Comment and links covering online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging, podcasts, vodcasts, interactive storytelling, publishing, Computer Assisted Reporting, searching and all things internet.
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:18 am
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1. Newspapers must have to have a clear digital vision, for which leadership from the top is vital.The most interesting point for me here is about software developers. Journalists need to realise they're not as important as they used to be: news has become more than ever a service, and the power and functionality of that service is increasingly down to developers. Content is still important, but when the readers are producing as much as the paid staff, facilitating the conversation depends on effective technologies.
2. Staying close to users is more important than ever before. Newspapers have to listen to readers and make sure they are given what they desire, a reversal of the traditional top-down news model.
3. Innovation must be used for learning purposes. Newspapers can't be afraid to
fail. They must experiment and take risks to see what works. (McCall cited The
Guardian's blog experiment, Comment is Free, which has hundreds of contributing bloggers and dozens of comments on each post).
4. Software developers are now just as important as journalists.
5. Newspapers must drive digital revenue growth.
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:06 am
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 8:37 am
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"Our idea is to make Sun readers the next editors of the website. One of the key drivers of the Sun is how much the readers get involved. They really respondThere's that 'community editor' role again. Take a look at MySun here.
to us, they write in, they ring in, they have the attitude that it's their paper
and we are just the staff that look after it for them," Pete Picton, Sun online
editor, told Journalism.co.uk.
"The new feature allows readers [to] start a blog, join debates and contribute their stories, pictures and comments on breaking news.
"MySun has a six-strong team dedicated running the project in which a
community editor, hired specifically to run the feature, oversees a team of
editorial moderators."
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 4:34 pm
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The relaunch looks to take advantage of the recent popularity of social networking. "We have always let people interact with the website to a degree,” Matt Loney, ZDNet UK site director, told Journalism.co.uk, “but now what we are doing is allowing people to log in and collect all the stuff they need together; it's like a MySpace for geeks."
At first glance, it's easy to dismiss this as another organisation jumping on the MySpace bandwagon, but look a bit deeper and we may be seeing a window into the future of magazines.
To begin with, ZDNet plans to create a new post of community editor: “a hybrid marketing/editorial job - to moderate discussions, grow the community and create a dialogue with the readership."
This role is not a new idea, but it’s an indication of where the ‘Editor’ role in magazines may be heading: not managing the publication, but managing the community.
In other words, journalists are part of the process, but as only one catalyst for discussions among many, rather than as the product itself.
Meanwhile, the previous editorial role of selecting, arranging and prioritising stories begins to pass to the reader, who decides “what they want, [and] how they get it”
Loney outlines features that “list the most-read, discussed and popular items on the site as well as highlighting readers' contributions by drawing attention to the talkback [reader's comment] of the day.”
Of course this is only one, very technology-friendly, publication dipping a toe into the possibilities of social networking, but look a century on, to a world of ubiquitous internet and virtual community, of active consumers and advertisers who expect to know everything about their market, and you can imagine magazines having transformed from an object you read, to online communities of interest you engage in and contribute to.
And you’ll be able to read it in the bath, too.
Paul Bradshaw lectures on the Journalism degree at UCE Birmingham media department. He writes a number of blogs including the online journalism blog (http://ojournalism.blogspot.com), interactive pr (http://interactivepr.blogspot.com), and web and new media (http://webandnewmedia.blogspot.com).
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 11:02 am
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 10:01 am
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"ZDNet UK plans to create a new post of community editor - a hybrid marketing/editorial job - to moderate discussions, grow the community and create a dialogue with the readership."But what is also happening here is one outcome of the movement towards reader empowerment, where the reader not only contributes to, but actually makes the publication:
"We will still have our lead stories giving people an overview of what is going on because we have got a dozen people on staff monitoring the industry," Matt Loney, ZDNet UK site director, told Journalism.co.uk.Looking (much) further ahead, in 100 years time will newspapers and, more likely, magazines have transformed into online communities of interest? Facilitated by editors and fuelled by specialist journalists, yes - but with the focus on the conversation, not on the articles.
"But equally a big part of this redesign was to let the reader decide what they want, how they get it and to give them more control over that because if we don't do that someone else will.
"We have always let people interact with the website to a degree, but now what we are doing is allowing people to log in and collect all the stuff they need together; it's like a MySpace for geeks."
"The technology news provider, which currently has more than two million unique users every month, will now have a free subscription feature in which users can blog, track discussions and set up alerts on new postings based on author, subject matter and keywords.
"Features also list the most-read, discussed and popular items on the site as well as highlighting readers' contributions by drawing attention to the talkback [reader's comment] of the day.
"It is intended that the community editor will spur further debate and encourage the readership to bring its collective knowledge to the site though comments, forums and blogs."
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 8:44 am
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 11:21 am
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I was also talking with someone who works for a Johnson paper last night who sees another motivation for the move to video: when you're producing video news, you don't need a subeditor. Good point."Like Bradshaw, I was puzzled by a report on journalism.co.uk last week decribing how Trinity Mirror plans to "re-launch all its regional and local newspaper websites by the end of the year to refocus on interactive elements" -- because the article goes on to describe nothing but video plans for the "interactive" website.
"Unless your users are producing it, "interactivity" just isn't the right word. Video is not only linear, watching video is fundamentally passive. At least print requires the consumer to take some sort of action in order to acquire each word."
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 11:13 am
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:29 am
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Perhaps the genuine interactivity that the BBC and Guardian have done so well for years represents too much of a paradigm shift for their competitors - a change in thinking about how we tell stories. I only hope that the current changes in print don't stop at filming the sports editor reading out his latest scoop.
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:58 am
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:56 am
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"Richmond explains the need to serve fragmenting audiences - giving them different material through different channels at different times of the day - and to be humble enough to give them what they want. He points to the importance of journalists who specialise because their knowledge will be sought. Similarly, he acknowledges the pulling power of personalities whose opinions are sought. These will build audiences through their blogs."He also points to the need for speed. Breaking news has to go up online asap. Reporters must "work like an agency reporter" by filing copy "in chunks" to get the basics up first and then adding quotes, context and background in subsequent postings. And here's the rub: "If you have an exclusive, you have to be honest about whether it will hold until the print edition tomorrow. If it won't, publish it now and be first. A scoop is a scoop, whatever the medium."
"Turning to the problem of monetising content, Richmond acknowledges that charging people - through subscription or one-off payments (aka micro-payments) - will not work. Advertising remains the best hope of providing an income stream. And this will depend, of course, on winning an audience for the editorial content.
"Finally, he touches on the ownership of content in a world where search engine giants, such as Google, can point people to thousands of sources in an instant. It costs Google nothing to provide and costs the searcher nothing to receive. But he is not keen on the proposal - by Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing at The Guardian - to develop some kind of licensing system for content, arguing that it is "vulnerable" because some search engine might offer such a service and then simply refuse to pay. Instead, Richmond places greater faith in the development of specialist and personality journalism which, he claims, is "harder to break it up." I have to say that that's an interesting approach."
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:09 am
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:33 am
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"you don't copy and paste. You need to add value if you go to a different channel.
"As a newspaper you shouldn't copy the BBC, or you shouldn't copy Channel 4 radio, you should do your own thing with audio and video.
"This is where some newspapers, I think, are making mistakes, they just try to be the BBC but they are a newspaper."
"The whole idea of audience orientation seems to be quite new for some newspapers, in the past it was more 'we know what is good for our readers and so we distribute the content.'
"We are trying more to say 'we are a service company and our service is information, news, this content, and we serve our audience with the things they want to know and on the platform where it is comfortable for them to consume it.'
"You start from the audience, what they want is a very important point but still you are not doing just what the audience says otherwise you are just a mainstream paper, at the same time you keep your core values."
"It's about target groups and the vision I have is that at the next stage you have editors that are responsible for a certain target group. They take the channels and the content they then need to serve that certain target group.
"I think this is far ahead because it is a completely different way of commissioning."
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:03 am
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Given that columnists have traditionally earned higher salaries than journalists, and bloggers are the new columnists, is this really that surprising?"Robin Hamman has spotted some interesting data from US job site Indeed.com: bloggers are commanding higher salaries than journalists.
"The finding is based on data from 226 advertised jobs for experienced bloggers, from a very diverse range of companies, including US National Public Radio.
"The advertised salary for “bloggers” was $39,000 while “reporters” were offered an average of $36,000 and jobs for “journalists” commanded just $27,000."
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 8:59 am
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 12:50 pm
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"I Was There: the People’s Review 2006, will be presented by ITV News presenter Katie Derham and will include material gathered from mobile phones, camcorders and other personal devices.
"The hour-long special will revisit news stories from 2006 from the viewpoints of the people who experienced them first-hand, and highlights the growing importance of citizen journalism."
The production of the show belies just how little citizen journalism is integrated into ITV: "A nationwide campaign has now begun to encourage viewers to gather and send in material for the review, which will be broadcast later this year."
Call me cynical, but I'm expecting the Lunchtime News meets You've Been Framed.
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 12:34 pm
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posted by Paul Bradshaw at 12:22 pm
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"video archive and distribution service that enables journalists from around the world to find, preview and download free broadcast-standard video and other multimedia content over the Internet."Save this story on del.icio.us / Digg this story
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 8:37 am
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"He tells EPUK that the future of the Telegraph’s photojournalism lies in shooting video.
“Digital stills photography will, when we look back on it, form a very small period of time in the history of photojournalism."
“Telegraph photographers will undoubtably be shooting solely on video in the future, and certainly within a year we hope to be well advanced down that route.”
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:34 am
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"Digital revenue was expected to be £59 million, up 55%, driven mostly by B2B acquisitions.
"Tom Moloney, group chief executive, said: "Digital revenue has grown by 55 per cent, led by B2B, and is on target to more than double over the next three years, as we continue to migrate resources onto faster growth platforms and reshape the group for growth."
"Emap spent £15 million on new product development in the period, £5 million more than last year, focusing primarily on digital initiatives.
"underlying revenue from its international consumer magazines business is expected to be down 18 per cent"
posted by Paul Bradshaw at 9:16 am
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...or sign up to the Online Journalism Google Group
Once upon a time I was Editor of Internet Monthly magazine. Then I moved from writing about the web to creating it, from creating it to lecturing about it, and now a mixture of all the above.
