Bloomberg runs false obituary for Apple’s Steve Jobs

The death of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs was prematurely announced yesterday afternoon by Bloomberg.

A pre-prepared stock obituary was accidentally posted to Bloomberg’s corporate client wire service, even through the story was marked ‘Hold for release – Do not use’.

It was quickly spotted by a user, and sent to Gawker.com, where the obituary can still be read in full.

Bloomberg was quick to retract the story, and yesterday published a message on its wire saying: “An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m.New York time today.”

At Telegraph.co.uk Matthew Moore reports: “The stock obituary was published ‘momentarily’ after a routine update by a reporter, and was ‘immediately deleted’, Bloomberg said.”

According to Moore, ‘Jobs has been reluctant to publicly discuss his health, but recently denied claims that his cancer [from which he has previously suffered] had returned’.

Tags: Apple Inc., Bloomberg, cancer, Matthew Moore, New York, Steve Jobs, Telegraph.co.uk

Associated Press launches celebrity news service

The Associated Press (AP) has launched a celebrity news service to expand its coverage of entertainment news.

Celebrity Extra, which includes video footage, is the result of a multi-million dollar investment by the agency, a press release from AP said.

New staff have been hired to work on the service and new video production technology has been bought for its Los Angeles, New York and London bureaux.

A photo version of the service will launch in September.

Tags: Associated Press, London, Los Angeles, New York, video production technology

YouTube vid catches police clash with cyclist

A video uploaded by a New York tourist to YouTube has captured a seemingly unprovoked attack on a cyclist by a police officer.

According to CNET, the video is at odds with the officer’s own report of the incident.

The video-sharing site has plans to harness the power of ‘citizen journalism’ with the launch of its Citizen News channel. Was this video submitted to any news organisations before or at the same time as YouTube?

Whether it was or not this video shows YouTube’s potential for newsgatherers and illustrates the changing relationship between the public and the media - some citizens would rather broadcast the news themselves.

Tags: New York, video sharing site, YouTube

Reuters blogs: WSJ axes 50 jobs, creates new posts at New York ‘hub’

A reorganisation of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial and production operations will lead to around 50 jobs being lost, editor Robert Thomson has said in a memo.

The paper’s editing and production for print, online and mobile will be centralised around its New York ‘hub’, with editorial operations at its South Brunswick offices to cease.

Tags: New York, Robert Thomson, Wall Street Journal

Editor&Publisher: Daily Mail to have print run in New York

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday have signed a four-year deal, which will see the papers printed in New York.

The initial run, starting in September, will be of the papers’ home editions, but New York-specific content will be added in due course.

Tags: New York, The Daily Mail

Portfolio: Bloomberg buying NYT? Don’t hold your breath

Speculation about Bloomberg placing a bid for the New York Times has been rife for some time, but don’t believe the hype says Portfolio.

It quotes Bloomberg dismissing the speculation himself during a press conference yesterday in New York.

“I am not a newspaper person,” Portfolio reported him saying.

“I know nothing about the production of a newspaper. I know something about reading it. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I don’t. I buy it everyday retail. But I am not going into the newspaper business.”

Tags: Bloomberg, New York, the New York Times

YouTube videos now available in Google Maps

The team of developers responsible for Google Earth and Maps have launched a new feature to show Embedded YouTube videos in Google Maps.

Geotagged YouTube videos have been available in Google Earth since last year - the service has now been extended to Maps.

Newspapers in the UK have been increasingly drawn to the use of interactive maps on their websites as a new way of displaying news to their users.

In the US, where the availability of public data has made mapping a common part of online news reporting, several new innovative news-mapping experiments have recently launched.

In particular, new service Everyblock has been charting a vast range of public information across city maps for Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

The Google Maps developers have pointed out examples of how this new function might work for business – but the application being used for news videos looks like it could be just a step away.

Tags: Chicago, google, New York, online news, San Francisco, United Kingdom, United States, YouTube

Time Out launches Kuala Lumpur site, Hong Kong launch imminent

Time Out has this week launched a new listings and entertainments news website in Kuala Lumpur and plans to launch a similar site in Hong Kong next month.

The online launches coincide with sister print title launches in the territories. Developments in Hong Kong will bring the total number of international Time Out web/print publications to 24 in 18 countries including Sydney, Kiev and New York.

Time Out, which also launched in Barcelona in January, plans seven further launches in 2008, including titles in Belgrade, Budapest, Bangkok and Jakarta.

Tags: Bangkok, Barcelona, Belgrade, Budapest, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kiev, Kuala Lumpur, New York, online launches, similar site, Sydney, web/print publications

NY Gov. Spitzer prostitution ring story crashes NYT website

A huge traffic surge in response to a story broken by the NYTimes.com alleging New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was a client of a high-end prostitution ring, caused the newspaper website to crash yesterday.

According to Huffingtonpost.com, the website went offline for a period yesterday afternoon as readers raced to read allegations about the governor.

NYT spokesperson Diane McNulty told Huff Post that between 2-4 pm (Eastern US time) traffic was 60 per cent higher than at the same time last Monday. NYT mobile almost doubled its traffic for the same period.

Considering the amount of traffic that would have been generated by last week’s primaries for the Democratic candidate, yesterday must have been a pretty heavy day.

Tags: Diane McNulty, Eliot Spitzer, New York, NYT, United States

Political magazine Seven returns to online roots

Arts magazine Seven has gone back online with the launch of a new website, as it seeks financial backing for its print edition.

The magazine, which was launched as an online-only title in November 2005, had been focusing on developing the print edition for its launch across the UK last year.

The website will now be the magazine’s main edition, a press release said, until new investment in the print version is secured. Future plans include a new monthly publication schedule and a move to New York for the mag’s headquarters.

The title for ‘politically conscious men and women with an interest in the international arts’ also hopes to establish the Seven Foundation to support community projects in the UK and abroad.

Tags: New York, Seven Foundation, United Kingdom