Results matching “news desk the debate”

In advance of a of gathering at Duke University's Sanford Institute of Public Policy for a series of working sessions to explore new models for non-profit ownership of media, Penelope Muse Abernathy has prepared a background paper examining four distinct non-profit options for the New York Times. Abernathy holds the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The NYT's financial situation

Abernathy starts by describing the New York Times' "unique" financial situation. For the last decade, its assets have been impressive, with a dual revenue stream from advertising and circulation that totalled $1.7 billion in 2008. In recent years, the New York Times Media Group has received 55-60% of its revenue from advertising, 30-35% from circulation and the remainder from other sources such as syndicating content. This is significantly different from that of many other newspapers, which typically count on advertising for 80-85% of their revenue.

In June Gannett Co. plans to consolidate copy editing and page production of four of its New Jersey newspapers: the Asbury Park Press of Neptune, Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, the Courier News of Somerville, and the Daily Record of Parsippany. The entire regional operation will move to the offices of the Asbury Park Press in Neptune, New Jersey.

The papers' copy-editing management jobs will be eliminated then replaced with sixteen jobs in Neptune. All hiring will be from within, but the employees must transfer to Neptune. Ten managers will lose their jobs as a result of the rehiring, and they, along with workers who do not accept the transfer, will receive severance packages.

In this short interview with Gianni Valenti, deputy editor of Gazzetta dello Sport, the world's largest 'sports' newspaper and leading daily in Italy, he explains how the paper has balanced its focus on sports with coverage of the protests against China and the Olympic Games in general.

Should sports sections concentrate on the actual events, and leave the rest to the politics desk? Can they really get away without putting sports into context?

As a newspaper focused on sports, Gazzetta dello Sport evidently has vested interest in the upcoming Olympic Games. How have you balanced coverage of sports and of the protests?

Gazzetta dello Sport isn't only a sports newspaper anymore. It's a sports newspaper that includes a general news section. The paper naturally is in favor of the Olympic Games, but it has dedicated entire news pages to the events that took place in Paris when the Olympic torch went through.

For the last six months, many pages have gone to coverage of social, political and environmental issues in China. In preparation for the future, a team of reporters will be dedicated to covering social issues. But the Gazzetta will not make a distinction between sports and social issues and reporters from both desks will collaborate.

Was the Gazzetta's coverage of the protests factual or did the newspaper take a stance?

The paper has special correspondents covering the International Olympic Committee and China. Its coverage remained factual on those aspects and the exactions in Tibet. Regarding the Olympic Torch, the Gazzetta took position, to an extent, arguing that the torch should pursue its route throughout the world. In practice, the Gazzetta did 'equidistant journalism' about the protests, recapping both the pros and cons.

After the events in Paris and London, there was lots of debate online. The Gazzetta created forums to host these discussions, but it didn't advocate a particular political stance for Italy - this was at the time of general elections in Italy.

However, now that the government is in place, and when a real debate will be engaged about whether Berlusconi should go to the Olympic Games or boycott them, then the newspaper will take a side - which is yet to be determined. But I predict that most political leaders will end up going.

How substantial will be Gazzetta Dello Sport's coverage of the Olympic Games?

We will have 23 journalists who will travel there. It will be the biggest coverage the paper has ever given to the Olympic Games, and it will involve collaboration between both print and online.

Source: Gianni Valenti, deputy editor Gazzetta dello Sport

In a posting on Mediashift last week, new media analyst Mark Glaser considers how The New York Times and BusinessWeek have embraced audience participation, but are still figuring out how to harness its power and moderate the discussion effectively.

For the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, it’s been a year since they have walked the walk by building an in-house studio. Video has simply become essential. “We can’t do without it anymore,” said Malika Elkord, deputy editor of the Nouvel Observateur. Will video ever be dominant in the publication though? Not to be considered yet. “Video is only a plus, but it is still essential,” she said.

Is online journalism becoming a consumer product? Are paychecks ruling the editorial agenda instead of news principles? The Miami Herald’s Edward Wasserman argues so.

Several major newsrooms have chosen to integrate their print and online operations to adapt to the digital age, including the Daily Telegraph in the UK and Fairfax in Australia, and most recently The New York Times moving into its new building. But most newspapers remain non-integrated or consider – such as Le Monde in France or El Pais in Spain – that full integration is not the best choice. In light of this debate, the Weblog interviewed Bruno Patino, Vice President of Le Monde group and President of Le monde interactif, to figure out which is the ‘right’ way to rethink the newsroom, or whether or not integration should be the main concern altogether.

The aggressive UK newspaper market has embraced online news, making developments quick to stay ahead of the game. Editors Weblog has spoken to top executives at two quality and two tabloid newspapers to try and garner the key themes and learnings from potentially the most competitive newspaper market in the world.

Alan D. Mutter, a Silicon Valley CEO with plenty of journalist experience, and a self-confessed ‘newsosoar’ blogger, declared in his Dec. 4th posting that  “the 24-hour online news desk is the worst idea for newspapers since publishers foolishly decided 10 years ago to put all their valuable content on the web for free.” Fred Barbash, former writer at and co-founder of the Washington Post’s Continous News desk, and Charlie Madigan, editor emeritus at the Chicago Tribune’s Continuous News desk, were prompt to respond and express their disagreement. They defended the system’s usefulness.

Last month in Moscow, the Russian Guild of Press Publishers held the First Russian Publishers Conference.  During the Press Freedom Seminar, President of the World Editors Forum and Saturday Editor of The Times (London), George Brock, gave a talk discussing the freedom of the press in Russia, whose text is posted below. 

The New York Times' decision to merge its print and online newsrooms will be looked back on as the tipping point for the future of newsrooms everywhere. It will be considered the moment in history when newspaper organizations realized and began to capitalize on the true potential of the internet. The engines have been purring at the starting line for some time as several smaller papers have already adopted similar strategies, but the Times just waved the green flag and sent them roaring down the track. Powered by the rapid spread of broadband, newspapers the world over will all be racing for the golden cup of multimedia convergence.

One of the reasons that newspapers and TV broadcasters are losing their audience is because there are too many other forms of media attracting their attention. By combining these media, news organizations will retain and attract more customers. A sole piece may just scratch the surface of a story, but packaged with multimedia compliments, the audience will dive deeper, consuming a thorough and educational news experience. Senior VP of digital media at NYT Martin Nisenholtz sees the eventual inclusion of 30 to 40 daily multimedia reports on his paper's website: "(NYT multimedia is) still baby steps, but it's a hell of a lot more robust than even two years ago. Our multimedia now is embedded into the rhythm of the way we produce the Web site, and all of that is done in collaboration with the newsroom."

For the moment, the Grey Lady has said that it will not oblige its staff to adapt to the net, that it expects some resistance. But the fact is, the multimedia race has begun and you'll be disqualified pretty quickly if you don't step on the gas. Ultimately, multimedia internet capabilities will change everything for everybody in the news cycle...

The New York Times' decision to merge its print and online newsrooms will be looked back on as the tipping point for the future of newsrooms everywhere. It will be considered the moment in history when newspaper organizations realized and began to capitalize on the true potential of the internet. The engines have been purring at the starting line for some time as several smaller papers have already adopted similar strategies, but the Times just waved the green flag and sent them roaring down the track. Powered by the rapid spread of broadband, newspapers the world over will all be racing for the golden cup of multimedia convergence.

One of the reasons that newspapers and TV broadcasters are losing their audience is because there are too many other forms of media attracting their attention. By combining these media, news organizations will retain and attract more customers. A sole piece may just scratch the surface of a story, but packaged with multimedia compliments, the audience will dive deeper, consuming a thorough and educational news experience. Senior VP of digital media at NYT Martin Nisenholtz sees the eventual inclusion of 30 to 40 daily multimedia reports on his paper's website: "(NYT multimedia is) still baby steps, but it's a hell of a lot more robust than even two years ago. Our multimedia now is embedded into the rhythm of the way we produce the Web site, and all of that is done in collaboration with the newsroom."

For the moment, the Grey Lady has said that it will not oblige its staff to adapt to the net, that it expects some resistance. But the fact is, the multimedia race has begun and you'll be disqualified pretty quickly if you don't step on the gas. Ultimately, multimedia internet capabilities will change everything for everybody in the news cycle...

The New York Times' decision to merge its print and online newsrooms will be looked back on as the tipping point for the future of newsrooms everywhere. It will be considered the moment in history when newspaper organizations realized and began to capitalize on the true potential of the internet. The engines have been purring at the starting line for some time as several smaller papers have already adopted similar strategies, but the Times just waved the green flag and sent them roaring down the track. Powered by the rapid spread of broadband, newspapers the world over will all be racing for the golden cup of multimedia convergence.

One of the reasons that newspapers and TV broadcasters are losing their audience is because there are too many other forms of media attracting their attention. By combining these media, news organizations will retain and attract more customers. A sole piece may just scratch the surface of a story, but packaged with multimedia compliments, the audience will dive deeper, consuming a thorough and educational news experience. Senior VP of digital media at NYT Martin Nisenholtz sees the eventual inclusion of 30 to 40 daily multimedia reports on his paper's website: "(NYT multimedia is) still baby steps, but it's a hell of a lot more robust than even two years ago. Our multimedia now is embedded into the rhythm of the way we produce the Web site, and all of that is done in collaboration with the newsroom."

For the moment, the Grey Lady has said that it will not oblige its staff to adapt to the net, that it expects some resistance. But the fact is, the multimedia race has begun and you'll be disqualified pretty quickly if you don't step on the gas. Ultimately, multimedia internet capabilities will change everything for everybody in the news cycle...