We were not able to make it along to the AOP’s digital publishing summit earlier this month, but the Association has helpfully uploaded some coverage from the event.

This includes a video published today from a session that looked at a range of topical issues at the moment: “hack gate, public interest, privacy vs openness, the PCC and press regulation”. Speakers from Heat, Digital Spy, Lewis Silkin and Mumsnet joined the panel which was chaired by BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

Particularly interesting parts of the discussion include a need to address the issue of press regulation across different platforms by news publishers and the issue of online anonymity, especially topical given the Joint Committee’s recent report on the Draft Defamation Bill.

Last week AOP also posted an article by Cait O’Riordan, Head of Product, BBC Sport and London 2012, in a follow up to her keynote presentation on how the BBC Online is preparing to cover the Olympics next year.

• Guardian: Ministers agree on terms of reference for privacy committee
• Strictly professional – what’s public and what’s private for journalists on Twitter?
• BBC Radio 4 Today: Pay walls discussed with @ruskin147 and @emilybell
• MediaGuardian: Commons committee hears from Mosley and McCann
• BBC dot.life blog: Twitter and the China earthquake

We caught up with speakers from Wednesday’s Association of Online Publishers forum, entitled Diversifying Revenues – Paywall, API or iPad?

Listen below for our podcast from the day’s events, with comments from: Tom Whitwell, assistant editor for online, the Times; Tim Gentry head of optimisation and effectiveness, the Guardian; Tom Wright publisher for Datagroup, Incisive Media; and Benedicte Autret, strategic partner manager, Google.

• #WEFHamburg: Google quiet on Newspass, debunks myth that it is at odds with paywalls
• Times are changing: an online jobs shuffle at Times Online
• Jobs round-up: Mobile moves and digital appointments at Guardian and Telegraph
• Consternation online for Times’ use of Edward Woodward blog tribute – Times responds
• New editorial and media job vacancies on Journalism.co.uk

In a session discussing the future of video at the the AOP Publishing Summit 2009 (also featuring BBC Worldwide, ITN On, CBS Interactive, InSkin Media) Peter Bale, executive producer for Microsoft UK said that in the next 18 months to two years we will see a shift in the way video is measured for advertising purposes.

Duration spent watching, or ‘dwell-time’ will become a much more important measure than page views, and the format of advertising itself will change – with more connection between television advertisements and online campaigns, Bale predicted.

Listen to Bale talking to Journalism.co.uk here:

“Page views at the moment are used – rightly or wrongly – as a proxy for ad impression delivery,” said Bale.

“For example, we deliver something like 10 billion page views on MSN in UK, a couple of years ago it was only five billion – and there is a vague approximation between that and ad impression – it’s become a necessary currency for us for advertisers and it does give you a sense of scale, but what it doesn’t give you is a good measure of engagement.

“It is not information that works tremendously well with a video intense site or this environment where people are trying to make more money off the web.

“Average revenue per user and dwell time are going to become much more important. It’s about time online, as opposed to pages moved through and consumed.”

It will require new advertising formats, he said. “It will become more engaging, it is going to become more easy to click on an ad in a video environment.”

In addition, television advertising will become more interactive and connected to the online offering:

“I despair at the moment at the lack of real connection to a major brand’s web campaign – it rarely gets promoted effectively on television,” said Bale. “It’s as though people are working in two completely different environments.”

• Summit coverage at this link.

• This teetstream featured choice 140-character updates from digital journalists and publishers at the event

• Reuters: Google predicts growth in online video ads
• Online advertising spend tops £4bn after 12.8% rise
• WAN Amsterdam: Digital will account for 43 per cent of newspaper advertising growth by 2012 according to PricewaterhouseCoopers
• AdAge: News sites can survive with 200m page views a month, says report
• MarketWatch.com: Page views for reporters don’t cover costs

Journalism.co.uk will be covering today’s Association of Online Publishers (AOP) one-day conference in London.

Topics on the agenda include social media for publishers, the paid content debate and mobile applications, with speakers including Reuters multimedia chief Chris Cramer, Demand Media’s Shawn Colo and Mecom’s David Montgomery.

A full line-up and programme for the day is available on the AOP website.

You can follow our coverage on this blog and our main news channel.

To follow tweets from the event, use the #aop3c hashtag or see the stream below:

• #aop3c: eHow.com users earning entire living from ‘How-To’ site
• Reuters: Newspaper chief Montgomery “forced out” of publishing group
• #aop3c: Reuters’ Project Insider: ‘narrowcasting’ in beta
• Sunday Times: David Montgomery steps down as Mecom executive chairman
• MediaGuardian: Mecom pushes ahead with niche paid content

The Telegraph’s website gets eight per cent of its traffic from sites like Digg, delicious, Reddit and Stumbleupon, its head audience development, Julian Sambles, has said.

According to Coles’ calculations, this amounts to around 75,000 unique visitors a day gained through social sites.

Search engines are responsible for around 300,000 daily uniques, Sambles added. Earlier this year Sambles discussed the site’s search strategy at an Association of Online Publishers forum (AOP).

Full post at this link…

• Publishers’ vertical search can rival Google, says AOP forum
• 75 per cent of online publishers see vertical search as way to reclaim online community from Google, survey claims
• Greenslade: Mirror.co.uk on metrics and building loyal online audiences
• OJR: Using Google Trends to fine-tune your news website
• OJR: ‘Does your site really need to be in Google News?’

B2B websites are used by 97 per cent of ‘business decision makers’, a new study conducted by IPSOS for the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) shows.

The results, quoted from the AOP’s release:

• 97 per cent stated that B2B websites are the form of media most used for work
• 60 per cent ranked business websites as an essential source of information in their work
• 60 per cent consider business websites as providing information that they couldn’t get elsewhere

B2B websites are the first port of call when:

• Researching/informing business decisions (56 per cent)
• Researching/informing purchase decisions (55 per cent)
• Gathering sector news (54 per cent)

“51 per cent choosing B2B websites as a preferred source of business information; B2B websites are also favoured over two and a half times more than TV, Radio, Magazines and Newspapers sources combined,” the AOP reported, in a release.

B2B sites are also shown to provide a highly effective medium for advertisers:

• 43 per cent are more likely to respond to advertising on a business website than advertising in other media
• 53 per cent of users are more likely to have confidence in, or do business with, a company, if it advertises on a business site they know
• 74 per cent trust a website more if it comes from a source that they know already (eg. business publication or industry body)

“82 per cent of all business decision makers use at least one B2B digital delivery mechanism for work, rising to 91 per cent among regular B2B websites users.

“Email alerts/newsletters are the most popular (51 per cent) followed by platforms which provide feedback: peer reviews, blogs and forums; but other systems such as RSS feeds, online seminars, podcast, vodcast and video streaming are gaining momentum.

“A core minority of respondents are currently using five or more of these delivery mechanisms; and overall 39 per cent, of those surveyed, expect to increase their use of digital delivery mechanisms in the next 12 months.”

Of those using five or more digital delivery mechanisms (70 per cent) found that B2B websites offer more engaging content and advertising than other business information sources and considered them to:

• Offer instant access to information (79 per cent)
• Save time (77 per cent)
• Offer innovative ways to access information (74 per cent)
• Allow business decision makers to interact with peers more efficiently (69 per cent)

“This is an important snapshot of the business community and their use of B2B websites, and further supports the insights gathered in the AOP Census 2008 which showed that our members are increasing their investment in content delivery methods including IPTV, mobile, vodcast, podcast and RSS feeds,” Liz Somerville, the acting director of AOP said, in the release from the AOP.

• Business Insider: Chart of the Day – 24% of US newspapers don’t use digital delivery platforms
• Johnston Press’ ad revenues feel effects of recession
• Press Gazette: FT.com gaining European business readers, says survey
• Nieman Journalism Lab: Google developing micropayment system in pitch to newspapers
• NME to produce a free online version of its magazine

It was all a bit kids in a sweetshop at yesterday’s AOP Digital Publishing Summit, if we forget all the problems with wifi, of course.

The main aim, for most attendees, In all likelihood, was to talk to all the people they know in online life, but rarely get the chance to talk to in person – over coffee (and odd looking cake/pastries) and lunch during the day, and drinks in the evening.

The programme ranged from panels to energetic speakers with a broad range of digital publishing topics covered – though perhaps not as much new discussion was initiated as some participants hoped, despite Peter Bale from Microsoft attempt to get some answers from YouTube’s Jonathan Gillespie.

A few additional highlights to add to our coverage so far:

Emily’s Bell’s vision for Guardian’s international reach: In the panel introducing ‘the digital pioneers,’ Bell, director of digital content for Guardian News & Media, said the group sees now as a ‘uniquely’ timed opportunity for the brand to expand internationally – and to do so before their rivals do.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk afterwards, Bell elaborated on her example of the Economist’s well-established grasp of the international market.  Although it happened for the Economist over a 20-year period, she told me that a similar endeavour in 2008 is ‘compressed’ by the web.

Bell also pointed out during the panel that the Chinese words for ‘crisis’ and ‘opportunity’ are one and the same (I tried to keep that in mind as my laptop charger physically broke and the wifi went down).

The Guardian’s move stateside was also referred to by Saul Klein, partner of Index Ventures and moderator of later panel ‘Growing in the Digital World’.

Quoting Simon Waldman, Guardian Media Group’s director of digital strategy and development (and Emily Bell’s boss), Klein said the Guardian’s acquisition of ContentNext was ‘well set up to exploit’. Waldman explained how moves like that prepared the group for a US audience.

The ‘Unlocking the mobile internet’ panel: In the spirit of the thing, TechCrunch’s Mike Butcher gave out his mobile number for questions before probing the panel on their respective views on mobile internet’s future.

Is 2009 the year of mobile? Melissa Goodwin, controller of mobile at ITV says not: “I don’t think it’s next year, I’m hoping it’s 2010.”

“We just want to give you anything you may want,” she said of ITV’s mobile strategy, though she admitted that building advertising revenue was very much an ongoing issue.

Goodwin also revealed that consumers can look forward to Friends Reunited on two iPhone applications in the first part of next year, as reported in more depth over at PaidContent.

Stefano Maruzzi, president of CondeNet International, on outlining Conde’s digital development: As reported over at MediaGuardian and PaidContent, CondeNet, the online arm of Conde Nast, has got lots of ideas about lots of things:

• Rolling out a Wired website worldwide (and in different languages, he told PaidContent)
• Keeping Tatler’s online presence minimal
• Engaging with the iPod user audience

• ContentNext begins UK expansion with paidContent recruitment
• #ftmedia12: FT content revenues could overtake advertising in 2012
• Andrew Bagguley hired as consultant for Guardian mobile drive
• paidContent: Guardian News & Media director of international leaving later this year
• Guardian: Three decades of Steve Bell

Andrew Walmsley, founder of digital marketing agency i-level, livened up the panel discussion on the future of the media industry at yesterday’s Association of Online Publishers (AOP) Digital Publishing Summit.

Media regulators in the UK are holding publishers back, said Walmsley, and digital innovations that would thrive in the US, such as Project Kangaroo – the video on-demand service being jointly developed by the BBC, ITV and Channel, are being stifled here.

Journalism.co.uk caught up with Walsmley off stage at the conference and asked him what the regulators should be doing (apologies for the ‘jazzy’ music in the background, not my choice…):

• Channel 4 (part 2): Duncan says channel is still key source of cutting-edge content
• #AOP3C: Coverage from the AOP annual conference 2009
• #aop3c: eHow.com users earning entire living from ‘How-To’ site
• AP: LA Times and Washington Post ending joint news service
• Brand Republic: Nokia launches new content sites

Even children can’t concentrate on television anymore, says Clay Shirky, the US-based internet educator, consultant and author of ‘Here comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations’.

In his speech at yesterday’s AOP Digital Publishing summit Shirky told an anecdote about the four-year-old daughter of one of his friends watching a film: “[S]he jumps round behind the TV and [starts] rooting around in the wires, looking for the mouse.”

Today’s television ‘may not be worth sitting still for’, but the computer is for everything.

The problem for media professionals is that the industry still holds the perception that everyone sees publishing in the same way, he explained.

But, he said, citing the example of Flickr, material may be ‘in public but [it's] not for the public. The cost of putting something out in public has fallen so low.’

“This is a reversal of the usual pattern,” he said. ‘Gather and share has been the usual pattern [of publishing] since time immemorial’, but now grouping comes first.

He split his talk into three categories: the sharing culture of Flickr; the collaborative nature of Wikipedia; and the collective action of internet groupings, citing the use of a Facebook group to force HSBC to reverse its decision on withdrawing students’ interest-free overdrafts.

These examples, he said, show the ‘the environment that’s coming’ and a need to re-think the model’.

“If you wait to hear what the business model is you will hear that your competitors have perfected it,” he said.

Shirky compared today’s media trends to London’s 17th-century gin craze: at first people didn’t know what to do with what they were consuming, but they then learnt how to share, collaborate and collect.

“The action is where people are going after the consumers. Not just consuming, but producing and sharing.”

• Clay Shirky: The old model’s broken – don’t try to replace it
• Clay Shirky: ‘Rescuing the reporters’
• Nieman Journalism Lab: Clay Shirky’s ‘Cognitive Surplus’
• Clay Shirky: WikiLeaks has created a new media landscape
• Clay Shirky on the Times paywall, commodity markets and a ‘referendum on the future’

In her opening speech at yesterday’s Association of Online Publishers (AOP) Digital Publishing Summit, Trinity Mirror CEO Sly Bailey called on publishers to integrate digital plans into their businesses, without relying solely on the anticipated growth in digital revenues to bring future success.

Here’s her speech in full:

• AOP: UK regulators are stifling international expansion, says i-level founder
• Online publishers in ‘bullish mood’ despite economic downturn
• LinkedIn Europe managing director talks about forming new publishing partnerships
• AOP: Mirror digital director Matt Kelly and the 800lb gorilla in the room
• InPublishing survey: ‘Behind the turnover figures, the industry is essentially still in profit’

Reed Business Information (RBI) won four of the 16 awards handed out at last night’s Association of Online Publishers (AOP) Digital Publishing Awards.

The publisher was named best online publisher in the business field for the second year running, as well as picking up prizes for best business website, best B2B online community for Farmers Weekly Interactive, and best online advertising sales team in the business category.

Sky News’ website was awarded the gong for best consumer website, while parent company BSkyB was named best consumer publisher online.

The Guardian picked up an accolade for its Katine project and FT.com for use of video online.

The full list of winners (courtesy of a release from the AOP):

Launch 2008 award – Guardian News and Media for www.guardian.co.uk/katine

Editorial team (business) – Accountancy Age, Incisive Media

Editorial team (consumer) – NME.com, IPC Media

Research & insights project – The Origin Panel – Women’s Space, IPC Media

Online advertising sales team (consumer) – Future Publishing – digital agency team

Online advertising sales team (business) – RBI e-newsletters

Innovation 2008 award – Financial Times, Mockingbird Model

Cross-media project – WKD Nuts Football Awards, IPC Media

Commercial partnership – Ford Bite, Channel 4

Use of video – FT.com

Mobile site – Sun Mobile, News Group Newspapers

Online community – Farmers Weekly Interactive, RBI

Best website (business) – XpertHR.co.uk, RBI

Best website (consumer) – Sky News, BSkyB

Best online publisher 2008 (business) – RBI

Best online publisher 2008 (consumer) – BSkyB

• Full shortlist of Association of Online Publishers award nominees
• Postscript to Advertising and Digital Media Awards
• PPA Magazines 2008: Grazia scoops PPA magazine of the year award
• Empire and Nursing Times take online prizes at BSME Awards
• Robert Niles: ‘Communities are key in building websites’ advertiser support’

Ruth Brownlee has stepped down from her post as director of the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) after 10 months in the role.

Brownlee said she wants to commit more time to her young family and that the role required more than a part-time representative.

• Will Time Warner sell Time magazine?
• Reporters Without Borders secretary-general to step down in new year
• PCC director speaks out over Lord Puttnam’s criticisms of regulatory body
• Online publishers in ‘bullish mood’ despite economic downturn
• Calling all young journos: Welcome to Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists

The full list of nominees for this year’s AOP awards, which span 16 categories (courtesy of the AOP):

Launch 2008
Guardian News and Media – guardian.co.uk/katine
Hearst digital – allaboutyou.com
IPC Media – Goodtoknow
James Publishing Ltd – World Reviewer
Redwood – www.yourfamily.org.uk
Channel 4/Zone – Channel 4 Food

Editorial Team – Business
Building – Building.co.uk
Centaur Media – thelawyer.com
CNET Networks UK – silicon.com
Dow Jones & Company – eFN.com
Incisive Media – Accountancy Age
Incisive Media – Legalweek.com
Reed Business Information – PersonnelToday.com
Reed Business Information – XpertHR.co.uk

Editorial Team – Consumer 2008
BBC Worldwide – bbcgoodfood.com
Financial Times – FT.com
Guardian News and Media – guardian.co.uk/sport
IPC MEDIA – nme.com
IPC Media – Nuts.co.uk
Sky News – Sky News Online
Trinity Mirror – Gazette Communities

Research & Insights Project 2008
Guardian News & Media – GNM Total Audience
IPC Media – IPC Media for The Origin Panel – Women’s Space
ITV Online – Ad Innovations-Itv.com
Orange UK – Exposure – Orange UK
Reed Business Information – Travolution
Trinity Mirror – ARRON 2007/2008 Digital Audience Research

Online Advertising Sales Team – Consumer 2008
Bauer Media – Bauer Media Digital Sales Team
Channel 4 – Channel 4
Financial Times – FT.com
Future Publishing PLC – Future Publishing – Digital Agency Team
Guardian News and Media – guardian.co.uk Ad Sales Team
Haymarket Consumer Media – whatcar.com
ITV Online – www.itv.com

Online Advertising Sales Team – Business 2008
CMPi – Building Magazine Online Commercial Team
Incisive Media – Accountancy Age Integrated Sales Team
Redactive Media Group – People Management online sales
Reed Business Information – RBI Job Sites
Reed Business Information – RBI e-Newsletters
UBM – BD & Building Virtual Careers

Innovation 2008
Financial Times – Mockingbird Model
Guardian News and Media – Guardian Publisher Network
ITV Online – Interactive Vouchering – Coronation Street and Harveys Furniture Store
Lonely Planet Publications – Lonely Planet Audio Phrasebooks for iPhone (and iPod Touch)
Jobsite (Assoc Northcliffe Digital) – BeMyInterviewer.co.uk
Lulu Enterprises UK – Lulu.com
TSL Education – TES Resource Bank

Cross-Media Project 2008
CMPI – www.thepublican.com/proudofpubs
Guardian News and Media – British Gas Greener Living Partnership
Incisive Media – Young Professional from Accountancy Age
IPC Media – The WKD Nuts Football Awards
Reuters Media – Bearing Witness: Five Years of Reporting War in Iraq
Seven Squared – ASOS ON FACEBOOK
TelecomTV – Mobile Planet
Times Online – Times Archive

Commercial Partnership
Bauer Media – Bauer Media Zoo Royal Marines 2008
Bauer Media – FHM / Nivea for Men Really Useful Guide
Channel 4 New Media – Ford Bite
Financial Times – Financial Times SST Commercial Partnership 2008
Incisive Media – Adviser Academy – IFAonline and JPMorgan
Reed Business Information – New Scientist Visions of the Future with UniversalMcCann for Microsoft
Telegraph Media Group – Telegraph Media Group and Cisco
VideoJug – Microsoft Office 2007 “It’s a new day, It’s a new office” VideoJug Series

Use of Video 2008
BBC – BBC News website
Channel 4 – Embarrassing Bodies
Financial Times – FT.com
Guardian News and Media – Zimbabwe election: The stolen ballots
IPC Media – NME.COM Video
News Group Newspapers – Sun TV
TelecomTV – TelecomTV
Telegraph Media Group – Telegraph TV

Mobile Site 2008
Brownbook Limited – Brownbook.net
Channel 4 – Big Art Mob
CondéNet UK – Glamour Mobile
CondéNet UK – GQ Mobile
Lonely Planet Publications – Lonely Planet m-site
News Group Newspapers – Sun Mobile

Online Community 2008
National Magazine Company – www.runnersworld.co.uk
News Group Newspapers – My Sun
Reed Business Information – Farmers Weekly Interactive
The National Magazine Co – www.babyexpert.com

Website 2008 – Business
Dow Jones & Company – eFN.com
Faversham House Group Ltd – www.edie.net
MarketClusters Ltd – StrategyEye
Reed Business Information – Hairdressers Journal Interactive
Reed Business Information – XpertHR.co.uk
Reed Business Information – Bankersalmanac.com
Reed Business Information – Farmers Weekly Interactive
TSL Education – www.tes.co.uk

Website 2008 – Consumer
Associated Newspapers Ltd – Mail Online
BSkyB – Sky News
Guardian News and Media – guardian.co.uk
IPC Media – marieclaire.co.uk
IPC Media – nme.com
National Magazines Company – youandyourwedding.co.uk
News Group Newspapers – Sun Online
VideoJug – www.videojug.com

Online Publisher 2008 – Business
Dow Jones & Company – eFN.com
E-consultancy.com – E-consultancy.com
Reed Business Information – Reed Business Information
RICS – RICS
TSL Education – TSL Education
Wildfire Communications – Wildfire Communications Ltd

Online Publisher 2008 – Consumer
Associated Newspapers Ltd – Associated Northcliffe Digital
BSkyB – BSkyB
Hearst digital – Hearst digital
IPC Media – IPC Media
Microsoft – MSN UK
News Group Newspapers – Sun Online
Telegraph Media Group – Telegraph Media Group

• AOP: RBI takes four prizes at Digital Publishing Awards 2008
• Makeover for the Telegraph business pages
• Inaugural British Media Awards winners announced
• PPA Magazines 2008: Grazia scoops PPA magazine of the year award
• Brand Republic: Mirror to merge print and online ad sales teams

Online advertising is going to overtake radio in the advertising market, MediaGuardian reported today.

Richard Wray’s article stated that while Carat – part of the Aegis marketing empire – had reduced its forecasts for the global advertising markets for 2008/9, it also said online advertising will continue to grow, overtaking radio as the third most popular advertising medium after TV and newspapers and magazines.

MediaGuardian’s report is interesting to look at in the light of statistics made available last week by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).

The US-based figures suggest that ‘consumers on all three types of local media sites – newspapers, television stations and magazines – are more likely to take action after viewing a local advert than visitors on all other local content sites’.

As part of the OPA study, JupiterResearch surveyed 2,069 US online consumers ‘who qualified as Local Online Content Users, by currently using online yellow pages, newspaper, TV, magazine, city guides, user review sites, portals or classifieds for local information.’

Here’s the breakdown:

Per cent of consumers taking action after viewing local adverts

• Local Newspaper Site: 46%
• Local Television Site: 44%
• Local Magazine Site: 42%
• User Review Site: 39%
• Portal: 37%

Click here to view the full report and follow this link for the press release.

• JEEcamp: online revenue models – the Waghorn way
• Forty-four per cent of Google News users don’t click through to source, suggests survey
• AP unveils tool to allow affiliates to upload news to its online video network
• FIPP 09: Lévy’s forecast gloomy but print magazines still important for luxury brands, says Gucci Group media director
• More US publishers sign up for Briggs’ Newsgarden

The world is becoming more commercial, so Telegraph editorial recruits have to reflect this shift, Alison Reay, director of new media, told an Association of Online Publishers (AOP) forum yesterday.

The integration of the Telegraph’s newsroom, she added, created a multimedia hub for the paper’s commercial interests as well as for editorial.

“People recruited in the last six to 12 months are a lot more commercially focused… It is all about how you bring the commercial and the journalists together,” she said.

Channel managers have been appointed to the newsroom to bridge this gap between commercial and editorial online. These have ‘profit and loss very close to their hearts’ without any specific revenue targets placed on them, Reay said.

For the Telegraph these roles are about finding new ways to integrate advertising online – avoiding the tradition advertorial and without compromising editorial values of the content.

“Our job as publishers is to provide an audience. But should we be judged by the number of people clicking through?” asked Reay.

Part of this – in terms of video content – has been offering in-house ad production, which has seen the publisher embark on collaborative ad production with brands and agencies.

In addition the paper has used its journalists’ existing strengths, turning them from ‘columns to camera’ to make video content a more attractive avenue for advertisers and more cost-effective for the publisher, Reay added.

• You must not embed the Telegraph’s embeddable video
• Press Gazette: Telegraph technology lab created for online innovation
• AOP: RBI takes four prizes at Digital Publishing Awards 2008
• NMK: ‘Prism of newspapers’ restricting online innovation, says Telegraph assistant editor
• New Brightcove platform in beta