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China's state-funded English-language newspaper China Daily has launched a U.S. edition that will offer coverage of "local events related to China," chinaview.cn wrote. The edition will also feature analysis and opinions from contributors in the US and China.

The Chinese government previously announced plans that it would be developing the country's presence across global media in order to "improve China's image with foreign viewers," an initiative that included a US$6.6 billion investment.

To mark the relaunch of the Editors Weblog and the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Blog, the World Editors Forum is running a special series entitled "Doing More with Less." The series highlights major trends that editors-in-chief are using to steer their newsrooms through the difficult economic climate. This week, we looked at the Tampa Tribune, which has radically revamped its newsroom, and some examples of Editorial Outsourcing, a trend which many news publications have adopted. Below, editors from around the world share their own thoughts about EDITORIAL OUTSOURCING.

AFRICA
Azubuike Ishiekwene, Executive Director, Punch Nigeria
Editorial outsourcing is not an immediate problem for Punch, but we're already looking down the road to that moment. We think that before we reach that bridge, regular and forward-looking review of content (especially print content), and the continuous evaluation of job schedule of journalists across platforms might help us keep cost down and decide how best to apply our resources.

LATIN AMERICA
Marcelo Rech, General Product Director, RBS Group, Brasil
Due to labor laws in Brazil, it's difficult to outsource staffers, but I think the ideal newsroom would be the one with a "hard nucleus", made up of editors, assistant editors, page designers, some videophotographers and some reporters, and a broader staff of reporters, columnists and image producers working under specific tasks. In this way, we could have more diversification, flexibility and cost managing.

In my view, the newsroom looks like a tree: the trunk is the team of editors, the branches are the assistant editors and page designers - those are the structure of the newsroom, and must be very close to the general concepts for the product.

The leaves and fruits are the reporters and columnists. A tree without a healthy and strong trunk would die, but in the end are the fruits what people pay for. 

EASTERN EUROPE
Roman Gallo, Director of Media Strategies, PPF Financial Group
First, newspapers must target their product as specifically as possible. They shouldn't be developing products or writing articles which others could do better. To complement this strategy, newspapers should have a completely integrated newsrooms with skilled and competent staff that can produce material across all platforms. With a staff like this, editorial functions will not have to outsourced.

Newspapers can also tap into the community of Readers for content to supplement that of their newsroom. If the newsroom is looking for extra help, this can be a better means of gathering content than outsourcing because the readers are immediately familiar with the community.

WESTERN EUROPE
Espen Egil Hansen, Editor-in Chief, Verdens Gang Multimedia, Norway
 I don't think the key question should be "How to do more with less", but rather does the new technology and new market situations give us some new opportunities?

In VG Multimedia we spend some time and energy studying two companies outside the traditional media business that might inspire some change: Apple and Ryanair.

Can we learn from Steve Jobs and his Iphone?
Not only is the Iphone in itself a great product, in what appears as a stroke of genius Apple opened up, enabling everyone to create applications for the phone. Teenagers, programmers, and creative people around the globe develop great products for the Iphone - without pay. With no cost for Apple there has been added more than 15 000 applications to the company's Appstore   and they have already been downloaded more than 500 million times! For every new application and for every new download the value of the Iphone rises for the end users. And best of all, from Apple's perspective, since the company controls the distribution of these applications it gets a cut of every sale.

In Norway the 15 year old Knut Ørland has outperformed media companies developing the most popular TV-guide for Iphones. From his boy's room in a little city on the west coast of Norway he launches Iphone applications and earns a profit most teenagers can only dream about. For every sale through the Appstore he gets to keep 70%. The boy is of course happy, Apple is happy because it gets to keep the 30% and the end user is happy because the product is great. By the way - there is no need to buy a newspaper or go online to check what's on TV right now. Not all Iphone applications turn into a success, but if it does, Apple is guaranteed its share. Smart!

Media's approach to product developing has by contrast always been this: We want to do everything ourselves. If we are to make a new product - let's say a new travel section in the Sunday paper - our approach is always more journalists and more purchased freelance material. Smart?

Electronic media is by nature communication and cooperation. If we don't start to understand this we will be forced to ask the same question over and over in the years to come: How can we do more with less?

Can we learn from Ryanair?
While most airlines focus on how to charge as much as possible for each ticket, the low cost airline Ryanair has great success with going the opposite way: How can we charge less? The company compensates lower fares by turning what used to be costs, into new revenue streams. While the tickets are cheap you have to pay extra for food, baggage or boarding the plane early to pick your favorite seat. Together with a long range of cost cuts and commission based products like care rental and hotels, Ryanair has used this approach to become one the most profitable airlines in Europe.

The question newspapers should be asking themselves is: Are there costs in our company we can turn into revenue?


NORTH AMERICA
Ed Greenspon, Editor-in-Chief, Globe and Mail, Canada
We have not experimented, at least not yet, with very much in the way of editorial outsourcing of layouts I a major way.  We remain very interested in the experiences of others but a bit wary.
Of course, to some extent, we have always outsourced.  We tap the talents of a large number of freelance contributors, some of them highly-specialized.  We also have a few standardized pages, such as our comics and puzzles page and our stock listings, produced outside the newsroom. But we haven't ventured into outsourcing the kind of dynamically designed, valued added and pages that speak to our brand message on a given day.
In the opinion field, we tend to go outside in order to compliment our own columnists with more specialized contributors. In other areas, such as multi-media, we tend to use agencies for more commoditized news, thus freeing up staff journalists to focus on the value added material that distinguishes and differentiates us. Thus we have a small Globe Docs unit, which works with our staff to produce high quality video companion pieces to major print features, and sometimes vice versa. Our award-winning Talking to the Taliban is one such example.

Terry Eberle, Executive Editor and Vice President, Fort Myers News Press, Florida
We are using more freelancers and are partnering with other newspapers for certain sports coverage we once produced ourselves. We also are talking about partnerships with television stations to see what makes sense there. As we look for ways to cover more with fewer resources we must keep in mind that the quality of our information can not decline. We must guard against taking shortcuts that hurt readers and our image.

USA Today announced on Friday that the international edition will stop printing as of February 6th. The top-selling newspaper, owned by Gannett Company Inc, will continue to look for partners in Europe and South America to continue publishing, like it recently did its Caribbean edition.
 

To mark the relaunch of the Editors Weblog, the World Editors Forum is running a special series entitled "Doing More with Less." The series highlights major trends that editors-in-chief are using to steer their newsrooms through the difficult economic climate. The third of the series takes a look at the new online-only international news service launching today, GlobalPost.

Amidst reductions in international reporting at newspapers across the US and Europe, GlobalPost, an American online-only international news service whose number of overseas correspondents is second only to the AP, launches today. The Editors Weblog spoke to President, CEO and co-founder of GlobalPost Philip Balboni and Senior Editor and Regional Editor for Africa Andrew Meldrum about the project, and asked the AP's John Daniszewski for his thoughts on a new news organisation that could potentially rival the Associated Press.

 
Filling the international gap

Balboni was passionate about his motives for founding the organisation: to fill a crucial gap in international reporting accessible to the American people. "I have seen the steady diminishment of foreign reporting in television and radio," he explained, added that this "has just been stunning." And he stressed his belief that "even the great American institutions that remain with a meaningful foreign staff are in jeopardy because of this devastating downturn in the economic underpinning of newspapers." Meldrum echoed his sentiments: "in the US, so much international news is being cut."

Daniszewski, AP Managing Editor for International News, was confident that the AP was providing "a comprehensive international news coverage," and that there was not a lack of information out there for people who were determined to find it out.  He was positive about the creation of a new service, however: "it's really good to have those eyes, ears and notebooks out there, and I am sure they have a lot to contribute."  

Complementing the AP and newspapers

Balboni insisted that GlobalPost intends to be a supplement to a newswire service, rather than a competitor. Balboni explained that the sort of "distinctive story-telling" that GlobalPost offers is very different to that of the AP, Reuters or AFP. "As a wire reporter, you chase the story of the day and there is a tremendous need for that, but it has become a commodity and you can find these stories everywhere."  And indeed, GlobalPost will also aggregate the top news agency stories of the day on its site. Its original reporting, though, will be different: "what we are focussed upon is the context behind the headlines," generally stories that will not be widely reported in English. Daniszewski was insistent that he does not see GlobalPost as a competitor to the AP because in terms of scale the AP is far larger. Rather he considers it a complementary service that will contribute to the "great need for the world to be informed."

"We hope to help newspapers, not hurt them"

Balboni also emphasized his hope to "help newspapers, not hurt them." He explained that GlobalPost is a "partner for newspapers," as part of its business model is to syndicate content to newspapers all over the world.  "We want to give them the opportunity to have high quality original reporting which they can print or publish online," he added.  He added that in the Web 2.0 world, it is less useful to put your content in a "walled garden, you have to let it be free to go where users want to find it."

Old-school correspondents

The 60 to 70 correspondents are essentially stringers, filing one piece a week.  As Meldrum described it, "this is designed to be a string that any correspondent could add to the other work that they are doing."  However, GlobalPost is making a significant commitment to correspondents, offering a guaranteed monthly salary and shares in the company, and hopes that its reporters will "feel that they are invested in our success," explained Balboni.   The correspondent group includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, among a mixture of experienced, accomplished journalists and those who are at an earlier stage in their careers.  

The correspondents will be on the whole country-based, meaning that they know the language and are familiar with the history and current affairs. The idea, Balboni explained, is that readers will have "the opportunity to follow developments from someone you can come to know and trust."  Daniszewski thinks GlobalPost is trying to return to the old model of a foreign correspondent, "that sort of authoritative, contextualized, interpretative voice, who adds different perspectives that people bring to a story with their own personalities." As "traditional newspaper correspondents out there are now acting more and more like a wire service," Daniszewski believes, there is a gap to be filled by people who can produce a more in-depth, time-consuming story.  

The five regional editors are working full time, or "more than full time," as Meldrum put it.  There are regional editors for Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America, and a team of half a dozen senior editors based at the HQ in Boston.  Seven beat correspondents will have a truly global scope, reporting on issues such as health, climate change and technology worldwide.  

"Journalists know best"

"The goal is for this not to be a top-down model, but a bottom-up model," Balboni clarified, as correspondents "know best about what the interesting and important stories are." Meldrum remarked that "it's much like a traditional foreign desk," with correspondents pitching stories, editors approving them and then editing once they are sent in. The content management system used means that correspondents are able to follow the story process "right from conception to completion."

Interactive multimedia from abroad

"These days a freelance journalist is always going to be multi-skilled" asserted Meldrum, and "we are all on a learning curve." Correspondents have all been issued with Flip Cams - video cameras the size of a mobile phone - which they are encouraged to use whenever possible, whether to produce narrated pieces or natural sound shots that will supplement their story.     Photos are also expected to feature significantly on the site, taken both by correspondents and by other photographers who will contribute.

Reader comments will be allowed on articles throughout the site.  "We want it to be as interactive as possible," Meldrum commented, explaining that they plan to respond to readers and adapt to how readers want to use the site.

Partnering with the best

According to Balboni, it is "imperative" for a new venture to form relationships with other news providers. And GlobalPost is already doing this, having established a partnership with the Huffington Post whereby some of GlobalPost's content is available on the Huffington Post's new world section. Correspondents are also appearing on 'World Focus', a night news programme on US television channel PBS, for a Q&A session with the TV anchor about whatever story they have covered that day. Balboni said that the organisation is also exploring similar opportunities with radio and in commercial television.  

Entrepreneurship drives online-only journalism

Balboni was enthusiastic about the potential of an online only publication. One of the main advantages is the "incredible distribution platform at a very modest expense." The Internet solves the problem of how to reach the audience.  He believes that there are "incredible opportunities as well if you can be entrepreneurial enough to create a new model, and if you can fulfil a need." By operating online-only and keeping distribution costs low, GlobalPost hopes to be able to produce a higher quality of product.

The other crucial point, he explained, is that serious news consumers are now looking mainly online to find their news.  He worries that newspapers have been "dumbed down" in an attempt to attract more readers, pushing many people online. It is not just about chasing numbers of viewers, and GlobalPost expects to have a "very high quality user population" of intelligent, well-educated people.  

Stamping "Passports" to profitability

"Paid online content will be the salvation of journalism if it can be worked out"

Balboni expects the site to become profitable in three years, and it will be funded via syndication, advertising and paid premium content.  He expressed his conviction that paid online content "will be the salvation of journalism if it can be worked out." GlobalPost's premium content aspect to the site will be called 'Passport' and will be available for an annual fee. The Passport area of the site will include a service called Foreign Desk, which will allow subscribers to write suggestions for stories that they would like to see.

The foreign news solution?

There is a gap in the market for this sort of well-investigated, foreign news, and as long as GlobalPost can find enough readers who are interested enough in the world around them this site has much potential.  The passion of the people behind it for international news is indubitable, and the model that they have chosen is forward-thinking and may well work. Being online only allows it to have a vast scope and reach with comparatively few resources. It will be particularly interesting to see how successful the paid content model is, and whether this can, as Balboni hopes, save journalism. 

Related links:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/01/globalpost-aims-to-resuscitate-foreign-correspondents-online008.html
http://www.journalism.co.uk/5/articles/533189.php
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/davidwestphal/200901/1615/
 

For the first time, European readership of free dailies has gone down. At the end of 2007 it was 27,300,000 - now it's 27,000,000.

The decline is not significant, but is it a sign of a new trend?

World circulation is still up by 2%, largely because of launches in South America and Asia.

Source: Newspaper Innovation

When it launches in 2009,  Global News will "provide the broadest global coverage of any U.S.-based news organization, second only to the Associated Press Consortium", according to its press release. The service is billing itself as the first fully web-based news organization.

It is positioning itself to plug the gap left by the cuts made to foreign and in-depth reporting. Global News will not be a wire service, it will offer, "the "who-what-when-where" of a breaking story"

It will offer clients customized, co-branded coverage from GNE correspondents, in-depth Sunday/weekend pieces, multimedia context for major stories and regional events, a private daybook of international story planning, and a co-branded "foreign desk" 24/7 box with links on client's website. It will be focused on the America market, providing news and analysis from what it calls, "an unashamedly American perspective."

Global News reports that its pricing structure will be competitive, but no set figures are as yet available.

The service will also take advantage of the latest video technology to offer a broad array of video reports from its correspondents, as well as from other international journalists with whom Global News will contract.

Source: Global News Enterprises

Google Inc plans to partner with newspaper publishers in order to make millions of news archives be available digitally. The company announced on Monday that it will make "dozens" of historical newspapers and the images featured accessible online.

"Not only will you be able to search these newspapers, you'll also be able to browse through them exactly as they were printed -- photographs, headlines, articles, advertisements and all," says Punit Soni, Google product manager.

US papers like The New York Times and the Washington Post would work alongside Google to index their content in Google's News Archive. Papers that are included in the deal range from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, which is the oldest paper in North America being first printed in 1764.

The first newspapers that are linking up with Google for the project are based in North America, according to a spokesman.

Source: European Journalism Centre

The new Wall Street Journal debuts today. WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch has redesigned it to expand its "traditional, pin-striped base," according to Johnnie L. Roberts, Newsweek reporter. Murdoch still believes that "newspapers are the most influential media for shaping the public discourse, even in this new-media century."

The new Journal will feature:
- An increased focus on politics, international news, culture, and sports.
- A refocused front page.
- A relaunch of the A section that will cover general news.
- Marketplace, the second section, which will cover corporate America.
- Money and Investing, the third section, which will continue to report news of financial markets and investing.
- A weekly sports page.
- An additional op-ed page, so that it has 3 pages instead of 2.

Also, a culture section is being developed in the Journal's weekend edition for the fall.

The redesign of the paper is also Murdoch's challenge to The New York Times.

But many media and communication experts argue that the Journal will not be a threat to the Times even with all the changes; in fact, the changes may damage the Journal brand.

"Turning a paper into an old-fashioned variety show--we have a little of everything--I don't think is the route to success," said a former senior Dow Jones executive. "The risk you run is that you are not best at anything." 

Arthur Siskind, senior adviser to Murdoch, remarked that "the need to bolster and broaden the Journal's production and delivery is one reason [Murdoch's] battle with the Times will have to unfold gradually." Murdoch is in talks for local newspaper publishers to print the Journal, so the paper can be printed earlier and story deadlines can be extended.

Even so, the Times has faced some difficulties. Advertising has fallen almost 11%, (Read more at our sister blog SFN) "the sharpest drop in memory," the Times wrote. While it is cutting its staff by 100 (Read more at SFN), Murdoch has been spending money on WSJ's Washington bureau, seeking additional printing capacity, and developing the weekend magazine, WSJ.

"The New York Times has had broad coverage for 156 years now," New York Times CEO Janet Robinson said, "and from that perspective we are far advanced in the type of journalism we create and the type of advertising we bring into the paper."

Source: Newsweek through Paidcontent.org

In this period of transition for newspapers the Newspaper Association of America launched Imagining the Future of Newspapers Blog.

Guardian America was launched, featuring among other things an exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton. The British paper hopes to secure an even bigger share of its significant US-based audience.

The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) is launching a contest for teens, asking them to create a YouTube video showing their use of online newspapers.

On July 1, blognation launched in the UK and became the first portal in an ambitious project to cover developments in Web 2.0 on a global scale.

France 24, launched today Dec. 5th, will be the first French news channel to air 24/7. Two channels – one in French and the other mostly in English – will be broadcast. The programs include reports, talk shows, news magazines and bi-hourly news bulletins.

Zaman is the fourth daily newspaper in Turkey, defines itself as "conservative" - in Europe, some would say "Islamic" and in America "Islamist" - and the newspaper supports the current Turkisk government in main occasions. Interestingly, he is the first Turkish daily to launch a special American edition: "Zaman USA has been a weekly publication for the last ten years, but has now launched a daily edition. The new daily newspaper will become available as of November 3rd and will include pages in English and Turkish. Zaman's representative in the US, Idris Gursoy, said last night, Zaman were proud to be the first Turkish newspaper printed in the US. He said that with the English pages, Turkish society will be better introduced to America and said Zaman will represent the Turkish press in the best possible way."

Source: Zaman

The New York Times announced today that it has launched its weekly news section with El Tiempo of Colombia. The first edition was published on Oct. 3. El Tiempo joins a growing number of newspapers that publish the supplement (see former postings), which is designed to complement and enhance news coverage for the local audience. The supplement, known as The New York Times International Weekly, retains the layout and typography of The New York Times. It includes news coverage, commentary, color photos and graphics about the United States, world affairs, business, culture and social trends. The supplement is prepared in New York by a team of editors and designers from The New York Times News Service in consultation with editors from the partner newspapers. Founded in 1911, El Tiempo ranks as one of the top five newspapers in Latin America with a daily circulation of 265,000 and a Sunday circulation of 536,000. El Tiempo is published by Casa Editorial El Tiempo Ltda.

Source: New York Times and El Tiempo

"Meximerica Media, a U.S.-based publishing company, announced that Rumbo de Houston, its second Spanish-language daily newspaper, has started publication on August 30. After the successful launch of Rumbo de San Antonio, Meximerica Media continues its efforts towards establishing a new chain of Spanish-language dailies in Texas with the launch of Rumbo de Houston, to be followed by subsequent launches in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and Austin in September and October. Rumbo (pronounced room-bo), comes from the Spanish word often associated with the Latin American phrase meaning "heading north" and, by implication, heading to move up in life. Rumbo de Houston is a complete full-color, tabloid-size, Spanish-language newspaper, primarily aimed at Hispanic men and women between the ages of 21 and 54.