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An interesting and growing market has opened up for newspapers with online editions in Africa: the expat reader looking for news about home from a familiar news source. The print version of newspapers remains paramount in Africa in terms of readership and revenue, but newspaper organizations are waking up to this new medium's potential.

When Kenya's Daily Nation launched its website a decade ago, it had a clear vision. The country's leading newspaper recognised that the 1.8 million Kenyans living abroad had little access to news from home, and that an online edition would have mass appeal to the increasing number of ex-pats who hungered for news. This is something that editors and publishers across Africa should bare in mind: the International Labour Organisation estimates there are some 7.1 million Africans living outside their home country. The number is rising rapidly and by 2025 could climb to one in ten, the IOM predicts.

The Editors Weblog spoke with the Daily Nation's managing editor of special projects, Macharia Gaitho, about his newspapers online edition and he said: "We wanted to extend the paper's audience beyond Kenya's geographic borders to deepen the paper's voice and authority, while also offering a service to the growing Kenyan diaspora." The website was launched formally in October 1998 with a dedicated team, following trials the previous year just before the Kenyan general election.

This service goes back to the very foundation of what newspapers are all about, they are not only providing a news service, they are also serving their communities, even the members of it who have moved away.

The fact that the online edition is very reflective of the print edition is a pull to the expat community who will immediately have the emotional response of recognition and thus feel "familiar" with the web version from their first visit, this familiarity will likely encourage return visitors. As one of the most trusted news organization on the African continent, it would already be a first port of call for expats looking for news from home, but with its easily navigable site, clear graphics, photographs, video footage and with a style that echoes the print version, they have cleverly tapped into the expat market.

Gaitho, who describes the Daily Nation website as the "recognized go-to place online for news on Kenya" said it was important that the web edition reflected the "Nation's look and feel."

The Daily Nation site has recently undergone a revamp and the new-look site achieved 50,000 unique visitors daily in its first week after the launch. The previous version averaged 80,000 unique visitors daily. Explaining this disparity in visitors, Gaitho said: "Because of faster download speeds and improved features, we project the new one will surpass 80k".
 
However, some news organisations in Kenya have been slow to see the potential of this new market and only have a web version as a nod to this evolving technology without fully engaging with the medium. Dr George Ogola at the University of Lancashire says that in Kenya, "The element of interactivity, the very essence of 'experiencing' news online remains unexploited." He believes that news organisations need to recognise that with the advent of online news, the relationship between the reader and the newspaper has been altered.

The appeal of ex-pat readers is therefore another attraction for African newspapers to consider when they lead the charge to online editions, not only for editors looking to boost their news organizations readership and to keep their media house relevant, but also to appeal to advertisers such as Western Union who wish to reach the expat audience. It is as a result now mandatory for any newspaper in Africa to have an online edition.

The Editors Weblog spoke to the Directeur de Publications at Le Jour in Cameroon, Haman Mana, about his thoughts on this issue. Recently launched newspaper Le Jour is a particularly interesting case, as they chose to launch the print and online version at the same time on the 17 September 2007. This decision underscores how online media is growing in importance in Africa, even though print still creates more revenue and attracts a larger readership. When I asked Mana about his thinking behind this decision, he said bluntly, "It is inconceivable for any Cameroonian newspaper that wants to be taken seriously not to have an online edition."



Mana agreed with Gaitho on how it is important that the online edition mirror the newspaper, saying, "The design was an important step for us, because we wanted to keep the spirit of the print edition." Mana reports that a significant portion of Le Jour's online readership is also made up of the Cameroon disapora. He also highlighted how having an online edition is simply good publicity for a newspapers brand, he said the web version has opened up a world of markets to Le Jour and, "it permits us to have a global presence and visibility."

It is therefore clear that the expat reader opens up a whole new market of readers and revenue to Africa's newspapers. For those organisations that are reticent about connecting with the web, they need to be aware they are ignoring a growing market waiting to be exploited. The African web news market is already jostling with competitors, so if they do not leap now, they could miss out completely.

Sources: AllAfrica.com, Business Daily, International Labour Organisation, Daily Nation, Le Jour

Has Manchester Evening News (MEN), which has adopted a hybrid part-paid for, part free method of distributing their papers, inspired other papers to follow suit?

"Inevitably it will spread to some other publications but I would add the rider that it won't work for everyone," MEN Editor Paul Horrocks said. "We have a big city center base to work on."

Horrocks predicts that national newspapers will soon adopt this practice as well, especially if they have poor availability and poor sales in certain areas, though he concedes they would be "taking a big risk."

The Liverpool Daily Post has had a 16% increase in ad revenue a year after it introduced a part hybrid model.

"We will see more titles introduce an element of part free," said Georgina Harvey, managing director of Trinity Mirror regionals.

Source: Guardian News

‘A Glimpse of the Next Episode,’ Nokia’s latest study says that within five years a quarter of all entertainment will be created, edited and shared within peer groups rather than coming out of traditional media groups.

Several major newsrooms have chosen to integrate their print and online operations to adapt to the digital age, including the Daily Telegraph in the UK and Fairfax in Australia, and most recently The New York Times moving into its new building. But most newspapers remain non-integrated or consider – such as Le Monde in France or El Pais in Spain – that full integration is not the best choice. In light of this debate, the Weblog interviewed Bruno Patino, Vice President of Le Monde group and President of Le monde interactif, to figure out which is the ‘right’ way to rethink the newsroom, or whether or not integration should be the main concern altogether.

User-generated content websites have flourished and there is no question now that they are here to stay, and that ‘user’ content will increasingly pervade all media – ‘traditional’ media that is. Has the definition of ‘News’ changed, or deteriorated, with the Web 2.0 revolution?  Are UGC sites competitors or facilitators for newspapers transitioning to the online world? Martin Rogard, director of content for YouTube’s European alter ego, Daily Motion, answers some of these questions for the Weblog, to help newspapers that can be torn between opening to readers and keeping the old rules in place.

As newsrooms worldwide, big and small alike, march towards integrating their print and online operations, newsroom design has become an increasingly significant consideration for editors. In three interviews for the Weblog, editors from the Daily Telegraph, RBS Group and De Volkskrant give their views on the importance of newsroom design, whether it’s more of a detail, a truly pragmatic facilitator of change, or a mirror of conceptual transformation.

In a Q&A, veteran journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh predicts the emergence of quality, online-only newspapers, while acknowledging that online journalism has also hatched a number of muckrakers.

The New York Times announced the shuttering of its online subscription service, TimesSelect. The obvious question: is this the end of the paid-for online model altogether? How will the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) website, the Web’s largest paid-for subscription website, react? The Editors Weblog collected the insight of media analyst Philip Stone, Ali Rahnema, Corporate Development Director at the Irish Times, and Daniel Bernard, General Manager of WSJ Online.

Nobody can exactly define what the media landscape will look like in ten years, but in the meantime, all traditional media companies seem to be experimenting with possible features. Here are a few of the latest examples from television broadcasters that could be useful for newspapers.

In what appears to be an industry first, The Sacramento Bee has announced plans to solicit and post video letters to the Editor from readers on its website.

When he started in 1994, David Dunkley Gyimah was one of the first video journalists in the UK. An academic lecturer and avid videojournalist who has advised newsrooms internationally, he explains how ‘any old’ newspaper can put up a regular video feed within weeks. Even better: newspapers have the assets to potentially produce better videojournalism (VJ) than their TV counterparts, both in terms of internal organization and marketwise.

The most important Italian economic daily, Il Sole 24 Ore, published yesterday the first issue of its free paper 24 Minuti (24 Minutes). The paper’s business plan predicts that profitability will be reached in three years, a result that no other Italian free paper (Leggo, Metro and City), has attained. 24 Minuti will supposedly collect about 20 million euros in advertisements next year. The paper is distributed in two editions, Milan and Rome, with an overall print run of 500,000 copies, 250,000 per city.

Newspaper companies beware! The journalists you are increasingly willing to let go may come back to haunt you. In today’s Internet world, all it takes is a little budget and a lot of ambition. Take the story of Paul Bass. For 25 years, Bass covered the New Haven, Connecticut area for print publications and watched them all get eaten up by corporate giants. During a yearlong book leave, he decided that he couldn’t return to a newsroom “sucked of its spirit.” His salvation? The Internet.

Arnaud Lagadère, part of the family famed for its defense firm and publishing interests, has lost confidence in the printed word. He said that the press has "little future in its present state" and that "we're moving towards the dismantling of its traditional support structure."

The famous financial daily, The Wall Street Journal, may be thinning itself from a width of 15 to 12 inches and the globetrotting newspaper designer Mario Garcia may be pushing for a compact, but it doesn't appear that the Dow Jones' flagship will be cut down to tabloid size.

Garcia is currently working on a redesign after having helped the Journal add color to its front page in 2002.

Pelle Tornberg, CEO of the Sweden-based Metro International, recently sat down with the Guardian to discuss the success of the freesheet, plans for expansion and the effects on paid-for newspapers.

The Global Entertainment and Media Outlook by PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts a decline in newspaper circulation figures and tepid growth of subscriptions, advertising revenues and single copy purchase for the next 4 years, reports hollywoodreporter.com. (The newspaper publishing market, as defined in the report, includes spending of readers on daily print newspapers, i.e. newsstand purchases and subscriptions, and spending by advertisers. The definition does not include weekly papers and online subscription, which are subject of a special chapter.)