#Tip: Pointers on reporting local elections

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Local elections in the UK are now less than a month away and the helpful folks over at Talk About Local have put together some tools and tips for reporting on the events in a hyperlocal context.

The tools are presented in a public Google doc while a blogpost from media law expert David Banks is also provided to warn against any potential legal pitfalls.

As the Google doc is open source, the Talk About Local team hope users will add their own suggestions to create an “open source toolkit for elections”, so feel free to contribute if you know of any more.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link.

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Washington Post partners with US university to offer journalism scholarship to programmers

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The Washington Post and Northwestern University have teamed up to offer a scholarship opportunity to programmers at the university’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications.

The programme will allow programmers to earn a master’s degree in journalism before a paid internship at the newspaper.

Although the Knight Foundation has been supporting the programme since 2008, helping nine people to earn the degree and apply their knowledge in relevant jobs, the Washington Post is the first news industry partner to join the programme.

Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor for strategic projects at the Washington Post said in a release that programmers have the type of skill set and knowledge that can help to build “new tools and features that can benefit both readers and reporters”.

There is more information on the release.

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European Journalism Centre to offer grants for innovative development reporting

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Journalists can now apply for grants to help them produce innovative and in-depth coverage of “issues related to global development and the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals”.

According to a release from the European Journalism Centre, it recently received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which will help it offer up to 30 grants this year.

The press release adds:

The Centre will provide a selection of innovative reporting projects with the necessary funds to enable journalists, editors, and development stakeholders to perform thorough research and to develop entirely new and experimental reporting and presentation methods.

They will also be able to use multi-platform approaches and to think laterally across disciplines and techniques of journalistic storytelling.

Applications for grants should start from at least €8,000, with the centre expecting to give out grants of €20,000 on average. The deadline for applications is 15 March. More details on how to apply are on the grants website.

Hannah McLean, community manager at the European Journalism Centre said it is “looking for new ways of reporting that break outside the lines of the usual story”.

We encourage applicants to use multi-platform approaches and to think laterally across disciplines and techniques of journalistic storytelling.

We want applicants to experiment with new reporting and presentation methods. One of the ways they could accomplish this would be through digital storytelling.

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• University of Florida sets up new digital media centre
• Media release: Goldsmiths launches Centre for Creative and Social Technologies
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• New digital journalism project ‘not on the wires’ goes live

#Podcast – Connecting journalism and technology: Lessons for hack day success

Both within and outside of the newsroom, journalists, developers, designers – and people with other skillsets – are coming together to either work on projects as part of dedicated hack days, or just make new connections through more casual meetings.

This week’s podcast hears from those experienced in running hack day events, who share their approaches, lessons and top tips for staging hack day events and encouraging collaboration around journalistic issues.

The podcast features:

• Stephen Pinches, group product manager for FT.com
• Chrys Wu, user engagement strategist and a co-organiser of the New York City chapter of Hacks/Hackers
• Dan Sinker, director of the Knight Mozilla OpenNews project

Podcast: Download

Some background reading and watching:

• A Journalism.co.uk report on the launch of the Financial Times’ first hack day
• Video from the FT’s hack day event
• A Journalism.co.uk video feature from a Hacks and Hackers event at Reed Business Information in 2010

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• Lessons from Hacks/Hackers and a Knight-Mozilla fellowship winner
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – advice on searching public sources of data
• #jpod – How to engage a subscriber community: Lessons from the Times and Financial Times
• Can hacks and hackers work together? A new ‘living experiment’ looks to find out
• 2011 Knight Batten journalism innovation awards open for entries

Release: Charity publishes guide for journalists reporting on diabetes

Diabetes UK has released a new guide aimed at helping journalists in their reporting on diabetes.

According to a release, as well as offering information on diabetes, the guide “also looks at the role journalists can play in challenging misconceptions around the condition” and offers some reporting tips.

Download the guide at this link.

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• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – public figures resource
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – toolkits for journalists

The Economist in figures: Social media, newsletter and circulation stats

The Economist has released a set of audited statistics that show combined print and digital circulations, social media followers and newsletter subscribers.

The stats show:

• Average print and paid digital editions circulation from January to June 2012 = more than 1.5 million
• Average weekly unique devices accessing The Economist apps = more than 600,000
• Total monthly unique browsers to The Economist website = nearly 7 million
• More than 2 million unique newsletter opens, with a unique open rate of 13.9 per cent
• A total of 5.6 million social media followers, including: 2.8 million Twitter followers, 1.1 million Facebook likes, 1.6 million followers on Google+ and 55,000 Tumblr followers.

In addition to worldwide data, each regional edition is featured in a separate section in the report.

UK stats show:

• Print circulation = more than 210,000 (worldwide = 840,000)
• Average weekly unique devices accessing The Economist apps = nearly 80,000 (worldwide = 600,000)
• Total monthly unique browsers to The Economist website = 650,000 (worldwide 7 million)

According to a release, this is the first ‘consolidated media report’ for the title, which has been released by Audit Bureau of Circulations North America, with support from ABC UK.

The full stats, which are worth a look, are at this link.

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#wef12: Follow the World Editors Forum in Kiev

For the next few days I will be in Kiev to report from the World Editors Forum (and possibly also from sessions at the World Newspaper Congress).

Articles and blog posts will be published on Journalism.co.uk, and I will be tweeting from @journalism_live, with headlines also tweeted out on @journalismnews. You can also follow the hashtags #wef12 (forum) and #wnc12 (congress) to see live updates from those at the conferences.

Here is a link to the agenda.

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#Podcast – Real-time reporting: Liveblogging lessons for digital journalists

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Whether you’re a journalist working for a national news outlet, a niche magazine or a local newspaper, there are likely to be plenty of opportunities for you to put liveblogging skills into practice. From big breaking news events and regular local public meetings, to political speeches and visual gadget launches, online audiences are keen to be fed up-to-the-minute information.

In this week’s podcast we hear from three journalists who have much experience in liveblogging for a range of audiences, and are able to share some of the lessons they have learned along the way. As well as some practical pointers on managing a liveblog, we also discuss recent technology developments which have helped enhance the liveblogs of today and what developments are just round the corner.

The podcast hears from:

• Josh Halliday, reporter, the Guardian
• Neil Macdonald, head of web and data development, for Trinity Mirror in Merseyside, which includes looking after the websites for the Liverpool Daily Post and Liverpool Echo
• Adam Tinworth, independent consultant and journalist, working in the fields of digital journalism, social media and blogging

Podcast: Download

Josh, Neil and Adam shared lots more practical tips with us on liveblogging – keep an eye on Journalism.co.uk over the coming week(s) for more of their advice.

In the meantime here is some background reading on liveblogging from Journalism.co.uk:

• How to: liveblog – lessons from news sites
• ScribbleLive: Four ways to make money from liveblogging
• #GEN2012: How news organisations are embracing liveblog coverage

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• #Tip of the day for journalists: team liveblogging pointers

#Podcast – Digital lessons and opportunities for long-form journalism

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In recent years a number of interesting platforms and projects dedicated to long-form journalism have launched, in a bid to give the reporting style a solid footing in the digital space.

And research has shown that portable devices, such as the iPad, are likely to be natural playgrounds for the longer read. For example, a study carried out by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism with the Economist Group and released in October last year, found that tablet owners spend around an hour and a half each day on their device – suggesting users may have time for more immersive experiences, as well as accessing the latest news snippets.

To find out more about the digital evolution of long-form journalism this podcast hears from three people closely involved in digital publication about the challenges which have been faced by long-form non-fiction, the new and innovative projects and platforms emerging in the digital world, and the business models supporting them.

We speak to:

• Alissa Quart, editor-at-large, The Atavist
• Jim Giles, co-founder, Matter
• Lucia Adams, digital development editor, The Times

Podcast: Download

Here’s more on Matter from Journalism.co.uk, and here are some links for wider reading across the web on the topic of long-form journalism on digital platforms:

• Inside Forbes: How long-form journalism is finding its digital audience, by Lewis DVorkin on Forbes.com
• Times’ freelancers make a bet on long-form local journalism with new site, Narratively, by Joe Pompeo on CapitalNewYork.com
• Could digital publishing save long-form journalism?, by Michelle Castillo on Time.com
• The transition to digital journalism, by Paul Grabowicz on Knight Digital Media Center
• PostDesk: The latest long-form journalism startup, by Mona Zhang on 10,000 Words

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

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National Readership Survey infographic illustrates rise in digital magazine and newspaper reading

Here is an infographic from the National Readership Survey which aims to illustrate the growth in readership of newspapers and magazines on tablets, e-readers and mobiles.

According to a release it’s the first in a new series of infographics to be produced by the NRS “to demonstrate the breadth of insight within the NRS reports”, which are released each quarter:

It is no secret that these platforms are developing at an incredibly fast rate, and that media brands are increasingly being consumed on these digital devices. In fact, over the last year, readership on tablets and e-readers has doubled. However, what we need to remember is that however ubiquitous these devices appear to be in London – you cannot help but spot every kind of device if you commute on the tube – multi-digital platform ownership is still relatively low nationwide, with just 1.4 per cent of the population owning both a tablet and an e-reader.

The figures visualised below refer to data collected by the NRS for the period of April 2011 to March 2012. They include a rise in use of tablets and e-readers from 1.5 per cent to 3.2 per cent for reading magazines and from 2.4 per cent to 5 per cent for newspapers.

The NRS also reports a rise in mobile app readership of “publishing content” of 30 per cent. Readership of magazines grew from 2.7 per cent to 3.5 per cent on mobile apps, and readership of newspapers from 4.7 per cent to 6 per cent.

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