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Karp on the theory behind the Publish2 contest

December 3rd, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted by Judith Townend in Jobs, Online Journalism

Just as that last post, on how to bag a new job in journalism, was published Publish2’s co-founder and CEO, Scott Karp, sent Journalism.co.uk some extra information. Here, Karp explains in more depth the rationale behind the contest:

“We’re a startup with a pioneering technology designed to support and encourage the rapid evolution of journalism in the digital age. We’re in uncharted territory.  Everything is ‘out of the box.’  An unconventional approach to hiring fits right in. We’re not hiring for a standard, well-established position. We’re creating new jobs.

“The best candidates for our job – and any job in journalism – are those who can see beyond conventional approaches. We’re looking for candidates who think, wow, this is a cool way to hire!  We’re looking for journalists who are eager to try new things, to learn and grow on the job. Everyone is facing the challenge of learning many new skills quickly. So attitude and disposition are very important. Experience is still a huge asset, but the ability to learn and adapt is increasingly important.

“In terms of specific skills, I think most important is a familiarity with the web and digital media that comes from actually using them. The best way to learn new media is to use it yourself. There are a lot of journalists on Twitter, for example. Most of them started using Twitter originally to learn about it. Some many not have understood it when they first heard about it. But they learned by doing. That’s the key skill.

“So anyone who would enter the ‘I Am The Future Of Journalism’ Contest is, by virtue of the contest format and framing, already exhibiting many of the qualities we value and that we believe are key to future success in journalism.

“Journalists can shape the future of journalism. We’re excited about that. We’re looking for people who are also excited about it.”

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Reuters: Electronic reading devices unlikely to replace printed books

October 21st, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Editors' pick
Exhibitors at the Frankfurt Book Fair said that electronic reading devices are gaining converts, but are unlikely to replace the printed book and will have to compete hard with other ways of consuming digital media. Full story...

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FT.com: Publishers diversify to beat plateau in online advertising revenues

October 20th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Advertising, Editors' pick
"Even for UK-specific sites, the urge to protect margins is forcing more media owners to turn to advertising networks, which gather advertising space from several sites and sell it in bulk to advertisers," says the FT's digital media correspondent, Tim Bradshaw. Targeting international readers and creating subscription-based services online are also strategies being used by publishers, he adds. Full story...

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Ofcom: More control over internet content for Ofcom, says outgoing chairman

October 16th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Editors' pick
Regulator's remit will expand in terms of digital media, says David Currie. Full story...

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University of Florida sets up new digital media centre

July 18th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Training

The University of Florida is to build a new journalism training centre aimed at new methods of storytelling using digital and new media.

The Center for Media Innovation and Research (CIMR) will experiment with multimedia storytelling on different platforms and test their effectiveness, a release from the university said.

“News media of all types are struggling with the transition to digital. Our new center will help them find the way. It also will help us produce students who are prepared to lead media companies in the changing landscape,” said John Wright, dean of the university’s college of journalism and communications.

“It will be a sort of farm for new ways of disseminating news and information.”

The centre will include a ’21st Century Newsroom and Laboratory’ with a later addition of a ‘Digital Laboratory for Strategic Communications’. Students and staff from across the university’s journalism courses will use the centre.

“The result will be a sort of think tank consortium for digital media,” the release said.

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links for 2008-07-16

July 16th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Uncategorized

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WAN 2008: ‘Newspaper phone’ launch to build audience awareness of mobile services + barriers to development of newspaper’s mobile platforms

June 1st, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted by Oliver Luft in Journalism, Mobile, Newspapers

The launch of the world’s first ‘newspaper’ telephone by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) was part of a plan to establish it as a recognised platform for news, DN’s head of mobile told an industry forum today.

DN launched the phone in partnership with Nokia and Nordic mobile service provider Telnor in December to give users instant access to the paper’s online content, Johan Brandt told the digital media roundtable at the World Newspaper Congress.

“We did this because we had three challenges [with mobile]. We had to get people to realise we had a pretty good mobile site. Many people just didn’t know that they could find news from the mobile internet, not enough people were aware of it as a channel,” he said.

“Secondly, one of the big barriers was that it’s difficult to browse the internet with a mobile, there are too many clicks… and third was ‘what does it cost to serve?’. Mobile providers charge users by megabyte. But what is a megabyte? Is it an article or a mobile TV episode. People don’t know what it’s going to cost them.”

In order to promote the newspaper portal, he added, it was important that the phone allowed users to assess DN’s mobile service in a single click and surf those web pages without incurring charges for downloading data.

The service, he added, is now attracting 50,000 unique users per month – up more than 40 per cent from last year – but there remained significant factors hampering the development of the mobile phone as an established platform to deliver news and on which newspapers can make significant revenue.

He identified a lack of standardised technology and measurement across the mobile market as the primary drawback to significant growth.

“There are no standards on the mobile market, it’s unnecessarily difficult and hard for the developers to create model services. I want to see growth from the walled garden model to a more open environment,” he said.

“Secondly, there is a lack of standards when it comes to advertising and measurement. There are different ad formats for different mobile sites. The market is fragmented and this makes advertisers frustrated and it also dwarves the mobile market’s potential in the short term.

“As a result of this there is a lack of strategic integration of marketing across mobile and other platforms for advertisers.

“There are too many pricing models for our advertisers to learn and in Sweden there are no valid or integrated tools for measurement, there are just no standards.”

In addition to this, he said, it was difficult for consumers to establish the cost of accessing data on phones and that it could prove to be a deterrent to use.

“In Sweden there are several hundred mobile phone subscriptions, with different prices for surfing. How can the user really know which subscription to get and what it costs to surf when it’s paid for by megabyte?

“I think there should be flat fees for time spent, that would make cost more predictable [for users].”

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PPA Magazines 2008: BBC must collaborate with digital media, says Yentob

May 7th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Events, Magazines

The BBC must continue to collaborate with digital media and the magazine industry, Alan Yentob, BBC creative director, has told delegates at the PPA’s annual conference.

Yentob said the corporation would be ’stunted’ if it did not look for partnerships with other online media and services.

“The way forward for us is a collaborative one, because the public don’t want to be told ‘no entry here, we won’t tell you what websites are also interesting’,” said Yentob.

“If you are going to create a unique resource you need to post it up in all directions.

Yentob said similar partnerships to the corporation’s collaboration with YouTube would be considered in the future.

“The BBC isn’t afraid of collaboration and we want to be able to give away content while at same time being able to control it.”

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NYTimes.com: Q&A with Khoi Vinh, design director for NYTimes.com

April 30th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Editors' pick, Newspapers, Online Journalism

Vinh answers readers questions on what it takes to work for the newsroom of NYTimes.com and the design details of the online edition.

In the feature, Vinh admits the paper looks to other news websites for inspiration and gives Guardian.co.uk in particular.

“We draw inspiration from what’s happening in digital media at large, regardless of whether or not a news organization is explicitly involved,” adds Vinh.

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DNA 2008: CNN says no ‘mojos’ for five years

March 6th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Mobile

Laurel Chamberlain, director of digital media for news at Turner Media, told delegates at DNA 2008 that CNN would not be adapting its journalists or content for mobile phones in the near future.

Chamberlain, who was speaking in a panel discussion on the business of mobile news, said there was currently no need to use specially trained mobile journalists or alter content for mobile.

“There are always ways of looking at how we can condense what we put onto mobile, but at this stage I don’t think it’s necessary,” Chamberlain said.

“If people only want to read the first paragraph of a story that’s fine by me, but so far we’ve found they’re reading five or six pages of one story.”

In the UK the Manchester Evening News has been experimenting with mobile journalism, giving reporters Vodafone handsets to file news copy and pictures on the fly.

Reuters has also been conducting its own ‘mojo’ trials since last summer with reporters equipped with lightweight Nokia kits producing multimedia coverage from the US Presidential primaries and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

But Chamberlain said such experiments were not being carried out at CNN: “I don’t think special mobile journalists are coming soon for CNN, maybe in another five years when we are only thinking about the mobile space.”

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