New RSS aggregator maps the European news landscape

Imooty.eu, launched in August 2007, is a compendium of news stories from across Europe. By clicking on a map, readers can look at a particular country’s major and minor papers and blogs in English and local languages. Readers can also navigate by topics such as politics, science, or business, or search for a particular term across all European papers. So far, the growing list of countries covered by Imooty includes Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.

OJR spoke with Imooty co-founder Kristoffer J. Lassen via e-mail and phone to learn more. Below is an edited transcript.

OJR: What is the origin of the name “Imooty”?

Lassen: ”Imooty” is a phonetically invented term. Because the platform communicates across various European cultures, it was important to find a name that would have a neutral meaning in the various languages and secondly, to find a word that in the future could become synonymous with a common European media landscape.

OJR: Who’s behind the site and how long has it been around?

Lassen: Imooty has two founders: Blaise Bourgeois and myself, Kristoffer J. Lassen. Blaise is in charge of the design and technology infrastructure whereas I handle business and marketing matters. We’re based in Berlin.

We have focused on compiling the most important European information sources. To date we have about 400 newspapers and 600-700 blogs with more to come. The full version of Imooty’s Beta test has been online since mid-August of this year, and during this time it had about 8.000 page views.

OJR: How do Europeans generally get their news?

Lassen: The general access point is regional news. First of all, you look at the papers from the country that you’re in. There’s definitely sense of an emerging media landscape, though.

OJR: What is the market need that Imooty is trying to meet?

Lassen: The creation of the portal was based on a simple observation: As the European Union continues its development, more people migrate to and follow news and current events in different languages from nearby countries.

So far, the integration of European politics and business is not mirrored in the media landscape. The traditional mass media is shaped by national and regional agendas that also tend to report on European issues from this point of view. Apart from a few niche broadcasters and special interest publications, a general European news profile is hard to find. The Imooty platform will play an important part in satisfying the emerging demand for a common European media universe.

OJR: Do you solely pull in publicly available RSS feeds, or do you enter into agreements with publications?

Lassen: The basic service of Imooty pulls from publicly available RSS headlines. However, Imooty is currently developing a premium service with access to the archives of every significant news organization in Europe.

OJR: By working with publications?

Lassen: Yes, we work with them individually on the executive level to find out if they are interested in giving a second value for their archived content. We’ve found that 60% (mostly small- to medium-sized publications) are very enthusiastic just by looking at the platform; 20% are not so excited at first but with persuasion become open to the idea; and 20% are just not excited. Some publications, especially the larger ones, already have archived content platforms, so they don’t want to cannibalize on their existing model. That’s definitely an issue because the value of Imooty is in being a one-stop shop. Hopefully we’ll be able to achieve that at some point.

We look to enter into partnerships with publications where we distribute the content for a price – the participating publication gets most of the distribution charge and we get a referral fee for redistributing it.

OJR: Who are Imooty’s competitors? How is Imooty unique?

Lassen: Google News, in addition to Web 2.0 portals such as Netvibes are the most important ones. They give users the possibility to create their own Internet “start page” with a variety of information such as weather updates, notifications when new email or social networking updates arrive, in addition to customized news feeds from selected publications. With respect to news, the portals assume that users want to customize their own media universe.

Imooty, however, assumes that certain users will look for an unfettered and clear overview of the entire European news landscape, partly because the portal was designed with a polarized media landscape in mind. The platform gives users the opportunity to find and access extreme positions on one topic, inviting media literacy to take place.

Most existing pan-European platforms have a topical focus, such as European politics. They are not really aggregated services. We offer a side-by-side comparison between news sources on specific issues as well, but Imooty’s emphasis on maintaining each news brand’s integrity and the sorting of information sources according to specific news categories and geographic origin also improves the users ability to preview of what type of perspective each piece of information comes with.

OJR: Who is your target audience? Is it aimed primarily at European readers, or readers around the world who are interested in European news?

Lassen: The portal was initially designed to provide EU ex-patriots with a quick and convenient access to the media landscape in their home countries as well as the news coverage in their current country of residence. However, under a separate tab users may access publications for each country that issue news in English making the portal relevant for anyone interested in European current events.

Imooty has already created a following among a number of well-known news and media bloggers and is featured by journalists’ news portals such as the European Journalism Centre and the Canadian Journalism Project. The platform is also being used by several EU government agencies and foreign embassies as well as by the journalism and communications department of Freie Universität Berlin, a major German university. Several multinational companies have also expressed interest in using the service as a modern press monitoring tool and individual executives are already using Imooty in their day to day information gathering by relying on MyImooty as a source under their “Favourites” list at work.

OJR: How did you decide which blogs to feature? As an independent blogger, how can you get indexed and linked on Imooty?

Lassen: Right now blogs are added following editorial review, and suggestions for additional blogs may be submitted through the suggestion form. In the next few months, bloggers – as well as news organizations – will be able to add themselves.

OJR: So you’re opening up the platform. Will you approve blogs before they’re added?

Lassen: That’s where it’s heading. Of course we want to have some control over it – it won’t be a haven for opinions. But it’s definitely doable. We’ll have some sort of computerized safeguard.

In the long run, we’re looking to integrate different news stories and commentary. First, we’ll open access to bloggers and news organizations and eventually we’ll have a discussion forum around the different news topics.

OJR: Imooty currently provides more coverage of Western European countries than Eastern European. Could you comment on these geographic restrictions?

Lassen: The task of creating Imooty was totally overwhelming, and we simply had set down some limitations in order to get started. Determining the relevant sources and conducting initial correspondence with editors and business executives is not easy if you don’t know the language of a particular region. Accordingly, we decided to focus on the countries within the language capabilities of our existing team members. Another issue is the RSS technology that we base Imooty upon – it seems the eastern parts of Europe are not as advanced when it comes to publishing with RSS.

OJR: What countries are you working on now? Do you plan to leverage readers’ expertise in future developments?

Lassen: Right now we’re working on Poland. Hopefully the Baltic states after. When the platform opens up, we’ll be able to let the readers drive some of the development.

OJR: What’s in the future for Imooty?

Lassen: First, expand the basic service to include the entire European media landscape. Secondly, improve the platform with certain technological updates. Third, finalize the premium service and finally, secure sufficient outside investment to accomplish all of the above.

OJR: Does anyone at Imooty have a journalism background? What do sites like Imooty mean in the context of the changing nature of journalism?

Lassen: I am a correspondent for a Norwegian photography magazine here in Berlin and our publicist Tania Peitzker, from EU Public Relations, has written analytical reports and articles as a special correspondent for The Times Higher Education Supplement in London and The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels and Berlin.

Imooty represents the Web 2.0 answer to an ongoing dilemma facing newspapers around the world. Readers now demand concise information that directly addresses their personal “need to know” requirements in an age when people are swamped by news sources – gathered for both work and private purposes. For journalists, this means more pressure to write incisive, engaging material that satisfies the higher expectations of media consumers.

Imooty assists journalists and their employers to maintain their profile in the “surplus information” age. Quality journalism will be recognized as such because it can now be compared and contrasted to other news producers.

Imooty is also in the process of setting up a commercial sales system that will ensure well-written articles stay in demand and remain accessible. We’ll be getting users to pay for valuable research and writing produced by journalists via their unique online news platform that consistently provides optimal search results on specific news topics.

Can science blogs save science journalism?

Journalists and scientists at Monday’s Scientific American sponsored panel discussion, “Does Science Get a Fair Shake in the Media?,” hosted at USC Annenberg, unanimously agreed that while the public is consuming more science reporting now than ever before, mainstream journalism is doing a lousier job of covering the field.

Pronouncing the situation “dire,” USC biological sciences professor Michael Quick declared right off the bat, “We need a revolution… a whole sea change… nobody is going to solve this overnight by writing a better article about biotechnology or the environment.”

Why is the state of science reporting so deplorable? Are the problems systemic? How will the field evolve with the advent of new media technologies?

The problem is everybody

The general populace, though overall showing more interest in science than in sports, has quite a poor understanding of science, according to author and USC journalism professor K.C. Cole.

Many simply regard the field as “a form of magic,” Quick quipped.

The media isn’t doing its job to educate the public – most journalists have little to no background in science and statistics, either.

“Every beat I’ve ever had, I haven’t had a clue when I started,” said Reuters biotechnology reporter Lisa Baertlein.

Furthermore, due to traditional media’s budget considerations, a science reporter is often responsible for several scientific disciplines, and that inevitably leads to a lack of intelligent, dependable coverage, or worse, over-coverage of wacky, pseudoscientific studies such as Jessica Alba’s score in an index of female desirability.

On the other hand, many scientists cannot talk in layman’s terms about what they do. Neither are they trained to do so.

“No effort has been made to help us reach out or learn to talk to the media and to the public,” Quick said, admitting that scientists as a group are “very bad” at communicating.

What’s “news” in science?

To approach science reporting with a traditional journalistic judgment of newsworthiness and objectivity is fundamentally incompatible with how science works, according to the panelists.

As it stands, an overwhelming number of science pieces are outgrowths of PR memos detailing the latest discoveries or “eureka!” moments of studies published in reputable journals. NASA has particularly well-oiled machine and that leads directly to more media coverage, said Cole.

But without proper framing and context, an article whose sole premise is “An important study was published today…” is just parroted PR.

At the point of publication, most individual papers have “had almost no impact on thinking,” said Scientific American Editor in Chief and discussion moderator John Rennie. Many papers are later proven wrong.

“Science is the field of qualifications,” Quick noted, and that “doesn’t come through in the reporting.”

In certain fields, especially the environment, a high proportion of studies are controversial and industry-funded, according to author and environmental journalist Marla Cone, making for “very tricky” reporting.

But journalism loves the conflict and drama of topics such as global warming, intelligent design, and stem cell research, and editors are biased in favor of interesting stories.

“Instead of reporting what is true, people report sides,” said Cole.

So why doesn’t the media build a new model of reporting that focuses less on discrete observations and more on the “bodies of work taking shape” in various fields?, Rennie asked.

Scientists are blogging. Why aren’t journalists listening?

Journalism may very well be on the cusp of a momentous change whereby it redefines the paradigm within which it approaches science reporting.

The proliferation of blogs written by scientists (biology blogs being the most popular, followed by physics and climatology) means that the scientific discourse that used to take place behind lab doors is now open to everyone.

The blogs present an opportunity for journalists to bring scientists into the story writing process much earlier on. Everyone agreed that this is necessary, but are journalists using science blogs to immerse themselves in the scientific community – as a resource to hear directly what scientists are talking about and as an opportunity to talk directly to scientists?

“Most of it is too much ‘inside baseball,'” Cone said. For inexperienced science reporters, reading just one scientist’s blog “can easily lead them in the wrong direction.”

The most popular science blogs are admittedly peppered with politics.

“I wouldn’t trust them for reporting,” Cone said. Blogs should be used to gather background, as “a tip in the right direction.”

Ironically, scientists are the ones eager to reach out to reluctant journalists, who tend to “lurk” and “watch” science blogs from the shadows, according to USC astronomy and physics professor Clifford Johnson (his blog on physics and life is at Asymptotia.com).

Very few science bloggers know that their writing is being read. “The older generation who read blogs don’t say so,” said Johnson. “I usually end up talking to journalists for some other reason when it becomes apparent that they’ve read the blog.”

Every time a blog get cited in mainstream media, Johnson said, the science blogger community feels more legitimized.

“I would hope that editors and journalists would seize this opportunity to help guide the bloggers and help bring out a little bit the quality of writing,” Johnson said. “There are an awful lot of people doing great work out there. Feedback might help.”

Is Facebook the next frontier for online news?

Further empowering its users to grow its application ecosystem, Facebook recently announced the launch of the $10 million fbFund. Backed by outside investors, fbFund will grant $25,000 to $250,000 to selected individuals or start-ups building applications for the Facebook platform.

A number of news organizations have already created Facebook applications to distribute their news content. The New York Times’ News Quiz application, which measures your daily news knowledge against your friends’, is installed on over 6,000 users’ pages and generates about 17,000 page views a week, according to NYTimes.com‘s Senior Vice President and General Manager Vivian Schiller.

“This particular news quiz is part of a larger strategy to distribute content as widely as possible. There are different ways to engender loyalty and increase page views on the Web. It’s increasingly important to distribute content in parts and pieces, widgets and RSS feeds – wherever people want to consume it,” said Schiller.

Indie start-ups are getting into the game, too. An app called “News Headlines,” authored by UK start-up RSS2Facebook, pulls in the RSS feeds of hundreds of global news providers and displays them in a single box. From there, news stories can be bookmarked or shared with friends.

RSS2Facebook specializes in adapting the programming behind “News Headlines” for organizations which want to convert their existing RSS feeds into Facebook applications – a quick and dirty way to leverage Facebook’s immense social reach.

OJR chatted with RSS2Facebook founder (and Southampton University student) Adam Cooke via MSN Messenger to learn more.

OJR: How did you come up with the idea for RSS2Facebook, and when was it launched?

Cooke: I had been creating some applications for small businesses, and a common request was to give individual RSS feeds a stand-alone application on Facebook. It didn’t have a launch date as such. I just found myself reusing the same code over and over for different people. So I decided to package it up with a helpful manual. The idea is that the content of your RSS feed is promoting your website. If you believe in your own content, then your application will spread quickly over the Facebook social graph – the mushroom cloud effect, if you will.

So instead of having the RSS feed as a sort of output, it becomes a promotional tool. It spreads the word to the users’ friends. As friends are normally interested in the same things this can be seen as a form of extremely cheap, targeted advertising.

OJR: How fast is “News Headlines” growing?

Cooke: Over 1,500 users have the app installed. I have actually had no need to promote it. It’s amazing really. There is no opportunity for big business advertising on Facebook unless they are actually offering a service to the user. This makes it a very level playing field for small business vs. big business, because for the first time it’s the content that decides, not the promotional budget.

OJR: What kind of interested have you gotten in RSS2Facebook’s services?

Cooke: I’ve gotten loads. Small sites and news feed types. I have done some custom application builds for larger sites, like the online job agency for students, Graduate Prospects. It lets you watch job feeds from the agency in your profile. Very useful if you’re a student just coming out of university.

OJR: Have you made any money yet?

Cooke: In the four figures – put it that way. Hopefully five very soon.

OJR: How did you hear about the fbFund?

Cooke: I actually heard it through a developer IRC channel but didn’t get any details until I watched a piece about it on the local news. Well, it looks really good. Free money I guess. LOL. I would definitely apply.

OJR: If you got a grant to work on RSS2Facebook full time, where would you take it?

Cooke: I am currently working on an RSS2Facebook multifeed. I have some other ideas.

OJR: What are some of the other ideas?

Cooke: Well, if I told you, then I would be giving away my advantage, wouldn’t I? They are along the same lines as what I have now on RSS2Facebook. Some ideas involve the integration of well-known open source software with Facebook. It’s a very competitive industry. If this were a regulated industry, you would not be getting away with some of the copycat applications out on Facebook right now.

But to be honest, I like it how it is. It’s open, and the best application wins – which is ultimately what Facebook wants.