Results matching “saved.php/11/can journalism be saved”

As editorial teams the across the globe seek to increase and diversify their papers' revenue streams, a wealth of diverse ideas and business models have appeared.  One of the latest to be aired comes from Laurent Joffrin, editor of the French national La Libération.   He suggests that editors of the press, publishers and website unite in the request that the leading internet servers providers (ISP or FAI's in France) Free and Orange add a few extra euros to their clients' bills.  This would serve to finance the costs of the services provided by publishers.  The fees would then be invested back into newspapers and other productions, the amount corresponding with the title's popularity and size of its newsroom.

The concept of a mutually rewarding financial model has a strong precedent in France.  The French cinema industry is financed this way, which according to Joffrin, 'has saved the industry and allowed its expansion', as reported by Challenges.fr. The editor is convinced that newspapers are an essential component in a democratic state, thus highly worthy of greater financing. 

The debate about making online content paid-for has been raging in the media world for a while now. Though this move may not be completely evident to people, several media pundits have advocated the view, stressing that newspapers can be saved from extinction by making this crucial, but improbable, change in the news-providing process.

T.J. Sullivan, freelance writer and former staffer at four dailies, talked to journalism.co.uk, about his online petition, suggesting that Associated Press (AP) and other US newspapers to shut their websites for a week in July 2009. In an effort to put the spotlight on the importance of news-gathering organisations, Sullivan hopes to educate people "of the colossal domino effect that the loss of newspapers is having on both democracy and every other type of newsgathering organisation"

Media houses and industry experts have explored this idea, considering the pros and cons of having people pay for something that has always been free. Some argue that the amount of revenue generated from news websites cannot considerably change the fate of print newspapers and thus a move like this could be more self-destructing. What was clear was that if online content has to become a paid-for model, only a consolidated effort from the media industry can change the situation. Thus making petitions like Sullivan's a heroic effort, but one that could be doomed from the start.

Sullivan remains hopeful. "I hope the goal of the petition is realised - that newspapers and The Associated Press actually unplug their websites for one week starting July 4 2009."


Sources : journalism.co.uk

To mark the relaunch of the Editors Weblog, the World Editors Forum is running a special series entitled "Doing More with Less." The series highlights major trends that editors-in-chief are using to steer their newsrooms through the difficult economic climate. The sixth in the series takes a look at outsourcing editorial work to India.

Editorial outsourcing has frequently been presented throughout the Western world in a very negative light. The idea of trained American or European journalists and copy editors losing their jobs to workers across the world in India or Australia who will work for far less has appalled many, and others worry about a drop in quality. But is it really as bad as it sounds, or are people rejecting a good business model in favour of a misplaced emotional attachment to traditional values and a fear of change?

The Editors Weblog spoke to Tony Joseph, CEO and co-founder of Mindworks Global Media, which takes on copy editing, layout, and website optimization for clients around the world, and James MacPherson, Editor of Pasadena.now, who has taken the controversial step of hiring a staff of writers in India for his site which reports on local events in Pasadena, California.    

Mindworks: an extension of client's newsdesk

Tony Joseph explained that what his teams essentially do is become an extension of the client's news desk. Each member of staff only works for one publication as part of a dedicated team, and the team keeps the same hours as the newsroom with which they are working so that they can stay in constant communication via instant messaging, phone and email.  He stressed that his editors only come in after the content has been generated, and after a senior editor has decided where the article will go.

Each member of staff works as one only one publication and stays in constant communication with the client's newsdesk via instant messaging

One of the fears of editors when contemplating outsourcing is that workers will be out of their sight and hence out of their control, and mistakes will be made.  Joseph explained the steps that Mindworks takes to reduce this. Two crucial principles which he described as "absolutely essential" are "zero loss of visibility and zero loss of control". The work of Mindworks' staff is visible to everyone in the newsroom chain, as they access the client's content management system, and Joseph insists that his editors work within the client's existing hierarchies. A six to eight week alignment and training period is used to ensure that the work of the Mindworks team is fully integrated into that of the client. Various indicators are used to track the alignment process, such as headline editing; Joseph explained that in the first week of alignment 25-30% of headlines written by his staff are changed at the client's end, so they analyse and assess why these are being changed and make it part of the training.

Pasadena: doing away with reporters

MacPherson has adopted an unusual strategy for news reporting, one which he compares to the work of an intelligence agency, or newspapers in the 1920s.  He has entirely separated the process of content gathering and writing. In fact, none of the people he employs could be described as 'reporters' in the traditional sense, rather he has 'observers,' who are "boots on the ground" in Pasadena, and 'writers' in India.  The observers attend events and gather data, generally in the form of audio and video clips. Macpherson or his wife then put together an assignment package, containing interview transcripts, video clips, links to web resources or anything else relevant and this is then sent to the writers in India.  The writers save their articles within the site's CMS, where it is checked by management before it is published.  "It would be absurd," commented MacPherson, "to put anything out to the public that had not been proofread here in Pasadena."

Observers are "minimum wage workers," MacPherson explained, and the India-based writers are paid between $7.50 and $10 for each article, which usually takes them under an hour to produce. So compared to paying American journalists, this is undoubtedly a cheaper option.  MacPherson was vehement that he had not hired Indian writers to replace Americans; rather he hired the Indians first, then hired five additional Americans in response to intense criticism, and was forced to let the Americans go when advertising revenue was showing no increases.  Outsourcing writing "has saved our publication," he emphasised, "we wouldn't be a viable business without it."

"It would be absurd to put anything out to the public that had not been proofread here in Pasadena."

Trained journalists

Both Joseph and MacPherson only employ trained journalists for their outsourcing.  Joseph clarified that his recruits are either from India's top journalism schools, or have ample experience in the field: an average of five years amongst junior staff. Many of his staff have worked in the US. MacPherson explained that he found high quality writers via Craigslist and other websites and he has six people employed on a part time freelance basis. One of his Dehli-based workers is actually originally from Orange County, California, not far from Pasadena itself.

Is outsourcing the future?

Tony Joseph is confident that his company will continue to grow: "our engagements are increasing rapidly both in terms of number and size of operations." Currently, Mindworks handles 13 or 14 titles. He believes that the outsourcing concept is "gaining momentum" as newspapers look to make cost-cuts and increase efficiency in this time of crisis.  

MacPherson is considering hiring more writers in response to a "huge influx of advertising," as a result, he believes, of the fact that "small community websites are beginning to supplant print newspapers." He explained that he is developing "a proof of concept website that the industry can look to," and expressed his hope that the methods he develops can be used by small and medium size community newspapers and websites to keep "doing what they are doing and survive." As a general business model, he proposed the idea of having a few veteran journalists and editors, the kind of people who are "the heart and soul of the local newspaper," supported by 'observers' on the ground and writers, researchers and designers in India.  

The Telegraph Media Group was recently the latest major news organisation to announce that it was outsourcing sub editing of some of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph weekend supplements. It is using Pagemasters, an Australian company owned by the Australian Associated Press, which counts Fairfax media among its clients. Telegraph digital editor Edward Roussel explained that his belief that "Newspaper-web companies should focus internal resources on what they do best: creating premium editorial content." Another option is to adopt a form of in-house outsourcing, such as that which Reuters has been operating for several years.  It employs a team of about 100 financial journalists in Bangalore who cover Wall Street news.  Editor in chief David Schlesinger justified the move by explaining that the New York journalists could now be sent out and about to cover more interesting stories. A crucial difference is that these journalists are Reuters staff and their office is a Reuters bureau, but the fact remains that they are reporting on things happening on the other side of the world, and doing so successfully.

If newspaper revenue continues to fall, people will have to look for more ways to cut costs and editorial outsourcing may well become more and more appealing, even if there is initial reluctance at the staff cuts and modified work practices that have to be imposed. From a business standpoint, it makes sense to get the work done wherever it can be done cheapest, as long as the quality is maintained, and doing things as cheaply as possible is increasingly becoming a must. As MacPherson put it, "people keep saying they don't like what I'm proposing, but what's the alternative?"  

Last week, Guardian.co.uk introduced "clipping," a new feature that allows readers to select stories they have read and consolidate them on a profile page. This page can be viewed without signing in. Readers can also read a web page or RSS feed of stories clipped by other readers.

Paul Bradshaw from the Online Journalism Blog points out some drawbacks to the new feature:
- The only way to tell bookmarkers apart is by guessing their name, decreasing the social aspect of the feature.
- New articles are not suggested to the articles that users bookmarked.
- Old "saved stories" cannot be imported, instead, they all have to be re-clipped.

He suggests some improvements that could be made:
- Tagging and user categorization so users can discover each other through shared interests.
- Widgets/bookmarks, which would allow people to clip material from other sites.
- A link for Guardian journalists' clippings, since readers would be interested in what their favorite journalists are reading. Bradshaw writes that this would be a "great way to keep readers on your site."

Bradshaw assumes that eventually the Guardian will allow user profiles to have a link to their clipping pages as a set to their planned social networking service.

Sources: Press Gazette, OJB

For many major dailies, the current trend of newsroom integration seems like a natural evolution nowadays. The Editors Weblog has regularly showcased best examples of newsroom integration and has advocated that papers follow the trend. Yet many, if not most, newspapers continue to function well while keeping a non-integrated organization. So the question is: do papers have to integrate? In this first piece of a three part-series investigating non-integrated newsrooms, the Figaro.fr managers explain to the Weblog how online fits in the group’s strategy.

As more newspapers ask or require journalists to blog in order to embrace new media, some journalists have begun to feel like blogging is extra work weighing them down. Amy Gahran of Poynter Online says that journalists should not use blogs as another platform for stories, but as a place for complementary commentary to them.

‘The last issue of the New York Times’ was published by Italian daily La Stampa deputy editor Vittorio Sabadin on January 19. Two weeks later the book was sold out.

Sabadin retraces the history of the challenges that newspapers have faced in the last 30 years, and their responses. The author provides the reader with working solutions and with the reasons for their success. He comes to a conclusion that is rather surprising when worded by a journalist:  “It is not a tragedy if the printed newspaper dies; what needs to be saved and will last is good journalism”.

Editorsweblog brings you Sabadin’s most relevant insights.

One of this year’s major trends in newsrooms was the generalized evolution of the newsroom itself, into what was dubbed ‘integrated newsrooms’. Gannett came up with its own innovative version though, the Local Information Center (IC). The Editors Weblog interviewed one of the main engines of this venture, Jennifer Carroll, Vice President of New Media Content at Gannett Corporation.

Nobody really seemed surprised by the recent revelations on the widespread fraudulent practices indulged by reporters. It’s almost as if people expected reporters to infringe certain laws, trespass on certain grounds, in order to uncover the sometimes much more important – or not at all – scoops.

The Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) has announced its latest online training courses, one on newsroom management and one about Basic Journalism and Ethics. CPU began its online classes in 2003 for people in developing countries of the Commonwealth.

Yahoo has yet again been accused of helping put a Chinese Internet user in prison. The company has turned over an e-mail draft from one of its users to Chinese authorities, which is using the information to jail the man on subversion charges.

Poynter's Amy Gahran points newsroom staffs to some new software that could be beneficial when working on the web for journalists, editors and readers.

"I think people would pay for content they value and trust. I'm prepared to pay for breaking news," said Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of the advertising group WPP, at a conference in New York. Well, he might be ready, but the majority of Internet newsreaders are not. 

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?