AP: Amish newspaper is a non-electric internet, says publisher

Keith Rathbun, publisher of the Ohio-based Amish newspaper, the Budget, isn’t worried about the threat to newspaper sales posed by the internet, reports the Associated Press. While the paper does have an online presence, http://www.thebudgetnewspaper.com/, only local news briefs are available.

“People call The Budget the Amish Internet,” Rathbun says. “It’s non-electric, it’s on paper, but it’s the same thing.”

Full story at this link…

• Related: British journalism student Jessica Best undertook a two week internship at the paper earlier this summer with the aid of a travel grant, and shared some of her interpretations on her blog.

Similar posts:

• Daily Mail: London journalism student reported raped on assignment in Calais
• #soe09: Winners announced for NCTJ’s excellence awards
• J.co.uk: Murdoch dismayed by the amount of celebrity coverage in The Sun, claims its editor
• Reportr.net: ‘How blogs became part of BBC News’
• Twitter users play with Telegraph’s Twitterfall #Budget feature

Advancing The Story: Is state-funded news ethical?

KOTV and KWTV, two Ohio-based broadcasters, are to run stories about a state-sponsored insurance program – and getting funded by the state themselves for doing so, according to Advancing The Story.

ATS suggests the way in which the programmes are being broadcast hasn’t been transparent enough about the state aid.

But is there a way for news organisations to run paid-for stories in an ethically responsible way?

Full post at this link…

Similar posts:

• Window on the Media: ‘I smell a government rat in my news’
• Ohio’s leading newspapers to share stories across web
• The AP ‘beginning to fracture’ as members form collectives, reduce reliance
• Journalism.org: PEJ’s State of the News Media 2009 report
• Chicago Tribune: US Tribune papers to shun AP content for a week

Editor&Publisher (AP): Joe the Plumber turns war correspondent?

AP reports that Joe the Plummer, the man from Ohio who became a ‘household name’ during the US presidential campaign, says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com. Full story…

Similar posts:

• Chicago Tribune: US Tribune papers to shun AP content for a week
• csmonitor.com: Israeli officials seek Swedish government condemnation of organ theft story
• Media Culpa: Swedish blogger fired for pro-Israeli blog gets 32 months salary plus damages
• NYTimes.com: New York Times releases first API
• US journalists released from North Korea

RCFP: Ohio newspaper allowed access to deleted state emails

Similar posts:

• Scotsman.com: TV cameras to be allowed in UK Supreme Court
• New York Times: New investigation into murder of Anna Politkovskaya
• NiemanJournalismLab: ‘Newspapers, like kindergartners, need to share’
• ReadWriteWeb: Google may hand over Caribbean journalists’ IP addresses
• Times opens up 200-year digital archive

Ohio’s leading newspapers to share stories across web

Eight of the largest newspapers in the US state of Ohio have forged an alliance to share their top stories.

The Columbus Dispatch, The Toledo Blade, the Cincinnati Enquirer, The Akron Beacon Journal, The Plain Dealer are amongst newspapers making up the membership of the newly formed Ohio News Organisation (with the unfortunate acronym, OHNO).

Rather than relying to the Associated Press to decide at the end of each news day whether or not to distribute their stories, the papers will now post content to private website – accessible only to those eight newsrooms – from which partner organisations will be able to select pieces to use.

Ted Diadiun, readers representative for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote in his blog that readerships of individual paper would not be threatened as each covers a distinct city, and that story pooling would help them provide a better news service for readers.

“In today’s world, breaking news is measured in minutes, not days,” he wrote.

“It’s important that we provide our readers with the best news reports we can, as soon as we can, on our website and in the best and most current newspaper possible each day.”

All involved are adamant that the move doesn’t signal the end of journalistic competition.

However, no mention has been made on whether any money changes hands for the use of stories or whether AP will still syndicate the stories that are being placed in the new system.

It could just be a neat way to bypass the wire service and cut the cost of using its copy for local news.

Similar posts:

• The AP ‘beginning to fracture’ as members form collectives, reduce reliance
• Chicago Tribune: US Tribune papers to shun AP content for a week
• BreakingNewsOn launches iPhone ‘push’ alerts
• WAN 2008: Web TV Q&A with Kalle Jungkvist, editor-in-chief Aftonbladet.se
• CrainsNewYork: Daily News refutes blog post predicting its demise