Daily Thanthi, the second largest circulated daily in Tamil Nadu, is launching a Mumbai edition on September 5.
This new edition is the third one to be published outside Tamil Nadu; the paper is also circulated in Bangalore and Pondicherry. Daily Thanthi will have an initial print run of 50,000 copies in Mumbai.
Daily Thanthi is planning a high-profile marketing campaign for the launch.
Skandraaj, Chief Operating Officer of Malar Publications, the publishers of Daily Thanthi, said; "This is our first edition outside South India, and unlike Delhi, where the Tamil speaking population is scattered, Mumbai has some pockets and reaching the Mumbai Tamil speaking audience in the commercial capital is also very easy. We see a good revenue potential here."
Skandraaj also reported that the Group has no plans to launch an edition in Delhi. Exlaining his reasoning behind this issue, he said "We are sending around 3,500 copes to Delhi everyday to reach out to our readers there. As far as Delhi is concerned, the cost of reaching out to our target audience is very high."
According to ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) report for the period January-June 2008, Daily Thanthi had a circulation of around 969,000 copies, an increase of around 50,000 copies against the 917,000 net paid copies during ABC January-December 2007.
Reinventing Classifieds' Steve Outing speaks to typography guru Jim Parkinson (who's credits include Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Esquire, the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times) in his article today about how to make the classified section within a newspaper clearer and more appealing.
Outing writes in his article that the average age of a newspaper reader is 50; with this in mind he asks whether newspapers should increase print size to assist the deteriorating vision of the average reader. Such a move would undoubtedly increase costs at any newspaper, as it will take up more newsprint.
Parkinson, however, does not think it is necessary to increase liner point size for most papers. Parkinson advocates selecting the proper type with good readability characteristics, and implementing some smart design changes.
Here are Parkinson's recommendations:
* Select a font with a large "x-height" and smaller ascenders and descenders.
* Redesign the classifieds section to make it look more visually appealing.
* Try and tie in design features from other sections of the newspaper.
* Widen column width for liner sections. He suggests trying 6-column format that is easier for the eye to absorb efficiently.
* Section headers need to be easy to scan, and use bold headings intelligently to help readers scan a page for what they're seeking.
Posted byAlisa Zykova on August 11, 2008 at 9:24 AM
Mike Leary, Philadephia Inquirer's managing editor, announced last week that the paper would be publishing certain stories online only after they have been published in print, apart from breaking news stories.
Even though the new policy provoked some criticism from Steve Outing and Jeff Jarvis, it is meant to be a strategic leap towards formulating "complementary differentiation between the roles of the print and online operations", according to Poynter.org's Amy Gahran.
Differentiating between print and online operations may be the key to
helping papers that are in financial trouble. One of the strengths of
print may be feature stories, whereas the Web's immediacy allows for a
possibly better environment for breaking news coverage.
The move may be seen as restricting bloggers by limiting the stories they may work on, so as not to publish content that is in progress for the print edition.
However, Chris Krewson, the paper's executive editor for online/news mentioned that it is blogging that is the "easiest" method for breaking news coverage. In fact, he pointed out that there was a 700% increase in traffic on Philly.com blogs.
"There's no quicker way to break news than on a blog, and no better way for us to leverage our staffing advantage over other local media. In addition, beat reporters with blogs say the process has helped them cultivate and nurture sources," said Krewson.
Gahran wrote that eventhough it would be "nice" to have news organizations reporting on breaking news, enterprise and feature stories as well as interacting with the community, financial difficulties may not permit that.
Posted byAlisa Zykova on July 24, 2008 at 10:06 AM
The Mirror's revamped site features "building block" sections that allow its journalists to shift the shape of the boxes containing the stories. The makeover also intends to increase interaction between readers and journalists, as well as between readers themselves.
The Mirror's online staff recently doubled to sixteen reporters,
following the site's expansion beyond news, sports and entertainment
sections.
The logo type of the new site uses headline font from the new Daily Mirror version.
Cases I Associats, the Spanish design company that designed the Daily Mirror print version, developed the new Mirror.co.uk site.
The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee, is cutting the size of its print edition to a 46-inch web from 50 inches in response to the 30% increase in newsprint costs, the paper reported Tuesday.
"The newspaper has been redesigned ... saving Memphis Publishing Co. about 6 percent in paper," the story reported.
"The key issue for us is to make sure that the core news coverage continues," Editor Chris Peck said in the report. "That will mean the need to edit the paper more carefully and also to encourage readers to go online more often when we have additional details that might not fit into the print edition.
The paper said that: "newsprint, the industry's No. 2 cost behind labor, represents 10 to 15 percent of costs. Because the price is rising at the same time advertising revenue is hitting record lows -- average advertising revenue fell 15 percent in the second quarter -- publishers are making hard choices, cutting staff or news space, or both."
The newspaper reduced its size back in March 2001 as well, cutting it from a 54-inch web to a 50-inch web, the paper reported.
In the last year, the Wall Street Journal's web site - one of the few news sites still requiring a paid subscription - has nearly doubled its user-base, with a 94% increase since June 2007. The site now reaches 16.2 million users.
The site offers a mix of free and paid content. The Journal's breaking-news alerts and personal-finance, opinion and lifestyle content, as well as videos, blogs, podcasts and other interactive elements are all available free.
Even with a fee - print subscribers pay $49 a year for a web subscription - WSJ Online attracts more than one million subscribers and 10 million monthly unique visitors.
In 2007, WSJ.com generated about $60 million in subscription revenue. To put this in perspective, making up that revenue in ad sales would require WSJ.com to increase traffic by more than 20 million unique monthly visitors.
Mark Potts, author of the Recovering Journalist blog, recently wrote about the ten changes he thinks newspapers need to make to thrive. What follows is an edited transcript of his post:
What would you do if you ran a newspaper?
Somebody asked me that question recently, and it made me pull together some of the thoughts I've had recently about the problems that newspapers are having and what they might do to pull out of their current spiral. This is hardly a complete list, but here's a 10-point prescription for ailing newspapers:
1. Make the Web the primary product. Stop pasting the newspaper onto a screen. Reorganize the newsroom so that its work appears online as quickly as possible. ... And embrace the technology: news Web sites should be full of Web 2.0 goodness like interactive maps, social networking tools, RSS feeds, distribution to mobile devices, etc. Use the medium to its fullest.
2. Local, local, LOCAL! There are a zillion places to get national and international news, in real time. But newspapers are virtually the only source of truly local news. ... Local news is the last unique franchise that newspapers own, and too many newspapers don't seem to understand this. ... (Why do you think local community newspapers are thriving when big metro dailies are shedding circulation?)
3. If it's widely available elsewhere, don't waste time re-creating it. Does every newspaper really need its own movie critic? A TV critic? ... Book reviews? Stories from Washington that the AP already has? ... the answer is unequivocably no. Those resources are just wastd.
4. Zero-base the news operation. Pretend you're starting from scratch. Look at everything that's in the paper and ask tough questions about whether it's still necessary in an age when readers have multiple sources of news and information.
5. Get the readers involved. As Dan Gillmor has elegantly argued, the audience knows more than news people do. Much more. Tap that knowledge by encouraging reader participation in as many ways as possible: contributing news and information about their communities, sending in photos and videos, commenting on everything. This can't be a token effort, and you absolutely cannot be scared or controlling about it: let the readers get involved at every opportunity. It will greatly improve the product and increase readership.
6. Lose the editorial page. Unsigned editorials are a relic of a bygone era when newspaper barons exerted power in their community... Here's a thought: Replace it with reader opinions!
7. Expand the advertising base. In any market, there are thousands of small advertisers that would never consider advertising in the big local newspaper. It's too expensive and covers too broad an area. But those advertisers want to reach the same people the newspaper does. Find a way to make this happen: more focused zoning, cheaper ads, ad rep pay structures that encourage selling to smaller advertisers. This is another area where community papers are running rings around big dailies.
8. Rethink the classifieds. Craigslist, Monster.com and countless other news competitors have decimated the newspaper classifieds business. ... Anybody who's used craigslist knows how much more effective it is than paid newspaper classifieds. Look hard at your classifieds ... Yes, that may include shifting most of the classifieds online and giving them away for free, in order to keep the critical mass of classifieds that makes them useful. 9. Find new ways to serve advertisers. What newspapers offer advertisers--display ads, classifieds--really hasn't changed much in a century. Look for ways to change that. Get into the Yellow Pages directory business online. Aggressively offer contextual advertising. Use idle newspaper delivery resources to help local businesses with their delivery needs. Use subscription lists to help businesses find customer leads. Explore interactive advertising forms that go way beyond boring banner ads. Offer data services to help businesses manage their inventories or sell things online. It's not enough to simply sell space in the paper or on the Web site. Help advertisers make their businesses more successful. 10. Take chances. Innovate. Be fearless about trying things--and killing things. ...A wise editor once said to me, there's virtually no history of research and development in the newspaper business, which is odd considering that covering the news is a daily act of research and development. Let's face it: The single biggest innovation in print newspaper journalism in the past decade or so is...Sudoku. Newspapers can and must do better than that to survive.
At a time when any local or national news outlet can potentially become an international online brand, and as newsrooms adapt to a 24-hour news cycle, editors can learn from The New York Times' most recent attempt to 'kill' both birds with one stone.
Last week, top execs from The Times and the International Herald Tribuneannounced plans to mergeiht.com and nytimes.com into a co-branded international section, in order to increase both sites' reach and appeal to international advertisers.
In this two-part series, the Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.
Through these moves, The Times intends to accomplish at least four ostensible goals:
Part 1: - Build an outpost for its Continuous News Desk in Paris, and eventually Hong Kong. - Integrate operations, streamline some resources by increasing efficiency and avoiding overlap.
Part 2: - Reinforce its international reach and further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. - Use the strength of NYT's online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name. IHT: an outpost for the Times' continuous news
Although the proposed changes are currently undergoing a consultation process with the IHT's works council, as required by French law, the process of integration of both papers began ever since the NYT acquired full control of the IHT in 2003, and has accelerated in past months.
In Feb., NYT executive editor Bill Keller had already announced plans to integrate operations and develop an "organic, global, 24-hour news operation," in order "to create a Continuous News outpost in Paris."
In May, the IHT dropped its 142-year-old logo from its nameplate to replace it with the phrase "The Global Edition of the New York Times."
"That says, we are one, and we are," although both arms are managed separately, said Jim Roberts, digital editor at The Times.
Video: Roberts talks about the 'integration' of both newspapers. Footage was collected during an interview at the 15th World Editors Forum in Sweden.
Thanks to this outpost and the six-hour time difference, the NYT is now able to upload content to its site nearly 24 hours a day (from about 6am to 1am, New York time). The paper eventually hopes to establish a similar outpost at the IHT's Asian headquarters in Hong Kong in the next six months.
The creation of these outposts does not mean that the IHT is becoming a full-blown Paris bureau for The Times. "We have a Paris bureau," said Roberts, "and the newsroom of the IHT still has a print edition and right now they still have a website." Integration, streamlining resources: evolution, no revolution
Since all proposed changes are undergoing a consultation process, editors couldn't give any firm preview of how workflows could be affected.
In the past, there has been "very regular contact between individual desks at the Times and corresponding desks at the IHT," said Martin Gottlieb, newly appointed editor of the Global edition. Many IHT editors come from The Times, regularly do edits on NYT pieces, and this past year IHT-written articles have appeared on nytimes.com with no distinctive byline.
However, there is no formal process of exchange between both newsrooms, and "There have been a couple of occasions when we've had IHT and NYT reporters covering the same thing," said Roberts.
The appointment of Gottlieb as editor of the Global Edition - note, no mention of the IHT in his title - is significant in that respect. In addition to fulfilling the role of editor of the paper, his mission will be to ensure that staff understands both papers are "two parts of one news-gathering operation, that should work in unison as much as possible in delivering the news 24 hours a day seven days a week," said Gottlieb.
A series of new editorial appointments at the IHT will be the symbols of this top-down integration. "There will be people coordinating the work of both staffs to, pretty much, make them as much as possible act as one staff," said Gottlieb.
For example, Alison Smale, who becomes European editor of the global newsroom, will be responsible for "coordinating the work of all NYT and IHT reporters in the region from the IHT newsroom in Paris," said the memo. To oversee the process, The Times also named Alan Flippen "Editor, Newsroom Organization."
It seems too early to say whether the planned reforms will lead to radical changes in workflows or content. Evolution, not revolution, said Roberts.
Currently, an IHT reporter based in Hong Kong might build upon a Times' story about the rise of airline fuel prices by interviewing Asian carriers, whose input might not have been as relevant to the core readership of the Times in the US. Likewise, an IHT story published in the Times might be fine-tuned to be more pertinent to the American audience (see the example of Der Spiegel in Part 2, looking at different newspaper approaches towards international editions).
Future workflows will likely build upon these current processes, rather than start from scratch. "It's continuing synergies that are taking place and maximizing them and regularizing them," said Gottlieb.
The planned changes can also be seen as an attempt to streamline resources - terminology often equivocated with cost cuts and layoffs. But according to Gottlieb, there are no planned newsroom layoffs at this point (this is subject to change during the next six months). It is possible that an online merger of iht.com and nytimes.com could lead to redundancies for some technical Web production positions.
Editors couldn't comment on any upcoming changes concerning the IHT's planned print redesign.
Stay tuned for Part 2, which will examine The Times' international branding strategy, and how newspapers can grow a previously inaccessible international readership.
Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition
According to the latest ABCe traffic figures, the Daily Mail's website - Mail Online - has recorded its highest ever number of unique visitors. 18,712,533 browsers visited Mail Online during May, an increase of 700,000 from April.
"What's important is the fact that we have got a vibrant industry. These are very nice numbers that recognize what we have achieved, and that's a credit to a cracking editorial team," said Martin Clarke, Mail Online's editorial director.
Clarke says the paper has begun to look beyond its established print competition to weigh in against more untraditional news outlets.
"We're used to measuring against each other but I'm as interested in what Google News, the BBC, or Sky is doing," he said.
Mail Online is also adapting to its expanding global market - almost 73 percent of the site's unique users were outside the UK last month.
"All media need to think about being global brands," Clarke said.
In the days after the 61st World Newspaper Congress and 15th World Editors Forum, the debate was still raging: Will print products remain the core business model of the newspaper industry in the long-term? Will digital platforms become newspapers' primary source of distribution and revenue? Or will both print and digital work side by side to sustain newspaper journalism? Guardian Comment is Free columnist Roy Greenslade and World Association of Newspaper CEO Timothy Balding sounded off on the topic.
Greenslade struck first. Having attended the conference, he pointed to what he considered a divide between publishers and editors and their respective conference programs; "The congress, the publishers' conference, was dominated by the upbeat statistics about the good health of newspaper sales, newspaper launches and newspaper profits"... "Yet all the discussions at the editors' forum were dominated by how to deal with the decline - whether rapid or gradual - of newspaper circulations and the accompanying flight of advertising as people turn their backs on newsprint in favour of the internet."
Balding responded by noting that, on the whole, global newspaper industry figures are positive. Circulations are up in 105 nations and stable in 31. Paid titles are up in 85 countries and stable in 83. But this doesn't stop at print. The Congress, Balding pointed out, gave many examples of traditional publishers succeeding in the digital realm and shared multimedia strategies with their colleagues from around the world. WAN continues to do "absolutely everything we can to make sure that our publishers and our editors receive the best and most reliable information about digital developments and the best success stories on their successful exploitation," said Balding. The association does not "pretend... to know the digital future."
Perhaps the real divide comes not from the publishers and editors at the World Newspaper Congress, but rather from developed and developing nations. It is no surprise that in the United States and many countries in Western Europe, print newspapers are experiencing declines in circulation and profit margins. These papers have had trouble making up for lost revenues on the Web. On the other hand, newspapers in developing countries such as India and China are witnessing huge growth and will continue to do so for years to come. Their digital offerings and revenues will also increase as Internet and mobile penetration rapidly spread.
The essence of the Congress, is to bring papers from these nations together. It is the platform where they share ideas; new ways to create and distribute content, strategies for reaching new audiences, and creative ways to make money in print and online. And sharing ideas between different markets will ensure that the newspaper industry, in both developing and developed nations, will continue to flourish.
Elin Olofsson, News Editor at the Swedish Östersund Posten told the audience at the 15th World Editors Forum about how hyperlocal websites with reader blogs are becoming a reality at the ÖP.
In May 2007, Östersund Posten started eight hyperlocal websites called The HeartProject. Apart from hyperlocal news, the paper launched 101 reader blogs which purpose was to increase the number of online visitors and make more room for hyperlocal stories.
Today, one year from the start of the Heartproject, weekly visitors at Östersund Postens local websites have increased by 60%. Olofsson explained how all bloggers write about everyday life, politics, schools, celebrities, etc. They also help to cover local topics. The paper does not pay their contributors and has established a set of rules about what their contributors can and can't write to avoid any racy content. Every
week a "Blog story of the week" is published in the print newspaper.
The project has also been a success financially, helping to increase the interest of advertisers. Overall, "The heartproject has created enormous goodwill for our brand," said Olofsson.
