Editors Weblog: Search Results

Mobile news gains ground in France

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 5, 2010 at 5:48 PM

News applications for iPhone have met an undeniable success with French readers, but the task of monetising this through selling content, services and advertising still remains, according to Les Echos.

The director of electronic editions for Libération, Ludovic Blecher, said that the iPhone had revolutionised the consumption of news on mobile platforms. The Libération iPhone app was launched in the autumn, as was that of Le Figaro, and they have been downloaded 400,000 and 600,000 times respectively. "Around 30,000 people open it every day," Blecher said. Figures for Le Monde are even higher: it launched its app in November 2008 and has just reached 1.3 million unique downloads, attracting between 200,000 and 250,000 hits a day.

New section at LA Times

Posted by Helena Humphrey on February 3, 2010 at 5:51 PM

On Monday The Chicago Tribune announced changes to its content and format as it prepares to roll out a narrower-by-one-inch page size as of 8 February. Editor Gerould W. Kern revealed these changes to be cost-cutting measures for the Tribune Co. paper, which is still crawling its way out of the bankruptcy protection it entered over a year ago.

The LA Times, another Tribune Co. publication, is also implementing similar cost-cutting alterations, evident yesterday. The most notable change was not the inch the paper also shaved from its width, but rather the new section - LATExtra - including local and California stories including entertainment, business, national and foreign news, as well as the lottery results and weather page. The section runs from Monday to Saturday.

YouCommNews: public interest journalism in Australia

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 3, 2010 at 5:09 PM

It's a question that can get lost in all the talk of business models and content creation: how might journalism best serve the public?

In Australia, the latest group to ponder this is The Foundation for Public Interest Journalism, directed by a group of journalists, editors, academics and members of the community. Part of the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University in Melbourne, it is setting up a project called YouCommNews, modeled on the American site Spot.Us, which will allow the audience to commission the stories they want to see.

The Editors Weblog spoke to Dr Margaret Simons, chair of the foundation, and to David Cohn, founder of Spot.Us.

Chicago Tribune announces format changes

Posted by Trafton Kenney on February 2, 2010 at 2:48 PM

The Chicago Tribune announced yesterday that it would be implementing several changes in content and format as it prepares to roll out a narrower page size. Beginning on February 8th, the paper will become one inch narrower. The length of the broadsheet will remain the same, as will the "body type," or font size for news stories.

"There will be some adjustments such as smaller headlines and photos in places, but the content of the paper largely will remain the same," said Editor, Gerould W. Kern, in a letter to readers.

Yahoo and AP reach licensing agreement

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 2, 2010 at 11:40 AM

The Associated Press (AP) and Yahoo have renewed an agreement for AP stories, photos and videos to appear on the Yahoo website, it was widely reported. This is in contrast to the AP's negotiations with Google and Microsoft, which have not yet concluded. New AP content has not been hosted on Google News since December 24.

Neither party has offered details of the agreement, so it is unclear whether they have achieved their financial objectives. The deal had previously been expected to set a higher price for AP's stories and impose tighter restrictions on them.

The AP has previously argued that agreements providing relatively inexpensive access to a broad range of its content only devalue its news offerings. The New York Times reported that the AP was asking news websites for more money, but that aggregators have been arguing that news content is less valuable than it used to be because advertising is down.

Bankrupt Tribune Co. to pay $45 million in bonuses

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 28, 2010 at 12:22 PM

Hundreds of managers and executives at the bankrupt Tribune Company will get bonuses as part of a $45.6 million incentive program, under plans approved by a Delaware bankruptcy judge.

This is the largest such payment in at least 12 years and will be awarded to 720 managers. Judge Kevin Carey overruled objections by the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild and the US bankruptcy trustee that the payment was too high and unwarranted, particularly considering that the company had frozen salaries for most staff. Carey found that many of the targets had already been met when he held hearings on the issue in September.

Success for citizen journalism fundraising efforts: Allvoices

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 27, 2010 at 3:28 PM

Citizen journalism website AllVoices has raised another $3 million in funds, bringing their total start-up funding to around $9 million, TechCrunch reports. The new funding comes courtesy of existing investor VantagePoint Venture Partners.

Since its launch in July 2008, the site has seen its audience grow to almost 5 million unique visitors a month, which is considered fast for a media startup. Half of its traffic and visitors are from outside the US and the UK.

The Texas Tribune: where the money's coming from

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 26, 2010 at 5:45 PM

How do non-profit news organisations pay their bills? The Texas Tribune had a fundraising goal for 2009 of $3.5 million, and managed to end the year with close to $4 million. In a note on the Tribune's website, chairman John Thornton has explained where the money is coming from.

First, it's helpful if the co-founder has deep pockets, or if someone else who does is prepared to chip in. Thornton and his wife contributed $1 million to the Tribune, and financier T. Boone Pickens has donated $150,000. Foundations have also helped out to the tune of around $1.1 million, including a total of $750,000 in grants from the Houston Endowment and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The New York Times creates unit for electronic editions

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 26, 2010 at 12:47 PM

As speculation mounts about the expected launch of the Apple tablet computer, The New York Times has announced that it will create a new business unit dedicated to electronic editions.

Yasmin Namini, currently the senior vice president of marketing and circulation, has been appointed head of the new Reader Applications division. This unit will be part of the Media Group, joining the newspaper, the website, the International Herald Tribune and News Services.

MediaNews Group files for bankruptcy

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 25, 2010 at 12:49 PM

The holding company for MediaNews Group, publisher of The Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News and 52 other daily publications, has filed for bankruptcy, Editor and Publisher reports.

Affiliated Media Inc., the privately held parent company for the publisher, expects to emerge from bankruptcy in one or two months. It has said that it has a deal with creditors to reduce its $930 million debt to $165 million. Lenders including Bank of America would get most of the company's stock, wiping out shareholders such as Hearst Corp. A bankruptcy court in Delaware still has to approve the plan.

The New York Times' web audience falls

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 22, 2010 at 1:20 PM

Fox News and Tribune Newspapers have overtaken The New York Times in the latest rankings for most visited current events websites, Editor and Publisher reports.

Yahoo! News was the most popular news and current events website, with over 39 million unique users, according to the Nielsen December figures for top news websites. It was followed by the CNN Digital Network, the MSNBC Digital Network, and then AOL News.

The Fox News Digital Network took out fifth place and Tribune Newspapers was sixth. The Times came next at seventh. It had been in the fifth spot in November.

Tribune's operating cash flow results better than expected

Posted by Helena Humphrey on January 22, 2010 at 11:50 AM

A staff memo from the Tribune Company's CEO Randy Michaels and COO Gerry Spector, obtained by Romenesko Wednesday, announced the company's financial results for 2009. Despite a dicey year for newspapers all round, which left the Tribune company "feeling as though we would be fighting for our very survival", the bankrupt enterprise still managed to ring in an operating cash flow of almost $500 million at the end of last year - an impressive $100 million more than it had reason to predict a month ago.

Overview of how newspapers are using sports to increase revenue

Posted by Emma Heald on January 14, 2010 at 8:55 PM

At the WAN-IFRA conference on how to optimise sports revenues, Stanislas Sabatier, a senior consultant at SapienS&Sapide gave an overview of ways in which newspapers around the world have used sports sections to increase readership and revenue.

He began by describing two websites which he thinks could inspire newspapers. ESPN has been launching local sites in the US - directly in competition with general local newspapers. The first was in April in Chicago, and the company has moved through major US cities, planning to launch in spring in New York, and it intends to come to the UK soon. These launches have been a great success for ESPN - the local audience in Chicago is higher than that of newspapers which were already there. Clearly the market wasn't already saturated, said Sabatier, it was an opportunity that local newspapers missed.

New newspaper opening in Pakistan

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 13, 2010 at 5:33 PM

Pakistan is set to get a new English-language newspaper focusing on Pakistani news and business, under an alliance between the International Herald Tribune and Century Publications. The launch date is tentatively set for March of this year, and the paper will be distributed inside the IHT.

Publisher of the yet-unnamed newspaper Bilal Lakhani told Media Mughals that Pakistan needs "a credible and authoritative news source" because of the social and political turmoil the country faces.

How to use Google Wave to engage readers

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 12, 2010 at 4:11 PM

Most of Google's news tools are fairly self-explanatory. Fast Flip enables users to flick through different news sources. Living Stories collects all the developments about a single story on a single URL. And of course Google News aggregates news, and has been a source of ongoing conflict between Google and news publishers. But Google Wave notoriously confuses its first time users. There's even a gently mocking website dedicated to things that are easier to understand than Google Wave.

First launched as an invitation-only preview, Google Wave is billed as both a conversation and a document. It's a little like email, but also real-time and collaborative. One potential use of the tool is as a platform for collaborative journalism: different participants could add notes, information and images to a story.

It can also be used for community building, and the blog Journalism 2.0 has offered one possible example of what this might look like. A guest post by Hilary Fosdal, the interactive content manager for Barrington Broadcasting in Illinois, explains the way that the Chicago Tribune's RedEye website uses Google Wave.

Star Tribune names new publisher

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 8, 2010 at 5:21 PM

It's been a week of managerial announcements, with the Associated Press announcing the new managers of its Social Network Center and its News Center. The latest announcement is from the Star Tribune in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which has named Michael Klingensmith as its new publisher.

As a former Time Inc. executive, Klingensmith has worked as general manager of Time magazine, president of Sports Illustrated and founding publisher of Entertainment Weekly. Most recently he was a managing director of AdMedia Partners.

He replaces Chris Harte, who stepped down when the Star Tribune was in bankruptcy protection last year.

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.

Non-profit news publisher helps readers dig for stories

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 6, 2010 at 4:11 PM

California Watch has launched a new website, with a focus on enabling readers to learn more and take action on the investigations its team pursues.

The new website includes investigative stories by journalists from California Watch, which is a non-profit investigative news project of the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), and a blog related to the beats that its reporters cover.

THE YEAR IN NEWSPAPERS: top trends of 2009

Posted by Emma Heald on December 22, 2009 at 3:24 PM

2009 might well be remembered as a year of cutbacks and closures, but also a year when newspapers started to fight back, make changes and began to reassess unsatisfactory aspects of their business models. The world of journalism has indeed suffered some sad losses but there has also been much innovative thinking and progress in the way that news is gathered, reported and presented. Here are a few of the top trends that the Editors Weblog has noted this year.

Cuts, cuts, cuts: what are the consequences?

Some US cities have been left with just one daily newspaper, and speculation over which could be the first no-paper town was answered in July when the Ann Arbor News stopped printing. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer cut most of its staff and went online only, Denver lost the Rocky Mountain News. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle and Boston Globe have struggled through threats of closure.

And even those whose survival is assured have been cutting staff - the New York Times just lost 100 newsroom staff - or closing bureaux - the Washington Post now has no domestic bureaux outside the capital. Others have cut down on international reporting. Newspapers have got thinner, some losing sections or even cutting printing days.

News agencies have also been feeling the effect of the cuts as papers look at how to make savings. The Associated Press has seen 180 papers threaten to cancel their subscriptions, though many of these have since decided not to. The Chicago Tribune, for example, trialled reporting without the AP for a week. Over in France, government-subsidised Agence France-Presse has also seen papers drop its service.

Overall, the cutbacks in Europe do not seem as drastic as in the US, though that is not to say that papers have been immune: even the Guardian is attempting to make significant staff cuts.

Can newspapers continue to perform their democratic role in society? Fewer journalists means fewer stories covered, fewer copy/sub editors means a greater chance of mistakes.

Start-ups can help to fill the gaps in reporting, but without proper funding they too will languish. It is essential that outlets must focus on efficiencies and how to make the best of their resources, and endeavour not to sacrifice quality.

To charge or not to charge (online)?

As newspapers' advertising-based business model started to let them down, one of the biggest questions of the year has been whether or not newspapers should start charging for their online content. So far, there has been a lot of talk but not much action. Walter Isaacson brought the micropayments question onto the agenda in February, sparking immediate controversy. The debate started to heat up in April when Journalism Online was founded by three industry experts with an iTunes-inspired mission to facilitate charging for online content: it proposed to offer bundled packages of content from multiple publications. This was swiftly

followed by Murdoch's promise in early May that all News Corp papers would be charging online within the year. MediaNews Group followed suit. The New York Times also seems committed but is wavering with regards to how. The Newspaper Association of America's call for payment models elicited a considerable response.

Meanwhile, some smaller papers such as the Schenectady Daily Gazette and the Texas Valley Morning Star have quietly integrated paywalls: are there lessons to be learnt there?

Murdoch, undoubtedly one of paid online content's most vocal supporters, is insistent that news is a valuable product and should not just be given away. This might seem hard to argue with, but some publishers are resolute that charging online is not the answer to solving financial difficulties, and remain committed to high traffic and other schemes such as highly targeted advertising to sustain cash flow. The Guardian, for example, is one of these. A multitude of surveys carried out have suggested that, unsurprisingly, charging online will not be too popular among consumers.

A couple of news outlets have adopted a less direct paywall: for example, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has introduced a membership club that offers new additional content and special events to its committed readers. This seems like a possible option for publishers who fear sacrificing their ad revenue but want to experiment with paid online content.

Will Murdoch fulfil his promises? Could charging online be the norm by the end of 2010? And what has happened to Journalism Online: will 'bundled' charging be an option?

The TWITTER explosion

By now, the idea of a journalist not using Twitter is verging on inconceivable. After CNN and Ashton Kutcher first crossed the one million followers mark in April in a highly-publicised battle, multi-million follower accounts are now not uncommon.

Its advantages are multiple: finding news, advertising stories, curating your community of readers. Twitter's limitations, however, are that its information can be hard to verify. These uses and limitations became particularly clear during the aftermath of the Iranian election in June, when many journalists were prevented from reporting and news was increasingly spread by social networks and citizen journalists.

Twitter has had a significant impact on the trend towards up-to-the-minute, real time news. It changed its homepage in July to place more of a focus on search and its potential as a way to discover what people are talking about right now. Google recently announced that it was to integrate real-time social network updates into its search results.

Will it last? Following much debate over how it would actually bring in money, it was just announced that Twitter has indeed become profitable, so one can assume that for now, at least, it is here to stay. Its advantages for journalists are more clear-cut than those of Facebook, but Facebook is used regularly by a wider range of people. With increasing use of Facebook Connect, might this become more prominent in 2010?

HYPERLOCAL: just hype or the future for news?

The ubiquity of free online news has, quite understandably, led news outlets to contemplate what they can offer that is unique, and going very very local has appealed to many, particularly as regional papers have been suffering particularly badly and hyperlocal news has potential to offer highly-targeted local advertising.

Mainstream news outlets have been seeing the benefits of local news: US hyperlocal aggregator Outside.in has seen considerable investment from CNN, and Everyblock, originally created with a grant from the Knight Foundation, was bought by MSNBC. The New York Times introduced a blog called The Local, in an area already overwhelmed by a variety of hyperlocal offerings such as Patch and Maplewood Online. Community websites have also been springing up in the UK.

But, as recently questioned by Benji Lanyado, is hyperlocal actually making money? Has the right business model been found?

One noteworthy initiative is the Futuroom/Nase adresa project launched by PPF Media in the Czech Republic (disclosure: the World Editors Forum has been involved in the project in the role of consultant) which has taken news reporting directly into the community and constructed an unusual alternative revenue stream. 'News cafes,' which place the newsroom in a cafe in the centre of town, are at the centre of PPF's strategy: these both provide income (enough to cover overheads) and offer the public direct access to journalists, allowing the newsroom to become a real part of the community. Led from the Futuroom base in Prague, Nasa adresa weeklies and websites are produced, and it seems as if the papers are selling.

It is too early to say whether the project, launched in June, represents a solution that could be used more widely, but looks it promising. Hyperlocal undoubtedly has potential, but an innovative business model needs to be found.

i for innovation

One of 2009's success stories has been new Portuguese daily i. As newspapers around the world suffer from financial difficulties, launching a new publication could seem like madness. But, so far at least, i has proved any sceptics wrong. The impressively-designed magazine-style newspaper focused on politics and economics has been selling, and has managed to capture a new hard-to-reach audience.

The paper has willingly abandoned traditional topic sections to allow more freedom of coverage, and focuses on opinion and daily in-depth analysis on key issues, taking into account the fact that its readers are likely to already be well-informed via other platforms.

New ideas and experimentation are encouraged, and enthusiasm is high. And, the paper does not put all its print content online: the website aims to be kind of a social news portal rather than a digital reproduction of the news in the paper.

As a new paper, it has been easier for i to break the mould, but are there useful lessons that established newspapers could learn from what i is doing differently?

Does a nonprofit business model have a significant place in the media landscape?

Whether or not going nonprofit is an option for newspapers is a question that has been discussed at length by media commentators and even by the US Senate. The main advantage: protection from market forces, the main disadvantage: no freedom to endorse political candidates. And, of course, there is the challenge of finding a rich enough donor.

The idea that an entire newspaper could be funded by a foundation seems unlikely, but investigative public interest journalism has been relatively successful at attracting nonprofit support.

Several funds and start-ups aiming to produce high quality investigative journalism have sprung up, following in the footsteps of the likes of ProPublica and the VoiceOfSanDiego. Locally targeted nonprofits are becoming almost abundant in the US: over the past 3 months the Bay Area News Project began (in September), Oakland Local was founded in October, the Texas Tribune launched in November, as did the Chicago News Cooperative and California Watch appeared earlier this month.

All these launches are good news for news in these areas, but are they sustainable? It has been argued that the nonprofit concept is merely propping up a flawed business model and limiting potential innovation. Time will tell which are successful.

Is there money in mobile?

Smart phones are becoming more and more common and could start to become the norm in 2010. Many news applications that enable a better reading experience have been built for Apple's iPhone, and some for Google's Android operating system - those created by the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Associated Press seem to be generally considered to be among the best. The Guardian's paid for app sold more than 9000 in its first two days.

But can they actually be a significant stream of revenue?

Many are free, and those like the Guardian's which have a one-off download fee (something consumers are likely to be willing to pay for?) might be able to recoup the costs of development with this income, but it does not constitute regular revenue. Advertising is limited so far - there is not much space on the small screen, for a start. Briefly covering the whole screen seems to be the preferred method of some papers on the iPhone: Le Monde's app opens with a full-page ad, for example.

It is possible to make content available via subscription. The Financial Times iPhone app only allows full access to online subscribers, and the Wall Street Journal has implemented a specific application subscription charge: $1.50 per week.

Will more do this? Can consumers be persuaded to pay on their phones for what they can get free online?

E-readers: not all they promised, but could that change in 2010?

The Kindle, though widely adopted by many newspapers, might not quite have lived up to expectations. Publishers only receive about 30% of what subscribers pay, and besides, e-readers are still prohibitively expensive for many and far from being a "must-have" product. Kindle users are generally older.

But could this be about to change? New products such as the Nook and the improved Sony range are entering the market and the Plastic Logic e-reader Que is to be released in early January. A group of publishers have also come together with plans to develop their own e-reader. Could this competition improve e-reader offerings? Already, Sony is apparently offering a better revenue share than Amazon does, and presumably, giving publishers and consumers a choice will make pricing competitive.

Or might e-readers lose out to tablet computers? The Apple tablet is expected early next year - with more functionality, could it and similar products appeal more to the younger generation?

Google: friend or foe?

Conflict over copyright reached new heights this year. Attacks on Google and other 'copyright thieves' who have built a business model off newspaper content have come from many corners: with News Corp leading the fight in the US but Spanish and German publishers too. Google consistently responds that it is fact a friend to publishers, citing the 1 billion clicks that it sends to news websites each month via Google News, and pointing out that publishers can easily opt-out of Google's indexing. Publishers retort that Google's current quasi-monopoly on search would make that difficult.

But could a rapprochement be on the cards for 2010? Google has been making conciliatory moves - it has updated its 'First Click Free' program to allow publishers more control over how much of their site is accessible free, it launched its first project that shares revenue with publishers, Fast Flip, and created new ways to view news, such as Living Stories, which might offer advertising potential if developed further.

At the WAN-IFRA World Newspaper Congress in Hyderabad earlier this month, INM's Gavin O'Reilly and Google's David Drummond were far from reaching an agreement but did agree that they would continue meeting in the future to try and solve the issue. Will publishers and Google find a compromise? Or might Microsoft and Bing step into the fray and change everything?

Cooperation

One of the consequences of extreme financial difficulties has been unexpected cooperation between former rivals: it has become harder and less desirable to stand entirely alone. A few examples:

Between rivals: content sharing has become more widespread. For instance, the Ohio News Organisation, a collection of seven newspapers who began sharing content last year in an attempt to substitute Associated Press coverage, produced a collaborative story in November.

Between old and new media: even one of the US's most prestigious newspapers has accepted the need to collaborate with new media projects. In August, the New York Times partnered with nonprofit investigative journalism outlet Propublica to publish a 13,000 word article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that took two years and an estimated $400,000 to produce. The paper also published a story on the Great Pacific Garbage patch that was funded by crowd-funded journalism initiative Spot.Us. These were both stories that the paper would have been unlikely to publish otherwise

Between different platforms: at many papers, print and web are competing no longer, but are part of the one team. The Washington Post is the latest major paper to undergo integration.

For a list of top publishing strategies for 2010 please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com

Nineteen more publications sign up for the Sony Reader devices

Posted by Emma Heald on December 21, 2009 at 5:07 PM

Sony has now announced 19 new newspapers and periodical partners for its Reader devices, the Financial Times reported. The FT itself will be available immediately on the e-readers, along with the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Other titles to follow later include the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Denver Post and the San Jose Mercury News. Amongst those signing on, the Dallas Morning News, the Providence Journal and the New York Observer are not available on Amazon's Kindle.

Eric Newton of the Knight Foundation at the FTC hearing

Posted by Nestor Bailly on December 16, 2009 at 3:42 PM

Eric Newton, Vice President of the Journalism Program at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, spoke at the FTC journalism workshop on December 2nd about ways the government could help journalism.

Boldly opening with an account of how Cicero was disappointed with his 'commercial news packets coming from Rome' when he was sent to the provinces, Newton explained that a lot of people today have similar problems; they don't get the news they want from the places they feel are important.

He asserts that many governments at the regional or local level are held unaccountable because there is no local reporting; of the 3,248 counties and 30,000 towns and villages in the U.S. as of 2007, the Newspaper Association of America reported only 1,422 daily papers.

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.

'Journicide': Will the financial woes of the news industry turn off students?

Posted by Jennifer Lush on December 14, 2009 at 1:27 PM

A recent post on Alan Mutter's Reflections of a Newsosaur blog has rasied concerns over the potentially devasting impact the current financial crisis in the newspaper industry could have on the willingness of students to choose journalism as a profession.

Mutter argues that in a time where employment opportunities are shrinking and those who do manage to secure jobs are paid a pittance, a 'substantial percentage of the next generation of professional journalists' could be wiped out in a movement he dubs 'journicide'.

Tribune Co. execs play musical chairs

Posted by Betsey Reinsborough on December 11, 2009 at 5:23 PM

Tribune Co., which has spent the last year dealing with bankruptcy, has announced that Gerry Spector will be taking over at the new chief operating officer. He is replacing Randy Michaels who was promoted to CEO last week to replace Sam Zell, who became chairman.

Spector will be overseeing the publishing, broadcast, and Internet operations. He has been with the company since 2007, having previously been the chief administrative office.

Star Tribune rescinds cancellation of AP membership

Posted by Emma Heald on December 10, 2009 at 5:22 PM

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has rescinded its cancellation of its Associated Press membership but will be using a more limited service, reported MinnPost and Editor & Publisher. The paper submitted the notice more than a year ago.

Editor Nancy Barnes' memo, reproduced in MinnPost, states that the paper intends to experiment with the limited service for a while, "and see if it is sufficient when combined with our other premium wire services, such as the New York Times, WSJ and the Washington Post." She added that "we have flexibility to change if we need to." Spokesman Ben Taylor told MinnPost that the paper is paying for the complete sports and business packages.

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