Good round up from the Editors Weblog of the case of US blogger Shellee Hale, who may be required to reveal her anonymous sources behind comments she left on an online messageboard.
Despite offering proof of her journalistic credentials Hale’s submissions were ruled as insufficient evidence of her professional status. As such she is not covered by New Jersey’s state shield law, which allows journalists to keep sources private.
Lorie Hearn, a senior editor at the Union-Tribune, is leaving the title to oversee The Watchdog Institute, which will offer ‘data-driven investigative journalism’, according to this voiceofsandiego.org report.
The venture will be supported through donations and grants and will operate independently from the Union-Tribune.
Exclusive parties, such as the Union-Tribune, will have first access to stories generated by the institute, which will then be made available to other media organisations.
While commending its decision to ‘try something new’, former WashingtonPost.com executive editor Jim Brady says plans by the Newport (R.I.) Daily News to charge more for online-only subscriptions is fundamentally flawed.
The paper will charge $145 for an annual print subscription; $245 for print and web access; and $345 a year for online-only.
“[T]his model reeks of desperation. It’s as if, having used all of its bullets in the battle to preserve print revenue, Newport has now decided to throw its gun at the problem.
“The issue with Newport’s model is fundamental. It posits that, in the battle for the mindshare of future readers, print actually has a chance of winning out. I do not believe it does,” he writes.
Background: Federal prosecutors in Las Vegas are seeking the identity of two anonymous commenters on a Las Vegas Review-Journal article about the tax evasion trial of local business owner Robert Kahre.
The prosecutors’ initial request was for the names, IP addresses, email addresses and other personal details of more than 100 commenters on the article.
The paper has agreed to hand over the information in response to the ‘whittled down’ request, but civil liberty groups argue that the prosecutors’ action could ‘chill political dissent’.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that no right-thinking person would read the two comments in question and see them as a threat, ‘particularly considering the context, where hyperbolic political speech is to be expected’.
“They are definitely not unequivocal and unconditional direct threats against anyone. At most, they are exaggerated expressions of the authors’ objections to the case, and are fully protected by the First Amendment,” said EFF attorney Kevin Bankston.
Context, subjectivity, freedom of speech – an interesting case in community management and reader interaction.
The US’ Federal Trade Commission is extending is monitoring of reviews of products and services to blogs.
New guidelines expected to come into force this summer will expand the body’s remit to bloggers offering false claims or who do not disclose conflicts of interest.
An interesting shift in regulatory thinking:
“As blogging rises in importance and sophistication, it has taken on characteristics of community journalism – but without consensus on the types of ethical practices typically found in traditional media,” reports the AP.
Following the launch of its news pages for Chicago, the Huffington Post has continued its local expansion with a new site for New York.
The local sites are a combination of curation, blogs and opinion, says Ariana Huffington.
In an interview with All Things Digital, the HuffP also confirms plans to cover Denver with a new vertical:
“A PR message has no authenticity. It won’t go viral. Organizations are looking for a new way to get their message out, and journalists can play a role in that,” says Brian Storm, founder of MediaStorm, in this piece, which looks at how US photographers, videographers and videojournalists are finding new commissions outside of traditional journalistic gigs.
Sign of the times? The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) in the US is ceasing publication of its print edition to move online-only ‘to adapt our organisation to the realities of today’s newspaper business’.
Free Press, a group set up to fight media consolidation, has released a report calling for a study on how to save journalism.
Mooted proposals include: a $50 million government fund to support research and development for journalism innovation; a journalism jobs program; and a new ownership models for newspapers.
Interesting strategy from the Atlanta Consitution-Journal: the US newspaper has launched an advertising campaign encouraging readers to turn to its Sunday print edition to escape from digital technology (via Common Sense Journalism)
“This is not an anti-Internet campaign,” Amy Chown, vice president of marketing, told Adweek.
“It’s not that we don’t want them to read us online. We wanted to balance the use of AJC.com during the week with the paper on Sunday.”
Full story at this link…