Results matching “changes to attract you”

In his blog, Steven Outing discussed 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.

Source: SteveOuting.com, Rocky Mountain News

See also:

Goole News app for Facebook

A recent proposal by the BBC to expand local video output on a network of 65 local websites has been rejected by The Newspaper Society.

"BBC management believes the proposition will help the BBC meet its public purposes," the organization explained in a statement. "And close the gap between the importance that audiences attach to the BBC's local role and their view of current performance."

The proposal sought to create an annual fund of £800,000 for sourcing local news video from external providers and would also make BBC content available for embedding on other sites.

Despite the proposal's aims to collaborate with regional press, many local news organizations feel threatened.

"BBC News online is using sizeable sums of licence fee money to replicate services already provided by local media companies and using its cross-promotional power to attract audiences away from local media sites," said society director David Newell.

BBC previously had outlined ultra-local TV plans, but later withdrew because of concerns over duplication.

The proposal is currently subject to a public consultation; a final decision on the issue is expected in February 2009.

Sources: Journalism.co.uk, Paid Content, Guardian.co.uk

Read more about this story on our sister site, SFN blog.

In the saturated online news market, newspapers are constantly competing to draw readers to their sites. One of the most effective ways for papers to attract readers is to show up in the top of Google's search rankings. Google engineer Matt Cutts has some simple tips to help sites climb the rankings.

1. Spotlight your search term

Cutts says that putting keywords on your website is imperative. Otherwise, your site will be buried in the rankings

2. Tag

According to Cutts, search results most often show the title and description tags. Good tags will increase your site's visibility.

3. Link back

When reputable sites link back to your site, you gain credibility, and Google bumps you up in its rankings. In fact, all link backs help, not just those from the powerhouses.

4. Blog

A blog enables you to link back to your own site. It also adds a personal level to your site, allowing for interaction between you and your readers.

5. Optimize free tools

Google offers several free tools that can give you a better idea of how to maximize your site's exposure.
 

Source: USA Today

As far as niches go, mothers represent one of advertisers' most coveted groups. Now, some newspapers are joining the chase.

Newspaper companies, including the New York Times Co., Journal Communication, and Gannett, are launching hyperlocal websites geared toward mothers. Billed as community centers, the sites hope to attract mothers looking to review restaurants, arrange play dates, or just meet other mothers.

"They're [mothers] using the Internet to reconstitute the social capital that would come from physical interaction in a dense urban environment," said Clay Shirky, an Internet analyst and adviser to MeetUp Inc., a social networking business.

For advertisers, the appeal of these sites is enormous. With such an active core - 86 percent of moms go online at least once a month - advertisers are almost guaranteed results. But the market for mom sites is crowded; similar ventures (see BabyCenter or CafeMom) already exist.

Newspapers, however, show no signs of conceding the market to pre-existing competition. Gannett has gradually increased the number of its mom sites, and hopes to unify them soon into a nationwide network; the Boston Globe, owned by the NYT, released BoMoms.com last month; the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Dayton Daily News are creating similar sites.

As the competition stiffens, the key to success for mom sites, says Stacy DeBroff, founder of Mom Central, a marketing consulting firm, will be maintaining the sites' hyperlocal appeal.

"People in different cities are really looking for different kinds of information," Debroff said. "If moms don't sense the sites are truly localized, then they'll find another place that is."

Source: Wall Street Journal, New York Times

The national Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad managed to turn the tide and went from being close to bakruptcy to increasing its circulation by introducing new weekend editions. Editor in Chief Erik Bjerager explained how this was done at the 15th World Editors Forum.

Kristeligt Dagblad is a national Christian newspaper that is published six days a week. It was founded in 1896. In 1995 circulation reached a record low with only 13,000 copies, and about 35,000 readers a day. Today  the paper has about 100,000 readers a day and a circulation of 26,000 copies.

Back in 1995 Kristeligt Dagblad had a hard time selling six day subscribtions but needed to attract new subscribers to ensure future circulation. To solve the problem, it introduced new editions on Fridays and Saturdays and offered subscribers that wanted to give up their subscribtions the opportunity to subscirbe only to the Friday edition, or to the Friday and Saturday editions.

Bjerager talked abut how he thinks it is a mistake to look at the newspaper as a mass medium; reading the newspaper is a personal experience. He said that if you are able to establish a realtionship between the reader and  the newspaper you will have a much easier time attracting subscribers. And what Kristeligt Dagblad has done to establish that relationship is focus on the core subjects of a Christian paper: ethics, faith and existence, and highlighting them in two new sections in the weekend editions.

On Fridays they introduced a new section called "Life & Soul" where they focus on social issues and stories about relations, marriage and divorce, friendship etc. The also have a widely read column by a psychologist. On Saturdays they have a section called "Books & Culture" where they write about, well, books and culture, but from a Christian point of view.

Bjerager said that his paper has never marketed its special weekend subscription package. Instead, it gives away four week subscritions for free, and then if readers do not wish to buy a full subscription, they are offered the two-day weekend subscribtion. The free subscriptions also helped to caputure poeple who are somewhat skeptical of Christian papers.

The papers strategies have resulted in 19,000 extra copies sold on Fridays and 9,000 extra copies on Saturdays. Today Kristeligt Dagblad has about 40,000 subscribers total.

The first day of the World Editors Forum featured three roundtable discussions, one about freedom of the press, new digital platforms and perhaps the biggest challenge for newspapers these days, how can newspapers attract young readers? The 15th World Editors Forum 1800 participants from 130 countries have gathered.

Student video reporters Charlotte Boström and Filip Kruse cover the issues raised in the press freedom roundtable. The debate centered about the Scandinavian papers who published the Muhammad cartoons. Ulf Johansson, editor in chief at Swedens Nerikes Allehanda, defended the publishing of the editorial cartoons. But not everyone in the muslim world agrees.

More videos from the Congress and editors forum

Speaking at the 14 World Editor Forum, Gregory Piechota from the polish newspaper Gazetta Wyborcza  told the annual Young Reader Roundtable audience about how his paper, together with young readers, saved the river Respuda.

The polish government had decided to build a highway that would go through the river, something that Gazetta wanted to stop. At the same time they had to attract young readers. Gazetta asked readers to show the beauty of the river and publiched the pictures in the newspaper. They were also intewieving young people about their opinion. The next step was to do a free edition of Gazetta only with articles about the river and the environment around. The special edition was given out to young people at a rock music festival. The issue engaged many people and marches around the country started in 20 cities "We organised but people did it for themselves". Young people set a camp in the valley and Gazetta published stories about the river. With help from Gazetta and young readers the river was saved. Gregory Piechotas advice to engage young readers is to look for an issue that is interesting for all generations and give them ideas and tools. Catch them wherever you can!
 

Reed Business Information is debating a pay-per-view pay model for its journalists, according to RBI managing director Jim Muttram.

Should the company adopt the idea of compensating journalists based on number of page impressions, journalists would have to take a lower basic salary in return for a commission style bonus, reports Journalism.co.uk.

"We have done some thinking about how we might reward journalists for page impressions. It's such a controversial view I think it would take some time before that comes around but it makes good sense," Muttram said.

Some companies, like Incisive Media, have already put in place similar models. At Incisive, senior editorial staff amongst the publisher's titles receive bonuses for meeting online and digital targets.

A pay-per-view model of the sort proposed by RBI is a mixed bag. Optimistically it could encourage journalists to work harder to get a story. But it is just as likely to lead to sensationalism, as journalists try and one-up each other to attract the most readers.

Source: Journalism.co.uk through IFRA Executive News Service  

After attending a session at the NewsTools 2008: Journalism that Matters conference, Online Journalism Review's Robert Niles has highlighted key problems with today's online journalism, as discussed by participants at the conference.
 
- Unwillingness to accept the public beta concept

Niles points out that when a website launches, it is inevitably imperfect and needs time live in the field, along with user feedback, to perfect its functioning. But journalists are accustomed to having the product be complete when it goes public; after all, it has passed through a series of edits before ever reaching the reader.
 
The general consensus: "Journalists would do better to think like programmers in the sense of recognizing incremental success and not getting too depressed when initiatives fail." It is the kind of new approach in journalism that can be seen, for example, in the Telegraph's brand new online innovation lab.
 
- Being introspective, in a bad way

According to Niles, it is always the same type of people who come to journalism conferences and brainstorm solutions on how to improve the industry, an approach that he compares to the political party who always hires the same losing campaign manager.
 
"The journalism industry typically looks within itself for potential solutions to technical and business challenges online, when it should be looking to people outside the "news" industry who have taken on, and solved, many of the same challenges."

- Monotonous content

Online content cannot be all hard-hitting in-depth profiles and investigative pieces; plain and simple, it will not attract an audience. As Niles puts it, "even the New Yorker runs a hell of a lot of cartoons." The gimmicks that make websites a brand name are important too.

"Journalists need to treat their websites like a dinner party," Niles writes. "You can't just dish out a plate of veggies. You need to invite your readers in, chat with them, serve 'em a drink and get them comfortable."

Source: Online Journalism Review

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company, outlined the company's four-pronged turnaround strategy at the company's annual meeting on Tuesday, which includes developing online and mobile platforms:

1) New print and online products, such as expanding the T style magazines, which "brought in revenue of $45 million in 2007," according to the New York Times.
2) Cost-cutting: The company set a goal of reducing costs by $230 million by the end of 2009.
3) A "rebalance of assets", for example the sale of broadcast media group last year and investments in technology providers like Epsilen.
4) Research and development: adapting content for mobile devices and other products.

Chief executive Janet L. Robinson noted that online revenue growth declined to 11.6% for the quarter, while a year earlier it was at 21.6%. She said that the company had invested $500 million in new media since 2005 and is now "experimenting with different online advertising formats to attract advertisers," such as working with Google's AdSense to text ads on its science, home and garden and dining sites.

Also, the company's regional group has joined Yahoo's newspaper consortium, and the company has joined quadrantONE, which sells advertising space on sites owned by the Hearst Corporation, the Tribune Company, and the Gannett Company.

Source: The New York Times through Poynter Romenesko

The US edition of the Wall Street Journal went on sale in London on Wednesday alongside the 25-year-old Wall Street Journal Europe as part of News Corporation's global expansion plans.

Les Hinton, the chief executive of Dow Jones, WSJ's parent company, Dow Jones, which became part of News Corp in December, suggested the US edition "could become available across Europe, going hand in hand with the European version."

According to Hinton, the WSJE "would continue to meet a specialized and local need while the US version would attract a loyal core of readers in London and I hope eventually other financial centers in Europe."

The paper has launched a new Monday to Friday London column, "Letter From the City," in the international finance pages of the Money & Investing section.

U.S. WSJ costs £2.50 and is available via subscription and at 250 newsstands across central London and the capital's airports including Heathrow, published five hours ahead of the U.S.

For additional coverage, visit our sister site SFN.


Sources: Guardian.co.uk, IHT

ProPublica, the non-profit investigative journalism project funded entirely by charitable donations, aims to recruit the largest team of investigative journalists in the US, employing 25 full-time reporters and editors by the end of the year. They have just added five new members to its editorial team.

Eric Umansky, former Slate columnist, will be senior writer and lead daily contributor to the site, and Susan White, former enterprise editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, will be site editor. Also joining the team as reporters are freelance writer Sheri Fink, Christina Jewett from the Sacramento Bee, Abrahm Lustgarten, former staff writer for Fortune, and Joaquin Sapien, former reporter for The Center for Public Integrity.

"The soul of a great investigative team is its reporters and we've been fortunate to attract a very high level of reportorial talent," said Stephen Engelberg, managing editor of ProPublica.

With investigative journalism struggling to survive in papers, this model seems to be giving it a boost so far.

Source: Journalism.co.uk, eMedia Wire through Poynter Online

CBS has launched a citizen journalism website where users can upload video and images of news events with a brief text description from their mobile phones by sending an MMS to the short code "85888" or by email. Citizen journalism is becoming more popular, with some paper