Good round up from the Editors Weblog of the case of US blogger Shellee Hale, who may be required to reveal her anonymous sources behind comments she left on an online messageboard.
Despite offering proof of her journalistic credentials Hale’s submissions were ruled as insufficient evidence of her professional status. As such she is not covered by New Jersey’s state shield law, which allows journalists to keep sources private.
“Five major newspapers in New Jersey and New York announced on Wednesday that they would share articles and photographs, adding to a growing movement in an industry that is seeking new ways to cope with shrinking resources,” reports the New York Times.
The agreement is between The Daily News of New York, The Star-Ledger, The Buffalo News, The Record, and The Times Union of Albany.
New Jersey’s TriCityNews newspaper ‘aggressively ignores the web’, but is ‘double-digit profitable’.
“I don’t understand how putting content on the Web would do anything but help destroy our paper. Why should we give our readers any incentive whatsoever to not look at our content along with our advertisements, a large number of which are beautiful and cheap full-page ads?” says, Dan Jacobson, publisher and owner.
A paper known for its online innovation, like John Hassell’s Expoding Newsroom, now sees its entire editorial board leave.
Greenslade reports via FollowTheMedia that the entire editorial board – except for the cartoonist – have accepted redundancy terms at New Jersey’s Star-Ledger.
“The board (who are responsible for the comment and opinion pages) are among 151 editorial staff, about 45 per cent of the newsroom, leaving the paper,” Greenslade reports.
Wednesday’s edition of the Exploding Newsroom: Jim Willse, the editor of the New Jersey based newspaper, the Star-Ledger, talks about the future of the newsroom now that the conditions have been met to avoid a sale or closure of the paper.
“We face a significant challenge,” he says.
You can follow the online editor John Hassell’s Exploding Newsroom on Facebook, at the blog, and over at Kyte TV.
The Associated Press (AP) is to give its newspaper partners access to reports on digital trends in the industry, in an arrangement with research firm Outsell Inc.
A release from the AP said the free service will help newspapers to understand online developments, such as web traffic measurement and online advertising issues.
Reports will be sent out quarterly and are free to AP member papers as part of the agency’s new Innovation Toolkit service.
In recent weeks a host of US newspapers have served notice on their membership with the AP, as the Editors Weblog reports, most responding to recent changes in pricing by the agency.
Some papers have grouped together to bypass AP content, while according to BuzzMachine.com, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger published an entirely AP-free edition yesterday.
A comment from Paul Colford, from the AP’s corporate communications department, on the BuzzMachine post said:
“We understand that The Star-Ledger and the media industry as a whole are facing difficult financial challenges and that in this environment many newspapers are experimenting with news priorities and with their presentation of news. The Associated Press has been working with all members of the cooperative, including The Star-Ledger, to determine their needs and to ensure that the AP news report retains its value to them and their readers. Member Choice, the content and pricing initiative rolled out this summer, was in fact developed as a response to member requests for simpler content and pricing options.”
The Star-Ledger, based in Newark, New Jersey, debuted its new daily online news show yesterday – the first stage in creating an interactive video news experience on the paper’s website.
“Let’s make one thing perfectly clear from the outset: This is not local TV news,” says John Hassell, the Ledger’s deputy managing editor (online), in a blog post.
“This is local video news for the web. It’ll be conversational, interactive and draw constantly on the community of users at NJ.com [the paper’s website] and bloggers, vloggers and podcasters across New Jersey.”
Presented by news reporter Brian Donohue, the newscast will be broadcast live and later made available to embed and divided into sections by news item.
The final test version of Ledger Live is below (and yes, the phone will be unplugged next time):
In developing the newscast, the paper participated in a video ‘boot camp’ lead by Michael Rosenblum and opened up discussion on video blogging site Seesmic.