Author Archives: Paul McNally

‘Bloggable’ follows ‘paywall’ and ‘tweetup’ into OED

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Is this story bloggable? A raft of new online words have been added to the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, including “bloggable” (a suitable topic for blogging) and “clickjacking” (concealing hyperlinks to send web users somewhere unexpected).

“Cybersecurity” also gets a mention for the first time, as does “trackpad” and “scareware”.

Gabby Fletcher, a spokeswoman for Oxford Dictionaries Online, told the Telegraph: “The rapid development of technology creates multiple new products, services, and functionalities, which all need new terms to describe them.

“We are also seeing the very fast circulation of new vocabulary on a global basis, with the expansion of social media.”

The Oxford dictionary recognised the words “paywall”, “tweetup” and “microblogging” last August.

Telegraph web rumours: Is metered charging the best way forward?

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Speculation that Telegraph Media Group is planning to start charging for some of its online content has been brought up again today by Marketing magazine.

The magazine’s report claims that the publisher is talking to digital agencies about overhauling Telegraph.co.uk and is considering a hybrid part-paid, part-free model from September.

Officially, TMG says it is keeping its options open, issuing a statement that “absolutely no decisions have been made on the introduction of a paid-content model. Like all publishers, TMG continually evaluates the developments in the digital sector”.

The metered approach, if adopted, means readers could access a small number of articles for free before being prompted to register, and could share links on social media.

Tech news site the Register, in its own inimitable style, discusses the issue in a post headlined: “Telegraph mulls cash alternative to suicide”.

“The Telegraph, like other papers, has spent a small fortune in building up a web audience of 31 million, chasing web fads with the dignity of a dad at a disco,” it says.

“But how fashions change. Losing most of the 31 million casuals who make up the Telegraph’s web audience may not be such a disadvantage if it can extract some value from the loyalists.

“Ad agencies naturally love qualified upmarket readers, and with the web, they’ve never been sure they’ve been getting them.”

Gordon Macmillan, writing on Haymarket’s social media blog The Wall, says the metered approach is winning the most favour with publisher so far, with the Daily Mirror apparently tipped to be considering a similar method.

“It is the one that makes most sense in how it relates to the rest of the web – containing within, as it does, a degree of openness that allows the essential social media seeding and sharing of content. That is essential.

He predicts that Mail Online – which is already the biggest UK newspaper website with a record-breaking 54 million unique users – will be the big winner if the Telegraph starts to charge.

The Guardian’s media editor Dan Sabbagh says the proposed model is “cautious” – and not so much a paywall as “a pay fence, sitting somewhere in the distance at the end of a large field.”

He writes: “True Telegraph fans will be discovered through the system, and the exercise might help bring some loyal readers into a new model of payment.”

Huffington Post: Exploitation claim is ‘wrong and offensive’

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The Huffington Post has defended its policy of not paying for contributors’ blog posts, after the Newspaper Guild in the US accused the site of exploiting freelance journalists.

The guild launched a campaign following the site’s sale to AOL for $315m earlier this month, calling on Huffington to share a portion of the sale proceeds with contributors, because she had built a successful media empire based on unpaid work.

In an email seen by Poynter, the Huffington Post’s head of media relations Mario Ruiz responds: “It’s both wrong and offensive to insist that HuffPost is exploiting journalists.”

Ruiz wrote: “HuffPost has 143 editors, writers, and reporters on our edit team. But we feel there’s a critical distinction between our editors and reporters and the people who contribute to our group blog.

“While we pay our editors and reporters, we don’t pay for the opinion pieces submitted by our thousands of bloggers. The vast majority of our bloggers understand the value of having a platform that reaches a very large audience.

“They can write as often as like they like or as little as they like.”

Canada encourages MPs to tweet from parliament

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The Canadian House of Commons has issued MPs with Blackberry devices and encouraged them to tweet and post messages on Facebook during their parliamentary work.

According to the Canadian Press newswire, about half of Canada’s MPs are already avid social media users and others are setting up new accounts as elections near.

It is expected that the move will improve public access to information and encourage debate.

Fashion retailers branch out into online magazines

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Women’s fashion retailer Net-A-Porter has launched a new digital style magazine and online store for men – confirming a growing trend of e-commerce sites branching out into editorial content to lure buyers.

MrPorter.com, which launched late last week, includes a weekly set of features and interviews about clothing, sport, food and music.

According to Fashion United, the industry is very excited about this new marriage of journalism and retail.

E-commerce site my-wardrobe.com is preparing for the $9 million launch of a new print and online magazine next month. Harrods is also preparing to add more editorial content to Harrods.com, as is eBay.

One of the first big experiments was Asos, which launched as a glossy printed magazine in 2006 and now sells 451,369 copies, narrowly behind top-seller Glamour.

One digital creative agency tells Fashion United: “The future will be a cross-channel experience where a customer uses the internet to inform their purchase in-store, or uses a catalogue to inform their purchase online.”

Facebook advertises for journalist to explain its value to news groups

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Facebook has created a new role in its marketing team for an experienced journalist to help news organisations understand how the social network can be used as a reporting and distribution tool.

The “journalist program manager”, who will be based in New York, will be tasked with explaining the value of using Facebook to journalists, establishing best practices and identifying new partnership opportunities with industry bodies and academic institutions.

Job requirements include at least five years’ experience in journalism, deep understanding of social media and how it affects journalists – and a “passion for Facebook”.

10,000 Words: Newsrooms can learn from tech start-up culture

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Newspapers looking to reinvent their newsroom culture could learn a few things from small, nimble tech start-ups, according to a post on tech-meets-journalism blog 10,000 Words.

Suggestions include replacing your website’s dull list of contacts with individual journalist photos and biographies and getting journalists to do more behind-the-scenes blogging about their daily work.

“In an era when we’re pushing for news transparency more than ever, creating a team page and individual biography pages should be easy to accomplish,” the site says.

“For a newspaper or other news site, the page could contain background information, areas of interest, disclosures, and ways to contact that author if you have a tip.

“There’s so much we can learn from trials and tribulations in our newsrooms that we can share with other newspaper staffs or our readers.”

See the full list of ideas here.

Media Week: H Bauer and Bauer Media in joint bid for BBC magazines

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Bauer Media and H Bauer have reportedly joined forces in a bid for BBC Magazines – the first major link-up of the two Bauer businesses in more than three years.

H Bauer, whose titles include Take A Break, bought Emap’s consumer magazine and radio division – including Grazia, Heat and Q – in a £1.14bn deal in December 2007 and renamed the division Bauer Media. But until now, the two parts of the business have remained very separate.

Now, according to Media Week, the two Bauers are in joint talks about buying BBC Worldwide’s 50 magazine titles, which are up for sale.

BBC titles such as Radio Times would sit comfortably in the H Bauer stable alongside TV Choice, while titles such as Top Gear are firmly in Bauer Media territory.

A BBC Magazines spokeswoman said the company hoped to draw up a shortlist of a bidders in the coming weeks and finalise any deal in the summer.

Any sale would need the approval of the BBC Trust, which is due to announce the appointment of its new chairman shortly.

Roly Keating on the BBC’s online archive plans

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The director of the BBC’s archive, Roly Keating, has explained more about the corporation’s major project to build a permanent online archive of broadcast material from Radio 4, Radio 3 and BBC Four.

Journalism.co.uk reported yesterday that the BBC Trust had given the all-clear for the project to go ahead.

Keating, a former controller of BBC Two, said in a blog post that the goal was to make the best of what the BBC had to offer searchable, linkable and shareable for years to come.

“In the online age the task of making more of the wealth of [the corporation’s] fantastic archives easily accessible to audiences is an inseparable part of the BBC’s mission as a public service broadcaster,” he wrote.

“Once published every one of these programmes will become part of a standing resource at the heart of BBC Online, linkable to by others inside and outside the BBC, re-usable by future producers and editors for new propositions as yet undreamt of, and discoverable through open search by anyone pursuing an interest in the topic of the programme.

“And as media becomes ever more social, individuals will find their own personal treasures in the collection, and popularise them among their friends and networks.”

NUJ: Bolton strike on, Sheffield strike off

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Journalists at the Newsquest-owned Bolton News voted yesterday to strike in protest against an ongoing pay freeze.

Twenty-one NUJ members took part in the ballot, with 16 voting in favour of strike action, the union said in a release.

NUJ deputy general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “Newsquest and its American owners have been relentless in their pursuit of higher profits at the expense of journalists.

“The growing anger amongst journalists throughout the group and their determination to bring the company to the negotiating table is clear.”

Newsquest has suffered a series of strikes in recent months as a result of its ongoing pay freeze and relocation of production staff.

The company brought the pay freeze to an end at the end of last year with a 2 per cent pay offer, but only for certain titles. In contrast, staff across titles in Wales, Gloucestershire, and the South Midlands were recently asked to take a week’s unpaid leave in order to help control costs.

Meanwhile, NUJ members working for Johnston Press in Sheffield have called off planned strikes after reaching a deal with management over plans to cut production jobs at a centralised “editorial hub” in the city.

The Sheffield hub produces pages for a range of Johnston Press titles in Sheffield, Doncaster, Chesterfield and North and Mid Derbyshire and South, West and North Yorkshire.