Even with the economy showing signs of recovery, sales of newspaper advertising are still largely down across the industry -- both in print and online. Publishers have been frantically seeking ways to reverse that trend and generate sales, with much hope being placed in the digital realm. But with all of the new digital formats available -- rich media, video embeds, GPS tagging, search engine optimization, social networking -- how is a sales rep supposed to keep up?

Continue reading on Editor & Publisher

The internet and social media often get accused of creating an "echo chamber" effect--encouraging people to cocoon themselves with people and news/information that reflect their existing views or demographic characteristics. But new research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project contradicts this widely held belief.

This could make it more important than ever for journalists and news organizations to engage with people via social media, in order to benefit communities and democracy...

Continue reading on Knight Digital Media Center

There's been a lot of hand wringing about pay walls in digital media lately, but not a lot of discussion on how they're working or how to improve them.

The pay wall that's gotten the most press, of course, is that of the New York Times -- instituted on March 28. The Times asks people to pay for access after they've accessed 20 articles online.

Continue reading on MediaShift

Swiss Post plans to launch a new personalised daily newspaper at the end of November 2011. As part of a one-year pilot project, the online version of MyNewspaper will also be available in Germany. Further publishers will be able to participate in this innovative project.

MyNewspaper is a flexible solution which enables readers to compile a personalised daily newspaper based on around 30 publications.

Continue reading on World of Print

For many newspaper bosses, the introduction of an online paywall is intimidating. "How," they wonder, "will we convince readers to pay for content they currently enjoy for free?" But for Alan English, executive editor of the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, explaining his paper's recent decision to charge for some digital material isn't scary at all.

"It's an easy conversation with the reader," English said. "'Would you buy your favorite reporter a cup of coffee for all the work they do for you in a month?'"

Continue reading on NetNewsCheck

Guardian News & Media has announced a "major transformation programme" to de-emphasise print and become "digital-first", making it one of the first major newspapers to push toward that final, eventual transition.

GNM will, over the next five years, reallocate to digital areas a £25 ($40.24) million investment that was earmarked for print, it is understood. In doing so, it will, by next March, shrink the printed newspaper away from breaking news and in to a smaller, less resource-intensive edition that instead leads on analysis.

Continue reading on paidContent:UK

Tribune Company has long demonstrated its interest in reaching people on a local level -- whether it's through the company's many local TV and radio stations, newspapers, magazines, their classifieds products or even their digital subsidiaries. The company was far ahead of other media in the early '90s when they pushed content out over AOL and then the Web. And over the years they've also partnered with a number of local online efforts like Digital City.

Continue reading on Street Fight

by Raju Narisetti

The business model of quality journalism is broken. Readers are moving online--and they want their news for free. Revenues from online advertising too haven't really caught up. Cost cutting and trying to make online readers pay, may not be the answer. The news brands need to get creative and make their content easier, more engaging and useful.

Continue reading on Forbes.com

Walter Hussman deserves a good laugh. Hussman, publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, defied conventional wisdom and walled off his local reporting content, back in 2002. Why give away on the web what you made people paid for in print? Looking at the web, he reasoned that readers would stop paying for print if they got the same stuff for free online. Further, online ad revenue rates paled compared to print ones.

Continue reading on Nieman Journalism Lab

Australia's main newspaper publishers, News Ltd and Fairfax Media, will begin charging for some of their web content later this year, but are balancing free and paid content.

News Ltd has been intending to charge for some time, in line with News Corp.'s (NSDQ: NWS) dictate. Its bosses this week confirmed an October start date but repeated their earlier preference for a model more like its parent's WSJ (mixed pay/free) than its The Times (all paid).

Continue reading on paidContent.org

Ever since the iPhone and iPad arrived, publishers have spent millions building dedicated software to try to cash in on the app boom. Everyone who was anyone -- from the Wall Street Journal to Wired -- just had to have an app -- even though the business reasons weren't that great.

Continue reading on GigaOm