16 May

Global : A Facebook Guide for Journalists?

(16.05.2011) Vadim Lavrusik, the first journalist program manager hired by Facebook to advise journalists on tips and tricks when using Facebook for journalistic purposes. Lavrusik  outlined 12 top tips for including tips on how to distribute content and ways to protect one's privacy. As the MediaSource/Insight Middle East Journalist Survey 2011, published on May 16 , shows that 95% of journalists form all media use social media networks, highlighting the importance of a correct use of these communication tools for professional journalists. The guide also explains how to build  a journalistic brand on social media networks and curating a news stream. The guide is a collection of real stories illustrating how  journalists can make use of Facebook. To read  Vadim Lavrusik's guide, please visit:

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/05/vadim-lavrusik-how-journalists-can-make-use-of-facebook-pages/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twt&utm_campaign=vadim-lavrusik-how-journalists-can-make-use-of-facebook-pages

Global/U.S.:CSJ report landscape digital media

The Tow Centre for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School Tow published on May 9 the   biggest  study on the current challenges for digital media . The research report is based on a series of interviews conducted in late 2010 and early 2011, among mainstream print and broadcast media as well  among founders and editors of innovative journalistic enterprises in the U.S. Digital journalism is such a dynamic field, and the CSJ's aim was to draw a series of  recommendations on how news businesses,  large and small, new and old, can more effectively meet the challenges arising from the digital transformation, taking into account the financial crisis in media. http://cjrarchive.org/img/posts/report/The_Story_So_Far.pdf

US: Fastforward Journalism: Students Have Crystal Ball on Future of Journalism

(09.05.2011) The Fastforward project was developed by a group of graduate students at Columbia University as part of a video storytelling class. Students chronicled changes in journalism over two months using video, digital media and the web, looking into issues like crowd funding to cover stories. "We hope the project will show other journalists the huge amount of innovation going on both inside and outside newsrooms and help them evaluate the likely success of that innovation - and what its potential impact will be on journalism itself," said Cynthia Martinez, one of the students who participated on the project.

http://fastforwardnews.org/2011/04/churnalism/ 

Global:  World' s Crunch, Global News in English

(13.05.2011) Worldcrunch is the latest news platform that delivers content in English from leading foreign media outlets ,after selecting, translating and editing them. Worldcrunch is a web-based start-up in Paris, organized as a community of newshounds that include  both professional journalists and curators that help translate interesting stories from both mainstream media outlets and blogs, as well as produce stories of their own. Last month , the platform announced its first distribution deal with Times.com.

http://www.worldcrunch.com/turkey-looking-sick-man-press-freedoms/3046

U.S.: American Society of News Editors Issues  10 Best Practices for Social Media journalism

(13.05.2011) The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) has issued a social media guide for newspapers. "Break news on your website, not on Twitter" is the stand out tip of the guide. According to  ASNE , posting breaking news on Twitter without links back to their own site and  before going through the editorial pipeline, gives fast-footed competitors the ability to publish at the same time, consequently losing the scoop.

http://asne.org/article_view/articleid/1800/asne-issues-guide-to-10-best-practices-for-social-media.aspx

Global/U.S.: Facebook is Best Driver of Page Views for News Pages

According to a new study by the Pew Research Centre, when it comes to attracting visitors, Google is still a far more important source of traffic for major news websites than social media, but Facebook in particular is gaining in importance and has already become a significant driver of page views for some sites. The study also reinforces how much work even the leading news websites still have to do when it comes to building engagement with their readers and convincing them to stick around once they arrive at their news pages.  The Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism is based on an analysis of nine months of the Nielsen data about the 25 largest U.S. news sites.

http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/navigating_news_online

 22 April

Global/U.S. : 100 thousand subscribers in three weeks for the NYT paywall
Three weeks after the launch of its paywall, the New York Times online has reached 100,000 subscribers,  Janet Robinson, NYTimes  Company' President, announced on April 21. The NYT introduced the paywall system in an attempt to restore its finances after a fall in net profits of - 57.6 % in 2010 and poor advertising revenues (- 7.5% per year).
http://www.corriere.it/scienze_e_tecnologie/11_aprile_21/abbonamenti-nyt_6284d946-6c28-11e0-be5d-e6326a5dea49.shtml

Global/U.S.: Trove, the Washington Post's social news site
The Washington Post Company launched on April 20, Trove, a free, personalized, social news site and aggregator  as a new step in the company's social media features' strategy. Trove aggregates news across subjects of interest and important headlines of the day from more than 10,000 sources. It uses the facebook ‘like and dislike' system to pick the most interesting headlines.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/20/the-washington-post-launches-trove-a-personalized-social-news-site

Global: Facebook hires journalist programme manager
April 15 2011. The world's largest social media has hired Vadim Lavrusik to be its journalist programme manager in an attempt to build relationships with reporters and news organizations. He will be responsible for advocating  the use of Facebook as a reporting and promotional tool. He will also maintain the recently launched Journalists on Facebook page. With the journalist's programme, Facebook is trying to keep up with competitors such as Twitter journalist's favourite research tool.
http://www.ejc.net/media_news/facebook_trying_to_friend_journalists/

Global/U.S. : AP changes newspaper's fee formula
The Associated Press announced on April 15, that it will change its newspaper's fee formula to reverse the current  decline in  revenues. As from 2012 the new formula will be based  on the size of a newspaper's print and digital audiences. With this, AP will keep its decision to lower its rates during the past two years to help newspapers cope with a sharp drop in advertising revenue, meanwhile attracting online newspaper readers.
http://www.ejc.net/media_news/digital_shift_ap_to_change_newspaper_fee_formula/

Global: The Huffington Post's bloggers take legal action for back pay
On April 13 a group of unpaid bloggers of the Huffington Post have filed a $105 million lawsuit for back pay against the online news blog giant, following the $315 million sale to AOL.  "People who create content...have to  be compensated "said Jonathan Tasini, a writer and trade unionist who is leading the action.
http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2011/04/13/huff-po-blogger-skeptical-over-unpaid-writers-legal-action/

U.K. : BBC gives smartphones to reporters
 BBC head of newsgathering Fran Unsworth announced that BBC will equip its reporters with smartphones after recognising the importance for journalists staying in contact with information flows about the story they are covering. The decision comes after several complaints from BBC reporters that had to use their own smartphone devices to add videos and pictures to their stories.
http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2011/04/bbc_supplying_reporters_with_smartphones.php

EU/ Italy: Citynews, a local web portal start-up goes big
 Citynews is an Italian web portal start-up launched in January 2010 that works as a network of local newspapers providing a national web portal. The idea is simple: Citynews provides local newspapers and communities with a network through which news is exchanged on a national scale as well as allowing users to contribute with their stories. The idea has been so successful it has raised 3.3 million euros of  investment in one year.
http://www.ninjamarketing.it/2011/04/14/linformazione-locale-on-line-corre-veloce-sul-web-grazie-a-citynews/

Global/ U.S. : The New Yorker special edition... on Facebook
The New Yorker has launched a special content edition for it's facebook fans. The American magazine, who counts one million subscribed readers but just 200.000 fans on facebook, is determined to conquer the social media audience. The catchy strategy consists in posting on the New Yorker facebook page special content for a week, accessible only for the magazine's facebook fans. First ‘facebook only' article: Jonathan Frazen's essay on the novel.
http://www.ninjamarketing.it/2011/04/11/il-new-yorker-lancia-i-contenuti-solo-per-i-fan-di-facebook/

6 April

Europe/France : Jaimelinfo.fr, the French Way to Crowd-Funded Journalism
On 28 March, the French news-site Rue89  launched jaimelinfo.fr ("I like news") a new web platform for crowd-funding journalism with the aim of  supporting  quality online journalism which will be funded by readers. Citizens can contribute either by sourcing or producing, as well as funding. Jaimelinfo.fr counts on existing news websites and news blogs. The scheme which seeks to create a federation of French-speaking sites and blogs has already gained the support of about 80 websites and blogs.
ww.jaimelinfo.fr  

Global/U.S.: The New York Times goes ‘paywall‘
The New York Times rolled out on 28 March  its under paywall plans, offering a monthly reading limit of 20 articles online before users must sign up for digital subscriptions. The monthly allowance of 20 articles will include slideshows, videos and other forms of content, the release adds, while the Top News section of the Times' smartphone and tablet applications will remain free. Home delivery newspaper subscribers of the New York Times will receive free unlimited access to the site and full content on all apps, while print subscribers of the International Herald Tribune will have unlimited access to the site.
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/new-york-times-to-launch-paywall-on-march-28/s2/a543262/



25 March

US: Controversy Continues at The Huffington Post over Unpaid Writers
After building its success on the back of  thousands of bloggers' work , the new "AOL-Huffington Post"  has proposed professional freelance journalists (not bloggers) to become staffers. "We can't replace professional journalism with an ad hoc blogging arrangement....we don't want to confuse professional journalists with bloggers," said a Huffington Post manager. However the Huffington Post still distinguishes between "newsroom staffers" and "group bloggers" - most of whom are unpaid. To many contributors and to the Newspaper Guild (see MCJ 15 March) this approach is un-realistic and unfair coming from a media which owes its success to volunteer  journalists and bloggers. The $315 million AOL merger with the Huffington Post has already led to the layoff of 200 U.S. workers.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/23/aol-huffpost-to-freelancers-we-want-you-on-staff-but-real-journalists-only-need-apply/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/mar/24/arianna-huffington-tim-armstrong-aol

Global/ Latin America : South America's New Collaborative Journalism Project Goes Green
"Ties of a Green Giant" - a report on carbon emissions trading is the first product of a new collective investigative reporting project led by the Colombia's Newsroom Council (Consejo de Redacción-CdR), a group of investigative reporters, involving seven independent journalist organisations in Latin America. It is based on the work of 89 journalists from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela, supervised by Costa Rican journalist Giannina Segnini.
http://www.consejoderedaccion.org/sitio/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=282

Global/U.S.: iWatch the new online investigative newspaper
iWatch ,the Center for Public Integrity online investigative newspaper is set to be launched in one month. The non-profit newspaper will feature 10-20 investigative, watchdog journalism stories a day and will be funded in part through sponsorship ads and $50 yearly e-subscriptions that would be tax-deductible, the Washington Business Journal explained.
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/2011/03/center-for-public-integrity-to-launch.html

Latin America/ Mexico: On reporting Violence, Journalism can't be Substituted by Social Networks.
According to Mexican journalist Jacinto Rodríguez,  "social networks have a purpose right now, in the Mexican context, which is not exactly to substitute journalism", but to be a fundamental information source for citizens on drug trafficking and violence as many professional media outlets have opted for silence in order to protect their workers from attacks by organised crime. Mexico is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists because of threats and killing by the criminal groups. While Rodríguez acknowledged that journalism in Mexico today "doesn't exist without the work of social networks," he said they are not the "fundamental source" of information for the moment.
ttp://knightcenter.utexas.edu/en/node/5000

15 March

Global/U.S.A.  : Huffington Post Merger with AOL Creates Wave of Protests and Lay-offs
Following the announcement of the acquisition of the online newspaper The Huffington Post (HP) for USD 315m last February, AOL is  cutting 900 jobs as part of restructuring the company. The job losses are intended to offset "duplication" between the two companies. Some 200 jobs are expected to go from the company's US content and technology divisions and 700 jobs would be lost in back office roles based in India, although 300 of these positions would be outsourced to firms taking over such support functions for AOL. These redundancies are announced as contributors to the HP launched a campaign calling on Ariana Huffington "to give a little back to the unpaid writers who built the Huffington Post" . Some of them have announced that they would not contribute anymore to the HP.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12704855
http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/04/huffington-post-contributors-go-on-strike-propose-collective-bargaining/
http://www.facebook.com/heyarianna

Global : LinkedIn launches Linkedln Today
Linkedln, the social network for professionals launched its customised online newspaper, collecting articles shared by the networks users (around 90millions) and by twitter. LinkedIn users will be able to create separate news pages for the various industries they follow  and articles will appear in LinkedIn Today based upon how often they have been shared by members of LinkedIn and Twitter.
http://www.linkedin.com/today/

Europe/Spain : XII Congress of Digital Journalism in Spain
"In a few years there will be few paper newspapers," said Javier Moreno, El Pais director , at the opening of the XII Congress of Digital Journalism in  Huesca, Spain on March 10^th. Moreno pointed out the changes and challenges of journalism in the digital era, stressing that even if the platform is changing the aim and mission of journalism hav to remain the same as always: Providing a reference to inform public opinion and to encourage public debate.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Javier/Moreno/anos/pocos/muchos/dejara/haber/periodicos/papel/elpepusoc/20110310elpepusoc_3/Tes

28 February

Global/ Middle East : How New Forms of Journalism Help Follow  « Arab Revolutions »
Social networks, interactive maps, videos: the spontaneous revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and now Lybia are showing the world the democratic and freeing power of the web. To follow and mostly to testify and organize these revolutionary movements getting around States' censorship several social networks -especially Twitter - have been created by activists. The latest is "operation Lybia" created by the Anonymous activist's group on #oplibya  on Twitter, with pictures and videos. In all the Middle East area a series of hashtags for each Country have been created to avoid censorship (f.e. Egypte : #egypt #Moubarak #Jan25 #Jan26 #Tahrir #egypte , Libya: #feb17 #Libya #Gadafi #Gaddafi #tripoli #Libye #kadhafi #Benghazi #Baida #Misrata #GaddafiCrimes ; Tunisie: #sidibouzid #jasmin #jasminrevolt) . There are several interactive maps on the net where surfers can follow the manifestation and the attacks, such as Mamfakinch for Marocco and the Guardian's  maps.
http://www.telerama.fr/techno/comment-suivre-en-direct-le-printemps-arabe-sur-le-net,66093.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/feb/11/guardian-twitter-arab-protests-interactive
http://www.mibazaar.com/meprotests.html

Global/ UK: Churnalism.com Journalism or PRs?
The Churnalism.com webpage was created by the Media Standards Trust to compare press release and article putting them into a " churn engine" the results giving  articles a " churn percentage" on how much any article is been reproduced from publicity material. The results so far have shown that a surprisingly number of news stories consist in republishing or copy and paste press releases. The phenomenon shows on one hand some laziness in the media and on the other hand highlights concerns over the so called "journalism of the margins" , which gives more importance to news that were once confined to the in-brief sections.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/23/churnalism-journalism-story-penazzle

Europe/UK: STV 's Hyperlocal Network , Excellent Start'
The Scottish Broadcaster STV's hyperlocal network is  building up  a network of sites available online and on mobile devices that allow for geo-localisation of users.  The network, launched last September, has already smashed its first semester's goals, reaching so far a total of 19 sites launched in local authority areas covering a third of the Scottish population, including cities such as Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/stv-hails-excellent-start-for-hyperlocal-network/s2/a542967/

15 February

Global: Are iPhone Applications Killing PhotoJournalism?
Many media and several photography prizes raised the question of "fauxlaroids" produced by "Hipstamatic" and similar  iPhone applications which create special effects on pictures taken with the smartphone. One can wonder whether there is a difference between photojournalism and deceit, artistic photography when an image is deliberately modified for aesthetics and emotional reasons.
http://gizmodo.com/#!5756703/is-hipstamatic-killing-photojournalism

Europe/Slovakia: Two Beers Equal all the News !
Piano is a new concept to create a single payment system for all major local media group in Slovakia. For the price of three euros - the equivalent of two beers in Bratislava - readers will have access to full content of news articles on the internet. According to Tomas Bella, leader of the project that has been developed in cooperation with  major Slovak media actors, "This is unique because of its cheapness".
http://www.moneyville.ca/print/937871

Italy/US: Survey Compares the Information "Puzzle"
A research study from the University of Urbino Carlo Bo (Italy) has mapped Italians' habits in the use of media, comparing them with the practice in the  U.S . In Italy, different age groups prefer different media: people under the age of 40 prefer the internet (88% among under 30). In the U.S. online news are the most read with 61% of the readership among the population, compared to a small 17% of printed papers. Traditional newspapers in Italy are preferred by a 63% of adult population, but the national -and heavily politicised - television still wins the first place being the most popular medium with 90,8% .
http://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/2011/02/09/news/gli_italiani_e_l_informazione_tra_internet_radio_e_televisione-12272869/?ref=HREC1-9

Latin America/Panama : Mi Panamà Transparente Initiative to Report on Crime
Mi Panamà Transparente (My Transparent Panama) is a platform working as a model digital tool that can be used to cover crime and corruption in Latin America, developed by Panamanian journalists.  The platform is organised as a digital map that plots citizen-provided information about incidents from crimes. From October 2010 to February 2011, My Transparent Panama collected 287 citizen reports and 2610 unique visitors.
http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/en/node/4650

7 February

US/Global: Consolidation in Old and New Media
-US: The Huffington Post, the liberal blog with a small staff that draws some 25m visitors per month, has reached a 315m dollars deal with AOL for to create a new US media giant across the industry. The online newspaper was originally created by Ariana Huffington as a politics blog aimed at democrats, then turned itself into one of the biggest actors of online news media in the US.  With the AOL deal, Ms. Huffington will become president and editor in chief of a unit to be named Huffington Post Media Group, which includes management of AOL's sprawling news operations and other media enterprises.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2011/feb/07/huffington-post-sale-aol-ariana

-Global: Cosmopolitan owner Hearst acquired  102 magazines from French group Lagardère for a total amount of 651m euros. The deal includes a licence agreement for "ELLE" brand, following which Lagardère will receive an estimated  8m of euros annual royalty payment from Hearst. The sale includes titles across 15 countries-the U.K., US, Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, China, Japan, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, Canada and Germany
http://www.lemonde.fr/actualite-medias/article/2011/01/31/lagardere-vend-ses-magazines-internationaux-a-hearst_1473179_3236.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/31/lagardere-hearst

Canada: What Crisis? Newspaper Industry Still Has Faith in Printed Papers
Canadian newspapers are still profitable. In the past 12 months, shares in North America's top10 publicly traded newspaper firms have gained an average of 20.8 per cent. Readership is at its record levels despite the rise of digital world and growth in online news. More than three quarters of Canadian adults (77% )  read the print or online version edition of paper at least once per week. In total, more than 14.7 million Canadians read a paper each week. That's a portion of potential audience that no non-traditional medium comes close to matching.. According to the latest 2010 readership survey by NADbank, in Canada's top 10 markets readers are spending more than 3,8 hours a week with newspaper print editions.
http://www.moneyville.ca/article/937871--those-death-defying-newspapers

Europe: EU Court Case could Lead to TV Sports Rights Revolution
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is considering if EU law should allow pubs in Britain to show live premier League matches from foreign broadcasters.  ECJ Advocate-general Juliane Kokott issued a non-binding opinion arguing that banning foreign broadcasts was an infringement of EU single market rules. The case was brought to the European Court of Justice by Karen Murphy, landlady of a pub in Portsmouth, who used a Greek decoder card to show live Premier League matches broadcast by the Greek company Nova, instead of  using Sky or ESPN, which hold exclusive broadcast rights in the UK. If the ECJ follows Ms Kokott's opinion, the whole exclusive sports' rights market in Europe would be modified.
http://www.euractiv.com/en/sports/eu-court-case-herald-tv-sports-rights-revolution-news-501885

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