OJR front page archive for June 2010
Global voices detail a history of gender bias in journalism
June 29, 2010
For the past two years, the OurBlook team has been busy collecting opinions from diverse industry experts on the future of journalism. We had an unsettling realization – if journalists were having a hard time keeping up with the changing media landscape, journalism departments were having an even harder time. This instigated our team to launch the University Partnership Program [UPP], which provides professors with free and customized Web, technology and research help to make classrooms more interactive, and help students gain new media skills.One of the most successful UPP stories of transformation has been with a gender and mass media class at the University of Iowa, taught by Pamela Creedon, former director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at both the University of Iowa and Kent State University. With some digital assistance from the OurBlook team, Creedon has created an interactive classroom setting that exposes students to critical journalism principles and the Web and connects students with industry leaders.
Each semester, the class conducts an interview series with successful women in online journalism. These interviews are published on OurBlook.com, under a CopyLeft license and in a "blook" format. Additionally, using available Web tools, Creedon hosts several virtual guests who provide the students with "real-time" industry insight. To complement the classroom learning, students also have access to a Future Journalist Resource Center, created specifically for UPP students by the OurBlook team. While the class project allows students to leave with a portfolio piece, it also provides them with an opportunity to give back to the journalism industry by increasing the amount of authoritative and journalism-focused information found on the Web.
This past semester, Creedon's class decided to focus internationally (view project). The class reached out to bloggers, reporters, editors and professors in 17 countries, including Uganda, Kenya, Chile and Zimbabwe. The goal of the interview series was to understand the experience of women communicators throughout the world, and to gather opinions on the future of the news media. The following are some of the responses given in regards to the interviewees' experience with gender bias.
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How to optimize your news website for better Google AdSense revenue
June 25, 2010
A hot topic of discussion during last month's KDMC News Entrepreneur Boot Camp was online advertising networks, specifically Google's AdSense program for publishers. More than one speaker cautioned the participants to not expect much from AdSense. At the camp and at other industry gathering, I've heard many folks dismiss AdSense revenues as delivering CPMs "in the pennies."Yet I know, from personal experience and from speaking with other publishers in the program, that much higher returns are possible, including daily average CPMs in double digits - and yes, I mean dollars, not cents.
How can a news website publisher earn more money from AdSense? I suspect that because starting with the program is so easy - you can set it up with little or no thought at all - that many AdSense publishers give the program... little or no thought.
That's a huge mistake. Everything that you do on your website - from design to reporting to community management to advertising - should be done with intent. Give any aspect of your publication little thought, and you should expect little in return from it.
If you're going to put AdSense ads on your website, or banner ads of any type, you must do so thoughtfully, using sound optimization techniques. Based on my experience, here are my suggestions for AdSense publishers:
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Get ready for the Battle over Bandwidth
June 23, 2010
The next great battle in the journalism industry will be the Battle of Bandwidth.AT&T's announcement this month that it will end unlimited data plans for its smartphone and iPad subscribers is expected to lead to similar announcements from other wireless providers. And Comcast's continuing efforts to throttle certain traffic from its home Internet customers shows that bandwidth battles are not limited to the wireless Web.
Internet Service Providers clearly don't want to continue offering a one-price-buys-everything option. ISPs have shown that they favor a pricing model where certain users have to pay more to use more bandwidth.
While there's some logical appeal to the idea of making the heaviest users of the Internet pay the most for their use, metered traffic online creates profound challenges for online content producers.
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News convergence isn't easy for student journalists, either
June 17, 2010
The Millennials in our journalism classrooms are supposed to be wizards of the Web. After all, almost their entire lives have been spent consuming media in a converged landscape, reading newspaper stories and watching TV reports online while communicating with one another via online social networks.A Pew Research study from February backs this up: "For (Millennials), these innovations provide more than a bottomless source of information and entertainment, and more than a new ecosystem for their social lives. They also are a badge of generational identity. Many Millennials say their use of modern technology is what distinguishes them from other generations."
The study cites technology as the top factor that those born after 1980 say makes their generation unique. At 24 percent, it's twice the rate of that of Gen-Xers. But the twist to all this is that our journalism students are not so different than grizzled veterans of legacy media, at least not in practice.
They know they spend their entire lives connected, but it doesn't mean they automatically default to multimedia and a convergence culture in the classroom or the workplace. They seem to have a hard time translating how they consume news and information to how they should produce it. Many, though certainly not all, of them still see themselves as part of traditional media. It's a sense that's reinforced when campus newspapers and radio and television news staffs remain in separate quarters, rarely (or never) working together.
Bringing them together in the same room was the first step toward converging. Last fall, the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University opened a new 2,300 square foot Convergence Center, the centerpiece of a $5.6 million renovation of the facilities for the school. The facility is home to the TCU Daily Skiff student newspaper, the TCU News Now broadcast and Image Magazine. The three were previously in separate rooms and their content kept separate.
"As a print journalism student, just being close to the broadcast students made sharing content much easier," said David Hall, the fall 2009 editor-in-chief of the Skiff. "We'd constantly bounce ideas off of each other and share news content, and sometimes students would do a print and multimedia element to their story, something unheard of back in the day of separate newsrooms."
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Student journalist/entrepreneurs suggest mobile strategies for non-profit news online
June 15, 2010
Editor's note: In the Annenberg-Marshall-Viterbi News Entrepreneur Fellowship Program students from three USC colleges collaborated to invent the future of news. Last month, three teams (each including students from USC Annenberg School of Journalism, USC Marshall School of Business, and USC Viterbi School of Engineering) devised and pitched economically viable mobile news ideas to executives from Los Angeles-area news organizations.Last week and today, the teams have been presenting a summary of their recommendations here on OJR: Part I Part I, Part II
Kevin Dugan, who recently earned an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business, was part of a team of AMVmobile fellowship students tasked with devising mobile strategies for KPCC Southern California Public Radio. Other students on this team: Ashley Ahearn and Keaton Gray (both of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism), and Taran Raj (USC Viterbi school of engineering).
Southern California Public Radio faces a unique set of challenges; similar, but slightly different from the usual variety said to be plaguing the news industry. While multiple revenue streams exist for the three-station, non-profit entity (KPCC, KUOR and KPCV), the ability to appropriately balance these sources of support remains paramount to the positive perception by its members and listeners and, ultimately, the forecasted growth and impact of its news coverage.
The listener base, while fiercely loyal, can be fickle about the delivery of its local news and the manner in which support is presented. We approached our recommendations to SPCR through the lens of this existing customer base, while keeping a strategic eye on the largely untapped potential of a more diverse audience.
SCPR pays for access to news content provided by National Public Radio, enabling its member stations to provide NPR content on any platform, whether via radio, online or a mobile device. NPR offers its own online version of content, as well iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry mobile applications.
But, as a local provider of Southern California news, SCPR realizes that a more regionally-focused delivery of news should be made available to its readers and listeners on mobile devices.
SCPR's current online news offering is to be commended, with a robust slate of content and a strategic design. KPCC, SCPR's flagship station, does have an iPhone application which streams the radio programming live, but the digital team recognizes a broader mobile platform strategy is necessary. Enter the AMV Mobile News team.
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Student journalist/entrepreneurs offer tips to improve newspapers' WAP functionality
June 11, 2010
Editor's note: In the Annenberg-Marshall-Viterbi News Entrepreneur Fellowship Program students from three USC colleges collaborated to invent the future of news. Last month, three teams (each including students from USC Annenberg School of Journalism, USC Marshall School of Business, and USC Viterbi School of Engineering) devised and pitched economically viable mobile news ideas to executives from Los Angeles-area news organizations.This week and next, the teams will present a summary of their recommendations here on OJR: Part I
USC Annenberg journalism student Dominique Fong was part of a team of AMVmobile fellowship students tasked with devising mobile strategies for the Los Angeles Times. Other students on this team: Vibhor Mathur (USC Viterbi School of Engineering), Jason Choi (Viterbi)
Overview
Our mobile strategy recommendations for the Los Angeles Times are grounded in the "3 Ps" best practices identified by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in a report on the trend of more participatory behaviors in the way that people consume news: participation, portability and personalization. The challenge of increasing revenue within existing corporate restraints led us to consider a fourth "P," partnership, to more efficiently accomplish innovation across multiple digital platforms while increasing revenue potential.Participation
Because millions of mobile users already turn to the Times to stay informed and fill idle moments, the organization should seek to maximize user engagement (and, consequently, brand affinity) among existing users while also attracting new ones. Implementing four new features would advance this agenda. 1 comment | Archive Link
Student journalist/entrepreneurs look at mobile tablet strategies for newspapers
June 8, 2010
Editor's note: In the Annenberg-Marshall-Viterbi News Entrepreneur Fellowship Program students from three USC colleges collaborated to invent the future of news. Last month, three teams (each including students from USC Annenberg School of Journalism, USC Marshall School of Business, and USC Viterbi School of Engineering) devised and pitched economically viable mobile news ideas to executives from Los Angeles-area news organizations.This week and next, the teams will present a summary of their recommendations here on OJR.
USC Annenberg journalism student Rebecca Lett was part of a team of AMVmobile fellowship students tasked with devising mobile tablet strategies for the Orange County Register. Other students on this team: Kevin Lu (USC Annenberg), Drew Prickett (USC Marshall school of business), and Saravanan Rangaraju (USC Viterbi school of engineering).
The Orange County Register hadn't foreseen the downfall of print journalism with the rise of the Internet. Ian Hamilton, the Register's technology reporter, Sonya Smith, social and mobile leader, and Claus Enevoldsen, director of interactive marketing, had anxiously explained the Register's position as a print news organization in hopes that we, two Annenberg students, one Marshall student and one Viterbi student, could develop a new strategy that potentially could save their business.
We put ourselves in their shoes. Print journalism, the path they had passionately chosen for themselves years ago, would never be the primary source of news again. Online publications, being free with cheap advertising, could not become a substantial source of revenue as they are.
After a decade of canceled print subscriptions in favor of reading more up to date content for free on the Internet, would people be willing to pay for online content? And more specifically, would people pay for mobile news applications on their phones and tablets (e.g. the iPad)?
In our presentation, we reconfirmed what the Register had been silently telling themselves all along - mobile is here to stay. We encouraged the Register to be early adopters and to incorporate advanced tablet strategy into their working mobile strategy.
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Newspaper journalism isn't dead; just look at the numbers
June 4, 2010
Headlines read, “Newspapers are dying” and “Struggling newspapers fear the future.” The future for traditional newspapers is grave at best.This doomsday outlook for newspapers has been repeatedly reiterated in study after study. From polls showing dwindling circulations numbers to surveying the social media platforms that people now use for news, these studies have shown that traditional newspapers are no longer a thriving business model.
However, a new study was recently released by the Newspaper National Network that found the number of unique visitors to US newspaper websites is at an all-time high. From March to April 2010, the top 25 markets grew 10 percent reaching 83.7 million. These visitors generated a total of more than 2 billion page views in April, up 24 percent from 1.6 billion page views in January.
This study is a strong indicator that journalism isn’t dead. Nor is the quest for news diminishing as the newspaper industry has struggled. And while newspapers lay off journalists and fail to meet the needs of the public, it is now apparent that Americans are actively finding an alternative source to keep abreast on the news they care about.
Another interesting aspect of this study is that newspaper websites, collectively, were more popular than sites like CNN.com or MSNBC.com. This is a dramatic change of website usage of the past. No longer, are most Americans turning to national news sites before browsing their own local newspapers.
This is great news for every newsroom around the nation. In fact, this may be the silver lining for the survival of newspapers. By turning attention to optimizing their website, these newspapers may be able to save themselves from bankruptcy, laying off staff, and ultimately shutting their doors for good.
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What to cut when ad revenue doesn't cover your expenses?
June 2, 2010
The toughest question facing news editors today is: What will you cut when your advertising revenue (or other income) isn't providing enough money to cover your newsroom's expenses?Obviously, we're all looking for new sources of revenue so that we don't have to make a brutal decision like this. But in a competitive publishing market, many legacy news organizations simply are too big for what their market share now supports. What goes, then?
Over the past year, I'd heard several news editors point toward positions such as movie critics, arguing that some beats can be covered by user-generated content (such as reader-submitted movie reviews, in this case). While I'm a huge fan of reader participation on news websites, I'd like to suggest that this approach - swapping UGC coverage for staff reports - reflects the same wrong thinking that got so many newspapers into their current mess.
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