Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Blog: January 2010 Archives

Study: Current e-readers won't help news publishers

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 29, 2010 at 4:41 PM

E-readers, like the Amazon Kindle, likely won't help newspapers hold on to audiences, as younger users think the Kindle is "old" compared to smart phones, while older users prefer the experience a print version offers, a new study from the University of Georgia has found.

The Kindle doesn't have a touch screen and it can't surf the Internet, young adults pointed out. Older adults, meanwhile, pointed out that features like comics and crossword puzzles aren't available on e-reader devices, according to the six-month study by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For the study, participants read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the Kindle and gave feedback.

Media General posts 4Q profit on cost cuts

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 29, 2010 at 4:20 PM

U.S. newspaper publisher Media General Inc. yesterday announced a profit in the fourth quarter, thanks to cost cutting measures. Shares also rose up to 20 percent, Reuters reported. Net income for the quarter was US$27.4 million, compared to a net loss of $85.5 million the same quarter last year.

These earnings also "suggest that the chill in online ad spending at newspapers is starting to thaw," as the company also posted a 15 percent increase in online ad revenue, paidContent reported.

DLT Media gives South African publishers another marketing arm

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 29, 2010 at 4:03 PM

South Africa's DLT Media is tapping into print revenue by targeting readers with no place else to go, and nothing to do but read. In many waiting rooms, magazines are old and the daily newspaper ends up scattered around. DLT has signed up about 120 businesses per month - from doctor's offices to hair salons - and as of July 2009 has provided a marketing arm for publishers to reach more than 3,000 business clients, BizCommunity reported Tuesday.

DLT Media gives publishers another way to offer premium media placement to get more visibility, thereby boosting circulation and readership.

CBN: Google China online ad sales drops on exit plan

Posted by Erina Lin on January 29, 2010 at 3:56 PM

Google's plan to review its operations in China has caused a decline in online advertising orders this month, Bloomberg reported.

An unidentified external sales agent for Google said new orders from advertisers have dropped about 50 percent after Google released the possible exit plan, as customers are concerned about the uncertainty of the Internet company's operations in China.

US: Study shows government subsidies to media have declined

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 29, 2010 at 1:14 PM

Newspapers have not only lost significant advertising revenue in the last couple of years, they have also been losing government support in the form of subsidies in the last forty years, concludes a new study by the University of Southern California.

According to Poynter, a new study of historic subsidies and emerging trends tracks various tax breaks, reductions in postal subsidies first enacted in 1792, and upcoming cutbacks in public notices that government regulations have traditionally forced into American newspapers. The study provides valuable insight, if not clear-cut recommendations for print media to follow, about the thorny issue of government funding for media.

For more on this topic, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

iPad: Privitising or opening the Internet?

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 28, 2010 at 5:23 PM

The launch of the iPad yesterday is the next step in the "device-based walled gardens," Randall Rothenberg, of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, wrote. Amazon's Kindle has built a higher wall, as anything capable of surfing the Web "still hints at the larger world." Other gated communities include the Sony Playstation, Microsoft's xBox, Netflix Streaming and more, he stated in his iab column/blog (which he has dubbed a "clog").

As walled gardens and gated communities are created, the big question that arises for content creators is: "How fragmented will the advertising supply chain become?"

Magazine print ad responses to become more measurable

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 28, 2010 at 4:53 PM

Magazines are getting much-awaited audience measurement data to track responses of print ads, which ad measurement groups and publishers hope will allow them to track data just as online and TV content providers do, Mediaweek reported.

Mediamark Research & Intelligence began tracking the recall and response factor to ads with Ad Measure in every issue of 200 magazine titles that include those from Condé Nast, Hearst, Starcom, OMD, GroupM, Time Inc. and Meredith, while its rival Affinity plans to launch a competing print ad rating service called American Magazine Study on February 15 that will measure each issue of 125 titles.

Tribune execs to receive $45.6 million in bonuses

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 28, 2010 at 4:13 PM

A bankruptcy judge yesterday overruled protests from a union representing workers and federal bankruptcy monitors and approved bonuses for Tribune Co. executives totalling US$45.6 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

The amount represents about 11 percent of the company's operating cash last year, according to Bloomberg. The bonuses will go to the company's top 720 executives, including its top 10 leaders.

SFN report: 18.1 million or 10.8 percent of U.S. online users tweet in 2010

Posted by Erina Lin on January 28, 2010 at 3:51 PM

Twitter has gained enormous popularity globally since its launch in 2006. According to Alexa, Twitter was ranked 29th in terms of Web traffic. A compete.com blog entry in February 2009 ranked it as the third most used social network, with about six million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits. However, only about four out of 10 users are retained, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

Nielsen ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009, with a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, while Zimbio and Facebook followed with an increase of 240 percent and 228 percent, respectively.

McClatchy to trial paywalls

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 28, 2010 at 12:32 PM

Newspaper publisher McClatchy is going to try out charging for content online, Editor and Publisher reports.

Chief Executive Gary Pruitt said that McClatchy will trial a pay model on one of its newspaper websites, suggesting that a number of articles could be available for free before the reader hits a paywall. He added that the publisher will continue to focus on free online content supported by advertising, and that he believes that this will remain widespread. "We feel the model isn't broken," he said. "But we'll learn from everything - we wish them all the luck. If someone cracks the code, we'll copy it."

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Will Apple's iPad live up to expectations?

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 27, 2010 at 5:18 PM

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been compared to a real-life Willy Wonka many times, and today, with the unveiling of the much anticipated iPad, it's once again plain to see why. But will the iPad live up to all the hype it has attracted?

In a press release, Apple calls the iPad a "magical & revolutionary device at an unbelievable price." PC World's Melissa Perenson reported that she had time to play around with the iPad at the San Francisco unveiling, and was "a bit underwhelmed." She also wrote that she "can see a lot of really useful applications for the iPad, but the reality is that it looks and behaves like an iPhone on steroids. And that's not exactly a good thing."

Google's 'sister site' surfaces in China

Posted by Erina Lin on January 27, 2010 at 3:33 PM

A Google knock-off site, Goojje, has surfaced in China, two days after the Internet search giant announced it will exit from the country, according to a Reuters article posted by PC Mag.

The name of Goojje is a play on words in Chinese. The final syllable "jje" sounds like "older sister," while the "gle" syllable of "Google" sounds like "older brother."

Deseret News to launch Spanish-language newspaper

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 27, 2010 at 2:58 PM

Deseret Management Corp., the parent company of U.S. newspaper Deseret News in Utah, will launch a Spanish-language newspaper called El Observador February 9, publishing three times a week, with editions on Tuesdays and Thursdays featuring hard news, while a weekend edition will focus on family-oriented features, Editor & Publisher reported.

"The Hispanic/Latino community in Utah is a very important part of our future, of our 'now,'" said Jim Wall, the publisher of Deseret News, according to a Deseret news article. "They are under-represented. They have no voice." He said in the past, other Spanish-language newspaper efforts in the area had not been credible. "When we decided we would invest in this (endeavour), it was really out of a need to have a voice of trust and credibility."

Play Nieman Lab's Paywall! to see if paid online content could work for you

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 27, 2010 at 2:47 PM

Nieman Lab's Johnathan Stray has created a paywall calculator, Paywall!, that aims to juggle the different factors that could go into building a paywall and find the best combination that could generate maximum revenue. He takes the New York Times' proposed payment model as a basis: a certain number of articles per month can be viewed free, and after that readers will be asked to subscribe.

"The key to paywall revenue projections is to understand how different portions of the audience are affected differently," says Stray, and his model breaks the audience into five groups based on their number of page views per month: fly-by, occasional, weekly, daily, loyal. Depending on how many articles are offered free, it is unlikely that a huge number of visitors will be affected by a paywall, Stray points out, but the ones that will be are the loyal readers.

For more on this article, visit our partner site, www.editorsweblog.org.

Study: Dutch youth not interested in mobile news or citizen journalism

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 27, 2010 at 11:44 AM

A study carried out as part of an online survey by the research agency DECODE as part of an international benchmark project of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in 2008, has found that Dutch youth (based on 1,000 people between the ages of 15 to 29) are neither interested in receiving news via mobile applications nor taking part in citizen journalism projects. They also do not find newspaper sections aimed at young people a compelling reason to regularly pick up a paper.

Whilst initially surprising, the results of the study "Youth, news media and civic engagement," are in line with findings of a new study by IBM's Media and Entertainment Group, which shows that online news consumption has dropped among young adults, but risen among older consumers, calling into question the assumption that young people read more online news and older people favour printed publications.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Will Apple's tablet change print media?

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 26, 2010 at 5:12 PM

Apple is scheduled to introduce its tablet computer at an event in San Francisco Wednesday, and in doing so, may give the media industry "a chance to undo mistakes of the past," The New York Times reported yesterday. Apple is expected to market the tablet as a way for companies to charge for content, which could prove to be a valuable new revenue stream.

However, there is a catch. In making content available on the tablet, content creators could fall into the same trap they have with other devices, such as e-readers: losing their direct relationship with customers to Apple and having to follow pricing restrictions.

Three months on: Newsday's online subscriber numbers shockingly low

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 26, 2010 at 4:46 PM

Long Island, New York newspaper Newsday put its Web site behind a paywall at the end of October, and three months on, just 35 people have signed up for an online subscription, the New York Observer reported today.

However, print subscribers do get free access to the site, as does anyone who has Optimum Cable television, which is owned by Newsday's owner, the Dolan family and Cablevision. About 75 percent of Long Island's residents have either Optimum Cable or a subscription, which could point to why there are so few Web site-only subscribers.

SFN report: Profitability, streamlining & technology investments important for cost savings

Posted by Erina Lin on January 26, 2010 at 4:31 PM

The first annual World Newspaper Future & Change Study is a global research study about newspaper publishers' business strategies moving forward for the next five years, with the key objective to inspire newspaper executives to invest and innovate their business units and business practices, the latest SFN's report, Charting the Course for Newspapers, reported.

The purpose of the study is to pinpoint the business and strategic challenges of the world's newspapers, and then to identify the publishers' strategies moving forward to turn the challenges into opportunities.

Washington Post may launch local business publication

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 26, 2010 at 4:24 PM

The Washington Post may be looking into providing readers with more news and information on local business. A source told the Washington City Paper that the Post is planning to launch a business publication called Capital Business, which would be issued weekly and cost US$1.99 per week.

This comes less than a year after the Post shuttered its daily business section to "save on newsprint - an important objective in these times." However, the Business Insider pointed out today that the prototype sent out to subscribers for their input is in print, not online.

The Wall Street Journal separates online and print

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 26, 2010 at 12:53 PM

The Wall Street Journal print and online editions will be separated into different business groups under a Dow Jones corporate reorganisation, its president announced in a memo.

Under the restructure, president Todd Larsen wrote, five separate business groups will each operate with a clear profit and loss approach:

- The Wall Street Journal in print
- The Wall Street Journal Digital Network
- Dow Jones Financial Markets, which includes Newswires and products for financial professionals
- Dow Jones Corporate Markets, which includes Factiva
- Dow Jones Indexes.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Gawker examines Huffington Post Investigative Fund

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 26, 2010 at 11:58 AM

The Huffington Post has benefited the most from the work of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, according to John Cook of Gawker.com.

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund was founded as a non-profit independent journalism venture in March of 2009. Affiliated with and partly funded by Ariana Huffington's news website, it pledges to investigate "abuse, fraud or waste in government, business, and other institutions." The fund is also supported through tax-exempt donations from the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy and the Atlantic Philanthropies. All of its content is available to publishers for free through a creative commons license.

For more on this article, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Nielsen: Global time spent on social networking sites up 82 % year-over-year

Posted by Erina Lin on January 25, 2010 at 5:10 PM

In December 2009, an average user spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites, up 82 percent compared to the same period one year ago. The overall traffic to social media sites has also boosted since December 2007, Media Post reported.

Social networks and blogs topped as the most popular online category in terms of average time spent in December worldwide, followed by online games and instant messaging.

WSJ to launch travel agency

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 25, 2010 at 4:29 PM

The Wall Street Journal is diversifying its business, launching its very own travel agency, called WSJTravel on Thursday. When it launches, the agency will provide planned trips to 50 destinations, including Vietnam, Tuscany and California's wine country among others, Media Post reported.

"Just as you have come to rely on The Wall Street Journal's perspective of global events, many WSJ travel vacations will let you experience a destination from a completely new viewpoint," the announcement stated, according to Editor & Publisher. The WSJ travel agency promises trips around the world for "any range of budget" and destinations "inspired by articles' from the newspaper, according to a statement.

Google founders to offload stock, make US$2.75 billion each

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 25, 2010 at 4:08 PM

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will cede their voting control of the company over the next five years through stock sales, netting US$2.75 billion each in the process, based on Friday's share price, Telegraph.co.uk reported.

However, they will still hold 48 percent of voting rights - about 15 percent of the equity - at the company between them, the Financial times pointed out Friday.

MediaNews Group files for bankruptcy

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 25, 2010 at 12:34 PM

The holding company for MediaNews Group, publisher of The Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News and 52 other daily publications, has filed for bankruptcy, Editor and Publisher reports.

Affiliated Media Inc., the privately held parent company for the publisher, expects to emerge from bankruptcy in one or two months. It has said that it has a deal with creditors to reduce its $930 million debt to $165 million. Lenders including Bank of America would get most of the company's stock, wiping out shareholders such as Hearst Corp. A bankruptcy court in Delaware still has to approve the plan.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

SFN report: 3G and above users takes off to reach 1 billion in '10

Posted by Erina Lin on January 22, 2010 at 3:36 PM

According to IDATE, worldwide 3G subscribers totalled 242 million at the end of 2007, while nearly half of them (47.6 percent) were from Asia. Another 29.8 percent came from Europe, while 17.8 percent were from North America. Only 4.9 percent came from rest of the world, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

In 2005, there were about two billion 2.5G and below subscriptions, while 3G and above subscriptions were only niche, according to iSuppli. 3G and above penetration then was less than 5 percent.

FCC announces probe into media's future

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 22, 2010 at 12:53 PM

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has launched an initiative to examine the future of media in the digital age and to "help ensure that all Americans have access to vibrant, diverse sources of news and information that will enable them to enrich their families, communities and democracy."

"The Future of Media and the Information Needs of Communities in a Digital Age" lists 42 questions the project is seeking to answer through research and asking for input from the public. Submissions for the project closes March 8. Quoting the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, the project states that the "digital age is creating an information and communications renaissance. But it is not serving all Americans and their local communities equally. It is not yet serving democracy fully," according to the Huffington Post.

Riding the social media marketing tidal wave

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 22, 2010 at 12:03 PM

Social networking site memberships have skyrocketed in the past couple of years, and marketers are clear about the importance of reaching audiences through social media. A recent study has surveyed executives from companies on the Inc. 500 list and found that 79 percent of them view social media as being an important part of their marketing and business strategies, the Bakersfield Californian reported yesterday.

Executives also said social media is important to "generating hits, feedback, leads and sales," according to the report, "Social Media in the 2009 Inc. 500: New Tools & New Trends," by Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Mobile apps predicted to raise US$29 billion by 2013

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 22, 2010 at 9:16 AM

According to a report by business research firm Gartner, sales of mobile phone applications are predicted to raise more than US$6 billion in 2010, CMSWire wrote Tuesday. By 2013, the figure is expected to reach US$29 billion. This year, an estimated 4,500 applications may be downloaded, compared to 2,500 in 2009.

UK newspaper The Guardian announced that it sold 68,979 copies of its premium iPhone application that it launched in December. Each one costs around US$3.99, which amounts to about US$275,000 so far. The outlet can earn up to US$3.2 million per year, according to CMSWire.

French Publishers Association continues battle with Google

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 21, 2010 at 4:48 PM

The French Publishers Association (SNE, Syndicat National de l'Edition) is going forth with its battle against search engine giant Google, which has been publishing numerous books online in violation of copyright laws, Le Figaro reported Wednesday.

Last month, the SNE and publishing group La Martinière celebrated a "big victory against the American giant" when a judge ruled in their favour on December 18, said SNE President Serge Eyrolles. The case will be transferred to American Judge Denny Chin before January 28.

Condé Nast Traveler to launch in India

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 21, 2010 at 3:40 PM

Following the launch in India of fashion magazines like Vogue and GQ, publisher Condé Nast is set to begin pushing one of its travel offerings in the country with the launch its Condé Nast Traveler magazine in October, Media Newsline reported Tuesday. A bi-monthly issue will be priced at Rs.100 (€1.53).

Now that both Vogue and GQ are established in India, by adding the travel magazine, "Condé Nast India now provides advertisers the perfect platform to reach the elusive affluent Indian audience," said Alex Kuruvilla, managing director of Condé Nast India, according to Asia Media Journal.

Jobs: Apple tablet may revolutionise newspaper industry

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 21, 2010 at 3:29 PM

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs suggested that he may be able to restructure industries such as textbooks, newspapers and television, the Wall Street Journal reported today. "People familiar with the talks" said Apple has been discussing possible ventures with book, magazine and newspaper publishers such as the New York Times Co., Condé Nast Publications Inc. and HarperCollins Publishers, as well as its owner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

According to a survey by market research company Retrevo, 70 percent of respondents will not spend more than US$700 on Apple's upcoming tablet device, accoding to Computer World today. Seventy-five percent said they wouldn't acquire the tablet unless it had a battery life of more than six hours, reported ZDNet.

French news sites to launch paywalls

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 21, 2010 at 3:02 PM

Following in the footsteps of The New York Times, French news sites like L'Express and Le Figaro will be providing paid-for online content, Le Monde reported today. News magazine L'Express intends to propose a paywall in 2010, sometime in the second trimester. Online Director Corinne Denis said the publication is continuing to work on the project. However, their "model is not yet finalised" and is not profitable since its costs are higher than what subscriptions could bring.

SFN report: Content on mobile devices greatest opportunity for publishers

Posted by Erina Lin on January 21, 2010 at 2:54 PM

The first annual World Newspaper Future & Change Study is a global research study about newspaper publishers' business strategies moving forward for the next five years, with the key objective to inspire newspaper executives to invest and innovate their business units and business practices, the latest SFN's report, Charting the Course for Newspapers, reported.

The purpose of the study is to pinpoint the business and strategic challenges of the world's newspapers, and then to identify the publishers' strategies moving forward to turn the challenges into opportunities.

South African consumers can buy mobile airtime with digital currency

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 21, 2010 at 12:20 PM

Consumers in South Africa who would rather not use their credit card online, or who don't have a credit card, can buy airtime over the Web or via their mobile phones without a credit card or even a bank account, Biz-Community Africa reported today.

Customers can buy airtime from mobile providers Cell C, Vodacom, MTN, Telkom and Wordcall using mimoney, or mobile currency, developed by digital agency Prezence South Africa.

Egypt experiencing a 'seismic media evolution'

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 21, 2010 at 12:06 PM

Much of the transformation in the newspaper industry is led by the big western players: The New York Times has announced it will charge for content, The Guardian has launched a paid news app for the iPhone, and the Apple tablet is eagerly anticipated.

But these changes affect other parts of the world, as the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reminds us. "In Egypt, we are also experiencing a seismic media evolution," Tarek Attia writes, in a considered op-ed on the state of the newspaper industry in Egypt and the future of media.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

NYTimes.com to introduce metered paywall in 2011

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 20, 2010 at 5:44 PM

The New York Times will launch a metered paid model on its Web site at the beginning of next year, the newspaper announced today. Under the plan, users to access more than a set number of articles per month will be asked to pay a flat fee for additional access. Print subscribers will be given full access, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"This process of rethinking our business model has also been driven by our desire to achieve additional revenue diversity that will make us less susceptible to the inevitable economic cycles," Janet L. Robinson, president and CEO, The New York Times Company, said in a press release. "We were also guided by the fact that our news and information are being featured in an increasingly broad range of end-user devices and services, and our pricing plans and policies must reflect this vision."

NewsCred helps users create custom online newspapers

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 20, 2010 at 4:21 PM

NewsCred launched in 2008 aiming to use algorithms combined with users' votes to rank news sources by credibility. That didn't work out, and the site is now manoeuvring in another direction, this time offering users a platform to build professionally-looking customised online newspaper sites in just minutes, TechCrunch reported last week.

Users can pick topics they are interested in or choose from a list of categories provided. The stories are then drawn from popular news sites and blogs, aggregated and listed in their appropriate sections.

Study: Media use by teens up to over 50 hours a week

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 20, 2010 at 4:09 PM

Teens and tweens spend more time using media than ever, consuming media an average of seven hours and 38 minutes per day, or about 53 hours per week in the United States, according to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Chicago Tribune reported today.

Five years ago, the country's eight- to 18-year-olds used media one hour and 17 minutes less than today. When considering that they are multitasking for some of this time, such as watching television and using the computer at the same time, hours increase to 10 hours and 45 minutes per day.

Lee revenues in 4Q down 14%, ad performance improves

Posted by Erina Lin on January 20, 2010 at 1:21 PM

Lee Enterprises announced its 4Q results, with total revenues down 14 percent year-over-year, to US$209.8 million. However, it is a great improvement over the U.S. publisher's recent performance, Media Post reported.

Total revenues dropped 19.7 percent in 1Q year-over-year, 20.5 percent in 2Q and 20 percent in 3Q. In the first nine month of 2009, total revenues were down 20 compared to the same period one year ago.

Editor: Guardian to remain free

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 20, 2010 at 1:04 PM

Editor of The Guardian Alan Rusbridger ruled out erecting paywalls around The Guardian's Web site, expressing optimism about the future of the newspaper, Journalism.co.uk reported.

Speaking as part of the Coventry Conversation series, run by the Coventry University journalism department, he said the newspaper had no plans to put up paywalls, as Rupert Murdoch has planned to do for News International titles. "It would be crazy if we were to all jump behind a pay wall and imagine that would solve things," Rusbridger said. He did agree, though, that it was good that journalism was "trying different things."

For more on this story, visit our sister site, editorsweblog.org.

Survey: Almost half of Google News users don't go to news sites

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 19, 2010 at 6:16 PM

Forty-four percent of people using Google News said they only scan the headlines and don't actually go on to the news sites themselves, according to a survey of online U.S. news consumers by research firm Outsell, paidContent reported today. And the more a user checks the news on Google News - "power news users," or those who checks more than twice daily - the less likely they are to click on a news link.

This study is expected to "provide further ammunition" to content creators who charge aggregators with not sharing ad revenue they make on providing links to news articles, Agence France-Presse noted.

Chinese government: 'No exception' for Google

Posted by Erina Lin on January 19, 2010 at 2:09 PM

Following Google's announcement last week that it may leave China, the Chinese government has fired back, calling Google's action a "corporate maneuver," paidContent reported.

According to a statement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu, "there is no exception for Google" in observing China's laws and shouldering its social responsibilities, China Daily, a state-run publication, reported. "Foreign companies in China should respect the laws and regulations, respect the public interest of Chinese people and China's culture and customs and shoulder due social responsibilities."

Canwest may have buyers for three bankrupt newspapers

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 19, 2010 at 2:02 PM

Core newspapers in Canwest Global Communications Corp.'s bankrupt newspaper unit have piqued the interest of bidders, the Financial Post reported yesterday. Following the newspaper chain's bankruptcy filing, secured lenders are selling off the newspapers or, if that should fail, may spin the division out into an independent public company, according to FP.

Expected to bid on the Montreal Gazette, the National Post and the Ottawa Citizen is a group headed up by Jerry Grafstein, a former Canadian senator. The group also includes Ray Heard, a former media executive, and Beryl Wajsman, owner of community newspapers, The Globe and Mail reported.

French press distribution company may get government subsidy

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 19, 2010 at 11:53 AM

The French government is considering subsidies for France's number one press distribution company Presstalis, Le Figaro reported.

French Prime Minister François Fillon has assigned the delicate task to Inspector-General of Finances Bruno Mettling. He will consider the conditions under which exceptional state support could be granted. The distribution company is in serious financial difficulty. This is partly due to the overheads for distribution of the national daily press, which has been structurally in deficit for several years, and partly because of the decline in newspaper sales. The group lost around €15 million in 2009.

For more on this story, visit our sister site, editorsweblog.org.

NY Times lays foundation for paywall

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 18, 2010 at 5:00 PM

The New York Times is expected to announce within days that it will charge for access to its online news content. After much in-house debate, the paywall is expected to be along the lines of what the Wall Street Journal uses, as well as a metered system such as the one the Financial Times uses, New York Magazine reported yesterday.

However, the big question isn't whether The Times will charge, but what kind of a paywall it will be.

Wall Street Journal campaign shows off brand's value

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 18, 2010 at 3:50 PM

The Wall Street Journal today launched a new multimedia brand advertising campaign titled 'Live in the know.' The cross-platform campaign will be featured in print, online, broadcast and cable television networks, aiming to show how the WSJ goes beyond headlines and sound bites to give deeper understanding and perspectives behind news and events, Globe Newswire reported.

"As the top-selling newspaper in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal is unequalled in its reach to affluent and educated readers," said Jim Richardson, vice president of brand marketing for the WSJ, in a press release. "This campaign highlights the breadth and deeper understanding readers get every day, only from reading the Journal. We want to invite new readers to discover the diverse coverage The Wall Street Journal delivers, from business news, world news and politics, to more personal topics such as wellness, personal finance and leisure pursuits."

AFP launches paid iPhone app

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 18, 2010 at 3:13 PM

Amid all the buzz about the potential to make money from mobile news, news agency Agence France-Presse has become the latest news organisation to launch an iPhone app. The application also works on the iPod Touch and costs US$1.99 from the Apple store.

"It gives access to the global news agency's multimedia content in English, Spanish, Portuguese and German, including breaking world news from wars and conflicts to politics, sport and entertainment, as well as the latest major developments in health, science and technology," AFP said in a statement.

For more on this story, visit our sister site, editorsweblog.org.

Austrian newspapers vie for no. 2 spot

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 18, 2010 at 2:23 PM

Free daily Heute and paid/free paper Österreich are competing for the no. 2 spot for circulation in Austria, behind paid market leader Kronen Zeitung, Newspaper Innovation reported today.

Heute's circulation is at 470,000, and Österreich is at 123,000 free copies and 143,000 paid copies. However, readership wise, both papers reach abou the same number of people - 684,000 for Österreich and 680,000 for Heute. Readership data for all of 2009 will determine the winner.

SFN report: Facebook unique users in Europe reach 99.8 million in Feb. '09

Posted by Erina Lin on January 18, 2010 at 11:27 AM

Facebook is growing strong across Europe. The numbers of total unique visitors were 24.1 million in February 2008, and increased 314 percent to 99.8 million one year later, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported. It was also ranked as the top social networking site on the continent, according to comScore.

The United Kingdom contributed the most unique visitors compared to other countries, with 22.7 million in February 2009, up 75 percent year-over-year. France followed with 13.7 million, with an annual growth of 518 percent.

British Airways targets growing niche audience

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 15, 2010 at 4:30 PM

Newspaper publishers aren't the only ones looking to better capitalise on target audiences. British Airways will take advantage on the growth of the premium leisure traveller audience by launching a quarterly luxury magazine devoted to premium holidays.

The Collection will be published by Cedar Communications, which debuts this month as an exclusive mail-out to 60,000 BA Executive Club members and existing valued customers of BA Holidays, MarketingWeek reported.

MediaNews' holding company to file 'prepackaged' bankruptcy

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 15, 2010 at 4:22 PM

Affiliated Media Inc., the holding company for U.S. publisher MediaNews Group, will restructure the company's debt in a "prepackaged" Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Debt will be cut from about US$930 million to $165 million, and senior lenders will be given equity.

MediaNews Group publishes 54 daily newspapers, including The Tribune and the Denver Post, as well as 100 non-dailies.

ABCs: No bulk sales lower UK Sunday papers' circulation

Posted by Erina Lin on January 15, 2010 at 3:16 PM

All UK Sunday quality papers saw circulation go down in December 2009, due to bulk distribution issues, MediaGuardian reported.

The Sunday Telegraph's December circulation slid by about 26,000 to 525,088, as it stopped selling bulk copies to airports and gyms for a nominal fee that they then give away for free. The paper's bulk copies total about 77,000 fewer than the previous year, which made circulation go down 8.72 percent year on year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

E&P revived, will resume publication

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 15, 2010 at 12:57 PM

U.S. publication Editor & Publisher, which reports on the newspaper business, was sold Thursday to California magazine and newspaper publisher Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc., two weeks after its closure, E&P announced.

Nielsen Co. announced in December it would close E&P. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. "Newspapers, which are transforming beyond the printed page to all forms of digital media, simply could not lose the one place where the industry could have a conversation with itself and exchange ideas and best practices for navigating the uncertain waters ahead..." said Charles McKeown, who will continue on as publisher.

SFN report: U.S. online video marketing spending to reach $7.1 billion in '12

Posted by Erina Lin on January 14, 2010 at 4:48 PM

us online vd marketing.jpg

U.S. online video marketing spending totaled US$471 million in 2007, according to Forrester Research, Inc.

However, the spending is expected to skyrocket to more than $7.1 billion in 2012, with the majority of the spending coming from retail and wholesale trade, travel and hospitality, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

Dow Jones local papers follow others in raising paywalls

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 14, 2010 at 3:33 PM

Two more newspapers under the Dow Jones Media Local Group umbrella began charging for online content this week. Both the Standard Times and the Record put up paywalls on Tuesday, both papers announced.

"The Record is one of the first daily newspapers to establish a "pay wall" for its Web site. But virtually every newspaper company and many individual newspapers are working on similar models. They will be common before long," wrote Mike Klocke, the editor of the Stockton, California Record.

Google stands up to China

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 14, 2010 at 12:59 PM

Google announced on Tuesday it is rethinking how it does business in China, following the breach of Gmail accounts belonging to Chinese human rights activists. The "highly sophisticated" cyber attacks originated from within China.

"These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered - combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web - have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China," David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer of Google stated in a Google blog post.

paidContent: Guardian iPhone app could net £2 million a year

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 14, 2010 at 12:01 PM

Income from iPhone apps is nothing to scoff at. The Guardian's app costs £2.39, and the UK newspaper announced it has sold almost 69,000 app downloads since the app's launch in December. At that rate, income from the app alone could reach £1.97 million a year, paidContent reported today.

In the first 48 hours after launching the app, the Guardian made £20,000. It is currently listed in the top 10 news apps on Apple's Web site. However, Apple does get a 30 percent commission, and these figures are before that commission is taken, paidContent pointed out.

Legislation could exempt search engines from UK copyright infringement

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 13, 2010 at 5:01 PM

Amendments tabled to the Digital Economy Bill by Lord Lucas could protect search engines from copyright liability in the United Kingdom, PressGazette reported yesterday. However, this would not apply to content on a Web site that used technology to block crawlers, such as robots.txt.

"Brilliant. Immediately all of the rows and back-and-forth between ill-advised newspapers and publishers is given a clear legal footing. It would be legal to be a search engine, and you can tell them to keep out if you wish. A few sentences saves millions of pounds of court costs and clears the headaches of everyone involved," Ian Douglas wrote for Telegraph.co.uk.

NMA: Topical ads 'become part of the story'

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 13, 2010 at 4:57 PM

Topical advertising that links a brand with the day's news can be a powerful connection for consumers, the UK Newspaper Marketing Agency announced this week. It is also a good example of print's benefits, persuade potential clients of the benefits of the print medium, MarketingWeek reported Monday.

Maureen Duffy, CEO of the NMA, was quoted by Marketing Week as saying, "Given that newspapers are all about the here and now, it's surprising that more advertisers don't run newsy ads," Maureen Duffy, CEO of NMA told MarketingWeek. "Newspaper readers really notice ads that make clever connections between the brand and the news. The best topical ads get talked about, they become part of the story."

SFN report: Product development for new revenue most important for improvement and growth through investment

Posted by Erina Lin on January 13, 2010 at 4:55 PM

The first annual World Newspaper Future & Change Study is a global research study about newspaper publishers' business strategies moving forward for the next five years, with the key objective to inspire newspaper executives to invest and innovate their business units and business practices, the latest SFN's report, Charting the Course for Newspapers, reported.

The purpose of the study is to pinpoint the business and strategic challenges of the world's newspapers, and then to identify the publishers' strategies moving forward to turn the challenges into opportunities.

Zell: Tribune Co. likely to emerge from bankruptcy in coming months

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 13, 2010 at 4:21 PM

Tribune Co. Chairman Sam Zell told CNBC today that he expects the U.S. publishing company to exit bankruptcy in the first half of this year, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"I think that an awful lot of the steps that the management of this company has taken to change the model, to reduce costs, to make the operations more efficient have all been coming through. So I'm very optimistic about the future of the company," he said in the interview.

SFN report: Internet most influential, but TV most used in UK and Germany

Posted by Erina Lin on January 12, 2010 at 4:30 PM

The Internet tops the list of the most influential mediums, accounting for more than 40 percent of influence points in the United Kingdom and Germany, and 37 percent in France, according to the Digital Influence Index Study 2008 by Fleishman-Hillard Inc. and Harris Interactive.

TV is ranked next. Radio, newspaper and magazines lag behind with less than 20 percent of the points, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

CanWest CEO tried to halt sale of newspapers

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 12, 2010 at 3:56 PM

As court documents have been filed, details of arguments between Canada's largest newspaper company and the group's secured lenders have emerged, The Toronto Star reported today. According to these documents, it appears the CEO of Canwest Global Communications Corp. and CanWest Media, Inc. was asking lenders for more time, noting a stabilising economic outlook.

Leonard Asper also wrote that he "profoundly disagrees" with the lenders' move to push CanWest LP (which holds the company's major newspapers) into an "early filing," which could cost the newspaper group as much as C$45 million in fees that would go to "advisory groups that are driving the process." He also asked for six months to find a plan that would be best employees, suppliers and unsecured lenders.

Investors ask FCC to ease media ownership rules

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 12, 2010 at 3:26 PM

Investment representatives told the U.S. Federal Communications Commission today at a workshop that media ownership rules should be relaxed to allow owners to consolidate and draw funds to the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported.

FCC officials are discussing what should be done to help newspapers, as well as TV and radio stations, as advertising dollars continue to migrate to digital. The workshop is one in a series the FCC is holding with media.

Dubai to leverage more control with new media office

Posted by Savita Sauvin on January 12, 2010 at 12:15 PM

In an attempt to more tightly control its image following news of Dubai's US$26 billion debt, the Gulf Arab emirate's leader has established a new media office to handle all government-related media, Reuters reported Sunday.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has announced a new law "to establish Dubai Media Office, which will be annexed to the ruler's court," and handle all media relations for the ruler, crown prince and government officials, by combining existing government public relations units: Dubai Press Club, Falcon & Associates and Brand Dubai, according to a statement.

Using Google Wave to engage readers

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 12, 2010 at 10:16 AM

Most of Google's news tools are fairly self-explanatory. Fast Flip enables users to flick through different news sources. Living Stories collects all the developments about a single story on a single URL. And of course Google News aggregates news, and has been a source of ongoing conflict between Google and news publishers. But Google Wave notoriously confuses its first time users. There's even a gently mocking Web site dedicated to things that are easier to understand than Google Wave.

First launched as an invitation-only preview, Google Wave is billed as both a conversation and a document. It's a little like email, but also real-time and collaborative. One potential use of the tool is as a platform for collaborative journalism: different participants could add notes, information and images to a story.

For more on this story, visit our sister site, editorsweblog.org.

Forrester: Interactive marketing will read $55 billion in 2014

Posted by Erina Lin on January 11, 2010 at 4:09 PM

Interactive marketing will reach about US$55 billion, or 21 percent of all marketing spend in 2014, according to Forrester's new study "U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014."

As marketing budgets are shuffled from traditional toward interactive media, such as search marketing, display advertising, e-mail marketing, social media and mobile marketing, the cannibalisation of traditional media will lead to "a decline in total advertising budgets, death to obsolete agencies, a publisher awakening, and a new identity for Yahoo!."

Google News no longer hosting AP articles

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 11, 2010 at 3:33 PM

Google News has stopped hosting new Associated Press articles, which implies contract negotiations between the search giant and news service "may have broken down," CNNMoney.com reported today.

As of this posting, a search for the AP as a news source does not bring up any articles dated after Dec. 23, 2009; however, AP stories licensed by other news sites do appear. The licensing agreement between the AP and Google is "believed" to be up for renewal at the end of this month, but AP is not withholding its content, TechCrunch reported.

Study: Newspapers still top in local news

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 11, 2010 at 2:46 PM

Most local news still originates from newspaper reports, according to a review of 53 media outlets - including newspapers, TV, radio and Web-only news operations - by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Sixty-one percent of original reporting and new information on six top stories came from print newspapers and their Web sites in the week of July 19-25 in Baltimore, according to the content analysis study.

The "modern news 'ecosystem'" in the average U.S. city overwhelming relies on newspapers, while "much of the 'news' people receive contains no original reporting. Fully eight out of 10 stories studied simply repeated or repackaged previously published information. And of the stories that did contain new information, nearly all, 95%, came from traditional media - most of them newspapers. These stories then tended to set the narrative agenda for most other media outlets."

Report: France Télécom exec hints at existence of Apple tablet

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 11, 2010 at 12:49 PM

France Télécom/Orange Executive Stephane Richard hinted in an interview today with France's radio channel Europe 1 that his company may soon be offering the much awaited Apple tablet, CNet reported. He responded "yes" to the question of whether a tablet with a Web cam would be launched by Apple.

Richard unveiled a possible venture between the France Télécom/Orange and Apple, by responding "yes" to a question asking if Orange users would benefit from the launch. The tablet will be another step towards modernizing the videophone concept, Richard said.

L.A. Times sells print run to WSJ

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 8, 2010 at 4:41 PM

The deadline for the Los Angeles Times front page has been moved up five or more hours, to 6 p.m., because the Times is closing its Orange County printing plant and has sold its print run time slot at the remaining plant to the Wall Street Journal, Sharon Waxman reported for The Wrap yesterday. The Tribune Co.-owned Times print run used to be 11 p.m. and midnight.

Because of the change, breaking news will now appear in another section of the paper, and 80 people from the pressroom will be laid off. Eddy Hartenstein, publisher of the Times, wrote in a memo to staff that the change is being made to "further streamline our operations and reduce print production costs."

Times Online blocks NewsNow aggregator

Posted by Erina Lin on January 8, 2010 at 4:34 PM

News International will block the news aggregator NewsNow.co.uk from linking to its Times Online content, according to MediaGuardian. The aggregator said it was told Friday that it can no longer link to any content on Times Online.

"News International has for some time been indicating to us that it would like us to refrain from linking to their content," according to Struan Bartlett, managing director and chairman of NewsNow, Media Guardian reported.

CanWest's newspaper group files for bankruptcy

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 8, 2010 at 4:00 PM

CanWest Global Communications, Canada's largest media group has put its newspaper division under bankruptcy protection while it searches for a buyer for the group, the BBC reported today. The division includes 10 dailies and 26 community papers, including the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun and Calgary Herald.

The group is C$1.3 billion in debt. Lenders led by five of the largest banks in Canada have taken over ownership of the titles, and announced today that "substantially all" of the 5,300 newspaper employees will be kept on, according to The Globe and Mail.

Currently there are "no obvious buyers," but because CanWest has integrated its publishing arm so fully, "piecemeal sales" would be unlikely, The New York Times reported.

SFN report: Overall revenue suffered at global newspapers due to economy's impact

Posted by Erina Lin on January 8, 2010 at 3:36 PM

The first annual World Newspaper Future & Change Study is a global research study about newspaper publishers' business strategies moving forward for the next five years, with the key objective to inspire newspaper executives to invest and innovate their business units and business practices, the latest SFN's report, Charting the Course for Newspapers, reported.

The purpose of the study is to pinpoint the business and strategic challenges of the world's newspapers, and then to identify the publishers' strategies moving forward to turn the challenges into opportunities.

Journalism Online exchanges paywalls for meters

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 7, 2010 at 4:26 PM

More than 1,300 publishers have now partnered with Journalism Online, and the paid content network will begin testing in coming weeks, Steve Brill, the group's founder, told minonline today.

However, the group has changed its tune a bit since it began, with Brill telling minonline that "We are refusing to launch pay walls where you say to first-time visitors 'pay or go away,'" and will instead give visitors access to 10 to 15 articles for free before asking for payment. Journalism Online, launched in April 2009 by Brill, Gordon Crovitz and Leo Hindrey, hopes regular visitors will pay for complete access, while one-time or infrequent visitors won't be barred.

SFN report: U.S. newspaper site usage up

Posted by Erina Lin on January 7, 2010 at 3:37 PM

The usage of newspaper Web sites in the United States is rising, as those who never use the services dropped from 70 percent in 2003 to 62 percent in 2008, according to the Readership Institute.

The usage of newspaper Web sites "today" in the United States was up from 2 percent in 2003 to 5 percent in 2008, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

Russian news portal DailyOnline goes offline

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 7, 2010 at 12:07 PM

Russian language business news site DailyOnline "went offline," according to a report today by Lenta.ru. The site could not be opened as of Wednesday, and why it stopped functioning is unknown

A message from the administrator shows up when opening dailyonline.ru, stating that the site will temporarily stop publishing new content while it focuses on moving to a new format. In addition, the message says the date of DailyOnline's re-launch will be announced shortly.

German press targets younger audience

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 7, 2010 at 10:21 AM

German publisher M.DuMont Schauberg, which owns the daily newspaper Berliner Kurier, has announced its intentions to launch a news supplement aimed directly at a younger audience later this year. The exact date of publication is not yet known.

The move comes after news magazine Spiegel successfully launched Dein Spiegel last year, a separate publication from its news magazine aimed at young readers between ages nine and 12. Since its debut in September, with the first edition focusing on the then hot topic of Germany's general election, the publication has enjoyed considerable success and now lines the shelves of newsstands across the country.

For more on this story, visit our sister site, editorsweblog.org.

Hyperlocal media becoming popular M&A targets

Posted by Erina Lin on January 6, 2010 at 3:16 PM

Today's media industry has been shuffling, while traditional print is facing challenges, Web sites that report news and also carry content in the neighborhoud, or "hyperlocal" level, are prosperous, and becoming major M&A targets, The Deal reported.

Google Inc., in December, tried a US$550 million bid to buy Yelp Inc., a user-generated review site, though it failed. In 2009, MSNBC.com purchased EveryBlock.com for undisclosed terms, while AOL Inc. bought Patch Media Corp. and Going Inc.

Kinsley: Shorter news stories = more readers?

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 6, 2010 at 3:08 PM

One of the reasons readers are trading online for print that is rarely discussed is that newspaper stories are too long, while online articles are more to-the-point, Michael Kinsley argues in the Atlantic this week.

His reasoning? "Context," which newspapers pride themselves on providing, has become "an invitation to hype," causing readers to go elsewhere to just get the facts. Shorter, more concise articles could cause a boost in print sales, but existing mandatory newsroom rules to give more context may be hurting print, he writes in his column.

Apple buys mobile ad network Quattro Wireless

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 6, 2010 at 10:24 AM

On Tuesday technology giant Apple acquired mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless for almost US$300 million, "according to a person briefed in the deal," The New York Times reported. The venture is expected to spark more competition between Apple and Google, which recently acquired mobile ad firm AdMob, itself Quattro's rival.

Analysts say Apple may be more interested in apps than ads, making the iPhone the best device for applications to be built for, rather than focusing on ad revenue, The Times pointed out. Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Gene Munster told The Times that 80 percent of three billion downloads from Apple's App Store are free and that an opportunity to sell ads may aid developers in making money.

Report: BBC generates £7.6 billion yearly for Britain's economy

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 6, 2010 at 9:42 AM

The BBC will publish a report this month that will explain why privatising the news outlet could cause the United Kingdom to lose £4 billion, according figures from accountancy firm Deloitte, The Telegraph reported Sunday. The move aims to fight back at criticism that the corporation is a "drain on the licence feepayer," according to The Guardian.

The BBC makes about £7.6 billion per year for the British economy, and without the corporation, independent TV and radio production companies would also lose £1.4 billion, according to the report. Ventures like the BBC's Freeview service has created a sub-industry that's worth around £90 million to £250 yearly, the report is also expected to argue.

Non-profit news publisher asks readers to dig for stories

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 6, 2010 at 9:29 AM

California Watch has launched a new Web site that focuses on enabling readers to learn more and take action on the investigations its team pursues. The new site includes investigative stories by journalists from California Watch, which is a non-profit investigative news project of the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), and a blog related to the beats that its reporters cover.

It also has databases and research centres that readers can access directly, with information such as campaign finance records, crime statistics, school attendance rates, and environmental clean up sites. For example, reports submitted to the U.S. government by recipients of the stimulus funds are available for searching on the site. There are also sections with contact information for public officials, advice on accessing public records and insights from reporters on the news gathering process.

For more on this story, visit our sister site, editorsweblog.org.

Google unveils Nexus One phone

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 5, 2010 at 5:42 PM

Google today revealed its new mobile phone, the Nexus One, the launch of which Wired pointed out is a shift from the online giant's "original stance as a neutral distributor" of the Android mobile operating system, which could be used on different handsets and via different mobile carriers. With the launch of Nexus One, Google is now "competing with the very manufacturers that use its OS."

In the United States, the Nexus One will run on T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, which will be the first mobile carrier to offer a plan for it; however, consumers will be able to buy it directly via a Google Web site. In the spring, Verizon Wireless will also offer a plan, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Image: via Google

Hearst to debut large-screen Skiff e-reader

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 5, 2010 at 5:04 PM

U.S. publishing company Hearst this week will dive into the e-reader game as it unveils its Skiff Reader at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Skiff is a big part of Hearst's efforts to draw back paying readers, and the publisher is expected to tout the e-reader's flexible display and large screen.

Although the actual device is not flexible, the display is, due to a "thin, bendable sheet of stainless steel foil rather than glass-based displays favoured by other e-readers," PC World reported today. The Skiff was designed by LG Display, and although it will not display colour, it does boast a resolution of 1200 by 1600 pixels.

Image: Folio

SFN report: Facebook fastest grower to hit mass market

Posted by Erina Lin on January 5, 2010 at 4:46 PM

Facebook, the most popular and fastest growing social networking site in recent years, has beat the iPod, cell phones and many traditional media as the fastest item or service to penetrate the mass market, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

First introduced in 2004, Facebook has taken five years to reach 150 million users in 2009. However, compared to some other top technologies, the social networking site has taken a much shorter time to hit the mass market, which is only 5 years.

J.P. Morgan: Online display ads set to bounce back

Posted by Erina Lin on January 5, 2010 at 4:29 PM

The stagnant display ad space should be back on track this year, according to the J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan, who just released his annual report, Nothing but Net 2010 Internet Sector Outlook. He expected that display ad spending will boost by 10.5 percent in 2010, after a 5 percent drop last year, with display CPMs up by 5 percent, Media Week reported.

However, "top Web publishers are faced with abysmal click through rates, irrelevant ads, and brands which have been spoiled by the ease of third party networks that promise cheap premium inventory", said Khan, after a year when display advertising was undervalued, and the market was controlled by price-fixated performance advertisers. This will make "a huge disparity between brand and performance spending on the Web," according to the study.

SFN report: Most publishers believe more than 20% of revenues will come from non-traditional sources in next 5 years

Posted by Erina Lin on January 4, 2010 at 3:02 PM

The first annual World Newspaper Future & Change Study has found that as market conditions decline on a global scale, publishers are looking for new revenue streams outside print, and have set up objectives to find non-print revenues. The global research study focuses on newspaper publishers' business strategies moving forward for the next five years, with the key objective to inspire newspaper executives to invest and innovate their business units and business practices, the latest SFN's report, Charting the Course for Newspapers, reported.

The purpose of the study is to pinpoint the business and strategic challenges of the world's newspapers, and then to identify the publishers' strategies moving forward to turn the challenges into opportunities.

Study: Average U.S. paper has 18,000 Twitter followers

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 4, 2010 at 10:12 AM

The average U.S. newspaper has around 18,000 Twitter followers and is tweeted 11 times per day, according to a study from Internet communications company the Bivings Group, the Boston Business Journal reported last week. The group's study focused on 300 Twitter accounts, including those of individual reporters from top 100 newspapers across the United States.

Analysis showed that The New York Times was the most retweeted paper, with more than 1.8 million followers, and had 1,500 retweets throughout September, according to Penn Olson. Taking away some outlets with over 100,000 followers puts the average at 3,447 followers per paper, eMarketer wrote. Tweet frequency varied from 1.1 (The Boston Globe's Big Picture and the Akron Beacon Journal) to 95.5 (The Boston Herald) messages per day, according to the Boston Business Journal.

Politico and Huffington Post will see revenues for 2009

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 4, 2010 at 10:06 AM

The Huffington Post and Politico are set to see profits for the full calendar year of 2009, MediaGuardian reported today. U.S. online news site the Huffington Post is expected to earn revenues between US$15 million to $17 million, while U.S. political news organisation Politico is estimated to have made $20 million or more, according to paidContent.

Politico was launched in January 2007 by Allbritton Communications, and its ownership structure was changed in November last year, when Allbritton distributed "equity interests of Politico to the family-owned holding company called 'Perpetual'." No reason for the change was given, but it means that beginning Nov. 13, Politico's earnings numbers will not be found in Allbritton's filings.

Politico's print version

Washingon Times cuts staff and sports section

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 4, 2010 at 9:01 AM

Last Wednesday "financially troubled" daily Washington Times announced it will drop its sports section, Agence France-Presse reported Thursday. The paper recently made public its decision to drop a Sunday edition.

According to the National Post, the Times has laid off more than 40 percent of its staff and is planning to focus coverage more on cultural issues, politics, business and investigative reporting. The Los Angeles Times reported that in addition, the publication plans to concentrate less on local news this year. Nevertheless, some sports features will appear.

Google's Nexus One smartphone to be unveiled tomorrow

Posted by Alisa Zykova on January 4, 2010 at 6:56 AM

Google's Nexus One smartphone will be revealed on Tuesday at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, the Times Online reported yesterday. The project may help boost the company's presence within the mobile sphere as well as offer direct competition to Apple's iPhone.

"With the launch of the first Android-powered device just over a year ago, we've seen how a powerful, open platform can spur mobile product innovation. And this is just the beginning of what's possible," the invitation AFP and others received stated.

Image: A leaked picture, according to Engadget

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