"Local Newspaper Creates New Web Model" at the 13th World Editors Forum
Posted by John Burke on April 5, 2006 at 7:15 PM
Ever hear of Bluffton, South Carolina? If you are a newspaper professional, you should know about this small US community of 15,000 people, where a new model for newspapers and newspaper web sites is succeeding.
Bluffton Today, published by Morris Communications Corp., is a free tabloid-format newspaper with a tightly coordinated web site. Every reader is invited to log onto the web site and comment about stories, start their own blogs, upload pictures and even contribute recipes -- a high-tech tool for essential community conversation. And editors rely on the posts for some of the content of the daily.
Full details, including programme and registration information and an evolving list of participants, can be found at http://www.moscow2006.com.
"Newspapers have gone on the web by putting yesterday's news online," says Mr Yelvington. "That's a one-way street. We are doing the opposite; participation is right at the centre of what we are doing."
His company, Morris Digital Works, is the new-media unit of Morris Communications, which operates 27 daily newspapers, 33 radio stations, book publishing, magazine, outdoor advertising and other media-related holdings throughout the United States and United Kingdom, France, and Monaco.
Mr Yelvington will participate in a Forum session entitled, "Should newspapers welcome citizen journalists?" The session also features Jimmy Wales, Director and Founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and Steve Herrmann, Editor-in-Chief of BBC News Interactive.
Other Forum sessions include:
- "Convergence II: multimedia is now ready for print", featuring Jim Brady, Executive Editor of washingtonpost.com, Simon Targett, Editor of FT.com, Thor Gjermund Eriksen, Editor-in-chief of Norway's Dagbladet, and Sanjay Trehan, Head of Broadband and Content for Indiatimes, the electronic operations of The Times of India.
- "Web portals and news agencies: new threats to newspapers?", with presentations by Neil Budde, General Manager of Yahoo! News, Nathan Stoll, Product Manager, Google News, and Pierre Louette, CEO of Agence France-Presse, and Dean Wright, Senior Vice President and Managing Editor for Consumer Services of Reuters.
- "Weekend winners: Saturday/Sunday editions and supplements", featuring George Brock, Saturday Editor of The London Times, Hans Engell, Editor-in-Chief of Denmark's Ekstra Blagdet, and another speaker to be
announced.
- "Lessons learned from the Mohammed cartoon clash", with two representatives of Jyllands Posten, the Danish daily that first published the cartoons, along with Ibrahim Essa, Editor, Ad-Dustour, Egypt, Eric Le Boucher, Editor of France's Le Monde, Imtiaz Alam, General Secretary of the South Asian Free Media Association, Pakistan, Andrei Richter, Russian Professor of Law and Hakeem Bello, Executive Editor of The National Interest in Nigeria.
- and many others, including special breakfasts for editors with leading political and newspaper figures, joint sessions with the World Newspaper Congress, an array of social events, and much more. Full details at
http://www.moscow2006.com
The Paris-based World Editors Forum (WEF, also publisher of the Editors Weblog) is the organisation of the World Association of Newspapers that represents senior news executives. WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 73 national newspaper associations, newspapers and newspaper executives in 102 countries, nine news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.
Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy
St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49
48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr
"BlufftonToday.com is a grand experiment in citizen journalism, a complete inversion of the typical online newspaper model," says Steve Yelvington, Vice President of Content and Strategy for Morris Digital Works, and one of the USA's most innovative newspaper web strategists, who will present his work at the World Editors Forum in Moscow, Russia, in June.
Full details, including programme and registration information and an evolving list of participants, can be found at http://www.moscow2006.com.
"Newspapers have gone on the web by putting yesterday's news online," says Mr Yelvington. "That's a one-way street. We are doing the opposite; participation is right at the centre of what we are doing."
His company, Morris Digital Works, is the new-media unit of Morris Communications, which operates 27 daily newspapers, 33 radio stations, book publishing, magazine, outdoor advertising and other media-related holdings throughout the United States and United Kingdom, France, and Monaco.
Mr Yelvington will participate in a Forum session entitled, "Should newspapers welcome citizen journalists?" The session also features Jimmy Wales, Director and Founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and Steve Herrmann, Editor-in-Chief of BBC News Interactive.
Other Forum sessions include:
- "Convergence II: multimedia is now ready for print", featuring Jim Brady, Executive Editor of washingtonpost.com, Simon Targett, Editor of FT.com, Thor Gjermund Eriksen, Editor-in-chief of Norway's Dagbladet, and Sanjay Trehan, Head of Broadband and Content for Indiatimes, the electronic operations of The Times of India.
- "Web portals and news agencies: new threats to newspapers?", with presentations by Neil Budde, General Manager of Yahoo! News, Nathan Stoll, Product Manager, Google News, and Pierre Louette, CEO of Agence France-Presse, and Dean Wright, Senior Vice President and Managing Editor for Consumer Services of Reuters.
- "Weekend winners: Saturday/Sunday editions and supplements", featuring George Brock, Saturday Editor of The London Times, Hans Engell, Editor-in-Chief of Denmark's Ekstra Blagdet, and another speaker to be
announced.
- "Lessons learned from the Mohammed cartoon clash", with two representatives of Jyllands Posten, the Danish daily that first published the cartoons, along with Ibrahim Essa, Editor, Ad-Dustour, Egypt, Eric Le Boucher, Editor of France's Le Monde, Imtiaz Alam, General Secretary of the South Asian Free Media Association, Pakistan, Andrei Richter, Russian Professor of Law and Hakeem Bello, Executive Editor of The National Interest in Nigeria.
- and many others, including special breakfasts for editors with leading political and newspaper figures, joint sessions with the World Newspaper Congress, an array of social events, and much more. Full details at
http://www.moscow2006.com
The Paris-based World Editors Forum (WEF, also publisher of the Editors Weblog) is the organisation of the World Association of Newspapers that represents senior news executives. WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 73 national newspaper associations, newspapers and newspaper executives in 102 countries, nine news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.
Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy
St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49
48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr
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