Tag Archives: Scott Karp

Update on Wired Journalists’ new look; Publish2 claims it now has 20 per cent of all journalists in the US

As reported on the main site, the social network Wired Journalists is now looking rather different; it has been incorporated into Publish2, the social journalism venture based on a belief in the link economy. Since no terms of the deal were disclosed in the announcement, Journalism.co.uk was keen to know more. Publish2 CEO Scott Karp didn’t reveal the details of the agreement but added this statement:

“Creating a social network for our journalist community within P2 was always on our roadmap, and WiredJournalists presented an opportunity to buy instead of build. It was a great fit. WiredJournalists grew from nothing to more than 3,000 journalists in 18 months.

“The frontline web producers, reporters, and editors using Wired Journalists are exactly the journalists we’re bringing together at Publish2 to collaborate and share links with each other and their readers.

“With this deal, Publish2 now has the equivalent of 20 per cent of all journalists in the U.S, since launching less than a year ago.”

paidContent.org: ‘The fallacy of the link economy’ for news sites

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Media consultant Arnon Mishkin argues that the value of linking between sites is getting captured by aggregators rather than by the news sites that they scrape and link to.

“Even in an absolute best-case scenario for producers of original content, the aggregators get at least as much traffic on linked stories as the creators of those stories because anyone who clicks on the link does so from the aggregator’s site (so each site gets a page view),” he writes.

“[E]ach aggregator gets to build a ‘front page’ to target and win over their chosen segment, or enable each user to tailor a front page perfectly suited to his or her needs. And they can do that by leveraging all the resources of the global journalistic community without paying any part of its cost.”

Looking at the link economy from the perspective of making money and getting the most out of initial traffic bursts generated by aggregators linking to a news site, Mishkin suggests three tactics:

News sites should seek ‘an equitable economic relationship’ with aggregators and drop links if they don’t get a fair deal;
Partner with other content providers to create their own aggregation sites;
Look at ‘wadgets’ – a combination of content and advertising – rather than ‘widgets’ purely offering a site’s material. This would allow them to monetise some of the traffic on the aggregators site.

The AP’s recent suggestion that it will creating landing pages for members’ news content and introduce a advertising revenue share arrangement seems to go some way to meeting Mishkin’s recommendations.

Interesting thoughts in a week where user-powered aggregator Digg introduced its new ad system. The question of how much revenue aggregation sites are generating should also be considered.

Full paidContent.org post at this link…

Publishing 2.0: When a newspaper stops publishing in print, what happens to the advertising dollars?

French publishers vs Google: ‘You are becoming our worst enemy’

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The headline quote comes from a round-up up by Eric Scherer of a meeting involving French newspaper and magazine publishers and Google. The meeting suggests some heavy anti-Google feeling on the publishers’ part.

According to one executive at the event, magazine and newspaper publisher Lagadère is on the brink of reporting Google to the EU Commission for ‘predatory practices’.

Watch the video below (courtesy of Adrian Vanachter Damien Van Achter of Scherer’s tweeted coverage of the meeting and make your own mind up as to which party you agree with.

One quote that grabbed my attention, however, was newspapers reported remark: “You are accepting the end of news as we know it.”

Google, secrecy about its algorithms and dominance of the online ad market aside, is looking forward; newspapers are trying to protect and control what they perceive as news and the news business. The problems they are facing, some related to Google and others not, should show them that this self-interested attitude can’t be maintained and their perception of ‘news as we know it’ is out-dated.

Jeff Jarvis sums this up in a blog post reacting to Scherer’s report:

“This anti-Google attitude comes from an apparent sense of entitlement that we see clearly in France but also elsewhere: Google owes us (…) They – like other publishers and journalists – think a market should be built around what they need and that there is a fair share that belongs to them even though they did not innovate and change so those who did should rescue them. But as Scott Karp has said, no one guarantees them a business model.”

New York Times debuts aggregation homepage

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The New York Times has launched its beta news aggregation feature Times Extra. As the screengrab below shows, it makes for a pretty busy page with scrollable links to external, relevant content below each main news item:

The alternative version of the homepage features up to eight links from blogs and other news organisations’ sites beneath each of the top articles.

“The days when content sites were afraid to link to other sites are over,” said Marc Frons, chief technology officer for digital operations at NYTimes, in a release about the launch.

“Times Extra is an important part of our strategy to become a destination for compelling journalism, not only by The New York Times, but by other content providers as well. We want to give our readers a comprehensive view of the news and opinion our editors think is important.”(Not dissimilar to Scott Karp’s argument for a newspaper using link journalism)

Mashable’s Stan Shroeder wants to see how the Times’ algorithm performs in selecting the links and while supporting its decision to link out, is concerned about some of the design elements:

“NYTimes adds boxes with additional sources quite erratically, and I expect many users to get a headache, reverting to the standard view very fast. It would be a pity, though, if this initiative were to fail because of unfortunate design choices,” he writes.

Karp on the theory behind the Publish2 contest

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Just as that last post, on how to bag a new job in journalism, was published Publish2’s co-founder and CEO, Scott Karp, sent Journalism.co.uk some extra information. Here, Karp explains in more depth the rationale behind the contest:

“We’re a startup with a pioneering technology designed to support and encourage the rapid evolution of journalism in the digital age. We’re in uncharted territory. Everything is ‘out of the box.’ An unconventional approach to hiring fits right in. We’re not hiring for a standard, well-established position. We’re creating new jobs.

“The best candidates for our job – and any job in journalism – are those who can see beyond conventional approaches. We’re looking for candidates who think, wow, this is a cool way to hire! We’re looking for journalists who are eager to try new things, to learn and grow on the job. Everyone is facing the challenge of learning many new skills quickly. So attitude and disposition are very important. Experience is still a huge asset, but the ability to learn and adapt is increasingly important.

“In terms of specific skills, I think most important is a familiarity with the web and digital media that comes from actually using them. The best way to learn new media is to use it yourself. There are a lot of journalists on Twitter, for example. Most of them started using Twitter originally to learn about it. Some many not have understood it when they first heard about it. But they learned by doing. That’s the key skill.

“So anyone who would enter the ‘I Am The Future Of Journalism’ Contest is, by virtue of the contest format and framing, already exhibiting many of the qualities we value and that we believe are key to future success in journalism.

“Journalists can shape the future of journalism. We’re excited about that. We’re looking for people who are also excited about it.”

Win a job in journalism! Yes, really. A whole real job up for grabs…

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Publish 2 has had the bright idea of a contest for journalists, with the much-coveted and very rare prize of… a whole, brand new, job in journalism (paid, and everything)!

Entrants need to promote themselves as ‘the future of journalism’.

“We believe journalism has a bright future, and we’re betting everything on that belief,” writes Publish2 CEO and co-founder Scott Karp on the Publish2 site.

The winner of the ‘I Am The Future Of Journalism’ Contest will bag a job with Publish2, a site and application developed to promote ‘link journalism’ in newsrooms, as reported by Journalism.co.uk in October.

The new recruit will join a team of two existing journalists and included in the offer is a $1,000 signing bonus.

Unsuccessful entrants will also receive a boost, writes Karp: Publish2 will promote them to ‘news organizations and media companies that are looking for journalists who are focused on the future and who want to help journalism evolve’.

Entries can be video, slide show, or written (or all three) but must address ‘why you believe you are the future of journalism’.

“I am the future of journalism because…”

And then it’s down to the entrant. Further information here. Publish2 users will rate the contest entries.

The contest is open to submissions until December 30, and entries can be rated up until January 9.

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Publishing 2.0: The declining value of redundant web news

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