Editors Weblog http://www.editorsweblog.org/ en Copyright 2010 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:20:53 +0100 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Dealing with disaster: Chile's newspapers in the aftermath of the earthquake chile earthquake.jpgThe 8.8 earthquake that ravaged central Chile on February 27 has also wreaked havoc on the newspapers that operate in the region. While some continued to print with borrowed electric generators and improvised newsrooms, some were forced to halt publishing for a number of days. Most of the local newspapers websites' in the most affected areas were down in the aftermath of the quake. But, even though the worst seems to be over for this battered nation's newspapers, damage to the country's largest paper factories could become a big problem for not only Chilean but also other south American newspapers.

As aftershocks still rattled central Chile, the Editors Weblog spoke to the General Manager of the Asociación Nacional de la Prensa of Chile, Ignacio Muñoz, about how the earthquake has affected Chilean newspapers and how they have coped with the difficulties of reporting under extraordinary circumstances.
]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2010/03/the_88_earthquake_that_ravaged.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2010/03/the_88_earthquake_that_ravaged.php Analysis Newspaper Newsrooms and Journalism digital editions distribution journalism newspaper South America Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:20:53 +0100 Chinese censor orders journalists to take communist exam South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

Li Dongdong, the deputy director at the General Administration of Press and Publication confirmed on Wednesday that that qualification exam would resemble the test taken by civil servants, and that all aspiring journalists would be required to take it before applying for a reporting job.

Under the new guidelines, the Communist Party's stance on journalism would be required reading for students studying journalism.]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2010/03/chinese_censor_orders_journalists_to_tak.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2010/03/chinese_censor_orders_journalists_to_tak.php Newsrooms and Journalism freedom of speech newspapers and democracy Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:39:03 +0100 Huffington Post Investigative Fund has produced 50 stories since September Huffington Post Investigative Fund, the journalism nonprofit launched by Ariana Huffington in September 2009, has produced roughly 50 stories since its inception.

Nick Penniman, executive director of the fund, estimated that his editorial staff of nine publish between three and five stories a week. Some are "deep-dive" pieces, requiring months of reporting, while others are "quick-strike" articles that are less in-depth.

The fund's articles are posted on their website and can be distributed by other news outlets free of charge under a Creative Commons license.

]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/03/huffington_post_investigative_fund_has_p.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/03/huffington_post_investigative_fund_has_p.php Web 2.0 Huffington Post investigative journalism non-profit Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:00:45 +0100 Reuters adds social media rules to its handbook Reuters has added social media guidelines and principles to its handbook, Dean Wright, global editor for ethics, innovation and news standards at Reuters, announced yesterday in the Reuters Blog.

While Reuters embraces social media as a powerful informative tool and encourages its usage among journalists, they must ask permission from managers to use social media in conjunction with their professional lives, MediaGuardian reported.

For more on this story please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com
]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/03/reuters_adds_social_media_rules_to_its_h.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/03/reuters_adds_social_media_rules_to_its_h.php Web 2.0 Reuters social networks Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:20:29 +0100 Al Jazeera English teams up with YouTube for Iraqi elections coverage aljazeera.jpgAl Jazeera English - the English-language arm of the Qatari news channel - has teamed up with YouTube to cover a wide range of Iraqi voices and their opinion on their country's democracy on the day of Iraq's first nationwide parliamentary election since 2005, according to the Official YouTube blog.

The short videos give us an insight into the Iraqi voices that are rarely heard in news coverage coming from that area. One video shows one Iraqi who showed up for voting, but found out his name was not on the list. Another one shows another Iraqi complaining that not all candidates are honest.
]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2010/03/al_jazeera_english_teams_up_with_youtube.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2010/03/al_jazeera_english_teams_up_with_youtube.php Multimedia Al Jazeera citizen journalism CNN Middle East multimedia YouTube Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:15:21 +0100 News Corp exec: other revenue streams can coexist with paywall jonathanmillerNEWSCORP.jpgThe "Year of the Paywall" is upon us and in a time where most newspapers seem to be gearing up to build one around their websites - the New York Times and the News Corporation Wapping publications are just a couple of examples - some executives believe there is still room for other revenue models to coexist with paid content.   

The head of digital media at News Corporation, Jonathan Miller, told delegates at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit that "dual revenue streams" are likely to co-exist as media organizations try ways of making money online, according to Guardian.
]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/news_corp_exec_other_revenue_streams_can.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/news_corp_exec_other_revenue_streams_can.php Multimedia Newspaper advertising Guardian News Corp paid online content paywall revenue Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:50:29 +0100 CNN more concerned with competition from Facebook than rival FOX News facebook-logo2.jpgDuring a recent media summit held by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, David Kaplan of The Guardian reported on a surprising announcement CNN made concerning Facebook. Contrary to what many believe, CNN views Facebook as a bigger competitor than rival Fox News.

CNN's president Jon Klien was quoted as saying, "I'm more worried about the 500 million or so people on Facebook versus the 2 million on Fox." ]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2010/03/cnn_more_concerned_with_competition_from.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2010/03/cnn_more_concerned_with_competition_from.php Multimedia Web 2.0 aggregation CNN Facebook Fox News Google lmultimedia news agency social networks user-generated content Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:55:06 +0100 Media Management Center to hold executive leadership program in July Media Management Center will be teaching the Media Executive Leadership Program from July 19 to 31 on the Northwestern University campus in  Evanston, Illinois.

The program was launched last summer to train media executives from all fields in strategy, leadership, innovation and integration. Mike Smith, Executive Director of the Media Management Center said that based on the responses of the participants and their instructors, he believes this was the most successful program in 20 years of teaching media executives.

The Center is looking for media executives from a variety of content platforms - television, newspaper, magazine, radio, digital, interactive, new media or advertising. Specific job functions or level of expertise are not that important; but they should be leaders - or potential leaders - who are facing new challenges and being asked to develop new strategies.

For more information about the Media Executive Leadership Program see here. ]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2010/03/media_management_center_to_hold_executiv.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2010/03/media_management_center_to_hold_executiv.php Newsrooms and Journalism event training Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:29:13 +0100 Virginia paper outsources page production to Chicago Tribune Tribune Co.'s efforts to reduce costs and direct resources to focus on local coverage, the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia will outsource page design, formatting and editing pages to the company's flagship paper, the Chicago Tribune. This announcement came to the staff at both the newspapers on Monday, the Tribune reported.

The transfer of responsibilities from the Daily Press suggests elimination of copy editors and designers, Hampton Roads reported. The newsroom staff will likely be reduced by 15 percent, Digby Solomon, president and chief executive of the Daily Press, told the Tribune.

For more on this story please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com ]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/virginia_paper_outsources_page_productio.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/virginia_paper_outsources_page_productio.php Newspaper local news outsourcing Tribune Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:43:54 +0100 Cancelled regional newspaper awards "not viable" Despite news that Sir Ray Tindle launched four new local papers last week, it appears that regional press is still not out of the financial woods just yet.

The Guardian has reported that neither the Regional Press Awards nor the Circulation, Editorial and Promotions awards will be going ahead this year.

The reasoning behind such a move is said to be due to the fact that the awards are not considered "viable" in such an economic climate, with several newspaper publishers declaring themselves unable to participate, despite the fact that the Wilmington Group (the name behind the Regional Press Awards awards) had offered to reduce entry fees and ticket prices.

The Guardian reported an entry price of £39 and ticket price of £130, which  regional papers find themselves without the funds to pay. 

Source: Guardian
]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/cancelled_regional_newspaper_awards_not.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/cancelled_regional_newspaper_awards_not.php Newspaper cutbacks local news Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:40:12 +0100 San Francisco Guardian collects $21 million in damages from rival newspaper sanfrancisco3.jpgWhen newspapers aren't grappling with the question of how to monetise online content, they are most likely battling against the hostile economic climate and advertising revenue downturn. Then, there is the age-old question of how to deal with competitors: Newspapers may be united in the preservation of print, but as the following story illustrates, each newspaper is its own separate entity:  

The SF Weekly will be forced to pay rival publication San Francisco Bay $21 million in damages, after a court ruling found the former guilty of lowering the costs of its advertising space with the intent of putting its rival out of business, The San Francisco Chronicle has reported. ]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/san_francisco_guardian_collects_21_milli.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/san_francisco_guardian_collects_21_milli.php Newspaper advertising legal Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:02:00 +0100 Google offers advice: newspapers need to "engage" online readers Google News Logo.jpgAggregators such a Google are often accused of making life more than a little difficult for newspapers - yet the company has spoken out once again, offering advice for newspapers struggling against the ubiquity of online news:

In an article by Mercedes Bunz from The Guardian's Digital Content Blog, Google stated that the "key" to newspaper's survival online is "engagement". The statement, issued by Google's Hal Varian, places emphasis on the importance of offering readers interactive experiences but provided little information on specific steps publications should take to go about doing this.
]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/google_says_engage_users.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/google_says_engage_users.php Newspaper aggregation business models Google innovation lmultimedia multimedia newspaper online-only paid online content paywall price changes readership subscriptions Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:33:44 +0100 Belgian paper, Le Derniere Heure, makes 3D paper 3d-paper-1.pngLa Derniere Heure, a Belgian daily newspaper, treated readers to a special 3D edition of their paper Tuesday. Those who obtained copies were given 3D glasses making advertisements and images come to life. This is the first time a European newspaper has used 3D technology in a publication. 

]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/belgian_paper_le_derniere_heure_makes_3d.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/belgian_paper_le_derniere_heure_makes_3d.php Newspaper design Europe free newspapers innovation lmultimedia newspaper Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:20:21 +0100 A multifaceted online expansion rooted in print journalism at Poland's Agora Agora, Poland's biggest media concern, in a southern district of Warsaw, have huge windows as a façade, and inside, terraces on every floor. The whole configuration seems to facilitate contact between the different editorial units housed in this imposing building. They are numerous and varied, from flagship daily Gazeta Wyborcza to freesheet Metro, from talk-news radio Tok FM to countless Internet portals and the administrative departments. Their members or contributors don't need to go to the basement, to the cafeteria, to see people from other platforms or professional cultures. The in-house newsstand and bookstore, which sell not only the group's productions, also remind them they are not alone in the industry.

gazeta reader.jpgAgora, which also has a strong presence in magazine, book and DVD publishing, in music-film production and in outdoor advertising, has more than half of its 3,150-odd employees based in this "horizontal skyscraper". The architecture building that is longer than it is tall, with stretching, low wall corridors, may reflect the interaction between separate units. Ironically however, it also contradicts the term "vertical", often heard in this four-storey building and applied to some of the integrated online activities.

"We are in all media platforms except television," says Grzegorz Piechota, the special projects editor for Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's leading quality newspaper.  "For a decade, we have been particularly active in extending our expertise in Internet, finding synergies between online and print operations. Agora is in everything except porn, instant messaging and mapping!"

Picture 4.pngThe group, whose operations are essentially Polish, counts more than 80 portals (more than Germany's Axel Springer for example, another media titan but at a world level). Agora's main portal gazeta.pl, fed by an independent newsroom integrated with radio Tok FM, is complemented by webradio tuba.fm and many other stand-alone verticals. These cover all sorts of issues, including sport, business, education, recruitment and real-estate. Most of them are leaders in their niche, and their combined audience is sixth right after Google, Polish equivalents of Facebook (nasza-klasa.pl) and E-bay (allegro.pl), and the two leaders onet.pl and Wirtualna Polska. Nearly two thirds of Poland's 17 million Internet users regularly visit gazeta.pl and its affiliated portals. Wyborcza.pl, the flagship daily's e-edition, attracts three million users and brought in  24% of the daily's advertising revenues in 2009.

gazeta w.pngAgora has been particularly proactive in looking for synergies and complementary activities made possible by the Internet. The group has implemented a multi-brand strategy which is adjusted according to the fields covered. Gazeta Wyborcza, for instance, is fully integrated only in areas that make it more appropriate, with the verticals sport.pl (launched in 2006) or wyborcza.biz (created last year).

This business portal was editorially independent from the daily when it started, in order to be more flexible than print journalists, who were considered "too serious and slow". It was filled with gossips on economic players, which was a mistake, Agora's executives admitted. "It was not the right way to attract a loyal audience. The people we target, let's say graduate readers in their 30s, with minimum 1,000 euros monthly income, have no time and are in search of serious news," explains Leszek Olszanski, the head of wyborcza.pl. "Advertisers also want to reach them through non-trivial material, which is why we work with seasoned print editors. We realized there are complementary abilities between online rapidity on one hand, and thoughtful coverage of an industry on the other."

Thanks to this integration, top economic columnists of Gazeta Wyborcza now write more. They allegedly enjoy having more space for their texts, and having the possibility to work on breaking news in real-time. The portal benefits from the credibility conferred by the paper, which in turn has become more analytical rather than news-driven. "We try to wait for the print edition for exclusivities, if possible. These scoops can be accompanied in the website's pages by teasers before, and follow-ups after," Olszanski notes.

GWbiz.jpgWyborcza.biz  has become a strong brand, along with its associated portal money.pl. Financial institutions, in particular, compete to be advertised in their pages. This year, the online revenues of the economic section should represent 50% of print earnings. Like the in-house newsstand, the sales forces also market ads for other business sites. It is in Agora's philosophy to tap into all potential income sources - not only news driven - and on the cooperative character of the Internet. "On the Net, you do business with your competitors. There is a business reason to build networks to cover them, and our expertise also includes sales to advertisers," Piechota explained.

Agora does not only play with complementarities rooted on its traditional print activities. The 50-person team managed by Pawel Stremski, as gazeta.pl/Tok FM's chief editor, is half web and half radio. Last January his unit added another website to Agora's e-basket, with the launch of tok-fm.pl, which is not a webradio (a station by the same name, broadcast in Poland's nine main cities, was already accessible on the webradio portal tuba.fm). Agora did not create another website for the sake of it, but saw Tok FM's recognized brand as an opportunity for Internet too. "The same team fills gazeta.pl for a mass market audience, and tok-fm.pl for politics and business with some entertainment content. People can follow a major hearing by a politician live, in a video coverage on tok-fm.pl, and get a summary in the other portals," Stremski says.

The website's beta version was successful in having radio journalists send in their notes, according to its promoters. Conscious of brand impact, these reporters see it as a more dynamic, immediate way to publish their stories. Gazeta Wyborcza's central newsroom is not a tok-fm.pl contributor, but its local editors are. They are based in 20 bureaus out of Warsaw, and can publish their non-print productions in the new portal. They receive no extra pay for these contributions, but they have an incentive: there is an award each month for the best exclusive story.

"We have to be fast, entertaining and multimedia, finding the way to be different," Stremski says. "There is room for good profitable journalism in Internet. By going multimedia, you get more informers, your story is not stuck on page 6, even though the credibility conferred by print remains essential."

Another advantage of creating tok-fm.pl is that in Poland's competitive media environment, newspapers not belonging to Agora are less reluctant to refer to Tok FM as a source, rather than Gazeta Wyborcza. Having many brands gives more possibilities to be quoted for scoops, and to be profitable too. "We cannot expect to make money with every website. A lifestyle or a local news website is more likely to be cost-effective from the start than a general news portal," Stremski notes.

AdTailyWebpage.jpgAgora's online operations have gone even more vertical in the past months, with the majority takeover of AdTaily. This start-up company based in Krakow provides a widget-based system for advertising monetization of Internet services (including those offered by the group's platforms which at the moment house about 130,000 bloggers). "AdTaily developed a universal tool that can be used for cooperation with external customers," commented Tomasz Jozefacki, Agora's director of Internet operations. "Currently its system is used by 80% of our online media."

In other words, the group is taking advantage of the blogosphere's innovations and income potentials, including e-commerce for web entrepreneurs who want to monetize their social media. "Agora realized that to be online, you need to acquire the bright guys who are in the business, and can help you to be more efficient in new platforms. Our expertise is not just about gathering news; we have to think wide," Piechota says.

AdTaily is based on the assumption that anybody can be an advertiser. It has developed a self-service ad tool designed for niche blogs, giving advertisers the opportunity to reach narrowly-targeted audiences. Its promoters insist that their system allows 70% of the ad revenues to go directly to the bloggers, with an easy to understand flat fee, unlike Google's  AdSense. "It is a great instrument for hyperlocal news websites, covering towns or districts with around 10,000 residents, where they can advertise the local shoe shops," says Jakub Krzych, one of the start-up's co-founders. "It would not make sense for Agora to buy a website on white boots or on a Krakow district. But through AdTaily, it can indirectly get some revenue streams from very specialized news websites."

AGORA.gifWill Agora be successful with its online activism and verticalism? The group is at least trying to be as active as possible in new media platforms, and in a way that is not too costly. The investment in AdTaily also reveals that it does not believe in the online pay walls envisaged by Rupert Murdoch or the New York Times, as most contents are being commoditized. Its multi-brand strategy invites the editorial units to fill the empty spots that appear on the Net. "The publishing business used to be easy!" Piechota joked.

]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2010/03/a_multifaceted_online_expansion_rooted_i.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2010/03/a_multifaceted_online_expansion_rooted_i.php Analysis Multimedia Newspaper Newsrooms and Journalism business models integration journalism multimedia radio Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:06:59 +0100 NYT takes out wallpaper ad in Gothamist 500x_gothnyt-1.jpg
Early last month, Gothamist founder Jake Dobkin turned a few heads with some negative comments published on his Facebook page directed at The New York Times.

Dobkin, who had been invited by the Times as a competitor to an internal panel discussion at the paper,  lambasted the Times for their "lazy and sleep-inducing" coverage of local news and the paper's "slavish devotion to originality and old-fashioned reporting," among other critiques.
]]> http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/nyt_takes_out_wallpaper_ad_in_gothamist.php http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/03/nyt_takes_out_wallpaper_ad_in_gothamist.php Newspaper Web 2.0 advertising New York Times Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:36:19 +0100