Independent and USA Today launch headline apps

The Independent and USA Today have both launched new tools for accessing news headlines. The Indy’s Newzdog widget and Newsdeck both aim to alert users about daily headlines.

The Independent’s version is a downloadable widget that notifies you of the latest news headlines relevant to the topics of interest that you specify. The widget can be minimised to a yellow star on the system tray and when there is a news story of importance to you the star turns red.

Jimmy Leach, editorial director for digital at the Independent said in a statement on Independent.co.uk: “This is a great way for users to make sure they know what’s going on in their areas of interest. Users often have topics they want or need to be kept in the loop about quickly, so this will be an excellent way of them creating their own mini-news service.”

Moving on to USAToday’s Newsdeck – the site collects headlines from the paper’s website and organises these into up to eight different subject areas, such as life, travel etc, making it easier for users to find what they are looking for.

Each of the sections allows you to scroll down to see more, which links to the full story.

There is also an option to switch between the top stories and the most popular stories.

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AP: USA Today to launch paid-for e-edition

News that USA Today is developing a paid-for, digital version of the paper, which will be distributed by email to readers from August 3.

Full story at this link…

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Media Release: FT and USA Today partner Plastic Logic e-reader launch

Content from titles to be made available on Plastic Logic e-reader – to be launched end of 2009.

Full story at this link…

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Bivings’ top 10 US newspapers: missing the news point?

The Bivings Group’s recently released Bivings Report of the top 10 US newspaper sites in 2008 consisted of:

1. New York Times
2. Washington Post
3. Wall Street Journal
4. Florida Times-Union
5. Philadelphia Inquirer
6. USA Today
7. St Paul Pioneer Press
8. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
9. Arizona Republic
10. Columbus Dispatch

The study, which picks the list based on usability, design and web features of the US’ 100 largest newspapers, is purposefully limited to covering US-based, newspaper sites.

But as one commenter on the Bivings blog says, ‘No Mention of any of MY best news sites’ – he then goes on to list his own top 10, including Huffington Post and EveryBlock (which another commenter then takes as the Bivings’ list).

Is comparing like-for-like really that useful – newspapers aren’t just competing with each other – or other mainstream news organisations – anymore. What the Bivings Group rates the sites on may be completely different from the readers’ criteria – particularly if these comments are anything to go by.

It reminds me of this Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) study from 2007, which found a different news agenda on UGC sites than mainstream platforms (e.g the agenda decided by journalists).

Users’ online agendas are different (and that’s not to say news organisations should completely adhere to UGC inspired schedules – that’s a debate for another day) and influenced by a plethora of different online sources. As such their expectations of newspaper sites will be shaped by the other tools and information websites they use. Ranking newspaper websites against each other won’t deliver the kind of comparisons that these sites can take away and use.

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Launch round-up: USA Today, Daily Record, Economist

Round up of online launches from news sites:

• USA Today has joined 29 other newspapers by launching a version for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. Accessible for just $11.99 a month, according to Editor&Publisher.

• The Economist has introduce a mobile update service for UK readers. Texting ALERT to 80801 will get you Friday morning round-up highlighting the key issues from the week’s edition.

• The Daily Record has added to its online portfolio with a new motoring website. Car sales site www.roadrecord.co.uk features some very refined search facilities and tag clouds based on the most popular searches, a release from publisher Trinity Mirror says.

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Pluck adds new features to social media technology

Social media firm Pluck has developed a new version of its SiteLife platform – the technology currently employed by Hearst Digital and USA Today to ramp up interactive features for users.

According to a press release, the new version (3.3) offers improved search engine optimisation to make content such as comments on news articles and forums more open to search engines.

It also gives more options for publishers when managing online communities.

Pluck’s technology, which handles user comments, ratings, recommendations, image and video sharing, forums, blogs and creates social network-style profiles for users, was recently implemented by the Guardian’s Comment is Free section.

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Outgoing Post journalist leaves secret message to readers

USA Today’s OnDeadline blog has picked up on a secret message from outgoing Washington Post journalist Linton Weeks.

Weeks is one of over 100 staff who have accepted buyouts at the paper.

(Need a clue: look at the opening of each par)

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USA Today links up with AOL for instant messaging service

USA Today is hoping to tap into users of AOL’s instant messaging service AIM with the launch of a real-time news alert system for the service this week.

Users will also be able to search current and archived USA Today headlines through the feature, while the keyword alert service will supply a headline, article summary and link back to the complete story in an instant message.

Another means of distribution for the paper’s content and method of reaching new audiences, says USA Today’s publisher Jeff Webber in a press release.

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