photographs.

On the other hand, a staff of 10 condensed and verified the online material, so that the printed version will be an accurate, credible source.

Varnhorn is optimistic because of Germany's "strong encyclopedic culture." She hopes to especially target a younger audience.

There will be entries on French first lady Carla Bruni, Nintendo Wii, and German writers and musicians.

"The approach of 'Wikipedia in One Volume' is to give the people the information they are looking for," Arne Klempert, the group's executive director said, contrasting that approach to "the process of publishing a traditional encyclopedia put together by a select group of people behind closed doors."

"This is the most important difference from traditional encyclopedias," he said. "It's also an important thing in that the sense of the Wikipedia spirit will go into this printed volume."

If the 2008 version is successful, there is a possibility of other editions. The printed Wikipedia will go on sale in September for €19.95, or $31.80. Bertelsmann will pay €1 per copy sold for use of the Wikipedia name, which will support the site's operations, according to Klempert.

Source: New York Times, Yahoo News

Followthemedia's Philip M. Stone believes it's time for editorial and advertising departments to work together to increase print's revenue, so that their publication has enough money. Jobs in editorial depend on advertising, and advertising needs help from editorial to bring in money, writes Stone.

"Let's remove the stigma [of the two departments not working together] and rename the newsroom the content room," writes Stone.

He cites an example from the 1980s when United Press International brought in Max McCrohan as the new editor-in-chief. He decided that there would be monthly special projects, each focusing on a specific topic, which would allow the newspaper's advertising department to sell special sections. Each special section was delivered several weeks in advance, so, for instance, a section on gardening would be produced in February for April, and would receive ads from gardening centers, etc. The money earned from the special section paid for UPI's monthly subscription fee and more.

So Stone proposes that a newspaper's advertising and editorial departments should locally agree on a monthly topic for a special section. The editorial department would provide the copy and supplementals while advertising "sells the hell out of it," and potentially find new advertisers for those sections.

Stone acknowledges that stories should not be changed to favor an advertiser, and newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post have honored that "journalistic purity," as Stone calls it.

"But the business of newspaper journalism today is to stay in business," writes Stone. "Newspaper departments need to act as a team as never before; the newspaper needs to provide that product to the community that encourages the community to support print."

Source: Follow the Media
 
 

Last week, Abu Dhabi's first English-language daily, The National, debuted in UAE newsstands and sold out, carrying more advertising than planned.

Editor-in-chief Martin Newland, former Daily Telegraph editor, said the paper "has struggled to keep up with demand from readers and advertisers," and has "sold out two days running."

Newland hopes to increase the paper's frequency from six to seven days a week and a daily circulation between 80,000 and 90,000.

The first edition featured an exclusive interview with Tony Blair, now the Middle East envoy for the United Nations, European Union, US and Russia.

"The printing has been very difficult," Newland said. "We found ourselves without press capacity, so in the true style of things over here they bought a press for millions of dollars from India and flew it in bit by bit."

The National is funded by the Abu Dhabi government. Newland has hired a number of former colleagues to join the editorial team, including ex-Telegraph foreign editor Alan Philps as associate editor and former Sunday Telegraph New York correspondent James Langton as news features editor.


Source: Press Gazette

One of Scotland's largest contract publishing agencies, Connect Communications, will distribute Fife Life, a new 16-page quarterly community paper, for free to 170,000 homes in Fife, starting this summer.

The paper will include articles and advertisements from public sector bodies such as local councils, the NHS, and the police, and will not carry commercial advertising or classifieds as of yet, according to senior editor Jim Byers, formerly of the Herald and Scottish Sunday Mirror.

"It's a completely different entity [to paid-for newspapers]. It's a community newspaper, it's free and it's designed for a different market," he said.

Fife Life, had previously been published before under the same name by another publishing company, and will now be printed at Newsquest's Glasgow plant.

Source: Press Gazette

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company, outlined the company's four-pronged turnaround strategy at the company's annual meeting on Tuesday, which includes developing online and mobile platforms:

1) New print and online products, such as expanding the T style magazines, which "brought in revenue of $45 million in 2007," according to the New York Times.
2) Cost-cutting: The company set a goal of reducing costs by $230 million by the end of 2009.
3) A "rebalance of assets", for example the sale of broadcast media group last year and investments in technology providers like Epsilen.
4) Research and development: adapting content for mobile devices and other products.

Chief executive Janet L. Robinson noted that online revenue growth declined to 11.6% for the quarter, while a year earlier it was at 21.6%. She said that the company had invested $500 million in new media since 2005 and is now "experimenting with different online advertising formats to attract advertisers," such as working with Google's AdSense to text ads on its science, home and garden and dining sites.

Also, the company's regional group has joined Yahoo's newspaper consortium, and the company has joined quadrantONE, which sells advertising space on sites owned by the Hearst Corporation, the Tribune Company, and the Gannett Company.

Source: The New York Times through Poynter Romenesko

Though there are economic strains on the journalism industry, Paul Myners, chairman of Guardian Media Group, remarked that journalists are not driven out of the industry, but instead are working on other mediums, such as blogs, radio, and local television, which reinforces a previous statement by Mediashift.

"The type of people doing work which might broadly be described as journalistic, may not have necessarily decreased to the extent of the proportion who are working in the newspaper industry," said Myner.  "Someone who was previously described as a journalist who sat at a typewriter, now podcasts, now speaks to video, now blogs online. It is a more challenging and appealing job.

Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said otherwise: "The plight of staff in the newspaper industry should not be overshadowed by increased new media opportunities for journalists."

He argued that staff "are spread ever more thinly across more media" and that there are "a lack of resources and understaffing." with a smaller number of journalists trying to deliver more content in more platforms.

Concurrently, the U.S. has suffered the biggest staff drop this year. Our colleague Robb Montgomery from Visual Editors has captured the hard times through images here and here.

However, Myners noted that in the last 12 months, the Guardian Media Group appointed 60 new journalists to its national titles in order to further their digital content, since their readership is moving online. According to Myners, more people read the Guardian's US website than read the print versions in the UK, Guardian.co.uk  was the most popular UK newspaper website in February with 19,519,923 unique users, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCE).

"We have gone from being a provincial newspaper... to an international, liberal voice on the web," he said.

He added that "the proportion of journalists at the Observer and Guardian covering international news has increased."

But Myners cautioned that the declining economy will lead to more regional newspaper mergers and more free sheets, which does not rule out the Manchester Evening News from being completely free in the city center yet being sold on the outskirts.

"It is an economic model which accurately reflects the cost of distribution," Myners said.

However, the freesheet model does not seem to be doing significantly better than traditional newspapers.

Source: Journalism.co.uk ,Press Gazette

The Telegraph Media Group has appointed Adrian Michaels, the Financial Times' Milan correspondent, to the newly created position of head of foreign operations in another step towards print and online integration. Michaels will oversee the group's network of correspondents and will run world news output across the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk.

"Adrian has been a subeditor, news editor, and foreign correspondent, making him ideally suited to lead our new integrated world news operation. He will be a real asset to the Telegraph's executive team," TMG editor-in-chief Will Lewis said.

Daily Telegraph foreign editor Mike Smith will leave the foreign desk and will assume a new role, while Sunday Telegraph foreign editor David Wastell will not change positions.

The Telegraph Media Group has made several staff changes, including laying off home news journalists, as well as arts correspondent Nigel Reynolds. They have also changed people's roles, such as giving former Sunday Telegraph deputy editor Iain Martin the new role of head of comment and community for both newspapers' comment sections and the Telegraph's online blogs.

Source: Guardian.co.uk through IFRA Executive News Service

Free dailies had attributed most of their success to the amount of time people spent in public transports, but are now facing the same problems as traditional newspapers: drops in advertising revenue and competition from other freesheets. They are particularly affected by declines in advertising since they rely heavily on advertising for their revenue.

Metro International SA, the biggest publisher of free daily papers around the world, which has a daily circulation of 23 million copies in 23 countries, had their revenue fall 6.1% to €73.4 million, or $116 million, in the first quarter from a year earlier.

"The U.S. market is probably the worst it has been since the 1930s for media companies," Metro chief executive Per Mikael Jensen said.

Metro is now cutting jobs (eliminating 27 jobs in January, leaving a staff of 100 in the U.S.), closing some papers, potentially selling its New York, Boston and Philadelphia papers to another media company, and trying to improve their Metro website, which was launched last month.

Jensen noted that "Metro made some mistakes in the U.S. by not expanding quickly enough into enough cities. As a result, it wasn't big enough to get the attention of major advertisers."

Another daily free paper that has been affected by financial reasons was BostonNOW, which shut down, even though its circulation was on the rise.

Source: Wall Street Journal (photo) through IFRA Executive News Service

Publisher and managing editor of FT.com Ien Cheng believes that publishers need to model themselves on technology companies, by working quickly and being more responsive.  

"Change is hard for anyone, and I think it's a historic challenge for traditional publishers now," says Cheng. "The challenge for us is to become not just a publisher but a technology company in order to support that publisher."

Cheng's strategy involves, according to Guardian.co.uk blogger Jemima Kiss: "
- improving the development of new editorial products
- refining the subscription model
- changing the way the business works internally."

FT.com had 7.1 million unique users last month and a 72% increase in page views, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

"We need to learn from the web start-up and pure play web company approach that has technology much closer with the business. Publishers can't just think it's the it department over the wall that they throw stuff to. You've got to have the right platform, approach, mindset and processes to keep up," says Cheng.

Cheng remarks that there are technical changes, such as making the site run faster and appointing a new chief technology officer, but there are also editorial changes, such as expanding video coverage to about 150 reports a month. Last month, the site had over 1 million video views.

Though video and mobile are a priority, the most important thing is "remodeling the company to become more agile and to launch products in a more iterative, webby way," reports Kiss.

Cheng notes that advertising grew 40% this year and subscriptions 11-12%, with 10-15,000 people subscribing registering each week. The Financial Times newspaper also boasts an increase in circulation.

"Frankly, [every traditional news brand] shouldn't all survive," says Cheng. "But the ones that provide a sustainable value to users will not only survive but will be stronger. That will be good for consumers and good for journalism."

Source: Guardian.co.uk

While the Olympic athletes race around the track to cheering crowds, policemen outside the stadium race after a man carrying a placard that reads, "Freedom of the Press."

The animated cartoon, like the still image above, can be downloaded here. It is just one of the cartoons and other editorial materials being offered for publication in newspapers, on websites and for broadcast on World Press Freedom Day, 3 May.

The cartoons, both the animated and print versions, were created by noted French cartoonist Michel Cambon exclusively for the World Association of Newspapers, which is making them available for world-wide publication.

The theme of the World Press Freedom Day initiative is "The Olympic Challenge: Free the Press in China!" and the campaign is dedicated to holding Chinese authorities to the pledges they made in their successful Olympic bid to allow greater press freedom.

Despite the promises of reform made ahead of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese authorities have intensified their crackdown on journalists and others who seek to exercise their right to freedom of expression. With at least 30 journalists and 50 cyber-dissidents in prison, China is the world's largest jailer of journalists.

Chinese journalists continue to face censorship and repression and authoritarian laws, including subversion, disseminating state secrets and spying, are used by the government to control and restrict newsgathering and information and to jail journalists.

Foreign journalists now reporting from China are regularly harassed and even expelled, as was the case during the March 2008 events in Tibet. This violates the Organising Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games pledge that foreign media would have "complete freedom to report when they come to China".

In addition to the cartoons, the materials available for publication on 3 May include advertisements, essays, infographics, photos, and materials for young people. The materials are available in English, French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese here.

Source: WAN

A source reveals that Tribune Co. is very close to selling Long Island based Newsday to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for about $580 million.

The terms state that "Newsday would be part of a joint venture with News Corp's money-losing New York Post, allowing the two publications to combine back office operations", the source said. The Wall Street Journal said the deal "is expected to wipe out as much as $50 million in annual losses that News Corp now incurs on the Post."

News Corp would own most of the company, while Tribune would retain a very small part but would receive "anywhere between $500 million and $600 million", under News Corp's terms.

Selling Newsday would help Tribune chief executive Sam Zell cut debt at the company, which is over $10 billion.

"The combined operation would be profitable," newspaper analyst John Morton said. "There would be some administrative and production cost savings but the real goal would be to combine the advertising appeal and sell that jointly for advertisers that want both Long Island and New York City coverage."

Analysts said "a combined operation would also place News Corp's New York Post in a much stronger position against [the New York Daily News]."

Mortimer Zuckerman, owner of the Post's newspaper rival, the Daily News, is reportedly planning to submit a new, formal bid by the end of the week for Newsday.

Because the U.S. government restricts the number of papers that media companies can own in markets where they also own television stations, the deal could be hindered with Murdoch owning The Wall Street Journal and Fox affiliate WNYW-TV, in addition to the Post.

Source: Reuters

On Monday, RedEye, the Chicago Tribune's free communter daily tabloid, launched a Facebook application that gave readers an opportunity to be one of the five in "Five on Five," the daily mock sports quiz.

The quiz features five regular RedEye writers or fictional characters, such as Bag Boy, who wears a shopping bag over his head. They irreverently respond to five sports-themed questions.

Readers can give their own responses on the Facebook page, which will be voted on by other Facebook users. The winner receives a chance to appear in the paper as one of the five.

On Monday, the question on Facebook was: "Danica Patrick winning a race against men is like ... ," which received the response "... Martina Navratilova winning a tennis tournament against women," from RedEye columnist Jimmy Greenfield. The top-scoring reader entry came Thursday afternoon from Jonathan Ozeran: "...is like Hillary winning...oh, never mind."

Many newspapers are turning to social networking sites like Facebook to gain more readers and to receive more reader participation.

Frequent "Five on Five" contributor Bag Boy said, "Facebook is for delusional people with too much time on their hands. That's why I'm confident all Chicago sports fans will join me on it."

Source: Editor & Publisher

A new global study of social media use shows that the consumers in the U.S. and Western Europe are more likely to be "passive social-media participants," sharing videos and reading blogs, while those in emerging markets "often create content through blogging, social networks and video and photo sharing sites."

The Interpublic Group media agency had found in its first survey, which was conducted in 2006, a little over half of respondents said they read blogs. Their latest survey found that over 70% did.

Universal McCann conducted surveys to 17,000 Internet users to "track the global rise of consumer-generated content and online communities" over a period of time:
- Their first survey found that 30% watched video online, while this year over 80% had. Video watching platforms such as YouTube has caused watching video clips to become mainstream.
- In 2006, less than 30% said they set up a social network profile, while this year over 60% had. The survey shows big increases in listening to podcasts, subscribing to RSS feeds, commenting on news items, and most other online sharing activities.

Though social media is a global phenomenon, UM found that the way people use social media is more of a cultural difference.
- A little over 60% of Internet users in the U.S. said they read blogs, whereas 26% had created one. Over 70% of Internet users blog in South Korea and China, and about 90% of South Koreans read blogs and 88% read blogs in China.
 
"By and large, in the U.S. we're a country of voyeurs," said David Cohen, U.S. director of digital communications at UM. "We love to watch and consume content created by others, but there's a fairly small group that are doing that creation -- unlike China, which is a country of creators."

Source: Adweek