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(via @blockbusterbuzz)
links for 2009-10-13
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Author Archives: Joanna
links for 2009-10-12
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"…any journalist who fails to get to grips with social networking tools, or who allows their own online personality to be subsumed in corporate blandness and bla, will risk irrelevance and invisibility in the future."
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"The successful candidates, who will work from home or “anywhere with wifi”, will know their “tweets from their yelps”. The posts will be “properly paid positions” and not quasi-voluntary blogging positions, I’m told by someone with knowledge of the project."
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"In conclusion, while "[t]here is little question that iReport should be considered a success for CNN,…[i]n terms of enhancing public discourse, it is hard to consider iReport to be revolutionizing CNN – creative producers may use the mechanism in interesting ways, but the impact on overall editorial practice for such a behemoth is small."
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There are an adundance of other search engines around – some good, some bad, some just a little different – but there are a number which I’ve found useful for journalistic purposes over the past few months.
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"For what it’s worth, I believe everyone benefits from a scenario which sees hyperlocal sites and established, or traditional, media working together. Simply assuming that newspaper journalists will seek to rip off content from hyperlocal sites and pass it off as their own is as incorrect as newspaper journalists assuming hyperlocal bloggers are all members of the old green ink brigade. Both assumptions come from widely-quoted bad early examples and aren’t reflective of the majority now."
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"As "professionals", we see our job as delivering a high quality product that compels clients (shows we are worth the money) to action. This approach isn't always as collaborative as we'd like it to be, really. I hadn't really thought that though until we entered the wiki world, where collaboration isn't something that happens after the work is done. It is part of the work and that requires the work to happen in a transparent way, so people can really engage. "
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"…if you need to create a social media policy, think of it as enabling effective use rather than simply preventing problems. "
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"Be selective with your innovation. Keep as much of your product predictable, so people can find their way to the gem of awesome that you have pioneered. Too much innovation means you'll have to individually teach each user how to love your product and you don't have time for that. "
links for 2009-10-08
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You'll notice that our contributors are (mostly) using headshots or other pictures of themselves in their avatars. Of course, we'd love it if the majority of users did likewise – we want to see your faces! – but don't expect everyone to follow suit.
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"I’m not, and I doubt many average news consumers, are suffering from a lack of information, but I do know that many suffer from a lack of context. "
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Midland News Association, publisher of the Express & Star, the UK's biggest regional paper by paid-for circulation, will use ITN's video news content on its websites.
links for 2009-10-05
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"Thinking about tomorrow isn't enough any more."
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"So how do media’s products become Media as a Service (MaaS)? This is not just about putting up a pay wall and charging a subscription fee. Rhapsody tried that in music and the Financial Times has done it in print, both with limited success. The “S” in MaaS is not an afterthought or tacked on, it is the entire ecosystem attached to the content. "
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"The company kept defining itself as a newspaper company, not a news organization (or, better yet, a community builder). Everything it did was based on how it would impact the paper edition. The focus was not on competing with web properties and services, but on the other major newspaper in town, the Denver Post. "
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"A large chunk of that charging is likely to take place in the mobile sphere ,with 56% saying they expect to develop "paid for" apps in the next 12 months. These will not just be aimed at iPhone users, but BlackBerry, Nokia and handsets running Google's new Android platform too. "
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A New York-based anarchist has been arrested by the FBI and charged with hindering prosecution after he allegedly used the social networking site Twitter to help protesters at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh evade the police.
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The Standard editor, Geordie Greig, said the Standard board made its decision on its own but informed Associated, which remains a minority shareholder after selling 75.1% of the Standard to a consortium led by Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev in February.
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"The phrase 'We Know What They Want' is a kissing cousin to 'If It Bleeds, It Leads'; murders sell papers and a news editor is always going to put the big crime story at the top of the newslist, but… a violent death isn't always the best story of the day, and not all readers appreciate being served up a diet of crime. "
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A third-party Wave extension called Ribbit lets users initiate conference calls inside of the program as well as the ability to call a designated phone number and have audio transcribed into the document.
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So what will more cuts mean to the company's regional news coverage. More importantly, will we in Liverpool notice any more cuts from the Manchester-centric Granada news coverage?
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"The survey shows the majority incorrectly assumed readers found their content very valuable; they also stated a belief that readers would struggle to find adequate replacements – the reader response was that they wouldn't find it difficult. "
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"At the one extreme, local councils had denied access and even been accused of making late-night pressuring calls to remove material, while at the other end of the scale, some more enlightened council press officers treated the new news sources in the same way as the established local newspaper."
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Hartley noted news pioneers are often community activists, too, and that many local news blogs are popping up run by such activists to fill the gap left when local papers get closed.
links for 2009-10-04
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My reading of newspapers is almost entirely informed (to the extent that I’m aware of it) by a single chapter from Marr’s ‘My Trade’. Well, along with the excellent Ben Goldacre’s writings.
links for 2009-10-01
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The UK ad market will not properly recover until 2011, according to a report that downgrades global ad forecasts and pours cold water on hopes that the market would bottom out before Christmas.
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Men’s clothing brand Topman has launched social media profiles across Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube to build awareness of its expanded Oxford Street store.
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"Brands can’t underestimate the power of inviting user-generated content to their website as this is how more consumers are choosing to communicate. Inviting discussion and interaction online allows organisations to reach a wider audience while raising awareness of their key message. "
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"The presenter, who left the BBC during the summer, also said that there was far too much opinion on BBC news programmes, and not enough straight reporting of facts."
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"Thus – another prediction for you – in 2 years time you won't be able to tell the difference between a Twitter client and an email one functionally. We will all have ThunderTweet and Microsoft Tweetlook on our systems by then (or more likely Thunderbird et al will handle Twts and emails). Or we will all have Google Wave I suppose…… (who will win the Next Gen Comm Client War – answers on a Twtcard)"
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"The last radio broadcaster to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, the Local Radio Company, was today delisted from the Alternative Investment Market. The 12-strong radio group, which has been majority-owned by UKRD since May, cancelled its listing at 7am, at a closing price of 4p per share."
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"MySpace users in those countries will now be able to access unlimited streaming of songs and albums and a deal with Apple enables users to purchase tracks from iTunes."
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"As money becomes tighter as traditional media outlets become either non-existent or more and more restrictive to how much they cover and the scope of their coverage, I think social media is going to play an increasingly important role in local campaigns because they are all we have," Smith said."
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You’ve still got two weeks to come up with the brilliant idea that’ll save journalism — or, to be more realistic, an idea that’ll earn some Knight Foundation cash and let you try something new and innovative. And unlike last year, you can choose to keep that idea secret until the cash arrives.
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He explained that the BBC is not only working on a new homepage and the underlying hosting platform, but his team is currently researching "what the next generation in social media will be".
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"Here are a few take-aways on the paid models:
– According to our assumptions, the main site of the fully paid model loses millions throughout the 3-year period.
– In three out of four scenarios, the main site in the hybrid model is profitable in year 3 (with the B-to-C and B-to-C services, it could be profitable in year 2).
– Profitability rises along with the level of free content." -
"In 2007, before the advertising slump hammered the media industry, just 46% of respondents to the AOP survey were considering charging for content."
links for 2009-09-30
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Dropbox, one of our favorite cross-platform file-syncing tools, has now made its way to the iPhone and iPod touch, complete with offline file viewing.
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"So you’ve got to know that synergy doesn’t actually mean synergy in this book. I can’t do normal synergy. No, in this book, synergy means cartoon foxes. What I’m saying is: this book will be starting off with an exorbitant amount of cartoon foxes." I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!
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This is awesome!
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As a brand already in this space, you already know WHERE the conversation is taking place, you already know what is being said, and there is a good chance you know who the people are saying it and the sentiment of the comments being said. Why on earth would you need a BiP Page?
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"I’m a self-confessed and unashamed news junkie and this is how I’m starting to mash up news in my local area. For those that aren’t local, Sutton is a London borough with a population of approximately 180,000. Stonecot Hill is a neighbourhood within Sutton with a population of a few thousand."
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"…as online maps become more sophisticated, so are the tools used to create them. The following are free tools that have additional functionality beyond point-and-click mapping, but are still relatively easy to use. "
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"After dissecting over 3,000 tweets from more than 350 TwitterTwitterTwitter users’ status updates the professors concluded that 80% of users are “meformers,” or “Me Now” status updaters." <— I am surprised "Questions to Followers" wasn't a bigger category.
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"So while the main Guardian.co.uk website will remain free (Bell recently reacted strongly in rejecting a pay wall for Guardian.co.uk), it appears that its iPhone app itself will be paid-for"
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"The Labour party will wait to see if the Sun's switch will be followed by other News Interntational papers. The Times has always been a strong supporter of New Labour, while the Sunday Times has more frequently backed the Conservatives."
links for 2009-09-29
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"So yes, there are some journalist gatekeepers in here – the newspapers being the strongest of those examples – but, valuable though that activity can be, doesn’t this gatekeeping rather undersell what a journalist can bring to the world?"
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"Where you can publish your own printed magazine."
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What I did last weekend. In summary: We blew up a holodeck and then Cybermen invaded.
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The policy is aimed at preserving the appearance of objectivity rather than its actual existence. It focuses on what journalists are perceived to be, rather than what they actually do.
Looking into the guts of journalism
Paul Bradshaw, as seems to be his way, is totally on the money when he points out that the Washington Post’s leaked social media strategy is heavily influenced by the brand’s need to preserve an image of objectivity.
Objectivity in journalism may be a honorable aim but, if you’re going to be pragmatic about it, the idea that it exists in reality is total bunk.
Transparency, Paul argues, is a much better aspiration:
Transparency is hastening the demise of the already crumbling notion of journalistic objectivity; but it also represents the best hope for journalistic integrity – and ultimately, for many journalists that was what the pursuit of objectivity was about.
On a personal level I feel much more comfortable and honest attempting to make as much of the process of news production transparent. I try and do it for myself as much as I can.
The problem, I think, is the power of the “objectivity” lie. However and for whatever reason it was created, people do seem to cling to it.
Media-savvy commentators like Paul know that this industry is a system of complex interests and it is made up of many well-meaning, bright, motivated and, ultimately, falliable human beings. But does everyone else?
My experience is that many people massively overestimate the ability of journalists to create “objective” news stories. However, when their experience demonstrates to them that this is not happening, they move to the other extreme and assume we are all guilty of consciously peddling outright lies.
By opening up the guts of the journalism process through true transparency – not a faux version designed to placate disgruntled readers – a news organisation may find that in the short-to-medium term the policy creates little more than a swathe of disillusioned readers.
That’s a scary prospect for any news brand, especially if you consider competitors such as the BBC will not be dropping their objectivity claims any time soon.
I guess anyone brave enough to go through such a change would have to be very clever about how they nurture, educate and explain the process to their readers.
I would, of course, love to hear from anyone who has gone through it.
links for 2009-09-28
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"Our reptilian brain, or survival brain (as I call it), doesn’t care what you’re reporting on Twitter unless it pertains to us. Will it help us survive by giving us information that will help us keep our job? Will it help us reproduce by making us wittier or better looking? Will it at least make us laugh? It has to be rewarding for the reader. "
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"Sky News has agreed a deal with research company YouGov to issue daily online polls about the Conservative and Labour party conferences."
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"Virgin Media has signed a seven-figure deal with EA Sports to promote the launch of its flagship football game Fifa 10 across its portal."
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Journey with Sir David Attenborough as he shares his favourite moments from the last 30 years of wildlife film making. Dive into the BBC's archive, explore the wealth of video, sound, stories and breaking news, and let the greatest show on Earth unfold.
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"So what’s going to happen in this imminent limbo stage – when journalism enters an intermediate ‘state of nature’? Allow me to imagine…"
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Here, five former mainstream media reporters share their tips and best advice for creating a startup journalism site.
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" …save for June's blip, news site traffic has been largely at a standstill since the New Year."
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"Media Wales, which publishes the Western Mail, the South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the Celtic series of weekly papers, announced yesterday that it would be cutting 13 jobs."
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"In this article, we’ll show you how to select an online mapping project that meets your needs and fits within your budget, and provide a detailed overview of a range of Google mapping technologies that can help your organization put its cause (literally) on the map."
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"Newsroom Guidelines for Use of Facebook, Twitter and Other Online Social Networks
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“Core loyalists,” who visit a newspaper 2-3 times a day for 20 days a month, comprise 25% of unique visitors. Not surprisingly, then, core loyalists account for 86% of pageviews and are “overwhelmingly local.”
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"Access to information is important, sure, and innovative distribution models are to be explored, too, but it all comes down to the power of branding, the power of your voice. Distinction saves you from extinction. What do you stand for? What do you know? What do you have to offer as a handle on the world, a firm point of view in a world that is increasingly complex and full of ambiguity?"
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"News has conducted some audience research here in Australia and in the UK and U.S., which gives us confidence that, if we get the product and delivery system right, people will happily pay for news content online, on their computer, mobile, e-reader or other devices."
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So maybe, what could happen in towns where we lose papers are collectives or co-operatives where journalists and the community work together to create print and hyperlocal. There are issues with economy of scale and more to be thought about – but is this impossible?