Author Archives: Sarah Marshall

About Sarah Marshall

I'm Journalism.co.uk's technology correspondent, recommending tools, apps and tips for journalists. My background is in broadcast and local news, having worked as a radio producer and newsreader and print journalist.

Guardian hyperlocal platform n0tice now open to all

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The Guardian’s latest venture into hyperlocal publishing is now open to all with the “full open release” of n0tice.

Matt McAlister, director of digital strategy for the Guardian Media Group, presented the social, local, mobile offering at today’s Changing Media Summit.

The seed of the idea came out of a Guardian Hack Day project inspired by geolocation services.

McAlister explained the concept to Journalism.co.uk, which has tracked the progress of n0tice:

If the phone knows where you are and if I see something interesting around me, why can’t I report on that and be an active citizen journalist or participant?

The team evolved the idea into “a community service explicitly tied to a location, almost as a navigation or a filter for finding information”.

Since accepting members by invitation only, early users have been influencing its development.

The platform has opportunities for hyperlocal news sites, which can brand a noticeboard, tracking interaction using web analytics.

Some hyperlocals have adopted n0tice as “their events database, essentially submitting events directly onto notice but with their brand and look and feel”.

McAlister explained that it can increase engagement for hyperlocals.

WordPress is a wonderful publishing environment but it’s not as good as crowdsourcing reports. You can get someone to comment on something you’ve written but it’s not as good for letting anyone share anything original directly into a community space.

The platform also has wider opportunities for hyperlocals and other users: they can potentially make money by creating a noticeboard.

Based on a classifieds system with users paying for premium ads, noticeboard owners keep 85 per cent of the revenue generated.

Here Matt McAlister explains the project’s development:

BSkyB CEO confirms he pulled Sky News story on F1

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Jeremy Darroch, the chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting, has confirmed that he asked Sky News to pull a story on Formula 1, ahead of the launch of a Sky F1 HD channel.

The Financial Times yesterday reported that Darroch “ordered a news story to be removed from the Sky News website after an executive producer complained that it had upset Formula 1 racing teams”.

“I asked the team to review the story,” Darroch told the Guardian Changing Media Summit, where he was delivering a keynote speech in which he announced the launch of a no contract, pay-as-you-go internet TV service from Sky called NowTV.

He said Sky News “has absolute independence and integrity” but added that “there are times as CEO … when you have to challenge parts of the business”.

Tool of the week for journalists: Data.gov.uk’s map-based search

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Tool of the week: Data.gov.uk’s map-based search

What is it? An option of searching for data sets by geographical location

How is it of use to journalists? Since the launch of Data.gov.uk just over two years ago, and the promotion of open government data, the site has become a go to place for many journalists in search of a data set.

The site now has a map tool which allows you to search for data by location, potentially useful for journalists working on local news sites, newspapers and radio stations.

The map-based search allows you to draw a search area, submit the area and find data relating to that location.

Not tried your hand at data journalism? This guide written for Journalism.co.uk by Simon Rogers, editor of the Guardian’s Datablog tells you how to get a grip with data journalism.

  • Journalism.co.uk also offers a one or two-day course in data journalism, led by Kevin Anderson. The next introduction to data journalism courses are being held on 9 May or 28 May. The intermediate data journalism course will be on 29 May. Those looking to expand their skills quickly can book on both courses, turning it into a two-day course and saving £50 on the course fees.

Huffington Post UK’s Facebook app clocks up 20,000 users

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The Huffington Post UK has clocked up 20,000 users of its Facebook app.

The social reader app was added to all pages of the UK site a fortnight ago.

It follows the launch of the Guardian and Independent’s Facebook apps, released in September.

The Huffington Post has opted for an Independent-style Facebook app, which sits within the Huffington Post UK site rather than encouraging readers to access stories within Facebook, as favoured by the Guardian.

Those who sign up for the app and agree to share some of their Facebook details will see their reading habits shared with their Facebook friends.

Carla Buzasi, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post UK told Journalism.co.uk that there is an option to opt out.

Every time you are on a story and you don’t want that to be shared there’s a delay and you can click and stop it sharing.

The Huffington Post, which launched a UK edition on 6 July, hopes that the app will increase traffic to the UK site, which reported 5.4 million unique views in January.

Buzasi said:

We’re obviously monitoring it quite carefully. It’s a little bit to early to say at the moment but Facebook does send us a significant amount of traffic already.

Is CNN about to buy Mashable?

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Reuters is reporting that CNN is expected to buy social media and technology site Mashable for more than $200 million (£128 million).

Felix Salmon, a Reuters blogger reporting from the annual South by Southwest technology conference held in Austin, Texas, says in a video posted last night (Sunday) that the broadcaster is expected to make an announcement tomorrow (Tuesday, 13 March).

In the video Salmon states:

Mashable is this huge website, it’s got the same kind of consumer focus that CNN does, it’s not aimed for the tech insiders, it’s aimed at the masses.

Mashable was set up in Scotland by Pete Cashmore who was then 19. It now has bases in New York and San Francisco and has more than 20 million monthly readers, according to the Reuters video.

However, paidContent suggests that a deal is far from being announced and suggests the story based on Salmon’s single, unnamed source is merely rumour.

Staci D. Kramer writes:

A source familiar with the situation describes the report of a deal as a rumour and tells paidContent no announcement is scheduled.

Well-known acquisitions of online-only news sites include AOL buying TechCrunch, and its Huffington Post purchase last year on which is spent £195 million.

CNN responded to a request by Journalism.co.uk for comments saying:

We do not engage in speculation about our business and we aren’t commenting on these reports.

Salmon’s video is below:

The top 10 most-read stories on Journalism.co.uk, 5-9 March

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1. Twenty inspirational women journalists

2. Frances Harrison: My double life as mother and foreign correspondent

3. Local newspaper paid-for iPad apps hit Apple’s Newsstand

4. Marie Colvin funeral to be held in New York this weekend

5. BBC to launch online corrections page, Trust confirms

6. Sun’s former digital product manager joins Johnston Press

7. Paul Conroy talks about Syria: ‘It’s a massacre’

8. Emap considers selling its print magazines and events

9. Richard Fletcher named as Telegraph website editor

10. Evgeny Lebedev: Independent to launch new campaigning website

#followjourn – @fletcherr Richard Fletcher/(soon-to-be) editor of Telegraph website

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Who? Richard Fletcher

Where? It was announced this week that Richard Fletcher is to become editor of the Telegraph’s website

Twitter? @fletcherr

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips, we are recommending journalists to follow online too. Recommended journalists can be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to Sarah at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#ftmedia12: FT content revenues could overtake advertising in 2012

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Image copyright Chris Young/PA

This year “could well be” the first year in its history that content revenues, including print and digital, overtake advertising revenues at the Financial Times, its chief executive, John Ridding, told the news organisation’s Digital Media Conference today.

The latest figures show content revenues for the FT accounted for 41 per cent in 2011, while advertising revenues accounted for the majority.

Speaking on a panel debating “the future of digital journalism and news”, Ridding said the FT’s relationship with its readers has helped to “sustain” quality journalism.

Having that understanding about what readers want is very helpful in continuing to improve the quality of journalism we provide.

We are confident in the business model and confident it will not just sustain quality journalism but enable us to further build quality journalism.

The site currently offers free registration which gives users access to eight articles a month, after which they would need to pay a subscription to access further content.

During the panel Ridding also spoke about mobile, which he said has been “a complete game-changer” for the FT.

One of my issues to start with was will the kind of content we do work on mobile? The answer is yes.

He added that one question to consider is whether there are ways publishers can reach out to “large continental economies” via mobile and tablet devices, such as by using “incentives … to stimulate that demand”.

Last month the FT’s parent company Pearson reported in its end-of-year results that FT Group revenues increased by six per cent to £427m in 2011.

Digital subscriptions to the FT were said to be up 29 per cent year-on-year to 267,000 and registered users on FT.com had risen by 33 per cent.

Last week paidContent reported that “in the US, to where its online chief recently relocated, digital subscriptions have now overtaken print subscriptions”.

The interview with Riddings also revealed that content revenues are expected to overtake ad revenue in 2012.

Social media bar for WordPress acquired by sharing tool Buffer

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Buffer, a platform that allows you to schedule and post tweets and social media posts at the best times, has today announced that it has acquired Dig Dig, a WordPress plugin that combines social media sharing buttons into one “floating share bar”.

The bar, similar to the one used by technology blog Mashable (such as in this article), allows you to display sharing buttons at the top or bottom of blog posts and offers sharing buttons such as online pinboard Pinterest and Buffer.

Since acquiring the plugin, Buffer says it has “refreshed the design of the plugin and worked out many bugs”.

Buffer is a previous Journalism.co.uk tool of the week for journalists. Co-founder of Buffer Leo Widrich spoke to us in this guide on how to best post on Twitter and Facebook.

So last century: How to add a web page archive to a Facebook timeline

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We have been updating the Journalism.co.uk Facebook page (Facebook.com/Journalismnews), following the launch of the Facebook page redesign last week.

We have used a free search tool called Wayback Machine, to search an archive of images of our home page over time.

To do the same, type the URL of your news site into Wayback Machine and then use the calendar to find crawled web pages from the archives.

Save a screen shot and then upload to the new-style Facebook page. To find out how to convert to the new style and add “milestones”, follow this helpful guide.

You can see how Journalism.co.uk has changed over time by clicking here and looking at our Facebook timeline.

This is what Journalism.co.uk looked like on 25 January 1999.