The project, which has hired a staff of more than 100 journalists and technical staff, sees a collaborative approach to news, featuring, as it does, programming from multiple news organisations:
CNBC, Sky, Forbes, ITN;
Regional media: China Knowledge, Russian TV, Eurobusiness Media, Africa Investor, ET Now;
We’re not in competition with CNBC. They’re a consumer play and we’re narrowcast. This is an opportunity for CNBC and other players to get a different set of eyes on their material – to get their programming directly integrated into the workflow of the financial professional. Right to their desktop alongside the market data they need to do business.
It’s also part of a more global approach we are told:
Reuters Insider operates as a single studio network and produces programming with a global perspective. For example, content that is produced out of Hong Kong serves our customers in all parts of the world. This is a fundamentally different approach to the way Bloomberg produces its global coverage, which is tailored for the local audience.
Major financial brands such as Citibank and HSBC will also provide content to the network – a nod towards businesses as their own publishers.
But perhaps the most innovative part of the platform, which is internet-based, is the ability for users to submit their own videos and personalise the network to their own needs:
Users can create their own channels based on personal and professional interests. This cutting-edge technology not only delivers the most relevant videos to that channel, but it delivers the most relevant 30 seconds of those videos. All videos are accompanied by charts, graphs, and most importantly, text transcripts that have highlighted search terms viewers can click on that bring them to that exact point in the video.
Viewers can also edit the video, email or instant message video clips, and in a groundbreaking move, they can self-broadcast research, market commentary, and video via their firm’s branded channel on Reuters Insider.
In previous experiments with video on its website and in its coverage of the World Economics Forum in Davos, Thomson Reuters has referred to the importance of ‘citizen experts’ – individuals amongst its clients and audience who can bring expertise and values insight to news alongside the reports of its journalists. The Insider network seems to take this a step further, increasing interactivity and the value placed upon expert information and analysis.
Reuters is confident that it’s offering something new with this launch – potentially a new model for television and video news:
Reuters Insider is the first of its kind and has the potential to lay the groundwork for the future of the media and television industries. While Thomson Reuters is targeting financial professionals, this model is something that can be adapted to television news in general, whether it’s entertainment, politics, etc.
This unique television experience transforms financial programming from a passive one-way broadcast into an interactive and powerfully personalized medium.
It was always obvious that at the end of the election campaign there would be a slew of articles declaring that it had or hadn’t been “the internet election”. I decided back in March to start collecting examples of campaigning and media innovation around the election and putting them into a digital election timeline, so that when we got to polling day I’d have a timeline of events.
I chose to use Dipity as my tool. The free version allows you to create up to three timelines. Within a topic you give each event a title and a timestamp. Optionally you can add a description, image and link URL to each event. Dipity then builds a timeline using Flash, and the events can also be viewed as a plain chronological list, or in a ‘flip-book’ format. If you link to a video on YouTube, Dipity automatically embeds the video in the timeline.
To get the data to go into the timeline I relied quite heavily on Twitter. I made sure that I subscribed to the Twitter streams of the major parties, and to election Twitter streams from broadcasters like Channel 4 and the BBC.
During the day, every time I saw a link on Twitter that I thought might lead to an interesting bit of the digital campaign I marked it as a favourite. At night, I would then spend 20 minutes looking back through the day’s favourites, taking screengrabs, and entering the details into Dipity. I also had help from various people within news organisation who began sending me messages about content and services they had launched.
The timeline has around 150 events in it now, and I’ve been continuing to update it in the aftermath of the indecisive result.
A few things stood out. From the political parties, the Conservatives #cashgordon Twitter fiasco was amusing, but worrying. It seemed that the people who look likely to be commissioning the nation’s digital infrastructure in the next couple of years couldn’t commission a website which got basic security right. Worse, instead of holding their hands up to a “Web security 101” SNAFU, they tried to shift the blame to “left-wing” hackers, an example of tribal politics at it’s worst.
For their part, the Labour decision to turn their homepage over to a Twitterstream during the Leader’s Debates was a brave, but I believe, misguided one. First time visitors would have been perplexed by it, just at a moment when the nation was focused on politics and they had a chance to introduce floating voters to key elements of the Labour manifesto.
The Liberal Democrats Labservative campaign was a favourite of mine for sheer attention to detail. Fictional leader Gorvid Camerown even had a profile on Last.fm, where he enjoyed nothing but the status quo. The campaign was clever, but whether it increased the Liberal Democrat vote is impossible to judge.
It seemed to me that as the campaign progressed, the cycle of social media reaction got faster and faster. There were plenty of spoof political posters early in the campaign, but on the eve of the poll it seemed like it took less than ten minutes for the first spoofs of The Sun’s Cameron-as-Obama front page to appear. Likewise, within minutes of the Landless Peasant party candidate appearing behind Gordon Brown giving a clenched fist salute in Kirkcaldy, a Facebook fan page for Deek Jackson had been set up and attracted over 500 joiners. It has now reached 4,000.
It has been a really interesting exercise. I definitely feel that compiling the digital election timeline personally kept me much more engaged in the campaign.
Would I do the timeline differently in the future? In retrospect I may have been better off putting the events into a mini-blog service like Tumblr, and powering the Dipity version from that. As it is, the data is locked into Dipity, and can’t be indexed by search or exported. I have though uploaded around 100 of the screengrabs and images I used to a Flickr set so that people can re-use them.
Joy is it to be alive and to be allowed the role of reporter in these amazing times. May Snowblog long continue to be somewhere where, whatever our prejudices, we can share this remarkable moment in the affairs of man and woman.
Fast Company takes a look at the legal row between news agency AFP and photographer Daniel Morel – and where Twitter fits in. In summary, AFP is currently embroiled in a rights row with Morel after using photographs of Haiti that had been uploaded on Twitpic. Morel reportedly sent cease-and-desist letters to which AFP responded with threat of a law suit.
Fast Company writes:
AFP, like a lot of more established organizations, seems unable to change their perspectives on Twitter to address what the service actually is. That Morel posted some of the most important photos of the decade on Twitter before any other publication shows the power and flexibility of Twitter as a legitimate news service. AFP’s argument, that Twitter is in some way nothing more than a digital bulletin board with no accompanying rights, is worrisome – it’s a different kind of news outlet than AFP, but that doesn’t mean its value in news can simply be ignored.
Following on from the recent ‘do journalists need to code’ debate on this blog and elsewhere, Martin Belam argues the answer is both yes and no.
[J]ournalists don’t all need to be able to write program, but the ability to think like a programmer is an invaluable skill.
For example, being able to spot the difference between a small technical change that has a big impact on story-telling, and what appears to be a small change but which has a hugely expensive technical impact, is an essential skill for someone setting the requirements for changes to a website or a CMS.
But according to Sky News, which issued this statement yesterday evening, Boulton was “strongly” defending his – and Sky News’- journalistic integrity:
In the course of an interview outside Westminster this afternoon [10 May], Sky News political editor Adam Boulton defended his integrity and, by implication, Sky News’, against an attack by Alastair Campbell.
Mr Campbell had said, “You’ve been spending the last four years saying Gordon Brown is dead meat and he should be going anyway.” Adam Boulton strongly defended his impartiality, saying “I’m not saying that, show me where I said that once.”
Mr. Campbell went on to say, “You’re obviously upset that David Cameron is not Prime Minister” to which Adam replied, “I’m not upset, you are, you keep casting aspersions.”
When challenged by Adam Boulton to substantiate his assertions, Mr Campbell failed to provide any evidence.
I was somewhat taken aback to be the only Labour figure trending on twitter an hour or so after the announcement and the reason – Adam Boulton – was trending all night. Justin Bieber eat your heart out.
Adam gets very touchy at any suggestion that he is anything other than an independent, hugely respected, totally impartial and very important journalist whose personal views never see the light of day, and who works for an organisation that is a superior form of public service than anything the BBC can deliver.
Boulton’s Wikipedia page has already been edited to include the incident, with a certain amount of creativity. ‘Falling of Love: The End of My marriage to Alistair Campbell (2010) Simon & Garfunkel’ seems an unlikely source for the entry.
The transcript (issued by Sky News):
JEREMY THOMPSON:
I’m joined here in Westminster by Alastair Campbell, good evening to you. A lot of people trying to make head or tail of what the Prime Minister said, your colleagues say it’s a dignified and statesman like offering from him, those on the other side of the House saying it is a blatant piece of party gamesmanship and has nothing to do with dignity.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Well it is. I think it brings sense to this very, very complicated and difficult situation which the election result threw up. No party won, no party leader got a very clear mandate. The Tories got most seats, they got the biggest share of the vote and the options remain a minority Tory government, some sort of deal between the Tories and the Liberals and they can carry on their discussions with that but what’s happened today is that Nick Clegg has indicated to Gordon Brown that there may be sense in actually a discussion developing, there has actually been behind the scenes discussions going on but a proper policy based discussion developing between Labour and the Liberal Democrats to see whether the basis for a coalition government can be formed and I think actually a lot of people will feel that’s not a bad …if that materialises is not a bad outcome for this election. Let’s just go back a bit where we were …
JEREMY THOMPSON:
Do you think that’s what the British people really voted for?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Well they certainly voted for change of some sort, no doubt about that … let me finish, they voted for change of some sort …
ADAM BOULTON:
I thought you wanted to have a discussion.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
No, I wanted to answer Jeremy’s question if I may.
ADAM BOULTON:
Oh right.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
They want a change of some sort, they did not go for David Cameron despite the utterly slavish media support that he got, despite all the money from Lord Ashcroft and his friends, despite the fact that we’d had the recession and so forth, they didn’t really want Cameron. There obviously has been, Gordon accepts that there was also …
JEREMY THOMPSON:
Well this was their least worst option. They certainly didn’t give Gordon Brown an endorsement did they?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
What I said was no party leader and no party won.
ADAM BOULTON:
Let’s just look at the facts of the election. In the election you take three main parties …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Yes.
ADAM BOULTON:
… there is one party that lost both in terms of share of the vote and seats, that is Labour. There is one party that is behind the Conservatives and on top of that we have now got a Prime Minister who wants to stay on for four months but is saying he is going to resign in four months time. Now none of that, with all due respect Alastair Campbell, can be seen as a vote of confidence by the voters in the Labour party.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
But nobody is saying that it is, in fact that’s the whole point …
ADAM BOULTON:
But you’re saying nobody won, what I’m saying is if you just look at the results there is a party that is clearly not …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
What you are saying though, look David Cameron didn’t do that much better than some of his predecessors but I accept he got more seats and a bigger share of the vote but my point is …
ADAM BOULTON:
A much bigger share of the vote.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Right, okay, but my point is that constitutionally …
ADAM BOULTON:
And the second point if I can just …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Can I answer the first point?
ADAM BOULTON:
The second point is if you put together the percentages of the vote or the parliamentary seats a Lib-Lab combination doesn’t do it.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
No, you’d then have to look at other parties …
ADAM BOULTON:
It doesn’t have a majority so …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
But nor has a minority Tory government.
ADAM BOULTON:
Yes, but a Lib-Conservative coalition clearly has got a majority and a majority of seats.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
And that may happen, and that may happen, all that’s happened today …
ADAM BOULTON:
Well why not do what Malcolm Wickes says and just go quietly, accept that you lost this election? Why not do what David Blunkett says and accept that you lost this election?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Because I don’t think that would be the right thing to do because I don’t think that is the verdict that the public delivered.
ADAM BOULTON:
What, national interest is what you are seriously thinking about in this?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Yes, it is actually, yes.
ADAM BOULTON:
The nation needs four more months of Gordon Brown limping on until he retires?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Adam, I know that you’ve been spending the last few years saying Gordon Brown is dead meat and he should be going anyway …
ADAM BOULTON:
I’m not saying that, show me where I said that once.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Adam, I don’t want to …
ADAM BOULTON:
But are you saying in the national interest what the nation needs is four more months of Gordon Brown and then resign having lost an election?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
I am saying, I am saying there are three options. One is a Tory minority … none of the are perfect, one is a Tory minority government. That would be perfectly legitimate, okay. It wouldn’t be terribly stable, it might not last very long but it is legitimate. The second is a Lib-Tory deal either …
ADAM BOULTON:
It could be stable.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
… which could be stable but what’s absolutely clear Adam, you can’t tell the Liberal Democrats to do things they don’t want to do.
ADAM BOULTON:
I’m not telling anybody to do anything.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
But you’re sort of saying it is an easy option for them and it’s not and what’s coming through loud and clear from a lot of the Liberal Democrats is that their activists and their supporters are saying, hold on a minute, we did not vote to get you to put David Cameron in power, we voted to stop that happening.
ADAM BOULTON:
Did they vote to keep Gordon Brown in power?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
They voted …
ADAM BOULTON:
Did they vote to keep Gordon Brown in power?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
No, they didn’t and Gordon has accepted that today which is why…
ADAM BOULTON:
Exactly, so on that basis you …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
What does he do, what does he do? Just sort of says here you go, David Cameron come on in, you didn’t actually get the vote you should have done, you didn’t get the majority you said you were going to do …
ADAM BOULTON:
He got a lot more votes and seats than he did.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Yes, I know, you’re obviously upset that David Cameron is not Prime Minister.
ADAM BOULTON:
I’m not upset, you are, you keep casting aspersions and …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Calm down.
ADAM BOULTON:
I am commenting, don’t keep saying what I think.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
This is live on television.
JEREMY THOMPSON:
Alastair, Alastair …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Dignity, dignity.
ADAM BOULTON:
Don’t keep telling me what I think, this is what you do, you come on and you say you haven’t won the election …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Jeremy …
ADAM BOULTON:
… you talk to me, I’m fed up with you telling me what I think, I don’t think that.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
I don’t care what you’re fed up with, you can say what you like. I can tell you my opinion …
ADAM BOULTON:
Don’t tell me what I think.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
I will tell you why I think you are reacting so badly.
JEREMY THOMPSON:
Alastair, you are being a bit provocative here and unnecessarily so.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Well sometimes politics is about passionate things.
JEREMY THOMPSON:
I understand that.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
He is saying Gordon Brown is no longer legitimately in Downing Street, I’m saying he is. He is.
ADAM BOULTON:
No, I’m saying look at the performances in the elections, Labour did worse than the Conservatives, will you accept that?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
I know. They got more seats, of course they did, the Tories go more seats…
ADAM BOULTON:
So you do accept it?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Yes. Equally Gordon Brown is constitutionally perfectly entitled to be Prime Minister and …
JEREMY THOMPSON:
Alastair, just tell me how …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Let me finish this point. He has managed this situation I think perfectly properly. He has today announced he will not be the Prime Minister …
ADAM BOULTON:
Can I ask you a simple question?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Yes.
ADAM BOULTON:
Why hasn’t he had a Cabinet meeting before making this offer?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
He is about to have a Cabinet meeting now.
ADAM BOULTON:
Yes, but now he has made the offer, what can the Cabinet do, why haven’t you had a meeting with the parliamentary Labour party like the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have had?
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
He’s having one tomorrow, he’s having one tomorrow.
JEREMY THOMPSON:
Gentlemen, gentlemen.
ADAM BOULTON:
In other words it’s you, totally unelected have plotted this with …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Me?
ADAM BOULTON:
Yes. You are happiest speaking about him …
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
That’s because the Ministers are going to a Cabinet meeting …
ADAM BOULTON:
He has got a parliamentary party, you’re the one that cooked it up, you’re the one that’s cooked it up with Peter Mandelson.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
Oh my God, unbelievable. Adam, calm down.
JEREMY THOMPSON:
Gentlemen, gentlemen, let this debate carry on later. Let’s just remind you that Gordon Brown said a few minutes ago…
ADAM BOULTON:
I actually care about this country.
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL:
You think I don’t care about it, you think I don’t care about it.
ADAM BOULTON:
I don’t think the evidence is there.
JEREMY THOMPSON:
… let’s listen to Gordon Brown’s statement.
It’s Local Newspaper Week this week – an event organised by the Newspaper Society to recognise the role of newspapers in local communities. This year’s focus is local independent journalism and holding public bodies to account.
To mark the week, we want to create a snapshot of a week’s headlines from local newspapers across the UK. We’ve kickstarted the map with a picture of Journalism.co.uk’s local newspaper the Argus in Brighton, but want your pictures of newspaper A-boards or headlines from where you are – whether you’re a journalist at that title or a local reader.
Late Night Marketing discusses how Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.no lost more than 5,000 natural “inlinks” (links to its website from external sites and blogs) to its website by disabling a feature from blog search engine Twingly on its website:
The first thing here is that Dagbladet.no now loses a lot of blog traffic, but this is not the most important thing, because the traffic from blogs is not enormous compared to the traffic a newspaper can gain from good rankings on search engines.
What do you think that Google will think of your site if you suddenly have approximately 5,000 fewer incoming links per month?
Last week’s Radio 4 In Business programme looked at business newspapers and how some of the world’s best known-brands are struggling to compete with online rivals and in the face of the economic downturn.
Well worth a listen at this link, it includes interview with representatives from the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Bloomberg and Bloomberg Business Week.
POLIS director Charlie Beckett looks at the challenges a hung parliament poses for journalists:
The likelihood of a hung parliament raises all sorts of interesting procedural issues for journalists – especially the BBC and other Public Service Broadcasters. How do you report impartially and proportionately and how do you avoid getting bogged down in procedural detail? And how will our partisan press respond?
Generally, governments are given the dominant position in news coverage and allowed to dictate terms and set agendas because they have the popular mandate. New governments also tend to get a honeymoon period where the media allow them to set out their stall and give them the benefit of the doubt.
