mediagiraffe

AUDIO: Crowdsourcing in Orange County: the the audience steps in

Glenn Hall, deputy editor of innovation at the Orange County Register, was surprised when the newspaper turned on comments at the bottom of news stories during a series of wildfires. Immediately, a reader thousands of miles from Southern California posted asking about the safety of her grandmother. The audience took it from there. In another incident, the paper's web editors posted a simple question: How is your service from Time-Warner Cable, which had recently taken over the region's cable TV franchise. Neither the website nor Time Warner were expecting the result. Hall discusses these two examples of the audience-as-contributor in a 4 minute podcast with Bill Densmore recorded May 22, 2007 at Stanford University's "Innovation Journalism" conference.  (CLICK ON CARET TO LEFT OF BAR BELOW TO LAUNCH AUDIO)

Jim Caralis describes the OpenMass public database website

Jim Caralis left a job as an engineer for one of the largest proprietary content database companies to start a consulting practice. But then he decided he could offer the public a no-cost way to get access to Massachusetts government documents. He described OpenMass.org, his new website, at a meeting of the New England News Forum, May 17, 2007 at the Boston Public Library. Watch the video, below, and read more at: http://newshare.typepad.com/nenf/2007/04/caralis_betas_o.html

Nieman blogger suggests state statutes to allow newspaper directors to consider more than profits

Barry Sussman of the Nieman Watchdog site at Harvard University, has posted about the launching of a new resource -- a rotating "blog" which will carry column-like commentaries on media issues by 11 journalism veterans. The first blog, by retired Des Moines Register editorial-page editor Gilbert Cranberg, proposes a movement to amend state corporation laws to allow boards of directors of news organizations to consider not just profitsbut "the journalistic quality of the newspapers and the needs of the communities served by them in making business decisions." Cranberg is co-author of the book: "Taking Stock: Journalism and the Publicly Traded Newspaper Company."

Innovate, die or be sold: 'Newspaper Next' director

If they want to survive and keep fulfilling their civic mission, newspaper companies need to move not just beyond paper, but beyond the news -- and help consumers with all their daily information jobs. That's roughly the premise of a $2-million newspaper-industry research initiative, of the American Press Institute (API) called "Newspaper Next” and headed by Stephen Gray, managing director. Grey is a keynote speaker at the Media Giraffe roundtable summit June 28-July 1.

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How McClatchy's Gary Pruitt describes the future of the newspaper franchise

Two earnings reports out today demonstrate the momentum some newspaper companies are building in the web advertising business. And one CEO, McClatchy's Gary Pruitt, offered in his company's statement a concise, congent view on the positioning of a traditional newspaper publisher making a strategic transition to retain local market dominance.

Pruitt, the McClatchy chairman and CEO, said:

"Some may see the current slow advertising environment as confirmation of predictions that newspapers and print media are dying. We think that's wrong. While there is certainly more competition for advertising in all media, McClatchy continues to gain share over other traditional media in our local markets, and online advertising is growing strongly -- up 30.1% in the first quarter. Our portfolio strategy -- combining the daily newspaper with leading websites, niche publications and direct marketing products -- provides the best reach and results for local advertisers. This approach makes us the leading local media company in many of the best, fastest growing markets in the country and provides a solid foundation for our future."

While Journal Register Co.'s earnings report, also out today, contained no
such similar statement, the numbers speak powerfully on their own:

"The Company continued to post strong gains in online revenues in the first quarter of 2006. Online revenues were $3.3 million for thequarter, reflecting an increase of 30.6 percent, on a pro forma basis,as compared to the first quarter of 2005. The Company's Web sites generated 89.7 million page views during the first quarter, an increase of approximately 75 percent as compared to the prior yearquarter. In March, the Company also reported 3.7 million unique visitors to its Web sites, including over one million visitors to the Company's JobsInTheUS Web sites. The Company's onlinebusinesscontinued to produce substantial operating profits in the first quarter. President and Chief Operating Officer Jean B. Clifton noted, "We are very pleased with the continued growth in our online business.JobsInTheUS is off to a great start and is a key part of our online strategy. We expect growth to accelerate at JobsInTheUS as we launch additional web sites, the first of which are JobsInCT.com andJobsInNewYork.com."

FULL RELEASES AT:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=PR&Date=20060413&ID=5642197
http://finanzen.net/news/news_detail.asp?NewsNr=388994

Philadelphia pioneers envision "norg" -- the news-non-paper; vow to meet again; event seen as end of blog-MSM debate

Mainstream and citizen journalists, philanthropists and academics who gathered in Philadelphia to start an historic quest for the outlines of journalism's future say they won't stop at one meeting.

And their meeting is seen by analyst Jeff Jarvis as the symbolic end to debate over whether bloggers and mainstream media share a concern for the future of news. "I say this is the day that the war ends. This isn’t journalism against bloggers anymore. It never was, really. This is journalists and bloggers together in favor of news."

FULL STORY

Family ownership matters, Okrent says; newspapers must port integrity to web

Family ownership is the common thread among the three most prestigious newspapers in America, the former ombudsman of The New York Times says. Daniel Okrent, the first "public editor" of The Times, was at Williams College tonight for a public talk after dinner with the staff of the Williams Record student newspaper and invited guests. In a 38-minute talk and almost a half hour of questions-and-answers in Griffin Hall, Okrent talked mostly about his experiences at the paper, and a bit about the future of newspapers. He said he is fearful about the growth of Internet web blogs because of the difficulty in determining their credibility. He said the future of newspaper organizations lies in their ability to transfer the integrity and accuracy of their brands onto the Internet in such a way that they are see as clearly more reliable than blogs.

FULL STORY: http://www.mediagiraffe.org/artman/publish/article_438.shtml

LISTEN TO OKRENT: Download dan_okrent_williams-02-13-06.mp3 (28.8MB, 63 min.)

Newspaper management must start taking "stewardship" seriously, Clark says

An expert on the newspaper industry says its time for management to take seriously the concept of "stewardship" to the public. And another says papers may be better able to transition from print to web than some businesses faced with changing technology.

Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar at The Poynter Institute, and Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and vice chairman of the Committee of Concerned Jounalists, spoke Jan. 5, 2006 on the public-radio program, On Point, with host Tom Ashbrook.

TEXT LINK: http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2006/01/20060105_b_main.asp
MP3 DOWNLOAD: http://www.bu.edu/wbur/podcasts/2006/01/onpointb_0105.mp3