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From CheezHead.com

Wed, Nov 19, 2008

Articles

Jay Bhatti, co-founder and VP of development at search engine Spock.com, has five tips job seekers can use to maintain an edge over competitors and use the Web to their advantage:

Know What’s Publicly Available

Cast a Wide Net

Promote Yourself

Optimize

Network

…More on Cheezhead.com

By Robert Niles

Picking up from my piece on Wednesday….The Obama campaign did not build its social network in isolation. In many communities, it built upon an existing “netroots” of progressives that had developed over the past several years. That network, in turn, developed in frustration with both the Bush administration, as well as the new media coverage (or lack thereof) of that administration and its Congressional allies.

Markos Moulitsas, a j-school graduate with a law degree and an Army stint behind him, bootstrapped what might be the most influential of all progressive netroots websites, DailyKos. His new book, “Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era” offers a blueprint for political activists, one that well complements the Obama strategies I wrote about on Wednesday.

But Moulitsas’ book teaches important lessons to would-be journalist entrepreneurs as well. Remember, Kos (hey, calling him by his last name just seems weird. Everyone else online calls him “Kos,” so I’ll do the same) got his start in journalism school, at Northern Illinois University, and he’s worked in the newspaper field. At its heart, DailyKos is a publishing enterprise, a 21st century version of the old-fasioned partisan press. And Kos has enjoyed phenomenal financial success with it……more

As news organizations struggle to outlast a failed business model, the Monitor may breaks free to create a safe spot on the road aheadOn the ”NewsHour” Wednesday night, Christian Science Monitor Editor John Yemma looked tired. Very tired. But his smile was the smile of a winner and rightly so—Yemma, a longtime print journalist, gets to march toward a media future without a ton of newsprint strapped to his ankles.

On the ”” Wednesday night, Christian Science Monitor Editor John Yemma looked tired. Very tired. But his smile was the smile of a winner and rightly so—Yemma, a longtime print journalist, gets to march toward a media future without a ton of newsprint strapped to his ankles.The Monitor announced earlier this week that it would drop daily print publication starting in April, build up its Web site and publish a weekend edition. Rick Edmonds of Poynter Online details the changes here and here. My own initial thoughts are here.

Editors may focus on why the Christian Science Monitor’s plans are not immediately relevant to their world regional or daily newspapers. There are big differences. The Monitor doesn’t draw much advertising. It has expensive national distribution. It gets a multimillion-dollar subsidy from the Christian Science church ($12 million this year to be reduced with the shift to digital).

I would focus instead on this key difference:

More than any traditional print news organization I am aware of, Yemma and the Monitor crew have a chance to envision a Monitor (dot com) that could be viable five or 10 years from now and make it so.

Howard Weaver, the Vice President News for the McClatchy Company, once drew on the image of a bridge afire separating traditional news organizations from their future:

“My current metaphor for our business is this: We have to move, and we can see a secure spot for ourselves right across the river. The good news is, there’s a bridge; the bad news is, it’s on fire. There’s time to get across, but not to [screw] around. I intend to get to the other side before the bridge burns up. Who’s coming with me?”

Reading this now, I see the flames rising and I wonder whether Weaver or anyone else can really see a “secure spot right across the river.” It has been more an article of faith than a proven business model that the future—that is, the future revenue to pay for future journalism—resides online.

Liberated from print, journalists at the Christian Science Monitor have a chance to define that ground across the river.

I fear, increasingly, that able and dedicated editors in many newsrooms are not getting that chance. Instead, their job seems to be propping up the flaming bridge for one day, one week or a few months at a time while the future races farther ahead.

Consider:
– Buyouts in 2006 and 2007 cost newsrooms valuable experience and institutional memory. Bad enough. Now layoffs increasingly take the new hires—predominantly the young, digitally saavy journalists newsrooms need to shape a viable future. In Spokane, innovative leaders Steve Smith and Carla Savalli saw this non-future very clearly and left. Just today, I scratched my head when I saw several online producers would be part of the latest round of layoffs at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
– Tribune’s much publicized newspaper redesign efforts have a decidedly 1998 feel to them. They may slow readership losses but they are unlikely to staunch the bleed of advertising. How much does tinkering with print take away from moving more aggressively online?
– Progressive editors talk about a goal of 50-50 effort for print and online effort in their newsrooms. But even in 2008, they’re hard-pressed to tell you even 25 percent of their staff time goes beyond print.

Mindy McAdams recently reported: “Yesterday a journalist who (still) works at a big Florida newspaper told me, ‘Last year we were trying to shoot as much video as possible. This year, we’re trying to save the paper.’ “

That is sad. And scary. It heightens my fear that we are at or close to a tipping point where demoralized news organizations will stop trying to innovate and will simply man the waterhoses while their owners stoke the fires of the burning bridge.

Update: Here’s an interview with Yemma about plans for the Monitor.

By Michele McLellan, 10/31/08 at 08:27 am

This report (News Goes from Bad to Worse for Newspapers) on Seeking Alpha points out a few of the recent development in newspaper stocks. It does not mention the default status of loans to both the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Philadelphia Newspapers.

It also cites a recent Forrester Report on consumer media habits.

Data from Forrester’s survey show that:

• Consumers rely on local newspapers and TV for local news — but not their Web sites.
• The local news allegiance stops at traditional channels: Just 39% of US online consumers visit their local newspaper’s Web site and only 31% visit their local TV station’s Web site for local news.
• Online portals beat newspaper Web sites in every news category except local.

A glimmer for hope for newspaper style journalism may be found in the success of The Huffington Post, now believed to be worth $200 million or so. The New York Times offers a comparison of Arianna’s Huffington’s “raucous” celebrity-drenched “Internet newspaper” with Tina Brown’s more online-magazine-like new entry, The Daily Beast.

The top 30 newspaper Web sites for September finds that politics, the financial meltdown and baseball helped boost the amount of visitors to newspaper Web sites, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online. All in the top 30 experienced double-digit increases in September monthly uniques with the exception of Village Voice Media (down 13% to 17 million). The Los Angeles Times was up 102%, Wall Street Journal up 94%, USA Today was up 33%, Boston Globe up 122%, Chicago Tribune up 46%. And the Web site of the Anchorage Daily News zoomed up to make it in the list of top 30 online newspapers–the Web site enjoyed a 928% spike in September, no doubt due to the paper’s coverage of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003875202 10/17)

Geneva Overholser admits, “I realized today to my amazement that I may long have been a secret disciple of Milton Friedman.”

“The famed laissez-faire economist held that business and mission don’t go together, according to Adlai Wertman, of USC’s Marshall School of Business. ‘And I’m not sure I disagree with him,’ Wertman told students and faculty at this week’s USC Annenberg Director’s Forum. ‘I’m not sure I trust business with anything else.’”

Wertman believes it’s absolutely possible to create new mission-driven models for journalism that also allow journalists to make a living.

Full story: Did journalism’s business model distort journalism’s social mission?

Acxiom Corp. released a study which reveals which consumer groups are most likely to spend during challenging economic times. The study found variations in how each consumer segment looks at the economy today and how that perception affects whether and how they will defer spending; the type of stores they will visit; and generally how they go about their daily shopping. (http://www.bigresearch.com/news/big101708.htm 10/14)

By Curt Cavin on OJR

 

Editor’s note: Sports fans whose memories extend more than 15 years will recall that Indy Car racing once was North America’s most popular form of motor sport. But a split among rival sanctioning organizations robbed the sport of sponsors and fans, clearing the way for NASCAR to become one of the country’s most popular sports. But die-hard Indy fans endured and, for them, Curt Cavin’s blog on the Indianapolis Star website has become place to go to for daily coverage of the newly re-unified IndyCar Series. (Heck, I read it every day.) I asked Curt to share with OJR readers his experience in growing the blog. - Robert] As a 20-year reporter for the Indianapolis Star, I had been doing a motor sports Q&A online weekly for about five years before I learned my company was tracking viewer traffic on its blogs and basing some coverage decisions on those numbers.

 

I was discouraged that my contribution never earned a spot in the newspaper’s top 10 as the Indianapolis 500 is such a captivating and historical event for our community. Then I learned that my Q&A wasn’t being considered a blog because it was written weekly and not in the true spirit of a blog.

…MORE….

PeopleSoft founder Dave Duffield calls it “The world’s best conference on HR technology” - and you can experience part of it for FREE! Come to McCormick Place, October 15 - 16, and visit the HR Technology® Conference Expo Hall [ http://www.HRTechnologyConference.com  ] for absolutely no charge. With more than 240 exhibitors, our Expo is more than just a place to comparison shop and collect literature - it’s a valuable source of information on every HR issue imaginable and the largest gathering of technology vendors in the world!

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If something’s important in human resource technology, we’ve got it covered. With proven global recruitment strategies from returning expert Elaine Orler of The Newman Group, to the Industry’s First Talent Management Shootout and more, this is the one HR technology event you can’t afford to miss. Simply visit www.HRTechnologyConference.com and see why HR Tech 2008 will be our best event yet. If you’re local to the area, there’s no travel or lodging expenses, it’s already worth it! And even if your budget’s too tight to attend the full conference, you can still learn how to save time and money from the leading vendors in the industry by visiting the Expo Hall for FREE. Pre-register for the free Expo that will help you accomplish more - in less time - than you ever thought possible. Visit www.HRTechnologyConference.com/MAY  today.

How newspapers abdicated the front page’s influence and how they can get it back by linking. http://publishing2.com/2008/09/21/how-newspapers-abdicated-the-front-pages-influence-and-how-they-can-get-it-back-by-linking/

More than a year ago ftm warned newspaper publishers that local television and radio were getting their                            Web act together and were nipping at newspaper web site revenues, and a new report out this week confirms just that. If newspapers want to get back the web revenue growth they desperately need then they need to change how they do things, not just editorially but on the advertising front, too. A new report, “Valuation Metrics for Local Web Sites” confirms slowing newspaper web growth while TV and radio are roaring forward. While local newspaper site revenues have grown a third since 2002 and are expected to reach $3.7 billion this year, local TV sites have grown their revenue by two thirds during that same period and radio has grown 70% since 2003. True, TV online revenue is only about a third of newspaper online revenue but it’s just a   matter of time, if things don’t change, before the two revenue lines cross, especially since in Q2 newspaper online ad revenue growth went negative compared to a year ago, and there is nothing to indicate that won’t continue. What’s TV’s secret? For one thing, for obvious reasons they really understand video advertising while newspaper sites are still flogging display banners. Newspaper web sites that have a dedicated video sales person, or people on staff dedicated to shooting video ads are few and far between. And getting into video advertising now is really important because, according to the report from BIA Financial Network and Borrell Associates, while banner ads and classified listings today make up about 50% of a newspaper web site’s ad revenues, projections are those types of ad revenues will drop dramatically within five years and by then streaming audio and video advertising will be all the rage. Newspapers need those skill sets now.

  “Specifically, their reliance on revenue from classified and display advertising wil continue to result in slower growth rates   over the next few years than what they experienced a few years ago,” the report said. “Additionally, nearly one-third of their Web clients are local real estate companies and automobile dealerships, two categories of retailers that are cutting back their overall advertising outlays.” JP Morgan just this month reduced its 2008-2009 online spending forecast and specifically  stated  that that display ads will suffer the most. All the more reason to be ready with video. For newspaper publishers the dilemma of slowing web revenue growth comes at a time when their web properties more than ever need to earn at least as much as the ad losses from print. But that is plain just not happening for most newspapers web revenue today makes up around 5%-10% of total newspaper revenue and that is projected to increase to only 7%                      -13% by 2011. Getting web revenues to 50% of overall revenues seems but a distance dream. Meanwhile big groups like Gannett and McClatchy are reporting 17% downturns in their monthly print advertising revenues - classifieds are much worse  - and since the web is said to earn only about 12– 14 cents for every dollar print earns there’s a huge gap that has to get filled as quickly as possible.
   “Unfortunately people have tied online too closely to their legacy media which is in decline,” Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, said. “That’s just hitching their wagon to a faling star.” In other words, his advice is to treat online as a separate business, not an extension of the legacy business. An obvious question which no one can really answer yet is    how long will it be before the legacy business becomes an extension of the online business? But that kind of thinking    accentuates why newspapers, if they are to have truly successful web sites, need to invest in staff dedicated to that online product. That means that a web advertising sale is not just an add-on to a newspaper print sale, nor that just legacy newspaper clients are approached for ad sales, but rather there is new blood out there dedicated to finding new ad  customers and promoting online ad campaigns. But Borrell thinks that’s a culture publishers just don’t buy into.                              

“Most of them feel this is a convergence opportunity and convergence to them means they don’t need to hire new staff,” Borrell  said. That may well be to their peril. In the overall picture newspapers today are currently getting about 11% of total web advertising revenues. That’s better than TV and radio (about 3%) but TV radio is expected to grow to 10% in three years giving newspaper a real run for their money, unless newspapers start changing the way they do things on the web. One thing for sure  – whatever newspapers have invested in building their web sites has not, and will not, go to waste. The report puts the median price of a newspaper web site at $3.5 million with some of the really big sites worth into the hundreds of millions. Indeed value multiples for web sites may be much higher than the legacy business, according to Mark Fratick, vice president of BIA Financial Network. “Obviously, there are fundamental changes taking place in the value of media properties, with the value of their websites becoming more meaningful as a percent of total value,” Fratick said.
   “Given their growth potential, the value multiples of media websites may be two to four times that of the core business.”

   And it’s not just the TV and radio web sites causing advertising slippage at newspaper sites. The so-called “pure play”
   sites now account for more than 53% of local online revenues whereas the report says by the end of the year newspapers will have just a 27% share of local online ad dollars. In other words, it is not active newspaper web market out there.
   Newspapers have plenty of things going for them, not least their brand, but there are others out there latching onto the local spend that more rightly should be going in the newspapers’ direction. Take a look in your own local market who is  spending on local Web advertising but is not advertising in print, who is getting that money that should be flowing to the local newspaper, figure out why it is not going to you, and then draw up a plan to go get it. Time is running out! 

 

 

 

From Search Engine Journal

Google News can bring tons of traffic and boost your site performance. If you own news site and consider it “newsworthy”, getting included in Google news is one of the first thing you should do: 

Make sure your site meets all requirements to be included:

Shimon Sandler did a great job listing the factors that will help you get accepted in Google news. I am listing them here with some additions:

Technical requirements:

• Article URL’s should consist of at least 3 unique digits, and look static;
• Each article name should preferably be H1/H2-tagged and be the same as the page title;
• Articles should be published at least 3 times a day;

Overall requirements:

• Make sure your site content is unique;
• There should be multiple site authors (and a page listing all the authors);
• Include your organization information: contact and “about” pages;
• The site logo should clearly state what niche the site covers;
• Each article should include its author’s name.

Recommended:

• Images and videos are good;
• Advertising is also good: “it shows there is visitor traffic.”
• Add your site to Google news for mobile devices.

After you make sure your site compiles with all the above requirements, submit it for review by Google News team.

 

 The future of newsprint has been a hop topic of debate for the last decade. So far, the papers haven’t died as some predicted, although new owners have meant smaller papers with fewer sections. Sam Zell’s thinner Chicago Tribune, is one example. On September 11, more newspaper news was made, as the New Jersey Star-Ledger printed an entire paper without any AP stories within. In the AP’s stead were shared pieces from other papers like the Washington Post and LA Times, a direct result of a hyperlink-based online economy. The more inbound links a paper has, the more revenue it generates. What better way to accomplish this than to link and share with other big news websites?  More from Buzz Machine

 

 

Tribune’s chief innovation officer, speaking at a Society for News Design event, says “Papers are everywhere–it’s not like it’s a new startup business,” and “There’s no reason we can’t create a newspaper renaissance.” “We have to focus on rethinking. Think dramatic. Think urgency. Dramatic issues require dramatic solutions.” He added: “What’s inspiring is the 70% of people who, once they’re liberated … they tend to see the big picture and want to change. I’m pleasantly surprised at the number of people who want to move forward.” Abrams spoke with president and executive editor of Greenspun Interactive, Rob Curley, as part of SND’s keynote session at the group’s annual workshop in Las Vegas. (9/7 http://update.snd.org/update/entry/war-has-been-declared/, http://update.snd.org/update/entry/rethinking-the-business-well-be-live-blogging-tonight/ via http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45)

TheMash, the paper’s collaboration with Chicago Public Schools on a weekly newspaper for and largely written by Chicago teens, is scheduled to make its debut Sept. 4 with an initial distribution of 100,000 copies in the city’s 130 public high schools. Student contributors will receive training and guidance from Chicago Tribune employees, and the product will deliver advertisers a vehicle to reach an elusive demographic. Verizon Wireless and Nike have signed on as “presenting sponsors.” Participating students receive a stipend for the work, said Tran Ha, TheMash’s editor. 40 students representing 20 schools have signed on and the paper is looking to recruit more contributors by the end of the month. (http://wwww.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu-themash-0904-sep04,0,6088001.story 9/4)

We did something similar to this in the early 90’s in Detroit where the Detroit Newspapers NIE Dept. coordinated with now defunct Michigan National Bank to set up “learning banks” in elementary schools.

There are plenty of people in the Washington area who’ve cursed out the Examiner for its penchant to throw papers willy-nilly on lawns and stoops. Yet Shepherd Park resident Don Squires came up with perhaps the most original protest. At an advisory neighborhood commission meeting earlier this year that addressed the unwanted deliveries, Squires showed up with a bag of Examiners that’d landed on his front lawn. He proceeded to dump them in the meeting room, provoking a commissioner to declare him out of order. Squires responded that he was just making a point: No one wants a pile of trash in their space. Watching all of this was Examiner Publisher Michael Phelps. Phelps also absorbed some blows on the very candid Shepherd Park listserv, which boiled over with nastiness about the free newspaper.

(http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/09/02/shepherd-park-man-examiner-delivery-finally-stopped 9/2)

The Tampa Tribune is said to be considering publishing as a one-section broadsheet newspaper weekdays, with very few stories “jumping” or continued off the front page.

(http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/08/will-the-tampa.html 8/29 via http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45)

City Paper arts editor on the state of book coverage at alternative weeklies. (http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/2008/08/guest-post-mark-athitakis-on-state-of.html 8/27 via http://aan.org)

Good thing for Milwaukee that the Shepherd Express both reviews books and publishes extended author interviews.

Shepherd Express Books

Shepherd Express Authors Voices

More staff cuts are coming for Washington City Paper. According to a newsroom insider, parent company Creative Loafing told City Paper staff that they would need to cut the publication’s budget by $170,000. (http://dcist.com/2008/08/27/more_staff_cuts_at_the_washington_c.php 8/27 via http://aan.org)

CNN correspondents will contribute columns to the free Metro papers in New York, Boston and Philadelphia every Friday for 12 weeks beginning Aug. 22 under a new partnership. (< http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/newsroom/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003841539> 8/21)