Recently by Rosemary D'Amour

A report entitled "Size Doesn't Matter" concludes that news sites on the Internet can be profitable, if they reach a certain amount of readers, according to Advertising Age.

Online media-research company ContentNext looked at independently run, low budget sites like Drudge Report to media giants Google News.  

Cost-intensive operations by major publications such as the New York Times, AdAge reports, as well as small website operations, can be self-sustaining, according to the report's author Lauren Rich Fine.  

The challenge is getting enough readers to create "a discernable enough brand to make advertisers seek them out."

Nielson Online is reporting that the top 10 newspaper sites saw an increase in visitors last month, supporting the case for publishers to "continue to invest online and realign their business focus," communications director Alex Burmaster said.

Media Week is reporting that, on average, the UK's leading newspaper websites saw an increase in page views by 23% than November 2007, and "outperformed the wider online marketplace."

Despite the grim outlook for print publications, online versions have been thriving this year, Burmaster said.  The panel-based research comes following the report by Deloitte predicting that one in 10 newspapers will either cut print frequency, move entirely online or shut down in the next year.

The Guardian was the leader with 3.4 million unique UK visitors, followed by the Telegraph with 3.1 million visitors.  News International online versions of titles The Times and The Sun, followed by the Daily Mail, rounded out the top five.

Source: Media Week

India's language dailies are "tapping into the mix of sentiment and technology," as the Internet serves a means of "keeping in touch with one's roots" and staying informed as more people spread around the globe.

Internet "penetration" is increasing in rural areas, adding to the base of nearly 50 million users in mostly urban settings, Exchange4Media is reporting.

Newspapers had been launching their online versions as "customary add-ons to their main dailies," Exchange reports, but more papers have started to launch newer verticals as well as sub-domains, enabling them to "have better control over classifieds" and use the online medium effectively and profitably.

The online edition of Next, a new newspaper, has been launched in Lagos, Nigeria before the print publication.

Garcia Media describes it as a "light launch," or beta version, of the publication.  The site will not be run up to its full potential for some time, according to the blog.

The publication is under the leadership of publisher and creator Dele Olojede, a Nigerian Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former foreign editor for Newsday.  He plans to recruit young journalistic talent to produce a "youthful, inspiring and service-oriented" newspaper.

The Web site, www.234next.com, used resources from the Garcia Media team to help with development of layout and content, as well as newsroom training.

Source: Garcia Media via IFRA

James Rainey of the LA Times finds that the conjunction of the decision by Detroit's two daily newspapers to reduce the days of home delivery, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors vote to take "paper" out of its name in April, indicates an embrace of "the shift of many readers and advertisers to the Internet," Rainey notes.

But a shift in newspaper delivery could have more serious implications for the industry as a whole.

How much longer will newspapers be able to actually deliver the news? Rainey wonders, as does the rest of the industry.  The Internet is where many believe the news industry is headed, as evidence by the Christian Science Monitor's decision to go online-only and print a single Sunday edition.  

Detroit's papers argue it's better to alter their delivery system than to "further cut the news staffs."  The move will save millions for the papers, owners said.

But the break from the 400-year-old delivery system, Rainey notes, is the kind of move that there's no going back on.

Four online community news sites will be expanding their staff and coverage after receiving a $390,000 grant by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Given the current state of the news industry, who is cutting costs by cutting staff and coverage, "citizens are receiving less of the news they need to lead informed lives and hold their governments accountable," Knight Foundation journalism program director Gary Kebbel said in a statement.  

The "young, online-only sites" that Knight has funded, investigative ventures the MinnPost, Voice of San Diego, Chi-town Daily News and the St. Louis Beacon, help "fill the void" for readers, Kebbel said.

The foundation has announced its efforts to find "new models for delivering news and information," adding to its $100 million in grants for initiatives.

Source: Editor and Publisher

Taking on Independent columnist Johann Hari, Media Guardian's Roy Greenslade finds that the "newspapers-versus-bloggers argument is entirely false," and that there is a future for the industry with the involvement of citizen journalists.

Hari uses the financial state of the industry, following the bankruptcy of the Tribune Co. and the arrival of the Internet, to form a new paradox: "more people are reading quality newspapers than ever before," he writes, and yet, "newspapers are dying."  The reason for this is, Hari says, because "we don't just want it all, we want it free."

There will be an "aching hole where newsgathering used to be," Hari writes, because the leftover sources of news--online sources, such as bloggers--don't have the resources necessary to "make sense of the world."

Greenslade disputes the "us versus them" attitude that many professional journalists take toward bloggers and other citizen journalists.  The future of journalism, Greenslade writes, lies in "participation" between the professionals and citizens.

Traditional newspaper owners are "clinging desperately to an outmoded model," and journalists are following suit, Greenslade writes.  The future of news organizations will be "very different," but there need not be a "hole" if traditional sources fail.  

"We should be finding ways to fill it," Greenslade concludes, building business models to provide resources for the future.

Source: Media Guardian

Slate's Jack Shafer points out that the reason the world is bombarded with news of the newspaper industry's woes is because "they have easy access to a megaphone."

The seeming non-stop coverage as newspaper after newspaper folds, goes bankrupt, or cuts staff and print editions.  The media industry has "harbored" the "self-pitying" journalists, through Internet blogs and newspaper columns.  Some papers seem to be banking on the demise, devoting sections to coverage of the industry's struggle.

The rise of the digital age is the "underlying cause of grief" for newspapers, and is the reason that many others are without a job, Shafer says.  Only, the journalists of the world get a larger soapbox on which to stand.  Shafer wonders how often have they lamented the demise of other services, products and industries.

A California daily has formed "The Oakland Press Institute for Citizen Journalism," in response to the "changing face" of the industry, according to an editor.

The Oakland Press is looking to its readers to help "tell stories better, quicker and more completely," according to executive editor Glenn Gilbert, by offering instruction in news writing, videography, basics of reporting for news and sports, and still photography.

Instances of citizen journalism are increasing throughout the industry and around the world, from small local news additions to large-scale updates on such instances as the Mumbai terror attacks, which used social media, fueled by citizen journalists, to help cover the events.

Many publishers are wondering how long it will be until newspapers go entirely online, and how long a publication like that could survive "on its own," Poynter's Ernst Poulsen writes.

But after going bankrupt in a competition with major media companies, free paper Nyhedsavisen has a web site that is doing relatively well.

Although Avisen.dk's numbers have gone down, their readership is younger, and "surprisingly" strong.

The site's content is far from pablum, focusing instead on brand awareness, targeting a younger audience, according to Kristoffer Gravgaard, CEO of Newspaq, the site's recent owner.  

The site has been moved from a "fairly tabloid position" and now covers subjects relating to its audience, such as mobile phones, crime, bicycle traffic and youth economy, Gravgaard said, which gives the site an advantage.

Gravgaard finds that online newspapers will not only survive, but thrive in the new economy, he said.  

Source: Poynter

The Wall Street Journal is planning new online ventures to improve and monetize its site, according to the Associated Press.

In addition to improved site customization and search, the paper is also exploring an "à la carte" payment service for features, which MarketingVOX finds could "offset the cost of online content provided for free."

Editor Robert Thomson has declared that the Journal's most important test is to tailor online content to suit readers' needs, and how the paper will charge them for that service.

Detroit Media Partnership CEO David Hunke has declared that the company is "committed" to publishing two dailies in Detroit, never considering shutting down The Detroit Daily News amidst its current financial situation, according to Editor and Publisher.

The partnership has announced radical changes to the content and distribution of Detroit's two dailies, the News and The Detroit Free Press, foregoing home delivery except for Thursday, Friday and Sunday editions, and printing a one-section newspaper for single-copy sales the rest of the week.

The main criticism of the industry is that it does "little, incremental changes," Hunke said, and the changes will ensure the papers' survival.

The Rocky Mountain News' staff has created a Web site to rally public support following an announcement by E.W. Scripps Co. that the Denver daily was up for sale and would close the paper if there were no buyers.

IwantMyRocky.com is a forum for readers to propose methods and "share memories" from Colorado's oldest business.

"If we can't save the Rocky," columnist at the 149-year-old paper, Mike Littwin, writes, "We can, at minimum, make some noise before we go."

Staffers have sent out emails and messages to readers and community members urging them to protest the ultimatum offered by Scripps, saying that the timing of the sale is far from optimal during an economic recession in the holiday season.

The site's function is a chance for readers and staffers to express "why the newspaper is important to them," and the role it has played in the community.

Source: Colorado Independent

Brian Till, one of the US's youngest syndicated columnists, had an epiphany during his discussions about the decline in American journalism.  

Although he spends "hours a day reading news," and has countless resources at his disposal, he has only purchased "bout a dozen American papers in the last year." Till finds that, ipso facto, his actions have helped diminish the newspaper industry.  

"I am the murderer of news," he writes, along with his generation, who has failed to recognize the role they've played. Growing up with free news, Till writes, has left his generation clueless to the fact that they were the "free riders killing the industry."

The Knight Foundation has supplied University of Minnesota researcher Christine Greenhow and Seattle-based news aggregator NewsCloud with a grant to launch two social media publications on social networking site Facebook, according to a press release.