Results matching “do not have a”

David Kirk, CEO of Fairfax Media (publisher of Australia's Sydney Morning Herald and The Age), recently gave a speech to the Sydney Institute about his views on the media industry and his predictions for the future.    

Kirk does not see the end of quality newspapers; not in their print forms, nor their online forms.  He believes that a free press is "essential to the operation of democracy" that helps people come to their own conclusions about what is going on in the world.  

He stressed the obligation of journalists to be accountable to their readers, public and shareholders for the quality of their journalism.

Success of the Web? Try Newspaper Values With a New Twist
Caroline Little, Adviser to Guardian News & Media and former CEO and publisher of Washington Post/Newsweek Interactives, United States:

"Keep one foot rooted in the core journalism values of the core product, and one that happens to be delivering the most revenue, and with the other, stretch as far as possible to try new things in this new medium."

"The news websites share the same journalistic values as the newspapers, but the web folks also are working in a medium that's indisputably different, one that requires trying new things and sometimes going down in flames," she said. "Fear of failure can be debilitating. All we have to lose by being too conservative is everything."

Which US-based newspaper website has become so popular that it received over 140,000 user comments on one day this week? One would naturally assume, The New York Times or USA Today, but no, the distinction goes to Topix.net. Topix is a publication that does not have a newsroom, has never printed a paper version, and claims more web visitors than the Washington Post.

Topix, like YahooNews or GoogleNews, serves as an online news aggregator, collecting news from over 50,000 sources. But unlike its larger web colleagues, Topix is also a news community, bringing forums and discussion groups to every US town and city. Topix is the very definition of hyper-local; users simply enter their zip code and the news relevant to them is only a click away. The site also works with national and local news publishers in the US to help them engage their communities while simultaneously improving their revenue streams through classified publishing platforms.

This amalgamation of news aggregator, online newspaper and community website has taken American by storm, and Topix is now a hit. In July 2008, comScore Media Metrix ranked Topix.net the third largest newspaper site in the United States, right behind the New York Times and USA Today. With success like this, it seems that Topix and other news aggregators are here to stay. But what do sites like Topix mean for traditional publishers?

The Editors Weblog spoke to Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix, to find out his view on the relationship between newspapers and news aggregators and what newspapers can learn from aggregator methodology.

Different value propositions

Whereas some newspaper companies have been critical of news aggregators, which the newspapers accuse of "stealing" content, Tolles is positive about the relationship between newspapers and sites such as his. He views them as "different value propositions", which in this case means that newspapers provide the news while Topix provides the platform on which readers discuss the news. Because of this added value, Topix, according to Tolles, "work with, not against local journalistic efforts." He continues, "Topix harnesses the power of the population in places that newspapers can't realistically cover", keenly pointing out that by browsing Topix-hosted forums, journalists at many papers find new stories and new sources they would not have discovered otherwise.

Tolles describes Topix as "a place to engage and participate around local news and events." It's main innovation, impossible before the emergence of the Internet, is that it furnishes newspapers with a space where their readers can congregate around general subject matter and individual articles. In this sense, Tolles views Topix as a "great partner to newspapers"; not only does it provide the discussion platform, but it opens up a newspaper's content to a new audience which may have not previously considered reading the online or print edition.  

Targeted content = targeted advertising

One of the areas in which Topix has blazed a trail and surprised many in the media industry is in monetising local content, the $50,000 question in today's newspaper market. Topix's targeted, local content has proved very attractive to advertisers, both local and national.  Tolles reveals, "We are able to sell advertising against local audiences for national advertisers as well as being able to use our own targeting algorithms for Google's Ad Sense. We get a large uplift on the CPM rates, about ten times what newspapers not using Topix are able to get." To grow its targeted advertising success even more, Topix is increasing its direct sales staff.  

Another interesting feature of the Topix business model is that all the technology is done in-house. "We have built everything used on Topix at Topix," says Tolles. Therefore, everything that is built and designed for the site is done solely with Topix in mind; there is no content management or publishing system that has to be bolted on and squeezed to fit the site's working practises or production needs. Tolles reports that "The localization and categorization technology is patent pending and ours, as is the forum platform, search technology and everything down to the open source web components like our web server and OS."

Topix is an interesting player in the news provider market and there are clearly lessons to be learnt from its scalable model and innovation. Furthermore, the success that Topix enjoys is a stark lesson to the whole industry. But still, everything hasn't been perfect. Looking back, Tolles says he "would have hired sales people earlier, and I would have focused on local (over general categories) from the get go. I would also have worked with others in the industry to give advertisers a clearer value proposition around connecting to local earlier."

As for succeeding in the crowded media space, Tolles suggests the Topix strategy for others, concluding, "I would urge any news organization starting today to figure out what they provide their audience, and then focus on that relentlessly. We did that with participation, but there are other ways to succeed..."

With the World's financial markets nose-diving and talk of an imminent deep recession, people are turning to newspapers to cut through the jargon and market turmoil and to tell them the truth. However, some newspapers stand accused of sensationalising the crisis in the pursuit of a dramatic front page and of being ill informed on the subject matter. General sentiment in the City of London, for instance, ranged from financial workers accusing the press of creating "complete hysteria" to "fanning the flames of the crisis". These severe reactions in the City, combined with an utterly confused public, sparks the question: how should a newspaper cover a global financial crisis?

The Financial Times has proved to be a port in the storm of screamer headlines and misinformed commentary. The Editors Weblog spoke to the Managing Editor of the FT, Daniel Bogler (left), about his views on the coverage and how his newspaper reacted as the crisis unfolded.

Firstly, Bogler agreed with the City's negative view on some of the mainstream media's coverage, saying, "It's unfortunate that the financial literacy and understanding of how things work in the City and of basic accounting and so on, is actually very thin in financial journalism. The FT, because we are a financial newspaper, take the stuff a lot more seriously. We hire people from the City... and also spend a lot of time, effort and money on training our people."

Rethinking the layout

Bogler reported that one of the key things the FT did when the magnitude of the story unfolding became clear was rethink the entire layout of the paper. To ensure that the FT provided enough space to deliver comprehensive coverage, it cleared the first four pages of previously planned stories and bumped them further inside. This shift in focus did result in other key news getting squeezed, but this highlights the newspapers keen news judgement on the significance of what was unfolding on trading screens throughout the world. The bar for a story to get onto the front page was suddenly raised.

Bogler said that not only did the FT clear the first four pages, but it also redesigned the front page to emphasise and reflect the newspaper's focused coverage. The FT's template for its front page is usually three or four stories and a taster section (long column down the side) for stories within (left). However, with its decision to provide focused coverage on the rapidly changing story, it now featured two stories on the financial meltdown and leads to the rest of its coverage.

To further provide space for reporting the story, it reorganised the letters page and also largely cleared its flagship Markets pages at the back.

Since the story broke, half of the Financial Times coverage in print and online has been entirely focused on the credit crisis. The paper is not only featuring pieces to assist and inform investment bankers, but also pieces that will be useful for the average individual. The Personal Finance section last Saturday did a special on how to manage your finances during the credit crash, with practical advice for everyone, from savers to those seeking information on their mortgage.
 
This flexibility in terms of layout is another key reason for its success in its treatment of the story; templates and layout do not dictate to the newspaper when a big story breaks.

Refocusing the team

Layout flexibility followed into the newsroom itself. From what Bogler reports, it appears that three key teams spearheaded the newspapers response to the global financial crisis. The teams were the Crisis Counsel (Chief Editors and senior editors), The Leader Conference (meeting for in-depth coverage) and, specifically, the Hit Team (the financial services (banks) reporters).

Crisis Counsel
As the story hit, a Crisis Counsel was called at around 10am with the Editor Lionel Barber, News Editor Robert Shrimsley and other senior editorial staff. It was here that the decision to clear the first four pages of the newspaper to focus on the meltdown was taken and a senior news editor was appointed to manage the pages. Furthermore, the decision to make this story the focal point for the newspaper was made, with the senior team then notifying the rest of the staffers.

Leader Conference
The team then moved on to the Leader Conference to inform them that in depth and "Leader" stories would now be on the market meltdown. Previously planned articles on the UK's Conservative political party were shelved and resources shifted for optimal reporting.

The Hit Team
The Hit Team strategy had previously been utilised by the FT during the Iraq War. The Hit Team - which consists of reporters and editors from the relevant beat for a story - co-ordinate the entire newsroom: deploying reporters, co-ordinating news flow, writing the front-page splash and managing the opening pages. The Team can also pull reporters off their beat to boost coverage of a topic, ie, an autos journalist can be drafted in to aid coverage of a banks story. The core of this unit for the crisis was, and still is - as this rapidly developing story still has legs - made up of ten financial services reporters in London and six or seven in New York. Staffers around the world also called in with their regions' story and any new angles developing. Bogler reported that the news editor and reporters around the world "shaped these pages relatively quickly."

The highly respected "Lex Column" was also given priority. It is a column that features widely read analysis and commentary from a group of reporters who previously worked in hedge funds and investment banks.

The payoff

As a result of its dedicated focus and clear and comprehensible content, FT.com's traffic has exploded. Page views have risen 300 per cent. Unique users are also up by 250 per cent.

When asked about the FT's competition, Bogler said, "Its unfortunate perhaps for the Wall Street Journal, having just been bought by Murdoch, that they have switched their interest to general news, political news and focusing on US politics at a time when US politics is just not the story. We have looked a bit more nimble."

Responsibility and ethics

Reflecting on this fast-changing story, the media coverage it has received, and the perceived "sensationalist" angle taken by other papers, Bogler said he is aware of the added pressure on the FT, "We do have an extra responsibility and we take it very seriously.  We do not 'fan the flames' of the crisis."

He went on to say, "It is in the nature of newspapers to write the most dramatic headline, the most dramatic copy and have the most dramatic picture, so you have impact on your readers.... this irresponsibility is kind of bred into the industry. You have to be very careful, you have to take a step back. A picture of someone with their head in their hands in front of a trading screen, is that the right picture?"
 

MediaWeek report that Forbes.com have launched a new Personal Finance channel. The new section has been designed for financial advisers and institutional investors.

The Financial Adviser Network is set to feature news, analysis and commentary aimed at assisting the finance community. Industry experts will also give advice and community participation will be encouraged in columns and blog postings.

The Financial Advisor Network will also feature various service content and tools, such as a directory of top financial advisors across various industries, the Forbes.com list of "The Top 50 Fee-Only Advisers," educational content from Forbes.com's Investopedia.com and a custom financial advisor widget.

The Editors Weblog cannot help but think that the timing of the launch is pretty off. The site is aimed at serious market players, and after the battering they have received in recent weeks it may be understandably tough to get them interested.

Source: MediiaWeek

Yesterday, Forbes announced that The New York Times was planning to shut down the website of its sister paper, International Herald Tribune. According to Paid Content, the sight will not be shut down. Instead, it will be co-branded as a global edition of The New York Times.  

Vivian Schiller, SVP and GM of NYTimes.com told Paid Content that the idea is to have one global brand. According to Schiller, users will be able to choose between a US and a Global edition of the website.

Staff changes are also planned, but the editorial team will remain in Paris while the production will be based in New York, since the two will share a single platform.

Sources: Paid Content

In a recent speech, former of the editor of The Age, Michael Gawenda, gave his opinions about the newspaper industry.  Gawenda believes that changes taking place in the news industry are causing more problems and they are failing to "produce newspapers that attract the sort of fierce and life-long loyalty they once attracted."

Gawenda believes that "it is a failure of imagination and commitment, a result of a lack of experience and knowledge and love of newspapers" that is causing content, readership and revenue to decline.  

He went on to stress the importance of change in the industry, "but for real change, courage is needed, and vision and risk-taking and, above all, a commitment to newspapers and journalism that, frankly, I do not see at the moment."

Bertrand Pecquerie wrote in an article in Le Monde yesterday that the French newspaper industry is in crisis and, worryingly, turning to the State for help. Newspapers have been subsidized in France for the past ten years and, in those ten years, the situation has not improved, it has actually worsened.

Pecquerie believes that there are four core problems facing the industry and these are not being addressed. The four core issues are method, diagnosis, objective and means.

Sony announces that its new Reader model, the PRS-700, will feature an interactive touch screen, which will let users change pages by moving their fingers across the display, and a virtual keyboard to type up notes. The device will also have an LED reading light that will permit visibility in areas of inadequate lighting.

Newspapers around the world are facing a challenging time, not only because of the current difficult economic climate and declining advertising revenues, but also because of the ever more rapid push to multi-platform publishing and the changes to the operation that this has involved. Is it time the whole operating model underwent a shake-up? Neil Benson, Editorial Director - Regionals, at Trinity Mirror believes that newspapers need to radically overhaul the entire structure and that, being from a "conservative industry", they have been "overly-cautious" for far too long.

Benson, and the three Editors of the Birmingham titles affected, have rewritten the rulebook on workflow and newsroom management at the Birmingham Post (Editor Marc Reeves - business orientated newspaper), Sunday Mercury (Editor David Brookes - tabloid) and Birmingham Mail (Editor Steve Dyson - a popular evening paper); and the new system is scheduled to go live in mid-October. Benson says that in previous recessions for the media industry, the standard way newspapers have responded is to cut the pagination of the paper and axe staff, but Trinity felt that this was simply "inadequate". Benson says, "The financial pressure is nothing new, but the additional factor is the internet and convergence and the effect that this is having on the industry, so we felt that rather than do the straightforward cost-cutting, we needed to do something much more imaginative." The Editors Weblog spoke to Benson to get all the details.

Rethinking workflow

Trinity Mirror has been using the same tried and tested newsroom workflow as most other newspapers, ie, (1) journalist writes the article, (2) submits it to the news desk, (3) designer fits the story into the page, (4) sub-editing desk scrutinizes, and (5) final revision and publication. This whole system has been completely turned on its head, with Benson stating, "We are truly a multi-media business now, so lets structure for that." The old five-step system has now been honed down to just three steps: create, place and complete. Benson says that not only did they have to look at the overall operating costs in the current difficult economic climate, but they also wanted to fully integrate multi-media working practises into the operation. With the advent of new publishing platforms, such as mobile and the Internet, newsrooms have had to adapt rapidly and have thus frequently "bolted-on" on new practises to the traditional model. Benson wanted to revamp the whole process so that multimedia is fully integrated into the operation.

The new workflow system is as follows:

1) Reporters - who will now be known as multimedia journalists*, - create the content.
2) Send to the "Multimedia" desk where a newly trained multi-skilled team will not only check the copy but also place it into heavily templated pages. This is the key step in the reinvention; here Trinity have merged the news editing and production function into one.
3) Page finishing, revising and tidying up.

Benson says he cannot remember such substantial changes being made to a newsroom in 35 years. Not only will this system help to cut costs and integrate multimedia publishing, but it will also cut down on the time between a reporter finding a story and it appearing in print or online. Furthermore, the three titles at Trinity Mirror Midlands will all be sharing a newsroom; so if a big story breaks the merged newsroom can push more resources towards the story and cover it more thoroughly than was ever possible before.

Integrated newsroom - open space and collaboration

One of the key areas where the changes can be seen is in the newsroom team itself; the individual Head of Content or Head of Sport for each title will be merged and will now work across all titles and channels. Furthermore, the whole team, including advertising and sales, will all be on one floor working together.

In the centre of the new newsroom (the whole team is moving to a new purpose-designed site in Birmingham in about a month's time) there will be a structure that Benson describes as being "like a broken doughnut" (ie, a round structure, open at two points for exit and entry) which is the multimedia desk: everything will be directed from this central hub. It will also contain the conference table where all of the news meeting will take place, making it open to the entire staff rather than in the Editors office behind a closed door as in the past. This structure also enables the multi-media desk staff to always be at their workstations even during the news meetings.

Furthermore, over the summer, a new publishing system was introduced called "Content Watch" (produced by a MediaSpectrum) which is completely web-based making it possible to file copy and sub copy from anywhere.

Training journalists: the "nuts and bolts" of integration

The training programme undertaken to make this radical change in structure possible has been comprehensive. Benson describes the training as "nuts and bolts" and philosophical, ie, enabling the team to "think" multi-media when they are working.  Staffers are all being equipped with laptops for filing on the move and Smartphones (Nokia 95 Smartphones for shooting video, streaming video, and take digital pictures), so there have been practical training sessions for the new kit, being led by the Head of Multimedia and the editorial training manager.

The team have brought in Paul Bradshaw from Birmingham City University, who has an online journalism blog, for the philosophical side; the sessions involve talks on multimedia and issues surrounding it for senior staffer, who will then "percolate this knowledge down". The staff have also been attending a series of multimedia awareness sessions led by Andrew Dickinson from the University of Central Lancashire, who also has a journalism blog.

Benson is very clear on the importance of this training programme, "We are asking people to do something very new, and unless you invest in the training it is not going to work."

Managing the team through unfamiliar waters

Another key consideration for Trinity Mirror in this reinvigoration of its newsroom has been its staff. The process resulted in 65 voluntary redundancies at the newspapers and this understandably caused concern for staffers at the group's Birmingham titles. Furthermore, with the whole workflow system being turned on its head, staffers were required to apply for roles within the new structure. This, reports Benson, was a difficult decision and one "not taken lightly". However, the changes in structure are so radical that they felt it was necessary to take this step to underline the enormous change the Birmingham titles were undertaking, and for the staff to truly consider if they wanted to be involved in it. Benson reports, "We had our eyes open, we expected a big reaction."

Bearing this in mind, management moved ahead quickly and launched a consultation period where staffers had one-to-one sessions to discuss concerns and ask questions. Rapidly after, the job application process started.  

The UK's National Union of Journalists took a role in the process, telling management that they would fight any forced redundancies; thankfully, the voluntary process proved successful and a strike was averted. Benson reports that communication was open with the union throughout the process.

With hindsight?

Trinity Mirror Midlands is nearing the finishing line in this whole process, but with the benefit of hindsight, would they have done anything differently? Benson says that he does not feel that there is a "fundamental" in the process that they got wrong. He does believe that the communication process with staff is vital and needs to be as open and detailed as possible. For Trinity, communication has been, "pretty good, but more would have been better."

Furthermore, with the office move planned well in advance and with Trinity's desire to undertake the changes before the office move so teething problems could be ironed out, lack of time was an issue. Benson says, "Ideally, a bit more time, but then again I have been involved in projects in the past where you can give yourself too much time. Being journalists, we all like a deadline."

* The multimedia journalists role now involves shooting video, taking picture, and so forth, as well as being equipped to file from anywhere with the new web-based publishing platform.