Editors Weblog: Search Results

Back to the future in Brazil

Posted by Dean Roper on October 18, 2011 at 11:00 AM

Showing the power of today's array of media platforms and tools at a publisher's disposal to go beyond the article, Marcelo Rech, director of content for RBS in Brazil, describes at the World Editors Forum how a reporter told the same story 16 years apart using technologies before the Internet and after Facebook.

In 1995 Carlos Wagner, a reporter for Zero Hora, the national daily newspaper from RBS, was sent on a long journey through southern Brazil to report about the lives of migrant workers in the region.

This year he was sent back to the same region to tell a similar story, particularly to see how the migrant lifestyle had changed in that time.

Here is how the two stories were executed:

In 1995, Wagner, his driver and lone photographer coverered 30,000 kilometers in 60 days, whereas in 2011, he, his driver, photographer and videographers covered 18,000 kilometers in 30 days.
In '95, he started writing his report some three weeks after he returned; in 2011, he was writing as soon as the trip started and at times in real-time on Facebook, website, Twitter, etc.
In '95, he took a couple of paper notebooks and two cameras; in 2011, he carried two laptops, seven mobiles, three GS units, three cameras, video camera, and more.
In '95, migrants couldn't believe seeing a Zero Hora reporter in person, even calling offices at Zero Hora to say Wagner must have gotten lost; in 2011, migrants interacted daily with Wagner and his team, in person, and on Facebook and Twitter, suggesting routes, setting up interviews, and making invitations to events.
In '95, it took 60 days to find the right sources to interview, whereas in 2011 he was able to interview the same number of people in half the time.
In '95, 60 percent of the information gathered on the trip was wasted, especially some of small personal stories he discovered; in 2011, all of the content was published.
In the end, in 1995, there was a 28-page book and series of articles published; in 2011 the paper featured a 20-page series of articles in the paper, live blogs, a library of images and videos, radio interviews, a TV documentary, a dedicated app was released, events were created, competitions, autograph sessions and more.

"In essence, we reached millions of people all over the country with this story, were much more engaged with them, so naturally it had a much greater and broader impact," says Rech. "The investment also in the reporting was much more worthwhile."

For Rech, today's tools make it easy for publishers to go beyond the article offering "broader impact, lower cost and better journalism."

News organisations: it's time to look into e-book publishing

Posted by Teemu Henriksson on September 14, 2011 at 3:09 PM

When it comes to monetising digital content - an issue just about every major news organisation is grappling with - the discussion too often both starts and ends at the paywall question. This raises the question that many news outlets may be afraid to truly innovate by looking beyond received models in their quest for revenue.

This could be about to change: the emerging e-book publishing trend is reaching such proportions, thanks to several new publications, that news organisations shouldn't ignore the possibilities it represents. What has undoubtedly given a boost to digital publishing is the appearance of electronic publishing start-ups such as The Atavist and Byliner. Thanks to their success, coupled with Amazon's push with its Kindle Singles series, the conditions for monetising long-form journalism have never been so good.

Media links of the day

Posted by Katherine Travers on July 25, 2011 at 6:31 PM

Check out who The Guardian considers to be the 100 most powerful people in media at the moment.

If you needed yet more proof as to just how incendiary Twitter can be, let Jeff Jarvis show you, with his rebellious new hash-tag.

Are you designing your digital apps with the right mindset? Khoi Vinh tells us exactly what is wrong with how Condé Nast design their digital media products.

Google launches a new publication, aimed at informing digital advertisers, the first edition of which will be released out as a hardback book with interactive tactile elements.

After having portions of his book, The Insider, quoted during the Parliamentary Inquiry into phone hacking, the scandal is now threatening to envelop Piers Morgan. Now a presenter on CNN, legal action may be looming for the self-made media man.

Sources;: The Guardian , The BetaBeat.com Buzzmachine.com , The New York Times , CNN

Copyrighted material: fair and unfair use

Posted by Florence Pichon on June 22, 2011 at 1:10 PM

Since its advent, the Internet has blurred the lines between copyrighted and free content. Publishers are frustrated with the seeming inability to keep material under control, and commentators are increasingly careful about sourcing material in order to stay on the right side of copyright and plagiarism cases.

One such case earlier this week ruled that reposting an article in its entirety, even without the owner's authority, was fair use of the work. In this particular instance, Righthaven, a company specializing in copyright litigation, sued Wayne Hoehn, a user of the site medjacksports.com, for posting an article to prompt discussion. Righthaven argued that posting the article reduced the number of hits the Review-Journal site would have received.

After citing the fair use clause as he ruled in favor of Hoehn, the judge explained that he found the posting to be for non-commercial purposes. He added that Righthaven did not have enough of a stake in the dispute to entitle it to bring the case to court.

Kindle: Opportunity for independent publishers, journalists, and spammers alike

Posted by Florence Pichon on June 21, 2011 at 1:01 PM

On Monday, Amazon announced that John Locke became the first independent author to join the ranks of those who have sold a million or more books on Amazon's Kindle. Locke published his books entirely through Amazon's self-publishing system, selling his action and adventure stories for 99 cents.

Noting the business opportunity that a 35-cent profit margin on every 99-cent provided, Locke said he "set a goal to become the world's greatest 99-cent author."

Kindle's self-publishing model has been praised for freeing authors from dependence on third-party deals, but that is not the only publishing opportunity it provides. It also promotes shorter reading material, as many readers are more likely to turn to shorter stories over novels to avoid staring at a small screen for hours at a time. This is good news for long form journalism, which does not always find its place in digital news.

OnSwipe: an appless solution for tablet publishing

Posted by Teemu Henriksson on May 3, 2011 at 3:29 PM

When the iPad was released a year ago, it was immediately clear that the device offered enormous possibilities for news organisations and publishers in general. With Apple promoting its App Store heavily, it seemed natural to turn to apps as a way of publishing on the iPad. Now, however, as the limitations of that approach are becoming apparent, other options are increasingly discussed.

The buzz around HTML5 has been growing for some time now. Jason Baptiste, CEO of OnSwipe, is one of the advocates of HTML5: in a recent interview with GigaOM, Baptiste noted that HTML5 makes it possible to create web pages that are up to par with native apps in terms of visual appearance and user interface.

Publishing content on the Internet, instead of developing dedicated apps, Baptiste said, would solve one of the main issues publishers have with the current tablet market: to make their publications accessible with all of the devices out there, they have to develop a version for each of the platforms available. All tablet devices naturally have adequate web-browsing capabilities, making HTML5 content free of compatibility issues.

Press release: "Old-fashioned" Internet? Media world changes faster than ever

Posted by Emma Heald on April 18, 2011 at 10:13 AM

When a speaker at a media conference refers to the traditional desktop-based internet as "the old-fashioned internet," you know that the media world is evolving faster than ever.

In language that was once reserved for newspapers, the PC-based internet took a back seat to mobile and tablets at the just-completed Digital Media Europe conference, which drew nearly 250 participants from 38 countries to London this week.

The reach of the new mobile web was evident in the room itself. Those 250 participants had 309 devices connected to the conference Wi-Fi.

The Sheen is wearing thin--is celebrity journalism lackluster?

Posted by Ashley Stepanek on March 2, 2011 at 2:20 PM

News flash: Carlos Irwin Estevez, a.k.a. Charlie Sheen, is allegedly in the process of writing his tell-all memoir about starring on the American TV sitcom, "Two and a Half Men." Otherwise in the news, U.S. Congress may close its doors if Democrats and Republicans can't agree on the budget, massive bloodshed and civil exodus persist in Cote d'Ivoire, and Libyan rebels may invoke UN air strikes against el-Qaddafi.

But, you know, Sheen's alleged book project is totally newsworthy.

Sheen has been canvassing any U.S. media outlet that will give him the time of day, or who arguably are interested in his story the way a person might be interested in a car accident (terrified and curious at the same time). In the last week, he's appeared on "The Alex Jones Show," "The Dan Patrick Show," "Loose Cannons," NBC's "Today" show, ABC's "Good Morning America," and CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight." He has texted People magazine and RadarOnline and been interviewed live on TMZ.com. And Sheen is not done yet. Howard Stern says his show may be next. Tuesday evening, "20/20" will air an interview with the actor. And, according to TechCrunch, he even started a Twitter account, apparently so someone else doesn't start a spoof account first.

Kindle Singles, a happy medium for longer-format reading on digital handhelds

Posted by Ashley Stepanek on February 16, 2011 at 5:22 PM

Perhaps it's not that people have shorter attention spans, it could be a problem with platforms. That's the argument made by The New York Times upon the announcement of Amazon's January launch of Kindle Singles, a series of one-off essays and short stories priced between $1 and $5 that you can download to the device or to smart phones, or sometimes find online from the respective content provider for free. This new series is Amazon's attempt to bridge the gap between books and long-format magazines in print with digital content that is actually palatable to read.

The point, duly noted if not emphasized enough, is that books do not always translate to readability in pixilation because of discomfort with reading small fonts on a small screen for hours and hours at a time. Amazon and other companies are responding to this sentiment by starting to publish content that is potentially more appropriate to the platform of handheld devices for the consumer: digital pamphlets ranging between 10,000 to 30,000 words long, in page length between 30 to 90, which, according to Amazon's press release, could be "twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book," and are priced much less than standard books.

Media Links of the Day

Posted by Dawn Osakue on September 14, 2010 at 5:24 PM

Prosecutors have stated that "Ukraine's former interior minister ordered the 2000 murder of the outspoken journalist Georgy Gongadze, whose killing helped spark the Orange Revolution."

Earlier this month The Sun announced its Buzz perfume. Turns out it was only a prelude, as News International will on September 18th launch Buzz: "The Sun's new lifestyle and television magazine"

Dan Kennedy has published the findings of his survey on how news from New Haven is managed by newspapers. Is there any line between hyperlocal and regional?

The Hexham Courant is definitely not 146 years old because it could not flow with trends. The Northumberland newspaper has launched a paid iPad app. Content will appear first on the app before becoming available for free on the Internet.

And, could an e-book rental marketplace help news publishers find a new source of revenue? Yes, Robert Niles insists.

Profitable online content: a very viable possibility?

Posted by Dawn Osakue on August 23, 2010 at 4:45 PM

People are paying for mobile music even though predictions a few years stated otherwise, and Charlie O'Donnell insists that internet content can be profitably sold. "What Apple proved, and what I suspect is the issue with web content, is that monetization was a product problem," he states on This is going to be big.

People pay for music because it is more convenient than searching for free content; in the same way, if news providers could make paid content easier to access than aggregating free sources, consumers might well go with the easier option and pay. "Despite over 15 plus years of progress," he writes, "little has changed about the way we consume articles on the web since the internet started. It's still largely a desktop experience driven and produced by publishers clinging to siloed production and consumption experience... The best hope you have for sending me an article that I read is to e-mail it to me or DM me on Twitter--and to hope that wherever I'm reading the web, I'm also checking messaging services."

The US Speech Act puts pressure on UK libel tourism laws

Posted by Stefanie Chernow on July 29, 2010 at 1:43 PM

Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress may not agree on much, but in a rare event there was bipartisan support on a libel tourism bill, also know as The SPEECH Act (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage). If signed into law, the U.S. will no longer uphold judgments of defamation abroad that conflict with the First Amendment, which upholds freedom of speech. This more liberal version of the libel tourism law calls into question the UK's more rigid stance on the issue.

There are several recorded cases of libel tourism being used against American journalists in the past, most of the cases being heard in UK courts. A Greek citizen was cited as suing the New York Times and International Herald, claiming they falsified information about him. The recent case that initiated the new legislation was the that of a US citizen, Rachel Ehrenfeld, who was sued in a London court. Apparently she claimed in her book Funding Evil that that a Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahmouz, was supporting terrorism activities. Although less than 25 books were purchased through Amazon in the UK, the court decided in favor of Mahmouz and awarded him $225,000 in damages. Mahmouz did not attempt to collect his damages as all of Ehrenfeld's assets were in the US, but never the less the situation riled Ehrenfeld up enough to pursue legislative actions.

Traffic to the Times' new paywalled websites has fallen less than expected

Posted by Emma Heald on July 19, 2010 at 10:45 AM

Traffic to the Times' websites has fallen by two-thirds since the introduction of a paywall on 2 July, the Observer reported yesterday, citing data from Experian Hitwise. Previous reports suggested that the site had been expected to lose 90% of its traffic when it introduced charges of £1 a day or £2 a week.

An introductory offer of £1 for a month's access may have contributed to the smaller than expected drop in traffic. But as the biggest drop in audience came before the paywall went up, in the five weeks when visitors were asked to register for access beyond the homepage, it seems it might not actually be the money that is putting people off, but the mere hassle of having to register.

Maker of the iLiad e-reader goes bankrupt

Posted by Carole Wurzelbacher on June 11, 2010 at 3:02 PM

IRex Technologies, maker of the e-reader iLiad, has filed for bankruptcy, reports PaidContent. The company, which began selling the iRex DR800SG in February, reports that sales of the device have been below expectations. The DR800SG had received a good deal of attention for it's unique model, which gave publishers more control over the distribution of their content. Unlike Amazon's Kindle, iRex's device allowed for publishers to set their own prices. Moreover the company, which does lack brand recognition by consumers, has distribution agreements with both Best Buy and Barnes and Noble.

Co-founder believes Scribd is better alternative to Apple's app

Posted by Carole Wurzelbacher on June 11, 2010 at 12:32 PM

While iPad applications are so far reporting strong numbers, Scribd co-founder believes there is a better way for journals to produce mobile news, PaidContent reports. Jared Friedman, CTO and co-founder of the document sharing website Scribd, believes that his website would function better then iPad applications in communicating news to iPad users. Rather than devoting time and resources to developing iPad applications, Scribd offers a simpler way for publishers to convert their print publications into a digital format. Friedman claims that Scribd's HTML5 format allows for him to create apps "in a matter of minutes."

Media Links of the day

Posted by Alexandra Jaffe on April 22, 2010 at 6:33 PM

Online ad revenue is up at the New York Times and the print ad decline is slowing. Maybe that's one of the reasons publishers are so optimistic. [paidContent, Editor&Publisher]

News aggregation site Newsy.com has released a one-stop news iPad app. [TechCrunch]

The revamped Independent had an eventful day, as James Murdoch stormed into its newsroom and Boots stopped offering issues for free. [Guardian]

As ash continues to keep them stranded in European airports, journalists continue to file their stories. [Hold the Front Page]

Does Facebook's use of contacts and address books put journalists and their sources at risk? [Journalism.co.uk]

UK press coverage helps police succeed in a large marijuana bust. [Hold the Front Page]

Banker JP Morgan owns equity on a number of large US newspapers after they defaulted on their debt. [Guardian]

Now that Michael Bloomberg owns BusinessWeek, what's changed? [paidContent]

iPad: reactions, reviews, and how newspaper apps are doing

Posted by Maria Conde on April 8, 2010 at 6:48 PM

It was back in January that Steve Jobs took the stage at a San Francisco event and told hundreds of excited Apple enthusiasts to hold the Internet in their hands.

After a three-month wait, on April 3rd, Apple fans were finally able to not only hold the Internet, but also the future of computing in their hands.

Ever since rumors of the launch of Apple's tablet computer started circulating across the Internet, opinions regarding the device have been divided. While some observers have not been optimistic as to what the iPad may mean for the future of media, some media pundits have gone so far as to call it the messiah of print media, hoping it will become a significant source of revenue for newspapers in the near future.

The iPad's out of the box: A first look

Posted by Alexandra Jaffe on April 1, 2010 at 5:54 PM

With the much-anticipated U.S. launch of the iPad coming this Saturday, media executives everywhere are waiting with bated breath for the verdict: Will the iPad save news media? No one's sure yet, but tech columnists across the web who managed to get their hands on advance releases of Apple's tablet computer gave generally gushing reviews of the innovative product, ensuring that consumers will be lining up on Saturday to snap up the small stock of iPads delivered to Apple stores and Best Buy.

At the time of its release on Saturday, users will be able to access over 1,000 apps made specifically for the iPad, with 60,000 books in Apple's e-book store. Among those apps are options from numerous newspapers and magazines, all selling their products with a range of payment plans.

The Financial Times is offering a free trial of its application sponsored by watchmaker Hublot, and Bloomberg News' app will also be free. Reuters is offering an app which BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin claims is a "free app in which video is, again, a seamless delight."

iPhone users 2x as likely to buy newspaper subscriptions on e-readers

Posted by Emma Heald on March 24, 2010 at 9:44 AM

Fifteen percent of people surveyed said they are "seriously considering" buying an iPad in the next three months - a slightly higher number than those saying they will buy an Amazon Kindle, according to a new report by comScore. Meanwhile, of the consumers who currently own an iPhone or iPod Touch are "more than twice as willing to pay for newspaper and magazine subscriptions formatted for e-readers" than those who don't own either device, according to the report, PoynterOnline reported today.

The April 3 release of the iPad is pushing publishers to quickly develop new strategies for the device, with more than 27,000 book apps in Apple's App Store at the last count, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. However, Fairfax Media's marketing and newspaper sales director told the SMH that finding a market for an app isn't as easy as it may seem.

For more on this story please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com

Tablets: the iPad's coming April 3, Sony's looking at similar devices

Posted by Emma Heald on March 5, 2010 at 6:07 PM

The date has been set for the release of Apple's iPad in the US: the first Wi-Fi only version will be shipped on 3 April, slightly later than the time period that was initially specified, possibly due to manufacturing difficulties. The 3G-enabled product will launch at the end of April, and both will become available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Sony is planning to take on Apple with a new line of handheld products. One of these is a portable device that "shares characteristics of netbooks, electronic-book readers and handheld-game machines." It sounds just like the iPad, and the WSJ reported that unnamed sources said that it is intended as a competitor.

Condé Nast's magazines get ready for the iPad

Posted by Maria Conde on March 2, 2010 at 6:20 PM

Magazine publisher, Condé Nast, is getting ready to create iPad versions for its Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Glamour magazines, according to The New York Times.

While GQ will have a tablet-friendly version ready by April, Wired's version will come in June, with the New Yorker and Glamour getting their iPad versions by summer, said an internal memorandum on Monday.

The New York-based magazine publisher is no stranger to mobile technology. GQ has an iPhone app (pictured on the left) that sold over 15,000 copies last January.

iPad deals with publishers face obstacles

Posted by Maria Conde on February 16, 2010 at 6:20 PM

The arrival of the iPad has generated much optimism in media circles that hope it will revitalize a struggling industry, but so far, there has been much talk over what the device could do, but little evidence that shows newspapers will actually benefit from the device.

In fact, newspaper and magazine publishers have not yet agreed upon the key issue of sharing subscription revenue, as they consider deals to offer digital versions of their publications on Apple's newly released tablet, the Financial Times reports.

This vital piece of the puzzle will decide whether publishers will succeed in cashing in on the iPad.

Iceland as a "journalism haven"?

Posted by Trafton Kenney on February 15, 2010 at 1:23 PM

Some Icelandic MPs, with the help of non-profit website WikiLeaks, are hoping to turn their small island in the North Atlantic Ocean into a destination for investigative journalists with a new proposal to be submitted to Iceland's parliament on February 16th.

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has been in Iceland for the past two months, consulting parliamentarians on the bipartisan Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) that hopes to turn Iceland into a "journalism haven," he told the BBC. The proposal would implement some of the strongest legal protection in the world for the press and its sources.

Editors Webinars - Andrew Moger and Juan Ignacio Gallardo

Posted by Antoine Laurent on February 9, 2010 at 3:42 PM

Instructions on Webinar usage Webinars Archives Back to Main Menu

Limitations imposed on media coverage of

sports events

How to understand accreditation contracts with FIFA, and how to protect news-gathering on the ground at sport events.

Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Time: 14h00 GMT (London Time)

Speakers: Juan Ignacio Gallardo, Deputy Director, Marca; and Andrew Moger, Executive Director, News Media Coalition.

Buy the Limitations imposed on media coverage of sports events Webinar for only €59!

Our guest sepakers are going to tackle the following issues:

1.    How to understand your accreditation contract, understand FIFA terms
2.    How to take the right steps to protect news-gathering at events
3.    What can you do about negotiating terms

About the guest speakers:

The News Media Coalition (NMC), with headquarters in London and Brussels, seeks to preserve the function and ability of news organisations to inform public society about major events of interest.
Moger is one of the leading architects of the campaigning global network which seeks to protect the press freedom interests of journalists, editors and publishers in the contentious area of sport and other major news events. Before taking up this consultancy role, he was a journalist and executive editor for national newspapers in the United Kingdom, including The Times of London.

The sport daily Marca, one of the founder members of the IASN, has a readership of over 2,300,000, the highest in Spain for a daily newspaper and more than half of sports readership.
Marca is also Marca.com, the most visited sports website in Spain, with over 3 million users a month, and a 24-hour/day radio station, Radio Marca.
Gallardo, who started his journalistic career at Antena 3 and Radio 80, has been with Marca since 1991, with responsibilities covering virtually all the departments of the newspaper. He has co-ordinated and directed the supplement collection Tesoros del Real Madrid, one of the most remarkable successes in the history of the newspaper.
He has implemented Plusmarca, a project pioneering the delivery of information on mobiles in Europe.
Gallardo is also a writer. He is the author, among other works, of a biography of Maradona, the book Historias de una ilusión, dedicated to Spain's football team, and El Deporte Rey.

Buy the Limitations imposed on media coverage of sports events Webinar for only €59!

Instructions on Webinar usage Webinars Archives Back to Main Menu

If you have any questions, please contact Antoine Laurent, Editors Webinars Manager: Click Here

YouCommNews: public interest journalism in Australia

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 3, 2010 at 5:09 PM

It's a question that can get lost in all the talk of business models and content creation: how might journalism best serve the public?

In Australia, the latest group to ponder this is The Foundation for Public Interest Journalism, directed by a group of journalists, editors, academics and members of the community. Part of the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University in Melbourne, it is setting up a project called YouCommNews, modeled on the American site Spot.Us, which will allow the audience to commission the stories they want to see.

The Editors Weblog spoke to Dr Margaret Simons, chair of the foundation, and to David Cohn, founder of Spot.Us.

Results matching “and book publishers o”

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