http://www.ejc.net/media_news/ EJC daily media news en European Journalism Centre Copyright 2009 2009-11-20T10:17:59+00:00 ejc/media_newshttp://feedburner.google.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Pageflakes http://www.ejc.net/media_news/yahoo_unveils_shortcut_news_tool/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/yahoo_unveils_shortcut_news_tool/#When:10:17:59Z Yahoo has added a new feature to its search service which the company hopes will improve coverage of breaking news. The company said that the 'Shortcut' component will not only display news stories on breaking items, but also offer related Twitter posts as well as photos and video files. Integration with the popular microblogging platform was a special point of emphasis for Yahoo. Overhauling search has been a top priority for Yahoo in its ongoing rebuilding efforts under Jerry Yang and more recently Carol Bartz. In addition to the high-profile deal with Microsoft, the company has added social networking components and overhauled its mobile platform. 2009-11-20T10:17:59+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_suit_accuses_hartford_courant_of_plagiarism/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_suit_accuses_hartford_courant_of_plagiarism/#When:10:17:20Z The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Conn., has sued The Courant, the state’s largest paper, saying that it copied The Journal Inquirer’s work in articles published last summer, a time when The Courant was also, in a subsequent admission, lifting material from several other northern Connecticut newspapers. The suit, filed Wednesday in Connecticut Superior Court in Hartford, cites 11 Courant articles it says were largely taken from The Journal Inquirer in August and September, and The Journal Inquirer has cited other examples taken from other papers. Online, The Courant credited many if not all of the articles to the original newspapers, Richard P. Weinstein, The Journal Inquirer’s lawyer, said. But in print, the attribution was often dropped, and the byline of a Courant writer was added. The articles were rearranged and rewritten to some extent, but some phrases from the originals remained intact. The suit addresses only examples when no credit was given to The Journal Inquirer, but Mr. Weinstein said that even with attribution, the extent of copying violated the law. He held out the possibility that the suit could be amended to add more examples. 2009-11-20T10:17:20+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/facebook_becomes_third_most_popular_video_site/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/facebook_becomes_third_most_popular_video_site/#When:10:16:37Z YouTube might still reign supreme in online video, but the big surprise coming out of Nielsen's VideoCensus release on Thursday is that Facebook is now the world's third most popular place to view video online. According to Nielsen's latest VideoCensus numbers, which look at the number of video views in October, YouTube serviced over 6.6 billion streams. In a distant second, Hulu offered up over 632 million video streams. But it was Facebook with over 217 million streams in October that easily beat out Bing, Yahoo, and several other online sites. In September, Facebook was ranked tenth in total streams. In October, Facebook placed second in total number of unique viewers: over 31.5 million. YouTube had almost 106 million unique viewers during October. Hulu placed fifth with 13.4 million viewers. According to Nielsen, the amount of time Web users spent viewing videos on social-networking sites increased 98 percent year over year. In October 2008, users watched 503.8 million minutes of video; they watched 999.4 million video minutes in October this year. That growth far outpaced growth in number of online video streams as a whole, which grew 26 percent year over year. 2009-11-20T10:16:37+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/google_to_add_captions_improving_youtube_videos/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/google_to_add_captions_improving_youtube_videos/#When:10:16:15Z In the first major step toward making millions of videos on YouTube accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired people, Google unveiled new technologies on Thursday that will automatically bring text captions to many videos on the site. The technology will also open YouTube videos to a wider foreign market and make them more searchable, which will make it easier for Google to profit from them. While the technology can insert captions only on English-language speech, Google is giving users the choice of using its automatic translation system to read the captions in 51 languages. That could broaden the appeal of YouTube videos to millions of other people who do not speak English but could use the captioning technology to read subtitles in their native language. YouTube is initially applying the captioning technology only to a few channels, most of them specializing in educational content. They include channels from universities like Stanford, Yale, Duke, Columbia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PBS and National Geographic, and Google itself — its corporate videos will be captioned. The company plans to gradually expand the number of channels that work with the automatic captioning technology. 2009-11-20T10:16:15+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/wikipedia_iphone_among_decades_top_10_internet_moments/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/wikipedia_iphone_among_decades_top_10_internet_moments/#When:10:15:40Z The launch of Wikipedia, emergence of the iPhone and the election of U.S. President Barack Obama were among the 10 most influential moments on the Internet in the past decade, according to the annual Webby awards. Other events singled out by the New York-based International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which has presented the annual Webby awards since 1996, were the Iranian election in 2009 when protests demonstrated the power of Twitter and other social network in reshaping democracy. Here is the Webby's list of the 10 most influential Internet moments of the decade: 1. Craigslist, the free classifieds site, expands outside San Francisco in 2000, impacting newspaper publishers everywhere; 2. Google AdWords launched in 2000 allowing advertisers to target their customers with laser-sharp precision; 3. Wikipedia, the free open-source encyclopedia, launches in 2001 and today boasts more than 14 million articles in 271 different languages and bringing strangers together on projects; 4. Napster shutdown in 2001, opening the file-sharing floodgates; 5. Google's IPO in 2004 put the search engine on the path to powering countless aspects of our everyday lives; 6. Online video revolution in 2006 that led to a boom in homemade and professional content on the Internet and helped reshape everything from pop culture to politics; 7. Facebook opens to non-college students and Twitter takes off in 2006; 8. The iPhone debuts in 2007 and smartphones go from a luxury item to a necessity with an app for just about every aspect of modern life; 9. U.S. presidential campaign in 2008 in which the Internet changed every facet of the way campaigns are run; 10. Iranian election protests in 2009 when Twitter proved vital in organizing demonstrations and as a protest too. 2009-11-20T10:15:40+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/sony_to_launch_online_entertainment_service_in_2010/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/sony_to_launch_online_entertainment_service_in_2010/#When:10:15:06Z Sony Corp said on Friday that its planned entertainment content distribution service for network-compatible TVs and other devices will be launched next year. Sony plans to launch a new online service to distribute movies, music, books and other content to network-capable TVs, Blu-ray players, ebooks and others in a bid to add value to its hardware. Sony Executive Vice President Kazuo Hirai also told reporters that he is confident sales of its PlayStation 3 game console will hit the official target of 13 million units in the year ending March 2010. 2009-11-20T10:15:06+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/citizen-journalism_site_starts_program_for_pro_journalists/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/citizen-journalism_site_starts_program_for_pro_journalists/#When:10:14:17Z A Web site for citizen journalists is extending a helping hand to professional ones. Allvoices.com has announced a program for displaced journalists who want to continue their craft and get paid for it. The San Francisco-based Web site is building a professional network of journalists to cover key beats. Allvoices will pay up to USD 250 per story to journalists who are selected to participate in the "Provoices" program based on market and beat. If the story generates a lot of traffic, the writer could be eligible for more money. During the first nine months of this year, newspaper industry employment was down 22 percent compared to the same period last year, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Allvoices has more than 200,000 registered citizen contributors. Those interested in Provoices should send a resume and clips to journalist@allvoices.com. 2009-11-19T10:14:17+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/germany_burda_buys_25_percent_stake_in_xing/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/germany_burda_buys_25_percent_stake_in_xing/#When:10:13:27Z German media giant Burda has used its digital arm to purchase a 25.1 percent share in XING, the business social network that is biggest in Germany and competes with LinkedIn. The 1,323,041 shares were sold to Burda by Cinco Capital, the investment vehicle owned by the former XING co-founder Lars Hinrichs. Priced at EUR 36.50 per share, the deal is therefore worth EUR 48.3 million. This makes Burda Digital the largest shareholder in XING. Burda already has positions in Glam Media, the GameDuell startup and Zooplus. Hamburg based business social network XING continued to grow revenue and EBIDTA in the first nine months of 2009 while profits were smaller than last year. XING is floated on the German stock exchange and this new investment by Burda simply re-inforces XING’s profile as a German company. It’s tried to expand internationally, mainly in Asia, but it looks locked into its roots. The question is, can it maintain its position in Germany forever? Asked recently if LinkedIn would buy XING to further its expansion in Europe co-founder Konstantin Guericke said “It’s just not necessary. LinkedIn grows “by the size of one XING every three months”. 2009-11-19T10:13:27+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/irish-language_paper_goes_national/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/irish-language_paper_goes_national/#When:10:12:51Z Fluent Irish speakers and those with the cupla focal can now read 'Foinse', the country's biggest Irish language newspaper, for free with their Irish Independent every Wednesday. The newly revitalised 'Foinse' is to be distributed every week from this Wednesday, ensuring it reaches more than 150,000 people through the Irish Independent, the largest selling national quality daily in Ireland. Editor Emer Ni Cheidigh said she was "delighted" that 'Foinse' will, for the first time, be able to achieve a national readership on a scale well beyond what it had been able to achieve in the past. 'Foinse', which is based in the Connemara Gaeltacht, was forced to cease publication in June after advertising income plummeted 75percent. The new 'Foinse' has been enhanced to give it a fresh and contemporary view of Ireland, the Irish language and culture. The refreshed 'Foinse' publication will employ five full-time staff and utilise a network of correspondents, contributors and services. 2009-11-19T10:12:51+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_power-guzzling_tvs_to_be_banned/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_power-guzzling_tvs_to_be_banned/#When:10:12:40Z Energy-hungry television sets will soon be banned across California in a landmark move by state legislators to reduce energy consumption. The state will be the first in the US to impose a mandatory energy curb on TVs, an often-overlooked power drain. Supporters say the move will help save California residents more than USD 8bn over 10 years in energy costs. But some 25 percent of TVs currently on sale would not meet the minimum standards, an industry group in Virginia said. The California Energy Commission will require that all new television sets up to 58 inches (147cm) be more energy efficient by 2011, consuming 33 percent less energy than current sets. The standards will get even tougher in 2013, when regulators will require sets to be 50 percent more efficient. Television usage currently accounts for 10 percent of home energy bills in California. Environmental groups applauded the tougher standards, saying the new rules would help avoid the need for a new 500-megawatt power plant to be built and save nearly USD 1bn each year. However, some consumer advocates and industry leaders opposed the move, saying it would limit consumer choice and increase the price of television sets. California has long pioneered environmental change, setting tough standards on everything from refrigerators to washing machines. As a result, electricity use in the state has stayed level for nearly three decades, whereas it has risen elsewhere in the US. 2009-11-19T10:12:40+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/ebay_founder_launching_online_hawaii_news_service/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/ebay_founder_launching_online_hawaii_news_service/#When:10:09:30Z EBay founder Pierre Omidyar announced on Wednesday that he was launching an online news service about his adopted home Hawaii. "We're still very early in the process of building this new organization," the French-born US entrepreneur and philanthropist said in a blog post and on his Twitter feed. "In fact, we don't even have a name for it yet." Omidyar, who became a billionaire when eBay went public, said he was hoping to launch the news service in early 2010. "We are creating a Honolulu-based local news service that will produce original, in-depth reporting and analysis of local issues in Hawaii. "Since it's 2009 (almost 2010!) this will be an online-only service," Omidyar said. "Although we haven't fully defined our coverage areas yet, we know the focus will be public affairs and civic matters that impact communities across Hawaii," he said. The 42-year-old Omidyar ranks 40th on the latest Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans with an estimated net worth of USD 5.5bn. 2009-11-19T10:09:30+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/japan_two_manga_style_newspapers_launched_in_recent_weeks/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/japan_two_manga_style_newspapers_launched_in_recent_weeks/#When:10:09:15Z Japan boasts two new newspaper Web sites, both of which deliver the news in a highly-stylised artistic form known worldwide as manga, Asiajin reported Tuesday. Manga no Shimbun, or Manga Newspaper in English, is a general interest daily launched by KaBA Net on October 15, 2009. In pictorial headlines of such high quality they put to shame the ads beside them, the newspaper instantly and economically communicates the subject of a story to readers - and nonreaders - of any language. The newspaper's press release (also in manga) promises translations to English, French and Korean as the publication grows. Meanwhile, Trend Pro launched Nihon IT Manga Shimbun, or Japan IT Manga Newspaper, Thursday. Though this publication's chief focus is - as its title implies - on technology news, currently dead tabs labelled "Economics" and "Politics" suggest that coverage of those areas may be forthcoming. 2009-11-19T10:09:15+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_new_study_points_to_healthy_newspaper_readership/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_new_study_points_to_healthy_newspaper_readership/#When:09:41:15Z A new study from Scarborough Research finds that 74 percent of adults - nearly 171 million - in the United States read a newspaper in print or online during the past week. This number counters the notion that newspapers no longer impact consumers. "Given the fragmentation of media choices, printed newspapers are holding onto their audiences relatively well," Gary Meo, Scarborough's senior vice president of print and digital media services, said in a statement. The data is the latest analysis of Scarborough Integrated Newspaper Audience (INA) report that measures the audience of the newspaper industry. Furthermore, Scarborough found that 79 percent of adults who are employed in "white collar" jobs read a newspaper online or in print; that 82 percent of adults with a household income of USD 100,000 or more read a newspaper in print or online; and 84 percent of adults who have college or advanced degrees do the same. ABC said that overall, daily circulation for the six months ending September 2009 plunged 10.6 percent while Sunday circulation fell 7.4 percent. "While Scarborough shows declines in printed newspaper readership, these have not been as severe as those reported in circulation. This is because circulation and audience do not always march in lockstep as they are two different measurements," Meo added. ABC counts the number of copies sold, while Scarborough takes into account the number of copies read. 2009-11-18T09:41:15+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/canadian_cable_and_broadcasters_clash/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/canadian_cable_and_broadcasters_clash/#When:09:40:00Z Canada's federal broadcast regulator is in the middle of a dispute by broadcasters demanding cable companies pay for using their signals. Hearings began in Ottawa Monday by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission into the long-running battle that came to a head in the past year as advertising revenues plummeted for broadcasters, Sun Media reported. At the hearing, the country's largest broadcaster, CTV said it would start pulling Canadian and U.S. content from cable and satellite companies who use its signal and the threat of closing down small, unprofitable stations was also a possibility to remain viable. Executives from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Global TV are scheduled to present similar arguments in coming days, the report said. On the other side, cable giants Rogers and Shaw along with satellite provider Bell will argue they shouldn't be collecting user fees for television broadcasters. The CRTC hearings will also allow for input from the public, the report said. 2009-11-18T09:40:00+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/youtube_gets_hispanic_shows_in_univision_deal/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/youtube_gets_hispanic_shows_in_univision_deal/#When:09:39:37Z Spanish-language media company Univision Communications Inc said on Monday it has reached an agreement to feature short and full-length programs on Google Inc's online video site YouTube. The revenue-sharing agreement covers new and archive Hispanic programing, including shows from Univision Communications' Univision, TeleFutura and Galavision networks. The revenue will be generated by advertising featured around the programing. Executives said that Univision will receive the majority of the revenue but declined to give further financial details. The deal is the latest in a string that YouTube has reached with major entertainment partners as it moves to offer more professional content rather than the user-created videos through which it became popular. In the last year YouTube has struck deals with Walt Disney Co and Time Warner Inc, among others. But not all deals have featured full length shows, with many only showing promotional clips. Univision is a leading Spanish-language program company in the U.S., and its new YouTube offering will feature top Univision shows as well as footage from Univision celebrity interviews and events. The Hispanic market is one of the fastest growing media sectors in the U.S. YouTube executives said there has been a huge demand for Spanish-language content on the site. 2009-11-18T09:39:37+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_dozens_of_layoffs_at_associated_press_guild/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_dozens_of_layoffs_at_associated_press_guild/#When:09:39:17Z The US news agency the Associated Press (AP) laid off dozens of employees on Tuesday as part of a plan to reduce its global payroll by 10 percent this year, a union statement said. The News Media Guild, which covers some 1,300 AP editorial and technology unit staffers in the United States, said it did not have an exact number of layoffs because management had not yet formally notified it of the move. The Guild said it had been informed by members of more than 38 layoffs affecting Guild-covered managers, reporters, editors, photographers, and editorial assistants. It said 20 jobs were cut at AP headquarters in New York and eight jobs in Puerto Rico. The Guild said it did not know how many managerial or non-US employees were let go. A hiring freeze has been in place at the AP and about 100 employees accepted a voluntary early retirement package earlier this year. The Guild said the layoffs were the largest since 2006 when 100 technology workers were let go. The AP, a cooperative which is owned by 1,500 daily US newspapers, employs around 4,000 people, including 3,000 editorial staff. 2009-11-18T09:39:17+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/uk_times_editor_james_harding_outlines_plans_for_online_charging/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/uk_times_editor_james_harding_outlines_plans_for_online_charging/#When:09:38:14Z James Harding, the editor of the Times, today gave the clearest indication yet of how News International is going to start charging for its journalism online. Pledging to "rewrite the economics of newspapers", Harding said the Times would charge for 24-hour access to that day's edition of the paper alongside a subscription model, but dismissed the idea of micro-payments for individual articles. Harding said the newspaper business had to avoid the mistakes of the music industry – and call time on free distribution. "We created a culture of free, and we absolutely were party to that," he told an audience of senior editors and executives at the Society of Editors conference in Stansted, Essex. He contrasted the Times's 20 million-plus unique users with the 500,000 readers who had developed a "genuine digital newspaper habit". He confirmed that the Times – in common with other newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire – would introduce online charging. He said the Times would also enhance its relationship with its most loyal readers through home delivery and a reward programme through the recently launched Times+ membership venture. 2009-11-18T09:38:14+00:00 http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_authorities_raid_newspaper_offices_in_new_york_city/ http://www.ejc.net/media_news/us_authorities_raid_newspaper_offices_in_new_york_city/#When:09:37:29Z Investigators in New York City raided circulation offices at some of the nation's largest newspapers Tuesday as part of a union corruption probe, a law enforcement official said. Police officers working with the Manhattan district attorney's office searched circulation offices of the New York Times in Queens, the New York Post and the Daily News in Manhattan, and El Diario in Brooklyn, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Investigators were seeking paperwork related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which packages and delivers newspapers across the region. The news deliverers' parent union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, referred inquiries to the local union. The New York Times issued a statement saying that the office of an employee at its plant in Queens' College Point area had been searched but that its news side was not part of the investigation. Rosana Rosado, publisher of El Diario-La Prensa, also said that the Spanish-language newspaper is not a subject of the investigation and that the search warrant was seeking information into allegations of corruption at the union. The 1,600-member union wields considerable power over news companies that rely on their drivers to deliver hundreds of thousands of papers each day, and allegations of connections to organised crime are not new. 2009-11-18T09:37:29+00:00