Results matching “about entry in f”

The series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Indian financial capital Mumbai have gained worldwide attention, and the speed with which Internet users were able to read first-hand reports within hours of the initial attacks is proof of a revolutionized way that information reaches an audience.

Although mainstream news coverage has dominated headlines thus far, social media has been a major outlet for news at the scene and around the world.  Internet users are sharing news and information for updates and reactions.

After the denial by BBC Trust to expand the BBC to include local coverage, The Guardian Media Group is considering the "interesting opportunity" of starting news websites to serve local communities, according to Paid Content.

A feasibility study may be conducted in Manchester, although the title there is looking toward international coverage.  The so-called "Guardian Cities" project would provide "highly relevant" information to local areas.

Source:  Paid Content
 

As outlined in the first entry of this series, consumers will start using mobile electronic reading devices routinely. But will these versatile tools also become the preferred display for news and current affairs? Publishers' ability to inhabit this uncharted territory will matter greatly, but even more important is the decision of media consumers that news offered in this way best fits today's lifestyle and nicely blends in with their expectations and routines.
 
The readers' view is currently being explored and tested in several prototyping and/or pilot initiatives, although this effort is modest compared to the involvement of hardware and software engineers. Nevertheless, first results reveal the contours of what in the eyes of the digital reader will be the ideal form of electronic information delivery. Based on four recent research actions, this contribution will sketch the preconditions for successful deployment of e-readers and services, seen from the users perspective.

The eNews project, set up by Ifra, explored the consumer readiness for e-readers. Via focus groups in European and Japanese locations it was found that the use setting is different: more lean backward compared to the lean forward use of PC and print. This finding will have consequences for the kind of content that can be offered. Surprisingly, the consulted test persons appreciated the daylight readability of the e-readers, but by no means hyped it as heavily as the manufacturers themselves always do. The love for the device stems much more from its environment-friendly image.

Microsoft, partner in the design of the New York Times News Reader, has evaluated the user appreciation of this application in a field study. A selected group of readers worked for weeks with the NYTReader, especially while commuting, and was interviewed afterwards. Overall assessment was very positive: two-thirds, especially the serious travellers, would stick to the service. The kind of use however depended much on personal reading style: the news junkies appreciated the amount of detail, the skimmers the quickness of updates while the fun-seekers enjoyed the sophisticated layout. The synchronisation feature for permanent updating was less popular: too time-consuming and difficult to understand.
Conclusion: newspapers will have to bear in mind all these different use categories, and with an improved product.

In the Dutch MePaper project, the five participating newspapers are exploring novel journalistic formats for two types of e-readers: the e-ink devices and the mini laptops (UMPCs). New content models for mobile reading are developed in a joint design studio and these prototypes are tested in lab-based proof reading sessions. Here, it shows that there is a difference between what journalists think is important, for instance the addition of time frames to story overviews, and what the public wants (don't bother us with release hours). Also in this R&D effort, the variety of user demands is apparent. Many want both local (often hyper local) news, without loosing the global perspective. The preference can change from day to day, depending on personal circumstances and the attraction of news on offer. A definite outcome is the demand for customisation of the e-paper, ideally composed of sections, even editors from a range of different media. This result is in fact a cry-out for joint ventures between titles and across newspaper groups. Thus, e-reading will provoke unconventional business practices.
If the newspaper world manages to respond to these user requirements, there certainly is scope for a quick roll-out of the e-reading technology. In a Swedish large scale online survey (part of the UbiMedia project), 42 percent of the 3600 readers indicated to be ready for it now, and another 19 percent in the next five years.  Would these people want to change their trusted print edition for an electronic version? Two-thirds said yes, only one-third would be faithful to newsprint. The e-service however is expected to be considerably cheaper (says 58 percent), with a meagre 8 percent willing to pay extra for premium content.

The conclusion is obvious, the adoption potential for mobile electronic reading is certainly high, but it is a medium in its own right, not just another print or online edition spin-off. It needs to be well designed, fully user-driven, with convincing personalisation options. Valuable lessons in this respect are being learned by a Dutch paper, NRC. The e-reader service it launched last year based itself on simple copy streaming, and it obviously doesn't work. Disappointed users created an open forum in wiki format to voice their concerns, criticism and improvement suggestions. The company hasn't been able to respond to it adequately yet. E-reading clearly asks for special content formats, a different type of navigation architecture and innovative forms of news organisation. In the next entry, first design principles will be reviewed.

Director of the Euorpean Centre for Digital Communications and long-time journalist, Jan Bierhoff is currently conducting studies on e-reader technology and the consumer trends that will define their use. 
 

News Corp.'s Europe and Asia CEO James Murdoch has blamed the economy for stalling the development of the News International headquarters in east London, according to Paid Content.

The site was scheduled to expand, renovating the space to fit in other News Corp. members such as Dow Jones, MySpace and Harper Collins in the same complex, as well as national newspapers The Times, the Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World.  

This transition would have made integration for News Corp's media brands easier, and created "synergies where possible," facilitating access between organizations.   

There has not been an updated timetable of when work will recommence at the Wapping HQ.

Source:  Paid Content

Following on from Part 1 of our interview with the Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Science Monitor, John Yemma - where we looked at why the CSM is pursing a digital future and how it prepared its readership base - we now look at what is happening inside the CSM itself. Yemma and his team are restructuring the newsroom, its mindset and the technology powering it. This is the cutting edge of news distribution, and Yemma talks us through how it is preparing itself for uncharted territory.

Restructuring the newsroom - rebuilding the engine

The next big step for this revolutionary new "newspaper" model was in the newsroom itself. How does a traditional daily newspaper restructure its newsroom team to prepare itself for the uncharted digital waters ahead? Yemma is overwhelming positive about undertaking the task of remodelling the newsroom, saying, "We essentially get to sit here and take our car engine apart and put it back together. It was an automobile engine that was built for the print world and now we get to take it apart and rebuild it for the web-first world. That is a tremendously exciting prospect because that means instead of having to serve the print master, which has its own production schedule and arbitrary deadline, we free ourselves, and we are therefore able to be much more immediate and relevant online."

Currently the CSM has one staff orientated to producing the print CSM and a small online staff who repurpose the print content for the online edition. Yemma tells the Weblog that the team is organising itself into a "three pronged operation" with a common editorial model - under the editor, managing editor and includes the national, international and photo editors, and foreign and domestic correspondents, made up of about 70 to 80 people - feeding two smaller divisions. These two smaller divisions are the weekly print desk and the website desk, in each case they will have a small production staff. This differentiation between the magazine and the web is vital, "as print has its own needs to produce a good and valuable product" so it needs a minimal but dedicated staff. In the same way, the web has to have a focused staff to keep the site running and up to date. Yemma reports they will have about 10 people each devoted to the web and weekly. For the weekly this involves a team that will build a coherent weekly magazine - working on articles that will need to have a longer shelf life - and the overall look and feel. Similarly the website staffers will have a dedicated team of technical producers who will work on the entry page to optimise it for web traffic.

Yemma says that it has not been necessary to radically change the shape and layout of the newsroom to push through this change as the common editorial pool will be driving content and this remain largely intact. There will likely be some moving of desks to put the weekly staff together and so forth, but nothing radically different.

New technology to aid the change - democratising the web

The CSM is introducing new content management systems to facilitate this move, a print CMS and a new web CMS. This new system will allow the common editorial pool to directly feed both operations and allow the editorial staff to have much more influence over the website. CSM are using K4 CMS for the print edition and is currently closing the deal for a new CMS for the web edition. The new web system according to Yemma will, "democratises the whole operation of the web so non-technical assignment editors with the common editorial pool can update the website directly." Therefore, the majority of the content will feed from the editorial pool but the focused web team will work on the homepage itself.

Retraining for the digital future

This new business model will not only result in a rebuilding of the newsroom, but a rebuilding of staffers. The CSM has already trained its team for multi-media publications and now it is undertaking a programme for its new future. The team are being trained for the new CMS platforms; however, the new system does not require extensive training, as it is a very user-friendly system. CSM is continually training staffers for the web, as "the future is the web. Everybody knows that."  On the weekly, the assignment editors will have to rethink content to make it move "evergreen" and thus hold up for much longer on the shop shelf, and the content will have to be prepared multiple weeks in advance. The CSM is an analytical newspaper so it is already somewhat prepared for this new style of content, but Yemma says, "it is more rethinking than retraining, a magazine mindset is different to a daily mindset."

Managing staffers through uncertain times

It is exciting times at the CSM, but how do you manage staff through these uncertain times. Yemma says, "Be as open as possible about what you are doing. While things are still being developed and you don't want staff to prematurely publicise, you must be careful about you say, as anything you say in a newsroom can get outside of the newsroom. In fact, I would be disappointed if it didn't; being good gossips is part of their job. I would sometimes say things like "If theoretically we were going to have a weekly and no more daily....", the team would laugh, but I can't really say it as I do not want it to show up on a blog or something. I also tried to give them all the information. I tell you, it is much easier to remember your story when you are honest than when you make things up!"

Yemma reports that he worked with the University of Southern California and the Knight Media Digital Centre, and they performed an anonymous survey of staff. As a result, the staff were able to freely express their opinions about the changes without fear of it damaging their career. The team at USC and Knight compiled all the results and gave this to management, so they could see exactly how their staff were feeling. Yemma reports that the feedback was, "appropriately sceptical, but not overly. Again, I would be disappointed in journalists if they weren't sceptical. I would not expect everyone to be completely on board, but they appear to be largely on board."

Yemma says that that the combination of the town hall meetings, sitting down and talking with the different departments, and the anonymous survey are all necessary when managing a team through change.

Staff sackings

Yemma admits that, like many US newspapers, the CSM will be forced to let staff go. Yemma expects to reduce staffing levels by between 10% and 15%, which translates to 10 to 15 people.

Yemma told the Weblog that the staff cuts will take place in summer of next year and the time between now and then Yemma is publicising these staff cuts to the team so that hopefully levels may be reduced organically with people naturally looking for other jobs on hearing this news. Yemma admits that this will only get them part of the way there with the economy being what it is currently. Yemma is also working closely with the Human Resources department and they plan to offer a redundancy package, outplacement assistance and counselling.

The future

Looking at the radical change that the CSM is pursuing, one cannot help but feel that this type of radical restructuring is exactly the type of thinking what will pull the news industry out of its current slump. The media needs newspapers like the CSM to pursue these new strategies, as the industry has evolved very little in the past 100 years and it needs to start taking some radical risks to ready itself for a radically different future. Whether this model will prove successful, time and the market will only tell; but it is undoubtedly a brave and exciting undertaking.
 

Forbes has begun the process of integrating their print and online sections by combining the two ad sales groups.  The complete merging of the two editorial sides will be completed by early 2009, according to PaidContent.

According to Forbes, the move is due to a "changing marketplace."  

In addition to the merging of the two sections, on Friday Forbes announced that it was discontinuing ForbesAuto.com.

Sources: PaidContent, Valleywag

UK blogger and journalist Paul Bradshaw discusses his Birmingham-based HelpMeInvestigate.com project, which will draw on the public as well as journalists to pursue investigative reporting. The platform, an entry for the Knight News Challenge this year, will help back reporters who wish to investigate on a local level, Bradshaw says.

As newspapers across the United States redesign and relaunch; readership has not increased, neither has ad revenue.  So is a new design the most effective way to tackle the changes to the industry?  A recent article in Portfolio, takes a look at the Tribune Co. redesigned papers and ultimately concludes that their redesigns have not landed the success they should have.

According to Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst for Outsell and Content Bridges, "it's a distraction.  The major challenge to a company like Tribune is not to try to incrementally either stop circulation declines or add a point or two, but to really remake itself into a multimedia modern company." 

Only 12 percent of European web users paid for online content last year.  That number is expected to reach 19 percent by 2013.  Paid content "could pull in €5 billion in 2013, from €1.4 billion" in 2007 if the predictions are correct.

"As overall online audiences for all content categories continue to grow, so the number of European users willing to pay for content online will grow at an even faster rate," a Jupiterreasearch report says, although free content will "continue to dominate" online consumption.

The online model for news is "already set--pay-for news is the preserve of business readers and digital edition afficiondos."  Only 1.1 percent of the total online market will be paid-for news content.

The music industry will set the tone, which the news industry may want to take into account.  Although music made up "only 29 percent of all Europe's paid content revenues last year, by 2013, a majority of paid content income (51 percent) will come from music." 

European "efforts to drive consumers to legal downloads" is predicted to put users paying for content in the majority, 63.7 million to 55 million illegal downloaders by 2013.  Paid-for content is currently outnumbered by 53 million to 6.9 million users.

Source:  Paidcontent.co.uk

Subscribers to the New Yorker will now receive a web-based digital edition in their inboxes.  The digital edition is the same as the complete print version.

With a subscription users have access to the complete New Yorker archives dating back to February 1925.  

The online-edition is delivered Monday's before it hits the newsstands.

Source: PaidContent

PaidContent covered the second annual Future of Business conference, which focused on the business and trade media industry, and the changes brought along by consolidation and digital media.

Here are some highlights from the conference:

Lunchtime Q&A with Neil Cavuto: 'Content Still is King'

The Business of TV and Video News; Still Trying To Find Online Video's 'Sweet Spot'

WSJ.com's Subscribers Reach 1 Million Mark; How Much Longer?

Dow Jones Editor-In-Chief Robert Thomson Says Premium Content Continues To Play A Role

Reporters Deny Talking World Into Recession, Say They Learned Dot.com Lessons

Bloomberg's Norman Pearlstine: Acquisitions Won't Grab Headlines

Source: PaidContent

According to PaidContent, although ad revenue is down 19 percent and interest expenses on $2.1 billion of debt, newspaper companies are still profitable.  

McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt believes that ad revenue declines are cyclical and newspapers will not go out of business.

PaidContent's Lauren Rich Fine offers this advice, "For an industry that well understands it serves the greater good, come to terms with lower margins. And then go private!"

Source: PaidContent

The Birmingham Post relaunched Monday, October 20, as a tabloid-sized, business focused newspaper.  The Post and sister papers, Birmingham Mail and Sunday Mercury are making 65 editorial staff cuts, moving into a new £7.5 million newsroom and will use a more streamlined, online-focused publishing system.

According to paidContent, the changes are designed to improve advertising revenue by connecting the brand across all platforms. The paper is also cutting its Saturday edition and plans to target the city's professionals, aged 25 to 44.

Sources: paidContent