Editors Weblog: Search Results

La Stampa: the next step toward true integration

Posted by Federica Cherubini on February 8, 2012 at 10:28 AM

Italian daily La Stampa is to integrate its newsroom, taking what its editor in chief Mario Calabresi has described as "a step towards the future". Calabresi announced the move, which will incorporate both physical changes and staff changes as well as a change in CMS, in a letter published on February 6. "A newspaper is a lively body that needs to be able to adapt itself to its environment," wrote Calabresi.

This step forward is reflected in the creation of three new job positions, which are intended to form a bridge between print and the integrated future. By introducing a digital editor, a web editor and a social media editor La Stampa hopes to make the transition to fully integrated newsroom a reality in terms of people and workflow.

Have priorities changed for Arab media businesses?

Posted by Emma Heald on January 26, 2012 at 11:16 AM

"It's impossible to have editorial freedom without financial independence," said Aboubakr Jamai, founder and editor of Moroccan weekly magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire, opening the business-focused session of the 5th Arab Free Press Forum, which also included Jacek Utko of Bonnier Business Press.

Many obstacles to successful news publication in the Arab World are receding, said Mohammed Alayyan, founder and publisher of Al-Ghad Daily, the first independent paper in Jordan, and the Alwasweet Weekly Newspaper.

South African appointed director of World Editors Forum

Posted by Hannah Vinter on January 25, 2012 at 3:13 PM

by Larry Kilman

First Woman to Head Global Organisation of World's Editors

Cherilyn Ireton, a South African editor and successful senior manager at some of the country's top newspapers, has been appointed Executive Director of the World Editors Forum, the global organisation for editors within the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Ms Ireton is the first woman to head the organisation, which was created in 1994 as a unique global network for exchanging ideas on newsroom management, editorial quality, online strategies and press freedom issues. More on the World Editors Forum can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/microsites/world-editors-forum.

Will printed newspapers be extinct in 5 years?

Posted by Katherine Travers on December 16, 2011 at 3:18 PM

A new study from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future states that the majority of newspapers in the USA will cease to exist in printed form within the next five years. The report asked whether America had arrived at a "digital turning point" and examined the role of new, often disruptive, digital technologies in American politics, media, communication and the American lifestyle in general.

The report concluded that, as print circulation continues to drop, most newspapers will suffer, causing them to terminate printing operations altogether. Whether publications stand a chance of maintaining printed editions seems to be a question of size; large organisations, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, could potentially keep their printed editions, whilst local weeklies presumably thanks to their small numbers of staff and dedicated readerships, could also keep their printed editions.

Hard times for the LA Times as editor stands down

Posted by Hannah Vinter on December 14, 2011 at 1:48 PM

Times are tough for the LA Times as Russ Stanton, who has been editor of the paper for the past four years, is standing down amidst the expectation of more job cuts.

Stanton leaves the news organisation on December 23rd and will be replaced by managing editor Davan Maharaj.

The LA Times published a positive review of Stanton's achievements with the paper, noting that under his leadership the paper extended its digital reach to over 17 million readers and won three Pulitzer Prizes.

What the Times Union print expansion says about print v digital

Posted by Katherine Travers on December 13, 2011 at 2:41 PM

The relationship between print and digital is a complex one. 'Digital first' has become a creed for many publications, hoping to ride the wave of technological disruption that has been rippling through the industry for years. Newspapers are obviously proud of their print heritage, but the tendency to put print under the category 'legacy media' doesn't show much faith in it remaining an important medium in years to come.

Yet, despite the often dismissive attitude displayed towards print, many newspapers continue to see the value in their printed product, so much so that they are in fact expanding print operations. Last week The Columbus Dispatch announced it would expand printing operations after Gannett announced it would stop printing in Cincinnati and hand over it's printing obligations to The Dispatch; evidence that while some newspapers are clearly looking to rid themselves of their printing duties, others are growing to take up their roles.

How did Il Fatto Quotidiano achieve popularity and profitability in just two years?

Posted by Federica Cherubini on December 7, 2011 at 11:47 AM

The newspaper industry is in a time of upheaval, with mainstream newspapers looking for innovative strategies to survive and thrive, to re-affirm their importance and their role in the news landscape.

Cost cutting is increasingly prevalent throughout news organisations in Europe and the US, with many publications putting more and more emphasis on digital products as they lose print readers.

Launching a new print publication in 2009 might have seemed therefore like a risky step, but it's exactly what Italian journalists Marco Travaglio, Antonio Padellaro and Peter Gomez decided to do. Il Fatto Quotidiano was launched in September 2009 and in the past two years it has managed to both establish itself as a respected newspaper brand and actually make some money, with a profit of €5.8 million in 2010.

How has it achieved this?

New Touch Russia app focuses on visuals and providing context

Posted by Katherine Travers on December 6, 2011 at 4:34 PM

The Russian daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta has created an iPad app, Touch Russia, for its English-language Russia Beyond the Headlines (RBTH) initiative, as The Editors Weblog recently reported.

Olga Ivanova, Mobile Projects Director for RBTH took the time to talk to us about the changing Russian media landscape, the challenges of making an app for the international market and the global reaction to the Touch Russia app.

Russian media is not the most responsive of sectors in the industry; the "Russian media are generally a year, sometimes two years behind world media trends, especially when it comes to digital," Ivanova told WAN-IFRA.

The pros and cons of Apple's Newsstand for newspaper publishers

Posted by Hannah Vinter on December 5, 2011 at 4:58 PM

Taking a bite of the Apple... Are there more rewards or dangers?

Apple certainly has a lot of offer new publishers, as Editor & Publisher notes in an article published today about Apple Newsstand.

The article by Tim Sohn reports that newspaper publishers are "raving" about the new portal, launched in October this year, which has given app download numbers a huge boost. According to Sohn, The New York Times has experienced a 429% increase in iPad app downloads and a 5,596% increase in iPhone app downloads since becoming part of Newsstand. The Metro UK app, available on Newsstand, has been downloaded 180,000 times since October 31, compared to an earlier app that was not part of Newsstand, which has been downloaded just 240,000 times since its launch in April 2010. The new app has also generated over 65,000 unique daily visitors and between 800,000 and 1 million page views for Metro UK's website.

Debate: Innovation in information, what is the role of journalists?

Posted by Katherine Travers on December 2, 2011 at 2:58 PM

The media landscape is in constant flux and, as the news industry is acutely aware, it can be difficult to imagine how that landscape will look ten years - or even a month - from now. So where do journalists fit in the grand scheme of things? What is their role as new media emerge and begin to dominate the world of news?

The Nouvelles Pratiques du Journalisme conference panel, moderated by Frederic FiIloux, editor of Monday Note, and featuring Jean-Marie Columbani, founder of Slate; Alice Antheaume of Sciences Politiques Journalism School; Jean-Marc Manach of OWNI; Pascale Robert -Diard of Le Monde; Thibaud Vuitton of France Television and Madhav Chinnappa from Google discussed the challenges facing news media and journalists in this period of disruption.

New practices in journalism: David Klatell of Columbia Journalism School

Posted by Katherine Travers on December 2, 2011 at 11:17 AM

David Klatell, Vice Dean responsible for international development at Columbia Journalism School, addressed the audience at "Les Nouvelles Pratiques du Journalisme" conference, hosted by the Ecole de journalisme de Sciences Po, Paris about how Columbia is adapting to new practices in journalism.

Currently, Columbia students and faculty are "incredibly active online" to engage with audiences on digital platforms, but the digtal world is in constant motion and so is the landscape of journalism, hence Klatell states "every two or three years we will change everything" to keep abreast of the changes in the industry.

One example of the school's ability to react to change is their new degree programme in journalism and computer science. In the programme they learn "detailed coding" and other aspects of computer science to allow them to enter data journalism and to create software to aid journalistic projects.

Klatell believes that graduates with that combined degree, journalism and computer science, will be "amongst the top executives" in the news industry in the near future.

Columbia Journalism School is also hiring younger faculty members, for instance Emily Bell, who shares her knowledge of analytics and "the science of public engagement" with students. The youngest professor in the history of the school has just been employed as part of this initiative; she is 30 years old and a specialist in data visualisation.

According to Klatell, it's "no surprise that the new stars of the faculty are women, I suspect that's going to be a trend".

Digital First gets serious: restructuring The New Haven Register

Posted by Hannah Vinter on November 29, 2011 at 1:33 PM

The New Haven Register announced a reorganization of its newsroom yesterday. The move includes the formation of three new teams: one dedicated to investigative journalism, one to promote user engagement, and one to handle breaking news.

The new investigative and in-depth reporting division will be the first team officially dedicated to investigative reporting at The Register in 20 years. It will feature articles in an "explainer" format, to look deeper at issues that affect the paper's readership, as well as fact-checking statements by public figures to hold them to account.

The move perhaps contradicts ideas from commentators like Dean Starkman (in this article at least) that the move towards digital journalism puts the media in danger of leaving serious reporting by the wayside: "Public-interest reporting isn't just another tab on the home page," writes Starkman.

Media links of the day

Posted by Katherine Travers on November 22, 2011 at 5:45 PM

The Pearson group, owner of the Financial Times, has increased its presence in China by acquiring the Global Education and Technology Group to reach 60 more cities.

Australian regional papers are suffering from a decline in sales, like many print publications in developed markets.

The Guardian is seeking a buyer for PaidContent, a blog that analyses digital media, three years after having acquired it.

The New York Press Club and other groups have founded a group named "The Coalition for the First Amendment" in order to monitor public relations between the NYPD and citizens.

Sources: AllThingsD, The Guardian (1), (2), Politickerny,

Associated Press finds freedom of information laws lacking

Posted by Emma Heald on November 17, 2011 at 11:56 AM

More than half the countries with freedom of information laws in place do not follow them, the Associated Press has found in an 11-month investigation into citizens' rights to know what their governments are doing.

Having effectively used FOI requests in investigative stories in the US, especially at the state and local government level, the AP decided that such requests were a tool which could be better taken advantage of at an international level, said John Daniszewski, vice president and senior managing editor for international news.

In part as an attempt to react to the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in a constructive manner, the AP set about asking the European Union and 105 different governments around the world questions about how many arrests and convictions for terrorism there have been in the ten years since 9/11.

Foxy: Mozilla Festival London and the Golden Age of Digital Journalism?

Posted by Hannah Vinter on November 7, 2011 at 6:11 PM

"'I'm learning to code' is the new 'I'm working on a novel.'"

So tweeted, Roy Bahat, head of IGN last Wednesday. If it's true, then the Mozilla Festival 2011, which ended yesterday is the new literary event of the year. It's writers are prolific: in just 48 hours they've churned out a data journalism handbook, to be published next week.

The event set participants design challenges to do in real time with relevance to the three core themes: media, freedom and the web. As the website puts it "this is one of the largest hackjams you'll ever see".

So what came out?

Sharing not stealing: issues of plagiarism in the new media landscape

Posted by Hannah Vinter on November 2, 2011 at 6:22 PM

"Thou shalt not plagarise". This phrase surely must be somewhere near the top of the ten commandments of journalism.

Hence in 2005, when David Simpson, then-cartoonist for The Tulsa World, was found to have redrawn somebody else's work, the paper's publisher Robert E. Lorton III dismissed him, saying he had committed "the cardinal sin of a newsroom". The story was reported at the time by the AP and picked up by Sign On San Diego.

Still, there's no peace for the wicked; history has repeated itself. After his dismissal from The Tulsa World, Simpson was hired by the Urban Tulsa Weekly but, as Poynter reports, he was fired yesterday for further instances of copying other people's work.

Paywalls: lessons learned and competitor reaction

Posted by Dean Roper on October 18, 2011 at 11:02 AM

Every publisher is eagerly awaiting updates from those pioneering newspapers that have put their websites behind paywalls. A panel at the World Editors Forum on Saturday shares lessons learned and how their competitors have reacted - or not reacted - since they launched their paid-for sites.

Dirk Nolde (left), managing editor of Berliner Morgenpost Online:

"Communication, communication, communication," he says. "You have to tell your readers why you are doing this. Normally, we say there is a lot of quality behind it, new ways of telling stories, graphics, video, etc."

"This is not a supermarket, meaning we are not selling everything. You have to give some things away. We have a lot of free content to accommodate readers and users."
"Get digital. Produce content that is really worth being paid for. You have to make them say, 'Wow, that was really good.'"

Jim Roberts (center), assistant managing editor of The New York Times:

"Communication is huge. We had our publisher write a letter that we put on the website and the paper, going into deep detail. We also used social media to communicate this. We even responded to people who were complaining or did not quite understand what we were doing. I explained to those on social media that they can still access the site for free, and I could almost feel a sigh of relief there."
"Building a solid technological platform to make it as easy as possible for users. With our experiment earlier with charging for opinion content, we had big problems on the technological side."
"Customer service. You have to have people who can answer phones and questions, especially for our print subscribers to link their accounts, for example."

Matúš Kostolný (right), editor-in-chief of SME in Slovakia:

"I only have one lesson: Don't be afraid to raise the wall and experiment. That is the only thing that has helped us. We raised the wall in May this year and we have to change it constantly, but you have to start somewhere and remain open and flexible."

El Tiempo's integrated success

Posted by Dean Roper on October 17, 2011 at 6:20 PM

El Tiempo in Colombia is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and redesigned its newspaper and digital products to reflect its multimedia might, says Roberto Pombo, editor-in-chief, during a World Editors Forum session dedicated to integrated newsrooms.

Pombo says the company's path to convergence began in 1996, and by 2006 it was considered a multimedia conglomerate on the continent. But the company didn't stop. In 2007 it formed an alliance with Grupo Planeta (Spanish) to advance its multimedia activities even further. "When everybody was talking about the death of print at that time, we launched launched four newspapers," Pombo says, "and then in 2010, we launched a TV station."

The newspaper is now active on all platforms, including social media (100,000 fans on Facebook, 400,000 followers on Twitter), mobile and tablets. The company launched the first iPad edition in the region, where on average 30 percent of the population reads daily newspapers. But this figure is even higher in Colombia.

Pombo says the driver for all of those new platforms is the audience, which is accessing information with new tools, so the newspaper must offer content on those tools - and in an effective way.

That called for an integrated newsroom, he says. The company started working in its integrated newsroom in 2007, but it has taken years, he says, to fully train staff, organise workflows, define roles, and more importantly, embrace the right mindset.

Today, 80 percent of the company's 300 journalists are assigned to the integrated newsroom, covering all media platforms. Each editor defines the stories he/she wants to cover and supplements their content with social media, images, video, etc. The content is entered into one CMS that distributes content to all relevant platforms.

"This has allowed us to recognise new talent... we have print journalists that are now well-known in the region, for example, and now they have more loyal readers than ever before," Pombo says.

The newspaper has become a beacon in the region, as 10 newspapers have visited to try to implement the same concept in their organisations.

The best part about this process, he says, is that this "has not meant downsizing and savings. It's more of a new way of journalism. Our newsroom is more enthusiastic."

Print and online are "different animals" - the argument against newsroom integration

Posted by Louise Hallman on October 17, 2011 at 6:11 PM

Newsroom integration has been hailed in recent years as somewhat of a panacea of newsroom management in the multimedia digital age, but not all newspapers have chosen to go this route. Regional newspaper Vorarlberger Nachrichten, based in western Austria, has chosen not to integrate the newsrooms of their newspaper and online portal VOL.at.

Why? VN has two separate brands for online and print, so management believes they deserve separate teams. "You can't work for Coca-Cola and Sprite at the same time," explains Editor-in-Chief Christian Ortner, speaking in session 5 of the World Editors Forum, "Integration: the latest experiments in a multi-platform age."

"You need to concentrate on that one brand," he adds.

Rooted in the belief that online and print are two "different animals," Ortner lists the many different challenges and conditions that the two media encounter on a daily basis. Most obviously, since newspapers have just one deadline, rather than online's constant 24/7 drive, they are able to write more time-consuming investigative pieces rather than meeting the group's three-minute-rule for online publication.

To maintain a reason for readers to buy the paper, the print product incorporates exclusive content not available elsewhere, including on the group's own website. However, Ortner believes that, besides different content, the newspaper offers a very different experience to the reader.

A printed newspaper "has a beginning and an end," rather than the ongoing, developing news narration available online. The paper yields an overview of the local area's daily news in just one 30-minute sitting.

Although the vast majority of the newspaper's content appears online as well as in print, it is the choice of the online editor as to where on the website this content appears. In addition to this content, the online team also has its own editorial team of 10 people, including four mobile journalists, tasked with finding news stories that can be published immediately.

Those mobile journalists also provide the website with hyperlocal news. This news is then reprinted as smaller hyperlocal newspapers, proving that whilst it is possible to keep the two brands separate, the two media - print and online - even in an unintegrated newsroom, still need one another.

VG gears up for one newsroom

Posted by Dean Roper on October 17, 2011 at 5:36 PM

On 22 July this year, Norway was rocked by the terrorist attacks that left eight people dead in Oslo and 68 dead on the island of Utoya. Schibsted Media Group's daily newspaper in Oslo, VG, renowned for its multimedia coverage over the years, was more than put to the test that day, says Bernt Olufsen, who served as editor in chief for the newspaper for 17 years and moved into Schibsted's head office this year.

Speaking at the World Editors Forum, Olufsen says VG's building was hit by the explosion, but fortunately nobody was killed. The staff was moved to Schibsted's headquarters, only to be shuttled to a hotel after threats of another explosion there.

The company set up a makeshift "integrated newsroom" in six suites of the hotel to produce its newspaper, in all its forms.

"Integration became a natural necessity for coverage that day," says Olufsen. "VG TV was off the air but we got it back up and running after eight minutes. There was an enormous need for information."

Within an hour of the attacks, traffic doubled previous records on its website and, interestingly, 34 percent of that came from mobiles.

Since, the newspaper has set up a special staff of 14 dedicated to reporting on the topic and on all its platforms.

VG reaches 52 percent of the Norwegian population with its content.

But Olufsen says the newspaper became so big that it became difficult to manage its content under one brand with all its activities, hence its ongoing project to merge all its print and online operations by 2012. The company has already merged its commercial operations.

All reporters will be on the same floor. There will be a publisher plus one digital editor and one paper editor. Like VG, many of Schibsted's papers have launched integrated newsroom plans with intensive training on the horizon.

"We are stronger as one team, as it is easier to make a content strategy, and especially a paid one," he says. "The problem today is not a platform problem, but a content problem. We have to provide the right content to the right platforms to attract paying readers."

Austrian newspapers thrive on analysis

Posted by Alexandra Iselin Waldhorn on October 17, 2011 at 3:18 PM

Newspapers are faring well in Austria, with 73% of the country reading them on a daily basis. In the last few years, there's even been an increase.

Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, editor of Der Standard newspaper, spoke about what's garnering all this success for her paper at the session entitled "What content should print newspapers focus on in order to survive?" during the second day of the 2011 World Editors Forum.

"We've built a unique platform," Foderl-Schmid said. "During turbulent times more and more people need orientation."

The Independent: 25 years of history and an international future

Posted by Katherine Travers on October 10, 2011 at 5:44 PM

The Independent celebrated 25 years in the newspaper business on Friday October 7 and has big plans for the future; the publication has embarked upon a strategy that is designed to enhance its reputation as a "premium multimedia title", both at home and abroad.

Next week, the paper is planning to implement a paywall in the USA, which is the point of origin for between 40 and 50 % of all the publication's traffic. In an interview with The Guardian, Editor Chris Blackhurst admitted that in the UK paywalls were perhaps less viable, as any paywalled site has to compete with high quality public fund journalism. "In the UK where you have a BBC it is very hard to make the case for a paywall." However, in the US the so-called "leaky paywall" is the monetising model of choice for many prestigious publications, including the New York Times. The Independent seems to be heading towards a model that limits access to the site after viewing 20 articles.

BBC facing drastic cuts and move to Manchester

Posted by Katherine Travers on October 7, 2011 at 1:53 PM

The BBC has been forced to make radical alterations to its infrastructure and services thanks to a reduction in funding which has forced the corporation to make drastic cuts amounting to an astronomic £670m.

All present BBC radio and television channels will remain operational, at least until the end of the current BBC charter in 2016. The BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, has said that if the BBC's funding is cut again, channels will be lost: "Another real terms cut in the license fee will inevitably lead to a loss of services or diminution in quality or both."

However, despite minimising the impact on services, the 20% budget cuts will mean a further 2000 jobs will be lost over the coming five years, 800 of which will be taken from the news department. General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Michelle Stanistreet, has commented that the cuts to radio and quality journalism are "disproportionate".

French government scheme to give free newspapers to young people enters its third season

Posted by Katherine Travers on October 5, 2011 at 3:22 PM

Today, the French ministry of culture and communication launched season three of 'Mon Journal Offert' ('My Free Newspaper'), an initiative established in 2009 as part of a government bailout of the press, aimed at encouraging people between the ages of 18 and 24 to read daily newspapers in print. The scheme allows any citizen of France or one of its departments, aged between 18 and 24, the chance to claim a free daily newspaper - selected from a range of 61 titles - one day a week for a year.

Young French people have a limited period of time to take advantage of this offer - the window for subscription begins on October 5 and closes December 31, after which 220,000 young people will be able to receive a free daily newspaper. Successful applicants are selected on a first come, first served basis as demand always outstrips supply; in previous years close to 400,000 applications have been made, according to the ministry of culture's website.

Media coverage of the Amanda Knox trial reaches a final frenzy

Posted by Katherine Travers on October 4, 2011 at 1:39 PM

The trial of American student Amanda Knox has been the on-and-off focus of global media attention since 2007, when the murder of British student Meredith Kercher took place in the Italian city of Perugia. This latest trial is an appeal against a verdict given in 2009 that sentenced Knox to 26 years in jail for her alleged role in Kercher's murder. Knox's then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was also implicated in the crime and sentenced to 25 years.

Yesterday, the appeal verdict was delivered: not guilty. After four years in jail for Kercher's murder, Knox was released.

Naturally, the media were ready for the announcement. It's an old game, reporting the verdict of a big case. Gone are the days when newspapers would print two copies of their front page - one anticipating a guilty verdict and one in case the defendant were found not guilty - but the guessing, the preparation and the anticipation still remains. Now, in the age of instantaneous digital mobile news, the challenge is to be the news organisaion to break the story first - oh yes, and to be the one that publishes the correct information.

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