Survey: What would you pay to access news and information?
With recent revelations like the New York Timesinstalling their TimesSelect service later on this year, the NY Post implementing registration on their site, and others requiring some sort of demographic information, it's pretty clear that the media economy has grown to a point where advertisers and publishers alike are trying to get a handle on who's reading what - and how to market towards them.
Let's take a look at what people are thinking with regard to signing up, paying the price (one way or another), or voting for no registration or anything of that sort.
On Tuesday, Reuters announced that Tim Faircliff, previously the general manager of the Telegraph.co.uk website, had come on board as General Manager of its UK news and business information consumer products - just a few days after the news organization named MSNBC.com editor-in-chief David Wright to a role in the same organization.
Faircliff will be responsible for product and site development, as well as marketing and sales efforts for Reuters' attempt to attract consumers directly to its content - news and information. Will the company's partners catch wind (which they surely have already) of this plan and lessen the volume of Reuters news and information that they are currently utilizing, as they appear to be just the "middleman" for the company at this time? Or is the sandbox big enough for everyone to play nicely in?
In the Washington Times, Jennifer Harper writes about a recent study [PDF] by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) that showed a decrease of one-third for the number of anonymous sources used in a large sample of media stories covering the first year of President Reagan's administration as compared to the first year of President George W. Bush's term.
What's it mean? Well, leaving the folks with conspiracy theories aside, it means that journalists are not only relying on more sources who are on the 'up and up' and attempting to get more credible sources to share information on the record.
While the U.S. hasn't exactly been a hotbed of growth for newspaper circulation, it's not the bellwether for the rest of the world as a whole. Reuters' Jeffrey Goldfarb informs that global circ had actually gone up 2.1% for the full year 2004, even with the U.S. seeing a 1% decrease and the EU dropping .7%.
A little more than a year ago, the cranking out of specialized magazines was lava-hot with new publications popping up all over the place. If some stats thrown out there by BusinessWeek's Pallavi Gogoi are any indication, that still seems to be the case today. Though that doesn't mean that the magazines are staying on the newsstands very long.
As for TMD's opinion on the subject, I still think the niche idea is the way to go - as detailed here and here. What people don't realize is that the cost to enter the print publication market is still high - the magazines still have to reach the newsstand. The problem is that many new publisher's aren't sold on the online-only model just yet, and for good reason - many of their target readers still subscribe to print pubs, and there's no way around that, yet.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Lisa Stiffler writes about former Seattle-area journalist Don McGaffin, who died on Sunday at age 78. McGaffin was well known to locals for his investigative reporting and specific style, as exhibited in a tough interview he had with President Richard Nixon in 1972.
The AP's Julhas Alam reports that Golam Mahfuz, editor of the Bangladeshi Comilla Muktakantha newspaper, was killed on Monday by "unidentified assailants."
The Arizona Republic's Bill Goodykoontz calls CNN "unmatched when it comes to covering breaking news on television," and gives a few words of advice to how they should plan the next 25 years of newsgathering and reporting. Goodykoontz also talks about how our lives, at least those touched with cable or satellite television, have changed so much since the advent of instantaneous, wall-to-wall, on the ground coverage of stories anywhere and everywhere - something that we didn't have, at least in this fashion, with the three networks.
[ed: CNN's happy 25th is tomorrow, June 1. Congratulations and best wishes to any and all associated with the network.]
The adoption of tabloid format is one that would make most newspaper editors cringe - and not just because of the change in column inches, either. As World Association of Newspapers adviser Jim Chisholm says, the Wall Street Journal's recent transition of its International edition to tabloid is the best example that believers in the format could have.
With Internet readership of publications rising at an almost unexpected rate, what will come of various plans to implement - or not - fees for access to news and information? The Washington Post's Leslie Walker wants to know.
Mr. Sun is always good for a laugh. But today, he's good for an all out, true to form, LOL. He's got the deets on the Mainstream Media-seeking "MSM-1000" truck that looks to destroy members of the media anywhere it can find them. Okay, not really, but it sure looked that way!
K. Paul Mallasch put together supercool runthrough (he calls it a "quick rundown," but trust me, take your time) of "We Media," a piece by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. Read the whole thing - he's added links to each section to help you digest (or ingest, as it were) as much info as possible through books and other content.
What I want to know is what took longer - me reading it all, or him putting it together.
To the reader who sent me an email today (or late last night) mentioning something about TMD with regard to non-news-related media items, would you please re-send your email? I'm sorry, but I got a little hasty when getting rid of about 100+ spams that Gmail didn't catch today, and accidentally threw it away, but saw it just as I hit "Delete Forever."
I apologize for the delay in getting back to you, and really enjoy reader comments and questions - thankfully, the blog format gives me the opportunity to try out things like this.
To the rest of TMD's readers, please pardon the interruption. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
On Wednesday, Reuters named David Wright, formerly MSNBC.com Editor-in-Chief, to a new role the organization has just implemented - Senior Vice President / Managing Editor for Consumer Services. Reuters is looking to create new opportunities for distribution of their news content directly to readers/viewers, and Wright will be on the forefront of those efforts. Previously, Wright held roles at the Associated Press, Toronto Star, and San Jose Mercury News.
At a blog panel event that Reuters hosted a few months back, I had heard a few things about the group looking at mobile technologies as a direction to focus on, but the question still remains as to whether the average consumer will easily adopt Reuters as a source to get news and information - hence Wright's addition to the staff.
The New York Times' Jacques Steinberg reports that NBC News boss Neil Shapiro appears to be on the way out - the only thing left to clear up, though, is whether it's on his own or not.
Thursday's Wall Street Journal has an article by Carl Bialik asking if the numbers quoted in various places about how many blogs there actually are are correct - or if they based on different perceptions of what a blog is, live blogs or not, or a number of other factors.
Billboard Radio Monitor's Chuck Taylor reports Wednesday morning that WFAN sports talk show host Sid Rosenberg has been fired from the "Imus in the Morning" radio program, which is also run on television's MSNBC - but not from his role as host from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on WFAN's midday show.
David at Vodkafish sent me a great screenshot of the front page of ESPN.com this afternoon. They were showing something about Washington Nationals slugger Jose Guillen - but accidentally replaced his image with one of Andre Agassi - actually the same image that was placed on the right side of the page, just blown up and pixelated.
Unlike with his personal problems, WFAN's Sid Rosenberg seems to have public opinion slanting against him with regard to his actions after singer Kylie Minogue's announced last week that she had breast cancer. Rosenberg made obnoxious comments, on-air, about results of treatment that Minogue would be receiving, leaving fans to wonder what his deal was. The New York Post's Phil Mushnick says that this is just Rosenberg "going too far in his mandate to serve as Don Imus's trained pet pig."
Rosenberg isn't present on the "Imus in the Morning" program this morning on the radio or MSNBC.
[update]NYDN's Bob Raissman reports that Rosenberg has been pulled from Imus' show until further notice, and no additional word on his tenure at WFAN in New York has been made public at this point.
Buffalo News editor Margaret Sullivan says that as bad as the media scandals that have gone on in the last few years are, they should result in much, much better ethical behavior by staffers at publications everywhere.
According to the Boston Globe's Mark Jurkowitz, publisher Niche Media just can't do anything right of late. After working their way out of one lawsuit, they're getting hit with another by Boston magazine for grabbing a list of advertisers from that publication through employees that have since signed on with Niche.
The Press-Enterprise's Lisa McPheron informs that San Bernadino area radio station KVCR-FM, 91.1, will drop its mostly classical music format on the NPR station and shift towards "locally produced news and talk shows and syndicated public radio programming."
The AP's Matt Volz writes Saturday about a letter to the editor that an Alaska state staffer, Joe Holbert, sent to the Juneau Empire. In the letter, Holbert portrayed himself as a journalist, never mentioning his current profession. Holbert defends himself by saying that he was expressing his "personal" feelings about a gas pipeline deal that the state is looking into, and not relating anything specific to his role as a spokesperson for the government. But is it the right thing to have done?
It's become apparent that "breaking up" the RSS feeds list for newspapers and other publications that was aggregated late in 2004 is the best thing to do. Furthermore, this post will contain newspapers and business journals alone, and following posts will cover college and university publications.
[May 21, 2005 - Added Tri-City Herald, The Herald (SC)]
[May 23, 2005 - Added Seattle Times, Kansas City Star, City Pages, New York Daily News]
[January 8, 2005 - Added Nashville Post]
[June 2, 2006 - Added Asbury Park Press]
I'm not sure I could be more aghast at the fact that a Chinese journalist would be attacked in his own home, have two of his fingers chopped off, all most likely because of his work.
The Los Angeles Times' Fred Alvarez reports that the Ventura County Star has removed the ability for readers to comment on individual stories on the newspaper's website, due to "a surge of nasty, off-topic comments in recent weeks."
This was something that Dean Landsman and Stephen Baker mentioned Thursday evening on a blog panel, with both stating that many staffers at publications are wary of someone "out there" posting inflammatory statements about the publication, about a subject of an article, or something completely unrelated - hence the reason we haven't seen more examples of this type of interaction between the public and the publication. Well, at least unmoderated interaction.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I didn't post on a weekday. Been busy with this and that, and haven't had time to post in the last day or so. That day, however, has been a busy one - and, as a reward for my slackerness, you all get to read my exciting list of things I'd like to see. Do what you want with it - heck, do nothing with it. It's here either way.
For say, like, a whole week, can we get Wonkette - the site, not Ana Marie Cox - to be just Ana Marie for once? No offense Greg Beato, but Ms. Cox makes me feel much happier. Just a thought.
Just got in from seeing Episode III, and while I definitely enjoyed it, I'd like someone to tell me why the bulk of reviews it has garnered are more positive than anything, with hardly a critical comment aimed at the film. It was good - but it wasn't that good.
I'd like two more wins for the Yankees over the Mets this weekend.
I'd like for once, that someone would really stand up to the status quo and say something that might happen to offend someone who has stature in the blogosphere - and not on a personal level - as in, I hate, no despise, no - can't stand - the term 'podcasting'. The 'pod' part just has to go - don't give Apple that much credit (and believe me, I love my iPod to death). The fact of the matter is, people have been recording and distributing audio content online for a long, long time. The fact that it's now a lot more easy to create homebrewed, professional sounding stuff is great - I'm not trashing that as a fact - but it's the distribution method that's important, the ability to add it to the RSS feeds as enclosures so that software like iPodder and others can read it and, in turn, drop it into your audio software. Because to be honest, it's not really that hard for me to just drop an mp3 on my site and get people to listen to it - all they have to do is open up iTunes or whatever software they have set up to play audio, import the file, end of story. It's like blogging - the content isn't what is new and exciting, it's the ability for each and every one of us to publish whatever, whenever, combined with an ability for those who want to subscribe to take part in a push/pull through RSS. Additionally, ubiquity of broadband arrived at just the right time.
Sorry for that last one, been building up a while.
I'd love to see more blog events like the one that I got to be a part of on Thursday evening in Montclair, New Jersey. Not for nothing, but when the overflow discussion after an event lasts almost as long as the event itself, something positive came about. Props to Serge the Concierge, Debbie Galant from Baristanet, Salim Ismail from PubSub, Dean Landsman from Deanland, and Stephen Baker from BusinessWeek for sharing all of their insights, and thanks to all who attended, whether you knew what a blog was before you got there or not.
I think that's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading!
On Wednesday, The New York Times Company announced that their current VP of strategic planning for the Boston Globe and the company's New England Media Group, Scott Meyer, would succeed Peter Horan as President and CEO of About, Inc.
More details available here in the company's news release. (BW)
Lubbock, Texas NBC affiliate KCBD has a two part feature up on its website entitled "The Changing Face of Network News," focusing on the transition that NBC Nightly News has made from Tom Brokaw to Brian Williams.
Tigers make it back on the airwaves in Grand Rapids
Shortly after being removed from the airwaves of 640 AM WMFN, the Detroit Tigers are back on the air, the Grand Rapids Pressreports. After a week of stating that the cost of running the games was just too much to bear, the station has apparently decided that it's in their best interest - oh, and they were more or less contractually obligated to do so, anyway.
I'm having a bit of difficulty with my transition from TypeKey to CAPTCHA at the moment, and it's irking my design for individual posts for some reason, so please bear with me when leaving a comment. This should be fixed soon, just trying to find the nasty culprit in the code.
If you happen to be one of those nifty sorts who sees those things with your eyes closed, then drop me a line via email or IM.
With all the fuss about the New York Timesimplementing their TimesSelect pay-to-read plan later this year, it's probably a good idea to hear what the publication has to say for itself. Over at PaidContent, Rafat Ali has audio of NYT Digital's Martin Nisenholtz speaking at the Syndicate conference this week, where he discussed the subject, along with the rest of the Digital plans, in depth.
Media consolidation discussed at Illinois conference
Urbana-Champaign's News-Gazetteran an article last week by Ernst Lamothe, Jr. about some discussions that took place last week at the University of Illinois, mostly about media consolidation. Included in sessions were Phil Donahue, Seymour Hersh, and Air America's Danny Goldberg.
Remember that nifty blog article in BusinessWeek a few weeks back? Well, one of the authors, Stephen Baker, is now going to participate on the blog panel I'll be participating in on Thursday evening. Very cool.
Again, more details here if you're interested in attending!
Penn State Live's Steve Sampsell writes about some research that shows that some sports departments at publications are a little lax with their ethical standards, as compared to the rest of the newsroom.
On Thursday, May 19, a blog panel discussion about the effect blogging will have on business communication will take place at the Church Street Cafe in Montclair, New Jersey. I'll be taking part along with Debbie Galant of baristanet, PubSub CEO Salim Ismail, and Dean Landsman.
More details are available here at Montclair Concierges or here at the event blog.
Has Newsweek's retraction made press credibility worse in the eyes of readers?
Also, check out this item in the Stanford Daily, which covers a panel discussion on Monday on that school's campus. Included on the panel was Tim Porter, who put together some of the best thoughts on the Newsweek situation.
Tuesday's Wall Street Journalfeatures a piece by Joe Hagan about sourcing and journalism in today's world. Hagan discusses whether unnamed or anonymous sources, which for a long time have been the originators of stories that have become huge deals, could take a big hit as far as credibility goes in the reader's eye - and if that's a good thing for us all in the long term.
For, as it is with many sensitive issues, many people don't want to speak on the record, and a publication might not run a story without naming the source - even if it has multiple sources - so who's ever going to tell the hard story. Not that this is *really* the issue in this particular instance with Newsweek, but it's definitely related. The topic of much discussion for the next few weeks will absolutely be under what circumstances that unnamed sources can and should be used, and if more internal controls have to be in place so that sources can maintain their privacy and a publisher can maintain its dignity.
By now everyone's heard at least a tidbit or two about the whole Newsweek disaster surrounding their report that a copy of the Koran was destroyed during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay. K. Paul Mallasch has a good roundup on the situation, and Instapundit seems to be a rip-roaring good time for the subject as well.
[update] LGF points out that the magazine has retracted the story this evening.
