Results tagged “innovation”

The Register Citizen Newsroom Café opened earlier this week: an initiative of the Journal Register Co's Torrington, Connecticut-based paper that aims to allow the public into the newsroom and to invite the community "to be part of the process of local journalism at every step."

The paper's new office is based around this "open newsroom" concept and also has a Community Media Lab, a Community Journalism School and a Local News Library, all of which are free and open to the general public, the project's blog said. The first day saw more than 100 members of the community turn up.

The Center for Public Integrity's first HTML5 project is live. The idea behind the project is to make reading long-form journalism enjoyable on any digital platform, by creating an app-like experience in a web browser.  There has been some concern among news organisations that online, at least, it is more difficult to appreciate long in-depth articles than it is in print.

Applications, particularly for tablets, are perceived as offering a more comfortable and convenient reading experience for longer work, and less distraction. This belief is reflected by the launch a service founded earlier this year called Longform.org works with Instapaper to allow interested readers to select long-form stories on the Longform site, which are then stored in the reader's account to read at their leisure on their iPhone or iPad via Instapaper. 

OWNI has launched its first English-language site, OWNI.eu, reported Journalism.co.uk. OWNI, which describes itself as a group of French and European media, as well as a thinktank, experiments with digital journalism and, for example, recently created Wikileaks' Iraq War Logs website.

The new site OWNI.eu has articles on technology, politics and culture: a mixture of original content, translations from pieces on OWNI.fr, blog aggregation, infographics and data visualizations, explained Journalism.co.uk. Its editor is 25-year-old Federica Cocco. 

Students will have a chance to become better experts with digital media, according to journalism.columbia.edu.  The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism, which was established in the beginning of 2010 and provides journalists with skills and knowledge to lead the future of digital journalism as well as research and development, is open.  Emily Bell, former director of digital content for Britain's Guardian News and Media, will oversee the project and help the center "devise and publicize innovative methods of digital reporting and presentation, serving both established and new media companies," states the article.  This center is also going to explore the relationship between journalists and citizens as "readers seek ways to judge the reliability, standards and credibility in media."
 
Bell is going to teach graduate students as well as study news companies, develop models for "creating and delivering information" and set up business innovations to support these ideas.  She will also oversee scholarly research and "advise on how to raise additional funds through research, program grants and gifts."  Bell will also oversee the new duel Master of Science Program in Computer Science and Journalism with Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.    

Starbucks customers can have a little news with their coffee now.  According to news.cnet.com, Starbucks is going to launched a "revamped Web hub, a landing page that's only accessible from its in-store Wi-Fi networks in the U.S. Teaming with the likes of Yahoo (the main technology partner), the Wall Street Journal, GOOD, the New York Times, iTunes, LinkedIn and Foursquare."  With this new site, Starbucks has local and mainstream news, free music downloads and local information, like weather, bike trails and movie trailers.

The new site will be called the Starbucks Digital Network, or the "digital version of the community corkboard," according to Adam Brotman, Senior Vice President of Digital Ventures.  However, Starbucks is not calling the network a "digital newspaper" but a "slick, iPad-optimized news and media site" that is designed to take the place of newspaper stacks that are usually next to the cash restaurant at the stores.

Interest in the digital newspaper is increasing: News Corp. constructed one along with interest "on behalf of other brands--not even necessarily news outlets--in seizing upon the mobile-reader craze to revive interest in reading what would otherwise be print content," states the article.  Plus, the Virgin Group is also coming out with a "Maverick" application for the iPad sometime in the near future.   

According to holdthefrontpage.co.uk,the 123-year-old Brighouse Echo is to switch from a broadsheet to a tabloid newspaper. The first completely-redesigned tabloid edition came out last week, running to 56 pages rather than the previous 24-28. 
 
The newspaper changed its size after research showed that readers said that the tabloid format was brighter, more attractive and made content easier to find for readers, said Holdthefrontpage. "The Johnston Press title's masthead has also been changed to blue and black rather than just blue, with a different font," adds the author of the article.  

Boston.com has chosen to deploy a content recommendation platform from Outbrain, a New York-based company to increase traffic and boost revenues on its news site, while enhancing readers' experiences, Editor & Publisher reported.

Through deployment of this new content recommendation tool, the news site will provide "related links" and automatically alert readers to additional stories that maybe of interest to them at the end of each article, according to a press release posted on MarketWatch.com. The Outbrain's technology uses complex set of algorithms to identify and serve up stories targeting different audience segments, while helping readers find relevant new stories at ease with simple related links.

by Anastasia Terentyeva and Denise Donnebaum

According to an article on Business Line, a new Volkswagen newspaper ad for the new vehicle "Vento" talks to its readers. 

"An idle mind thought it was the Devil speaking, another put it down to a fevered imagination, a child got scared and a reader jumped out of her skin when she heard the newspaper talking," said the article's author Sravanthi Challapalli.  The two newspapers that carried the chip were The Hindu and The Times of India.  The paper's all had a pre-recorded chip, which told the reader of the car's virtues, with a "light-sensitive chip [that] activated the recording once the newspaper was opened (or fell open)."

The ad reached 25 hundred thousand households in New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.  "Volkswagen's dealers in the smaller cities were given copies of the newspapers to distribute to prospective clients.  Vento is Volkswagen's entry-level sedan in India, prices starting at Rs 6.99 lakh ex-showroom Delhi" Challapalli adds.

Guest posting by Jan Bierhoff, associate professor of Infonomics & New Media at Zuyd University, and project director at 3D, which he discusses below.

The journalistic toolkit is overflowing these days. After the still recent arrival of the e-types: email, e-paper, eReaders, you name it, the i-mode has become fashionable with iPhones, iLiads and now the archetype tablet iPad. But the wealth of all these novel production and distribution platforms hardly leads to fundamentally new forms of journalism. Mainly because, in the internet age, new above all translates as different: another way of expressing, leading to unfamiliar types of content, demanding a much more active relationship with the reader/viewer.

In most cases media management responds to this challenge with the hiring of young, creative talent that enthusiastically produces series of formats, sites and apps. And then it is launch time, thumbs up for the ultimate success. The actual results though, let's be honest, are less impressive. A straightforward copy-paste of available content onto new platforms is tempting and certainly produces fresh looks, but it doesn't innovate journalism. And the road from wild idea to steady practice is long and bumpy; only a few make it to the end.

Editors who want more and who, rather than simply widening their choice of channels, acknowledge the Net as a true game changer have a triple handicap. First, they have to realise that they are entering uncharted territory and are bound to (and should be happy to) make mistakes. Then they have to switch from trusted content manufacturing to service delivery, a move their staff will not willingly applaud. And above all, they have to come to terms with the fact that the nature of digital communication forces them to change from a product orientation to a user focus. The scope can no longer be on the scoop, the business is now all about the satisfaction of a myriad of external, ever changing information desires.

As a consequence, the traditional journalistic ABC will increasingly be replaced by a digital alphabet summarising the guiding principles with the letters E for electronic, I for interactive and U for user-driven. And the key to success will invariably lie with the last one, the U-factor. This vowel refers to the final verdict of the media consumer, who, whatever content pops up from the multiple screens, will have to understand and like it, show the ambition to be part of it, appreciate the value-added and ultimately accept the price tag attached.
 
Media, being author-driven production units, understandably have difficulties swallowing this inconvenient truth. As always, the easiest way to deal with it is mix of denial and neglect. But that phase is gradually moving behind us and more productive mindsets are in demand. Particularly one type of action is recommended by many media analysts: the involvement of outside parties who can challenge conventional wisdom, break down organisational obstacles, deliver fresh input and especially add innovation expertise. Dutch newspapers have taken up this approach sector-wide with the 'Designing the Daily Digital'-project, or 3D. The company has strands for strategic decision taking, business model scenarios and a user evaluation lab. In particular, the lab functions as a hands-on support tool for innovation ventures launched by the media community at large.
 
After a year of experimentation, the lab is fully functional and works on three levels of media renewal: (1) design of truly net-native concepts, (2) development of feasible products and (3) the actual deployment of promising innovative applications, services or routines. In all cases, in-depth assessment of the user perspective is part of the research work. This is done with a range of methods: online preference assessment, context mapping exercises in focus groups, product feature analysis and lab testing of prototypes with proof users, drawn from a larger media innovation panel. All of these are qualitative methods that go far beyond the charts of marketing departments and deliver a totally different type of result. They involve the reader/viewer in the very beginning of product innovation and safeguard inclusion of the user perspective in the design process.  This is key for later success.

An example of the first role, kick-starting the concept creation, is the collaboration with a web-only medium for young readers, Verspers, delivering online reports about international affairs. Together with this team, the 3D lab now designs a visually attractive format for the presentation of complex background information. Much of the online presence concerns the relatively easy delivery of breaking news while the proper organisation of multiple stories that give insight, background and perspective has, for no good reason, received far less attention. Through feedback sessions, proof readers comment on various alternative designs.

The second role, nurturing creative ideas from inception to product launch, is taken up by the lab with the formula of innovation coaches. These are research staff members who stick for a longer period to a given development track and help newsrooms to overcome the many hurdles, avoid the inevitable potholes and stalemates and who benchmark the newly designed product against comparable initiatives, good or bad, local and abroad. An example is the changeover to digital news services that a Dutch regional newspaper company, MGL (part of the British Mecom media group) is planning. The paper's ambition is to set up a number of thematic online communities which eventually should replace the main print product. How the regional community reacts, which content expectations there are for online information, the scope for strategic partnerships, what exactly the commercial potential will be, all these matters are regularly monitored and fed back to the newspaper's project team. On the basis of this feedback, the features of the community concept have already changed considerably and will continue to be adjusted.
 
The third lab role is pitched at the level of exploitation of new applications. User panels follow innovations straight from the launch during the crucial first months of existence. This service offers the opportunity of permanent fine-tuning, early adjustments and further development direction of reader expectations, and hence boosts the chances for commercial viability. A range of clients now hires the lab for this monitoring task. Examples are the production of an audio-version of the NRC, Holland's well-known paper of reference, specifically for visually impaired readers but also to explore more general use for people on the move. Another example is the imminent launch of the iPad version of Elsevier, the country's largest opinion magazine. The magazine starts with a cautious 1:1 version of the print product but will further develop the format in the context of regular user testing. Also for business model innovation, user appreciation is essential. For the Nederlands Dagblad (national daily), the 3D lab will test the willingness of non-subscribers to accept pay-per-view for scarce niche information about religious affairs.
 
An important dimension of the popularity of the test facility is the fact that the Dutch government seriously invests in media digitisation, via grants from the Dutch Press Fund. The 3D service can be offered for modest prices, facilitating its media backup function considerably, thanks to this type of financial injection. The model that is growing here leaves the initiative for media innovation with the sector at large (incumbent media, company spin-offs, start-up ventures), while the process of rejuvenating the news industry is boosted with the establishment of an accessible support infrastructure. That approach steers clear from direct or indirect subsidies, thus avoiding the risk of artificially prolonging the lifecycle of soon to be obsolete forms of information delivery, at the same time offering better chances for market entrance to new, unconventional media ventures.

According to a Poynter article entitled "10 Ways Journalism Around the World Is Being Revived and Reinvented," journalists should not be mourning the loss of newspapers and older journalistic styles, but should be finding new ways for journalism to emerge. 

Bill Mitchell, author of the Poynter article, also has a larger essay in a report called "Brave New Worlds: Navigating the New Media Landscape," which is a set of 42 essays that was published last week. 
A link to the report can be found here. 

News executives, leaders of nonprofits, digital thought leaders and educators from over 20 countries throughout the world wrote the essays in the report.  "None of them argue that journalism's transition from print to digital will be smooth," Mitchell wrote.

The 10 different things journalists can do to ease the transition, according to Mitchell, however, are process, partner, link, engage, innovate, be independent, trust, investigate, train and sustain. 

Leading Egyptian daily Al Ahram is in the process of modernizing and integrating its newsroom, with the help of the USAid-backed Media Development Program. The goal of the USAid project, explained its media training specialist Tarek Atia, is to work with some of Egypt's biggest media companies to help them strategise for the digital age and increase their training capacity.

A major part of this is building training centres that can be used first within their own organisations and then to offer training to outside journalists, not just within Egypt but in the whole region. The Al Ahram publishing company employs about 1,300 editorial staff for its 17 publications.

USAid has set up a strategic partnership with Czech group PPF Media, which boasts an advanced multimedia newsroom in Prague known as the Futuroom. PPF began working with Al Ahram a year ago, working on developing Al Ahram's own Futuroom and on building an infographics unit. Al Ahram staff have visited Prague, and consultants from PPF have been to Cairo to work with the journalists and assess what they require.

The Egyptian 'Futuroom' will be based on the one in Prague, said Atia, but "it's obviously going to be very much customized to Al Ahram's specific needs." As the Cairo-based newsroom is very different to a European one, with only a small percentage of journalists working on computers, there will undoubtedly be a different set of challenges.

A quarter of the current Al Ahram newsroom, which was built in the 1960s, is to be converted into a Futuroom-style multimedia newsroom. Currently, blueprints have been prepared and much equipment has been purchased, with the help of the MDP, and building work is about to start.

Al Ahram has been online since 1998 and has about twelve websites. Internet access in Egypt is relatively low, with less than 25% of people online. There are, however nearly 54 million mobile phone users out of a population of 80 million, so for Egyptian media, mobile must be an important consideration.

"Our management changed last year and we started to change our approach: from being a publishing house to being a media company," said Omar Samy, director of Al Ahram's development project. Al Ahram is shifting its focus from predominantly print to online and mobile, and is investigating TV and Internet radio also.

Currently, about 80% of Al Ahram's content is put online. "There are fears among senior journalists that if we put everything online this will lower the circulation of our publications," Samy said.

Al Ahram boasts a training institute that focuses on both editorial and technical training. All journalists have been asked to take the International Computer Driving License course, and if they pass the exam they are given a laptop and a salary increase. So far, about 150 journalists have done the training and by the end of the year, Samy hopes that this number will have increased to 300.

Samy was enthusiastic about the involvement of the USAid-funded MDP, which he said had trained hundreds of journalists on editorial skills over the past four years.  Al Ahram is working with the MDP to bring in an international trainer on editorial issues.

"The new newsroom will produce unusual editorial material like Infographics, video footage and maybe some TV programmes," said Samy. The forty to fifty journalists who will work in the Al Ahram Futuroom have been trained to produce infographics and are starting to produce these, for both print and online. It is the first time that Al Ahram has made its own infographics - previously, the paper used those made by news agencies.

Al Ahram and the Prague-based Futuroom undertook a joint project to build a website to cover the World Cup, featuring moving infographics, using flash. "I believe that this was the first time that an Arabic website has published animated infographics like this," Samy said.

"We would also like this Futuroom to serve hyperlocal publications," Samy said. Al Ahram now has 26 bureaux around the country and the paper is thinking about printing a local newspaper in each.

The biggest challenge that Al Ahram has encountered in moving towards an integrated newsroom is changing mindsets, particularly among senior staff, Samy said. "We are fighting for that - it's not an easy job." Younger journalists who are lower on the ladder are more open, however.

"We consider this future newsroom as the first phase. We hope that by the end of the project our newsroom will be a real converged newsroom, with online and print working altogether," Samy said. He believes it will take Al Ahram about three years to reach this goal.

Danish paper Kristeligt Dagblad has started to include Wikipedia-inspired pages on topics that its readers often search for, to offer them a comprehensive guide to complex issues. "I believe that newspapers made a historic mistake in giving up the position as a provider of the big picture when news went online," said online editor, Anders Ellebæk Madsen. "Unfortunately, news sites are not where I go to if I need to understand the war in Afghanistan, for instance," he clarified "I go to Wikipedia."

Inspired by this belief, he and his team sought to be that source of information in the Christian national daily's areas of expertise: faith, ethics, morality and social issues. They wanted to organize their content, old and new, in a way that made sense and made it continually useful, rather than just offering a search box which leads to thousands of articles on each major theme. So they adopted a similar layout and structure to Wikipedia entries, although that is where the similarity ends: the pages cannot be updated wiki-style by users. 

Each page offers a short summary of the issue and a thorough table of contents, followed by thematic sections with collections of links, videos and photos. Links to relevant topic pages are offered alongside new articles, or readers can access them through a 'topics' section on the site, which has a tab on the homepage.  There are main themes and sub-themes within these, to make it easier to find related information.

The topic pages are created by journalists, rather than being automatically generated, Ellebæk Madsen explained: "there is no easy shortcut. If you want to have carefully selected information on a topic you need to do it manually."  One journalist was hired to work full time on these topics, so that the project can have the attention the paper feels it deserves. "We start by defining the skeleton of the topic: which elements are must-haves and which are nice-to-haves?" At this point, "we always try to define three to five questions that we want to answer for the reader," and make sure that the "fundamental facts" are easy to find. Links to existing articles make up the bulk of the content, but new elements are produced when necessary.

There are between 300 and 600 topics which have been accumulated over nine years. Topics are distinguished as A- B- and C-topics. "A-topics are the best and we might have spent weeks working them out," Ellebæk Madsen explained, noting that these cover some of the newspaper's key issues such as religious wars, the Danish national church or a moral question like euthanasia. C-topics are more basic: essentially a collection of articles sorted by tags, but could become an A-topic if a big story breaks in this area.

Google's Living Stories project also compiles information on different topics in one place and make it possible to follow a story as it is updated. It is being offered to news organisations and has generally been well received. Ellebæk Madsen does not think that Living Stories is actually comparable to Kristeligt Dagblad's project, however, describing it as not sufficiently human. He pointed out that the Living Stories table of contents is the same for all topics, including 'news,' 'features,' 'opinion,' 'people,' 'quotes,' 'resources,' 'images,' and 'videos,' which does not give the reader any immediate guidance. "I'd choose the human brain (or brains, in the case of Wikipedia) over the machine any time." He believes that providing background on complex issues "is exactly what newspapers should be able to do better than algorithms."

The Associated Press has discussed creating search 'landing pages' around particular topics to provide background around news topics that people might be searching for, pushing them to the most relevant sources of information. AP director of strategic planning Jim Kennedy specified in an interview last year that these would use Wikipedia's design as a rough model. As yet, however, these have not materialized.

Kristeligt Dagblad launched the new style of pages in June, although it had started to compile information on different topics since 2003. Ellebæk Madsen said that it is too early to tell whether readers are enthusiastic and whether people are spending more time on the paper's site as a direct result of the thematic pages, but he said that these do tend to appear high in search results. Seventy to ninety of the paper's traffic goes to older rather than brand new stories, showing that people do frequently come back to old content.

As newspapers seek to remain relevant in the vast and crowded online world, looking for new ways to be useful to their readers is essential. A Wikipedia-style research and reference tool that is professional and therefore more reliable seems an undoubtedly useful resource for readers, and one that is likely to keep readers on the site for longer. As Ellebæk Madsen pointed out, Wikipedia is a comprehensive resource in English but not so extensive or reliable in Danish, so there really is space for Kristeligt Dagblad's information. Is it something that other papers could implement? Would it work for a publication without Kristeligt Dagblad's specialist focus? Opting for human rather than automatic editing is clearly a more expensive and time-consuming option but it is likely to provide a more valuable service.