News

While most other magazines are struggling, the Economist Group has once again posted profits during the troubled economic times. The magazine's website saw a 29 percent increase in earnings from January 2009 to March 2009. The publication did not maintain profitability without cutbacks, however. It has laid off about 130 of its employees over the course of the year to cut costs. You can read the post on PaidContent.Org's website here…….Continue Reading Economist magazine still making a profit

Simon Dumenco of Advertising Age chastises the Huffington Post for tabloid journalism and its departure from reporting traditional news. He cited the example of the Huffington Post's decision to publish articles such as "Megan Fox Walks the Red Carpet," which draw numerous hits. Dumenco writes: "It likes to pretend that it's a respectable voice in the mediasphere, but it shamelessly pumps up its traffic by being just as trashy as, say, Maxim." Meanwhile, bloggers posting stories onto the Web sites get their information from other news organizations such as the BCC and the New York Times while these news organizations……Continue Reading Dumenco questions HuffPo’s journalism

The Washington Post is hearing it from subscribers for its online-only posting a two-part article on the murder of Robert Wone. Subscribers argued that this was the kind of news they wanted to read, and online readers had the ability to read this story free of charge. The newspaper defended its decision not to post the article in print to save space for other articles in the newspaper. The author of the article, Paul Duggan, notes that online news posting offers a variety of advantages in comparison to printed news, in that it allows the writer almost limitless space to……Continue Reading Online exclusive angers print readers

CircLabs is currently developing software known as Circulate that will track its users' viewing habits and deliver news and ads tailored specifically for the user. The software monitors and transmits data back to the news service automatically allowing the news service to send customized news and advertisements. Users will have the choice of either enabling or disabling the tracking feature. CircLabs says it will permit local ad placement and allow companies to charge for news subscriptions. You can read the PaidContent.Org article here…….Continue Reading CircLab seeks revenue for customized news aggregation

The brainchild of Patrick Spain and Michael Wolff, the news aggregation site Newser has successfully raised $2.5 million in startup money. The money comes primarily from individuals, many of whom were involved in Spain's previous endeavors. Currently, Newser has about 2 million monthly visitors and, despite receiving just a fraction of the traffic that Yahoo! and Google News get, is close to breaking even. According to its Web site, Newer is unique in that it compiles news from the top 100 news sources and provides readers with more comprehensive summaries of the stories being covered. You can read the article……Continue Reading News aggregator raises $2.5 million from investors

After his first start-up online news operation failed to gain traction, former newspaperman Adam Klawonn has received a $95,000 Knight grant with an extremely narrow focus: to cover Phoenix's new light-rail system. The Daily Phoenix, as it has been termed, will report on stories such as crime in the areas surrounding train stops. Businesses will also have a chance to be included in twice-daily text messages about their company. Klawonn still needs to secure additional funding for his project. You can read the Nieman Journalism Lab post here…….Continue Reading Niche site covers Phoenix’s light-rail

Wikipedia, the online crowd-sourced encyclopedia, is set to launch video on its pages. The site is hoping that more creators of content will make their videos accessible to the public domain. Until then, Wikipedia will feature content from the internet archive, which has 200,000 videos, Metavid, which stores congressional speeches, and Wikimedia Commons, which has 4 millions media files. You can read the post on PaidContent.Org here…….Continue Reading Wikipedia to add video to its site

The Kindle may or may not be the new newspaper, but Farhad Manjoo at Slate lists some areas that have room for improvement. His biggest point of contention is the way that news on the Kindle is organized — or isn't. While traditional newspapers, and their Web sites, organize news stories by importance and relevance, the Kindle simply lists headlines under categories, without giving the reader a sense of the type of story they're about to read, its size or its importance. That means that reading the newspaper on a Kindle is much more cumbersome and time-consuming. You can read……Continue Reading Organization lacking on the Kindle

Reader's Digest has, alongside many other general interest magazines, seen a worrisome decline in both subscribers and advertising revenue. To combat this trend, the monthly publication is turning its attention to more conservative values. As Mary Berner, chief executive of Reader's Digerst, put it: "I love my family, I love my community, I love my church." The publication is hoping that a shift in focus — away from celebrities and toward the military, for example — will turn its fortunes around. You can read the article on the New York Times website here…….Continue Reading Reader’s Digest shifts to the right

The French government is expanding its initiative to revitalize the newspaper industry by giving papers to young people. Originally, the government was to provide a one-year subscription to 18 year olds, but officials have announced that they will now supply 18-24 year olds with a free paper once a week. The project will cost an estimated 5 million euros per year. Additionally, the government has set aside 20 milllion euros to help the press adapt to the digital age. You can read the Editors' Weblog post here…….Continue Reading France to give 18-24 year olds free newspapers