in Journalism and Mass Communication
By Mark Hachman on PCMag, March 8 –
“Facebook threw its hat into the ring of curated newsfeeds on Thursday, offering a new “Interest Lists” feature that will allow Facebook users to subscribe to interesting, topical content.
For example, users who want to keep up with the 2012 presidential candidates can subscribe to a list of updates from the candidates themselves, and the political news outlets that follow them, such as MSNBC, CNN, and Fox.”
Creative Commons: Jon S
Press Release by Pulse Research, Dec. 13, 2011 –
“The assumption has been that the newspaper’s digital audience is younger, more affluent and better educated than print. Now, a recent Pulse Research national survey shows just how distinct and compelling newspaper’s digital audience is.
Demographics: The average age of a digital audience member is 44, seven years younger than the average age of 51 for a print household. In the 30 and under segment, there are 60% more digital households than print. The average household income of a digital household is $65,480, which is 21% higher than a print average household income of $53,776. Even more significant, 82% more digital households earn over $100,000 per year. Digital households are better educated; 22% more digital households have a college or post degree education. In addition, 50% more digital households have children at home; 48% compared to 32% of print households having children at home.
Purchasing plans: In the key real estate and automotive categories, the digital household has much higher planned purchases over the next 12 months. Personal home: 46% more digital households plan to purchase a personal residence in the next 12 months; 7.6% compared to 5.2% of print households.
Digital household purchasing plans for new cars in the next 12 months is 24% higher than print households; 8.4% to 6.8%. The same upward purchasing trends hold true for furniture stores. The planned purchasing by a digital household at a furniture store in the next 12 months is 51% higher than a print household; 24.4% compared to 16.2%.
The digital audience is defined as a household that has visited the local newspaper website in the last 30 days and owns a smart phone.”
Read the full press release on Editor & Publisher or visit the Pulse Research page
Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World will close after a very public phone hacking scandal.
From the latest Reuters article:
The demise of Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper is likely to weaken media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s grip on British politics, at least in the short-term, after a phone hacking scandal that has tarnished Prime Minister David Cameron.
Allegations that the News of the World Sunday newspaper, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International , hacked into phones of people including a murdered schoolgirl and dead soldiers have rocked British politics and disgusted the public.
The allegations triggered the dramatic announcement on Thursday of the closure of the 168-year-old paper, after a rare emergency session of parliament on the scandal on Wednesday and Internet campaigns to boycott the publication. Many firms had already pulled their advertising.
By Jim Romenesko on Poynter.org, June 21 – That’s about 2 percent of the workforce, according to Gannett US Community Publishing division president Bob Dickey. “The economic recovery is not happening as quickly or favorably as we had hoped and continues to impact our U.S. community media organizations,” he says in a memo that’s posted below. “Publishers will notify people today and we will make every effort to reach everyone by end of day.” In March it was disclosed that Gannett CEO Craig Dubow received a $1.25 million cash bonus and had his salary doubled. Read the full article
Morning Miracle. Inside the Washington Post: A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life. Dave Kindred. New York, NY: Doubleday, 2010. 266 pp.
Dave Kindred’s book about his former employer fits a predictable story line: Heroic Journalists Strive for Greatness Despite Money-Grubbing Bosses. As a result, the book is fun to read, yet short on erudition.
To be fair, Kindred telegraphs his loyalties in his title. The book’s focus is on the print version (the “morning miracle”) of the Washington Post, which he sees as a “great newspaper” struggling to survive. He begins the book by admitting to being “a hopeless romantic about newspapers,” and ends it by interpreting an intemperate newsroom punch thrown by a crusty editor at an unsuspecting reporter as a morality tale of rage against the dark powers enveloping newspapers.
Ken Doctor wrote this article about the economics of the newspaper industry and the discussion of what business model will work for the industry. He says that newspapers were covering a lot stories of their own demise until they realized that may not have been a smart move.
After speaking with some people in the industry, he found that although newspaper companies may not know what the next step is, they know that following the same path they’ve been on in the past is not the way to go. Venturing out into uncharted territories means trying things like paywall content, digital readers, etc.
“It has been 20 quarters since the U.S. newspaper industry experienced a quarter’s performance that was better than that same quarter a year earlier. It was way back in the second quarter of 2006 that the industry last experienced growth.”
From the Editors at CJR in March/April 2011 issue - Washington beckons as a land of opportunity for journalists today, at least in the realm of high-cost subscription news. We’re cheering, but wary, too. A new unit of Bloomberg News is hiring 150 editorial staffers, essentially doubling the size of its DC bureau, to provide detailed coverage of federal legislation, regulation, and government spending. Politico has hired another forty or so journalists for its new “pro” brand, a high-priced news service that will write fast and furiously about every major and minor happening in energy, health care, and technology policy and politics. National Journal last April offered buyouts to all of its hundred-plus editorial employees, but has been on a hiring spree since then to bring on nearly fifty new journalists. Meanwhile, CQ Roll Call, moving beyond the staff shakeout that followed the combination of the two Washington policy stalwarts in their September 2009 merger, is also launching new services and hiring fresh talent. Read More
In an AP story published earlier today, Michael Liedtke wrote that USA Today is revamping its paper to try to keep pace with the Internet. Although this is nowhere near a new idea in the newspaper industry, USA Today has taken multiple steps in the last few years to innovate the paper and boost earnings.
One thing Liedtke’s story says is that the content of the paper will focus on topics that attract more advertising such as tech reviews, financial advice, travel and lifestyle tips, and sports features. USA Today’s published believes the changes will increase revenue.
Do you think this is a good idea? How will changes in content like this impact the journalism community overall (if at all)? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Today Arthur Ochs Sulzberer Jr., publisher of the New York Times, sent out a letter to readers about the impending access changes for its online users. The letter says that online users will be able to read 20 articles a month (including slide shows and videos) but after that the wallets need to come out. Mobile users accessing NYT from their smartphone or tablet will be able to read top news stories from the NYT app but will have to pay beyond those stories.
The changes will hit U.S. users later this month. Print subscribers will have access to all of the online content (similar to the Economist’s system). You can find out all the details, costs, etc. on their access FAQ page.
The question is, will it work? Do you think that this is the new way for online content, a big mistake, or a non-issue? Let us know in the comments or take our poll.
Today the Washington Post put out a statement that one of their top investigative reporters, Sari Horwitz, had plagiarized paragraphs from the Arizona Republic in two of her stories in March. The paper has suspended Horwitz for three months. You can read the full story here.
Let us know you’re thoughts on how the Washington Post handled the situation and if you think plagiarism is increasing, decreasing or simply a non-issue most of the time.
