Tag Archives: USD

Deadline.com: Variety going behind pay wall; The Hollywood Reporter could go online-only

Nikki Finke (who sold her media and entertainment news blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, to Mail Media Corporation – for a figure speculated to be as much as $15m in June) reports how her rival, entertainment title Variety has decided to go behind a pay wall:

“[T]he website will no longer be free. So online and print content will both be subscriber-based. Exactly which combination of content and services will be offered has yet to be determined. But this is being done in recognition of the sad fact that, ever since Variety pulled back that paywall in 2006 (back when all that mattered was traffic numbers at the expense of subscription dollars), the trade has lost a ton of money.”

And, she says, The Hollwood Reporter could kill its print edition:

” Meanwhile, sources tell me that The Hollywood Reporter is about to dump its daily print version. The date considered was October 16th, but now that’s been moved back. So this means THR will pursue a paid web-only strategy for its content. (Though I’ve heard certain special issues will be published from time to time, including awards coverage.) If THR scraps its print edition as planned, then Variety might see its print subscriptions pick up.”

Full post at this link…

WSJ confirms paid-for access to news on mobile

News Corp’s Dow Jones has confirmed speculation from earlier this week and announced that the Wall Street Journal will now charge for full access to its content via Blackberry, iPhone and iPod touch devices.

According to a press release, the WSJ applications will remain free to download for each device and continue to offer a mixture of free and subscription content.

The new access model will be introduced from October 24 and hopes to expand the paying audience for Dow Jones’ content by highlighting the specialist, time-sensitive nature of its news.

“Our new mobile subscription model will enable us to continue to invest in the world’s most essential news content and deliver it to our subscribers wherever and whenever they want it,” said Gordon McLeod, president of the Wall Street Journal digital network, in the release.

“This transition also reinforces the value of our content on mobile, just as we’ve done online for more than a decade.”

Full access to the site from these applications will cost $2 per week for a mobile-only subscription. A subscription to mobile and the WSJ in print or online will cost $1 a week.

Print and online subscribers will have free access to content via the smartphone apps.

Full access to the site’s mobile site will only be granted to WSJ.com subscribers, the release added.

Today UK website the Spectator announced it would introduced a range of subscription packages for its website with immediate effect.

Overdue freelance payment? Make a YouTube video

US blogger and freelance writer Tina Dupuy has seen some success, after posting a video complaining that the Tampa Tribune in Florida had failed to pay her $75. She claimed she submitted a piece to the newspaper, which was then published without replying to her first to negotiate a payment. She said she sent them an invoice and didn’t hear back.

But following the video, the newspaper has now put her cheque in the post, she said in a new video this week.

Jim Beamguard, editorial writer at the Tampa Tribune, said Dupuy’s pay was her private business (although she was free to discuss it), and told Journalism.co.uk in an email:

“We receive hundreds of emailed items a day from people hoping to get published.  Many are letters to the editor, but many more are from bloggers, professors, politicians, PR firms, special interests, and ordinary folks just wanting to be heard.  Most of it goes out to every email address these writers can find. A lot of this material can be read free somewhere on the internet. Tina’s column arrived in the mix without mention of a fee. We didn’t just lift it from her blog. We only found out after it was published that she had been trying to sell it.”

And there is more good news for Dupuy: the strategy seems to have helped secure some other payments. She wrote to the LA Daily News chasing a cheque. She got this reply:

I am holding onto your check in the hopes we’d get you to do a YouTube video about not getting paid by us. We could use the plug.

Just kidding!!!

Mariel Garza
Editor, LA Daily News

Here’s Dupuy’s second YouTube video:

LAObserved: Open plea to Rupert Murdoch from senior editor at Fox 11

According to LAObserved.com, Mark Sudock, senior features editor at Fox 11 has written an open letter to Rupert Murdoch, pleading that he halts lay-offs at the Los Angeles-based station.

‘Please, please do everything possible to keep what the media has accurately described as the Fox 11 bloodbath from being realised’ Sudock begs.

Around 117 workers are to due to be made redundant at KTTV Fox 11, a LA news station part of the Fox News network and owned by News Corporation. Sudock writes to Murdoch:

“The cuts are so severe that virtually no one remains on-site to technically maintain the facility. The cuts are so deep that our ability to cover the news as we did this past week (with pursuits, brush fires and the Michael Jackson funeral happening simultaneously) is in absolute jeopardy.

“Sir, if we believe the rumors, this station or the station group needs to save ten million dollars. These layoffs appear to be the solution. Please, Mr. Murdoch, see a bigger picture.”

Full letter at this link…

Via Roy Greenslade.

MinnPost moves ‘Real-Time’ ads out of beta

Initially launched in June this year, non-profit, online-only news site the MinnPost has moved its innovative ‘Real-Time Ads’ system out of beta, according to a post on the site’s blog.

The service aggregates tweets, blog posts and other feeds from local businesses to produce a more timely message to readers.

Eight paying customers have signed up so far and the site is offering a four-week trial to new customers ($25 a week for orders of five weeks or more).

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk in July, CEO and editor of the site, Joel Kramer said 24 beta testers signed up for the beta Real Time Ads within the first fortnight – advertisers who are ‘open to experimentation’.

“Many of those local advertisers weren’t familiar with online yet. They have to educate themselves and we have to teach them,” he adds.

In the video interview with Nieman Journalism Lab below Kramer explains the thinking behind the ad system:

paidContent.org: Cit-J site NowPublic sold to Examiner.com

NowPublic, the international citizen journalism site launched by Canadian entrepreneur Leonard Brody in 2005, is to be sold to Examiner.com – the US network of local, city-based news sites.

Examiner.com is controlled by Clarity Media Group, according to paidContent.org, which also owns the San Fransisco Examiner and Washington DC Examiner.

The deal is reportedly worth $25 million.

Full post at this link…

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: US title P-G launches members-only site

Following recent reports of possible Guardian plans to launch a paid-for members’ club, an interesting development in the US: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has launched PG+, an exclusive area for paying subscribers.

Access to the club will cost $36 for a year or $3.99 a month.

The members-only website will offer interactive features and exclusive content beyond the title’s newspaper and web editions.

It will run alongside the existing website and give ‘behind-the-scenes insights into the news of the day’.

The new site will be hosted by a team of bloggers and allow users to build their own profile pages. Membership will also grant access to specially organised P-G events.

Full story at this link…

Journalism Daily: Amish media, James Murdoch’s speech and the Bastiat online shortlist

A daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site. You can also sign up to our e-newsletter and subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

News and features:

Ed’s picks:

Tip of the day:

#FollowJourn:

On the Editors’ Blog:

Lost Remote: ‘Hyperlocal’ is not everything local

A blog post that examines the buzzword ‘hyperlocal’. Lost Remote’s Cory Bergman argues that its use should be restricted to describe coverage more local than ‘local’. The Fast Company’s headline refererring to the ‘$100 billion potential of hyperlocal news’ particularly irks him.

“If you cover a city or a town, you’re a local site. Hyperlocal is a subset of local, not the catch-all buzzword for all of it (which explains the $100 billion number.) And slapping a garage sale map on a city news site does not make it hyperlocal.”

Full post at this link…

Blogger’s YouTube plea for $75 payment from newspaper

Tina Dupuy, blogger and freelance writer, is very unhappy with the Tampa Tribune. She claims she submitted a piece to the newspaper, which was then published without replying to her first. On her blog she writes:

“A month ago I found via Google Alert a piece of mine was published in the Tampa Tribune. They never contacted me prior to publishing it. I sent them an email telling them I was never asked for my permission. The editor Jeff Sidham [sic], responded explaining my unsolicited submission didn’t ask for payment or permission. Which is not how copyright works.”

Dupuy makes a public plea for $75 on YouTube.

Via Bloggasm / E&P Pub