AFP: European newspaper aggregation site launched by EC

The European Commission and a media consortium lead by France’s Courier International have launched presseurop.eu – a site that will aggregate and translate newspaper articles from the world’s leading titles and translate them into 10 languages.

Analyses, press reviews and news summaries will also be provided.

Full story at this link…

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Spain: 2,221 journalists have lost jobs since June 2008

This stat from an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report (via Expatica) on the Spanish journalism industry: since June last year, 2,221 journalists from 30,000 in the country have lost their jobs. Around 350 more are expected soon, the report goes on to add.

The Spanish goverment is stepping in to help the industry, the report added, though the exact measures have not yet been made public.

There is a potential for direct state aid, the Spanish Federation of Journalist Associations (FAPE) has said.

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Young journalists wanted for Asia-European projects

The European Youth Press, the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) are building a network of young journalists from Asia and Europe.

Members would come up with ideas for the network and work with the three companies one events to connect young journalists from the different continents.

To qualify for this project you must be under 30 years of age and fluent in English with knowledge of the other continent. You must also work within the media, or be taking a media-related degree.

For additional information click here.

To apply email a CV and letter stating your interest.

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XCity Online: Freedom of the press in Europe

XCity speaks with Jean-Francois Juillard, head of Reporters Sans Frontieres, on the plight of press freedom in Europe.

Full story at this link…

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EUobserver: EFJ calls on EU to save journalism

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has written to the heads of all political groupings in the European Parliament urging them to ‘put the survival of journalism at the heart of their election campaigns’.

Full story at this link…

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#collegejourn coming to Europe

Following sucess on the other side of the Atlantic, online discussion #collegejourn, which brings together students and journalism academics for debate under a common hashtag, is coming to Europe.

To participate in the inaugural Collegejourn Europe discussion, drop into Meebo.com at the altogether more Euro-friendly time of 8pm (GMT) on Sunday (March 22).

If you want to get the ball rolling before the debate, send any topic suggestions towards the #collegejourn hashtag on Twitter or to Josh directly.

(via the University of Sunderland’s Journalism & PR blog)

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DNA09: Who made Obama President – More the candidate than the campaign?

Much has been made of Barack Obama’s use of new media to mobilise voters and generate microdonations to support his presidential campaign.

Speaking at today’s Digital News Affairs 2009 (DNA) Jodi Williams, press lead for the Obama Campaign, explained the team’s use of the internet as a tool to connect people ‘who otherwise wouldn’t have been connected’.

This meant building a presence for Obama on social networks, coordinating online donation schemes and collecting information on potential voters so that directions to polling stations and offers of transport could be made via text on voting day.

Many of the techniques could be applied to Europe for candidates in the forthcoming European Parliament elections, particularly because of deeper broadband presentation, added Williams.

Really? Could Obama’s campaign have been as successful without that key component – the candidate himself. Is there anyone in European politics who inspires the same debate/feeling/mass participation?

Fortunately Stephen Clark, representing the European Parliament on the panel, conceded this point:

“It can’t be denied that it [Obama's campaign] was about candidate and political situation at that time.

“It’s very difficult to find a political figure known across Europe. In a parliamentary system perhaps the issues are the way to go.”

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Bild reaches out to blogosphere with Twingly

We’ve seen it picked up by newspapers elsewhere in Europe, but this week Germany’s Bild announced it will improve its connections with bloggers by introducing Twingly to its sport, entertainment, German premier league football and English-language site, Bild.com.

The Blogstream widget links back to bloggers who are linking to Bild content in an attempt to share some link love and let the paper see where its content is being picked up and talked about.

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IHT: Italian newspapers in online advertising alliance

RCS MediaGroup and Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso will form an online ad consortium, the Premium Publisher Network, co-ordinating ‘performance-related advertising’ (e.g. charges based on traffic stats) for the groups.

Full story at this link…

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Slideshow on ‘Journalists and the Social Web’

Following Colin Meek’s articles for Journalism.co.uk on how journalists can get the most out of the semantic web, below is Colin’s presentation from Saturday’s seminar in Oslo on using the social web:

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