Entries tagged with “media industry” from Tools of Change for Publishing
Newspaper Chain Refuses to Renew AP Contract
Peter Brantley
October 17, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (4)
|
Listen 
The Tribune Company, owner of 10 newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, has given the required two years' notice to suspend receipt of Associated Press news. Tribune's move follows cancellations from a number of other papers. From Editor & Publisher:
The recent decisions to drop AP service follow the planned AP rate structure change, which was announced in 2007 and takes effect in 2009. The rate change initially prompted complaints from numerous newspapers, including two groups of editors who wrote angry letters to AP to complain in late 2007 and early 2008.
Photo Blog Shows Innovation Still Alive in Media Orgs
Mac Slocum
August 6, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Alan Taylor, a Web developer at the Boston Globe, hit the sweet spot between immersive storytelling and simple technology with his photo blog, The Big Picture. Taylor discussed the genesis of the blog with Waxy.org in a June interview. Here's a few notable excerpts relevant to publishers:
I have an advantage in that my main role is as a developer here, so I could build all my own templates, format my own style, and so on. I sort of bulldozed some things through though, like extra width, few ads, and I made it simple internally by doing it mostly on my own, no requests for development time, marketing or promotion.
Taylor's photo selection process combines technology and editorial curation. He selects photos from Web searches, photography sites, and wire services. Then he uses custom scripts to extract meta data and resize images for the blog.
When I find an image I like, I save it to a local folder until I get about 25 or so good ones to choose from. Then I open all 25 in Photoshop, arrange the windows in a horizontal tile and drag them around to get a rough ordering that makes sense. Then I start to edit out images that don't make the cut, run a couple of recorded Photoshop Actions to size the images, and do some hand-cropping if necessary.
On his personal site, Taylor explains the simple ideas that brought The Big Picture together:
When I see quality photography consigned to the archives, or when I see bandwidth readily given up to video streams of dubious quality, or when I see photo galleries that act as ad farms, punishing viewers into a click-click-click experience just to drive page views - those times are the times I'm glad I was able to get this project off the ground (many thanks to my friends within boston.com)
The Big Picture brought in 1.5 million page views in its first 20 days; phenomenal numbers for any upstart blog. More importantly, the site shows how tech skillsets and big media resources (those wire services aren't cheap) can catalyze innovation within a large publishing organization.
The Media Industry's Perspective Problem
Mac Slocum
July 23, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
A newsroom survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism touches on one of the major issues -- and failings -- affecting mainstream media: the power of flawed perspective. Here's an excerpt from "The Changing Newsroom" report:
Staffing for coverage of sports, local government and politics, police and investigative reporting, all grew in 30% of the newsrooms surveyed. Although not specifically measured in the survey, anecdotal evidence suggests that at least some of these gains have been driven by pressure to provide web content during the course of the day. Some of this content is often then "reversed published" back into the newspaper. [Emphasis added.]
There's a huge difference between "published" and "reversed published." A published piece of content -- be it an article, a podcast, a broadcast, or even a book -- is pushed into the world with a clear intent (inform, entertain, influence, etc.). But reversed published content has been stripped of intent. Its sole purpose is to fill space; whether it entertains, informs, or influences is secondary.
The whole concept of "reversed published," and the adjacent issues of print vs Web vs mobile vs broadcast, illustrates a fundamental flaw in the media perspective. Content should be defined by its audience, not by its container. If an article is initially published on the Web, that article must be geared toward the Web audience. If the same material later appears in the paper, that material needs to be geared toward the newspaper audience. Same goes for mobile consumers and broadcast consumers.
Repurposing material without regard for its audience is a luxury the media industry used to enjoy when it was a primary information conduit. The only difference is that years ago the Web was where rehashed shovelware was dumped ("Story continues on A12", anyone?). Early Web users quickly tired of media's detritus, so they looked elsewhere for useful information. Apparently, media organizations didn't learn from this past mistake because now they're pulling the "repurposed content" maneuver with traditional audiences. No one wants rehashed bits.
This is where perspective comes in. If a media organization continues to think in terms of content containers rather than content consumers, then it will inevitably default to "reverse publishing" and other bad habits. These days, as audiences scatter and company valuations plummet, every piece of content needs the justifications and intentions of fully published material.
Glimmer of Positivity in Media Industry Analysis
Mac Slocum
May 6, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
A handful of recent media industry reports inject a small but noticeable degree of optimism into their examinations of the current business landscape.
Lauren Rich Fine of Kent State University tells the The Economist that adaptation could guide certain types of newspapers through the industry's rough transition:
Ms Fine also points out that although all newspapers are being buffeted by the internet, their ability to respond will probably depend on whether their audiences are national, metropolitan or local. The first category can afford to invest in distinctive international or business coverage, while the last can prosper by becoming “more intensely local”. But she fears for the big metropolitan newspapers, which may find themselves trapped in the middle.
Fine's analysis doesn't benefit medium-sized papers, but the prospect of success at large and small papers is a shift from typical declarations of "all" newspapers dying.
On the broadcast side, NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman says TV shows will need to exist on multiple platforms to succeed, and variations across formats have to be distinct. From TVWeek:
"Around our new offerings there will literally be shows that end on air and the last scene will continue online," Silverman said at the recent TelevisionWeek Upfront Summit.
Rather than feebly slapping Band-Aids on the established system, Silverman's comments suggest an acceptance -- and an embrace -- of the industry's position. This is a perspective shared by Wired editor Chris Anderson, who, in a recent talk, said the media industry needs to examine the current environment and then find ways to add value. From Journalism.co.uk:
"... we need to do something that the internet has not either not already done or done too well, that may be original reporting, maybe it's investigative reporting. Maybe it's long form narrative; maybe it's the packaging of stories with photography and diagrams ... That's basically our mission, I think, to figure out where the market failure is in the amateur internet and there in lies the commercial opportunity for us to do something that still has value and which people will pay for, either directly or in terms of their attention, which can be monetised through advertising.
On first glance it would seem that newspapers and broadcasters are in a different digital realm than book publishers, but as we've seen time and again, a development in one part of the media landscape often pops up elsewhere. There's also much to be said for a positive outlook in an uncertain environment.
- Stay Connected
-
TOC RSS Feeds
News Posts
Commentary Posts
Combined Feed
New to RSS?
Subscribe to the TOC newsletter. 
Follow TOC on Twitter. 
Join the TOC Facebook group. 
Join the TOC LinkedIn group. 
Get the TOC Headline Widget.
- Search
-
