Redlights and Redeyes: ‘It’s tough to watch photographers get drained through a funnel’

A candid open letter from award-winning US photojournalist Chip Litherland to newspaper photographers everywhere: “It is now on you.”

Dear Newspaper Photographer,

If you think you are safe in your job, you aren’t.

I say that bluntly to make the point stick. You are a number. You are expendable. Your work will win awards. Your work will sell papers … I want this to be positive, but it’s hard to be in this situation. I’ve seen too many friends and colleagues come and go and that choice was never given to them.  Some are still shooting freelance, some had to give up photography as a career and pursue other things – but, they are some of the most creative and beautiful people on the planet.  It’s tough to watch photographers get drained through a funnel as they come into this field, and as they leave. Staying in the funnel is tough and proving to be tougher everyday.

I left my newspaper staff only a couple months ago on my own and loving every minute of it. It’s been busy as hell (knock on wood), but I’m learning everything on the fly which is exciting and nerve-racking. It’s a wonderful feeling. Open book.

Full letter on Redlights and Redeyes at this link…

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NUJ: Release of one Zimbabwe journalist offset by arrest of another

The National Union of Journalists has reported that the president of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, Dumisani Sibanda was released from detention late last night.

Yesterday the union reported that Sibanda, the bureau chief for the Standard and Newsday, was arrested in relation to an article he wrote about the police force.

Following his release last night it was also reported that another journalist from the Standard, Nqobani Ndlovu, had also been arrested and detained.

In a statement Michelle Stanistreet, the NUJ’s deputy general secretary said the situation is “deeply worrying”.

The NUJ has worked closely with Dumisani Sibanda and we are pleased he has been released. But the news of the arrest of his colleague Nqobani Ndlovu demonstrates the serious pressure journalists in Zimbabwe are once again under.

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The Cutline: NYT to bring together print and online in newsroom restructure

New US media blog The Cutline, from Yahoo’s The Upshot, reported yesterday that the New York Times was restructuring its web newsroom as part of plans to bring together its print and online operations.

According to a memo from executive editor Bill Keller obtained by The Cutline, it was announced internally that digital news editor Jim Roberts will become the assistant managing editor for news, while web newsroom editor Fiona Spruill is named editor for emerging platforms.

Read more on this here…

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Politico: Arianna Huffington sued for stealing Huffington Post idea

Politico is reporting that two democratic consultants have accused Arianna Huffington of stealing their idea for the Huffington Post.

Peter Daou and James Boyce charge that Huffington and partner Ken Lerer designed the website from a plan they had presented them, and in doing so, violated a handshake agreement to work together, according to a lawsuit to be filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Huffington has told Politico that the charge of stolen ideas is “a completely absurd, ludicrous supposition” from two men who she had rejected going into business with or hiring six years ago.

Documents on Politico at this link…

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Google News experiments with new metatags in drive to give credit where it’s due

Google News has outlined two new metatags it is experimenting with as part of efforts to ensure journalists are correctly credited for their work, by identifying the URLs of syndicated and original copy. In an announcement on its blog yesterday, Google News said:

News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That’s why we’re experimenting with two new metatags for Google News: syndication-source and original-source. Each of these metatags addresses a different scenario, but for both the aim is to allow publishers to take credit for their work and give credit to other journalists.

The first metatag, syndication-source, indicates the preferred URL for a syndicated article:

…if Publisher X syndicates stories to Publisher Y, both should put the following metatag on those articles: <meta name=”syndication-source” content=”http://www.publisherX.com/wire_story_1.html”>

Then for the original-source metatag, the code would indicate the URL of the first article to report on a story with the following: <meta name=”original-source” content=”http://www.example.com/burglary_at_watergate.html”>

In both cases the tags can be used by either the syndicator or journalist responsible for the original copy to identify their work, and then also those who use it in the production of their own reports to offer credit back to those parties.

Google News says that at the moment it will not make any changes to article ranking based on the original-source tag.

We think it is a promising method for detecting originality among a diverse set of news articles, but we won’t know for sure until we’ve seen a lot of data. By releasing this tag, we’re asking publishers to participate in an experiment that we hope will improve Google News and, ultimately, online journalism.

Read more on this here…

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DailyFinance: Handpicked Media and the benefits of blog networks

The DailyFinance profiles Handpicked Media, an independent blogs network covering women’s fashion, beauty and lifestyle which has recently signed up new blogs and added Debbie Djordjevic, former editorial director at Hearst Digital, to its ranks.

Bloggers and the publishers get together every six weeks or so socially, and blogs keep 65 per cent of the revenue earned from their sites.

That revenue is generated because, as a collective with key opinion-formers and influential bloggers on its rosta, Handpicked can bring in more advertising and create more opportunities than any single blog, presenting agencies and advertisers with a single point of contact.

Full story on DailyFinance at this link…

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paidContent: Metro launches new app business

The UK commuter daily Metro launched its own app business yesterday, according to paidContent, called Metro Apps.

The business, a joint venture between Metro and Associated & Northcliffe Mobile and TV, will be run as a publishing division targeting 18-45-year-old urban professionals, paidContent reports.

…the DMGT freesheet Metro today launched its own app business, and will put out the first fruit of this labor tomorrow, a special edition of “Super Yum Yum: Puzzle Adventures” for the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) app store, on sale for 59 pence ($0.94), with more titles to come.

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NUJ members ballot for strike at north-east Newsquest titles

National Union of Journalists members across a series of Newsquest-owned north-east titles have started to ballot for industrial action against proposed redundancies and a continuing pay freeze, according to a report from the union.

Members at Newsquest Northeast, which includes The Darlington and Stockton Times, Durham Times and the Advertiser series, have also unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in the chief executives of Newsquest and Newsquest’s US parent company Gannett.

In the NUJ release, the union’s Northern and Midlands organiser, Chris Morley said the proposed loss of eight jobs in the region is the “final straw” for staff:

The proposed redundancies spell disaster for the titles. It is a short-sighted policy that will result in lower quality and readership declining, as editorial staff are stretched ever more thinly.

Staff are shocked at Newsquest’s preparedness to jettison so many of their most valuable assets – experienced, dedicated staff who have been responsible for the success of the titles. We are not prepared to stand by and allow Newsquest to press ahead with their plans for staff redundancies and, ultimately, business suicide.

Tomorrow NUJ members at the Brighton Argus, also part of the Newquest group, will start a two-day strike in response to job losses at the title and the relocation of its subbing operation to Southampton.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – topical link posts

For collections of reading material on some of the big topics and issues in journalism today, check out our numerous link posts over on the news:rewired event website. Posts cover areas such as branding, gaming in journalism, digital production and online communities, with more still to follow. 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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Journalisted Weekly: Cameron in China, students in London, Suu Kyi in Burma

Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.

Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources. From now on we’ll be cross-posting them on Journalism.co.uk.

• Coverage of David Cameron’s trip to China slightly surpassed news about student fees and subsequent protests
• George W Bush’s presidential memoirs were widely covered in the UK and elsewhere
• The minister for universities was hardly mentioned

The Media Standards Trust’s latest report ‘Shrinking World: The decline of international reporting in the British press’ is now available to download

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

Covered lots

• David Cameron in China, where the prime minister went to promote UK-Chinese relations, 213 articles
• An increase in tuition fees for students that sparked student protests and some rioting in Conservative HQ at Millbank, 196 articles
• George Bush’s autobiography, in which he defended the use of waterboarding, 151 articles
• Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in Burma on Sunday, 107 articles

Covered little

• Concerns about Ireland’s ability to make payments on its sovereign debt, as the country resisted calls for an EU bail-out, 30 articles
• David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, in a week of student protests, 12 articles
• The engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton, made in October, and followed by a flurry of bets, 3 articles

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

• David Cameron: 527 articles (+10% on previous week)
• Nick Clegg: 180 articles (+53% on previous week)
• George Osborne: 138 articles (+6% on previous week)
• Gordon Brown: 109 articles (+9% on previous week)
• Iain Duncan Smith: 109 articles (+148% on previous week)
• Vince Cable: 103 articles (-9% on previous week)
• Tony Blair: 89 articles (+7% on previous week)
• Ed Miliband: 84 articles (+12% on previous week)
• Harriet Harman: 77 articles (+97% on previous week)
• Michael Gove: 64 articles (+21% on previous week)

Celebrity vs serious

• Take That, who appeared together for the first time since 1995 – on the X-Factor, 94 articles vs the formation of Iraq’s new power-sharing government, headed by Nouri Maliki, 28 articles
• Ann Widdecombe, ex-politician turned ballroom dancer, 55 articles vs Paul Chambers, whose conviction for a tweet about ‘blowing up’ Robin Hood airport was upheld, 18 articles
• Emma Watson, who attended the premiere of the new Harry Potter film, 51 articles vs child detention, in the week Clare Sambrook won a second award for her investigations and Peers condemned the government’s postponement of the ending of child detention, 3 articles

Who wrote a lot about…’Aung San Suu Kyi‘

Jack Davies – 11 articles (The Guardian), Phoebe Kennedy – 10 articles (The Independent), Andrew Buncombe – 6 articles (The Independent), Tim Johnston – 5 articles (Financial Times), Emma Cowing – 3 articles (Scotland on Sunday), Peter Walker – 3 articles (The Guardian), Mail Foreign Service – 2 articles (MailOnline)

Long form journalism

• 4,857 words: ‘Christopher Hitchens: ‘You have to choose your future regrets’, Andrew Anthony, The Observer, 14th November 2010
• 3,639 words: ‘Douglas Gordon on life in Berlin and growing up in Glasgow’, David Sharp, The Herald, 8th November 2010
• 3,190 words: ‘Fin de siecle: Has French cookery had its just desserts?’, John Lichfield, The Independent, 13th November 2010

Tune in same time next week.

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