In the wake of news that Fairfax – Australia’s major newspaper owner – has posted a net loss of $380 million for the year to June 30, its managing director has said he he would be ‘happy to talk’ to his rival, Murdoch’s News Corporation, about paid content plans.
Fairfax’s newspapers includeThe Sydney Morning Herald, The Age in Melbourne, and The Australian Financial Review.
Cross-media will be key to covering the Beijing Olympics.
Organisations will need to make the most of online to keep up with the games – particularly because of the eight hour time difference.
To handle this, News International is pooling its reporters from Times Online and News.com.au to offer rolling online coverage.
Citizen journalism site Helium.com has drawn criticism from members of its own community by suggesting changes to the way they attribute payments to their users.
Site developers want to change the payment system to reward the most active participants.
‘Helium pays a portion of its advertising revenue to people who write the most widely read stories on the site-popularity that is based on user reviews from members,’ wrote News.com:
‘But the company suggested that its new system would pay only those people who maintain a “single-star” rating on the site, which means that they wouldn’t just write, but they also would need to review as many as 40 stories within 90 days, according to the company’s original post. Anyone who fell below a single-star rating would not be paid for their stories.’