Liverpool Post and Echo take part in Lennon bed-in recreation

The Liverpool Post and Echo were part of an art installation today as the titles joined in with local arts space the Bluecoat as part of the Bed-In – a recreation of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous peace protest in 1969.

The Echo moved its news conference to the bed this morning. A Twitpic courtesy of Post & Echo journalist Alison Gow shows Echo editor Ali Machray and Post editor Mark Thomas’ version of the iconic protest.

The Echo ran a liveblog of the event, which was linked to today’s Armistice Day commemorations with guests invited to the Bed-In to discuss the role that war plays in achieving piece.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange nominated for Time person of the year

Founder of the whistleblowing website behind the Iraq war logs leak Julian Assange is in the running for Time magazine’s 2010 Person of the Year.

The WikiLeaks editor is part of a varied shortlist, which includes controversial broadcaster Glenn Beck, the Chilean Miners, Lady Gaga, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and “The Unemployed American”. The magazine will select a person, group, couple, idea, place etc that for better or worse has been most influential in 2010.

At time of writing, Assange was leading the polls in terms of total votes, but behind the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in terms of influence rating.

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New figures show ad revenue decline slowing at Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror

Interim management statements published this week by Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror suggest declines in advertising revenues appear to be slowing for both publishers.

In a statement published today, Trinity Mirror said trading since the half year “has remained volatile due to the fragile economic environment and the uncertainty resulting from the Government spending review”.

The Board envisages that the trading environment will remain challenging over the remainder of the year and into 2011, however, it anticipates that the rate of decline in revenues will improve.

The group recorded declines in ‘adjusted’ advertising revenue of 4.6 per cent year-on-year (excluding the acquisition of GMG Regional Media), but overall the company recorded actual advertising growth of 13 per cent in the 17 week period (including the acquisition).

It added that full ownership of Fish4 will boost its digital recruitment ad revenues by £3 million in the first full year.

This report followed Johnston Press’s statement yesterday which reported a decline in total advertising revenue for the second half of the year to date of 5.4 per cent (year-on-year). This represents an improvement on the first half decline of 6.3 per cent, the report adds.

The decline in print advertising revenues excluding recruitment in the second half to date is 2.5 per cent, with the decline in recruitment advertising in the same period being 29.1 per cent.

In order to reduce costs the publisher announced it would be closing its printing operation in Limerick. A spokesperson told Journalism.co.uk this would impact on 29 part-time workers.

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lostremote: msnbc.com on linking to social media

Director of new product development at msnbc.com Cory Bergman has outlined the site’s latest use of social media in a post on lostremote.com which was put to use yesterday during the London student protest.

This includes not only curating updates from “observers at the scene” but encouraging other social media users who ‘spot’ an interesting photo, video, or Twitter posting to send a link to the related Tweet to the site.

Notice we’re not asking users to send us photos/video, but send us links to photos/video. So if someone you’re following on Twitter stumbled across a story, you could send us a link to her tweet. That’s a big philosophical shift for news organizations that historically want people who shot a photo to send it directly to them. But social platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have become the standard ways that people share breaking news, and you can “spot” news without witnessing it yourself.

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MediaGuardian: Metro expands distribution

Commuter paper Metro is to print an extra 50,000 daily copies and expand the distribution of its London edition, the Media Guardian reported today.

Distribution of the city paper will go as far as Southampton, Peterborough and Ipswich the report adds, in an attempt to reach commuters before they arrive in London.

Metro’s London edition will increase its daily circulation to 800,000 copies and be made available at 82 extra railway stations in commuter belt towns including Southampton, Peterborough, Northampton, Hastings, Cambridge, Ipswich and Bedford.

Full story at this link…

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Independent.co.uk: Russian journalist crippled by attack now fined for defamation

Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov, who was left handicapped in 2008 after a beating by unidentified assailants thought to be provoked by his reporting, has been convicted of defamation.

According to the Independent’s report, Beketov, who lost a leg in the attack and was left unable to speak, was issued with a fine of 5,000 roubles (£100) for defaming an official that he criticised in his coverage of the destruction of the Khimki forest near Moscow as editor of the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper.

Full story on Independent.co.uk at this link…

Related reading: ‘The problem with journalism in Russia is not censorship, that would be easy to deal with’ by Alexey Kovalev

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Talking Biz News: Bloomberg Businessweek cuts online staff

According to Talking Biz News, Bloomberg Businessweek has made cuts to its online staff, including news editor of Businessweek.com Phil Mintz.

Full story on Talking Biz News at this link…

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Northcliffe Localpeople site experiments with Storify

When Journalism.co.uk spoke with social media storytelling tool Storify last week, it was predominantly US news sites that we could see using it. So it’s good to see Northcliffe Media’s Localpeople site, Westbury-On-Trym, getting in on the act for its coverage of Gordon Ramsay’s programme on the UK’s best restaurants:

If you spot any more examples of Storify being used let us know – we want to know how this tool develops.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – a social events calendar

Networking: Check out Lanyrd – the social conferencing site that helps you find out what events your contacts and friends are going to. Tipster: Laura Oliver.

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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#followjourn: @kumquatkid – Ben King/producer

Who? Ben King, providing “Insights, linkies, bons mots and bad puns from Channel 4 News’ business producer”

Where? Ben’s own site appears to be under construction, but his day to day work takes place on the Channel 4 News site

Twitter? @kumquatkid

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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