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
USA Today Revamps Strategy to Keep Pace with Internet
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.
Freelancers Needed More Than Ever – How Schools Can Prepare Them
“Journalism as a whole — and media as a whole — are moving to a growing reliance on freelancers.” That quote came from Rob Steiner, director of the journalism lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, earlier this month on “The Agenda” (a Canadian public affairs show).
Steiner says that journalism employers – and media in general – are looking to knowledgeable freelancers for content as opposed to full-time general assignment reporters. He mentions that colleges and universities need to recognize the idea of the entrepreneurial journalist and the fact that students graduating from J-schools will need to market themselves in their specific area of expertise.
Do you agree with Steiner that J-schools need to change how they’re preparing future journalists? Do you think there is even a shift at all towards more freelance reporting?
Can Content Paywalls Work?
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.
Has the NYT Picked the Right Time for a Pay Model?
From Newsonomics March 14, 2011 - Timing may not be everything, but it’s a lot in life, and the New York Times could have not have picked a better time — soon – to launch both its new paid plans and new tablet product.
Why? Well, the world’s conspired to wait, along with the rest of us, for the Times’ 14-month gestation period to conclude, since it announced a new pay plan, way back in January, 2010, seemingly another age. Let’s just tick off the can-you-believe-this context for the Times’ imminent launch. Read more.
Study: Newspapers Sink Below Internet and TV as Information Sources
Editor & Publisher, Mark Fitzgerald | [...] The study found that just 56% Internet users ranked newspapers as important or very important sources of information for them, down from 60% in 2008 — and below the Internet (78%) and television (68%).
And while newspapers also regard themselves as being in the entertainment business, just 29% of users consider them as important sources of entertainment, down from 32% two years ago, and last among principal media. [Read more...]
The push for paywalls mischaracterizes the nature of online newspaper readership
As U.S. newspaper publishers increasingly talk of building paywalls around their online content to ward off free-riders cannibalizing their print product, new research suggests that such efforts may backfire because most local users of local newspaper sites already are paying customers—by paying for the print edition.
A study published in the latest issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly found that two-thirds of visitors to local newspaper websites are “hybrid” readers—that is, they regularly read the print edition (and most of them pay for it) as well as the online version—in contrast to the remaining one-third of “online-only” readers. [Read more...]
Bringing back the written word: 24 hours on the iPad
By Robert Gutsche Jr. and David Schwartz
It seemed impossible.
How could we go 24 hours without touching our laptops? Could we use our smart phones only for making and answering calls? Could we really live off of an iPad for all we do?
Those were the goals, anyway – to see how much we could do over 24 hours without any other device. Just the iPad.
So, for two days last week, the two of us, both journalism educators, avid news-users and news men, attempted to use Apple’s iPad for all of our electronic communications needs.
It worked – kind of.
These, then, are the major points from our iPad experience, and our thoughts on what it could do for journalism and journalism education. [Read more...]
Study: Technology firms ‘more trusted than traditional media’
Telegraph | American researchers also found that people now trusted the technology heavyweights more than social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
According to the new study, the majority of people rated online privacy as one of their major concerns when using the internet after both Google and Facebook were hit by rows over people’s private details being disclosed on the web.
The study, of more than 2100 people, found nearly half they trusted the big three technology firms Apple, Google and Microsoft” completely” or “a lot”… READ IT
Citizens’ Local Political Knowledge Threatened By New Media
As new digital media replace traditional sources of news, the public’s knowledge of local affairs may be undermined.
This result headlines a new study by Lee Shaker, a researcher at Princeton University, that examines the effect of increased media choice upon citizens’ local and national political knowledge. The article, “Citizens’ Local Political Knowledge and the Role of Media Access”, is available in the current issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (winter 2009). Based on data from a 2007 survey of 1000 Philadelphia residents, a clear, negative relationship between having access to cable TV or satellite radio and citizens’ local political knowledge is depicted in the piece. A similar relationship does not materialize between new media access and national political knowledge. These results reinforce the fears voiced by many regarding the decline of local media – especially newspapers. [Read more...]