Author Archives: Katarina Witzheller

Instyle.co.uk gets a makeover with new ad formats

IPC Media’s InStyle has revamped its website with a new black background, bigger images and new advertising formats, including a larger size MPUs – an Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) first, according to a press release.

Instyle.co.uk

The main features of the new design are:

  • Easier navigation
  • Enlarged fashion section
  • A list containing all featured celebrities and designers with access to photo galleries
  • New hair and news channel
  • Video beauty guidance
  • Microsites linking to a fashion events calendar
  • Online shop

Sportsbeat agency puts content online

National press agency Sportsbeat, which provides more than 20,000 stories a year to over 150 newspaper clients in Great Britain, has made its sports news available online for the first time.

New website www.morethanthegames.com will provide articles and blogs covering over 40 sports, excluding football, cricket and rugby union.

“The prospect of the 2012 Olympics has already seen an increase in appetite for content from the editors we supply,” said managing editor James Toney, in a press release.

“We are dedicated to providing coverage of these Olympics sports all year round – and not just the big international events but competitions at national, regional and local level.” There are many sites on the Internet, but https://casinoreg.net provides inexperienced players with the most detailed casino FAQ

Dorset Echo reporter Miriam Phillips scoops young journalist award

picture of Hammond / Whiteley Awards winners

Photo: (left to right) Neil Glass (Judges Award), Melanie Vass (Reporter of the Year), Martyn Benn (chairman of the judges), Miriam Phillips (Young Journalist of the Year) and Richard Crease (Photographer of the Year).

This year’s Hammond/Whiteley Awards, which were launched 1983 in memory of two senior Bournemouth Daily Echo journalists, John Hammond and Carl Whiteley, were presented this week at Bournemouth university.

Miriam Phillips, Dorset Echo reporter, scooped the Jane Hayward Memorial Trophy, which honours the young journalist of the year, for a second time.

Bournemouth Daily Echo journalists collected two awards: reporter of the year going to Melanie Vass and photographer of the year to Richard Crease.

Helium community earns more than $1 million

Contributors to Helium, the citizen-journalism/amateur writing site, have broken the $1 million mark for total earnings.

The site has 150,000 members earn cash from upfront payments and as part of a revenue share.

“We have about 10,000 who have proven to be talented writers. This is the group that are earning on our site,” Mark Ranalli, CEO of Helium, told Journalism.co.uk.

“Some of our best writers are making $5,000 per year already, and these sums continue to climb as the site continues to grow.

“This milestone represents definitive proof that there is a real market for writers to be compensated for their work online. In the midst of increasing volatility in the traditional media industry, Helium is attracting thousands of publishers and connecting them with high quality subject matter experts on a regular basis,” added Ranalli in a press release.

Helium already has a technology partnership set up with Hearst Newspapers and its members are now allowed access to The Society of Professional Journalists.

Country Life makes 100-year picture archive available online

Country Life Magazine has launched a new online picture library featuring more than 100 years of images.

The selection of images includes architectural and garden photography; as well as interior design images from houses across the UK and Europe.

“Until now we’ve only been able to offer a limited service to researchers, but the new site allows unprecedented access to our unique record of British life over the years,” said Country Life picture library manager, Justin Hobson, in a release from publisher IPC Media.

The archive is fully searchable and new images will be added each week as pictures are scanned from past editions of the magazine.

It’s free to use, though registration is encouraged. Images can be ordered for a charge.

Allvoices’ payment scheme for ‘citizen journalists’

Allvoices has launched an incentive program to reward its citizen journalist contributors for their work.

According to a press release, the scheme is designed as follows:
Contributors will be paid in relation to the quality of their submissions e.g. copyright violations of texts or photos are ineligible.
The amount of money is dependent on the feedback from the community and strength of the user’s profile.
The type of contributor and its rewards are divided into the following three categories:

Stringer
– New or infrequent contributors, who organise their social network based around their work.
– Has had a minimum of 10,000 views for their contributions and 25 fans.
– Pay scale in this category is $0.25 per 1,000 page views.

• Reporter:
– Minimum total of 25,000 views for their work and 50 fans. For every 1,000 page views they earn $1.00.

• Anchor:
-Anchors are influential contributors beyond their social network and are closely followed by the Allvoices community, says the release.
– The criteria for being an Anchor is at least 100,000 views and 75 fans.
– Potential pay rate is $2.00 per 1,000 page views.

Tomorrow: 12th Journalism Leaders’ Forum in Preston

Tomorrow, May 12, sees three events – the Digital Editors Network meeting, an exhibition on journalism and the 12th Journalism Leaders’ Forum – take place during the Journalism Leaders Programme’s Spring meeting.

Mike Ward, head of the School of Journalism, Media and Communication at University of Central Lancashire, will chair the evening panel debate at the Journalism Leaders’ Forum, which takes place tomorrow between 18.00 and 19:15 in the Greenbank Lecture Theatre, University of Central Lancashire in Preston.

Panellists including Richard Frediani, head of news at ITV Granada and Joanna Geary, web development editor at The Times, will discuss the future and changing shape of journalism.

For more information on the forum email Debbie Williams or call 01772 894759.

Follow news and updates from the events on @journalism_live and on our main news channel.

Awards round-up: Index on Censorship winners; Mind Journalism Awards; Paul Foot nominations call

Index on Censorship awards

This year’s winners of the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards were named in London last week.

The Sunday Leader received the journalism award. Its editor Lasanthe Wickrematunge was murdered earlier this year, shortly after publishing an opinion piece in which he predicted his death.

The award winners were selected in five categories: books, films, journalism, new media and law and campaigning.

Mind Journalist of the Year

The prize, which honours excellence in covering mental health issues, will form part of the charity’s annual Mind week in May.

The winner of journalism award will be named together with winners of the Student Journalist, Book of the Year and Champion of the Year awards on May 14.

The journalism nominees include: Patrick Cockburn from the Independent, Toby Wiseman of Men’s Health and Eleanor Harding from the Wandsworth Guardian.

Paul Foot Award re-opens

And last but not least, this year’s Paul Foot Award is open for entries for its fifth year.

Sponsored by Private Eye and The Guardian, the prize rewards investigative or campaigning journalism in the UK.

Entries to the award written by individuals or teams of journalists must be submitted by September 1. To be eligible, material must have been published either in a newspaper, magazine or online between September 1 2008 and August 31 2009.

The prize money this year is going up to £10,000 (from £5,000) for the winner, with £1,000 each for the runners-up.

New Voices journalism grant winners for 2009 announced

Eight hyperlocal, community media projects from across the United States have been chosen as New Voices grant winners for 2009.

New Voices, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, helps to finance the launch of local news projects. It also provides technical support to create new ways for people to take part in public life.

The judging panel made its decision from more than 300 applicants, which all have a specific geographic community focus.

The winners include GrossePointeToday.com, Oakland Local and Backyard News.

A full list of the winners can be see at this link.

Newspaper Awards announces nominees

UK regional titles will compete against nationals for this year’s electronic news site and best use of new media prizes at the 2009 Newspaper Awards, according to the full listings on HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk.

Websites for the Belfast Telegraph and Kent Messenger’s Kent Online will go head-head-head with BBC.co.uk, FT.com, Guardian.co.uk, Telegraph.co.uk and Times Online in the news site category.

Candidates for best use of new media include Exeter’s Express&Echo for Kellow’s Bootlaces, FT.com’s Alphaville and the Henley Standard website.

Also of note – the award dedicated to: ‘Most Significant Contribution to Future Newspaper Success’, for which the nominees are:

  • Cambridge News – Video content
  • Crain’s Manchester Business
  • FT Weekend – Re-design
  • Guardian & Observer – Subscriber project
  • ncjmedia – Northumberland strategy
  • ncjmedia – Rising Stars

Elsewhere the International Newspaper Award is dominated by German representatives, with the Augsburger Allgemeine, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and the Nordkurier all nominated.

The awards are run in cooperation with Fujifilm and the Production Journal celebrating the crème de la crème in newspaper and news media production. The winners will be announced at ceremony on April 22 in London Hilton.