A new online newspaper venture, Tewspaper, has been launched with automatic aggregation replacing the need for journalists. The sites use an algorithm to search and aggregate news from social media sites to create websites relevant to five US cities (though the site itself claims to cover 10), according to a press release.

The service uses publicly available APIs to find text updates and match images to stories for Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City.

“We began by limiting the news to trusted authorities on Twitter. From there, we are working on an algorithm that can find additional breaking news from anyone on Twitter and other websites as it happens,” said Jared Lamb, the creator of Tewspaper, in the release.

The sites currently look pretty basic, but add an RSS feed and this could be a handy tool for journalists in these areas wanting to track news in real-time.

There’s also an attempt at a Digg-style user-rating system, perhaps similar to plans for the blogpaper, though this isn’t yet explained on the site.

Full post at this link…

• RSS feeds for search results at The Sun
• Daily Sentinel: How to use Twitter to break news from the field
• LGEO Research: Where do local authorities fit in the hyperlocal media landscape?
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – manage your site’s feed to social sites
• Breaking news from mobile to Twitter/Seesmic – perfect example of how it works

Following the launch of its news pages for Chicago, the Huffington Post has continued its local expansion with a new site for New York.

The local sites are a combination of curation, blogs and opinion, says Ariana Huffington.

In an interview with All Things Digital, the HuffP also confirms plans to cover Denver with a new vertical:

Full story at this link…

• MediaGuardian: Huffington Post plans local news expansion
• mediabistro.com: HuffPo asks bloggers to write local for LA edition
• Bloomberg: Interview with Arianna Huffington as HuffPost eyes first profits
• Huffington Post local launches Chicago site
• Silicon Alley Insider: Subscriptions only work for porn, says Huffington

Nieman Journalism Lab links to a copy of the American Press Institute (API) report prepared for the ‘paid content’ Chicago meeting for newspaper executives last week.

“Top newspaper execs (…) heard from several entrepreneurs who are proposing new ways for papers to generate revenue online,” NJL reported.

Full story at this link…

Poyntor’s Rick Edmonds comments on it here, at this link.

• Poynter: AP newspaper revenues drop by a third
• Innovation in College Media: ‘Newspaper industry woes deconstructed 2.0′
• AllMediaScotland: Glasgow local paper closes after 14 years
• Oh my Widgety Goodness, it’s the survival of the fittest…
• Canadian newspaper publisher reports print growth, digital shrinkage

“Local news is a lost cause on the major social news sites,” claims the Windy Citizen – a Chicago news aggregator – after one of its linked news stories failed to make waves on Digg, delicious and reddit, despite gaining votes from readers.

What news makes it onto these sites’ front pages? National stories, weird stuff and photos, concludes the Citizen.

“And that’s why the Windy Citizen exists, because there’s a need for a service that democratizes Chicago media in the same way that those sites have democratized tech and political new,” says the post.

Full post at this link…

• Editor&Publisher: WaPo and Bloomberg partner for global news wire
• Brian Boyer: More ‘kick-ass’ news apps from the hacker journalist
• Huffington Post local launches Chicago site
• NYTimes innovation plans: Widgets, iPhone, APIs
• All Things Digital: HuffPo to expand into New York and Denver

The Huffington Post has been criticised for allegedly stealing copyright content from the Chicago Reader, an alternative weekly based in Chicago.

The Huff-Po’s co-founder Jonah Peretti claims the republished excerpts of the Reader’s concert reviews are part of the site’s intention to aggregate and drive traffic to external sites.

• Huffington Post local launches Chicago site
• Arianna Huffington on the desperation of Journalism 2009
• OJR: Promoted tweets – the AdWords for live news?
• MediaPost: Film critic’s YouTube channel shut down over copyright allegations
• Tewspaper – the ‘online newspaper with no writers’

The story of Tyee, a public service journalism site aimed at a local audience and funded partly by advertising, partly by donations.

• Vancouver’s Tyee raises $15,000 in reader donations
• Independent news org backs Spot.Us story
• The NUJ’s economic stimulus plan for local journalism – can it work?
• Crowd-funded journalism project Spot.us starts first campaign
• Nieman Journalism Lab: Why Wichita Eagle couldn’t cash in on record traffic

Having secured $25 million of funding and launched its Chicago section in beta, the Huffington Post is reportedly eyeing further expansion with plans for San Francisco coverage.

The launch of a network of HuffPo local editions is still in the planning stage, however, the San Francisco Chronicle was told.

So it’s next stop San Fran, then – the world. The site’s international section is also in beta:

• Huffington Post local launches Chicago site
• MediaGuardian: Huffington Post plans local news expansion
• Silicon Alley Insider: Subscriptions only work for porn, says Huffington
• All Things Digital: HuffPo to expand into New York and Denver
• Yahoo rolling out new US local network in beta

Following reports that the print editions of certain US newspapers sold out after Barack Obama was declared President elect, some ‘collector’s copies’ have appeared on eBay.

How about $80 for this edition of the New York Times from yesterday? You get a ‘resealable plastic envelope’ too.

Not a fan of the Times? Well, why not snap up these eight papers from the Chicago area for just $500. No bids as yet, so if you’re quick…

A new online revenue stream for the traditional printed paper perhaps?

• Eighty newsroom jobs to go at Chicago Tribune
• Developers get bylines too in the Times
• Paper.li adds Facebook to social newspaper function
• Nieman Journalism Lab: Recommendations from the API for the Chicago meeting
• AFP: Online pay model will be ‘critical second revenue stream’ says Sulzberger

This week saw the launch of a hyperlocal news map for the Liverpool Echo, as announced by Sly Bailey at the AOP Digital Publishing Summit (follow link for report in MediaGuardian).

It geotags news content so each user can search for news by postcode.

Nothing new there, web-savvy newshounds might think, but actually it is:

Though Archant announced plans for geotagged sites last October (it started with Jobs24 – a winner at yesterday’s NS ADM Awards – and Homes24 and has plans to roll out geotagged news content in 2008) to date we’re still waiting for the official launch of geotagged news.

Yesterday we reported that American site outside.in will be launching in the UK, which will link news with local areas (as localised as users specify). Outside.in thinks its opportunity has come about as a result of:

“The demand for personalized information on the web, and the failure of the newspaper industry to capitalize on featuring hyperlocal content” (Nina Grigoriev, outside.in)

Journalism.co.uk thought it was time for a bit of a run-down on the development of geotagging in the UK.

First, what is it?
Journalists record the locations referred to in each story and add their postcodes as metadata when uploading their copy to the web.

In that way, geotagged content allows users to prioritise the news they see online according to postcodes.

Where are we at in the UK?
The Liverpool Echo is the first site (of the large publishing groups) to do so in the UK. Although other sites have incorporated mapping into their sites, no other places has successfully incorporated news content as well.

The BBC plans to invest £68 million across its network of local sites, which will be decided upon by the BBC Trust in February 2009. Online Journalism Blog reported a sneak preview in January 2008, though the BBC have since asked us not to refer to the sites as ‘hyperlocal’.

Critics such as Trinity Mirror’s CEO, Sly Bailey, have voiced concerns over the BBC’s local video proposals, saying they will provide ‘unfair competition’ for the regional media.

Northcliffe is also developing geotagged content on its revamped thisis sites, and told Press Gazette in June the process has been difficult: “Because not all stories affect only one specific point, the company is finding geocoding challenging,” Hardie said.

According to the article: “The localisation functions will remain hidden until journalists have built up enough stories with postcode data.”

Back in July 2007 we saw reports of Sky geotagging its news, but it hasn’t developed at the same speed or as widely as in the US.

What’s happening in the US?
Everyblock is developing fast across the US. It’s a new experiment in journalism and data, offering feeds of local information and data for every city block in Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC, with more cities to come. Not in the UK yet, but watch this space.

Elsewhere, the Washington Post has used outside.in’s maps for their own site, while the New York Times’ Boston.com (the online Boston Globe) uses MetaCarta’s geographic search technology for maps.

So, what does this mean for UK based geotagging?
With the arrival of highly efficient US based sites such as outside.in (who said an UK based office is a possibility) maybe it’s time for Archant, Trinity Mirror and Northcliffe to get their skates on before it’s too late.

Please send us your examples of UK based geotagged content, from formal publications or otherwise, as we want to track it as it expands in the UK.

(Then we can make a geotagged feed and map of geotagging in journalism. Then our heads might explode)

• Boston Globe enhances local search with MetaCarta
• Flickr and geotagging: Part of the newsgathering model?
• Sneak preview of BBC hyperlocal web service
• Archant and Telegraph in geotagged search launches
• Boston University and Boston Globe partner on Your Town hyperlocal sites

The winds have slowed down to a tropical storm, but the Gustav blogging continues.

The mainstream media is reporting on the blogging phenomenon as well as the actual hurricane:  the Chicago Tribune looks at the decision-making power of blogs and FollowTheMedia comments that the hurricane may stop print, but not the web.

Meanwhile, over at Poynter, NPR’s Andy Carvin examines the role of social media in Gustav coverage.

As we posted yesterday, this was one for the Twitterers and they tweet on as people assess the damage. A quick twitter local search shows how the twitterers regard the media professionals…

Pictures can be found easily on this Flickr search and over at gustavbloggers.com they reflect that it wasn’t as bad as they feared. Meanwhile, to prepare for reportage of the next natural disaster, the Blog Herald offers its disaster blogging tips.

• Hurricane Gustav hits online media
• Hurricane twitterer Mark Mayhew on rebuilding after Ike and Gustav
• #BeMyGuest – a call to guest bloggers
• What can the new multimedia Twitter offer journalists?
• How to: Track a conversation in Twitter

A beta version of the Huffington Post’s new site for Chicago has gone live.

The site is the first of a potential dozen local Huffington Post sites set for launch and will aggregate news for Chicago from local sources and posts from local bloggers.

Local information, such as crime stats, events listings and nightclub opening hours, will also feature in a ‘rotating at-a-glance’ way, said editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington in an introduction to the new site.

“Transferring The Huffington Post’s blend of news, opinion, and community – delivered with our familiar look and attitude – to a local level, HuffPost Chicago is part local news source, part resource guide, and part virtual soap box,” said Huffington.

The site will be edited by Ben Goldberger, a former reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times.

• MediaGuardian: Huffington Post plans local news expansion
• All Things Digital: HuffPo to expand into New York and Denver
• Bloggers showing ‘plenty of interest’ in writing for HuffPo UK
• Arianna Huffington: ‘Enormous opportunities’ for online video channel
• Wired.com: HuffPo accused of stealing content

The Chicago Tribune is to follow the LA Times by culling newsroom jobs and reducing the number of pages in its printed editions.

Around 80 of its 578 newsroom posts are expected to be culled with further cuts appearing in non-journalistic positions.

The printed edition of the Tribune is expected to reduce the number of pages it publishes by 13 or 14 per cent each week.

Management began informing staff of the changes late on Tuesady, the Tribune itself reported.

This is the fourth round of staff cuts since 2005, when the paper had nearly 700 newsroom staff on its books. In real terms the paper expects to lose around 55 people as positions made vacant in recent months have remained unfilled.

Last week, The Los Angeles Times, another Tribune Company newspaper, announced that it would reduce the number of pages it published each week by 15 per cent anddo away with 250 staff roles, 150 of them from the newsroom.

• LA Times: Los Angeles Times to cut 250 jobs
• BNONews.com: NYTimes to cut 100 from newsroom
• Happy New Year – and good luck looking for a new job…
• Roy Greenslade: whole editorial board quits NJ Star-Ledger
• News&Observer.com: News&Observer reader sues title for staff cuts

The Huffington Post is to expand its coverage to local news in the US.

The plans will start with a site for Chicago, aggregating news from different local sources and with contributions from local bloggers. The site will be overseen by one editor.

Ariana Huffington said yesterday around a dozen US cities would feature in the expansion plans.

• All Things Digital: HuffPo to expand into New York and Denver
• Huffington Post local launches Chicago site
• Silicon Alley Insider: Subscriptions only work for porn, says Huffington
• Bloomberg: Interview with Arianna Huffington as HuffPost eyes first profits
• Ariana Huffington: ‘Journalism will not only survive but thrive’

In case you hadn’t noticed, Journalism.co.uk was in Sweden last week covering the World Association of Newspapers annual conference and the World Editors Forum.

So no one misses out, here’s a round-up of what went down while we were away:

Guardian: BBC ends ‘licence fee’ plans for international news website
The Beeb has dropped proposals for subscription-based access to BBC.com

WSJ.com: Analysis of hyperlocal news site LoudounExtra.com
Following the departure of Rob Curley, chief architect behind the Washington Post spin-off site, WSJ asks if the site has found its audience a year into the project.

Editor&Publisher: 94 newspapers join Yahoo partnership
A total of 779 newspapers now have access to the search engine’s advertising technology and HotJobs ads.

Daily Mail: Sir Ian Blair advocates use of celebrity news videos as evidence in drug trials
Footage, such as the Sun’s infamous Amy Winehouse video and of Kate Moss snorting a white substance, should be presented to the jury in such cases, Blair has said.

Guardian: BBC’s new plans for personalisation of website
Plans to create a new rating, recommendation and personalisation system across bbc.co.uk will be put to the BBC Trust, according to the corporation’s latest programme policy statement.

Editor’s Weblog: Washington Post launches online publishing company
The Slate Group will feature a host of digital titles including Slate and The Root, with additional launches planned.

Telegraph.co.uk: Update on revamp of community blogging platform MyTelegraph
Communities editor Shane Richmond says a relaunch date will be announced by the end of next week.

Matthew Ingram: Globe and Mail removes pay wall
Number of subscribers was not enough to maintain the wall, says Ingram, who works for the paper. Some readers remain unconvinced, he says, pointing out one comment: “You can’t shut us out for a few years and then expect us to come back just because it’s free.”

MediaShift: Everyblock releases first special report
The hyperlocal data and news site has mapped information from a recent Chicago police bribery investigation as part of its first special report.

• paidContent:UK: Interview with Jacob Weisberg, Slate Group editor-in-chief
• E&P: Washington Post survey suggests hyperlocal moves are afoot
• Loudoun Independent: Washington Post pulling plug on hyperlocal site in Loudoun
• Nieman Journalism Lab: Why the NYT was wrong to keep quiet about Rohde’s kidnap
• Nieman Journalism Lab: Globe and Mail on setting up a news wiki

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.

• Everyblock launches in two new cities
• Innovations in Journalism – Everyblock
• Hyperlocal aggregator Everyblock launches new widget
• Simple embedding of Google Maps
• Google launches measurement tool for YouTube videos