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Posted 3:30 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Page Bloat, Revisited
Steve Outing on overcrowded home pages
I've gotten quite a bit of push-back on my suggestions (published here as well as in a recent Editor & Publisher column) that most news website home pages are too crowded. Support for busy news home pages keeps coming in — as well as a slightly smaller number of notes supportive of my call for home-page dieting. The principal argument in opposition to my view is that news sites, especially the larger ones, have a lot of content and services to promote — and by leaving them off the home page, they simply won't get noticed.
So, allow me to offer a compromise suggestion to those who think that having lots and lots of links and content on a news home page is OK. At the least, take a close inventory of every link on your page. Does it really need to be there any longer? When it was first put there, it was important, but is it no longer relevant to your users? Consider every link and content item, and make each one fight for its life. If it's to stay, there should be a reason that can be articulated. I'll bet that a typical crowded news site home page could be trimmed of 10% of its fat by doing this exercise.
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Posted 11:16 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Newsplex Opens in Style
Martha Stone on convergence
The stunning new IFRA Newsplex at the University of South Carolina has been getting a workout in the past two evenings — not with multimedia journalism training, but celebrating its contributors, supporters, and especially its champion, Kerry Northrup. Three conferences this week are wrapped around the grand opening, including a MUDIA (Multimedia Content in the Digital Age) conference about the European multimedia landscape on Tuesday, the professional conference focused on defining convergence yesterday and today, and the academic conference this afternoon and tomorrow, comprised of presentations of scholarly research about convergence. So far, an impressive show of ideas and enthusiasm for the development of multimedia journalism!
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Posted 11:04 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Can Daniela Challenge Anna Online?
Steve Klein on online sports content
How does she do it? OK, so that's a dumb question. Sex appeal has kept Anna Kournikova endlessly on top of Aaron Schatz's top 10 list of sports figures ranked in terms of search requests by Lycos users. To give Kournikova's sport (tennis, not sex appeal) some list legitimacy, Serena Williams, the No. 1 women's player, is No. 4 on the list as of November 9. But the importance of sex appeal (and don't think the Women's Tennis Association doesn't know it) is re-emphasized by the (lovely) presence of Daniela Hantuchova, the world's 8th best right now, at No. 6 on the Lycos list. As for the guys, well, they don't cut it.
The rest of the top 10: No. 2, Michael Jordan; 5, David Beckham; 7, Kobe Bryant; 8, Tony Hawk; 9, Dale Earnhardt Jr.; and 10, Tiger Woods. No (American) football players, no baseball players, no hockey players, by the way. Schatz points out that Ohio prep basketball star Lebron James, expected to be the No. 1 NBA draft pick straight out of high school, is No. 6 among current league players. As for football players (NFL: take note that Manchester United's Beckham is No. 5), Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys is tops among NFL players.
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Posted 10:53 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Video Streaming Blast in Spain
Eva Domínguez on online entertainment
Spain has a very high consumption of streaming video on the Net, but recently the ranking has skyrocketed. This is due to the broadcasting of the second edition of a program named Operación Triunfo, in which 17 young singers live and learn in a musical academy and show the results in a live show every week. At the end of the show, one of them is expelled from the academy. One of the three finalists will represent Spain in the Eurovision Festival.
The videos of each song of the show are available online. In only 15 days, 213,261 copies have been downloaded from the site of the TV program. The user can choose between three options that range from 6 to 13 MB. The company Lavinia TC created the technological platform that does the encoding and hosting of the videos, which can be played with RealOne Player. Last season, the program was a phenomenon in Spanish television.
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Posted 5:44 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
In Spokane, a Promotion for the Online Side
Steve Outing on newsroom management
Ken Sands of the Spokesman-Review newspaper (Spokane, Washington) got a promotion yesterday — from "interactive editor" to "managing editor of online and new media." This isn't a dramatic departure from what Sands has been doing lately, although it puts him "in charge of our 'don't-call-it-convergence' collaboration with the local TV station that's owned by the owners of the newspaper," and he officially heads up the paper's website. What's more important, he says, is that "it substantially elevates the position of online editor to managing editor status in the newsroom. That's important as we embark on an attempt to truly integrate the entire news department into a 24/7 operation." For a medium-sized newspaper, this is an innovative move. (Here's a story about Sands' appointment.)
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Posted 4:00 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
PowerPoint and Writing Skills
Steve Klein on presentation vs. content
When discussing the inter-relationship of form, presentation, and content on the Internet, here's something journalism instructors and editors may have to consider with the "next generation" of journalists. PowerPoint has hit the classroom bigtime — as early as the second grade, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) by June Kronholz. "Book reports, maps, biographies, and other projects that used to be done as written reports or poster-board presentations, or even as shoe-box dioramas and popsicle-stick models, now are being put on PowerPoint," she writes.But there is reason for some concern. PowerPoint graphics can be so eye-catching that "you can forget to look at the content," said elementary teacher Daniel Zittoun. "It can make a pretty crappy presentation look good," said John Balow, an elementary school principal. When writing is reduced to bullets and sentence fragments — good form on the Web — the flashy presentations can lack depth. Spelling and grammar checkers have also become a crutch. Anyone who teaches, even at the college level, knows that writing skills continue to erode. Bland Simpson, who heads the creative-writing program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, warns of the day when "we may see people who think in bullets" because of PowerPoint. Good writing should always be good writing, whether it's delivered in print or on the Internet.
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Posted 12:33 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Coming Friday: A New E-Media Tidbits
Steve Outing on Poynter.org changes
Heads up! This Friday afternoon, Poynter.org, publisher of this weblog, will debut a new design and new website features — part of switching to a new Web publishing system. The changes will affect E-Media Tidbits, which will have a different look and some nifty new features. One feature is an improved Discussion/Feedback area. Poynter online chieftain Bill Mitchell previews the changes in this note to users over on Jim Romenesko's MediaNews weblog.
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Posted 11:53 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
PVRs: Not Just for TV Junkies
Steve Outing on TiVo misconceptions
I've written about personal video recorders (TiVo, ReplayTV) recently, so I was interested in today's story on PVRs by Wall Street Journal reporter Nick Wingfield. Alas, I think he's off base on some things. Wingfield: "While sales of digital videorecorders have already changed the viewing habits of couch potatoes, the customer base at this point mostly consists of the TV-obsessed." I think he's wrong, and I (a TiVo devotee) am an example. PVRs simply give control over TV viewing — there's no longer a need to watch when networks broadcast something. For time-starved people (like me) who don't watch much TV, a PVR is a way to watch the few programs that are worth watching. If not for my TiVo, I doubt that I'd turn on the TV in my house more than a couple times a week. (And don't tell me that a VCR can accomplish the same thing; if you think that, you've never experienced a PVR. It's like a CD vs. reel-to-reel tape.)
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Posted 11:19 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Most Brilliant Newspaper Archive Yet
Peter M. Zollman on the Toronto Star's offering
It's tough to make me go "WOW!" when I see a new product launched, but I sure said that — and a few other superlatives — when I saw the new Pages of the Past section from the Toronto Star. This archive is the first of its kind that I've seen anywhere, with every page from every edition easily searchable. It was built by Cold North Wind, which has been digitizing newspaper back issues for a few years now. Every page of the New York Times also has been digitized, but it's not available online yet. Boy, could the Gray Lady learn from this!Pricing is ingenious — and also (I think) a first. For two hours, it's just C$2.95 (US$1.95); one day, C$9.95 (US$6.56), and one week, C$49.95 (US$32.93). Why charge people for one day as the smallest increment, when all they want is one shot at the database? I have some minor quibbles — promotion should be more prominent, drop-downs with 100 years in them are a little clumsy — but overall, this is a fabulous product that should be emulated by newspapers large and small everywhere.
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Posted 11:05 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
TV and the Internet as Economic Cheerleaders
Steve Klein on the dot-com bust
So, the media did it? What was the media's role in the stock market and dot-com boom and bust of the late '90s? The Washington Post is examining those questions, and more, in a six-part series begun Sunday that examines CEOs, the regulators, venture capitalists, investment banks, and analysts as well as the media. Post media critic Howard Kurtz takes a hard look at CNBC specifically. He writes: "Back in the heady days of a stampeding bull market CNBC was a driving force, a cultural phenomenon, a ratings success, the play-by-play announcer for America's new pastime." Kurtz concludes that both the TV channel and the website covered investing like it was a competitive sport.In a sidebar, Steven Pearlstein writes that 24/7 media coverage certainly fueled the so-called "new economy": "What became a mass obsession required mass media. Instead of a niche Friday night audience on PBS, the market talk ran 24/7 on competing cable stations and radio networks. The kind of gossip and strategies insiders once got from monthly newsletters now was disseminated in real time on hundreds of new Internet sites." It's thought-provoking reporting and worth the investment in time.
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Posted 5:41 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
How to Get Salon for Free
Steve Outing on online revenue models
This is a nice idea: Salon.com is offering a free "day pass" to its Salon Premium paid-subscription site if users will view a few pages of advertising content from Mercedes. In effect, the German automaker is picking up the tab so that anyone can sample the Premium service. It's a smart strategy because Salon picks up some ad revenue from Mercedes; Mercedes gets an audience that's guaranteed to view several pages of its message; and Salon gets a marketing vehicle that probably will result in some new Premium paid subscriptions. Salon has been innovative in its approach to the Premium service, trying this and trying that. For example, it offers a discount if Premium members are willing to view the ads that users of the free portion of the site see; pay more and you get an ad-free online experience. Salon CEO Michael O'Donnell explains the Mercedes offer in a letter to readers.
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Posted 2:32 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Vin's List: Digital Editions Flourish
Steve Outing on replica publications
Fellow E-Media Tidbits contributor Vin Crosbie just published the inaugural edition of his Digital Deliverances subscription newsletter ($150/year). Included is a comprehensive list of publications worldwide that offer digital-replica editions. The count: 200 newspapers and 42 magazines. While the U.S. has the most publishers offering digital editions (46), there are 29 Russian publications available, and 23 from India. Vendors offering the most digital newspaper titles are NewspaperDirect and PEPC Presspoint. In the magazine world, the top vendors are qMags and Zinio. As Vin points out, digital-replica editions are not new — some publishers have had them for half a decade. But momentum is building and a new wave of publishers worldwide are enthusiastically offering them.
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Posted 12:35 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Publisher Solution for Dumb Spam Filters: Go Backward?
Steve Outing on e-mail publishing
Anne Holland's ContentBlog touches on the spam-filtering problems of ethical opt-in e-mail publishers again today. Holland for some time has been deliberately putting typos — e.g., typing "s*pam" instead of "spam" — into her newsletters in order to avoid triggering corporate and ISP spam filters that otherwise prevent her newsletters from getting to her subscribers. She offers proof that significant numbers of her subscribers don't get her newsletters if she uses certain words (many of which are innocent in the context she uses them) in subject lines, headlines, or article text. It's a continuing, vexing problem.Perhaps this is the ultimate solution: Instead of sending out full content, just send out announcements about your latest newsletter and ask your readers to view it on the Web, so you can use whatever words you want in your content. That'll work, but it's admitting defeat. Though I suppose it's better than intentionally misspelling words to avoid being filtered. The situation is pathetic, either way.
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Posted 11:29 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Clarín Gets Electronic Edition
Juan C. Camus on digital delivery
Argentina's Clarín has jumped over other Latin American news websites again, introducing its "electronic edition," an online digital-replica service that's like the one offered by the New York Times. Clarín explains on the first page that its electronic edition is free for a short time, then monthly fees will begin.
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Posted 11:16 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
ISP and Content Provider Share Revenue
Ernst Poulsen on online business models
In a deal that may well be groundbreaking, the largest Danish portal, Jubii, has promised to provide unique services to Web surfers from a specific ISP in return for a revenue-sharing plan. Specifically, the Lycos-owned Jubii site will provide improved chat functionality to surfers from a given ISP. Other surfers will be reminded that they could get the extra features if they change ISPs. In return, Jubii gets a share of the revenue generated for every minute the ISP's customers spend in the Jubii chat room. Jubii CEO Martin Thorborg estimates that 80,000 of the 280,000 people who use the chat forum are hard-core users.Thorborg heavily promoted the idea of revenue sharing a year ago. "And I was ridiculed by the public," he remembers. "But a movie-theater owner who charges $10 for access to his theater expects to share his revenue with the people who made the film."
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Posted 9:57 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
MSNBC.com, elmundo.es Dominate SND.ies
Laura Ruel on new-media design
Elmundo.es and MSNBC.com were the top award winners in the Society for News Design's first annual SND.ies. The awards, announced at SND's awards banquet on Saturday in Savannah, Georgia, included eight Bronze Awards and seven Silver Awards. Not only did elmundo.es and MSNBC.com come out on top in the number of awards won — elmundo.es, 10; MSNBC.com, 7 — but they also were given Judges' Special Recognition awards for the notable contributions they have made to this emerging area of journalism design. The judges called the staff of elmundo.es leaders in the field of multimedia journalism design. MSNBC.com was recognized for its management's commitment to multimedia presentation and for the advanced multimedia components in its entries. The judges commended the organization for pushing the envelope and taking chances with design, as well as the breadth and depth of its work.Other award winners included the Canadian Press, NYTimes.com, Reuters.com, and Sun-Sentinel.com. (Note: I serve as chair for these awards, and fellow E-Media Tidbits contributor Martha Stone was a judge during the inaugural competition.) Here's a complete list of winners.
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Posted 6:04 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Dumb Divergence Targeting Tablet PCs
Vin Crosbie on electronic publishing
If you want to read about a dumb idea resulting from lack of coordination by sectors of the publishing industry, then this is your lucky day. Here goes: Imagine if you had to use the AOL browser to visit any newspaper's websites, but had to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 to visit any magazine's sites, but had to use Opera 6 to visit any broadcaster's sites, but had to use Netscape 6 to visit any e-commerce site. OK, that's far fetched, but something similar is really happening in regard to the new Tablet PCs: Zinio and the magazine industry are unveiling proprietary software designed for reading magazines on Tablet PCs. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times, Adobe Inc., and Kent State University's Institute for Cyberinformation are unveiling software for reading newspapers on Tablet PCs. McGraw-Hill, the AOL Time Warner Book Group, and other academic publishers are formulating other software designed for reading textbooks on Tablet PCs. And I wouldn't be surprised if the catalog industry is working on its own proprietary software for Tablet PCs.Each sector of the publishing industry forgets that people read newspapers and magazines and books and catalogs and office documents and grocery lists. Does each sector think that people will want to install and run different software to read different sectors' publications? If so, that's a dumb and doomed idea. Any solution designed for just one sector of publishing will fail to achieve critical mass in the consumer marketplace, plus thwart the other sectors' potential for success. A common Open Source solution is needed — a standard software format by which people can use any electronic device to read any newspaper, magazines, book, catalog, holiday card, or love note. That common solution is not going to arise from any publishing sector's proprietary efforts or its proprietary vendors. Instead, cooperation among the newspaper, magazines, book, and catalog industries is needed. If content is to 'converge,' those industries' efforts need to converge, too.
The book industry had invited the cooperation of the newspaper and magazine industries, but was rebuffed. It's bad enough that sectors aren't cooperating. It's worse that the publishing industry is betting some of its hopes on Tablet PCs — devices whose only advantage is reading handwriting and that cost four times the price of a desktop PC.
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Posted 4:16 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Future of Newsrooms?
Steve Outing on convergence
Newsplex opens this week. That's the converged newsroom-of-the-future prototype at the University of South Carolina, a project of Ifra. Editor & Publisher Online editor Carl Sullivan has an interview with Newsplex executive director Kerry Northrup.
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Posted 4:06 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Compact Home Page
Steve Outing on website design
I've been going on about compact, simple news website home pages recently. The trend has been toward home pages that are bloated with sometimes hundreds of links and content elements. Here's an example of a fairly compact, efficient home page: The West Australian.
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Posted 2:42 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
PC Tablets May Find a Niche in PC Magazines
Paul Grabowicz on new media
I doubt that the Tablet PCs unveiled this month will prove to be a popular publishing platform for most magazines or newspapers. But one segment that may find a significant readership on these devices is tech and computer publications, which are read by people most likely to be early adopters of the tablets. PC Magazine is one such publication that sees promise in digital subscriptions to a tablet version, according to a story in Technology Marketing.
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Posted 1:34 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
SND Highlights: Flash, Usability Testing
Martha Stone on design conference observations
The Society for News Design's annual conference was held in Savannah, Georgia, this past weekend, and included some interesting new-media workshops. Judging from speakers' presentations, Macromedia Flash is gaining ground on websites, and has become more sophisticated. Marlowe Hood from Agence France Presse's graphics department, Corrie Parsonson (most recently from Reuters' graphics service), and independent Flash designer Jeff Mignon told about database-driven Flash graphics (mostly business and sports) becoming more popular with clients. Meanwhile, John Weir, designer of IHT.com, drew a big crowd for the presentation of his user-friendly approach to online-news design. And Steve Yelvington from Morris Digital Works waxed eloquently about the importance of a solid planning and architecture to achieve optimal usability results.
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Posted 12:58 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Macromedia Debuts 'Contribute'
Steve Outing on Web authoring software
The latest application from Macromedia, "Contribute," which debuted late last night (an odd time for a press preview event), looks interesting. The idea is to facilitate simple editorial changes to content without content providers having to go into page code or know HTML — and it frees up webmasters from having to make piddling changes requested by non-technical editors who can instead do it themselves. That's a great concept. I haven't tried it out yet so will reserve comment on the implementation, but it looks to serve a great need.
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