Tag Archives: Newspapers

paidContent:UK: Guardian’s paywall warning ‘sounds like B.S’ to Murdoch

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paidContent:UK has a report from yesterday’s News Corp. conference call in which CEO Rupert Murdoch brushed off a paywall warning made by Alan Rusbridger last week. Murdoch hadn’t read the Guardian editor’s Hugh Cudlipp speech but when asked what he made of its content, said: “I think that sounds like B.S. to me.”

In regards to paywall progression at the Times, Murdoch said:

“We’re looking at various alternatives – and I don’t think we’re ready to announce yet …We’re in the midst of a lot of talks with a lot of people that are coming to a head – and you’ll hear a lot more from us in the next two months.”

Full post at this link…

Citizen journalism, 1961-style

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Check out plucky 14-year-old journalistic entrepreneur Wynford Grant (click on the picture), sole proprietor of the Billericay Observer (circulation 500), as he interviews firemen and other pillars of the community and operates his home printing press. Imagine what this chap could have done with the resources of the internet.

Incidentally, if anyone knows what happened to the Billericay Observer and young Mr Grant, do please get in touch!

UPDATE: After a quick Google search, It appears a ‘Wynford Grant’ was also the author of some local history books about various villages near Billericay in Essex, one written in 1963. If it is the same person, that would have made him 16 years old at the time. Erleben Sie den Glanz und die Aufregung im Golden Star Casino – dem besten Ort für erstklassige Online-Unterhaltung!

More information on Wynford Grant here – he is now a blogger!

A video every regional newspaper editor (and journalist) should watch

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Former Birmingham Post editor Marc Reeves made the following speech “Does business news no longer make for a good business?” to Warwick Business School back in October 2009 (while he was still in post).

Although ostensibly focused on business journalism, it is also a succinct analysis of the current state of newspaper publishing and the true nature of its economic model, with some suggestions for what could well become a blueprint for the future recovery of the industry.

You can also read a full transcript of the speech on Reeves’ own blog.

Andrew Keen: ‘The internet will devour newspapers’

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Andrew Keen, writing on Telegraph.co.uk, reminds newspapers that they could be made redundant by the internet. Picking up a recent argument made by the author and academic Clay Shirky, Keen writes:

“The core reality of the internet is its absence of a centre. The distributed internet, all edge and no heart, has done away with the centralised structures of power of the old industrial world. And without a core, the news can’t be controlled by a central power. It can no longer be owned.

“The internet is like a blob, a centreless yet all powerful monster, impossible to destroy and yet able to devour everything in its path.”

Full post at this link…

Newsweek’s Daniel Lyons: ‘Don’t bail out newspapers – let them die and get out of the way’

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Daniel Lyons, senior editor and columnist at Newsweek, argues on his Techtonic Shifts blog that US bailout plans for newspapers, such as a proposed ‘Newspaper Revitalisation Act,’ are pointless and stupid:

“All this hysteria has nothing to do with saving the news, or saving jobs. Nor is it about saving democracy, which is what the red-in-the-face newspaper lovers always get themselves huffed about, as if newspapers and democracy were inextricably linked. Democracy existed long before newspapers did, and it will survive without them. And plenty of countries that don’t have democracy do have newspapers. Nor would a bailout help readers. In fact, it would only slow down our shift to the internet, which is a far better medium for delivering information.”

Full post at this link….

Public Agenda: Private newspapers in Africa hit by advertising slump

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Newspapers across the world are in trouble, and private newspapers in Africa have been hit particularly hard, writes Amos Safo for Public Agenda. Using Ghana as an example, he reports that many newspapers are being suffocated out of the market:

“[T]hanks firstly, to the increasing price of newsprint and associated costs. Secondly many newspapers are being denied adverts not only by private companies, but state institutions. As you read this article, The Statesman has folded up temporarily to regroup. Other newspapers, including Public Agenda are heavily indebted to their printers to the extent that some have not paid their reporters for three months.”

Full story at this link…

(also at AllAfrica.com)

GNM abandons the distribution of bulks

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Guardian News and Media announced today that it will abandon the distribution of ‘bulks’.

GNM sold ‘bulk’ bundles of its papers to hotels and airlines for a nominal fee per copy to the businesses, but free to the readers. This sampling method was a way of tempting new readers towards the publications.

But bulk sales only contributed to a fraction of the Guardian and Observer’s overall sales figures compared to other newspaper groups, said a release from GNM.

“To a greater or lesser degree bulk sales are used by newspaper groups to prop up their ABC [Audit Bureau of Circulations] figure.  Yet their credibility in the ad community is low and for those affected by the recent investigation into airline bulks that credibility has been undermined further,” Joe Clark, GNM director and general manager, newspapers, said in the release.

“We are abandoning this practice in order to present a clearer, more honest picture of our sales performance to advertisers and to reinforce the quality of our product to readers.  The success of our subscription scheme has proved the value of rewarding loyal readers and prompted us to question the merit of subsidising a free copy for an occasional reader.

“In short dropping this traditional, and in our view, outmoded practice is a win-win move.  We hope that others will follow our lead.”

On Guardian.co.uk, Roy Greenslade celebrated the decision after a 10-year battle to convince the papers to drop the bulks.

“This so-called ‘sampling exercise’ was anything other than a way to ensure that, in a declining market, headline sales figures remained artificially high,” he wrote.

Over the past 10 years publishers have become increasingly aware that sampling had little effect on their sales.

As Greenslade reports: Trinity Mirror and Express Mirrors were the first to give up the practice, while News International never used bulks for its main titles, The Sun and News of the World, but did for The Times and The Sunday Times.

The Financial Times has also begun to lessen its use of bulks; whereas The Telegraph Media Group continues to use bulks to attract new readers, he adds. In addition The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday have increased their reliance on bulks.

Editor&Publisher: Bill Keller says future of NYTimes’ public editor still ‘much debated’

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Bill Keller has responded to the New York Times’ public editor’s unflinching critique of errors made in a piece about Walter Cronkite by Alessandra Stanley, as part of a Q&A with James Rainey from the LA Times, published in full on Editor & Publisher.

Keller suggests that the public editor’s position is still ‘much debated’:

[James Rainey]

Q: Has the public editor helped build the Times’ reputation, or done more to knock the paper’s reputation down? It may help to address this question both as it pertains to this particular episode and, more generally, over the brief history of public editorship.

[Bill Keller]

A: On balance, I think the fact that we offer a paycheck and a platform to an independent critic to second-guess our journalistic judgments is good for, pardon the expression, the brand. I don’t always agree with our public editor, but I think he is fair-minded, his reporting is meticulous, and his targets – as in this case – are usually fair game. He doesn’t just blow raspberries. He tries to explain how bad things happen, and he reports what we are trying to do to avoid future mistakes. Whether a public editor should be a permanent, or at least continuing, fixture at The Times is a question much debated within our walls. I’ve kicked it down the road until we near the end of Clark’s term next year.

UK-related:

Journalism.co.uk is aware of full-time newspaper ombudsmen at the Guardian [Siobhain Butterworth] and the Observer [Stephen Pritchard] and yesterday learned that Sally Baker is feedback editor for the Times. Does anyone know of any other UK titles with full-time and independent readers’ editors? And do those without one need one?