With the takeover of the London Evening Standard by Alexander Lebedev confirmed, his son Evgeny has spoken out about their vision for the publication. The younger Lebedev has been appointed senior executive director by his father but will play a part time role in the running of the company, due to his having no experience in the newspaper industry.

"The plan is to have more serious coverage of the arts and culture and to engage Londoners more, and more coverage of events in London," he said, speaking to the Media Guardian. "Business and City news will also be extended. [Finance] is very important in these difficult times." Lebedev also revealed plans to invest £25m in the Evening Standard over the coming three years, and asserted that the Russian duo will not be interfering in the Standard's conservative political stance. Attempts to beef up the long-standing newspaper are in order to distinguish it from, and compete with, the two free London evening publications: the London Lite and the London Paper.

Trinity Mirror has joined other media organizations and newspapers in the social media revolution by introducing new interactive tools to its websites in collaboration with social media firm Pluck. The tools will be incorporated using APIs and widgets, Journalism.co.uk reports.

According to David Black, Trinity Mirror's group director of digital publishing, "Our strategy is all about building a really engaged online audience. We see interactivity as absolutely critical to improving the experience we offer to our users."

Pluck's features will appear on Mirror.co.uk, Sunday Mail and Daily Record, Liverpool Echo, Coventry Telegraph and Gazette Live websites.

More additions planned for later this year are individual profiles and the implementation of user comments.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

Bolivian President Evo Morales has complained about how the news is reported in Bolivia's newspapers and believes that only 10% of journalists are reliable - so he has decided to create his own, the Associated Press reports. Cambio, meaning Change, made its debut today with a front cover that 'shows the president flanked by adoring children'. The paper also contained a long interview with the President promoting the new constitution.

The President has come under fire from private newspapers over his policies - in particular his support for giving greater power to the oppressed indigenous groups in the country. The state-run publication joins a state-run news agency, television station, radio network and free weekly paper, as well as nationalised gas companies and a nationalised mobile phone provider. A state run airline takes off next week.

Source: Associated Press

US News today launches a digital news weekly magazine entitled US News Weekly. It will be produced as a PDF file, laid out in magazine format. Editor Brian Kelly says that US News Weekly will be 'very Washington-centric', in contrast with its sister publication US News & World Report, which has become increasingly focused on topics such as health and education.

The move shows that US News has not completely given up on the idea of weekly news publication after it changed its title US News & World Report from being printed weekly, to bi-weekly and subsequently its current monthly frequency. "I don't think the newsweekly concept's outdated. I think it's the delivery method that's outdated. To produce a great report, close the magazine on Thursday night and then readers don't get it until Monday - that's insane."

One of the things that President Barack Obama promised during his campaign is change. And he seems to be keeping his promise.

Breaking with a long-standing tradition, the White House refused to allow photographers to take pictures of the new President in the Oval office on his first day. In protest, the world's three largest news agencies the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse refused to distribute the photographs that were provided by the White House.

Michael Oreskes, managing editor for U.S news at AP, said that they hope to negotiate an amicable solution, after emails and phone messages were not replied to by Obama's representatives.

Source: charlotteobserver.com

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced on Friday that France will be offering all 18 year olds a free daily newspaper of their choice. Newspapers themselves will provide free copies and the state will cover the cost of delivering them to the thousands of homes, Sarkozy clarified.

The scheme is part of a package of measures to help French newspapers, which have been struggling for some time and several of which are close to collapse. In a speech to industry leaders, Sarkozy stressed that "The habit of reading the press takes hold at a very young age."

For their eighteenth birthdays, teenagers will receive a year-long subscription to their favourite general news daily. The free subscription idea was among 10 ideas recommended to the government by a sub-committee charged with considering the specific problem of youth readership, but far from the top of the list. Two different strategies were most highly recommended: assuring that a youth voice was in newsrooms themselves to begin to address core content and platform issues via a cadre of young "ambassadors" and creating a habit of regular newspaper reading by assuring a short but daily newspaper reading period in school. "It's a shame because this solution is a mere band-aid, when radical surgery is needed," Aralynn McMane, World Association of Newspapers director of young readership development commented. "If the content is not compelling, free subscriptions are a waste."

The media industry is nothing if not dynamic. During tough times such as these, newspapers don't seem to be focusing on content and editorial quality as much as trying to secure their finances. Deleting sections and cutting paper widths are going hand in hand with the layoffs that the media industry is facing. Amidst all the chaos, here's how three different newspapers have reacted differently :

On January 21st, pegasusnews.com reported that the Dallas Morning News is hiring celebrated food critic Leslie Brenner as its new restaurant critic and dining editor. The paper, owned by the A H Belo Corporation, is said to have a circulation of half a million subscribers and does not seem to be particularly affected by the economic crisis. They have stayed on top of things by making strategic changes to their free paper Quick back in September and launching 47 hyperlocal websites in early January.

Unlike many major newspapers across Europe and the United States who are jumping on the integration bandwagon, Le Figaro has kept its print and online operations separate and intends for them to stay that way. It is, however, working hard to develop its website and keep up with online trends, as well as investing in printing plants. The Editors Weblog spoke with Bertrand Gié, Director of the department of new media at Le Figaro and Luc De Barochez, Editor in Chief at Figaro.fr, to get a better understanding of the paper's unique strategy for print, online and new media.

Strategy: Le Système Figaro

According to De Barochez, Le Figaro is unique because integration is not its objective, it has no interest in fusing print and online together. De Barochez explained that it was a matter of specializing in two different types of media; to him print journalism is something entirely different from online journalism. "We think that the web journalists have a specific job, that the Internet is a specific media and it's a new type of journalism that is developing - a multimedia journalism. Journalism for the daily paper is something completely different," De Barochez told the EW. At Le Figaro, although print and online journalists work closely together, they remain independent of one another.

Investing in print

Le Monde announced yesterday that its readers will be seeing a different kind of paper as of Monday, due to its redesign. The French daily has been battling dropping circulation figures (sales were down 5.3% January to November 2008 compared to the previous year) and as a result is overhauling its layout.

Deputy editor Laurent Greilsamer said that the publication would be remaining in line with its 2005 revamp and that its two fundamental principals would not change, 'We give the essential news and we emphasise the most useful analyses and surveys'. However what will change is based around a need to embrace technology and readers needs.

Source : Le Monde

The monde.fr team will be working much more closely with the daily newspaper team, in an effort to maximise the effect of the two sides to publication. With regard to format, the changes will be largely within the paper, with photos and graphics playing a larger role - although Le Monde will still be structured in its traditional three parts.

Knight Digital Media Center published an interview with Philadelphia Inquirer executive editor of online news Chris Krewson on the Inquirer's breaking news blog, From the Source. The idea for the blog came in late 2008, and it features brief stories and AP Alert-style notices.

Krewson explained that reporters frequently had information that news was happening but didn't know what the story was yet, and that posting news in a blog format "helped us get over the mental hurdle that 'we didn't have enough for a story.'" If a story develops and calls for a comprehensive write through, then it will be moved off the blog.

From the Source is now the third most read blog on Philly.com and Krewson commented that he was "glad we're trying this approach to the news; the rapid-updating feels like a much more "web" way to cover news.

The Philadelphia Inquirer was criticised last year for its decision to publish "signature investigative reporting, enterprise, trend stories, news features, and reviews" online only after they have been published in print. However reporters were urged to continue to publish breaking news online, and From the Source provides further encouragement.

To mark the relaunch of the Editors Weblog and the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Blog, the World Editors Forum is running a special series entitled "Doing More with Less." The series highlights major trends that editors-in-chief are using to steer their newsrooms through the difficult economic climate. This week, we looked at the Tampa Tribune, which has radically revamped its newsroom, and some examples of Editorial Outsourcing, a trend which many news publications have adopted. Below, editors from around the world share their own thoughts about EDITORIAL OUTSOURCING.
AFRICA
Azubuike Ishiekwene, Executive Director, Punch Nigeria
Editorial outsourcing is not an immediate problem for Punch, but we're already looking down the road to that moment. We think that before we reach that bridge, regular and forward-looking review of content (especially print content), and the continuous evaluation of job schedule of journalists across platforms might help us keep cost down and decide how best to apply our resources.