Results matching “long way for internet”

Portfolio.com's Jeff Bercovici questions whether or not Nicholas Kristof, New York Times (NYT) op-ed columnist, has crossed an ethical border after he pretended to be a Chinese national in order to test out the boundaries of Internet censorship in China.

In a memo to his staff Mike Leary, Philadelphia Inquirer's managing editor, announced that the paper would now publish "signature investigative reporting, enterprise, trend stories, news features, and reviews" online only after they have been published in print, but that the paper wouldn't stop publishing immediate breaking news online.

Bloggers may be the ones who have to adapt the most to the new policy, since they may work on content that may "end up as subjects of stories or columns in print first", according to the memo.

"What's long held back the newspaper industry and gotten it in the current mess has been holding back online innovation that might impact the legacy product (print)," said Steve Outing in his blog, after calling the new policy "backward".

In his BuzzMachine blog, Jeff Jarvis criticized the editor's memo, saying that "even the slowest" in the "dying" newspaper industry would not do something like this.

"They know that the Internet is the present and the future and the paper is the past. Protecting the past is no strategy for the future," said Jarvis.

On the other hand, citizen journalist Bill Dennis said, "By offering for free what their would-be competitors would have to offer for a fee, newspapers' free Web sites are an anti-competitive act."

Source: Poynter Romenesko, BuzzMachine, SteveOuting.com

Newspaper Web sites designed for mobile phones may help in boosting local paper readership. Verve Wireless, which already provides mobile editions of The Associated Press and the McClatchy Company papers, is offering the technology to do that.

"It's important and smart for newspapers to get out in front on the mobile phenomenon and not make the mistake they made in waiting too long to embrace the Internet," said Greg Sterling, who analyzes the mobile Web for Opus Research.

Art Howe, Verve's chief executive, said that local news content would always be appealing to people, even if it isn't in print format. However, to be more functional, mobile paper sites "cannot be Internet lite", according to Howe.

The US currently has 95 million mobile Internet subscribers, reported The New York Times (NYT). The number of people who access the Web from their phones has nearly doubled to 40 million since 2006.

The most popular sites are, in descending order, portal sites, e-mail services and newspaper content such as weather, news, entertainment.

Verve offers tailored ads that target a given audience. However, not many advertisers are willing to pay for mobile ads, according to The NYT.

Source: The New York Times

New data released from Nielsen Mobile, in the "The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web" report, indicates that adoption of the mobile web has reached a critical mass and can now support "large-scale mobile marketing efforts."  

According to Nielsen, as of May 2008, 15.6 percent of US mobile subscribers regularly use the internet on their mobile device - reaching a total of 40 million users. (In all, some 95 million US subscribers pay for access to the mobile internet, but the 40 million are regular users.)

The UK and Italy followed the US, with 12.9 percent and 11.9 percent respectively, of subscribers going online from a mobile device.

It's interesting that while the US leads in overall mobile internet usage (of total users), other nations are now using mobile devices as the primary mechanism for getting online. According to Ars Technica, "In Russia, Brazil, and India, mobile lines far outnumber landlines, and as those countries continue to flourish, they will become a greater driving force in mobile Internet use."

According to the Nielsen report, the most popular things to do online were to go through web portals for mobile sites, followed by e-mail, then weather, news/politics, search, city maps, and sports.

"All of this ads up to a significant marketing opportunity, if companies can learn how to do it right," reported Ars Technica. "Mobile users appear to be lukewarm towards advertising (although Nielsen says that self-reported advertising receptivity tends to be low across all mediums), and due to its more personal nature, could be even more difficult to sell. Still, it could be successful as long as mobile marketing can respect consumer privacy and actually engage users"

For more on mobile internet usage, read our sister SFN blog's post yesterday on reaching teen audiences.

Source: Ars Technica through European Journalism Centre

By Labour Day, the Los Angeles Times expects to have cut 250 jobs, including 150 of the 876 print and Web editorial positions, as well as decrease the number pf pages published weekly by 15 %, Editor and Publisher reported.

"Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money," said Russ Stanton, Times editor.

David Hiller, Times publisher, said that the paper is aiming to get where it "needs to be for the long term", at a size that is "sustainable."

This tendency towards shorter papers and less staff in order to adapt to economic realities has been seen all over the US newspaper industry, including within papers like the Baltimore Sun and the Hartford Courant.

Source: Editor and Publisher

See also:

US: More newspaper job layoffs
US: LA Times  publisher looks towards future, promises changes

SFN Blog:
LA Times to cut 250 jobs

According to News & Record editor John Robinson, Kubler-Ross' model of accepting death can be applied to the current state of the newspaper industry in the US: it is time for acceptance.

In Kubler-Ross' model, the five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

In April, Terry Heaton, AR & D's Media 2.0 senior vice president, said the industry was at the depression stage.

Now is time of acceptance - not of death though, but of the need for change.

Reporter and blogger Doug Fischer wrote that although it may seem that newspapers are dying, they would continue to "exist in radically different frequency and content."

Journalists need to deal with the economic reality and think about the challenges ahead, Robinson wrote.

"That means we understand how the world has changed, and we understand how our journalistic skills and assumptions must change. For instance, learning what it takes to be a digital journalist is vital. Reaching readers -- information consumers, really -- where, how and when they want it is good for journalism. Listening to and learning from them is even better," he said.
 
Two years ago, the Economist published a special report in which it said that the newspapers might survive in the long term if they "reinvent themselves on the Internet and on other new-media platforms such as mobile phones and portable electronic devices."

The situation of the US newspaper industry does seem critical, in light of the massive wave of layoffs in recent weeks and the overall advertising decline. But Robinson pointed out that future journalistic opportunities lie in microblogging, beat blogging and social networking. Journalism is, in his opinion, on the verge of attracting different customers.

Source: News-Record.com
 

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

According to Michael Agger from Slate, online reading is slower and users are more likely to lose interest faster.

The most effective text online is bulleted, in a list, occasionally bold, has informative subheads and contains no puns. Aggers refers to Jakob Nielsen's theories, labeling humans as "informavores" who look for "an information scent" on a site.

According to earlier research, there was no difference in reading speeds between reading on paper and on the Web. Nielsen, however, believes that reading online is 25 % slower.

The advice that experts give for reading on the computer is to choose a default screen font such as Verdana, rest your eyes every half an hour, have a good monitor, minimize reflection and skip long lines of words.

Nielsen thinks online readers are "selfish, lazy, and ruthless."

In order to fight this (read Nielsen's post), websites need:
- One idea per paragraph
- Bulleted lists
- Bold text
- Have informative subheads
- Contain no puns
- Shorter text

Nielsen points out that if users are motivated to read lengthy paragraphs in order to get the information they need, then they will. Otherwise, hyper-texting is advisable.

Agger says reading for pleasure is a whole different thing, because you are "engrossed" in the text and do not care about its length but this is a less common practice online.

Nielsen does not promote blogging, but Agger says that bloggers can beat the Internet by "offering a comprehensive take on a subject" and "supplying original thinking."  

Agger concludes by recommending paper as a "balm." "It's contained, offline, tactile," he says. Find out more by reading "A paperless world?"

Source: Slate.com through IFRA Executive News Service

See also:

New eyetrack research can help online editors

At the Guardian 's "Future of Journalism" conference, Twitter was mentioned as an innovative and revolutionary service that has helped journalists worldwide cover events more immediately, such as the earthquake in China, mayoral elections or soccer games. In his blog, Ron Sylvester says the podcast is "fascinating" and "thought-provoking."

Dave Hill, a reporter for the Guardian, covered the mayoral elections on Twitter, which gave people the opportunity to see raw journalism. He claims that news-making of this nature has "the immediacy of reporting by the seat of your pants."

Another Guardian employee, Anna Pickard, enjoys the "simultaneous" element that the Internet provides, referring back to the time she began blogging TV shows only to have people watch TV and respond to her blogs at the same time.

NPR's Andy Carvin mentions that community is vital to the Internet and that "the technology has got ridiculously simple." In his opinion, Twitter is like " a conversation in your pocket."

"You can express things in a different way, with greater brevity, economy or humour - and there are infinite ways of covering the same event," Hill said.

Some say that Twitter is competing with traditional media, a thought that may be "misleading". Twitter does not offer quality reporting with in-depth analysis and full coverage, like traditional media does.

Twitter is fast at communicating events and according to ReadWriteWeb, it will "never outshine the mainstream press as long as reporters continue to do what they do best -- get on the ground, talk to the right people, find out what's really going on."

Source: Technolo-J

After disappointing sales in 2007, when advertising expenditures saw the tiniest uptick of 0.2%, it looks like the first quarter of 2008 will tell the same story. According to a Wednesday report from TNS Media Intelligence, spending has risen just 0.6%.

Newspapers took the biggest hit, with ad sales falling 5.2%. Radio was not far behind, with a 4.5% drop. Even typically robust sectors of the media industry showed signs of slowing. Cable television was up only 4.1%--for all of 2007, it rose 6.5%--and Internet display advertising grew just 8.5%  - a dramatic tumble from 2007's 15.9%.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was asked how the company - which currently relies heavily on search advertising -- will continue to profit. Schmidt noncommittally replied, "The goal of the company isn't to monetize everything. The goal of the company is to change the world."

A lofty statement - and true sentiment - but for most newspapers, it's difficult to change the world without some pocket money.

Joe Swallen, senior vice president of research at TNS Media, predicted the second quarter will continue quarter one's trend, as consumers continue to cut spending and marketers follow suit.

"Consumers are the ultimate engine behind the advertising economy," said Swallen. "As long as the current economic situation is as pessimistic or cautious as it is, it's unlikely there's going to be a resumption of robust spending."

Sources: Crain's New York through IwantMedia, Forbes

In the days after the 61st World Newspaper Congress and 15th World Editors Forum, the debate was still raging:
Will print products remain the core business model of the newspaper industry in the long-term?
Will digital platforms become newspapers' primary source of distribution and revenue?
Or will both print and digital work side by side to sustain newspaper journalism?
Guardian Comment is Free columnist Roy Greenslade and World Association of Newspaper CEO Timothy Balding sounded off on the topic.

Greenslade struck first. Having attended the conference, he pointed to what he considered a divide between publishers and editors and their respective conference programs; "The congress, the publishers' conference, was dominated by the upbeat statistics about the good health of newspaper sales, newspaper launches and newspaper profits"... "Yet all the discussions at the editors' forum were dominated by how to deal with the decline - whether rapid or gradual - of newspaper circulations and the accompanying flight of advertising as people turn their backs on newsprint in favour of the internet."

Balding responded by noting that, on the whole, global newspaper industry figures are positive. Circulations are up in 105 nations and stable in 31. Paid titles are up in 85 countries and stable in 83. But this doesn't stop at print. The Congress, Balding pointed out, gave many examples of traditional publishers succeeding in the digital realm and shared multimedia strategies with their colleagues from around the world. WAN continues to do "absolutely everything we can to make sure that our publishers and our editors receive the best and most reliable information about digital developments and the best success stories on their successful exploitation," said Balding. The association does not "pretend... to know the digital future."

Perhaps the real divide comes not from the publishers and editors at the World Newspaper Congress, but rather from developed and developing nations. It is no surprise that in the United States and many countries in Western Europe, print newspapers are experiencing declines in circulation and profit margins. These papers have had trouble making up for lost revenues on the Web. On the other hand, newspapers in developing countries such as India and China are witnessing huge growth and will continue to do so for years to come. Their digital offerings and revenues will also increase as Internet and mobile penetration rapidly spread.

The essence of the Congress, is to bring papers from these nations together. It is the platform where they share ideas; new ways to create and distribute content, strategies for reaching new audiences, and creative ways to make money in print and online. And sharing ideas between different markets will ensure that the newspaper industry, in both developing and developed nations, will continue to flourish.

"The mobile news revolution and its impact on the newsroom". That was the topic for the speech of Paul Cheesbrough, Chief Information Officer at the Telegraph Media Group, United Kingdom, at the third session of the 15th World Editors Forum.

Trying to coordinate and strengthen the use of mobile technology at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and thetelegraph.com, Mr Cheesbrough talked about the experiences and the approach of the newsgroup to the mobile future. There are three different angles.

1. "Distribution opportunity" - For a long time, mobile technology has been costly and difficult. But lately there has been a positive change. To a large extent, producers of mobile devices have  started to embed a common browser in the device. This is a big leap forward making it much easier for media to publish and users to read and view. Since screen sizes on mobile devices still are quite small, most viewers use it to read headlines, follow sport results etc. This makes it quite simple and basic but promises much potential. With the development of new devices and mobile high speed broadband becoming more widespread and cheaper there's more use of and demand for video and audio news posts.

2. "Revenue prospect" Since the mobile technology still is fairly new to the public it hasn't yet become attractive for the ad-market. Neither does it have such a strong position among consumers of news, so there are big possibilities of having pay for-services. However, the current situation will surely change. The constant growth and development of mobile technology in many ways means more users in the consumer market.

3. "News gathering news channel" The use of different mobile devices, whether be it an iphone, a tablet pc, mobile internet genie etc. makes journalistic work easier and more effective. Journalists can report, publish and update a news story at any time, from anywhere. This can be published as text, video or a podcast. There's also the possibility for the public to contribute. Today, users are able to send pictures from the scene of a news story with their mobile phone. They can send text messages and comment on articles. They can blog as part of the website platform, etc. However, the growth of this phenomenon has issues that needs to be worked on. Most obvious is the issue of moderation. This applies mostly to controversial news, but publishers must not ignore more general news. Mr. Cheesbrough belives that moderation will a more important aspect of newsrooms over time.

Lastly, Cheesbrough encouraged the audience not to look at mobiles as simply mobile phones. In five to ten years, mobile technology will have evolved to something much more, giving both journalists and public more possibilities.