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Posted 12:20 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Are Bloggers Journalists? Do We Care?
Steve Outing on weblogs
Bloggers/webloggers tend to think they're doing something innovative — something that is changing the media world. But debate rages on whether bloggers are "journalists," or are they "parasites" who take the original reporting of "real journalists" and pour it through a different spigot? This argument has played out recently on Microcontent News and other weblogs that are reacting to what MCN's John Hiler has written in recent days.In looking at this question, I pondered this weblog. The 20 writers who contribute to E-Media Tidbits are a mixture of professional journalists, consultants, academics, and business people. (Each of them is rightly considered an expert in new media/online journalism.) Many items reference articles or work published by others, but typically with some expert analysis (added value) thrown in. Some items are original reporting that you won't find anywhere else. I dare to call this weblog a journalistic work. I wouldn't say the same about all weblogs, but many embody what journalism stands for, albeit in a non-traditional form.
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Posted 11:51 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Big Atlanta Businesses Get Their Own Web Coverage
Steve Outing on media reporting
IWantMedia.com today published an interview with Matt Kempner, media reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Besides his print duties, Kempner maintains and reports for the CNN Insider page, part of ajc.com. AJC editors realized that stories about the biggest Atlanta-based business were generating a lot of traffic on the paper's website, so they created pages for those people with an intense interest in those businesses. In addition to CNN, the site has similar pages of ongoing coverage of Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines. Bravo to AJC and any newspaper that spins off specialty coverage on the Web and gives print-side journalists the time to maintain their online features.
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Posted 3:51 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
European Parliament Against Spam
Norbert Specker on Internet law
The European parliament has decided on a strict "opt-in" only regulation for e-mail marketing (as for fax and telephone, subheaded under "electronic advertising"). The only exceptions are existing, active client lists. Cookies are still alowed but only if users have been clearly informed about their functions and intentions.
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Posted 3:44 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
You Haven't Really Missed the Conference
Katja Riefler on interactive TV online
Unfortunately, it is not possible to visit all the interesting conferences. One I recently missed was the TV meets the Web seminar in Amsterdam. Fortunately, the research company Van Dusseldorp & Partners (which produced the event) has made an excellent report available online at no cost and posted most of the presentations. You also can watch webcasts of the event. Short of being there, you can still get an overview of the newest developments in interactive TV.
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Posted 1:18 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
How Much New Media Training Should J Students Get?
Steve Outing on journalism education
Journalism educators often debate the issue of how much "new media" training they should require of their students — including how much Internet technical training should be included in curricula that might take away instruction time from pure journalism training. Last fall, Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies and a contributor to this weblog, brought together the "New Media Dons" group, American journalism professors, for a roundtable discussion. A long transcript of the meeting is on the Dons website, and a printed booklet summarizing the discussion (edited by Nora and Laura Ruel of the Estlow Center for Journalism and New Media Studies) has just been made available (send e-mail to Brandy Lietz, blietz@umn.edu).
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Posted 11:12 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Put Your Blog on the Map
Jade Walker on promoting weblogs
What a clever idea! New Yorkers Mike Everett-Lane and Liz Maryland have just launched one of the coolest weblog directories I've seen on the Internet. NYC Bloggers lists local Web journals by borough and by subway station. My own blog, Afterthoughts, can be found under the Broadway Express/Brighton Local Q line.
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Posted 11:05 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Personal World Cup Preparation
Norbert Specker on online sports content
With the online video coverage limited to four minutes per game in the World Cup, we will see a lot of interesting animations. A Reuters microsite gives an idea of how goals and moves will be illustrated. It also helps you to get the most tricky rule of the game — "offside" — straight. To extend your bluffing options, get the BBC's "Five Live's Chancer's Guides" to former World Cups. It tells you, for example, which player found himself having to hold up his shorts with one hand while taking a penalty, and other priceless facts.
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Posted 2:44 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Coming Soon: Ads on Blogs
Steve Outing on trends in the weblog world
It was inevitable, and here it comes. As early as next month, you'll find advertising on many weblogs/blogs. PressFlex, a European Internet consultancy serving publishers, says that in June it will introduce a new service to help individual bloggers sell and display classified ads. PressFlex will host the service and take a small fee on each ad sale. Here's a long article that explains the system. (Read down toward the bottom of the page to get to the announcement.) Also working on something perhaps similar (we don't know yet) is Nick Denton, the founder of Moreover. For those who think weblogs will always be personal media with no revenue model, think again.
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Posted 2:02 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
El País Will No Longer Be Free on the Internet
Eva Domínguez on charging for online news
It was inevitable that some Spanish newspaper would decide to no longer give away online what it charges for on paper. The biggest Spanish newspaper, El País, is the first to declare that it will not be completely free any longer on the Web. Juan Luis Cebrián, chief executive officer of Grupo Prisa, recently announced that the company will set a price for information and services online before the end of this year. Says Cebrián, "It is not fair that readers of the paper pay for online readers."Some Spanish newspapers do already charge for some specific online information, but general information on online newspapers is still free in Spain. El País could be the first to charge for general news online, but the company has not yet specified what services or news will require a payment by the Internet consumer.
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Posted 10:43 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Online Newspaper Profitability Inches Up
Martha Stone on pay-for-content and accountability
Here at the annual World Association of Newspapers Congress in Belgium, there's lots of talk about reversing dismal revenue projections, multimedia newsroom development, and coverage of terrorist events. Yesterday, an important survey of 429 newspaper executives worldwide by Innovation International Media Consulting for World Association of Newspapers showed that the profitability picture for world online newspapers has improved slightly in the last two years. 58% of news websites surveyed are losing money, compared with 63% in 2000. Meanwhile, 25% report breaking even and 17% report that they are profitable, up from 22% and 15% in 2000. North American news websites report the most profitability (39%), while Europe reports 7% and Latin America 5%.84% of the respondents said advertising was their only revenue model. Most websites (more than 80%) get no income from visitors. Those who do charge visitors charge for subscriptions (20%) or more specific services (70%) or both (10%). Of those surveyed, 34% had the intention to charge visitors in the next year. Those in Europe (29%) and Latin America (30%) were much more likely to intend to charge readers in the next year than those in North America (9%). (Editor's note: Martha Stone is a consultant for Innovation.)
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Posted 6:39 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Former CNN Correspondent to Lead NewsPlex
Vin Crosbie on convergent publishing
Former CNN correspondent Charles Bierbauer, who has been appointed inaugural dean of the University of South Carolina's new College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, will soon also lead academic studies at the Newsplex convergent media center. Due to open in November, NewsPlex is an experimental prototype of a future newsroom where today's news managers and educators can evaluate philosophies, methods, and tools for a convergent marketplace of print, broadcast, online, and wireless news media. "As a journalist, I've worked in television, radio, print, and on the Internet," says Bierbauer. "At one time, these were separate endeavors. Now they are concurrent and convergent. Newsplex is the experimental, instructional, and operational stage for communications processes now and in the future." NewsPlex is a partnership between the university and Ifra's Centre for Advanced News Operations. Bierbauer also will be appointed to the board of directors of the Ifra Centre for Advanced News Operations once he assumes his university post on July 1.
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Posted 3:56 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Sport News, Day and Night
Juan C. Camus on World Cup coverage
What do you do when big news is happening overnight (2 a.m. to 6 a.m. local time) and you know that your online media are a better choice than print to publish it first? Just make a promise: news will be published anytime during 24 hours. This is the case of the World Cup in South America, because in Argentina and Brazil the games with their national teams will be played during the wee hours locally. So websites like Clarin.com in Argentina are announcing 24-hour coverage to give users the latest updates about goals and plays.
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Posted 11:30 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Times Epic in Multimedia
Steve Outing on online storytelling
Did you catch the epic New York Times September 11 package over the weekend? In exhaustive coverage, Times reporters combed through cell phone and e-mail records of the World Trade Center victims to document their final minutes of life after the planes hit the twin towers. (It's a powerful read. I sense a Pulitzer in the future for this.) While much of the package is text that's been repurposed on the NYTimes.com website, there is a very well done multimedia presentation featuring Times journalists narrating infographics that explain the effects of the plane impacts on various floors, and the people working there. This is an effective way to consume this story, an alternative to reading thousands of words of text. In my case, I viewed the multimedia first, then was engrossed and went on to read the whole package. I also loved the opportunity to hear the print journalists' voices — something made possible by the Web. (It goes to show the new importance for print journalists to be trained for also doing audio and/or video work.)
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Posted 12:41 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Libel Laws Pose Extra Challenge for Online Media
Paul Grabowicz on media law
Here's another headache for online publishers — having to know the defamation laws in other states or countries because plaintiffs in libel actions may be able to sue where they, not the media companies, are located. The New York Times reviews two cases — one involving a Virginia prison warden who filed suit in Virginia against two Connecticut newspapers, the other concerning an Australian businessman who sued in that country over a story in New York-based Barron's financial weekly. The Virginia case is now in a federal appeals court, where a decision could set precedent on where libel actions over Web-published stories can be filed.
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Posted 12:36 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Ventura Signs Minnesota Online Privacy and Anti-Spam Law
Vin Crosbie on online privacy
Wrestling with armies of spammers, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura last week signed an Internet privacy law that could affect Internet service providers anywhere in the U.S. if not the world. The new law requires ISPs — even those based outside Minnesota — to alert any Minnesota subscribers before disclosing those subscribers' e-mail or home addresses, telephone numbers, or site visitation history, plus to tell those subscribers why that information is being disclosed. The law also requires ISPs to inform new subscribers whether they must opt-out or opt-in for such disclosures. The ISP is required to pay each Minnesota subscriber the greatest of either $500 or the actual financial damages for any breach of this law.This law, which goes into effect in March, also requires that any unsolicited commercial e-mails sent to Minnesotans include the abbreviation "ADV" at the start of subject lines and prohibits sending commercial e-mails with deceptive or misleading origins or subject lines. (California and Colorado also have enacted state laws with such subject-line requirements.) Senders who violate those terms are liable for a $10 fine for every e-mail sent to Minnesotans, up to a maximum fine of $25,000 per day. Unsolicited commercial e-mails also must include valid opt-out e-mail addresses or toll-free telephone numbers, or else senders are liable for a $25 fine for each e-mail sent to Minnesotans, up to a maximum of $35,000 per day.
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Posted 12:30 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
World Cup Weblog
Andrew Stroehlein, kicking an idea around
You like football/soccer? You like weblogs? Well, the Guardian's World Cup Weblog is for you, then.
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