paidContent.org: Nice try Newport, but charging system won’t work, says Brady

While commending its decision to ‘try something new’, former WashingtonPost.com executive editor Jim Brady says plans by the Newport (R.I.) Daily News to charge more for online-only subscriptions is fundamentally flawed.

The paper will charge $145 for an annual print subscription; $245 for print and web access; and $345 a year for online-only.

“[T]his model reeks of desperation. It’s as if, having used all of its bullets in the battle to preserve print revenue, Newport has now decided to throw its gun at the problem.

“The issue with Newport’s model is fundamental. It posits that, in the battle for the mindshare of future readers, print actually has a chance of winning out. I do not believe it does,” he writes.

Full post at this link…

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Liberia’s ‘analogue blogger’ working from the Daily News news hut

A great post on AfriGadget: the story of a ‘blackboard blogger’ in Liberia.

“Alfred Sirleaf is an analog blogger. He take runs the ‘Daily News’, a news hut by the side of a major road in the middle of Monrovia. He started it a number of years ago, stating that he wanted to get news into the hands of those who couldn’t afford newspapers, in the language that they could understand.”

The video below shows how Sirleaf publishes news headlines via a blackboard on his news hut.

Also, a report from 2006, on the New York Times.

(Thanks @ourman for pointing the AfriGadget post out)

Liberia’s Blackboard Blogger from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

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CrainsNewYork: Daily News refutes blog post predicting its demise

There’s been a lot of interest in this list which appeared on Time.com: ‘The 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America’ (originally from the 24/7 Wall Street blog, it seems).

Now, this, from Crain’s New York Business.com: a rebuttal from the Daily News chief executive, Marc Kramer. ‘Every so-called fact [in the post] is wrong,’ Crain’s reports Kramer as saying. Full story at this link…

Earlier in the week, a post on Cleveland.com reported the Plain Dealer publisher Terrance Egger’s comments, which also dismiss the predictions.

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Time.com: The 10 major newspapers ‘that will either fold or go digital’

Time’s predictions Updated to make it clear, as pointed out on the MediaNation blog and by Adam Reilly, for example, that the list was published on the Time.com Business&Tech section of its site, but was authored by Douglas A. McIntyre, who writes at 24/7 WallStreet.com.

The next US papers to face the chop, as predicted by McIntyre:

1. The Philadelphia Daily News

2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune

3. The Miami Herald

4. The Detroit News

5. The Boston Globe

6. The San Francisco Chronicle

7. The Chicago Sun-Times

8. NY Daily News

9. The Fort Worth Star Telegram

10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Full story at this link…

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Ronkayela.com: This is not the end of your daily newspaper…

Following the news that the Tribune Co. has filed for bankruptcy, ‘journalist turned activist’ and former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News, Ron Kaye, writes on his blog that this is not the end of your daily newspaper.

“It’s just the beginning of the end for hundreds of newspapers and the collapsing of many others into single regional franchises that can survive as the only source of printed news and advertising on a daily basis.”

Kaye, who was fired by the Daily News seven months ago, says ‘Let the conversation begin.’

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Top US news sites for February

Top 50 US news sites for February 2008, according to Nielsen Online.

(Also, have a look at: February Worries Boost News Traffic)

Brand Uniques  (000) Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
All Events & Global News 101,336 127:01

CNN Digital Network 37,181 0:40:11
Yahoo! News 35,274 0:23:10
MSNBC Digital Network 34,013 0:29:50
AOL News 21,119 0:36:14
NYTimes.com 18,975 0:33:29
Tribune Newspapers 14,716 0:10:09
Gannett Newspapers 13,998 0:21:28
ABCNEWS Digital Network 12,324 0:09:54
Google News 12,050 0:10:14
WorldNow 10,588 0:13:16
USATODAY.com 10,571 0:14:16
Washingtonpost.com 10,441 0:17:30
Fox News Digital Network 10,177 0:41:10
CBS News Digital Network 9,970 0:09:09
Hearst Newspapers Digital 8,349 0:17:38
McClatchy Network 8,343 0:11:41
IB Websites 7,565 0:11:00
Advance Internet 6,791 0:13:08
BBC News 6,437 0:10:42
Slate 6,261 0:07:29
Gannett Broadcasting 6,174 0:09:18
Topix 6,121 0:06:30
MediaNews Group 5,850 0:12:41
Associated Press 5,353 0:07:03
Cox Newspapers 5,197 0:20:08
Boston.com 4,904 0:07:47
Belo Television 4,827 0:05:58
Fox Television Stations 4,758 0:06:06
New York Post Holdings 4,605 0:09:12
NewsMax.com 4,054 0:10:35
TheHuffingtonPost.com 3,749 0:08:04
Freedom Interactive 3,613 0:07:51
Daily News Online Edition 3,563 0:06:46
Belo Newspapers 3,476 0:05:52
Drudgereport.com 3,445 0:59:49
Guardian.co.uk 3,391 0:02:49
Daily Mail 3,364 0:09:11
Telegraph 2,990 0:03:39
Times Online 2,852 0:06:37
Community News Network 2,846 0:10:40
Swift Newspapers 2,750 0:05:42
Scripps News Group 2,713 0:18:00
Netscape 2,709 0:11:03
Breitbart.com 2,674 0:09:20
Int Herald Tribune 2,598 0:02:02
Fisher Interactive Network 2,526 0:05:08
Seattle Times Network 2,245 0:11:03
Philly.com 2,204 0:04:52
Chicago Sun-Times 2,203 0:08:29
Star Tribune 2,108 0:25:08

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Investigative journalism online

A posting on SplashCast.com reviews some bastions of investigative journalism on the web. Most are from the US, but London-based indie documentary distributor Journeyman Pictures gains an honourable mention.

Daily news show Democracy Now! comes highly recommended, as does the on-the-ground footage from Alive in Baghdad, which takes footage from Iraqi correspondants.

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