Results matching “the los angeles times”

 

Do you speak Twitter? Come on, Tweeple... It's time to get with the program. Yes, you Tweeple, people of the Twitter universe, or Twitterverse. Whether you are a newetter (a new tweeter), an occasionitter (an occasional Tweeter) or a seasoned reportwitters (you guessed it, reporter-style twitterer), an entire range of Twitter vocabulary has arrived. 

The media coverage of the shock death of Michael Jackson has served to highlight press dynamics, raising interesting questions concerning the nature of breaking news reporting, the cult of the celebrity and the relationship between newspapers and their online news rivals. Has the fact that most newspapers were delayed in the initial reporting of the death emphasised the widening gulf between print and digital channels of breaking news? Conversely, has the death been exploited by the printed press as a facile, reader guaranteeing hit?

The news of the performer's death, in terms of rumour, confirmation and reaction has been overwhelmingly 'digital' in expression. The scoop belonged to the Los Angeles based celebrity website, TMZ, which confirmed the death an hour after it aired whispers of a suspected heart attack. The reporting was rapid fire: time of death: 2.26pm, LA time, time of update: 2.44pm. 

The Washington Times is hosting a two-day symposium in New York today and tomorrow to discuss the topic of the 'individuated newspaper.' Peter Vandevanter, vice president of the Denver-based Media News Group, coined the term after researching ways that newspapers can resist the threats of the ailing industry.

"There are two kinds of content now. You choose it, or it's chosen for you. The idea here is self-selection of the news, delivered to any platform, at any time," Peter Vandevanter was quoted saying in The Washington Times today.

On Wednesday, Clarity Media Group announced that Rubert Murdoch had sold the Weekly Standard to Phillip Anschutz. The Huffington Post was one of the first sources of the rumor that emerged speculating that media groups News Corp. and Anschutz were discussing the transaction, more than ten days ago.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Murdoch may not necessarily "need" the right-wing political magazine, since its editorial tone echoes that of the more influential Wall Street Journal, a publication that Murdoch recently added to his media portfolio.

News publishers, moving with the irrepressible technological pull of modern readership desires, and the financial necessity of adapting to advertising changes, have shovelled huge amounts of money and effort into the development of online editions of their titles. The aim was to increase revenue from the Internet editions faster than money was being lost from the printed editions. This was a risky, but apparently necessary gamble and the final result is yet to be seen.   The latest rounds of industry analysis, however, suggest that online editions will not be able to save their printed sisters financially, as the latter's traditional sources of revenues continue to drop disproportionately to the incomes generated by new ventures.

The analysts at 24/7 Wall Street maintain that even at companies of which 15 per cent of their sales are generated by online projects, this does not provide a sufficent base to maintain a substantial editorial and business staff.  Moving content online is a palliative, which may "bring in additional sales but it will not do anything more than buy time for the industry to find other solutions".

As newspapers continue to shutdown, some journalists have managed to stay upbeat during these tough times.

In an extensive article published by the American Journalism Review, journalist Beth Macy describes how her fellow journalists manage to keep good spirits despite the challenging nature of the current economy. Macy, a reporter for the state of Virginia's Roanoke Times since 1989 specializing in matters that concern the 'real-life struggles of ordinary people', still gets "excited" when covering a good story, "even as [journalism] threatens to bail on me."

In an interview with the Telegraph, Tina Brown expresses her views on the future of newspapers and the professional journalist.   The once queen bee of the high-end glossy magazine industry has now completely embraced the digital medium as editor in chief of the New York Daily Beast. Brown is now advising fellow journalists to recognise the need for 'innovative approaches' to the delivery of news and the varying business models to maintain them financially. 

Emphasising the 'parlous condition' of the New York Times, and the worrying health of other significant US local papers such as the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe, Brown maintained that resources should be placed on preserving the intent and purposes of journalism per se, rather than on saving printed newspapers, "It's more important to preserve journalism than it is to preserve newspapers, frankly."

Last week's "secret" meeting between newspaper publishers in Chicago has prompted much discussion and commentary about the implications of such a meeting, particularly in terms of antitrust laws. According to the AP, the meeting's agenda was titled "Models to lawfully monetize content," and an antitrust lawyer was present, said the Newspaper Association of America, which organised the meeting.

In his article, "How the Obama administration can save newspapers," Los Angeles Times writer Tim Rutten argues that the way to save US newspapers is to make it easier for them to charge for online content.  It seems clear that charging for general news content would have a far greater chance of succeeding if all newspapers were to start to do this simultaneously. The same goes for licensing their content to search engines: it will only be possible if it is an industry wide effort. And such moves are currently illegal, as Rutten points out, under laws barring collusion and price-fixing.

Last Monday, a little over halfway into the 62nd Annual Cannes Film Festival, The American Pavilion hosted a panel discussion entitled "It's a Mad, New Media World." The six panelists in attendance were John Horn of The Los Angeles Times, James Rocchi of MSN Movies, Anne Thompson of ThompsonOnHollywood, Karina Longworth of SpoutBlog, and Sharon Waxman of The Wrap. Eugene Hernandez from IndieWIRE acted as the mediator.
 
The subject under discussion was the state of new media and its consequences for print media. Horn from the LA Times boldly asserts his opinion that trade magazines will solely and can only exist online by the end of this year. He sounds astonished when pondering how trade magazines can stay afloat as a print platform. Hernandez declared Horn to be the most powerful journalist on the panel. Hernandez credits Horn with this distinction thanks to the idea that newspapers like the LA Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal represent a brand.

The Economist has made the news industry the special focus of its business section for its latest edition. "Established" news is described as "being blown away" but news in general is otherwise considered to be "thriving."

In an opening paragraph which does not bode well for advocates of traditional media, the Economist ponders if "the surest sign that newspapers are doomed is that politicians, so often their targets, are beginning to feel sorry for them," in reference to Barack Obama's pledge to newspapers last weekend at an industry dinner in Washington, as well as Massachusetts senator, John Kerry's commitment to help the "endangered species" and, in particular, his region's beloved Boston Globe.

Speculation has been rising on why billionaire investor David Geffen is interested in buying the 19.9% stake in the New York Times Co, currently held by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, and what he would do with the company's flagship paper if he had control. Geffen's first approach to Harbinger was declined, but commentators think he may well make another. The company has lost many millions this year already and given that the advertising market, on which the company depends on significantly for revenue, shows little sign of recovery, buying such a stake (likely to cost around $200 million) seems a risky investment at the moment.

BusinessWeek's Ron Glover and Newsweek's Johnnie L. Roberts both believe that Geffen is fully aware such a purchase would not be a good investment, and that he would buy the paper out of a sense of civic duty. According to Glover, Geffen already contributes large sums to arts and hospitals and would see his purchase as "a financial contribution to a national institution that likely will never be a large money maker." It would be a "deeply personal" investment for a man who was born in New York and grew up reading the paper, Glover believes. The paper is also "an impassioned voice for the liberal causes that Geffen likely holds dear." The billionaire tried to buy the Los Angeles Times back in 2006: this is not his first attempt to get involved in the newspaper world.

According to what appears to be a Wall Street Journal article published on Post Bulletin earlier this week, America's local newspapers are faring better than the country's national titles.

The article, entitled "Smaller newspapers dodge the downturn" refers to a series of interventions on the part of some wealthy individuals who have offered to buy local newspapers in a bid to save them from apparent closure.

Talk about how to report the "Swine Flu" continues as disease hype propagates. Many journalists and doctors continue to say the news needs to bring it down a notch and make sure readers are not being scared unnecessarily. Others say it may not be such a terrible thing; hype gets the worlds attention to a situation that may need people to be informed and prepared.

ProPublica general manager Richard Tofel said that the non-profit investigative journalism outlet cannot "save investigative reporting" in the US, reported Poynter. Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday, Tofel explained how the organisation could not possibly fill the gaps left by newsroom cutbacks across the country.

ProPublica has 30 reporters and offers its investigative stories to news outlets for nothing. Tofel stressed that the initiative has proved it can do major important work, such as a story earlier this month on medical care for US contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, published by the Los Angeles Times and broadcast by ABC News, which prompted a call for a congressional investigation. The site has also hired bloggers from Slate and Talking Points Memo to do three to six short stories a day, and Tofel said that its ChangeTracker and bailout blog produce interesting story ideas that other outlets could pursue.

As information becomes increasingly available and accessible online, newspapers find it hard to justify paying for a subscription to news wire services: an Associated Press membership, for example, can cost up to $800,000 a year for a newspaper. As a cost cutting measure, newspapers are sharing their news rather than subscribing to costly news wire services. Some examples are Tulsa World and the Oklahoman, Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, and the Philadelphia Inquirer with Pittsburg Post-Gazette,

The Los Angeles Times faces criticism for running a front page ad today disguised as a news column. The advertisement for NBC's news show "Southland" is printed in the lower left column under the headline "Southland's Rookie Hero." Though the top of the column is labeled "Advertisement," the paper has never before printed a front page ad, and the mock news story aspect of the ad in particular generates controversy.

There is debate as to whether the LA Times went too far, sacrificing its journalistic integrity to generate advertising revenue. According to the New York Times, president of entertainment marketing for NBC Adam Stotsky, defended the advertisement, saying the paper did not intend to fool readers and pointing out that the ad font differs from the front page font and includes the NBC logo. "I think most consumers will recognize that this is an ad," he said.

One more newspaper is terminating its contract with the Associated Press. Effective on April 1, Metro US will no longer be using the wire news service as a source in an effort to cut costs and also to better develop their own material to cater it to their audience. Metro International will remain a customer of the AP.

 "Encouraging existing staff to write more and employing new writers gives us a higher degree of flexibility and results in a product which is more relevant to the young, professional audience we, and our advertisers, seek," said Tony Metcalf, editor in chief of Metro USA, in a statement. In addition, "By relying more on our own reporting staff, we make a substantial saving while protecting the newspapers' quality and improving relevance to our local markets."

The LA Times and Chicago Tribune have revealed that they will begin to combine their foreign operations. Both publications are owned by the Tribune Co. and according to an LA Times press release, the move is in order "to provide Tribune papers and websites with the enterprising overseas coverage that has brought such distinction to both news organizations".

For the most part the joint operation will be run from Los Angeles where the majority of editorial staff are currently based, but in consultation with editors from the Chicago Tribune and other sister newspapers. The operation's staff will consist of Times and Tribune correspondents "strategically based around the world, who will emphasize original reporting delivered in a unique voice for print and online audiences".

Amid continuing concern about falling newspaper revenue, the Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project claims that its technology could boost newspapers' online revenue by an average of 60% per year. Its secret is ad optimisation, or contextually matching ads to Web page content, which in itself is not new, but Rubicon asserts that its programming is faster so it can keep up with the newspaper websites' traffic volatility, reported the LA Times.

Rubicon launched in 2007 and describes its mission to  "automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry," in order to respond to "one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today - monetizing ad space that goes unsold." The LA Times quotes 32-year-old co-founder Frank Addante as saying: "we want to be the Visa, the Nasdaq of online advertising," meaning a one-stop shop for both publications and ad networks.

The long-term prospects for US newspapers such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times "may more profoundly affect the destiny of the United States" than those of the key banks that seem critical to resolving the financial crisis, according to Albert R. Hunt, writing in the International Herald Tribune. The "devastation" of the industry has led to the decimation of overseas and Washington coverage, he believes.

As newspapers lose advertising revenue to the Internet, papers like The Washington Post find themselves forced to reorganize their layouts to save money on printing. Just in the last year, The Post has cut the Sunday Source section and Book World in addition to combining the Sunday Arts and Styles sections. Now, the paper plans on eliminating its business section six days out of the week and moving the important business stories to the "A" section.

"The A section gets more readers than the Business section, so we'll have more readers for our business coverage. We aren't changing the size of the staff" Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of The Post and former top editor of The Wall Street Journal, told Reuters.

Despite the government subsidisation that they have received, Cyril Blanc of the Guardian thinks that French newspapers are still in trouble. Blanc writes that the problems of the US industry look particularly gloomy from France, as "the French regard the NYT and papers like the Los Angeles Times as the perfect incarnation of what their own papers should be." So, it is with great irony that he quotes former Le Monde director Alain Minc, who has previously said that French newspapers should become more like the NYT but writes in his new book that "this very same paper will be bought out by Google for a symbolic dollar by 2011".

Criticising the French for ignoring online successes such as Rue89, whilst subsidising the struggling newspapers, Blanc believes that "a more creative approach is needed".  He cites other examples that the French media could learn from, such as the Huffington Post. Blanc believes that Sarkozy's tax exemptions and advertising boost for newspapers "could only have the effect of postponing their collapse", whilst the "more dramatic move to give every 18-year-old in the country a one-year subscription to a daily paper... is perhaps the only measure that might have a longer term effect".

MediaNews Group plans to test its "individuated newspaper" concept this summer in an undisclosed market. The "I-News" project will be a targeted and customized online newspaper that allows the reader to select the types of news they want delivered. "You'll be able to choose the news you want about anything, whether you're a Detroit Red Wings fan or if you're green-oriented," said Mark Winkler, executive vice president of sales and marketing for MediaNews Group. "You become your own editor and publisher."

I-News will be delivered to subscribers via their computers, cell phones, or a special stand-alone printer plugged into a phone line. The printing manufacturer and the publisher participating in the MNG experiment may subsidize ink and paper prices to offset users' costs. MNG will continue research into the role of high-speed digital printers in the future of newspapers, and it is currently working with printer company Océ to develop user-friendly products for I-News and other projects.

The Los Angeles Times is to integrate coverage of its arts, entertainment and Hollywood business news. From March 3, reporters working on the paper's Calendar section - overseeing entertainment and leisure news - will be expected to work side by side with the arts and business teams.

Sallie Hofmeister, who was made business editor last May, will assume the new role of assistant managing editor/arts & entertainment to oversee operations. It is understood that, as yet, no new business editor has been appointed.