Indy joins monthly ABCe reporting

Posted by Martin Stabe on 6 August 2007 at 12:14
Tags: ABCe, Independent

The Independent’s web site will join its broadsheet rivals in revealing its ABCe web traffic figures each month, Revolution reported this week.

This is very good news — hopefully the other newspapers web sites will take the same approachh. So far only the Guardian, Sun, Times, and Telegraph reveal their ABCe-audited server-centric web site traffic data each month, and the lack of a uniform metric makes it difficult to make comparisons about the sites’ relative growth.

While no audited server log data is available for the Indy, user-centric data like that provided by online market research firm Nielsen/Netratings gives some indication of where the Indy stands in the online news universe.

According to Netratings, Independent.co.uk has a monthly UK audience of 706,000 — still furlongs behind Guardian Unlimited (2.37m), The Sun Online (1.98m), Times Online (1.73m) Telegraph.co.uk (1.59m) and even DailyMail.co.uk (1.1m).

Still, the Indy may have good reason to start revealing its audited web traffic figures. The Netratings data shows that Independent.co.uk could currently be Britain’s fastest-growing newspaper web site. Despite starting from a relatively low base, the Indy was up 54.5 per cent since last October, the first month Netratings figures were available.

Earlier this year, Indy editor-in-chief Simon Kelner told the Guardian that the site was being redesigned with “bells and whistles attached to it”. So watch this space.

New research on UK newspapers’ online business models

Posted by Martin Stabe on 5 July 2007 at 14:11
Tags: Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, International Herald Tribune, Mail on Sunday, Star, Sun, Times, Times Online

National newspapers’ online editors and managers are increasingly seeing print and online editions as complementary products, and at some titles concern about cannibalisation has “diminished to the stage where they are not a significant influence on strategy”.

These are among the key findings of newly-published research in the business models of national newspaper web sites by Jack Herbert and Neil Thurman of City University.

Ironically, perhaps, given its findings about the diminishing importance of paywalls at newspaper web sites, the definitive version of the study is only available to subscribers of the academic journal Journalism Practice. Non-subscribers can download it for £14.

However, a pre-print version is available from City University’s web site.

The report is the result of interviews conducted last summer with the online editors or managers of the national newspaper web sites.

Sites are charging for news, columnists, archives, digital editions, e-mail alerts, mobile services. But in a buoyant advertising market, many of the sites are finding it advantageous to make more of their content available for free to increase overall traffic, the study finds.

None of the sites charge for general interest news, a finding the authors attribute to the “availability of this relatively generic content for free”

Times Online’s former editor Peter Bale told the researchers that the site had experienced a “huge” increase in traffic when it dropped pay barriers to overseas users and has also opened its archives.

Even those running sites with paywalls, like Independent online edition, FT.com, and Scotsman.com could see the potential benefits of dropping the barriers.

Advertising is the main revenue stream for national newspapers’ web sites, with up to 90 per cent of revenues coming from advertising. The study also found that revenue from online services and commercial partnerships is growing rapidly. It accounted for a third of total profits at Telegraph.co.uk, and was growing by 20 to 30 percent at Guardian Unlimited.

Several of the editors and managers interviewed indicated that they were increasingly unconcerned about cannibalising their print editions. Alan Revell of Associated Northcliffe Digital told the researchers that a survey of Daily Mail readers had found that they did not view DailyMail.co.uk as a substitute for the print edition, and that the site’s presence did not affect frequency with which they buy the printed edition.

Pete Picton, editor of Sun Online, told the researchers that the real competition competition was the Internet as a whole.

“[T]here is cannibalization by the Internet, not by the Sun Online per se,” he said.

The theory of cannibalization, the researchers found, is based on the assumption that that people stick with a particular news brand, regardless of medium. That idea may now be “completely dead”, Richard Withey of the Independent told the researchers. Simon Waldman of the Guardian agreed, stressing the behaviour of “promiscuous readers” online. Exactly: the attention economy is hungry for our lunch.

Some other key findings from the interviews with online editors:

• Digital editions are only providing marginal revenue streams and see them as an imperfect technology
• Email services were a growing area and editors were excited about their
  revenue potential
• Concerns about cannibalization “have diminished to the stage where they are not a significant influence on strategy” at the Guardian, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express.

Times and Telegraph blog the Blair-Brown interregnum

Posted by Martin Stabe on 27 June 2007 at 16:20
Tags: Times

The Times has been doing a great job today covering the handover of power to Gordon Brown on its News Blog.

It has used the blog to highlight the many steps of today’s transition, including some great little details that would not have made it into full stories.

My favourite post of the day is the one put up by Sam Coates at one o’clock this afternoon about who would be in charge during the half-hour interregnum between Tony Blair’s resignation and Gordon Brown’s meeting with the Queen.

For about 30 minutes, Britain would be without a prime minister — plenty of time for Coates’ 85-word post to explain how the British constitution deals with this procedural quirk.

Update: Just noticed that The Telegraph’s by Carlin and Isaby made the same observation on their blog much earlier in the day. They note that the thought came from a qustion at the morning briefing for Lobby journalists yesterday. The factoid was certainly trotted out at exactly the right moment!

Fake Sheikh to quit?

Posted by Martin Stabe on 26 June 2007 at 07:35
Tags: News of the World

The Independent’s Pandora column today suggests that the News of the World’s controvertial investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood, may have explored the option of taking voluntary redundancy amid the current round of cutbacks at News International.

The Fake Sheikh, the Indy diary claims, “has been in aborted talks with management over a package to hang up his robes”.

An anonymous source talls Oliver Duff: “He discussed voluntary redundancy, but they didn’t want him to go. He is too valuable.”

New York Times publishes Murdoch investigation

Posted by Martin Stabe on 25 June 2007 at 07:06
Tags: New York Times, Sunday Times, Times, Times Media, Wall Street Journal

The New York Times has this morning published its much-anticipated investigation into News Corp. The story, which Murdoch himself declined to be interviewed for, includes four bylines, including Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner reporting from London.

The key line in the New York Times investigation, which comes as Murdoch seeks to acquire the rival Wall Street Journal, come in paragraph nine:

What worries his critics is that Mr. Murdoch will use The Journal, which has won many Pulitzer Prizes and has a sterling reputation for accuracy and fairness, as yet another tool to further his myriad financial and political agendas.

The piece explains that the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones, has sought assurances of the Wall Street Journal’s continued editorial independence if Murdoch were to become its proprietor, before noting that “When he bought The Times of London in 1981 he gave similar assurances, but some former editors say he meddled with news operations anyway”

The piece pays close attention to News Corp’s governance of The Times, which Murdoch is said to favour replicating at the Wall Street Journal. It quotes former editors Harry Evans, Fred Emery and Andrew Neil to allege Murdoch’s interference with his British broadsheets.

Neil is quoted as saying: “He puts people in who will do his bidding”.

But current Times editor Robert Thompson, who is believed to have a key role in Murdoch’s attempt to acquire Dow Jones, paints a different picture: “I’ve had absolutely no interference and a lot of investment in a loss-making newspaper, for which Rupert Murdoch gets no credit.”

The bulk of the story, however, examines the Murdoch empire’s influence on US politics, and particularly media regulation. In the dozen years since moving the company to America, the New York Times says, Murdoch’s companies have “thrived in a highly regulated environment in part because of his remarkable ability to mold the rules to fit his needs.”

The piece also looks at campaign contributions linked to Murdoch or News Corp, which are more balanced between Republicans and Democrats than might be expected in the United States, where his best-known properties are Fox News and the New York Post.

FOI win may give more details of MPs’ expenses

Posted by Martin Stabe on 15 June 2007 at 12:35
Tags: Freedom of Information, Sunday Telegraph

The Information Commissioner has ruled that more details of MPs’ expenses must be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, in a move that is likely to raise a few eyebrows in Westminster, given the recent failure of David Maclean’s “squalid little bill” to exempt Parliament from FOI.

The decision notice (PDF) states that the total amounts claimed by some MPs under the “additional cost allowance”, which is used to reclaim expenses of running a home closer to Westminster than their constituency, must be disclosed under specific headings including “mortgage costs”, “hotel expenses” and so on.

The decision, made earlier this week, but only released today, followed requests from the various journalists. Ben Leapman of the Sunday Telegraph writes that an appeal by the Commons authorities to the Information Tribunal is likely, however.

Had it passed, the Maclean bill would have blocked precisely this sort or request to the House of Commons.

The Commissioner said that the public has a right to know expenses claimed by MPs in relation to their public duties.

In a press release about the decision, the ICO said: “The Information Commissioner does not believe it is necessary to disclose the full itemised details of expenditure on the running of a MP’s private household. To do so would invade the privacy of MPs and their families.”

Meanwhile, another private members bill is worth keeping an eye on: tabled by Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, the Freedom of Information (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill would actually strengthen the FOI Act. The Campaign for Freedmom of Information’s blog has full details, and Robert Verkaik wrote it up in the Indy this morning.

Update: More context on this decision from Martin Rosenbaum at the BBC

Update 2.10pm: Heather Brooke is not impressed with the ICO’s “regulation by press release” and says the decision resulted from an appeal that she had filed with the ICO. It certainly seems as though she’s been scooped on the decision affecting her own request because of the way it was released — by registered mail to her and by e-mail and RSS to the rest of the media. Martin Rosenbaum has had similar experiences.

2 comments

Expert Eye: The new vids on the block

Posted by Ian Reeves on 24 May 2007 at 09:45
Tags: Belfast Telegraph, Computing, Eastern Daily Press, FHM, Financial Times, Guardian, Haymarket, Hull Daily Mail, ITN, InStyle, Journalism, Lancashire Evening Post, Magazines, Media Week, Mirror, Nationals, New Scientist, Newspapers, Northern Echo, Nuts, Roo, Sun, Telegraph.co.uk, Times Online, VNU, YouTube, Zoo, icBirmingham, video

Ian Reeves looks at how he printed press is experimenting with video, from locals to the big players.

11 comments

Multimedia from the Telegraph newsroom

Posted by Martin Stabe on 3 April 2007 at 12:34
Tags: Daily Telegraph, Journalism, Soundslides, Telegraph Media Group, Telegraph.co.uk

When Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford spent Budget Day in the Telegraph’s new multimedia newsroom, we sent along photographer James Young.

Some of his pictures appeared in the magazine this week, where we were able to print them large enough to do the new Telegraph newsroom justice. A slideshow featuring more of Young’s stills, along with a commentary from Dominic, are now available in a multimedia slideshow over on the Editor’s Blog.

Owing, perhaps, to its apparent no-photography policy in the first few weeks after opening the new facility, new pictures of the newsroom appearing online have attracted considerable interest in the media blogosphere.

Jeff Jarvis took a tour last month, shot some video, and explained in yesterday’s Guardian why many people admire the new facility.

There will probably be plenty more material like this after the Telegraph’s blogger open house in a couple of days.

Bloggers’ reaction to the British Press Awards

Posted by Martin Stabe on 29 March 2007 at 16:57
Tags: British Press Awards, Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times

Here’s a shock: Some right-wing political bloggers have reacted badly to their journalistic bête noir, Polly Toynbee, collecting the gong for columnist of the year. on Monday night.

For the Devil’s Kitchen, this was a sure sign that “everyone else in the MSM is even stupider than Polly herself”.

He went on to claim:

If we needed any proof of the Leftist sympathies and utter mediocrity of the British MSM, this surely must be the clincher although I must admit that handing the National Newspaper of the Year to The Observer would also go some way to confirming the rightness of one’s utter contempt for the entire sorry industry.

DK quickly updated his post to acknowledge the reminder of another blogger, Bookdrunk, that more conservative papers have also won the award in recent years.

Of course, this just proves the point anyway:

If there’s one thing that bloggers who cover the media agree on, it’s that there’s plenty of mediocrity and outright hackery for the entire political spectrum.

Oh dear.

The bloggers who earn their living in the dastardly MSM were a tad more charitable.

Weber Shadwick chief executive Colin Bryne proves you can’t have it both ways. After years of complaints about bad behaviour at the Awards, Bryne was “left wishing for a bit of the old spicy behaviour and wondering why the lady in the gold bubble dress on the next table had to visit the loo every ten minutes”.

City University head of journalism and Press Gazette columnist Adrian Monck was left wishing for wifi — or at least mobile reception in the hall. In Monck’s comments, Neil McIntosh kicks off the much-needed debate about how we should reflect print-online convergence in next year’s awards. More on that important topic soon…

HarperPress editor Annabel Wright. Over at 5th Estate, she congratulates the Sunday Times’s Christina Lamb for winning the fourth British Press Award of her career as Foreign Reporter of the Year.

“Foreign correspondents seem to me a very particular breed, driven to take risks that would terrify most of us,” she writes, before posting excepts from the introduction of a book of Lamb’s journalism that will be published in July.

(more…)

Nominees announced for newspaper innovation gong

Posted by Martin Stabe on 21 March 2007 at 13:20
Tags: BBC, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Guardian, Guardian Unlimited, MEN Lite, Manchester Evening News, Newbury Weekly News, Newbury today, Pinkun.com, Reading Chronicle, Sunday Telegraph, Telegraph.co.uk, Times Online, telegraph, thelondonpaper

Reading Chronicle editor Simon Jones has good reason to be boastful: his paper’s Polish edition has been nominated for The Fujifilm Grand Prix Award for the “most significant contribution to future newspaper success” at the 2007 Newspaper Awards.

The Kronika Reading is certainly in good company. Other nominees for the award are the Telegraph’s new newsroom, the Financial Times’ mobile news reader, the Guardian’s afternoon PDF edition G24, and free papers MEN Lite and thelondonpaper.

Meanwhile,
BBC News Oniline, Guardian Unlimited, the Manchester Evening News, Newbury Today, Pinkun.com, Telegraph.co.uk, and Times Online are nominated for the “Electronic News Site of the Year”, an award described as “The Press Computer Systems Award for all electronic news sites”.