Newspaper

Australian public broadcaster the ABC has launched a new digital initiative called ABC Open to feature user-generated content on existing ABC local websites.

The initiative aims to develop the digital skills of local communities to tell their own stories. The reports produced through the project will be published on the broadcaster's local websites and other sites, and may also be distributed on radio, television or mobile platforms.

More than 50 editors and producers, based in local radio offices around the country, will be charged with helping communities design and develop media-rich local stories.

The launch of Apple's iPad has garnered much optimism in the newspaper industry, driving hopes that the innovative tablet computer will be able to breathe some new life into an industry battered by an advertising downturn.

Much speculation has placed very high hopes on the capacity of the iPad and a slew of new generation e-readers to revamp the industry and bolster its business model. But, as Poynter Online's Bill Mitchell reports, the iPad will probably not be the solution to all of the newspapers' woes, but this sleek electronic device could play a substantial role in the migration of users from a cost-heavy past to a more efficient future.

Staff members at The Guardian have voted to oppose proposed changes to their pay and conditions, including cuts to sabbaticals, and instead claimed a pay rise for editorial staff.

The Guardian reported that the local branch of the National Union of Journalists for The Guardian, The Observer and website guardian.co.uk voted against proposals to outsource technical support and some work involved in the production of sponsored supplements.

Parent company Guardian News & Media (GNM) also has plans to cut rates paid to casual staff and to end journalist sabbaticals, currently set at a four week paid break for every four years of service. Union members opposed these proposals.

The London Evening Standard's readership has gone from 556,000 in April to September to 1.37 million in the last three months of 2009, Stephen Brook from Guardian reports.

These positive readership figures follow the newspaper going free in October of last year and more than doubling its circulation to 600,000 copies in the process. The London Evening Standard was bought by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebeveb in 2008, and his decision to drop the paper's 50p cover price was made in the hope that boosted circulation would increase advertising enough to make up for the lost revenue of having no cover price. His move towards the freesheet format prompted speculation that other London quality newspapers may drop their cover price as well.

Newspaper publisher News International has launched a review of its search, affiliate, social media and pay-per-click business for some of its online newspaper brands, Media Week reports.

The publisher is looking for a search and social media agency to handle online brands including online bingo for The Sun and News of the World, as well as its online fantasy football game Dream Team.

There's more fuel for the debate over council-run newspapers in the UK today, with one local newspaper revealing that its council-supported rival costs taxpayers almost £28,000 a month.

In the town of Salford, near Manchester, the council magazine Life in Salford competes with newspapers the Salford Star and Salford Advertiser. The Salford Star filed a freedom of information request to determine the cost of producing the council magazine. It determined that the council spends £27,797 per month, or an average of £333,564 per year.

By contrast, outside advertising income for the paper totaled just over £19,000 for eight issues.

In what seems to be the latest move in the battle of the e-readers, Amazon has acquired Touchco, a start-up based in New York that specializes in touch screen technology, to possibly update its Kindle e-reader so it can better compete with Apple's iPad.

The New York Times reports that Amazon will merge Touchco's technology and staff members into its Kindle hardware division, Lab126, based in Cupertino, California, a source briefed on the deal said on Wednesday.

The iPad isn't the key to monetising news online, opines journalist and consultant Steve Outing in a new post on his blog, but personalisation might be.

He suggests that he will be no more likely to pay to read news websites on the iPad than on his computer. Since he reads many different news sources, he finds that there is too much news to pay for all of it, and highlights the importance of personalisation beyond iGoogle or Twitter feeds amid all this choice.

In this context, he compares the personalised web news service iCurrent, still in beta, to the personalised music service Pandora, which offers similar music to songs and artists that the user already likes. It learns more about what users enjoy as they click thumbs-up or thumbs-down on different songs.

Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris has denied that he is in talks with Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev over the purchase of the Independent newspapers, The Guardian has reported.

Editor of the Lebedev-owned newspaper the Evening Standard, Geordie Greig, has also denied that Sawiris was a part of the talks.

The Guardian yesterday reported that the two businessmen were in discussions about forming a partnership to purchase the Independent and the Independent on Sunday. Lebedev is in exclusive non-binding talks over the purchase of the two papers, with a deadline of 15 February, although that is likely to be extended to mid-March. 

Like most content creators, the Telegraph Media Group has always focused on increasing Web traffic by directing a maximum number of users to its Web site, Telegraph.co.uk, thereby increasing digital revenues through advertising. But times are changing, online ad revenue isn't enough, and TMG has come up with a new plan.

TMG's digital editor, Edward Roussel, told MediaGuardian today that the publisher will stop chasing everyone and instead focus on the "three Cs": content, commerce and clubs, with the hope of building a more sustainable business model.

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