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niemanlab.org: The Newsonomics of less-is-more, more or less
It is a head-turner, which seems to be, at first, an only-in-Utah story. The Deseret Morning News, KSL TV, and KSL Radio, all owned by one company, the Deseret Management Co., a for-profit arm of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, are combining operations. One headline: “Salt Lake City paper axes 43... Read more. 09/02/2010 08:00 AM PDT |
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I've just come back from a really enjoyable 1st Datajournalism meetup in Berlin, which will no doubt generate a spew of blog posts here and on guardian.co.uk over the next couple of weeks. I was giving a talk entitled 'Datajournalism at guardian.co.uk', which I intend to publish in some format somewhere at some point in the not too distant future - in the meantime there is a list of the things that I referenced in the talk in yesterday's linklog special edition. The afternoon closed with... Read more. 09/02/2010 05:11 AM PDT |
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themediamanager.com: ReadWriteWeb: The iPad and newspapers, innovation to come Richard McManus provides an early synopsis in ReadWriteWeb on the climate for newspaper innovation as iPad applications emerge. His conclusion: More work ahead. ... Read more.
What McManus found isn't surprising: Newspapers often want the iPad app to emulate the experience of the newspaper, in no small part because these are early days for the tablet and our understanding of the experience it provides. With news that News Corp. has set its sights on an iPad national newspaper (reportedly named The 09/01/2010 07:31 PM PDT |
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"The goal is simply to give credit to whoever got the story started or added some significant new angle." http://nie.mn/9TLTCQ » Target to sell Facebook gift cards that can be used for "social games, applications and virtual goods" http://nie.mn/bIIcwa (via @lavrusik) » RT @nickbilton: Woah, Apple goes social: Introducing Ping, ‘the Facebook and Twitter for music’ built into iTunes 10. » Thinking about launching a news project... Read more. 09/01/2010 03:00 PM PDT |
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onlinejournalismblog.com: The foreign minister of Argentina on Twitter  Argentinian politicians of all parties are now fervent Twitter users, as I stated in my previous OJB post, and they don’t hesitate in arguing shamelessly about all national matters in 140 characters. The new foreign minister, Hector Timerman (@hectortimerman), is maybe the most enthusiastic Twitter user of all the government officials. Every day you can read him discussing with national journalists – and regular Twitter citizens – the administration’s performance... Read more. 09/01/2010 01:21 PM PDT |
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hyperlocalworld.org: What in the world am i?          ... Read more.
09/01/2010 12:51 PM PDT |
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knightdigitalmediacenter.org: OpenBlock launches demo site for Boston On Aug. 26, the OpenBlock project launched its first demo site, serving the Boston area in partnership with the Boston Globe. This project is the open-source successor to EveryBlock, a Knight News Challenge-funded project that was acquired by MSNBC one year ago. OpenBlock is “an open-source software initiative to bring hyperlocal news and data capabilities to news organizations of all sizes.” Here’s how this project could benefit all news organizations… OpenPlans... Read more. 09/01/2010 11:49 AM PDT |
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nextnewsroom.com: USA Today blows up the newsroom again This past week we learned that USA Today was launching a major rethinking of its newsroom structure. The Associated Press reported:
The goal is to focus less on print, more on the Web and mobile, and the search for... Read more. 09/01/2010 11:26 AM PDT |
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nextnewsroom.com: TED Talks: David McCandless explains the beauty of data visualization Found via the FlowingData blog, which says: ... Read more. 09/01/2010 10:42 AM PDT |
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It sometimes feels like all the good topics are taken online — it’s uncommon to find a promising but untrampled niche for a new website. The folks behind The Awl hope they’ve found one in a new site up in beta today called Splitsider. (It’s password-protected for now; it’ll be public next week.) It’ll cover the comedy industry for a ready audience of comedy nerds/lovers, and it’s the first evidence of the Awl expansion plans we wrote about in June. Last... Read more. 09/01/2010 07:41 AM PDT |
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Joshua Braun is a media scholar currently pursuing his Ph.D in Communications at Cornell. His work is centered at the intriguing intersection of television and the web: He’s currently studying the adoption of blogging software by network news sites, and the shifts that that adoption are bringing about in terms of the relationship between one-way communication something more conversational. At this spring’s ISOJ conference in Austin, Braun presented a paper (pdf) discussing... Read more. 09/01/2010 07:00 AM PDT |
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currybet.net: Linklog special: datajournalism at The Guardian & The Observer A special edition of the linklog today. If you were at the 1st Datajournalism Meetup in Berlin this afternoon where I was talking about datajournalism at The Guardian and The Observer, then here is a list of some of the things that I mentioned. If you weren't, then consider this a sneak preview of some of the things I'll be writing about when I publish the longform version of the talk... ... Read more.09/01/2010 06:46 AM PDT |
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newsosaur.blogspot.com: Next big thing? TV-newspaper staff mergers ... Read more.09/01/2010 02:13 AM PDT |
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knightdigitalmediacenter.org: Is transparency the new objectivity? Spot.us community speaks out Objectivity, once viewed as the key attribute of mainstream journalism, is increasingly seen as unlikely or at best secondary in importance to journalistic transparency, according to a survey of the online community for open-source crowdfunded reporting project Spot.Us... In an Aug. 31 post, “What the Spot.Us Community Thinks of Objectivity,” published in the IdeaLab blog, Spot.Us contributor Sameer Bhuchar writes that of 500 users asked their views of objectivity (in an admittedly... Read more. 08/31/2010 08:13 PM PDT |
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If you’re a member of the ethnic or community media or are with a nonprofit, mark your calendar for an Oct. 1-2 Bay Area multimedia training conference that features more than a half-dozen workshops, plus an all-day intensive boot camp… The Renaissance Journalism Center’s LearningLab event offers sessions on video and audio storytelling for the web, training in WordPress and social media, plus an introduction to micro-volunteering and crowdsourcing. The second day features... Read more. 08/31/2010 07:22 PM PDT |
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meanland.com.au: ARRAY(0x3edc06c) This is Cory Doctorow. As you read these words, he’s flying across vast, most likely mountainous, terrain, racing from London to Melbourne to deliver to the hungry Melbourne Writers Festival crowds another in the line of stimulating Meanland – this time... Read more. 08/31/2010 05:00 PM PDT |
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knightdigitalmediacenter.org: Journalists, programmers organize “Open Web” training Journalist-programmer collaborations have been one of the most fruitful areas of web innovation in recent years—bringing us everything from news map mashups to the integration of social networks into news sites. But the two professions still generally speak a very different language, making work together challenging at times. To help journalists and coders bridge that gap, a group of so-called “hacks” and “hackers” are organizing an online course, Open Journalism... Read more. 08/31/2010 03:39 PM PDT |
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currybet.net: No computer-generated serendipity please, we are Daily Mail columnists It was kind of inevitable that if I was handed a complimentary copy of the Daily Mail as I boarded my flight to Berlin that I would end up having to write about it. The piece I couldn't bite my blogging tongue about was Harry Mount's dire eulogy for the full printed edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. 
Speaking of the move to go online, he wrote: "A computer is a wonderful thing. But - unlike the combination of the scanning eye, the human mind, 22,000 pages to be opened at... Read more. 08/31/2010 03:23 PM PDT |
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You’ll want to set time aside to watch this TED/@mccandelish video on the beauty of dataviz. Trust us. http://nie.mn/cXCKaV » The visualization of sound: very cool project sono-maps New York City (via @brainpicker) http://nie.mn/acU8uE » Watch out Tucker Carlson: Glenn Beck hires Breitbart alum to run his new news site http://nie.mn/clCMc3 » Video recommendation tool Taboola gives publishers a 100% to 500% “uplift” in video views http://nie.mn/csqRq3 » ... Read more.08/31/2010 03:00 PM PDT |
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paidcontent.org: Deseret News Tries A Controlled Burn To Save Itself Last week, one of the nation’s top dailies imploded its structure to go “digital first.” Today, the Deseret News, a much smaller paper in Salt Lake City, Utah, is following USA Today with an equally radical reorganization but very different emphasis—keeping the daily newspaper alive. The DN is slashing its staff levels by 43 percent and merging newsrooms with sibling KSL TV and Radio; both are owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’s Deseret... Read more. 08/31/2010 12:28 PM PDT |
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Journalism schools are ripe for experimentation. They’ve got students excited about the future of the industry, professors free from the profit pressures of a newsroom, and all the resources of a university. But at the same time, there are two obvious problems with running an online news project out of a j-school: the cost (nothing’s free, even if you don’t need to turn a profit) and the doldrums of summer (universities might go dark, but the Internet doesn’t.) A... Read more. 08/31/2010 09:00 AM PDT |
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onlinejournalismblog.com: Review: Funding Journalism in the Digital Age 
The book has four broad parts: the initial 3 chapters provide the current context: a history of news publishing as a business; and an overview of current business models and commercial tactics, from paywalls and hyperlocal projects to... Read more. 08/31/2010 07:58 AM PDT |
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currybet.net: links for 2010-08-31
08/31/2010 07:10 AM PDT |
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niemanlab.org: Boston.com launches a real estate-focused iPhone app
Yesterday, Boston.com, the website of the Boston Globe, announced the launch of its real estate-focused iPhone app. The new (and free) tool, per its iTunes description page, will allow users to: ... Read more. 08/31/2010 07:00 AM PDT |
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theonion.com: Media Criticized For Biased Hometown Sports Reporting ALBANY, NY—Members of the national media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting released a 255-page report Monday criticizing the American media for severely biased local sports coverage.
FAIR surveyed the sports reporting of more than 400 newspapers, as well as nearly 200 television and radio stations across the country.Wilborough said that, in an average article about a sports event, 87 percent of column space was devoted to coverage of the local team. 2010-08-24T08:00:00Z... Read more.08/31/2010 01:00 AM PDT |
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hyperlocalblogger.com: Hyperlocal: Not for the Faint of Heart American Journalism Review has an article out that is far from earth-shattering, but I think it does a fair job of summarizing the state of local news sites/blogs at the moment. In a phrase: “not for the faint of heart.” ... Read more. 08/31/2010 12:50 AM PDT |
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paidcontent.org: First Look: The Portable US Open As luck would have it, I was on the go when the U.S. leg of the tennis Grand Slam started Monday, providing a good chance to test the live streaming video for iPad and the new mobile features from USOpen.org. The USTA went iOS-centric with an iPad-optimized browser and an iPhone app, but included a WAP site. My first take across the board: —US Open for iPad: The Safari-optimized version of USOpen.org is slick though a little confusing. The natural impulse is to click where it says live... Read more. 08/30/2010 11:00 PM PDT |
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themediamanager.com: Alan Mutter: New local sites doom media publisher paywall plans At first, the notion of a paywall seemed silly. Better to take it down and get the traffic. ... Read more.
But when the traffic didn't turn into profit readily, the notion took on new seriousness. For some time now, publishers have been weighing the benefits of reconstructing a paywall to bring revenue. In his latest post, veteran media and tech executive Alan Mutter notes the arrival of new, well-heeled local players in the game (Yahoo, AOL, Huffington Post), all willing to give away content others contemplate 08/30/2010 08:49 PM PDT |
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paidcontent.org: NYTimes.com Connects With Facebook; Users Must Opt In We’re not tracking every site that adds log ins using Facebook or Twitter but when the site is a few months away from putting up a paywall—and it’s one of the top news sites— it’s worth a little attention. New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) execs have insisted for months that social media and metered media can coexist, promising more social and more personalization as the prep for switching on the meter for news stories continues. (They’ve also promised to make... Read more. 08/30/2010 07:34 PM PDT |
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hyperlocalblogger.com: Thanks, PBS MediaShift
10 Must-Read Sites for Hyper-Local Publishers That was a real surprise and honor to see this blog included on such a list with so many excellent industry sites. If you’re reading this, I assume you already know enough about Hyperlocal Blogger — so be sure to check out the other nine sites when you can. This is an article from HyperlocalBlogger... Read more. 08/30/2010 04:12 PM PDT |
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Network Effect 101: @hermida on teaching social media in J-school http://nie.mn/99KGsN » A Breathalyzer for headlines http://nie.mn/aQ0anv » When to delete: confessions of an online moderator http://nie.mn/cPsvFd » Interesting: a Kachingle concept, but with tips paid for by sponsors http://nie.mn/bOLmkd » The Onion takes on TIME mag, reductive trend stories, and "the beloved children’s character, Joe Klein" http://nie.mn/bza17A... Read more. 08/30/2010 03:00 PM PDT |
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adrianmonck.com: Replies to a journalism student Belinda Giles sent me the following email:
Below are my replies. How does a democracy actually function without journalism? Many democratic institutions already function ‘without journalism’, especially at local level, (e.g. English councils) – and by journalism, I include both reportage (e.g. council reports) and ‘watchdog’ functions (e.g. holding to account, investigation). The mythology of journalism stresses these vital civic functions, although there is a little evidence to support such claims. Certainly newspaper journalism did play a part in filling an institutional vacuum in the rapidly urbanizing United States, but the concerns of the 20C with respect to journalism were not about preserving and enhancing that role, but mostly about the political power that ‘journalism’ placed in the hands of media proprietors…which tells you something about where the balance lay. The development of government, bureaucracy, inspectorates and legislative oversight all contributed to reduce the role and scope of journalism as the ‘fourth estate’. Incidentally during newspaper strikes in the mid-20C, parts of the US were without journalism for long periods (months) without any noticeable ‘democratic crisis’. What are some alternative sources of political information, if not journalism? (Political information is not the only necessity in a democracy. There’s also the requirement to organize around it – hence the old-fashioned newspaper campaign as a proxy.) I think sites like theyworkforyou.com are excellent sources of political information. So, too, are select committees. Pressure groups, think tanks and NGOs are increasingly sophisticated information gatherers and they recognise the importance of combining robust data with campaigning agendas. What would you say to the assertion ‘journalism is the lifeblood of democracy’? Say journalists. But there are fewer of them and democracy seems to be surviving. When considering the role of journalism in politics and democracy, how do you think commercial interests, legalities and the danger of journalism affect the ability of journalists to even fulfill this role? I loved being a journalist, and many of my friends still are journalists and they risk much in pursuing stories in places like Afghanistan. But I think we often romanticize the role of journalists (the price of self-justification?). Political journalism is largely at the level of intellectual gossip – who’s up, who’s down, who’s in, who’s out. As the old rhyme goes:
When it comes to campaigning, I’m a big believer in a civilian twist to Machiavellian ‘virtu’. Machiavelli thought citizens shouldn’t hire mercenaries to fight their battles. By doing so they made themselves slaves. I think journalists are a little like those condottiere — swashbuckling myth-makers, and we citizen consumers? We’re a little like Machiavelli’s contemporaries who sold out their civic freedoms for security. I think citizens should organize themselves and not rely on proxies. In light of the concerns of journalism being/not being the lifeblood of democracy, do you think there is a future for it? As long as there’s a need to represent the present and recent past as stories to tell us who we are, there is a future for journalism. Whether or not that is a very effective way to organize human affairs, I couldn’t say, but for the story-tellers it is an enjoyable way, and sufficiently so for journalism to remain attractive as a pastime if not as a profession. 08/30/2010 12:58 PM PDT |
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nextnewsroom.com: Where are comments and Twitter on NY Times? This morning, I was reading the New York Times story on why location-based services might be a hard sell for mainstream users. This echoes some of my own thoughts, which I wrote about recently here: Telling the world you’re here, there and everywhere. And here: Location services show the way to the next great Internet bubble. I was curious what kind of reaction their story was getting from readers. But I couldn’t find the comment section. So I’m wondering... Read more. 08/30/2010 10:44 AM PDT |
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klickimediablog: Social media’s boom? It’s the Boomers I’m still amazed by the number of business people I talk to who look at Twitter, Facebook, etc. and think “This is what young people use.” We’ve seen the numbers over the past few years, and it’s been recently confirmed by this Pew Research Center report…social media’s fastest growing group of users are the middle-aged and elderly. The growth has been dramatic…social media use by folks 50 and older has doubled in the past year, to 43 percent.... Read more. 08/30/2010 09:22 AM PDT |
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journalism20.com: Syracuse students learn the importance of geolocation What do you get when you unleash a horde of college journalism students on a city, armed with cameras and challenged to tell stories in just 60 seconds? A creative new approach to a multimedia boot camp, courtesy of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
08/30/2010 07:45 AM PDT |
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niemanlab.org: An iPhone app developer’s diary, and some thoughts on Android
... Read more. 08/30/2010 07:00 AM PDT |
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themediamanager.com: New York Times on digital advertising and its retargeting of users The New York Times writes about the increasing number of ads online that follow users from site to site. ... Read more.
The persistent "retargeting" takes advantage of tracking technology and is now a strategy for several companies in their campaigns that understand a first encounter with a product isn't necessarily the point of decision on a sale. The relevant ads aren't merely related to categories users have followed. They're personalized to the point of serving ads about products or services someone 08/29/2010 11:51 PM PDT |
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newsosaur.blogspot.com: Local news rivals doom publisher pay walls ... Read more.08/29/2010 11:00 PM PDT |
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hyperlocalblogger.com: Hyperlocal News Roundup
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themediamanager.com: News Ltd. chairman on digital journalism: I wish I were starting out again John Hartigan, the chairman of the News Ltd. chain of Australian papers, believes the new era of digital journalism offers immense opportunities. The challenge is for journalists to find a way to do the work and for management to build an optimal environment for them, "then get out of the way." ... Read more.
Hartigan's speech to the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association was brimming with optimism about a new era of tablet and smartphone news consumption. "The demand for news is greater than ever, 08/29/2010 12:26 PM PDT |
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themediamanager.com: The new New York Times public editor: Corrections must be quick Arthur Brisbane, in his first column as public editor of The New York Times, lays out his principles nicely and raises one interesting issue for news organizations in the digital age: ... Read more.
"If The Times is going to publish more and faster, it will have to react faster to rectify more mistakes. The speed and volume of correction or response has to try to equal the speed and volume of error." That's a thought we haven't heard before. Newspapers tend to correct in their next edition, and unless there 08/28/2010 08:38 PM PDT |
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themediamanager.com: New York Times: Media evolve, not dissolve The New York Times reviews the declaration last week that the Web is dead by contending with media history. Its conclusion: Media adapt to newcomers and rarely die just because of them. ... Read more.
"Today, traditional media companies face the adaptive challenge posed by the Internet. That challenge is not just the technology itself, but how it has altered people’s habits of media consumption," writes Steve Lohr. But Lohr notes that history shows evolution, not dissolution, is the order of the day 08/28/2010 07:54 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: What skills do you need to succeed in your journalism career? By Robert Niles: A generation ago, the skills you needed as a journalist were well-defined. If you were going to work in a print newsroom, you needed to know how to report and write. If you wanted to work in photojournalism, you needed to develop still photography and photo editing skills. Videographers needed to know how to shoot and edit video. Broadcast journalists needed to develop the ability to speak on-air with confidence and authority.Today? Many journalists, including everyone working... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: On the Internet, no one has to be a gatekeeper, but everyone can be By Robert Niles: We've well established by now that the Internet has crippled the news industry's role as gatekeeper of information in society. News sources now can communicate directly with the public, with unprecedented immediacy and scale. When the President of the United States wants to send a message to the public, he can issue a statement, call a press conference or schedule an address. But those means require news media participation to reach the public. Today, the POTUS can bypass the media... Read more.09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: The only metric that matters By Robert Niles: In the nearly 15 years that I've been working online, I've watched the most popular metric among Web publishers change from "hits," to "page views," to "unique visitors" to "time on site."But none of those metrics really matter. I've seen sites post phenomenal numbers for each of those categories, and fail. There's one metric, and only one, that truly matters in determining your websites's commercial success. Revenue. Your visitors can spend hours per month on your website, but... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: Lessons from launch: How TBD.com is trying to engage the community to build its business By Robert Niles: This week, Allbritton Communications launched its new online portal and news website for the Washington D.C., metropolitan area: TBD.com. TBD.com draws upon the reporting staff of Allbritton's DC-area ABC affiliate, WJLA, and its existing cable news channel (formerly known as News Channel 8), blending them with an expanding online reporting staff, as well as a network of dozens of local blogs and websites. Broadcasters have been attempting to build local online portals... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: Watering-down press credentials, or denying citizens news? By Jason Stverak: Recent articles and opinion pages have lambasted what many are calling the "watering-down of press credentials." They claim that the more people that obtain press credentials, the less influential press credentials are to the legacy media. But, those who push to increase restrictions on press credentials are in denial of the massive decline in traditional journalism.The statistics are staggering in the newspaper and journalism business. Every day reporters at media outlets... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: Choose Your Multimedia Tools Strategically: Story is Still King By Marc Cooper: If everyone who has a hammer sees a world made only of nails, do reporters who know Illustrator think the world is one big infographic?Choosing the right tool to tell the right story is one of the greatest challenges we faced during this summer's round of Carnegie-Knight News21 fellowships at USC Annenberg. Our mandate, like that of any cutting-edge news crew, was to at once tell the most in-depth stories while being as innovative as possible. But sometimes these two principles... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: This year's advice for journalism students By Robert Niles: Students will be arriving (or returning) to journalism schools over the next month, providing me with a convenient excuse to offer students some beginning-of-the-year advice.1. Don't believe that journalism school will help you prepare for your career. Why? Because your journalism career's already started. The moment you first posted a comment, photo or status update to the Web, you began your work as a journalist. Doesn't that make just about everyone on the Internet a journalist... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: What the 'Ground Zero mosque' flap says about the state of journalism By Brian McDermott: The Ground Zero mosque does not exist.There is, of course, the planned Park51 Muslim community center and mosque, which local authorities approved for construction on Park Place in lower Manhattan about two blocks, or about 600 feet, from Ground Zero. And there is also, of course, a myth - the latest outrage brand- of a "Ground Zero mosque." Headlines from dozens of outlets have trumpeted that three-word shorthand, tempered at best by the flimsy embrace of quotation... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: Why I am skeptical of Patch.com By Robert Niles: AOL is rolling out its Patch.com "hyperlocal" network around the country. Having watched similar efforts since Microsoft launched Sidewalk in the 1990s, I remain skeptical.Look, we all agree by now that the Internet's changed the economics of the publishing business. One of the ways that's happened, however, makes it much more difficult to create a workable business model for a national network of local websites. Why? Let's try this question for an example: How much money does... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
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ojr.org: What can journalism schools learn from watching the University of Colorado? By Robert Niles: Last week, news reports hit that the University of Colorado at Boulder would close its journalism school. By the end of the afternoon, the story had morphed a bit - CU wouldn't be getting out of journalism education, but instead convening a commission to look at restructuring the school, putting its future as a separate entity in question.(By the way, does anyone have an explanation why several of the former Big Eight schools transpose their initials? How does the "University... Read more. 09/02/2010 02:56 PM PDT |
[Each week, our friend 
For the past few weeks I’ve been casually enjoying 
"In our extensive study of the nation's sports sections and broadcasts, we documented countless examples of shamelessly one-sided reporting, obvious speculation, and bald editorializing masquerading as journalism," FAIR spokesman Scott Wilborough said. "Coverage was heavily, sometimes brazenly, weighted toward the teams from a media source's own area. To look at the data, you would almost think that sports journalists aren't held to the same standards as other reporters."
Just wanted to say a quick and public THANK YOU to Brad Flora and PBS MediaShift for including Hyperlocal Blogger in an article last week:
Earlier today, Google and The Associated Press 
Until recently, 
The reaction to 
Lots and lots of links this week. You may recall us trying to define “hyperlocal” previously here on HLB, and also linking out to others (Lost Remote) as they had similar discussions. One of the links below is Sarah Hartley’s “10 Characteristics of Hyperlocal.” Good read with some interesting ideas and discussion in the comments.