Tag Archives: Newspapers

ABC continues to verify airline copies for national newspaper circulation audit

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Journalism.co.uk is interested in all things online, so the print stats from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) are a bit off-patch, but just a quick heads-up that the body is continuing to investigate claims about ‘bulk newspaper sales’ and the number of airline copies included in the audit.

“ABC stated in the February and March National Newspaper reports, that airline copies were subject to further verification. This verification work continues, along with verification of the April data, and is being progressed as quickly as possible, in line with ABC’s usual processes.”

The Guardian reported in March 2009:

“It is believed that the problem came to light after ABC carried out a spot check on multiple sales copies sent to airlines. According to one senior newspaper executive, the checkers found a wide disparity between the claimed distribution figure and the reality. Other aspects of bulks sales are not believed to be affected.”

NB: The ABC has a new website in beta, which can be viewed here: http://preview.abc.org.uk/

Crikey.com.au: ‘Who reads a newspaper website the way they used to read a paper?’

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Guy Rundle, over at Crikey.com.au, tells Rupert that no, he’s not prepared to pay for News Corp. content.

“Paying for a physical newspaper is/was something you just did, even five years ago. Now, the idea that your morning’s news would come encased in a single source seems odd – and paying for straight news items on the web (as opposed to the excellent goulash of punch and pugilistic your reading now etc) seems absurd. Who reads a newspaper website, the way they used to read a paper?”

Full post at this link…

Editor&Publisher: Michael Wolff – “Newspapers not only will go away but they should go away”

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Editor&Publisher reports Michael Wolff’s keynote speech at the E&P/MediaWeek Interactive Conference on Thursday:

“…[Wolff] again predicted the ‘death of newspapers’, adding that he’d been having ‘fun’ pushing the proposition in recent months to the point of being considered a ‘Dr. Doom.’

“Newspapers ‘not only will go away but they should go away,’ he said, adding that today’s talk would ‘cap’ his statements and then he would ‘never speak of the death of newspapers again.'”

Full story at this link…

paidContent:UK: Is raising the pay wall an ‘impossible dream?’

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Robert Andrews gives a rundown of the problems newspaper companies face when trying to ‘get the genie back in the bottle’ – charging for online content that has been free for 15 years. Also be aware of gorillas and white elephants, he says.

Full post at this link…

James Faulk: The limitations of ‘recycled’ news

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And with this ‘editors’ pick’, we’re doing exactly what James Faulk doesn’t like – ‘recycling’ other people’s content. But, we thought his post was worth highlighting nonetheless.

Over on the Times-Standard’s site [based in Northern California], James Faulk has shared his thoughts on online news – it’s time to remember that ‘newspapers are as relevant today as they ever were,’ he writes.

A few choice paragraphs:

“(…)the traditional media by which people receive the news have changed. Now, the options for getting such information are endless – blogs, Twitter babble, news aggregators who comb the internet in search of pilfered scoops to lay before the public, you name it. They have all shaped themselves into easy and accessible vehicles for recycled information.

“Notice the key word there: recycled. All these various outlets grab their headlines from professional journalists who toil long hours at their desks, digging for the truth and burnishing its outline for public edification. They cultivate sources, follow up on leads, learn about their given beats, and put their reputations on the line with each and every story they publish.”

Full story at this link…

(via Fading To Black)

Editor&Publisher: Rectifying newspaper ‘myths’

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“Enough already. Partial facts and misinformation about newspapers are distorting the view for everyone, including readers and advertisers,” writes Donna Barrett over at Editor&Publisher.

“(…)The crisis facing newspapers is not an audience problem. It is a revenue problem.”

Full post at this link…

Also related: Nieman Journalism Lab: ’80 per cent of newspapers gone in 18 months. Not likely.’

Marshall Fine: Press crisis on the big screen

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Film critic Marshall Fine takes a look at two films which deal with – ‘if indirectly’ – the crisis in newspapers.

Using his own experiences, Fine makes wider points about the newspaper industry, as well as sharing his thoughts on the new releases:

“‘The Soloist’ and ‘State of Play’ both make valid and valuable points – as far as they go. By the time a movie tells the whole story of what’s happened to newspapers, however, it will probably be too late.”

Full post at this link…

WashingtonPost: Michael Kinsley on life after newspapers

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This one’s zipping about pretty fast and doing the Twitter rounds (@arusbridger and @jeffjarvis just a few of the people to pick it up.)

“Few industries in this country have been as coddled as newspapers,” begins Michael Kinsley’s realistic look at life after newspapers. Here’s one extract:

“True enough, the industry missed a whole armada of boats. If newspapers had been smarter, or moved faster, they might have kept the classified ads. They might have invented social networking. But that’s all hindsight. I didn’t think of these things, nor did you. Judging from Tribune Co., for which I once worked, the typical newspaper executive is a bear of little brain. Until recently, little brain was needed. Even now, to say the newspaper industry has no problems that a busload of geniuses couldn’t solve is essentially saying that the industry’s problems are insoluable. Or at least insoluable without help.”

Full story at this link…

Globeandmail.com: Future of newspapers debate at 1pm ET on Tuesday

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The Globe and Mail’s ‘Future of Media: Is democracy written in disappearing ink?’ article has provoked a fair amount of comment (226 beneath the article alone, at the time of writing)

So, this should be fun, a debate on the Globe and Mail’s site, tomorrow:

“…reporter Grant Robertson and deputy editor Sylvia Stead will join us on Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET to debate these topics and take your questions on the future of the newspaper industry.”

“Can journalism truly be saved if newspapers are not? Can citizen journalists in the blogosphere fill the void? What are the social costs of the industry’s decline? How has the Globe and Mail dealt with the fundamental shift in the way people want to consume information?”

That’s 5pm GMT.

Full story at this link…

Another update on the 10 doomed newspapers list

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Yesterday Alan Mutter joined the bloggers dismissing the accuracy of the ‘ten most endangered newspapers in America’ list published on TIME.com.

Many interpreted it as coming from Time magazine, but in fact it was a 247WallSt.com post, reproduced on the TIME.com site, under a syndication deal.

Journalism.co.uk asked its author, 24.7 Wall St’s Douglas A. McIntyre, if he defended his selections for which newspapers would next face the chop:

“The list may be viewed as controversial, but that is not its goal. The newspaper industry which was one of the largest employers in America two decades ago is falling apart. Most big cities have not comes to terms with that. This is an accurate list of which papers are at the most [at] risk and why,” McIntyre told Journalism.co.uk

A spokesperson from Time confirmed that TIME.com has been syndicating content from 24/7 Wall St. since January 2009. “This list was not something written by Time.com editors,” the spokesperson said.