Local papers can use social media to create a

Transcription

First page
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Trends in Newsrooms 2006
The most innovative ideas in newspapers
The most in-depth expert commentary
Direction: Bertrand Pecquerie, Director, World Editors Forum
Editor : John Burke, Weblog Editor
The World Editors Forum is the organisation for editors within the
World Association of Newspapers
www.wan-press.org
TRENDS IN NEWSROOMS 2006
Copyright 2006: World Editors Forum / World Association of Newspapers
All rights reserved
ISBN 2-9524129-1-X
Table of contents Quark
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Table of contents
1
Introduction
Newspapers 2015: Towards a challenging future
Debate between Daily Telegraph columnist, Roy Greenslade
and Knight Chair of Journalism, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Philip Meyer
11
1. Is the future of print online?
Why newspapers must develop online
Trials and tribulations of Internet adaption
What the future holds
23
Conclusion: Bad news for news, Eli Noam, Finance and Economics
Professor, Columbia University, USA
27
2. Will all news be free?
The New York Times' experiment
Charging for online content
Free online content
The growing popularity of free papers
39
Conclusion: The future of free news, Piet Bakker, Associate Professor,
Amsterdam School of Communications Research, The Netherlands
43
3. Newspapers begin to welcome citizen journalists
An irreversible trend?
How newspapers work with citizen journalists
Case studies: U.S.
Case studies: non-U.S.
59
Conclusion: Citizen journalists complement newspaper journalism, Dan Gillmor,
Founder, Center for Citizen Media, USA
I
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63
4. Regional newspapers reconnecting with their
communities
Trends towards local
Case study: San Jose Mercury News
Other case studies
75
Conclusion: Escaping recession in printed local news: France, Spain
and the UK, Jean-Pierre Tailleur, journalist and media consultant, France
79
5. News agencies competing with newspapers
Reuter's multimedia strategy
The Associated Press launching new services online
87
Conclusion: News agencies protecting sports coverage, Monique Villa,
Managing Director, Reuters Media, UK
91
6. Internet companies competing with newspapers
The many faces of Google
Yahoo tries journalism
Craigslist and Wikis: classified menace and collective intelligence
101
Conclusion: Managing online for growth, Rich Skrenta, CEO, Topix.net, USA
105
7. Broadband and multimedia transforming newspaper
journalism
What multimedia means for newspapers
Newspapers warming up to video and podcasting
Mobile; news anytime, anywhere
RSS reinforces newspaper content
117
II
Conclusion: How can newsrooms include multimedia in everyday
production, Robb Montgomery, Newspaper and new media consultant, USA
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121
8. Press credibility crisis deepens
The public losing trust in the media
The anonymous source dilemma
News vs. entertainment
Toward new editorial guidelines
133
Conclusion: The pride of the solitary journalist, Gumersindo Lafuente, Editor,
elmundo.es, Spain
135
9. New jobs and responsibilities for editors
Editing citizen media
Convergence changing the editorial process
145
Conclusion: Nouveau newspaper editors: how new media reshapes jobs and
mindsets, Mark Glaser, New Media columnist and blogger, USA
149
Conclusion
The Newspaper: What Now?
Robert Thomson, Editor, The Times, UK
III
How to read the report
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Trends in Newsroom 2006 combines 2005's most informative articles from the
Editors Weblog with topic-related pieces from media experts. Each chapter
includes a brief introduction summarizing the issues presented, followed by the
selection of Editors Weblog articles and in conclusion, the expert essay.
Online newspapers' rapidly
growing readership
Every posting has the same structure:
title, text and sourcing.
Sourcing includes the posting’s dateline and permalink, which can be
typed into an Internet browser for
online consultation.
Nielsen/NetRatings released its figures for newspaper
website readership on November 15, showing that the
number of visitors grew 11% year on year to 39.3 million.
22% of newspaper readers now read their news online, as
opposed to 71% who still prefer the paper edition.
Source: PRNewswire
November 16, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/online_newspapers_grow ing_readership.php
The majority of weblog articles have been edited to fit the report. Complete
texts can be found listed by chapter at www.trends-in-newsrooms.org/postings/
An alternative way to find the original article is to type a keyword written in its text
into the Editors Weblog search function
located in the top-right corner under the
banner on the Editors Weblog homepage.
Postings on the “Results
page are listed by date
Locate the posting online
dateline in the sourcing
article.
IV
of your query”
of publication.
by verifying the
of the printed
Foreword
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Foreword
You may feel that there is something a touch perverse about the
book you are holding. To collect comments and posts from a
weblog on printed pages may seem an odd way to re-publish
what has already been made freely available as digital data.
But in the World Editors Forum we believe in serving our global
network of editors. And when we brought out Trends in
Newsrooms for the first time last year, people appreciated the
chance to look again at some of the key developments first caught in editorsweblog.org. Trends
in Newsrooms quickly sold out. As our first two commentators both observe in the next few
pages, printed information is not seen and used in the same way as digital data and print's
appeal is not exhausted yet.
Trends in Newsrooms 2006 is a richer mix than last year's selection of posts. We have added
specially commissioned commentaries from distinguished editors and analysts to set the latest
issues in the broadest possible context. We look at global and local; we discuss agencies, portals and papers. We peer into the future but we also worry about timeless issues such a credibility and trust.
This book is an up-to-date map of a landscape that is changing rapidly. You and your newsroom colleagues need the guidance in these pages to navigate your route through new opportunities and threats. Follow editorsweblog.org and you will keep up with the changes to come.
If you think we've missed something, let editorsweblog.org know….
George Brock
President, World Editors Forum
Saturday Editor, The Times
[email protected]
V
sources and copyright
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Editors Weblog sources
and copyright issues
Thanks to all our sources without whom this report would not have been possible. The goal
of the Editors Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org) is to summarize the main ideas of pressrelated articles and to facilitate direct access to them. We never reprint complete articles
and we respect international copyright rules by only quoting excerpts of the related articles.
Our main online sources are :
Center for Citizen Media (USA)
El Mercurio (Chile)
China Daily (China)
El Mundo (Spain)
AdAge.com (USA)
Cnet.com (USA)
El Pais (Spain)
Aftenposten (Norway)
CNN News (USA)
European Journalism Centre (The
Netherlands)
Agence France Presse (France)
Columbia Journalism Review (USA)
Agencyfaqs (India)
Commonwealth Press Union (UK)
Al Jazeera (Qatar)
Corante (USA)
Allafrica.com (USA)
Courrier International (France)
American Journalism Review (USA)
Cyberjournalist.net (USA)
An Nahar (Lebanon)
Daily Star (Lebanon)
Apple Daily (Taiwan)
Daily Times (Nigeria)
Arab News (Saudia Arabia)
Dan Gillmor’s weblog (USA)
Associated Press (USA)
Der Spiegel (Germany)
Bayosphere (USA)
Der Standard (Austria)
BBC News (UK)
Die Welt (Germany)
Brand Republic (UK)
Digital Deliverance (USA)
Business Week (USA)
DMEurope (The Netherlands)
Buzz Machine / Jeff Jarvis (USA)
Dotjournalism.co.uk (UK)
CB News (France)
Editor & Publisher (USA)
International Herald Tribune (USA /
France)
CBS Marketwatch (USA)
El Commercio (Peru)
Internetnews.com
First Draft with Tim Porter (USA)
Follow the Media (Switzerland)
Forbes (USA)
Future of the newspaper (France)
Gaceta de Prensa (Spain)
Google Blog Search (USA)
Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland)
Google News (USA)
Holdthefrontpage (UK)
IFEX (Canada)
IFRA newsletter (Germany)
I Want Media (USA)
Instapundit (USA)
VI
sources and copyright
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JoongAng Daily (South Korea)
Newsplex / IFRA (Germany / USA)
Steve Yelvington (USA)
Japan Media Review (USA)
Newsroom.de (Germany / Austria)
Sunday Times (South Africa)
Japan Times (Japan)
Newswatch (India)
Susan Mernit’s Weblog (USA)
Joi Ito’s blog (Japan)
Nieman Institute (USA)
The Age (Australia)
Knight Center for Americas (USA)
NSK (Japan)
The Financial Times (UK)
Komsomolskaya Pravda (Russia)
OhmyNews (South Korea)
The Independent online (UK)
Korea Herald (South Korea)
Online Journalism Review (USA)
The Nation (Thailand)
Le Monde(France)
Paidcontent.org / Rafat Ali (USA)
Time magazine (USA)
Libération (France)
Periodistas21 / Juan Varela (Spain)
Times of India (India)
Los Angeles Times (USA)
Personlich (Germany)
Times online / The Times (UK)
Marketwatch (USA)
PJNet / Leonard Witt
Topix.net (USA)
Mediabistro (USA)
Poynter Institute (USA)
Villamedia (The Netherlands)
Media Channel (USA)
Presstime / NAA (USA)
Visualeditors.com (USA)
Media Culpa / Hans Kullin (Sweden)
Pressthink / Jay Rosen (USA)
Wall Street Journal (USA)
MediaGuardian / The Guardian (UK)
Publicitas (Switzerland)
Washington Post (USA)
MediaPost / MediaDailyNews (USA)
Publico (Portugal)
Wikinews (USA)
Media-ratings (France)
Reporters sans Frontières (France)
Wired (USA)
Mediaweek (UK)
Reuters (UK)
World Association of Newspapers
(France)
MediaBulletin (UK)
SAFMA (Pakistan)
Micro Persuasion/ Steve Rubel (USA)
Salon (USA)
Mignon Media (France, USA))
Siliconvalley.com (USA)
NewsNow (UK)
Simon Waldman (UK)
New York Times (USA)
Slate (USA)
Newsnow (UK)
Straits Times (Singapore)
World Editors Forum (France)
Yahoo News (USA)
Yomiuri Online (Japan)
ZDNet (USA)
The postings (weblog articles) were written by John Burke, USA; Anna-Maria Mende, Germany; Bertrand Pecquerie, France;
Andrea Steinberg, USA; Dominique Tuohy, Ireland. The selection of postings was done by John Burke. Unless otherwised sourced, photos were taken from Google Images.
We want to diversify our sources for the 2007 edition of TRENDS IN NEWSROOMS. Please contact the
weblog editor, John Burke, if you want to become a new media news provider or if you have any question about our copyright policy.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 33 1 47 42 85 00 / fax: 33 1 47 42 49 48
World Editors Forum, 7 rue Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France
VII
Intro_gral
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Introduction
Newspapers 2015 :
towards a challenging
future
To introduce our 2006 report, the World Editors Forum asked two of the
world’s most revered newspaper specialists, Philip Meyer and Roy Greenslade, to give their
predictions of where newspapers will stand in the media ecosystem in ten years. Below, they
comment on how today’s younger generations will use the paper, what the role of citizen journalism will be, and how the changing media landscape will affect journalism and democracy.
Their answers act as guidelines for all editors leading their newspapers into an uncertain future.
Philip Meyer,
Knight Chair of Journalism,
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
USA
Roy Greenslade,
Media Columnist,
The Daily Telegraph
London
Question: How do you interpret this sentence from Andrew Gowers, former editor
in chief of the Financial Times: “Working in print is the early 21st century equivalent of running a record company specializing in vinyl”?
Roy Greenslade: First, a prosaic, but important, point about longevity. Newspapers have a
history stretching back to the 16th century while vinyl gramophone records were first used a
mere fifty years ago. The technological advances that led to the supplanting of vinyl with compact discs are not analogous to the publication of newspapers.
The undeniable truth is that the invention of successive forms of improved communication from
the mid-1850s onwards – telegraph, radio, television and the internet – have not brought about
a collapse of the press. Print owners and editors have proved especially adroit at adapting their
papers to the changed conditions created by competition from new media.
Philip Meyer: That is an interesting parallel, and I assume that Gowers uses “vinyl” as a
metaphor for analog recording which started with Thomas Edison’s tin foil on cylinders in 1877.
But if it is meant to warn newspaper companies, it is an understatement. Switching music
recordings from analog to digital media did not cause a major disruption, and it did not change
the content – at least not in a way that old guys like me could appreciate. There were some
unforeseen consequences, including copyright problems, but the fundamentals of the business
did not change very much.
www.editorsweblog.org is edited by WEF, the organisation for Editors within the World Association of Newspapers
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In another sense, the Gower’s sentence is an overstatement. Analog recording is
still cherished by a few hobbyists, but it is no longer a factor in the marketplace. Print will be a factor for the foreseeable future.
Question: Can print newspapers survive the digital age?
Philip Meyer: The new-technology competitors of print are threatening to be much more
socially disruptive than radio and television were because their utility as advertising media
undermines the economic model that supports public-service journalism. Ink on paper will survive in new business models. They won’t be as profitable as the old model, but they will persist
in new niches.
Roy Greenslade: It would be foolish of me to deny that the circulations and readership of
papers has declined over the last half century, and the digital revolution is certainly having a
more marked effect on sales than all the previous inventions put together. This is a challenge
to newspapers to change, necessitating both depth and speed of thought. If that response is
sensible it need not mean the end of newspapers as a medium.
However, there may be fewer titles and the ones that survive will have to adapt once more.
Even if I was to accept that the press is dying (and I do not) I also believe that death is not as
close as the doom-mongers, who seem to include the media magnate, Rupert Murdoch, predict.
Question: Do you anticipate journalists and editorialists working without print
copies? Will the Internet become the main focus of newsrooms and print secondary?
Roy Greenslade: Media companies that previously tried to find ways of merging TV and radio
news operations with those of newspapers soon discovered that it was impossible. There was,
to use the jargon, no synergy. That is not the case with the internet. It is quite obvious that journalists can work in both mediums, print and screen, at the same time. Indeed, there are already
newspapers in Britain – the Financial Times, The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph – which are
exploring ways of reporters working across the range of media.
We are in the foothills of this kind of experimentation and it is clear that much of the work is
aimed at finding ways of preserving print while engaging with the digital form. It’s not really a
case of primary and secondary but exploring practical ways of uniting the two.
Philip Meyer: Ink on paper will still be very important in 10 years. The successful newspaper
companies will have begun to move toward hybrid products that give priority to online publication but provide print summaries – probably not daily – for those who lack the time to follow
all the twists and turns in the news. Creating community influence through investigative reporting, analysis, and holding power accountable, will come to be recognized as a key component
in the economic model regardless of platform.
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Introduction. Newspapers 2015: towards a challenging future
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Introduction
Question: Will print articles become more reflective
while the Internet provides breaking news?
Philip Meyer: The reverse seems more likely to me. Newspapers, still a mass medium, should
find their strength in trusted reporting. Opinion in its diverse shades attracts specialized audiences, and the Internet is the more efficient tool for sending a greater variety of messages, each
aimed at smaller subsets of the audience. That’s why the New York Times collects money from
online readers for its columnists but not for the news. Some interesting opinion writers, such as
Arianna Huffington, are finding strong Internet-only readership.
Roy Greenslade: I disagree. Despite the speed with which news can be transmitted and consumed electronically, papers have survived because their content has always included much
more than the mere reporting of events. For example, from their inception papers were dedicated to the interpretation of events, explaining context and providing analysis plus, of course,
informed opinion. This factor remains the key component in the newspapers’ struggle to compete with the internet.
And in recent years, newspapers in Britain have devoted more and more space to reflective,
reactive material rather than what was previously known as “hard news”. There are estimated
to be something like one thousand columnists writing for national newspapers alone.
Question: Does this mean that “newspapers will become viewspapers” as Simon
Kelner, editor of The Independent, predicts?
Roy Greenslade: There are two kinds of “viewspaper”. Kelner’s model, illustrated every day
on The Independent’s poster-style front pages, is based on the paper itself taking a political
stance on issues. For example, his paper is overtly against the Iraqi occupation, for the creation
of a viable Palestinian state and for greater European integration. The second model, exemplified by The Guardian, is based on the notion of providing a broad range of views from writers
who take very different positions on issues. It is therefore a forum for views.
At the opposite, the more populist papers have tended to move towards magazine-style content, concentrating particularly on celebrity-based material. In fact, all papers have gradually
expanded their range of content, featuring more lifestyle features material.
Philip Meyer: All media, print included, will continue the trend that we have seen since the
end of World War II: more specialized messages targeted to smaller subsets of the population.
There will be increased diversity in both opinion and factual coverage, with more members of
the audience finding media that seem to be designed expressly for them. The Internet can only
accelerate this trend.
Question: Are your anticipations what you want or what you fear? Sorry for insisting, but will newspapers eventually disappear if they do not reform themselves?
Roy Greenslade: It is not a case of fearing, nor even of lamenting. Basing a strategy on nos
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talgia is a waste of time. Hard-headed realism dictates that we save the print form
because the kind of journalism it has created is valuable
to society (and by that, I mean valuable to the operation of a liberal
democratic state). My belief is that organized, structured journalism produced by educated,
trained professionals remains the best way to hold governments, institutions and businesses to
account.
Philip Meyer: They are an even mix of hope and fear. I’m not worried so much about newspapers disappearing as I am about the possibility that journalism will disappear. James Madison
warned his fellow Americans about “the men of factious temper” who would keep us distracted from the common good. The development of newspapers with broad appeal early in the 19th
century helped keep the country together. What is hard to see now is the development of a new
economic model for news that will fulfill that same function.
Question: Do you see online journalism as an opportunity or a threat for quality
journalism?
Roy Greenslade: The internet is a kind of anarchy, with many millions of people offering a
mixture of news and views. It is without structure, coherence and credibility. Without the printed medium and its staff of professional journalists there would not be a competent medium to
perform the central task of a free press: informing the public. One of the press’s most important
features is that its veracity is constantly being monitored from within and without. This scrutiny
ensures that its journalists will, under most circumstances, attempt to tell the truth.
Though internet journalists can scrutinise the activities of print and TV journalists (and have
exposed their faults in some celebrated cases), there is no certainty that net journalism can function as successfully as print journalism. It lacks the integrated team-work which provides the
kind of truth-checking structure that ensures that journalism remains “honest”.
That said, it is fair for net journalists to point out that privately owned organizations seeking
profit have, whether overt or covert, an underlying agenda slanted in favour of the capitalist
market. This can lead owners to pressure journalists into complying with their commercial
demands. However, the nature of competition itself allied to the competitive (and often anarchical) journalistic spirit tends to prevent a capitalist conspiracy from taking hold.
Philip Meyer: It’s both of course. The anarchy of the Internet is a temporary phenomenon like
the lonely pamphleteers who drifted around Europe carrying their type in their shirttails.
Eventually their energy got absorbed and organized into newspapers. Nature likes to organize
itself into hierarchies of dominance, and we can already see a reputational hierarchy developing among bloggers. The influence model offered in my book “The Vanishing Newspaper” suggests that reputations have economic value and that this value need not be confined to any particular medium.
A better and more democratic form of journalism can arise from what we see today as conflict
between print and digital media. It will take many trial-and-error experiments and many failures
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Introduction
to find the right economic model, but
it will be found. If the newspaper industry wants
to succeed at this, it will have to increase its rate of error.
Question: In developed countries, the average age for newspaper readers is
around 50. Will newspapers be able to attract younger readers? Is print relevant in
the on-demand world of new media?
Philip Meyer: Newspapers will be able to attract young readers effectively with their online
products. They won’t be able to do it with print alone. They must learn to exploit the versatility
of online media and create new content to attract people who are not drawn to the traditional
newspaper. Most have been very slow to get this idea.
Roy Greenslade: It is obvious that we must find a way to convince the younger generation
that there are perils in a screen-based world. If print is not made relevant, if it fails to meet the
challenge, then we will not see the next generation graduate from screen to newspaper.
Question: Being so used to free content, will younger generations ever pay for
news? What poses a larger threat for news organizations; on-demand or free
news?
Roy Greenslade: Day-to-day news needs to be told and its requires explanation. It also needs
professional journalists with accredited sources to provide it. Then there is the news that
requires long and patient investigation (not to mention the financial resources to fund journalists). This news is best obtained by print journalists working in an organisation where there are
checks and balances (and legal advice). How can such work be free?
However, I readily concede that convincing a generation who enjoy the benefits of free news on
screen (or, increasingly in Britain, newspapers given away for free) is going to be exceedingly
difficult to convert. Even so, should the newspaper form vanish, there are plenty of reasons why
the generation that witnesses its demise might well seek to resurrect it. There is no reason why
it could not be reinvented once its usefulness – and the gap it leaves in people’s lives –
becomes clear.
Philip Meyer: Getting people to pay for news is not too wild a dream. Many specialized
media, such as newsletters addressed to very narrow audiences, are paid for entirely by readers. The Internet is an ideal medium for that kind of specialization. In the USA, we have some
non-profit organizations that receive money from charitable foundations to conduct investigative reporting and distribute the results on the Web. We will need many more experiments
before we can find the best economic models for supporting public service journalism.
Question: Are older journalists and editors, declared by some to be out of touch,
responsible for circulation declines or are there more global causes?
Roy Greenslade: To an extent it may be the fault of journalists, though owners are hardly
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blameless either. They accepted profits in the good times without thinking of the
consequences for the future.
But there are other profound reasons to consider, not least the astonishing growth of affluence
of western nations in the past 50 years and the removal of the menace of war. Despite isolated terrorist outrages, people in the West feel under no real threat. News has therefore become
largely irrelevant to vast numbers of people whose only nexus is money. Running in parallel has
been a rise of individualism and consequent decline in community (and community spirit). On a
national scale, this has created a narrow and inward-looking population.
Philip Meyer: Don’t blame the old guys! Disruptive technology is the global cause, and it
won’t be stopped. Of course, it could take younger news people, free of their elders’ bad habits,
to figure out how to deal with it.
In the USA at least, newspapers have been so successful with so little effort for so many years
that they have developed a risk-averse culture that leaves them poorly positioned to innovate.
They would rather harvest their good will by raising prices and reducing quality than invest in
new ways of presenting news and advertising. There will be meaningful innovation, of course,
but it is more likely to come from outside the traditional newspaper industry, as Google and
Craig Newmark are already demonstrating. The problem, of course, is to preserve the social
responsibility function in these new forms.
Question: Do you agree with blog activists when they say that “journalism will be
no longer a profession, but an activity?”
Roy Greenslade: British journalists have been taken by surprise by the advance of so-called
citizen journalism (CJ) in its various guises, particularly the bloggers. This has caused them to
reflect on whether their training and experience does qualify them to be regarded as professionals with special skills mere “amateurs” cannot match. Interestingly, this debate has broken out
within the journalists’ union (the National Union of Journalists), leading to convoluted arguments about the nature of freedom. The union have produced hopelessly impractical guidelines
to cope with the CJs phenomenon.
On the other hand, newspaper owners and editors have viewed the rise of CJs in a more relaxed
fashion, probably because they believe that some of its output (particularly the pictures of and
reportage of news events) provides them with free content. Tacitly, they are admitting that journalism is, at its most basic form, a simple activity: a person relates by word or picture what they
see and hear.
But journalism, like the world it is trying to inform people about, is infinitely more complex than
acting as an eye-witness. Professional journalists therefore, whether or not they view blogging
as a threat to newspaper journalism, seem to be comforting themselves with the notion that
only they can do their job properly.
Philip Meyer: The need to professionalize journalism will be greater than ever, and we ought
to get on with it. Bloggers will help keep journalism honest, but it still needs a self-regulatory
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Introduction
mechanism to enable the public to
recognize and appreciate standards of both
morality and technical competence. Blogging is in a very
early stage of development, and it will take time
for its practitioners to recognize the problem and organize themselves to solve it. But it must
happen eventually.
There ought to be professional associations that could establish and certify minimum standards
of morality, truth-telling, and technical competence. Existing associations, such as the Society of
Professional Journalists, have been quite unready to do this. It will happen first among specialty journalists. For example, TV weather reporters in the USA are commonly certified as professional meteorologists.
Question: How does the “online conversation” affect journalism? How will reader
contributions transform journalism? Are we witnessing an overall renaissance of
the way journalism is practiced?
Philip Meyer: The online conversation deprives traditional journalism of its agenda-setting
power. This power was used in both positive and negative ways. One of its applications was to
keep the public from thinking about holes and inadequacies in the conventional news report.
Now it is under greater scrutiny, and the value system is slowly changing in ways that are good
for the pubic and good for journalism.
It was a demand for greater transparency that led CBS news to post the documents that seemed
to identify George W. Bush as a slacker in his National Guard service. And it was the resulting
interaction with the public, including some experts on typewriter technology, that exposed the
documents as fake.
Another example is the decreased tolerance for plagiarism and fictionalizing in journalistic
accounts. Two editors of national newspapers in the USA lost their jobs for tolerating reporters
who made things up. That would not have happened before the Internet.
Roy Greenslade: In the midst of a revolution it is always difficult to forecast its outcome. We
are seeing, day by day, a growing use of the internet as a source, and an archival resource, for
print journalists. Similarly, traditional sources for journalists are using the net themselves, widening their audience for material once vouchsafed only to the “professionals”. This is speeding up
the news cycle, but it is unclear yet just how much effect it has had on the practice of print journalism. Indeed, we are at that stage in the revolution when people are tending to make almost
daily discoveries.
Question: Is investigative journalism still possible with fewer journalists in the
newsrooms and more lifestyle/entertainment sections in the newspapers?
Philip Meyer: Investigative journalism is still necessary, and the marketplace will find a way
to support it. In the USA, charitable foundations and NGOs are starting to support investigative
journalism. Now that a printing press is no longer a prerequisite, the possibilities are
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increasing, not diminishing. For
example, the Washington-based Center for
Public Integrity regularly wins prizes for investigative
reporting, and its only direct outlet is the Internet.
Roy Greenslade: As said previously, lifestyle and entertainment material became prevalent in
newspapers way before the super highway came to town and soon began to undermine traditional journalistic practice, such as investigative journalism. Confronted by sliding sales, most
owners and editors in Britain decided that growing reader apathy was due to their papers’ failure to entertain rather than a failure to inform. The editors of popular papers, whose acceptance
of the age of the celebrity had long before tilted the balance away from their previous commitment to informational journalism, devoted an even greater proportion of space to entertainment
material.
For the editors of serious papers, the key word was “accessibility”. They took the view that an
increase in entertainment was necessary to retain their audiences but they attempted to maintain a balance in favour of information. However, the fall in sales and a decline in advertising
revenue affected the bottom line, leading to cost-cutting in editorial departments. So investigative journalism suffered under several pressures. It was regarded, in terms of stretched editorial
budgets, as costly so its practitioners came to be regarded as a luxury. And in the eyes of editors chasing circulation, investigations were rarely guaranteed to be sales-winners.
Question: Can we consider that journalism is in crisis in developed countries?
Philip Meyer: The traditional forms are in crisis. The trick is to save journalism by helping its
transition to new forms. That’s why the subtitle of my book is “Saving Journalism in the
Information Age.” Newspapers in the USA are better positioned than those in many parts of the
world because they are local. Specialized information has adapted better to new technology
than more general information, and that is why community newspapers have fared better than
large metropolitan or national newspapers. Developed countries without a strong local newspaper tradition might find opportunities there.
Roy Greenslade: In Britain, the rise of the internet has put a further squeeze on newspaper
income because of a migration of advertising to the net. With a continuing fall in circulation revenue as well, the financial situation at most of leading serious newspapers is desperate. Four of
the five titles – The Times, Financial Times, The Independent and The Guardian – are no longer
returning profits. The Daily Telegraph is profitable but has seen the rate of profit decline substantially in recent years. Journalism is therefore in crisis.
Question: Is the watchdog role of quality newspaper journalism necessary for
democracy disappearing? Who will watchdog governments and corporations if
newspaper cannot?
Roy Greenslade: The historic role of newspapers has been as organs of democracy. Now, within democracies, newspapers are the main media form holding governments and big business
accountable for its actions. Journalists working for TV and radio have always tended to play a
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Introduction
supporting role to newspaper journalists who have a lengthy track record in breaking
stories and in campaigning on a daily basis. The watchdog
role depends on the existence of newspapers.
It is true that the internet, much heralded as the bastion of “real freedom”, has opened up a
new and vibrant form of citizen journalism. Many net journalists have made major contributions
to the reporting of important stories, and have also been responsible for holding mainstream
journalists to account. However, there have also been wild, false and irresponsible rumours circulated on the net. The problem is that net journalists lack credibility and therefore their stories
can easily be dismissed by the authorities.
Newspapers, because they act as a forum for the most reliable news-gathering and informed
opinion, remain the most effective watchdog. If they disappear then democracy itself is in peril.
Philip Meyer: In the USA, newspapers are cutting budget and staff, but investigative reporting is not necessarily the first thing to go. If newspapers do abandon this important function,
other institutions will take up the slack: NGOs such as The Center for Responsive Politics and
the Center for Public Integrity have become leaders in national investigative reporting or Barry
Sussman, a former Washington Post editor who supervised the Watergate investigation now
runs a blog that is both a cheerleader and idea generator for investigative reporters from all
media (www.niemanwatchdog.org).
Democracy is endlessly inventive. For example, political parties in the USA developed against the
wishes of some of the founding fathers because they filled an important need as a way to pinpoint
responsibility in a government of divided powers. Institutions to harness the power of the Internet
for investigative reporting will develop in the same unplanned manner.We should not be dismayed
by the passive extrapolation of existing trends. The future can be what we make of it.
Roy Greenslade is a media columnist for the Daily Telegraph and
Professor of Journalism at City University, London. He has been a journalist for 41 years and has worked for most of the main British national newspapers, including a brief period as editor of the Daily Mirror.
He was media commentator for The Guardian for 13 years until
October 2005. He is on the board of the academic quarterly, the
British Journalism Review, and the author of three books. His latest is a
history of British newspapers entitled Press Gang (Macmillan, 2003).
Philip Meyer is author of The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism
in the Information Age (2004) and Precision Journalism (4th edition,
2002). He began his newspaper career at the age of 13 as a substitute carrier for the Clay Center (Kansas) Dispatch. For 23 years, he
held various jobs with Knight Ridder including Miami Herald reporter,
Washington correspondent, and corporate director of news and circulation research. In 1981, he joined the faculty of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is one of the few educators ever to
be designated a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists
(2005).
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1
Is the future of print online?
As the Internet becomes an increasingly popular platform with consumers, newspapers are rushing to adapt their journalism and business models online. Media baron
Rupert Murdoch opened news executive eyes in April 2005 when he told the
American Society of Newspaper Editors that all signs in the media business
point to digital development. Other media commentators have chided newspapers
for not adapting more quickly and some have gone so far as to predict the death of
print. Although this talk may be exaggerated, it is clear that the Internet has already
established itself as and will remain a very strong source for news. Here are several
reasons why:
Young readers: Perhaps the biggest sign that newspapers have to move online is
the news consumption habits of younger generations. They may not be subscribing to
the printed daily paper as they grow older. But many are getting their news from
newspaper websites. The newspaper industry is slowly waking up to this fact and
beginning to adapt likewise, experimenting with multimedia and interactive features
that youth expect from their online news experience.
Online readership: Not only are youth growing up with online news, but the generations above them as well are migrating from print to the Internet. Online readership in the U.S. grew 11% in 2005 and 22% of readers now get their news exclusively online. At the same time, most papers continue to declare significant circulation
losses with each audit.
Redefining circulation: Having long desired to replace “circulation” numbers with
“readership,” in 2005 The Newspaper Association of America began publishing a biannual report entitled Newspaper Audience Database that will include
online readership. Adding the nearly 40 million people who read online newspapers
to circulation statistics will help newspapers win back advertiser confidence.
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Is the future of print online?
Advertising: National, local and classified advertising, the principal financial base of
newspapers, are also moving quickly online. One study showed that online advertising in the U.S. was up 34% in 2005. Another determined that online advertising will
double over the next three years. Towards the end of 2005, papers tried to raise the
cost of print advertising, but many advertisers weren’t buying, reserving more of their
promotional budgets for the Internet.
Recognition and awards: The Pulitzer Prize Committee, the body that determines the most prestigious award in American journalism, took the first steps towards
considering online reporting for its honors in 2005, a trend that is sure to continue
as more newspapers include online features in their journalism.
----------------------------In the conclusion to this chapter, Columbia University professor Eli Noam takes
these and other indications into consideration in what is arguably 2005’s most comprehensive essay about how the Internet is affecting the troubled newspaper industry. His conclusions may surprise you.
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Rupert Murdoch insists on newspaper
website development
"There will always be room for good journalism - and good reporting. And a need for it, to get the truth out."
Source: Press Gazette, The Independent
"I'm a digital immigrant. I wasn't weaned on the web, nor coddled on a computer...My two young daughters, on the other hand,
will be digital natives. They'll never know a world without ubiquitous broadband internet access." Speaking at the American
Society of Newspaper Editors, media baron Rupert
Murdoch pushed delegates to get over their fears of the Internet
and invest in their digital wings. Here are some of the major points
of his speech.
Young people's changing habits of news consumption:
Mr. Murdoch said that youth "have a different set of expectations
about the kind of news they will get, including when and how
they will get it, where they will get it from, and who they will get
it from." Elaborating on this statement, he gave statistics demonstrating younger generations’ exodus from newspapers and rapid
immigration to the Internet. With the expansion of broadband,
Murdoch predicts this shift to the Internet will proliferate.
Involve the reader: "Too often, the question we ask is ‘Do we
have the story?’ rather than ‘Does anyone want the story.’"
Murdoch feels that editors and reporters are out of touch with
their readers and that the Web provides innovative tools to include
them in the news process that should be taken advantage of,
notably blogs and podcasting.
Advertising online: "The threat of losing print advertising dollars to online media is very real." Quoting Bill Gates, Murdoch
said that in five years, the Internet will attract USD 30 billion in
advertising revenue. That equals the current advertising revenue
currently collected by the entire newspaper industry. The most
immediate challenge, according to the News Corp CEO, is
"transforming (newspapers') offline classified business into online
marketplaces."
Optimism (even for print!): "Success in the online world will,
I think, beget greater success in the printed medium. By meeting
the challenges I've raised, I'm confident we will not only improve
our chances for success in the online world but, as importantly,
improve our actual printed newspapers."
November 24, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/rupert_mur
doch_print_will_survive_for_ma.php
Bill Gates: "In 5 years, 40 to 50% of people
will read their news online."
Microsoft guru and philanthropist Bill Gates sat down with the
French daily, Le Figaro, for a chat about the digital revolution. At
one point he was asked about the future of the printed word:
Le Figaro: Are newspapers condemned?
Gates: Fortunately, the expertise of the press does not reside in
their capacity to cut trees but to produce great articles that contribute to their solid reputation. The quality of their Internet site is
now crucial for press companies. Formerly, the barrier to enter into
journalism was very high for physical reasons: printing, distribution, etc. This is no longer the case and publishing companies are
competing more and more with online media. In five years, we can
estimate that 40 to 50% of people will read their news online. To
conserve their readership, newspapers must develop their electronic approach.
Le Figaro: Do you still read the newspaper?
Gates: More than half of what I consume, I read on the Internet:
The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and The
Economist. I read all of their newspapers online: articles are upto-date, there are demonstrations, videos, links, etc. When I have
a very long article to read, on the other hand, I download it onto
my tablet PC.
Source: Le Figaro (in French)
October 26, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/10/bill_gates_in
_5_years_40_to_50_of_people.php
Source: News Corp
April 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/rupert_murdoch_1.php
Rupert Murdoch: print will survive for "many,
many, many years"
Media baron Rupert Murdoch opened up to Press Gazette in
the first interview he has given to the UK press in five years. The
infamous media baron, who has been aggressively buying Internet
properties, commented on the future of journalism with some suggestions for newsrooms: "Just become better journalists. Great
journalism will always be needed, but the product of their work
may not always be on paper - it may ultimately just be electronically transmitted. But for many, many, many years to come it will
be disseminated on both.
14
Chapter 1: Is the future of print online?
SECTION 1: WHY NEWSPAPERS MUST DEVELOP
ONLINE
Newspaper journalism will survive,
but not the print medium
Newspaper journalism is stronger than ever. But the newspaper
itself has seen better days. Adam Penenberg, assistant professor in the business and economic reporting program at New
York University, writes on Wired News, "People haven't
been abandoning newspapers. They have been abandoning the
print medium... More people read traditional news outlets today
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than ever before. But they are doing it on a screen." Penenberg
points out that the many of the most visited web sites around the
world are major media organizations and newspapers and that
this will be the future since 1/3 of the 18 to 24 age group already
prefer to read their news online, as opposed to 10% who read a
newspaper.
Newspapers have another advantage according to Mike Game,
CEO of Fairfax Digital, who says in The Australian "New
media has not replaced the core attribute of newspapers, which is
the ability to analyze and to provide much deeper insight."
Sources: Wired News, Poynter, Christian Science Monitor, The
Australian
April 29, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/newspaper_journ.php
advantage of targeted advertising that the Internet provides, and
that because of these differences, their business relationships with
advertisers will change.
Adaptation problems: The main problem with newspaper websites is that publishers have been reluctant to change their analogue business models and newsrooms and their analogue journalism in order to adapt to the rising digital storm.
Publishers' shortsighted vision, based mostly on pleasing investors, made them blind to the changes the Internet is bringing further down the road. Because of this, newsrooms have been losing
the resources (financial and personnel), they need to adapt instead of lowering profit expectations and reinvesting in digital journalism development.
Sources: Cyberjournalist (website usage up), Rebuilding Media
(Crosbie), MediaPost (RSS increases traffic),
HypergeneMediaBlog (RSS feeds)
November 3, 2005
Newspapers' online readership does not make
up for declining print circulations... yet
Although it is well documented that newspaper circulations have
been declining for years, a slide that does not seem will reverse
itself soon, it has been shown that newspaper website usage has
been rising rapidly. But does digital readership make up for the
loss in print? Will sustainable online financial models emerge? Will
the Internet change newspaper journalism?
A myth: Online media consultant Vin Crosbie thinks that publishers are fooling themselves into believing that online readers are
as valuable as print readers. He calls his theory the “Myth of
Online/Legacy User Equivalence”:
http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2005/11/implications_of_mov
ing_newspapers_online.php
Three reasons for newspaper
digital development
As the printed word struggles, the Internet seems to be making up
for it. Fortunately, most newspapers caught the digital wave a
decade ago. But they have been slow to innovate. Below are a few
reasons why newspapers need to pay more attention to online
journalism.
"The Myth states that each online user is of equal value to a user
of print or broadcast."
Growth: According to Alexia S. Quadrani, a Wall Street analyst,
"The Internet is an area where newspapers can protect and gain
market share over time, and this ultimately could help the newspaper stocks."
He concludes, "Unless publishers (or broadcasters) can create
compelling websites that get used — and earn — at least as
much as their legacy media does per user, then the fact that more
and more of their legacy media users are switching to online
access of their service isn't good news."
Ms. Quadrani stresses that newspapers have exceptional advantages in their local markets, being the "most reliable media sources
with extensive advertiser relationships."
Free websites: What also isn't good news for newspapers is that
most of their websites are free. Worse still, people are becoming
more reluctant to pay for news.
A study published by the Online Publishers Association
shows that consumers in the US spent almost USD 1 billion on
online content during the first half of 2005. But newspaper websites witnessed a 14% decline in content spending, from USD 46
million last year to USD 39 million in 2005's first half.
Advertising: Reuters reports that Internet advertising rose
34% in the third quarter of 2005 breaking the $3 billion mark.
Analyst David Silverman of PriceWaterhouseCoopers
said, "The third-quarter figures are the most impressive we've
seen yet. Clearly advertisers are realizing the benefits of shifting
more of their total advertising budgets to online."
E-Commerce elaborates, saying that the "next wave" of Internet
advertising will be even bigger with the inclusion of "multimedia
ads bringing targeted video messages to the Internet in droves."
Digital advertisers: Online advertising remains a small percentage (4-5%) of newspaper revenues, but it is the fastest growing
advertising market in the world and promises to continue up that
slope for some time as advertisers warm up to it.
Journalism: Multimedia is already changing journalism, adding
new facets to newsgathering, dissemination and consumption.
Newspapers are converging with other media, as can be seen at
the Danish paper, Nordjyske Medier, which merged its Web,
radio, TV and print all the way back in 2001.
If newspapers invest in this trend, figuring out the best way to produce results for their online advertisers, eventually they will begin
to increase their revenue. But it is essential that they understand
the differences in online and print advertising models, namely the
With The Guardian now reporting that in the next four years,
the number of Europeans watching TV online will hit 9 million,
newspapers will undoubtedly continue to converge, and thus dras-
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tically transform the way in which journalists practice their craft.
Sources: Editor and Publisher, Reuters, E-Commerce, Journalism
Leaders Blog, The Guardian
November 23, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/three_reasons_for_news
paper_digital_deve.php
The New York Times' website came out on top, claiming 11.4
million readers.
Read the press release and our posting about newspapers' difficulties in adapting to the Internet.
Source: PRNewswire
November 16, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/online_newspapers_grow
ing_readership.php
US: Online newspaper industry
reaches $ 1 billion mark
Japan: Internet surpasses newspapers
as most read news medium
According to a new eMarketer report, the online newspaper
industry is growing and gains are rising. "Online publishers are
posting consistently strong — indeed, extraordinary — financial
results. Among the strongest are
the online operations of traditional
newspapers," said Ezra Palmer,
Editorial Director at eMarketer and
author of the report. The online
newspaper industry passed the $ 1
billion mark in 2004, mostly
through revenues from advertising.
The report predicts that online ad
spending will continue to grow
rapidly. It represented 3.6% of
total ad spending in 2004 and is
said to rise to 7,5% in 2009.
However, Mr. Palmer also puts his
findings into perspective: "The $1
billion mark is no small achievement, but it was passed long ago
by portals—Yahoo!, Google,
AOL and MSN alone generate
more than eight times as much
advertising revenue as the entire
online newspaper industry."
Housing the third largest newspaper market in the world after
China and India and the top four
dailies in terms of circulation,
Japan could be the envy of newspaper publishers everywhere. But a
recent survey conducted by the
National
Institute
of
Information
and
Communications Technology
shows that the Japanese also have
a large digital bug. 37 minutes of
an average Japanese day is spent
surfing the web for news, up five
minutes from last year's survey,
compared to 31 minutes spent reading newspapers. As in most similar surveys, demographic comparisons explained the technological
discrepancies between young and
Traditional media mogul Rupert Murdoch caught the new
old; teenagers spending 23 minumedia wave in 2005, spending over $1 billion on Internet
tes with newspapers whereas
properties
senior citizens spend 58.
Sources: eMarketer, New York Times Company
August 19, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org
/2005/08/us_online_newsp.php
These numbers should not be discouraging for Japanese newspapers, nor newspapers in general. In surfing the Web for news, it's
highly likely that readers consult their preferred daily's website if
not others, ultimately increasing the "circulation" of papers, as
shown in a study done by Scarborough Research. It's not
quite the end of print, but noting the current trends, newspapers
should be investing in their websites in order to make them profitable.
Sources: Xinhuanet and Yahoo!
growing readership
Nielsen/NetRatings released its figures for newspaper website readership on November 15, showing that the number of
visitors grew 11% year on year to 39.3 million. 22% of newspaper readers now read their news online, as opposed to 71%
who still prefer the paper edition.
16
June 30, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/
2005/06/japan_internet.php
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Sources: Rebuilding Media, Yelvington.com, PaidContent,
Buzzmachine
SECTION 2: TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF
INTERNET ADAPTATION
US: the present state and possible future of the
newspaper industry put in perspective
Already being branded "Black Tuesday," September 20, 2005 may
be looked back on as the day that the newspaper industry realized that all of the pessimistic predictions of its imminent demise
were not merely hype. On that day, four major East Coast metro
papers (New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia
Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News) announced that they
would need to layoff or buyout a combined total of 180 newsroom staff members. The previous week, a West Coast metro (San
Francisco Chronicle) began buying out and laying off 120
employees.
Bob Cauthorn at Rebuilding Media has written a piece which
highlights two things newspapers are doing wrong that is bringing about their present difficulties: 1. talking about platform shift
and 2. focusing on their brand.
1. Cauthorn says platform shift, switching from print to web, is a
phrase that newspaper execs use to make themselves feel like
they're changing their product. In reality they may be moving their
content online but they aren’t changing it. They don't realize that
the different platform provides different opportunities that their
readers want them to take advantage of. Thus, printing the same
content in the paper and online is ultimately self-defeating.
Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine contributes to the argument
saying, "You don't want to be multiplatform. You want to be
unplatform… So what if you help people create and distribute?
What if you provide content to remix and some of the tools and
know-now to do it? What if you share promotion and, yes, ad
revenue? What if you don’t try to own 100 pieces of content but
recognize your value in contributing to the success of 10,000 pieces? What’s your real value then? Owning? Or enabling?
Restrictions? Or reputation?"
2. As for brand, Cauthorn says that companies focusing on their
brand are just making up an excuse for not creating anything new.
The quality of their product may be suffering, but they're sure that
people will continue to buy their product because it has a trusted
brand name. But "When it comes to a war between products and
brands, products almost always win in the end." Thus, newspapers
need to become innovative, molding their product to fit the web
and more importantly, the desires of their readers.
Cyberjournalist has posted a Nielsen/Net Ratings report
that found that currently, in 9 of 10 major local markets, Internet
readers stick to their local paper's site with the Washington
Post leading the pack being read by 30.1% of the Beltway
Internet user population. This shows that locally, "brand" still pulls
some weight. But the fact that Internet users can access any publication, in fact any Internet page from anywhere in the world, from
the comfort of their home, "brands" could easily lose their
influence.
September 23, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/us_the_present.php
The most relevant media trends
for newspapers
PR Week lists its picks for the 10 most important media trends.
Nothing is new or shocking, but the list reinforces many of the
predictions that have been being made for some time. Here are
some highlights:
Business woes for newspapers: Colby Atwood, VP of media
research firm Borrell Associates, says the newspaper industry is
in the midst of a long period of transition that will take 10 to 15
years. Such a transition will result in more consolidations and
reductions in work forces, as the industry adjusts to playing a
smaller role in news distribution and advertising. Because smaller
workforces will undoubtedly affect a newspaper's ability to gather
news, Atwood feels newspapers will have to focus on the news
that is most relevant to their readers.
Digitalization of print media: "There will be more of an
impact on newspapers in [the next] two to five years than has
happened in the past 100. Online news is going to impact the traditional newspaper much quicker and faster. While online content
has served as an adjunct to print for many years now, in the future
the inverse will be true... print publications will provide deeper
analysis and more editorials than their online counterparts."
Source: PR Week
October 17, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/10/the_most_relevant_media
_trends_for_newsp.php
US: On-demand attitude threatening
newspapers
The Internet is an increasingly important information source for
many people, especially the young. According to a study by the
Pew Internet & American Life Project, 87 percent of
American teens (aged 12-17), are Internet users and 76% of the
87 go online to get news or information about current events,
reports the Chicago Sun-Times. At the same time, very few
teens read newspapers.
But also young adults are shifting to the net. "It seems like we're
on the Internet more because we don't have time to read the
newspaper," says Janet Sherer, manager at Tampa Digital
Studios, a communications firm. In a daily mix of various information channels, some call it "news grazing", the newspaper's
role seems to decrease.
This "on-demand attitude" is changing the media. The St.
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Petersburg Times cites Jonathan Klein, CNN/U.S. president:
"The audience ... is busier than it has ever been. They don't have
time for stories that waste their time ... Technology has sped up
the pace of life, but it hasn't created more free time." According
to St. Petersburg Times the losers of this trend are "media that
attract large numbers of consumers through a variety of material,
forcing every customer to some things they don't like. That list
includes newspapers ..."
Sources: St. Petersburg Times, Mediachannel, Chicago SunTimes
August 02, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/us_ondemand_att.php
“Fusion” of media is transforming newspapers
"Fusion is only now coming to the newsroom, but the fusion has
already taken place in the minds of the readers." Commenting
on one of his travails, the conversion of the Wall Street
Journal's Asian and European editions to compact format,
renowned newspaper designer Mario Garcia insists that newspapers need to integrate their online and print editions to suit
the already changed habits of readers in a multimedia world.
In this ever evolving world, "Some stories will lend themselves to
a photo gallery, others will be told better through audio or video,
and reporters will have to be clued into that...They will tell the stories in nine paragraphs for the newspaper and then in a multimedia format online," said Garcia.
Garcia’s “fusion model” looks feasible for four principal
reasons:
1. The Middletown Media Studies II conducted by Ball
State University Center for Media Design found that people spend nine hours a day with various media, the fastest growing being the computer.
2. With online advertising growing at tremendous speeds, online
editions of newspapers will eventually have the necessary financial backing to continue producing quality journalism.
3. Job cuts were a rampant problem for many major newspapers
in 2005, but cuts in online staff were virtually nonexistent.
4. The Internet allows readers to link from one story to another,
something that they will come to expect more and more. “There
will be survival of every medium, but survival will come by fusing
the different mediums and by sending readers from one medium
to another," said Garcia.
Ultimately, newspapers will be with us long into the future, but the
manner in which they function and in which they are consumed is
bound to transform to fit the new media landscape.
Acquisitions of Internet groups by traditional
media continue to increase
The Financial Times reports that more and more media companies are purchasing Internet rivals. The value of such public
transactions up until June 2005 almost reached $1 billion, more
than double the total value of public acquisitions in 2004. The
sales are probably due to the high expectations for continued
growth in advertising and especially for ads connected to searches.
Media companies such as newspaper publishers and broadcasters
might not try to make large purchases to compete with major
search companies such as Google or Yahoo. Google’s market
value rose to over $80 billion last week. But most media groups
have shown interest in small Internet companies in order to capitalize on some of the Internet’s growth potential. Analyst at UBS
Aryeh Bourkoff said, “It is probably too late for media companies to acquire their way into the lucrative search business. The
acquisitions are about fine-tuning strategies rather than acquiring
to change radically their business.”
Since they are seen by some to have limited growth prospects,
many media companies are starting to focus more on selling their
content over the internet or mobile devices, or boosting content
sales internationally.
Source: The Financial Times
June 15, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/acquisitions_of.php
UK: Re-training journalists for online
Press Association, the UK's leading multimedia news and
information provider, will expand its journalism training division
in order to meet the growing demand for multimedia content by
its customers. Newly appointed head of PA's editorial training
Tony Johnston has the task to re-train journalists to work for
digital formats. As Journalism.co.uk reports the multimedia
training includes writing and designing for the web in addition
to producing video news.
On Journalism.co.uk he said: "To stay ahead, journalists will need
to be as comfortable breaking news on the web, telling stories in
video and putting out news alerts on SMS, as they are in their current roles in either print or broadcast. As more people get broadband Internet connections, sites are increasingly looking to add
video to their content. This is a whole new area for print journalists and requires significant re-training. It is becoming one of the
most important issues facing the industry."
Source: Journalism.co.uk
August 04, 2005
Sources: AsiaMedia
September 29, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/newspapers_tran.php
18
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SECTION 3: WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
US: Close to 2,000 newspaper
jobs lost in 2005
In the wake of the Tribune Co's announcement to cut jobs at five
papers, Editor and Publisher reports that a rough estimate of the
number of American newspaper jobs lost in 2005 is over 1,900.
This data includes only large and mid-sized papers.
Circulation: Circulation is traditionally defined by how many full
copies are distributed through subscription and individual sales.
That definition changes on the Internet to mean page views.
Instead of having to buy the whole paper to read articles, readers
of Web news are free to pick and choose the articles that interest
them. A system of “micro-payments”, one where a reader has an
automatically debited online account, could make up for lost
newspaper revenue by charging per article in place of the traditional full subscription model.
Consequences: Although it will take some time for newspapers
to work out their online plans, these new business models will
ultimately benefit the craft of journalism: content truly becomes
the key to the online newspaper success.
The Internet is inundated with sources available immediately to
anyone with the click of a mouse. Providing readers with the
November 18, 2005
option of paying per article is thus a logical option because it will
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/us_close_to_
allow them to access these other sources for a minimal price. But
2000_newspaper_jobs_lost_thi.php
it also puts a newspaper in direct competition with every source
form around the world. The only
way to keep readers coming back
in the midst of such competition is
for a paper to distinguish itself
Newspapers' struggle
through its content. Once a print
with the Internet will
subscription package is sold, the
reader is essentially forced into reareinforce quality
ding the paper's articles no matter
journalism
what their worth. By paying per
article, a paper's journalism will
always have to be of the highest
quality in order for it to survive
Many pundits complain that newsbecause if a reader has a bad expepapers have been slow to adapt
rience, he or she can easily get their
their reporting to the Internet, that
news somewhere else without worthey have not adopted most of the
rying about having spent the
content-enhancing advantages it
money on a long-term subscripprovides, and merely post on the
tion... and can just as easily decide
Web that which is printed in the
In 2005, the newspaper celebrated its 400th birthday. Are
to never go back to that paper's
daily paper. In the face of declining
centuries of Gutenberg's printed tradition currently ceding to
site.
circulations, the multitude of news
the computer screen?
sources found online, difficulties in
charging for Web content and the
Sources: SmartMoney, CyberJournalist
problems of online advertising profitability, it is obvious that
September 13, 2005
their business models have not adapted either. By fusing content
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/newspapers_stru.php
and business online, however, newspapers will ultimately be forced to ameliorate journalism.
Source: Editor and Publisher
Subscriptions: Newspapers, if they want to remain competitive,
have trouble charging for online content. In their local markets
they may have a monopoly. But online they compete with millions
of sources from around the world, many of which publish the
same news. Readers will more often than not find the news they
seek for free somewhere else, rendering paid subscriptions null.
Advertising: Loss of subscription can be made up for with advertising. The Web permits the power of precision with targeted
advertising such as GoogleAds which place ads according to
page content or Internet surfing habits. The problem for newspapers with the type of Internet advertising that is evolving is that
the host site only receives a small portion of revenue according to
how many people click on the ad. The advertising profit margins
print papers are used to thus seem unlikely. But in order to maximize them, newspapers of the future will more than likely integrate national and targeted advertising on the same page.
US: the dying newspaper, wimpy websites, and
the democratic crisis
"I've been involved with newspapers, in some form or another, for
a quarter century. If I don't see a compelling reason to read them,
why should anyone else?" On ABC News, veteran columnist
Michael S. Malone's damning editorial about the future of the
newspaper supports recent predictions of print's demise with
experienced opinion, opinion which is quick to dismiss the newspaper as a sustainable medium. Malone describes how he and
many of his colleagues have grown so accustomed to the convenience, immediacy, and customizing of Internet news that they
don't think that print subscriptions make sense anymore. And
19
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although he admits that he gets most of his news online, Malone
doesn't feel that established, well-respected publications are
using the Internet to its fullest capabilities.
He doesn't even give papers the benefit of the doubt. He forecasts
that by the end of the decade, 90% of print publications will be
out of business because they will be unable to adapt themselves
to the current technological revolution. "Before it is over, the number of "newspapers" left in America will probably be less than 10
- and they might not be individual papers but rather new entities
created out of the current large chains." This anticipated conglomeration of the newspaper industry is perhaps the most dangerous prediction, but seems more and more feasible as news corporations cut staff and ignore investments in their websites in
order to maintain high profits, giving their shareholders their quick
financial fix meanwhile destroying the quality and future of their
publications.
This is reflected in experienced reporter and editor Davis
Merritt's book, "Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the
Erosion of Newspaper Journalism is Putting Democracy
at Risk." Merritt is also skeptical about the survival of the printed word, but says that for the sake of democracy, newspaper style
journalism is necessary. As cited on the Indy Star book review,
"When citizens don't have access to relevant information 'and do
not have an active agora in which to act upon their values, democracy is left in the hands of insiders and special interests."
Essentially, if local papers disappear and national papers are
sucked up by one or two large organizations, as Malone predicts,
there could be a serious democratic crisis.
Journalists: Instead of simply being trained to interview, research
and write, journalists will be cross-trained, mastering video, still
images and audio, capable of transferring all to the web. Or, journalists specifically trained in one medium or another will work in
teams to produce a packaged news item for the web.
Editors: In a similar way to journalists, editors will also be crosstrained. Multimedia editors will be adept at packaging stories for
the web so that each medium's report brings the reader further
towards a complete understanding of an event.
Audience: The multimedia broadband age is one of personalized
news; individual members of the audience will consume what they
want, when they want it. Journalists, editors, advertisers and
publishers are now at the behest of the public, and the public
wants a comprehensive, enriching yet entertaining story. If one
news organization doesn't supply it, the audience will either go
elsewhere or create the news itself.
The Conversation: After the news is packaged, complete with
images, sound, text graphics, citizen contributions and advertising,
and posted, the publication part of the multimedia news process
will be complete. But the discussion, held between people of all
walks of life and facilitated by online communication tools, will
have just begun.
Source: Online Journalism Review, The Guardian
August 17, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/multimedia_news.php
Sources: ABC News, Online Journalism Review, Indy Star, Slate
March 29, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/us_the_dying_ne.php
"A replacement for traditional news media":
Wikinews founder Erik Moeller
Multimedia newspapers will transform the
news process, promote transparency and
improve democracy
Wikinews, part of the world of Wikimedia, challenges the
establishment boldly contradicting essentially every characteristic
of contemporary newspapers; no editorial staff, no paid journalists, no bias, no money. "How can such a model work, never mind
threaten mainstream newspapers?" you might ask. In the wake of
August’s First International Wikimedia Conference, here's
Erik Moeller, founder of Wikinews, to explain his project and its
potential effects on conventional media.
The New York Times' decision to merge its print and online
newsrooms will be looked back on as the tipping point for the
future of newsrooms everywhere. It will be considered the
moment in history when newspaper organizations realized and
began to capitalize on the true potential of the Internet.
One of the reasons that newspapers and TV broadcasters are
losing their audience is because there are too many other forms of
media attracting their attention. By combining these media, news
organizations will retain and attract more customers. A sole piece
may just scratch the surface of a story, but packaged with multimedia compliments, the audience will dive deeper, consuming a
thorough and educational news experience. Senior VP of digital
media at NYT Martin Nisenholtz sees the eventual inclusion of
30 to 40 daily multimedia reports on his paper's website:
For the moment, the Grey Lady has said that it will not oblige its
staff to adapt to the net, that it expects some resistance. But ultimately, multimedia internet capabilities will change everything for
everybody in the news cycle...
20
How can you define Wikinews in the global news environment? What is the added value of a Wikinews article
compared to to a blog's posting?
Simply put, I see Wikinews, if it succeeds, as a replacement for traditional news media, and I see blogs as a replacement for op-eds
and other forms of news commentary. Both work together well. If
you want to report news factually and reach many readers, then I
believe Wikinews will become the right environment for you. If you
want to write a rant, get a blog.
Replacing existing media is of course very ambitious -- but then
again, Wikipedia is increasingly becoming a replacement for traditional encyclopedias. I think we need to explore ways in which we
can fund expensive investigative reporting by citizen journalists in
order to be truly competitive.
It's highly unlikely that Wikinews will ever employ a "staff" of any
Chpt 1
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kind. I would personally love to see a donation-based fund for citizen reporters to apply for research grants; this could be done
within Wikinews or independently thereof. If you have a high reputation based on your previous work, the community would be
more likely to agree to a grant being given.
What have been the reactions of professional journalists
and editors to Wikinews?
The mainstream press has reacted quite harshly for the most part.
I think they don't like that we make the same information they
provide for money available for free to anyone.
August 10, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/a_replacement_f.php
The end of print could be financially logical but what about the journalism?
The daily printing of the newspaper is growing increasingly
expensive. Between rising newsprint prices, printing presses,
warehouse storage, delivery, etc., newspapers now spend an
average of $150 per reader each year just on producing the
paper. Considering this figure, some critics predict that newspapers will happily begin using new e-ink technologies in order to
save money.
Although in the long run e-ink seems to be financially logical, it
will also have serious affects on journalism. Frank Ahrens writes
in the Washington Post that e-ink and other such devices, such
as small screens that you can roll out of cell phones or even
Blackberries, will ultimately change newspaper journalism. Stories
will be short, may not even contain complete sentences and headlines will become more important.
Longer pieces may still be delivered in print form. But some, such
as media consultant Bob Cauthorn, say they will be published
less frequently than today's daily papers, maybe three times a
week, and that the articles will take on a more magazine style;
more reflective and analytical.
If electronic screens are to replace newsprint, there are surely
those that will want to continue reading the Sunday paper in its
large, multi-section, print format as noted in Ahrens article.
Therefore, the printing presses may not be extinguished for good.
But even this may not last forever. Many in their forties and fifties
read their news online or get it from television, but still purchase
the Sunday paper. Younger generations, however, already used to
other forms of media and many of whom do not buy the newspaper, may never pick up the Sunday paper habit. They could be quite
content browsing the news on a flexible screen with their Sunday
brunch.
Sources: Cyberjournalist, Washington Post
October 24, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/10/the_end_of_print_could_
be_financially_lo.php
Instead of spending all of their money on print, newspapers may
some day distribute these e-screens, which are pegged to cost less
than $100, free of charge to their subscribers.
"Why in their right minds would the Sulzbergers (the family that
controls the New York Times), or any owners, pay for huge
printing presses, fleets of trucks (burning a lot of expensive diesel
fuel, by the way), warehouses and union drivers, if the need was
not there?" asked the Times' delivery foreman.
21
Chpt 1 conc
9/03/06
15:40
1
Page 23
Conclusion
Bad news for news
By Eli Noam
Professor of finance and economics at Columbia University, USA
Copyright, The Financial Times
14 July, 2005
Newspapers have been the central medium for politics, culture, and business since the 17th century, but this may be
changing. Circulations have been drifting downwards. Last
year alone, newspaper sales were down five per cent in the
US, three per cent in Europe, and two per cent in Japan.
Newspaper publishers face economic problems common to many information
industries: the fixed costs of creation are large, and the incremental costs of serving additional users are small. This leads to competition that results in prices so low
they do not cover overall costs. Price deflation leads to firms collapsing and consolidating. Market power stabilizes or raises prices. And then, another wave of
entry occurs, often through new technology, and a new cycle begins. In the process,
the information industry is becoming among the most unstable of business sectors.
In the past these dynamics led to most American cities having only one newspaper, which could therefore charge fairly high prices for advertising and subscriptions to support their editorial costs. But now, another generation of technology
undercuts this stability.
It is difficult to get readers to pay for news content that they can pick up for free
from other providers. Rupert Murdoch observed that “The trends are against
us...And at least four billion dollars a year is going into R&D to accelerate the
process.” If anything, this number is an understatement.
What then can newspapers do? Like other businesses in trouble, they must focus
on their core competency, which usually is local information. Cutting costs by cutting local newsroom budgets is therefore myopic.
Second, they must actively plan for a paperless future. Today, the electronic presentation of text information is not particularly user-friendly and provide some protection. But such negative ergonomics are likely to pose only a temporary disadvantage. In time, luminous and light panels of multiple pages, comfortable in the
23
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1 conclusion
hand, with clear text, bright pictures, magnification, sound and video, and connectivity to other users and information sources, will be superior to paper. Such transitions are gradual; but they are also inexorable. Managing the transition will not be
easy. Online and print newspapers depend on each other symbiotically. Print needs
online for the future. Online needs print for the present, to subsidise it financially and
intellectually.
Third, they must customise. The traditional newspaper provides averaged-out content to a multiplicity of readers. What it needs to do is to serve the increasingly differentiated readers’ particular mix of interests. Editors would continue to identify
the major common stories. But readers would gain access to a wide choice of information and media types. Online editions make this possible.
Empowering users to customise their content in a meaningful way will require huge
informational resources. Similarly, electronic publishing will be much more than
print content without paper. The differentiation between text, picture, audio, and
video will blur, and news sites will become multi-media.
Producing such rich news will be complex and expensive. Realistically, no single
news organisation will be able to provide the quality and quantity of information
needed through its own economic and editorial resources. To gain such diversity of
information then, the news organisation will be forced go far beyond its internally
produced content. Publishers will have to rely substantially on other sources: traditional syndicated and wire-service content; specialized magazines, trade journals,
newsletters, and books; blogs and other community sources; TV news providers; and
many free-lance journalists, investigative reporters, pundits, and editors. In short,
they will have to become “virtual.”
This will lead to two archetypes of news organisations: first, specialist content
providers - some of them operating from offshore - and similarly specialist marketing, production, and advertising operators. And second, semi-virtual integrators
who bundle, pick and choose their content and service elements from these specialists, validate its quality, add some of their own, and shape the overall character of
the product. This will differentiate them from the more passive portals and search
engines such as Google.
The problem for traditional news organisations is that this type of virtual integrator
function can also be done by others. Today’s bloggers, for example, already do so
embryonically through hyperlinking to chosen stories from other sources. In the
future, some of them will expand into full-fledged news-sites based on such integration.
This does not mean a proliferation of large integrator-based news sites. There are
strong economies of scale and network effects, and this means that, in time, market leaders will emerge and drive traffic, advertising, and hence larger budgets. With
market power, these large news sites become economically viable.
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It is not clear what the competitive advantage of established newspapers is in such
a virtual model. They are too big for the specialist shop model, and too expensive
or low-tech for the integrator model. Some have an established brand which will
draw users, such as the New York Times, or the Financial Times. Other news
organisations can find some niche based on ideology or a brand image with a loyal
following.
But unless many of today’s conventional newspapers manage the transition to virtual, integrated, and networked information sites, they will have no real function
beyond that of greatly diminished specialist providers of local information to bigger
media integrators. Or, alternatively, as the local brand for such national integrators,
either owned by them or in their orbit.
Are people drifting away from news? Not really. What people are drifting away from
is paying for news. And that will be hard to reverse beyond the most powerful or
specialised of news brands. It’s happened to music, and now it is beginning to happen to newspapers. Yes, the technology will create many new tiny news media. But
the overall result will be more media concentration - a lot fewer but more comprehensive mainstream news organisations as the integrator of most information. First,
the paper element of their operations is beginning to vanish. And then, the news
part, too, will become unsustainable. Today’s newspaper becomes tomorrow’s
news-integrator.
Copyright: The Financial Times, 14 July, 2005
Eli M. Noam has been a Professor of Economics and Finance at the Columbia Business
School since 1976. He is Director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, a research
center focusing on strategy, management, and policy in communications, mass media,
and IT. Noam served for three years as a Commissioner for Public Services of New York
State. In 2003, he was appointed by the White House to the President's IT Advisory
Committee. Noam has published 25 books and over 300 articles, and is a regular columnist for the Financial Times online edition. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a commercially rated pilot. He received
the degrees of BA, MA, Ph.D (Economics) and JD from Harvard University, and an honorary
doctorate from the University of Munich.
http://www.citi.columbia.edu/elinoam/
25
Chpt 2
29/03/06
14:36
Página 27
2
Will all news be free?
On top of circulation losses and the Internet revolution, the newspaper industry faced
more difficulties in 2005 as the trend towards free news, in print and online, picked
up steam. The freesheet Metro became the world’s third most widely read newspaper and it became apparent that free papers in many European countries make up a
significant percentage of total newspaper readership. Several newspapers eliminated
paid content on their websites while the New York Times took a bold step in
launching an online subscription program. Numerous predictions about the future of
paid news were made based on several observations:
NYT going against the grain: At a time when other major papers were razing paid
walls from their websites, the New York Times decided to add value to some of its
most popular columnists by charging readers to access their online content. Although
most of the content on the site remains free and it is still one of the top visited news
sites worldwide, some critics had cautionary words for the Gray Lady, fearing that its
columnists would lose relevancy on the Internet.
The trouble with charging online: From their launching, most newspaper websites have been free of charge, a trend which seems increasingly difficult to reverse.
Online surfers can choose from hundreds of thousands of news sources around the
world, many of which carry the same major stories and many of which are free.
Furthermore, younger generations are particularly reluctant to pay for news. If they
are able to download endless amounts of movies, music and other entertainment for
free, why would youth pay for a newspaper?
Local and niche: Since general news can be found virtually anywhere for free, many
pundits predict that specialized news will be able to be monetized. For instance, The
Wall Street Journal’s online subscription has been successful because it provides
some of the best financial information in the world. If newspapers improve coverage
of their core competency, their local regions, and spin off niche publications from their
supplements, some feel that there is a good chance that people will be willing to pay.
27
Chpt 2
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14:36
Página 28
Will all news be free?
Impact of free papers: Publishers of paid-for papers tend to complain that free
papers are cannibalizing their product and stealing readers. But studies on the subject are inconclusive. In fact, it appears that in some markets, notably Spain, the popularity of free papers has contributed to paid-for circulation.
Expansion of free papers: Freesheets have been particularly popular among metropolitan European and Asian readerships, but have not had the same success in the
United States. Most attribute this discrepancy to lifestyle. For example, whereas most
Americans commuters drive their own car, the majority of European populations take
public transportation which allows them time to read the paper.
-----------------------------
Free paper specialist and Associate Professor at the Amsterdam School of
Communications Research, Piet Bakker sums up the free news situation in
conclusion to this chapter saying that although paid content is profitable, money can
also be made through free news.
28
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US: free information reshaping
structure of news industry
He concludes pointing to one type of media that youth pay for,
ringtones: "Now if I can just figure out how to render this column
as an electronic tone poem, I can get in on the action."
Following the undeniable trend of information increasingly available to the public free of charge, The Washington Post columnist Steve Pearlstein presents his hypothesis on the future of
the news industry within the US. While his article predicts possible
outcomes within the American news industry, his conclusions may
be pertinent on a global scale.
Source: New York Times
In particular, Pearlstein notes that the Internet and the emergence
of free dailies has significantly lowered the cost for advertisers to
simultaneously customize and distribute news and advertisements. A wholesale restructuring of the news business, a phenomenon that has been slowly evolving for a number of years, is
about to proceed at a fast pace. The news industry will have to
experiment until it learns how to stabilize around the balance of
readers satisfied with the general news available for free, versus
those willing to pay for more comprehensive and specialized information.
Pearlstein suspects the news media industry to eventually be
“dominated by a handful of national and super-regional news
organizations that can offer readers and advertisers a full range of
differently priced news products through a variety of media.”
Source: The Washington Post
February 18, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/02/us_free_informa.php
The problem of youth and free content
David Carr writes in the New York Times about the problem
newspapers are having with young readers, using his young
daughters as an example. When being scoffed at after having suggested that they go to the store and buy a magazine, Carr realized, “Their message was clear: only suckers pay for content."
He goes on to say that "only losers charge for content," referring
to the expanding free paper market and free online newspaper
sites. Although he points out that free works for television, radio
and the Internet, Carr doesn't think that a popular print product
can survive without charging due to the costs of paper and delivery.
October 26, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/10/the_problem_of_youth_and_free_content.php
SECTION 1: THE NEW YORK TIMES’
EXPERIMENT
New York Times to charge for premium online
content
Arguably the most recognized paper in the world, the New York
Times is bent on charging readers for online content. Having tested covering for its archives, the Times announced that as of
September, some premium content will be cached behind a paywall. The USD 49.95 subscription option, dubbed TimesSelect,
will provide the key to certain Times and International Herald
Tribune columnists, the Times archives, previews of what's to be
printed in some sections of the Sunday newspaper, photo essays,
video and podcasting. Two new features, TimesFile, which allows
readers to tag and organize Times articles, and TimesNewstracker,
essentially an email alert (which should theoretically be outdated
by RSS feeds), will also be included in the price.
Although the news will remain free on the site, the premium
material being walled up includes the Times’ revered op-ed staff
that provide so much material for the online conversation.
Catherine J. Mathis, a spokeswoman for the NYT Co. explained,
"Consistently, our surveys have shown that the op-ed columnists
and the archives are two of the things that differentiate
NYTimes.com from other websites."
But Steve Outing of Poynter laid the obvious out on the table
saying, ''These days there are thousands of bloggers and news
aggregators talking about the issues these columnists write
about. If you put them behind a firewall, they might disappear
from those discussions."
Source: The Boston Globe
May 17, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/new_york_times_15.php
He may have a point. Although Metro International's free
paper is extremely popular, the company posted a loss of approximately $16 million in the third quarter.
He does highlight three publications, The New Yorker, The
Economist, and the Wall Street Journal, all of which have
been able to charge people for their online content. But these
publications either deal more in reflection on world events and
fairly erudite material or valued financial information for investors,
not breaking news.
30
Chapter 2: Will all news be free?
New York Times:
defending the paid online model
Senior Vice-President of Digital Operations at the New York
Times, Martin Nisenholtz, held a question and answer session
yesterday concerning the NYT's decision to put a paywall up on
some premium content come September. Predictably, he received
Chpt 2
9/03/06
15:57
Page 31
a lot of criticism, but he defended the move saying the Times needed a second revenue stream. Current USD 2.95 access to an
archived article brings in over USD 1 million a year, a number
which Nisenholtz hopes will increase significantly with the new
subscription package, TimesSelect.
Immediately more than 50% of all op-ed pages produced in
America would be available behind paid walls and op-ed page
addicted readers - and many bloggers using these sections as
punching balls - would have to choose: to pay or not to pay, to be
an insider or a news refugee!
The NYT's SVP did acknowledge the possibility that placing the
papers' op-ed columnists behind the paywall could inhibit the
online conversation of the blogosphere which frequently uses the
op-ed staff as a starting point for discussion. But he said,
"Feedback from columnists has been good--[they acknowledge]
that we need to create an additional revenue stream."
The Times decision to make its own and lonely policy is risky: not
because web editors and bloggers will copy and paste the
columns some will disseminate, but because a majority of them
will ignore the Times columnists and will find just as interesting
columns from other sources.
Sources: PaidContent, AdAge
May 18, 2005
The problem is that every newspaper thinks it is able to escape the
circulation decline by itself. But this is the wrong attitude: newspapers need to talk together and to define common paywalls. If
not, every newspaper's paywall will be submerged one by one.
September 19, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/timesselect_a_m.php
US: NY Times TimesSelect service
gains 270 000 subscribers
Do newspaper website paid walls work?
Martin Nisenholtz, a senior vice president at The New York
Times, announced that in the first two months since its
September launch, TimesSelect has signed up 270 000 members.
The break down from PaidContent is:
- 135,000 online only subscribers
- 135,000 are print subscribers
- total revenue is around $5 million a year
- profit figures are unknown
The New York Times is pleased with its readership's positive response to TimesSelect. Nisenholtz says: "The feedback from users
has been very positive, particularly about interaction with columnists, usage of new tools and the archives."
Source: Frank Barnako, MarketWatch Newsletter
November 10, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/us_ny_times_timesselect_service_gains_27.php
The New York Times' paid wall experiment raised a lot of fuss
in the online media world back in September and still gets on the
nerves of the blogosphere. But is it really all that hard to find
those hidden articles? What about other paid subscription sites?
Do paid walls work?
The fact is, if a reader really wants to, it’s not that hard to find paid
content. A simple search on Technorati, a blog search engine,
usually reveals the article, or at least sufficient excerpts of the article, that one is looking for. Some bloggers copy/paste material and
place it on their own blog. Some comment on an article enough
that the reader doesn’t have to even read the article to understand it.
Although this may technically be illegal online because of copyright clauses, violators of paid wall privileges will be very hard to
track and prosecute in the same way that the music industry is
having trouble fighting the file sharing problem.
Source: Morningstar, Mignon Media
October 25, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2005/10/do_newspaper_website_paid_walls_work.php
TimesSelect: a missed opportunity for
newspaper partnerships
SECTION 2: CHARGING FOR ONLINE CONTENT
In its TimesSelect online paid model, the New York Times
missed an opportunity in the struggle for the newspaper industry
to reinvent a new business model.
The move would have a totally different significance if other national newspapers - such as the Washington Post, the Los
Angeles Times and USA Today - did the same thing at the
same rate at the same moment.
US: Dow Jones predicts more
online edition fees
Reuters reports that a Dow Jones executive foresees more U.S.
publishers charging for subscription fees for online versions of
31
Chpt 2
9/03/06
15:57
Page 32
their newspapers. Dow Jone’s The Wall Street Journal is the
only national U.S. newspaper to have an online edition virtually
entirely composed of paid content and currently has more than
700,000 paid subscribers. President of electronic publishing at
Dow Jones Gordon Crovitz said, “It would be good for the
industry" for more publishers to follow suit.
Sources: Poynter, WSJ aritcle on Personal Technology, Wired
Source: Reuters
Some options for charging for online content
July 25, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/online_newspape_1.php
March 30, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/us_dow_jones_pr.php
The healthy state of the Wall Street Journal
Online
The Audit Bureau of Circulation has released figures that
show that if the Wall Street
Journal Online were included in US circulation figures,
it would have the fifth-largest
paid circulation in the country. Additionally, if the Journal
was officially allowed on the
list of the country's top ten
papers, it would be the only
one showing significant yearon-year gains which were at
9%.
Source: PaidContent
As most newspapers are figuring out how to turn a profit on the
Internet, The Globe and Mail summarizes several cases of
varying strategies. The example always mentioned, The Wall
Street Journal, releases very few articles for free, but has an
advantage in that it provides specialized information for businesses and financial firms.
More general papers usually have trouble charging for online
material because so much breaking news can easily be found for
free on other sites, so if they want to
charge for their content, they usually opt
for a mixed model, charging for certain
columns and/or archives. Some, such as
the Winnipeg Free Press, are looking
to sell subscriptions for an exact digital
replica of the print version since they
don't earn much from their website to
which more and more people are going
to read its news. Leonard Asper, CEO
of CanWest Global Communications
Corp which sells its electronic editions
for about 10 Canadian dollars a month,
would like to make his entire company
digital.
October 21, 2005
news/2005/10/the_healthy_
state_of_the_wall_street_jou.
php
The New York Times placed its most well known columnists
behind an online paid wall in September 2005 with the
TimesSelect service
The Globe and Mail has adopted an
integrated strategy, leaving a lot of
material free, mainly to attract younger
readers to their content, and providing
"premium content" at a price. Individual
papers may have to test their own readerships’ willingness to pay for content
through trial and error.
People will eventually pay for online news
Source: The Globe and Mail
April 28, 2005
32
Many skeptics have declared that newspaper companies, unless
offering particular information such as the Wall Street Journal,
will never be able to charge for their online material. Pat
Kenealy, CEO of International Data Group, a publisher of
300 tech magazines, newspapers and websites, refutes this assertion by comparing it to television: "In 1955, TV was free and two
generations later most people pay for it. There was a built-in reluctance to pay for TV until it got so much better than broadcast.
That's what I think will happen with the Internet."
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/some_options_fo.php
Kenealy may have an argument. Considering all those that deplore
newspaper websites for their mediocrity and failure to take full
advantage of Internet features such as audio and video, the proliferation of broadband, blossoming newspaper online revenues and
most importantly, efforts to improve newspaper sites, content could
become so good that the reader wouldn't mind paying for it.
The International Herald Tribune reports that in coping with
declining circulation and advertising sales for print editions, newspapers in Europe and in Asia have begun experimenting with ways
to earn revenue from the Internet. Some have increased the
amount of subscription-only online content, while others have
increased content available for free. Yet most fall in between the
two extremes, charging for some online services but trying not to
European and Asian publications practice
different web strategies
Chpt 2
9/03/06
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alienate readers by charging for all items.
The Financial Times in Britain and Les Echos in France have
followed the example of America’s Wall Street Journal by charging online readers a subscription fee. The percentage of subscribers to The Financial Times website is growing at an annual rate
of roughly 7%. Few general interest European dailies charge for
basic access to their web sites. Spain’s El Pais was a rare exception until it switched to a mix free/paid for model in June 2005.
Furthermore, the website of The Times of London and its sister
paper, The Sunday Times, has begun to drift from the subscription
model. The Times dropped the international fee for basic access,
and as a result, enjoys a percentage of international visitors that
has since surged.
In Asia, online editions have become powerful tools in reaching
economic emigrants from countries like the Philippines or the
Chinese diaspora wanting to read news in Chinese. Group advertising director Mark Simon of one of the largest-circulation
Chinese language newspapers in both Hong Kong and Taiwan,
Apple Daily, explained the paper’s interesting online strategy.
“We found a profitable model by building advertising domestically
and charging subscriptions for overseas readers," Simon said.
Source: The International Herald Tribune
what we try to sell other places on paper."
Source: Libération
January 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/01/france_daily_to.php
Singapore: daily to go the way of the Wall
Street Journal, charging for online content
Singapore's The Strait's Times is poised to charge readers for
access to the articles published on their website, according to The
Industry Standard. A few months ago, the paper began requiring registration for use of its website and has decided to take the
next step, joining the rare amount of dailies around the world that
do the same, such as Hong Kong's South China Morning
Post and the Wall Street Journal. "We believe that we have a
good and valuable product that users will want to pay for," explained the newspaper in a message. "It's also not a tenable business
model to charge for the print edition of the newspaper and not for
its online edition."
March 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/european_and_as.php
UK: Charging online for unique content
Scotsman.com is conducting a new strategy regarding its
content. A part of the articles are restricted to readers who pay for
a subscription. This 'premium content', which forms about 10 %
of the site, consists of opinion, comment & analysis, obituaries,
games like crosswords and professional pages dealing with law,
education, medical matters and so on. An introductory offer is
available for £29.95 per year. The strategy completes other financial sources like online advertising and a digital archive.
The move seems to be against the trend for free content in online
news media. But Alistair Brown, general manager at
Scotsman.com points out that it depends on what content you are
charging for: "You don't charge for what's popular - you charge
for what is unique. Readers want insight and a Scottish perspective on the world - and that's what our columnists have got." An
important detail is that key areas of the site remain free, as the site
is benefiting from abrupt rises in traffic when big stories are
picked up by other news websites.
Sources: journalism.co.uk, scotsman.com
July 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/uk_charging_onl.php
France: daily to start charging for website
The French daily, Parisien-Aujourd'hui has said that it will
begin charging for its website. The paper's director, Jean Hornain
said that "It's out of the question to offer for free on the internet
In related news, Online Journalism Review summarizes
Adam L. Penenberg of New York University who feels that
the Wall Street Journal is losing its "long-term relevancy" by
charging for its content. Young readers, said Penenberg, are not
paying for online news, and thus, will more than likely never pick
up the habit of reading the Journal.
Sources: The Industry Standard, Online Journalism Review
February 25, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/02/singapore_daily.php
SECTION 3: FREE ONLINE CONTENT
Too late for newspapers to charge
for their websites?
"We're in the midst of a long and painful transition," worries
Colby Atwood, vice president of the media research company
Borrell Associates Inc., commenting on the fact that major
American newspapers now have bigger online readerships than
their print editions. Katharine Q. Seelye writes in The New
York Times that what publishers regret the most about the
switch to digital news, apart from its heist of print readers, is that
the grand majority of it is free to the reader, a tradition they themselves started at the dawn of the internet news age ten years ago,
and one that may now be impossible to change. Still, there are
some positive aspects of free Internet content:
1. Attracting and sustaining readership: Free online news,
now more popular than print in most cases, is not only an alternative source for regular readers fed up with paying rising subscrip-
33
Chpt 2
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tion prices and hauling piles of papers to the recycling bin, but is
also a great way to maintain and increase clientele in the future
through exploiting the habits of younger generations who may
never accept a pay model.
2. Advertising: Charging for websites can handicap advertising
revenue, as proven in the case of the Wall Street Journal, the
only major American newspaper to charge subscription fees for its
online content. The Journal recently bought the free financial site
MarketWatch, primarily to give its advertisers more online visibility.
3. It's simply too late: The outlook for paid daily news is not
good, especially now in the nascent stages of citizens journalism
and the increasing push for free archives. Newspapers make a
good point in saying that their quality product should be paid for,
but there are so many alternative free sources of news that switching to a paid online business model could be financially devastating for newspapers. Take the example that Ms. Seelye uses of a
100,000 circulation Washington state newspaper whose switch to
paid content not only abruptly halted a steady 40% yearly rise in
traffic, but actually caused online readership to drop by 5% in a
year.
The end of subscriptions?
BusinessWeek Online paints a rosy financial picture for the
newspaper of the future... if it can adapt to the Internet revolution. Based on Apple's iTunes model, newspapers may sooner
than later find that selling content article by article will ultimately
become more profitable than selling subscriptions.
Online newsreaders tend to read "info chunks" of preference as
opposed to traditionally reading a newspaper front to back. News
aggregators such as Yahoo! and Google are already striking
deals to spider into various publications' paid content, where readers are offered the option of paying for the article they would like
to read and only that article. For this to work more smoothly on
the Web, a pre-planned system of micro-payments, in which paid
sites and content that a user accesses will be automatically added
to a monthly bill, will have to be erected. This system could theoretically lead to the division of content into articles, photos, graphics, etc., each hit receiving a small sum.
Source: BusinessWeek Online
June 28, 2005
Source: The New York Times
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/the_end_of_subs.php
March 15, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/too_late_for_ne.php
Pleading for paid online content
Newspapers to be packaged like cable TV?
Micky Kaus at Slate suggests a solution for the paid-online
content dilemma newspapers are facing. He recalls how when
television hit the scene, people never thought they would pay for
it. But for some time now, most people pay for cable TV, even if it's
just "basic." Such a packaged service, however, would not work
for newspapers for 2 principal reasons:
1. The essence of news: Joining a bunch of newspapers, or
news organizations, under one roof is redundant. Major international news is similar around the globe and major national news
is similar around the country.
2. The essence of the Internet: "Basic MSM" is next to impossible because of the way in which the World Wide Web functions.
Basic cable may give you 100, even 500 channels. But on the
Internet, there are literally billions of websites and probably hundreds of thousands of news sources from local up to the largest
news agencies.
Despite these problems with the "Basic MSM" plan, Kaus does
offer some beneficial advice. One "universal registration" so that
readers would not have to fill in their life story at every publication they would like to read. Now that's a good idea!
Source: Slate
"I think people would pay for content they value and trust. I'm
prepared to pay for breaking news," said Sir Martin Sorrell,
CEO of the advertising group WPP, at a conference in New York.
Well, he might be ready, but the majority of Internet newsreaders
are not.
Because of lost revenues in other areas, Sorrell thinks that newspapers will have to begin charging for their Internet content. This
sounds great in theory for newspapers but it is doubtful that it will
work. A couple of examples:
TimesSelect: Gawker snickers at the Grey Lady for its
December 5th 8-page advert of its often derided online paid
package: "Discover its power! Unleash its benefits!... see what
bells and whistles you’ll receive from the paper’s famous op-ed
columnists."
Such a large effort to promote the 2.5-month old service suggests
that it's not doing so hot. Almost one month ago, some vague
figures were released and it was estimated that about 135,000
print, and 135,000 non-print subscribers had signed up at $50 a
month. Not bad. But 8 pages sounds like a desperation move.
New subscriptions may have already ceased.
Salon.com: The paid-subscription online magazine hung on
through the dot com bust and has just turned 10. But it was on
the brink of going under numerous times, only to be saved by
wealthy donors, not its subscription service nor advertising.
December 1, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2005/12/newspapers_to_be_pac
kaged_like_cable_tv.php
34
Instead of pressuring newspapers to do something that most of
their public won't accept, the knighted advertiser Sorrell would be
better off helping newspapers experiment with sustainable online
Chpt 2
9/03/06
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Page 35
business models, most probably through innovative advertising, to
secure their future.
Sources: Media Guardian, Gawker, San Francisco Chronicle
December 6, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/pleading_for_paid_online
_content.php
years, the site charged USD 4.95 a month at which time a few
major columnists of the section left the paper. MarketWatch
reports that there is speculation that these writers were frustrated
with the lack of viewing they were receiving online because of the
paywall. If Calendarlive traffic takes off, it could become apparent
that readers are less and less willing to pay for newspaper
content.
Sources: PaidContent, MarketWatch, Poynter (and Yelvington)
May 11, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/us_the_los_ange.php
Should newspapers' online archives be free?
On USC's Online Journalism Review, Mark Glaser asks
whether newspapers are ready to open their online archives to the
world's web users free of charge. Seeing as much of the information on the web is already free, including breaking news from
newspapers, many industry insiders expect the eventual addition
of archives to the Internet conversation, but most feel that newspapers are not quite ready.
Although paid archives presently
make up a very small percentage
of most newspapers' online revenues, they are still seen as a source
of steady income. The best way to
replace this revenue in making
archives free would be paid-search
ads, something that Martin
Nisenholtz, CEO of New York
Times Digital, does not think
possible.
Spain: El Pais changes online edition from paid
only to mixed free/paid model
According to Digital Media Europe, after two and a half years
of experimenting with a paid subscription model for its online edition, the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais has switched over to a
mixed free/paid model. Online readers can now read breaking news
articles, multimedia features, and
other selected content free of
charge. The remaining online
content will require a subscription.
El Pais has also increased its
content available to subscribers,
including streaming video from
CNN and the online edition of the
French daily Le Monde.
Source: Digital Media Europe
June 08, 2005
On the other hand, Simon
Waldman of the UK's Guardian,
2005/06/spain_el_pais_c.php
Several newspapers have had success with online subscripone of the few major papers that
tions, but continue to release a daily selection of free articles
provides free archives to its users,
thinks that, "Having a permanent
presence on the Web like what we
have is the most cost effective form of marketing that you could
ever hope for." Although Waldman is a proponent of free archives,
he says that the decision is up to individual papers and opines that
SECTION 4: THE GROWING POPULARITY OF
they "might want to do it at a later date, but not now, not when
(they) don't have to."
FREE PAPERS
Source: Online Journalism Review
February 4, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005
/02/should_newspape_3.php
US: The Los Angeles Times drops paid Internet
content
PaidContent summarizes the Los Angeles Times' decision to
reconvert its Calendarlive section, pages dedicated to entertainment and restaurant reviews, to a free access model. For two
Metro becomes the third most read paper in
the world
Gaceta de Prensa reports that the free paper Metro, which
just had its tenth birthday, now distributes more than 6 million
copies a day which are read by almost 17 million people, making
it the world's third most read paper behind Japan's Yomiuri
Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun. It must be kept in mind,
however, that Metro has achieved this number by publishing 57
editions in 81 cities in 18 countries, whereas most high-selling
papers are published regionally with very few publishing internationally.
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Source: Gaceta de Prensa (in Spanish)
September 19, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/metro_becomes_t.php
European free papers up 3.5 million (33%) in
first nine months of 2005
Free newspapers in Europe boosted their distribution from 11 million at end 2004 to 14.5 million in September 2005 due to the
launch of new titles and editions and increased distribution of
existing papers. The increase in the first nine months of 2005
(+33%) was already more than the increase in the whole year
2004 (+20%). New titles were introduced in Spain (Ahora,
Que!), Denmark (Xtra), Iceland (Bladid), the UK (MEN Lite,
FTpm, City A.M.), Latvia (5Min) and Lithuania (15min) while
more editions of existing titles were launched in Portugal
(Destak, Metro), France (20 Minutes, Metro), Italy (Metro,
Leggo & City), Spain (Metro, 20 Minutos), the Netherlands
(Metro) and Switzerland (20 Minuten).
With dropping circulation of paid newspapers, the share of free
papers increased dramatically over the last years. In Iceland 76%
of newspaper circulation consists of free papers, in Spain almost
half (46%) of the circulation is free. Other countries with a major
market share of free papers are Italy (30%), Portugal (31%),
Greece (27%), Denmark and Sweden (20%), the Netherlands
(19%), France, Hungary and Switzerland (17%).
have only a 7% market share in the UK; in Spain and Italy, countries with impressive market shares of free papers, paid circulation
has stayed stable or dropped only very little. The decrease in circulation of paid newspapers in almost every country started before
the introduction of free papers; it is, however, not unlikely that free
dailies have accelerated the development.
Source: Free Daily Newspapers
November 22, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/impact_of_fr
ee_dailies_on_paid_circulati_1.php
Switzerland: Free paper is biggest newspaper
Last week readership data for Switzerland, published by WEMF
REMP, showed big gains for the free paper 20 Minuten, reports
KleinReport. 20 Minuten increased from 782,000 to 948,000
readers year on year, partly due to the launching of new editions,
and is the biggest newspaper in the (German speaking part of the)
country. The Zurich tabloid Blick lost 19,000 readers in the same
time, reaching now 717,000. The well-respected Neue Zürcher
Zeitung increased readership year on year from 316,000 to
331,000, but is far behind 20 Minuten.
Sources: KleinReport (in German), The Guardian
September 19, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/switzerland_fre_1.php
Source: Piet Bakker, Free Daily Newspapers
September 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/european_free_p.php
Germany: "Every day without a free paper
is a good day"
Impact of free dailies on paid circulation
Although market shares of free newspapers are growing in almost
every newspaper market, the impact on paid circulation is yet
unclear.
Research from Scarborough and the New York Times on US
newspaper readership revealed that free dailies have a minimal
impact on reading habits in the US. In Chicago less than 10% of
readers of a free paper also read a paid one, in New York and
Dallas this was between 20 and 30%; in Boston, however, it was
almost 40%. However, according to a amNew York research,
62% of their readers don’t buy paid newspapers.
European data also points in another direction. A French 20
Minutes research (2002) claims that 63% of their readers don’t
read a paid newspaper. According to a Dutch research (2000) half
of the readers of free papers don’t read a paid one.
Although paid circulation is dropping in almost every European
market, the relation between paid and free circulation is not clear.
Both Germany and the UK have seen huge drops in circulation (14
and 16% since 1995); but free papers are absent in Germany and
36
The launch of free papers in Germany seems very close now,
contrary to the wishes of publisher Axel Springer. Norwegian
publisher Schibsted will launch its free paper with 15 regional
editions in 22 cities across Germany.
Meanwhile German publisher Springer announced that it will
launch a free paper called Gratissimo. However, Gratissimo will
be launched only in the case of the launch of a free paper by
Schibsted or any other publisher. "Every day without a free paper
is a good day", said a spokesperson for Springer in Die Welt.
Sources (all in German): Focus Money, Die Welt, Reuters
September 12, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/germany_every_d.php
Chpt 2
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Germany: Publisher predicts that "Free papers
will bring big financial losses"
release the paper in 12 Spanish cities on January 17. Online interaction and blog postings are the most important innovation of
Qué which is striving to become Spain's principal daily for young
people.
German publisher Axel Springer recently announced that it
would launch a free paper called Gratissimo in the case that
Schibsted or any other publisher launches a free paper in
Germany. We asked Christian Nienhaus, managing director of
Axel Springer´s Bild publishing group, a few questions in an
email-interview about this project.
Qué will diversify between its two formats and add new sections
in order to compete with its rivals, 20 Minutos and Metro. The
print form will follow the basic form of other free papers, with the
standard local, national, international, sports, etc. sections, but
will also include humor and opinion pages. The online version is
specifically focused towards younger internet surfers who are able
to enrich the paper's content with their own blogs.
1. Considering the popularity of free papers in other
countries, why is Axel Springer against the publication of
free papers in Germany?
Our maxim is: Every day without a free paper is a good day.
Journalistic quality has a price and therefore we don’t think highly
of free papers. Moreover, we are convinced that there would not
be only one free paper in the German market. Because of the
enormous competition, all participating publishers will face big
financial losses.
2. If Gratissimo is ready to be launched, why doesn’t
Springer print it before other publishers enter the market? Does Gratissimo pose a potential threat to Springer
paid papers?
Again, we do not want a free paper! But if a competitor starts a
free paper, we will not leave the market to him. The danger for our
paid-for newspapers would, however, be rather small. Firstly, free
papers would not offer the same amount of content and background information and secondly, free papers would only appear
in major cities, where only a small percentage of our papers are
sold.
3. Do you think that a free paper could help to attract
younger readers to newspapers? If launched, will
Gratissimo be accompanied by a website and other new
media such as podcasting, popular among younger generations?
Whether free papers bring young people to reading newspapers
still needs to be proven. We rather trust in the quality and experience of our existing papers. One could call Bild that reaches
about 2 million young readers aged 14 to 29 every day one of the
biggest youth newspaper in Europe. To maintain our hold on the
youth market, we continue to offer a mixture of subjects that are
of interest to young readers.
The project will include 130 journalists between the two versions
and the print edition will vary between 24 and 36 color pages.
When it is released, the printed version will be distributed at more
than 7,000 sites nationwide.
Source: Periodistas21
January 7, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/01/qu_madrid_the_c.php
Metro International chief: paid-for papers will
be exclusive
Pelle Tornberg, CEO of the Sweden-based Metro
International, sat down with the Guardian to discuss the
freesheet’s effects on paid-for newspapers.
Although he thinks that 95% of paid-for papers will survive,
Tornberg predicts that their business models will change dramatically. Freesheets, according to the Swedish executive, will replace
daily paid-for editions and consumers will only pay for the newspaper on the weekends. "If you apply the TV and free TV (model)
to the newspaper industry, then the paid-for newspapers probably
have to accept living with smaller circulation and probably increasing their prices, increasing their exclusivity."
Source: The Guardian
November 28, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/metro_international_chief_paidfor_papers.php
October 10, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/10/germany_publish_2.php
Qué Madrid: the continued spread
of free papers
Juan Varela has posted news about the latest addition to
Europe's free newspaper phenomenon, Qué Madrid, on his
media watchdog site, Periodistas21. Already in trial phase on
the web, the Spanish communications group, Recoletos, will
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2
Page 39
Conclusion
The future of free news
By Piet Bakker
Associate Professor Amsterdam School of Communications Research
University of Amsterdam
Any journalist will tell you there is no such thing as a free
lunch while any economist will even go further by stating
that nothing is free at all. But nevertheless, many people
experience the world around us as being filled with free
information.
The flash animation Epic 2014 (www.robinsloan.com/epic), is the story of how
Google will take over news production and distribution in the future by integrating Google News, Google Maps, Friendster, Blogger, Amazon and other
services. The movie ends with the message that in 2014 The New York Times
has gone offline and is only available as a printed newsletter for the ‘elderly elite’.
The message seems clear: the New York Times, a victim of the monster created by
itself - free news.
The Times, however, is not the only newspaper facing a grim future where circulation is concerned. In almost every Western country, newspaper circulation has
dropped significantly over the last decade. In Europe, circulation fell by 12%
between 1995 and 2004. In Canada and the US the decline was somewhat less (7% and –6%). Only in some Asian markets did circulation increase.
Free Internet news is often blamed for this decline, but this is not the only free content people get these days. Imagine a 22-year old student in any metropolitan city.
Being online is a necessity – meeting friends, doing course work, buying stuff;
everything is done online. Not only from home – broadband connections get cheaper everyday – but also at the university, in public places or through a cell phone connection. And there is a lot of news available – Google News offers headlines from
4,500 (US and UK), 1000 (China), or ‘only’ 200 sources (Portugal). Riding to the
university he probably picks up a free daily newspaper (23 million daily copies),
while there are also free magazines in almost every metropolitan city with information on clubs, movies and other forms of entertainment.
39
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2 conclusion
The Internet
Two forms of free information have emerged over the last decade: free Internet
news and free daily newspapers. Internet news is of course not free at all. People
invest in hardware, connections and extra features like digital cameras, game consoles, webcams etc. But content is perceived as being free. Newspapers can be
blamed for putting information there in the first place. Although almost every newspaper embraced the Internet as a challenge, very few treated it as a business model:
what does it cost and how do we make money?
This trend is changing now. There is a fundamental debate on giving information
away for free. Press agency AFP is suing Google for having used their content on
Google News. Other publishers have also taken steps to prevent other websites
from using their material. But there is, of course, a dilemma. Although few newspapers want to give their news away for free, there is also a growing market for
Internet advertising. It is still small (maybe 2% of total advertising expenditure) but
it is growing at a remarkable speed. Deep linking (stealing the content) may be a
problem, but getting traffic through Google News may not.
Many newspapers have moved away from the free-for-all model. Registration is
often the first option: asking users for personal information which is in turn used
for marketing. The main question is whether the money made from the registered
users is enough to cover the loss because of falling site traffic: registration results
in less visits and therefore in less income from advertising. Some papers have
moved to a cost-saving ‘lean and mean’ model: free news but with less features.
Another possibility is offering only part of the content for free. This model is being
tested in many countries, front pages with advertising are free but other parts are
reserved for paying users. There is evidence that papers will move in this direction;
giving everything away for free also gives the impression that news should be free,
or worse, that it has no value.
Free newspapers
The other source for free news is the free daily that has been around for more than
10 years now. In general, publishers of paid newspapers don’t seem to like free
papers that much, as this quote from the publisher of Bild Zeitung illustrates: “every
day without a free newspaper is a good day”. But in reality the relationship is more
complicated: 50% of the total circulation of free newspapers is published by companies that publish paid newspapers as well. Sanoma, Telegraaf, Ringier,
RCS, Vocento, Hachette, Socpresse, Recoletos, Le Monde, Bonnier,
Belo, Knight Ridder, Sing Tao, News Corp, Tribune Company and others publish free newspapers. Ignoring, suing or spoiling the market has been quite
unsuccessful (except in Germany), so publishers followed the money: if you can’t
beat them, publish them yourself.
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The free paper market has grown dramatically. There were 40 titles in 2000, 64 two
years later and more than a hundred at the end of 2005. Circulation has grown
from less than eight million in 2000 to almost 23 million now. In Iceland, Denmark,
Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and
Singapore 20% or more of the newspaper market consist of free dailies.
Cannibalization because of free dailies seems to be relatively small, although some
losses have been reported, for instance in Korea, Hong Kong, the Netherlands,
Germany, the UK and Sweden. But often, dropping circulation began before the
introduction of free papers. In Germany, a country without free dailies, circulation
loss is even more than in other countries. Free dailies have found readers that either
read paid and free papers or read only free papers and will not read a paid paper
anyway. This group of ‘new readers’ is the reason that publishers are much more
open to free dailies now than a few years ago. With dropping circulation and an
aging readership, the only way to reach a younger audience will be with free newspapers or through the Internet. It is also not very likely that free newspapers will
take the place of paid ones; it seems to be a different medium altogether.
Giving all your valuable content away for free might give the audience the wrong
impression. Asking money for some of the online content might not be a very bad
idea. But there is also money to be made with free news, either online or in print.
A substantial part of your audience may only be reached that way.
Piet Bakker
Associate Professor Amsterdam School of Communications Research
University of Amsterdam
e-mail: [email protected]
Website: users.fmg.uva.nl/pbakker/freedailies
Dr. Piet Bakker (1953) studied Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. He worked
as a journalist for several newspapers, magazines and radio stations and was a teacher
at the School for Journalism in Utrecht. He also organized workshops for newspapers publishers, gave lectures and acted as a consultant.
Since 1985 he has worked at the Department of Communications at the University of
Amsterdam / Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR) as an associate
professor. He edited and published books and articles on a variety of media and journalism topics. He teaches mass communication and journalism at the undergraduate and
MA-level.
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Trends in Newsrooms 2006 combines 2005's most informative articles from the
Editors Weblog with topic-related pieces from media experts. Each chapter
includes a brief introduction summarizing the issues presented, followed by the
selection of Editors Weblog articles and in conclusion, the expert essay.
growing readership
Every posting has the same structure:
title, text and sourcing.
Sourcing includes the posting’s dateline and permalink, which can be
typed into an Internet browser for
online consultation.
Nielsen/NetRatings released its figures for newspaper
website readership on November 15, showing that the
number of visitors grew 11% year on year to 39.3 million.
22% of newspaper readers now read their news online, as
opposed to 71% who still prefer the paper edition.
Source: PRNewswire
November 16, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/online_newspapers_grow ing_readership.php
The majority of weblog articles have been edited to fit the report. Complete
texts can be found listed by chapter at www.trends-in-newsrooms.org/postings/
An alternative way to find the original article is to type a keyword written in its text
into the Editors Weblog search function
located in the top-right corner under the
banner on the Editors Weblog homepage.
Postings on the “Results
page are listed by date
Locate the posting online
dateline in the sourcing
article.
42
of your query”
of publication.
by verifying the
of the printed
Chpt 3
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3
Newspapers begin to
welcome citizen journalists
Arguably the trend in journalism that developed the most over the course of 2005
was the inclusion of content from everyday people in mainstream media (MSM). At
the beginning of the year, some media commentators went so far as to say that citizen journalism should replace traditional journalism. These extreme predictions, mostly made by those dissatisfied with the MSM, faded as it became quickly apparent that
large news organizations are necessary to produce and provide quality investigative
journalism and coverage of major events. Nevertheless, it was also realized that CitJ
is here to stay and that the newspaper industry needs to adapt:
Adoption of citizen media by MSM: Although they weren’t exactly sure what to
make of the phenomenon, traditional news organizations rapidly began experimenting with all forms of citizen media in 2005, from launching journalist blogs and podcasts to providing their readerships with online forums. One local paper in the South
Carolina, Bluffton Today, even began furnishing each member of its community
with a blog.
Citizen photojournalism: Digital image capturing devices, from cameras to telephones with video capabilities, are now ubiquitous. Major events can be caught on
film as they happen and be sent immediately to news organizations, as was seen during the South East Asian Tsunami and London bombings in 2005. In spite of ethical
issues (privacy, defamation), many media experts skeptical about citizen journalism
consider images from non-journalists at a breaking news scene valuable to reporting
and consumers increasingly expect to see such images integrated in coverage.
The payment problem: Although accepting material from readers can be beneficial to the MSM, it has been difficult to establish systems of remuneration for citizen
journalists. Britain’s National Union of Journalists voiced its concerns that news
organizations would begin using more citizen photography in order to avoid paying
professionals. On the other hand, a hybrid traditional/citizen journalism site launched
in December 2005, The Chicago Daily News, has offered to pay the most viewed
citizen journalists on its site a small fee at the end of each month.
43
Chpt 3
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Newspapers begin to
welcome citizen journalists
Mixed reactions: Reactions to CitJ differ from pundit to pundit. Some feel that purely citizen publications will fare better than MSM projects that include citizen journalism where others don’t hesitate to say that the large majority of citizen content bores
them and will never make up for real news. Reactions also differ from region to region.
For example, some feel that the blogosphere has taken off in the United States
because it fills a hole left by newspapers that practice objective “he said/she said”
journalism whereas in the UK, where the blogosphere is less developed, newspapers
tend to take a stand on the issues and provide readers with a variety of opinions.
--------------------------------
Former San Jose Mercury News tech columnist and citizen journalism pioneer
Dan Gillmor concludes this chapter by explaining the innovative ways in which
newspapers have been and can continue to implement citizen journalism in their daily
reporting.
44
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'The media' vs. 'We media'
SECTION 1: AN IRREVERSIBLE TREND?
"There's a huge fissure within Big Media. Some get it, some don't
- and some never will." Mainstream media executives should be
doing more than heeding these words from journalist and citizen
media proponent Rory O'Connor; they should be rushing to act
on them to make sure that their organization 'gets it.' At least that
was the general consensus of participants at The Media
Center's We Media Conference at the Associated Press
headquarters in New York City on October 5.
The 'We Media' conference kicked off on an ironic note by lining
up well-known members of 'The Media' for the first session which
immediately made apparent the 'fissure.' The American television
company CBS doesn’t get it. But the BBC represented by
Richard Sambrook gets it.
CBS' Public Eye, which attempts to involve the reader, is designed to "bring transparency to the editorial operations of CBS
News" by allowing viewers and readers to comment on and criticize their coverage. But it admittedly falls far short of the idea
behind citizen journalism, and to an extent the idea of transparency in that the input continues to be filtered.
One problem mainstream media like CBS are having is its continued 'top down' mentality, its reluctance to give up the power of
content and distribution control to which they are so accustomed.
Sambrook and the BBC, however, understand the changing dynamic between the media and the public, that their relationship is
undergoing a 'fundamental realignment.' The BBC is transforming
itself from "a one-way broadcaster to a moderator to a facilitator"
and "reprioritizing for a fully-digital, on demand environment."
The Beeb sees three main reasons for converting itself;
1. Connecting audiences
2. Verification of news
3. Analysis, explanation and context addition
These points provide BBC viewers with a platform where they can
come together and discuss topics and where the BBC can listen to
them discovering what they want instead of what the BBC wants
them to hear. They facilitate fact checking, as more people will be
able to respond immediately to and correct any mistakes in reporting they may come across. And it will allow the Beeb to figure out
where they need to dig deeper, on what stories their audience
wants more investigation.
Bloggers' future influence on
the media industry
"While blogging is wielding some influence in media and political
circles, traditional news outlets are still the dominant sources of
information for the American public." This quote from a
CNN/USA/Gallup Poll released on March 22 may hold water
today, but what future effects does the media industry expect from
these digital diaries? The answers are diverse.
1. The age gap: The Gallup Poll demonstrates figures of blog
readership (correlating to internet use) that are the opposite of
figures of newspaper readership. Whereas 61% of the 65 and
older age group read a daily paper, only 32% of 18 to 29 yearolds do the same. On the other hand, a mere 33% of the older
demographic consult the internet, 28% of which read blogs, whereas 91% of the younger age group use the internet with 44%
browsing the blogosphere.
2. The political implications: The Christian Science
Monitor printed an article about how politicians are beginning
to use blogs as a means of bypassing the mainstream media,
adding to the democratic label that has been tagged on blogs.
Blogs allow politicians to be frank, speaking their political impulses or whatever may be on their mind to their constituents, avoiding the spin that media can, and often does, place on their speeches and comments.
3. The media's PR role: an article in Toronto's The Globe and
Mail shows that blogs are diminishing the media's role as a
public relations tool. Blogs, theoretically written by "normal people," empower companies to have direct contact with their consumers, thus bypassing the media which has traditionally played a
major role in PR firms' message.
4. The business opportunities: "The value of blogs to businesses is their ability to enable and facilitate communication," says
Frank Barnako at Market Watch. He goes on to say that
blogs are both good and bad for publishers; good because their
content is being read, attracting people to their website, but bad
because it becomes impossible to charge for their content. An
article at The Deal predicts that "social media" investments will
not experience the same crash landing that technology companies
went through in 2001: Citizens' media is "Not the next bubble."
Sources: Media is Plural, Morph
October 7, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/10/the_media_vs_we.php
Source: CNN/USA Today/Gallup, Christian Science Monitor, The
Globe and Mail, MarketWatch, and The Deal
March 23, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/bloggers_future.php
46
Chapter 3: Newspapers begin to welcome citizen journalists
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Why traditional journalists shouldn't be too
angry about citizen journalists
Dan Gillmor, formerly a journalist for the San Jose Mercury
News and now a pioneer in citizen journalism, is convinced that
citizen journalism will change the world: it's transforming traditional journalism into less of a lecture, and more of a conversation.
Speaking at the 12th World Editors Forum in Seoul, Korea,
Gillmor said ‘Cit J’ is a good thing, because it will finally allow all
of those who have only been listening to the lecture to actually
take part in it for a while.
One main point Gillmor is trying to make is that it doesn't really
matter if traditional journalists or news organizations don't want
ordinary people to do this, and subsequently try to ignore them.
"They're going to do it anyway," he says.
Instead of ignoring these digital devices, the New York based duo
suggests that news corporations embrace them. "One of the
things that seems to be right is encouraging participation in
media, taking it away from those who see it as a monastic system
of professional arbiters," said Schechter. "We need to open it up
for more voices and input."
"Media organizations should learn to give away the control. By
doing so, they'll actually end up maintaining more control,"
remarked O'Connor. "The ones that embrace this will
succeed...the others will go under."
"We want to persuade the press to cover the stories we want to
hear, to be more critical and more collaborative with its audience,"
said Schechter. "In doing so, (the media) will eventually find a way
to marry the money with the meaning."
August 8, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/citizen_journal_3.php
He said journalists also have a lot to learn/gain from this emerging
trend. "The first rule in having a conversation is to listen. Readers
can help (professional journalists) understand our subject better.
They can give us facts we did not know. They can add nuance. They
can ask follow up questions. And, of course, they can tell us when
we are wrong."
What citizen photographs mean to
professional photojournalism
Journalists are worried because their "every public move is now
under observation." Gillmor feels this is actually useful because it
forces journalists to endure the same scrutiny they force upon
their subjects.
Walter Grolimund and Jann Jenatsch, CEO and COO of photo
agency Keystone Switzerland, spoke about the challenges
professional photojournalism is facing in the digital age in an
interview on Persoenlich.com. Below are some of the most
important differences between professional and citizen photos:
The next important point he made relates to his own citizen journalism venture, where he will be the "host" rather than the "editor" -- and that's a very important distinction.
He concluded saying the potential conversation between amateur
and professional journalists will also benefit the "amateurs" who
will learn from all of the things professional journalists have learned over the years.
May 30, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/dan_gillmor_why.php
Citizen journalism can help
Disappointed at the current state of what bloggers and citizen
journalists have dubbed the 'mainstream media,' Rory
O'Connor and Danny Schechter, co-founders of the international media firm Globalvision, Inc., haven't concluded that citizen
journalism will cure the problems they see with large news organizations, but they're sure it can help.
According to two American media pundits, the corporate culture
of news production has caused newsrooms to become disconnected from and even frightened of their audience. For years, news
companies have been dictating what they think people want to
hear. Now, the audience is saying, "We don't want to hear it!"
New technologies such as Wikis and blogs menace conventional
newsrooms by placing the power of production and distribution in
the hands of anyone with an Internet connection.
1. A professional photographer is, in contrast to a citizen photographer, able to detach emotionally from the story and to compromise the whole story of an event into an image;
2. Citizen photographers do not possess the technical possibilities
to meet the media's quality standards;
3. Citizen photographs are mostly used as first snapshots until
professional photographers arrive at the scene;
4. Citizen photographers do not have access to many political, cultural or sport events, where only accredited photographers are
able to take pictures;
5. Citizen photographers, in contrast to professional photo agencies, are not able to guarantee the authenticity of photos;
Source: Persoenlich.com (in German)
November 8, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/what_citizen_photographs_mean_to_profess.php
Citizen journalism: on the right track but
needs improvement
Poynter's senior editor Steve Outing wrote a mini-series on
citizen journalism. His postings come off a bit skeptical about its
future due to boring articles and lack of interest, but he tries to
encourage the evolving medium:
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Página 48
1. Newspapers and citizen journalism: a number of newspapers around the US are apparently expanding into citizen journalism, but Outing gives the advantage to sites independent of established media organizations such as Backfence.com launched
in Virginia. A citizen journalism division is just one more publishing
preoccupation for newspapers. A specialized organization will
function better.
2. Local penetration: In a somewhat contradictory message,
Outing posts that citizen journalism will allow newspapers to
cheaply expand into micro-local coverage, something they gave up
long ago to community weeklies.
monitoring all posted content. Content for the weekly print edition, however, is edited.
Source: The Denver Business Journal, paidContent.org,
YourHub.com
August 30, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/us_publishers_d.php
Grassroots journalism stuck in the middle
Source: Poynter
May 9, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/citizen_journal_1.php
American publishers do
not see threat
in citizen journalism site
According to paidContent.org
publishers do not see a threat to
suburban newspapers in the citizen journalism site
YourHub.com. The Denver
Business Journal interviewed
some suburban publishers and
they all "didn't view YourHub.com
as a competitor in their markets,
but Harrison Cochran at the
Aurora Sentinel called the
publication the ‘boldest experiment’ he's seen."
But Fjaervik asks what media outlets can do when there are too
many e-mail responses that not all
can be published; print as many as
possible to show a broad array of
opinions, or choose a small number
of responses ultimately resulting in
less balance. Because of this
dilemma, "the readers are stuck
somewhere between the democratic promise of user-generated
content and the old-media principles where the journalist decides
whose opinions matter."
Regional and local citizen journalism projects are sprouting
up around the United States but do not pose a threat to
professional newspaper journalism.
YourHub.com is a community web
site of Colorado neighborhoods for
people to share their stories, give opinions about local issues,
learn about local events happening in their community, post team
scores, upload pictures and find local shopping deals. The site
belongs to the Denver Newspaper Agency, publisher of
Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post. A weekly print
edition, that consists of several postings, is delivered to subscribers of The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News.
However, The Denver Business Journal reports that "area newspaper publishers call it bad for journalism and a vehicle for free
advertising. Some say it's just plain bad." Bob Sweeney, owner
of the Villager in Greenwood Village and recent past president of
the National Newspaper Association, said in The Denver
Business Journal: "It's the biggest joke I've ever seen. It's the
worst piece of journalism. I'd be embarrassed to publish it."
John Temple, publisher of Rocky Mountain News, sees YourHub
as "virtual town square", where citizens can tell their stories. But,
as The Denver Business Journal reports, recently "readers found
‘news’ items promoting car wash services, a networking event and
a college investment service." The Denver Newspaper Agency states on the YourHub site that it can't be held responsible as it is not
48
An interesting observation by Steffen Fjaervik at Poynter uses
some examples of British journalists’ coverage of the Prince
Harry Nazi costume story to emphasize the barriers that grassroots journalism still faces. He says that in general, readers enjoy
seeing a lot of comments following an article because they feel
that it gives them a good idea of
how the rest of the public feels.
Fjaervik concludes that although
this might not be the purest form of
grassroots media, the reader responses will still "make mainstream
media more democratic and inte
resting."
Source: Poynter's E-Media Tidbits
January 18, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/01/grassroots_jour.php
Blogs not exactly the "Fifth Estate"
Reuters reports that the Pew Internet & American Life
Project has shown that political blogs don't pull as much
weight as they've been made out to. In comparing 40 blogs with
the Mainstream Media and American presidential campaigns, the
Pew study found that each medium gave various amounts of
coverage to different topics, concluding that blogs act as more of
an accompaniment to traditional media.
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Michael Cornfield, a senior Pew research consultant said,
"Bloggers follow buzz as much as they make it. Our research
uncovered a complicated dynamic in which a hot topic of conversation could originate with the blogs or it could originate with the
media or it could originate with the campaigns. We can say that if
people still have that idea that the bloggers are the new fifth
estate, that the bloggers are the new kingmakers, that's not the
case."
Source: Reuters
May 17, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/blogs_not_exact.php
SECTION 2: HOW NEWSPAPERS WORK WITH
CITIZEN JOURNALISM
How to gradually implement citizen journalism
in your newspaper
Steve Outing at Poynter has written an informative piece for
editors and publishers confused about the citizen journalism buzz
and how to go about using it for the benefit of their publications.
Noting that many are skeptical about the emerging phenomenon,
Outing eases fears with an explanation of what he calls "The 11
Layers of Citizen Journalism."
Beginning with the basics, Outing explains that many papers are
initially hesitant to even open up their columns to reader comments, "an imperative characteristic of citizen journalism." This
being the first step to getting accustomed to having non-professional material published on their pages, editors should slowly
work towards recruiting readers to add content to professional
columnists' content. Readers with certain specialties or experiences will add value to a reporter's article of a similar topic.
A few steps down the line, editors should open up their newsrooms to their public, making their news process transparent,
regaining trust among readers. Eventually a purely citizen journalism site should be launched, the next logical step being a mixed
professional/citizen journalism publication, be it online or print. An
example of this model would be Korea's OhmyNews.
Will mainstream media pay citizen journalists?
Major news organizations are becoming increasingly aware of
the benefits of integrating citizen contributions in their news. But
will the MSM eventually begin to compensate for its readers'
content?
Steve Outing thinks that "It's almost time to pay up for Citizen
Journalism."
Although the trend now seems to be that news outlets are happy
to refer to and use citizen content for free as seen in Hurricane
Katrina and the London bombings, in an insightful essay at
Poynter, Outing says that this won't last forever.
"While most citJ content will remain uncompensated -- because
its quality isn't high enough to get anyone to pay for it -- the best
of it will have a price tag. And publishers may have to adapt to
paying for it."
When it comes to the best citizen contributions about relevant
stories, Outing says that news organizations would be "naive" to
think that people will just be giving their material away. He lists
some suggestions for MSM looking to incorporate citizen contributions:
• Monitor the new news agencies that are starting to
trade in citizen content
• When a big story breaks, be prepared to pay
• Identify your best citizen contributors and figure out
how to compensate them
• Consider non-cash compensation
• Run contests and award the best submissions
• Link content placement and payment
• Work hard on finding a viable citJ business model
The relationship between the MSM and their readers is sure to
expand in this manner as news organizations grow to accept the
value of eye-witness material. But citizens may eventually work
around the MSM and still be able to turn a bit of a profit with their
content by posting it on their own advertiser-supported blog.
Source: Poynter
Finally, Outing invokes the "wiki" model which allows anyone to
post an article online which anyone else can edit, theoretically
ending in an unbiased and well-informed "collective intelligence"
article. Although Outing advocates this model, he also warns that,
"Going this far with citizen journalism will take some guts -- and
a change in thinking. It means moving far down the continuum of
journalist-reader interaction, allowing an unprecedented loss of
control of the editorial product."
November 15, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/will_mainstream_media_
pay_citizen_journa.php
Blogging for cash:
how will newspapers profit?
Source: Poynter
June 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/how_to_graduall.php
When Jason Calcanis, founder of Weblogs Inc., was starting
his company, he learned quickly that bloggers wanted some remuneration for their efforts. "When we started last year, we found
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only 1 in 20 bloggers wanted to work for free for the 6 to 18
months it takes to get a blog to break even. So we started offering folks pay, and 19 out of 20 went for the deal."
The question this leaves us with is how can newspapers, many of
which have already begun incorporating blogs on their Websites,
collect revenue through the blogosphere? Is there a viable business model? Are blogs and newspapers even compatible, or will
they exist to oppose one another? And the worst-case scenario,
will independent blogs become successful enough to rival newspaper revenues?
Sources: Business 2.0, iol.co.za
May 02, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/blogging_for_ca.php
with the paper the students launched the website Beep and operated it for five weeks. Beep includes weblogs on entertainment
and lifestyle written by young staff members, links to news headlines in the Daily Herald, and lists weblogs in suburban Chicago.
The site was successful and "when the student project concluded
in mid-June, the newspaper decided to take over the site as part
of its young-reader strategy", reports Poynter.
Recently the students published a report detailing their experience
and giving advice to newspapers that want to use the web to
reach young people. The report suggests "that a blog-based site,
taking advantage of the interests and writing ability of young staff
members, might be an important component of a newspaper’s
young reader strategy."
Source: Report "The Story of Beep", Poynter, Beep
August 24, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/us_newspapers_c_1.php
Are newspaper-sponsored blogs too risky?
It is well known that many reporters have begun their own blogs
in addition to their day jobs. Some have gotten in trouble for
publishing vitriol of their employers on their personal blogs. But
what are the consequences of newspapers sponsoring blogs that
their reporters write?
An article at Wall Street Journal Online questions the practice for the potential legal problems it could pose for newspapers.
Media lawyer Michael Rothberg worries that "It does create
considerable additional libel risk for newspapers to have their
reporters doing blogs that are not edited." The article uses the
example of the San Jose Mercury News' sponsored blog
SiliconBeat, whose two assigned tech reporters regularly include
rumor, opinion and anonymous sources in their postings, skipping
over the editing process usually associated with newspaper articles.
Several papers around the US, including the Boston Globe and
the Dallas Morning News, are toying with the sponsored blog
idea, showing that newspapers are willing to risk publishing nonedited material. Former San Francisco Examiner editor Tim
Porter supports the idea, saying "I'm interested in newspapers
getting off their spot and doing something different, because they
are increasingly less relevant."
Source: Wall Street Journal Online
July 15, 2005
SECTION 3: CASE STUDIES - U.S.
The Los Angeles Times to include readers
on its editorial pages
The op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times are poised to go
"wiki," using the technology of Wikipedia to integrate its readers into the opinion process. The plan is to post an op-ed column
online and have readers modify it as they feel necessary, allowing
them to add their own opinion.
The introduction of "wikitorials" is being met with mixed reactions. The daily's former Washington bureau chief Jack Nelson
exclaimed, "it's absolutely crazy to have outsiders writing editorials." But Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab at the
University of Maryland is refreshed by the idea that a newspaper is "creating new entry points for readers to weigh in with
their collective wisdom and enrich the journalistic commentary."
Still others, including Michael Kinsley, the project’s creator, see
it simply as an experiment that "may be one of those things that
within six months will be standard." "It's the ultimate in reader
participation," said Kinsley.
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/are_newspaper_s.php
June 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/the_los_angeles.php
US: Newspapers connecting with young
readers via blogs
From April to June 2005 three new media master students at the
Medill School of Journalism tried to develop a web strategy
for the Daily Herald of suburban Chicago. The goal was to
connect young suburban adults to the newspaper. In collaboration
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US: Los Angeles Times’ wikitorials continue to
spark debate
makes a difference having a journalism degree and a newsroom."
Jarvis envisions the newspaper of the future as having a larger oped section, but one filled with the "highest ranked opinions found
on Blogdex.net."
Editor of the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review
(OJR), Robert Niles has an interesting take on the Los
Angeles Times’ “wikitorial” experiment. He says that in reality,
the Times’ ideas are not entirely radical. Newspaper editorial writing shares some common characteristics with wikis. Both reflect
the point of view of a group of writers, rather than just an individual. Niles insists that publishers would be more successful by
refreshing their editorial pages with innovations that attract more
readers into the editorial process. He writes, “Why rely on limited
knowledge and reporting resources of a handful of editorial writers when you could ask your entire community to gather and examine evidence?”
Although a proponent of newspaper innovation, Jarvis also wonders what LAT was doing creating the wiki page in the first place.
Instead of the editors dictating to their readers what they feel
should be discussed, wiki topics should be left to the public "to
share their knowledge and viewpoints." To do this, Jarvis points
out that the public doesn't need a newspaper. There are plenty of
Internet forums where these types of discussions can and are
already taking place.
Sources: Poynter, MediaBistro and Buzzmachine
June 23, 2005
2005/06/lessons_learned.php
Source: USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review
June 18, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org
/2005/06/us_los_angeles.php
Hurricane Katrina: How
a newspaper can
become a vital service
provider
Lessons learned from
"wikitorials" and the
"death of the editorial
page"
As editors at the Los Angeles
Times rethink their wiki op-ed
page that came to a somewhat
embarrassing halt less than two
days after its launch, several pundits have chimed in with advice for
future experiments and bleak prospects for the future of newspapers'
editorial staff:
Michael Kinsley launched “wikitorials” as editor of the Los
Angeles Times op-ed page, a failed experiment which led to
his resignation.
Source: Washington Examiner
Advice: Having both sides of the political spectrum fight over one
article about the war in Iraq (the subject of the posted editorial)
got a bit messy. To fix this, Jimmy Wales, founder of the wiki, was
working with LAT to split the wiki into two camps. Essentially,
right and left wing sympathizers would have their own wiki to
work on, avoiding the tug-of war that ensued on the solely posted wiki page.
Steve Outing suggests that in order to avoid “inappropriate”
images (which was the ultimate demise of the short-lived wikitorial), newspapers should require registration of contributors.
Editors should also give a quick once over to photos before putting them up on a site.
The New Orleans TimesPicayune did an excellent job in
continuing publication despite the
Hurricane Katrina catastrophe.
After offices were flooded the
paper published only online using
pdf’s. The paper publishes on
NOLA.com, a New Orleans local
website that was launched in
1998 in affiliation with The TimesPicayune.
The paper has set up a list of missing persons, where people can
post information about people
missing in New Orleans due to the hurricane or search for persons.
The list grew very quickly to nearly 5,000 entries. In the paper's
Hurricane Center people can submit their hurricane stories. There
is also a category for people offering help and services and evacuee information.
However, many victims which would need such services might not
have access to an internet connection at the moment, states EMedia Tidbits from Poynter Online. Moreover, almost 70%
of New Orleans' population is Afro-Americans and a large majority of them with very low revenues which means that they have
only little access to the internet anyway.
Source: NOLA.com, E-Media Tidbits from Poynter Online
September 1, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/hurricane_katri.php
Who needs an op-ed page? With the plethora of blogs floating
around the Internet, Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine asks why
newspapers even continue to employ an editorial staff. "The truth
is that an editorial is just another blog post written by one person
with one viewpoint. Here's a case where you can't argue that it
51
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Hurricane Katrina: citizen initiatives replace
newspaper initiatives
web coordinated by Social Source Foundation, CivicSpace
Labs and Salesforce.com Foundation. According to
Cyberjournalist (from September 7) its searchable database
Katrinalist.net includes more than 95,000 records.
Although the New Orleans Times-Picayune did a very commendable job serving its community during Hurricane Katrina, the
fact is, most other newspapers in the country were outdone by
independent websites. Two examples are:
If newspapers were beaten by like website, it leads us to ask,
“Why were newspapers unable to set up any original "community
content? Has imagination deserted the online newsrooms?”
1. Scipionus.com which allowed people to post information
about the status of an area that had not yet been covered and
added little red teardrops on a Google map to indicate locations
of which postings spoke.
Sources: Wired.com, Scipionus.com, Cyberjournalist
September 9, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/katrina_hurrica.php
2. The Katrina People Finder Project, an open community
effort by volunteers to aggregate evacuee data from across the
The Emerging Media Ecosystem
The relationship between citizen media and mainstream media is symbiotic. Information communities and weblogs discuss and extend the stories created by mainstream media. These communities and the blogosphere also produce citizen
journalism, grassroots reporting, eyewitness accounts, annotative reporting, commentary, analysis, watchdogging and
fact-checking, which the mainstream media feed upon, developing them as a pool of tips, sources and story ideas.
NEWS FILTERING, FACT CHECKING,
WATCHDOGGING, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
Content-sharing,
P2P Networks
Indices,
Search
Engines
Information
Communities
Personal
Media
Conversation
Communities
Journalists
Sources
Content-sharing,
P2P Networks
Gnutella, BitTorrent,
Sites like Ourmedia,
Flickr and Buzznet
Newspaper, Radio, TV, Cable, Web, Wire Services
Indices
Search Engines,
Aggregators,
Social
Bookmarking
Information
Communities
Hyper-local,
Niche Content,
Collaborative
Publishing
Personal
Media
Weblogs,
Video blogs,
Photo blogs,
Podcasts
Source: Based in part on “Blogoshpere: the emerging Media Ecosystem” by John Hiller, Microcontent News
Conversation
Communities
Forums, Groups,
Story Comments,
Instant Messaging,
Chat Rooms
Graphic by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis
Courtesy of hypergene.net
52
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Page 53
The New York Times goes "blogospheric"
and because we want to see your ideas about new ways of displaying news and information on the Web."
Welcome to the blogosphere, NYT!
Sources: Cyberjournalist, Mashingtonpost
November 23, 2005
In a staff memo, Deputy Managing Editor of the New York
Times, John Landman, announced the start of his paper's dive
into the blogosphere. The first blog off the block, columnist David
Carr's "Carpetbagger," part of the new movie-awards-season
feature from the Times.
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/washington_post_links_to
_innovative_read.php
To add to their new "blogospheric" nature, NYT will be adding
more blogs soon, including a real estate blog.
US: Newspaper offers links to news-related
blog entries
In the memo, Landman admits that the Times is behind the times
in launching a blog so late in the game but points out that the
move was important enough to make the front page, the first time
ever that blogs were mentioned on A1 of the Gray Lady.
Landman highlights certain aspects of blogs such as the linking
capabilities and reader responses but says that "our new blogs
are more than running commentary." In fact, the NYT blogs will
have editors and blog authors will "observe our normal standards
of fairness and care."
As so far as reader participation, Landman says the paper has the
"hopes to start a lively conversation. Nothing is more important to
the future of our web ambitions than to engage our sophisticated
readers." Still, reader comments will be edited to ensure that "the
conversation is civil".
The end of the memo, however, shows the paper's hesitation in
launching blogs. "There are costs; David Carr and Damon Darlin
(the soon-to-be real estate blogger) will be spending time they
could be using to write newspaper articles."
The website of the Washington Post has teamed up with blog
search engine Technorati to facilitate its readers finding blog
entries related to Post articles. It is the first big newspaper partner
for Technorati who did similar deals with Newsweek.com
and Salon.com, reports MediaPost .
Next to WashingtonPost.com articles, readers can now find a little
box saying "Who's blogging?". There they get links to blog entries
that deal with the article they are just reading.
The partnership between WashingtonPost.com and Technorati
indicates that links to bloggers could become a standard feature
of newspaper websites, promoting the idea that news is a conversation, not merely a lecture.
Source: MediaPost , WashingtonPost.com
September 7, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/us_newspaper_of.php
Source: Cyberjournalist
December 8, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/the_new_york_times_goe
s_blogospheric.php
Washington Post links to innovative readers
The Washington Post is getting it! Twisting the traditional
top-down news model a bit, the Beltway daily has launched an
online "remix" site that links to outside individual websites who
create original projects from Washington Post content. The site,
dubbed mashingtonpost.com, has two goals:
US: 51% of journalists use blogs
According to the latest Annual Euro RSCG Magnet and
Columbia University Survey of the Media, 51% of journalists, compared to 11% of all US internet users are using
weblogs regularly and 28% rely on them for their daily reporting. By contrast, only 1% of journalists believe in their credibility. The study is based on responses of 1,202 journalists from
the US and other countries worldwide.
Of journalist who reported using blogs 70% use blogs for workrelated tasks: they use blogs to find story ideas, researching and
referencing facts, finding sources and uncovering breaking news.
• To spotlight the work of outside Web developers who've
made cool and interesting projects ("mashups") using Post
content.
However, only few journalists post on blogs or have their own
blogs. "Such activities might be seen as compromising objectivity
and thus credibility."
• To provide information about washingtonpost.com's various
data offerings (APIs and RSS feeds).
Steven S. Ross, associate professor at Columbia University
and a partner in the study said, “As blogs continue to gain in
popularity, quality and influence, it is becoming imperative that
journalists and journalism students continue to integrate blogs.”
Perhaps most interesting (and comforting for advocates of online
newspapers) is WaPo's explanation for undertaking such a project:
"Why are we doing this? Because we want to foster innovation,
53
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Sources: Journalism.co.uk, Euro RSCG Magnet, Bulldog
Reporter, eWeek
August 26, 2005
SECTION 4: CASE STUDIES - NON-U.S.
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/us_51_of_journa.php
Reader feedback... before a story is published
California's Ventura Country Star has plunged further into
participatory journalism. The paper's managing editor for new
media and technology, John Moore, has started a blog on which
he posts the decision-making process that the Star's editors go
through every day. Readers have the option of adding their own
comments to the blog, virtually involving them in editorial meetings and giving them the possibility to influence the stories that
they will be reading the following day.
Moore to his readers: "Here's your chance to sit in on those discussions as we look at the stories that are being discussed to run
in tomorrow's paper. So pull up a
chair and let us know if you agree
or disagree with our choices."
Another new blog at the Star
moves "letters to the editors" from
the website to a letters blog after
they are edited and approved,
essentially allowing comments
from readers about readers comments.
UK: eyewitnesses contribute to London bombings coverage
What started with last years holiday season tsunami in Asia has
emerged on the other side of the world... and appears to be establishing itself as a permanent fixture of the media landscape.
"User-generated material," images and video via camera phones
and blogged reports from ordinary citizens caught in London's July
7th blasts were picked up by major news outlets, adding immediate first hand accounts to the tragedy.
While filing out of London's smoke-filled metro system, victims of
the attacks with photo and video cell phones recorded the events
and sent them directly to
Mainstream Media (MSM) sources
such as the Guardian, BBC and
Reuters who included the images
in their coverage.
MSM generally seems to welcome
citizen content. Editor of ITV
News, Ben Rayner, commented,
"It's the way forward for instant
newsgathering, especially when it
involves an attack on the public."
Source: Poynter
Helen Boaden, director of news
February 17, 2005
at the BBC said, "As people get
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/
used to creating picture and video
02/reader_feedback_1.php
on their phones...they increasingly
think of sending it to us when
Despite its grainy quality, this photo now embodies two
major incidents occur. It shows
events: July 2005's London bombings and the adoption of
there is a terrific level of trust between the audience and us, creaSource: Scoop
participatory journalism by the MSM.
US: citizens' journalism
ting a more intimate relationship
can organize itself
than in the past." Ms. Boaden said
that within an hour of the explosions, the BBC had received 50
through new online community center
images, a number that within a day had jumped into the thousands.
As reported on the blogs of Steve Yelvington and Dan
Gillmor, a South Carolinian based newspaper, Bluffton Today,
has launched a new interactive community center through its
website called BlufftonToday.com.
The website almost inverses the typical version of an online newspaper, with any person in the community receiving a blog, not just
staff members. Along with the blog, every person will receive a
photo gallery, and have access to contribute to a community
events calendar and to a community recipe book. RSS feeds will
search classifieds and cover all of the blogs both collectively and
on an individual level. Windows XP users will also have access to
a customized RSS application that fully supports podcasting.
Source: Steve Yelvington and Dan Gillmor
April 6, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/us_citizens_jou_1.php
54
Still, there are precautions that news organizations must take in
publishing citizen content. Although he believes that mobile
phone images will grow more important with time, John Ryley,
executive editor of Sky News warned, "We are very keen to be
first, but we still have to ensure (the images) are authentic."
July 8, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/uk_eye_witnesse.php
Chpt 3
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UK: explosion causes upsurge
in citizen journalism
UK: Telegraph launches citizen
photography feature
Even more so than the London bombings, the Buncefield oil depot
explosion has prompted an unprecedented response from citizen
journalists who have sent thousands of emails, photographs and
video clips of the disaster to news websites.
The UK's Telegraph website has launched a new feature called
'Snap and Send' whereby readers can send in images from their
mobile phones.
The BBC received more than 6,500 emails with video and photographic coverage of the explosion and oil fires, as compared to
1,000 in the aftermath of the London bombings. The first pictures
and video footage came in minutes after the explosion.
Head of BBC News interactive Pete Clifton said, "The range of
material we received from our readers was absolutely extraordinary. Video, still pictures and emails poured in from the moment
the blast happened, and it played a central part in the way we
reported the unfolding events."
On the day the explosion took place, half a million users logged
on to the BBC website in order to view the pictures and videos,
this response was second only to the traffic that was sparked by
the London bombings.
Source: MediaGuardian
December 13, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/uk_explosion_casues_ups
urge_in_citizen_j.php
The Telegraph's web editor Richard Burton said the new initiative is "designed to encourage readers to feel part of the site in
the same way that blogs and 'your view' tools invite readers to
interact."
Two concerns have been voiced by the National Union of
Journalists (NUJ) in reference to the new Telegraph initiative.
First comes the issue of the terms and conditions readers' will
have to agree to; all rights concerning their photos will be handed
over to the Telegraph and the company will be able to re-sell and
re-use them as it wishes.
Secondly, the NUJ is concerned that "news sites might choose to
publish free reader images instead of paying for work by professionals.”
Burton denied both of these claims, specifying his standing saying,
“We’re not asking people for sale-able pictures – it is simply an
opportunity for readers to contribute their views.”
December 1, 2005
BBC continues to open up its site to citizens
The British Broadcasting Company, which has been lauded
for its use of citizen contributions especially during July's London
bombings, has made its interactive site, Have Your Say, freer
from editing. Previously, the site's staff reviewed emails submitted by readers and viewers and published only a selected few.
Now, the multitudes of reader comments the BBC receives will be
posted directly to the website by its public.
What's more, the site is democratic. Readers can vote on the best
comments which will be displayed more prominently and comments that people find offensive can be directed to the editorial
staff.
Commenting on the trial run launched last Monday, the site's
interactivity editor Vicky Taylor said, "It's been a really interesting week, and we could not be more pleased with how it has
gone. We have had more than 1,000 people registering, so
already it has delivered one of its key objectives - more voices on
our site.
"We are learning that by far the vast majority of comments are
interesting, intelligent and informed and the odd grammatical mistake is acceptable against the vast improvement of accessibility."
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/uk_telegraph_launches_ci
tizen_photograph.php
UK: The Times expands its blogs
Sir Peter Stothard's blog is one of the latest expansions of The
Times' move into the blogosphere. Stothard, former editor of The
Times and now editor of The Times Literary Supplement,
will write "about books, book people, Blair and Bush - plus general observations on the way we are now". He will write in a realtime weblog - "written on his terms in his own time and open to
readers to interact with." However, readers' comments will be edited before they appear on the site.
The Times' weblogs includes a music blog, a news weblog, a travel log, an enterprise weblog and a blog about books. More blogs
are planned. Regarding the quality of those blogs, The Times states, "In every case they will be produced to the same quality standards as the rest of the site."
Source: The Times
October 10, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/10/uk_the_times_ex.php
Source: journalism.co.uk
October 26, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/10/bbc_continues_to_open_
up_its_site_to_cit.php
55
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Germany: Newspapers start blogging
blog's traffic - will be a good test regarding European audiences
toward new media experiences.
The German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung is following the trend
and has launched blogs written by journalists on its website. As
professional journalists gather much more information than fits
into the paper every day, the weblogs can deal with information
that does not find its place in print, states Süddeutsche Zeitung.
So the blogs will not repeat columns of the paper but rather are
"quick and dirty" in contrast to the printed paper.
Sources (in French): L'Hebdo, L'hebdo Bondy Blog and Liberation
blog (Vu(es) d'Aulnay)
Sources: (all in German): MedienCity, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der
Tagesspiegel weblogs
CONCLUSION
November 18, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/french_suburbs_a_blog_t
o_cover_postriots.php
September 02, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/germany_newspap_2.php
Craigslist founder working on new journalism
project
Spain: newspapers need to adapt to
the Web and citizen journalism
At a meeting of the Asociacion de Editores de Diarios de
Espana Enrique Dans, professor at the Instituto del
Empresa, explained the media evolution that newspapers need
to follow: Journalism 1.0 (traditional journalism where many
newspapers are stuck), Journalism 2.0 (content adapted to the
Web) and Journalism 3.0 ("socialization" of information or information as a conversation).
The free paper Qué's experiment, launched in February, was described by a satisfied Eduardo Bendala, digital director of the
group Recoletos. Qué's original idea to launch citizen blogs
came from a lack of resources necessary for its reporters to cover
local events. Although he admits that of the 8,500 blogs on the
Qué site, few are used as sources of information, he believes that
that number will improve with time.
Founder of one of the most 50 popular sites on the Internet, Craig
Newmark alluded to an online journalism project he is working
on during a speech at Oxford University. Stating his disappointment with the American media, the customer service manager of Craigslist, the classified website that has kicked a large
financial dent in newspaper classified adverts, Craig is looking to
help news organizations regain their trust with the populace.
He said, "I'm working with some folks on technologies that promise to help people find the most trusted versions of the more
important stories... and this is personal, helping out another group
not associated with craigslist. This kind of technology is intended
to preserve the best of existing journalistic practices, and should
help retain newsroom jobs."
Sources: craigblog, Editor and Publisher, MarketWatch,
PaidContent
November 24, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/craigslist_founder_working_on_new_journa.php
Source: Periodistas 21
June 22, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/spain_newspaper_1.php
From citizen journalism myth to citizen journalism realities
French suburbs: a blog to cover post-riots
Citizen journalism has been haunting newsrooms since Dan
Gillmor wrote We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by
the People, for the People in 2004. Suddenly, for Gillmor imitators
(not for Gillmor himself), there was a new hero, the citizen journalist, struggling against a bad guy called the traditional journalist.
The Swiss weekly L'Hebdo gives a good example of interaction
between online and print journalism. In response to the French
riots, the newspaper decided to send a part of its newsroom to
Bondy, a Northen Paris suburb of 70,000 inhabitants near the
main "hot spots.”
It is not exactly what Americans call "citizen journalism" because
the blog is written by professional journalists. But what is interesting here is that the newspaper decided to give preference to its
online coverage - no problem of editorial space in a blog - and to
select the best excerpts for the weekly.
Feedback from the readers - not only the comments, but also the
56
In fact a very bad guy this old journo: outdated, working for
mainstream media, linked to corporate interests, limited by the
newsroom horizon, not very well connected (nor well educated)
and with no knowledge of what interests average people!
Moreover, truth and accuracy were no longer his cup of tea…
On the contrary, the citizen journalist had so many qualities: as a
newcomer, he was young, fresh, innocent, independent, with a lot
of new ideas on journalism and democracy and on top of that a
real love of truth.
Chpt 3
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But the problem is that this ideal citizen journalist only exists in
some bloggers’ views.
The reality is different with the birth of four categories of citizen
journalism that aren’t necessarily directly related:
• the citizen journalist who owns a digital camera or a camera
phone and sends shootings to a news organization during a major
event (tsunami, London bombing…) or a local car accident
• the citizen journalist who wants to cover its local or virtual community and produce targeted content
• the citizen journalist who is a militant and campaigns for political reasons. How Eason Jordan was fired from CNN by infuriated
bloggers in January 2005, was a good example of biased citizen
journalism
• the citizen journalist who is eager to participate to a « conversation » with professional journalists and bloggers. « News is just
the beginning » says Jeff Jarvis and, in some cases, it is true.
Citizen journalists are part of the family, but different. And this difference depends on what journalists and bloggers call « collective
intelligence ».
For a journalist, a newsroom is the expression of collective intelligence with horizontal links between colleagues and fact-checkers,
but also with vertical relationships from the basic journalist to the
editor-in-chief.
For a blogger (or a wikimedian) the network hates vertical
acquaintances and will always give the priority to horizontal linking and fact-checking. The real judge is the number of links to a
site: popularity becomes synonymous of truth and quality. Not
often relevant in the news process!
December 29, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis//2005/12/from_citizen_journalism_myth_to_citizen.php
No doubt something new has appeared in the last two years and
that traditional newsrooms will have to deal with these new citizen journalists. But the idea that there is an essence of citizen
journalism - as replacing the so-called traditional journalism - is
dead.
57
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3
Page 59
Conclusion
Citizen journalists complement
newspaper journalism
By Dan Gillmor
Founder of the Center for Citizen Media
Newspapers are conservative institutions, bound by tradition and principles that have evolved in several centuries of
development. During that period, professional journalists
have come to take for granted their special place of authority in the news sphere.
Most notably in the latter half of the 20th Century, when mass media became
ascendant, journalism became a lecture. We told our readers the news as we'd
learned it, and their role was essentially nothing more than consumers of what we
were selling.
But in the age of democratized media, the lecture is evolving into a conversation.
When anyone can use inexpensive but powerful tools to create media, and then
cheaply distribute it to a potentially global audience -- when anyone can be a publisher -- the age of the citizen journalist is arriving fast.
After several years of ignoring the trend and or dismissing it, newspapers are
beginning to adopt it at an increasingly fast pace. In 2005, we've seen considerable evidence that big media companies are learning its value -- and finding ways
to capture it to the benefit of everyone. With weblogs, podcasts, wikis, video and
other tools, the newspaper industry is adopting conversational techniques in a
major way.
Some of the more intriguing developments during the past year:
- The horrific south-Asian tsunami swamped ashore in 2004. But in the days
and weeks that followed, the world learned a great deal about the event from
blogs, photos and videos taken by tourists and others who were on the scene. The
videos, in particular, provided some of the starkest perspectives on the worst natural disaster in recent memory.
59
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3 conclusion
- Perhaps the most visible manifestation of citizen journalism to date surfaced
in the immediate aftermath of the London terrorist bombings in July. It is a single
photograph, but not a professional journalist's work. Rather, it is a relatively indistinct snapshot, taken by a man who was fleeing from a smoke-filled train in the
London underground. The scene is chaotic, and includes someone holding a cloth
over his nose and mouth. The photograph was captured with a mobile phone camera, and was shown on television and published on front pages of newspapers
around the world. We will remember that day in significant part because of that
image.
- The odds-on favorite for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for public-service journalism, America's top journalism honor, is the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
During and after Hurricane Katrina, which turned their city into a waterlogged
wasteland, they used weblogs and discussion forums to tell what they knew, and
encouraged citizens to join in with what they were seeing. It was brilliant journalism. Meanwhile, at a site called the Interdictor, a blogger posting from a high floor
in a building in the flooded city, was among several to add personal, powerful perspective to the events.
- More and more bloggers were becoming part of newspapers' daily activities.
When I started a blog at the San Jose Mercury News in 1999, I was alone in
the business. By the end of 2005 hundreds of newspapers were employing bloggers or paying staff writers to add blogs to their duties. Blogs weren't just a sideline; they were places where reporters augmented what they were doing in the
printed editions, occasionally breaking news.
- Eighteen months ago, few people had ever heard of the word "podcast" -recording audio that people download to portable MP3 players and other digital
devices. But podcasting has become a trend in its own right, and a large number of
forward-looking newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News and San
Francisco Chronicle near my home, adopted it with surprising style.
- Not all newspaper experiments with new media were unqualified successes.
One became a subject of ridicule. The Los Angeles Times created a Wiki -- a
site that lets readers become editors of what they see online -- of an editorial and
invited readers to work on it. Vandals came along and created trouble, and the
Times pulled the experiment off the Web. Had the newspaper handled the experiment more adeptly, including stronger monitoring of what people were doing, it
might have had a better result. Trying something new was a good idea, even if it
didn't work well in this instance.
Naturally, the tensions that have existed between the new-style journalists and traditional ones have not gone away. Toward the end of 2005, for example, an internal spat at the Washington Post became highly public when several members
60
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Página 61
of the newspaper's political staff suggested that the Post's website White House
blogger was confusing readers and costing the paper some of its credibility. Jeff
Jarvis, a prominent blogger and observer of the media scene, called the situation
"the kind of clueless, destructive, and snobbish territoriality between print and
online that is killing newspapers."
Even as more and more newspapers bring citizens into the mix and use citizenmedia techniques themselves, they are still only scraping the surface of what's possible. One largely untapped area is investigative journalism. Not every big project
needs to be done in secret.
In at least some investigations, newspapers should ask readers at the beginning for
help in the reporting. Example: Keeping an eye on government spending, such as
the massive recovery from Hurricane Katrina, is far too big a project even for the
biggest media organization. Yet media organizations have not done the obvious
thing and asked their readers for help on this.
Someone will, and the results will be spectacular.
Again, we must remember that citizen journalism is still in its infancy. We'll all be
experimenting with it for years. But as we test, then discard or keep, a variety of
techniques and styles, we will learn what works and expand on it. We'll be learning from each other. I don't want citizen media to replace traditional journalism,
which remains enormously important. I want to see the grassroots augment the
professionals. Together, we can create a bigger and healthier media ecosystem -and help keep people even better informed about what is happening in their world.
They need us, but we also need them.
Dan Gillmor is founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a project to enhance and expand
grassroots media and its reach. The center is an affiliate of the Berkman Center for
Internet & Society at Harvard University Law School and the Graduate School of
Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Gillmor, author of "We the Media:
Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People" (O'Reilly Media, 2004), was a newspaper journalist for more than two decades, including a well-regarded technology and
business column for San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. He was one
of the first mainstream journalists to start a weblog.
http://www.citmedia.org/
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Página 63
4
Regional newspapers
reconnecting with their
communities
The global, non-stop news cycle has largely contributed to the gradual circulation
decline of newspapers over the past 20 years. Many readers already know what’s
going to be in the morning paper thanks to nightly broadcasts, 24-hour cable news
stations and the constantly updated Internet. Although this news inundation sounds
devastating for print, it actually opens up a huge opportunity for newspapers: concentration on local coverage. Numerous newspaper critics in 2005 urged regional
papers to reinvest themselves in and specialize in their communities, publishing the
news that most directly matters to their readers. Several experiments and ideas
should be considered in the shift to local:
Reformatting the newspaper: Reversing tradition, the Californian San Jose
Mercury News changed its focus in 2005 to prioritize local news, moving reporting from outside of its community to the middle of the paper. Although the daily felt
it could better serve its readers in this way, tradition proved a powerful force and the
paper decided to return to its old format, but continued to maintain a majority of local
news on the front page.
Localizing news saving journalism: Whereas many regional papers are struggling in the U.S. and Europe, returning to their roots could save them. Readers may
not be buying their local paper because they feel it does not represent their interests.
But by integrating their journalists more intimately into the community, newspapers
will quickly learn what is important to their readers and be able to appropriate
resources accordingly. From a financial point of view, people will be more willing to
pay for news that directly affects them and that they can’t find elsewhere. In turn,
local advertisers will be eager to pay for space in well-respected regional publications.
Complementing local print with websites: The Internet provides regional
papers with several advantages. Newspaper websites can act as a community hub
where information on everything local, from restaurants and schools to entertainment
and advertising can be found. Furthermore, because it is difficult for a newspaper to
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Regional newspapers
reconnecting with their
communities
cover every event, it can use blogs and other citizen journalism tools to invite readers to contribute their own stories, photos and videos, truly connecting the community with the newspaper and one another. The best citizen stories can be printed
alongside staff articles in the print edition.
Ethnic newspapers: Papers that focus on communities within communities have
performed very well over the past few years. The dual strategy of providing ethnic
groups with news about their immediate surroundings in their mother tongues combined with news about their homelands establishes a trusting and lasting relationship with readers.
-----------------------Media consultant and journalism professor Jean-Pierre Tailleur offers advice on
reconnecting with local communities and case studies from France, Spain and the
U.K. in conclusion to this chapter.
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Washington Post: Dual home pages
get positive feedback
Mid-July the WashingtonPost.com launched dual home
pages, one for local Washington DC area residents and one for
national and international audiences. After some weeks the feedback from users seems to be overall positive.
Jim Brady, Executive Editor at WashingtonPost.com, said on
CyberJournalist.net: "As for the two home pages, the feedback has been largely positive. We're now able to do day-parting
on the local page because, for the first time in the site's history,
we know the time zone of a large majority of the people using a
home page. So we're promoting traffic cameras during rush hour,
more aggressively promoting weather stories, etc. It's really given
us an outlet for local stories that historically we've always shown
some restraint with, since so many of our home page users are
national and international. So I think we feel liberated."
Source: CyberJournalist.net
August 5, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/washington_post_10.php
US: Los Angeles Times to close national edition
The Los Angeles Times announced that it will shut down its
national edition. The operation had already been pared down in
March going from a full color broadsheet to a 24 page reduced
format.
The New York Times comments that the "national edition has
been an endangered species for years, kept alive as a way to give
the newspaper's reporting a physical presence in Washington and
New York."
The closure of the edition is a cost cutting exercise, as it was
expensive to produce. After 85 newsroom jobs were recently eliminated at the paper, officials were forced to choose between closing down the national edition or eliminating two more newsroom
jobs.
Officials at the paper have said that the national edition will not
be such a great loss, since a lot of readers consulted it online anyway.
David Garcia, spokesman for the Times, said: "We've learned
over the past year that most of our East Coast audience reads us
on the Web." Consequently, the Times is planning to improve its
website and "to highlight our Washington coverage, which we
believe is the best in the country."
December 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/12/us_los_angeles_times_to_close_national_e.php
66
SECTION 1: TRENDS TOWARDS LOCAL
Can localizing news save newspapers?
Many newspapers are currently struggling as they are facing declines in readership and advertising. One way to win back readers
could be to focus on local news - something that lies at the heart
of newspapers', competence. The idea is often cited and newspapers are starting to experiment with it. The Birmingham Mail
started its new relaunched and localized edition. Gannett's editors agreed on the importance of local news in their papers. And
online strategist Steve Yelvington praised the advantages of
hyperlocal community sites at the Ifra Newsroom summit.
Steve Dyson says that "the way to fight the threat from national newspapers and the internet is to focus on what the regional
press does best - focus on local news.”. Dyson, the new editor of
the Birmingham Mail, an "oil tanker heading nowhere" because
it is currently the worst performing metropolitan paper in Britain,
plans to turn his paper into the best performing one by focusing
on local news.
The paper changed its name from Birmingham Evening Mail
to its former name Birmingham Mail, which was last used in 1967.
The redesigned paper focuses more on local news and lifestyle.
Four new local editions were added. So the paper now publishes
seven local editions instead of the previous three timed editions.
But because the different editions will appear at different times in
the city, the paper will be able to publish timed editions as well.
Dyson said, "We're going back to the grassroots with a more
detailed focus on local areas. People can get breaking news in
most places - that's the real challenge for evening papers. We've
got to remind them how essential we can be by concentrating on
what we're good at - reflecting people's local lives." Local news,
that was traditionally only covered on the inside pages, will begin
to appear on the front page as well. Dyson also said that it was
not easy to persuade publisher Trinity Mirror to invest in a "failing" paper.
Although regional papers of Trinity Mirror, like the Western
Mail, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle and the Liverpool
Daily Post, could increase sales, the overall trend for regional
papers in the UK is downward. According to ABC figures, paid-for
regional papers lost 8% of circulation between 1999 and 2004.
Evening papers are performing especially bad.
"Newspapering ain't what it used to be, although in some ways it
is, can and should be everything it used to be", was the message
of the Gannett Editors Meeting. David Daugherty, Gannett Vice
President of Research said, "Local coverage is important."
Local/local coverage is more important. Local/local/local coverage
is even more important. Covering 'me' and 'my agenda' is most
important."
And local newspapers should become "hyperlocal community
sites" if they are willing to succeed in the digital age, was the
advice of online strategist Steve Yelvington at the Ifra Newsroom
summit in London last week. Yelvington "told delegates that the
Chapter 4: Regional newspapers reconnecting with their communities
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long decline in newspaper readership has been caused not just by
the internet, but by a complex accumulation of social and technological influences including radio, TV, cable and satellite alternatives. In response, news sites need to focus the personal, social and
local interest at the heart of their local communities. A successful
web publication needs to reinforce rather than compete with its
print partner, so publishers must construct a new vision for their
online proposition."
Mignon's ideas are echoed by Eli Noam whose Financial Times
article says "(Newspapers) must focus on their core competency,
which usually is local information. Cutting costs by cutting local
newsroom budgets is therefore myopic.”
Sources: Media Cafe, National Journal, Financial Times
July 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/incipient_newsp_1.php
Sources: The Guardian, see also BrandRepublic,
Journalism.co.uk, Tuscon Citizen
October 3, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/10/can_localizing.php
US: Are metro newspapers outdated?
Newspapers need to focus on local coverage
What is the use of metro newspapers these days? National and
international news are often covered faster by the Internet and TV.
So focusing on local news could be a solution. Bob Cauthorn discusses this topic in an interesting posting on Corante.
"The notion of people getting news from one limited source just
doesn't apply any more in this media universe. There's going to be
a big period of adjustment ahead for the major news players." Fair
enough. But in what direction is this adjustment going to take
large news organizations?
Jeff Mignon at Media Cafe clarifies this quote from New York
University professor Jay Rosen with his latest postings about the
move towards local... which unfortunately Mignon feels does not
involve print:
"(A new) business model has to be focused on local press... dailies need to rethink themselves as local portals of information. All
information. Not just that created by journalists, but all that the
geographical community needs, and all the little fragmented communities inside itself, based on the interests of individuals."
In going local, newspapers should realize four "revolutions:"
1. all information of interest is not written by journalists, but includes info such as business hours and commercial or professional
information
He claims that "Like a cartoon character with its legs spinning
wildly while it gets exactly nowhere, the metro paper can't find
traction these days. ... It used to be the metro daily was a regionwide source for national and international news and lots of lifestyle and cultural coverage. It was also the "prestige paper" in the
market. Now the net delivers all these types of news better and
media prestige just ain't what it used to be ... Meanwhile, smaller, more nimble players deliver local news better and definitely
serve local advertisers more effectively."
He points to The Examiner in San Francisco, which covers local
events in the city with a reporting staff of 6 and beats the bigger
San Francisco Chronicle on San Francisco coverage almost
every day. He argues that "giant" newspapers should focus on the
local but "giants don't cede their size without a fight. ... Instead,
we should keep our eyes open as multiple, small upstarts - ala the
Examiner - arrive to do the local job the metro daily refuses to
complete. Add citizen journalism to that mix and you get a spectrum of media that is downright hopeful."
Source: Corante
August 8, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/us_are_metro_ne.php
2. all information of interest does not have to come from journalistic sources but other reliable sources as well
3. all of this information must be posted on a paper's website
4. the reader will have more of a role in creating content, even if
editors will maintain control.
Mignon also describes two other technological phenomena that
point towards local:
1. mobile phone users would like to receive local info such as weather updates on their cell phones
2. papers would be wise to include podcasting, which provides the
option of exclusive local interviews and audio reader commentary,
on their websites in order to attract young readers. He also praises the Los Angeles Times' branded RSS reader as a logical development towards making the paper a world news aggregator on
a local level.
Multimedia empowers local newspapers
An article in the San Francisco Chronicle this week tells of the
popularity of the social networking site MySpace, now part of
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., with music groups trying to
gain exposure. One question that arises from the article is, "Why
doesn't the Chronicle and newspapers everywhere open themselves up to this digital opportunity?" Essentially what these bands
have been doing is loading recordings of their music, pictures and
tour dates on to the 22.5 million-user-strong MySpace, complimenting or bypassing altogether the normal process of whirlwind
tour advertising and trying to scratch out a living selling homemade cassettes from the back of their rusty rundown equipment
vans. The article says that about 350,000 bands have already posted their material on MySpace, 3,000 of those coming from the
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San Francisco Bay Area alone. That's a potential 3,000 opportunities that the Chronicle has missed. Here's why:
US: ethnic papers successfully focusing on
community
MySpace is a universal website. With so many users and 7.5 billion page views a month, it could be difficult for these bands to
receive maximum exposure in their own region. Newspapers, on
the other hand, own the power of local. By creating pages for
these bands to post their songs and musings they will also create
a portal for local buzz that ultimately will attract new readers. And
who listens to new local music and attends local concerts? Yep,
that prized 18-34 demographic that statistics show newspapers
are rapidly losing.
At a time when circulations of virtually all major dailies are plummeting, ethnic papers are booming. Backed by steady streams of
immigration and an editorial focus on the communities of the
immigrant population, ethnic papers in cities around the country
exemplify the trend toward local and niche coverage that many
newspaper hounds have been predicting.
But that's not all. A newspaper could feasibly supply its readers
with the entire package: a concert and album review from a staff
journalist complete with podcasted band interview, a downloadable song example, video clips from the bands latest music video or
concert, tour dates and a fan-review blog that incites discussion
and allows the band to respond. Fueled by the proper targeted
advertising, such a complete overview is certain to attract readers
and please advertisers. This isn't
the only type of local review that
could profit from Internet multimedia:
Noting their success, mainstream news organizations increasingly
want a piece of the action. As of 2004, large newspaper companies owned 91 Spanish-speaking papers, or 13% of all Latino
publications. And with stats showing that the number of Latino
and Chinese media users will double by 2030, newspaper company interest is sure to keep rising.
But would purchases of local ethnic papers by mainstream organizations be beneficial?
For the papers themselves, it
doesn't seem so.
Ivan Roman, executive director of
the National Association of
Hispanic Journalists said,
"We're just concerned that more
and more newspaper companies try
and go the cheap route and outsource coverage. Spanish language
papers that cover the Latino community in the United States have a
particular mission and have stronger ties to the community -- qualities that an imported paper cannot
fill."
- movie reviews could include
audio or video interviews with
local viewers of all age groups and
links to the trailer
- book reviews could include podcasted excerpts to give the reader
a feel for the book's tone and flow
- local restaurants could post their
menus and reviews could include
video interviews with the chef
throughout which he might whip
up a little dish in front of the
camera, making audience mouths’
water
Although these papers do not make
much money, often functioning in
the red, they keep printing because
of the community service they provide to which their staffs are dedicated.
Regional papers in Britain are trying to win back circulation
by refocusing on their communities
Newspapers still have a grasp on
their local niche. By allowing bands, restaurants or other local
business to post on its website, a local paper will be able to
browse through reader comments on local subjects, get a better
idea of what the hot local chatter is and be able to put together
a complete story for the benefit of the community.
Open up, listen to the audience, do a multimedia report. This could
be the future of local news.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
August 19, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/multimedia_empo.php
Apart from community coverage, local ethnic papers also report
on the native lands of their communities. Their public usually does
not trust mainstream media's perception nor reporting on their
homelands.
In these respects, purchases of ethnic papers by mainstream
media may not work either.
In October, the San Jose Mercury News dropped two ethnic
publications, one Spanish-language and one for the Vietnamese
population, because they were not profitable. Furthermore, both
faced stiff competition from small, family-run immigrant community papers.
Source: Contra Costa Times
November 28, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/us_ethnic_pa
pers_successfully_focusing_o.php
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UK: local newspapers need to
embrace Internet
The savior of newspaper Internet
local advertising?
Jemima Kiss at journalism.co.uk sums up her vision of
Britain's local newspaper market for Local Newspaper Week
with an anecdote from the National Union of Journalists
conference. The editors Ms. Kiss met at the conference saw the
Internet as a 'threat' and the medium causing their papers' circulation decline.
The internet advertising market may be booming, but it's large
Web natives such as Google and Yahoo who are leading the
charge leaving newspapers in the dust. Online ads are attractive
because they are targeted and performance based, allowing
advertisers to match their wares with like content and determine
how effective their advertising is per click, tools which newspapers
have not had access too... until now.
These are the kind of editors that are inhibiting the evolution of
newspapers' Websites, according to Ms. Kiss. Many communities
get most of the news traditionally printed in local newspapers at
their community websites; job searches, buying a house, etc. She
is disappointed at local British newspapers' attempts at transferring their news to the Internet and trumpets the adoption of citizen journalism; "If (newspapers) don't move into the citizen journalism space soon, someone else will." She does admit that it will
take sacrifice as advertisers will have to get used to the Internet
model, "but if you can produce quality content under a recognised brand name and be really innovative and experimental with
your site, eventually you should be rewarded."
May 20, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/uk_local_newspa.php
Quigo Technologies Inc. has developed a program that will
help newspapers to rival the two large search engine companies
and provides several advantages to boot. Based on its pay-perclick AdSonar Exchange, Quigo's new technology permits
newspapers to maintain direct relations with their advertisers, an
advantage for local advertisers when compared with an
AdSense-style system which places the relationship aspect of
advertising in the control of the large internet media companies.
Seeing as many local advertisers already have strong relationships
with newspapers, the opportunity that Quigo offers them to
choose which sites they would like to see their adverts on instead
of random sites on which Google or Yahoo ads can appear, is additionally appealing. If advertisers are worried about spending too
much, Quigo has provided them with a daily budget control
option, something that Google failed to adopt and for which it is
now facing the consequences in the form of a law suit.
Source: InformationWeek
August 16, 2005
UK: "Investigative journalism is disappearing
from regional press"
As Press Gazette reports, journalist Don Hale complained
about the disappearance of investigative journalism from the
regional press in a speech to students at Lincoln University. He
said, "Investigations have almost disappeared without trace in the
regional press and, to a large extent, in the nationals ... True: journos can still mislead and infiltrate Buckingham Palace, airports or
the police. But what has happened to real-life investigations?
Most journos seem content with sitting on their backsides and
using email, the mobile phone, or the internet for misinformation
... Gone are the local contacts built up over years — the personal
touch, knowing the councillors, police contacts and community
gossips." He claimed that journalists need to get to know their
local communities.
Source: Press Gazette
October 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/10/uk_investigative_journalism_is_disappear.php
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/the_savior_of_n.php
SECTION 2: CASE STUDY: THE SAN JOSE
MERCURY NEWS
In June of 2005, the San Jose Mercury News, in a response to
24-hour TV news stations and the Internet, underwent an experiment with its print edition that emphasized local news. Although
the paper’s editors were very enthusiastic about their decision,
reader reactions brought an end to the test by September.
California: the regional newspaper
of the future?
The San Jose Mercury News eliminated its traditional local,
national, and international news print sections, bunching them all
into one big 'A' section. Figuring that most readers already know
the major US and World headlines before they even pick the
Mercury up thanks to TV and the Internet, the daily's editors decided to print them in the back of Section A and place emphasis on
local news, something that won't be found as easily from other
sources. Important stories not on the front page are neatly briefed
in a box with all pertinent headlines for readers to scan, directing
them to the Section A page on which the story is printed.
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Although to some this move may sound logical, especially those
who use the Internet as a primary source of news, the Merc's readers responded less than favorably. The most frequent complaint
was that it was difficult to share the paper over breakfast with a
spouse or family seeing as all of the news is packaged in one section. Others said that instead of heightening the importance of
local news, it degrades it, as well as world news, by not providing
them with separate sections. The paper's executive editor, Susan
Goldberg, was receptive to reader concerns, but her responses
tended to support the new initiative, saying it had "created better
organization of international news."
What does such a decision, breaking over a century of newspaper
tradition, say about where the newspaper industry could theoretically be headed? What about the future of journalism in general?
1. Immediate news: although a sole news section sounds
confusing, Ms. Goldberg does have a point: many readers already
know what's going on in the world by the time they find the morning paper on their doorstep. Why would they want to pay to hear
it again with a newspaper subscription? Seeing as newspaper
Websites are still divided into sections, The Merc, notably read by
the Silicon Valley crowd, may be guiding traditionalists on the digital way essentially saying, "This is where our medium is going. It's
time to get used to it."
2. Changing local journalism: regional newspapers may have
to start looking at events outside of their area in a different light.
Since most of a paper's readership will already be aware of major
national and international news, "What do these events mean for
us," style journalism may become the regional norm.
3. Citizen journalism: one critique of the format change questions the relevance of local over broader news saying, "What does
it say about our society when we'd rather read about a pothole or
speeding ticket, than what truly matters in the world today?"
Well, even though some of us place wars and poverty above local
news, there are always going to be many people who care about
what's going on in their own communities. The Merc might be
right in focusing on its region, but how thorough of a job can it
even do there? Does it have enough staff to get to every education board meeting, cover every fire, every community event?
Chances are, some of these jobs are going to be outsourced to a
newspaper's readers as the citizen journalism movement develops.
1. What prompted you to try this new format? How much
did the impact of immediate news provided by the
Internet influence your decision?
We're emphasizing local news because it's what makes us unique
-- what we can give our readers that they can't get elsewhere. And
by local I don't just mean neighborhood news: I mean significant
watchdog reporting on state and local officials, in-depth stories
about area technology companies and examinations of our culture
and our institutions. The trick is to do all that without diminishing
other coverage. In fact, we've added space to our international
report, given pages clearer labels and provided 1A news rail to
guide readers to the top news inside the paper.
And, yes, the Internet and 24-hour television news were among
the drivers for us. We hear from readers on a regular basis -- in emails, in person, in focus groups, in scientific studies -- that they
already know our big national and international news headlines
by the time they pick up the paper in the morning. We felt we needed to react to that -- here in tech-savvy Silicon Valley, especially.
2. Has this decision changed your job as an editor? What
about other editors in the newsroom?
Well, it sure has for the last week or so: I have spent a lot of time
answering reader mail! But beyond that, our new approach is forcing us to hone our news judgment. A car bomb in the Middle East
that our readers have heard about the day before, isn't an automatic front-page story for us. It's allowing us to broaden our definition of news. It's also leading us to better plan our local report.
When we made the commitment to emphasize local news, it
became imperative that we have a string of front-of-the-book
worthy contenders, from watchdog reports on city hall and
Sacramento, to profiles of interesting people in Silicon Valley.
3. Has the new format changed the way in which you
newsroom works? How has your staff responded?
The staff has been great. It took a total newsroom effort to shape
and launch these changes, from assigning editors, to copy editors,
to designers, reporters, photographers and photo editors, artists
and our Web staff. It takes more planning and collaboration to
produce this paper now.
4. Has this emphasis changed the dynamic of your website as well? Are you considering including citizen journalists to cover local news?
Sources: Columbia Journalism Review, San Jose Mercury News
June 30, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/california_the.php
The regional newspaper of the future II:
interview with the executive editor of
the San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News underwent a change in format, organizing local, national and world news, traditionally
separated in distinct sections, into Section A. The Editors Weblog
asked the Merc's executive editor, Susan Goldberg, about the
paper's transformation in an email interview:
70
Yes, our Web site has played a key role in this new approach. More
of our reporters and columnists are writing blogs or online Q&A
columns. And our Friday Arts and Entertainment
Interactive section has a corresponding blog where readers can
post their own reviews and comment on those reviews.
We print a sampling of the best in the paper. During the first week,
we had more than 11,000 unique visitors. There's also an area for
teens to post their reviews.
As far as citizen journalists covering news, we have no plans to do
that at the moment, though we do have a teen page where area
high schoolers cover stories each week.
5. How do you deal with the negative comments you
have received from your readers?
Not all of the response has been negative. Some readers tell us
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they prefer having their local, national and world news organized
into one meaty news section, and a number have said they like the
emphasis on local news. The 1A rail is a hit, and so is the Calendar
section on Monday, which lists that week's community events. The
interactive features are getting a lot of attention from readers, and
we've had very positive responses to the new Real Estate and
House+Home section. I do think it has been important for me to
respond to the readers who don't like the changes, and I've tried
to be very up front about doing that, addressing their concerns
both in print and in my online Q&A. It would be a little self-serving if I only highlighted the positive comments.
July 1, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/the_regional_ne.php
US: San Jose Mercury News returns
to separate sections
In June, the San Jose Mercury
News eliminated the traditional
local, national, and international
news print sections and combined
them into one. The change was
controversial and many readers did
not like it. A big problem was: it
was now much harder for couples
to share the morning paper.
SECTION 3: OTHER CASE STUDIES
UK: new focus for regional newspaper
An article in Press Gazette reports on the change in focus of a
regional paper, the Norwich Evening News. Research done by
a London marketing agency, The Future Foundation, showed
that the internet and 24 hour news stations have made it much
less important for regional papers to carry breaking news. The
Norwich Evening News decided to heed the study's results. It
moved its edition times forward by 40 minutes, meaning that latebreaking stories could not be included, but assuring that the paper
would be on the streets when people were out of work. Now, if a
story breaks after the paper goes to press, it is simply posted on
the paper's website.
The research also showed that readers of regional papers, normally
pressed for time, now prefer smaller news summaries. The Norwich
Evening News adapted accordingly,
adding a summarizing paragraph
at the beginning of lead stories. The
public reaction has been positive
and circulation has risen 4%.
Ultimately, the paper responded to
The paper's editor, David Bourn,
readers' feedback: "OK, we hear
commenting on the way the indusyou. Beginning Tuesday, Aug. 30,
try is changing, said, "Local exclusiwe'll go back to having two news
ves will always be our meat and
sections: The first section will focus
drink but these days national and
on national and international news,
world events are reported as they
the second on local and state news.
happen on TV and the Internet. This
An experiment led by Susan Goldberg, editor of the San
Page One will continue to offer an
has changed the role of a newspaJose Mercury News, showed that localizing regional papers
average of 75 percent locally writper from being the medium to break
doesn't always work
ten stories and the watchdog
news stories to being the medium
reports you find only in the Mercury
providing detail and analysis."
News", wrote MercuryNews.com on August 21. The paper
keeps, however, some changes that readers liked, such as news
Source: Press Gazette (print edition)
highlights on Page One, international pages clearly labeled by
January 28, 2005
region, Monday's Calendar, Friday's new Interactive Arts +
Entertainment section etc.
2005/01/uk_new_focus_fo.php
Source: MercuryNews.com
August 30, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/us_newspaper_re.php
UK: Regional paper launches 'fresh' features
to attract new readers
The Huddersfield Daily Examiner is launching some new
features today in order to attract "new younger readers while keeping its existing loyal readership happy", reports
HoldtheFrontpage.
The paper introduced a new 12-page supplement called Fresh. As
the Huddersfield Daily Examiner states, Fresh is "all about going
out and having fun. Each issue will feature a rundown of the latest
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movies, listings for nightclubs, gigs and comedy, an in-depth look
at the local bar, pub and music scenes, plus food and shopping
features." In contrast to the traditional day of Friday for entertainment the supplement will appear every Monday.
Another new feature is the new weekly series "Your Village"
that will run up to next spring. The series is about entertaining stories of the villages around Huddersfield. The paper stated that the
series is a response to feedback from readers who are interested
in local history and nostalgia. In addition, a mini-series about
Huddersfield hangings is planned to appear soon. Loyal readers
will also have the chance to win a BMW.
Source: HoldtheFrontpage
September 05, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/uk_regional_pap_1.php
Germany: Newspaper wins award by
encouraging its community
large-scale project the small newspaper (circulation about 37 000)
was honored with the first prize of the local journalist award of
the foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Editor Rüdiger
Gramsch said: "We wanted to make clear that the people have
no reason to be discouraged. With a huge number of examples we
wanted to encourage our readers and show that it is absolutely
worthwhile to show engagement."
The paper published stories about projects in education, culture,
business and sport. The goal was to show positive examples, especially people who volunteer. The best projects were rewarded.
There were panel discussions organized by the paper as well as
lectures, children's parties, art events and a campaign for more
apprenticeship vacancies. A fair for regional products was initiated
and a children's academy where old people can give their knowledge to the young. And it goes on. The networks construed continue to organize projects. Nearly one year after the end of the campaign, Gramsch notes: "Something has changed in peoples'
mind."
Source: article by journalist Robert Domes, see also www.mirschaffets.de (in German)
September 9, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/germany_newspap_4.php
The small local newsroom of the Neue Württembergische
Zeitung in Göppingen, Germany, in a large-scale campaign has
provided for change of atmosphere in its area. Together with readers a unique project was brought into being to give more courage and self-confidence to the people and to improve their general outlook of the district.
The action under the title "Mir schaffet's" (We can do it) ran for
more than eight months and was not only initiated and organized
by the newspaper, but also accompanied journalistically with more
than 500 articles, special web sites and supplements. For this
Germany: Praise for local journalists
“Local journalists are grassroots workers of democracy." Those
were the words Bernhard Vogel, chairman of the German
foundation Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, used to praise the
profession of local journalists. For 25 years the Adenauer-Stiftung
has been awarding a prize for local journalists. Nowadays the
Local papers can use social media to create a community
Broadcast
Interactive
One-to-many. Value from authoritative and high-quality
content delivered to large audience.
Example: The New York Times
One-to-many & many-to-many. Value from customizable
content for audience and more targeted advertising.
Example: nytimes.com
Publisher
Publisher
Advertisers
Advertisers
Readers/
Commentators
Big
Big
Targeted
Passive Audience
Source: Adopted from a chart by Jim Faris at the
Management Innovation Group (www.mig5.com)
72
Passive Audience
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award is considered the "Oscar of the writing guild" among
German journalists.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary, 450 representatives of newspapers from all over Germany met in Berlin last week, among them
winners of the past 25 years as well as editors-in-chief and publishers. They all appreciated the role of local journalists. Dieter
Golombek, spokesman of the jury, called it "the largest celebration ever given to the German local journalism". Bernhard Vogel
said: "You benefit all of us with your work."
Former Prime Minister Lothar Spaeth appreciated the journalists, saying they helped to connect people with their local community. Spaeth appealed to the local journalists: "Let us try to mobilize citizens and again give them the feeling of being at home."
A symposium titled "The local editor in its best roles" in the academy of the Adenauer-Stiftung Berlin tried to improve self-confidence of local editors and emphasized the importance of the local
newspapers’ work.
Hans Josef Vogel, mayor of German town Arnsberg said: "The
local journalist in its role as moderator, who accompanies the
development and organization of its city, will become ever more
important in the next years." Christoph Stoelzl, vice president
of the Berlin House of Representatives, requested the editors to be
aware of all social incidents and changes in the local community:
"Indifference is the key to disaster. Every action that prevents and
displaces indifference is therefore highly moral and deeply
human."
criminal investigators, they must be writers and translators."
Source: Article by journalist Robert Domes
August 31, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/germany_praise.php
France: daily launches email updates covering
local communities
Journal du Net Solutions reports that the French daily
Ouest-France has launched a new service that will send headlines through emails to its subscribers covering local communities of their choice. The service, initially conceived as a supplement to subscribers interested in local news not covered by their
edition, was available through the paper's website.
At least ten thousand users have subscribed to this service since
its launch at the end of 2004, and the numbers continue to grow.
The new facet of the service that will send the headlines through
emails will be called “en direct de ma commune,” meaning "live
from my community", and will cover 3,500 communities within
the paper’s coverage zone. Ouest-France is the first French daily to
propose such a concept.
Source: JDN Solutions
Also Ernst Elitz, director of Deutschlandradio, a German
public radio station, emphasized the journalist's role as citizen
representative and watchdog of democracy. Elitz is sure that all
social problems can be recognized in local communities. He said:
"Watchdogs must be precise and careful workers as well as good
April 18, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/france_daily_la.php
conversation
Social Media
Many-to-many. Value from creating an infrastructure
for active participation and nurturing trusted communities.
Examples: wikipedia.com & ohmynews.com
Participation
Architect
Advertisers
Co-creators
Passive Audience
Graphic by Shayne
Bowman and Chris
Willlis
73
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4
Page 75
Conclusion
Escaping recession in printed local
news: France, Spain and the UK
by Jean-Pierre Tailleur, journalist and media consultant, France
Sales of all kinds of newspapers, including regionals, are
declining everywhere. Common wisdom in France considers regionals to be in much better shape than nationals,
but yearly circulations continue to fall 1 to 2 percent even
in areas with population growth. This slide has proven to
be inexorable in the United Kingdom too, since the ‘70s. And in Spain, the market
for printed media is more than mature. “Only 41% of the Spaniards older than 13
read a newspaper,” Luis Muñiz, the director of trade magazine Noticias de la
Comunicación, points out. “New projects are limited to a few small towns”.
Across Europe, however, some newspapers are managing to reverse the trend - or
to maintain their constituency at acceptable levels – thanks to innovations in their
content. At the Brittany based Le Télégramme, sales have been growing constantly since 2002, the year it adopted the tabloid format, from around 187,000
to above 194,000. Meanwhile, the huge majority of its peers (including Ouest
France, which competes in common markets) have lost readers with the same
steadiness.
Le Télégramme has shown how the French regional press model – consisting of
numerous non-staff village correspondents feeding local pages - can be complemented by more in-house articles. Olivier Clech, one of the two chief editors of
the western France daily, who also supervises local sections, says, “We intend to
cover ‘terroir´ [countryside] related stories and international issues in a pro-active
way. We report on fires in our neighbourhoods, but also show how a World
Trade Organization summit can affect the Breton sustainable agriculture producers and consumers. Ten years ago, we probably would have just published wire
service notes on the Hong Kong conference [which took place in December
2005].”
From Brittany to Bilbao and Belfast, the key is being local, even with remote events.
“Our agriculture columnist attended the WTO summit. He was at the forefront to
75
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4 conclusion
inform the lentil growers and pork producers who read us about future trends for
their businesses” says Juan Antonio García Iglesias, the deputy director of La
Gaceta regional de Salamanca, echoing Clech’s words. The independently owned
GRS only sells around 15,000 copies on week days, but it has a prominent position
in its region and has not been affected by readership slumps. “We build confidence
by not neglecting petty issues like gossip about celebrities seen in Salamanca, as
well as when publishing tens of pages on a local and deadly train accident, with
background reports based on thorough investigations,” says García.
The importance of community news is recognized by Vocento, the Spanish leader
in regional dailies with 12 from Andalucía to the Basque country. Its newspaper
model, adopted in 2000 and based on market research, emphasizes the community approach. “Our dailies are divided into four 'blocks', local events being first,”
explains Iñigo Barrenechea, the general manager of Bilbao based El Correo,
Vocento’s flagship regional. "We also put them forward in other sections like
sports. The Vizcaya edition, for instance, usually starts with the Atlético of Bilbao
football team." El Correo has an audience of more than 500,000 readers, which
represents two-thirds of its market. Thanks in part to its local twist, which did not
come at the expense of international coverage, the daily has never had so many
readers.
“Personal interest” stories, to which readers easily relate, help to assess any complicated issue. “If we report on the lack of public funds in hospitals, for instance,
we may write on an old lady who has been waiting for a hip replacement for three
years. This story obviously lends itself to pictures,” says Martin Lindsay, the editor of the Belfast Telegraph. The Northern Ireland afternoon broadsheet is one
of the most performing regionals in the UK, with a strong circulation of around
94,000.
The BT also launched a compact morning edition in March 2005, in order to attract
more readers, particularly in rural Ulster, and extend its shelf life in these outlets.
The new format sells 7,000 copies already, and is expected to double, partly due to
readers who migrate from the broadsheet. It has somewhat more lighter material
like showbiz stories which helps in the competition with national morning tabloids
already present in remote areas.
The UK press industry is also keeping a close eye on the Birmingham Mail,
whose current relaunch consists of going "back to basics", to ultra local, and reintroducing new community editions to reverse sales decline. "My gut feeling is it is
a good move when so many news services are available” said Sarah Lagan, a
reporter in charge of regionals at the British trade weekly Press Gazette.
Back in France, the reasons for Le Télégramme‘s good performance are mostly
internal, deriving from long term editorial policies. The local pages of local editions
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have been decentralised from the head office in Morlaix, a small town north of
Brittany. Several staff journalists were already based in other cities, like Lorient or
Saint Brieuc, before that move. But they are now surrounded by the people who
put their pages in place, and being in a tighter group has helped them to push their
own articles. “For two or three years, we have harvested good crops from seeds
sown before turning compact” Clech comments. “A major accident occurring at
9.30 pm is now covered in the following day’s edition by an article, and not just
through a picture with its caption.”
The training program implemented in the past decade at Le Télégramme is another seed. The motto for its staff journalists is “write short but dense”. In some weeklong workshops, “reporters are required to analyse how their articles can be
improved with more sources, more fact checking”, says Gérard Ponthieu, one of
the training consultants. “Lively writing style and human perspective _ like some
American reporters covering the Katrina hurricane in New Orleans _ are also
encouraged.”
What about digital journalism then, in the “back to basics” context? Interviewed
newspaper managers see it more as a complement, as an enhancement, than as a
threat. "We cannot escape from having general news websites, which in turn may
compete with the printed version. But our online editions are focused on hot news,
and we leave the deepest coverage to El Correo's printed copies", Barrenechea
points out.
Jean-Pierre Tailleur is the French-Argentine author of Bévues de presse, an essay on the
information culture in France (Le Félin, Paris, 2002), and has created the concept of
“maljournalisme”. He is a former economic reporter trained in the US, and teaches comparative journalism at Aix-en-Provence Political Science Institute. He also works as a communication consultant (Nahuel Conseil), and as a media correspondent for Francebased monthly newspaper The Connexion.
[email protected]
77
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Página 79
5
News agencies competing
with newspapers
As many newspapers have undergone staff reductions and seen their national and
foreign bureaus diminish over the years, newspapers have been filling their pages
with more wire copy from news agencies. Today, the advent of Internet and mobile
news has only exacerbated the prominence of news agencies and has possibly caused
more problems for newspapers. Instead of having to distribute their content through
newspapers or television stations, news agencies can directly contact the consumer
through new media. And these huge news organizations, ripe with finances, have not
hesitated to find innovative ways of doing so:
News agencies and new media: When it comes to using the Internet and mobile
technology, the Associated Press, Agence France Presse and Reuters have
taken diverging paths. The AP has stayed true to its foundations, giving priority to the
newspapers that compose its cooperative. When clicking on one of the few articles
listed on the homepage of the AP website, the reader is transferred to the page of a
member paper where the article was published. AFP publishes little of its content
online and still depends strongly on traditional business methods. On the other hand,
Reuters posts the majority of its content, including a significant amount of video, for
anyone to view free of charge, bypassing newspapers altogether. Reuters also provides consumers with mobile news alerts and mobile video.
Young reader strategies: There was much abuzz in 2005 about the Associated
Press’ youth initiative called “asap.” Realizing the potential crisis that newspapers
face as younger generations decline to subscribe to newspapers, the AP launched an
online multimedia publication to attract the under 35 crowd to newspapers. About
200 American papers signed up for the service which users can access through those
papers’ websites. The AP also announced in 2005 that as of 2006, it would start
charging its members an additional fee to post its content on their websites.
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News agencies competing
with newspapers
Agencies vs. news aggregators: AFP and AP both raised concerns in 2005 over
the use of their material by the news aggregator GoogleNews and AFP went so far
as to sue, claiming that the aggregator is illegally reproducing AFP material for its
own profit. At the same time, Reuters, AFP and AP all have agreements with Google’s
rival, YahooNews, which allows Yahoo to post their content with its own advertising.
Reinforcing newspaper trend towards local: The role of the newspaper as a
provider of international and national news comes into question because of news
agencies’ online capacity to directly contact the consumer. Conversely, as discussed
in Chapter 4, newspapers can redirect their resources to their immediate communities and use the agency news that best suits their readerships.
-------------------------------A serious question that arose in 2005 was news organizations’ right of free access to
sporting events brought about by FIFA’s restrictions on 2006’s World Cup. Monique
Villa, managing director at Reuters, discusses news organizations struggle in maintaining free access.
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AP and Reuters online: how will they affect
the media world?
News about the Associated Press adding RSS to their website
has caused a minor tremor in the news industry. If news feeds are
now directly available from AP, what effect will this have on the
brands for which they provide content? AP has emphasized that
the company is not trying to launch its own branded news site,
rather that its RSS feeds will link to its members' news sites
through its service called Custom News.
Rafat Ali interviewed Jim Kennedy, VP/Director of Strategic
Planning at AP, who added that soon, clicks on AP's RSS will be
"geo-targeted," meaning that AP's RSS clicks will be directed to
a member relative to the reader's location. Thus, where at first
glance it would appear that AP could possibly be attempting to
detach itself from its members by providing its own branded news
feeds, its RSS strategy will actually result in not only reinforcing
the AP brand, but also the brand of its plethora of members. In
turn, this will also strengthen the relationship between AP and its
members.
SECTION 1: REUTERS’ MULTIMEDIA STRATEGY
Reuters executive: news agencies are not
newspapers’ competitors
With more than 30 years experience at newspapers, newswires
and online media, Dean Wright knows what he’s talking about
when it comes to journalism. From the San Jose Mercury
News to Editor-in-Chief of America’s most popular Internet news
source, MSNBC.com, Wright was hired by Reuters in May
2005 as Managing Editor for Consumer News to develop the
renowned wire agency’s online, consumer television and mobile
technology offerings. In a telephone chat with the Editors
Weblog, Wright discussed the changes the media world is undergoing, news agencies’ new role in directly targeting the consumer
and his vision for the future.
EMBRACING DIGITAL MEDIA
On the other hand, UK based Reuters seems to be taking a different route in the United States by trying to stimulate its online,
mobile and interactive-television businesses. With its internet strategy, which also includes RSS, the famed news company appears
to be separating itself from its traditional role of selling its product
to be published by others.
“The media industry has moved in a big way into the digital world.
All media need to recognize this,” said Wright, briskly painting the
picture for those in the analogue domain. “The media industry
has changed more in the past 8 years than in the previous 80
because of broadband.”
Jon Friedman wrote an article in MarketWatch dominated by
his pessimism of Reuters’ American venture. The article, based on
an interview with Azhar Rafee, the man in charge of boosting
Reuters' American digital business, says that Reuters is not taking
advantage of the innovative capabilities that the web provides
and that if it doesn't somehow distinguish itself, it will never
attract a following in the United States, a country already teeming
with trusted and established news brands. "Reuters.com will have
a hard time sparking interest in American cyber-surfers. Its front
page, while rich in hard-news value, appears to be pretty bland
and somewhat unwieldy... Reuters.com has big goals but for now,
I'd say that it has a long way to go," Friedman explained.
Although certain media companies have different focuses and
others work on different platforms, Wright reassured that at its
base, the media is still “all about the journalism.” However, the
way journalism is produced has changed.
Rafee is a bit more optimistic, noting that Reuters is used by publishers all over the world for its "unbiased voice" and that he hopes
that this reputation will translate into an online business channel.
When Friedman pointed out that this isn't a new marketing idea,
Rafee responded that audiences are now "so fragmented" that it
is "impossible" to please all readers.
THE ADVANTAGES OF NEWSPAPERS
Sources: Susan Mernit's Blog, PaidContent.org, MarketWatch
(registration required), I Want Media
As news is becoming more global, newspapers need to take
advantage of these characteristics. There is plenty of room for all
media in these digital times. A company like Reuters will never
compete for local news and newspapers will have trouble maintaining their foreign bureaus, said Wright.
February 25, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/02/ap_and_reuters.php
Because of the Internet, Wright said that the traditional news cycle
no longer exists; everything is now instantaneous. Most newspapers have realized that they can no longer wait until tomorrow’s
edition to print breaking news. Rather, to remain competitive they
must publish their latest copy on their website. “Newspaper companies will not be able to resist digital media. They need to
embrace it.”
Despite the industry shift to digital Wright, having worked for 25
years in print, said that, “Newspapers have unique gifts.” Their
advantages are that newspapers know their community better
than other media and that no other media has made such huge
investments in local coverage nor news gathering operations.
AGENCY COMPETITION WITH NEWSPAPERS?
In this respect, Wright reassured traditional media that Reuters is
not trying to steal their customers by connecting directly to the
public through its website. “We look at our end-user as the
consumer audience, not the mass audience. Reuters is targeting
people who find news valuable; investors, business professionals,
globally engaged citizens.”
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Chapter 5: News agencies competing with newspapers
Chpt 5
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Page 83
The newswire has not had any resistance from its massive number
of global media clients because of its new “consumer news” website strategy.
In competing in this global market, Wright thinks that newspapers
will start writing more analytical articles. Like pieces will be premium content that consumers will pay for, another advantage that
newspapers have. He feels that breaking news and video will be
free of charge and based on advertising, a model taken from television.
INTERNET COMPANIES AND CITIZEN JOURNALISM
As for the Internet natives such as Google and Yahoo, Wright
does not view them as competitors. On the contrary, he said, “the
more successful search engines are, the more successful we’ll all
be because it will be easier to find news.”
Wright also praised the BBC’s use of citizen material during the
London bombings and said that if traditional media ignore the citizen journalism trend, “We do so at our own peril.” He continued,
“Citizen journalism is having a fundamental impact on the way
we do our jobs. Trust in the media is being tested and bloggers
are holding traditional media to account. We’ve become somewhat elitist. The old broadcast model of telling the world what
news they should pay attention to is obsolete.”
He said that Reuters is currently strategizing as to how to build “a
community of news users where the news user can become your
partner.” He believes that involving citizens is “a great opportunity for our journalism in terms of transparency.”
MULTIMEDIA PARTNERSHIPS
Peering into his crystal ball, Wright envisions a future where there
is no difference between platforms. As examples, he emphasized
that journalists are being trained in multimedia, the New York
Times has integrated its print and online newsrooms and Reuters
is combining images, text and video on its website.
More news corporations will begin to form alliances and partnerships to leverage the platform expertise of other news outlets such
as Reuters is presently doing with the Times of India in launching an English-language television station in India.
But in the end, “It all comes down to storytelling.” Different stories are suitable for different platforms but some stories bring
them all together which Wright feels is where the Internet plays
the biggest role. “That’s the beauty of the digital world.”
October 18, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2005/10/reuters_executive_news
_agencies_are_not_1.php
cies as relevant targets. Now, according to DMeurope.com,
"UK-based international newswire Reuters has expanded its
mobile news service, offering mobile phone users a subscription
service for breaking news alerts, a free WAP site giving access to
the day's news stories, and a 'mobile storefront' offering a selection of Reuters photos as wallpaper.
The breaking news alerts subscription service is available for
2.42 ($2.99) per month for two to three SMS breaking news
alerts per week. The WAP site, accessed on handset browsers by
typing in mobile.reuters.com, allows users to browse for free the
top news stories in five categories - Top News, Sports,
Entertainment, Business and Oddly Enough.
Source: DMeurope.com
August 10, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/reuters_offers.php`
UK: Reuters sends news to mobile phones
Once again skipping the middleman otherwise known as newspapers, Reuters is directly contacting the public through mobile
phone alerts. Offering up to three headlines a day on various
subjects.
The news agency's general manager Tim Faircliff said, "Mobile
phone users are increasingly relying on their handsets for up-tothe-minute news and information when they are on the move.
Reuters can deliver the news as it happens, wherever and whenever, direct to these consumers."
November 25, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/uk_reuters_sends_news_t
o_mobile_phones.php
Reuters breaks into mobile video news
Following up on its Internet video news site launched in the spring
and its news content for mobile phones in the UK and US,
Reuters has joined forces with mobile telecom giant Vodafone to
include video feeds for its mobile customers. For a monthly GBP 3
fee, subscribers receive updated financial market information and
more than 20 video clips per day.
Reuters offers SMS breaking news
alert service
Alisa Bowen, head of Reuters.co.uk, said: "The growth in
downloads of video from our websites, where more than 1m clips
are viewed each month, made it clear just how popular video
news has become. It was an obvious next step to make this available on mobile devices, combining it with the existing financial
data and text services to offer a truly multimedia experience."
News agencies will compete in the future with newspapers, their
former traditional clients. From month to month, it becomes more
obvious that individual news consumers are considered by agen-
Source: Media Bulletin
November 25, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/reuters_breaks.php
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India: Reuters continues to diversify
After launching an online video news service last October, Reuters
has announced that it is partnering with The Times of India in
order to expand its broadcasting capacity. The London-based
organization will takeover 26% of The Times Global
Broadcasting Co. Ltd which has plans to begin a news channel at some point this year. Reuters, which has five offices in India,
will now easily be able to diffuse its news in the populous country. "Working with the Times Group in this way enables us to
enter India's dynamic broadcast industry and reach its rapidly growing, information-hungry audience," said Chris Ahearn, president of Reuters Media. The deal also marks the first attempt by the
Times of India into broadcasting.
the value and enforce the rights of our intellectual property across
the media spectrum."
Another move to ensure the future success of the AP described by
Curley involves a multimedia package designed to attract younger
readers who turn more and more to the Internet for their news.
"As the audience turns to new platforms and adopts new habits,
the news must follow," Curley said.
Source: The Sun-Sentinel
April 19, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/ap_to_charge_me.php
Criticism and suggestions for
the Associated Press
Source: Reuters
April 25, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/india_reuters_c.php
"The Associated Press is planting the seeds of its own
demise," begin Bob Benz and
Mike Phillips, both of the media
company E.W. Scripps. The AP has
announced plans to begin charging
its client to post its news on the
Web. With all of the trends in the
industry pointing towards free
news, this doesn't seem like a viable business plan for many New
Media pundits.
Benz and Phillips suggest that AP
reinvent itself as a co-op, much in
the same way that the music file
sharing program Napster was created to work, resulting in
"Napsterized news." Pointing out
Source: AP
that AP was originally founded as a
AP President and CEO Tom Curley is leading the news agency
cooperative among newspapers, a
in ventures such as “asap”, an interactive youth publication
true return to that status will be
designed to attract young people to newspaper reading
facilitated by the internet. They suggest that a password accessible
network
be
created
among
papers
who would then share news
SECTION 2: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LAUNCHING
according to "karmic balance;" the more news you contribute, the
NEW SERVICES ONLINE
more news you can take out. By continually adding members, the
whole world could eventually be easily covered.
AP to charge media for right to publish
its content online
If the AP doesn't get around to it, the two Scripps employees think
that somebody will and propose to host the first negotiations between organizations.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the
Associated Press will begin to require newspapers and other
media to pay when posting its material online. Up until now, the
more than 15,000 media organizations that buy AP's content
were allowed to place it on their Websites with no extra fees. But
as of January 1, 2006, the AP will be the latest organization to
increase its online revenue.
At the Newspaper Association of America's annual conference, the AP's president and CEO Tom Curley explained "The
need for online licensing is clear. For the Associated Press to
endure during this digital transition, we must be able to preserve
84
May 2, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/criticism_and_s.php
The Associated Press looking to
expand global coverage
Planning to charge American newspapers for using its content
online as of January 2006, the AP is simultaneously undergoing a
restructuring aimed at expanding and improving its global news
Chpt 5
9/03/06
16:06
Page 85
presence. Formed as a means of facilitating news gathering from
abroad for collaborating American newspapers, "AP is not acting
as a cooperative anymore," so says Michael Phillips, editorial
director of E.W. Scripps, a newspaper group.
With upcoming projects such as a multimedia package for young
adults and eAP, an internet database that will allow the AP to
monitor usage of its content, including video and sound clips, it
would appear that Tom Curley, the AP's CEO, plans to establish
the AP as the international news engine via the internet. This project has not come without its difficulties. Major staff changes have
been happening throughout the AP's international bureaus and
many employees have complained of age discrimination when laid
off after years with the organization.
But it doesn't seem that the reformation will be ebbing anytime
soon. Kathleen Carroll, the AP's executive editor said, "We had
a global business that was less strategically focused than we wanted it to be now, more derivative." Asis Martin de Cabiedes,
president of Europa, a family-owned news service, bets his money
on the AP's success saying, "The world is truly global, and that
means having global coverage and mutli-services: audio, text and
video."
Source: International Herald Tribune
June 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/the_associated.php
Associated Press to launch youth service
The New York Times reports that the Associated Press will
begin selling a multimedia package designed for youth to newspapers starting September 19, 2005. More than 100 papers have
already signed up for the service which is called asap, a play on
the English expression, 'as soon as possible' which reflects the
wire service's reputation for diffusing breaking news. A staff of 20
journalists will work on projects that will include text, video, audio
and blogs.
The project breaks new ground for the news cooperative as it tries
to adapt to the habits of younger readers. A.P. President Tom
Curley said, "As the audience turns to new platforms and adopts
new habits, the news must follow."
September 14, 2005
http://wef.blogs.com/editors/2005/09/associated_pres.html
Associated Press youth initiative provides
opportunities for newspapers
American papers are said to have signed up for the service which
will provide updated news, entertainment, lifestyles, sports, and a
money & gadgets section for both online and print editions on a
daily basis. The focus, however, seems to be on the website, as a
promotional video emphasizes that asap's multimedia reports and
interactivity are to be the project's core.
The homepage is decorated with an Associated Press news ticker
under the banner, followed progressively by the site's main feature, exclusive features (such as an AP journalist's bike ride at
President Bush's Texas ranch), advertising and the five abovementioned sections. Browsing the site, one finds fairly short, to the
point articles accompanied by a photo or two and the occasional
multimedia feature such as sound bytes or a quick video.
According to asap's editor, Ted Anthony, these interactive qualities will gradually improve, even integrating a means of allowing
concerned readers' questions to be nationally polled. Anthony said
in his first note to the public (which will eventually morph into a
blog) that asap is looking for a "third route" next to that of the
mainstream media and the blogosphere, "one that blends the
best parts of tradition with the exciting revolution of the past
decade," and one in which stories will be told with audio, video,
and images but that will maintain print as a "powerful tool (that)
should be deployed as assertively and exuberantly as any other
modern media."
Keeping this in mind, here are three problems that newspapers
and asap will have to work out as the project develops:
1. Service subscription: each individual paper that signs up for
the service will pay a fee to AP depending on the circulation of
their paper. It may, however, make more sense for the AP to charge
according to a paper's young readership, with a special emphasis
on online readership since asap seems to be primarily an Internetbased service and will more than likely attract most through the
Web.
2. Newspaper revenues: Not one paper to date plans to charge
readers for asap, which is a good idea because not many 18-34
year-olds pay for news. However, asap provides newspapers with
an alternative source of advertising which could prove profitable
if individual papers launch promotional campaigns for asap in
their area in order to entice potential young readers to buy the
paper or connect to asap through the paper's website.
3. Brand name recognition: Perhaps the biggest problem is
that asap does not yet seem to be able to create further awareness of individual newspapers. As of the time of this posting, AP's
website lists five newspapers that have adopted the service which
when clicked on bring the reader to the same asap homepage. The
only difference is the individual newspaper's name displayed minimally and without even a link to the paper's website within the
larger asap main banner. On the other hand, the service may end
up spreading awareness of the Associated Press among the elusive demographic, once again drawing attention to the idea that
news agencies will increasingly bypass newspapers, interacting
directly with readers through their websites.
Overall, asap has potential for newspapers, but it will take some
hard work and patience for them to capitalize on its advantages.
Aimed at the 70 million Americans between the ages of 18 and
34, asap, the Associated Press' initiative to bring young people
back to newspapers, began on September 19, 2005 with the slogan "Connect with the next news generation." About 200
September 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/associated_pres_2.php
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AP worried that GoogleNews steals revenue
Taking their cue from Agence France Presse, executives at The
Associated Press have become concerned that GoogleNews
and other aggregators are threatening their revenues. AP's website connects readers to its articles in the various journals through
which it distributes its news and begins charging for its stories
after they've been published for a week.
GoogleNews constantly scans 4,500 sources, including AP, and
posts new articles on its own website free of charge.
MarketWatch suggests that the aggregator, which is still in
beta more than a year after going online, has not graduated to
officially launched status and started advertising "because it
fear(s) content sources would complain." Other aggregators, such
as Yahoo News, the US' most popular online news source, sign
agreements with media outlets that allow them to publish these
sources' news along with ads.
AP is presently negotiating a similar agreement with GoogleNews
in which the aggregator would have to buy a license in order to
publish AP material. If this happens, other news organizations may
follow suit which could ultimately change the way in which
GoogleNews works. As the site is becoming increasingly popular
and is in serious competition for its share of the market, this may
not bode well for Google's news venture.
spends almost another $100 million a year on covering other
topics ranging from society and culture to science, nature and
entertainment. Over 5,000 journalists work behind the scenes. The
number of BBC online weekly readers has increased from 1.6 million in 2000 to 7.8 million in 2005.
Essentially, newspapers are having a difficult time matching the
breadth and depth of content found on the BBC sites. While many
newspapers are trying to make up for lost readership in their print
copies by attracting readers online, most visitors only view a few
pages of a particular newspaper before moving on. Consequently,
newspapers are having trouble forming a subscription model for
special content and most of the crucial advertisements end up on
larger sites, such as Google and Yahoo. With reduced traffic
due to the BBC sites, newspapers are less successful in attracting
readers to their personal finance and classified pages.
The Guardian and the Financial Times are starting to make
some profits online, but most newspapers are still struggling in the
Internet domain. One problem may be that newspapers underestimate the importance of moving pictures and graphics. The BBC
is starting to link its pages to other news organizations. But newspapers can now clearly identify the competition presented by the
strong finances, technological advancements, and personnel
enjoyed by the BBC.
Source: The Economist
June 21, 2005
Furthermore, if Yahoo's recent dabblings in RSS described by
Mark Glaser on Online Journalism Review, ultimately
aimed to provide "personalized news" to all of its readers, succeeds, Google will have to further diversify its news, something
that could prove difficult without licenses and advertising.
Sources: MarketWatch, Los Angeles Times, Online Journalism
Review
April 12, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/ap_worried_that.php
CONCLUSION
Although not a news agency, the British Broadcasting
Company is recognized as being the large news organization
that has learned how to use the Internet to its, and its audience’s
advantage - sometimes at the expense of newspapers.
BBC online presents tough competition
for newspapers
The Economist published an interesting article touching on the
increasing competition between newspapers and Britain’s popular
public-service broadcast, the BBC. BBC’s great success can largely
be attributed to its former director-general John Birt, who
understood the power of the Internet long before others in the
British media caught on.
Today, the BBC has over 525 sites, spends $27 million a year on
its news website, and receives over $5 billion in public subsidy. It
86
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/bbc_online_pres.php
UK: BBC's plans - a threat to
the regional press?
The Newspaper Society has warned that the BBC's planned
expansion into regional and local media is a threat for the regional press. According to HoldtheFrontPage, plans by the BBC
"to invest in an expansion of its 'Where I Live' websites and in
highly localised TV" are being criticized. The Newspaper Society
has delivered a 63-page report to the government explaining "the
potentially damaging impact of the BBC's 'ultra-local' ambitions
on an evolving UK regional press and puts forward recommendations for safeguarding long-term plurality in local news and information service provision."
"The BBC is increasingly targeting local and regional audiences. It
is using public funding to leverage its scale and to create a network of screen-based local newspapers," said David Newell,
director of the Newspaper Society. He continues: "For the BBC to
replicate the print and online content of regional and local newspapers is an unjustified use of licence fee money. It unfairly distorts local media markets to the public detriment." As stated by
the Media Bulletin the BBC’s standpoint is: “We have noted
concerns about the potential market impact of such services, and
the pilot (West Midlands) will enable us to measure the public
value created and the impact on other potential providers.”
Sources: HoldtheFrontPage, The Newspaper Society, Media
Bulletin
July 19, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/uk_bbcs_plans_a.php
Chpt 5 conc
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5
Page 87
Conclusion
News agencies protecting
sports coverage
By Monique Villa
Managing Director, Reuters Media
2006 is set to be an important year for sports coverage. It is
the year in which two of the world’s biggest sporting event,
the Football World Cup and the Winter Olympics, take place.
It is also a year in which we see no sign of a decrease in the
attempt to restrict news access to these and many other
events.
This is an issue for all of us. Sport is one of the most popular, closely followed areas
of news and our ability to continue reporting it on behalf of our readers is critical.
Our experiences over the last few years make it clear that the more united we are
as an industry on this, the stronger we are in dealing with this type of threat.
There is no doubt that the power of sports associations and sports celebrities is on
the rise and some are trying to increase control over their image and data rights.
Attempts to influence how we, the media, cover certain stories are nothing new. It
is part of our work as journalists to resist pressures from those seeking to further
their own interests. But what makes sports different is that special interests are
gaining ground.
In essence, the value of sport news is being relegated in favour of its potential as
entertainment. It is my strongly held opinion that sports must be treated as any
other area of news. We would never allow a politician or government to choose
which bits of a debate or speech we can cover, how long our articles can be, or
how many pictures should accompany the story. Why should we accept this
approach in sport?
To illustrate the issues here, let’s look at some examples.
Football is an important sport for many of our readers around the world. It is also
becoming an incredibly lucrative marketing opportunity. Over recent years we have
seen leagues around the world seek to maximise their commercial value by freezing out news organisations in favour of rights deals with sponsors.
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5 conclusion
Perhaps the most extreme example of this involved Premier League in the UK
last year. The League tried to limit the ability of news organisations to cover games
by banning the publication of any stories, photos or scores until the end of the
match.
Additionally, we were supposed to wait for two hours after the end of the game to
disseminate our pictures. Instead real time coverage would be available exclusively
on mobile phones through a commercial deal with one of the major networks.
This in effect makes news coverage impossible and news agencies redundant. These
restrictions would mean that pictures would not get to newspapers in Asia and the
Middle East in time for their deadlines. The result would be very damaging for clubs,
bodies and their sponsors. Manchester United, who has 45 million fans in
China would not be able to see news from the game.
It also discriminates against those news organisations that choose to use the
Internet or mobile phones as their delivery medium. News is news, however it is
delivered.
The restrictions were also a fundamental constraint on our ability to report. Our
right to access and cover events in real time is key to the freedom of the press. The
news value is in real time and I can’t imagine news agencies transforming into a
bunch of archivists.
along with AP and other international news agencies created AINA and
fought this move. We were united, but newspapers, which had parallel discussions,
also helped our cause. In direct response to the League’s proposals, at the FA Cup
Final there was an incredibly low use of pictures which showed the sponsor (O2)
brand. Papers choose photos where the brand was obscured or printed text over
the logos. This was a warning signal to the League. Later that year the papers
responded again by dropping the name of the sponsors in the text and choosing
pictures where the logos were minimal.
Reuters
It took many months, and has been a bit of a fight, but I am glad to say we won –
for now. However this problem has by no means gone away. In a similar case in
Germany, the Bundesliga was successful in applying these restrictions, and other
leagues are moving in this direction. We remain concerned about how rights and
access will be managed at the forthcoming World Cup.
It is not just pictures that are coming under increasing control. We have also seen
attempts to restrict access to data such as fixtures listings.
In 2002, a body producing fixtures and data for the football industry claimed it
owned the copyright on this information and as such, anyone wanting to use it
would need to pay a licence to do so. This information is a list of all matches in
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alphabetical or chronological form. We did not accept their claim for copyright and
fought this proposal.
At that time, this whole area was being tested in the courts through a number of
other cases. I am glad to say that after a long and protracted legal debate we had
a definitive decision on this from the European Court of Justice who vindicated our
position and held that there was no database right in fixtures data.
Any suggestion that this basic information should be exclusively licensed and sold
is dangerous.
If we allow bodies to do this, we can be sure that many other items of information
we need to cover sports will go the same way.
I think all of these examples highlight that the battle between commercial interests
and news in the sports world is very real.
Whilst we have made some progress, this issue has not and will not go away. As
sponsors and sports associations look to find new commercial opportunities from
the growing online and mobile audiences, there will be a greater pressure on
restricting the use of content.
So how do we as an industry deal with this?
I think we need to begin by agreeing and restating some principles about media
coverage of sport: We would not allow censorship or control in any other areas of
news – it is also unacceptable in sport. As journalists we have a fundamental duty
to inform. To be able to do this we must retain our right to cover sports news, in
real time, across a range of platforms and without restrictions.
Sport is more than entertainment. There is an intrinsic news value which needs to
be recognised by all of the players – media and sports industry. This doesn’t have
to be a bar to new commercial opportunities that the clubs and their partners want
to pursue, but the basic right to report must remain.
Sporting bodies and their partners need to understand that news organisations can
be their allies not their enemies - by reaching millions of readers we provide valuable exposure for the sports industry and their sponsors. Seeking to limit news coverage is likely to damage the profile and interest in key sports.
And we all need to be prepared to defend our rights – if we do not it will be incredibly hard to protect our right to report.
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5 conclusion
Monique Villa heads up Reuters text, pictures and graphics services and is Chairman of
Action Images, a specialist sports photography agency acquired by Reuters in September
2005.
A French national, Monique joined Reuters in 2000, from Agence France Presse (AFP)
where she held a number of senior journalistic and management positions. As a correspondent with AFP she reported from Paris and Rome, became Deputy Head of its political
news service, then Bureau Chief for UK and Ireland, based in London. In 1996, she became
Director of Strategy and Business Development at the headquarters in Paris, with responsibility for AFP’s major partnerships worldwide.
Monique has studied Law and Political Science. She has a Diploma from the Paris Centre
de Formation Des Journalistes.
www.reuters.com/pictures
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Página 91
6
Internet companies
competing with newspapers
Most newspapers may have launched their own websites over a decade ago and several have been very successful in attracting readers. But the fact remains that, in the
words of Rupert Murdoch, newspapers are still “digital immigrants.” It is widely
agreed that the Internet poses a more direct and intense media threat to newspapers
than either radio or television have in past decades. And “digital native” companies,
with the technical savvy and online innovations, are quickly proving this threat to be
true:
Search, aggregation, Internet domination? “You don’t exist unless you’re on
Google,” has become a common cry among the search engine’s billions of users. To
the chagrin of newspapers, they may be right. Most Internet users looking for news
stop first at Google, type in a keyword or two and immediately have links to thousands of sources putting newspapers in direct competition with all of them. But
search isn’t the only way that Google is affecting newspapers. The Internet giant also
has a significant hold on online advertising, has enhanced online reporting with
GoogleMaps, and contributes to or competes with newspapers, depending on
point of view, with its aggregator GoogleNews and email alert service,
GoogleAlerts.
Original content: The world’s most popular web portal, Yahoo!, is much more
than just a search engine and is now widely recognized as a “media company.” Apart
from owning the US’ most popular news site, YahooNews, in 2005, Yahoo took its
first steps into original content hiring a war reporter, travel journalist and 9 financial
columnists, placing it in competition with news organizations around the world.
Online classifieds: The rapidly growing international free classified advertising site,
Craigslist, has drained millions from newspaper classified advertising revenues and
has radically altered a market that was newspapers’ bread and butter for decades.
Worse still, the Craigslist trend is not expected to reverse itself.
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Internet companies
competing with newspapers
Everyone is an editor: The newspaper industry is still in the process of figuring out
Wikis, a technology that allows any online guest to contribute to and edit a text. It
is thought that wikis could facilitate the editorial process by having reporters post
their articles-in-progress on a wiki for their editors to verify. On the contrary, the free
online encyclopedia Wikipedia combined with Wikinews, compete with newspapers on breaking news, archives and the nearly 30 million daily visitors that Wikipedia
reaches.
Partnerships with newspapers? There has been speculation that these “digital
natives” will eventually be looking to employ the journalistic expertise of newspapers
through partnerships, or possible buyouts of newspaper publishers, in order to add
quality original content to their repertoire. Similarly, newspapers could partner with
search engines to prioritize their publications, thus maximizing online traffic.
------------------------------In the conclusion to this chapter, Rich Skrenta, CEO of news aggregator Topix.net,
gives advice on how newspapers can develop their websites, increase loyal readership and profit from their online businesses.
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European Publishers Council: Google cannot
keep poaching our content
just providing the road to get there. The basic idea is "more is
beautiful," said Bharat, because even if you don't agree with what
you are reading, at least you get to see all the different points of
view.
The head of The European Publishers Council (EPC)
Francisco Pinto Balsameo has commented that the business
model used by internet search engines such as Google "reverse
the traditional permission-based copyright model of content trading that we have built up over the years."
Bharat said "diversity of opinions is educational, and essential for
democracy" because "understanding where other people stand
brings communities closer."
Balsameo added that "It is fascinating to see how these companies 'help themselves' to copyright-protected material, build up
their own business models around what they have collected, and
parasitically, earn advertising revenue off the back of other people's content."
Helena Spongenberg of the Associated Press points out that
although Google relies on advertising for its revenue, Google
News does not actually display ads. In which case, is Balsameo's
above criticism really fair when directed at Google?
Steve Langdon of Google responded to the accusations with the
following comments: "Search engines do not reproduce content.
They help users find content by pointing to where it exists on the
Web." But he made it clear that, "Google removes Web sites from
its news index if a publisher doesn't want the content listed."
Balsameo's position supports that of AFP, which is suing Google,
for at least 17.5 million dollars in damages, claiming "Google
News ... infringes on AFP's copyrights by reproducing information
from the Web sites of (its) subscribers."
Source: Yahoo News
December 7, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/european_publishers_cou
ncil_google_canno.php
SECTION 1. THE MANY FACES OF GOOGLE
How Google News changed the world
Krishna Bharat, founder of Google News, explained his news
aggregator and its relationship with newspapers to delegates at
the 12th World Editors Forum.
Although he is a computer scientist by trade, Bharat invented a
news tool that has revolutionized the way the world reads news.
His Google News tool is based on the basic principles of the
Google portal itself. One of the most important principles of that
dynamic involves getting people to where they want to go as fast
as they can. With news, that means Google provides, "fast access
to multiple perspectives,” links to nearly every news subject on a
single topic in one place, saving people the time and effort of finding it themselves.
The key to this process is the idea of providing that service in an
unbiased manner. Google is not interested in owning the content,
94
Chapter 6: Internet companies competing with newspapers
Bharat explained how his system is highly dependent on several
factors, including the editorial interest, who published it, its originality (whether it's a wire report or original reporting), etc. The
process involves news crawling, story clustering, story ranking,
and news classification.
The first internal Google News demo appeared in Dec 2001. It
used only 100 sources. Today, it has customizable features and
aggregates news from 4,500 sources.
The relationship between the news community and GoogleNews,
according to Bharat, is “symbiotic.” It’s a source of traffic, sending
readers towards different web sites and stories. “Clustering
encourages readers to read more news."
May 30, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/how_google_news.php
Google’s effects on newspapers
A phenomenon that is becoming impossible to live without,
Google has facilitated the rapid expansion of the Internet in ways
no other digital entity could ever dream. With features such as
AdWords and GoogleNews, its Internet penetration, already
profound, looks only to be growing deeper. So what does Google's
Internet universality mean for your newspaper?
Search Engine Market
Shares, 2005
Source: Nielsen NetRatings
Others
Ask 6%
5%
MSN
13%
Yahoo
23%
Google
54%
Chpt 6
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Page 95
US: News sites playing with Google Maps
Advertising: Google's AdSense is already at the point of overtaking all traditional media ad revenues and is sure to increase
with features such as graphics and animated features. Another
highlight of Google's ads is that they shun traditional packaged
one-price ad models by charging per click and/or impression.
US local sites are beginning to experiment with Google Maps.
New York State local newspaper Record Online, for example,
began to accompany its articles with Google maps. While reading
the article readers can see the location of the story on maps or
satellite images. Newspapers are thereby taking advantage of
Google in contrast to usual complaints that Google News and
Google Ads threaten newspapers.
Poynter predicts that although publishers (most of which have
adopted Google's simple ad plan), may not want to include such
ads on their sites, the fear of losing revenue will ultimately
convince them that such ads are necessary. Evoking the Trojan
Horse comparison, Poynter wonders what Google's next move is,
seeing as "Publishers have let AdSense inside the gates."
Readership: Although GoogleNews still lags behind competing
news sources and aggregators, its links to newspapers' online
articles is good publicity for papers. Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine
media pundit, points out that "Without GoogleNews, (all media)
would get less traffic." Others have gone so far as to say that refusing GoogleNews from posting your articles is suicide.
August 17, 2005
Search: What about your journalists? According to an article on
U-DailyBulletin, it's safe to say that much of their research is
fueled by Google. "It's difficult to imagine how journalists, students, or anyone functioned pre-search engines." The amount of
"googlers" worldwide may eventually replace the verb "to
search" in every language with the verb "to Google."
Google launches Blog Search
http://wef.blogs.com/editors/2005/08/us_news_sites_p.html
Yet another tool from Google: now the internet giant has launched a blog search feature called Google Blog Search. The
goal of Google Blog search is to include every blog that publishes
feeds via RSS or Atom. "The tool is designed to find blogs posted
in multiple languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese,
French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, among
others", reports ZDNet. Google's blog search will be a competitor to existing blog search tools like Technorati.
Your business: Watch out! An article in the Los Angeles
Times predicts that soon Google will be interested in buying your
newspaper "in order to differentiate itself by offering high-quality,
proprietary news." Somewhat humorously, the Times notes that
the market value of Dow Jones is a steal at under $ 3 billion, a
number by which "Google's value often fluctuates... in one day of
trading." But that's just humor. Isn't it?
Source: Google Blog Search, ZDNet
September 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/google_launches_2.php
Sources: Poynter, BuzzMachine, U-Daily Bulletin, Los Angeles
Times
April 28, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/04/how_google_is_a.php
10 biggest Internet
sites, 2005 (millions of visitors)
Internet advertising in
the US ($ billions)
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
188
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau/PriceWaterhouse Coopers
12
184
167
9.6
164
Search engine advertising
107
7.3
107
8.2
7.1
69
56
6.0
54
36
4.6
40%
40%
Microsoft
Google
eBay
MSN
Yahoo!
Apple
Amazon
AOL
Real
MapQuest
0%
1999
1%
2000
4%
2001
15%
2002
35%
2003
2004
2005
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Google WiFi as threat to local newspapers?
After Google announced its bid to provide free WiFi in San
Francisco, there has been some discussion about what that means
to telecom firms and Internet service providers. That Google's
move could actually be a threat to local newspapers is an interesting perspective raised by Preston Gralla, former editor-in-chief
of a local newspaper chain.
Jim Townsed, editorial director at Classified Intelligence, said
that "making classified ads available through an organic Google
search would definitely change the game." He stated that there
are two schools of thought, the first thinking that search could
provide additional distribution of the ad, the other thinking that
such a search possibility will destroy the pricing model employed
by online and print classified publishers. "Just as Craigslist had a
lot to do with killing the paid real estate listings, the more you give
away for free, the harder it is to place a high value on it", he said.
He writes, "the key to local newspapers' survival is their ability to
get money from small local advertisers... Local classified ads are a
sizable source of revenue as well ... Papers get those ads because
the papers cover local news, and so attract local readers.
Advertisers don't have to spend money trying to reach people who
can't buy their goods.
PaidContent cites John Zappe from Classified Intelligence:
"Commercial classifieds sites such as CareerBuilder, Cars.com
and others have to weigh the additional audience Google could
deliver against the potential loss of revenue. Analysts, including
us, predict that advertisers will move to free sites if they become
convinced that they will reach an audience as large - or larger - on
a search engine than on a paid advertising site."
But Google's WiFi service can make that kind of local targeting
look crude. It will be able to deliver ads literally on a block-byblock basis... It could deliver localized classified ads, as well, which
are the financial mainstay of many
local papers."
Townsend suggests "that the online classifieds industry will move
from a pay-for-listing model to a pay-for-performance one", whereby search engines could become
their friends.
Also a comment piece on
MarketWatch says, "Google's
grand ambition to get San
Franciscans onto the Internet for
free - as altruistic as it sounds - is
really about targeted advertisements." But the comment piece
states as well that Google's bid is
not a major threat, because firstly
the deal is not yet approved,
secondly Google is just testing
such a service for the moment and
thirdly targeted ads could also
prove useful.
Source: Internetnews.com,
PaidContent, News.com
September 29, 2005
2005/09/google_to_shake.php
Google: the new threat
to newspaper
classifieds
Adding to previous rumors there is
Still, for local newspapers, which
Internet giant Yahoo! dove into original content in 2005, sendare already fighting with decreaing photojournalist Kevin Sites to cover the world's war zones
more speculation circulating about
ses in readership and advertising,
a new product from Google, calcompetition from Google in the
led
Google
Base,
that
could
have a further negative impact on
local advertising business would more than likely be a big chalclassified
advertising.
lenge.
Sources: networkingpipeline, MarketWatch
October 05, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/10/google_wifi_as.php
Google to shake up online classified market?
Internetnews.com reports that Google plans to add classified
ads to its index. The article cites a report from research firm
Classified Intelligence, which says that Google has asked classified advertising sites, including CareerBuilder and Adicio, for
a direct feed of listings, that would facilitate the listing of classified ads for the search engine.
96
The online free classified 'community' Craigslist has already had
a significant impact on newspapers multi-billion dollar classifieds
market, Google Base, described as "a database into which you
can add all types of content... and make it searchable online for
free," claims to be much more than a classified site.
But the fact that individuals will be able to describe in detail what
they are selling, placing it in a database with the power of
Google's other products such as search and global map, could
have even more serious implications for newspaper classified
revenue.
Sources: Poynter, Business Week, Editor and Publisher
October 27, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/10/google_the_new_threat_t
o_newspaper_class.php
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Yahoo! invading the world of journalism
2) YAHOO TRIES JOURNALISM
Newspapers now to compete with a pure
internet player
Yahoo has hired veteran television war reporter Kevin Sites to
report on wars around the world, wrote The New York Times.
Sites has worked as correspondent and producer for CNN and
NBC. He is known for a videotape of a marine shooting and killing an Iraqi prisoner, who appeared to be unarmed, in a mosque
in Falluja last year.
Over the course of one year, starting on September 26, Sites plans
to visit every war or conflict zone, as defined by the London-based
International Institute for Strategic Studies and some criteria by Yahoo. That list is likely to consist of 36 countries or so.
The special multimedia website "Kevin Sites in the Hot
Zone" will feature 600 to 800-word dispatches and slide shows
every day. The site will also include narrated audio travelogues, a
message board and regular online chats with Kevin Sites. "There
will be several forms of video - relatively unedited footage posted
several times a week, and once a week, a more traditional video
report, edited in the style of a network news broadcast", states
The New York Times.
The Kevin Sites program could be a way to attract young people
and will therefore put pressure on newspapers as well. With Yahoo
entering the area of original content, newspapers are facing competition from a pure internet player. "If programs such as Sites' are
compelling, they will hasten the public's shift toward the interactivity of the Web and away from more passive traditional sources
of information and entertainment, such as TV, magazines and
(here we are again) this newspaper" states the editorial of the
Los Angeles Times.
However, the journalistic quality of the program seems questionable. The "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone" site, themed "One Man. A
World of Conflict." and with a banner saying "Coming late
September" looks more like an advertisement for a new action
movie than the announcement of high quality journalism. The
site's goal is to "not chase headlines nor adhere to pack journalism but vigorously pursue the stories in front of and behind the
conflict, the small stories that when strung together illustrate a
more complete picture." It seems, however, impossible to tell all
those stories behind the conflicts when trying to cover all of the
world's war zones within one year.
Sources: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian
September 13, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/newspapers_now.php
PaidContent reports about two other projects apart from the
“Hot Zone” that show Yahoo moving even further into original
content.
The first news is that Yahoo has hired nine popular authors to
write financial columns on Yahoo Finance and has plans to hire
30 in total. Scott Moore, vice president of content operations
for the Yahoo Media Group, said in the Wall Street
Journal, "It's about a deeper engagement with our core
audience, and about attracting key demographics that we know
are attractive to our advertisers." He added that one of the goals
is to attract more women in their 30s and 40s who are interested
in personal finance. Columnists are slated to write one to two articles per month and will be considered freelancers. The Wall Street
Journal also states that "for the venture, Yahoo tapped authors of
business books, rather than plucking business columnists from
newspapers and wire services, which might have caused friction
with some of its news partners."
The second news is that the financial columns will not be the end
of Yahoo's move into original content, but that there will be more
and more original content. As the New York Times reports,
"sitcoms, dramas, talk shows, even a short daily humorous take on
the news much like Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" are in the
works." Several new programs are planned to launch this year, like
a series of celebrity blogs dealing with cancer called "Blog for
Hope" and an adventure travel program. The New York Times states that Terry Semmel, CEO of Yahoo and former co-head of
Warner Brothers, "wants Yahoo to be seen as more akin to
Warner's parent, Time Warner, which mixes content like Warner
and CNN with distribution, like its cable systems. Yahoo is both of
those and a lot of software, too."
Source: PaidContent, Wall Street Journal, New York Times
September 26, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/pure_internet_p.php
How successful is Yahoo's original
news initiative?
AdAge reports that Yahoo's foray into original content news
production has had a 'slow start'; traffic is low.
The Yahoo initiative began when Lloyd Braun, former head of
ABC Television, was hired to bring his creative expertise to the
Yahoo operation.
Braun launched the original content initiative on Yahoo News,
which has a number of different features, including dispatches
form a foreign correspondent/blogger, an adventure travel feature,
content from blog groups Gawker and HuffingtonPost.com,
as well as original content from well known financial columnists
on Yahoo Finance.
Yahoo's foreign correspondent Kevin Sites of Kevin Sites in
the Hot Zone is the poster child for Yahoo's 'next generation'
services, but his reports, viewed by only 1 million users, are not
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getting enough traffic. Sites reports on the conditions in countries
afflicted by war and poverty; advertisers often feel it is risky to associate their brands with such content. Media analyst Barry Parr
says: “You really can't do news without upsetting advertisers."
Craigslist is just the beginning of newspapers'
technological torment
The adventure travel reports, put together by Richard Bang and
called Richard Bang's Adventures have had traffic numbers
too low for Nielsen/Ratings to count.
"I think the publishers are making efforts to shift their business
models, and they recognize that the Internet is more and more
important. The challenge is to get paid for it." This quote from
media analyst Jim Goss about the effects of the free-classifieds
website Craigslist, sums up the newspaper industry's woes in
adjusting to the Web.
Let's not forget that despite these teething problems with the new
content, Yahoo News still has 25 million viewers per month.
Furthermore, "analysts agreed the content is innovative." As
Sarah Kim of VP-media states: "It delivers what the Web is
supposed to -- an in-the-minute, unedited type of feel."
Source: AdAge
December 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/how_successful_is_yahoo
s_original_news_i.php
3) CRAIGLIST AND WIKIS: CLASSIFIED MENACE
AND COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
Craigslist: the scourge of newspaper
classifieds
If you've read articles about a man named Craig and his free
online classifieds, you've probably noticed Craig's smiling face in
the accompanying photo. Well, Craig has a lot to smile about. He
now has classified sites in almost every major US city and in about
100 cities around the world.
Newspaper execs hate this guy. And for good reason. According to
a London consulting firm, in its relatively short existence,
Craigslist has "destroyed" approximately 75% of US newspaper
classified pricing, rates on which just last year newspapers depended on for over 35% of their revenue. Another study shows that
Craigslist has already cut into $50 million of San Francisco Bay
newspaper classifieds.
Danny Meadows-Klue in the UK's The Guardian writes, “The
list is not bad news; it's terrible news. The business model cuts at
the heart of newspaper profitability and does so with such elegance, and is so intrinsically orientated to the new economy, that
you can't help but shrug and say 'this is the future.” Some newspapers have begun fighting back with services such as Click-NBuy Classifieds which helps newspapers add sound and images
to the classified ads originating from their print versions that they
place on their website. But the fact that Craigslist is free for the
individual consumer, user-friendly and has a loyal community
behind it means it will be difficult for newspapers to compete.
Sources: Media Guardian, New York Metro, Washington Times
July 27, 2005
Newspapers, used to high profit margins and local monopolies,
are being attacked on all fronts by technology. Craigslist's free
advertising has already ravaged newspaper classified revenues to
the tune of 75% by some estimates. Worse still, it doesn't appear
that newspapers will ever be able to regain that income which
makes up 35-40% of American paper advertising revenue.
Some publishers have begun to adopt strategies that echo the
Craigslist model such as Knight Ridder which now offers readers free classified ads on the majority of its papers' websites and
the San Diego Union Tribune which affords individuals selling
items for less than USD 5,000 three lines in the printed paper free
of charge. Other papers have signed on to a program called Clickn-Buy Classifieds that enables newspapers to establish online
ads with photos and sound on their websites.
But Rick Summers, technology analyst, warns newspapers that
it is still "too early to say that Craigslist is the model to be emulated or that it's really the clear winner." However, in almost the
same breath he says "When things are free, it's hard to provide
someone with an incentive to switch."
Thus, Craig may have hit the bulls-eye after all and newspapers, if
they are to remain in the classified business, will have to follow suit.
Sources: SmartMoney, Cyberjournalist, MediaCafe (in French)
September 9, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/craigslist_is_j.php
Online classified advertising skyrocketing
Mediapost reports that a Pew Internet and American Life
Project survey shows that September's use of online classified
advertising was up 80% year-on-year. Craigslist claimed 8.8 million visitors, a 156% boost from last year. With more consumers
becoming accustomed to the Internet, free online classifieds will
only cut further into newspaper revenues.
Source: MediaPost
November 28, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/online_advertising_skyrocketing.php
How Wikipedia's rising recognition may affect
newspapers
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/craigslist_the.php
The popular Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, easily holds the
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distinction of top reference site on the Web with double the traffic of Dictionary.com. In fact, it is so popular that its growth
rate, 154% in 2004 according to Reuters, means that it could
soon surpass the New York Times and other news sites in terms of
page hits. This statistic could have some interesting consequences
for the future of newspapers.
The essence of a Wiki is that it is an organic webpage that anyone
can edit which results in a 'neutral point of view' article. When
"Wikipedians," as contributors are dubbed, post their paragraphs,
the information must come from a legitimate source; no original
material or personal opinion is allowed.
But as recognition of the site grows, Wikipedia is increasingly referenced for breaking news, not just general background information, even more than its own news offshoot, WikiNews. Articles
are often posted immediately, as an event unfolds, as opposed to
a traditional encyclopedia whose articles are purely retrospect.
For instance, in April Wikipedia had the same percentage of people browsing for info on Pope
Benedict as did CNN.com. The
difference with Wikipedia is that as
time passes, more people contribute to an entry that was once
breaking news, adding new information and deleting or clarifying
that which was disproved, producing well-rounded encyclopedic
entries.
The good news for newspapers in
all this is that much of what is posted is simply a mix of regurgitated
content from various newspapers
joined together into one article. In
this respect, the existence of newspapers and their journalism are not
at all threatened by Wikipedia. Its
collaborative wealth of information
as well as other online sources
could, however, be used by newspapers for the benefit of the reader.
they crossed an obscure reference, would search for background,
link it with the article and place it in the database for future reference. It could work in reverse as well: journalists could consult the
link editor for quick background on a story idea. Such a position
in a newsroom could result in more informed, fulfilled and happier
readers, indeed the type of reader that returns to read your newspaper the following day.
Source: Reuters
September 9, 2005
2005/09/how_wikipedias.php
Free everything!: the Wikimedia philosophy
You're not going to like this, but your readers might.
According to Wikipedia founder
Jimmy Wales' keynote speech at
the
First
International
Wikimania conference, the ethos
of the rapidly growing Wiki community is 'free.' Wales listed ten challenges for the 'free culture movement' from 'Free the encyclopedia'
to 'Free the TV listings.' Although
he did not list 'Free the news' as
one of the ten points, Wikinews,
launched last December, combined
with the free encyclopedia,
Wikipedia, have immediate consequences for newspapers currently
revamping their business models to
deal with the digital era.
Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist and Jimmy Wales,
founder of Wikipedia: newspapers' new challengers
When writing a story, journalists could link to a Wikipedia entry or
other reference to provide background information for the reader.
Some newspapers such as the Economist, who have detailed
explanations of situations in their own database, place links to
this info next to their articles to give the reader a foundation for
the article they are reading. But few actually link to other sources.
Adding such background links may be beneficial in holding younger readers’ attention. Young readers who pick up a newspaper
probably encounter stories with decades of history behind them
for the first time and could become frustrated because they don’t
understand the context. But if there were links to background
information integrated in the article, the young reader will not
only be able to understand the gist of the story, but also may
develop an interest in it and begin to follow it daily in the newspaper.
Keeping this in mind, the future newsroom may have an additional employee: a “link editor.” The bearer of this responsibility
would be charged with reading drafts of articles before they are
published, adding any relevant links to names, places, events, etc.,
in the text. The link editor would work from a database and if ever
Wikinews still does not pose a
serious threat to newspaper organizations as many of the articles
posted are summaries of what Wiki contributors read in newspapers. But such Wiki projects have the potential to infringe on a disputed aspect of newspaper websites; archives.
Many papers have been toying with charging for their online
archives and developing different packages to offer to their readers. Wikis could theoretically render these projects null and void
even before they get off the ground as Wiki articles, comprehensive collective intelligence accounts of world facts and occurrences, include various opinions, both sides of a story taken from different journals, and even many quotes found in newspaper articles... for free, forever.
The permanence of Wikis as well as blogs should make newspapers reconsider charging readers for their archives. They may be
better off adapting a method of topic-specific, time relevant
advertising that would appear on an archived article page.
August 5, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/free_everything.php
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Conclusion
Managing Online for Growth
By Rich Skrenta
CEO and co-founder of Topix.net
News companies are wrestling with the challenge of how
to profit from their online readers. Business management
of the print product is well understood, having been honed
over decades of profitable operation, but the emerging
dynamics of online content distribution and advertising are
confusing. What should newspapers do to best take advantage of online growth
opportunities?
Our team at Topix.net has met with many individuals across the news industry,
and we've had the opportunity to study what's happening with the online news
business both from the perspective of partners with the industry, as well by learning directly from our own efforts online.
What we've found gives us a lot of optimism about the news business online.
Consumers love to read news, they read a lot of it, and it's extraordinarily hard to
produce. Yahoo has a massive audience but has just gotten around to hiring their
first journalist. News is far from a commodity. The top 5 US/World headlines are
widely circulated, but the thousands of daily stories of local or topic relevance that
are written each day represent considerable value. News needs to be made fresh
daily, by a sophisticated organization full of well-trained and experienced staff.
The challenge, however, is that news consumption is moving from print to online,
but a reader in the print product is currently worth far more than an online reader. News companies have wisely tried to follow their audience online, but are obviously concerned when revenue drops after the shift online.
News sites must focus on three goals to achieve online success:
1. acquiring fresh traffic
2. converting trial visitors into repeat users
3. making as much money as possible from every impression.
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6 conclusion
These goals mirror the goals of most online businesses, including retailers such as
Amazon.com. For the new industry, the products on the shelves are not books or
other items to be shipped by UPS, but news stories.
Increasing Online Audience
It seems obvious to say that a website wants traffic, especially if the site is advertiser supported. But we find many news sites discouraging fresh user traffic with
registration gates, not organizing their websites to receive as much search engine
traffic as they could, and not publishing RSS feeds to capture online repeat users.
Existing online readers are the newspaper's best customers. They're likely familiar
with the brand and have a loyalty to the existing website. But to realize online
audience growth, new visitors must be gained. Google is the leading referrer of
fresh visitors on the Internet. For most websites on the net, most of their potential
users start their online session on Google's homepage.
The first step to gaining audience is to make sure your content can be found by
users looking for it. Ask yourself what search phrases users on Google might be
using if they were looking for your content, but didn't know where to find it. Does
your content show up on these searches? Making published content appropriately discoverable in search engines is essential to competing online.
Newspapers actually pay writers to eat in restaurants, and publish the results. Yet
in an analysis we did for a partner newspaper, we found none of their restaurant
reviews appeared for any of the local restaurants we searched for in their major
markets.
Similarly, newspapers actually pay writers to watch movies. Yet again, we when
searched on Google for various movie titles, newspaper content was nowhere to be
found. Newspapers have great content, content users want to be able to find. But
it's essential to focus on making this content discoverable by online users who may
not yet be familiar with your brand. If a potential visitors starts at Google and is
specifically seeking content that your site can provide, make sure they can find it.
This is your best source of potential new readers online.
Traffic acquisition should be a goal even for news sites available only to paid subscribers. Those subscribers have to come from somewhere (and lost ones need to
be replaced). Subscribers come from converted leads, and online web traffic represents leads. Consider putting teaser content outside the subscription wall, to
catch potential trial visitors. Focus on the upsell to the subscription product once
they're on site.
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Growing Online Audience with RSS Syndication
Once trial visitors have been attracted to the website, it's essential to convert them
to returning visitors. Perhaps the user will be so impressed with the content that
they'll remember the site URL. Or maybe they'll add it to their web browser's bookmarks. Acquiring repeat audience in this way is generally difficult.
In the past a potent method of driving return visits was to capture a trial user's
email address, and periodically send them a newsletter which encourage return visits to the website. The newsletter itself was often part of the monetization platform.
Email newsletters have some troublesome issues. As many as half never reach their
intended recipients because of spam filters. Users are often reluctant to give their
email address, and their mailboxes are already overflowing.
RSS feeds are rapidly replacing e-mail lists as a reliable method of delivering regular published content to subscribers. Unlike email lists, which clutter mailboxes and
have difficulty getting past spam filters, RSS feeds are a convenient means for users
to subscribe to content. Offering a means to subscribe to RSS content is a great
way to turn a "hit and run" search engine referred hit into a repeat visitor. Because
RSS feeds are automatically delivered to users, they represent more reliable readership than user bookmarks.
Beyond offering a means to drive return traffic to the website via RSS subscriptions,
the RSS feeds themselves represent measurable and monetizable audience. Many
company are developing audience tracking and advertising platforms for RSS,
including Yahoo, Google, and a number of startups, notably including
Feedburner.
Profit from Every Impression
The final essential step to healthy online growth is to pay careful attention to profiting from every online impression received. Like the best online retailers, paying
close attention to metrics and performing A/B testing to increase performance can
drive substantial increases in online revenue for news sites.
The key metric which tracks online revenue performance is the average revenue the
next 1,000 visitors will generate ("average incremental RPM"). In other words, if
Google were to your site an extra 1,000 hits today, how much more would your
site earn? This is an essential metric to track, and is the foundation for many other
revenue statistics, such as lifetime value per trial visitor.
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6 conclusion
This is not simply the rate card price of the site inventory. If unsold impressions are
being delivered, or sold impressions have been exhausted and run-of-site inventory is being shown, this will pull down the average.
Don't dismiss the value of "out of market" hits. Out-of-market traffic often represents 50% of more of trial visitors to a newspaper website, and may represent former or future residents of your locality, or readers with a topical interest in your
content as opposed to a local affinity (say a follower of a local sports team). Just
because they visitors are not reached by your local sales
force doesn't mean they are worthless; many advertising systems exist which can
deliver targeted online advertising appropriate to these visitors.
Conclusion
News sites must think more like online retailers to profit on the web. Traffic acquisition, monetization, and conversion to repeat visitors are essential to drive online
growth and profit. But they don't by themselves just happen because you have
great content.
Rich Skrenta is CEO and co-founder of Topix.net, an online news aggregator which classifies news by subject and location. Gannett, Tribune and Knight Ridder made a joint 75%
investment in Topix in March 2005. Before Topix, Rich held a variety of senior roles at
Netscape/America Online. He is also co-founder and CEO of NewHoo/The Open
Directory Project, the largest human-edited directory of the web. Prior to that, Rich led
an engineering group at Sun Microsystems implementing network security and encryption products. Rich also operated a successful small online gaming company from 19942001. Rich has a BA from Northwestern University.
http://www.skrenta.com
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7
Broadband and multimedia
transforming newspaper
journalism
In the mid-1990’s, at the dawn of the Internet and newspaper websites, the computer screen was seen merely as another platform on which newspapers could publish
articles. Plain web pages that downloaded in minutes or even hours did not threaten
to change the profession of journalism. But the second phase in the evolution of the
World Wide Web, fueled by high-speed broadband connections, is having revolutionary effects. Features once reserved for other platforms, such as audio and video, are
converging and readers are demanding much more from their online news experience, demands to which newspaper journalism is rushing to adapt:
Print and online as one: In tying to keep up with the new habits of their readers,
several newsrooms, most notably at the New York Times, began the process of
merging their print and online operations in 2005, a process which has proven difficult for newspaper journalists. Online journalism entails the use of features to which
print journalists are not accustomed: audio, video, animation, etc. To accommodate
today’s reader, journalists have to be trained in all platforms and must work in teams
to produce a complete journalistic package combining multimedia and investigative
texts.
Partnerships across platforms: As broadband penetration spreads around the
globe, online video streaming is becoming more common and newspapers are beginning to include it on their websites. Because video is not a newspaper’s specialty but
consumers now expect it, newspapers will likely establish partnerships with video
content producers.
Adopting the audio fad: “Podcast,” a downloadable audio file, wasn’t 2005’s
word of the year for no reason. Many newspapers quickly began to experiment with
the popular trend, having journalists record readings of their articles for readers to listen to on their portable MP3 players. It has also been suggested that podcasting
could enhance journalism; for example, journalists could post audio recordings of
interviews for readers to download.
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Broadband and multimedia
transforming newspaper
journalism
Mobile content for money: Newspapers have found a new market in sending
news to mobile devices. In an age when consumers find much information for free,
newspaper strategists laud mobile news because it can be monetized through subscription services. It is even thought that newspapers could attract younger readers
through mobile, as one Norwegian paper tried by releasing an edition for
PlayStation Portable, a handheld video game device.
The importance of headlines: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is becoming
increasingly popular with news consumers. The technology, which allows readers to
quickly scan headlines and abstracts of articles, has been proclaimed to increase loyalty to papers but has not yet proved to be profitable in itself. Headline feeds are subscribed to for free and can be chosen by topic, contributing to “personalized news.”
-----------------------------Experienced newspaper designer and technology buff, Robb Montgomery, formerly of the Chicago Sun-Times puts the world of multimedia newspapers in perspective and provides some ideas for adapting in the conclusion to this chapter.
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Guidelines for multimedia news features
German researcher and journalist Peter Schumacher outlines
the five principles of multimedia web projects at Online
Journalism Review. Schumacher critiques examples of multimedia in several papers during last winter's tsunami coverage, dissecting the problems with each and explaining how to improve
upon them. The five principles:
1. Avoid an information overload
2. Have users' expectations concerning interaction functionality in
mind
3. Be careful using animation
4. Let users fully control the interaction
5. Involve users in testing your graphics
Overall a useful tool for those looking to implement multimedia on
their website.
September 16, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/guidelines_for_1.php
Multimedia's effects on newspapers
Podcasting: Audio versions of newspaper articles? What is this
integrated media world coming too? Podcasting allows consumers
to download audio files and listen to them on their MP3 Players
as they go about their daily routine. A few American papers, including the Denver Post and Philadelphia Inquirer, have jumped on the bandwagon, essentially having a staff member read an
article into a voice recorder that is easily transferred to the Net.
Newspapers may be wise to start investing in podcasting, especially noting the ubiquity of MP3 players among youth who,
contrary to popular belief, are still interested in what's going on in
the world.
Cluttered media, cluttered minds: So what are the implications of these digital innovations for print? Well, people actually
seem to pay much more attention to dead-tree content than to
their visual and audio counterparts. A 'Simultaneous Media
Survey' conducted by BIGresearch showed that only about 40%
of people multitask while reading a newspaper or magazine whereas up to 70% of people use multiple forms of media while watching TV, surfing the Net or listening to the radio.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that print is about to make a
comeback. Young people are especially prone to multitasking,
habits that they will more than likely carry with them throughout
their lives. Seeing as youth have recently developed an aversion to
print, newspapers should definitely find ways to distribute their
quality content over various channels, expanding their brand
name and catching the young while they're, well, young.
Sources: PaidContent, cnnb.com, The Guardian, Frank Barnako's
MarketWatch e-Newsletter, Mediapost
July 07, 2005
So many outlets, so little time. Today's consumers are barraged by
an unprecedented range of multimedia devices that are rapidly
transforming the entire media landscape. What are the consequences for newspapers?
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/update_multimed.php
Mobile: Already popping up around the globe, mobile news services are due to pass the USD 9 billion mark in 2006 according to
Rafat Ali at PaidContent. The latest development comes from
China, whose Ningbo Daily Newspaper Group launched a
'colorful' mobile phone newspaper with additional image, video
and audio capabilities. The UK's Guardian Unlimited has also
announced a campaign to promote an interactive mobile crossword game, moving the traditional print game to digital.
SECTION 1: WHAT MULTIMEDIA MEANS FOR
NEWSPAPERS
RSS: Forget trying to find out how newspapers can add advertisements to their RSS feeds; the advertisers have already got you
beat! Frank Barnako's MarketWatch e-Newsletter describes
some companies' efforts to bypass the middleman and peddle
their wares directly to the public via product specific feeds. An idea
originally proposed by the recognized founder of RSS, Dave Winer,
companies such as Continental Airlines and American
Express have launched their own RSS feeds, alerting consumers
to special deals.
This is a potential nightmare for all large media companies. All
advertising money could essentially fly right out the window if
advertisers are able to successfully connect to consumers through
RSS. And as newspapers, which provide static ads that are not
even assured of influencing readers, continually raise their advertising fees, RSS will undoubtedly become an increasingly appealing publicity source.
108
New York Times merges online and
print newsroom
In a memo, posted on Romanesko, the New York Times tells
its staff that "one of the biggest long-term challenges facing our
craft is to invent a digital journalism and new services for our readers that both live up to our high standards and help carry the
cost of a great news-gathering organization. We have concluded
that our best chance of meeting that challenge is to integrate the
two newsrooms into one. This will enable us to fully tap the creative energy of this organization and thus raise digital journalism to
the next level." After ten years of separation, although there was
always cooperation, the paper feels that the world has changed
and the paper should so too.
The physical merger will take place when the New York Times
moves to its new headquarters in 2007, but side-by-side cooperation and integration will begin before that. According to
PaidContent "the print newsroom is being told they are now
the editors for all the news, not just the print edition. Not sure yet
Chapter 7: Broadband and multimedia transforming newspaper journalism
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what that means for their counterparts on the web side - or for
readers." As stated by Wall Street Journal "no staff reductions
are planned as part of the integration."
Senior VP of digital media at NYT Martin Nisenholtz sees the
eventual inclusion of 30 to 40 daily multimedia reports on his
paper's website: "(NYT multimedia is) still baby steps, but it's a
hell of a lot more robust than even two years ago. Our multimedia now is embedded into the rhythm of the way we produce the
Web site, and all of that is done in collaboration with the newsroom."
"It's inevitable, I think, that over time, more and more people are
going to gravitate to the Web. For a decade, our school systems
have been training the youth to go to a keyboard to get information. That's only going to grow," says John Morton, a Silver
Spring consultant experienced with news-industry analysis, in the
Washington Post. The Washington Post itself has no plans to
combine its print and online newsroom, but stresses that the
constant collaboration between the two newsrooms is working
well.
Sources: Romanesko (Poynter), PaidContent, Editor & Publisher,
Washington Post , Wall Street Journal
August 03, 2005
US: Sacramento Bee sets example for
multimedia investigative reporting
exemplifies how newspaper journalism is transforming online and
indeed, how it might be "saved".
The report is presented as a sort of mini-documentary. There is a
general introduction to the whole piece which is then divided into
three sections. Each section has its own multimedia introduction
including audio, video and images.
The articles for each section are accompanied by photography slideshows, numerous infographics and related documents including
scanned primary documents and interviews with subjects of the
stories.
At the bottom of each page, readers are allowed to respond or
write a letter to the editor via email. The journalists' email and
phone number are also given.
Although it is notable that reader comments can be read by other
readers, the fact that comments must be sent by email shows that
newspapers are still getting used to the aspect of direct reader
interaction online. Large news organizations have reputations to
protect and must remain decent, something very difficult to do if
comments are open to readers like on a blog.
Overall, the stories themselves read very much like any investigative article. But the addition of these features adds a dimension
that print can't, suggesting that the Sacramento Bee grasps the
idea of online journalism, and the possible future of journalism,
more than most newspapers. Leonard Witt's plea is already being
answered.
Sources: PJNet, Bayosphere, Sacramento Bee
November 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/can_journalism_be_saved.php
Among all the talk of falling circulations and fleeing advertisers, it
seems as if there is no good news for the newspaper business. But
what of its core function; journalism?
Leonard Witt at Public Journalism Network pleads for
"academics, critics, the industry, journalists and citizens all to start
producing ideas for the future of journalism that will guarantee its
rightful place in a functioning democracy."
UK: Regional newspaper sites taking
advantage of broadband age
Witt refers to the We Media and Participatory Journalism movements, which some think are meant to "save journalism," asking
why don't we use this "collective action to ensure we have quality journalism as the digital dynamics change its delivery systems?"
The news agency Press Association (PA) and Northcliffe
Electronic Publishing (NEP), the Internet division of publisher
Northcliffe Newspaper Group, announced a deal on video
news bulletins. PA will deliver video news bulletins to 28 local
information sites published by the NEP on behalf of Northcliffe's
regional titles, reports Journalism.co.uk.
Some have said that these evolving media themselves will be the
savior of journalism. But Dan Gillmor, author of "We the
Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the
People," argues that society still needs Big Media to finance the
dirty work.
He points to one piece of investigative journalism in particular, a
multimedia compilation by the Sacramento Bee about immigrant forest workers, lauding it as demonstrating "the kind of
commitment that we continue to need in a world where news
companies, under the gun from investors who think journalism is
like any other product, have been abandoning their ambition at a
depressing pace."
The reporting Gillmor refers to is not only a fascinating piece, but
The 28 websites, which include thisisleicestershire.co.uk, Website
of the Leicester Mercury, thisisessex.com, website of Essex
Chronicle and Gazette, etc., now provide 90-second video bulletins on international and national news, sport and entertainment. The bulletins are updated throughout the day and can be
viewed with the Windows Media Player. Through the move, the
newspaper sites are taking advantage of the possibilities offered
through broadband, to which more and more people have access.
Asha Oberoi, multimedia head at PA, said on
Journalism.co.uk, "We are delighted to be working with a
regional newspaper group at a time when the impact of broadband Internet on newspaper publishers is growing ... Over time
we hope to develop the service with more regional content and
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work with NEP to incorporate locally generated video material
into the multimedia products."
SECTION 2: NEWSPAPERS WARMING UP TO
VIDEO AND PODCASTING
October 12, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2004/07/news_websites_p.php
India: Indiatimes embracing broadband
As exchange4media reports, Indiatimes, the flagship brand
of Times Internet Ltd, the digital venture of media company
Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd, will 'broadband-enable' its
entire library of content. Sanjay Trehan, Head, Broadband, Times
Internet Ltd, said on exchange4media: “Indiatimes will move from
linear textual format to multi-media format and all our offerings,
viz, content, e-commerce, community will now become broadbandenabled... We are aiming to be a
multi-media content aggregator,
where we will be forging alliances
with players in national and international arena. The objective will
be to get rich media content on a
revenue sharing basis." Names of
those players were not revealed.
Online video becoming increasingly important
for newspapers
Three news organizations are expanding their online video offerings, showing the growing importance of online multimedia to
which newspapers need to adapt.
The Washington Post has launched video podcasting for use
with the recently released video i-Pods. Users will have access to
news and documentary video from Washingtonpost.com and
can subscribe to a "News and Documentary Video" RSS feed.
The BBC has built on its RSS service for text content and the BBC
News Player by offering feeds to
audio and video reports, including
breaking news pictures, interviews,
and analysis. The service will also
enable website owners to integrate
BBC News video and audio into
their own sites via RSS.
The Associated Press will be
joining forces with Microsoft to
launch an online video service to
be used by its members. AP will
provide 50 clips a day covering
technology to international news.
The service plans to grow as members contribute their own video
with which they can sell their own
advertising.
The change is planned to take
place in three phases. The first
phase, to be completed in
November, will consist of broadband-enabling all content proWith a standard video camera, laptop and a map, the 3ducts and community. As
minute daily independent vlog Rocketboom is widely popuThe push into online video by agenexchange4media states "in phase
lar
with
the
public
and
increasingly
with
advertisers
cies is already exhibited by
one itself, Indiatimes will also be
Reuters which posts numerous
launching a host of new products,
daily videos on its website and
like interactive media player,
even
distributes
video
feeds
on
mobile devices.
broadband tabloid, video blogs (v-blogs), mobile blogs (moblogs)
and video-on-demand. “The broadband tabloid will have digitaliNews agencies using video also demonstrates the trend towards
sed model portfolios, glamour, fashion shows, crime and sports in
their increasing influence over newspapers. Although the
an audiovisual format,” Trehan said." The second phase, scheduWashington Post is including video podcasts on its website, most
led in April 2006, will focus on e-commerce and the third phase,
newspapers do not have the resources to actually produce such
mid-2006, is planned to see the launch of IP TV and perhaps "a
material.
wiki-like solution customised to the Indian content."
Source: exchange4media
August 25, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/india_indiatime.php
But with rising consumer demand for online video and other digital innovations, newspapers will have to include multimedia on
their websites in order to furnish their readers with the whole
online news experience. Since they don't have the capacity to produce their own video content, partnerships are likely.
Sources: Cyberjournalist (Washington Post), Digital Media
Europe (BBC), Paid Content (AP)
November 9, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/online_video_becoming_i
ncreasingly_impor.php
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Vlogs: the continued evolution of blogs
If the future of the newspaper is in jeopardy because of the blogosphere, video logs, or vlogs, could be their visual equivalent.
Vlogs are the next step in citizens' journalism that may eventually
bring down national network news and programming, so Jeff
Jarvis postulates on Buzzmachine.
In his continued coverage of "exploding TV," Jarvis cites an article
by Chris Anderson, Wired editor-in-chief on The Long Tail,
which predicts (and seems to be in favor of) the end of broadcast
journalism as we know it thanks to new video technology. Jarvis
emphasizes that cheap equipment and easy-to-use technology are
making it possible for anyone to create credible video. The combination of Bandwith, BitTorrent, RSS and Broadband are making
distribution of this video simple. And, as witnessed with the tsunami disaster, blogs are making it easy to search the video.
With all of this power in the hands of the public, Jarvis has a
strong conviction that network television will soon be outdated,
as anyone will be able to create their own program for everyone
to see online without time restraints, complicated contracts, and
advertising.
Source: Buzzmachine with links to new vlog sites, Vloggercon
and RocketBoom
January 13, 2005
stories about an event -- say a hurricane -- and one has links to
video clips, but the other doesn't, I'm going to want to see the
article that lets me expand the experience of the story.
3. Will the convergence of newspapers with broadcast
media be sped up by Internet news video?
I don't think media is converging actually, we're seeing more and
more outlets for information, new publishers and new kinds of
publishing are springing up every day. The number of producers of
content is exploding, not contracting.
4. Does all this mean that the future newspaper editor
will also have to be trained in video editing?
The newspaper editor currently works with a lot of different folks
-- infographic designers, photo editors, graphic layout experts. A
film director works with a whole team of people to put together a
movie. They don't need to know how to develop film to do that.
May 20, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/rich_skrenta_ce.php
Animation software's role on
newspaper websites
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/01/vlogs_the_conti.php
Rich Skrenta, CEO and founder of Topix.net
chats about the future of Internet video
If you hadn't noticed, more and more videos seem to be popping
up on the World Wide Web, adding to the richness of the medium.
News aggregator Topix.net added Reuters video streams to its
list of sources, expanding its news gathering capabilities. The
Editors Weblog conducted an email interview with Topix.net CEO
and founder Rich Skrenta to find out where Internet video is
going.
1. How important do you think video feeds will be to the
future of Internet news?
Video content on television is obviously hugely popular with
consumers. The Internet is primarily a text and static image
medium today, but as the technology allows more users access to
video it will become an essential part of the package. What's exciting is that the Internet can merge the benefits of a detailed written report from a newspaper with the richness of a video report
from television, all in a single package.
2. Do you predict that many news organizations will
begin to include more video in their feeds in order to
compete? Is this the end of television?
I'm not getting rid of my television. :-) Or radio or newspaper for
that matter. I think adding video content to online news is an
opportunity for growth and differentiation. If there are two similar
An article on Online Journalism Review explores the pros and
cons of Flash and describes the place Flash journalism has. Flash
is an animation software by Macromedia for developing interactive graphics, games, video, etc. for websites.
The article cites José Márquez, producer at KQED Interactive,
San Francisco, who uses online animations to explain political
issues. He said about Flash that “It absolutely taps into what a
computer can do that TV, the radio and newspapers can’t do:
Allow the user to determine what they’re interested in, as well as
to place them within the polemic of the story ... The things we get
the most traffic out of is when the users get to decide what they’re
going to see ... You can’t do that on TV. You can’t do it in print.
Online is the only place where you can redefine how stories are
told." Márquez also said that this does certainly not mean that he
is doing investigative journalism, "But I am taking facts - often
very dry facts and statistics - and trying to turn those into a story
that will motivate people to take action or to learn more."
Juan Thomassie, senior designer at USAToday.com said,
"Animation has become part of the way we tell stories online. It’s
an option we use to give more credibility and reality to the piece
... We’re always thinking about making the story animated if we
can, and more interesting to the readers. I think it has changed the
way we tell stories dramatically. You can’t just copy a news graphic and paste it on the Web page and expect it to engage the
reader.”
However, some people think that Flash is not the perfect tool for
everything. Adrian Holovaty, editor at Washintonpost.com, said
that Flash is not an ideal partner for databases in the case that
readers might want to link to a specific part of a package. He said,
“Flash is good for things such as video that can’t be broken down
into nuggets of information. But otherwise, information should be
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broken down ...Linking is pretty fundamental. Every piece of information should be linkable ... Flash is certainly appropriate in some
cases, but my opinion is that if a small news organization is going
to invest resources in the Web, it ought to invest more into databases and making data ‘smart’ than into one-off Flash projects."
September 26, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/animation_softw.php
UK: Hull newspaper provides online video
news reports
and Forbes have started podcasts with varying degrees of programming.
Some podcasts merely summarize the day’s news, while others
produce a more radio-style broadcast with interviews from reporters. Podcasts are different from audio and video reports because
they are meant to be downloaded and played at a later time and
are not streamed over the Internet.
Some publications may have jumped on the podcast bandwagon
after feeling behind for not embracing weblogs quickly enough.
But it is still very unclear as to whether podcasts will help newspapers attract more readers. To date, most of the podcast broadcasters have little broadcasting experience and podcasting
audiences remain small.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
May 17, 2005
The Hull Daily Mail has begun offering video reports of local
news on its website following the completion of a diploma in
video journalism by eight of its journalists.
Paul Hartley, assistant editor at the paper, said the following
about the new project: "We are currently looking at developing
our multi-media skills in the newsroom and are experimenting
with putting videos of local news stories on our website."
David Dunkley Gyimah, director of the diploma course spoke
positively about the experience of teaching the Hull Daily Mail
staff the skills of video journalism: "This first batch of print journalists have shown that it's a big leap from literal to visual storytelling but it will work."
Dunkley Gyimah asserts that if local papers with online editions
capitalise on video reporting online they can put themselves in an
even better position than television broadcasters in terms of
attracting viewers. He says: "Most broadcasters use some form of
wire copy for their pieces, but local newspapers are often the primary source of stories. So if those reporters can take a camera and
get the story ahead of the broadcasters it puts them in a very
strong position."
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/us_papers_try_p.php
US: more newspapers embracing podcasting
An American television station's website reveals that more and
more newspapers are using podcasting as a means of attracting
younger readers, or in this case, listeners. Since it has been found
that most 18 to 34 year olds don't buy the paper, publishers
throughout the country have been looking for ways to reel them
in. Considering the ubiquity of MP3 players among this age group,
podcasting seemed like a logical step. As the podcasting trend
proliferates, newspapers that jump on the bandwagon may find
that they catch some future loyal readers.
Source: WishTV
September 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/us_more_newspap.php
November 24, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/uk_hull_new
spaper_provides_online_video.php
US: Papers try podcasting to attract
readers/listeners
According to The Wall Street Journal, many US newspapers
and magazines have started to add podcasts to their online versions. Through podcasts, amateur broadcasters can read highlights
from print versions and create audio files that are then posted on
newspapers’ Web sites. Interested users can then use special software to listen to automated podcasts through the musical mp3
player, Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod. Newspapers and magazines including The Denver Post, The Seattle PostIntelligencer, Philadelphia Daily News, Washington Post
112
Germany: podcaster's popularity has lessons
for old media
"Beware: tomorrow's stars are no longer necessarily interested in
yesterday's media." This warning from media pundit Jeff Jarvis
comes after a chat he had with a young German journalist who
has rapidly gained recognition, but not for work in print, television
or radio. Larissa Vassilian is the brain behind the popular podcast, Schlaflos in Munchen (Sleepless in Munich).
Vassilian produces a 5-minute recap of her life and muses thereof
including reviews of movies, books, etc. through another podcast
called Filme und So (Movies and Stuff). She does so all from the
comfort of home with very minimal overhead - only about $100
for technical equipment and $10 a month for an Internet
connection.
With this small investment, Vassilian attracts 5-16 thousand people and is one of the top 10 downloaded German podcasts. Jarvis
Chpt 7
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says her story demonstrates the danger posed to old media by like
ventures; "it's hard for talent to rise and survive in your institutions. But on the internet, with her podcasts and thousands of
faithful fans, Vassilian has the freedom to be herself."
bill, customers will now be able to use their 3G mobile phones to
scan about 20 Canal Plus channels. Subscribers are expected to
use the new technology whenever they have a spare minute,
mostly during their daily commute and in between meetings.
Although she has a solid following, podcasting doesn't pay... yet.
Vassilian continues her work as a journalist to survive but if she
had her way, she'd make her living online. With more people turning to the Internet and more journalists like Vassilian going it
solo online, functioning business models are certain to emerge.
Old media has to adapt.
So how will newspapers be affected?
Well, think about it.
What do people traditionally do on the train in between home and
work?
Answer: read their city newspaper.
November 28, 2005
How has this already changed?
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/11/germany_podcasters_pop
ularity_has_lesson.php
Answer: just look at the myriad of Mp3 players that have commuters tapping their feet, not to mention the explosion of free
papers such as Metro and 20 Minutes.
How is this going to change again?
Podcasting craze
hits China
All over China people are uploading audio material to podcasting
sites to share their personal experiences. One
of these sites,
Wangyou.com, broadcasts the
uploaded material daily on 16
regional radio stations in half an
hour segments called Wangyou
Happy Hour.
Buddy Ye, CEO of Wangyou, says
podcasting is a way for people to
share their lives: "By working in
conjunction with traditional media
such as television, radio and newspapers, we hope to help people
broadcast and share their lives."
Source: United Press International
Answer: Instead of tuning into
their iPod, closing their eyes and
tuning out of the sardine-packed
metro, commuters will, sooner
rather than later, be plugging their
earphones into their Nokia (who
estimated global mobile phone
penetration at 3 billion by 2010),
and staring at their mobile screen
watching whatever they'd like,
from breaking news to sitcoms to
sporting events.
We have heard much about the
opportunities mobile phones provide to newspapers through subscriptions to periodic text alerts
Apple’s i-pod MP3 players and iTunes music downloading
which in turn could connect to an
service launched an audio revolutin that newspapers are raparticle. But does 3G television techSource: apple.com
idly adopting
nology render this nascent innovation already obsolete? Will consumers ultimately vie for video over text? There's certainly a high
possibility.
November 25, 2005
news/archives.php
SECTION 3: MOBILE: NEWS ANYTIME,
ANYWHERE
What mobile television means for newspapers
So how can newspapers adjust? One could argue that the fiveminute segments pumped out on the nightly news would be a
perfect fit. Maybe, but many consumers used to quality newspaper journalism find this type of news too shallow for their liking.
Thus, newspapers should begin to train their own journalists in
multimedia production and converge with television companies
and mobile providers to produce commuter briefings that entice
watchers to become readers, linking them to the print article that
could feasibly be sitting on their desk, or their desktop, when they
arrive at the office.
Sources: International Herald Tribune, India Daily
June 29, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/what_mobile_tel.php
The French television group, Canal Plus, a division of Vivendi
Universal, has struck a deal with SFR, a leading French mobile
phone provider, according to the International Herald
Tribune. For a 7 euro a month charge tacked on to their cellular
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The growing reach of mobile audio and video
Norwegian state broadcaster NRK has teamed up with mobile
phone producer Ericsson to launch the world's first experiment
with interactive television on mobile phones.
analysis and the service will be updated every 15 minutes.
IHT.com's editor and director, Meredith Artley said "It is essential to allow our users to access the IHT's broader perspective
whenever and wherever they are." Formats of the mobile news
will vary according to the portable phone of the reader.
Source: Publicitas
Mobile phone users can download a program that allows them to
watch and interact with the youth music program "Visj". Users
can vote for music videos and chat with program leaders and
other viewers while watching "Visj".
September 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/international_h_1.php
Mobile media as new competition for newspapers?
Apart from being another form of media eating up potential readers' time, mobile television and news delivery present newspapers with business competition as well. Chances are that most
content distributed by such devices will be entertainment, leaving
a small space for news. Considering the speed at which the world
of new media is developing, this small space may already be filled.
News agencies are well adapted to mobile diffusion. New media
companies like Yahoo have an even bigger advantage in that
they boast a combination of breaking news, streaming video and
original content that they continue to develop. What steps the
newspaper industry takes now, will determine how they compete
with these companies in the future.
China: mobile newspapers catching on
According to China Knowledge Press, the Hangzhou Daily
Press Group now has over 10,000 subscribers to its mobile
phone newspaper service launched in January. The group's main
competitor in the region has begun a similar service but is reporting losses. HDPG's service allows subscribers who pay between
RMB 5 and RMB 25 per month to scan 20 to 30 100-200 word
stories a day through SMS text messaging.
Source: China Knowledge Press
August 02, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/china_mobile_ne_1.php
Sources: Washingtonpost.com, Reuters
December 5, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/the_growing_reach_of_m
obile_audio_and_vi.php
Norway: Newspaper offers Playstation
Portable edition
The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet (circulation about
183,000) offers their online edition in a format for Playstation
Portable (PSP), reports Kotaku. Dagbladet's website is one of
the biggest news sites in Norway. The PSP version, which launched
some weeks ago, is an interesting new way to attract young readers.
Source: Kotaku
September 7, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/norway_newspape.php
International Herald Tribune adapts its
webpage to mobile
SECTION 4: RSS REINFORCES NEWSPAPER
CONTENT
RSS provokes readers to visit more news sites
Cyberjournalist picked up on a study by the Nielsen rating
agency that found that RSS users frequent news websites three
times as much as non-users: 10.6 news sites to 3.4. "Convenience
is the primary reason respondents gave for using RSS feeds," said
Jon Gibs, senior research manager at Nielsen/NetRatings.
Extract from press release:
"Not only do RSS users visit more news Web sites than non-users,
they also visit those sites more frequently. RSS users visited the
top 20 news Web sites nearly three times as often as non-users
and all other news Web sites four times as often. This means that
sites outside of the top 20 properties may be among the greatest
beneficiaries of RSS.
September 22, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/rss_provokes_re.php
Publicitas reports that the International Herald Tribune has
launched a version of its website for mobile phones. Subscribers
will be able to download the full texts of top news, features and
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RSS is a great way to attract
permanent subscribers
Rich Skrenta CEO and founder of Topix.net lauded the numerous options that RSS provides for newspapers at the 58th annual
World Newspaper Conference and the 12th World
Editors Forum.
Noting the local advantage that newspapers have, not just for
local news, but because they are normally printed and delivered
locally, Skrenta began his speech by highlighting the delivery costs
saved by papers’ online versions. The benefits of this saved revenue are extended to the fact that:
1. an online presence can extend a papers reach beyond its community.
2. it can provide numerous options such as classified searches for
the community.
RSS is the necessary tool to aggregate all of a paper’s content into
a searchable and topic specific engine that creates a bond with
the reader, helping to make trail subscribers permanent, encouraging them to continue coming back to the same paper’s site.
RSS changes the dynamic of online news because instead of the
reader going to a newspaper’s site or an online aggregator like
Google, the newspaper goes to the reader.
Skrenta eased some financial concerns that editors have about
using RSS feeds by showing that RSS feeds drive traffic back to a
website, thus satisfying advertisers. Although the technology is
still evolving, ads can also be inserted into RSS feeds. Skrenta
reassured his listeners by pointing out that Internet advertising
had the same problem in 1995, but that it eventually succeeded
and is now the fastest growing type of advertising in the world,
predicting that RSS will follow a similar pattern.
May 31, 2005
The Los Angeles Times has been more stubborn. It has not left its
regular feeds on its website during the test meaning that it has
essentially hidden itself from RSS users. If the paper hasn't opened
up its RSS feeds to the world during a test, it is doubtful that it
would do so after the branded reader, supposedly a tool for
increasing consumer loyalty, is officially launched.
Is this the right business move? Loyal LAT readers may feel inclined to subscribe for the branded software. But someone on the
other side of the country who may appreciate LAT's excellent journalism but isn't necessarily loyal, will probably not download
NewsPoint and will miss many stories, conversely lowering LAT's
site traffic.
Newspapers should thusly keep their RSS feeds open to everyone,
always.
In related news, Jeff Jarvis reports that the next phase of RSS,
called SSE for Simple Sharing Extensions, has been
announced.
Instead of a newspaper or other website sending feeds unilaterally
to users' desktops, SSE is a two-way feed.
This has implications for newsrooms. Reporters could use such a
tool on their story blog in order to keep their editors updated as
to their findings and editors' comments could be shot back to
reporters the same way. This would avoid sending separate emails
for each development.
Source: Buzzmachine
December 1, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/rss_teething_problems_co
uld_hurt_online.php
CONCLUSION: IS THE NEW “PRINT”
ELECTRONIC?
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/rich_skrenta_rs.php
RSS teething problems could hurt online
newspaper readership
After many months of waiting in beta limbo-land, all readers of
the Guardian were finally introduced to their paper's branded
RSS reader on November 29. The Guardian's partner paper in the
project, the Los Angeles Times, is still testing its software. But
there is a significant difference between the way in which the two
papers approached their branded readers, one that may be costing
one of them some readers.
The Guardian began testing its RSS reader called NewsPoint, a
product of the Swiss/American firm Consenda, by inviting 250
readers to use it. During their beta phase, they kept their regular
RSS feeds open to the public. Now, even after having launched
their own personal reader, the Guardian has kept its normal feeds
available to the world who may not want to download a specifically branded reader.
Newspapers can economize with e-paper
A seemingly futuristic yet nonetheless actual innovation in newspaper business models is described by Jeff Mignon, CEO of the
New York based media consulting and design firm 5-W Mignon
Media.
In a short essay of what his ideal newspaper would look like,
Mignon starts by clarifying that it's not a 'paper' but an A4-sized
flexible plastic screen. He lists the criteria that the screen should
feature including color, video and sound capabilities, Internet
connection as well as Wi-Fi and mobile phone compatibility, infrared keyboard and electric pen, etc. Essentially, he describes a PC
you can role up and throw in your pocket.
But here's the real kicker: this screen is provided to the consumer
free of charge by a major newspaper!
Mignon uses the example of the New York Times. He says that
the Times would ultimately profit from such a move because it
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would eliminate fees for paper, ink and physical distribution. Of
course, since the New York Times would hand out the screen, its
news would be prioritized. But the Times must allow RSS feeds
from thousands of other papers and blogs, giving readers easy
access to other channels just like the Internet does.
And of course, banner ads would be prevalent, but they would be
personalized, allowing readers to choose the topics of advertisements they would like to see.
Payment for this service? A mere monthly fee tacked on to your
mobile phone bill allowing for unlimited access to content.
Sources: Media Cafe (in French)
September 09, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/craigslist_is_j.php
New technology brings moving images
directly onto paper
At the Plastics Electronics Trade Fair in Frankfurt, developers
from German electronic company Siemens presented extremely
thin, miniature color displays that can be printed onto paper or
foil. The displays can be produced at a very low cost leading
Siemens to state, "Color displays may one day be used practically
everywhere." The use of such displays could, for example, mean a
revolution to packaging, displaying information about products or
even operating instructions for devices. And they could be used in
newspapers as well, especially because Siemens scientists are currently optimizing displays that will show moving pictures.
The new technology is expected to cost about $30 per square
meter and is scheduled to be available by 2007.
Referring to the possible use of the technology in newspapers,
Norbert Aschenbrenner, Siemens spokesman said, "We think
that at the moment the screens
will appear first in more expensive
magazines in the form of highimpact adverts. But as the price
sinks we expect them to appear in
papers as well, possibly as a really
attention-grabbing front page."
That would be quite a revolution in
newspaper design.
Sources: The Guardian, Siemens
October 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_
newspapers/2005/10/new_technology_brings_moving_images_dire.php
Flexible electronic paper has the potential to replace
newsprint as its quality increases and its price drops, saving
newspaper companies hundreds of millions on printing costs
and delivery
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7
Page 117
Conclusion
How can newsrooms include
multimedia in everyday
production?
By Robb Montgomery
New Media Consultant
In early 2005 the word 'Podcast' was only discussed on
message boards and the new form of on-demand audio
programming was being created and listened to by amateur disc jockeys and computer hobbyists. By December,
Podcast was named the word of the year by the New
Oxford American Dictionary. It would not be surprising to see the word 'Videocast' or 'Web 2.0' take the crown in 2006.
The new media revolution is in high gear and poised to make our online and
portable media experiences richer and more interactive. Newspaper executives are
seeing their online business expand and the potential for reporters and editors to
form stronger ties with their communities is a genuine golden opportunity.
In the U.S., The New York Times, USAToday, and the Washington Post
have begun to reorganize their online units. Placing the online editing teams in the
heart of the newsroom is a good first step but it is even more important to make
the proper investments to understand the demands and expectations of the online
audience. New media develops rapidly and spreads virally. Building on the overnight
success of blogs and message boards like facebook, podcasts and now videocasts
are media forms that make new demands on print and online newsrooms.
The Internet advertising market is projected to increase by 25 percent in 2006 and
the early buzz is that demand for video ads on news sites is strong. The online business prospects for newspapers is good, broadband has reached a saturation point
and RSS feeds, blogs, tags, social networking, Wikis, as well as podcasts and videocasts are no longer diversions produced by amateurs.
In June, when Apple included free podcast subscriptions in their iTunes Music
Store, the most popular offerings were produced by unpaid amateurs. Six months
later National Public Radio dominates the channel by producing superior original content. Their success in podcasting has allowed the non-profit organization
to enjoy a powerful new business model.
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These new media and open-source tools represent powerful technological and storytelling potential. In combination, they can be tailored by news organizations to
amplify the newsgathering, serve social and elemental community needs, and provide the perfect companion to people's daily lives. Of course, the new interactive
and multimedia models emerging must capitalize on allowing print to still do what
it does best. Finding the right mix is key.
The chairman of The Washington Post, Don Graham told investors in December, "I
have come to believe that we will be able to tell you about certain subjects better
on the Internet than we will be able to in print."
Jay DeFoore, online editor of Editor & Publisher, recently posed these queries
in an online E & P article: 'Face it: the future is online. So invest now.' "Are you
allowing readers the option of viewing stories the way they want to view them, or
just shoveling content from the print product online? On the content side, is your
Web site a 24/7 breaking news environment complete with customizable RSS feeds
and active, staff-written blogs bursting at the seams with attitude and reader comments? In short, is there passion in your product?"
Multimedia, the internet, broadband, portable players, mobile digitals and the pulp
edition - they all hold the potential to amplify the content that newsrooms produce
as well as host the conversations that matter most to the people they serve.
The real challenge for editors is to build a framework that is intuitive to using an
Apple iPod. Apple made it easy to manage digital music by doing it in a way
nobody else had thought of. Many firms make mp3 players but they are dwarfed by
the monster success of the iPod.
Ask yourself, what strategies did Apple apply that allowed them to create this
incredibly addictive and satisfying consumer experience? Some people will say the
color, the cute factor or the 'style' of the pod that led the way but it really something some more fundamental than that: the interface design.
The resources invested in the development and refinement of the ideal user interface led them in the right direction and continues to pay huge dividends. The R&D
thinking and tools Apple developed to make the iPod work intuitively led them to
further success with the iTunes store, the Nano and now the video iPods. The style
and form of the physical units are merely an extension of their customer-focused
thinking.
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If you strive to make your online destination intuitive, rewarding and fun to use,
you'll have customers for life. Multimedia is one way to get there but Apple's example illustrates that you not only have to have the right media, it has to be easy to
use, come in the right forms and be served at the right time.
Being specific about your philosophy and keenly interested and adept in developing the best user experience is what will separate the news providers that offer disjointed online multimedia components from the ones that actually deliver a compelling experience. Those that strive for that higher ground and make the proper
investments in development and culture change will be the winners.
And quality matters: a professional news organization cannot produce and present
sloppy audio and video to show the young people that they are suddenly 'with it.'
Amateurs and independents can have lower production values because nobody
expects them to have the equipment and expertise to produce a high-quality show.
That is their unique charm and attraction but it can't be the standard for the work
the newsroom produces.
Creating a new site around video is one way to go. You don't necessarily have to
produce all the videocasts, podcasts, mo-blog picture galleries, community Wikis,
and message boards that you serve online. Instead, your news organization could
act as a facilitator of community and niche content, not just the sole generator and
distributor of it.
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, for example, launched a video- only website
called HamptonRoads.tv (http://hamptonroads.tv), that includes a mix of professionally edited reports along with material published by members of the community. The focus is on local news, entertainment and sport, and the user interaction
is key.
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Josh Gillin, the A1 Designer at The Philadelphia Inquirer adds, "If multimedia is destined to be the future of the industry, I think papers need to tailor their
sites' interactivity on a story involvement level. I want people to be able to write in
with anecdotes about their favorite bar, to weigh in with their opinions about Joe
Candidate, to share their recipe for pumpkin apple butter pie. Tell me as a reader
how I can be a part of the paper, which should, heaven help us, act as a part of our
community, not just a mirror of it."
The key is to dedicate your news operation to becoming the perfect companion for
the people you serve - online, in print and on smart phone.
Robb Montgomery is a freelance newspaper and new media consultant. He is the
founder of VisualEditors.com and is currently redesigning The Examiner newspapers for
the San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington D.C. markets.
Between 2001-2005 he was a senior editor leading the redesign of the Chicago Sun-Times
and designed the paper's award-wining news investigations. He also designed the Red
Streak commuter tabloid that launched in October 2002.
He has been a guest instructor for Northwestern University - Medill School of Journalism,
IFRA seminars, SND workshops as well as a presenter for the World Editors Forum.
www.visualeditors.com
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8
Press credibility crisis
deepens
Newsrooms across the United States face a credibility crisis not rivaled in the history
of the American newspaper. Numerous scandals of plagiarism, poor reporting and
fabricated stories in recent years have raised public mistrust of newspapers to record
levels. Furthermore, readers see the corporate culture and huge profit margins of
American newspapers as contradictory and detrimental to their role as a community
service provider. More of the public also believes that newspaper companies are intimately intertwined with the very corporations and government they are supposed to
be watchdogging. Journalists complain that they can no longer effectively perform
their duties due to rampant cuts in staff and reporting budgets, which ultimately
dilute the quality of newspaper journalism and lead to further circulation losses. Even
as former newspaper readers turn to alternative online news sources and blogs,
newspaper scandals continue to surface, pushing the public further away:
To name or not to name: In 2005, the same year that Bob Woodward’s famed
Watergate informant Deep Throat revealed his identity, the American press witnessed what is arguably its biggest anonymous source crisis in history. Several journalists were called upon to reveal their sources in front of a Federal grand jury and
one New York Times reporter, Judith Miller, went to jail for three months
protesting divulgence of her source. Numerous papers across the country rushed to
reform their newsroom guidelines for use of confidential informers. It was realized
that a number of editors do not even allow their reporters to cite unnamed sources.
Across the Atlantic in Spain, El Mundo editor Pedro Ramirez found himself in a
similar predicament. The debate continues in 2006: some contend that anonymous
sources hurt transparency and will become less prevalent, especially as journalism
evolves online; others insist on their necessity in investigating sensitive issues so that
the right people are more wiling to emerge with the right information.
Payola: On several occasions in 2005, the American government was discovered to
be influencing the press at both the domestic level and in Iraq. In the spring, it was
learned that that a few columnists had been paid by government agencies to publish
pieces favorable of certain programs and that television stations had been disseminating fake news reports produced by the government without proper sourcing, making citizens believe that the “reports” were actual news. A few months after these
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Press credibility crisis deepens
practices were found to be illegal, news organizations reported that the Pentagon
had been planting stories in the Iraqi press, paying Iraqi journalists for positive coverage as well as translating and copying entire articles without sourcing them.
Internal transparency: As the Internet makes communication with the public easier, readers are increasingly demanding explanation of the back-story and editorial
decisions that lead to final publication. The New York Times felt the brunt of the blogosphere’s desires to know this information on several occasions in 2005, most
notably after it revealed that it had decided to hold a major story for over a year.
However, other papers experimented with opening themselves up to the public by
publishing full transcripts of interviews, primary documents used in investigation, or
even including readers in daily editorial ideas, as is the case of the Seattle PostIntelligencer.
News vs. entertainment: One issue that may have contributed to the loss of credibility in the American Press in 2005 was its growing propensity towards melodramatic scandals, putting hard news second. The Michael Jackson trial, a young woman
accosted in Aruba and many celebrity stories received more press than major national and international crises such as the war in Iraq, Palestinian/Israeli conflict and possible genocide in the Sudan. The conundrum that newspapers face is that sensationalism sells, leading many to question whether the job of newspapers is to report the
news people need to know versus what they find entertaining to know.
----------------------------
In conclusion to this chapter, the Director of elmundo.es, Gumersindo Lafuente,
declares the integrity of journalists intact despite the perceived negative effects of
large news organizations.
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US: Pulitzer winner resigns with harsh criticism
of the American press
contributing to the public's increasing distrust, not to mention the
numerous media scandals that have recently surfaced.
Source: Pew Research Center
In leaving her post at the New York paper, Newsday, Pulitzer
Prize winner Laurie Garrett left a scathing memo about the
state of journalism in the United States, reports Editor &
Publisher.
The root of the problem, according to Garrett, began about ten
years ago when profits became the main concern of newspapers;
"The leaders of Times Mirror and Tribune have proven to be
mirrors of a general trend in the media world: They serve their
stockholders first, Wall St. second and somewhere far down the
list comes service to newspaper readerships."
She continues with a brief history of the decline of investigative
journalism forced on the press by "massive corporations," and
relates her own experiences to this view with anecdotes of "whiskey-swilling" editors and reporters of "blue collar backgrounds"
that "would have been cops or firefighters" had they not taken up
journalism.
Garrett declares the boardroom takeover of the press as "terrible
for democracy" and "attest(s) to the horrible impact the deterioration of journalism has had on the national psyche."
She ends the memo on a hopeful note, saying that there still
remains the opportunity to save quality journalism, but that it's
going to take effort by reporters "to tell the stories, dig the dirt
and bring (the readers) the news."
Source: Editor and Publisher
March 2, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/us_pulitzer_win.php
March 1, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/us_research_sho.php
US: journalists are still highly ethical,
despite recent scandals
With distrust of US journalism reaching unprecedented levels, a
new study shows that journalists are some of the most ethical professionals in the country, reports USA Today.
A survey that measures reactions to ethical dilemmas that has
been given to some 30,000 professionals over the past 30 years
was recently given to 249 reporters by two researchers from the
Missouri School of Journalism and Louisiana State
University. They found that overall journalists scored fourth on a
list of various professionals and students, only scoring less than
philosophers, medical students, and practicing physicians. Civic
and investigative journalists scored higher than reporters who
cover other areas.
Missouri professor Lee Wilkins concluded that, "Giving journalists the opportunity to work through more ethical dilemmas, whether they are real, occurring on the job or hypothetical in seminars
and workshops, bodes well for the profession."
Source: USA Today
February 4, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/02/us_journalists_1.php
SECTION 1: THE PUBLIC LOSING TRUST IN THE
MEDIA
US: research shows plunging press credibility
A study by the Pew Research Center dissects the state of the
American media, most notably highlighting the erosion of public
confidence in the press, which plummeted from 74% in 1990 to
58% in 2000. In a general comparison of veracity between the
press and other institutions, by 2002, over 80% of Americans had
a great deal, or some confidence in other institutions, a statistic
dwarfing the 58% who trusted the press.
Newspapers have especially lost their readers' trust. In 1985, only
16% of the American public believed little to none of what they
read in the paper, a number that exploded to 45% last year. 2003
figures show that 56% of Americans considered most reporting to
be inaccurate, up 22 points from 1985. These statistics accompany
a proliferation of media sources, including cable news, talk radio,
and internet news which has simultaneously caused political bias
in the media to become more profound, a fact that could be
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Defending newspapers' credibility
Philip Meyer, Knight chair of Journalism at the University of
North Carolina and the author of “The Vanishing
Newspaper,” in an article for Nieman Watchdog, claims
news of Americans not believing newspaper journalism is not
exactly true. According to various sources, up to 45% of Americans
don’t believe anything they read in the paper. In fact, Meyer says
that the rating system, developed by the Pew Research Center
for the People and the Press, has been exaggerated upon by
journalists writing stories of newspaper doom. In reality, only
about 13% of Americans responded that they “believe almost
nothing of what (newspapers) say.” Despite the free interpretation
of the Pew poll, Meyer points out that reader trust is still declining.
Readers who said they find newspaper reporting credible was
down to 55% last year from 84% in 1985.
Source: Nieman Watchdog
May 13, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/defending_newsp.php
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US: press credibility hit by a "media
pundit scandal"
Butler, said of the government's strategy, "Ethically, it's indefensible. You show the world you're not living by the principles you
profess to believe in, and you lose all credibility."
One day after USA Today, the Los Angeles Times confirmed
that a popular conservative commentator was paid $240,000 to
promote President Bush's education law. The goal was to deliver
positive messages about Bush's education overhaul, using commentator Armstrong Williams' broad reach with minorities:
"Several media analysts said the disclosure Friday that Armstrong
Williams had a contract to promote the education law should
cause reexaminations on several fronts: government in its use of
tax money to promote political causes, news outlets in screening
opinion makers for bias, and news consumers in scrutinizing information thrown their way.
Source: Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Guardian
"It could become a larger issue if the public across the board says
that all these media celebrities need to be more forthcoming
about what they are getting paid to say,” said Nancy Snow, a
professor of communications at Cal State Fullerton.
Williams, who lost his contract with Tribune Media Services,
the syndicate that carried his weekly column to several dozen
newspapers, said he had "no doubt" that other commentators
had similar ethical dilemmas that simply hadn't been publicized.
Source: Los Angeles Times
January 8, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/01/us_press_credib.php
Iraq: US using payola, plagiarism and
propaganda in the Iraqi press
The Los Angeles Times reports that the American government
has been planting stories in the Iraqi press that promote the idea
of Iraqi democracy and self-rule. The American government adopted this strategy in Iraq despite it having been declared illegal in
the United States in the spring of 2005 and having spent millions
of dollars to properly train Iraqi journalists in freedom of the press.
The Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group, a public relations firm,
to translate articles from the American military into Arabic and
transmit them to Iraqi publications and advertising agencies.
Occasionally, articles were taken from other publications translated verbatim without proper sourcing.
During the winter of 2005, it was revealed that the Bush administration had been selling government "news" broadcasts to television stations without making it clear that the messages had come
from the government. This practice was declared illegal.
December 1, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/12/iraq_us_usin
g_payola_plagiarism_and_prop.php
Are French media covering a hoax?
What is interesting in the following story is that the French media
(print and broadcast media) seems to be united in refusing to
publicize the "evidence" of an hoax by pressuring journalists who
fear for their careers.
According to CNSnews.com, "French state-owned television is
using what some call intimidation and threatened libel lawsuits to
quiet calls for an investigation of TV images that showed the alleged shooting of a Palestinian boy - 12-year old Mohammed alDurra - by Israeli soldiers in 2000. The video from the TV channel
France 2 has become famous around the world as a symbol for
the current Palestinian intifada and shows a boy trying to take
shelter behind a man during a gun battle in September 2000 between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers at the Netzarim junction in
the Gaza Strip.
Independent media analysts in France (in particular Philippe
Karsenty and Media-ratings) and in Israel have provided what
they call conclusive evidence that the video of the incident was
staged and at least one member of the French Assembly has called for an official investigation of the episode, but France 2 has so
far refused to undertake a comprehensive inquiry. France 2 provided copies of articles reporting it was filing a libel suit against unnamed individuals for defamation.
But Stephane Juffa, editor in chief of the Metula News Agency
based in Israel, said he and two other colleagues carried out a
thorough investigation, which included scores of interviews and
scene-by-scene analysis of the video and other material filmed in
2000."
Source: CNSnews.com and Media-ratings
January 13, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/01/are_french_medi.php
Japan: Newspaper executive taking
responsibility for faked story
It was also found that the government was paying journalists to
speak favorably of government programs.
In Iraq, the government via the Lincoln Group has also been
paying about 12 Iraqi journalists who had not spoken out against
the occupation.
Vice president of the International Center for Journalists, Patrick
Shinichi Hakoshima, executive adviser for the newspaper The
Asahi Shimbun, announced on Wednesday that he will resign
from his post and also step down as chairman of the Japan
Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, reports The
Japan Times. In resigning, Hakoshima is taking responsibility for
the publication of a fabricated story in The Asahi Shimbun. The
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paper disclosed at the end of August that one of its reporters had
faked an article about a meeting between Shizuka Kamei, former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) policy chief, and Yasuo Tanaka,
governor of Nagano, to discuss the founding of new political parties. The paper printed an apology and fired the reporter.
As The Japan Times reports, Hakoshima said he hopes his "resignation will be a meaningful step to regain the people's trust in
newspapers ... (and) ...he does not view the incident as a chance
occurrence but the result of a systemic problem within the organization and called for preventive measures to be put in place, including staff education and an examination of the personnel system."
Source: The Japan Times through EJC-newsletter
September 08, 2005
2005/09/japan_newspaper.php
Hurricane Katrina's
consequence: American
press is back!
After an almost complete failure
(or collapse) about the coverage of
Saddam Hussein's Weapons of
Mass Destruction (WMD) and the
Iraqi war, the American press is
back!
SECTION 2: THE ANONYMOUS SOURCE
DILEMMA
US media frowns on anonymous sources
When the founder of USA Today, Al Neuharth, calls the timetested practice of anonymous sources an "evil of journalism,"
what does it mean? Well, for Judith Miller, a reporter for the
New York Times, and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine,
it could mean jail time. For investigative reporters, it could mean
greater difficulties in uncovering the truth. And for potential scandal-breaking sources, it could mean that they'll keep their mouth
shut if their anonymity cannot be protected.
The combination of the stain left
on reporting by the likes of Jayson
Blair, who falsified stories while
working for the New York
Times, and the disclosure of the
anonymous source, Deep Throat,
the government insider who helped direct the Watergate investigation, bring new light to this old
debate. Sure, nobody wants to
hear of journalists conjuring up
sources to fit their story, as happened with Blair. But nobody (aside
from a few top official who will
remain, well, anonymous) wants to
restrict the job of the Fourth Estate
in digging up information that the
public should know. So where do
we draw the line?
For Matt Wells, BBC analyst in
the US, "Amidst the horror,
American broadcast journalism just
New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller supported reporter
might have grown its spine back,
Judith Miller's decision to withhold the names of her sources
thanks to Katrina. National politics
from a grand jury investigation .
Tom Rosenstiel, director of the
reporters and anchors here come
Project for Excellence in
largely from the same race and
Journalism thinks that the sudclass as the people they are supposed to be holding to account.
den movement against anonymous sources stems from "an
attempt to tighten, to eliminate a looseness that's developed over
They live in the same suburbs, go to the same parties, and they are
the last 20 years," and is not designed to "make it difficult to do
in debt to the same huge business interests... It is a perfect recipe
investigative reporting." Eric Burns of Fox News Watch
for a timid and self-censoring journalistic culture that is no match
thinks that this has to do with the decline in public trust of jourfor the masterfully aggressive spin-surgeons of the Bush adminisnalists and journalists in each other since the Watergate days.
tration."
Source: BBC News
September 7, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/katrina_consequ.php
Maybe these assumptions are true, but there remain no industrywide guidelines concerning the use of anonymous whistle-blowers.
USA Today requires that its managing editors be privy to the
identity of the unnamed source before an article is published.
Most local papers don't even allow anonymous sources, according
to a survey done by the Associated Press. During the Watergate
reporting, anonymous sources were permitted, but suspected criminal activity had to be confirmed by two alternative sources
before being made public.
Now, Burns feels that "What is likely to happen... is that (reporters will) have to use more than one anonymous source before
they're comfortable."
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Sources: The New York Times and Fox News
June 28, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/us_media_frowns.php
US: many editors do not allow use of anonymous sources
cannot be identified" reports the New York Times. One important
question is to determine whether a reporter's notes belong to him
personally or to the company. Some technical solutions, like emails that automatically expire after some time, could help. Time
Inc. executives are said to be thinking about special portable hard
drives so that journalists could remove all their notes from the
company's computers.
Source: New York Times, Washington Post, Mediachannel
August 3, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/us_how_can_news.php
According to the Associated Press, editors from about one in
four newspapers who responded to a recent survey forbid reporters from using anonymous sources. Most other editors said they
at least have policies designed to limit the practice. One editor
even claimed that his paper’s policies would never have allowed
Deep Throat, the man who revealed himself as the source
behind the US Watergate scandal, to be a source.
The Associated Press and the Associated Press Managing
Editors Association jointly surveyed American newspapers to
better understand their policies. The project, thought to be the
most comprehensive of its kind conducted in recent years, drew
replies from about 28% of the nation’s 1,450 daily newspapers.
Most dailies that do allow use of anonymous sources are based in
large cities and have operating bureaus overseas or in
Washington, where sources often request anonymity. Those that
have tight restrictions on anonymous sources permit it only when
someone could lose his job out of retribution, or to protect the
identity of a rape victim, illegal immigrant, or someone suffering
from an addiction.
Source: Associated Press
June 11, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/06/us_many_editors.php
US: how can newsrooms shield
sources' identities?
Newspapers are currently finding themselves in a dilemma: "After
a series of scandals that have undermined their credibility, news
organizations are being pressured to be more open in how they
operate; at the same time, threats of court action are pressuring
them to be more secretive," writes the New York Times.
Uneasiness about the use of anonymous sources is spreading.
In order to solve these problems some papers have already changed their editorial guidelines and restricted the use of anonymous
sources. The Los Angeles Times issued new ethics guidelines
in July saying that "relying in print on unnamed sources should be
a last resort", reports LA Observed. The New York Times
has makes reporters share their source with at least one editor
and explain the reason for unidentified sourcing in their articles.
Suggestions for avoiding anonymity
In an article in Presstime, a publication by the Newspaper
Association of America, Kelly McBride, ethics group leader
at the Poynter Institute, gives advice on how to get sources on
the record. McBride recommends for example that journalists,
when asked for anonymity, should say no and see how the source
reacts. They should ask for an explanation why the source does
not want to reveal their identity and why he or she wants to tell
the off-the-record information to the paper. "Reporters should
then tell the source they can't grant anonymity until checking with
an editor, and ask the source to describe the nature of the information,” she says.
McBride also recommends clearly explaining what the terms 'off
the record' and 'on background' mean, as people often have different understandings. If the reporter decides to grant anonymity,
tell the source that his or her identity will be shared with at least
one other person in the newsroom. It's a policy that all papers
should have."
After that, the journalist should check the story again "piece by
piece" with the source. If the story is finally run, the journalist
should tell the anonymous source, "If the paper is subpoenaed in
connection with the story, and the judge denies the paper's
motion to quash it, the source should agree to publicly identify
himself." If the source does not agree to that, the paper has to
think about the legal risk in comparison to the worth of the information for the public.
Michael Sallah, investigation editor at the Miami Herald, suggested that journalists should also try to ask the source if he or
she might know somebody who could tell about the same subject
and would go on the record.
Sources: Presstime, New York Times
October 05, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/10/how_to_deal_wit_1.php
Since the use of anonymous sources is still permitted, papers are
looking for new ways to facilitate the protection of sources' identities. NYT for example is "looking into ways of bundling office
telephone extensions so that calls to and from particular reporters
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NYT ombudsman explains guidelines
for confidential sourcing
With scandals the likes of Jayson Blair and Judith Miller, perhaps no other newsroom in the world is as cautious with its use
of anonymous sources as the New York Times is today. Or is it?
NYT's public editor Byron Calame described the paper's revised
confidential source policies and said it will take some time until
they are completely integrated in the news process.
After the Blair fiasco, the paper's first reform came in February
2004 at which time journalists using anonymous sources were
made to tell at least one of their editors the name of the source.
A second came this year in June when executive editor Bill Keller
obliged reporters and editors to explain to readers why a source
merited anonymity.
Another safeguard that has been established by the paper is verification by the paper's standards editor, Allan M. Siegal, with
editors and reporters. Every day Siegal chooses at least three arti-
cles that use anonymous sources and asks several questions to the
report's authors about their rationale for not naming their contact,
thereby creating a "daily conversation on sources."
Although these guidelines are in place, Calame says the paper's
staff is not entirely used to them and points to several examples,
including one where the rationale for the use of anonymity is
faulty.
On the other hand, Calame defends the practice of anonymous
sources as necessary for the reporting process because it permits
a lot of information that would otherwise remain hidden to the
public to go on record. He uses a few examples of articles which
would not have gone to press had it not been for the information
given by insider sources speaking on the grounds that their name
would not be published.
November 22, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/nyt_ombudsman_explains_guidelines_for_an.php
Key dates of the Judith Miller anonymous source scandal
14 July 2004: Undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame is exposed in the US press
30 September 2004: US Justice Department announces investigation into the matter
12 August 2004: A grand jury subpoenas Judith Miller about interviews with a confidential source and other
material gathered for a potential article on the Plame affair
Miller, supported by the New York Times, vows to fight the subpoena
7 October 2004: Miller is held in contempt of court
27 June 2005: The Supreme Court declares it will not intervene in Miller’s case
6 July 2005: Miller is sent to jail for refusing to reveal her source
29 September 2005: Miller is released from jail after 85 days having agreed to testify about her conversations with her source, Vice President Dick Cheny’s Chief of Staff Lewis Libby who, as Miller stated, “voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality”
30 September 2005: Miller testifies before the grand jury
Arthur Sulzberger and Bill Keller, publisher and editor of The New York Times, both release statements expressing relief about Ms. Miller’s release from jail and supporting her actions.
October 2005: Miller is subjected to much criticism from the New York Times and elsewhere for her
handling of her involvement in the Plame affair and for her ‘insufficiently critical’ reporting on the Bush administration’s claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction
9 November 2005: Miller leaves the New York Times after 28 years
30 November 2005: In an interview with the BBC Miller says she is “deeply sorry” that her stories about
WMD in Iraq were incorrect
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Anonymous sources: editors at Time Inc.
offer reassurances to reporters
There remain some fears regarding the Judith Miller case and
the debate on anonymous sources in the US. According to New
York Times, "Top editors of Time Inc. shuttled between New
York and Washington to address the discontent simmering among
Time magazine's staff members in both cities, the result of the
company's decision to provide a reporter's notes and documents
to a special prosecutor investigating the disclosure of a covert
C.I.A. operative's identity.
At a lunch meeting, Norman Pearlstine, Time Inc.'s editor in
chief, along with his deputy, John Huey, and Jim Kelly, Time's
managing editor, met with about 18 of the magazine's
Washington correspondents, who were encouraged not to hold
back in their comments or questions. According to participants,
they complied... Some Time journalists have expressed concern
that the company's decision could
have a chilling effect on their relations with sources and could hinder
their newsgathering efforts. "We're
very much worried about what kind
of signal this sends," Ms. Tumulty
said. In Washington, she added,
"Confidentiality is the lubricant of
journalism."
a national shield law for the protection of journalists vary:
- The New York Times stood by Miller and the practice of anonymous sources throughout the whole fiasco. Although the Times
has been trying to scale back its own use of unnamed sources, its
publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. expressed his regret when Time
Inc. handed over Cooper's notes. After the judge's decision, the
Grey Lady published an op-ed piece praising Miller for "surrendering her liberty in defense of a greater liberty," that of the free
press who should be able to "work on behalf of the public without
fear of regulation or retaliation from any branch of government."
- Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine thinks that Time Inc. did the
"hard thing, probably the right thing," in handing over Cooper's
notes but also supported Miller's silence and sacrifice. He also
added a citizen journalism aspect in respect to shield laws pointing out that anyone can publish now thanks to the Internet and
blogs; "What this really means is that the state of anonymity and
secrets changes... The source can go to the Internet and reveal the
secret directly, and anonymously. The internet becomes the anonymizer that reporters have been."
This is certainly an interesting
theory that we may see develop as
more potential whistle blowers in
the upper echelons of governments
become aware of Internet publishing opportunities. But at the
same time, Jarvis points to the dangers of this same theory: "(With
Internet anonymous sources)...no
one knows how credible the revelation of the secret is."
The editorial managers and staff
members discussed ways to assure
sources that their confidentiality
was secure. "One way you go about
repairing it is put in place procedures that things that happened in
this case won't happen again," Mr.
Kelly said.
At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary
Committee about a federal shield
law, a group of elected representatives, lawyers and journalists
Norman Pearlstine, editor of Time Magazine, ultimately handargued, “the shield law's purpose
Some suggestions included not
ed over reporter Matthew Cooper's notes with the names of
(is) not to bestow preferential
naming confidential sources in ehis anonymous sources to the grand jury
treatment on journalists but to
mail messages, as was the case
ensure that the public gets the
with Time reporter Matt Cooper's
information it needs to make infornotes, which cite Karl Rove, President Bush's adviser, deputy chief
med decisions about the government." Without protection for
of staff and political strategist, as a source.
journalists, they believe that less informants will approach the
press.
Ultimately, Mr. Kelly said, "we will prove that we're a magazine
that confidential sources can trust."
In contrast the Justice Department thinks that the bill goes too far.
According to the Los Angeles Times James B. Comey, deputy
attorney general, said: "It would bar the government from obtaiSource: New York Times
ning information about media sources… even in the most urgent
July 13, 2005
of circumstances affecting the public's health or safety or national
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005
/07/anonymous_sourc_2.php
security."
Mixed reactions on the standing of anonymous
sources and federal shield law
Sources: The New York Times, Poynter, Buzzmachine, The Los
Angeles Times, and The Hartford Courant, New York Times, Los
Angeles Times
July 7, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/mixed_reactions.php
In what may be a blow for investigative journalism in the United
States New York Times reporter Judith Miller was held in
contempt and condemned to 18 months in jail for refusing to
divulge her anonymous sources. Reactions to Miller's incarceration, opinions on the use of anonymous sources and ideas about
July 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/us_federal_shie_1.php
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US: Newsweek to raise source standards
after controversial story
Newsweek will now limit its use of anonymous sources following the scandal in which one of its stories was seen as a cause
for deadly protests in Afghanistan, reports Associated Press.
Through a letter published in Monday’s edition, Newsweek
Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Richard Smith gave his apologies
for the report and said the magazine will raise its standards for
unnamed sources. Two of the magazine’s top editors now have the
sole task of approving the use of such sources, and the magazine
will stop using the phrase “sources said” to cite information in
stories. Smith said that when Newsweek comes across anonymous
information to a sensitive story, the staff will pledge "a renewed
effort to seek a second independent source or other corroborating
evidence.”
Source: Associated Press
May 23, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/05/us_newsweek_to.php
Spain: Director of newspaper refuses
to name sources
commentator and columnist for The Nation magazine, Eric
Alterman.
Giving a lecture at Northwestern University's Medill
School of Journalism he said that journalists are to blame for
the significant amount of "crap" that is being churned out in the
American press. Where important stories that have serious consequences for the nation as well as the world, such as the Abu
Ghraib scandal, may be front page news for a week, personal
drama stories such as the Scott Peterson murder trial are meticulously followed, every minute and utterly mundane detail being
recorded for a public that has been transformed into soap opera
addicts by a press that has stopped asking the important questions. Even more pessimistically, Alterman doesn't see the
American media being saved any time soon, as journalists seem to
be more interested in chasing the big money than the truth only
capable of being dug up by serious investigation.
As of now, the "news vs. entertainment" debate is primarily an
American issue. But it's very possible that this trend could infect
other countries if editors allow too much "pop" journalism to leak
into newsrooms, watering down the journalistic standards of fairness, accuracy and investigation.
Sources: For Keller see Columbia Spectator; for Alterman see
Editor and Publisher
February 23, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/02/us_the_state_of.php
Pedro J. Ramirez, director of the daily El Mundo, said on
Monday that he refuses to reveal the identity of anonymous sources, who provided information on the investigation into the
Madrid train bombings on March 11, 2004, to a government
inquiry, reports AFP. Ramirez faces six to twelve months in jail for
not complying. But he is confident that the case will be closed.
He said to AFP: "I don't think they would dare ... It would be a
real declaration of war on the part of the government and I don't
think they want to get involved in that ... I told (the judge) it was
not possible to obey him as, for journalists, article 20 of the
(Spanish) constitution (on freedom of expression) is not a right but
an obligation, as it protects the citizens' right to information ... I
would have liked to cooperate with the judiciary, but I had a professional obligation to protect sources."
Source: AFP
September 13, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/spain_director.php
SECTION 3: NEWS VS. ENTERTAINMENT
US: the state of Mainstream Media
according to insiders
Mistrust of the press, the decline of newspapers, fluff stories, news
websites, press bias, bloggers... all pertinent subjects presently
being debated in American society, were recently discussed media
130
News vs. Entertainment:
Should newspapers give readers what
they need or what they want?
"Northwestern women students wearing flip flops to a White
House ceremony" - not exactly a story one would consider to be
a hot topic. But nevertheless it received big coverage in the media.
Louis B. Raffel called it "herd journalism" in the Chicago
Tribune. He concludes: "Cute story, but what ever happened to
news judgment?" Is this story maybe an example for a wider
trend in news coverage to be softer and more entertaining while
serious news stuff is declining? Are news values changing?
One signal is the increase in reporting about celebrities. It is not
the question whether stories about celebrities should be reported,
it is more about the balance as Warren Watson from the
American Press Institute (API) argues: "Until recently, celebrity newsmakers were kept in their place… That has changed in
the last dozen years. The proliferation of cable television broadcasts and other media, an infatuation with Hollywood scandal,
and a pronounced focus on the personality of newsmakers are
pushing serious news off news broadcasts and the front pages of
newspapers large and small."
The reason for this change might be that newspapers are trying to
deliver what people want in order to stay competitive. John
Carroll, the outgoing editor of the Los Angeles Times, states at
API: "The public, particularly the much-sought-after young reader,
has an insatiable appetite for celebrity coverage. And newspaper-
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owning corporations are more interested these days in responding
to raw market demands, no matter how demeaning."
So what to do about it? "The media give the public what the
public wants, but maybe it's time to give the public what it needs
instead,” argues Salma Ghanem, professor of communications
at University of Texas-Pan American in a comment in
Dallas News. She claims that with ever more entertaining news
the media "don't fulfill the social-responsibility role… which
should serve as a catalyst for an informed citizenry. The struggle
for ratings, which translate into advertising dollars, is behind the
media's insatiable appetite for sensational stories. Perhaps we
should start exploring new ways to fund the media so they won't
be susceptible to market forces."
close it, unless the court is satisfied disclosure is necessary "in the
interests of justice or national security or for the prevention of
disorder or crime.
“Although the act lacks the ringing tone of the First Amendment
it has proved to be a useful shield against attacks on the media.
Where they have ordered disclosure, the English courts have done
so with reluctance and only after working through a complex set
of checklists and caveats. In contrast with the Miller decision, it is
very unlikely that an English court would enforce an order if disclosure could be achieved by other means, such as through disclosure by another journalist or publisher in the position of (Matt)
Cooper or Time."
Sources: UK Press Complaints Commission, MediaGuardian
Sources: American Press Institute, Forbes, Dallas News,
Mediachannel, Chicago Tribune
July 08, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/anonymous_sourc_1.php
July 28, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/news_vs_enterta.php
US: Are journalists fulfilling their
responsibility to readers?
SECTION 4: TOWARD NEW EDITORIAL
GUIDELINES
Anonymous sources: the divide between
American and European journalism
In the American press we see a growing mistrust of anonymous
sources, even by American newspapers themselves. This could
result in more conventional journalism, more rigid and sensitive to
self-censorship.
On the other hand, in Europe, anonymous sources were questioned fifty years ago and are now accepted.
Take for example the “code of practice” laid out for British journalists (through the Press Complaints Commission). Article
14 says, “Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.” Obviously, a “moral obligation” is not
the same as a “legal obligation”, but the principal of anonymous
sources has not been attacked by the British press nor the British
judiciary system. On the continent, there are plenty of similar
examples, even if continental countries have not drawn up a
“code of practice.”
So, what’s happening in the American press is a sort of “new
moral order” based on an impossible transparency that investigative journalism is imposing upon itself. We hope that a national
shield law will soon protect American journalists. We also hope
that the gap between the American and European press will close
at the same time.
Martin Soames writes in The Guardian, UK: "Could (Judith
Miller’s jailing) happen here? Not in the same way. Journalists are
given statutory protection against identifying sources under section 10 of the Contempt of Court Act of 1981. The act says that a
court cannot require someone to disclose a source of information,
nor will they be held guilty of contempt of court for refusing to dis-
Michael Massing wrote an interesting article in the New York
Review of Books debating whether US journalists are failing in
their responsibility to produce hard-nosed reporting and uncover
the truth for their readers.
Making Up for Mistakes
Massing asserts reporting on Hurricane Katrina began in some
way to make up for the mistakes made by journalists in the runup to the war on Iraq.
The kind of reporting that resumed because of Katrina has continued, and Massing says that “Journalists have been asking more
pointed questions at press conferences, attempting to investigate
cronyism and corruption in the White House and Congress, and
doing more to document the plight of people without jobs or a
place to live.”
Will Change Endure?
Massing asks: "Will such changes prove lasting?" He outlines a
number of problems that he feels “keep the press from fulfilling its
responsibilities to serve as a witness to injustice and a watchdog
over the powerful.”
Problems for Journalists
These include: the political climate journalists are currently working in, the increasing isolation of journalists from the poor and
their plight, an exaggerated desire for 'balance' and an overreliance on 'access'.
Conclusion
Massing's conclusion is that "Of all the internal problems
confronting the press, the reluctance to venture into politically
sensitive matters, to report disturbing truths that might unsettle
and provoke, remains by far the most troubling."
He does, however, offer a glimmer of hope when he suggests that
given the more aggressive news stories that have appeared as a
result of Katrina, "if the situation in Iraq were further to unravel,
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or if President Bush were to become more unpopular, the boundaries of the acceptable might expand further."
Source: The New York Review of Books
November 30, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/us_are_journalists_fulfilling_their_resp.php
Holding freelancers ethically responsible
As newsroom budgets become increasingly stretched, many turn
more often to freelancers to fill the news gap. In an article in the
New York Times, the paper's newly appointed ombudsman,
Byron Calame, studies the role and status of freelancers in a
journalistic age marred with credibility scandals asking how
papers can continue to trust these independent contractors.
editor of the Western Daily Press, who has been a member of
the Code Committee from the outset and is now secretary to the
committee. It brings together the Editors’ Code of Practice and the
case law of the independent Press Complaints Commission,
which since 1991 has adjudicated upon alleged breaches of the
Code. The handbook is the industry’s response to a proposal from
PCC chairman Sir Christopher Meyer in an eight-point plan
announced in 2003 for “permanent evolution” of press self-regulation.
The Codebook was commissioned by the Editors’ Code of
Practice Committee, the standing body of national and regional newspaper and magazine editors which reviews and revises
the Code, and is published jointly by the British industry’s trade
associations... It is endorsed by the Society of Editors. Bob
Satchwell, executive director, said: "This is not just an essential
handbook, which will become an asset in every newsroom, it is
also a further testament to the industry's commitment to making
self regulation work."
"Stringers" for the Times are required to sign a contract verifying that
they have read the paper's 54page Ethical Journalism handbook
but as Calame has come to discover, not all of freelancers actually
comply.
So the Times has launched an
"electronic freelance administration system" that will eventually
include a questionnaire which
attempts to pinpoint conflicts of
interest in non-staff contributors.
For instance, the Times recently discovered that one freelancer who
wrote about a student manifestation had actually been a protester
at the event and thus was, according to the NYT freelance contract,
not allowed to write about the
event.
Source: Society of Editors.
February 10, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/
02/uk_handbook_to.php
Why are there so few
ombudsmen in
newspapers?
Good question posed by the
American Journalism
Review: "The relationship between the public and the media is
troubled. It seems logical for a
news outlet to assign someone to
listen to audience concerns and
analyze its news coverage. So,
why are there so few ombudsmen?" Here’s one part of answer:
"The ombudsman can play an important role in maintaining high
standards.”
Byron Calame (New York Times) and Deborah
Howell (Washington Post) were appointed
ombudsman to keep their respective papers
accountable to their readers. Public opinion on
their performance has been mixed
The main problem that Calame sees in the freelance debate rests
in the eyes of the Times' readers. Where other papers distinguish
between their staff and freelancers in their bylines, the Times
considers that all of its content is of the highest quality and has
traditionally not made the distinction. But Calame argues that the
difficulty of verifying all of a freelancer's facts along with the growing mistrust that readers have for the press that the NYT would
be wise to begin doing so.
August 16, 2005
"Having an ombudsman is not an automatic guarantee of errorfree journalism, but it is an indication that a news organization is
committed to good standards and practices in its journalism," said
NPR's ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin."
In Europe, apart from Nordic countries, the situation is no better.
For Asia, data are missing.
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/holding_freelan.php
UK: Handbook to the Editors’ Code of Practice
The Editors’ Codebook, a 104-page paperback aimed at journalists, students and the public, is published by the British
Society of Editors. The book is written by Ian Beales, former
132
Source: American Journalism Review
February 1, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/02/why_are_there_s.php
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Page 123
Conclusion
The pride of solitary journalists
By Gumersindo Lafuente
Director of elmundo.es
The pride of solitary journalists, committed to ideals of
trustworthiness and of service to their readers.
Independent and humble in the daily practice of his profession, yet uncompromising when faced with the interferences of power. Destined to end his days rewarded only
with the intimate feeling of a well-accomplished job. A solid, skilled professional,
with good contacts and even better sources, fighting a losing battle against the
economic globalisation of information.
The media multinationals – vast multimedia corporations – have become the real
enemy of authentic journalism. More money lessens independence; more means
diminish reliability. This is obviously not always the case, not always 100 per cent
true. Of course it seldom shows blatantly: it tends to be subtle, clad in the guise of
efficiency, synergy, competitiveness.
It is more comfortable to go with the flow and avoid standing up to the economic and political powers. When all is said and done, what can a mere journalist do
against an entire system?
Whether we like it or not, the traditional press is in crisis. News publishers are realizing their business is running dry. Maybe that is why they look towards multimedia as a hope for salvation. They surrender to advertising interests as the only possible means of survival. They rub shoulders with the political powers hoping to be
granted benefits such as television or radio licenses or institutional advertising possibilities, in order to weather the impending storm.
But you do not need to be particularly insightful to realize that this is more than
just a passing crisis. We are in the eye of the storm of a genuine revolution. Those
who remain on the outside as observers will perish. The only survivors, if any, will
be those who dare to go all the way, devoting themselves passionately to their
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8 conclusion
work and thoroughly exploiting the possibilities of the new scenario; those who
know how to seize new opportunities and are able to interpret accurately the new
rules.
The real media professionals are now the readers, citizens who are fed up with all
the sham and the fraud and, taking advantage of the power afforded by the information society, the Web, Internet, are raising their voices to decry the situation.
Because, let’s face it: the advent of Internet is what has revealed the fragility of traditional media. The power of the Web, of news aggregators, search engines, citizen
networks, blogs, is generating a new media ecosystem where for the first time the
recipient of the news can easily become a competent broadcaster and regulator.
All this may seem a little overdramatic, even painful and difficult to endure for
media professionals who have gone to great personal lengths to develop their line
of work over the last decades. Yes, it is tough; it is never easy to face fierce self-criticism, but it is better to do so now and come to terms with the new scenario, seeing it as an opportunity to improve our profession, rather than denying the obvious
and slowly fading away, hidden behind reels of newsprint.
And I believe it is up to us, who run the media and manage teams of journalists
worldwide, to revitalize our profession. We must get companies to understand our
industry cannot be governed by ordinary market rules. Information is not just any
merchandise. As journalists we are committed to the companies we work for, but
we are also and at the same time committed to our readers. Achieving some kind
of balance between these two allegiances and using all the new technological
resources at our disposal will be the key to survival and success in our work.
Gumersindo Lafuente is the director of elmundo.es, the world’s most read Spanish information website (7.4 million unique users a month). The 48 year-old journalist began his job
in 1977 at the newspaper Ya. From 1986 to 1995, Lafuente worked at El Pais, and since
1995 at El Mundo. Since he began directing elmundo.es in 2000, the site’s traffic has
risen from 25,000 daily unique users to 814,000.
www.elmundo.es
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9
New jobs and
responsibilities for editors
The traditional newspaper editor is being attacked on two fronts: firstly, by newly
empowered readers armed with online “printing presses” and secondly, by the convergence of media on the Internet. Some editors feel overwhelmed by the rapid pace
of the ongoing newspaper renaissance. But despite several pockets of pessimism in
the media world, this renaissance is actually reinforcing the role of the newspaper
editor:
Newspapers without editors? Accompanying the citizen journalism movement
have been predictions that traditional newspaper editors are dead, that they have no
place in the online journalism revolution. The “collective intelligence” of wikis and the
theory that “your readers know more than you do,” based on the ability of the public to quickly fact-check and comment on newspaper articles, has led some to believe
that the audience is more efficient and trustworthy than a small team of newspaper
editors. Additionally, news aggregators and RSS feeds that permit readers to read only
stories of personal interest bypass the role of the editor in choosing what should go
in the daily paper.
Editors' growing importance: In spite of innovations that can potentially turn
readers into editors, the plethora of online information at the fingertips of journalists
and the general public leads others to believe that the function of the editor becomes
even more important in guiding reporters and verifying stories. Perhaps most importantly, the many thousands of online publications that an Internet user can browse
amplifies the responsibilities of the editor in assuring that top quality journalism be
produced in order to continue attracting readers. Personal publishing technology also
presents editors with new opportunities in community service when deciding how to
best involve their locale in the news process.
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New jobs and responsibilities
for editors
Multimedia editors: The growing reach of the Internet has caused newsrooms to
merge their print and online operations and journalists to extend their reporting into
multimedia. To complement this transition, newspaper editors must update their journalistic competence, becoming cross-trained on multiple platforms to help their newspaper give readers the comprehensive online news experience they desire.
Headlines and hyperlinking: Always having been crucial in drawing readers to a
story, headlines have become even more so with new technologies. Editors must
adjust accordingly, coming up with catchy, yet informative headlines for today's busy
reader. Furthermore, editors must understand that the Internet practice of hyperlinking is changing journalism. Instead of simply referring to and taking excerpts from
other stories, journalists are increasingly adding links to their references, which in turn
changes their writing style and ultimately creates a virtual web of information.
----------------------------In this chapter's conclusion, PBS new media reporter and blogger, Mark Glaser,
offers explanations and examples to describe how the digital age obliges print editors to expand their journalistic horizons by learning multimedia. The sake of their
newspaper could depend on it.
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Newspaper editors will be trained
in multimedia
Like the journalist of the future who will carry various media devices when reporting, editors will also be cross-trained. The New
York Times has stated that it will no longer distinguish between
print and online editors: "Now we're saying the desk heads are
going to be looking in the direction of the Web as well. So when
something gets conceived, it's not just conceived as a print project
but as a Web project as well." Multimedia editors will consult
journalists' weblogs and be easily able to contact the individual or
team of reporters with suggestions, ideas and findings while a
project is underway. They will decide if any citizen contributions fit
into the report.
Picking out certain aspects of a story that might be more efficiently portrayed in one medium or another could be another new
job for editors; for example, sending a journalist out to follow up
a story with pictures or having a reporter record a podcast as part
of a total report. Multimedia editors will be adept at packaging
stories for the web so that each medium's report brings the reader further towards a complete understanding of an event.
August 17, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/multimedia_news.php
SECTION 1: EDITING CITIZEN MEDIA
Citizen "news junkies" become editors
You may be familiar with the concept of the 'citizen media editor,'
a newsroom position dedicated to sifting through participatory
journalists' contributions described by Mark Glaser of Online
Journalism Review back in March. Take the 'media' out of the
job title and what do you get? Citizen Editor! That's right, those
feisty readers are at it again, rocking the foundations of what has
always been your stable, however stressful, job as an editor.
Don't panic just yet. These readers still depend on your paper's
news to do their editing... but they smoosh it together with a
bunch of other sources meaning that your articles could get lost in
the information fray.
In the spirit of GoogleNews or other such online aggregators,
the recently launched CommonTimes, which explains itself as
'a social bookmarking community for news readers,' solicits
"news junkies" to post links to the articles they are reading on its
homepage. This essentially makes any contributor an editor of the
site as he/she decides what's newsworthy.
All in all, you shouldn’t be worrying about your job as newspaper
editor. But, as CommonTimes gains recognition and more contributors, it could prove to be a very eclectic and interesting mix of
news. People from all over the world could contribute articles from
their local journals that most would never hear of, releasing online
news aggregators from the selective shackles of a computer and
handing the power back to people. Such a variety of news is a
wonderful educational tool and great means of opening the door
to a more transparent world.
But what about large news organizations? How will they deal
with increasing competition from all over the world?
The changing newsroom: citizen media editors
Source: Poynter, Hybernaut.com
July 28, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/citizen_news_ju.php
"There's a new animal in online newsrooms," writes Mark
Glaser at Online Journalism Review. In adapting to the evolving age of citizen journalism, Glaser highlights the need for
someone to filter incoming digital mounds of news, someone who
is "part chat moderator, part copy editor and part ombudsman."
He labels the emerging beast a "citizen media editor" (CME).
Although no newspaper has officially pasted this title to its editors' desks, it appears that it could one day be a common if not
obligatory member of a newsroom staff.
Already, at media organizations such as MSNBC and newspaper
websites such as NorthwestVoice.com and News-Record.com that
have had successful experiences with citizens journalism, traditional editors are beginning to function as such. Glaser uses Korea's
OhMyNews as an example, saying that the editors of the profitable citizen journalism site are still "feeling their way around,
trying to find the right balance." Having done a survey of citizen
media ventures and the functions of their editors, Glaser continues
his article explaining in detail his pointers for future CMEs such as
winning the trust of the audience and giving the reader a voice.
"On Wikinews, every contributor
can be an editor"
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, answered a few questions about his vision of Wikinews
defined as a "free News source" written and edited by different
experts and contributors.
How does the editorial process differ between Wikipedia
and WikiNews? What is the average profile of a
WikiNews contributor?
Wikinews is very young and so many editorial processes are still
being discussed and established. Because a newspaper is a different creature from an encyclopedia, the process must be different.
But the thing that the two have in common is a commitment to
high quality and neutrality.
March 24, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/the_changing_ne.php
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Chapter 9: New jobs and responsibilities for editors
What is your personal role in the WikiNews process? Do
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you consider yourself an editor-in-chief?
No, I am not editor-in-chief, this is not the wiki way. My personal
role is simply to provide a focal point, to provide guidance and
vision on the big picture issues of neutrality and quality, not to dictate to the volunteers about how to get the job done. It is a fun
hobby for people, and so they need the freedom to make it fun.
Is every contributor an editor on WikiNews? Or is there a
complete absence of editors?
Every contributor can be an editor, yes. There is no firm delineation
of roles in that sense.
What consequences could WikiNews have for the "traditional" printed editor? Will a lack of an educated editor
result in too much false information being posted?
Our editors are highly educated. :-) It seems likely based on the
track record of traditional media outlets and of Wikipedia that our
error rate will be slightly better, not worse. Whereas Dan Rather
can get away (for at time) with publicizing fake memos, the open
process of the Internet guarantees realtime peer review of a type
not possible in a closed organization.
Are you ready for a partnership with a printed newspaper if a daily would like to publish some of the WikiNews
articles?
Yes, and our free licensing policy makes that very easy.
February 18, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/02/jimmy_wales_to.php
Can wikis be trusted?
Since its inception, many have wondered if Wikipedia, the encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute and edit, is a trustworthy
tool. Doubters have now been reassured that the "collective intelligence" machine has some flaws.
Former editor of the newspaper the Tennessean, John
Seigenthaler looked at his wiki-biography only to find that
according to that same collective intelligence he was suspected of
taking part in both Kennedy assassinations in the 60's. Obviously,
Seigenthaler not having anything to do with the murders, the text
was promptly changed.
But for the 4 months that this quote was posted, over 100 people
that read the bio may now believe it to be true, causing
Seigenthaler to declare, "that Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool." So what can be done?
Jeff Jarvis suggests that Wiki act as a quick reference tool for
"raw material." He also sees a business opportunity in wikis in
that "reference publisher, a library association, a university, a
media company, or a foundation," could "vet entries, perhaps
even charging for the service."
This would certainly add value to entries. But what if they were
manipulated again?
Wales admitted "We have a constant problems where we have
people who are trying to repeatedly abuse our sites."
In the end, because of the complaint, Wales announced that users
will henceforth be asked to register before being allowed to create
an article. Registration time takes 15-20 seconds and does not
require an email address. Still, in maintaining some of its original
spirit, users will not have to register before editing an already posted article.
Sources: New York Times, Buzzmachine
December 6, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/12/can_wikis_be_trusted.php
Community op-eds: a threat to
newsroom editors?
In the middle of a conference he was attending, Joi Ito of
Technorati received an email from the New York Times
asking him to write an op-ed piece on the anniversary of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not quite in the right
frame of mind, Joi decided to Instant Message his Japanese
friends for ideas. This seemed to work. It only took him a half an
hour to string his sentences together. But here's the real kicker.
After writing, Joi posted the column on his personal Social Text
website which, in the spirit of a wiki, allows multiple people to
work on the same project in real time. Essentially, Joi had a small
circle of friends and colleagues edit what he had written before
sending it to the New York Times, giving them a peek of what was
to come in Sunday's edition.
Now, several editors at the Times reviewed the article and the editorial staff still had to decide whether or not to include the column
in the paper. But does this collaborative article model have legs?
Could it become the standard for newspaper op-ed pages? After
all, it has been said that blogs have rendered op-ed pages obsolete seeing as both are merely opinions of a writer with a rant. The
difference is that nobody edits a blog but the blogger, although
people are allowed to comment, so blogs are theoretically less
trustworthy than an op-ed piece in a major metro paper which is
reviewed by multiple editors.
But Joi's SocialText opinion piece could prove to hold even more
water than the conventional op-ed. Instead of having two or three
staff editors not necessarily educated in a specific topic go over a
story, will the future of newspaper opinion columns be left to
groups of specialists invited by columnists to edit their piece on a
Wiki?
Source: Joi Ito's blog
August 11, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/08/community_opeds.php
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, told the New York
Times that a similar system of reviews by readers and experts will
start in January.
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SECTION 2: CONVERGENCE CHANGING THE
EDITORIAL PROCESS
Ways in which technology is changing the
news process
Washington Post Database Editor, Derek Willis, has written
a series of articles suggesting ways in which technology can be
used for the betterment of newspaper journalism, found through
Cyberjournalist. Here are some of his main ideas that can be
easily implemented in the newsroom through the use of technology, especially the Internet:
- Information in newsrooms needs to be more manageable and
searchable
- journalists should share their
information with other journalists
and databases should be formed
that include every staff member’s
contacts and articles
tions. As part of the relaunch, special packages combining print
and online access and therefore forming an information package
to serve mobile businesspeople 24/7, will be offered to subscribers in Europe and Asia. The print editions will contain links to
online content in an attempt to deepen the Journal experience.
Sources: Journalism.co.uk, KleinReport (in German), WSJ.com
September 21, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/09/wall_street_jou_8.php
Headlines ever more important
That headlines are important to news selection by readers is a
long-standing fact in communication science and media studies
and has led scholars to compile lists of "How to write a good
headline" (for example that of Merlin Mann, Associate Professor
of Journalism). That this is of even more importance in an RSS
world is an interesting point raised
by Cliff Vaughn, the Culture
Editor for EthicsDaily.com.
"The modern newspaper is the
anti-Google - it keeps its best
information within its own walls,
and makes it hard even for those
few who work there to get to it."
- archives need to be annotated
for easy research
- newspapers need to be more
reactive to their audience and
what others are saying and doing.
The plethora of online information and RSS feeds makes
headlines ever more important in catching the reader's eye.
But verify accuracy, unlike the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1948
Using email, personal publishing
to connect with readers and other
journalists; More than ever, media outlets are put in the position
of being reactive to what others are saying and doing. We’re not
the sole owners of the news anymore..
On CyberJournalist.net he
stresses the importance of headlines for bloggers using RSS feeds:
"Isn’t there a significant difference
between being on a page where, if
the headline doesn’t tell you what
you need, you can see the posting
and really decide VERSUS just getting the headline in your feed,
which may not really tell you much
of anything. ... It seems that bloggers who syndicate their content
should really give serious thought
to what they call the entry."
This is true for any news media
employing RSS as well.
Sources: CyberJournalist.net, www.notrain-nogain.org
July 22, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/07/headlines_ever.php
October 14, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2005/10/ways_in_which_technology_is_changing_the.php
Wall Street Journal integrates print and online
as part of redesign
Dr Mario Garcia led the redesign project for the Asian and
European versions of the Wall Street Journal. On
Journalism.co.uk he explained, "It is a print and online brand
fusion that celebrates the power of words and excellence in business journalism of a single newspaper, regardless of format,
regardless of medium." The fusion of print and online identities is
at the heart of the paper's redesign of its Asian and European edi-
140
Hyperlinking could change the writing styles
of newspaper journalists
The act of hyperlinking, adding a link from one webpage to another, is now a standard practice among bloggers. Newspapers, on
the other hand, have been rather slow to adopt the practice. But
some journalists are catching on. If it becomes more common,
hyperlinking could have the potential to change the way in which
newspaper journalists write, the real effect which can be seen by
following one story over weeks, months or years..
Let’s use an example of an article in the Washington Post
about the Valerie Plame leak investigation. The article covers a
new development in the case which has been going on for over
two years. The article has nine paragraphs. The first four contain
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new information. The last five, apart from one sentence, contain
background information that anyone that has followed the story
would know.
having to read background they have already gone over numerous
times.
Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Wired Magazine
For the printed paper, all nine paragraphs are necessary because
WaPo can not know if everyone who buys the paper is aware of
the story's history.
November 28, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis//2005/11/hyperlinking_could_ch
ange_the_writing_st.php
But online, these five paragraphs can be avoided by hyperlinking
the story's background for readers new to it. For those that know
the story, scanning the last five paragraphs for the one sentence
of new information is not very economical time wise for today's
busy reader.
Debating the use of emails in reporting
In an article called "Inbox Journalism," Kim Hart at the
American Journalism Review investigates the use of emails
in the newsroom. Through case studies and comments from people in the news industry, the article presents a well-rounded view
of how contacting sources electronically affects journalism.
If newspapers build background information pages to major stories complete with archives, infographics and video to which their
journalists can link instead of having them accompany each new
development with background info, it might provide all types of
readers with more enjoyable reading experiences. Newcomers to
stories would still have access to all the history they need, whereas those already informed would save precious seconds by not
Here are a few of the ups and downs that those Hart interviewed
for the article see in the use of emails:
The Rise of Citizen Media
Participation has been a fundamental component of the Internet since its inception. Newsgroups, mailing lists and bulletin boards
were the early cousins to the forums, weblogs and colaborative communities flourishing today. Those early forms are still thriving,
a testament to our need to stay connected to our social networks.
Second Wave: The Daily We
First Wave: The Daily Me
Social Bookmarking
Podcasting
Social Networking
RDF/RSS
Blogs
Blogger
Movable Type
Gnutella
Napster
Wikis
BitTorrent
Wikipedia
ICQ
AIM
Wikinews
Jabber
Forums
Yahoo! Groups
1988: IRC
1979: Usenet
1978: BBS
1990
Lotus
Notes
2000
1995
IMDB Yahoo! eBay
moves
to WWW
GeoCities
Slashdot
OhmyNews
Drupal CMS
Napster
Source: Based in part on “Blogoshpere: the emerging Media Ecosystem” by John Hiller, Microcontent News
2005
Google
News
Sidekick
Flickr
Skype
Ourmedia
Graphic by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis
141
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3 ups
• Convenience of communication; no meetings have to be
organized, no time wasted
• Provides a written record of conversation making it hard
to misquote a source
• Facilitates interviews between people of different lan
guages and great distances
3 interfaces must be placed in the same spot on all pages
which gives the reader's eye a fixed point to reference
a page.
Source: Media Café (in French)
November 9, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/three_golden_rules_in_facilitating_newsp.php
3 downs
• Promotes lazy reporting
• "Separates the reporter from the reality of life we're
supposed to be examining"
• Creates a "paper trail" for anonymous sources, such as
what happened with Matthew Cooper of Time
Magazine
According to the article, many editors still aren't sure how to deal
with email interviews or their reporters gathering information over
the Internet. If an interview is conducted solely via email, some
editors require a disclosure. Some think that email interviews are
just as, if not more effective than phone interviews, even though
face-to-face conversations will always be most appreciated.
Source: American Journalism Review through Media Channel
December 9, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/12/debating_the
_use_of_emails_in_reporting.php
Three golden rules in facilitating newspaper
navigation
"Navigation is the central element, the keystone in newspaper
design," writes newspaper consultant Jeff Mignon. In describing
his idea of redesigning a paper, he calls navigation the
"newspaper interface" and says there must be a distinction between the "interface design" and the "visual design", or "visual
journalism."
In redesigning a paper, the first step is to develop that interface
with the objective of helping readers flow through the paper, identify the content related to their interests, and choose what they
will read.
Mignon thinks of the print interface in the same way he thinks of
website interfaces; it should be visible but not distracting. He
works with three golden rules:
1 the interface must use a distinct font from the rest of the
paper but its own body must be harmonized; all bold,
all capital letters, etc.
2 the interface must use one or two colors; colors
should be seen as an element of information and not
decoration.
142
European vs. American design strategies
Newspaper editors are currently faced with the challenge of finding new and exciting ways of presenting information to their readers. In Europe and Britain one major response to this challenge
has been ‘tabloidisation’, with papers such as The
Independent, The Guardian and the Wall Street Journal
Europe/Asia changing to tabloid format.
According to Mark Freisen, Society for News Design member and designer of The Oregonian, newspaper redesign has
become a priority for editors because: “From the web to magazines, to product design, people are exposed to a lot more visual
sophistication these days.”
Thus, in addition to downsizing, many papers are considering
adopting livelier and more colorful layouts.
Although some American papers have switched to tabloid versions and others are considering shrinking their format, Freisen
feels downsizing will not sweep rapidly across North America as it
did in Europe and Britain.
A major barrier to downsizing American newspapers is the important role played by advertising, an issue seen as less important for
their European counterparts.
November 4, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/european_vs
_american_design_strategies.php
Spain: how a free paper's innovative
newsroom works
Gaceta de Prensa explains the innovative daily publication
strategy of Spain's newest free paper, Qué!," which was launched in January, 2005 and quickly topped circulation of 20
Minutos and Metro.
The system facilitates its publication of distinct daily editions in 12
major cities. Que! Uses a combination of technologies which
enables information to be sent by ADSL from each local market to
the central newsroom in Madrid where the 200 distinct pages of
local editions are formatted only to be digitally transferred once
again to one of the paper's 15 printing locations in Spain.
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Other cool aspects of Que!'s system are the capability of its editors to survey and edit all editions in real time and a projector
which they have installed in the central office that allows the
whole newsroom to watch each edition's development at any
time without leaving their desk. Not a bad start for editions of this
free paper which reached a circulation of a million within a month
of its launch!
Source: Gaceta de Prensa
March 16, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/03/spain_how_a_fre.php
Washington Post implements staff and selfevaluations
plan for the future. Some sober journalism specialists have several
ideas on how to reverse the process.
Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North
Carolina, Philip Meyer sees a noble journalistic cycle that will
eventually lead to profits. In "Saving Journalism," his article on
Columbia Journalism Review, he describes how quality journalism attracts readers and advertisers. Papers that emphasize
credibility, accuracy, easy reading, and an excellent staff fare better than those who don't. By not providing these four points,
Meyer says that papers will undermine their business models.
Grassroots journalism champion Dan Gillmor is working on ways
to involve the audience in the news process. He feels that people
will pay for quality journalism but that young readers are changing
everything, thus requiring those in journalism "to innovate on new
forms and delivery mechanisms as well as the journalism itself."
These sound like good and logical ideas. But are media companies
heeding their advice? An article in American Journalism
Review suggests that The
Washington Post is trying to
reverse its circulation decline along
the lines of Meyer's suggestions.
Its editors feel that the Post has
always provided quality news
which has helped it establish a
sound advertising base, but that
the paper was too "fluffy," meaning its articles dragged on to the
frustration of the reader. The article
reports that the Post is "trying to
create a more compelling and
accessible paper," with shorter
articles and more appealing pictures and graphics as well as revamping the front page. However, this
sounds suspiciously like a format
The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal's European and
change that will eventually change
Asian editions were major redesigns in 2005. Both added
the quality of journalism and cause
color and directed readers to their respective websites
a loss of advertisers.
According to Poynteronline, commenting on an article on
WashingtonianOnline, the Washington Post will require its
staff members to add self-evaluations as well as critiques of their
management to their annual
reviews. A company memo says that
the evaluations will offer, "a chance
to address work issues with your
immediate editors and with the
other editors who read all newsroom evaluations."
But the Washingtonian's national editor, Harry Jaffe, questions
whether anyone will be honest,
seeing as they don't want to get
into any sort of scuffle with their
boss. Could this be the beginning of
a new industry trend? Would staff
feedback be helpful to editors?
Source: Poynteronline
January 18, 2005
http://www.editorsweblog.org/2005/01
/washington_post_7.php
CONCLUSION
Financially modest ideas for saving
the newspaper
Milking the newspaper cash cow until she runs dry, the business
interests behind huge media corporations are simultaneously
sharpening the butcher's knife for her slaughter. Although circulation is declining which, along with rising prices, will eventually
cause advertisers to start pulling out, media moguls are reveling
in incredible profits, too blindly drunk in their financial success to
Apart from several papers in the
US and Korea's OhMyNews marvel, citizen journalism is being
ignored by large national papers. Sure, they've established blogs
and provided methods of reacting to articles, but have newspapers really embraced these tools? It seems that they are simply
there. How often do columnists refer to their reader comments,
use information provided by their readers, or even read reader responses? On the other hand, although blogs and other citizen journalism tools are becoming more popular as a source of information, Gillmor rejects the idea that they have the legitimacy to
replace traditional journalism. But as their popularity grows and
their influence becomes more noted, newspapers will have to find
better ways of really including readers, turning the news into the
conversation that Gillmor foresees.
Sources: Dan Gillmor, Columbia Journalism Review, PressThink,
American Journalism Review
March 31, 2005
2005/03/financially_mod.php
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Conclusion
Nouveau Newspaper Editors:
How New Media Reshapes Jobs
and Mindsets
By Mark Glaser
PBS.org
There was a time not so long ago when newspaper editors
could focus exclusively on the print newspaper -- the articles, the photos, the design, the production. All the things
that usually get readers' fingers dirty with ink.
But now, thanks to new technologies such as blogs and podcasting, and new techniques such as citizen journalism, and new delivery platforms such as the Internet
and wireless, the newspaper editor's head is spinning with the possibilities. These
new media have been around for years, but only now are they being felt in the culture at large, in the business models at newspaper companies, and by the journalists who gather and report and comment on the news.
Because of this shift in technology, the old editor jobs of the past have also shifted, both in mindset and skill set. Before we dig into the details, check out this
handy chart that sums up the old editor job and the nouveau editor who sits on
the cusp of change and must prepare the newsroom for new ways of doing journalism on multiple platforms:
Old Way
New Way
Edit for print
Edit for print, web, wireless, multimedia
Journalist is the expert
Journalist and readers are experts
Reporters write
Reporters write, do podcasts, appear on video
reports, run blogs
Editors oversee copy from reporters
Editors oversee copy from reporters, oversee
online forums, oversee reports from citizen
journalists
Story appears on web site
Story appears on web site with comments from
readers, which generates new story ideas
Print and web teams in different buildings
Print and web teams work together
Editorial process takes place in private meetings
Editorial process is transparent to readers
145
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9 conclusion
The first thing you might notice on this chart is that in many cases, editors and
reporters are required to do more work -- or at least know more about technology. Rather than concentrate on just print, they have a lot more on their plates.
Editors now must understand RSS (Real Simple Syndication), email newsletters,
podcasts, video reports and multimedia, not to mention citizen media. This new set
of knowledge used to be the exclusive providence of online editors, online producers and online journalists, but now with converged newsrooms, that knowledge
must be spread out to all outposts in the newsroom.
Rather than see this as just more work on their plates, nouveau editors can succeed by being jacks-of-all-trades, knowing enough about each new technology
without having to understand the underlying programming code. If these editors
can take the time to explore various journalistic podcasts, video blogs and multimedia reports from competing outlets and independent productions, that will go a
long way to helping them become part of the brave new world.
And it's not all about learning technology. With the rise of citizen journalism or citizen media, nouveau editors must also consider the challenges of editing articles
submitted by their readers. How much editorial oversight does citizen media
require? How well should the editor know the writer? Or more broadly, how can a
citizen media section of the newspaper site or print paper be trusted by readers,
and still remain an open forum for information?
At publications such as the News & Observer in North Carolina and the
Ventura County Star in California, the citizen media editor (CME) has become
a new job, or at least a new skill set. The people who fill these roles are expected
to help set up reporter and reader blogs, monitor citizen media reports, and perhaps most importantly do community outreach to find the people passionate
enough to contribute citizen media reports for little or no pay.
At AugustaChronicle.com, a site run by the Augusta, Ga., newspaper, the staff
started a photography initiative that included a site called Spotted, for which
readers can submit photos. But beyond that, the Chronicle also hired 20 unpaid
photography interns who fan out and cover the small events that professional photographers don't have time to reach. The pros actually work with the interns to
help them get better, creating an ecosystem of photography: amateurs on Spotted,
interns at the Chroncle who help promote Spotted in the community, and professionals who do the big events and beats.
Because the print platform has always reigned supreme, new Internet-based technologies have usually been relegated to new media departments at newspapers.
But slowly, large newspapers are starting to tear down these walls. The early experiment at the Tampa Tribune -- combining print, TV and online in one newsroom
-- has now spread to the august New York Times, which announced it would
combine print and online operations in one building. Going forward, print editors
146 Chapter 9: New jobs and responsibilities for editors
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at the Times would no longer be sheltered from online, but instead would be
expected to monitor the full life of a story, from idea generation to initial posting
online to print to online feedback to multimedia extras.
The converged newsroom means that newspaper editors need to understand visual journalism for TV reports or online video reports. They need to know more about
audio production for pod casts and radio reports, and they need to think about
how every journalist (and reader) might be able to capture breaking news events
with digital cameras or cameraphones. Most literally, they need to think outside the
(print) box.
Finally, there's a new mindset required for editors in the digital age. The old way
of thinking, with editors speaking down to readers from on high, is no longer possible. Editors must treat readers as equals and be as transparent about the newsroom's motivations for following a story, or ignoring one.
The notion of a grizzled veteran ombudsman, who is friends with everyone in management at a newpaper, is no longer acceptable. The nouveau public editor serves
the needs of the public first, and the management last. This editor might have a
print column, but also runs a weblog online, or at least a forum to take complaints
from readers. The public editor must understand customer service, handling thousands of emails and phone calls, and making sure that every single concern is at
the very least heard.
And when larger ethical issues arise, the public editor must be sure to investigate,
get answers from top editors, and rectify problematic situations or report back to
the public on what happened.
Just how transparent can things get? Both the San Francisco Chronicle and
New York Times have posted video online of their editorial board meetings with
political candidates. While the Wall Street Journal declined to do this, the
Chronicle and Times should be commended on opening up a process which previously was like the Holy of Holies for newspapers: the inner workings of their editorial boards.
The more that editors embrace their new roles, new mindset and new set of knowledge related to new media and the Internet, the better prepared they will be to
lead their newsrooms forward in the digital age of journalism.
Mark Glaser covers how new media is changing society and culture for PBS.org on his
MediaShift weblog. He formerly wrote a weekly column for the Online Journalism Review,
and has covered Internet technology and media since the web's inception. You can
reach him at [email protected]
www.pbs.org/mediashift/
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Conclusion
THE NEWSPAPER:
WHAT NOW?
By Robert Thomson,
Editor, The Times, UK
Editors are supposed to be humble because the
weight of history is now bearing down on them. There is
certain confidence, gloating even, from those outside what is mockingly
called MSM, the Mainstream Media, or more contemptuously Old Media. The providers of the
“first rough draft of history” are about to become history. And some of the contempt is directed not just at the medium itself, the printed word, but at a type of journalism that is outmoded; old-fashioned reporting with the objective of being objective.
Journalism, too, has an image problem. Traditional journalism has, unfortunately, made itself
vulnerable. When straight reporting strays into subjectivity, there is no point of principle that
separates it from the rants and rumours of content creators on the couch, who may be less
informed but more florid or fluent in their writing than the traditional hack. A serious newspaper is not a viewspaper – it is a paper with views, but it must aspire to be a journal of record
and to be a forum for a contest of ideas.
Whether that role is fulfilled in the traditional printed format or online, is irrelevant. That franchise in fact is what will distinguish providers of information, whether it be a newspaper with
the longevity of The Times or a completely contemporary creation that exploits a new-fangled
medium with old-fashioned journalism.
Blogs, or digital diaries, will be a continuing part of content, but only a relative few will be read
beyond the narrowest of audiences (that is, of one). Some blogs are couch conversations with
people that you would prefer not to have met, others are cries for help and the writers are clearly in need of therapy, or medication, others are just people expressing themselves, which is an
entirely honourable pursuit. But which bloggers will have resonance beyond me-me-me.com?
– there are four types of enduring interest:
•The Branded Blog: where you have a relatively well-known writer or a celebrity who has
personal pulling power, sometimes regardless of the quality of the content.
•The Intelligent Aggregator: the blogger who has a few observations to make, but, more
importantly, provides intelligent links to other useful sites.
•The Well-Connected Blogger: a journalist or ex-politician or specialist who has that magical ability to uncover information ahead of the pack.
•The Brilliant Writer: the actual information is almost incidental, but the quality of the prose,
the originality of the wit, is compelling.
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This content quartet aside, there will be a loneliness to the life of the long-distance blogger.
The greatest enemy of the newspaper is not the blogger, but time and our misunderstanding of
how people use and value their time. Readers have never been more distracted, habitually and
digitally. They are at liberty to indulge their obsessions, whether that be themselves or their football club or stamp collecting or unmentionable things, to an extent and with an immediacy
unimaginable a decade ago. One of the beauties of the web is the creation of communities with
shared interests but in different locations. Thus technology becomes what we make of it; technology is ultimately human, complete with ideas, idiosyncrasies and idiocies.
One common misconception about technology is that its introduction brings a once-only
change to the character of content; the coming of broadband is changing the way you use the
internet, but the nature of content and, ultimately, the creation of content, will also be altered
by the very speed of delivery. There was a theory a couple of years ago that people would spend
less time on the internet as modem speeds increased because they had a finite level of interest
and that quota would be satisfied more quickly. The opposite is true.
The other significant change is in the power balance between the user and the provider of information. At slow speeds, the average computer user is in a “push” relationship; they frequently
use captive content sites which pretend to be the web, but actually push selective pieces of
information to consumers. As broadband speeds increase, consumers tend to “pull” content –
they access more sites, view more images, savoury or unsavoury, and play more interactive
games.
And what of the carcasses of newspapers? Surely they are even more e-endangered? The crucial concept to understand is that of complementary content. Newspapers are one of the greatest marketing devices for brand-building. Day after day, even if you don’t read the paper, The
Times is omnipresent, if not omniscient. And in this age of promiscuity, by which I mean channel surfing, ad skipping, web browsing and selective downloading, it is unusual for any user of
information to commit half an hour to any medium, but that is precisely what happens when a
newspaper is purchased. The audience is captive, the images cannot be skipped or deleted, and
the impact is irrefutable.
Design was once an elite pursuit, but visual virtuosity is now commonplace. The regular computer user has a scrolling sensibility, you scroll up and you scroll down, then you click and begin to
drill down. The reader of a broadsheet newspaper has a scanning sensibility, casting eyes across
a sprawling landscape, searching for an article of interest. A compact newspaper, which forces
you to arrange information vertically, is more compatible with the computer experience. You scroll
down a digest and then you turn a page for what looks a little like a screen shot. These are not
alienating experiences for the young, and are separate to the advantage of being able to read a
newspaper in a crowded train without causing injury to the person sitting beside you.
That is form and context, what about content? The commuter on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo or the F
line in New York or the Northern Line in London is far better informed than a decade
ago. By the time the newspaper is opened, she or he may have woken to the radio news,
150
Conclusion. The Newspaper: What now?
Conclu_gral
29/03/06
17:04
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Conclusion
watched a few minutes of a 24-hour
channel, exchanged a couple of emails, and received
six text alerts from favourite websites. To presume they are
ignorant of the internet is to publish a newspaper that is a suicide note.
Newspapers have less new news than in the past, so they have a dual role in providing an alert
service to the well-informed reader, who may notice a small digest item on Japanese machine
tool company and then use the computer at work to pursue more specialist information. While
readers are overwhelmed by information, they also are aware that it is of varying veracity and
that they are vulnerable if they base their understanding on a rumour-ridden website with links
to other rumour-ridden sites all of which have links to still more rumour-ridden websites. The
half-truth has a long half-life on the internet.
And, on the opinion pages, you want a contest of ideas, not a conquest by one idea. The modern journalist is beginning to understand that the 500-word piece for tomorrow’s paper is just
a part of the job description – there may be a quick brief for the web when the news breaks
and a short piece to camera for later downloading. It is not just written content that is being
repurposed, but expertise itself and there is a large audience for genuine expertise. We now
have almost seven million monthly users of TimesOnline, three million of those in the US. That
audience has risen almost 200 per cent over the past year, meaning that there have never been
more readers of Times journalism. I would be surprised if we don’t top 10 million readers over
the next year or so, and I would not be surprised but disappointed if we didn’t have several million regular users from India within a couple of years. Those new Times readers will be interested in the foreign policy coverage, the business news and the cricket writing, but the man in
Mumbai who checks the site once a day will be no less a Times person than the woman in
Wimbledon agonising over a fiendishly difficult sudoku.
Robert Thomson was born in Australia. Mr Thomson began his career
as a journalist in 1979 at The Herald in Melbourne. Following a period
on the Sydney Morning Herald he joined the Financial Times, serving
in a number of key roles including: the Beijing bureau, Tokyo
Correspondent, Foreign News Editor, Weekend Editor and Assistant
Editor of the FT, before moving to the US in 1998 to take responsibility
for the paper’s drive into the US market. He was appointed Editor of
the Times in March 2002.
He is author of The Judges: A Portrait of the Australian Judiciary (Allen
& Unwin) and co-author of The Chinese Army (Weldon Owen), and edited a collection of
humorous writing, True Fiction (Penguin Books).
151

Local papers can use social media to create a

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