Results matching “times and the fina”

With the World's financial markets nose-diving and talk of an imminent deep recession, people are turning to newspapers to cut through the jargon and market turmoil and to tell them the truth. However, some newspapers stand accused of sensationalising the crisis in the pursuit of a dramatic front page and of being ill informed on the subject matter. General sentiment in the City of London, for instance, ranged from financial workers accusing the press of creating "complete hysteria" to "fanning the flames of the crisis". These severe reactions in the City, combined with an utterly confused public, sparks the question: how should a newspaper cover a global financial crisis?

The Financial Times has proved to be a port in the storm of screamer headlines and misinformed commentary. The Editors Weblog spoke to the Managing Editor of the FT, Daniel Bogler (left), about his views on the coverage and how his newspaper reacted as the crisis unfolded.

Firstly, Bogler agreed with the City's negative view on some of the mainstream media's coverage, saying, "It's unfortunate that the financial literacy and understanding of how things work in the City and of basic accounting and so on, is actually very thin in financial journalism. The FT, because we are a financial newspaper, take the stuff a lot more seriously. We hire people from the City... and also spend a lot of time, effort and money on training our people."

Rethinking the layout

Bogler reported that one of the key things the FT did when the magnitude of the story unfolding became clear was rethink the entire layout of the paper. To ensure that the FT provided enough space to deliver comprehensive coverage, it cleared the first four pages of previously planned stories and bumped them further inside. This shift in focus did result in other key news getting squeezed, but this highlights the newspapers keen news judgement on the significance of what was unfolding on trading screens throughout the world. The bar for a story to get onto the front page was suddenly raised.

Bogler said that not only did the FT clear the first four pages, but it also redesigned the front page to emphasise and reflect the newspaper's focused coverage. The FT's template for its front page is usually three or four stories and a taster section (long column down the side) for stories within (left). However, with its decision to provide focused coverage on the rapidly changing story, it now featured two stories on the financial meltdown and leads to the rest of its coverage.

To further provide space for reporting the story, it reorganised the letters page and also largely cleared its flagship Markets pages at the back.

Since the story broke, half of the Financial Times coverage in print and online has been entirely focused on the credit crisis. The paper is not only featuring pieces to assist and inform investment bankers, but also pieces that will be useful for the average individual. The Personal Finance section last Saturday did a special on how to manage your finances during the credit crash, with practical advice for everyone, from savers to those seeking information on their mortgage.
 
This flexibility in terms of layout is another key reason for its success in its treatment of the story; templates and layout do not dictate to the newspaper when a big story breaks.

Refocusing the team

Layout flexibility followed into the newsroom itself. From what Bogler reports, it appears that three key teams spearheaded the newspapers response to the global financial crisis. The teams were the Crisis Counsel (Chief Editors and senior editors), The Leader Conference (meeting for in-depth coverage) and, specifically, the Hit Team (the financial services (banks) reporters).

Crisis Counsel
As the story hit, a Crisis Counsel was called at around 10am with the Editor Lionel Barber, News Editor Robert Shrimsley and other senior editorial staff. It was here that the decision to clear the first four pages of the newspaper to focus on the meltdown was taken and a senior news editor was appointed to manage the pages. Furthermore, the decision to make this story the focal point for the newspaper was made, with the senior team then notifying the rest of the staffers.

Leader Conference
The team then moved on to the Leader Conference to inform them that in depth and "Leader" stories would now be on the market meltdown. Previously planned articles on the UK's Conservative political party were shelved and resources shifted for optimal reporting.

The Hit Team
The Hit Team strategy had previously been utilised by the FT during the Iraq War. The Hit Team - which consists of reporters and editors from the relevant beat for a story - co-ordinate the entire newsroom: deploying reporters, co-ordinating news flow, writing the front-page splash and managing the opening pages. The Team can also pull reporters off their beat to boost coverage of a topic, ie, an autos journalist can be drafted in to aid coverage of a banks story. The core of this unit for the crisis was, and still is - as this rapidly developing story still has legs - made up of ten financial services reporters in London and six or seven in New York. Staffers around the world also called in with their regions' story and any new angles developing. Bogler reported that the news editor and reporters around the world "shaped these pages relatively quickly."

The highly respected "Lex Column" was also given priority. It is a column that features widely read analysis and commentary from a group of reporters who previously worked in hedge funds and investment banks.

The payoff

As a result of its dedicated focus and clear and comprehensible content, FT.com's traffic has exploded. Page views have risen 300 per cent. Unique users are also up by 250 per cent.

When asked about the FT's competition, Bogler said, "Its unfortunate perhaps for the Wall Street Journal, having just been bought by Murdoch, that they have switched their interest to general news, political news and focusing on US politics at a time when US politics is just not the story. We have looked a bit more nimble."

Responsibility and ethics

Reflecting on this fast-changing story, the media coverage it has received, and the perceived "sensationalist" angle taken by other papers, Bogler said he is aware of the added pressure on the FT, "We do have an extra responsibility and we take it very seriously.  We do not 'fan the flames' of the crisis."

He went on to say, "It is in the nature of newspapers to write the most dramatic headline, the most dramatic copy and have the most dramatic picture, so you have impact on your readers.... this irresponsibility is kind of bred into the industry. You have to be very careful, you have to take a step back. A picture of someone with their head in their hands in front of a trading screen, is that the right picture?"
 

Bertrand Pecquerie wrote in an article in Le Monde yesterday that the French newspaper industry is in crisis and, worryingly, turning to the State for help. Newspapers have been subsidized in France for the past ten years and, in those ten years, the situation has not improved, it has actually worsened.

Pecquerie believes that there are four core problems facing the industry and these are not being addressed. The four core issues are method, diagnosis, objective and means.

Austrian tabloid, Kronen Zeitung, has been the subject of content concerns for quite some time.  The paper is currently under fire because publisher and editor in chief, Hans Dichand has been accused of manipulating the public by openly using his paper for pet political issues.

KZ has a daily circulation of three million (42% of the population), which, according to BNET is the highest per capita circulation of any newspaper in the world.

Dichand has now taken on the task of promoting Werner Faymann, the Social Democratic party's leader, to become Austria's next chancellor.

In many cases the paper's campaigns have succeeded which is making some experts nervous. According to the Financial Times, experts fear that Dichand is making other parties too subservient to his wishes.

Sources: Financial Times, Roy Greenslade, The Guardian, BNET

Fewer people in Ireland are in the habit of reading newspapers according to a survey, with 72 percent of adults saying they read a newspaper on Sunday, a three point drop from the prior survey, The Irish Times reported.

Newspaper readership is highest on Sundays, but on weekdays readership has decreased over the past three years, with 56 percent of adults saying they read a daily, the survey found.
 
"The newspaper market in Ireland is congested, with not only Irish newspapers but also British titles, many now localised, fighting for attention in the newsagents," The Irish Times article stated. "In the daily market, tabloids have been adding readers while the broadsheets - apart from The Irish Times - are losing out."
 
The only tabloid that saw a decrease in readers was the Irish Sun, with readership down 7 percent.
 
Edited by Leah McBride Mensching

Sources: The Irish Times

In an agreement announced Wednesday between the New York Times Co. and breakingviews.com, the NYT will add a new column to their business section.  
The new column will start Tuesday and be added to weekday and online versions of the NYT and The International Herald Tribune.

Breakingviews.com is an independent financial publication that provides news and information to investors and corporations.  Currently, they provide commentary to newspapers around the globe including Le Monde, The Daily Telegraph of London and Business Times in Singapore.  NYT will be the sole US newspaper to carry the column.  The Wall Street Journal used to run the column.

Business editor for the NYT, Larry Ingrassia said, "The Breakingviews.com column is a perfect complement to both our leading news coverage of finance and business and our roster of award-winning columnists."  He added, "This is the first of many changes we are introducing that will enhance the business section of nytimes.com."

Source:  New York Times

Slate, an online current-affairs and culture magazine created in 1996, has just launched The Big Money, a site dedicated to financial news.

According to the New York Times, The Big Money "aims to be something in between authoritative print sources of business news and the myriad of newly minted business blogs."

Just like Slate, most of the site's content will come from freelance writers.  The Big Money has imported several Slate features, such as "Explainer," and "Moneybox."  The site also includes "Today's Business Press," a summary of national business news.  

While most news agencies are cutting back on staff, John Alderman, general manager of the Slate Group confirmed that they are "investing in new sites because we think we've found a business model that works."

New features on the site designed to draw readership include, a database that will allow users to filter 500 companies to see if they minimize environmental damage or profit.  A feature entitled "We Build Your Presentation" offers users access to PowerPoint slides of charts and graphs.  Finally, they have included the "YouTube BrandWatch" which broadcasts popular videos pertaining to companies.  

The Big Money has also included a Twitter feed entitled "WSJquips," consisting of observations and corrections to articles in The Journal.

Sources: New York Times
 

An Ipsos Mori British Business Survey 2008 (BBS) has revealed that News International's The Times, The Sunday Times and Times Online still attract more business executive readers than their rivals.

This is despite the fact that The Times has suffered a decline in its readership since the last BBS survey in 2005. The survey reports that The Times averaged 330,000 daily business readers, which is slightly down on the 339,000 it registered in 2005.

The Daily Telegraph attracts 187,000 business executive readers each day, down from 202,000 in 2005. The Times has 83,000 C-Suite readers (board level executives holding positions such as chief executive and chief financial officer), which News International say is 38% more that the Financial Times.

The Sunday Times also led the way in the Sunday market, averaging 453,000 business readers, ahead of The Sunday Telegraph on 169,000 and The Observer on 147,000.

For its web edition, Times Online attracted 269,000 business readers in the latest survey, up from 167,000 in 2005, putting it ahead of Telegraph.co.uk, which secured 155,000 readers on average per day, followed by Guardian.co.uk with 193,000 and the FT.com on 199,000.

Source: Brand Republic

Californian paper the Orange County Register announced that all of its daily news articles are now available through Amazon's Kindle reader.

According to the Ipsos Mori British Business Survey 2008, News International publications The Times, The Sunday Times and Times Online have more business executive readers than other daily, weekly and Web titles. The Times is ahead of its rivals, even though The Times business readership has decreased from 339,000 to 330,000 since 2005.

UK papers The Times and The Financial Times have joined the increasing list of publications that are offering their services on Amazon's Kindle reader, even if the technology is not available in the UK.

The Times, owned by News International, and The Financial Times, owned by FT Group, are offering the e-paper editions at a monthly fee of US$ 14.99 and US$ 9.99, respectively.

Other papers that have Kindle versions include China's Shanghai Daily, Frence's Le Monde, The Irish Times and Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine.

Germany's Deutsche Telecom announced that it plans to develop a portable e-reader that could be in competition with Amazon's Kindle.

Source: Paid Content UK through IFRA Executive News Service

See also:
New folding screen e-reader, Readius, to be released
Business Week review: The Kindle "an imperfect substitute" for the newspaper
A paperless world?
Are we headed for all-electronic papers?
US: L.A. Times launches Kindle edition

Knol, Google's Wikipedia rival, may be inciting fear in media companies as they increasingly begin to see it as a competitor, reported The New York Times (NYT). Knol features user-generated content which authors have control over and which Google may pay for through advertising.

"Google can say they are not in the content business, but if they are paying people and distributing and archiving their work, it is getting harder to make that case," said Jason Calacanis, chief executive of Mahalo, a search engine that employs editors to write on different subjects.

Google will not own the copyright to Knol content and neither will the website contain the Google logo. The company's aim is to guide people towards the "answer" they want and it doesn't intend to own or create any content, said Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker. Knol allows people to create and publish information and the only role that Google has in this is to "organize that information", according to Stricker.

While some people like Wenda Harris Millard, co-chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, worry about the bias of Google search results, Stricker said that if Knol pages do rank high, it is because they "earned their position", reported the New York Times.

Calacanis expressed concern about Google overtaking search results, which may "alienate Web publishers that are Google's advertising partners" although Google might not actually "artificially favor its sites", reported the NYT.

Google currently owns YouTube, blogging service Blogger and Usenet archives, a digital discussion board collection that is older than the Web. Google also digitalizes books that show up on search results as well as containing stories from the Associated Press in its Google News service and publishing stock market information on Google Finance.

Source: NYT

See also:
Google launches paid Wikipedia alternative

Yesterday, the New York Times published an article about buyouts at the New Jersey Star-Ledger, but really, a story about nearly every American newspaper today.

"...The bald fact is this newspaper can't stand on its own two feet now and something has to change," said Jim Willse, the paper's editor. "I told the staff yesterday that the problem we are suffering is like the plague. It is sweeping through our business and you can't expect beneficent ownership to ignore what is going on."

An article in the Star-Ledger on Friday announced the owners will sell the newspaper if they cannot win union concessions and persuade 200 of the 756 nonunion, full-time employees to take a buyout by October 1. The Star-Ledger, along with its sister paper, The Times of Trenton, is losing $30 million to $40 million a year.

The news is particularly disheartening, because, as Nick Carr, of NYT reports, the Star-Ledger is an excellent paper, and its owners - the Newshouse chain - are excellent owners.

"Under the sure hand of its editor, Jim Willse, The Star-Ledger is both modern -- big and pretty with strong photos, navigation and graphics -- and a throwback to the days when the most important story was the one just down the block. In short, it's the kind of newspaper that can get the laziest reader out of bed," writes Carr of his local paper.

In the article, Carr acknowledges the cliché that should be coming. "This is the place... where the knowing... point the finger at the evil, greedy owners and talk about their relentless pursuit of profits above all else. That's some other column. The Newhouse newspaper chain... owns 27 newspapers and has managed to maneuver through the past few years of downturns without brutal cuts... It has also invested in papers to the point where many of them are regional standouts, including The Oregonian in Portland, and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where it financed and supported the paper even as many businesses -- much of the advertising base -- deserted the place."


"It's a sad story not just for my friends who work at the paper," said Tom Moran, the paper's political columnist. "But for the state of New Jersey." A state which has been riddled with political corruption. "If this continues, the bad guys will have a lot less to worry about."

Source: The New York Times