June 2008 Archives

PBS.org blogger Dan Schultz published an article on the ways to distinguish online journalists from online citizens and the roles that each one plays in a media system such as a newspaper site.

According to the article, the system should:

-Recognize quantity
-Recognize accuracy
-Recognize quality
-Recognize wisdom
-Recognize roles

Active and responsive users with clear judgement and insightful and valid contributions may be further categorized as corresponding to journalists or citizens, depending on what role the system associate him or her with.

"There are a few risks you need to keep in mind: make sure the system isn't overcomplicated, make sure the rewards don't get in the way of journalistic ideals, and make sure users can't ever get unfairly powerful," Schultz said.

Schultz pointed out that even if a site may not care about classification, weighing a user's history could make the site "more intelligent" "more responsive" and "more rewarding".

Newspaper sites could use these tips to help understand what users' participation benefits them and possibly study the ways in which interaction may be improved.  

Source: PBS.org

See also:

US: The Hartford Courant's thoughtful citizen journalism venture

In his blog, Steven Outing discussed the Global Conference on the Individuated Newspaper and the innovative approaches to personalized news that newspapers can adopt to attract more readers.

Key points of the conference included:

-using the available technology to give "individuated" news. This implies having a content management system that can handle personalized editions.
-younger audiences experience individuated media through many platforms including Facebook, iTunes/iPod, mobile phones, etc.
-individuated news is "inevitable" and newspapers have to evolve.

Rocky Mountain News reported that, due to the constraints of print, newspapers have provided people with a broad selection of content that might not appeal to every reader.

"It seems we can turn all the new-found power of the Internet - that so easily empowers people to personalize their news - and generate a whole new type of newspaper with greater relevance and value. Call it the reverse- published newspaper," said Dean Singleton, MediaNews CEO and chairman of the Associated Press board of directors.

Several examples of reverse-publishing have emerged in the US, with varied success, including the Rocky News' YourHub.com or the Chicago Tribune's Triblocal.

According to Rocky Mountain News, readers should participate in the journalistic process by specifying what it is they want to read about. If news organizations are to remain successful, they should look into customizing their content for each individual.

This makes some people worry that a lot of news might become focused on less serious issues like Britney Spears' latest misdemeanour. Journalism professor Vin Crosbie disagreed, because control of the news agenday will always remain divided between professional editors and users.

Source: SteveOuting.com, Rocky Mountain News

See also:

Goole News app for Facebook

The Irish Times is one of the latest to launch a free website, after being subscription-only for around five years.

According to PaidContent.co.uk, the site itself will have richer content and will allow readers to interact more successfully with each other and with the newspaper staff.

The Irish Times is currently integrating its newsroom. "In a new world where trust and accuracy are often the casualties of speed," it will also seek to further co-ordinate print and online content.

"The move to a free Irish Times on the web follows in the recent footsteps of many leading newspaper titles in the world today, among them the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times," wrote the Times.


Source: PaidContent.co.uk through David Black, IrishTimes.com

See also:

La Tribune opens archives, another news site edges towards free
User traffic increases after the closure of TimesSelect
UK: Guardian integration/ away from editorial funnel towards dual overhead

Advertisers continue to spend a fraction of their online ad expenditure on video ads, even when millions of people watch online videos every day, but the business model for online video is starting to emerge. Editors are still seeking the most effective formats for online advertising.  

According to MediaShift, online video ads are "ready to bloom" thanks to:

-audience and ad inventory exploding on sites like Hulu or CNN Online
-standard advertising guidelines created by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) that would unify advertisers
-Google allowing longer independent films on YouTube to increase professional quality of content and allowing video producers to sell their ads
-small and medium businesses (SMBs) began using video ads, thanks to online Yellow Pages, Google's AdSense and video production start-ups like PixelFish and TurnHere

Short one-minute videos, similar to TV ads and infomercials, may sometimes be more effective for small businesses that don't have the resources to produce their own video ads. Video production companies like TurnHere provide documentary type video profiles created by independent producers.  

PixelFish, a popular video production company, has had 20 % average revenue increase every month in 2008, according to John McIntyre, CEO.

Video ad formats: pre-roll or not?

Video ads are interesting for newspapers, according to Eric Janssen, online director of Memphis newspaper Commercial Appeal. His newspaper has used various advertising formats but he said "advertorial formats work better from a selling perspective."

Bur advertisers "cringe" at the thought of investing 10 % in online video ads, even though they spend "thousands of dollars into TV without any real way to measure the effectiveness."

Short clips tend to work better with "non-interruptive" interactive overlays while longer clips tend to work better with pre-rolls.

Steve Safran, senior vice president of media consultancy group AR & D's Media 2.0 division, said that "pre-roll is dying." He mentioned that "overlays are an improvement" since they target viewers based on what they watch. "The way to sell video is by the demographic, one viewer at a time," he said.

As internet revenue for newspapers grows and their Web-based audience increases, it seems strange that advertisers don't follow, especially during the current newspaper ad revenue crisis.

Source: MediaShift

See also:

Ad-blocking software may threaten $40-billion-a-year online ad industry
US: The troubled economics of online advertising

In order to manage its extensive programming schedule, the BBC will send a staff of 437 to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The BBC's programming will feature 2,750 hours of coverage, commentary from former athletes, and constant live feeds. In addition, this year's Olympics will be the first games broadcasted in high definition.

"It is way beyond just a brilliant sporting spectacle," said Huw Edwards, anchor of the 10 o'clock news.

Here are some highlights from the weblog's past coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics:

*Journalists awaiting Beijing Olympics: manage expectations

*Olympics "catastrophic" for press freedom

*Australia: Olympic Committee deal allows websites to carry Olympic content

*China: International Media Centre to be accessible for all during 2008 Olympics

Source: The Guardian

The swan song of the subeditor is growing louder: City AM is striking its entire subeditorial team, the Guardian reports. The London business freesheet will cut eight jobs in total, 2 sales jobs and six subeditors. Journalists will now write and sub their own copies.

According to a City AM spokesman, the job losses were not a cost cutting-measure; the paper is considering expanding its night editorial team to compensate for the cuts.

"City AM is undertaking a reorganization that will see it move away from a combined editorial and subeditorial model to focus on frontline journalism," the spokesman said.

Some experts believe the position of subeditor will become obsolete in the age of digital journalism. Click here to read more about the vanishing subeditor.

Source: The Guardian

Many of you were curious to see the top print and Web designs featured in Chapter 8 of this year's Trends in Newsrooms report. (See the full press release here).

You now can view the full chapter online, as one of our colleagues has made it available. It may run a little slowly though.

(To establish this list, the World Editors Forum asked five prominent newspaper designers to pick their Top 10 newspaper designs and Top 5 newspaper website designs to illustrate the evolution of newspaper design and how it is beginning to relate more to the Web.

Here are the newspapers most often cited by the designers: The Guardian (United Kingdom), Poklitiken (Denmark), Bergens Tidende (Norway), St Petersburg Times (United States), Eleftheros Typos (Greece), De Morgen (Belgium), elEconomista (Spain), Excelsior (Mexico), Expreso (Portugal) and Äripäev (Estonia).)

Last week, the Romanian Senate unanimously voted a law proposal forcing media to distribute 50% of positive news.

According to its instigators, the law will help to fight against "the extraordinary harms of negative news and their irreversible effects on health and people's lives."

The Senate wishes that TV and radio news programs feature as much 'negative' as 'positive' news.

The Romanian's National Council for Audiovisual broadcasting is to validate the law - under which it will have the responsibility to decide what constitutes good or bad news.

But the Council swiftly criticized the law. "News is news, it is neither positive nor negative, it simply reflects reality," said the Council's president, Rasvan Popescu.

Press freedom organizations such as Reporters Without Borders have also criticized the proposal, comparing it to similar laws in authoritarian regimes such as North Korea.

While a number of editors may agree that the news agenda tends to be vastly 'negative', no law should seek to force the reverse.

Source: Lemonde.fr (link in French)

Editor and Publisher culled through Friday's online news to highlight five cool newspaper features. Here are a couple of the selections:

*The Press Democrat of Santa Roza, California is assimilating Google Maps into its coverage of forest fires. Readers can access information through an interactive map.

*The New York Times produced a slideshow documenting an "elevated park" to be built in NYC.

*Similarly, the Dallas Morning News constructed a package of slideshows illustrating social problems in Texas. The topics include poverty, pollution, and the working poor.

Source: Editor and Publisher

Newspapers from South Dakota created a free, searchable Web site that acts like a database of public announcements, CyberJournalist.Net reported.

After being published in print newspapers, public notices are transferred to the site and users can search by keywords like city or newspaper.

This idea may interesting for newspapers since it helps to integrate print and online journalism.

Sourec: CyberJournalist.Net

Gannett Co. Inc. is reorganizing its newspaper division, U.S. Community Publishing. The company will reduce the division's regional sections from five to four: East, South, Interstate, and West. A number of leadership changes will accompany the move.

"This reorganization both refines our structure and puts our top people in key jobs with expanded responsibilities around the country," said Robert J. Dickey, president of the U.S. Community Publishing division.

Source: Editor and Publisher

Matt McAlister of Inside Online Media updates readers on EveryBlock, Adrian Hovalty's hyperlocal, geo-tagging project, demonstrating how the project is making the news more palpable.

After a string of bribery arrests in Chicago, EveryBlock cataloged every address mentioned in the police file. Readers were then able to access the information through a list and map of bribe locations.

"In this case, the data is telling a story that otherwise might seem a little distant to you until you see how the issue may in fact be a very real one right in your backyard, so to speak," McAlister said.

McAlister believes that the next step for EveryBlock is to "open the reporting and mapping process" to anyone interested.

"The wider community could then benefit from the work of a few, and suddenly you have a really powerful local news vehicle," he said.

Source: Inside Online Media through CyberJournalist.net

Belarussian journalists and bloggers issued an online protest last Wednesday by not posting anything for an hour or using a black banner, lashing out against the "On Mass Media" law that the government adopted "without public hearings and international expert examinations", Belarussian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reported.

As the last few years have shown, independent Belarussian newspapers have the tendency of being shut down by the state. Instead, many media outlets have found solace in cyberspace, according to the Boston Globe.

However, last Tuesday the House of Representatives of the Belarus National Assembly approved the law after its second reading, Jurist reported. The BAJ said that the law violates the freedoms outlined in articles 33 and 34 of the constitution.  
 
Belarus media outlets are now banned from getting foreign financial backing and are required to register with the government. Reporters Without Borders termed the law as "repressive" and predict that censorship will increase, the Globe reported.

The government is trying to save Belarussians "from foreign propaganda" by attempting to control the cyberspace, according to the Globe.
 
Earlier this year, Belarussian journalists were imprisoned or beaten up during a protest against Alexander Lukashenko, the current president. A week later, a number of journalists' home were raided as the Belarussian KGB tried to look for libel documents regarding Lukashenko, Jurist reported.

Source: Boston Globe through World News Network, Jurist, Belarussian Association of Journalists

See also:
Belarus: 3 year sentence for Muhammad cartoon-officially
Belarus: Press freedom squeezed
"Think yourself lucky if your big worry is the future of journalism"
Belarus: Two opposition newspapers shut down
Seventh independent newspaper shut down by Belarus state