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Part 1 discussed how the planned changes at The New York Times and International Herald Tribune will help the NYT's continuous news offerings, and how these changes could affect the organization and interaction between both newsrooms.

Part 2 examines how The New York Times intends to:
- Further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal internationally, and ways in which newspapers can reinforce their international reach.
- Use the strength of its online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name.

The Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.

How newspapers can become international brands, the NYT joins the race

Until now, the Times hasn't specifically catered to overseas advertisers and readers.

"We need to be agile," said IHT publisher Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, "to compete much more aggressively, nose to nose, with The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and anybody else who is competing for our readers and advertisers."

No doubt that the Times actually borrowed the continuous news outpost idea from the aforementioned competitors, which have been relying on their foreign bureaus to provide round the clock coverage.

The staff memo reaffirmed the NYT's "ambitious plans to expand in the region (Asia), particularly in India." In June, the IHT announced a partnership with the India-based Deccan Chronicle to print the Tribune's world business section in the Financial Chronicle.

With the rise of digital publishing, many news organizations are seeking to grow a previously inaccessible international readership by:

- launching a print edition abroad: several papers have rolled out editions away from home this past year, such as the FT's recently launched Middle East edition in Abu Dhabi, WSJ's partnership with business paper Mint in India, the Daily Mail's partnership with India Today to publish the Mail Today, or The Times of London's Polish edition.

- investing in an online international section: In Germany, referential weekly Der Spiegel launched an English-language International edition on its website in 2004. Five fulltime staffers are dedicated to translating Der Spiegel's content and rewriting it with an international perspective, as well as doing their own international-minded original reporting (the full case study is featured in Trends in Newsrooms 2008). The Guardian adopted a different approach, by launching a separate, foreign-based, US website, Guardian America. The Guardian is reportedly considering similar ventures in other regions.

- simply reinforcing their focus on international news in their regular coverage: the Daily Telegraph's website in the UK, which was neck to neck with the Guardian in terms of traffic in April, claims nearly two thirds of its visitors are from overseas. A well-indexed website helps to brings in a significant number of 'light' international users through search engines.

Merging "co-branded" websites but not print: a branding issue

The NYT's approach is a combination of the first two strategies: the print IHT now serves as The Times' 'global edition' (see picture), while maintaining its trademark brand name. With the proposed online merger, the NYT could also follow the second route, by hosting an international edition online, without having to extensively change its workflows (see Part 1).

The rationale to merge the websites is clearly explained in the memo: according to WebTrends, NYT's website boasts a strong international audience and 58 million global users, compared to iht.com's seven million.

"The global landscape for online news is highly competitive, making scale, speed and resources essential to success. Therefore we have determined that the best future online for the IHT and the NYT globally is through a joint international presence," said the memo.

However, the memo doesn't explicitly say why this won't be the case in print:

"The IHT should become the international print edition of the NYT, whether it is formally branded that way or not."

The main issue at stake is one of branding. "In print, there have been at least a couple of studies that show that among Tribune newspaper readers there is a great identification with the brand, that the brand means something to readers," said Gottlieb.

"More than the name, what accompanies the name, an international perspective, a sense of calling the best stories from The Times and augmenting them with unique reporting," was a combination that many readers liked.

As news organizations seek to grow their international reach, this consideration probably holds true for many that have established a reputable brand name on a local or national scale. However strong the brand name, its association with a particular place or country can potentially play against that news outlet on the international scene.

Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition

Nytimes.com blogger Timothy Egan points to an interesting paradox about newspapers: how can we be talking about the death knell for newspapers when readership for many publications has never been higher?

We have all seen the stories of 1,000 jobs being cut in the American newspaper industry, just this week the LA Times announced 150 editorial layoffs. However, Egan points out, "all of this bad news is coming at a time when the audience and reach of many newspapers has never been greater."

Although the Internet may have damaged the traditional newspaper, it has also "increased the readership of some newspapers ten-fold."

US Newspaper websites attracted more than 66 million unique visitors in the first quarter of 2008 -- a record, and a 12 percent increase on a year ago, according to Nielsen Online analysis. Forty percent of all Internet users visit a newspaper site.

"A visitor, it should be noted, is different from a reader, but it's the measurement of choice. The Web is the future," writes Egan.

However, online advertising accounts for only around 10 percent of total ad revenue for newspapers. In its present form, the Web format does not generate enough revenue to support a full reporting team at a national newspaper. This is an area that newspapers need to focus on, and currently only a few newspapers are doing successfully.

Egan also discusses another interesting business model for the future; could newspapers go down the route of non-profit national broadcasters such as the BBC, CBC and National Public Radio? He discusses the possibility of a quality, independent media no longer driven by the search for ad revenues.

However, this system arguably couldn't support a nationwide competitive media, but it's something worth considering, even if it is an option with limitations.

Egan's blog puts a new slant on the debate about the future of newspapers and exposes the weakness in the argument that newspapers are in their last days. Egan's research demostrates that there is much vitality in the industry and that newspapers need to adapt to a changing media environment.

Source: New York Times

From college students on Facebook, to moms, and even the EU parliament, it seems everyone these days is jumping on the social networking bandwagon, and journalists can, too. 10,000 Words recommends these sites for journalists:

Wired Journalists



The place for journalists to network and discuss the changing world of multimedia journalism. "WJ's strength," writes 10,000 Words, "is in its groups, in which members discuss topics like tutorials, audio techniques and student journalism"

LinkedIn

With 23 million members, LinkedIn offers an interactive database of hundreds of thousands of resumes; where professionals can keep in touch with current and former colleagues and be introduced to mutual contacts.

COLOURlovers

COLOURlovers is a hub for page designers, graphics journalists, and web producers. The site offers searchable color schemes and patterns, groups and a blog.

Twitter































Where news breaks first (and where social networking and microblogging converge). As 10,000 Words notes, "the site is still great for keeping up with the world in 140 characters or less."

Flickr

The after hours refuge for the photographers. Flickr offers both inspiration and a worldwide audience for amateur and professional photographers alike, as well as a place for discussion on lenses, filters and camera types.

Source: 10,000Words.net

Yet another video of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, shot "off the record" in the studios of France 3 prior to his televised interview on June 3rd, has gone viral.

In this case though, the bigger issue shaking French media is whether this video should have been 'news' in the first place, or whether it's simply an example of media outlets rushing to create buzz, a phenomenon exacerbated by the rise of online news.

The video, which was first posted by the online-only news site Rue89 on YouTube, has already received nearly a million views (similar to a video of Sarkozy insulting a civilian captured by Le Parisien).

A renowned blogger, Laurent Goaguen, criticized Rue89's decision:

"I'm slightly ashamed that Rue89's newsroom release this dirty thing, acquired in dubious circumstances and that doesn't bring any information. When political engagement, sense of urgency and the race to scoops obscure, to that extent, the professional duties of journalists..."

Another blog, Caréagit, expressed its disgust for "gutter journalism."

Rue89 editor-in-chief Pascal Riché argued that "this video is rich in information concerning the President, his relations with media, and the atmosphere within France Télévisions."

According to Rue89, France 3 threatened a lawsuit if the site doesn't remove the video and give the names of staffers who leaked the footage.

Source: Le Monde - Rue89

As newsrooms increasingly seek to cut costs and embrace the concept of "mojos" (mobile journalists), some papers are going as far as to remove their journalists' desks from the office.

With the increasing use of laptops, WIFI and other technological innovations, publishers are wondering, is it necessary for journalists to have an office?

No, according to Stephen Borg, Publisher of The Record in Hackensack. The New Jersey-based newspaper is leaving its main building and relocating employees to another newspaper the company owns, The Herald News of West Paterson.

Borg is a firm believer in the concept of office "hoteling". Journalists must now make a reservation for desk time. This means there will be a lot of sharing, but 'hoteling' cuts down on the need for desks, and thus the space those additional desks would require.

Borg said, "I really view this change as "moving out into the field." He envisages mobile journalists working full-time out of the office.

With Borg's changes, the company can save some $2.4 million annually, cutting down on electricity bills, cleaning crews and all the like necessary to keep a building going.

Such innovations are arguably necessary, but it will be interesting to see how these newspapers perform after the changes have been implemented.

Click on the link below for more examples of cost-cutting/efficiency measures at newspapers.

Source: Follow the Media

See also:

UK: BBC integrates newsroom with new media on-demand production unit

US: Mobile journalism is changing the newsrooms

CNN won't go down the mobile news route

Western Australia's corruption watchdog has reproached the police for its decision to raid the Sunday Times' headquarters. The April 30 raid was conducted in response to an article by Paul Lampathakis that detailed Treasurer Eric Ripper's request for $16 million of campaign advertising funds.

Testifying before a parliamentary inquiry yesterday, Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) director Nick Anticich and investigations manager Trevor Wynn said the raid had been dubiously conducted, and questioned why it occurred at 2 p.m. on a weekday, a busy time for newspapers.

Wynn and Anticich also had reservations about the need to raid the newspaper.

"What inquiries did they actually conduct with the public officers who had access to the documents?" Mr. Wynn said.

Source: TheAustralianNews.com

The Daily News added a new feature to its website so users can add the locations of potholes around Los Angeles.

This feature may help LA Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa's plan to fix around a million potholes by the end of the year.

Readers can input the address and descriptions of the pothole into an interactive map.



 












Instructions can be found here:

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9740340

Source: The Daily News

Tabloids' new celebrities could be politicians, instead of Hollywood stars like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Just as mainstream media borrow content from tabloids by writing about Hollywood starlets and the like, tabloids now borrow from media covering the political sphere.

For example, US Weekly put Michelle and Barack Obama on the cover last week while People wrote about Tim Russet.

"The lines between gossip and politics have blurred," ABC News wrote, in light of coverage of politicians like "gay American" Jim McGreevy and New York's prostitute-soliciting former governor, Eliot Spitzer.  

"There are a limited number of celebrities that people really care about, maybe a half dozen, including Britney and Lindsay," said New York Post's Media Ink columnist Keith Kelly. "There is a celebrity fatigue setting in. People are bored of the same people doing the same things, and there is no one new on the horizon."

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, US Weekly's circulation grew by 10% to over 1.9 million between 2006-2007 while People continued to be the most popular celebrity magazine with 3.6 million in circulation, ABC News reported.

As far as content goes, politics is "as much a function of slow gossip as it is a response to a genuine interest in the presidential elections" and including Michelle Obama was "natural" since the readers are young females, according to Bradley Jacobs, US Weekly's senior editor, ABC News reported.

"We're expanding the definition of celebrity to include politics," Jacobs said.

Barack Obama's interview on the US Weekly site in March got around 253 % more page views than "an average story", according to a spokesperson, ABC News reported.

Elizabeth Bird, a University of South Florida anthropologist specializing in pop culture and media said that it's "natural" that people see political candidates as celebrities during elections and that the general public is bored of the "distasteful" celebrity stories.

A fairly optimistic statement, if one considers the continuing success of tabloid-type content...

Source: ABCNews through World News Network

Here are some headlines from our sister blog, SFN:

Yahoo defends "yes" to Google, "no" to Microsoft
Norway's online newspaper revenues reache €290 million
Mobile marketing still immature, but most effective among young generations
Free dailies contribute 24 percent of Swiss newspaper ad revenue
US Newspaper help wanted ads falll by month, year

The New York Times (NYT) has added a new "breaking news" alert to their text messaging service.

Users can send "NEWSALERTS" to 698698 (NYTNYT) and when major breaking news items are posted on the NYT homepage, users will get a text message with the news.

This feature is the NYT's newest addition to their mobile news service, which was launched at the beginning of 2008. The mobile services provide news, columns and other information to signed-up users.  

According to the NYT, the NYT mobile site got 19 million page views in May.

See Also:
New York Times mobile news through text message keywords

Source: NY Times press release

Google News cannot be compared to other news sites like Yahoo News or CNN.com, according to PaidContent.org.

Google News gathers content with the help of computers who scan news on the Web and does not contain any ads. Meanwhile, other news sites like CNN.com create licensed material that passes through editors.

Google News groups articles by subject and ranks article by importance based on factors like  authority of publisher or placement of article in site. NYT writes that Google "packages the results as a set of links, sending readers to the sites where the articles appear."

According to the New York Times, Google executives claim that traffic is not the primary aim but that Google News "helps the company produce better search results and helps users find news sources that they might not know about otherwise."

According to the NYT, the growth rate of Google News is only 10 %, compared to MSNBC.com's 42 %, which got the site 10.4 million in traffic.

Dan Gillmor, who is director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at the Arizona State University School of Journalism, said that he is surprised "how little" Google News "evolved, at least on the surface", NYT wrote.

Marissa Meyer, vice president for Google search and user experience, said that Google News is one of "the most innovative" Google features and that its users actively employ the  Google search engine  and other services, NYT wrote.

She also mentioned that news results do emerge on the main Google search page, alongside adverts.  According to Meyer, "it directly feeds the main business."

Google News is sometimes seen as a competitor to other news providers, even if it brings traffic to the news site. Industry executives, according to NYT, think that because Google News links to a remote article, the readers are not likely to stay on the news site.

According to Braig Moffett, a Sanford C; Bernstein & Copany analyst, the Internet "made it possible to aggregate news cheaply". Consequently, news providers stopped charging for content. "Google may be doing more to accelerate this trend than anyone, but they are not doing it out of malice,"  Moffett said.

Tribune Co. owner Samuel Zell accused Google of stealing news stories for their own gains. In Europe, Belgian prosecutors said that Google News had "violated copyright laws" without asking for permission to link to the articles, NYT reported.

Google said that the company wishes "to help, not hurt, journalism", NYT wrote. Its chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, said that the company has "a huge moral imperative" to aid news outlets in becoming more "successful online", NYT wrote.

Last year, several features were added, such as different country and language versions of Google News. The number of "duplicate articles" is being reduced, as "authoritative" and "original" news stories are being displayed, according to NYT.

There is also the chance to personalize Google News, by focusing on local news and mapping the news event sites on Google Earth. Users can also post comments and search quotes.

Different sides to the same story are being provided by the news search engine, helping to make people "wake up and think," said Krishna Bharat, the research scientist behind Google News. "That's what makes people news junkies," she added.

NYT wrote that even if there have been some innovations, Google News "still lacks many of the flashier features that have attracted users to more conventional news sites, including interactive graphics and video."

Analysts have begun to question automated products and their limitations. Mark Glaser, PBS MediaShift editor said, "there is only so far you can go with an algorithm" because , "in the long run, people want a human touch."

Source: PaidContent.org, New York Times

See Also:

8 efficient and visual ways to present your online news
How to maximize your site's visiility in Google search ranking

Leonard Tow, 80, philanthropist and former newspaper executive (CEO of Citizens Communications and Century Communications), donated five million dollars to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and three million to the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism for research and development (R &D) and "innovation efforts" to study the future of print and online newspapers, PaidContent.org reports.

CUNY's Tow Center for Journalistic Innovation will be the "R & D center for business models and developing new ventures",