Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Blog

iPad versions: Reality or concepts?

2010-03-12T22:55:58Z

Newspapers are eager for the iPad to hit shelves April 3, but most iPad versions are still just concepts, paidContent:UK reported today.

Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf has posted its concept video on YouTube, while another publisher in the Netherlands said publishers have been having "secretive" meetings with Apple ahead of the iPad launch. ]]>
Rupert Murdoch earlier this month promised the Wall Street Journal would be available on the iPad, and The New York Times has been working with Apple from the beginning. U.S. publisher Gannett Co. and magazine publisher Conde Nast were some of the first to create iPad versions. However, Gannett stated its national flagship, USA Today, will release an iPad version "in the near future," according to MediaPost.

When the iPad does hit shelves, will readers find a plethora of newspapers customised on the device, or will they have to wait for concepts to materialise?

comScore: Mobile social networking gains ground

2010-03-12T21:40:27Z

Mobile social networking is growing rapidly. As of January, 17.1 percent of mobile subscribers in he United States accessed a social networking site or blog, compared to 13.8 percent in October 2009, according to new data from comScore MobiLens.

Facebook and Twitter both have marked triple-digit traffic growth on the mobile Web last year, according to comScore's release last week. This made their U.S. audiences 25.1 million and 4.7 million in total, respectively.]]> MySpace's mobile traffic, however, has gone down 7 percent to 11.4 million, MediaPost reported.

In terms of mobile activities, social networking was the fastest-growing type over the last three months, while text messaging the most prevalent.

63.5 percent of mobile users texted in January, up from 62 percent in October 2009.

Mobile Web browsing came next with 28.6 percent doing soup from 26.8 percent in October, followed by game-playing, using downloaded apps, social networking as well as listening to music.

Financial Times to launch series in collaboration with law firm

2010-03-12T21:20:35Z

The Financial Times plans to launch a four-part editorial series, "Deals and Dealmakers," beginning March 18, in partnership with the law firm Mishcon de Reya, MarketingWeek reported. The series is the first publishing project by FT in collaboration with a law firm.

The FT's brand diversification strategies and partnerships are being pursued in hopes they will reduce reliance on traditional display advertising, Ben Hughes, global commercial director of FT, told MarketingWeek.

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Online advertising initiatives targeting specific audiences will run throughout the campaign, along with a co-branded print marketing campaign in FT-Europe.

Kevin Gold, managing partner at Mishcon de Reya, said that 90 percent of the firm's revenue is from the business world.

Huffington Post Investigative Fund has produced 50 stories since Sept.

2010-03-12T20:57:42Z

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund, the journalism non-profit launched by Ariana Huffington in September 2009, has produced roughly 50 stories since its inception.

Nick Penniman, executive director of the fund, estimated that his editorial staff of nine publish between three and five stories a week. Some are "deep-dive" pieces, requiring months of reporting, while others are "quick-strike" articles that are less in-depth. The fund's articles are posted on their Web site and can be distributed by other news outlets free of charge under a Creative Commons license. in September 2009, has produced roughly 50 stories since its inception.

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

NYTimes Co.'s Sulzberger discusses metered model, iPad version

2010-03-11T23:09:15Z

The New York Times is still planning to launch its metered paywall early next year, because that model is right for now; but in the future, it may not be, Times Co. Chairman and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. said at Bloomberg BusinessWeek's Media Summit 2010, paidContent reported today.

"We believe going to a metered model now is the right thing. But 10 years from now? Who knows?" he said.
]]> Crains New York Business reported. And if Apple CEO Steve Jobs wants control, he's in for a fight.

"Having that direct relationship with our customer is critical," Sulzberger said during a Q&A session at the conference. "We are going to continue to have that, because it's critical to our business success."

Reuters adds social media rules to its handbook

2010-03-11T22:33:34Z

The surge in social media has benefited journalists globally by offering them a world of information at their fingertips with powerful social networking tools and news aggregator sites. But this opportunity comes along with some risks as well. To lessen these risks, Reuters has added social media guidelines and principles to its handbook, Dean Wright, global editor for ethics, innovation and news standards at Reuters, announced yesterday in the Reuters Blog.

While Reuters embraces social media as a powerful informative tool and encourages its usage among journalists, they must ask permission from managers to use social media in conjunction with their professional lives, MediaGuardian reported. ]]> Reporting from the Internet," which include rules on avoiding biased approaches, making sure to always introduce oneself as a Reuters journalist, to not reveal sources and to be extra careful while publicly "following" or becoming "friends." Scoops are also not supposed to be tweeted if Reuters wishes to post the news on the wires first, according to MediaGuardian. Stressing on the importance of journalistic ethics, the guidelines recommend Reuters journalists set up a professional account in addition to their personal account, to avoid unification of personal and professional lives, thereby establishing a divide between the two.

The social media guidelines do not sound or read like editorial guidelines, but rather like an instruction manual to aid journalists in the world of social media, MediaGuardian commented.

Wright pointed out that the new guidelines and the Reuters Handbook of Journalism is a living document that adapts to the world's changes.

"Some news organizations have been more proscriptive with their rules or guidelines for journalists using social media - and it's tempting to provide the rule-hungry with specific latitudes and longitudes of what's acceptable," he wrote. "But I think that approach sells short the ability of journalists to use their brains and to see-and report on-a world that's changing every day."

Asper family bids for Canwest Newspapers

2010-03-11T22:04:56Z

The Asper family, former controller of Canwest Global Communications Corp., is trying to regain control of the newspaper assets, Bloomberg reported.

The family one of six bidders. Others include B.C. newspaper magnate David Black, Vancouver-based community newspaper publisher Glacier Media Inc. and National Post executive Paul Godfrey, the Globe and Mail reported.]]> CanWest newspaper unit filed for bankruptcy in January.

Bids for the unit were due March 5. According to the Globe, Canwest's creditors have been reviewing all the offers since then. The creditors are looking for at least C$950 million (US$925 million) for the business.

News Corp: Other revenue streams can coexist with paywall

2010-03-11T22:02:57Z

The "Year of the Paywall" is upon us and in a time where most newspapers seem to be gearing up to build one around their Web sites - The New York Times and the News Corporation Wapping publications are just a couple of examples - some executives believe there is still room for other revenue models to coexist with paid content.

The head of digital media at News Corporation, Jonathan Miller, told delegates at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit that "dual revenue streams" are likely to co-exist as media organizations try ways of making money online, according to Guardian.

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

Virginia paper outsources page production to Chicago Tribune

2010-03-10T22:41:44Z

As a part of the Tribune Co.'s efforts to reduce costs and direct resources to focus on local coverage, the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia will outsource page design, formatting and editing pages to the company's flagship paper, the Chicago Tribune. This announcement came to the staff at both the newspapers on Monday, the Tribune reported.

The transfer of responsibilities from the Daily Press suggests elimination of copy editors and designers, Hampton Roads reported. The newsroom staff will likely be reduced by 15 percent, Digby Solomon, president and chief executive of the Daily Press, told the Tribune.
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Beginning next week, the newspaper will also see addition of pages to the local, national and international news sections, with national and international stories edited in Chicago, while the local stories will continue to be edited at the Daily Press, Solomon was quoted as saying by Hampton Roads.

"Newspapers have to focus on their truly differentiating expertise, which for most local papers is local content and watchdog journalism," he said, adding that he anticipates this move could save the newspaper US$1 million a year.

The smaller Tribune newspapers have been receiving edited, formatted and headlined non-local stories from the Chicago Tribune since last spring, which are then published by the news titles on their pages, according to the Tribune.

According to Ernie Gates, editor of The Daily Press, the outsourcing decision will affect the newspaper in three ways - the non-local content such as weather and comics will be routed to the "central desk" in Chicago, which has access to the newspaper's content; all local news will be edited and formatted by the Daily Press and finally sent to Chicago for quality check before it gets published; and the front page and sports section will be designed and edited at the Newport News, Editor & Publisher reported.

Other newspapers trying similar methods include E.W. Scripps, which has centralised copy and design activities in Corpus Christi, Texas, according to E&P.

3D newspaper published in Belgium

2010-03-10T22:40:03Z

Belgium's La Derniere Heure released an edition Tuesday in which all photos and advertisements are in 3D, and readers are given cardboard 3D glasses with every copy, ABC News reported today. Text is not three-dimensional.

It took two months to create the 3D edition, which had a print run of 115,000, higher than usual. Editor Hubert Leclercq told ABC News that the paper was following the trend of the recent rise in popularity of 3D films, television and video games.

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Leclercq said is is not aware of other European papers publishing full 3D editions, although 3D images have appeared in the press before, 9 News reported.

Sun-Times tech upgrade could mean job cuts

2010-03-10T22:01:44Z

Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC is planning to invest more than US$5 million in technology upgrades for print and online content, as well as back-office upgrades, Crain's Chicago Business reported yesterday.

A new centralised editing system could mean some employees will lose their job, CEO Jeremy Halbreich told Crain's. The project is expected to be finished at the end of the year, he said.

Google: Newspapers need to 'engage' online readers

2010-03-10T21:22:24Z

Aggregators such a Google are often accused of making life more than a little difficult for newspapers - yet the company has spoken out once again, offering advice for newspapers struggling against the ubiquity of online news:

In an article by Mercedes Bunz from The Guardian's Digital Content Blog, Google stated that the "key" to newspaper's survival online is "engagement". The statement, issued by Google's Hal Varian, places emphasis on the importance of offering readers interactive experiences but provided little information on specific steps publications should take to go about doing this.

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

SFN report: Entertainment top online category with highest reach

2010-03-10T20:47:46Z

In January 2009, entertainment was the online category with the highest reach in the six countries surveyed, reaching more than eight out of 10 people, except in Australia, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

Other than in Switzerland, the entertainment audience grew in all countries. The increase was in double digits in Spain, Brazil and the United Kingdom, according to the Nielsen Company.

]]> News and information had the second highest reach - more than 66 percent in all the countries, and more than 75 percent in the United States, United Kingdom and Spain.

Annual audience growth was especially high in Spain, Brazil and the United Kingdom, at more than 20 percent.

Current events and global news, as well as videos/movies reached more than half of the population, except in Switzerland, according to the report, World Digital Media Trends 2009, released by SFN and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

Report: MENA region to see jump in online media revenue

2010-03-10T00:06:49Z

Online media revenue in the Middle East and North Africa is expected to spike to US$600 million by 2015, from less than $100 million last year, research from global consulting firm Booz and Company shows, The National reported today. Mobile revenues are also increasing, expected to reach $2.7 billion.

According to the report, 70 percent of audiences in MENA countries said they spend two hours or more on the Internet each day, while 36 percent said they spend two or more hours watching TV. ]]> according to Gulf News.

Also in the MENA region, broadband usage is expected to rise by 40 percent by the end of 2015, according to the report.

Publicis CEO: Newspapers over-dependent on advertising

2010-03-09T23:32:03Z

Newspapers must find new revenue streams outside advertising in order to survive, the CEO of Publicis told the inaugural Abud Dhabi media summit today, MediaGuardian reported.

"It is not and/or but and/and. We need to have advertising and paid content. Some part of the content could be open and others available on subscription or pay per view," said Maurice Lévy, head of the French advertising group, the third largest in the world by revenue. ]]> BusinessWeek reported. According to ZenithOptimedia Group Ltd., which is owned by Publicis, ad spending could rise 0.9 percent to US$447.7 billion in 2010, following last year's drop of 10 percent.

The online advertising market is still growing, but this is not enough to support newspapers' costs, he said, according to MediaGuardian.