Results matching “debut online news si”

Along with launching a new lifestyle magazine (WSJ.), News International are pushing through a WSJ.com relaunch, which will debut on September 16.

The International Herald Tribune report, Robert Thomson, managing editor of the Journal, said the new site will sport "lots of wonderful gizmos" and a new design providing easier access to free content.

Thomson went on to say that the Journal will likely introduce additional magazines along with other features to boost its Saturday edition. News International reportedly believes this is an ideal way to reach its readers in a more relaxed environment -- and with it, additional direct-to-consumer advertising to offset reductions in business-to-business placements.

Source: International Herald Tribune

See also:

US: Wall Street Journal unveils magazine supplement, WSJ.

The Kyiv Post website is undergoing a redesign scheduled to be launched on September 7. The new site will incorporate online news resources and will contain all the content of the print edition.


Brian Bonner, chief editor of the Kyiv Post, said that the redesigned site will contain more news and content than is possible in the print version.

Bonner went on to report that Kyiv Post readers can expect a redesigned print copy of the newspaper this month. It will contain more pages for news and entertainment coverage, a separate employment section containing tips for both employees and employers.

Source: Kyiv Post via IFRA Executive News

The Newspaper Association of America reported this week that the number of unique visitors at its member's websites increased by 12.3% in the first three months of the year.

That's certainly excellent news for newspapers. However, blogger Alan Mutter has pointed out a worrisome finding behind the growth: more people than ever are visiting, but they are sticking around for shorter than in 2007.

The chart depicts the movement of the four key metrics of online newspaper growth.

In the first three months of 2008, the average amount of time spent by website visitors dropped by 2.9%. Though not a dramatic drop, it becomes more noticeable after factoring in the 6.6% loss in the average number of page views per unique user,

According to Mutter, "the decline in the average duration of sessions at newspaper web pages suggests that visitors are not utilizing the industry's sites as primary destinations, but, rather, as places to episodically view individual articles highlighted by Google News, Drudge, Digg, blogs or any of the thousands of other places they might be."

The concern for newspapers with what Mutter terms "drive-by surfers" is a potential loss in advertising revenue, which would come as particularly hard hit in an industry that is relying more and more on online revenue. It is also likely that these latest figures will increase newspaper's opposition to Google's new "search within a search," which had started to curry favor following a controversial debut.

Source: Reflections of a Newsosaur 

A month and half after the launch of Hubdub, we spoke with CEO Nigel Eccles about Hubdub so far, where it's going from here, and how the Hubdub concept might be a ticket to improved editorial quality.

Hubdub is part news, part e-Bay, letting would be news experts make predictions and wager Hubdub dollars about topics ranging from politics and sports, to entertainment and international affairs (see here for a full synopsis of Hubdub). Although the Hubdub team is UK based, the site questions have tended to be U.S.-centric, with politics and sports receiving the most attention. According to Eccles, Hubdub initially peaked with 40,000 unique monthly users, and has now leveled out at 20,000. Around 400 new questions and 2200 predictions are made per week. Popular questions are often ones that will be settled in the short term, with a clear-cut outcome; naturally questions of Spitzer's resignation date flooded Hubdub after the scandal broke.

Overall "the U.S. election has been huge." Case in the point: the current top question is "Will Obama drop out of the race by April 30th?" The presidential race is also a "more liquid and active market," with people tending to make higher wagers on outcomes, because "there's such a big news flow about it."

So who's your typical Hubdub user? As you'd expect, "there's certainly a group of a couple 100 hard core users." Beyond that, visitors to the site tend to split along two lines: "some people tend to focus on question creation... to get onto the [home] page," Eccles said. "Some are focused on the leader board."  Those who make more accurate predictions are ranked higher on the leader board.

As a service that puts citizen journalism in the expert seat, the accuracy rate is an interesting point of discussion. Hubdub doesn't yet have any succinct figures, but Hubdub betting rates are aligning with real life prediction rates. "Whenever we have a question that is one with real money bets, we are generally in line with those, so I would say accuracy should be quite good."

Moreover, Eccles has been impressed with the quality of the comments. "We've really moved to an era where a news organization can't produce a poor quality article and just expect people to accept it." Sometimes, "the quality of the comments is much better than the original article."

Eccles contends that the interest in Hubdub is indicative of readers' desire for someone to "come out and say what's going to happen." And therein rests a potential force to improve editorial quality.

"I've spoken to editors and journalists about this, and they saw this as an opportunity to put some discipline on journalists in terms of making predictions about what's going to happen," Eccles explained. "[The Hubdub model] is quite a good discipline mechanism" as well because it is then possible to see if a particular journalist is making successful suggestions on likely future events.

Indeed, the application of Hubdub's concept to newspapers may not be that far off.  According to Eccles, Hubdub has "very engaging functionality," with around 60 page impressions per unique user. "We would love to distribute that functionality," Eccles said. "[Users] are discussing news content, so we are aiming to take our functionality and let news organizations put it on their site."

This raises the question: is making predictions really the ultimate goal of a newspaper? Although readers may want to see journalists forecast outcomes, that type of outlook leans towards news becoming opinion, which is a concept at odds with the long standing journalism principle of striving for objectivity.

Newspapers still have time to debate; integrating Hubdub functionality within newspapers is still several months off. In the meanwhile, a more simple development will debut within weeks: a widget to place on a website "which shows where the market currently is."

Certainly such a move adds a social dimension to the news, in the same vein of the Twitter effect. Moreover, incorporating citizen journalist opinion can be an excellent way to give weight to a story.

However, there is a risk for a sort of tyranny of the majority. A blogger or journalist might choose to align his or her story with the mass opinion just for the sake of seeming authoritative: a kind of mob mentality for grown-up journalists. It's important to remember that users, while informed, are taking their cues from professional journalists; journalists can't be afraid to contradict majority opinion if that is where their research leads them.

Click here to visit Hubdub.

The newest non-profit news outfit, the D.C. based The Washington Independent, has just launched, the latest experiment in perfecting a non-profit news business model.

The best non-profit formula is still a work in progress, but successful versions tend to blend guerilla and traditional approches to journalism. According to Independent editor Allison Silver, "All informed discussion about the future of journalism involves the non-profit model. This is one reason why so many people are interested in what happens with Poynter and the St. Petersberg paper."

The news comes on the heels of the recent launch of Pro Publica, and the debut last year of MinnPost, both US-based non-profit news sources.

Equiped with top-tier staff boasting resumes including The New Republic and The Financial Times, The Indepenent offers a mix of investigative features, well-researched commentary and bloggy news analysis. It is affliated with The Center for Independent Media.  

Although the new site is still working out some design and technology kinks, Silver is pleased with its progress, less than two weeks after the "semi-hard" launch.

As for entering an already crowded market of sites offering bloggy investigative journalism, Silver sees no problem with the presence of similar sites like The Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, and Slate, among others.  

"I think the Net is not about competition, or limitations. It's indeed like democracy—because it's about making the pie bigger," she said.

Source: Online Journalism Review 

The Associated Newspapers' Metro has announced the launch of its first mobile service and two new online portals.

This week, Joel Kramer, former Star Tribune publisher, launched his online news site MinnPost. The site recruits veteran journalists and is committed to quality journalism and hopefully, a financially practical future.

In summer 2007, French magazines Public, Closer, and Voici will begin printing two-dimensional “smart barcodes” in their publications, giving some readers an even faster and simpler way to access a wealth of multimedia content.  When photographed using compatible camera phones, the barcodes, known as “Tags” or “Flashcodes,” immediately open access to multimedia content on a user’s cell phone, including photos, video, and Internet links.

The Publishing Group of America (PGA) is introducing an online auto shopping feature to the web sites of more than 2,000 local US newspapers that carry its magazine publications, which include the popular American Profile.

Late last month, the Los Angeles Times announced several upcoming, specific editorial changes set to complement recent new content launches and emphasize print and online integration.

The Baltimore Bulldog, an interactive news site, is to be launched this spring. News content will combine citizen journalism, blogging and professional reporting, but most of the work will be based on volunteers.

For the small community of Naples, very local news will be accessible on a variety of platforms including TV, the Internet, podcasts, PSP and mobile phones. The Daily News, in collaboration with Comcast, will debut a 15-minute Internet and TV news program titled "Studio 55” that will focus on local news.