Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog » America

PaidContent: Interview with Vivian Schiller – National Public Radio ‘can solve hyperlocal’

Judith Townend — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:45:15 +0000

The new president of NPR says that the radio company is well-positioned to deliver hyperlocal content: "NPR can do it. It already has the trust and the infrastructure in every town and campus in America. I want to find a way to create indispensable local media hubs," said Vivian Schiller.

Behavioural ads form of ‘free speech’, says Newspaper Association of America

Laura Oliver — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:47:31 +0000

The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) has weighed in on the debate surrounding behavioural targeting of newspaper ads online, saying privacy standards proposed by the US’ Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could ‘infringe on newspapers’ First Amendment rights’, according to a report on Online Media Daily.

Targeted online advertising, says the group, is “not only truthful advertising speech, but advertising speech that meets their [the audience's] interest”.

Ads are a form of free speech so long as they are not misleading, the association wrote in its comments to the commission:

“Efforts to restrict what newspaper websites publish, and the basis by which editors and advertisers make decisions regarding what to publish, run directly counter to core First Amendment rights, and can amount to a prior restraint.”

The Guardian recently pulled out of a behavioural advertising deal with Phorm, because of ethical concerns, while web creator Tim Berners-Lee voiced concerns over Phorm’s technology.

The FTC’s guidelines on this form of advertising suggest websites allow users to opt-out of the tracking process and seek consent before making use of sensitive information relating to users’ behaviour.

Similar Posts:

Gawker: America’s pernicious Pulitzers

Oliver Luft — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:30:48 +0000

‘The Pulitzers aren’t going to finance American journalism; in fact, one can make the argument that these self-congratulating awards, and the attention devoted to them, are symptomatic of the decline of the newspaper industry.’

So says Gawker of America’s premier press awards in a characteristically pithy piece of commentary.

But pith isn’t the sole aim, this well aimed jab strikes at the exposed underbelly of the US press and scores a good point.

‘Newspapers’ Pulitzer-chasing is most damaging because it distracts newspapers from their real challenge.

‘Rather than impress colleagues with the seriousness of their reporting, US newspapers need to engage a readership that is drifting off to television and the internet.

‘Pulitzer-winning journalism will win Pulitzers; it won’t save an industry which is experiencing double-digit annual declines in advertising revenue.’

Nodding agreement here.

Similar Posts:

International news website planned by US media veteran

Laura Oliver — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:41:00 +0000

The founder of one of America’s largest regional news networks is to launch a website dedicated to international news.

Philip Balboni, who established the New England Cable News (NECN) in the US, will resign from his post as NECN president in March to launch Global News Enterprises in early 2009.

The site aims to have correspondents in nearly 70 countries, a press release from NECN said.

According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, $7 million (around £3.5 million) has been raised to fund the news site.

“The world in every respect is globalizing, and we’re being swept up in it with the economy, our lives, our leisure times, our children’s education. And the American people are not being well-served by our media. The moment is right for this,” Balboni told the Tribune.

Similar Posts:

Multimedia collaborations provide Super Tuesday coverage online

Laura Oliver — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:06:13 +0000

Yesterday was just plain pancake day in the UK, but over the water it was Super Tuesday, as 24 of America’s 50 states voted on which candidates should be put forward for the country’s presidential election in November.

The coverage of the day’s events online saw some innovative multimedia and collaborative efforts from new and existing media outlets:

Mapping

Results + different time zones + different states = a great opportunity for breaking news displayed on mashed-up maps.

Google got in on the action with a map displaying live results and, with the help of Twitter and Twittervision, ‘tweets’ from across the US to give instant reactions from voters.

In another partnership with YouTube, as part of the site’s You Choose ‘08 channel, Google is aggregating videos and clips from news organisations, candidates and users about Super Tuesday and plotting them on a Google map.

Elsewhere the BBC’s results map, which features as part of a broader election section, gives an easily navigable, state-by-state guide to the figures.

New collaboration

Publish2 launched a bookmarking system for newsrooms, bloggers and journalists, to create an aggregation service. Interested parties were asked to register for a free account and create a specific tag they would use – these tagged items can then be turned into a news feed by Publish2 to be repurposed on the tagger’s site.

Here’s an overview of the Networked Newsrooms idea or, to see it in action, visit the Knoxville News Sentinel or the New Jersey News Herald.

Video

Newsweek and The Washington Post teamed up for a five hour live webcast, encouraging viewers to react in a live webchat. Meanwhile The Huffington Post produced handheld footage from a Barack Obama rally in New York in the build-up to Tuesday and a live blog of the actual event.

MTV sent 23 of its ’street team’ of citizen journalists to cover the polls and upload footage from video cameras and mobile phones. The clips are being distributed through MTV Mobile, Think.MTV.com and the Associated Press‘ online video network.

And finally – a slideshow…

…well, it’s much more than that really – De Volkskrant created an all-singing, all-dancing ’slideshow’ with music, text, links, audio analysis and video giving an overview of the candidates, as well as a live results page for Tuesday’s results.

Similar Posts:

Yahoo: US papers grew online audience 6 per cent last year

Oliver Luft — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:38:35 +0000

According to data released by Newspaper Association of America and compiled by Nielsen Online, the online readership of US newspapers grew about 6 per cent last year.

Online reach of newspapers grew to 38 per cent of all active online users, up from 36 percent in 2006.

Newspapers had an average of 60 million unique US visitors per month in 2007, up from 56.4 million the year before.

Similar Posts:

NYTimes.com launches Polling Place Photo Project and asks users to submit

Oliver Luft — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:15:23 +0000

NYTimes.com has launched the Polling Place Photo Project, its bid to document the election year with photos taken by its readers.

The Times is asking for submissions of every polling location in America during the 2008 primaries and general election, so that it can compile an archive of voting in the US.

Images of the New Hampshire primaries have already been uploaded to the developing site.

Similar Posts:

New WSJ.com features to appeal to China

Oliver Luft — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:25:20 +0000

Wall Street Journal Online launched today a multimedia feature for Chinese readers called ‘Beautiful Country’ – the Chinese name for America.

Li Yuan will write a column and provide video commentary describing how American business culture differs from that in China.

Both will appear in English and Chinese on wsj.com and chinese.wsj.com

Interactive maps and graphics will supplement the commentary.

Reuters: US newspaper websites show record growth

Laura Oliver — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:40:57 +0000

Latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA)show the number of unique visitors to US newspaper sites rose more than 6 per cent to a monthly average of 60 million.

Similar Posts:

Guardian America

Laura Oliver — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:36:12 +0000

The long awaited US-focused website from the Guardian has arrived – time to dig a little deeper into what Guardian America has to offer the reader (American or not).

Search: using the search facility on Guardian America is the same as using it on Guardian Unlimited. Results for a search on “Hilary Clinton” do not show any results for the America site despite an interview with the Clinton being its main interview of the day.

This is good and bad – after all the site is intended to link in with Guardian Unlimited, but this could be frustrating for US users using the search as a means of navigating around the US site.

Blogs: Comment Is Free and some of the site’s blogs have been up and running for US users for a while – a clever tactic as it has ensured active readers and commenters on the new site. Deadline USA seems to be the flagship blog for the new offering with a healthy dose of US political news.

Homepage: American content at the top of each section – Guardian Unlimited content tacked on at the bottom. Yes, this may be a little unfair – it’s the first day so this format is likely to change – but having British sports stories slap bang in the middle of what is meant to be a US version seems inconsistent and is surely off-putting for a reader.

It will be interesting to see how the site develops, particularly to see how much this it fulfils its remit as a dedicated US platform as opposed to just another section of the main website.

Similar Posts: