With print advertising revenues steadily falling, there is no doubt that this is a tough time for the news industry. By extension, a few recently-published articles have argued that it is also becoming an increasingly tough time for news readers, as the pressures on newspapers are harming their ability to serve communities.

The first is an article by Dan Mitchell for CNN Money, which criticises Advance Publication’s decision to reduce printing of the The New Orleans Times-Picayune to three days a week.

Mitchell suggests that Advance is making a decision without regarding the needs and habits of the Times-Picayune readers. “The Times-Picayune's penetration — the proportion of the potential audience that actually reads the paper — is among the highest in the country, at more than 75 percent,” he writes, “And although Advance spins its plans as a bold step into the digital future (it promises more emphasis on its typically terrible Web site), more than a third of New Orleans' population has no Internet access.”

Mitchell is especially critical of the decision, because, although he doesn’t cite figures, he contends that “the paper reportedly is profitable — it's just not profitable enough for Advance.”

The second danger to newspapers’ role in serving the public is suggested by New York Times journalist David Carr in an article titled “Newspaper as Business Pulpit”. Carr writes that, “there is a growing worry that the falling value and failing business models of many American newspapers could lead to a situation where moneyed interests buy papers and use them to prosecute a political and commercial agenda.” He goes on to argue that this scenario has already become reality for The U-T San Diego, a paper bought up by the developer Douglas F. Manchester, which often “seems like a brochure for his various interests.”

Carr suggests that public figures or agencies opposed to Manchester’s plans “have found themselves investigated in the news pages of The U-T” and writes that “the newspaper has published front-page editorials and wraparound sections to promote political allies who share its agenda.” Carr writes that the paper’s CEO, John T. Lynch, who also owns part of the business, fired a sport reporter named Tim Sullivan, who held different views to Lynch and Manchester about the construction of a new football stadium, although he adds “Mr. Sullivan has since entered negotiations over his departure and would not discuss the specifics of his firing."

A third danger represented to news reporting from cuts is suggested in an extract from Paul Marsden’s book “What do we mean by local,” reposted by Guardian journalist Roy Greenslade on his blog a little over a month ago.

Marsden writes that cuts to the local news media have simply resulted in lots of important local news either not being covered or being covered badly. He quotes a district council affairs reporter, who said that as a result of cuts "[The] quality is getting worse and worse… This is bad for society and the industry as a whole in terms of a lack of reporting of current affairs and politics. The shocking level of inaccuracy also gives an inaccurate perception of events to society."

Nevertheless, the articles do not suggest easy solutions to these problems, and there are important objections to be raised to their arguments. To take one example, although Mitchell says that the Times-Picayune is currently profitable, these is no doubt that print revenues overall are in decline. An article by respected media analyst Ken Doctor about the Times-Picayune noted that although the paper was “profoundly a print habit” for New Orleans residents, “newsprint is going the way of the steam engine, to be visited in theme parks. US newspaper companies are using only a little more than half of what they consumed, in newsprint, a decade ago.” More importantly, none of the articles are intended to address the growth of public interest journalism in new, digital forms.

Yet although this is the case, these articles still all highlight that, as the news industry thinks about the future of its profits, it is fundamental that it thinks about the future of its readers as well.

Sources: CNN Money, New York Times, Guardian, Newsonomics

Israel’s attorney general has announced plans to prosecute an investigative reporter who received a trove of classified documents from a whistleblower inside the military, the AP reported yesterday.

Reporter Uri Blau, who works for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, received more than 2,000 military documents from the former military conscript clerk Anat Kamm. Kamm copied the material from military computers between 2005 and 2007, the AP says.

Kamm, who previously also worked as a journalist, was prosecuted last year. She was sentenced in October to four and a half years in prison for collecting and distributing secret information. The online magazine +972, which writes about issues affecting Israel and Palestine, has constructed a detailed timeline of events around her prosecution and the case involving Blau.

The documents received by Blau suggested that military authorities had authorised the killing of Palestinian militants when they could have been arrested, in defiance of an Israeli High Court ruling.

Before Blau published stories relating to these issues, his articles were submitted to the military censor (standard practice in Israel for security-related material) and they were approved.

Haaretz reports that the justice department has said that the decision to indict Blau was made “after taking into account all of the relevant considerations, including the need to restrain the enforcement policy in order to maintain the Israeli press as a free press which fulfills its duty."

A statement from the state prosecutors office, also quoted by Haaretz, says Blau had knowingly been in possession of thousands of secret documents, and that he had “betrayed his duty – and later his commitment before the state – to cease possession of them." The statement continued, “the potential damage of possessing the documents… was immense."

However, the move has been widely criticised by press freedom advocates and journalism groups. Roy Greenslade at the Guardian has quoted Reporters Without Borders, who have called the decision to charge Blau, “a worrying sign for freedom of the press in Israel.” RWB continues, “We repeat our request for the charges against Uri Blau to be dropped."

+972 quotes the chairman of the International Federation of Journalists in Jerusalem, who says “The decision of the attorney general to file an indictment against Uri Blau brings Israel back a generation, and casts into doubt its definition as a real democratic state. The decision joins a string of legislative moves designed to harm the status of journalism and its critical role in ensuring the existence of a democratic regime."

+972 writes that the case against Blau has dragged on over several years. When the leaks made by Kamm began to be investigated, Blau spent time in exile in the UK, while his lawyers brokered a deal with Israeli officials so that he would not be prosecuted. The deal involved returning certain classified documents, but although Blau handed them over, the state later demanded that he return the entire collection, and then pushed ahead to prosecute him anyway, writes +972.

The AP states that formal charges against Blau are expected in a few weeks. If he is convicted, he may face up to seven years imprisonment.

Sources: AP, Guardian (1) (2), Haaretz (1) (2), +972 (1) (2)

Plenty has been written about a shortage of women in the newsroom.

Last December a study by Guardian journalist Kira Cochrane suggested that 78% of articles that appeared in British national dailies were written by men.

Last February a group of German journalists got together to complain that, in the German newspaper industry, just 2% of editors-in-chief were women.

The same month, the group VIDA: Women in Literary Arts published a study suggesting that the overwhelming majority of articles in major literary magazines had male authors.

Now, a fresh study has been published, which indicates that women are also being severely under-represented in op-ed writing as well. Poynter reports on a byline survery conducted by the OpEd Project, which suggests that although there have been significant improvements in the proportion of women authoring opinion articles, the subjects they write on still continue to be stereotypical female – food, family, furniture and fashion.

The study notes that, even including these subjects, many more men that women are still publishing op-eds: women wrote just 20% of opinion pieces published in traditional media, 33% of those published via new media and 38% of those in college publications. As Poynter reports, the study looked at more than 7,000 articles, published between September 17 and December 7 2011 in 10 US media outlets.

Despite the still large proportion of men authoring op-eds, the study found that the proportion of women publishing opinion pieces has improved. Poynter notes, for example, that the number of op-eds by women in The New York Times was 17% in 2005, and has now risen to 22%.

Nevertheless, there is clearly still a long way to go, and different publications have been discussing how to get more women to start writing op-eds on a diverse range of subjects. The Atlantic Wire reports on an event organised by a group called Her Girl Friday, named “Throw like a girl: pitching the hell out of your stories.” The event brought together a panel of journalists and editors to discuss why fewer female journalists were being published. As The Atlantic Wire reports, the group seemed to agree that the gender gap was “not purely based in sexism or gender bias” but was also tied up with a lack of confidence from female journalists.

Poynter reports on the same event, and quotes the panel’s host, Amy O’Leary, a reporter for The New York Times, who said she would spend weeks or even months trying to get her pitches just right, while her male colleagues would throw together a story pitch in a day.

“I was afraid to take the leap,” says O’Leary, quoted by Poynter, “Early on, I lacked the confidence to pitch as much as I wanted.”

However, The Atlantic Wire rejects the idea that the low proportion of female bylines is entirely to do with a lack of confidence: “surely there are guy journalists who are crushed by rejections, too?” writes author Jen Doll.

The Colombia Journalism Review points out the lack of diversity in the newsroom is by no means limited to gender. “Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), showed one-half of one percent of op-eds in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were written by Latinos; in The Washington Post, it was 0 percent. Asian Americans authored an average of 2 percent; blacks roughly 5 percent (though that rate was lifted by the Post’s 10 percent),” notes the article.

Sources: Guardian, sfn blog, VIDA, OpEd Project, Poynter (1) (2) The Atlantic Wire

Image via The OpEd Project

In countries like Syria, where the authorities make it nearly impossible for professional journalists to operate, citizen journalism has become crucial to keeping the world informed about what is happening on the ground.

To facilitate this difficult, dangerous and frequently deadly work, the live video streaming service Bambuser announced yesterday that it will start giving citizen journalists free premium access to its product.

Citizen reporters who want to apply simply have to email info@bambuser.com with their Bambuser username and a short description of the content they produce. In return, the video streamer promises to give them an ad-free service with unlimited viewing hours and storage, as well as access to statistics about their videos and special customisation options.

Normally premium access costs between €99 and €499 a month and, even at the top end, viewing hours are not unlimited.

The company, which is based in Sweden and Finland, explains the decision on its blog, saying, “at Bambuser we truly believe in free speech and democracy. Over the past years we've seen more and more activists and citizen journalists use Bambuser to broadcast real-time information about activities and events when they happen,” The blog continues, “we believe videos from areas with unrest should be ad-free and we also think you should have the opportunity to learn more about your viewers.”

Bambuser has been critical to helping citizen journalists publicise the events of the Arab uprisings. As the Bambuser blog reports, the livestreaming service was used by citizen reporter Rami Ahmad Alsayeed, whose footage of the shelling of Homs was broadcast by major news outlets including the BBC, Sky News and Al Jazeera. Alsayeed was killed in Homs in February.

Bambuser has a deal with the Associated Press, which lets Bambuser users choose to give the AP access to their videos and distribute them to other news organisations. The AP can contact Bambuser citizen reporters who decide to make their content available. When the agency distributes their work, it gives these users credit.

Bambuser has previously reported being blocked in Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Kazakhstan. Earlier this month the service reported that it had suffered a Distributed Denial of Service attack, which it said appeared to be aimed at its Russian citizen journalist users.

As Bambuser announces its offer of premium access to citizen journalists, the company’s Executive Chairman, Hans Eriksson, tells The Next Web, “We think it’s particularly important in terms of the context that videos are viewed by a global audience. We don’t believe ads combined with protests, demonstrations and war-like situations are proper. We know ads are also an issue for the broadcaster as he/she wants the cleanest possible video out. To us, these people are important users and if we can help them to a better total experience in what they’re doing we’re very satisfied.”

Sources: PR Watch, Bambuser (1) (2) (3) (4), The Next Web