No, not just one edition, the whole mag – for more than the $42,000 asking price.
Previous publisher Tim Lindquist is in negotiations with the new buyer – a last minute bidder.
Tags: eBay, Hardcore Gamer, Tim Lindquist, USD
Saturday saw around 150 gathered for the National Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) job crisis summit, part of a union-wide campaign against job cuts and pay freezes in the industry.
Speaking at the summit, Flat Earth News author and journalist Nick Davies called upon journalists to be ‘whistleblowers on our own newsrooms’:
“We need to tell the public the impact of the job cuts on newsgathering,” he said in a report on the NUJ website.
“The public must know that the corporations have taken over the newsrooms and ransacked them for profit and that is why readers have lost trust in us.
“We need to improve the status of journalists. We are not trusted; we are not liked, because we are misperceived. The best known people in journalism are people like Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre, who have brought us into disrepute.”
Exposing flaws in managements’ running of newsrooms and putting state aid into the hands of journalists and not corporations would help provide a practical solution to a financial problem, he added.
The union will launch a campaign of lobbying MPs and local authorities, protests and possible industrial action, legal challenges to staff cuts and workplace issues, and a public debate of the situation.
The meeting called on the NUJ’s general secretary, Jeremy Dear, to meet with employers on a national level, and speak with ministers about media ownership regulation:
“This meeting believes the economic model practised by media employers over recent years – a sub-prime media market – is dead. It is scoops, quality editorial content, strong images and an engaged readership which will see media survive and flourish not retrenchment and soaring executive pay,” a motion ruled by the meeting said.
“This meeting further believes that light touch media regulation and the weakening of media ownership laws has led to an unhealthy consolidation of media ownership.
“Many media owners continue to show they have no coherent strategy that can secure a viable future for media in print, broadcast or online.”
Also discussed: chapels must include freelancers, casuals and contributors in activity and agreements surrounding cutbacks.
The summit also acknowledged the wider global crisis in the industry and pledged to work with both other UK industry unions, such as BECTU and UNITE, and international representatives.
Tags: Flat Earth News author and journalist, general secretary, job losses, light touch media regulation, media employers, media owners, media ownership, media ownership laws, media ownership regulation, National Union, Nick Davies, nuj, NUJ jobs crisis summit, Paul Dacre, retrenchment and soaring executive, Rupert Murdoch, sub-prime media, United Kingdom
To celebrate the ultra-local news site’s first birthday, Wilson Miner rounds-up the year’s developments.
Tags: EveryBlock, ultra-local news site, Wilson Miner
Jeff Jarvis argues against government subsidies for the print industry, but backs President Obama’s pledge to increase US broadband penetration.
Tags: broadband, Jeff Jarvis, Obama, President, subsidy, United States, us
Andrew Losowsky speaks to the team behind magazine-sharing website Mygazines, which was the subject of legal action from publishers and industry groups last year.
Tags: Andrew Losowsky, Mygazines
London-based MediaEquals made an approach to buy Google’s Print Ad scheme, which the search engine last week announced would close next month.
Tags: google, Google Print Ads, London, MediaEquals, Print Ads, search engine, search engine last week, start-up, United Kingdom, Washington Times
Twitter is increasingly being used by journalists to make contacts and track news events, but the Twitter user-interface (UI) itself is pretty limited making it difficult to track conversations. Fortunately its open API structure and the ability to subscribe to various types of RSS feeds from Twitter means there are a number of ways to track a ‘buzz’ around an event or specific conversations.
Hashtags are one way to identify conversations based around particular subjects or events. If you don’t already use them, you might have at least seen them being used by others in your network. Basically it’s a keyword that you use in your Twitter post to associate it with a group, topic, or event. For example, every Monday night there is debate on Twitter ‘hosted’ under the hashtag #journchat, aimed at public relations professionals and journalists. If you consider that an unholy mix, then there is a tag just for journalists #journ plus other, less popular, variants such as #mediachat and #journalism.
Another common usage for hashtags is at events. For example, our senior reporter Laura Oliver recently attended the Oxford Media Convention and was one of several journalists Twittering using the hashtag #omc09 (Journalism.co.uk has a dedicated Twitter channel for live event coverage – @journalism_live).
So if you want to monitor posts with those hashtags, one simple way is to create an RSS feed based on a keyword search of Twitter or, better still, Twemes. But there are also a number of other tools you can use to track conversations.
Tools:
TweetDeck – This desktop application (still in beta) enables you to split all the Tweets you receive into topic or group specific columns. The default columns can contain all tweets from your timeline, @replies directed to you and direct messages. You can also make up additional, live-updating columns using the ‘group’ (to create a sub-group of just your favourite Twitterers, for example), ‘search’ and ‘replies’ buttons. You can also filter each column to include or exclude items based on keywords or users. Unfortunately it does not support multiple Twitter accounts (otherwise I would definitely prefer it as my main Twitter client to Twhirl).
Tweet Grid – This is a browser-based application that allows you to search for up to nine different topics, events, conversations, hashtags, phrases, people, groups, etc. As new tweets are created, they are automatically updated in the grid. One particularly neat feature is that it can automatically add hashtags if you Tweet directly from their web page.
Monitter – A browser-based application that is very similar to Tweet Grid except it is prettier and you can search for Tweets made within a certain distance of a chosen location. A widget is available for your blog or website but you would need to know a little html to install it.
Roomatic – A browser-based application that creates an output page of Tweets based on a keyword or hashtag. Unfortunately it does not seem to do much else but could be handy if you need to direct readers to a page containing live updates on a particular event or topic.
TwitterThreads – A browser-based application that threads your twitter feed, making it easier to follow conversations or connected Tweets. However, it does not seem to keep the threads together for long, or in quantity.
Tweetchat – A browser-based application that allows you to monitor and chat about one topic. You can tweet directly from the page and it will automatically add the hashtag of whatever ‘room’ you are in. The Twitter stream live updates.
Tweetree – A browser-based application that puts your Twitter stream in a tree so you can see the posts people are replying to in context (but does not properly thread them). It also pulls in lots of external content like twitpic photos, youtube videos etc.
Can you recommend any other tools? Let me know in the comments.
Tags: API, hashtags, html, Journalism.co.uk, keyword search, Laura Oliver, Monniter, online conversations, public relations professionals, Roomatic, senior reporter, social media, Tweetchat, Tweetdeck, Tweetgrid, Tweetree, Twitter, Twitter channel, Twitter stream, TwitterThreads
Among the inauguration day records for media sites, nice to hear of success for Times Online’s own interactive coverage – a liveblog using CoveritLive.
Run for eight-and-a-half hours and hosted on the Times’ Comment Central blog, the liveblog attracted 35,000 visitors and 50 comments a minute at its peak, according to a tweet from Tom Whitwell, assistant editor of Times Online.
Tags: assistant editor, CoveritLive, inauguration, inauguration day, media sites, The Times, Times Online, Tom Whitwell
The Washington Post has launched a new beta site Whorunsgov.com to build profiles of US politicians, law makers and government officials using a specially created Post editorial team.
The site and its news blog will also feature contributions from external experts, a release from the paper said, and will be expanded into a moderated wiki later this year.
At this stage users will be encouraged to edit and add to profiles on the site with submissions moderated by the editorial team.
Interactivity – in particular allowing users to discuss profiles on the site – is a key part of the project:
“This is the first phase of a new venture to create a uniquely collaborative and rich information resource that demystifies the individuals behind Washington’s policy-making process,” said Rachel Van Dongen, editor of WhoRunsGov.com, in the release, adding that the site is intended as a free-for-all resource.
Those featured on the site will also grow to include think tank members and state officials.
Tags: beta site, editor, law makers, Rachel Van Dongen, Rachel Van Dongen, The Washington Post, The Washington Post Company, United States, us, Washington, whorunsgov, WhoRunsGov.com, wiki site
Proposed job cuts condemned by union, who will meet on Monday.
Full story on the NUJ website…
Tags: Bristol Evening Post, nuj, Western Daily Press
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