Results matching “be transforming the newspaper”

Editor & Publisher, "America's oldest journal covering newspapers", has risen from the dead, following its acquisition by a boating magazine chief.
  
Editor & Publisher, an independent news organization reporting on all aspects of the newspaper business, has resumed publication in print and online following its sale on Thursday to Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc, as Poynter Online reports.

The Taiwanese electronics company Asus is set to launch its very own e-reader before the end of this year, according to its president Jerry Shen, as reported in the Times.

Asus states that not only will the new devices be more intelligent and versatile than current competition, but cheaper too. Although there is little information concerning the exact details of the finished product, Shen hinted at the availability of a budget as well as a premium version.

American public radio network National Public Radio has introduced a revamped version of its website NPR.org that aims to put more of a focus on written reporting rather than just audio. NPR's new motto, 'always on,' seems to be aiming to provide the news to users wherever they are, not just when they have the radio switched on.

An editor's note on NPR.org stresses that "We want NPR.org to be your source for NPR news, analysis, arts & life stories and music that is always fresh and up-to-date" and hopes that now its audience will "find it easier to combine listening and reading, to follow breaking news, to comment on our work and share it, and easier to find programming from your NPR station." Mobile applications with an emphasis on news content will be released later this summer.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal issued a new set of guidelines for professional conduct to its staff which, among other things, detailed the do's and don'ts of social networking. At the time, reaction to the rules was unknown, but writing on her Save the media blog, newspaper journalist, Gina Chen, clearly disagrees with the WSJ bosses.

"This is an open letter to the Dow Jones and Co.," begins the post. The author says that executives at the WSJ "fail" to grasp the point of social media and proceeds to address each specific rule, line by line.

Later today the US Senate Commerce Committee will hold hearings to address the plight of the American newspaper industry. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, called the hearings in response to newspapers' financial troubles and to the threatened closure of the Boston Globe.

Should the government interfere in the newspaper market or leave it alone? If it does decide to interfere, will it be by restructuring newspapers as non-profits, changing antitrust and merger policy, or giving a bailout? Today on NPR's Diane Rehm's show, Rehm began her inquest into the future of journalism with a call to Kerry who said that the purpose of the hearings will be to assess the plight of the newspaper industry, take a look at transforming media to understand better the new model emerging, and assess the role that government should play in the media as it evolves. Maryland Senator Bill Cardin is scheduled to speak about his Newspaper Revitalization Act, which would allow newspapers to operate as tax-exempt non-profits.

Last week the Cedar Rapids Gazette announced changes in the organization of its newsroom, namely the new role of former editor Steve Buttry as "Information Content Conductor." This change is part of broader functional reorganization led by Chuck Peters, Gazette Communications CEO, who is determined to generate innovative strategies to combat the difficulties faced by printed newspapers.

In the announcement, Buttry describes the reorganization of the company and his new title. Buttry will lead an independent organization focusing exclusively on developing content from the Gazette's professional journalists as well as the community. This content will be published "digitally without editing and without the limitations of products." There will also be another organization headed by the editor that will plan and edit projects, such as the Gazette and GazetteOnline, using Buttry's content as well as others.

According to a report published by the Pew Research Center, the Internet overtook print newspapers as a news source this year in the United States.

The report found that Internet usage surged from 24% to 40% in a year, overtaking the 35% who rely on newspapers, the Guardian reports.

The New York Times reports that the change "does not represent a decline in the popularity of newspapers," but rather a "near-doubling" of the number of people that name the Internet as their primary news source.  Newspapers actually gained a percentage point in popularity over the last year.

Australian sponsorship firm The Newspaper Works, established by the country's five major newspaper publishers, announces the launch of a website in order to promote print publications, reports proprint.com.au. The site is geared towards advertisers, media outlets and creative firms.

New York Times Editor Bill Keller spoke Monday at the Chronicle of Higher Education's Executive Leadership Forum, delivering an optimistic, lighthearted address on the future of the newspaper.

Keller stressed that the newspaper is not a dying industry, but rather a transforming one.

"I believe in my heart that newspapers will be around for a long time," Keller said, though in the future they may not be identifiable "as that lovable old-fashioned bundle of ink and cellulose."

Keller was confident about the newspaper's role in the evolving media landscape. Blogs and news aggregators recycle news, Keller said, but they don't report: "Google News and Wikipedia don't have bureaus in Baghdad or anywhere else."

Keller also emphasized that budding digital media forms are stimulating innovation. Combining the Times' print newsroom with its web site staff, he said, has resulted in "an explosion of creative energy."

Quick to joke with the crowd of over 250 college and university presidents and administrators, Keller teased his audience about their concern for the future of higher education.

"At least you have endowments. Why didn't we think of that?" Keller said.

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education

Tony Lee, sales director of Norway's FAST, a company helping media companies transform their business online, presented FAST's product and strategies for newspapers at the annual Digital Media Round Table, part of the 61st World Newspaper Congress.

"You have to start with with your users," Tony Lee told the audience. He mentioned questions worth asking yourself: what task do I serve? Who are the key users? How do I build uniqueness? What is enabling content and services?

"Where, when and what are the users looking for?" Tony Lee asked. If you can make your content more findable, your users will be more contented." The right content end services improve your relationship with the user, said Lee. The search for audio, picture etc. must be more exact and relevant. Tony Lee shows us a site where the content is transforming depending on what the user is searching for. "It's really about exposing content and showing the user where to find the information." The content on New York Times site is created by the search company, and Lee thinks the Times' homepage has a very rich search and is dynamically built.

Lee isn't very impressed with Google's seach-page. "You don't want a list of results, that's not very user-friendly." Instead, ask the following questions: Can I find it? Can I find it near me? Can I compare it? Can I find a deal in it? Can I read what others think about it?

In an interview with New Yorker writer Eric Alterman, Kenneth Lerer of The Huffington Post argues that "the new way [represented by the Post] of thinking about, and presenting the news, is transforming news as much as CNN did thirty years ago.'

The latest figures indicate that The Huffington Post is here to stay. Originally founded as a liberal counter to the conservative leaning Drudge Report, February figures show that the mega blog has surpassed Matt Drudge for the first time ever.  

The Post has expressed an interest in the past in becoming an all-purpose online newspaper. Certainly they are expanding their capabilities and staff, but according to Alterman, the notion that the Huffington Post could replace newspapers is far fetched.

Why? For one, the site has very few original reporting resources. It lacks a sports section, and has an entertainment section that is more salacious gossip than actual critical review. And although occasional contributions offer interesting and novel insight on a particular issue, the vast majority of citizen journalism contributions "do not merit the effort of even a mouse click."

Even the Post staff itself recognizes the draw back of opening up the news to the masses. "User-generated content is all the rage, but most of it totally sucks," says Jonah Perreti, Arianna Huffington and Lerer's third partner. This has led to what's termed "the mullet strategy" in which the editors monitor the front page and do their best "to insure that only trusted bloggers and reliable news sources are posted there." Users are then allowed to "argue and vent on the secondary pages."

Huffington, Lerer, and Peretti contend that their model points towards where the news business is heading, Alterman reports. In Huffington's view, this future does not include the death of newspapers.

"I think that's ridiculous," she says. "Traditional media just need to realize that the online world isn't the enemy. In fact, it's the thing that will save them, if they fully embrace it."

Sources: The New Yorker through Howard Owens,  All Things Digital

The Huffintgon Post confirmed its established success by securing an additional $5 million in funding, and its next step will be to become an all-inclusive digital newspaper.

With most newspapers looking to increase their online presence and popularity, weblogs are shifting the traditional model of newspapers as well as transitioning into full-fledged journalistic outlets themselves.

“I believe the future is bright for those newspapers that ‘get it’ – without wanting to sound too grim I think it’s brutal and bleak for those that do not.” This was the message Will Lewis, editor of the Daily Telegraph, delivered at the 50th anniversary of the rededication of St Brides Church on Fleet Street. 

The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association held a symposium entitled "What is expected of newspapers today?" at the beginning of April at which the role of the newspaper for consumers and society was discussed. Various opinions were expressed.

Axel Springer, Europe’s largest newspaper and magazine publisher, is seeking to spend more than €2bn to expand digitally and internationally.

In response to this week’s cover story about the decline of newspapers from the best weekly in the world, The Economist, BBC Radio 4 chatted with Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger and his equal at the Independent, Simon Kelner to hear what they think about the future of the newspaper.

Since the shock that the Internet is changing the way in which news is produced and consumed has worn off, the discussion has turned to how things are changing. Here are a few of the latest ways in which journalism is transforming for the future.

High speed Internet access is not only having a serious impact on newspaper journalism in Western societies. Sanjay Trehan, the head of Broadband Content for India's Times Internet Ltd., owner of the Times of India, enlightened the audience at the 13th World Editors Forum in Moscow as to the present and future consequences of broadband for Indian newspapers.  

The BBC is argued by some to be the “Mainstream Media” organization most advanced in its adoption of Internet innovations, especially in including the audience in its newsgathering. Steve Herrmann, (position) at the BBC traveled to Moscow to explain to the delegates at the 13th World Editors Forum how the interactivity of the digital age is affecting journalism and editors around the globe.

Herrmann set the tone for his speech by urging editors and news organizations to tear down the walls around themselves; the first thing news organizations have to do in the rapidly transforming media landscape where everyone is a potential journalists and publisher is “Listen to the audience.”

The Editors Weblog and Visual Editors are joining forces to bring a new feature to the world's gathering for newspaper editors. Robb Montgomery, CEO of VizEds, and I will be getting crazy with citizen journalism tools to show editors how they can integrate them into the newsroom in order to enrich their reporting.  

"If the newspaper companies fail to gain those Web eyeballs, how much will pure-play Internet companies have to pay to produce the depth and breadth of content that the newspaper companies have been churning out? Who will foot the bill for news? Google? Yahoo? Consumers? Here’s hoping someone does." This quote from a February 28 AdAge about the worries of paid-for online content may have rung true at the time of publication. But two days on, worries about the ability of pure Internet companies to produce original content emerged.

The newspaper is no longer the traditional middleman it once was. Not only do news agencies and citizen journalists contact the public directly through their websites and new media offerings, but companies and individuals who used to depend on the newspaper to get their messages out are now empowered by Internet marketing tools to do so themselves.

However, these same online tools can be used by the newspaper to reinvent itself as the new media middleman. 

The Washington Post's newly appointed ombudsman, Deborah Howell, tipped off a serious debate about the differences in journalistic styles between the paper's print and online newsrooms. The spat illustrates that several predictions by media pundits about the future of the newspapers are being realized.

Among all the talk of falling circulations and fleeing advertisers, it seems as if there is no good news for the newspaper business. But what of its core function; journalism?