Editors Weblog: Search Results

To charge or not to charge: what newspapers can learn from airlines

Posted by Maria Conde on March 2, 2010 at 4:30 PM

An advertising downturn has put newspapers between a rock and a hard place, forcing many of them to take difficult decisions to stay afloat.

While some have said newspapers could learn a thing or two from the bottled water industry in getting people to pay by selling convenience, others have speculated that gadgets such as, e-readers and tablets, could revitalize newspaper sales in the same way iTunes and the iPod revived the music industry.

But an article from Forbes magazine offers yet another interesting analogy. This article likens the challenges that the newspaper industry is facing today to the one the airline industry has faced and dealt with: "getting customers used to paying for content and getting the industry used to charging for it."

Two months and 100,000 downloads of Guardian iPhone app

Posted by Helena Humphrey on February 24, 2010 at 11:32 AM

The Guardian iPhone app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times since its launch in December, the Guardian has proudly reported. The app is currently topping the paid-for app charts, and has also been nominated for a British Press Award for Digital Innovation.

For £2.39, users have access to news, comment, photo galleries and podcasts, all of which are available either on or offline.

Before: Will newspapers cash in on Apple's tablet?

Posted by Maria Conde on January 26, 2010 at 4:31 PM

From dock connectors to web analytics to guessing the name of this elusive gadget, all speculation will reach its pinnacle when Apple's widely anticipated tablet is finally unveiled at an event in San Francisco Wednesday.

The much-hyped iSlate (the name of the actual device has not been confirmed) is rumored to have a sleek 10-inch color display and Wi-Fi capabilities allowing newspapers, magazines, and book publishers to deliver their products with an eye-catching design.

Everyblock launches new microlocal notification service

Posted by Maria Conde on January 8, 2010 at 1:25 PM

Everyblock is betting on hyperlocal once again.

Just this week, Everyblock announced the release of Notify Your Neighbors, a new service that will allow people to share updates of what is happening in their neighborhoods and on their blocks, as a press release from the company explained.

The newest addition to Everyblock's services will be available on everyblock.com and as an application for the iPhone and iPod touch, too. The free application will allow consumers to send and receive updates from any location.

QUE is finally here: Plastic Logic's new e-reader

Posted by Emma Heald on January 8, 2010 at 11:55 AM

Plastic Logic launched its long-awaited e-reader yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. QUE, described in a press release as "the world's first proReader" is a large screen product aimed at business people. For now, it is only available in the US, shipping in April, and there were no details about dates for launches in other countries.

The e-reader measures 8.5 by 11 inches and has a touch-screen 10.7 inch display. It is plastic, and therefore lighter and possibly more durable than a glass screen. Two models are available: 4GB and 8GB. Digital books are being supplied by Barnes and Noble, but selling books is not its primary goal.

It is very much being marketed at business people rather than leisure readers. The press release quotes Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta who said that "mobile professionals can look forward to a paperless briefcase, a lighter load and a better way to work." It supports reading and annotating documents, and also features a calendar that can import appointments from its owner's computer. It can even display emails, and Plastic Logic will have an app for BlackBerry phones so that users can wirelessly sync content from their phones, according to Wired.

PC World, whose reporter was at the show, described the QUE's interface as "much richer" than those of current products. "It feels a bit less like an electronic book, and a little more like a computing device that happens to be focused around reading." Its homepage seems to be aimed at more than just reading.

Its price is also definitely targeted at professionals: the QUE will be expensive compared to other e-readers on the market: the 4GB version, with wi-fi, USB and Bluetooth, is priced at $649 and the 8GB version, which also includes AT&T wireless, is $799. Amazon's Kindle DX, in comparison, is $489, Barnes and Noble's Nook is $259, Sony's Reader Touch is about $299.

So what's in it for newspapers?

Plastic Logic has sought to present itself as a suitable strategic partner for newspapers for some time. In an interview in March last year, Daren Benzi, Plastic Logic VP for business development, told the EW that "newspapers and magazines really are our core focus" and suggested that publications might also be able to bring in advertising revenue from the device.

Yesterday the company announced that, using its truVue technology, the QUE "enables newspapers, magazines, and other types of content to have a richer reading experience that is symbolic of their print editions, complete with photos and formatting." The press release quoted Dave Hunke, president and publisher of USA Today, who said that "it's really exciting that there is an eReader platform that delivers our content the way it's supposed to look and feel." PC World's reporter confirmed that USA Today on the QUE "preserved a USA Today-like personality," and said that the truVue formatting "looks like a big improvement on the drab, text-only presentation on the Kindle and Nook."

And several newspapers seem to have been convinced that getting their product on the QUE would be a good move. New content partners announced include the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Bee, Miami Herald, Oakland Tribune, Huffington Post, ProPublica and The Sporting News Today, Barron's, Fast Company and Forbes. These publications join previously announced strategic partnerships with USA Today, the Financial Times, Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.

The press release states that publications are available on the QUE store for one-time use or as an ongoing subscription. A subscription to the New York Times costs $24.99 per month, the Washington Post is $11.99, and the Chicago Tribune and LA Times are both $9.99, for example. Obviously a big question for newspapers is the revenue split: how much of this amount actually goes to the publisher. It has become well-known that the split on the Amazon-reader is not particularly favourable, with the publisher only receiving about 30%. Though exact figure have not been released, it has been suggested that Sony offers a better deal on its e-reading devices, and several publishers recently signed on.

The eReader market is undoubtedly expanding, with Samsung also launching e-reader products at the CES, and the Skiff made a preview appearance. It sounds as if the QUE is offering a high quality device that compares favourably to its rivals (although Skiff might turn out to be a good competitor). For newspapers, the fact that their products will be presented in a format that is more similar to their print edition is likely to be appealing, as is the fact that it allows for updates to the display page throughout the day as a newspaper that updates itself. The revenue split and potential for advertising are equally crucial, however, and these are as yet unknown to the public.

The pricing of the device is likely to be prohibitive for many and therefore it is likely that the QUE will indeed be a niche device for successful professionals, providing a smaller, though desirable, market for publishers. Of course, there is also the looming threat of tablet computers, which with increased functionality and not hugely higher price tags, might soon provide some serious competition.

Trinity Mirror rings in New Year with number of changes to west London weeklies

Posted by Helena Humphrey on January 7, 2010 at 5:44 PM

Trinity Mirror has clearly decided that the new year is the right time for a shake- up, making significant changes to its west London titles: As of the 15th of January, weekly Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle will no longer carry its 60p price tag and The London Informer is set to shut up shop altogether. As a result, circulation of the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle, which currently stands at 1,257, will increase to a considerable 72,000.

Trinity Mirror employees can breathe a sigh or relief, as the publisher has underlined that the restructuring of its operations will not result in job cuts.

BBC to aggregate headlines from commercial outlets

Posted by Jennifer Lush on December 15, 2009 at 12:05 PM

The BBC, who yesterday announced a new initiative to grant the general public access to professional media training resources, has also revealed it will expand the content available on its news website by linking to rival sources via an aggregation-like system, reports The Independent.

The move comes after accusations headed by News Corp's chairman and CEO for Europe and Asia, James Murdoch, that the corporation, in choosing to remain free, is flooding the market and preventing competitors from expanding online and charging for their content. The new plan would reportedly see links to commerical websites added at the end of BBC stories.

Free journalism school to close

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on December 14, 2009 at 1:51 PM

The Knight Center for Specialized Journalism will close at the end of December, the University of Maryland announced last week.

The Center offers free, intensive training to journalists, and seeks applications from reporters working for independent news organisations. It has been running for 22 years and has awarded over 2700 fellowships to journalists in that time. It provides in-depth, subject-specific training, as well as shorter seminars.

Its funding from philanthropic organisation the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation covers tuition and board for students. Its last grant was for $1.52 million and terminates on December 31, but the funding was not renewed for 2010, BusinessJournalism.org reports.

PageSuite and KOS Media release Kent News iPhone app

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 14, 2009 at 1:33 PM

Hailed as a strategy opposite of raising paywalls, Kent News has released a free iPhone app with a battery of features, some new, some not so new. See below for the promo video of its features.

The app allows customers to access page-turning editions of Kent News titles with full e-Reader capability, watch live news video updates, and search for jobs, cars, restaurants and properties that are linked in the news organization's database.

Archives and articles can be searched by keyword with the ability to download single pages or editions to read offline. Advertisers can have links in the paper enabled to go directly to their websites, which is great for them but could be rather annoying for the mis-clicking consumer who would have the app close and replaced by safari opening to the ad page.

London Evening Standard might boost circulation

Posted by Jennifer Lush on December 2, 2009 at 12:55 PM

Responding to industry speculation, the London Evening Standard has announced that is considering increasing its distribution numbers, the Guardian is reporting.

After dropping its 50p cover price in mid-October to go free, the paper more than doubled its circulation from 250, 000 to 600, 000 copies a day. Doug Willis, the Evening Standard's managing editor said that the paper had the potential to boost its free distribution to 800, 000 or 1 million copies by late 2010.

Google hands newspapers an olive branch

Posted by Jennifer Lush on December 2, 2009 at 12:02 PM

With pressure mounting against Google from newspapers angered by the way it helps readers bypass their paywalls; the search engine giant has agreed to aid publishers by putting a cap on subscription websites.

The cap will limit free access to five articles per day, after which readers will be redirected to a registration page or payment screen. Previously, users have been able to continually view subscription articles for free by entering news websites via Google.

Evening Standard drops midday edition

Posted by Jennifer Lush on November 27, 2009 at 12:27 PM

The London Evening Standard will cut its midday News Extra edition in order to focus on improving the currency and quality of its evening edition, the Guardian is reporting.

The move will result in 20 job losses and comes shortly after the paper dropped its 50 pence cover price to go free. At the time, editor Geordie Greig said that the switch was necessary if the paper was to survive the harsh financial times and continue printing.

A.H. Belo and MediaNews to pull content from Google?

Posted by Jennifer Lush on November 25, 2009 at 11:49 AM

Amidst rumours of discussions between News Corp and Microsoft about a possible deal for publishers to have their articles listed exclusively on Bing, Microsoft's revamped search engine, executives at MediaNews and A.H. Belo have revealed that they too might pull their content from Google.

Whilst News Corp chief, Rupert Murdoch, seems to be gaining supporters in his battle against the search giant, whom he has accused of "stealing stories", A.H. Belo and MediaNews have released more cautious statements on the issue and have not ruled Google out altogether. Instead, MediaNews CEO, Dean Singleton, says his chain will only block the search engine from crawling content that it charges for online and will probably continue to allow it to link to free content on the company's newspaper sites.

Times to start charging online in spring

Posted by Emma Heald on November 17, 2009 at 3:58 PM

The Times of London is to start charging online during the first half of next year, James Harding, the paper's editor, said at the Society of Editors conference in Stansted, Essex. He said that the Times would charge for 24-hour access to the website, alongside subscription models, it was widely reported. Micropayments will not be implemented, however.

The move will be accompanied by a redesign of the website, paidContent reported, also confirming that a standalone Sunday Times website will indeed be launched.

Employees become owners of own paper

Posted by Betsey Reinsborough on November 6, 2009 at 1:06 PM

The employees at the West Highland Free Press have just become their own boss. Last week, the ten employees officially became shareholders in the trust that owns the paper, making the Free Press the first newspaper in Britain to be owned by its employees, reports the Guardian.

In contrast to publications such as BusinessWeek and the Chicago Sun-Times that have been sold to outside proprietors recently, The Free Press has become employee-owned. The switch in ownership follows eighteen months of negotiations.

The paper has experienced a slight loss in subscribers lately, though it feels that it will soon make a recovery. This optimism comes mostly from lack of competition from the internet in rural Scotland. In fact, the paper simply offers samples and headlines from its paper on its web site rather than complete new stories.

Newsy.com's iPhone app's ranking rises

Posted by Emma Heald on October 16, 2009 at 10:55 AM

Newsy.com, an online video news service started in the spring in partnership with the Missouri School of Journalism, announced that its iPhone application is currently ranked number six on the list of free news apps in the iTunes app store, ahead of those of many traditional news organisations.

"We're thrilled about Newsy's ascension up the list of free news apps - it's affirmation that Newsy.com is ahead of the trends for news and news delivery," said Newsy.com President Jim Spencer in a press release. The iPhone app has only been available from September 30. It is updated instantaneously with the website, and users can post comments or share videos via Twitter or Facebook.

SZ Primetime closure: Is there a future for German free dailies?

Posted by Helena Humphrey on October 14, 2009 at 1:36 PM

The number of countries with free dailies has witnessed a decline, dropping from 59 in 2008 to 56 in 2009 - and is a continuing trend: Lithuania and India have recently lost theirs, and the last German free daily, SZ Primetime, has announced its closure. According to reports, the company is to undergo a further round of redundancies in a bid to cut costs. So far four people have lost their jobs.

The publication, a light edition of the quality newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, had a relatively short lifespan but enjoyed a wide circulation: Launched in January 2007, the A4-sized afternoon paper was given out to Lufthansa business class travellers, and was also available by E-Mail to anyone who wished to subscribe - free of charge.

Evening Standard starts its life as a freesheet, makes distribution deals

Posted by Emma Heald on October 13, 2009 at 2:11 PM

London's major afternoon daily the Evening Standard dropped its 50 pence cover price and went free yesterday. The paper, 75.1% of which is owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev (described by the Guardian as 'the spy who loves media), has been a paid-for daily for 182 years. The remaining percentage was retained by the Daily Mail and General Trust.

The move is an attempt to address declines in circulation and distribution will be upped from from 250,000 to around 600,000 in the hope that increased advertising revenue will make up for lost of income from the cover price.

Times and Sunday Times to offer membership scheme

Posted by Helena Humphrey on October 5, 2009 at 2:45 PM

The Times and The Sunday Times are launching a membership scheme and customer retention programme called Times+, the Guardian has reported. Following Rupert Murdoch's insistence that in the future all content will have to be paid for, News International's decision to launch Times+ could perhaps be seen to be testing the water for the group's charging-for-access plans.

It is thought that James Murdoch, News Corporation's chief in Europe and Asia and the chairman of BSkyB, with his experience of subscription television, has been influential on the company's thinking.

UK current affairs weekly The Spectator starts charging online

Posted by Emma Heald on September 17, 2009 at 3:02 PM

UK current affairs weekly the Spectator is to start charging online for content that is in the print magazine. Website-only content, such as the site's Coffee House blog, will remain free, Press Gazette and others reported.

The Spectator is currently offering an annual subscription to the digital editions of the magazine online for £67.50, exactly half the price of a print subscription at £135. UK readers can subscribe to the print edition at a special rate of 12 weeks for £12: both print subscriptions include online access. The Spectator also offers its US readers a Kindle subscription for $4.99 a month. Like the Economist, it allows one-off delivery orders.

News Corp's The London Paper to close next month

Posted by Emma Heald on August 24, 2009 at 4:30 PM

News Corp-owned evening freesheet The London Paper is to close next month, it was announced by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son James, head of News International, the company's international wing. As well as financial motivation, the decision to abandon the free publication echoes Murdoch senior's commitment to charge online for much of the company's content, the Guardian pointed out.

News Corp recently announced substantially fallen profits, and even Murdoch himself has taken a 40% salary cut (taking home $18 million this last year compared to around $30 million the year before.) Hence, the decision to close a paper which lost £12.9 million pre-tax in the year to 29 June 2008 does not seem surprising. Added to this is Murdoch's conviction that news should not be free, and his promise that all News Corp newspapers will charge online within a year. Insisting that consumers should pay for news online while giving it away free in print form appears clearly contradictory. News International's incoming CEO Rebekah Brooks (formerly Wade) is also not a fan of free newspapers, according to the Guardian.

UK: Doncaster and Cornwall say goodbye to their council papers

Posted by Christie Silk on August 6, 2009 at 10:10 AM

The new Mayor of Doncaster has closed the city's council paper, deeming it no more than a platform for "council propaganda" and "an exercise in distorting unpalatable truths". A similar move was made by local authorities in Cornwall, who have pulled the plug on the costly state paper, Your Cornwall.

The Mayor of the Yorkshire town, Peter Davies, scrapped the paper on his first day in the job. He told the Doncaster Free Press that he plans to keep citizens informed about local government activity through local news organisations, including the Free Press.

European Commission report: one third of young people are not prepared to pay online

Posted by Emma Heald on August 5, 2009 at 9:51 AM

One third of 16-24 year olds would not be prepared to pay anything at all to download of view online content such as music or videos, according to the European Commission's Digital Competitiveness report. This figure is twice the EU average for all age groups.

If many young people are not willing to pay for entertainment content like music and videos, is there hope that they will pay for news online? Is the idea that content online should be free too firmly entrenched in the younger generation? Many publishers seem to be making moves to charge online: is it going to work?

BBC's video sharing deal met with opposition from News International, Press Association and ITN

Posted by Emma Heald on July 29, 2009 at 10:25 AM

The BBC's announcement that it is to share video news with UK newspapers has been met with opposition by several media organisations. News International, the UK arm of News Corp, the Press Association and ITN have all expressed concern at the deal announced yesterday with the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Independent and the Telegraph.

News International, which owns the Times, the Sun and the News of the World, said it had rejected the BBC's proposal to provide free online video content because of the "onerous marketing conditions" that promote the corporation, according to the Guardian. A spokeswoman said that the content would in effect not be provided at no cost because it would provide marketing for the BBC. The content would appear in a BBC-branded video player and links would lead back to the BBC's website.

Californian free daily adopts a broadsheet format

Posted by Christie Silk on July 27, 2009 at 3:13 PM

The Daily News, a free daily paper serving Palo Alto, California, is changing its format that of a 21- inch deep broadsheet. The Daily News will become the first free daily broadsheet. The redesign comes as the paper moves printing presses to that owned by its parent company, MediaNews Group.

The adoption of a broadsheet format is an unusual occurrence in the world of the free press, as the tabloid format has been preferred for its ease of use. Free dailies tend to prioritise ease of carrying and reading, to attract those in mass transit, which accounts for the bulk of its markets.Yet, as freedaily.com, (a tracker of developments in the free newspaper industry) points out, the Daily News does not rely too greatly on mass transit distribution methods. Rather, its circulation is based on individuals choosing to pick up a copy of the paper from news racks or other public distribution posts.

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