Tag Archives: online forum

NY Times response to Atlantic article suggesting death of its brand: ‘leaves a lot to be desired from the standpoint of journalism’

In its January/February issue an article in the Atlantic entitled ‘End Times’ suggested a scenario where traditional media brands die out completely. What if highly-revered brands could not make the leap, when the time comes to go entirely digital, it asked.

“What if a hurricane comes along and obliterates the dunes entirely? Specifically, what if The New York Times goes out of business- like, this May?,” Michael Hirschorn wrote.

Now the New York Times responds (published in full on the Poyntor Online Forum).

“Your article ‘End Times,’ which speculates on whether The New York Times can survive the death of journalism, leaves a lot to be desired from the standpoint of… well, journalism,” writes Catherine Mathis from SVP, Corporate Communications.

“It’s not unusual that a journalist calls the subject of a piece before actually publishing the article or column. In fact, in some areas of journalism that’s standard practice. We wish that had happened with this story. We could have helped. Here are some of the things we would have told you.”

Read the NYTimes.com’s ‘things’ here.


Poynter Online: Introducing MixedInk to connect communities through online collaboration

Amy Gahran flags up MixedInk, a new ‘collaboration application’, which ‘might help journalists, news organisations, activists and citizen journalists work with each other and with their communities.’

Users share texts (licensed through Creative Commons) using the MixedInk application, which is something between a wiki, an online forum, a text editor – with a crowd rating element.

“As you write in MixedInk, it searches all other entries and displays text that is similar to yours. While writing, users can view, copy, edit and remix any text that’s been added to the site,” Gahran explains. Full story...

The Register: Mosley judge dismisses forum libel complaints

Justice Eady, the judge who awarded Max Mosley damages in his privacy case against the News of the World, has blocked a contributor from suing an online forum.

The decision, which places a civil restraint order on Nigel Smith, ends 37 sets of libel proceedings launched by Smith against other forum users and the ADVFN forum itself.

Online news network VillageSoup in print expansion

Village NetMedia, which owns community news network VillageSoup, has purchased six weekly local newspapers from the Courier Publications series in Maine, USA.

Several of the sites will be merged with the existing VillageSoup sites, which serve the Knox and Waldo areas, a release from the publisher said.

In addition, new VillageSoup sites will be set up as companion sites for two of the newly acquired locals.

VillageSoup, which was set up 10 years ago, combines local news reporting with an online forum to create a ‘virtual town hall’.

Around 26 jobs will be lost as part of the takeover.

“VillageSoup integrates a highly interactive website with traditional print, and is the future for small town media. This purchase allows us to expand our reach and breathe new life and energy into these papers, all for the benefit of readers and advertisers,” Richard M. Anderson, co-founder of VillageSoup, said.

“Our approach helps transition traditional community newspaper companies into community host companies, and that’s the future for the industry.”