iPad users ‘very likely’ to cancel print subscriptions, suggests new study

Mirror.co.uk unveils new ‘cleaner’ look

February 8th, 2012 | No Comments | Posted by Paul McNally in Design and graphics, Online Journalism

The Daily Mirror today unveils a new-look website, at mirror.co.uk

Before: how the site looked last week

Mirror Online publisher Matt Kelly says in an introductory post that the “cleaner and less cluttered” design will make better use of photography and video.

Content is organised into seven sections: News, Sport, 3am, Lifestyle, Money, Play and Opinion. Comments are encouraged on stories, and sharing articles has been made easier.

Kelly said:

We constantly improve our website and as much as we believe the new look Mirror Online is a big step forward, we know there’ll be things we haven’t got completely right.

PaidContent has a video interview with Matt Kelly and Mirror managing director Chris Ellis:

Tags: Design, Mirror, Mirror.co.uk, paidContent

US newspaper apps adopt iCircular smartphone coupons

September 19th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Sarah Marshall in Advertising, Editors' pick, Mobile

Associated Press has teamed up with 40 newspapers in the US to roll out advertising on the papers’ phone apps and the mobile versions of their websites, according to paidContent.

The rollout of iCircular, a coupon system which focuses on driving customers into their local retail stores, begins today (19 September).

This post on paidContent states:

The iCircular feature will be found within newspaper mobile apps on the iPhone. The feature will be available on other formats, such as Google’s Android, later on. It’s HTM5-based, so that will also be available on newspapers’ web and mobile wap sites and ultimately ease iCircular’s transfer to other operating systems. The app will be situated within a special “deals” section on each of the newspapers’ apps and mobile sites.

“It’s essentially an app within an app,” said Mary Junck, chairman of AP’s board of directors’ revenue committee and CEO of Lee Enterprises. “We didn’t want to create an app separate from the newspapers. We wanted something that would be as integrated into the newspapers as a Sunday circular is in the print editions.”

There is more on iCircular in this AP press release published in February.

Tags: Associated Press, icircular, mobile advertising, paidContent

paidContent: Apple drops Financial Times apps from store

August 31st, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Sarah Marshall in Editors' pick, Mobile

Apple has pulled the Financial Times’ native iPad and iPhone apps from the iTunes App Store after updating its terms which state in-app subscriptions must be paid through the store, reports paidContent.

The FT launched a web-based app in June which allows the publisher to avoid paying Apple a 30 per cent cut of it’s app revenue and to gather its own audience data.

This article on paidContent states:

It is a blow to the FT, whose apps had processed subscription transactions independently. Last year, 10 percent of its new digital subscriptions were taken out on iPads. But the publisher says its model is premised on owning data about customers that goes through along with transactions. This was more important to it than Apple’s 30 percent take, CEO John Ridding told [Robert Andrews] recently.

The FT’s web app, which was described as a ‘wake-up call’ to publishers, saw 150,000 uses in the first 10 days before the part-paywall went up, in line with the FT’s other digital platforms.

Tags: apple, ITunes Store, paidContent, Robert Andrews, The Financial Times, web apps

paidContent: Which news sites post the most stories and do they get more hits?

June 23rd, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Sarah Marshall in Editors' pick, Traffic

It’s well worth following this link to click to paidContent’s interactive chart which shows the number of stories posted by major UK news sites by day of the week.

Interestingly the Telegraph posts the greatest number of stories – exceeding 1,000 per day in the middle of the week – whereas the Mail Online holds the record for clocking up the most views, today reporting 77 million unique users in May.

paidContent concludes:

Story volume does correlate with audience size, but not universally. Although Telegraph.co.uk publishes more stories than anyone (not including its blogs), it ranks third for audience size.

Mail Online and Guardian otherwise rank amongst highest on both counts, while the Times is the fourth most prolific story publisher but, behind its paywall, has far fewer readers.

The full paidContent post, plus charts, is at this link.

Guardian announces new digital first strategy amid losses

Trinity Mirror’s MEN purchase helps take online traffic beyond 8M

Tags: paidContent

paidContent: Guardian News & Media director of international leaving later this year

June 9th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Rachel McAthy in Editors' pick, Jobs, Newspapers

The director of international at Guardian News & Media, Stella Beaumont, is to leave later this year, it was announced this week. Beaumont has worked at the news group for 28 years and will depart after helping to launch and oversee the company’s new digital operation in the US.

In a report paidContent quotes Guardian Media Group CEO Andrew Miller as telling staff that reporting lines for ContentNext, publisher of GNM-owned paidContent, following Beaumont’s departure, “will be determined as part of the wider planning for our American operation”.

paidContent: Sulzberger: $40m estimate for paywall cost is ‘vastly wrong’

April 6th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Sarah Marshall in Business, Editors' pick

Arthur Sulzberger has said Bloomberg’s report stating the development of the New York Times’ paywall cost between $40 million and $50 million is “vastly wrong”, but refused to say what the switch to paid digital content did cost, according to a post on paidContent.

Sulzberger also declined to offer any numbers when it comes to subscribers, saying it was too soon but that the company would provide some details eventually. At another point, asked about complaints that the pay plan is too complex, he urged people to be patient. Noting that the company was able to tweak the system between the launch in Canada and the US-global launch 10 days later, Sulzberger said: “We’re going to learn, adapt, make it simpler. But I don’t agree that it’s too complex. It’s new. Let it breathe for a little bit before you make judgment.”

paidContent’s full post is at this link.

Tags: arthur sulzberger, Bloomberg, paidContent, paywall, the New York Times Co

Nieman: Lessons of the Like Log

March 10th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Sarah Marshall in Editors' pick, Social media and blogging

Nieman Journalism Lab has the results of a fascinating study into the news stories which gather the most ‘likes’ on Facebook. The study looked at 100,000 stories across 45 large news sites, including the New York Times, the Guardian, paidContent and Poynter.

It found that, of the top 40 most-liked stories of the past three months, many are related to “lifestyle, photo galleries, interactives, humor and odd news.”

Four of the articles in the top 40 are about “actual political news”; three are about celebrities.

The Like Log’s findings? In terms of overall popularity (total likes), The New York Times is “the leader of social engagement,” with some 2.3 million likes per month, 400 likes for a median story, and 13 articles in the top 40 most-liked overall. In terms of individual stories, the Wall Street Journal’s excerpt of Amy Chua’s (in)famous Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother — Journal headline: “Why Chinese Moms Are Superior” — comes out on top, with 340,000 likes.

Full report on Nieman Journalism Lab at this link

Tags: Facebook, likes, paidContent, sharing, social media

Reuters aims to ‘cut through the clutter’ with new specialised news products

March 8th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Rachel McAthy in Business, Editors' pick, Legal

Reuters announced via a press release yesterday that it is launching a suite of news products aimed at professionals in the legal, tax and accounting and science markets, which the international news agency claims will “cut through the clutter” in online news.

Combining the world-class journalism of Reuters with the analysis and rich content available through products like Westlaw and Checkpoint, these offerings bring to customers unmatched insight into the topics shaping their profession, and the context to make the right decisions for their business.

According to the release, Stephen Adler, editor-in-chief of Reuters News, is to lead the “build-out of news teams” to cover topics such as litigation, tax policy and intellectual property law.

Also in Reuters news, this week paidContent reports that the agency is to distribute celebrity news video from Hollywood.TV as part of a new deal.

Reuters will distribute Hollywood.TV’s celebrity news footage as a complement to its existing mix of entertainment coverage. The deal further enhances the Reuters America’s recently launched “unified content platform”.

Tags: agency, distribution, Legal, paidContent, reuters, wire

paidContent: News Corp’s ‘iPad paper’ the Daily to launch on 2 Feb

January 28th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted by Rachel McAthy in Editors' pick, Online Journalism

According to paidContent, News Corporation’s new iPad publication, the Daily, will be launched on 2 Feb, a little later than previously rumoured.

An invitation sent out yesterday by News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch revealed that the Daily will be launched at the Guggenheim museum in New York.

Steve Jobs, now on medical leave, was to appear with Murdoch at the launch. Instead, iTunes guru Eddy Cue will represent Apple. One thing hasn’t changed: as James Murdoch affirmed earlier this week, subscriptions to the News Corp iPad ‘paper’ will run 99 cents weekly.

Tags: app, News Corp, paidContent, the Daily