10,000 Words, an interactive site advising journalists on how to incorporate multimedia into their work, has posted a timeline of notable moments in citizen journalism. Among the examples are video taken from the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007 and Rathergate (the exposure of CBS's use of falsified documents) in 2004. Read the 10,000 Words post. - March 31, 2009
March 2009 Archives
The University of Minnesota, the student newpaper The Minnesota Daily, and news aggregator NewsCloud have launched the Minnesota Daily Facebook Application. The application will combine traditional journalism and citizen reporting, and seeks to become a hub of community news. Researchers will use the application to test how social networking sites can incorporate news and possibly create a working business model. Read the University of Minnesota press release.-- March 31, 2009
The Grafton Times launched today, covering news from Grafton, Mass. The site is run by Jack Schofield, an Internet entreprenuer who is familiar with online advertising. Read the Worchester Business Journal article.-- March 31, 2009
The Twin Cities' newspaper, the Star Tribune, will offer premium content to print readers before publishing it online. Editor Nancy Barnes wrote in a column that this move would reward those who purchased a hardcopy of the paper. The Star Tribune will continue to publish breaking news on its Web site free of charge. Read the paidContent.org article. -- March 31, 2009
Glam Media has launched another site that seeks to profit from Twitter and other microblogging platforms. Tinker.com acts as a microblogging filter for events and other breaking news. Tinker also has widgets so the conversations can be posted on websites or blogs. Read the Venture Beat article. --March 31, 2009
As their newspapers shut down or lay off workers, some former newspaper reporters have joined the ranks of their local public television stations. In Seattle, where the Seattle Public Intelligencer quit printing two weeks ago, 20 journalists now advise KCTS-TV. In St. Louis, the number is 14. Though these journalists are currently working as unpaid advisors, they are helping to provide context to local stories and deepening the local coverage that these stations provide. Read the article in Current. --March 31, 2009
The Bottom Line, a segment on Boston's National Public Radio station, compares the current state of journalism to the technology market, suggesting that we'll see many start-ups in next 10-20 years. Many of those start-ups are funded by foundations, such as the Knight Foundation or the Kaiser Family Foundation. Such ventures include Spot.us, Placeblogger, or Everyblock.com. Listen to or read the Bottom Line story.-- March 31, 2009
Two weeks after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped printing its newspapers and switched to an online-only site, traffic on the site has dropped by 20 percent. About 1.7 million viewers looked at seattlepi.com in January; the number now is closer to 1.3 million. A former Seattle PI reporter via paidContent.org attributes the decline to the dramatic reduction in staff. The Beyond Search blog argues that once the newspaper is gone, marketing the online content has to become the first priority. Read the Beyond Search post and the paidContent.org post. --March 30, 2009
Jack Shafer of Slate questions whether newspapers are really so vital to democracy. He argues that citizens would get their information about government from other venues if newspapers went under. "American newspapers have never been so loved as the moment when they appear to be dying," he writes. Read the Slate article. --March 30, 2009
In a study of 18-30 year-olds, Crawford, Johnson & Northcott found that young people have both a strong interest in local information and a willingness to see such information on their social networking sites. Thus, local news might be able to find a following on Facebook or MySpace that wouldn't normally be a part of their audience. Read the post from Broadcasting and Cable.--March 30, 2009
After the editor of News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., proposed that news sites charge micropayments for users who wish to comment on their stories, the Editor's Desk blog follows up. The media experts interviewed seem skeptical of the idea, which might limit public discourse. At best, they say it would work only for a few online sites. Read the Editors Desk post. -- March 30, 2009
Liberal news blog the Huffington Post is launching a new initiative to fund investigative journalism, called the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. The non-profit news organization will pay journalists for original content, which in turn can be posted anywhere online. The fund will be distinct from the online news site in both legal terms and in editorial content. Read the PressThink blog and Arianna Huffington's announcement. -- March 30, 2009
Twitter is hoping to start turning a profit by offering a premium version of the site for commercial users. The plan remains short on specifics. Some have criticized the site, which reaches 7 million unique users accounding to a Nielson estimate, for being slow to find a profit model. Twitter just hired its first staffer to focus on monetization this month. Read the Editors Weblog Post. -- March 30, 2009
A few of my newspaper editor friends have tweaked me recently about the reporting I've done on community news Web sites. All had the same question: Given these sites' mostly tiny size (audience, news content, revenue), haven't I been hyping their impact a bit?
It's a fair question. So is a related one that also comes up. Aren't many of these sites likely to fail because, despite valiant efforts by their creators, they'll be unable to generate sustainable advertising revenue?
Since coming to USC Annenberg last fall, I've reported extensively on the rise of community Web sites, in posts at OJR like this and, more recently, this. I've been impressed with the smarts and commitment of people like Joel Kramer at MinnPost and Margie Freivogel at St. Louis Beacon, and many others across the country who are rapidly joining the online parade.
The acting chairman of the FCC, Michael Copps, has said that the agency may need to reevaluate current cross-ownership restrictions in light of the current struggles in traditional media. Copps has not endorsed Nancy Pelosi's suggestion that the restrictions on cross-ownership of media be relaxed, but has indicated he is willing to consider adjusting the rules. Read the Multichannel News article.
Mark Josephson, the CEO of news aggregation site Outside.in, proposes a simple mantra to save newspapers: aggregate, curate, and network. First, newspapers should start to aggregate local content to attract readers with stories that affect their lives. Second, newspapers are uniquely poised to curate the information available online, by supplying their own editorial voice and separating the wheat from the chaff. Finally, newspapers need to partner with local media, blogs, and businesses to generate profits from their work. Read the Business Insider article.
Theodore F. di Stefano suggests in the E-Commerce Times that newspapers begin publishing weekly rather than every day. By publishing in-depth coverage of current news that is not available on the Web or in current weekly magazines, newspapers could offer a unique perspective that could prove profitable. It would require a change in the way newspapers cover the news, but could save them from going under, he says. Read di Stefano's article.
Daniel Finkelstein of the London Times muses on the possibility that the Kindle will prompt people to pay to subscribe to newspapers. He even suggests that the newspapers could give the Kindle away and then charge for content, noting that it costs the New York Times more to print and deliver their newspaper than it would be to purchase Kindles for its subscribers. Read Finkelstein’s column.
The response to Sen. Benjamin Cardin’s proposed legislation to help newspapers become nonprofits has been met with some criticism. James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal argues that the guidelines for nonprofits would prevent them from writing commentary on legislation and candidates, and thereby have a chilling effect on journalism. Read the Wall Street Journal post.
In the Cleveland Plain Dealer, columnist Kevin O’Brien goes farther, saying that newspapers must reject Cardin’s proposal. Read the Cleveland Plain Dealer column. Still others, including the editor of a Southern Maryland paper, note the prohibition on newspaper endorsements if they become nonprofits under Senator Cardin’s revitalization act. Read the article in The Capital.
Jim Walls, formerly of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has started a new site devoted to ethics and transparency in government. Atlanta Unfiltered will focus on public records, and shy away from any interpretation or opinion. Read the post from Altanta Unsheltered.
Given the fact that many newspapers seem headed toward nonprofit status anyway, it's perhaps not surprising that someone would try to make it official.
Legislation introduced this week by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland would enable newspapers to establish themselves as tax-exempt nonprofits and qualify for significant expense savings courtesy of Uncle Sam. Under the Cardin measure, they wouldn't have to pay income taxes on income derived from advertising sales. That's a big difference from existing IRS regulations, which customarily extract federal income taxes on advertising revenue derived by nonprofits. (There are a number of exceptions to this, including one that allows student publications to escape advertising-related income taxes.)
While Cardin's legislation probably qualifies as a longshot, at least anytime soon, it kicks into play an interesting public policy question as newspapers increasingly head to bankruptcy court or worse: Is there a role for government here that would help protect citizens' news and information needs?
U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin has introduced a bill, the Newspaper Revitalization Act, that would enable newspapers to restructure as non-profits by offering a variety of tax breaks. Though this might not save large conglomerates, Cardin hopes it will save local and community newspapers. Read the Reuters story.
No one has quite figured out how to harness Twitter’s popularity into a revenue stream. But the ad network, Federated Media, is about to try. The group has launched ExecTweets, a site sponsored by Microsoft, which aggregates Tweets from business executives. Twitter users can reply directly from the site, recommend new executives to follow and other community-oriented features. Read the blog post from Mashable.
The Rubicon Project is currently the third-largest online advertising company, after Google and Yahoo. The Los Angeles based company is now promising that their ad-optimization technology could increase online revenue for news outlets by 60 percent. Frank Addante, the company’s founder, suggests that technology that can adapt ads to the particular article in more sophisticated ways will increase profits for news outlets, eventually making up for the loss of advertising on the print side. Read the Los Angeles Times article.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that non-profit magazine Mother Jones has recently been fielding phone calls about their funding and operations. The investigative news magazine takes in money from advertising and circulation, but half of its funding comes from contributions. In this climate, some are looking to this magazine as a model for others. Read the San Francisco Chronicle story.
The director of the Journalism Initiative at the Carnegie Corporation, Susan King, discusses the difficulties in foundation-funded journalism. She cites the different measures that foundations and journalism use for successful work as one example. Journalists typically view a story’s success by the number of people who heard or read the story, while her foundation is more focused on engagement and impact. Read the Nieman Journalism Lab summary, and the PDF of King’s article.
GlobalPost, an online site devoted to international reporting, is launching Passport, a section of the site available only for paid subscribers. The site currently offers international news articles for free, but Passport will offer participants access to the GlobalPost correspondents, including the ability to suggest stories and receive email alerts from the journalists. This is the third prong of the GlobalPost business strategy; its free content is supported by advertising and other media outlets who pay to use GlobalPost content. Read the New York Times article here.
In a small Colorado town called Carbondale, residents lost their local paper at the end of 2008. Deprived of vital local happenings, a group of volunteers has started their own, non-profit newspaper. The team consists of seven volunteers with one editor, the only paid member of the staff. The news site relies on local advertisers for funding. Read the Los Angeles Times article.
The Financial Times has launched a new, business-oriented search engine called Newssift. The engine will focus on relevant databases, international business news outlets, professional sites, and other relevant sources. The search engine will be free to users and will depend on ad revenue for funding. Robin Johnson, CEO of Financial Times Search, says the company could begin charging for the service at a later date. Read the story on the Editors Weblog.
Some veterans of the digital news industry are iseeking financial backing for their start-up, currently called Prism. The company’s goal is to provide a platform for interested groups—from civic leaders to former journalists—to publish a news Web sites that can offer coverage equivalent to a daily newspaper. Prism will operate on a for-profit, franchise model, and is designed to help franchisees compete in large markets with a combination of original content and news aggregation. Read the Portfolio Article.
In response to a letter from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has affirmed his willingness to adjust antitrust policy to protect the newspaper industry. His stance could make it easier for newspapers to merge their non-news operations with one another, which could help them maintain financial viability. Read the full Reuters piece.
John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, two of the founders of Free Press, make their case for a $200 government tax credit for every American who wishes to subscribe to a newspaper. Though there would be restrictions on the kind of newspapers eligible for the credit (published at least five days a week, with a substantial news hole and less than 50 percent advertising), the tax credit would allow individuals to choose their news source, and give newspapers legs to stand on in the changing world of journalism. Read the piece in the Nation.
A report released by global marketing firm, JD Power and Associates, found that almost 40 percent of bloggers surveyed would pay for news content, or do already. The bloggers said they preferred a subscription service to other potential models. Said Janet Eden-Harris, vice president of the company’s Web Intelligence Division, “Monthly or yearly subscriptions to content appeal to bloggers more than paying by the article, because in contrast to the iTunes model—in which content is licensed for a long period of time—news articles are more transient and lose value quickly.” Read the JD Power and Associates Release.
Award-winning journalist and media executive Cinny Kennard has been appointed a 2009-2010 Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Communication’s Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.
Kennard will lead the Center’s development of a project on Women in Communication Leadership that will become a center for scholarly research, policy analysis, and professional executive training. Kennard will also contribute to the Communication Leadership & Policy blog and participate in other public programs.
SaleSpider.com has teamed up with the New York Daily News to form a new social networking site catering to small businesses. One key goal: helping businesses find information about government grants. Read World Editors Forum
The ground is shifting: The Washington Post is advertising for a new breed of journalist: "community journalists" who cover local civic concerns in the D.C. suburbs. Starting pay is in the $34,000 range, and the Post wants the reporters to live in the communities they cover. Read Washington City Paper
Harvey Levin, who heads the entertainment site TMZ, told journalism students that they need to think hard about drawing an audience if they hope to succeed in the news business. "You will need to convey information and engage the public in such a way that it will make it a business for you,"he said. Levin defended TMZ's recent saturation coverage of Rihanna by noting that it spoke to a much more important issue of domestic violence. Read SF Chronicle story
Outside.In's Mark Josephson has three words of advice for local Web site operators: Aggregate, curate, network. The result, he said, can be a virtuous cycle that draws an audience and advertising revenue to local sites. "Say what you will about ad networks, but they are big, growing and profitable," he writes. Read Mark Josephson's blog
It looks as though some relief may be in the works for newspapers in Washington state. Acknowledging the vital role of newspapers in a democracy, the Washington state House endoresed a bill Tuesday night that would provide newspapers with a 40 percent cut in their state business taxes through 2015. Read the Seattle Times story
For the beleaguered news industry, there's a rare upward trendline as it approaches next week's Freedom of Information observance. Congress passed a Freedom of Information Act upgrade last year. A new federal shield law seems within grasp. And President Obama is promising the most transparent government in history.
But on Monday, Lucy Dalglish will carry a decidedly un-sunny message to Florida's FOI Day celebration: The declining fortunes of mainstream media, she will say, could cripple efforts to fight government secrecy and preserve openness.
"The last 45 to 50 years, these critical issues have been led by the mainstream media," said Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee on the Freedom of the Press. If they no longer can afford that expensive fight, she said, "I don't see that bloggers are going to be able to pick it up."
As legacy and new media folks convened to discuss the future of news at last week's Journalism That Matters conference, an entrepreneurial spirit filled the air as journalists discussed elements within the industry they find necessary and those they can live without. The conference ended on an upbeat note when journalists were urged to avoid thinking, "How can I save a newspaper." Instead, Mark Briggs, CEO of Serra Media, advocated for reporters and editors to, "[focus] on a form of journalism that is entrepreneurial...and if it doesn't help save the institution, at least it will position the journalist to continue the important work beyond the life of that institution." USC Annenberg's Knight Digital Media Center is holding a boot camp on entrepreneurial journalism in May. Read the Poynter article
The Berkman Center unveils the Media Cloud, a new set of analytics for watching how news develops on the Web. When fully developed, Media Cloud could help analyze and visualize how news travels on the Web, how news coverage compares among media outlets and what news organizations are leaving out of their coverage. The developers are inviting us to go to Media Cloud, take a look and leave suggestions. Read the Nieman blog
Pioneering news site MinnPost is extending its business model with a new strategy: Asking followers to contribute specifically in support of a staff writer, David Brauer. MinnPost CEO Joel Kramer explains: "If it works, we’ll brag about it all over the country, and pay some of our bills, too.. What you will NOT get is public recognition…because David Brauer does not want to know which individuals are supporting him." So far, contributors have given $1,415. Read Leonard Witt's blog
The Obama administration introduced its plan to distribute $8 billion through grants to developing broadband projects by September 30, 2010. Though information regarding eligible recipients and other details remains unknown at this time, funded organizations will have two years to complete projects. From non-profit organizations to Telecom, the stimulus package has attracted interest from those eager to help the government spend their money. Read the Washington Post story
PBS' Frontline and Frontline/World have partnered with UC Berkeley's Investigative Reporting Program and ProPublica to launch an online investigation into the world of bribery. Foundations such as the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Shell and MacArthur funded the project that will exist as a site entitled, "The Business of Bribery." The investigation will take place over 10 weeks and include video, reports and in-depth interviews. Read the Editors Web Blog here
Philanthropist Eli Broad once expressed interest in buying the LA Times. Though he said Monday night that he has "regained [his] sanity since then," he also mentioned that newspapers should not be in the business of earning profits. "If several foundations are involved there is likely to be journalistic freedom," he said at a forum in New York. Read the Reuters article here
The Guardian has launched a new API that is playing to immediate mixed reviews. The API (Application Programming Interface) will allow all of the Guardian's content to be repurposed, but in a way that it hopes to advertising revenue. In the Guardian's Open Platform API, partners can build their own applications in exchange for carrying Guardian advertising. Guardian columnist Jeff Jarvis calls it a great deal but another digital leader, Dave Winer, begs to differ. Read the Guardian story
Against all the indictment of micro-payments from the new-media crowd comes this from Google's Eric Schmidt: For Web audiences in the 2 million to 20 million range, he told PBS' Charlie Rose, “you can imagine that you’ll have micropayments, not advertising, where you’ll pay a one cent, three cent, five cent for a view. And those tools and techniques are being developed now in the industry and I think are likely to be successful.” Read InfoValet's analysis of Schmidt's comments
Who would have guessed? The New York Times launches its "Local" Web site covering five communities in Brooklyn and the New Jersey suburbs. It's The Times' first big foray into citizen journalism and exploration of the Web's "hyper-local" space. Read the Wall Street Journal's blog.
The New York Times' David Carr isn't giving up on his idea of newspapers forming a pay wall around their content. His recommendation: A bit of good, old-fashioned collusion. Read the New York Times story.
Like many news-based magazines, Mother Jones is struggling to find a business model that survives both the recession and the digital revolution. Is its non-profit model the way of the future? Read the New York Times story
Kindle2 has gotten mostly favorable reviews as a reader of books and newspapers, but mixed reviews as a changemaker for the news business. Steve Rubel is unmixed. He thinks it may be the news media's last, best chance at salvation. Read Steve Rubel's blog
The demise of the TV analog signal has given stations more digital channels than they know what to do with. But a New York City station, WNBC, thinks it has one answer: creation of 24-hour local news channel. Creators think they can reach an audience of 5.7 million. Read the TV Week story
Simon Dumenco says he won't pay for a new gadget that has the news. What would he pay for? An iphone application that helps him navigate his way through the news cloud. Read the Advertising Age story
Is entrepreneurialism dead at newspapers? Not at the Bakersfield Californian, which is about to take its "printcasting" idea national. Read Business Week's story
It isn't taking long for laid-off journalists to sprout new journalistic ventures online. Mark Potts says not all of them are going to be viable, but notes that this kind of thing would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Read Mark Potts' blog
There's an added benefit to the idea of getting extra Web site revenue from readers' donations, writes Emily Sussman. They might also help shield the sites from undue advertiser pressure. Read Emily Sussman blog
Mark Briggs argues that the stars are aligned for a re-emergence of freelance reporting. And advantage goes to those who have been freelancing all along. Read Mark Briggs' blog
Martin Langeveld doesn't think much of Media News' idea of a home-based device that could print out individualized versions of the newspapers. But he would like to have the walnut-veneered printer that was tried way back in 1939. Read Langeveld's blog.
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