Recently by Lauren Drablier

Thomson Reuters plans to "roll out a major social media coverage package "to enhance its coverage of the World Economic Forum which begins tomorrow in Davos, Switzerland.  Reporters will use Twitter and YouTube to share video and updates from the Forum. 

According to Mark Jones, global community editor at Thomson Reuters, "We want to turn the coverage around, by asking delegates what they think the biggest issues facing the global economy are, then use social media to let the public offer their opinion."

Even though the Tribune Co. recently filed for bankruptcy - last week they launched The Syndicate, "a new online multimedia content marketplace bringing the latest news, lifestyle stories and sports reports to visitors of Tribune Co.'s television and newspaper web sites," Editor & Publisher reports.

The marketplace provides access to content through interactive elements - including video, photos, graphics, trivia and quizzes.  

The 24-year old Brazilian newspaper, Diario Do Amazonas has relaunched with a new look.

According to Garica Media, the four goals of the redesign were to create a new look, reorganize content in order to change the flow of the newspaper, change its graphic style and review production and operation methods.

Trinity Mirror has joined other media organizations and newspapers in the social media revolution by introducing new interactive tools to its websites in collaboration with social media firm Pluck.  The tools will be incorporated using APIs and widgets, Journalism.co.uk reports.

According to David Black, Trinity Mirror's group director of digital publishing, "Our strategy is all about building a really engaged online audience. We see interactivity as absolutely critical to improving the experience we offer to our users."

France's leading sports daily, L'Equipe has launched a new iPhone site, CB News reports.  Other French newspapers such as Le Figaro have also launched iPhone applications recently.

The site allows users to access content from L'Equipe's website, watch video footage and listen to the radio.

Source: CB News

TheAtlantic.com launched a business channel, Business.TheAtlantic.com, which will focus on business and economics and feature "original posts, dispatches, interviews and more from a range of experts", MediaBistro reports. 

The Atlantic plans to launch more online channels in the coming months.

The Tulsa World and The Oklahoman are the latest newspapers to enter into a content sharing agreement.  They will share "selected stories, photos and other news content to better serve their audiences throughout the state," Tulsa World reports.

Content produced by Tulsa World will appear in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK.com and vice versa.  The stories and photos will be attributed to the contributing newspapers.

The New York Times has announced that it will sell a "substantial part" of its building, Editor & Publisher reports.  This follows Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's $250 million loan to the NYT.

The Times reported that it is in "advanced negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its 52-story headquarters building on Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan to W. P. Carey & Company, an investment and management firm that specializes in so-called sale-leaseback transactions."  The company would buy only the 19 floors that it uses in the building, not the 6 others that it leases out.  In addition, the Times would be able to buy back the space after the ten-year lease is over. 

Unlike many major newspapers across Europe and the United States who are jumping on the integration bandwagon, Le Figaro has kept its print and online operations separate and intends for them to stay that way. It is, however, working hard to develop its website and keep up with online trends, as well as investing in printing plants. The Editors Weblog spoke with Bertrand Gié, Director of the department of new media at Le Figaro and Luc De Barochez, Editor in Chief at Figaro.fr, to get a better understanding of the paper's unique strategy for print, online and new media.

Strategy: Le Système Figaro

According to De Barochez, Le Figaro is unique because integration is not its objective, it has no interest in fusing print and online together.  De Barochez explained that it was a matter of specializing in two different types of media; to him print journalism is something entirely different from online journalism.  "We think that the web journalists have a specific job, that the Internet is a specific media and it's a new type of journalism that is developing - a multimedia journalism. Journalism for the daily paper is something completely different," De Barochez told the EW.  At Le Figaro, although print and online journalists work closely together, they remain independent of one another.

Investing in print    

This separation echoes the universal strategy of Le Figaro; they believe in both media and strongly support the development and integration of new media and their website, however they also believe that print is a core foundation of the brand.  Gié confirmed this belief when he described the construction of a new printing plant in the north of France due to open in September of this year.  Last year they completed a new plant in the south of France; their aim this time around is to recreate the same thing in the north, but also allowing them to "produce a brand new Figaro with a new format, and significantly reduce printing hours."

Gié went on to explain what a monumental investment this is; "In an epoch where everyone talks only of online editions and the disappearance of paper, we are, without a doubt, the only group in France to have constructed two new ultra-modern plants.  So it is very important to understand that there is a strong investment in new media, but that doesn't mean that the paper is dead."  Of course, as Gié confirmed, there is a lot of work involved in making a paper profitable while retaining its high quality, "there were a few layoffs in 2008, but that's doesn't signify the end of the paper, we are not abandoning our paper, absolutely the opposite."

Newsroom

The newsroom of Le Figaro's paper edition is made up of nearly 300 journalists, while just 30 work for the online edition. De Barochez described the layout of the web newsroom: it is a large open space is divided into four sections, economy and finance, women, sport, and news (which covers everything else, including managing the homepage).  The online newsroom is in the same building as the daily paper, allowing them to communicate easily with the print journalists.

The website

Figaro.fr was relaunched in 2005, before then, according to Gié, "it basically didn't exist," with only five people working on the site and no clear strategy of how to develop the content.  Now, Figaro.fr is the number one site in France with 5.3 million unique visitors per month, leading second place Le Monde with 4.4 unique visitors monthly.  Gié explained that the goal was for the site to be the biggest and most comprehensive portal, so they combined all of the sites and publications of the Figaro Group on Figaro.fr.  

Together but not connected

According to De Barochez, much of the online content comes from the print version and magazines owned by Le Figaro.  Although the print and online journalists work separately, they collaborate fairly often.  The print journalists are not required to write for the website and have the choice to place their articles online or not.

 De Barochez explained the different ways in which the work of print journalists goes online. Firstly, an article written for the print version could be simply reproduced online.  Secondly, when exclusive, breaking news is obtained by a print journalist, they would collaborate with the online department in order to put the news up quickly.  They write a short summary and go back and produce a more in-depth analysis.  A third possibility concerns Le Figaro's online video content, which is all created and edited in-house at its television and editing studio.  For example, a print journalist will interview a person for an online video, or a print journalist will be interviewed on a certain subject that he or she is a specialist in.

Integration

Gié acknowledged that building the website and all of its content was a lot of work, but they did it "step by step," never forcing print journalists into the realm of new media, rather allowing them to voluntarily adapt and work in collaboration when they wished.

Gié maintains that the key to successfully integrating the site into the daily workings of the newspaper was to produce a high quality website that remained independent from the print version.  "We were able to make a good site on our own and slowly we have introduced it to the print journalists and they have grown to accept it as part of the paper."  According to Gié, as of today still not all print journalists contribute to the website, but most of them are drawn to the quality of the site and they are "eager to participate."

The other new media: E-papers and Mobile technology

As for the electronic newspaper, Gié believes (for now) it is a niche technology, and "as long as the designs remain as they are, a little heavy, in black and white, with a navigation system that is not very intuitive, it will remain a niche technology - for businessmen and for people who travel."  But, he finds the e-paper to be a technology that has the potential to develop into something very interesting for newspapers.

Gié believes that mobile phones are "very different, because traffic on mobiles is very important," and there have been significant improvements in mobile technology in the last few years.  Before, all the "operations and platforms were locked by the operators, you had to pass through the operators, it was complicated and expensive."  But now, there are mobile sites and portals that are designed for mobile users and allow them to easily access content online.  According to Gié, because of this, Le Figaro's iPhone site now has an audience of over 100,000 per month and growing since its launch.

Social Networking with Mon Figaro

Gié explained that interaction with readers is key at Le Figaro.  So in 2007, Le Figaro became the first mainstream news site in France to open all of its articles to comments.  Because it worked so well, with over one million comments on the site in the first year, they realized that it was a system that was very important to their readers - their ability to express themselves and interact with the content.  

They also realized that "people really wanted to communicate amongst themselves, and they started to communicate with each other and we really wanted to give them the tools to better manage their commentary."  So in November 2008, Le Figaro launched social networking tool Mon Figaro using a basic platform, which allows "users on Figaro.fr to place other users as favorites and to follow their activities."  Gié confirmed that 2009 will bring additional developments to Mon Figaro.

Personalized News

Gié believes that personalized news is "important but not fundamental."  For the last two years, Le Figaro has been allowing readers to personalize their page through Net Vibes.  However, Gié feels that because there is so much information on the Internet, it is hard for users to select what is worth reading.  For the most part, they select who is going to organize and sort the information for them, in most cases a trusted site like Le Figaro or The New York Times.  Otherwise, they have to select and find the information themselves, which is always  time consuming.  Gié sees Le Figaro's online role as a trusted brand that "provides news based on the notion that our readers want us to select it for them."

Le Figaro's active development of both its print product and website is admirable, and it will be interesting to see whether the paper maintains its separated operations or follows the example of other high profile papers such as the Washington Post, the Guardian, and El Pais, who, after initial reluctance, eventually caved in and integrated their newsrooms. 

As reported earlier, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published a report titled What's Happening to Our News?, arguing that digital technology is threatening the quality and the economic foundations of British journalism.  The study also believes that online sources should be required to differentiate quality journalism from "the noise of the web," Press Gazette reports.

According to the report, this differentiation should be made using a "digital kitemark" or a flag that would indicate which articles come from reputed sources and which do not.  The kitemark "could be visual and electronic, via embedded meta-data."

As Barack Obama's transition site, Change.gov, officially became WhiteHouse.gov yesterday after his inauguration, the White House announced that they will have a Director of New Media, Macon Phillips.

The website is designed for the new "administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world."  Phillips calls the website "just the beginning of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement," and it will focus on three areas: communication, transparency and participation.

This week the Billings Gazette unveiled its new design.  The goal of the redesign, according to design editor Rob McDonald, was to "Give the paper a fresher, cleaner overall look" and "create a more consistent, easy-to-read product every day."

The new design features a narrower format, a larger typeface, a new headline style, easier to read classified ads and a new color scheme.  For the most part the content will remain the same.

Source: Billings Gazette

AfricaNews.com announced the launch of its mobile news website.  According to Bizcommunity, this makes "the company one of the few African media outlets to both source and publish content via mobile devices" and the only one that is dedicated to "broad news in Africa."

Readers can also submit their contributions using the News Tip application.

According to a report, What's Happening to Our News?, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, digital technology is threatening the quality of British journalism.  

In addition, the study found that digital journalism is also dampening the commercial prospects for traditional journalism.  Dr Andrew Currah, author of the report and Oxford University professor, found that "the economic foundations of modern journalism are crumbling due to unprecedented changes in the scale and character of news consumption." 

Here is a look at some of the front pages: