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August 2005
APME Awards: Newspapers share Online Convergence Award
2005-08-02By Diana Day: Editor & Publisher reports that the Associated Press Managing Editors awarded both The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Providence (R.I.) Journal its Online Convergence Award in the division for large newspapers. The award honors large, midsize and small newspapers for stories that demonstrated excellence in two platforms: print and online journalism.
The AJC award was for coverage of the March 11 courthouse shootings. Judges were impressed with the Web site's multimedia coverage and "'the immediacy of online reporting without letting up on the journalism.'"
The Projo award was for a seven-part series about a man's efforts to prevent overdevelopment on an island. The Web series, "Saving Block Island: How Rob Lewis led the way," featured multimedia narratives.
Judges were impressed with the "'complete, while completely different, experience'" offered by the print and online versions of the story. "'The print version was as impressive in its layout as in its reporting, and the online site design and Web-oriented elements were a perfect match with the topic,'" judges said.
There were 43 entries, the highest number in the history of the four-year competition. The awards will be presented at the APME conference in late October.
Bloggers blog BlogHer conference
2005-08-02By Diana Day: J. D. Lasica and Jay Rosen are just two writers reporting back from the BlogHer conference that recently wrapped up in Santa Clarita, CA.
Search for other blogs about the conference with a BlogHer tag at Technorati, although Amy Gahran, who was also at BlogHer, wrote that a Technorati representative at the conference had to face "some tough questions about that service's true reliability and relevance," particularly in regards to Technorati's tag feature and its Top 100 Blogs.
NYT merges print, online newsrooms
2005-08-02By Robert Niles: In another blow to the 1990's model of splitting newspaper dot-coms from their print siblings, the New York Times has annouced that it will merge its print and online newsrooms. Eventually, the two operations will be housed in a common building, but until construction of the new space is complete, editors on both sides will start the process by working together more closely, according to a staff memo published by Jim Romenesko.
By integrating the newsrooms we plan to diminish and eventually eliminate the difference between newspaper journalists and Web journalists -- to reorganize our structures and our minds to make Web journalism, in forms that are both familiar and yet-to-be-invented, as natural to us as writing and editing, and to do all of this without losing the essential qualities that make us The Times. Our readers are moving, and so are we.
The unresolved question? What happens to NYTimes.com editors, now that their print counterparts will have authority over the corresponding sections on NYTimes.com?
New OJR wiki lists industry events
2005-08-04By Robert Niles: Online Journalism Review has added a new wiki to list upcoming industry events.
OJR members may add or edit event listings in the wiki. The page is open to any event of interest to online journalists, including training seminars, association conferences and even social get-togethers.
NYT names Rich Meislin AME for Internet
2005-08-04By Robert Niles: Following this week's organizational shake-up involving NYTimes.com, the New York Times has named Rich Meislin its new Associate Managing Editor for Internet publishing. Meislin is a former Web editor and tech news editor for The Times.
Google's spokespersons cut off CNet reporters?
2005-08-05By Robert Niles: Staci Kramer found an interesting story buried in article on CNet's News.com. In a brief posted on PaidContent.org (one of Kramer's other gigs, in addition to writing here for OJR), Kramer notes that Google's reps are refusing to talk to CNet reporters until June 2006. The dust-up results from Elinor Mills' look at the information that Google collects about its users, both collectively and individually.
In the past, such industry flaps played out in private. But now, with the greater transparency available through 24/7 online publishing, more people, both in and out of the news industry can learn about such incidents.
So here's the question for discussion: Have you, or your news organization, ever been “cut off” by a source over a story? Why? And what happened next?
Independent Iraqi news site debuts
2005-08-08By Diana Day: Revolution reports the launch of an independent online Iraqi news service, Voices of Iraq.
The Reuters Foundation is among the organizations supporting the news service, which will supply local, regional and international news media with breaking news from all over Iraq.
Originally, the site was a news exchange where Iraqi stringers could publish and share updates. Now the site publishes over 600 news items a month.
Revolution quotes Paolo Lembo, UNDP-Iraq's director: "This project has brought momentum and a significant impulse to the creation of a free and reliable Iraqi media, and thus becomes part of the foundation for democratic progress. The establishment of an independent news agency represents an important step towards the strengthening of professional journalism in Iraq and an incomparable means to facilitate social dialogue and promote democracy."
And Reuters editor in chief Geert Linnebank: "This new agency, the first of its kind in Iraq's history, will have a profound effect on how this country's story is told. Staffed and run by local journalists reporting on their own people and governments, I am sure it will become an indispensable source, which will provide a much fuller picture than we have today of the key issues and events really driving this country's development."
Howard Owens to leave Ventura for Bakersfield
2005-08-11By Robert Niles: Kevin Roderick of L.A. Observed reports that Howard Owens, Director of New Media at the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, is leaving that paper to become vice president of interactive for the Bakersfield Californian.
The E.W. Scripps-owned Ventura County Star won the Online Journalism Award for General Excellence among smaller websites last year, in part for the innovative grassroots reporting and interactive applications developed under Owens' watch. The Bakersfield paper has attracted much recent attention for its landmark effort in reader-produced journalism, The Northwest Voice.
Citizen journalism or citizen paparazzi?
2005-08-11By Philippe Borremans: Scoopt a news agency for amateur mobile phone photographers attracted 1,200 members in the space of just a week. Their set up is simple; if you see a "newsworthy" event (in its broadest sense) and you happen to have a digital camera with you (or most likely your mobile phone with integrated camera), take the picture, send it to Scoopt by MMS or by e-mail and get 50% of the fee they may receive from a newspaper for the scoop.
Will this work ? No idea. But it is a powerful concept if guided by some ethical/professional guidelines. It works for OhMyNews with regards to text input from citizens, why wouldn't it work for images...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer launches Virtual Editorial Board
2005-08-15By Diana Day: Mark Trahant, the editorial page editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, wrote about something new at the P-I: the Virtual Editorial Board. This innovation is designed to enliven what Trahant calls the "sterile discourse" of the traditional editorial model -- an editorial meeting to decide a topic, articles about that topic, then letters to the editor to bring people into the conversation.
After the daily Editorial Board meetings, the P-I will post the day's editorial topic, and readers will have an opportunity to weigh in online before the editorial staff writes anything.
Some reader comments might become letters to the editor in the print edition and some comments might be quoted in editorials.
Trahant wrote: "Will more reader participation change the P-I's view of the world? I don't know. Probably not, at least most days. Members of the P-I Editorial Board have strong views, but the best thing about ideas is how they thrive when placed in a competitive environment. I hope we read something from a reader that illuminates a point in a way we haven't thought about before. We can learn from the interactive nature of the communications."
Because of some recent problems with online polls, the P-I will be asking for all people participating in interactive conversations to register.
Salon puts The Well up for sale
2005-08-17By Robert Niles: From News.com: Online news site Salon.com is selling its discussion community, The Well. One of the first online discussion boards, The Well pre-dates the Web, having started in 1985 as a dial-in bulletin board system. Salon bought the community in 1999.
The Well's membership is now down to about 4,000 people, though the service remains profitable, according to a Salon SEC filing. According to News.com, remaining Well members have talked about forming a non-profit to buy the service. Salon's CEO, Elizabeth Hambrecht, told News.com that the company is looking to sell The Well in order to focus on its core Salon.com website.
Google launches Sidebar in latest attempt to make 'push' model work online
2005-08-22By Robert Niles: Like a zombie from a George Romero flick, the PointCast model refuses to die.
The latest incarnation? Google Sidebar aggregrates news headlines, plus custom local weather reports and stock quotes in a desktop application window. Sidebar also adds new features, including the ability to read messages sent to a Gmail account and reader-selected RSS feeds within the Sidebar app.
In the '90's PointCast lured Web users with a similar product, but one that choked corporate networks with its heavy use of bandwidth and system memory. Home users, in the pre-broadband era, couldn't think of using it. Others have tried to develop similar "push"-model news delivery systems since, but users instead have chosen to get their online news delivered through other tools, such as e-mail newsletters and RSS feeds, which do not require their own programs.
Like with many of its recent products, including Google Maps, the Mountain View, Calif., search engine company has released APIs for Sidebar, raising the possibility that innovative developers might concont some interesting mash-ups using Sidebar, along the lines of what online journalists Adrian Holovaty did with Google Maps and Chicago crime data.
The small screen just got smaller
2005-08-23By Karl-Erik Stromsta: From The Globe and Mail: With some analysts predicting an impending explosion of ad revenue on the Web, the day has come when television networks can no longer afford to be wallflowers at the Internet block party.
Ultimately, the impetus for moving news content online has been the almighty greenback: Last year alone, online advertising grew by a third.
But with many challenges remaining – mostly technological and financial in nature – the transition has been smoother for some news outlets than for others. Sports news, with its short highlight clips, is particularly well-suited for the Web, according to Canadian Television Network sports chief Mike Day.
"If you want to watch football segments, you don't have to sit through hockey,” Day said.
However, Robert Niles, Online Journalism Review editor in chief, said the potential for some media outlets to avoid the Internet remains, but they will have to seriously consider their market.
"Some companies will survive, but they'll become more of a niche outfit - you're still going to have an audience, but it'll be a smaller audience," Niles said.
Bloggers poll-vault over online surveys
2005-08-23By Karl-Erik Stromsta: From The Times-Herald: Blogs were once credited with providing a podium to those otherwise short in political stature. Now some have been accused of building that podium a bit too tall.
Over the weekend, several blogs beseeched their readers to vote multiple times in online opinion polls regarding anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
Both The Reporter and The Times-Herald said that by posting instructions on how to bypass the one-vote-per-person system, the bloggers distorted the results of the polls.
As a result of the blogging frenzy, thereporter.com – which normally receives just 12,000 hits a day – garnered more than 93,000 votes.
While many see the voting hijinks as victimless, others are concerned that the incident highlights the increasing power of blogs to sway politics and the mainstream media.
Are you a Web publishing addict?
2005-08-24By Robert Niles: Well, are you?
- Do you, personally, own several domain names?
- Have you ever given someone a domain as a gift?
- Have you ever, in the course of everyday conversation, said to yourself, "Hey, that would make a great website!", then gone home and started building it?
- Do you plan vacations around WiFi access?
- Does your ideal weekend involve getting away to a remote (yet WiFi accessible) place with no distractions -- so you can spend the entire time building new features for your websites without interruption?
- Do you remember Gopher, Mosaic or the Whole Internet Catalog?
- Have you ever based naming a child on Web domain availability?
- Are you, at heart, an unapologetic idealist who believes that journalists building websites can help make the world a more informed, better entertained and more neighborly place?
If so, I think it's time some of us got together and formed a support group. No, not to kick the habit. We need a support group so can we hang out with like-minded addicts and rationalize our spending even more time and attention online.
I'm thinking that if the group's small enough, I can arrange a lunch or drinks meeting at the ONA convention in New York in October. Or, if interest is greater, I can put together a day-long event here at USC sometime. Regardless of the place or way we meet, I'd like to find a way for journalists with serious Web publishing addictions to get together somehow, alone and without the non-addicts or non-journalists who seem to make up the bulk of attendees at most of the gatherings I've been to recently.
If you're interested, holler my way.
- Robert Niles, OJR Editor
Publishers take a trip to Planet Discover
2005-08-24By Janine Kahn: From Editor and Publisher: Several news sites, including Knoxnews.com (which serves the News Sentinel in Knoxville), Cincinnati.com (The Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post), and the city guide Toronto.com (formerly of the Toronto Star but now run by an independent business called TorStar Digital) plan to employ new integrated advertising and search technology from Planet Discover, which will allow the sites to customize and better cater to locally-situated customers and advertisers.
“Paid directory listings, and a comprehensive search of local news, classifieds, newspaper ads, events, vertical content and Web sites” are among the changes that will follow this move, according to E&P.
"'[The technology] improves our search functionality by combining events, articles, and directory listings into one searchable database,'" said Tomer Strolight, president of TorStar Digital.
"'It enhances user experience by delivering results in a single integrated result set. Planet Discover's ad system also enables Toronto.com to increase revenue by expanding our offering to advertisers,'" he added.
Paper keeps readers involved via online poll
2005-08-24By Janine Kahn: This week, the Pasadena Star-News Web site is asking online readers to cast their votes for the kind of poker column they would like to see in the publication’s print edition. Voters are asked to choose from a column featuring inside tips for experienced players, one that functions as a tutorial for beginners or no column at all.
Editor Larry Wilson wrote in an e-mail that the "unscientific reader response" generated from the poll would be read with interest but that the result of the poll won't make or break the column in the woodwork. While the Pasadena Star-News wasn’t latching onto any trend Wilson was aware of -- like the paper's Web site influencing print content -- the Star-News would use such promotional polls again for “fun featury columns” in the future, he wrote.
It “serves to tease the reader to the notion of a poker column at all -- to watch out for that coming attraction,” Wilson added.
“And poker, mysteriously to me at least, has become this hip, hot media thing, with all these celebs joining old Amarillo Slim piling up the chips in Vegas. Poker on TV? Getting people to watch that, these people are certainly smarter than me. So just mentioning the idea of a possible poker column on the web site for the Star-News somehow makes the paper, print and online, look a little cooler," he said.
Where's our line in the sand?
2005-08-25By Dawn Rivers Baker: I'm self-taught but I consider myself a professional journalist. I do try not to have a chip on my shoulder about being small, independent and self-taught. But, perhaps because of those things, I am particularly zealous about matters of professional quality, standards and ethics among journalists.
There's another, less self-involved reason for my zeal: I love journalism. I have the highest esteem for the purpose and the principles of the Fourth Estate.
So, when I see a high-profile representative of our profession making the rest of us look bad, I have to ask ...
At what point do associations of professional journalists like the SPJ or the ONA stand up and say that an individual does not meet the standards of our profession and, therefore, they are not a journalist?
I got to thinking about this when I came across this. This isn't about a mistake or erroneous fact in a newscast. That happens sometimes, and there are professional practices and procedures in the field that we use to correct those factual errors.
But journalists don't get to just make stuff up.
The flap over Korans down toilets, and Dan Rather's National Guard-gate were discussed exhaustively, but I almost never hear anybody in the profession taking O'Reilly to task for his very sloppy (to put it generously) work.
Given the size of his audience, I think he is doing more to discredit the professional than almost any score of others making honest mistakes.
Why are we silent? Or are we? Maybe I'm traveling in the wrong crowds.
Maybe we've decided that, with the advent of "citizen journalism," professional standards are no longer relevant.
Maybe journalism has been re-defined as something that doesn't necessarily involve getting your facts straight, and I just hadn't heard about it.
I don't know. You tell me.
The bunny goes digital
2005-08-26By Karl-Erik Stromsta: From Reuters: Playboy Enterprises has announced plans to begin publishing an online edition of its infamous magazine later this year. Stricken with declining ad sales and flat circulation numbers, Playboy’s publishing arm recently posted a second-quarter loss of $2.3 million.
Playboy Chief Executive Christie Hefner – daughter of founder Hugh Hefner – said the company was responding to two conspicuous trends. "'One is more and more consumers are getting information and entertainment online, and the other is more and more advertising dollars are going online.'"
Beginning September 13, curious readers will be able to download an electronic version of the print edition for the same price they would pay at the newsstand.
J-Lab launches site for D.I.Y. community journalism
2005-08-29By Janine Kahn: This week, J-lab at the University of Maryland's Institute for Interactive Journalism announced the launch of J-Learning.org, a digital handbook that hosts a step-by-step guide for designing, launching and sustaining an online community news Web site.
The site divides 20 chapters chock-full of basic Web site development training into four sections: "Plan It," "Build It," "Present It," and "Promote It." Each section is further broken down to give users a crash course in everything from basic HTML and page design to tips on advertising and e-commerce. Reporting and research for the site’s content was done by Hop Studios’ Susannah Gardner and Travis Smith, a long-time online journalism lecturer at USC’s Annenberg School.
"J-Learning is designed to be a comprehensive tool that any layman, student or fledgling new media person could use to launch a local news Web site," said Jan Schaffer, executive editor of J-Learning.org.
Schaffer also noted that the site is expected to prove useful to small-market news organizations seeking to add more online news and to journalism programs teaching new media skills.
From podcasting to 'godcasting'
2005-08-29By Janine Kahn: From The New York Times: Christian organizations aren’t limiting themselves to radio and television these days. Instead, they’re taking full advantage of the Web and hosting podcasts for the congregation to download.
Rev. Mark Batterson of the National Community Church in Alexandria, Va. started what he calls "godcasting" just last month, starting the development of what Batterson called "digital discipleship." Hour-long recordings of his weekly service are available at theaterchurch.com.
"We're orthodox in belief but unorthodox in practice," said Batterson, who likes the idea of "spiritual multitasking" and keeps a blog alongside his podcasts.
Religious podcasts are increasing in popularity on many sites, including Podcast Alley, which now hosts 474, though it only had 177 at the start of July. Odeo.com, a podcast directory, runs the religious gamut when it comes to podcasts, featuring programs from Buddhists, Muslims and Jews.
Quebecor converges Ontario media properties
2005-08-31By Karl-Erik Stromsta: Via Yahoo.news: Canadian communications giant Quebecor, Inc. has announced plans to bring its Ontario-based media divisions under a single roof.
In order to streamline operations and boost revenue, Quebecor will consolidate the tabloid Toronto Sun, the free daily newspaper 24 Hours, Sun TV and Internet portal canoe.ca. The consolidation, set to cost the company $110 million, will also result in the loss of 120 jobs.
Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said he hopes for the same success in Ontario that Quebecor has had in Montreal, where the company also converged its media properties.
Luc Lavoie, Quebecor's executive vice-president of corporate affairs, said he envisions a central news desk that will employ its personnel "in all four pillars of the operation."
Lavoie's vision includes Sun columnists producing blogs and appearing on Sun TV in debate-type shows like CNN's Crossfire, according to Yahoo News.
"'People under 40 don't look for news in the same way people of my age, in their 50s, do or used to,'" Lavoie said. "'They go to the Internet, they go to the TV . . . You have to catch them where they are.'"
Ryerson University journalism program chair Paul Knox was skeptical about the convergence model, stating that it has yielded mixed results in both Canada and the U.S.
Knox added that writing a print article requires different skills than writing a script for broadcast.
"'It all depends how much they are willing to invest in human resources and skills in the talent that you would need to pull this off,'" Knox said.
Columbia, S.C. paper joins community journalism revolution
2005-08-31By Janine Kahn: From Editor & Publisher: The State, a paper in Columbia, S.C., is latching onto the community journalism bandwagon this week by launching TheColumbiaRecord.com, a stand-alone site that will feature blogs from 25 local mavens on everything from astronomy to the classical arts.
Registering at the site will enable users to post items or photos and to submit notices for upcoming events for the online community calendar. The site's content management system, blog platform and calendar system were purchased from iUpload, a company that provides a similar service for NorthwestVoice.com, the Web site for a community newspaper in Bakersfield, California.
"'We think that by leveraging the newspaper's ability to reach 100,000 people every day, we'll really be able to direct a large portion of our main news site to this community site, thereby increasing [reader] participation,'" said Dave Roberts, The State’s online editor.
Roberts says he hopes the Web site can serve to inject new ideas into the newsroom by generating leads and story ideas and also expects the public to take advantage of the self-service calendar function, which he hopes will save the newsroom valuable data-entry manpower, according to E&P.