News

Despite the fact that money spent on online advertising is increasing, newspapers have seen a decline in their online ad sales. Alan Mutter, in his blog Reflections of a Newsosaur, has the numbers and cites this lag as the reason that publishers are increasingly looking toward charging for their content. He argues that newspaper sites have to become less like newspapers and instead more interactive hubs of activity to compete for online advertising dollars. You can read Mutter's blog post here…….Continue Reading Newspapers lag in online ad sales

Steve Outing writes that instead of threatening Google with legal action or withholding content, news outlets should increase their collaboration with the search company. Outing's argument is that attempting to stop Google from linking to their sites is counterproductive, taking eyeballs away from their original content. Instead, news organizations should be coming up with ways to help Google make more money, by optimizing searches and aggregation. With this collaboration, the news sources could receive a share of the revenue from Google's ad money. You can read the blog post from SteveOuting.com here…….Continue Reading Should news orgs help Google?

Starting Monday, The Washington Times will devote a full print news page to articles written by members of the community. Each contributor will receive a set of ethics standards and guidelines from the WT, and a former editorial page editor will oversee the content that covers the capital and surrounding suburbs. You can read the use of citizen journalism in this Washington Times article…….Continue Reading The Washington Times embraces citizen-journalism

The success of MinnPost, the Voice of San Diego and other recent ventures demonstrate the possibilities of nonprofit journalism. Such sites encourage their readers to become paying members and thereby fund the reporting. Yet the editor of MinnPost doubts the nonprofit structure could support the newsrooms of the New York Times or other large papers. Additionally, the article notes the dramatic pay cut that journalists face in working for nonprofit news outlets. You can read the article on Salon.com here…….Continue Reading Nonprofit journalism is not a cure-all

A host of new, hyperlocal news sites have emerged, offering information targeted to a small, specific locality. Sites like EveryBlock, Placeblogger, and Outside.In aggregate information for residents, and some even do their own reporting. Generating revenue for the sites remains a challenge, however, as they inherently speak to a narrow group of people. They must also address concerns of reliability and sustainability as the sources they pull from are going out of business. You can read about the latest battle in the hyperlocal news realm in this New York Times article…….Continue Reading Hyperlocal sites face challenges

The Atlantic is tweaking its online content, shifting some of its resources to breaking news instead of commentary, creating new verticals such as the Politics channel and the Atlantic's Business, and developing its strategy for mobile content. Even as the Atlantic grows and changes, the site is standing by the decision to drop its paywall beginning in January 2008, reporting that gains in digital revenue have helped offset the slowdown in print advertising. You can read the entire article on PaidContent.org…….Continue Reading Atlantic continues to adapt online

A comScore report finds that traditional news outlets have not yet found a way to capitalize on Iphone applications, despite the hope that this could serve as a revenue stream for struggling media. ComScore's survey of the top 25 IPhone applications found only Flixster, an app devoted to movies, under the News category. Many of the top applications were games, a notable number of social networking applications such as Facebook and MySpace. The report demonstrates that, even as more news sources are developing mobile applications, they have yet to generate a significant amount of consumption. Read the Editors Weblog post……Continue Reading Mobile applications for news still underdeveloped

Many, including Maryland Sen. Benjamin Cardin, have proposed that government assist news outlets that are struggling to survive in today's volatile climate. Yet a recent example of government involvement in reporting has raised questions about the ethics of receiving such funds. The parent company of two Ohio TV news stations is receiving over $3 million to run stories within their broadcasts about the new state-sponsored healthcare program. After these segments, the anchor reads a brief disclaimer that mentions the story's sponsor. Is this enough of a separation between government and journalism? You can read the article from Tulsa World here…….Continue Reading The ethics of state-sponsored journalism

The New York Times offers a summary on the difficulties of converting a free service to paid. Coca Cola did it with water, but newspapers are having a harder time convincing consumers to pay for their online content. The debate continues over paid-vs-free online content, with the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times charging for some of their features, while the New York Times and the Los Angeles TImes both reverted to free content after their experimentations with a paywall did not bear fruit. You can read about paywall history in this New York Times article…….Continue Reading The intriguing history of paywalls

Tim Windsor develops some points he would have liked to see Associated Press Chairman Dean Singleton make when the AP head announced that it might seek legal action against news aggregators. On his wish list: making something better than Google News, creating an online locus for news video, sponsoring curated links and additional ideas for how the AP might be able to adapt to the Internet revolution. You can read the Nieman Journalism Lab post…….Continue Reading Advancing some new ideas for AP