Results matching “add pictures and video”

The Press Association has undergone a senior management restructuring to reposition the agency for its increasingly digital future.

PA's focus today is as much about video as photographs and text, and the company needs to position itself as a versatile producer of content of all forms.

Tony Watson, the former Yorkshire Post editor who was promoted from his editor-in-chief role on Tuesday, said that while text, pictures and listings would remain a core function of PA, it expects customers to require more digital content in the future.

He told the Press Gazette in an interview: "Text and photos are still very much part of our proposition. But with the advent of broadband and the huge public uptake means the possibilities of online are so much greater than they were only a few years ago.

"You used to watch a video online, go away and make a cup of tea whilst it loaded. But it is so high-quality now that it's opened the possibility of integrating text, photos and video in a way that tells a story in the best possible way. It's not either/or, it's all of those things."

PA has hired three consultants as part of a government-backed knowledge transfer partnership with the London College of Communications; a two-year project to find commercial opportunities for original story-telling methods for the agency.

Source: Press Gazette

Max Mosley, the Formula 1 boss, has won £60,000 in his libel action against the News of the World, who accused him of taking part in a "sick Nazi orgy". Press commentators have had polarising opinions about how this landmark judgement will impact journalism in the UK.

The crux of the issue is that Mosley, 68, the son of the 1930s British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, sued the tabloid newspaper for grossly invading his privacy. The paper printed pictures and published video footage of him taking part in sadomasochistic sex with prostitutes in a Chelsea apartment. The paper also accused him of mocking the victims of concentration camps.

Roy Greenslade, the Guardians media blogger said: "The Max Mosley judgment won't inhibit press freedom. It might curb some of the excesses of the News of the World, but don't hold your breath. It might therefore mean that some people may avoid the humiliation he has suffered."

However, The Telegraph's Joshua Rozenburg disagrees. Rozenburg said: "Some newspapers may be able to afford paying £60,000 damages without too much difficulty. But few will want to risk legal costs of around £850,000 - the estimated total bill now payable by the News of the World. So the judgment is bound to have a chilling effect on investigative journalism. Newspapers will think twice before intruding on people's privacy."

Source: The Telegraph and Guardian.co.uk

The Los Angeles Times' website drew 115 million page views in June, just short of its all-time traffic record of 120 million PV set in May.

A quick glance at the list of most-read stories and most-viewed multimedia features in June gives a good idea of readers' favorite topics of interest - namely a push towards celebrity news and away from global issues and traditionally important topics such as the general elections. The lists also show that, despite newspapers' widespread emphasis on blogs and videos, these platforms still account for a minimal share of total traffic.

Furthermore, these lists provide some indications about how reader interests may vary from one platform to the other (news, blogs, videos, picture galleries).

If one supposes that latimes.com readership isn't too significantly different from average online newspaper readership, then these numbers hint toward which formats work best for different topics (Skip to 'Insights' for a brief summary).

Text - Top articles:

1. Alex Kozinski suspends L.A. obscenity trial after conceding his website had sexual images (Scott Glover)
2. Mega-mansions are L.A.'s really big show (Jessica Garrison)
3. Oliver Stone and 'W.,' a story of President Bush (John Horn)
4. Fourth day of triple digits sends crowds to L.A. pools, beaches  (Tami Abdollah)
5. Packing in public: Gun owners tired of hiding their weapons embrace 'open carry' (Nicholas Riccardi)
6. Envisioning a world of $200-a-barrel oil (Martin Zimmerman)
7. Judge orders TMZ to remove sex tape of actor Verne Troyer (Harriet Ryan)
8. Lakers have a collapse for the ages (Mike Bresnahan)
9. Offshore oil drilling opponents are rethinking (Richard Simon and Bob Drogin)
10. Obama leads in battle for Latino vote (Peter Wallsten)


The first thing that strikes us when looking at the list is how few stories relate to 'global' issues or to the general elections in the US: ranked 6 is a column about rising oil prices and the only story directly related to the elections is ranked 10. The majority of stories have mostly local relevance about Los Angeles.

(Only) one of the top 10 stories concerns sports - a usually strong section for most newspaper websites although June isn't the biggest season for sports in the US - and the Lakers' basketball team's demise in the championship finals.

The top three stories (and 7) revolve, more or less closely, around issues of sex and the cult of celebrities and entertainment. Number 3 is a story about the making-of Oliver Stone's latest movie about President George W. Bush. Granted, considering Los Angeles' prime location in the movie and celebrity industry, it isn't particularly surprising that many latimes.com readers are going for those stories.

But this doesn't necessarily mean that readers of latimes.com news articles prefer 'softer' content compared to readers of other online newspapers. In fact, this distribution is probably representative of a move towards celebrity news by mainstream media and the audience in general.

Limitations: This is a very cursive overview of readers' favorite topics for news stories only looking at the top 10. A more in-depth study would possibly show that while a few select individual stories about sex and celebrities receive many hits, the sections for 'hard' news (World, Business, National) on the whole generate substantially more traffic than Entertainment.

Top blogs:

1. Top of the Ticket  -- 1,743,178 PV
2. The Dish Rag  -- 1,437,462 PV
3. L.A. Land --  652,605 PV
4. Lakers Blog      
5. Show Tracker                
6. L.A. Now         
7. Technology Blog (first month out, and in the top ten)       
8. Gold Derby      
9. Web Scout      
10. Countdown to Crawford (launched June 17)


Now a look at the top-10 list of blogs gives a more intricate perspective: compared to news stories, the blog format seems to draw more readers to 'serious' topics such as politics and the general elections.

The political blog Top of the Ticket is in the lead, and Countdown to Crawford (a blog that covers the final steps of the elections) has made it to the list although it was only launched in mid-June. Ranked 6, L.A. Now covers general news about California.

It may seem counter-intuitive that readers prefer the blog format, usually associated with a more conversational tone and less formality, to read stories about politics. On the other hand, this preference could also be explained by the fact that those readers precisely prefer a format open to opinion and debate to read about those topics. Since blogs typically allow for more author disclosure, they can also be seen as a more transparent medium.

The last two blogs revolve around technology and developments in the digital landscape, a thematic that was absent from the Top 10 news stories.

Limitations: Again, this is hardly a scientific procedure, and the top 10 blogs on latimes.com account for less than 5% of total page views on the site. To put this in further perspective, five of the ten blogs relate to 'softer' content - three revolve around celebrities and the movie industry - one is about the Lakers and number 3 is a blog about real estate (note the parallel with the news story about mansions ranking 2).

Furthermore, The Dish Rag, ranked 2, is edging close to Top of the Ticket, so that in reality the number of users consulting LA Times blogs for soft and hard news is probably equivalent.

Pictures - Top photo galleries:

1.  Celebrity and sports collide in L.A.
2.  Universal Studios fire
3.  Celebrities' real names revealed (Denise Martin and Stephanie Lysaght)
4.  Hollywood hunks before they were hot (Elizabeth Snead)
5.  Celebrities by The Times
6.  Celebrity shots
7.  Midwest flooding
8.  Top 9 cars women buy more than men
9.  Hollywood's unwedded bliss list (Elizabeth Snead)
10. R-rated firsts (Susan King)

Unsurprisingly, the list of most popular photo galleries is also dominated by celebrities, even more so than for news stories or blogs (seven out of ten).

Of the three remaining picture galleries, two are big general news stories with obviously strong visual content: ranked 2 is the Universal Studios fire and ranked 7 is a gallery about floods in the Midwest.

Video - Top videos:

1. Dogs orphaned in China's quake find a home - 132,239 streams - AP
2. LAPD goes green: Maya Sanchez reports - 112,375 streams - KTLA
3. Tsvangirai on Mugabe - AP
4. Local update: Moe the chimp escapes cage -  KTLA
5. Amanda Beard heads to Omaha for her fourth Olympic swim - LAT
6. 17-year-old decapitated by Six Flags ride - AP
7. Australia marks Iraq withdraw with parade - AP
8. Evening update: USC student sentenced to time served in baby's death - KTLA
9. Fires grip parts of California - AP
10. Bush pleased with war spending bill - AP

The top-10 list for videos also delivers its share of lessons. First of all, despite newspapers' wild rush to boost video content, videos generate a limited amount of traffic compared to most text stories.

Many of the videos in the list are 'soft', but don't relate to entertainment especially. Instead, they are often emotionally-driven (dogs orphaned in China, 17-year old girl decapitated at a fair park). A lot of these popular videos are visual anecdotes with a potential for virality (Moe the chimp escapes cage).

'Hard' news, ie. a Congress debate about legislation or a business acquisition, does not typically constitute a popular pick for videos, as it is often poor visually.

The majority of successful video content is syndicated, generally provided by the Associated Press (only one of the top 10 videos was produced by the LA Times). Considering the average PVs for videos, and although CPMs for video ads are usually higher than for regular PVs, it is still often (too) costly for newspapers to produce their own quality videos.

Insights

In short, here are some of the insights brought by latimes.com's Top-10 lists:

- The Los Angeles Times has strongly emphasized 'soft' news, which is becoming increasingly popular among regular news stories.
- On the other hand, its blogs seem to attract many viewers interested by politics - although half of the blogs in the list deal with lighter content.
- The blog format is also popular when they deal with technological issues.
- To an extent, it could be inferred that the latimes.com is fulfilling its role as a newspaper by focusing on 'local' stories: Hollywood, celebrities and the entertainment industry being part of that local context.
- The photo galleries are overwhelmingly dominated by pictures of celebrities. The only two 'hard' news stories are obviously visual: a fire and floods.
- Video content must also be visually rich, but the most popular videos are those that are emotionally-driven and potentially viral (ie: humorous anecdotes, shocking stories).

The purpose of this piece was simply to make some observations as to the types of topics preferred by online users, depending on the format they were published in. The goal wasn't to quaintly warn editors against the risks of chasing eyeballs at the expense of news judgment.

However, these Top-10 lists are clearly representative of the trend, adopted both by editors and by the audience, towards more celebrity-type news, or 'soft' news in general. In January and April, when the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times announced that they were beefing up coverage of Britney Spears, at the same time as newsrooms across the nation couldn't afford the expenses of covering the elections, many newspaper editors were outraged by this rush towards more catchy, entertainment-driven, stories.

According to others, celebrity is a cultural currency that fulfils a role in the press. But at what cost?

A great post that will be of interest to all visual editors: 10000words.net recaps eight original and graphically enticing ways to present and organize information (click here to view all graphic representations):

- The Photo stream:
Instead of displaying headlines and links, this format features news photos in a grid. When the mouse cursor is over one of the pictures, the headline is displayed.

- Newser:
A tiles news combination of photographs and headlines. When the mouse cursor is moved over one of them, more detailed information pops up. Newser also offers a toggler feature to switch between soft and hard news.

- Spectra:
MSNBC.com developed a visually pleasing template to read RSS feeds.

- NewsWorldMap:
A very basic format that can be useful to readers, as NewsWorldMap simply combines a Google map of the world with Google News items related to each location.

- Visual Dictionary Online:
The Visual Dictionary Online doesn't aggregate news, but its interface, which displays a picture with links to the various elements of the picture, can be useful to newspapers.

- 10x10:
This site presents the news in a ten by ten grid of photos. It's a little overwhelming but can be visually attractive.

- Times:
The Times newsreader is a simple animation that aims to replicate the feel of flipping through print pages online. It is only available for Mac OS X Leopard though.

- LiveNewsCameras.com:
Recently launched, LiveNewsCameras.com proposes a grid of live video feeds from broadcasters and news organizations internationally.

Unfortunately, due to a few technical difficulties, we can't show you the screenshots here. You'll have to click on the individual links or please click below to view all the various formats on screen.

Source: 10000words.net through Journerdism

"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.

The following is a brief narrative of the last World Editors Forum Study Tour in the US. We accompanied 26 newspaper editors through some of the most advanced newsrooms in the area, including Reuters, the Associated Press and The New York Times in New York, The News-Journal in Wilmington, and the Politico and Washington Post Newsweek Interactive in Washington D.C. (not all are depicted).

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

It seems the only way to make captions appear is by clicking on the pictures - and pausing the slideshow. Captions are included below too:

- After having visited Reuters, AP deputy managing editor Tom Kent and others gave us the tour of the Associated Press' new integrated newsroom...
- ...which spans over plus 100,000 square feet on an open-floor plan.
- The main feature of the new design was spatial flexibility...
- ...and, at times, the newsroom may resemble a construction site. But, Kent assured, this didn't disturb journalists' work.
- Another feature at AP: editors have two working spaces. They can work outside the closed office, preferably, to be closer to their staffers...
- ...but they can also use their private office if need be.
- The tour ended by AP's video production control rooms.
- At the New York Times...
- ...editors got a glimpse of the brand-new newsroom...
- ...and its modern design and architecture.
- NYT Futurist Michael Rogers treated us to the Times' top-floor research labs...
- ...lined with tech gadgets...
- ...that thrilled the editors.
- On our way to D.C., we stopped by Gannett's innovative News Journal...
- ...where editors greeted us warmly around the central hub...
- ...showed us their video studio...
- ...explained the editing work...
- ...and how the website has set up databases...
- ...and implemented mobile journalism.
- In Washington, we visited the Washington Post's online newsroom.
- Here again, a hub-like centre...
- ...and plenty of video equipment.
- The tour ended with a visit at the recently inaugurated Newseum...
- ...and the editors flew home.

From May 5-9, New York Times assistant managing editor Susan Edgerley is answering questions from readers May 5-9 on nytimes.com, explaining how the paper is reinventing itself and integrating its newsroom.

Edgerley admitted that at this point the Times' website couldn't possibly fund the 1,275 staffers of the newsroom.

"But NYTimes.com is growing -- in readers and revenue -- at a much, much faster clip than the print paper. Is it our future? You bet."

Can the New York Times really claim it is 'reinventing' itself?

Yes, said Edgerley. "Journalists who used to worry about one deadline a day now have a deadline every minute. They are telling stories not only through words and pictures but also through audio and video and interactive maps and graphics."

Faced with news consumers' changing habits, the NYT's coverage - as for other newspapers - has arguably evolved. "Two years ago, we might have been hesitant to break a scoop on the Web," said Edgerley, "Now we put the story out there and figure out how to advance it for the next day's paper."

Considering the Web is the future for the NYT, one reader asked whether earning a print journalism degree was a waste of time. No, according to Edgerley. The art of storytelling remains.

But "I would be surprised if you don't find yourself picking up all different kinds of Web skills over the arc of your career, and that's good, too."

Source: New York Times

In addition to Trinity Mirror's revamp of regional title websites, conventrytelegraph.net is the latest website in their upgrade, with an emphasis on history as well as news.
       
The history section features pictures of old Coventry from its archives that date back more than 110 years. Readers also who send in photos, in particular, those of old sports teams and classes.

The website also allows viewers to purchase pictures from the archive and has the functionality and attributes of Trinity Mirror's new websites, including more breaking news, video footage, interactivity, picture galleries and user-generated content.

Telegraph Editor Alan Kirby said, "Of course the new website is about breaking news and sport, but our historic picture archives are immense and offer a unique glimpse into Coventry's past. There are thousands of pictures which we could never hope to publish in the paper. Our website gives us a fantastic new outlet."

Sources: PressGazette.co.uk, Journalism.co.uk
 

Hulu.com, a website created by NBC Universal and Fox that legally hosts TV shows and feature films, launches to the public tomorrow. It is predicted to rival other video sharing websites, especially Google's YouTube. The difference with Hulu, reportedly, is its user-friendliness and professional quality material.

Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, MGM, and other big name media companies have already signed on to add content onto the libraries. According to the New York Times, the only major non-participants are ABC and CBS. Additionally, sports fans will be able to find highlights from N.B.A. and N.H.L. games as well as full length N.C.A.A. men's  basketball games from the past 25 years.

Viewers will be given a choice, depending on the show, with which commercials they want to see. Some viewers will even have the opportunity to watch a 2 minute film before the show which eliminates all commercials for the rest of the show.

The main disadvantage of Hulu is their obligation to protect DVD and Web download sales, meaning TV shows and films will only be available for a limited amount of time. Whereas viewers can constantly share videos from Youtube for instance, they will not be able to go back on Hulu and recommend shows to their friends and family, according to Bobby Tulsiani, an analyst at JupiterResearch.

People are also able to view these videos on popular online hangouts. Over 5,000 websites have embedded Hulu's videos such as AOL, Yahoo, and Myspace.

Source: New York Times through Media Bistro, International Business Times through I Want Media

The Online News Association, a 1200-member group of online editors and reporters, has sent a protest letter to Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Allan Selig, in the wake of MLB's new restrictions on coverage of baseball games.

New restrictions include limits on the number of game photos publishable online, as well as the duration of videos. Only seven pictures can be posted while a game is in progress, and videos can last no longer than two minutes. Any live audio or video from game-related events is banned from 45 minutes before the start of a game through the end.

Restrictions apply to all media credentials for the upcoming 2008 baseball season, which will begin in April.

Source: Editor & Publisher

The Hindustan Times (HT) has been gradually integrating its print and online operations since last summer, when new managing editor Pankaj Paul stepped in (background here). By now, the sports desk is integrated (it served as “a model for excellence” for others) and the business team is to shortly follow in the same path.

(More) process-oriented workflows

Back in September 2007, Paul was discovering the HT’s organization and workflows – many of which were informal.

Since then, workflows have been changed to become more process-oriented. But there was no reason to fundamentally change the working culture. In the absence of a centralized content management system (CMS), Paul implemented processes that mimic a CMS: for example, Sports stories are edited and laid out only once across the newspaper, and are then dispatched to all regional editions (since they don’t typically differ from one region to the other).

Integration: video, once again

As has been the case for many, if not most, newspapers this past year, one of the main traits of newsroom integration – and the expansion of multimedia capacities – was the explosive development of video production.

In the last four months, the HT has already produced about 300 videos. Nearly another 100 are already assigned, so the total should be close to 400 by the end of the month.

Content ranges across the news spectrum, from interviews and profiles to simple news events and features. Most of these are short form (one to three minutes), but the paper is looking into longer pieces (seven to twelve minutes).

Did it take a team of a dozen fulltime journalists in order to achieve this? It actually took one dedicated fulltime multimedia editor (picked from the reporter staff due to his prior experience: he also produces slideshows and other interactive projects), and three part-time staffers. Paul is seeking to hire 2 more editors specifically for multimedia and video, as well as outsource three freelance editors. 10 more reporters are soon to follow the HT’s three-day, hands-on, in-house multimedia training.



Training top-down – more work for editors

Considering how much multimedia work the HT has produced, few staffers have gone through formal training. Only about 10 reporters have been trained – out of 750. Another 10 are on the way, and the next training session is only scheduled for mid-March.

The HT’s integration and formation has thus mostly happened at an editorial level so far, top-down. “Editors are the ones to bear the brunt of this,” said Paul, who at the beginning of the process straightforwardly told them, “I m asking you to do more work.” Paul held meetings with his editors during which he showed them best practices of other online newspapers he knew from working in the US.

Editors then walked reporters through the multimedia process, teaching them how to think multi-platform and encouraging them to file video and audio. Journalists now go out and look for multimedia opportunities. Photographers now take plenty extra pictures that can be used for online slideshows. “Those conversations are happening every single day, even for smaller stories.”

Importantly, Paul didn’t adopt a coercive approach in this process – although he acknowledges this may eventually come. “We need to let them experiment a little bit.”

By the end of next summer, about 50-60 reporters are to be trained videographers and editors.

Newsroom Design – hub and clusters

The HT was supposed to move into new premises and integrate its newsroom design, but this won’t happen until the end of May. Since last September, a few significant changes have occurred though: the online team now sits with the print staff. The newsroom design will probably emulate a hub-and-spokes model, with all top editors sitting together centrally – this doesn’t necessarily mean their respective departments will be behind them. More important is the verbal communication enabled at an editorial level.


In light of the HT’s experience, integration doesn’t necessarily have to follow an overwhelming, company-wide, scenario, as was the case for the Daily Telegraph, or Fairfax. Instead, integration can also happen gradually, through verbal communication and changes in habits, starting at the top and cascading down to the journalist level.

Source: Pankaj Paul, managing editor Hindustan Times