Since my first trip to the Al Jazeera headquarters in July 2004, I'm convinced that the future of the TV station will impact the whole Arab media landscape: Al Jazeera has introduced something new in the news gathering process and it will be very difficult to go backwards. Al Arabiya has already changed its coverage of Arab news - in the sense that it is more conventional - and it could happen to Al Jazeera according to this New York Times article: "Bush administration officials have complained heatedly to Qatari leaders that Al Jazeera's broadcasts have been inflammatory, misleading and occasionally false, especially on Iraq. The pressure has been so intense, a senior Qatari official said, that the government is accelerating plans to put Al Jazeera on the market, though Bush administration officials counter that a privately owned station in the region may be no better from their point of view. "We have recently added new members to the Al Jazeera editorial board, and one of their tasks is to explore the best way to sell it," said the Qatari official, who said he could be more candid about the situation if he was not identified. "We really have a headache, not just from the United States but from advertisers and from other countries as well." Asked if the sale might dilute Al Jazeera's content, the official said, "I hope not."

The French television group, Canal Plus, a division of Vivendi Universal, has struck a deal with SFR, a leading French mobile phone provider, according to the International Herald Tribune. For a 7 euro a month charge tacked on to their cellular bill, customers will now be able to use their 3G mobile phones to scan about 20 Canal Plus channels. Subscribers are expected to use the new technology whenever they have a spare minute, mostly during their daily commute and in between meetings.

So how will newspapers be affected?

Well, think about it.
What do people traditionally do on the train in between home and work?
Answer: read their city newspaper.

How has this already changed?
Answer: just look at the myriad of Mp3 players that have commuters tapping their feet, not to mention the explosion of free papers such as Metro and 20 Minutes.

How is this going to change again?
Answer: Instead of tuning into their iPod, closing their eyes and tuning out of the sardine-packed metro, commuters will, sooner rather than later, be plugging their earphones into their Nokia (who recently estimated global mobile phone penetration at 3 billion by 2010), and staring at their mobile screen watching whatever they'd like, from breaking news to sitcoms to sporting events.

"Visual information is fundamental to the survival of journalism," says Alberto Cairo

This important comment arises in the Q&A following the session. It is fortified by the following dialogue about why infographics may hold the key to attracting younger readers, and thus sustaining journalism's relevance for the next generation...

Basically, graphics attract young people because kids play video games so much. Thus, the quality of infographics are especially important because younger readers are used to that kind of quality in the video games they play so often. If the media provides them with that kind of high quality inforgraphics, it will then also get them interested in reading the newspaper as well...

Tarek Atia

A fact-finding mission to Tunisia undertaken by members of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) has found "serious cause for concern" about the current state of freedom of expression and of civil liberties in the country, including gross restrictions on freedom of the press, media, publishing and the Internet. The visit, which took place from 14 to 19 January 2005, was the first of the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group and was organised in preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a United Nations intergovernmental conference to be held in Tunis in November 2005.

Thanks to Alain Neuville, ANIMA CEO, for his authorization to publish his toughths when they are related to newspapers. This week, Alain analyzed the situation of the European Newspaper industry:

"There is at least one metric that is broadly shared by a great majority of countries; newspapers readership and circulation slump. Newspaper readership posts -0.6% in Italy. Circulation of national titles dropped by 0.5% in France. Circulation and readership are falling in Ireland. All the data recently released are in the red. The national dailies have been losing readers for some time now. The regional press had remained one of the few positive shelters in the British market. It is no longer the case since the last ABC figures have been released. In light of this difficult situation, publishers have to find new solutions..."

Five rescue strategies

- First is to find fresh cash in order to initiate rescue strategies. This is the case in France with new shareholders for Liberation (Rothschild) and Le Monde (Lagardere, Saint Gobain, Prisa, La Stampa)

- Second is to find new strategic alliances. In the Netherlands, the two major competitors, PCM and Wegener have decided to join in order to fight the dramatic situation of the regional press. PCM will replace De Volkskrant - which is the n?2 title in the market, behind De telegraaf ? with a merger between the Algemene Dagblad and five regional titles.

From AdAge: "Mr. Turner was the keynote speaker of the opening session of the American National Association of Television Program Executives annual conference. The media mogul... accused big media corporations of maintaining cozy relations with government. "It's very disturbing when we're at war," he said... The founder of CNN said, "I think there should be a little less Hollywood news and a little more hard news. That would be good for our democracy." He lamented that there was little opportunity for independent voices when "90% of the cable companies are owned by the broadcast networks."

I think Turner is right on one point: the American community of media thinkers is today focused on participatory journalism and citizen media as an answer to mergers and concentrations. But this position could also be interpreted as a renunciation: it is impossible to avoid more and more consolidation in the media industry. But at least, citizens can blog and chat!

In other words, Turner tries to defend the existing "Fourth Estate" when others want to invent an hypothetical "Fifth Estate". The problem is that this new Fifth Estate prefers struggling with "mainstream media" and forgets to fact-check the three other Estates. "Dommage" as we say in French!

Source: AdAge (registration required)

On Reuters: Iran increases its status as the Middle East's most unfriendly country for journalists, recently jailing yet another editor/blogger. Arash Sigarchi, accused of espionage and insulting the country's leaders, was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison.. In the past five years, over 100 liberal publications have been forced to close their doors at the hands of Iran's judiciary and numerous journalists have been arrested. Reporters Without Borders said Sigarchi had been updating a weblog in which he had spoken out about the arrest of more than 20 Internet journalists, technicians and webbloggers late last year.

Source: Reuters:

This is a very polemical and conservative point of view. But interesting on how covering the "terror war". The writer is Hugh Hewitt and he takes the Los Angeles Times coverage as a case study: "I have picked The Los Angeles Times' coverage of the war on terrorism to criticize because that coverage is woefully inadequate, failing to educate the paper's readership on the nature and extent of the threat the country faces... I would like to see The Times restructure its coverage to accomplish crucial objectives:

•  Do more to identify and inform the readers on the organization, leadership and capabilities of the Islamist terrorist network.

•  Start a daily — a daily — feature on the Global War on Terrorism and call it that."

Is Hewitt considering that terrorism is the only war of this new century?

Source: Los Angeles Times (registration required)

According to Forbes newspaper and publishing stocks in the S&P 500 are down 9% year on year. Economist and newspaper business consultant Miles Groves dissects the industry by distinguishing between those who "get it" and those who don't. Those who "get it" are the publishers that are branching out from print into other forms of media while maintaining their quality content, notably the New York Times and Dow Jones.

Source: Forbes

Here's an optimistic twist on recent rhetoric about the future of newspapers. Dennis M. Lyons of the Daily Record, a New Jersey newspaper owned by Gannett Co. Inc. quotes Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, an international nonprofit that promotes "enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue," who says, "Print. If for the past 400 years we'd been getting all of our info electronically, and somebody invented a way to put it on paper and deliver it to our doorsteps so we could read it in the backyard or bath or bus, people would say this new print technology is so wonderful it will replace the Internet." Lyons goes on to laud the convenience, reach, and influence of newspapers, emphasizing that nothing else sells for so little and provides so much valuable information. He citesRandy Siegel of Parade Magazine who says, "At the end of the day, the power of well-written newspapers is unparalleled in providing meaning, connection and context. In our harried daily lives, the human brain can absorb print more intimately and more effectively that the cacophonous, often confrontational messages blaring at us from the electronic media hundreds, if not thousands of times per day."

Source: The Daily Record

MARIO GARCIA of Garcia Media, a newspaper designer and a strong advocate of format change for newspapers.

Tabloid fever -- is the temperature going down?
Mr. Garcia, during his presentation focussed on general tips for conversion of newspapers (broadsheet) into compacts (tabloids).

"Its the best of times to rethink what they (the editors) do and how they do it".

Some early influences on change of format:
Free newspapers, which have tremendous impact. According to Garcia, free press is coming to a second stage, becoming more sophisticated. This gives the newspapers more incentive to try harder and become better. Take the example of Metro, which for Garcia, is highly
sophisticated and appealing to readers who normally never read papers.

The other idea is of the almost free press: papers which are inexpensive, try to attract readers and do the job (examples are Chicago Sun Times, Germany: 20 Cents)

Why compacts? The world is moving into everything smaller, cameras, mobile phones. "Since 1984, I have not attended a single focus group where the readers did not prefer the tabloid version of newspapers".

The ideal compact has larger photographs and less text. The reason for the success of the compact is: lower story counts and shorter texts, there is s certain finality to tabloids, the timer factor is also very important. It is important to note that the profile of the readers is of a tech savvy individual.