One more newspaper is terminating its contract with the Associated Press. Effective on April 1, Metro US will no longer be using the wire news service as a source in an effort to cut costs and also to better develop their own material to cater it to their audience. Metro International will remain a customer of the AP.

"Encouraging existing staff to write more and employing new writers gives us a higher degree of flexibility and results in a product which is more relevant to the young, professional audience we, and our advertisers, seek," said Tony Metcalf, editor in chief of Metro USA, in a statement. In addition, "By relying more on our own reporting staff, we make a substantial saving while protecting the newspapers' quality and improving relevance to our local markets."

Ana Bernal Triviño recently completed her doctorate at the University of Malaga, Spain. Her choice of thesis, entitled "Design preferences of the young regarding journalistic information on the internet" has already attracted some interest from media commentators and professionals alike.

Bernal's research throws some light on the relationship between the young and their preferred choice of medium - the web - in particular, addressing issues such as the relevance of design, content and layout in attracting younger readers to websites.

In an interview with media expert, Dr. Mario R. García of Garcí­a Media, Bernal says that her study confirms "the young prefer reading news online, as it agrees more with their fast paced lifestyle", but that a website that fails to think carefully about design is likely to fail in attracting and hanging onto readers.

Bernal realised early on that it was the internet that constituted the main news source for the majority of her young Spanish peers, who rarely sought information from television and much less radio. In addition to content, she came to the conclusion that the internet offered some "specific design elements" and, hoping to understand which of these elements proved the most appealing, Bernal set about working on her thesis.

A Pew survey, which reviewed 300 Online News Association members, showed that most online journalists are feeling more optimistic than traditional media journalists. The majority said they had not experienced as many cutbacks as print journalism, and some even reported a growth in staff. In addition, they seem confident that they will find "a profitable business model online" (chiefly in advertising) with 39% very confident and 43% somewhat confident.

Despite the optimism, there is a sense of worry among them as the majority reported uncertainty in relation to journalism values online. 54 per cent said journalism is "headed on the wrong track" and 57 per cent said journalism values are changing with Internet. The top three include: "loosening standards and/or less carefulness, 45 per cent," "Allowing others to have a voice (good & bad), 31 per cent," and an increased "emphasis on speed (good & bad), 25 per cent."

On May 20th, media140 will host London's first microblogging event. "The event will bring together journalists, bloggers and publishers to share and discuss the use and impact of Twitter and other social media tools in their industry," it says on the event's webpage.

The Times, Guardian, Reuters, Sky News, Journalism.co.uk, Frontline Club and bloggers will unite to discuss topics such as "how to use Twitter as a journalistic tool", or how to recognize newsworthy tweets and whether communities will use microblogging to create local news.

In a tweet, the event organizer Andrew Gregson told Journalism.co.uk, "I want the event to raise the bar with twitter and microblogging within the world of journalism - there is a lot of change coming."

The Huffington Post has announced that it is to launch an Investigative Fund with an initial budget of $1.75 million, in collaboration with The Atlantic Philanthropies and other donors. Founder Arianna Huffington told the AP that she believes that "All of us increasingly have to look at different ways to save investigative journalism."

The funding should be enough to support 10 staff investigative reporters, and Huffington hopes to use laid-off journalists, who will work with freelancers to look at stories about the US economy. Although the site generally has a liberal leaning, Huffington was adamant that the investigative journalists' work will be non-partisan, and the fund's executive director Nick Penniman pointed out that the group would be quickly discredited if it puts out faulty information.

As the HuffPost currently has only 7 staff reporters, acting mainly as a breaking news aggregator and hosting commentary by celebrities bloggers, this move is a significant step towards producing more original reporting. The reporting will be available for any publication or website to use, as part of a policy to encourage content to be reproduced virally for maximum exposure, according to Project for Excellence in Journalism director Tom Rosenstiel.

French citizen journalism portal Citizenside has announced the launch of its iPhone application in English. Version 1.1, in French, was launched at the end of January. Citizenside co-founder Matthieu Stefani explains that the English version of the application should help the company to extend its already global reach, as the "international application market is over 20 times larger than the French one".

The platform, which was launched in 2006, acts as an agent between amateur photographers and publications, as well as helping other publications to set up their own citizen photo sites. Citizenside has also developed technology which allows detailed authentication of the origin of the images it receives, and helps avoid the pitfalls of photos which aren't what their owners say they are.
Stefani points out that the Citizenside iPhone application is 'white label', allowing media outlets that purchase it to apply their own brand and identity to it. As an example of how mobile technology in particular helps the site, he describes how the company "recently received live coverage from French students during demonstrations". Stefani explains that they are "now waiting for our growing international 'News Witness' community to use this application and share more news with Citizenside and its clients."

Source: Citizenside

With the 2010 World Cup a little over a year away, South African newspapers find themselves redesigning their pages to accommodate for advertisers, less pages and more sports coverage.

Business Day recently had a face-lift, moving crosswords and puzzles to the back of the front section, where advertisement was not very popular. "We are, anyway, trying to rebalance our revenues with the cover price playing a bigger and bigger role," said editor, Peter Bruce. Moving the puzzles to the back means "more editorial space for sport, which is a good thing."

The Sunday Times underwent changes in February by reducing and reorganizing content. The Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup call for larger sports sections. In the past, they did not necessarily have a stand-alone sports section, which was usually limited to two pages. Managing editor, Heather Robertson said the new paper will bring "variety, more voices, and more attitude".

Source: journalism.co.za

Culture secretary Andy Burnham appears to have dismissed idea of government subsidies for newspapers in the UK. In an interview with the Scarborough Evening News, Burnham said that "the government does not have the funds to chuck around" to subsidise newspapers.

He did, however, hint that "there might be a package to put together for the local press". The culture secretary recently asked the Society of Editors for its ideas on possible solutions. Burnham revealed that issues raised had included redirecting government ad spending towards newspapers, and examining whether the BBC could help.

Recently the UK has seen a spate of council run newspapers launched, and this has caused problems for many regional newspapers that have found themselves in competition for both readership and advertising with local authority titles. "There has to be a balance and councils are overstepping that," Burnham said.

The latest data released on smartphones has put Apple's iPhone at the top spot with an impressive 50% of web share - its closest rival, RIM's Blackberry 8300 model, trailing behind with just 9.1%.

The iPhone's web share in the US equates to a staggering 40% increase in the period between August 2008 and February 2009, with the following three manufacturers in the list each having lost more than 10% in this time frame. Just three months since its launch, the Google Android is also doing well with 5% of web traffic.

But what can American newspapers learn from these figures?

Given the rising trend in mobile internet use, newspapers must avoid the pitfalls that plagued them in the first years of the internet: they must act early, investing accordingly in improving their mobile news sites both in terms of design and usability. For any big name newspaper brand to have not already made significant steps in this area is inexcusable.

On March 3, Article 19, global campaign promoting freedom of expression and freedom of information, launched a Portuguese-language Website called Marco do Acesso. The Website "seeks to empower users to take advantage of existing legal mechanisms to demand information from public bodies and to raise citizen awareness about their right to information" said Paula Martins, coordinator of Article 19 Brasil.

It is an online tool for everybody. Journalists, lawyers and civil society organizations can now find data on Brazilian legal provisions on access to information. Brazil has more than 100 legal provisions that deal with access to information in 20 different areas such as health and education; the website has united the documents to facilitate research. There is even the option to search the provision by state and municipality.

Marco do Acesso will help journalists find the legal provisions they need to later demand access to the Brazilian public records. The Website will be regularly updated, and will soon include information on access to information laws worldwide.

Source: Observatório da Imprensa , IJNet

Telegraph Media Group has been including paid links in some of its online content. Links to sites like Tradedoubler and Boy.at allow the company to earn a small commission each time a reader clicks these links to external websites, and links to Amazon.com give TMG a percentage commission on Amazon purchases by visitors who followed their link.

Search marketing expert David Naylor investigated UK press links and exposed the paid links on Telegraph.co.uk on his blog. Naylor doubts the journalistic integrity of the practice, but TMG maintains that these links are completely independent from the journalism and that they do not harm editorial standards.

Speaking to Online Journalism Blog reporter Paul Bradshaw, a TMG spokeswoman confirmed the presence of the links but stresses that "this is an accepted means by which online publishers monetize their content." She claims that the TMG editorial team plays no part in the commercial aspects of the website and that the links are added post-publication by the commercial department.