According to Mediapost, "Weather.com's decision earlier this month to start running advertorials for Scott's fertilizer--a first for that site--evidences the growing trend of online content paid for by sponsors, say online media experts. And while the watchdogs say there's nothing inherently wrong with advertorials, they stress that publishers should clarify that the content is paid for. Without such disclaimers, they say, consumers will eventually lose confidence in the Web as a source of information... The Scott's advertorial on Weather.com has not yet launched, says a company spokeswoman, so it's unclear how the site plans to handle any disclaimers. Although Weather.com has no corresponding print presence, experts say they consider it a journalistic site because it performs the traditionally journalistic tasks of collecting and analyzing information."

Source: Mediapost

Axel Springer, Germany's biggest newspaper publisher, wants to expand the formula of the Polish newspaper "Fakt" to other countries, such as Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic. "Fakt" is the Polish version of the German newspaper "Bild" and was launched eight months ago. Within two months the paper became Poland's best selling daily, with 500,000 copies. Its editor, Grzegorz Jankowski, was invited as a speaker for the 11th World Editors Forum in Istanbul on 1 June 2004.

Source: - Financial Times via Libération/ Villamedia (Belgium) and the European Journalism Centre

New York Times.com has expanded its Really Simple Syndication (RSS) offerings to 27 categories, including new feeds such as Most E-mailed Articles, Multimedia and Week in Review. You can find all of the Times's RSS feeds at NYTimes.com/rss

Source: cyberjournalist.net

According to New York Times, "There will be roughly 15,000 news media representatives in New York - more than three times the number of delegates - at the Republican convention... The press center at the convention, which is scheduled to take place Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, is being set up in the general post office in Midtown, an imposing fortress of a building that sprawls across two city blocks. The center has been connected to the convention site at Madison Square Garden by a $1 million temporary covered bridge over Eighth Avenue. Organizers are already comparing the complex to the Olympic village for the athletes competing in Athens this summer.

Source: New York Times

As revealed by the comparative sales statistics 2003/2004 for Germany, published by Zeitungs Marketing Gesellschaft (organization for the marketing of Newspapers) on wednesday, the sales of daily newspapers in Germany have been reduced by 2.91% to 27.97 million. during the third quarter of 2004. The sector, which was hit worst is that of newsstand sales with a reduction of 5.36%, while subscription sales have only diminished by 2.26% according to ZMG.

Source: ZMG (registration required)

According to Jemima Kiss, dotjournalism.co.uk, "Africa's male-dominated media organisations often leave female journalists without adequate training and support, according to the African Women's Media Centre (AWMC), which has launched a new online resource. Under the slogan 'no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice', the first edition of the site provides information on training, networking groups and professional support, with a forum for discussion and advice. The site also includes information on awards, scholarship schemes and press freedom issues. The AWMC was founded in 1997 by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and is believed to be the only organisation working for African women in the media."

Sources: dotjournalism.co.uk and AWMC

For abcnews "The American editor of the Russian edition of Forbes said he believed the troubled country was entering a new era where businesses would not be run like mafia crime families, but when he was gunned down outside his Moscow office, the killing had all the signs of a mob hit. Paul Klebnikov, 41, who opened the Russian edition of Forbes this spring, was gunned down Friday as he was leaving work. The professional-style slaying of a journalist is all too common in Russia, where by some counts as many as 200 reporters have been killed since the collapse of the Soviet Union 13 years ago. In just a handful of those cases has anyone been convicted, a failure that human and journalists' rights groups say is a result of a combination of police and governmental corruption and an antipathy among officials toward journalists, especially those doing investigative work. "There is a problem that those in power don't want a free press," said Oleg Panfilov, director of the Center for Journalists in Extreme Situations, a Moscow-based group that works to promote the development of free, independent media in Russia.

Source: abcnews. See also Moscow News and former posting.

Pakistani security forces killed an Al-Qaeda kingpin allegedly behind an assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf and indicted in the murder of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, a security official said. Amjad Farooqi, Pakistan's most wanted terrorist with a 20 million rupee (330,000 dollars) bounty on his head, was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Nawabshah in southern Sindh province, the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. He was indicted over Pearl's murder but was never tracked down. Farooqi provided the militants who kept Pearl in a shed on Karachi's outskirts after the reporter was abducted on January 23, 2002, a police officer who investigated the case had told AFP. He also recruited the trio of men who slit Pearl's throat as a video-camera filmed and was said to be "very close" to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born militant convicted of plotting Pearl's abduction and murder.

Source: channelnewsasia.com

According to AFP, "Dakar's beleaguered independent Le Quotidien daily has been fined for defamation amid a week-long campaign to secure the release of its editor jailed on politically-motivated charges. A municipal court late Thursday found the daily guilty of publishing false information about former customs chief Boubacar Camara and slapped the managing editor, the jailed Madiambal Diagne, and publisher Mamadou Biaye with a 760-euros fine and a one-month suspended sentence... Diagne was jailed last week for publishing confidential reports and correspondence, false information and news "which could cause serious political problems". Diagne's incarceration has sparked outrage across Senegal, normally considered a bastion of democracy in Africa though it has been rapped of late for its inattention to press freedom by groups such as Amnesty International."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2004/11/16/717274-cp.html">Cnews reports that Canada's seventh largest publishing company Transcontinental Inc. will acquire three new printing presses in Owen Sound, Ontario, as well as Boucherville and Beauceville, Quebec. These three presses will replace seven presses that are currently in use, displacing 135 jobs.

3 out of 10 Korean high school students who carry mobile phones are reported to be addicted to mobile phones. They feel anxious without their cell phones. According to the result of survey carried by the Hospital of Seoul National University, 21% of 270 high school students carrying cell phones responded that they feel anxious when their handsets are not in their hands and 8% of them said that they feel very frustrated without mobile phones. 10% of the respondents said that they have ever felt pain in the shoulder or wrist when they send SMS or play games on their phones.

The pain they feel when they send SMS is a kind of syndrome that the repetitive work to press small keyboards of cell phones causes poor blood circulation and pain in the shoulder. 31% of the surveyed said that they send more than 30 text messages a day. The hospital warned that excessive use of mobile phones, like Internet addiction, can cause depression, anxiousness and sleep disorder. Source: Telecoms Korea