The chairman of The New York Times Company spoke to shareholders today, but revealed no new plans for the future of the newspaper. He admitted that the website does not make enough money to support the newsroom, but offered words of comfort to shareholders that the New York Times will not fail: "It is this commitment to excellence that will get us through this turbulent time," said Arthur Sulzberger Jr. You can read the full article from the New York Observer here…….Continue Reading Chairman says New York Times will continue
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New Voices program backs 8 hyperlocal sites
Eight more hyperlocal community news sites have received funding from J-Lab's New Voices program. Each will get startup funding of $25,000 — courtesy of the Knight Foundation — over two years. Half of the winning proposals are associated with universities. Since 2005, New Voices has provided funding for 48 hyperlocal programs. You can read about the winners and view the New Voices press release here…….Continue Reading New Voices program backs 8 hyperlocal sites
The New Yorker; David Denby reviews… newspapers
You might know him as an astute critic writing about film for The New Yorker. But David Denby writes about other things as well — including some ideas on how newspapers survive the Internet age. You can read Denby's letter to the New York Times here…….Continue Reading The New Yorker; David Denby reviews… newspapers
Newspapers not the only news source for blogs
If newspapers go under, the argument goes, blogs and aggregators will lose the source of much of their news. To assess the validity of that assumption, Daily Kos looked at its "front page" posts for the week of April 6 through April 12, and counted up the sources of their linked items. They found that the plurality came from newspapers, 123 items, but that the newspaper content amounted to only 20 percent of the news items that Daily Kos linked to during the week. You can read the post from Daily Kos here…….Continue Reading Newspapers not the only news source for blogs
Middle East Times goes to subscription only
Starting today, The Middle East Times is available online only via subscription. The publication, which originally began as a printed weekly based in Cairo, had been publishing its content online for free. The online newspaper expressed regret over the change, but emphasized that a subscription model was necessary. The Times will be publishing more limited content in the next couple of weeks as it reorganizes as a subscription publication. You can read the post on the Editors' Weblog here…….Continue Reading Middle East Times goes to subscription only
New York Times lets you customize your news
The New York Times has launched a new, customizable widget called "My Headlines." Viewers choose from the NYT list of sections and features to create their own list of news that appears alongside the other headlines on the site's homepage. This is the latest in the increasingly customizable world of online news. You can readthe Editors' Weblog Post hereand get an overview of the NYT's My Headlines page here…….Continue Reading New York Times lets you customize your news
So-called fair use will hurt some more than others
Peter Scheer discusses the legal factors involved in instituting pay walls for online content, specifically the concept of "fair use." He argues that the current interpretation of fair use — which enables people to rewrite the first few paragraphs of a story while maintaining the central ideas, as aggregators often do — will hurt some new sources more than others. Those that will suffer have news contained in the lead paragraphs, like wire services and major metropolitan dailies. Long-form journalism, such as that practiced by the New Yorker and hyperlocal sites, will fare better under this definition of fair use…….Continue Reading So-called fair use will hurt some more than others
LA Times says U.S. needs a federal shield law
An editorial in the Los Angeles Times makes the case for a federal shield law to protect journalists from prosecution if they are protecting their confidential sources. Though many states have such a law, the federal government does not currently offer such protections for reporters. The House recently passed a shield law, and the Senate has an alternative on the table. The editorial finds some of the Senate measures, particularly the definition of protected journalists as one who engages in journalism, as superior to the House version. You can read the editoral from the Los Angeles Times here…….Continue Reading LA Times says U.S. needs a federal shield law
In defense of the Huffington Post
Jack Shafer at Slate says journalists should stop criticizing The Huffington Post for copying and rewriting their original content. Shafer notes that such antics are a long-established tradition in journalism, from Pulitizer's blatant theft of Hearst's copy to Time Magazine's deft rewriting of the newspapers' news. Aggregation and substantial borrowing are simply part of journalism. You can read the article from Slate here…….Continue Reading In defense of the Huffington Post
A review of Time’s customizable magazine
Last month, Time Inc launched a new experiment with Mine, a customizable print magazine. Joshua Benton of the Nieman Journalism Lab reviewed his copy today. Though Benton thought the experiment worthwhile, he was confused by the nearly two-year-old content in the magazine, and was slightly uncomfortable with the adaptions of the Lexus advertisements that funded the project. You can read the post by Nieman Journalism Lab in its entirety…….Continue Reading A review of Time’s customizable magazine