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UK publisher Newsquest has come under criticism for its decision to run a banner advertisement for the controversial right-wing British National Party on the home pages of some of its regional titles. The ad, which is no longer visible, was on the home pages of titles including the Bromsgrove Advertiser, Dudley News and Stourbridge News, and lead directly to the BNP homepage.

The BNP, which is recognised as a legal party in the UK, holds controversial views on issues such as immigration, and is considered by many to have racist and extremist tendencies. Newsquest's decision to run BNP advertisements comes at a sensitive time in British politics, amidst concerns that the fallout from the MP expenses scandal could lead disillusioned voters towards fringe parties.

Some readers may be shocked and offended by the presence of the ads - however, there is an argument for freedom of speech in a democracy: both in politics and the press. The BNP, like Labour or the Conservatives, is a recognised political party and as such theoretically has as much right to advertise. Is it justifiable, therefore, for Newsquest to overlook such controversial and widely-opposed views and to allow the BNP to advertise, all in the name of free speech?

Source: Journalism.co.uk

"Kindle is just another way for papers to lose money," according to the Columbia Journalism Review, having studied the breakdown of how income from subscriptions is shared between publishers, Amazon and the wireless carrier. The new Kindle DX, with a far larger screen than its predecessor the Kindle 2.0, seems targeted at newspaper and magazine reading, and has been welcomed by the news industry.

Writer Ryan Chittum was shocked to discover that newspapers only get about 30% of the revenue from Kindle subscriptions. Given that there are not any advertisements on the device, this does not constitute a huge revenue stream. Chittum mentions that the New York Times, for example, would therefore only receive $4.20 out of the $14 that readers are charged for their monthly subscription. And say the paper's 1.04 million subscribers switched to a Kindle subscription, the income would be $52 million, which would account for about a quarter of the costs of the newsroom. Essentially, not enough.

Even niche and humor media are suffering with the current crisis as we see The Onion has been forced to close its San Francisco and Los Angeles editions. The free weekly daily saw a circulation of 60,000 and 50,000 in each city respectively.

According to a report in the Boston Globe, its owner the New York Times Co. has threatened the publication with closure, unless its unions agree to $20 million of savings within 30 days. The concessions will reportedly include pay cuts, see the end of company contributions to pension plans and cause the elimination of some lifetime job guarantee clauses.

Although there has been neither confirmation nor denial from officials at the New York Times Co., the report cites union officials who were present at the meeting with Times Co. executives last week. Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild said that the company want the concessions within 30 days or the paper will be closed, but Ralph Giallanella, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 259 said that no timetable had been mentioned.

It has become increasingly common to see newspapers that were once strong, even nasty, competitors sharing news content and collaborating as the financial crisis continues to suffocate them. Some examples are Tulsa World and the Oklahoman, Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburg Post-Gazette, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News, the "Northeast Consortium" (five papers in the New Jersey and New York area), four papers in Tennessee, three papers in Florida, and the list goes on.

The media crisis has apparently hit Costa Rica - and as we have seen so often recently, Twitter had the latest news first.  Grupo Naciòn, who is behind several publications in the country, last week announced plans to up to cut 100 jobs at its daily La Naciòn, and to stop printing its recently launched college based newspaper Vuelta en U, leaving just the website.

According to local blogger Leland Baxter-Neal, who is also a journalist for The Tico Times, La Naciòn is "considered by many to be Costa Rica's largest and most influential daily", and news of the imminent job cuts has shocked many of the publication's employees.  Informa-Tico is the online daily who revealed the news on its Twitter feed, and later published an article with extracts from a memo sent to employees - including the news that those who were kept on would receive a 5% pay rise in February.

The Associated Press suspended the use of US military photos on November 14th after the US Government body distributed doctored photographs of General Ann E. Dunwoody, the first female four star General in US history. This is the second hand out photograph that has been altered by the US army in a matter of months. The fact that a government institution would manipulate a photograph begs the question: can we trust what we see?

The Editors Weblog spoke to Santiago Lyon, the Director of Photography at AP about the events surrounding this suspension and the issue of photo manipulation.

First case - flag appears

Lyon reports that when Dunwoody was promoted, the AP searched for an image of the new General on a US military website that gathers photos of armed services personnel. Unable to locate a photograph, the AP contacted the website and requested a photograph and subsequently received a picture of the General by email. This photo showed Dunwoody with a US flag behind her (the photo on the right). The photo was immediately passed to the editing desk (all AP photographs go through at least one editing desk) where it was vetted and examined; it was then released onto the wire.  The San Antonio Express-News, a Texas-based local newspaper, contacted the AP alerting them to the fact that they had found a very similar image of Dunwoody on Google images, but with no US flag behind her (both photos shown above). Lyon and his team immediately investigated and discovered that a member of US military staff had added the US flag background and changed the number of stars on her uniform from three to four. The photograph was then immediately removed from the AP's wire.

Second case - superimposing a head
 
This was the second such incident involving the US army in a matter of months. The AP collects headshots of all the US personnel that have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and as part of this effort the AP received a photo that on closer inspection was not what it appeared. The army had the cut out the face of the dead soldier in question from one photo and superimposed it onto an existing mug shot with a uniform and an American flag in the background.

Lyon says, "Because this had been the second incident in as many months, we decided to suspend the use of US military photographs while we examined our own internal policies as well as have a conversation with the US military about what they were doing to these pictures and how this was unacceptable."

Army were, "at a loss to explain it"

Surprisingly when Lyon contacted the military to complain about this incident, it did not appear to accept the gravity of the situation. Lyon reports, "Initially they were a little bit defensive, claiming that this photo did not really alter the substance of the image. Our policy is of course zero tolerance, we do not accept that images be manipulated or that content be added or subtracted more specifically, unless there is a pressing need to for security reasons for example, and in that event we flag this." In further conversations, the army were, "at a loss to explain it." Lyon goes on to say, "I was shocked, but we wanted to deal with it as forcefully as possible and put it behind us."

The Pentagon later told the AP that they would redistribute their guidelines again to staff, which are also firm on the issue of manipulation. Lyon says, "They pretty much admitted that there had been a mistake and that they weren't proud about it, and that they wanted to work with us to try and ensure that this does not happen again."

As a result, the AP has now strengthened its internal policies with regard "hand-out" images (images that it receives from non-AP staff and external bodies). "We have instituted a more rigorous policy of examining those images now, at least two editors have to examine the images closely and if there is any doubt at all, the image is then held pending further examination." Previously, the standard procedure was to examine all images but not in the kind of minute detail that they do now with hand out images. Lyon reports that the AP receives vast numbers of these hand out images from various bodies, including the police, industry and so forth. AP staff know its strict zero tolerance policy for photo manipulation, but is it something that these external organisations adhere to?

In recent weeks not only do we have the AP case, but also the issue of a French Government minister and a disappearing and reappearing diamond ring. A Le Figaro front-page photo of Justice Minister Rachida Dati was doctored to erase a substantial diamond ring she was wearing. The practise of photo manipulation is nothing new: in 1942 Mussolini had a horse handler removed from a photograph of him sitting on a horse in order to make him look more heroic.

As long as there has been photography, there have been photo manipulations. However, with advanced technology and increased use of photo shop, it is now easier to achieve and harder to detect. Lyon says, "It is the click of a mouse and you can add or subtract things from a photo quite easily. What that means for an organisation like ours, whose whole reputation is based on the voracity of the information and telling the truth, is that we have to be ever vigilant." These incidences raise the question of how often these doctored images make it onto our front pages - unintentionally in the case of AP and intentionally in the case of Le Figaro  - as we generally only hear of this when the culprits are caught out. Can we now trust what we see? "You see images that are printed by others and are you always sure of the truthfulness of what you are looking at? It's hard to say. Sometimes you look at an image and you wonder," say's Lyon on the issue.

Lyon says that the Dunwoody image has highlighted the problem to AP. "What this has done is that it has shown us the need to be as vigilant and as careful as possible with hand out images from third parties whose provenance we cannot be 100% sure of. It has heightened our vigilance."

Today's newspaper reader is well aware that anything can be done with an image, even if it is just from their experiences watching the magic of CGI at their local multiplex. However, this is an arena where they expect the full trickery of the camera to be on display, the public does not expect it when they open the newspaper.

Due to the Internet and various other factors, "there has been a huge increase in the number of images that are being sent by international news agencies. 20-years ago we were probably sending 100 images a day in a 24-hour period. Now we are closer to sending 3,000 images in a 24-hour period. When you do the maths, the news agencies are handling close to a million images a year. That's a huge amount of imagery." This increase in distribution and use of photographs highlights the need for there to be strict rules on the doctoring of photographs. The role of a photojournalist is to capture a story for the reader, to bring a story to life, and to tell the truth. Just because we have the technology to do something, it  doesn't mean we should.

Source: AP, Straits Times, National Press Photographers Association, Ethics of Digital Manipulation, Daily Tech

As newspapers’ foreign bureaus are dismantled and foreign correspondents dismissed, Gelf Magazine considers the misleading messages that can result from foreign coverage. Especially as newspapers often rely on local reporters and translators, with little oversee of their activity.

Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, after its recent 97 layoffs – part of a plan to save $18 million – has just rewarded its top executives with a couple million bucks. Logical, perverse, or just one of the unavoidable mechanisms in today’s business?

On 19 October 2006, French broadcaster France 2 won a libel case over accusations it faked a report into the killing of Mohammed Al-Dura, a Palestinian boy whose death in 2000 became a symbol of the uprising known as the second intifada. The Court of First Instance in Paris ordered Philippe Karsenty, director of Media Ratings, a website that comments on the media, to pay France 2 and its Israel correspondent Charles Enderlin symbolic damages of one euro each. Immediately, Media Ratings made an appeal and there will be a new lawsuit.

French media - especially newspapers - supported a lot France Televisions (see former posting) and its journalist during the last six years. The Editors Weblog prefers to ask the other part about the consequences of this - first - judgment and what it reveals about fairness in French media.

For the media watcher, the woes of the French press are no surprise. But now it's official. An annual study of France's top 300 publishers conducted by the Direction for Media Development (DDM), an office attached to that of the Prime Minister, has been released, and the numbers are depressingly bad.

With the Santa Barbara News-Press on the rocks, it seems that a young entrepreneur wants to fill the possible void the daily could leave with a free paper. Having launched in March, The Santa Barbara Daily Sound, has since increased its circulation from 3,000 to 5,000, not particularly dramatic, but a good start.

The latest circulation numbers for 770 American dailies follow the downward trend seen during the last major audits in May and November 2005, losing 2.5% overall. Big regionals such as the Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe were the hardest hit. But some 182 papers showed gains.

The World Association of Newspapers and a coalition of the world's leading news agencies today expressed their 'dismay' and 'deep regret' about the decision of FIFA, the international,soccer federation, to abandon talks about the severe restrictions the organization has placed on press coverage of this summer's World Cup, despite the continuing disagreement between the two sides.

Three cartoonists, Dilem (Ali Dilem) of Algeria’s daily newspaper Liberty, Cabu (Jean Cabu) of France’s Charlie Hebdo and Le Canard Enchainé (both political satire weeklies) and Iran’s Nikahang Kowsar have answered questions about their own perspectives on the Mohammed cartoons and freedom of expression.

Each cartoonist has a different perspective. Dilem asserts that people should be "allowed to make cartoons of everything", while simultaneously stating that he understands how a cartoon depicting Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb has shocked some people. Kowsar criticizes the publication of the cartoons, stating: "I am critical of what they did: when you do something that you know will create hatred and annoy people who are a minority in Europe, this can be very insensitive." Finally, Cabu defends the publication of the cartoons, asserting that Nikahansuch actions are protected by freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

France Soir, the French daily that yesterday re-printed the infamous Mohammed cartoons originally published by Danish paper Jyllands Posten in September 2005 (see previous posting and here and here), has fired its managing director Jacques Lefranc and issued an apology for the re-printing of the cartoons.

Raymond Lakah, owner of France Soir, stated he had "decided to remove Jacques Lefranc as managing director of the publication as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual .. We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication" of the caricatures.

Spain's El Mundo reports that Italy's revered Corriere della Sera shocked its readers by becoming the first Italian daily to print color on every page and diminish the size of its broadsheet, both radical changes coming without warning. "We were looking to reach two objectives," the paper's marketing director said, "The first to create a newspaper more attractive to the reader pertaining to our graphic resources. The second was to attract more advertisements because color offers more possibilities to ad campaigns." The director continued, "We have moved closer to a tabloid format. We realize that the change represents a new era, but reader opinion was clear: they wanted a more manageable newspaper." The new format has also permitted new content; an opinion section will appear for the first time, pages dedicated to services will be reinforced and local pages will be converted into an independent supplement. Having recently placed in the top ten for the first time in a Swiss media company study of the world's best newspapers, (see previous posting), we'll have to wait until next year's survey to see if Corriere's new format affects its global competitiveness.

Source: El Mundo (in Spanish)

Spain's El Mundo reports that Italy's revered Corriere della Sera shocked its readers by becoming the first Italian daily to print color on every page and diminish the size of its broadsheet, both radical changes coming without warning. "We were looking to reach two objectives," the paper's marketing director said, "The first to create a newspaper more attractive to the reader pertaining to our graphic resources. The second was to attract more advertisements because color offers more possibilities to ad campaigns." The director continued, "We have moved closer to a tabloid format. We realize that the change represents a new era, but reader opinion was clear: they wanted a more manageable newspaper." The new format has also permitted new content; an opinion section will appear for the first time, pages dedicated to services will be reinforced and local pages will be converted into an independent supplement. Having recently placed in the top ten for the first time in a Swiss media company study of the world's best newspapers, (see previous posting), we'll have to wait until next year's survey to see if Corriere's new format affects its global competitiveness.

Source: El Mundo (in Spanish)

Dilpazier Aslam is a trainee journalist at The Guardian. Recently bloggers (for example The Daily Ablution) reveiled that he is linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is according to the Guardian itself “Britain's most radical Islamic group” and is banned in many countries. Especially a report about the bombings in London, where he called the terrorists "sassy" evoked criticism from bloggers. In that article Aslam explains why being shocked is the wrong reaction to the bombings. He writes that "The Muslim community is no monolithic whole. Yet there are some common features. Second- and third-generation Muslims are without the don't-rock-the-boat attitude that restricted our forefathers. We're much sassier with our opinions, not caring if the boat rocks or not."

Thorough comment from Jeff Jarvis: "I found myself shocked by the number of dead people pictured in today's New York Times. Page A1: A photo of a man carrying a dead child the age of my own child. Page A10: A photo of a dozen corpses of people killed in Gaza, shrouded with their faces staring out. Page A13: A photo of Iraqi men carrying the bodies of the dead from "an attack by American forces" off a truck. Page E 3: A photo of a dead Confederate soldier under the infamous photo of the leashed prisoner at Abu Ghraib." Read the whole comment on his blog.

Source: Buzzmachine