The goal of multiplatform news organizations in 2020 will be to have readers bookmark their site, sign up for their e-newsletter, download their app on their tablets and smartphones, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and seek out their content in all the new ways that will be out there in 2020. You leave money on the table if you make the platform an either-or decision (either read the site or download the app, but there’s no need to do both because the content is the same).

The app genie is out of the bottle. Local news organizations have moved past the stage of merely having an app and are moving on to the tricky challenge of monetizing those apps, and to do that, they will have to build on the momentum of local mobile search, unlock the power of geolocation and push for better app metrics.

Journalists are increasingly looking for ways to be more efficient and more reliable in researching, reporting, and filing stories. TabTimes looked at the 12 most important tablet apps for the profession.

1. iJournalist Pro
2. iTeleport for iPad
3. Evernote
4. Dropbox
5. Wi-Fi Finder
6. Dragon Dictation
7. Tweetdeck
8. Webster’s New World Dictionary
9. WriteRoom
10. WordPress
11. CoverItLive

I don’t think anyone could have predicted that smartphones would end up playing a major role in journalistic coverage or revolutions worldwide—but as this infographic shows, they have. I feel like you can see how smartphones are beginning to represent in one device abilities we used to have to spend money on an array of different electronics to achieve. They can be a camera, a web browser, a social media hub, and, of course, a phone.

Many news publishers focus their mobile strategies on platform-specific apps—but the mobile web may actually be more important, since a mobile website is easier to discover, link to, and share from a mobile device.

Damon Kiesow, senior product manager for the Boston Globe, recently examined the mobile websites of over 100 U.S. newspapers. Here’s what he found...

The people familiar with the Google glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS.

Just like the Storify website, the app lets users curate content from Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. There are two main differences: Users can tweet directly from the app and it is also touch-enabled, allowing content to be moved with just the touch of a finger.

Recently many social media editors have lamented that some are pigeonholed as “Twitter monkeys” who just handle the TweetDeck stuff so no one else has to. Web producers may get boxed in as “Website monkeys” who SEO the headlines and wrangle the insufferable CMS so no one else has to. And programmers get siloed as the “Code monkeys” who just turn product requirements into apps.

Bobby Schweizer, a doctoral student at the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-author of Newsgames: Journalism at Play ...laid out eight different uses of newsgames. They can be used to:

1. Editorialize
2. Raise awareness about specific events and what happened
3. Simulate dynamics
4. Model issues
5. Recreate events
6. Teach
7. Portray experiences
8. Turn stories into systems

When a big story strikes, ...many journalists turn first to social media for eyewitness accounts. Finding them can be hit-or-miss...

Three researchers – Nick Diakopoulos and Mor Naaman at Rutgers University and Munmun De Choudhury at Microsoft – created SRSR to see if they could help journalists find those undiscovered sources...

To find eyewitnesses, the researchers came up with a list of 741 words that act as clues – words that someone would be likely to use if she had seen, heard or otherwise perceived something...

The researchers asked journalists from seven news organizations – Philly.com, New York Daily News, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Reuters and the Guardian – to test the tool.

Search Engine Optimization vs
Social Media Optimization

SEO	SMO
It's about Google	It's about people
Site traffic, number of visits	Number of quality visit, conversations
Search engine results	Social media search
Exposure	Buzz
Measuring link conversion	Building a community
Marketing to search engines	Marketing to targeted audiences
Site structure	Content
On site optimization	Off site optimization
Metadata consists of HTML title, tags, image titles, bolded text; ranking is based on coding	Metadata consists of tags, titles and description that grab people’s attention

The 16 Rules of Social Media Optimization

1. Increase Your Linkability
2. Make Tagging and Bookmarking Easy
3. Reward Inbound Links
4. Help Your Content Travel
5. Encourage the Mashup
6. Be a User Resource, Even if it Doesn’t Help You
7. Reward Helpful and Valuable Users
8. Participate
9. Know How to Target Your Audience
10. Create Content
11. Be Real
12. Don’t Forget Your Roots, Be Humble
13. Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Things, Stay Fresh
14. Develop an SMO Strategy
15. Choose Your SMO Tactics Wisely
16. Make SMO part of your process and best practices

 

Martin Walker, head of magazine consulting firm Walker Communications, attributes The Economist's success to its contrarian approach. While other newsweeklies are delivering more graphics and shorter articles and rushing into video production, The Economist is increasing the number of long-form stories it carries and has no ambition to produce video.

"Mass intelligence" is the term (The Economist Group's chief executive Andrew) Rashbass uses to describe what the magazine wants to achieve through its content. He sees The Economist as a way of bringing elite media to the masses...

The Economist has eschewed video partly because Rashbass does not believe there is real money in it. He argues that good quality video is expensive to produce and does not get enough viewers to justify the investment.

"In contrast to U.S. companies that are looking to broaden their revenue streams through video and social media, The Economist wants its content to stand out even more as exceptionally high quality and worth paying for," Phillips said.

Subscribe replaces fan pages for journalists and as a result of switching from a page to subscribe, many have seen subscriber numbers soar.

 

(Seven Days multimedia producer Eva) Sollberger’s narrative voiceovers are minimized, though when she turns the camera on herself it’s just a little too close, her sense of (possible) irony just a little too ambiguous. And the videos run long — sometimes over seven minutes — much to the chagrin of her peers shooting Web videos at dailies elsewhere in the country.

But after five years, hundreds of videos and a cult following that ranges all over the country (not to mention a strong measure of local celebrity), Sollberger has become one of the tentpoles of Seven Days’ Web presence, her videos a case study of how alt weeklies might extend their patented edginess in more digitally-savvy directions.

I'm often stressing to traditionally trained broadcast videojournalists the essential difference between video stories that work online vs what works on air. The overall emphasis on quality and professionalism are basic but many of on-air's rules about what's acceptable don't apply. Arguably they don't need to apply on air either, except that it makes the video match all the other video on the show. But that is a justification for the media, not the audience.

Anyway, here is a great example of successful online video technique in terms of shots, cuts, audio, titling and structure that break a lot of the rules but certainly comes off as professional, journalistic and engaging (i.e. people actually want to watch it). The out-takes at the end keep you through the credits. I also like that the sponsor is quick-referenced at the beginning, with the full ad at the end. I might not have watched the Burlington College ad since I'm not in the market, but the brand was impressed on me.

1. Using Twitter hashtags to ask journalists to check facts
2. Publishing tweets on the New York Times homepage
3. By "revamping the liveblog template" and turning it into a "second screen"
4. By creating a "liveblog about liveblogs"
5. By experimenting with "hashtag science"
6. By encouraging journalists to use Facebook subscribe
7. Google+ hangouts

Users, for instance, could ask Siri to read the main story in The Economist aloud. Or they could ask, “What are the latest headlines from The Economist?” and have Siri read off the latest news. Users could then ask Siri to open up a particular story that they’re interested in. Voice technology, (The Economist's digital managing director Oscar) Grut said, could also make it easier for users to leave comments on The Economist’s website while on the go.

The Times has unveiled an experimental new web application that aims to bring the “newspaper-like” tablet reading experience to ordinary web browsers. The app... will be available for a two-week trial from today (2012.02.13). Described as “like reading the newspaper, but with all the interactivity of the web”, it features enhanced graphics, picture galleries and videos.

Another high-tech offering making its debut this year is Made Fashion Week, an app developed to be used at Made’s fashion show (either in person or via Livestream). Using technology developed by Sonic Notify, the app synchs with inaudible sound waves played during the show and automatically displays information about each look as models parade down the runway. Users can then share professional photos of the clothing via Twitter or email or save them for future reference.

The Internet has put local newspapers in its rearview mirror and has its sights set on television as a source of political campaign news, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

• Cable television leads with 36% of Americans getting their information on candidates and campaigns from cable news networks, down... from the 38% ... in 2008.
• ...Local TV news was a source for 32% of Americans, down... from 40% in 2008 and 48% in 2000.
• Network news (reached) 26%, down from 32% four years ago and 45% in 2000.
• The Internet... was cited (in 2000) as a political news source by 9% of the public. This year, it captured 25% of the public, basically flat from 24% in 2004...
• ...Local newspapers... dropped to 20% from 31% in 2004.