Tag Archives: us

BNET: Demand Media signs up more US newspapers

Leave a reply

Demand Media has signed a deal with Hearst Newspapers, which will see content from Demand appear on the real estate sections of the San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle websites.

Demand’s model uses an extensive network of freelancers to produces vast amounts of multimedia content to fit search engine queries and answer ‘how to’ questions. Pay per article is low for contributors, but as BNET suggests the temptation for newspapers to get more content for less for their sites will be strong.

Full story at this link…

American Society of News Editors fights back with ‘mythbusting’ columns

Leave a reply

In the US, the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) is publishing a series of opinion pieces aimed at “reinforcing the vitally important role of newspapers and professional journalism in the digital age”. The pieces will be available for reproduction by ASNE members and news outlets and will address the following “myths”, says the Society:

  • Newspapers are washed up;
  • Newspapers are no longer relevant;
  • News media are biased;
  • Newspapers are not connected to community;
  • The web and digital technologies are killing news organizations.

In April 2009 the ASNE changed its N from newspapers to news; three of the five myths up for busting, however, focus on newspapers…

Full release at this link…

Westword Blogs: US editor asks staff to call out what’s boring in paper

Leave a reply

Extracts from a memo sent by Denver Post editor Greg Moore to staff:

A series of meetings with staff should be underway to get your take on how we can do more compelling journalism.

Please speak up in these sessions but try not to whine. These are demanding times for everyone and we all work very hard.

But if you think there is boring stuff in the paper, call it out. Do we need a new approach to our beats? Do we need fewer beats? New areas of coverage? Are you ready for a change?

The commenters on this post certainly aren’t afraid to “call out” what they think…

As this post on Westword Blogs explains the Post is reorganising its news operation and Moore is concerned that the Post’s current 200 journalists are spreading themselves and subject matters too thinly by trying to achieve the same breadth as the paper’s formerly 300-strong newsroom.

Full post at this link…

Peter Preston: Can the Economist succeed where Newsweek has failed?

Leave a reply

Peter Preston looks into the problems faced by weekly US news magazine Newsweek, which was put up for sale by its owners the Washington Post Co. last week, and asks if news magazines need to rethink their remit:

America is a huge, scattered country. Before mass television, before satellite printing and long before the internet, it needed news magazines to set a national agenda and provide a common framework of fact and perception. It needed Time and then its slightly more liberal competitor, Newsweek.

But now the national agenda rasps away on cable 24/7. Now the facts are familiar and the perceptions old hat by the time they drop on the mat. Now readers don’t want to be told what’s happened in the past seven days, but how it fits and what to think about it. They need analysis and context, in short: not old, broken news. They need The Economist.

Full post at this link…

CNET: Media denied in Gizmodo iPhone investigation

Leave a reply

A Californian judge has turned down a media request asking police to reveal the justification used to search the home of Gizmodo’s editor Jason Chen for information about the sale of a possible iPhone prototype to the technology site.

Gizmodo reportedly paid $5,000 for what may be a 4G iPhone found and sold to them by Brian Hogan, who says he found it after it was left in a German beer garden in Redwood City, Californian, reports CNET. On 23 April, after Apple contacted the police, Chen’s home was searched and kit including three Apple laptops, an iPad and a 16GB iPhone were seized, says Gizmodo.

The request was jointly filed by news organisations including CNET, the Associated Press, Bloomberg and the Los Angeles Times, but was denied on the grounds of security of the ongoing investigation.

Full story at this link…

‘No reporters/no dogs allowed’: Dan Rather on reporting Civil Rights

Leave a reply

From Advancing the Story, US broadcasting veteran Dan Rather on his experiences of reporting the Civil Rights movement in the US.

Rather was delivering his speech at the University of Mississippi, where French journalist Paul Guihard was killed in 1962 when riots broke out following the enrolment of the university’s first black student.




Beet.tv: WaPo plans live video programmes for hundreds of reporters

Leave a reply

The Washington Post is planning to launch hundreds of live video shows hosted by reporters using webcams from their desks and a new version of the title’s existing video player.

The programmes will be developed to include live chats with story sources and commentators, and feature questions from readers about the topic being discussed, posted as a webchat around the video.

“We’re looking at this as an opportunity to conduct journalism in real-time,” Hal Straus, interactives and community editor for the Post, tells Beet.tv.

Full story at this link…

TheRecord.com: Blind journalism student takes on photography class

Leave a reply

From last month, but worth a read – the story of Ashley Welford-Costelloe, a blind journalism student at Conestoga College in Ontario, US, and her determination to complete the photography module of her course.

“It’s not as hard as I thought it would be,” says Welford-Costelloe, 23. “All I need help with is how to hold the camera. I just need someone to show me where to point the camera.”

She has an aide for that, provided by the college. The aide acts as Welford-Costelloe’s eyes, by telling her where the subject is in the frame. Then Welford-Costelloe pushes the button to shoot the picture.

Full story at this link…

ReadWriteWeb: WSJ shares location-based news with Foursquare users

Leave a reply

The Wall Street Journal has followed in the Financial Times’ footsteps by teaming up with Foursquare. As part of a new focus on New York City, FourSquare users who ‘check in’ to a location around the city will receive a link from the Journal relating to that location.

Some media observers have been critical of the partnership, focusing on the addition of a few new WSJ-related badges that Foursquare users can now add to their collection. That might seem like an underwhelming feature for a media giant like the Journal to add, but the addition of location-specific, hard news stories as tips is a very intriguing experiment that could point to a big new future for news. It also looks like a lot of fun.

Full story at this link…

American-Statesman: ‘Listening to the public as important as telling the story’

1 Reply

Nice round-up of how social media is reshaping journalism in the newsroom of the American-Statesman – with two important takeaway points from social media editor Robert Quigley:

  • “In this new world, listening to the public is as important as telling the story.”
  • “As more of the online crowd has taken to social media, fewer are producing original content – specifically, blogs. Meanwhile, some of the content that’s still being produced, including by professional journalists, is gaining wider circulation via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. This is a good thing for those of us in the news business.”

Quigley details how important social media sites were in reporting a local plane crash. But his final point is particularly interesting – how can news organisations utilise social media to make the most of original content in particular? (See also Adam Tinworth’s post ‘Is journalism developing its own echo chamber?‘

Full post at this link…