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…

• Should we ‘pay the wall’ to maintain quality journalism?
• Deadline Hollywood Daily’s Nikki Finke: “I did not sell out”
• Allvoices signs syndication deal with WENN
• New York Observer: Variety and the shifting Hollywood ‘press corp’
• Political magazine Seven returns to online roots

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.

• iPad news: would you pay more?
• Sydney Morning Herald: The Australian to reveal paywall details this week
• Mobile plans for London Evening Standard announced at Mobile World Congress
• Rumour mill cranks up over upcoming New York Times ‘paywall’
• Times and Sunday Times will be paywalled from June – £1 a day

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:

• Blogger’s YouTube plea for $75 payment from newspaper
• YouTube and Google News come together for publishers
• News.com: Flickr video launch – pleasing but limited
• San Diego Union-Tribune offering free paper to users who ‘check-in’
• Daily Echo journalist defends Bournemouth Uni after Kelvin Mackenzie swipe

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.

• Malcolm Coles: Michael Jackson’s kids made the Daily Mail the most visited UK newspaper site in June
• The Latest Word: Rocky Mountain News cancels second funeral Twitter
• BNONews.com: NYTimes to cut 100 from newsroom
• Peston: BSkyB board to decide on Murdoch stand-down by end of week
• #lnw: Local Newspaper Week – a week in headlines

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:

• Nieman Journalism Lab: MinnPost editor on new audience building strategy
• Hyperlocal ad trial spreads to Guardian Local’s Edinburgh and Cardiff sites
• Civic Edition: Text message marketing for local newspapers
• AP to launch copyright tracking system on 14 July
• JEEcamp: online revenue models – the Waghorn way

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…

• Washington Examiner appoints ex-Townhall.com managing editor Mary Katharine Ham
• Outsourcing newspaper interaction – on Topix
• ContentNext begins UK expansion with paidContent recruitment
• Toronto star axes entire web production team
• paidContent: The Norwegian media group and the highly unusual revenue stream

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…

• PhotoAttorney: Facebook’s old TOU ‘aren’t good either’
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk
• Amazon Kindle adds Financial Times and Times
• PDA: Chris Anderson on free vs freemium
• Sky News new beta site

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:

• Tory MEP Daniel Hannan makes Bastiat’s online journalism shortlist
• Amish media: ‘The Budget has been using new media ideas for more than a century’
• Jim Impoco named enterprise editor for Reuters Americas

Ed’s picks:

• ReadWriteWeb: Google may hand over Caribbean journalists’ IP addresses
• Lost Remote: ‘Hyperlocal’ is not everything local
• FT.com: Brazil’s ‘tabloid revolution’
• European Federation of Journalists says Berlusconi ‘putting press freedom to the sword with legal vendetta against media’
• Blogger’s YouTube plea for $75 payment from newspaper
• StarsandStripes.com: US military terminates PR contract for background checks on journalists
• Newsandtech.com: San Diego Union-Tribune finally abandons manual pagination

Tip of the day:

• Using Qik to file stories

#FollowJourn:

• @xxnapoleonsolo/deputy head of web and data

On the Editors’ Blog:

• Adam Westbrook: 6×6 tips for freelance journalists
• The Jobless Journalist: Week 1 – An introduction and redundancy packages
• James Murdoch speech in full: ‘The only reliable, durable, and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit’

• San Diego Union-Tribune offering free paper to users who ‘check-in’
• Blogger’s YouTube plea for $75 payment from newspaper
• Newsandtech.com: San Diego Union-Tribune finally abandons manual pagination
• voiceofsandiego.org: San Diego-Union editor launches non-profit investigative project
• Overdue freelance payment? Make a YouTube video

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…

• Greenslade visits the local newsagent for his first Brighton Argus hyperlocal post
• Towards a hyperlocal business model?
• Lost Remote: Opportunities for local TV sites to outshine newspapers
• Journal Local: Birmingham journalism students launch hyperlocal news agency
• Digital Strategy: Why Camden council is moving into hyperlocal websites

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

• Overdue freelance payment? Make a YouTube video
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk
• Creative Commons releases new mark for public domain content
• HTFP: Wales on Sunday pays BNP for copyright breach

Dylan Stableford looks at the US magazine industry’s plight: rapidly declining single-copy sales and advertising pages plummeting in number last year. Yet magazines are offering big discounts. For example, ESPN The Magazine’s 2 million subscribers can extend their subscriptions for a year – for $1. Is this approach ‘publishing suicide’?

Full post at this link…

• Response to the ABCs results: How are mag subscriptions and sales faring in the recession?
• Future reports 6m app downloads in six weeks
• Fifteen mag publishers unite to offer subscription deals online
• Media release: PCC remit to include online-only publications
• Folio: 115 predictions for the media and magazines in 2010

The Globe and Mail looks at the blogger anonymity case in the US sparking debate across the world.

The blogger unmasked by Google – as the result of a New York court order last week – is now threatening legal action against the company. The Globe and Mail’s Josh Wingrove writes:

“Is calling someone a ‘ho’ on a blog worthy of the anonymity afforded to the writings of the American Founding Fathers 200 years ago?

“That’s the basis of a landmark internet privacy debate sparked this week in connection with a looming civil suit against web giant Google Inc. The company is facing a potential $15-million (U.S.) lawsuit by a once-anonymous blogger, Rosemary Port, after it complied with a New York court order last week and released her name.”

Full story at this link…

• Related: BBC Radio 4 Today programme featured a discussion this morning with Paul Staines, aka Guido Fawkes, and Dr Vince Miller, a lecturer in sociology at Kent University. Listen again at this link.

• Guardian: Ryan Giggs named in court as injunction footballer
• NYTimes.com: Could Times sell Boston Globe?
• Malaysian court orders newspaper to reveal online commenters
• RCFP: AP’s ‘hot news’ claim will go forward in court
• Jon Venables’ new conviction reignites anonymity debate

In the wake of news that Fairfax – Australia’s major newspaper owner – has posted a net loss of $380 million for the year to June 30, its managing director has said he he would be ‘happy to talk’ to his rival, Murdoch’s News Corporation, about paid content plans.

Fairfax’s newspapers includeThe Sydney Morning Herald, The Age in Melbourne, and The Australian Financial Review.

Full story at this link…

• ABC News: Fairfax staff strike over job cuts
• The Australian: Fairfax says earnings could fall by 28 per cent
• #cop15: Fairfax paper defends decision not to publish Guardian’s Copenhagen editorial
• Fairfax staff ‘too old’ for youth news website
• SMH.com.au: News Corp in ‘second phase’ of paid-for content plan

This is the second in a series of six blog posts by Adam Westbrook, each with six tips for the next generation of freelance multimedia journalists, republished here with permission.

Follow the series at this link or visit Adam’s blog.

Video
Video has by far and away become the most popular medium for the multimedia journalist – to the extent it almost seems many won’t consider it a truly multimedia project unless it’s got a bit of video in it. The thing is, video is a tricky medium and must be treated differently in the world of online journalism.

1) Video doesn’t need to be expensive
Don’t be fooled into thinking you can’t do video just because you haven’t got any cash. Sure, if you want to go right to the top range, say a Sony EX3, Final Cut Pro and After Effects, yes, it’s going to set you back about £3,000 ($5,000). But high quality can be achieved on lower budgets.

Check out my article on how I put together an entire film making kit for £500 ($800).

2) Shoot for the edit
If there’s one piece of advice for multimedia journalists making films – it comes from Harris Watts, in a book he published 20 years ago. In ‘Directing on Camera’ he describes exactly what shooting footage is:

“Shooting is collecting pictures and sound for editing (…) so when you shoot, shoot for editing. Take your shots in a way that keeps your options open.”

Filming with the final piece firmly in mind will keep your shooting focused and short. So when you start filming, start looking for close ups and sequences. The latter is the hardest: an action which tells your story, told over two or more shots.

Sequences are vital to storytelling and must be thought through.

3) Master depth of field
In online video, close-ups matter. The most effective way to hold close-ups – especially of a person – is to master depth of field. Put simply the depth of field how much of your shot in front of and behind your subject is kept in focus. It is controlled by the aperture on your camera – so you’ll need a camera with a manual iris setting.

Your aim – especially with close-ups – is to have your subject in clear focus, and everything behind them blurred: Alexandra Garcia does it very well in her Washington Post In-Scene series. (HT: Innovative Interactivity)

Screenshot: Innovative Interactivity

Here’s a quick guide to getting to grips with depth of field:

1. you need a good distance between the camera and subject
2. a good distance between the subject and the background
3. and a low f-stop on your iris – around f2.8, depending on how much light there is in your scene. A short focal length does this too.
4. You may need to zoom in on your subject from a distance

4) Never wallpaper
If there was ever an example of the phrase ‘easier said than done’ this would be it. It’s a simple tip on first read: make sure every shot in your film is there for a reason. But with pressures of time or bad planning you can often find yourself ‘wallpapering’ shots just to fill a gap.

In his excellent book The Television News Handbook Vin Ray says following this rule will help you out no end:

“One simple rule will dramatically improve your television packaging: never use a shot – any shot – as wallpaper’. Never just write across pictures as though they weren’t there, leaving the viewer wondering what they’re looking at. Never ever.”

5) Look for the detail and the telling shot
Broadcast journalists are taught to look for the ‘telling shot’, and more often than not make it the first image. If your story is about a fire at a school, the first thing the audience need to see is the school on fire. If it’s about a woman with cancer, we must see her in shot immediately.

But the telling shot extends further: you can enhance your storytelling by looking for little details which really bring your story to life.

Vin Ray says looking for the little details are what set great camera operators apart from the rest:

“Small details make a big difference. Nervous hands; pictures on a mantelpiece; someone whispering into an ear; a hand clutching a toy; details of a life.”

I’m midway through shooting a short documentary about a former prisoner turned lawyer. One of the first things I noticed when I met him was a copy of the Shawshank Redemption on his coffee table – a great little vignette to help understand the character.

6) Break the rules
The worst thing a multimedia journalist can do when producing video for the web is to replicate television – unless that’s your commission of course. TV is full of rules and formulas, all designed to hide edits, look good to the eye, and sometimes deceive. Fact is, online video journalism provides the chance to escape all that.

Sure it must look good, but be prepared to experiment – you’ll be amazed what people will put up with online:

• Cutaways are often used to cover over edits in interviews; why not be honest and use a simple flash-dissolve instead. Your audience deserves to know where you’ve edited, right?
• TV packages can’t operate without being leaden with voice over, but your online films don’t need to be.
• Piece to cameras don’t need to be woodenly delivered with the camera on a tripod.

The final word…
Here’s VJ pioneer David Dunkley-Gyimah speaking at this year’s SxSW event in the US:

“When it comes to the net, there is no code yet as I believe that is set in stone (…) we’ve all been taking TV’s language and applying that and it hasn’t quite worked. Video journalism needs a more cinematic, heightened visual base.”

• Camp VJ London – Day 1: An intro to visual storytelling
• Wired: Interview with war zone video blogger Kevin Sites
• Adam Westbrook: 6×6 audio for freelance journalists
• Jimmy Carr mocks VJ’s camera: ‘That’s from home!’
• Tips and thoughts for journalists from Bloomberg’s former multimedia editor

Independent News & Media ‘will likely agree another extension to a standstill deal with holders of a 200 million euro ($283 million) bond originally due for repayment in May’, an industry source said, according to Reuters. It reported today:

“The Irish publishing group has until Aug. 27 to agree a deal with holders of the senior debt but the industry source, who declined to be named because talks are ongoing, said another rollover was inevitable as this month’s deadline looms.”

INM declined to comment, Reuters said.

Full story at this link…

• Sunday Times: Breakingviews.com in ‘advanced talks’ with Thomson Reuters
• Is CNN about to buy Mashable?
• WSJ.com: ITV launching legal proceedings against STV for £38m debt
• Reuters: Google forced to pay €5,000 damages to former convict over search suggestions
• Thomson Reuters creates site for deal makers