#followjourn: @SimonCrisp/freelance

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – careers advice for journalists

May 26th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Top tips for journalists, Training

Job hunting: A recent Q&A on getting started in journalism, hosted by the Guardian, has some good advice for trainee and existing journalists looking for a new job. Tipster: Laura Oliver.

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

Tags: careers advice, journalism jobs

Comment: Reaction to the new Times and Sunday Times websites

May 25th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Business, Comment, Newspapers

Having had a day to “browse and snack” on the new Sunday Times and Times websites, what’s the feedback so far? What’s the reaction to the new editorial layout, multimedia changes and approach to journalism behind a paywall?

Starting with those bloggers who were given a sneak preview of the sites the night before they went live:

Malcolm Coles on the Times:

Without the need to chase search engine traffic or page views for advertisers, the idea of covering fewer stories but in a better way sounds appealing (…) an article, for instance, with an information graphic and tabs to let you explore the history and different aspects of the story without leaving the page. This package of content is brilliant – it works much better as an experience than lists of related articles or auto-generated tag pages.

But, asks Coles, shouldn’t readers be allowed to subscribe to just one site with completely distinct sections and topics?

It strikes me that there is either sufficient distinction in the audience for the two brands that you let users subscribe to just one site; or the audiences cross over so much that you combine the two sites in one and think about what makes most sense from the user’s point of view.

Forcing people to subscribe to both sites but keeping them entirely separate, with no cross-linking, seems a bit odd.

Adam Westbrook on the experience of reading the Times and Sunday Times online:

Well, at first impressions I am not bowled over: black text on a white screen, size 12, serif font – just like every other news website out there (and even this blog!). A web page can be any colour and fully dynamic – a concept no major newsroom is yet to grasp.

Rory Cellan-Jones on how a smaller audience might offer a more engaged readership:

[T]he company is convinced that advertisers will find the smaller audience of committed readers more attractive than the 21 million promiscuous passers-by who flit through the free Times Online site each month at present. While there’s been plenty of sniping from the sidelines by News International’s rivals, I suspect they are all glad that someone is at least testing the waters.

Tim Fenton:

It’s a slick package, although whether well-bundled, good content is enough of a differentiator from everything on Google News remains to be seen. For me, the biggest surprise is that the Times is not planning a splashy ad campaign to launch the paywall – it is relying chiefly on promotion in the newspaper.

It’s a low-key – and very analogue – start to one of the biggest experiments in modern digital media.

Of those reviewing the sites today, TechCrunch Europe expands on concerns raised that the papers’ journalists will miss out on social media conversation around their work, with thoughts on what the paywall means for mobile and ecommerce developments:

I don’t know The Times’ development roadmap, but if it does not have an API for its content (I presume it won’t since the whole of the new sites will be paywalled and invisible to search engines) then there will be no opportunity to catch the Third Wave of social or indeed of mobile or commerce. The Times cannot possibly come up with all the ideas which will happen in the Third Wave, which is why third-party developers will be so important.

Will the Times and Sunday Times be taking themselves out of the social media conversation with paywalls that redirect deep links to a generic login page? (Interesting to note findings from a Pew Research Center study, which report that bloggers will share more links and stories produced by mainstream news organisations, Twitterers less so, suggesting there’s is still a reliance of the social media news world on traditional news outlets. Interesting also – digital director of Mirror Group Matt Kelly’s remarks last week about the importance of honing news sites to niches that their readers identify as the values of that particular paper or brand.)

Adam Tinworth provides food for thought on the issue with his post on the potential impact of a subscription wall on a site’s community:

People sharing what they think will be identifiable, and they will have paid an entrance fee to get in there. This is, in fact, a community model, just one that differs from the wide, inter-connected community model we’re used to on the open web.

I recall Lee Bryant saying at last year’s Social Media Influence conference that sometimes its the wall that defines the community. And that maxim will be tested on these sites.

Tags: News International, Newspapers, pay walls, paywall, paywalls, Sunday Times, The Times, times

Independent integrates article comments with Twitter and Facebook

May 25th, 2010 | 3 Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Online Journalism

The Independent has installed a new commenting system on its website in the shape of Disqus – the same as we use on Journalism.co.uk no less.

The system allows users to login to leave a comment using a Disqus profile, but also, and more importantly, with their Twitter username and password, Facebook login or OpenId identification.

With the Twitter and Facebook logins there’s also the option to share your article comment via these sites.

Jack Riley, digital media editor at the Independent, explains in a blog post that the new system has been trialled on the site’s sport section for the past week and has improved the level of “constructive debate”.

We’re encouraging people to use credentials linked to their personal profiles not just because openness and accountability are great, fundamental things which underpin good journalism as well as good commenting (and why should the two be different?), but also because by introducing accountability into the equation, we’re hoping the tone and standard of the comments will go up (…) It’s about first of all letting people authenticate their commenting using systems with which they’re already familiar (in Facebook’s case, that’s 400 million people worldwide and counting), and secondly, it’s about restoring your trust in our comments section, so that some of the really great submissions we get on there rise to the top, the bad sink to the bottom, and the ugly – the spam and abuse that are an inevitable adjunct of any commenting system – don’t appear at all.

Tags: Disqus, Facebook, Independent, Jack Riley, Twitter

TechCrunch: Publish2 takes on Associated Press with new Online News Exchange

May 25th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Joel Gunter in Business, Editors' pick, Handy tools and technology

Online news aggregation service Publish2 announced yesterday that it intends to challenge the AP newswire with a new product that it claims will be more open and more efficient.

The start-up realises that the only way to disrupt the monster co-op is by offering a completely scalable substitute. Here’s basically what the company hopes the Publish2 News Exchange will do to the AP: ‘Craigslist it’.

As in, kill the AP’s main income stream by offering an open, efficient alternative.

And my educated guess is publishers are going to love this.

Full story at this link…

Tags: Associated Press, newswire, online news exchange, Publish2

NLA’s High Court action no cause for concern, say Meltwater and PRCA

May 25th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Newspapers

Aggregator Meltwater and the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) have said they remain confident that the courts will support their case in the dispute with the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) over new licence fees, despite the NLA’s decision to take the matter to the High Court.

Yesterday the NLA said it had started proceedings against Meltwater and the PRCA to help speed up the process of determining whether its new licences – introduced in January, which affect commercial services using links to its newspaper members’ content – are legal. Meltwater and the PRCA have referred the licences and the NLA to a Copyright Tribunal, but the agency is concerned that the Tribunal does not have the powers to make the ultimate decision on the licences’ legality.

The PRCA and Meltwater released the following joint statement:

Having initially learned about the NLA’s decision to take Meltwater and the PRCA to court through the press, both parties have only just received the papers concerning this claim.

While we understand that the industry will want clarification on this issue, we do not see this development as cause for concern.

Naturally, we are reviewing the papers in consultation with our legal advisors. But not wishing to prejudice our case with the Copyright Tribunal, which we believe to be strong, we will study the NLA’s claim before responding.

We remain confident, however, that the NLA’s proposals for a web licence are flawed and that the courts will support our views on this.

Tags: aggregator, meltwater, newspaper licensing agency, NLA, online newspapers, PRCA, Public Relations Consultants Association

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – be part of BBC’s Newswatch

May 25th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted by Judith Townend in Top tips for journalists

Journalism students: Get yourselves on BBC’s Newswatch, which asks for media contributions and stories at this link, and also offers the opportunity to see behind the scenes of the programme. Tipster: Judith Townend.

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

Tags: BBC, journalism students, newswatch

Times and Sunday Times get new websites as Alton gets new job

May 25th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Editors' pick, Newspapers

We gave you a sneak preview of the Times’ new design a couple of weeks ago, but the new websites for The Times and Sunday Times have gone live today.

At the moment the homepage of each site is the only part freely available. Readers will have to sign up for an initial free trial, before a paywall comes down on both sites (£1 a day or £2 a week for access) in four weeks time.

Journalism.co.uk was given a talk through of the new site designs by their editorial teams last night, so we’ll be posting more details later, but for now see the homepages below or visit the sites which you can read about at this link.

Meanwhile former Observer and Independent editor Roger Alton is joining the Times as executive editor, according to this report from MediaGuardian.

Tags: News International, Newspapers, pay wall, paywall, paywalls, Roger Alton, Sunday Times, times

Twenty-four great new media, communications, PR and journalism jobs this week on Journalism.co.uk

May 24th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Ed Martin in Jobs

Looking for a job in journalism? Register as a job seeker on Journalism.co.uk and check out the latest editorial and media job opportunities this week (covering journalism, PR, communications, editorial, new media and media sales) on Journalism.co.uk’s jobs board:

Staff writer
Staff writer required for Petroleum Economist, one of the oldest and best-respected magazines in the world, to cover the fast-growing sector of unconventional oil and gas. Writing experience, interest in the sector and languages preferred. Starting June
Salary: £20K-£22K
Petroleum Economist
London, England
>>more

Sales managers
ITP Promedia Publishing, the London based subsidiary of ITP Publishing Group in Dubai, is looking to recruit Sales Managers for its B2B Division
Salary: Competitive and negotiable
ITP Promedia Publishing
London, England
>>more

Economic news projects editor
Bloomberg LP is seeking editors with substantial experience working on financial market newspapers, newsletters or research.
Salary: Competitive plus benefits
Bloomberg
London, England
>>more

Editor, Construction Week
ITP Publishing Group based in Dubai needs an experienced editor to take over Construction Week our established weekly B2B news magazine.
Salary: Negotiable, tax free
ITP Publishing Group
Dubai, UAE, Dubai
>>more

Editor, Digital Studio
ITP Business is looking for an editor for Digital Studio, its B2B title for the TV and film production industry in the Middle East.
Salary: Negotiable, tax free
ITP Business
Dubai, UAE, Dubai
>>more

Reporter
Inside Housing is looking for a talented reporter to join its award-winning news team.
Salary: DoE
Ocean Media Group
London, England
>>more

Online deputy editor
Are you passionate about online reporting? Would you relish the challenge of breaking news about the UK, European and US food and drink industries? We have an exciting opportunity for an online deputy editor.
Salary: DoE
William Reed Business Media
Crawley, All
>>more

Financial writer
Financial writer needed to contribute to BMI’s Corporate Financing Week publication covering IPOs, privatisations and mergers and acquisitions.
Salary: DoE
Business Monitor International
London, England
>>more

News journalist
Search News Media is looking to recruit talented writers and journalists to join their expanding online content and web publishing team.
Salary: £15K
Search News Media
Windsor, Berkshire, England
>>more

Reporter
Leading business technology news website ZDNet UK is looking for a Reporter to join their busy news desk on a one year fixed term contract.
Salary: DoE
CBS Interactive
London, England
>>more

Editor, Sound and Stage
ITP Business is looking for an editor for Sound & Stage, its B2B title for the live events production industry in the Middle East.
Salary: DoE
ITP Publishing Group
Dubai, UAE, Middle East
>>more

Market reporter – European Electricity
Responsibilities will include market and news coverage on both a real-time and daily basis. The main focus of the role will be reporting and editing news related to the European electricity markets and producing daily market reports.
Salary: DoE
Platts
London, England
>>more

Business/media analyst (internal: product planning manager)
Manager, advertising inventory/media/product planning researched for global online media company in London Covent Garden
Salary: Competitive
Travelzoo (Europe) Ltd
London, England
>>more

Big Brother reporter
We are looking for new reporters to produce coverage of the upcoming series of Big Brother for the site.
Salary: £8.50 per hour
Digital Spy
Home-based, United Kingdom
>>more

Sub-editor – The Grocer
One of Britain’s top business-to-business weeklies, The Grocer is looking for a sub-editor to help put together the magazine, and its sister website, thegrocer.co.uk
Salary: DoE
William Reed Business Media
Crawley, England
>>more

Reporter – full time
Insider Publishing, the fast-growing publisher of leading subscription-only insurance trade monthly, The Insurance Insider, is looking for a reporter to work across its flagship title and market leading capital markets publication, Trading Risk.
Salary: DoE
Insider Publishing
London, England
>>more

Assistant editor – Food Manufacture
We currently have an exciting opportunity for an assistant editor on Food Manufacture, an award-winning monthly trade magazine.
Salary: Up to £22K
William Reed Business Media
Crawley, England
>>more

Sales managers
ITP Publishing Group is looking to recruit sales managers for its B2B division in Dubai.
Salary: DoE, tax-free
ITP Publishing Group
Dubai, UAE, Middle East
>>more

Group sales manager
ITP Publishing Group is searching for a determined and intelligent group sales manager, with an excellent understanding of magazine publishing to drive the growth across its portfolio.
Salary: DoE, tax-free
ITP Publishing Group
Dubai, UAE, Middle East
>>more

Entertainment reporter
Digital Spy are searching for enthusiastic writers with a passion for all things entertainment to produce content for the site.
Salary: £8.50 per hour
Digital Spy
Home-based, United Kingdom
>>more

Assistant producer – online media
Travelzoo (Europe) Ltd is the European subsidiary of Travelzoo Inc. (NASDAQ: TZOO), a global Internet media company. We are now searching for an Assistant Producer to join our UK production team.
Salary: DoE
Travelzoo (Europe) Ltd
London, England
>>more

Online freelance writers
Demand Studios is hiring freelance writers to write short, structured articles for popular websites. Write as much as you want, from anywhere.
Salary: Average $15-$25 per article
Demand Studios
Nationwide, United Kingdom
>>more

Business journalist and editor
Sportcal is seeking an experienced journalist and editor to report on worldwide developments in the business of sport, and to edit the quarterly Sportcal magazine and other occasional publications.
Salary: DoE
Sportcal
Wimbledon Village, England
>>more

Editorial training programme (graduate scheme)
We are looking for driven individuals with a passion for developing a career in business journalism. In return, we will give you first class development and the opportunities to contribute and thrive in the future success of our exceptional company.
Salary: DoE
Incisive Media
London, England
>>more

To sign up for free as a jobseeker, please go to http://www.journalism.co.uk/113/

To sign up as an advertiser, please go to http://www.journalism.co.uk/75/

Tags: editorial jobs, journalism jobs, new media jobs, PR jobs, recruitment, recruitment advertising, Vacancies, vacancy advertising

NAPA challenges PA’s public service scheme – but where’s the money coming from?

May 24th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Local media

Earlier this month at a Press Gazette and Kingtson University conference, Press Association training director Tony Johnston said funding for one of the agency’s pilots of its public service reporting scheme was close.

The public service reporting scheme, first mentioned in July last year, will aim to increase coverage of local public institutions and produce reports made available online for free to local news organisations. The first pilot partnership announced was with Trinity Mirror. As part of the initiative, the agency would recruit journalists and deploy them within a defined area and for a specified time period to cover local authorities and public bodies. The aims of the pilot would be to ascertain demand from local media for this type of news with a view to rolling out the scheme nationally – at an estimated cost of £15-18 million a year.

Johnston said the funding for the first pilot had come from an independent source, stressing the importance of this relationship for future funding of pilots and a long-term service:

The service would have to be completely editorially independent of the funding source. Content would have to be free to all and be generated in a way that delivers value for money.

Today the National Association of Press Agencies (NAPA), spurred into action by Johnston’s comments, said it would seek fresh talks with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to raise concerns about the PA’s plans to create a subsidised reporting network. The association is particularly concerned with suggestions made last year by PA managing director Tony Watson that funds from top-slicing the BBC Licence Fee could go towards such a public service reporting initiative as part of the Independently Funded News Consortia (though he didn’t explicitly mention the public service reporting pilot at this point).

Says NAPA spokesman Chris Johnson in a press release:

This would be the first step on a slippery slope to further demands for the BBC licence fee cash to be used to subsidise all kinds of reporting deemed “too expensive” for commercial companies.

Many NAPA members find that with the retrenchment of local newspapers they are increasingly being called-upon to provide grass-roots content of all kinds.

We can see no justification for replacing staff who have been made redundant with an expanded network of PA staff subsidised with public money. It would tend towards creating a dangerous reporting monoculture – some kind of UK version of Pravda – and a phenomenon that is quite alien to the British news industry and a free press.

NAPA will raise its concerns with Jeremy Hunt and will encourage the DCMS to examine the potentially damaging and distorting effects this plan would have on an already a fragile market. We believe that it would distort the market and seriously discourage new entrants from setting-up in business. It would be anti-competitive, and should be resisted at all costs.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, Johnson said he did not question the need for strong local journalism, reporting on public bodies and courts, but is concerned that the PA has not been more explicit about its plans for funding.

It seems to me that the PA keeps flying this kite in the hope that some one or other grabs onto the line (…) I don’t know why any kind of public funding should be used to subsidise newspapers who have engaged in wholesale decimation of their staff.

I’m not sure top-slicing was ever particularly high on the PA’s agenda as a source of funding for this specific scheme, but the agency has kept its cards in its search for backing very close. The stakeholders involved in the local media scene will await PA’s funding announcement with interest…

Tags: Chris Johnson, NAPA, National Association of Press Agencies, pa, Press Association, public service reporting, Tony Watson