New.Journalism.Review

A particularly brilliant Guardian Media podcast [14th March] flowed from my Creative Zen Plus, through a pair of Sony cans, via my wingnut ears and into my brain this week. It raised a number of interesting reflections regarding the future of the world………

Monetizing content: When it comes to news sites it seems that ‘free’ is where it’s at. This got me thinking. Exactly ten years ago this month .Net magazine ran a front cover with the headline "The End of The Free!"  and asked the question "How long  will it be before we start paying for our favourite websites?". With the benefit of hindsight, we can now say at least TEN YEARS!!!  But back in 1998 most of us thought that Hotmail / Rocketmail would eventually start to charge. We didn’t think that Google would do good things like allowing free access to online word processor apps. 

Today, WSJ and FT.com are examples of only a handful of newspaper sites that have a pay-wall. FT has changed its policy. You get access to 30 articles a month for free. Above that, you’ve got to flash the cash (to the tune of 98 smackers). To me that just sounds like one of the most irritating and moronic subscription models known to mankind. Rival business newspaper the WSJ still has most of its stuff stuck firmly behind a wall. It has 1.3million subscribers – very useful in an ad downturn, but it doesn’t get you Google placements or indeed links on blogs.

As Emily Bell of The Guardian said: "If you’re not on Google people are not reading your journalism." You could also say that if people can’t link to you then they won’t be talking about you. Also people won’t buy your paper just because you don’t have a website. The people that look at your website are a different audience to those who buy the paper.

‘Reach’ first, followed by (hopefully) ‘revenue’. The web is all about reach. I still think newspapers need to come up with more innovative discounts for their loyal print readers – the type of people that get the paper delivered.

Finally DAB Radio: As with the manufacturers of Freeview boxes, DAB radios seem to be made by strange companies, like Pure and Goodmans. The likes of Sony and Panasonic aren’t that interested in supplying to little old-UK – not until there is a European DAB  standard. This also explains why Halfords won’t sell me a  DAB stereo for my car. And the boffins at Honda RnD lab in Tokyo care not one jot that I want to listen to BBC 6 Music in my Civic.This has the potential to stifle growth because your only other big audience for DAB is the housewives and the dish-washers of the world. Everyone else will access via broadband. Or you could listen via your digital TV (but that just feels REALLY strange to have the TV on, but no picture). The podcast was highly critical of Channel 4 Radio’s strategy on the DAB issue, but you have to take the Guardian view with a lump of salt as the publishers are rivals in this sector.

To make sense of the above download this fine podcast via: Media Talk podcast: a new future for Channel 4 and a round-up of the Changing Media Summit | Media | guardian.co.uk.

The Chinese government appears to be encouraging foreign students in the UK to blog in protest against alleged Western media bias.

The move follows days of negative reports in the media about the Olympic torch ceremony and the Tibet riots. 

The headline in the pro-government China Daily newspaper [yesterday, 26th March 2008] reads: Students rap media ‘hegemony’. The strapline reads: "Western coverage of Tibet riots prompts online rebuttals, appeals."

The article encourages students to visit the website anti-cnn.com and report media bias
from leading global media organisations including CNN, the BBC and the
Washington Post.

The report states: "They have set up a website, www.anti-cnn.com, to collect evidence of
what they believe is one-sided and untrue Western reporting, and posted
an open letter asking all Chinese to rise up against "the Western
Goebbels’ Nazi media", a reference to the Nazi-era propaganda minister
Joseph Goebbels."

It continues: "Some Western media, in the name of freedom of the press, have long
relentlessly denigrated developing countries to achieve their hidden
objectives. They have gone to the extreme in mixing right with wrong,
black with white, and fabricating rumors," the website said.

Appearing to be registered with an employee of a leading Beijing university, the site has a chaotic design and surprisingly few contributors despite free front page promotion in one of China’s highest circulation  government propaganda newspapers. The site does contain some interesting examples of alleged distorted media reporting on websites such as Times Online.

China is keen to present a controlled image in this Olympic year and it seems that the Chinese TV censor was working over-time on Monday. As I sat on holiday in Beijing watching BBC World and CNN, TV screens would go blank during reports about protests at the Olympic torch ceremony. CNN also had the images distorted during a live link from a reporter in Beijing.

Access to news sites was variable. The Guardian reported that the BBC site on Tuesday appeared to have been unblocked.  On some occasions just the headline about a story about Tibet would be viewable on BBC.com/news, but you would be unable to access the full version. Accessing The Guardian presented similar challenges.

What’s interesting is not that China censors TV and Internet, but it’s the fact the government is encouraging foreign students to use the same tools it censors to to launch a counter-attack.   

There is evidence to suggest many people in Beijing do believe in a ‘united China’ and support the government in its stated aim of improving living standards for the people in Tibet. But with total media censorship, you can never quite be sure if  people are just speaking what they read. 

Also how will the large news sites react to Chinese censorship as they look to expand audience reach in the Far East. Will the commercial goals of these news sites take priority over an ethical stance?

Finally, it’s very early days for the reporting of the Olympic games. The IOC has placed controls over what journalists can report in their blogs and we’ll have to wait and see whether the media will stick to to the rules. 

It was open house at the Telegraph’s new, sexy, fully-converged, digital newsroom on Thursday night.  Journalists, students and bloggers met to debate the latest trends in converged journalism and take a tour of the new HQ. 

If like me you couldn’t make it, Ken Young has posted a summary of the key points on The UK Mobile Report.

It seems that the Telegraph has plans to create a ‘MySpace-style area’  to allow readers to create their own web pages. It sounds similar to what the Daily Express has done with the MyExpress community section. Whilst dirty Desmond’s paper isn’t exactly known for web innovation (the site was crap until quite recently), it’s done a good job and will appeal to a target audience who want an easy way to save links and post comments.

The event is likely to be the first of a series, so keep an eye on Shane Richmond’s Telegraph Technology Blog for the details.

Image above is of the Newsroom "hub". Credit and thanks: Telegraph/Clare Kendall.

I’m a big fan of Stephen Quinn’s (Zayed Uni, United Arab Emirates) work. As I’ve posted here before, Digital Sub-Editing and Design and Convergent Journalism are two of of best textbooks for teaching general news editing skills and online journalism respectively.

But Knowledge Managment is aimed at a slightly different audience to the work above. It’s aimed at media managers and editors. Of course students and rookie journalists will find much to love as well.

A few of the key areas explored:

• News organisations must change to accommodate the new technology used by audiences to access content. He also discusses how readers have moved from ‘information scarcity’ to ‘information overload’.
• Design of newsrooms. ‘Geography  directly influences the flow of information,’ states Quinn. He continues: ‘Knowledge-age newsrooms need to look and work differently." [Ed's comments - it's really important for media managers to understand the newsroom environment - it even contains 'artist's impressions' of the newsrooms of the future]
• Convergence journalism – what does it really mean? Case studies of how publications in the US, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore handled it. [Ed's comments: Despite all the recent announcements from Telegraph, Emap and The Guardian - you can only conclude from reading this section that we're pretty far behind in the UK]. It also discusses the impact convergence has had on industrial relations in these countries.
• Technologies used for collaboration within the newsroom – [One thing we need to be clear about is that journalists need training, time to develop their skills and to reflect. Unfortunately, the pressure of deadlines and the cutting of training budgets mean that journalist are often left to teach themselves.]
• Mobile Internet – Quinn argues that mobile technology could allow journalists to do what they really should be doing – i.e. getting out of the office and meeting contacts. [Will it be used for this? Wouldn't it be fantastic if mobile technology released reporters from the chains attaching them to their desks, where all they do is top 'n' tail press releases? I fear it ain't going  to happen!] 
• Journalism teaching at university – Journalists of the future will be working with technology "not yet imagined." Through a series of interviews with academics around the globe, Quinn comes up with new strategies for teaching.

This text was written way back in 2002, a lifetime ago when it comes to the speed of change in this area. But it’s far from out of date. In fact this really goes to show how ‘ahead of the curve’ Dr. Quinn has been. Newspapers and magazines in the UK are only recently adopting the sort of changes outlined in this book.

Recommended for all editors, publishers and journalists. It’s well worth taking some time out from those never-ending deadlines and grabbing a copy. Also Dr. Quinn has a background in journalism, so those with a little time to spare will appreciate how he gets to the point quickly.

Amazon.co.uk link – see inside the book Knowledge Managment

More New.Journalism.Review comments on other books by Quinn

Last year it was all talk, but it now seems as if convergence is really kicking in. I believe that this is a fundamental change – perhaps the most revolutionary move since [//insert last revolutionary move in publishing//] ….. a bloke named Caxton set up a printing press in 1476.

Caxton’s invention put a load of monks out of business. These days it’s the jobs of "non-converged" journalists that are for the chop. But boosting website offerings, creating blogs and including Web2.0 functionality is all well and good, but online ad rates have to rise as well. That’s the great unknown. When will we reach the magical "tipping point" when online ad rates overtake print rates? 

For us who work in journalism university departments, the question is how do we prepare students for this future? Most of the students I talk to still want to work in paper or broadcast. Seeing your name in a magazine on the shelves of WH Smith is pretty cool, but students must realise that online is equally important.

Whilst I am on the subject of preparing journalists for the future, Jeff Jarvis wrote a particularly interesting comment in Media Guardian about his view on teaching journalism at City University of New York.

Here is a summary of some recent developments, I’ll probably add to this list over time.

1. Emap – Strategy name "Magazine 2010". I’ve blogged about this before. The company is restructuring for a multi-platform future. Links: Guardian, Mad. Emap also acquired mobile user generated content business YoSpace. Are these plans just to keep the City happy? Or are they walking their walk? Link: Journalism.co.uk
2. The Guardian: The prostitutes and druggies of King’s Cross have been forced out. King’s X has gone upmarket and where hookers once walked, Guardian journalists will make their way to work. Alan Rusbridger, editor, said the company was still run in three "silos" – The
   Guardian, The Observer and Guardian Unlimited – and was hampered in
   part by an "old media mentality". So the newspaper is moving from Farringdon to a shiny new "integrated newsroom" in King’s Cross. Link: Guardian.The company has also invested in podcasting (with a new advertising deal) and boosted video content. Link: The Editor Weblog. The  Guardian also intendeds to launch an American
   version of its Comment is Free portal as part of its bid to be the
   world’s leading "voice of liberalism".
3. The Telegraph – Taking inspiration from NY Times and USA Today, The Telegraph moved into a new high-tech, integrated, newsroom last summer. Shane Richmond of The Telegraph explained in an article on Journalism.co.uk: "That instead of covering one news story as two
   separate entities [print and online], we aim to view it as one story
   with many outlets. The whole process – from ticker and text alert, to
   website and RSS feed, and on to newspaper and magazine – is
   co-ordinated as one, rather than being a series of separate processes.". The website has improved, with new blogs, podcasts and video. It’s even written a style guide for bloggers.
4.  VNU - strategy name "Total Media". VNU, publisher of Computer Active and Accountacy Age, has invested in video studio facilities. John Barnes of VNU said that reporters working
   within the studios were a cross between "a blogger and a journalist". He
   added: "As the media mix is evolving, so the role of the journalist is
   changing. Filing a news story today means that a journalist is
   producing a media asset, which is then used across multiple outlets and
   platforms, for example print, online, e-books etc." See Press Gazette for the full report.
5. Reed (RBI) (Publisher of New Scientist, Flight International etc). The company has boosted it’s web offering, including social networking technology and journalist blogs. Karl Schneider of  RBI told The Guardian:"To be a journalist now, it’s a lot like being a print journalist 400
   years ago, the rules haven’t been set." Schneider’s personal blog.

For more discussion on the integrated newsroom and multi-platform publishing, see Editors Weblog