Results matching “to hit the streets”

24 Hours, a free newspaper in Cairo, was launched "some months ago, probably in March or April" of 2008, according to Newspaper Innovation.

The estimated circulation of Egypt's first free daily ranges from 15,000 to 50,000.  There are no official circul ation figures for newspapers in Egypt.

The daily's distribution has some direct delivery, although it mainly distributes through hawkers in various parts of Cairo handing copies out on the streets.

Source:  Newspaper Innovation

8, 000 miles away from the White House, a nation is celebrating President-elect Barack Obama's historic election win as a victory for a son of their country. 47-year-old Obama's father was born in Kenya and the celebrations following his win are ongoing from the streets of Nairobi to the village of Kogelo where Obama's grandmother still lives. Reflecting the importance of his victory, President Kibaki has declared a public holiday in Kenya to celebrate. The Kenyan media has reported every twist and turn of this nail-biting campaign, and its newspapers have covered this story on a scale never before seen for a US election.

The Editors Weblog spoke to Ian Fernandes, the head of Nation Media's Digital Division, about how Kenya's leading newspaper, the Daily Nation, followed the campaign, its importance to Kenya and the newspaper's future coverage of the USA.

Fernandes begins by saying that this election has captured the imagination of the entire country: "it has dominated the headlines for the past couple of weeks...the fact that someone who has his roots in Kenya can actually end up becoming the President of the United States." As victory was declared, inhabitants of Kogelo began singing "Jakogelo Yiengo Piny", which translates to "the one from Kogelo shakes the world".

Coverage online

From just a quick glance at the home page of the Daily Nation online edition, it is clear how important this election has been to Kenyans. The front page is dominated by a picture of President elect Barack Obama and his family taking to the stage for his post-victory speech under the headline "Win brings pride to Kenyan diaspora", with a lead article discussing the impact this victory has had on Kenyans across the USA. Feeder articles follow, as do photos of the election night and video footage from the Nation Media Group's NTV channel. Under the toolbar is a link for dedicated coverage, including the campaign, Obama's victory and the reaction in Kenya and the US.

The Daily Nation has an advantage on many news organisations in that it is part of media conglomerate, Nation Media Group, and one of the branches of this modern news organisations is a TV station: footage from the station has been an important edition to the Daily Nation's coverage.

Telling the story from a Kenyan perspective

Fernandes reports that the country and, in particular the village of Kogelo, has been inundated by news teams from across the globe. Expanding on this point, Fernandes says that most of these correspondents are based in London and only arrived in the country after the story had unfolded and thus found it difficult to cover it comprehensively, whereas the Nation's reporters were on the ground from the get go. The Daily Nation felt it was important to tell the story of Obama's campaign and victory from a Kenyan perspective, for example, the video footage section on the web edition not only includes Obama's speeches and footage of American reactions, there is also extensive coverage of the celebrations in Kenya following the result and reactions from Kenyan politicians. The small village of Kogelo in Western Kenya was at the heart of the Daily Nation's coverage and the site features interviews with Obama's grandmother and other members of his family who have had to rapidly get used to the media spotlight.

Increased resources, and now he has won?

During the campaign the Daily Nation had three reporters in the United States. Fernandes explains, "I think in order for us to be relevant - and just like foreign media houses having a presence in Kenya during the election - we decided that we should actually have our journalists in the USA, one following the McCain trail and one following the Obama trail, to know and to tell the story with a Kenyan perspective."

The newly elected US President will continue to be of interest to Kenyan citizens and Fernandes reports that the newspaper is considering maintaining a permanent presence in the US in the form of a full-time reporter or "at least a correspondent". He also confirms that the USA will now garner more attention from the Kenyan media, as citizens will want reports on how the new president is progressing.

Readership spike

Fernandes reports that 50% of the Daily Nations' readership is from the Kenyan diasporas across the USA and Europe.  The Daily Nation average 45,000 - 50,000 visits a day but it picked to about 90,000 visits on 4th November. The Daily Nation's coverage of an election thousands of miles away not only managed to cater to the audience at home, but also generated traffic from Kenyans located across the globe who sought a trusted name for the story of how a son of Kenya won the election to run the most powerful country in the world.

Dubbed "the Midsummer Massacre," in the past two months nearly 4,000 jobs have been lost in the US newspaper industry.

Whether Honolulu or Hollywood, Washington or Wall Street, layoffs are sweeping newsrooms across the country.

The Washington Post has cut newsroom staff by more than 12 per cent of the total - more than 100 jobs. USA Today cut 50 jobs, the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News laid off 150. The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch's latest acquisition, is cutting 50 jobs to consolidate news and feature departments.

Even the New York Times has not escaped. It's estimated the company will cut around 100 newsroom positions by the end of the year.

Small papers have also suffered. At the Honolulu Advertiser last week 54 of the staff were laid off and the Hartford Courant and Orlando Sentinel saw 57 and 50 job losses, respectively.

At some papers the job cuts have led to protest. "At the Baltimore Sun - where 100 employees have been laid off - some staff took to the streets in protest, wearing black clothing as they marched outside the paper's offices," reported Press Gazette.

Source: pressgazette.co.uk

Indian editors and publishers are up in arms over restrictions being proposed on press coverage of the Indian Premier League, a new cricket league that is proposing terms and conditions for coverage of its tests that are unacceptable not only to Indian media, but to media everywhere.

Even if you don't care about cricket, the dispute should be of concern since many sports organisations are imposing similar restrictions, in an effort to monetize every aspect of sport by selling digital rights that impinges on the news media role of providing free and open coverage of sports events.

The Indian cricket authorities originally proposed that media must transfer copyright of all photographs taken at cricket venues to the IPL, and that photos would be banned from websites. It has since backed off on its claim to copyright, and offered to allow media to post six photos on websites - an unacceptably small amount, though the IPL says it is willing to further engage news media in discussions.

Other terms also raise concern - it appears, for example, as if the IPL wants news media to limit photos posted on the web to those that are also used in print. Think about that for a moment: are web editors expected to anticipate what will be used in print? Or are they supposed to wait until the print edition hits the streets before posting photos on the web?

The Hindu newspaper, in an editorial Thursday, put the issue this way: "Where will professional sport be without media support, cooperation, and goodwill? Greed and arrogance and a total lack of common sense seem to be driving the IPL along a path of confrontation, which will surely bring on a media boycott."

The international News Media Coalition, a grouping of major news agencies, newspaper groups and newspaper representative bodies (the World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum are among them) that was formed in response to the growing threat to open news coverage, has praised the stand of the Indian news media community for working together in an attempt to ensure that they are able to serve the public with independent and topical news materials.
 
"The News Media Coalition is very concerned about the IPL terms which represent a serious and unprecedented curtailment of the freedom of the press to fully report events of public interest. We believe that the right of the public is best served by a free and unfettered press."

The NMC also believes solidarity is needed to engage the sports organisations. "Anything which threatens to dismantle the inter-dependence between news sectors such as newspapers and agencies will not be in the best interests of the public," it said.

Source: News Media Coalition and its director, Andy Moger.

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with  Jaroslaw Kurski, first deputy editor-in-chief, Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)


Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

1. How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We stopped being a newspaper-only company in 1993 when we launched our first internet discussion board. Today we have millions of boards. Our web portal website Gazeta.pl reaches now 6 million unique users per month. It is a magic figure, as it is also the total number of readers of the printed edition of Gazeta Wyborcza.

We started our company in 1989 with a newspaper, but today we are one of the leading multimedia companies in Central and Eastern Europe. We publish newspapers, magazines and books, we run networks of radio stations and an outdoor company.

And we strongly invest in digital media. Our board has an ambition that in three years time more than half of our revenues will come from other sources than print. Until now all our websites reach 44 per cent of internet users in Poland. This is an extraordinary outcome for a newspaper publisher like us.

2. At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

Futurists like bold predictions, but as a journalist I prefer to look at facts.

Since 2003 there have been seven new national printed daily newspapers launched in Poland. So we faced a new competitor every single year. Is this rush any sign of weakness of the printed medium?

I believe that as long as we have something important to say and people here care to listen to us and talk with us, Gazeta Wyborcza will exist. The message is important, and the dialogue; and not the channel.

If print becomes irrelevant, we will spread our ideas in any other way. Newspapers will not die, they will change.

Last but not least: a Polish word for a newspaper - "gazeta" - does not have any "paper" in it. So even if futurists are right and print newspapers will disappear, Gazeta will remain.

3. In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

Journalism is about intelligible conveying of news and about telling stories of importance that move the community. I appreciate digital tools, they are great and helpful, but they are tools only. You still need a story, a teller and a community. So has anything really changed in journalism?

4. Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

This active role is more than welcome. Let me give you some recent examples from Gazeta Wyborcza.

Since 1996 we have been reviewing maternity wards in Polish hospitals; we wished to improve a quality of healthcare in our country. We could have sent there 100 journalists, but a single mother - who really gave birth in any hospital - can tell you more than reporters. So we asked young mothers for help. In 1996 we got 2000 (two thousand) letters by post. In 2006, thanks to the internet, we gathered 40 000 (forty thousand) personal reviews. We were able to review 423 or 96 % of all hospitals in Poland. We would not be able to do this without our readers.

When we recently reported a huge migration of Poles to the Western European countries after Poland joined the EU in 2004 - we asked readers for help. Hundreds joined our reporting effort.
When we called for saving Rospuda, a wild river in North-Eastern Poland that was sentenced to death by the government - we asked readers for support and thousands marched in the streets, hundreds protested on the spot.

When we discussed a crisis in pensions system - we asked readers for advice and published the best investing guides ever.

We see interaction with readers not as a column of letters on page number 86. It is about inviting readers to play a crucial part in the editorial process.

5. Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

Investigative journalism is a core of our editorial practice and as our world and lives become more complex, I see the need for this kind of public service rising.

We live in the world flooded with information, but it is served in bites, so many bites, that it is getting harder and harder to see the whole picture. We need wise journalists to solve this puzzle.
We live in the world of instant news, but it is often reaching only the surface of problems and challenges that we face. We need great journalits to show what was NOT on TV and the net. We need to understand what really happened.

We live in the world influenced more and more by professional public relations; it changes the way politics is done. We need clever journalists to see what's behind the curtain, to ask the hard questions, to watch hands of those in power.

We live in the world of global economy and large corporations that affect people's lifes and business. We need investigative journalists to provide us all with reliable information to make better decisions.

On Monday (March 10) we broke an exclusive news about a Catholic priest who reportedly sexually abused young boys and about three bishops who - although informed and alerted about the abuses - have been reluctant to investigate the case for 13 years! We publish Gazeta Wyborcza also to uncover stories like this.


Thanks to Kurski for sharing his views. And stay tuned for the next interviews in our series.

US freesheets, after lukewarm early years compared to their European equivalents, seem to be bucking the trend of decreasing revenues suffered by urban paid-for dailies.

The Gazeta Wyborcza of Warsaw Poland used their latest editorial project to travel across the EU and find out how their neighbors live. The newspaper sent their local reporters to 21 cities across the EU for two weeks to immerse themselves in the lives of people from different cities and town all across the EU.

The Project Freesheet group is lobbying the Prime Minister in its battle to ban the distribution of the London Paper and London Lite freesheets. It has posted petitions online and posted a video on the Friction TV site.

The Guardian has permanently raised the cover price of its daily edition to 80p, following price increases by its rivals (The Times and The Daily Telegraph).

The competition between free papers in Spain is leaving the streets to take place on the internet, as free papers are developing their online editions.

According to MediaLife, the war between paid-for newspapers and freebies, which has been avoided in the US so far, is about to debut, as free papers ready to swarm the country.

Whilst first versions of the epaper have been prodiuced to give black and white content, Mike Nelson, general manager of sales for Fujitsu Europe said that full colour epaper is possible in two years.

In the last five months, Londoners have become used to freesheet distributors nagging them, at the start and end of each commute. The Guardian interviewed Stefan Hatfield, editor of the London Paper, about the ongoing rivalry and his view on free papers.

The World Association of Newspapers' (WAN) "Media in Danger - Press Under Siege" two-day conference opened in Beirut on Sunday Dec 10th. More than 3,000 people attended the opening of the conference, which sought ways to support the development of independent, professional media in the Middle East and the Arab world. Presented here are some of the main points and quotes recorded during the conference.

Maurice Lévy , CEO of one of the world’s top advertising agencies, Publicis, recently sat down with the Financial Times to chat about the state of the media. Since being appointed CEO in 1988, Lévy, has been known for his aggressive international expansion plans for his company, including acquisitions such as Saatchi & Saatchi in 2000.