editorsweblog

Spain: Daily to launch e-paper version in coming months

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:35:22 +0000

Serge, a daily in Spain's Catalunya region, will launch an e-paper version this summer, compatible with ProtecMedia's E-Paper.

Similar to Holland's NRC Handelsblad, Serge will make the e-paper available through its website.

The electronic version will give readers access to the same content as the print and web editions, as well as possible exclusive e-paper content, such as audio, video and extra photos, reports Editor & Publisher.

France too is looking towards e-paper solutions, where France Telecom's Orange is offering a trial version of an e-paper reader which supports electronic versions of various French newspapers.

Source: Editor & Publisher

UK: How a regional paper can beat the BBC at breaking news: Twitter

Tue, 06 May 2008 14:10:43 +0000

"With Twitter though, one senior reporter using a standard mobile phone can keep an entire section of our site instantly updated with the very latest breaking news," said Christian Dunn, digital editor of the Evening Leader in the UK.

Although they may have smaller budgets, "This means that regional newspapers, like the Evening Leader, can finally break news just as fast as the big boys - even Sky and the BBC."

After using Twitter to cover soccer games, the Evening Leader reported on the local election results by 'Twittering' from the region's counts.

Senior reporter Mike Youds reported from the Flintshire count throughout the night of May 1, filing in his reports using his mobile phone.

Online readers could follow news about the election by visiting the Evening Leader's Twitter profile page, or by going through a specially designed page on the Evening Leader's website that had the Twitter feed embedded in it.

According to Deputy editor Martin Wright, the website's efficient use of Twitter also helped to improve the print paper production.

"It was great for everyone in the newsroom to know that they'd been the first in the area to break the results and allowed us to concentrate on strong reaction and colour pieces in the next day's newspaper."

It has been a little over a year that Twitter was first hailed as a potential breakthrough for online journalism. It now seems that some newspapers, including the Evening Leader, are beginning to harness its power.

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

US: New online tools for covering the election

Tue, 06 May 2008 10:17:29 +0000

At the NewsTools 2008 conference last week, the Sunlight Foundation debuted some new tools out of their Sunlight Labs that stand to help any journalist covering American national politics.

- a widget that pop-ups a hyperlinked profile of a member of Congress when someone scrolls over his or her name

- a Google Map mash-up (see image) with the geographic location of earmarks from last year's Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill.

- the brand new Influence Explorer, a sort of "data chewer" that will allow "one-click disclosure" of a lawmaker's earmarks, contributions, expenses and trips, according to Online Journalism Review's Robert Niles.

It is still in development and not yet available to the public, but based on early demonstrations, the Influence Explorer could considerably streamline research on candidates.

Source: Online Journalism Review

Washington Post, others introduce online bracket-style games

Tue, 06 May 2008 08:17:02 +0000

In a push to develop strategies for "serious games," some media organizations are adopting sports style brackets (think March Madness) for uses beyond their traditional role for mapping the course of the annual NCAA basketball tournament.

The subject matter varies: The Washington Post applied "bracketology" to an online game about popular TV show Lost (see image). And the politics team at Congressional Quarterly created a bracket game last week to help John McCain pick his VP.

The Knight Foundation too is supporting media's foray into gaming, awarding two $250,000 Knight News Challenge grants in 2007 for gaming experimentation.

Why the emphasis on gaming? According to Poynter blogger Ken Sands, some studies suggest "tapping into people's gaming instinct makes repeat site visits more likely."

Sands also has a point that "serious games" are better suited to social networking sites like Facebook rather than destination sites. But if a game on a newspaper site is engaging enough, it could be a great way to boost the time spent on the site by users, a figure that has been dropping in the U.S. even as the number of unique users rises. And destination sites can and do have popular "serious games;" although it's not bracket-style, newspapers should take note of the UN World Food Program's FreeRice.

Sources: E-Media Tidbits, Washington Post (picture)

US: AP launches news service for Apple's iPhone

Tue, 06 May 2008 07:38:17 +0000

The Associated Press, along with more than 100 of its member newspapers, is launching a mobile news service for Apple's iPhone.

The service will offer local news from participating member papers. National and international content will be provided by AP feeds.

See our sister blog SFN for the full story.

Sources: Yahoo! News through I Want Media, Apple.com (picture)

UK: Guardian wins sports award thanks to multimedia coverage

Mon, 05 May 2008 11:48:06 +0000

The Guardian won the sports coverage of the year award at the Sports Industry Awards in the UK.

Other contenders included the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and The Times, but the Guardian was chosen for its 'synergy between multi-platforms.'

Among the Guardian's strengths was its multimedia coverage of former English football team manager Steve McClaren getting sacked after England failed to qualify for the upcoming Euro Cup.

For this event, apart from print and online articles, the Guardian featured rolling news, comments and audio footage online. Praises were also given to the Guardian's use of Hawk Eye technology - which is used for digital replays of sports games (see here) - for its cricket coverage last summer.

Source: journalism.co.uk

When to publish blog posts for increased popularity

Mon, 05 May 2008 10:23:32 +0000

A US software developer, Jake Luciani, has determined the best days and times to publish blog posts, analyzing the connection between timing and popularity on social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit and Mixx.

The conclusions are straightforward: Thursdays are the best day, and the best times are between 1pm and 3pm PST (after lunch) or between 5pm and 7pm PST (after work). The worst times to post are between 3pm and 5pm PST on weekends.

Although these results are intuitive, this informal study can serve as a useful reminder to bloggers. On the other hand, it can also further lead to popularity-driven editing.

For his experiment, Luciani used popularity ranking engine AideRSS. For more details about the methodology, which is subject click below.

Times in the graphs are GMT.

Source: ReadWriteWeb through Journerdism

Council of Europe launches online forum on press freedom

Fri, 02 May 2008 13:59:40 +0000

To mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, the Council of Europe is launching an online discussion forum on media freedom in times of crisis, reports the European Journalism Centre.

The forum, intended for both journalists and anyone else concerned about freedom of expression, will center on how journalists do their job in the face of government restrictions during wars, terrorist threats and political instability.

This year's World Press Freedom Day comes days after a report by lobby group Freedom House concluded that global press freedom declined in 2007. According to the survey, Iraq and Somalia remain the most dangerous countries for journalists.

Sources: EJC, AFP

UK: BBC uses new media tools to cover elections

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:42:48 +0000

The BBC incorporated live blogging and mobile phone technology into its coverage of the local UK elections on May 1.

The BBC blogger team included Newsnight and BBC News 24 presenter Emily Maitlis, along with leading political bloggers Iain Dale, Luke Akenhurst and Alix Mortimer.

"It's become increasingly clear that the web has something extra to offer on election night. An elaborate network of opinion formers, activists and analysts collide online producing fact, rumour, and mood not found anywhere else," writes Craig Oliver, editor of BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten.

Not only the national media players used web tools to offer up-to-date coverage; Liverpool Daily Post (see image) and the Liverpool Echo both had reporters on the ground updating a live blog on the papers' websites.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

UK: Telegraph journalists to create online products in new innovation lab

Fri, 02 May 2008 09:22:22 +0000

Telegraph Media Group journalists are set to work with technical and commercial staff on short-term technology projects in Telegraph Labs, a new innovation unit opening at the Telegraph's Victoria offices this weekend.

The lab will house eight to 10 staff selected from across the company, who will work towards rapidly developing new, commercially-viable online products. Telegraph Lab's computer network will be separate from the main Telegraph system in order to sidestep the security restrictions on the main network, reports Press Gazette.

"It's meant as a space where we take people on four to six-week cycles, take them out of their day jobs and get them to focus on a specific thing, and get them to rapidly create something that we can put out there very quickly," said Paul Cheesbrough, Telegraph chief information officer.

A mobile version of Telegraph.co.uk will likely be in the works when the lab opens. According to Cheesbrough, the ultimate goal is to produce one new feature per month although he acknowledges failures are inevitable.
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"It is a safe place for people to work on things that might be high-risk and might be subject to failure, but that's alright as along as we learn things out of it," he said.

This type of approach reflects a growing trend towards a model of quick innovation, in which the potential gains from speed are seen to outweigh the risks of failure. The birth of the Publish2 Election News Network in February provides another example.

One of the main goals of the Telegraph project is to break down the traditional wall between editorial and IT. With this is mind, Cheesbrough has been hiring technology staff who have experience working as journalists.

"The holy grail is someone who's good at technology, who is good at journalism and who knows how to make the money."

Source: Press Gazette

Charting interactivity at newspaper websites across Europe

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:54:34 +0000

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

UK: Telegraph's new online traffic measurement system may be responsible for traffic growth

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:24:20 +0000

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

11 Layers of CitJ, according to blog, A FAITHful voice

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:43:30 +0000

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

US: Paper uses CoverItLive for user feedback

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:31:32 +0000

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

Norway: "Computer programming is also journalism," journalist says

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:16:59 +0000

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