Editors Weblog: Search Results

RIA Novosti says improving training key to surviving crisis

Posted by Christie Silk on July 2, 2009 at 1:35 PM

Russian news agency, RIA Novosti, is investing in training programmes to improve staff skills as an anti-crisis measure, it was announced in a press release.

In January and June of this year, the news agency ran a series of lectures and seminars to train staff in multimedia technology for video recording and photo imaging, infographics, Internet search engines, "black PR" and legal risks in the media. The training culminated in two-week multimedia courses held at a summer school in the Moscow region. The classes, which started on June 20, are being held in the form of business games. "While the agency like anyone else is affected by the negative consequences of the economic crisis, we cannot allow ourselves not to invest funds in improving the skills of our staff," RIA Novosti Editor-in-Chief Svetlana Mironyuk said.

To be, or not to be (a journalist): that is the question

Posted by Gida Hammami on July 1, 2009 at 5:07 PM

A concerned mother asked Joe Grimm whether or not her son, a recent journalism school graduate, has a promising future worth pursuing. She bears witness to her son's sincere but fruitless efforts to land a paying job as a journalist.

Joe Grimm is a visiting journalist at the University of Michigan who has addressed similar concerns in his live web chat and Ask the Recruiter column. Nearly a month ago he spoke on whether or not dailies are hiring given that they are laying off reporters left and right.

Report: Mainstream media leaves the British public confused and excluded?

Posted by Christie Silk on July 1, 2009 at 1:42 PM

There is a crisis in trust and communication between the British public and the mainstream media, a new report has concluded. The gulf between public expectations of news provision and the actual nature of articles, which oscillate between esoteric or irresponsible, leaves readers feeling confused and excluded.

The report, entitled 'Public Trust In The News' was conducted by researchers from Manchester and Leeds Universities and was published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. It investigated the dynamics of news production and consumption, to ascertain if there is a difference in what "the public expects from news media and what journalists mean by serving the public". The paper highlights the underlying causes of an apparent widespread disenchantment with the media and the detrimental effects this is having on the standards of reporting and civil participation in democracy. Thankfully, the report offers several propositions for a new journalistic direction, which could refresh the reader-writer compact.

Spot.Us hopes to expand: what is the future of crowd-funded journalism?

Posted by Emma Heald on July 1, 2009 at 10:28 AM

Nieman Journalism Lab's Zachery M. Seward interviewed Spot.Us founder David Cohn about the project's plans for expansion. Spot.Us is an 'experiment' in locally funded journalism, which calls for readers to suggest and fund story ideas about the San Francisco area. Since November, the site has funded and published 20 stories written by freelancers, supported by donations from readers.

Cohn explained to Seward that one of his three-month goals is to replicate the Spot.Us model in other communities, such as Los Angeles or Seattle, or maybe Boston, Philadelphia or New York. To do this would call for "a more careful analysis of what's really required from the organisation," he said. He is currently a volunteer and would probably have to stay that way for some time, the site does not bring in anywhere near enough money to fund a full-time employee.

UK: What does the closure of the Pink Paper mean for 'minority' media?

Posted by Christie Silk on June 25, 2009 at 3:46 PM

The Pink Paper has been forced to suspend the publication of its printed edition, due to the 'economic downturn', it was announced on the paper's website yesterday.

The fortnightly paper, the only national in Britain to cater for a gay readership, will cease printing after the current edition, due to insufficient advertising revenue. As a free publication, it relied entirely on advertising revenue, which has fallen sharply with onset of the economic recession.

German Publishers demand greater intellectual property laws to protect quality journalism

Posted by Christie Silk on June 23, 2009 at 4:55 PM

German publishers have united behind demands that the government pass legislation
shielding their intellectual property from "ongoing theft" over the Internet. The principle publishing houses aligned themselves with trade unions of the music, film and advertising industries at the "International Media Dialogue" in Hamburg earlier this month to discuss to question "No Future for Paid Content? Media Industry Under Pressure".

A statement warned about the greatly damaging financial repercussions of intellectual property theft by providers and demanded legal protection for online content. The signatories of the statement were: the German Producers Alliance, the German Association of Communications Agencies, and the big publishing houses Springer, Bauer, Ganske, Gruner & Jahr, Spiegel and Zeit.

HuffPo's second local site in full swing: Huffington Post New York

Posted by Gida Hammami on June 23, 2009 at 3:20 PM

The Huffington Post unveiled its newest addition of the HuffPo clan this past Monday. Huffington Post New York, "The Internet Newspaper" features news, blog and video posts from Nora Ephron, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), former Mayor Ed Koch, as well as a host of well-known comedians and playwrights. The site is also welcoming of citizen journalist via its Eyes & Ears Citizen Reporting component that boasts citizen journalists of all ages from around the world.

A memo on the front page from Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, explains that the website "features our curated selection of the best New York news coverage, plus a collection of bloggers eager to share their takes on everything from local politics to the city's fashion, food, entertainment, and sports." She goes on to explain the site's partnership with 14 local news outlets in order to reel in hyperlocal coverage.

Paul Starr questions the future of American Democracy

Posted by Gida Hammami on June 23, 2009 at 12:33 PM

The latest issue of Courrier International to hit French newsstands gathers translated newspaper articles themed on the uncertain future of the press. From Washington, in a lengthy set of extracts from the New Republic, Paul Starr makes three strong cases for why democracy will be endangered without a newspaper. He hints that American democracy may already have been slighted seeing that national, regional and local newspapers are dwindling in terms of content they can run since printing costs have caused them to scale back on the numbers of pages they print.

He opens his debate by lamenting the fact that Americans have taken [American] journalism (in the form of a printed newspaper) for granted as newspapers have been such an ''integral part of daily life in America, so central to politics and culture and business, and so powerful and profitable in their own right, that it is easy to forget what a remarkable historical invention they are.''

The future of journalism education conference (Part 5)

Posted by Soraya Kishtwari on June 23, 2009 at 7:46 AM

We live in a world, not a village

The directors of international journalism courses talked about the importance of internationalisation and giving students a chance to interact with other students from around the world in a bid to understand the effects of global media in a local context.

According to Eric Scherer at AFP, the future of journalism will lie in enterprising journalists and their efforts to come up with journalistic solutions that will facilitate the communication process and continuously revise the business models in place. He also believes that a new mindset will eventually need to replace the typical journalist's attitude of today, as well as in the value of a broad general knowledge base - something that internationalisation makes possible.

The future of journalism education conference (Part 4)

Posted by Soraya Kishtwari on June 22, 2009 at 5:23 PM

Tomorrow's journalists: multimedia experts, gadget geeks, engineers and entrepreneurs?

The afternoon was kicked off with a look at the way technological progress had irreversibly helped modify the journalist's job description, as well as society's expectations of the news and its relationship with this.

Everyone agreed that the Internet had become a vital part of the journalist's toolkit and Google was specifically singled out as an effective research tool, particularly as a powerful search engine. Although, Andrés Azócar, journalism director at Chile's Diego Portales University said that as students were becoming more reliant on Google, they were also becoming less capable of retaining information for themselves.

The future of journalism education conference (Part 3)

Posted by Soraya Kishtwari on June 22, 2009 at 4:09 PM

An opportunity for reinvention: from fortress to open house

According to Charlie Beckett (left), director of Polis, LSE's think tank on the role of media in society, in order to reinvent the content of journalism curricula and define the role of a journalist, journalism schools first need to determine what is meant by journalism. He said educators need to teach prospective journalists about the values of risk and experimentation and provide students with the ability to reconsider their idea of journalism. He also rejected the idea of labelling this approach as 'theory'. "It's not theory anymore," he said, "it's tomorrow's practice."

Notwithstanding a traditional journalism background (Beckett started as a local newspaper reporter and gradually worked his way through the ranks at the BBC and Channel 4), Beckett advocates throwing out the rule book on conventional journalism wisdom. He argues that too many journalism institutions have become fortresses, too set in their old ways, with a foundation that leaves little room for flexibility.

The future of journalism education conference (Part 2)

Posted by Soraya Kishtwari on June 22, 2009 at 2:23 PM

Integrated journalists for integrated newsrooms

Almost everyone present agreed that journalism schools had a duty to train students across all media disciplines, with everyone having the opportunity to learn about print, web, video and audio platforms regardless if they were specialising in newspaper, broadcasting or online journalism.

As for content, the educators had differing views on the importance of choosing a specialist field, with some saying it was important to cater to the needs of the industry and the wider community. Recent outbreaks in bird and swine flu as well as the global downturn were cited as examples of areas where journalistic expertise was lacking, with Doreen Weisenhaus, associate professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, saying there was a great need for health journalists, particularly in Asia, where bird flu was first detected. She also said that as a key financial hub, Asia was calling out for journalists trained in financial reporting. Others made similar points about science and business journalism.

The future of journalism education conference (Part 1)

Posted by Soraya Kishtwari on June 22, 2009 at 10:37 AM

On 19 June, Paris' Sciences Po École de journalisme played host to a selection of the world's leading journalism educators (Chile, China, Denmark, Jordan, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, UK and the USA) who were invited to discuss the "Challenges and Evolution of Journalism Education."

Opening the conference, Bruno Patino, dean of the Sciences PO School of Journalism, said: "The only thing certain is uncertainty," in reference to the news industry, which has seen advertising revenue across developed countries plummet in the wake of the economic crisis and the growing influence of the Internet.

What will happen to the Boston Globe?

Posted by Emma Heald on June 19, 2009 at 9:11 AM

As the Boston Newspaper Guild and Boston Globe management take a break in negotiations until next week, speculation has been mounting on possible buyers for the paper and what its future might be. The union and owner the New York Times Co are trying to come to an agreement on how to make $10 million of savings following the union's narrow rejection of a deal and the Times Co's subsequent imposition of a 23% pay cut for all staff. The company is also looking at selling the paper.

The Financial Times reported that one of the interested buyers is understood to be willing to work with the union to structure a buy-out. Stephen Pagliuca, listed by the Globe last week as one of three potential buyers, is a managing partner at Bain Capital private equity firm and an owner of the Boston Celtics basketball team. Union officials appear willing to work with a prospective buyer.

Knight News Challenge 2009 winners announced - citizen journalism championed

Posted by Soraya Kishtwari on June 18, 2009 at 2:40 PM

Nine projects with a strong focus on crowdsourcing, mobile technology and digital investigative journalism have been named winners of the 2009 Knight News Challenge.

The winners (see below for details) will each win a share of a $2 million investment fund that is part of a 5-year $25 million global initiative set up by the Knight Foundation. The organisation is offering financial assistance to enterprising groups and individuals committed to developing and delivering "bold community news and social media experiments."

Huffington Post hires new CEO, defines financial future

Posted by Liz Webber on June 18, 2009 at 2:38 PM

Earlier this week, the Huffington Post replaced CEO Betsy Morgan with media-industry venture capitalist Eric Hippeau. The change seems intended to mark a new era for the news aggregator site as it seeks to capitalize on its immense popularity.

"In our space, staying still doesn't work," Arianna Huffington told paidContent.org. "You can't stand still. We need to keep monetizing our traffic at a higher level - and we need to keep expanding. Everything on the internet is accelerated; we need to accelerate."

NUJ expresses mixed reactions to Digital Britain report

Posted by Christie Silk on June 17, 2009 at 9:44 AM

The National Union of Journalists has published its reaction to the Digital Britain Report, which was released yesterday. The most significant components of the review for the printed news industry concerned merger laws, for which the policies were formulated in conjunction with the Office of Fair Trading and alterations to the BBC licence fee.

Merger Laws

The OFT review, published simultaneously with Digital Britain, advised that the existing laws regulating media ownership should not be revised. The calls for modification had come from the big regional press companies, desirous of more malleable merger laws.

Digital Britain: Government and business will have work collaboratively to fund the provision of news

Posted by Christie Silk on June 16, 2009 at 5:20 PM

The Digital Britain report, published this afternoon, evokes the government's attitude and pledges to a rapidly evolving news industry, underlined by the recognition that both traditional and technological forms of news provision require both respect and support.

Recognising the economic pressures pressing on the news industry, the report asserts that citizens, government and industry will have to work collaboratively to financially maintain the 'vital civil function of journalism.'

UK: Yorkshire Evening Post and KM Group roll out new hyperlocal sites

Posted by Liz Webber on June 16, 2009 at 4:30 PM

Joining the rising trend of niche news on the web, UK publishers the Yorkshire Evening Post and KM Group are set to launch several hyperlocal sites and for the communities surrounding Leeds and Kent, respectively.

The Yorkshire Evening Post will introduce 20 sites for the Leeds region containing news, information, sports and entertainment. Most sites will also feature audio and video

Future uncertain in the Gulf for online writers and journalism

Posted by Gida Hammami on June 16, 2009 at 3:02 PM

"The future of online writers and journalism in the Gulf is very uncertain," said Saudi radio journalist Samar Fatany. Fatany arrived at this conclusion based on the outcome of a workshop organized by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) to address the challenges of mainstream media in the Gulf.

At the workshop, Gulf online writers, journalists and media professionals from Malaysia, Eastern Europe and the United States (such as senior newsroom editor of the Huffington Post) gathered to debate the role of new forms of media that are changing and reshaping public debate and discussed how to generate more revenue online. The date and location of the event is not disclosed in the article written by Fatany posted on Al Arabiya.com.

UK: Half of nation's local and regional papers will be lost within five years, according to Enders Media

Posted by Christie Silk on June 16, 2009 at 2:36 PM

The launch of a cross-party select committee's investigation into the future of newspapers in the UK today was overshadowed by the ominous prediction that half of the nation's local and regional papers will be lost within the next five years.

The predictions are based on research conducted by the media analysts, Enders Media. Its founder, Claire Enders, voiced her concerns in front of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee this morning:

"We are expecting that up to half of all the 1,300 titles will close in the next five years."

Newspapers can avoid the music industry's llegal filesharing woes

Posted by John Burke on June 12, 2009 at 4:01 PM

A lobbying campaign in the UK has called for the government to up the penalties for online filesharing, a practice in which over 7million UK residents regularly partake. The campaign, echoing that of the French government, takes an economical outlook, claiming that illegal filesharing is costing thousands of jobs in the UK and is denting the Kingdom's already slumping GDP. Is this a similar phenomenon to that which is causing UK and Western newspapers to shed staff at an unprecedented rate? Can newspapers, whose bottom line many consider to be suffering from digital content, learn from the plight of the music and entertainment industries affected by filesharing?

Yes and no.

UK: The future of regional papers to be discussed in Parliament

Posted by Christie Silk on June 12, 2009 at 12:05 PM

Parliament will next Tuesday witness the testimonies of the chiefs of four regional newspaper publishers, as they deliver their views on the condition of the British local media. The issue will be slanted towards the financial situation.

The meeting will unite the Culture, Media and Sport select committee and the regional representatives, who have been named as Carolyn McCall from Guardian Media Group, Sly Bailey from Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press chief executive John Fry and Christopher Thomson from DC Thomson. Also present will be Claire Enders, the founder of media research firm Enders Analysis.

Journalism graduates are finding jobs in journalism!

Posted by Christie Silk on June 12, 2009 at 10:18 AM

Emerging from the ostensibly gloomy field of professional journalism is a positive development. Apparently, graduates from American journalism schools are finding employment in the reporting world.

The evidence is surmised from studies coming from Colombia University's Graduate School of Journalism. From the latest class to graduate last month, 64 per cent claim to already having career plans relating to their field, arranged by the end of May. 'Plans' refer to actual jobs, internships, fellowships or continued education.

iPhone 3GS: advantages for newspapers, advertisers, and citizen journalists

Posted by Emma Heald on June 11, 2009 at 10:32 AM

The Apple iPhone 3GS, premiered yesterday at Apple Inc's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, boasts an array of important new features for the newspaper industry and journalism at large. Perhaps most pertinent is the development that content can now be purchased from within iPhone applications. This new functionality presents newspapers with the opportunity to employ subscription and micro-payment structures to monetize the delivery of their content to their mobile phone readership.

Given the recent developments in the newspaper industry, such as the 'secret' meeting held in Chicago organised by the Newspaper Association of America to discuss how to monetise online content, it seems the question is no longer whether papers will begin charging online, but when, and how. And with regards to the iPhone 3GS, will they allow readers to continue to access their content for free, maybe making it harder to shift them to a pay structure in the future, or will newspapers seize this opportunity and begin charging readers as soon as the new OS is released?

Results matching “future of journalism is”

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Tags :

Editors Weblog Twitter Feed

Twitter Updates

Latest News

Analysis

Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Blog