#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – WordPress plugins for the newsroom

Blogging: 10,000 Words has pulled together six WordPress plugins that are worth having for your newsroom blog or website. 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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#Jpod: Why we need to view the news industry on an international scale

The newspaper industry “is not going to dry up overnight” – these were the words from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s new director of research Robert Picard, speaking at the launch of the institute’s new book ‘The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy’.

The book itself offers a series of essays on seven countries, looking at recent developments and trends in the news media. It was introduced at the launch event by Picard and the book’s editors, institute director Dr David Levy and research fellow Dr Rasmus Nielsen.

Nielsen told the audience that the industry and business of journalism is today widely seen as in a “potentially terminal crisis”, spurred on by some imported American debates. He said the book aimed to make better sense of how these generalisations hold up.

While many of these are common challenges, there are also persistent differences in how the industries developed in different countries. We need to understand not only the common challenges but persistent differences.

For example, according to the book’s comparative tables featuring the most recent figures, newspaper revenues were down 30 per cent in the USA, compared with 10 per cent in Germany. “Germany weathered the storm and can turn its attention to strategic challenges,” Nielsen said.

Fellow editor Dr David Levy said one of the benefits of the book is that it provides a portfolio of different policy approaches and highlights those which need to be considered, shown in summary below:

Stimulating supply – tax breaks, new funding
Terms of trade – aggregators and copyright, ownership/plurality rules, public service media and commercial media
Demand – (only raised in one area of the book)

Before handing over to a panel, Picard said there was a great business misunderstanding in the journalism industry.

The last quarter of the last century was unusually enriching for media. Large firms were created through consolidation, which created a great deal of wealth and produced enormous profits.

There were far fewer financial resources than today in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. We have to think in broader terms when looking at the health of the industry.

There is a good deal of reason to be concerned. Revenues are leaving and not coming back, there are shifts in how people are using information. But the newspaper industry is in fact a very wealthy industry and producing more money worldwide than other forms of media.

It is not going to dry up overnight.

Listen below for Journalism.co.uk’s podcast, including interviews with the book’s editors and members of the launch event panel, Professor George Brock, head of journalism at City University and Professor Natalie Fenton from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Podcast: Download

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Inforrm Blog: Superinjunction decision raises free speech conundrum

Last week Journalism.co.uk reported that a superinjunction preventing news organisations from naming Take That singer Howard Donald had been lifted by the court of appeal.

It means that the media can report the identity of the claimant, Donald, in the case, but an order banning former girlfriend Adakini Ntuli from selling her story remains.

Commenting on the decision in an opinion piece on the Inforrm blog (the International Forum for Responsible Media) Charlotte Harris, the head of media at JMW Solicitors LLP, who represented Ntuli in the case, discusses her view on the impact of the decision.

While it may appear at first a success for the free speech cause, she says, the decision presents a set of new difficulties for defendants and claimants in such cases.

In Ms N’tuli’s case, part of her story has been made public but she is prevented from addressing any criticism levelled at her, addressing any speculation or responding fully to press statements made that may be incorrect. Ironically her freedom of speech is more important now then it was back in March when the injunction was first served on her.

The assumptions made about her untold story are now assumptions made about her. Ms N’tuli cannot properly defend herself. She cannot say what she really intended to publish.

…So what of the future claimant? It is going to be harder to secure superinjunctions, anonymised injunctions or, it now seems, to keep an interim injunction in place unless the claimant’s case is proceeding at reasonable pace. The lifting of an injunction obtained, or the revelation of who the parties are can draw further attention to a story and pour fuel on a scandal. I would predict that until there is a clearer picture as to what on earth is going in the Queen’s Bench Division, it is not just defendants who are forced to be brave, but claimants too. If injunctions are to be de-anonymised then it is a lose/lose situation. It might be better to manage the client’s reputation and deal with a scandal through the libel courts.

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In defence of aggregation: Journalists stand up for maligned practice at university event

The role of news aggregators was defended yesterday by journalists at an event for City University’s journalism students.

Speaking at ‘Pimp My Blog’, Patrick Smith, Karl Schneider, and Tim Glanfield argued that news aggregators add value, rebuking claims by former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr that news aggregators are “parasites living of journalism produced by others”.

“I do think we are adding value,” said Smith, the editor of news aggregation site TheMediaBriefing. “We have got a semantic tagging system that actually makes this industry searchable and navigable and I think that has got a good value.”

Patrick Smith at Pimp My Blog:

Glanfield, a former Times journalist and co-founder of Beehive City, echoed Smith and questioned whether newspapers added any value or helped readers by simply “copying each other’s stories over and over again”.

“There are plenty of people who call themselves journalists out there who are basically just copying stuff from each other.

“Whereas what TheMediaBriefing and organisations like that are doing is aggregating news which is adding value.”

YouTube: Tim Glanfield at Pimp My Blog

Schneider, the editorial director at Reed Business Information, criticised newspapers for blaming their failures on others.

“I think there are lots of examples of newspapers trying find someone else to blame, whether it is bloggers, Google, or Craigslist, it is always someone else’s fault,” he said.

“Actually I think newspapers have sat on their backsides and failed to respond effectively to a completely changing media landscape till it is pretty much too late.”

Schneider added that in the future newspapers will have to “fundamentally reinvent themselves” online, because the aggregation found in print does not make sense online.

YouTube: Karl Schneider at Pimp My Blog

Coverage elsewhere:

Thoroughly Good Blog: We’re online publishers now

BBC College of Journalism blog: video

Rajvir Rai is a postgraduate journalism student at City University London. He can found on Twitter @R_Rai.

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Apps and widgets? The secret to blog traffic is more simple than all that

Struggling to get traffic to your blog? Want to know what widgets and apps will magically increase your hits and get you noticed? The secret is actually rather simple: Hard-work, regular updates, extensive reading, and good relationships with wider communities will have new visitors flocking to your site.

Speaking at a ‘Pimp My Blog’ talk at City University last night Patrick Smith, Karl Schneider, Tim Glanfield and Martin Stabe dismissed the idea that fancy apps are the secret to huge monthly visitor figures.

“There is no secret to it, there is no widget that can give you traffic,” said Smith, the editor of www.themediabriefing.com. “If it is crap then no one will read it and there is no way out of that.”
Similarly Schneider, editorial director at Reed Business Information (RBI), said: “Your wrong if you get too tied up in technology and the tools, because at the end of the day it is all about a relationship with the audience and telling a story.

While you may not be able to ‘pimp your blog’ out with one single widget, there are still some fundamental things you can do to increase traffic and, as Stabe, interactive producer at the Financial Times, said, “punch above your weight”.

Have a niche and be an expert in that field

The panel were unanimous in stressing the importance of focusing your efforts on one particular area. Schneider cited few examples of niche B2B publications that RBI runs that get a huge amount of traffic because they focus on very specific areas. The best way to get noticed, according to Stabe, is to digest everything you can about one specific topic. By doing this you can make yourself an expert and people will want to know your views.

Build Communities

To get hits you have to serve the needs of a particular community or group. Smith stressed the importance of always asking yourself, ‘what does my site do and who is it for?’ Remember the most successful blogs and bloggers are those with clearly defined communities and readerships. Glanfield highlighted that actually one of the easiest ways to start to form relationships with wider communities is to identify forums that are relevant to your subject matter and engage in conversation with members.

Be interactive

“The biggest change in journalism is that it is becoming interactive. It is not something you do to your audience, it is something you do with your audience,” said Schneider. In other words, use your blog to engage with your audience through quizzes, polls and effective linking to other sites, and make the best of Twitter. Remember it is a two-way street so you have to re-tweet others, engage in dialogue and not just constantly rant and rave.

Remember the web is a multi-media platform

Utilizing pictures and videos can really make a difference to your blog. Think about the how you can supplement your words with visuals and audio.

Essential Tools

Do not despair there are some tools which, if used correctly, can help you boost your online profile.

• Delicious: will help you bookmark and store anything interesting that you read online. It can also be used as a social networking tool to find other individuals reading in the same areas as yourself.
• Google Reader: Use this to get a constant stream of updates from sites you have subscribed to. Essential if you want to become an expert in a field and also very time efficient as saves you having to visit lots of sites a day.
• Dipity: Will help you embed timelines into your posts to give it that visual edge.
• Re-tweet/Facebook like widgets: Will allow readers to re-twetter, like, bookmark and share your blog posts.
• LinkWithin: A widget that will allow you link related articles at the bottom of a post.
• Google Spreadsheets: Are a great way of crowd sourcing data journalism and presenting it in a inventive way.

See presentations from Pimp My Blog on YouTube:

Tim Glanfield

Karl Schneider

Martin Stabe

Patrick Smith

Coverage elsewhere:

Thoroughly Good Blog: We’re online publishers now

BBC College of Journalism blog: video

Rajvir Rai is a postgraduate journalism student at City University London. He can found on Twitter @R_Rai.

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David Higgerson: ‘Actionable’ news and what it means for data journalism

David Higgerson blogs about the idea of ‘actionable’ news – a phrase that he first heard at last week’s Society of Editors conference from Reuters’ Jodie Ginsberg:

I see actionable news being right at the heart of the idea of data journalism. Information may well be freely available in a way we’ve never seen before, but that doesn’t mean the role of the storyteller has fallen by the wayside. As long as the writer who gets to grips with a spreadsheet of data is also plugged into the community they serve, and knows what they are interested in, then we’ve got actionable news (…) It shouldn’t be a revelation to journalists – after all, newsroom planners have certain data-rich days marked in every year, such as GCSE league tables day. But rather than be dictated to by a government planning calendar, journalists who can marry data access to issues which impact on people’s lives can provide make their work, and the titles they work for, more relevant to an audience than ever before.

Full post on David Higgerson’s blog at this link…

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Digital revenue helping magazine publisher Future get back on track

Increases in customer publishing and digital revenue have helped magazine publisher Future get “back on track”, according to the company’s preliminary results for the year ending 30 September.

In the report, published today, Future claims that its overall revenues have declined by 1 per cent on last year, with net debt reduced by more than 50 per cent.

The publisher adds that its US business has returned to profit while customer publishing revenue has grown by 43 per cent in the last 12 months.

Advertising revenues declined by five per cent overall, but individually online advertising (which makes up 25 per cent of the advertising revenues) rose by eight per cent.

In the report Stevie Spring, Future’s chief executive said the results show the publisher is back on track.

We’ve returned our US business to profit – a key goal for the year. And made good progress against our strategic priorities – adapting and investing in our business to meet the needs of a rapidly changing content landscape.

Consumer confidence is still fragile on both sides of the Atlantic, so our outlook for 2011 must remain cautious even though we’ve seen an encouraging 5 per cent growth in the second half of 2010.

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MediaGuardian: Channel 5 plans revamp of news programmes

Channel 5 owner Richard Desmond is planning a revamp of the channel’s news bulletins, which could include ending its current contract with Sky News, the Guardian reported last night.

According to the article Desmond, also owner of the Daily Express, wants “greater personal control over the Channel 5 News bulletins” and has asked several other news producers to work on ideas for the channel’s news output.

Over the last few weeks executives at Desmond’s Northern & Shell have asked ITV News producer ITN, Question Time maker Mentorn, and US news channel CNN to draw up alternatives to the Sky-produced service.

Sky has also been asked to submit ideas, but the Rupert Murdoch-controlled satellite broadcaster is not thought likely to retain the contract.

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#facethefuture: Coventry University to discuss challenges facing digital journalists

Coventry University and the BBC College of Journalism have teamed up to run today’s Face the Future event – 11 quickfire sessions on the challenges facing journalists working in digital, starting from 1:30pm.

The event will be available via video catch up on the BBC College of Journalism site and is being liveblogged on the CUtoday blog.

To follow the conversation around the event use the hashtag #facethefuture. Speakers include Jeff Jarvis via Skype, visiting professor at City University London Paul Bradshaw, TheBusinessDesk.com’s Marc Reeves and Sky News’ Julian Marsh. A full programme is available at this link.

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#followjourn: @jheawood – Jonathan Heawood/director of English PEN

Who? Jonathan Heawood, “Director of English PEN, writer, commentator, walker, Labour liberal”, formerly editor the Fabian Review and deputy literary editor of the Observer.

Where? www.englishpen.org

Twitter? @jheawood

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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