Part 1 discussed how the planned changes at The New York Times and International Herald Tribune will help the NYT's continuous news offerings, and how these changes could affect the organization and interaction between both newsrooms.
Part 2 examines how The New York Times intends to: - Further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal internationally, and ways in which newspapers can reinforce their international reach. - Use the strength of its online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name.
The Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.
How newspapers can become international brands, the NYT joins the race
Until now, the Times hasn't specifically catered to overseas advertisers and readers.
"We need to be agile," said IHT publisher StephenDunbar-Johnson, "to compete much more aggressively, nose to nose, with The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and anybody else who is competing for our readers and advertisers."
No doubt that the Times actually borrowed the continuous news outpost idea from the aforementioned competitors, which have been relying on their foreign bureaus to provide round the clock coverage.
The staff memo reaffirmed the NYT's "ambitious plans to expand in the region (Asia), particularly in India." In June, the IHT announced a partnership with the India-based Deccan Chronicle to print the Tribune's world business section in the Financial Chronicle.
With the rise of digital publishing, many news organizations are seeking to grow a previously inaccessible international readership by:
- investing in an online international section: In Germany, referential weekly Der Spiegel launched an English-language International edition on its website in 2004. Five fulltime staffers are dedicated to translating Der Spiegel's content and rewriting it with an international perspective, as well as doing their own international-minded original reporting (the full case study is featured in Trends in Newsrooms 2008). The Guardian adopted a different approach, by launching a separate, foreign-based, US website, Guardian America. The Guardian is reportedly considering similar ventures in other regions.
- simply reinforcing their focus on international news in their regular coverage: the Daily Telegraph's website in the UK, which was neck to neck with the Guardian in terms of traffic in April, claims nearly two thirds of its visitors are from overseas. A well-indexed website helps to brings in a significant number of 'light' international users through search engines.
Merging "co-branded" websites but not print: a branding issue
The NYT's approach is a combination of the first two strategies: the print IHT now serves as The Times' 'global edition' (see picture), while maintaining its trademark brand name. With the proposed online merger, the NYT could also follow the second route, by hosting an international edition online, without having to extensively change its workflows (see Part 1).
The rationale to merge the websites is clearly explained in the memo:
according to WebTrends, NYT's website boasts a strong international
audience and 58 million global users, compared to iht.com's seven
million.
"The global landscape for online news is highly competitive, making scale, speed and resources essential to success. Therefore we have determined that the best future online for the IHT and the NYT globally is through a joint international presence," said the memo.
However, the memo doesn't explicitly say why this won't be the case in print:
"The IHT should become the international print edition of the NYT, whether it is formally branded that way or not."
The main issue at stake is one of branding. "In print, there have been at least a couple of studies that show that among Tribune newspaper readers there is a great identification with the brand, that the brand means something to readers," said Gottlieb.
"More than the name, what accompanies the name, an international perspective, a sense of calling the best stories from The Times and augmenting them with unique reporting," was a combination that many readers liked.
As news organizations seek to grow their international reach, this consideration probably holds true for many that have established a reputable brand name on a local or national scale. However strong the brand name, its association with a particular place or country can potentially play against that news outlet on the international scene.
Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition
At a time when any local or national news outlet can potentially become an international online brand, and as newsrooms adapt to a 24-hour news cycle, editors can learn from The New York Times' most recent attempt to 'kill' both birds with one stone.
Last week, top execs from The Times and the International Herald Tribuneannounced plans to mergeiht.com and nytimes.com into a co-branded international section, in order to increase both sites' reach and appeal to international advertisers.
In this two-part series, the Weblog spoke to Jim Roberts, Digital Editor at The New York Times, and Martin Gottlieb, who was appointed to the newly created position of Editor, Global Edition.
Through these moves, The Times intends to accomplish at least four ostensible goals:
Part 1: - Build an outpost for its Continuous News Desk in Paris, and eventually Hong Kong. - Integrate operations, streamline some resources by increasing efficiency and avoiding overlap.
Part 2: - Reinforce its international reach and further compete against the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. - Use the strength of NYT's online brand while safeguarding the IHT's popular print brand name. IHT: an outpost for the Times' continuous news
Although the proposed changes are currently undergoing a consultation process with the IHT's works council, as required by French law, the process of integration of both papers began ever since the NYT acquired full control of the IHT in 2003, and has accelerated in past months.
In Feb., NYT executive editor Bill Keller had already announced plans to integrate operations and develop an "organic, global, 24-hour news operation," in order "to create a Continuous News outpost in Paris."
In May, the IHT dropped its 142-year-old logo from its nameplate to replace it with the phrase "The Global Edition of the New York Times."
"That says, we are one, and we are," although both arms are managed separately, said Jim Roberts, digital editor at The Times.
Video: Roberts talks about the 'integration' of both newspapers. Footage was collected during an interview at the 15th World Editors Forum in Sweden.
Thanks to this outpost and the six-hour time difference, the NYT is now able to upload content to its site nearly 24 hours a day (from about 6am to 1am, New York time). The paper eventually hopes to establish a similar outpost at the IHT's Asian headquarters in Hong Kong in the next six months.
The creation of these outposts does not mean that the IHT is becoming a full-blown Paris bureau for The Times. "We have a Paris bureau," said Roberts, "and the newsroom of the IHT still has a print edition and right now they still have a website." Integration, streamlining resources: evolution, no revolution
Since all proposed changes are undergoing a consultation process, editors couldn't give any firm preview of how workflows could be affected.
In the past, there has been "very regular contact between individual desks at the Times and corresponding desks at the IHT," said Martin Gottlieb, newly appointed editor of the Global edition. Many IHT editors come from The Times, regularly do edits on NYT pieces, and this past year IHT-written articles have appeared on nytimes.com with no distinctive byline.
However, there is no formal process of exchange between both newsrooms, and "There have been a couple of occasions when we've had IHT and NYT reporters covering the same thing," said Roberts.
The appointment of Gottlieb as editor of the Global Edition - note, no mention of the IHT in his title - is significant in that respect. In addition to fulfilling the role of editor of the paper, his mission will be to ensure that staff understands both papers are "two parts of one news-gathering operation, that should work in unison as much as possible in delivering the news 24 hours a day seven days a week," said Gottlieb.
A series of new editorial appointments at the IHT will be the symbols of this top-down integration. "There will be people coordinating the work of both staffs to, pretty much, make them as much as possible act as one staff," said Gottlieb.
For example, Alison Smale, who becomes European editor of the global newsroom, will be responsible for "coordinating the work of all NYT and IHT reporters in the region from the IHT newsroom in Paris," said the memo. To oversee the process, The Times also named Alan Flippen "Editor, Newsroom Organization."
It seems too early to say whether the planned reforms will lead to radical changes in workflows or content. Evolution, not revolution, said Roberts.
Currently, an IHT reporter based in Hong Kong might build upon a Times' story about the rise of airline fuel prices by interviewing Asian carriers, whose input might not have been as relevant to the core readership of the Times in the US. Likewise, an IHT story published in the Times might be fine-tuned to be more pertinent to the American audience (see the example of Der Spiegel in Part 2, looking at different newspaper approaches towards international editions).
Future workflows will likely build upon these current processes, rather than start from scratch. "It's continuing synergies that are taking place and maximizing them and regularizing them," said Gottlieb.
The planned changes can also be seen as an attempt to streamline resources - terminology often equivocated with cost cuts and layoffs. But according to Gottlieb, there are no planned newsroom layoffs at this point (this is subject to change during the next six months). It is possible that an online merger of iht.com and nytimes.com could lead to redundancies for some technical Web production positions.
Editors couldn't comment on any upcoming changes concerning the IHT's planned print redesign.
Stay tuned for Part 2, which will examine The Times' international branding strategy, and how newspapers can grow a previously inaccessible international readership.
Source: New York Times - Media Bistro - Jim Roberts, Digital Editor The New York Times - Martin Gottlieb, Editor, Global Edition
Editor and Publisher's bi-weekly "Best of the Web" column highlights some cool new features newspapers are offering on their websites. Here are some of the highlights.
*Chicago Tribune compiled a photo gallery detailing the pursuit of a serial killer in Illinois and Missouri.
*A multimedia package from the San Francisco Chronicle features audio clips, photos, and a story on Cassandra Furlough, one of three women cable car conductors in San Francisco.
*The Las Vegas Sun's Flight Delay Calculator provides readers with information on airports' tendencies to delay flights, ranking the airports from best to worst.
The Los Angeles Times announced that it is the first Tribune Company paper to be available for Amazon's Kindle Reader. This is a further step in the reinvention process that newspapers worldwide are adhering to.
Kindle e-papers are offered by top US papers like The New York Times and the Washington Post as well as international papers like France's Le Monde, Germany's FrankfurterAllgemeine and China's Shanghai Daily.
The Star Tribune announced that this summer, experts would train the Tribune staff to edit videos and produce programming. It said that the paper's staff has increased training in news production and entertainment videos to "enliven" the site, "diversify the news" and "prepare for mobile delivery."
Last year, Tribune photographers were trained to shoot documentary and breaking-news video. They were also trained to bring a basic video camera to shoot breaking-news.
"We're trying to transform a site that was once a newspaper on the Web into one that takes full advantage of the medium," Nancy Barnes, Tribune editor, said.
The Tribune's Rick Sennott is familiar with both photography and videography and he enjoys being a "one-man-band." His aim is to "produce images that act as a channel for true understanding and give a clear voice to the people being photographed."
The Tribune's site includes video content on issues such as gardening, health, sports and local news (see above).
"While I'm still not crazy about seeing myself on the small screen, I really enjoy how video reporting can bring a story to life," Connie Nelson, Home+Garden editor, said, "You get the sights, the sounds. You can show rather than say. And you can make a personal connection."
Barnes expressed some concern over the increasing importance of visual journalism and how journalism has evolved to deliver more than just print news.
"It's no longer sufficient for a news company to put out a fine newspaper. We have to deliver the news anywhere, anytime, however the consumer wants it. Some days, this feels a bit like the old game where you see if you can jump up and down and pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. Now, can you do it on one foot?" Barnes said.
This trend towards increased online vide content is what news sites like the Tribune or the UK's Telegraph are following.
In a blog posting Monday, Lee Abrams, Tribune Co.'s chief innovation officer, says that newspapers have to find "a zone that balances intelligent with the ability to engage the masses in 2008." Abrams offers feedback on the Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel's re-launches.
Here are some of his comments and suggestions pertaining to the Sun's re-launch:
*Crime coverage: Abrams says the Sun is "honoring the importance of crime" by "owning it via a single compartmentalized daily page."
*Numbering national stories: The Sun began labeling its national news stories in order of importance from one to ten. Abrams raves that the numbering system is "a whole new and modern way of prioritizing for the reader."
*Reduce Jumps: Abrams says newspapers, when possible, should restrict stories to one place. "I've never heard of a single person that liked jumps."
The Sentinel's re-launch:
*Web Push: Abrams says the Sentinel should be more creative and proactive luring readers to the website. Current "web pushers" are "kinda throwaway," he says.
*Numbers: More local statistics, Abrams says, and more numbers in general: "Consistency is what'll create 'trademarks'"
*Maps: Abrams says the Sentinel should be "using maps in all news sections to show another way to 'see' the news."
Abram's counseling has drawn the ire of some newspaper experts who shudder at his crude writing style - lackadaisical grammar, errant capitalization - and resent some of his more philistine suggestions, like adding front-page cartoons and trimming the fine arts sections.
But regardless of whether experts find merit in Abrams' suggestions, they should admire his tenacious optimism.
"Intelligence and engaging the mainstream - doable," Abrams writes," But [it] needs the re-think and execution...every day, every page..."
In his blog, Steven Outingdiscussed the Global Conference on the Individuated Newspaper and the innovative approaches to personalized news that newspapers can adopt to attract more readers.
Key points of the conference included:
-using the available technology to give "individuated" news. This implies having a content management system that can handle personalized editions. -younger audiences experience individuated media through many platforms including Facebook, iTunes/iPod, mobile phones, etc. -individuated news is "inevitable" and newspapers have to evolve.
Rocky Mountain News reported that, due to the constraints of print, newspapers have provided people with a broad selection of content that might not appeal to every reader.
"It seems we can turn all the new-found power of the Internet - that so easily empowers people to personalize their news - and generate a whole new type of newspaper with greater relevance and value. Call it the reverse- published newspaper," said Dean Singleton, MediaNews CEO and chairman of the Associated Press board of directors.
Several examples of reverse-publishing have emerged in the US, with varied success, including the Rocky News' YourHub.com or the Chicago Tribune's Triblocal.
According to Rocky Mountain News, readers should participate in the journalistic process by specifying what it is they want to read about. If news organizations are to remain successful, they should look into customizing their content for each individual.
This makes some people worry that a lot of news might become focused on less serious issues like Britney Spears' latest misdemeanour. Journalism professor Vin Crosbie disagreed, because control of the news agenday will always remain divided between professional editors and users.
Posted byAlisa Zykova on June 30, 2008 at 12:47 PM
The Irish Times is one of the latest to launch a free website, after being subscription-only for around five years.
According to PaidContent.co.uk, the site itself will have richer content and will allow readers to interact more successfully with each other and with the newspaper staff.
The Irish Times is currently integrating its newsroom. "In a new world where trust and accuracy are often the casualties of speed," it will also seek to further co-ordinate print and online content.
"The move to a free Irish Times on the web follows in the recent footsteps of many leading newspaper titles in the world today, among them the
New York Times and the
Los Angeles Times," wrote the Times.
The Chicago Tribune has appointed Tran Ha, editor of the Tribune-owned RedEye Weekend, as editor of the paper's high school newspaper project. The project, due out early next year, consists of a weekly newspaper and website, and will be aimed at and written by Chicago public high school students.
"Teens in Chicago are unique and deserve a paper and website that speaks to them...one that gets students more interested in reading and writing," she said in a statement.
Ha was previously a copy editor and assistant features editor at RedEye.
Click here for more information on the Tribune's student paper project.
The list of newspaper job layoffs increases as the Boston Herald and Tribune Co.'s Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant all plan to decrease the number of staff.
This summer, the Herald plans to layoff between 130 and 160 of its employees and to outsource printing to Chicopee and Norwood, the Boston Globe reports. The newsroom might also be relocated, according to the Globe.
"All I've ever wanted to do is make the Herald as competitive and successful as I can and to preserve Boston as a two-newspaper town. We've done that, and I want to continue doing that," said the Herald's president and publisher, Patrick J. Purcell.
"We are saddened by the loss of jobs for those Herald employees who have worked beside us for decades. We will grieve and move on," said Brian Whelan, the Herald's recruitment account executive and president of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Boston. "But the same economic forces that have caused this will continue to challenge the Herald as well as the newspaper industry."
The Sun intends to cut around 100 jobs, over half of them from the newsroom, "through buyouts, layoffs and the closing of open positions", Editor and Publisher reported.
"These actions are necessary for us to remain competitive and win in the future, and will enable us to create new targeted print and interactive media for the marketplace that satisfy both consumers and advertisers," said the Sun's publisher, Tim Ryan.
The Courant intend to cut its weekday pages from 273 to 206, Editor and Publisher said, and to cut employees from 232 to 275.
Tribune Co. president, Sam Zell, said that he intends to shorten page and editorial content from all the papers, "which have been losing circulation and advertising revenue as readers migrate to the Internet", Editor and Publisher reported.