Yahoo rumoured to be rolling out new connection feature

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, Yahoo is preparing to launch a new feature called ‘Y Connect’ which would allow online publishers to integrate with Yahoo.

With Y Connect, users could register with and log into media sites simply by clicking on a Yahoo button. Then, users’ activity on the media site can easily be shared with contacts on Yahoo. Content on non-Yahoo sites would be shared via Yahoo Pulse, a hub connected to Yahoo Mail accounts.

According to WSJ.com, the service could also then be used by companies to “better understand the interests of users and figure out which online ads are more likely to be effective”.

There doesn’t seem to be any official word yet from Yahoo on these reports, but the WSJ report says it expects a formal announcement later this year.

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Digital ad revenue up 30 per cent at Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal’s latest revenue statistics, detailed in a staff memo from Dow Jones & Company CEO Les Hinton (published on PoynterOnline), show an increase in digital ad revenue of more than 29 per cent.

According to the figures, the publication has recorded year-on-year growth across all platforms in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2011.

Print and online revenues for the publication are reportedly up by more than 17 per cent on the previous year’s figures for the same period, while total print advertising revenue increased by more than 21 per cent.

Print circulation revenue was also reportedly up more than 9 percent, or 13 per cent when including digital.

But while in his memo Hinton makes a comparison to competitor the New York Times Company’s release of revenue statistics last week, paidContent clarifies the potential differences of each in its own report on the figures.

Hinton specifically refers to the New York Times Company’s own figures “as a basis of comparison.” He pointed out that the NYTCo forecast last week that online ad sales would be up 14 percent for the quarter, while print ad revenue would be down five percent. It’s worth noting, however, that those figures include the NYTCo as a whole, while the figures Hinton cites for his company seem to refer only to the performance of the Wall Street Journal.

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WSJ offers New Yorkers $200 to talk about their iPads

The Wall Street Journal is inviting users of its iPad app to share their views on the device – and they are offering $200 for their time.

According to an email published by the Business Insider, the news organisation sent out invitations to New York users to take part in group discussions running from 16-17 August

But it looks like all the spaces may already have been snapped up:

Now the bad news: the slots have already been filled, or at least that’s what we were told after completing a quick survey gauging our eligibility. It’s also possible they just don’t want us.

See the full post here…

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Matt Busse: How you can still read the Wall Street Journal for free

Something for those media executives considering building pay walls around their content, Matt Busse details how to read the WSJ for free using Google.

“Oh, and this isn’t new. It’s been an open secret since at least March 2008,” adds Busse.

Full post at this link…

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paidContent: WSJ ready to start charging for mobile apps

The Wall Street Journal is ready to start charging for mobile access on the Blackberry and iPhone and the video site Hulu can be expected to introduce some kind of payment model, News Corp CEO and chairman Rupert Murdoch told delegates at the the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference.

Full story at this link…

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FT.com: WSJ to introduce micropayments

The Wall Street Journal is planning to bring in a micropayment system for individual articles and premium subscriptions on its website, according to Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief.

The pricing structure will be ‘rightfully high’, according to Thomson.

Last week Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chairman, said he was now convinced it was possible for newspapers to charge for content online given the success of the WSJ’s existing model.

Full article at this link…

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Politico: WSJ reporters launch own investigative journalism project

Wall Street Journal reporters Sue Schmidt and Glenn Simpson are leaving the title to set up a new firm, where they’ll conduct investigative work for private clients. A sign of the times?

Full story at this link…

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Editor&Publisher: Whistleblower claims WSJ editors delayed Madoff investigation

“The key ‘whistleblower’ in the Bernard Madoff fraud case, Harry Markopolos, testified today [Feb 4 2009] before Congress, alleging among other things that he approached the Wall Street Journal on the story more than three years ago, and the newspaper ultimately did nothing,” Editor&Publisher reports.

Full story at this link…

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GigaOm: WSJ ‘failed the Web 2.0 test’ with Google story

The WSJ’s reaction to Google’s response to its article about the search giant’s ‘net neutrality’ position was an ‘old-media approach’, writes Matthew Ingram.

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WSJ online video training for reporters

And another for your watching pleasure. This comes from Blip TV: a brief interview with the Wall Street Journal’s deputy managing editor Alan Murray, on the WSJ’s 25-30 videos a day, the majority of which are produced by the paper’s reporters.

Kelsey Blodget, associate producer writes:

“As part of a strategy to integrate online video with the reporting, The Journal trains reporters on a regular basis in New York and San Francisco to use Sony HDR-HC9 cameras.”

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