Monitoring Change in Journalism - April 2010 Archive

29 April

 

France: Social Media Club Told Journalists to Create More Interactive Multimedia

The Social Media Club, a group of French journalists specialised in new media, argued that journalists should produce more interactive multimedia in order to attract audiences. They said journalists should look to movies and television for ideas to present their news in a more attractive and interactive way.  

http://socialmediaclub.fr/2010/04/le-storytelling-digital-formes-emergentes-nouveaux-metiers-business-models/

 

28 April

Australia: Nine Network to Become the First Broadcaster Offering 3D Live Programmes

The Australian broadcaster Nine Network will roll out its 3-dimensional (3D) programmes in June offering 3D rugby matches to audiences. It will become the first broadcaster in the world to offer 3D live programmes. According to the management, the company wants to take a lead in the 3D market as TV manufacturers started selling 3D capable TV sets.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63R0MR20100428

 

Italy:Corriere della SeraJoins European Network to Expand English Reporting

The Italian daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera, announced plans to join the European media including Spiegel, NRC Handelsblad and Politiken to increase its English reporting across Europe. Partners of the project will collaborate to produce English-language online coverage of European affairs. The collaborative project started in 2008 with the aim of increasing English-language reporting and media diversity across Europe.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,691478,00.html

 

27 April

 

UK: Times to Introduce Paid Online News Forum

The Times has announced plans to launch an exclusive online news forum as part of its paid package to be introduced in June. A new website with interactive features will be rolled out to provide "multimedia information and entertainment" to readers who will be able to interact with the Times’ journalists and columnists. Starting in June, the Times will charge readers £1 for a day pass and £2 for a weekly subscription. Similar features have been introduced recently by the Economist.com (MCJ 19April 10) and the US online paid forum “Civil Beat” (see MCJ 22 April 10).

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45358&c=1

 

 

23 April

 

US: Online Newspapers Record High Traffic, Study Says

Online newspapers have proven more and more popular. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) revealed that US online newspapers attracted an average of 74.4 million unique visitors a month in the first quarter of 2010. The figures also show that local newspapers websites attract the most traffic. 57% respondents said that local newspaper website is one of the top online sources for local information.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004085805

 

22 April 2010

 

US: - Paid Online News Forum Offers to”Save Journalism"

Successful businessman and founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, is to lend his entrepreneurship to "save the media industry" by launching a paid online news forum in May. Readers have to pay $19.99-a-month for the membership of the news forum. They will be able to interact with reporters who host online discussions on heated topics that affect their communities. The entrepreneur hopes the new business model will reinvent journalism and make readers pay for content.

http://www.civilbeat.com/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100421/ap_on_hi_te/us_ebay_founder_news

 

 

- News Groups Form Collaborative Reporting on Climate Change

A group of news organisations including Wired, the Atlantic,theCentre for Investigative Reporting, Slate,Mother Jones,Reuters and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is to form a collaborative project called Climate Desk on climate reporting.  The project claims to fill the gap of climate reporting when most news organisations face deep budget cuts and lack resources to cover these issues.  The project is manly funded by the Surdna Foundation for journalism and the Park Foundation for environmental policy in the US.

http://theclimatedesk.org/about

 

UK: Reuters.uk Considers Charging Content After Revamp

Reuter is considering charging ‘niche’ and ‘high-value’ content after its UK website undergoes a revamp. The move came after Reuter received positive responses from advertisers for the revamp of its website in the US. However, Reuters is yet to decide if the paid model will be a sustainable business strategy.

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/997956/Reuters-overhaul-website-hints-charging-content/

 

20 April

 

US: Pioneer Online Magazine Faces Closer Two Years after Launch

The online magazine Flyp announced that it is closing its operation and laying off a dozen of its staff as the company struggles to sustain the business. Flyp was first launched in 2008 offering readers multimedia content incorporating texts, images, videos and animations. It has partnered with the business magazine Fortune.com to produce interactive content. Recently, it was nominated among the top five online magazines for a Webby award (the international award honoring excellence on the Internet) along with the Economist, National Geographic, the New Yorkers and Wired.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gTRDlrRYGgglqOzbROFDhmBpRclwD9F692IO1

http://www.flypmedia.com/

 

 

UK: Survey Says Media Consumption Increases But Spending Decreases

A recent survey shows that people in the UK are spending more time on media products (i.e. TV, music, video games, newspapers and magazines) but are spending less money buying these products. In particular, spending on traditional media such as newspapers and magazines decreased by almost 20%, and spending on digital media has almost halved in the last six months. Around 19% to 21% respondents in the survey said they paid nothing for the magazines and newspapers. However, the survey shows that younger consumers (aged 16 to 24) are more likely to pay for online digital content than their older counterparts. Almost half of them said they would pay for online television programmes, films and music but only 30% would pay for online newspapers and magazines.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/19/media-consumption-survey

 

19 April

 

The Netherlands: RNW to launch ‘Visual’ Radio Programmes in the Middle East

The Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) announced the launch of its first ‘visual’ radio services providing live graphics, web content and interactive SMS and Twitter feeds to radio audiences. In collaboration with the international broadcast services company, the World Radio Network, the service will first be broadcasted to the RNW’s audience in the Middle East.  According to the management of the RNW, the new services can help traditional radio broadcasters to reach a wider audience through 24-hour TV channel and to create potential new revenue streams.

http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/rnw-partners-with-wrn-to-launch-radio-with-pictures

 

UK: Economist.com Launches ‘Conversation Cloud to Encourage Intellectual Discussions’

The Economist launched a new tool called ‘Conversation Cloud’ to aggregate comments on the site’s articles to let users discover the most debated topics more easily. The idea of Conversation Cloud is based on the research findings that people mostly read the comments before an article to decide whether it is interesting. The Conversation Cloud will allow users to search the most read and debated topics on Economist.com. The Economist.com is also considering integrating its activities on social media sites to attract younger readers.

http://www.nma.co.uk/news/economist-adds-tools-to-highlight-most-debated-content/3012228.article

 

 

15 April

 

France: France 24 Signed Deal to Expand Coverage in North America  

France 24, the French international news broadcaster signed a three-year deal with the global broadcast services company, GlobeCast, to expand coverage of its English-language channels in the United States and Canada. The deal will allow France 24 to reach 90% of the American cable market, as well as to consolidate its development in Canada.  

http://www.france24.com/en/20100415-13-april-2010-france-24-expands-coverage-north-america-with-globecast

 

 

US: Increasing News Sites Run by Think Tanks Raises Concerns over Ethical Journalism

As traditional media organisations struggle to survivethe number of news organisations run by think tanks is growing. These news organisations are sponsored by resourceful think tanks that often offer better pay to their ‘journalists’ than traditional media organizations. However, their news coverage mostly focuses on government and politics with a specific agenda. This phenomenon, which shows that partial reporting is becoming increasingly popular, has led to growing concerns among journalists, civil society groups and the public as most of these news organisations lack transparency and their biased coverage often presents a conflict of interest.  

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/ap_on_re_us/us_think_tank_journalism

 

 

14 April

 

Global: Twitter Offers Guidelines to News Organisations

The popular social networking site, Twitter, launched a new guideline for news organisations on how to better use the site to ‘transform media, entertainment and journalism’. The site offers tips and case studies to both journalists and news organisations on how to better connect twitter fans.

http://media.twitter.com/

 

 

13 April

 

US: Online News Sites Awarded Pulitzer Prizes

Mark Fiore of the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, the online investigative news portal, ProPublica and the New York Times magazine won a Pulitzer Prize for their collaborative reporting. This is the first time the internet-only based work is recognised by the Pulitzer Prize, one of the prominent journalism prizes to award the best in US literature, journalism and music. As news organisations face tougher financial situations, online news websites are becoming mainstream. The administrator of the Prizes said they will expect more collaboration between traditional and new media organisations in the future.

http://www.pulitzer.org/

 

 

12 April

 

UK: New Tool Launched for User Generated Content  

Media organisations can now use the online platform, Civicboom, to call on users to contribute content to their news stories. Civicboom can be added to a news organisation’s website and used to request news and information from readers and audiences. Readers can send their news updates (including articles, photos and videos) to the news organisation. These contents will then be approved by the site editors and used online. News organisations can also sell these contents to third parties but users can enjoy "part of the revenues ", according to Civicboom .

http://www.civicboom.com/

 

 

US: Print and Broadcast Journalists Feel Pessimistic about the Future of Journalism

In another poll conducted by the Pew Research Centre, a majority of print and broadcasting journalists said they feel pessimistic about the future of journalism. 48% of editors surveyed in the poll said that their organisations will go out of business in 10 years if they cannot find new revenue streams to sustain the business. Only 18% of print media have already started the process of charging content online but more than half of it have plans to do so in the future. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/business/media/12pew.html?ref=media

 

9 April

 

US: Huffington Post Blurres Further Distintions Between Media and Social Network With Upcoming All-Twitter Edition

The Huffington Post, the popular news site based in the US announced the launch of an all-twitter edition for its news content. All 19 news sections of the site, including its most popular sections on politics and technology, will use Twitter lists and update popular posts in real time. According to the Post, the move aims at fully integrating social networking into its news coverage to engage readers with live reporting. According to management, the site is "partly a social network and partly a news content site".

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-huffpo-launches-separate-twitter-edition-more-focus-on-real-time-news/

 

8 April

 

US: Top Journalism School to Integrate "Computer Science" in Journalism Course

One of the top journalism schools in the US, the Columbia University, announced plans to integrate "computer science" in its journalism course offering prospective students a dual master degree in journalism and computer science. According to the school, journalism education has to respond to the fast changing media landscape to prepare a new generation of professional journalists with the technical knowledge needed ‘to create new and exciting digital media technologies that could redefine journalism’. Students will be able to enroll on the course in autumn.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/columbia-to-offer-journalismcomputer-science-degree-20100408-rsqp.html

 

7 April

 

UK & US: Social Media Only Diverts 1% Traffic to News sites

A recent survey shows that media organisations and professions might have over-estimated the power of social media to disseminate news. The survey shows that Twitter drives less than 1% traffic to major US newspaper and magazine sites while Facebook only drives 1% to these sites. In the UK, Twitter diverts less than 1% traffic to major UK newspaper websites like the Mail, the Telegraph and the Guardian.

http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/04/twitter_drives_less_than_1_of_traffic_to.php

 

2 April

 

US & Canada: ‘Longer Hours, Heavier Workloads Persist’, Media Survey Says

A recent survey conducted by PRNewswire, a global PR company based in the US, shows that a majority of journalists and public relation workers in the US and Canada suffer from increasingly long working hours and greater workloads as a result of the converging media landscape. The survey results show that journalists in the US and Canada are expected to contribute to online news sites such as the publications’ blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. These extra responsibilities add an increasing amount of workload on most journalists. Thus, journalists are doing more with less content as much of online content is merely repeating offline publications.

http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/prnewswire/43321/

 

 

US: AP Creates Regional Investigative Teams

Following many lay-offs worldwide last year, the Associated Press (AP) announced plans to set up four regional investigative teams that will serve as a resource for AP journalists across the country. The investigative teams will contain "multimedia specialists" who will incorporate different media formats for investigative journalism. In a memo to its staff, the management particularly stressed the importance of multimedia in its reporting. It said that the company will pour more resources to develop multimedia skills among its staff in the coming years. 

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004080616