Journalism Daily: Numbers for journalists, mydigitalnewspaper and a Newsquest redesign

Journalism.co.uk is trialling a new service via the Editors’ Blog: a daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site.

We hope you’ll find it useful as a quick digest of what’s gone on during the day (similar to our e-newsletter) and to check that you haven’t missed a posting.

We’ll be testing it out for a couple of weeks, so you can subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

Let us know what you think – all feedback much appreciated.

News and features:

• How to: get to grips with numbers as a journalist (part two)
• Newsquest relaunches websites for regional news network
• Pagesuite creates newspaper archive for e-editions
• Simon Mowbray leaves post as editorial director to go freelance

Tip of the day:

• Backing up Twitter

#FollowJourn:

• @rebeccamthomson/reporter

On the Editor’s Blog:

• PRCA launches petition against NLA’s backlink charging plans
• Archant announces 61.1% drop in profits

Editor’s Picks:

• Malcolm Coles: You can print from the FT, but don’t photocopy it
• Round-up: Charging for online – Murdoch and the FT
• MediaGuardian: In-depth interview with Enders Analysis’ Claire Enders
• Scottish Sun: Naming Baby P’s mum and step-dad

Similar posts:

• PRCA launches petition against NLA’s backlink charging plans
• NLA’s High Court action no cause for concern, say Meltwater and PRCA
• Journalism Daily: Council newspapers, INMA/OPA event and more editorial outsourcing
• paidContent:UK: News aggregator may take legal action against NLA copying levy
• Journalism Daily: FT.com’s innovations, plinth reporter plans a party and the need for media blackouts

PRCA launches petition against NLA’s backlink charging plans

The Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) has launched a petition on Twitter calling on the Newspaper Licensing Agency to abandon recent proposals to charge organisations that forward and receive URLs of newspaper articles.

There’s been some strong criticism from the industry about the plans already and the PRCA has been consulting stakeholders and members on their views.

“The PRCA has proactively communicated the NLA’s proposals to agencies and the disbelief and anger they have generated extends far beyond our membership. While the NLA has accepted our offer to help them consult with the industry, they need to show this is a genuine consultation by changing their proposals and being transparent about their future pricing plans,” said Richard Ellis, communications director at the PRCA, which represents PR agencies and the wider industry, in a statement on the organisation’s website.

Follow the petition’s progress on the PRCA’s twitter account.

Similar posts:

• NLA’s High Court action no cause for concern, say Meltwater and PRCA
• AP offers digital analysis to members as papers bypass agency content
• Scotland to consult on defamation of the dead law reform
• PR Week: CIPR president on the NLA’s backlink charging plans
• MediaGuardian: BBC local video plans ‘very damaging’ says, Newspaper Society

Archant announces 61.1% drop in profits

The Norwich-based publisher Archant has announced a 61.1 per cent fall in operating profits for the year up to June 2009, despite a rise in digital revenues.

Archant, which runs a range of daily and weekly titles in East Anglia, London and the south west of the UK, made £14.8 million in operating cuts so far this year, according to the figures released over the weekend.

The group’s newspaper and printing operations saw a 25.3 per cent decrease in profits over the same period to £49.1 million, while magazine profits were down by 22.2 per cent to £21.7 million.

In contrast, the company’s digital revenues increased by 18.9 per cent – but this rise was not enough to offset the downturn in traditional revenues for the publisher.

“Adjusting to this new and different world and restoring levels of profitability will take time. We remain confident of our ability to exploit the many opportunities to do so, utilising our powerful brands and building on our relationships with our readers and advertisers,” said chairman Richard Jewson in the release.

Similar posts:

• Northcliffe’s operating profits drop 81 per cent
• DMGT digital revenues boosted by search portals while local media profits fall
• FT results: FT.com paid-for subscriptions up 9%
• NYT second-quarter operating profit more than twice 2009 figure
• Press Gazette: Trinity Mirror looks to cut £7m after announcing falling profits

Scottish Sun: Naming Baby P’s mum and step-dad

The Scottish Sun is claiming it will name the mum and step-dad of Baby P at midnight (BST) tonight) as a reporting ban on identifying the pair expires at 11:59pm.

The article goes on to describe how their names were made available online:

“Vigilantes managed to get around the identity ban in the early weeks of their conviction by naming them on websites (…) But Scotland Yard’s e-crime unit worked with internet service providers to remove most of the content from cyberspace.”

The conditions of the reporting ban aside it’s an interesting series of events – banned, leaked, removed, reported in the ‘traditional’ press – a cycle under increasing pressure from the online world.

Full story at this link…

Similar posts:

• ‘The Battle of Bandwidth’: Online publishers at risk from ISP pricing changes
• Independent.co.uk: Online ‘made a mockery of High Court’ in Baby P case
• Reuters: Google wants to ‘fast lane’ its news, reports WSJ
• Testing times for Mail Online’s comment system
• Observer: An internet licence fee could aid newspapers

#FollowJourn: @rebeccats/reporter

FollowJourn: Rebecca Thomson

Who? Reporter for Computer Weekly.

What? Journalist at industry title also blogs on women in technology.

Where? @rebeccats or on the WITsend blog.

Contact? Send her a tweet.

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to judith or laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

Similar posts:

• #FollowJourn: @andyoakes/publisher
• #FollowJourn: @iainmhepburn/digital editor
• #FollowJourn: @MSNMoneyJames/editor
• #FollowJourn: @JaneBradley88/trainee journalist
• #FollowJourn: @welshrosie/hyperlocal writer

Malcolm Coles: You can print from the FT, but don’t photocopy it

A weird one this, picked up by Malcolm Coles, who has found (at least) 10 sites whose terms and conditions allow you to print a page from their website, but forbid photocopying them – including the Financial Times and Conde Net.

Answers as to why on the back of a postcard or in the comments below please.

Full story at this link…

Similar posts:

• Malcolm Coles’ blog post results in changed T&Cs on newspaper linking
• Malcolm Coles: Four sites already implementing cookie law
• MalcolmColes: UK newspapers and their ‘authorised’ linking policies
• Malcolm Coles: Why the Guardian’s future does look bleak
• Producer responds to Guardian TV review: ‘If an opera is reviewed, you get someone who knows about opera’

Round-up: Charging for online – Murdoch and the FT

Quick link post rounding up some of this weekend’s chatter following Rupert Murdoch’s latest decision that News Corp properties will start charging for access to online news by 2010.

Kevin Anderson on Guardian.co.uk asks what news organisations can learn from the music, video and games industries when it comes to charging for online – especially relevant given the Financial Time’s announcement that it is considering introducing a ‘pay-per-article’ system.

On econsultancy Malcolm Coles address the frequently voiced arguments against Murdoch’s plans (e.g. it won’t work unless all sites start charging) in a mythbusting post.

(Backing up Coles points that people, outside of WSJ and FT readers will pay for content, is Press Gazette’s report that Which? increased online subscriptions by 11 per cent in the year to the end of June.)

Similar posts:

• Malcolm Coles’ blog post results in changed T&Cs on newspaper linking
• Journalism Daily: Numbers for journalists, mydigitalnewspaper and a Newsquest redesign
• Malcolm Coles: Four sites already implementing cookie law
• Malcolm Coles: Why the Guardian’s future does look bleak
• Producer responds to Guardian TV review: ‘If an opera is reviewed, you get someone who knows about opera’

MediaGuardian: In-depth interview with Enders Analysis’ Claire Enders

Despite previously predicting that half of the UK’s regional papers will close in the next five years, media industry analyst Claire Enders claims she’s an advocate and not a sceptic in this interview with Peter Kirwan.

Full article at this link…

Similar posts:

• Enders’ Douglas McCabe: Regional newspaper forecast was ‘unnecessarily pessimistic’
• Hyperlocal funding situation is ‘seriously challenged’, warns Claire Enders
• Peter Kirwan on newspaper editors and where they live
• #soe09: Following the Society of Editors conference 2009
• #soe09: Jim Chisholm – the five myths affecting UK newspapers

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – backing up Twitter

Twitter fails do happen: back up your account/s using http://tweetake.com/ or Tweet backup to be on the safe side. Tipster: Judith Townend.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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Journalism Daily: Mirror’s football site, the future of world journalism and tips for a student org

Journalism.co.uk is trialling a new service via the Editors’ Blog: a daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site.

We hope you’ll find it useful as a quick digest of what’s gone on during the day (similar to our e-newsletter) and to check that you haven’t missed a posting.

We’ll be testing it out for a couple of weeks, so you can subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

Let us know what you think – all feedback much appreciated.

News and features

• Mirror Football site goes live in time for the new season

• Is world journalism in crisis? Experts will tackle question of industry’s future

• Asylum seekers can bypass journalists to get their stories heard, but barriers remain

#Tip of the day

• Try ‘guest-posting’

#FollowJourn

• @musicthing/assistant editor

On the Editors’ Blog

• The new Student Publication Association needs to converse with existing communities

Similar posts:

• Global Voices Online: Finding alternative revenue streams as a non-profit org
• Daily Mail: London journalism student reported raped on assignment in Calais
• Journalism Daily: Timetric on data journalism, new book on financial journalism and Northcliffe’s hybrid model
• Journalism Daily: Press freedom, the Guardian’s Joseph Harker and MyReporter.com
• #WEFHamburg: Multimedia newsrooms vs. online-only outlets