Citizen Media Law Project: The laws of news aggregation

The Nieman Journalism Lab has posted an interesting report on the legality of different forms of news aggregation based on a white paper created by Kimberley Isbell of the Citizen Media Law Project.

While the paper is based on US copyright law, it is likely to be a useful point of reference for anyone dealing in online content.

In the paper Isbell offers context by discussing recent cases and the impact on the legal environment, including the licensing agreement between Google News and Associated Press announced at the end of last month. In a wider context, she adds, news aggregators can often argue a fair use policy.

(…) news aggregators could argue that the type of consumer that would only skim the headlines and ledes on the news aggregators’ website is not the type of consumer that is likely to visit individual news websites and read full articles, and thus would be unlikely to be a source of traffic for the newspapers’ websites if the news aggregators did not exist.

Her work concludes with some useful bullet points of best practice, reproduced in summary below:

• reproduce only necessary portions of the story, not in its entirety;
• try not to focus on a single source;
• prominently identify the source;
• link to the original source of the article;
• provide context or commentary where possible.

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Reuters: Newspaper chief Montgomery “forced out” of publishing group

Former News of the World editor David Montgomery has announced he will retire from Mecom, the European publishing group he founded in 2000, after coming under pressure from shareholders to quit.

According to a report by Reuters, current CEO Montgomery will leave the company – which owns more than 300 printed titles and 200 websites – in January in response to the concerns of shareholders who are “fed up with ongoing high debt levels and falling sales”.

Montgomery slashed costs and jobs as he sought to drive his local-newspaper businesses in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Poland into the digital age in the face of the industry’s worst-ever recession.

In a statement on Mecom’s website confirming Montgomery’s move, the chief executive was said to have the “complete confidence of the board”. It added that a search process will be conducted by the board to find his successor.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – interactive video content

Get the viewer involved: Tips from Roland Legrand at PBS MediaShift on how to make news video content more interactive for online audiences. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

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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US journalism groups join forces on global health reporting

Two US journalism organisations – the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting – are partnering in an attempt to support greater coverage of international news.

The collaboration, which will have a focus on worldwide health news, is part of the Nieman Foundation’s fellowship in global health reporting, which was launched in 2006 and includes a four-month reporting project at the end of the academic year, an announcement on the Nieman Foundation’s website explains.

Journalists in the program travel to the developing world to learn and report about health issues firsthand and recent participants have produced important, groundbreaking international health stories. However, due to the many recent changes affecting journalism, and international reporting in particular, placing those stories in mainstream media outlets is becoming increasingly difficult

(…) In collaboration with the Nieman Foundation, the [Pulitzer] Center’s staff will help Nieman Global Health Fellows with story planning and placement.

The partnership will also see Pulitzer Center journalists invited to Harvard University for events on underreported international stories and an annual workshop for Nieman fellows.

See the full announcement here…

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US newspaper ad revenue decline slows

Advertising revenues for US newspapers declined by more than five per cent in the second quarter of this year – the sixteenth consecutive quarterly decline – but the rate of decline has slowed according to a report by AFP.

Figures published by the Newspaper Association of America this week reportedly show that revenues for online and print newspapers dropped to $6.44 billion from $6.82 billion year-on-year.

Online advertising revenues actually increased by 13.9 per cent, while print print advertising fell 7.62 percent, the AFP report added.

The overall decline was reported as an “improvement” compared to a 9.7 per cent drop in the first quarter of this year and a 23.7 per cent fall in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Hatip: Shaping the Future of the Newspaper blog

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What the BBC learned from using Crowdmap tool to cover tube strikes

On Tuesday, Journalism.co.uk reported that the BBC were using Ushahidi’s new Crowdmap technology to record and illustrate problems on the London Underground caused by the day’s tube strikes.

The BBC’s Claire Wardle has helpfully followed up on her experiences with a post on the College of Journalism website explaining how it went, what they changed and what they would like to do with the technology next time.

She explains the reasoning behind decisions taken throughout the day to amend their use of the platform, such as moving across to Open Street Map as a default mapping tool and the introduction of a time stamp at the start of each headline. She also provides some suggestions on how the platform could be improved in the future, including provisions for greater information outside of the map.

It would have be useful if there’d been a scrolling news bar at the top so we could have put out topline information which we knew everyone could see by just going to the map. Something like ‘the Circle Line is suspended’ or ‘the roads are really starting to build with traffic’ was very hard to map.

See the full post here…

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#jpod: We interview privacy debate panelists Max Mosley and Tom Bower

The balancing act between ensuring freedom of speech and protecting privacy rights was the focus of a debate this week organised by Intelligence Squared, which Journalism.co.uk reported on here.

Panelists Max Mosley, the former motorsport boss who was awarded damages following a privacy case against the News of the World in 2008 and lawyer Rachel Atkins, were arguing in support of a motion that the private lives of public figures deserve more protection from the press. Investigative journalist and author Tom Bower and lawyer Ken MacDonald, former director of public prosecutions both spoke against the motion. Bower told the audience the media has “too little power, not too much”.

Journalism.co.uk spoke to some of the panelists before the debate. Hear our podcast below and sign up to our iTunes feed here for future audio.

Podcast: Download

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Editing audio on the go

Mark Luckie offers his advice on tools for recording, editing and publishing audio for reporters on the go on his 10,000 Words blog. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

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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Regret the Error editor starts business column

Craig Silverman, editor of Regret the Error, a website which reports on inaccuracies and corrections in the press, has started a fortnightly column for the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism.

Silverman, who already writes a weekly column for the Columbia Journalism Review, told Journalism.co.uk he would be seeking advice from business journalists and editors to inform parts of the ‘Regret the Business Error’ column.

I’m hoping that the column will be a place where business journalists can turn to receive actionable advice for avoiding basic factual errors, and where they can learn about avoiding some of the common mistakes made in business reporting. So it will be a mix of general tips and very specific guidance that works best for business journalists.

In order to do that, I’m going to track down business editors and reporters and do my best to pump them for information and advice.

Anyone who has a tip or piece of advice they would like to share can contact Craig by email – craig [at] craigsilverman.ca

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BJR: Former staffer criticises BBC for treatment of injured war reporters

Michael Cole, a former BBC TV news reporter, criticises the BBC for its use of Frank Gardner as a frontline war correspondent in this piece, questioning the characteristics of war correspondents and the duty of care of employers. Gardner was left with injuries to his spinal cord after being shot by al-Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia in 2004.

Says Cole:

The BBC has always been very leery about taking responsibility for people who are killed or injured on duty. There is a closing of ranks on the management floors whenever such things happen. After the expressions of official grief and a good turn-out of the top brass at the funeral, or a succession of hospital visits to the injured employee, it all comes down to pounds and pence: liability and how to avoid it. Sympathy and human regard for victims and their families is not followed by munificent  generosity. In terms of large sums of financial compensation, the BBC is deficient. The initial concern is swiftly stifled by the  obligation to safeguard the licence-payers’ cash.

Full article on the British Journalism Review at this link…

Related reading on Journalism.co.uk: read exclusive extracts from the forthcoming book ‘Afghanistan, War and the Media: Deadlines and Frontlines’.

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