Reader’s Digest UK has filed an administration proceeding in the UK, it has been announced by the company. As reported by the Guardian today, it follows the failure of a deal to settle its pension fund. RDA today announced:
RDA (Reader’s Digest Association) does not expect the UK administration to have a material impact on its financial performance as the UK business has been operating with negative free cash flow, and without the contemplated restructuring the corporation did not see a clear pathway to profitability in the UK over the next several years.
Guardian Media Group has just sold its regional arm to Trinity Mirror, but the group’s still exploring local territory, with its new Guardian Local project, first rolling out in Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
The Guardian’s first beat blog has launched today:
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger called it a “tiny toe in local web water” over Twitter.
Its designated blogger is John Baron (@johncbaron). Introducing the site today, Baron provides a run-down of local Leeds activity and its first guest blogger – Leeds Student editor Virginia Newman, “who’s writing her take on the planned strikes by Leeds University staff”.
Features include a ‘find your councillor’ search and ‘report local problems’ feature powered by MySociety; Flickr content; Delicious links – and Leeds-only Soul Mates adverts.
MPs, Westminster hacks and activists might be addicted to expressing themselves in 140 characters or less, but don’t expect this year’s general election to be decided on which party has the best social media strategy.
Then again, politicians and the media shouldn’t dismiss voters’ digital engagement, according to a panel at a Frontline Club debate on the importance on social media for the upcoming election.
Twitter certainly has the potential to land politicians in mini-media storms; the panellists agreed: if David Wright MP had merely told a reporter verbally that Conservatives are “scum” it’s unlikely to have got much coverage, such is the continued novelty of Twitter to many news editors.
Paul Staines, better known as mischievous Westminster blogger Guido Fawkes, argued that no matter how well connected parties are, with Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems towing similar centerist policy lines there was little to differentiate them for the ordinary voter: “If they are all marching in the centre ground, there’s not much to market, is there?”
And as for reporters, they’re “not going to get a scoop from Tweetdeck”, he warned. “There are about 500 of us (in the Westminster village) listening to each other aren’t there?”
Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy said social media buzz doesn’t determine what C4 leads its 7pm bulletin with – but Twitter got the network’s reporters in touch with someone in the audience at Nick Griffin’s notorious Question Time performance.
But all this is missing the point, according to Chris Condron, Press Association’s head of digital strategy:
If you ask any journalist what they think about a phenomenon like Twitter (…) they tend to think about what it means for journalists, but where its potential really lies is for audiences.
The “disintermediation” of news – where readers can go straight to the source of news, such as an MP’s Twitter stream – was a challenge for the media, but Condron is confident that “the reporters’ gathering and filtering of raw news was still essential.”
More events coming up at the Frontline Club:
Reflections with Richard Sambrook – a one-to-one conversation with the BBC’s outgoing director of global news. He’s headed for a new role as vice-president of PR firm Edelman, but how does he look back on a rich career and what is his view of journalism today?
Iraq: The Media Inquiry – a special panel discussion to examine the media’s reporting of Iraq since the invasion in 2003. With Nick Davies, author of Flat Earth News; Patrick Cockburn, The Independent’s Middle East correspondent and journalist David Rose. Moderated by Paddy O’Connell, presenter of BBC Radio 4′s Broadcasting House.
Insight with Timothy Garton Ash – the columnist and Oxford professor will be in conversation with Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow will be in conversation with Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow. Garton Ash will be talking about his career, the transformation of Europe over the last thirty years and what Barack Obama will mean for the United States and the world.
On the Media: Is the age of celebrity-obsessed media coming to an end? We discuss whether the ubiquitous presence of pseudo-famous faces on newspapers and news bulletins is here to stay. With comedian and journalist Jane Bussman; Popbitch founder Camilla Wright; Heat magazine editor and broadcaster Sam Delaney. Chaired by Robin Morgan, former editor of the Sunday Times magazine. This event is in association with the BBC College of Journalism.
Grade 1: £150 now 154.16 a year. Grade 2: £189 now 195.24 a year. Grade 3: £260 now 267.80 a year.
The changes were decided at the NUJ’s annual conference at the end of last year and come into effect on 1 March.
“Nobody likes an increase in subscriptions, but this small increase is unavoidable if we are to keep the union financially healthy,” said general secretary Jeremy Dear.
NUJ subscriptions still represent “tremendous value” for money, Dear claimed. “Last year the union secured more than £3m for staff and freelance members who were unfairly treated at work, saved jobs, and secured improved redundancy terms. And it remains true that in unionised workplaces workers earn 12.5 per cent more than in non-unionised workplaces.”
‘The Handbook’ is composed of 12 chapters, each dedicated to a different tool in the digital journalist’s toolbox, and includes a glossary with definitions of more than 130 technical terms and phrases commonly used in digital journalism. ‘The Handbook’ is also fully illustrated and contains diagrams and guidelines of everything from the layout of a typical blog to the features found on a digital audio recorder. In addition, each chapter includes links to online resources, tutorials, and examples of every technology mentioned in the book, including Flash, Photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut, Soundslides, Audacity, GarageBand, Google Maps and more.
Update: It appears it’s only available from Amazon.com with international shipping – we’ll investigate to find out if it will go on sale in the UK.
Update 2: Luckie believes that the book will be available in the UK in two weeks. We’ll post details here when it goes on sale.
The bursaries are divided up between print, broadcast and online journalism courses, with five for print, two for broadcast and one for online.
The trust says the awards are designed to “assist students who face financial difficulty in attaining the qualifications needed to pursue a career in media,” and they “particularly encourage graduates from diverse social and/or ethnic backgrounds to apply”.
Winners will have their tuition fees paid and receive a subsistence allowance of £5,000. They will also be offered several weeks’ work experience within Guardian Media Group.
Alastair Bruce (@ajbruce), content manager for MSN UK, has studied over 30 organisations to produce this detailed presentation on pay wall and subscription models. He examines bundling, micropayments, metered systems, freemium and 100 per cent subscription models, across consumer/specialist titles and national/local newspapers. Who is doing what, and what comes next?
How publishers are charging for online content or consumption and implementing paywalls and subscription services
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) are calling for the Gaza authorities to release British freelance journalist, Paul Martin.
The arrest and detention yesterday [Monday] of documentary filmmaker Paul Martin came as he was about to give evidence at a military tribunal. His detention was a “shocking violation of journalists’ rights” according to the IFJ, who demanded his immediate released.
During the week after the storm roared ashore, police shot at least 10 people, killing a minimum of four. Our project raises questions about whether officers needed to use deadly force in all these instances, and documents the New Orleans Police Department’s flawed and cursory investigations of the shootings.
A former New Orleans police officer is under investigation for shooting Henry Glover outside an Algiers strip mall four days after Hurricane Katrina, the first act in a bizarre chain of events that has led to a massive federal probe into the city’s Police Department.
The New York Times reports that the reporter accused of plagiarising parts of articles from rival titles has resigned.
Wall Street Journal managing editor, Robert Thomson, had complained to the New York Times over an article by Zachery Kouwe last Friday.
According to the NY Times, the Times editors “investigated and found other examples” of copied passages in Kouwe’s work:
The Times made the matter public on Monday, when it published an Editors’ Note stating that Mr. Kouwe had copied passages from Wall Street Journal and Reuters articles, and used them “in a number” of his articles and in blog posts, without attribution. It did not say how many times that had occurred.
[B]ecause the web is open, easily accessible and readily searchable, it is more likely than ever that cheaters will be discovered faster and more surely than ever before.
