Results matching “combine print and on”

The Washington Post is restructuring its newsroom to be revolve around a cross media software concept.  The daily is the third US based publication to adopt the Methode system from EidosMedia S.p.A., following the Seattle Times and The Wall Street Journal who made the move last year. 

The adoption of the Methode is a firm indication of the convergence of the online and printed media in news provision.   The choice of software corresponds with the decision of the Post to combine its online and print operations.  The two teams will merge into a remodelled newsroom, in theory before the functioning of the new software begins. The Post is approaching the restructure with vigour: In January it appointed two new managing directors to oversee the developments, Elizabeth Spayd and Raju Narisetti.  The paper's new Executive Editor Marcus L. Brauchli, headed the previous restructure whilst at the WSJ.  The logistics of the move however, highlight the gloomier side of necessary evolution: according to Narisetti, the combined staff will measure the same or just under that of the print staff as it stood eighteen months ago.  The diminishment has been due to attrition and buyouts.

As the controversy over the recent election in Iran and the subsequent media response have made abundantly clear, social media like Twitter are playing an increasing role in the world of journalism. While today's working journalists must learn how these tools will affect their jobs on the fly, j-schools have a great opportunity to instruct the next generation of journalists before they enter the newsroom.

In a column on Mashable, Vadim Lavrusik - himself a journalism student at Columbia University - outlines "10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media." Lavrusik spoke with professors and deans at some of the top j-schools in the US, who told him how their respective schools have integrated lessons about how new technology can assist in reporting and provide a tool for promotion and self-branding on the web. The questions Lavrusik raises regarding ethics and social media are perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the article, and could have real consequences for students.

Will people voluntarily pay to read news that they could easily read for free? Cynthia Typaldos, founder of Kachingle is convinced that they will. Kachingle proposes a novel solution to the news industry's revenue problems: encourage people to donate money to their favourite sites, whether these are major news outlets or small-time blogs. The Editors Weblog spoke to Typaldos to find out more about the scheme, which is due to launch in late July or early August.

How it works

Kachingle users, who the company are calling Kachinglers, need to sign up once to set up their subscription, which, via PayPal, will charge them $5 a month. When they go to a news site that is participating in the venture, it will display a Kachingle 'medallion', which the user can click on to indicate their support for that site. The reader can choose to highlight as many or as few news sites as it wishes, and Kachingle will track the number of times that they visit that site in a month. At the end of a month their $5 will be divided and distributed proportionally between the sites which they have flagged, according to the amount of times visited (with a 15% cut going to Kachingle and 5% to PayPal.) "The algorithm is meant to be a proxy for value received the consumer," Typaldos explained.

Why will people pay?

The main reason Typaldos thinks people will be prepared to offer this $5 is not because they have a strong desire to help save newspapers but because of the social advantages of using Kachingle. Contributors create a profile that shows which sites they are supporting, which they can post to their Facebook profiles or send on Twitter, Typaldos suggested. There will even be a Facebook application. "It becomes a very real view of the things I value, part of my online persona," she explained: something which she believes is "very important" to people as their online existence becomes more and more complex. Essentially, "there's a very powerful peer pressure recognition element to Kachingle" which is what she thinks will drive people to become involved, she feels that users will be "getting something back" in the form of social recognition. The more altruistic wish to help support news would come second to this, she believes.

Another reason Typaldos gave for why Kachingle will work is simply how easy it is: a crucial factor for such a venture. Registering involves providing just basic details, and thereafter, a Kachingler's job is straightforward, marking the sites, without having to consider how much they would like to contribute to it. "There just can't be any mental transaction costs," as Typaldos put it. And the system still allows people to move freely around different publications without encountering pay walls, which Typaldos is firmly against. "Pay walls are just the kiss of death for newspapers," she claims, "we just think it's the wrong economic approach." Those who are trying to implement them "are trying to take the old business model and stick it on the Internet," which she believes is a doomed approach.

To start with, anyone who registers as a Kachingler will make a $5 a month payment. It is fixed thus because Typaldos did not want the decision of how much to contribute to be a barrier for users. The company plans, however, to allow people to give larger amounts in the future, and to encourage them to do so by suggesting amounts based on how many sites they have chosen to support. Typaldos hopes that the typical amount given will rise to about $20 a month. Unsurprisingly, content providers would like people to contribute more money, she said.

The start-up has been in contact with many major news publishers, Typaldos clarified, and these have been by no means only US based: publishers in Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Brazil, Hungary and across Scandinavia, for example, have been in touch. "We are not country specific," she confirmed. For news organisations, the benefits are clear, and the medallion button is extremely easy to install: a simple Java script widget which "you can put on your site in three minutes."

Will it work?

So how much could Kachingle actually raise for newspapers? Could it make a difference? "I think that we will bring enough revenue to sites that are very high quality with original content," Typaldos asserted. She is not under any illusions that such an effort could save a major newspaper that has "debt, so many overheads, print, a huge staff," but she is confident that Kachingle could have a highly significant impact on smaller publications such as MinnPost, which has low overheads but respected journalists. "We will be very powerful for them," she added.

The idea is a good one in the sense that it manages to combine the notion that people should and can pay for news, without putting up paywalls that would block off sections of newspapers and seem incompatible with the idea that news readers should be able to jump around as they please online. It is also compatible with an advertising model. Typaldos described it as "not like tipping, not like micropayments, but we have taken the best elements of both." The fact that readers can choose what they think its worth paying for is likely to appeal to many, and the cost is sufficiently low to not be a deterrent. It does seem that quite a substantial marketing campaign will have to be carried out to spread the word and persuade people that it is worth making the effort to sign up: social pressure alone might not be enough. Once they do so, however, they will probably appreciate the service.

A special report by Editor & Publisher has examined the situation which a growing number of American newspaper publishers are finding themselves in: bankruptcy. Amongst those that have filed for Chapter 11 in the US are the Tribune Co., the Sun-Times Media Group and the Journal Register Co.

During this difficult economic period, bankruptcies are increasingly common - in the US, they are up 38% when compared year on year. However, the troubles of the American newspaper industry in general add to the uncertainty surrounding newspaper applications for Chapter 11.

The International Herald Tribune's website is no more, but is being rebranded as 'The Global Edition' of the New York Times (global.nytimes.com) in a move that is part of a wider attempt to further integrate the publications. The new joint site "combines the international voice of the IHT, the breadth and depth of The New York Times's international journalism and the digital expertise and reach of NYTimes.com," according to the a note from IHT publisher Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, to provide 24-hour coverage "from a truly global perspective." The global home page retains the IHT logo.

IHT.com users will be automatically redirected to the new Global Edition, and buttons on the home pages of both the US and global editions will allow readers to navigate easily between the two. There is also a mobile site: mobile.nytimes.com/global, and readers will be able to sign up for a 'Today's Headlines Global Edition' email service which is delivered twice a day, to coincide with both Asian and European mornings. Plans to combine the websites were announced last summer, along with a redesign of the IHT print edition.

The LA Times and Chicago Tribune have revealed that they will begin to combine their foreign operations. Both publications are owned by the Tribune Co. and according to an LA Times press release, the move is in order "to provide Tribune papers and websites with the enterprising overseas coverage that has brought such distinction to both news organizations".

For the most part the joint operation will be run from Los Angeles where the majority of editorial staff are currently based, but in consultation with editors from the Chicago Tribune and other sister newspapers. The operation's staff will consist of Times and Tribune correspondents "strategically based around the world, who will emphasize original reporting delivered in a unique voice for print and online audiences".

MediaNews Group plans to test its "individuated newspaper" concept this summer in an undisclosed market. The "I-News" project will be a targeted and customized online newspaper that allows the reader to select the types of news they want delivered. "You'll be able to choose the news you want about anything, whether you're a Detroit Red Wings fan or if you're green-oriented," said Mark Winkler, executive vice president of sales and marketing for MediaNews Group. "You become your own editor and publisher."

I-News will be delivered to subscribers via their computers, cell phones, or a special stand-alone printer plugged into a phone line. The printing manufacturer and the publisher participating in the MNG experiment may subsidize ink and paper prices to offset users' costs. MNG will continue research into the role of high-speed digital printers in the future of newspapers, and it is currently working with printer company Océ to develop user-friendly products for I-News and other projects.

On Sunday, with the aim of discussing the future of journalism and newspapers, the Chicago Journalism Town Hall unusually brought together traditional media moguls and new-age bloggers alike.  There were confessions of resentment, jealousy, error and disillusionment - from both sides.  The ability of the meeting to combine the darlings of Chicagoan new media with the established old-hat of mainstream media was a somewhat unprecedented achievement.  That was the analysis of Fran Eaton of the Illinois Review, in any case.

Time Out Chicago took a slightly more cynical view of events; Scott Smith reported that only 3 of the 13-person panel could consider themselves to be professional full-time bloggers, with the result being that the Town Hall felt like a funeral "rather than an exchange of ideas between the print and online worlds".  Smith also reports that many of those present seemed to be there to "pat themselves on the back for a job well done, rather than perform an autopsy".

In Chicago, the Kane County Chronicle has announced its intention to combine both weekend editions of the publication into one to be printed on Saturdays. Don T. Bricker, publisher of the Chronicle News Group reassured readers that the weekend edition will "include everything you've come to expect from your Saturday and Sunday papers and then some."  The Chronicle has also revealed that it will drop Monday editions and begin to print in tabloid format.  Displaying its hyper-local intentions, Bricker said that "We've determined that our future is to be your local newspaper".

The Post Register in Idaho Falls will also be dropping its Monday edition due to the tough economic climate.  Writing in the newspaper, Roger Plothow said that the managers of the publication have been considering the move for some time, whilst considering money-saving methods due to the migration of print readers online.  Plothow wrote that the move is "prudent" given current conditions.

Gabriel Sherman of The New Republic has written about Washington must-read The Politico.  He firstly notes an event on January 22nd where Politico reporter Jonathan Martin was present at in the White House press corps when Barack Obama went down for a friendly, informal meet-and-greet with the reporters.  However Martin wasn't prepared keep the exchange to simple pleasantries, and pressed Obama on political issues until the President grew exasperated and responded "I can't end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I'm going to get grilled every time I come down here."  The headline "Obama Flashes Irritation In Press Room" was on the Politico site in under an hour, picked up on by the Huffington Post a few hours later and on Fox News and CNN by the end of the day.

Sherman recalls other similar events where the influence of Politico has been displayed when it ran relatively inconsequential stories (such as Senator McCain forgetting how many houses he owned), which then attracted so much attention that publications such as the New York Times were later prompted to run front pages on them.  However this method of fast-reported headline-hitting news isn't always popular amongst other Washington reporters "It's maddening. Everyone has to chase them," one complained.  Its success is unprecedented and unusual, particularly its ability to combine online and printed news.

As reported on 30 January, the Los Angeles Times is to reorganise the sections of its paper. More details have now emerged on changes to the paper and to the newsroom, including 70 editorial job cuts.

From 2 March the paper will have four sections rather than five. Local, national and international coverage and opinion will be grouped together into a "main news" section, and will include the California report, followed by The Nation, The World and then Opinion. According to publisher Eddy Hartenstein, this will "combine the stories and reporting of our two most widely-read print sections into one cohesive section." The business section will follow, then the sports section which will also include classified advertising, and the fourth section will be 'Calendar', covering entertainment news. The feature section lineup will remain unchanged. 

The Asheville Citizen-Times of North Carolina, The Courier-Journal of Kentucky and The Tennessean have all announced a number of format changes to their print editions.

The Asheville Citizen-Times has cut and reduced the size of certain section of the newspaper.  The paper has also closed down its printing facility and will be printed by The Greenville News in South Carolina.

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 first in the series studies newsroom integration at the UK daily, The Guardian, which has recently moved into a new building with intentions to combine its print and online staff.  

Guardian News & Media recently integrated its print and online operations, The Guardian, The Observer and the website Guardian.co.uk, having moved to new premises last month.  The Editors Weblog spoke to Paul Johnson, Guardian Deputy Editor and overall head of news, business and sport, and Nick Watt, Chief Political Correspondent, to find out details.

Changing offices was essential to the integration process.  Paul Johnson emphasized how "we couldn't make the big leap until we moved to the new building." Previously, five different buildings housed the Guardian's 1400 staff, including around 850 journalists. Guardian News & Media has now taken three and a half floors of the new King's Place development: a brand new building also housing a concert hall, with notable green credentials and which is, as Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger described it, "a thing of beauty." Nearly all journalistic staff are now sitting together on one floor. 

The Guardian's new building is a "thing of beauty", according to Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger.

However despite the integration, staff will work hard to maintain the different voices of the two papers and the website. According to Johnson, "we recognise that a distinctiveness is necessary. We are not attempting to bulldoze this into a flat surface." The Observer will retain eight dedicated journalists who will write for the Web but who will focus on the Sunday paper, and under the platform-neutral "heads of" there will be separate section editors for each platform which each subject area.

A group of 111 journalists, plus management staff, were involved in developing ideas for integration as part of what Johnson described as "a bottom-up, consensual process," very different to that of The Daily Telegraph, for example. One of the methods used to spark ideas was inventing different story scenarios and making journalists tackle them; from this it emerged that "we didn't necessarily have the right resources in the right place at the right time and we built around that," Johnson explained. 

Centralised but devolved

'Platform-neutral' is one of the key terms of the new newsroom: heads of national news, international news, business and sport are all described as 'platform-neutral.' Key to integration is the new newsdesk, which deals with both print and online and centralises operations. "It's a real hub," Johnson commented, seating 19 people, including both web and paper heads for national news, international news, and business news. Nick Watt explained how the very fact that these people are sitting together makes a huge difference, as when he is working on a story with the home news editor and the business editor, he now only has to call one number and the decision making process happens much faster. "You get rid of the 'us and them' element.

"Being in one building means greatly improved communication, said Johnson, "compared to being on four or five different sites, you feel a lot closer." A major communication point for the day is an open door morning meeting. Following a small meeting for senior staff in Rusbridger's office, anybody who wishes to can come to a larger meeting, which is broadcast on screens around the office. Incidentally, a management consultancy firm hired to help with integration recommended against the word 'meeting', so these gatherings are now known as 'checkpoints'. 

The devolved aspect of the newsroom, equally crucial to the integration process, is the "pods" system. Print and online journalists have been grouped together by area of specialization such as health, education, politics or media and technology, into so-called pods, which can then publish autonomously straight onto the Web site. The pods range in size from five people to 28, and usually include reporters, sub editors for the paper, site editors for online, and a head who is platform neutral. Nick Watt explained that the political journalists now all work in one pod and report to Will Woodward, head of politics, who works for all three platforms and decides which stories to follow and where they will go. 

In the "pods" system, print and online journalists of the same specialization are grouped together and are able to publish straight to the web.

This is a significant change from the traditional "funnel" structure of the newsroom where all stories would go through a single editor. Nearly all of the pods are in the main newsroom, a couple are on the floor above and some members of the politics pod are still based at the House of Commons. All of the arts journalists sit together in an area known as the culture hub.  

Multimedia focus

A multimedia training day was offered to all staff in advance of integration, and according to Johnson, the take up has been "extremely good in terms of numbers." Possibly surprisingly, it has not been just the younger staff who were enthusiastic; "some of the people who have been the best exponents of different styles of journalism have been some of the more experienced journalists and correspondents."

The new building houses what Johnson described as "a fantastic multimedia suite", with seven recording studios and 24 editing desks. And he says that so far staff have been showing a considerable "appetite for video, picture galleries and interactive graphics which are vitally important for us." The pictures desk is now fully integrated, and most of the photographers and a lot of the reporters are now trained in video. Video production is being taken seriously: in 2008 the Guardian was the first newspaper to win a Royal Television Society award.

No cost-cutting

An extremely positive side to the Guardian's integration process is that unlike, unfortunately, many other integrating newsrooms, the merger of print and Web teams has not resulted in layoffs. There have been some voluntary redundancies, but total staff numbers have not been reduced. "It's not a cost-cutting exercise," Johnson stressed. He explained that "we wanted to make this change within budget, without cutting our headcount."  The essential detail to grasp is that it is about reallocation rather than reduction: "what we have done is repositioned resources towards the web." Rather, the measures taking have been to maintain "journalistic excellence, and to free up some of the resources we have got to focus on getting our work out there." 

Success?

Johnson was very confident that integration is going well so far. The necessary changes in mindset were largely made over the year of preparation prior to the move, particularly during two integration "dry runs" which were implemented for the Olympics and the US elections. He claimed that "people seem to be embracing the changes and people have been very positive about it across the board."  One of the main reasons for this, he explained, is that journalists love to see their work published "in different forms and in different ways." After all, it is exciting to file a story and see it appear on the website almost immediately. Nick Watt was also enthusiastic about the changes: "it's much more collaborative and much more efficient."

It will be interesting to see whether the publications succeed in maintaining their distinct voices, and what sort of increase in multimedia content there is. As the Guardian is in the fortunate situation of being highly successful and run by a trust which reduces financial pressure, integration is a choice rather than a obligation, and the necessary time and effort has been spent to ensure a smooth transition.

James O'Shea, ex-editor of the Los Angeles Times, believes that future of newspapers depends on public trust.  He believes that newspapers will continue to exist, but that the real question is "what kind of journalism will we have in the newspapers that manage to survive the current wave of circulation and advertising declines plaguing the industry."

He brings up a recent interview with Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell who believes that "the newspaper industry truly still doesn't understand that it is in a business with customers and the business must reflect the needs and demands of the customer. And to the extent that we don't do that, we will disappear."  O'Shea does not believe in Zell's philosophy because of "how that vision is applied in newsrooms he controls."

President of Groupe Les Echos, Nicolas Beytout, announced the fusion of their titles print and online newsrooms by 2009. 

The group's titles include Les Echos, Enjeux Les Echos and Investir.  The company has also changed their name from Di Group to Groupe Les Echos.

WNBC launched a new website, www.nbcnewyork.com this week.  The website is designed to provide local content for New Yorkers.  

It will provide news, information, lifestyle programming, mobile services and a 24-hour news and information channel.  The site will combine content from blogs, online services, print publication and WNBC.

The Nation Media Group, the largest independent media and publishing house in East and Central Africa, has relaunched their websites with CoreMedia CMS.

Now, all sites launched, or relaunched by NMG will be housed in one newsroom in order to combine online and print resources.  Editors will also work together on content.  Furthermore, NMG has introduced a new content management system in order to incorporate more multimedia on their sites.  

In addition, over 200,000 articles form the last ten years have been uploaded to NMG sites.  

"The possibilities of print have just begun," David Granger, Esquire's editor in chief, recently commented to The New York Times.

"Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years," Granger said. "I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry."

Esquire has attempted to buck that trend and to celebrate its 75th year, has designed an electronic cover that will flash "the 21st Century Begins Now," when it appears on newsstands in September.

On its own, the magazine will run for 90 days by a battery small enough to fit inside the cover. "Mr. Granger knows some will see the cover as a gimmick -- but he says he thinks the technology behind it, which has been used for supermarket displays but never embedded in a magazine, speaks to the possibilities of print," reported NYT.

E Ink, a Cambridge, Mass. based company, designed the cover. The company has also worked on Amazon.com's e-book device, Kindle.

"The interesting thing," said Peter Griffin, the deputy editor, "is it has almost nothing to do with the normal way of putting out a magazine."

"We are trying to combine a 21st-century technology with a 19th-century manufacturing process," Granger said.

Esquire first hired an engineer in China to develop a battery small enough to be inserted in the magazine cover. The batteries and the display case are manufactured and put together in China.

The project was expensive, so Esquire found a sponsor - Ford Motor - who will have an advertisement on the inside of the cover that employing the same technology to promote its new SUV, the Flex.

Esquire has acquired exclusive use of E Ink's technology through 2009, and according to NYT, "Mr. Granger said he hopes to come up with new ideas for it. 'This is probably just a limited view of its use,' he said."

Granger is optimistic about the potential trajectory. "In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones."

Source: The New York Times

Telegraph Media Group has integrated the news desks of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph; reporters will also write for their website, Telegraph.co.uk.

"We have a huge pool of talented journalists at TMG," said Ian MacGregor, the Sunday Telegraph editor. "They now have the opportunity to play a part across all three publications, as we combine the force of our news desks to deliver first-rate stories, both for our leading website and distinguished newspaper titles."

Special reporters from the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph will collaborate on breaking news and analysis; however, TMG said both papers would retain separate reporting teams and identities.

Several recent changes at TMG have foreshadowed the merger. Last month the science desks of both papers and the website were combined. In April, new positions were created which cover all titles: Adrian Michaels was appointed to the new post of foreign operations to run TMG's world news output and Iain Martin was also hired as head of comment and community. And just nine months ago, Patience Wheatcroft resigned as editor of the Sunday Telegraph, who according to the Guardian had reputedly "been under pressure to integrate the Sunday title and its reporters with sister paper the Daily Telegraph's seven-day multimedia news operation."

Reportr.net interviewed Chris Lloyd, assistant managing editor of Telegraph Media Group, about the integration process in April.

Integrating newsrooms has been a growing trend since 2005, when The New York Times merged print and web news desks.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

The Local Media Group has published eight issues of the Burton Local News, a new monthly free newspaper in Staffordshire, and is planning on launching more editions due to the paper's success.

The exact locations for the new papers is unknown, but Doug Price, who co-owns Local Media Group with Kevin Curtis, revealed that "the five-year business plan could see a total of ten new monthly titles."

The title had an initial print run of 33,000 copies, but it has now increased by 2,000 copies because of its popularity. Readers are also able to download an electronic version of the paper on Burton Local News' website.

Price and Curtis began the Local Media Group last year when they decided to combine their experiences at local newspapers for a new business venture. The Burton Local News is produced by a team of ten in Derby, but receives its content from local councils, the police, freelancers, and volunteer photographers and writers in the town.

"It's all voluntary and freelance which keeps cost down," says Price. "But we would never carry any overtly political stuff or spin - and we're not trying to rival the Burton Mail or Burton Trader."

Source: Hold the Front Page

Starting today Feb. 21, newspapers publishers in the UK can report their print circulation and website unique users in a single monthly report.

The Audit Bureau of Circulation will start publishing its first combined readership reports, which will combine data that was previously divided according to the platform.

According to journalism.co.uk, the new reports will cover the January circulations and unique user figures of Daily Mail and Sunday Mail, the Guardian and Observer, The Sun and News of the World, the Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and the Times and Sunday Times.

The new reports will help newspapers sell their overall reach to advertisers.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

The San Francisco Chronicle trims it Monday and Tuesday editions of the paper as editor Ward Bushee continues his trend of shrinking big papers like the Arizona Republic, months before.

Several Chronicle reporters explained that Bushee stated that management had decided to combine several sections that run on Monday and Tuesday—among them, the business and sports sections as well as the classifieds and the Datebook. The new, slimmed down edition is set to debut on Mon. Feb. 25.

Bushee executed a similar plan during his tenure as editor at the Republic. The shrinkage of the paper’s Monday edition was presented to readers as an effort to cater to busy readers’ presumably busy Monday schedules, reported the Phoenix New Times website. Loyal readers saw through the rhetoric and recognized the underlying cost-cutting motives. Some were even offended Bushee and the paper’s management claimed to be acting on behalf of readers’ interests—saving them time by cutting out entire sections. The 168 letters received in the Republic mailroom on the subject illustrated that readers did not prefer the timesaving, shrunken Monday version.

It is unclear how Chronicle readers will react to the new editions.  While some critics dislike the shrinkage, others recognize the need to cut costs—and perhaps even save newsroom jobs—at the price of trimming down content.

Source: SF Weekly and Phoenix New Times

The owners of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the Celtic weekly newspapers announced that there would be about 10 to 17 job cuts in their restructuring.

Audience measurement group ABC will release Audience-FAX on Nov.5, a new methodology that will combine print and online readership, as well as total website activity on ABC reports. Here are some details about audience measurements, which are essential to sell advertising.