SPJ Press Notes

Eurozone crisis live: Yes campaign heading to victory in Irish referendum

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:34:32 +0000

• Supporters of fiscal compact confident of victory
• World markets hit 2012 low
• Eurozone manufacturing sector hits 3-year low
• And so does Britain's....
• Bloomberg starts testing trading the drachma

2.16pm: We don't expect to get the result from Ireland until 5pm or later, but both sides have accepted that Ireland will sign the fiscal treaty.

Fine Gael TD and Junior finance minister in the Irish Cabinet, Brian Hayes, said the result was a very clear cut one in favour of the EU treaty.

Henry McDonald explains:

Hayes who played a central role in running the government's campaign in the referendum said the key priority now was to "get back into the money markets and get back our sovereignty that the people of this country hold so dear."
The minister said Irish people had ratified the treaty because they didn't want "Ireland at the centre of the storm a bit like what has happened in Greece."
His own constituency of Dublin South West voted narrowly against the treaty which Hayes put down to anger over job losses in the area rather than hostility towards the EU.
Hayes' Fine Gael colleague, the European Minister Lucinda Creighton earlier caused some mirth and much sniggering among the press corps at Dublin Castle when she was asked about German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Creighton said he didn't want Merkel to become "the whipping girl" of the EU!

Big fan of fiscal discipline, our Angela....

2.05pm: Back to the Irish referendum, where the No campaign are looking to the future.

Speaking at Dublin Castle Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald said the Irish government now had to deliver on their promises to acheive stability and growth following the Yes vote. The Dublin TD said her party would hold the Fine Gael-Labour coalition to account.

McDonald told reporters in Dublin:

Now let's see what happens next because when you have been out on the campaign trail and we held public meetings right across this state, we talked to, I lost count of how many people, and things are really really tough.
People want to see progress, they want to have a sense of hope and I remain absolutely sure that if the government persists with its policy of austerity and cutbacks then we won't see that improvement, we won't have that hope.
We will be holding the government to the clear promises it made during this campaign.

1.56pm: The US dollar tumbled against the yen when today's weak jobs data was released (see 1.30pm). From 78.12 yen to the dollar, it shot down to 77.69 yen/dollar.

But almost immediately, it spiked back - sparking speculation on the trading floors that the Bank of Japan had intervened.

That would be a real sign of crisis - central banks driving down the value of their currency. However, the BoJ isn't commenting on the reports, and experts suggest that Japan hasn't actually pulled the trigger:

@ChrisAdamsMKTS nope, hearing just a rate check
— World First (@World_First) June 1, 2012

A rate check involves simply phoning trading houses to inquire what the yen is changing hands for -- and could be seen as a 'shot over the bows', hinting at action to come.

1.49pm: News in from Greece where our correspondent Helena Smith says radical left leader Alexis Tsipras has been racheting up the rhetoric ahead of the country's critical June 17 poll.

Helena writes:

Alexis Tsipras gave a vintage performance this morning as he presented the economic policies of his radical left Syriza party in Athens barely three weeks before Greeks cast their ballots for a second time in less than two months.
The youthful leader, emboldened by polls that have shown his left coalition party either in the lead or trailing the centre-right New Democracy party by less than 3 points, turned the occasion into a devastating attack on the 'catastrophic' bailout agreements Greece has signed with the EU and IMF. The forthcoming vote amounted to a single dilemma, he said: "either you enforce it or you annul it [the agreement]."
"The first act of a government of the left, as soon as the new parliament is sworn in will be the cancellation of the memorandum [bailout agreement] and its implementation laws," he told a crowd of party cadres.
Outlining the onerous conditions Athens must meet to receive quarterly injections of cash, the memorandum has demanded repeated spending cuts and tax increases since first being enforced in May 2010.
But standing under a banner that read "we are opening the way to hope" Tsipras said if the accord continued to be applied, the debt-choked country would take even longer to exit its ever-worsening recession with the best case scenario being 2014 before it began to see the faintest glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
Even worse, Greece would require at least a decade before returning to the markets from which it has been kept out because of prohibitive borrowing rates since 2010. "There is not a serious economist in Europe or the world who does not think these policies will lead to total catastrophe," he said as supporters shouted "the time of the Left [in power] has come."
"The memorandum is a mechanism of definitive bankruptcy and pushing the country to a voluntary withdrawal from the eurozone … there is no more or less bad memorandum. You either implement it or you cancel it … we will cancel it."
In what will surely be seen as even more alarming news for foreign lenders, Tsipras said Syriza would replace the memorandum with a "national plan of correction" – one that would seek "to drastically reduce the debt repayments" or enforce a "debt moratorium" that would effectively halt the servicing of Greece's 200 bn euro debt mountainuntil the economy was stabilized. A central part of the plan would be to clamp down on rampant tax evasion with a 'radical overhaul' of the tax collection system that currently put the onus on low income and middle class Greeks rather than the rich.
There was music for the ears of austerity weary Greeks who Syriza cadres fear are now being "terrorised" into voting for the "pro-European, pro-memorandum" New Democracy party on a platform of euro versus drachma scaremongering.
Under his stewardship, the minimum wage would be reintroduced to 751 euro per month and unemployment benefits would be reinstated, said Tsipras.

1.30pm: Bad news from America – the much-awaited non-farm payroll data showed that just 69,000 new jobs were created in the US last month.

That's much lower than forecast, and politically a blow to Barack Obama with the re-election battle looming.

The US Labour Department also revised down its estimates for the previous two months. It now estimates that just 77,000 jobs were created in April, not 115,000 as first thought, and 143,000 in March, not 154,00.

European shares are turning even lower, with the FTSE 100 shedding another 35 points to 5244, down 76 today.

1.20pm: Europe's stock markets are a mess of red today, with almost every major index falling. Only Spain's IBEX is up.

This morning's disappointing manufacturing data is the main cause of the selloff (with the ongoing eurocrisis adding to nervousness):

FTSE 100: down 41 points at 5279, - 0.77%
German DAX: down 176 points at 6088, - 2.8%
French CAC: down 60 points at 295, - 2.0%
IBEX: up 10 points at 6100, + 0.18%
FTSE MIB: down 142 points at 12730, -1.11%

This followed losses in Asia overnight, and means that global share prices – as measured by the MSCI world stock index – is now at its lowest level for 2012.

This graph shows how the MSCI has performed over the last 18 months.

12.51pm: Concerns over Spain's ability to avoid seeking finanical aid continue to stalk the financial markets today.

This pushed up the cost of insuring Spain's debt to a new record high, with its credit default swap jumping by another 14 basis points to 610.

That means it now costs $610,000 per year to insure €10m of Spanish debt against default.

The move followed reports that Spain will not announce details of a mechanism to ease the funding problems of its heavily indebted regions today, as hoped.

despite the Spanish government announcing that its autonomous regions hhas posted balanced budgets in the first three months of this year (details)

12.35pm: A quick update on the count in Ireland, underlying that the Yes vote is romping to victory

In Dublin North, the YES count is running at 64%, with all the boxes now open. Over in Cork South-Central, the YES lead is 61% to 39%.

It's not a rout, though -- in Dublin Mid-West, the No side is ahead with 51% of the vote...

12.16pm: Senator Darragh O'Brien, the leader of Fianna Fail in Ireland's Senate, acknowledged that the Yes outcome was a "grudging, pragmatic vote" but said the outcome was the right one.

O'Brien said that even in his constituency of North Dublin Yes voters had backed the treaty even though they were angry about austerity and the four year long recession.

12.12pm: Henry has also interviewed Declan Ganley, one of the most prominent No campaigners.

Ganley said that a Yes victory (as appears certain) had sent the wrong signal back to Brussels.

Speaking inside the Dublin Castle media centre, Ganley argued that by voting Yes Irish people were "vesting trust one more time" into the EU leadership to do the right thing.

He said the EU should start dealing with the issue of personal bank debt with Ireland having the largest private debt in Europe.

Ganley said:

That issue cannot be allowed to continue and what the Irish votes have said with this Yes vote is they still have good faith in Europe's leadership to address this issue and do the right thing by us.
I am concerned that this signal will be misinterpreted as being a message that everything is OK here and that nothing needs to be done. That's not what this signal is because I do not believe the Irish electorate is saying everything is fine.

Danley added that he was not optimistic that the EU leadership would tackle head-on the crippling personal bank debt in Ireland.

11.45am: The early results of the voting from Ireland throws a spotlight on social divides across the country.

Henry McDonald explains:

The first divide is the urban-rural split, with most constituncies with a large farming community voting Yes to the treaty. Irish farmers are traditionally pro European given the EU's largesse to the agricultural community through the Common Agricultural Policy.
In the cities particularly Dublin the split between Yes and No runs on class lines. In the west Dublin working class district of Ballyfermot the tally count is indicating that 90% of those who bothered to vote opted for No while in middle class Sandymount 77% voted Yes.

11.31am: There's a lot of buzz in the City this morning after traders discovered that there is now a code for the Greek drachma on Bloomberg.

The code in question is 'XGD CURNCY' (see below), which is described as "Greek Drachma Post EUR spot". It doesn't appear to actually link to a tradable currency unit - the message "Access to this security is restricted by its supplier" appears if you click on it.

It's also not clear if it's just been created, or if there's another reason why it's just been spotted today.

Anyway, here's the proof:

Either Bloomberg plays games with our hearts or Greeks want to issue "Post-Euro" currency indeed. #Drachma $XGD twitter.com/russian_market…
— Russian Market (@russian_market) June 1, 2012

UPDATE: Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider's tireless reporter on all things financial, reports that it's been set up as "an internal function which is set up to test."

Great timing, guys.....

11.21am: Looking at Greece.... six different opinion polls were released this morning, on the last day that polling data can be released before the June 17 election.

As is now traditional, each poll paints a different picture of the situation. Five put New Democracy in the lead, by between 1.4% and 2.5%. The sixth gives Syriza a big lead, 6% ahead of New Democracy.

Details here (in Greek) (thanks to @Finisterre67 )

11.15am: Declan Ganley, the millionaire businessman who led the free market anti-Europe Libertas group, has conceded this morning that Ireland has voted Yes.

10.55am: Henry McDonald, our Irish correspondent, is now very confident that the Yes campaign has won the referendum on the fiscal compact.

Despite the No campaign winning in Donegal North East (see last post), the overall national picture firmly indicates that Ireland is on course to ratify the treaty.

10.53am: In traditional eurosceptic Donegal North East they have gone against the national trend and voted against the treaty.

The vote divided 56% No, and 44% for the treaty, in the northwest constituency.

10.51am: The award for spoilt ballot paper of the day has been claimed, by John McGuirk on Twitter (you've got to click the link below):

Spoilt vote of the day. #euref twitpic.com/9rjkab
— John McGuirk (@john_mcguirk) June 1, 2012

10.36am: Europe's unemployment crisis has deepened further, with the news that the jobless rate across the eurozone is now at a record high of 11%.

Eurostat reported that the unemployment rate hit this all-time high in March, and maintained it in April.

As usual, the jobless data showed the stark differences between member stats of the eurozone.

The lowest unemployment rates for April were recorded in Austria (3.9%), Luxembourg (5.2%). the Netherlands (5.2%) and Germany (5.4%).

Spain again posted the highest jobless rate (24.3%), with Portugal (15.2%). New data wasn't available for Greece (where the unemployment rate was last recorded at 21.7% in February).

10.12am: Irish government ministers are now clearly confident of success in today's referendum, after rumours of a wobble last night when it became clear just how low the turnout was.

Speaking in Dublin, European affairs minister Lucinda Creighton said the government now expected the electorate to vote YES to ratifying the fiscal compact treaty.

Creighton said:

We are very, very confident. We'll have to wait another half an hour to see how the tallies are looking, but so far so good.

Opponents of the fiscal compact are also disheartened, with freelance journalist Kieran Dunne tweeting his disappointment that Ireland appeared to be giving its support to the Treaty:

Have turned off #euref coverage. Annoyed to be Irish. Only we would roll over this early.
— Kieran Dunne (@KieranDunne11) June 1, 2012

10.04am: Henry McDonald reports from Dublin that the panic among pro-European parties over yesterday's poor turn out, which RTE says will struggle to reach 50%, appears to be subsiding.

One Fianna Fail source has told The Guardian that the Yes could be around 54%, a small majority in favour of the treaty but a win none the less.

9.57am: Irish broadcaster RTE has got a great rolling tally of voting results from across Ireland, here.

For example, it reports that:

With 60% of boxes open in Limerick City the Yes is at 60% while No is at 40%. In Limerick, the Yes are are on 57% and No on 43% with 70% of boxes open.

9.56am: After half an hour of counting the first tallies from polling stations suggest that in rural areas of Co.Waterford in southeast Ireland the Yes vote is around 55% with 45% voting No.

Those conducting the tallies are representatives from all the major political parties.

Early reports from Co.Wicklow south of Dublin suggest that 50% of voters turned out yesterday in the EU referendum.

In the Dublin suburb of Sandymount the early tallies indicate a small majority in favour of a Yes vote.

9.50am: Over in Ireland, the first ballot boxes were opened at 9am sharp, and counting is now underway in the Irish referendum on the EU Fiscal Treaty.

Around only half of the 3.1 million voters eligible to vote turned out yesterday to decide the fate of 27 EU states and the single currency.

Henry McDonald, our Ireland correspondent, reports:

Irish government sources were briefing last night that they believed the treat would be ratified after earlier fears that a low turn out would benefit the No camp. By mid afternoon a result is expected on the referendum.
The turn out in the critical battleground of Dublin was down from 59 per cent from the Lisbon Treaty in October 2009.
A late tweet and text campaign by the ruling party Fine Gael suggested there was concern in government about the low turn out at the polls.

9.39am: Yet more gloom -- the UK manufacturing sector sufferered its second-biggest fall in 20 years in May.

At 45.9, Britain's manufacturing sector experienced its biggest contraction since the middle of 2009. That's a really big fall, compared with April's 50.2.

Being outside the eurozone is not enough to spare Britain from what looks like a nasty economic slowdown.

More to follow.

9.29am: And here's a graph of all this morning's eurozone manufacturing PMI data, following the news that the sector suffered its worst month in three years (see 9.07am)

It shows how most countries' factory sectors contracted last month, with Spain and Greece suffering the most.

9.22am: Economists say this morning's very weak manufacturing data (see 9.07am) means the eurozone economy is certainly shrinking at the moment.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said the news was "hugely disappointing", and would mean GDP will fall in the current quarter:

It is evident that Eurozone manufacturers are currently finding life difficult amid very challenging conditions. Domestic demand is being handicapped by tighter fiscal policy in many Eurozone countries, still squeezed consumer purchasing power, and rising unemployment. Reinforcing manufacturers' problems relatively muted global growth is capping foreign demand for Eurozone goods. On top of this, the heightened problems in Greece and Spain are magnifying manufacturers' problems by adding to uncertainty about the outlook.

9.07am: It's official -- the eurozone manufacturing sector just suffered its worst month since June 2009.

Following weak data from France, Germany and Spain (see previous posts) the total manufacturing PMI came in at 45.1, down from 45.9 in April, which means the sector contracted at a faster rate.

Indeed, only two countries didn't see their manufacturing sector shrink - Austria, and Ireland.

9.02am: A double-whammy of bad data from France and Germany has shown that the Eurozone economy is in seriously bad shape.

Both countries posted their weakest manufacturing output in three years, with output shrinking at a faster rate in May

Markit reported that the French manufacturing PMI dropped to 44.7 in May, down from 46.9 in April.

The Germany manufacturing PMI was almost as weak, coming in at 45.2.

The poor data should extinguish any doubts that the Eurozone economic crisis was hitting core countries, as well as the periphery.

8.53am: Today's manufacturing data from Italy is slightly more encouraging - unlike Spain and China, it's PMI actually rose in May. However, the sector is still shrinking (just at a slower pace).

Markit reported that the Italian manufacturing PMI came in at 44.8, up from April's 43.8. That still means that the sector has shrunk for the last 10 months. Unemployment also fell for 10th consecutive month.

8.31am: Spain's factory sector suffered a serious decline in May, data just released showed.

Output fell at its fastest rate in three years, according to Markit, which reported that the Spanish manufacturing PMI dropped to 42, down from 43.5, indicating a deeper contraction.

Indeed, that's the weakest figure since May 2009, and means Spain's manufacturing base has now been shrinking since April 2011.

In another blow to a country already gripped by record jobless data, employment continued to fall as manufacturers restructured workforces in response to lower demand. Markit warned that:

The rate of job shedding intensified from that seen in April.

8.18am: The big news overnight on the global economy is that China's manufacturing sector – one of the key engines of growth in the world economy – performed much worse than expected last month.

The official Chinese purchasing managers' index (PMI)* fell to 50.4 in May, much lower than April's 53.3. That puts it close to the 50-point mark that splits expansion from contraction.

More worryingly still, a separate PMI survey conducted by HSBC came in at 48.4 in May, down from April's 49.3, indicating that the sector had deteriorated last month. HSBC's data suggests China's manufacturing sector has been contracting for the last seven months:

Analysts at IHS Global Insight said the data showed China is suffering its biggest economic slowdown since in two years, adding:

This indicates significant downside risk in the economy.

* - PMIs measure output, based on interviews with business people across an industry. We'll be hearing a lot about them today...

8.09am: Despite the low turnout in yesterday's referendum, the feeling today is still that the Irish will vote Yes to the fiscal pact.

That's partly due to reports overnight of a 'secret' government exit poll that predicted a Yes victory by more than 60% to 40% (more here)

But as we reported in yesterday's blog, there was little enthusiasm for the EU on display yesterday.

We should get an indication of the likely result this morning, when estimated voting data from the 43 constituencies come out.

8.00am: Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the eurozone financial crisis.

Coming up today … Ireland is counting the votes from yesterday's referendum on whether to sign up for Europe's fiscal compact. With turnout likely to be a record low, the result should come this afternoon.

Elsewhere in Europe, fears over Spain's banks still dominate the agenda, following a report yesterday that €97bn of capital left the country in the first three months of 2012.

For Greece, it's another day of electioneering – and the last day on which opinion poll data can be published.

And it's a very big day for economic data. Surveys from around the world will show the state of global manufacturing. The Asian results are out, and are not good (more shortly).

Also, new unemployment data for both the eurozone and America will be released today.

Graeme Wearden

French police hunt Canadian porn actor suspected of body parts murder

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:14:40 +0000

Police official 'sure' Luka Rocco Magnotta is in France after reportedly fleeing Montreal

French police are hunting a Canadian porn actor suspected of killing and dismembering a man and posting his body parts to the offices of political parties.

A senior police official told Associated Press he was "sure" Luka Rocco Magnotta, believed to have fled Montreal, was in France. Another official said the suspect had apparently flown to Paris last weekend.

Magnotta, born Eric Clinton Newman and also sometimes using the name Vladimir Romanov, is said to know France well, having travelled there in 2010. The actor and model is wanted in a murder case that has seen him dubbed "Canadian Psycho".

The police investigation was launched on Tuesday after officers found a man's torso in a suitcase behind Magnotta's apartment building in Montreal and a severed foot was discovered in a package posted to the Conservative party headquarters in Ottawa. A hand was found in a separate package at a postal facility, addressed to the Liberal party of Canada.

It then emerged that on Friday 25 May that a graphic 10-minute film had been posted on amateur horror sites. The footage showed a man stabbing a naked victim with an ice-pick, as well as performing sexual acts and the dismemberment of the corpse while the song True Faith by New Order played.

Montreal police said they had taken down the film but it kept reappearing online. "It's horrible. I can't believe people take advantage of watching this," Commander Ian Lafreniere said.

Other body parts are missing, and police are investigating the possibility they also may have been put in the mail.

The victim is believed to have been a man Magnotta knew and possibly dated. Police have not identified the victim but Canadian newspapers, including La Presse, said he was a 33-year-old student from China who had been reported missing the day before.

Magnotta, who was born in the Toronto area and speaks English, had been renting a flat in a Montreal neighbourhood. He changed his name from Eric Clinton Newman in 2006, and online posts suggest he had a longtime fascination with identity change and escape.

In a post on the Digital Journal website in 2009 that police confirmed, a six-step article under Magnotta's name describes how to disappear. "When making the decision to disappear, it is very important to understand that this is not a process that can be successfully accomplished overnight," it reads.

"For best results under normal circumstances, a minimum of four months is really necessary to successfully carry out the heroic actions necessary to leave your old life behind. This is certainly not an undertaking to be entered into lightly be completely sure of yourself before you commit to this."

Magnotta's blog and online presence had made references to violence. For nearly two years, animal rights activists had been looking for a man who tortured and killed cats and posted videos of it online, believed to be Magnotta. However he had denied abusing animals.

The Globe and Mail reported that Magnotta had auditioned for a reality show, Cover Guy, a Canadian competition for male underwear models, and said in his audition tape five years ago: "A lotta people tell me I'm really devastatingly good looking," but he was rejected by the judges and told to try again the following year.

The paper also reported Magnotta had been convicted of fraud in 2005, for defrauding shops and impersonating someone to obtain an American Express card. He was given a suspended sentence and 12 months' probation.

Angelique Chrisafis

Stifling Internet speech - SILive.com

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:16:12 +0000

Stifling Internet speech
SILive.com
By Staten Island Advance Editorial In an age when journalism is evolving every day and when newspaper readership on websites is skyrocketing, there is a new form of “letters to the editor” on the Web we simply call “commenting.

Tensions loom over Tampa

JESSICA VANDER VELDE - TAMPA BAY TIMES and ERIC DEGGANS - TAMPA BAY TIMES — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:51:39 +0000

Journalists and the police aren't seeing eye to eye ahead of the Republican convention there.

Martin Lewis sells MoneySavingExpert for £87m

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Personal finance guru Martin Lewis will continue to edit site after sale to MoneySupermarket and will donate £10m to charity

Personal finance journalist Martin Lewis has sold his MoneySavingExpert website to the price comparison company MoneySupermarket in a deal which will net him up to £87m.

Lewis set up the site, which offers money saving tips and advice, reader forums and calculators, in 2003 and it now has around 5 million subscribers to its weekly email. According to Google Analytics, it attracted around 39 million unique visitors and 277m page impressions in the year ending 31 October 2011. It reported revenues of £15.7m for the same period.

Lewis, who is well-known as a media pundit on money matters, will receive £60m upfront in a mixture of cash and shares and a further £27m if he meets targets over the next three years, while he remains at the website as its editor-in-chief. He has said he will give £10m to charity, with £1m going to Citizens Advice.

The site, which employs 42 people, was now "far bigger than the man who founded it" and it was the right time to sell, Lewis said.

"This is great news for MoneySavingExpert.com and its users, ensuring, with or without me, the site will be around for many years to come, maintaining our ethos of 'cutting your costs and fighting your corner'."

Peter Plumb, chief executive officer of MoneySupermarket, said the website shared a common goal of helping customers save money.

"We'll help MoneySavingExpert.com reach a wider audience and MoneySavingExpert.com will broaden the range of advice and tools we offer, encouraging even more people to take action, tap into the benefits of the internet to find a better deal and make the most of their money."

Plumb said his company was committed to maintaining MSE's independent reputation, a point addressed by Lewis in a blogpost to readers.

"MSE and MoneySupermarket will operate as completely separate entities as part of the bigger group. Think of it like the fact Radio 4 and Radio 5 are both part of the BBC but with their own separate editorial stance," he wrote.

He added that he had approached MoneySupermarket rather that "touting the site around" because "I know and trust it and it's not owned by any product providers. I wanted a company that understands what we do – and it's proved that by signing up to the Editorial Code which ensures our content can proudly remain editorially independent and free from commercial considerations" .

Some users seemed unconvinced that MSE would not be affected by the sale.

On the site's forums sablade described it as a sellout, adding: "To start with we will see no difference but drip by drip moneysupermarket will suffocate this site and strip it of all its ways to turn the public's free advice into pure profit."

Fen_boy asked: "Are the regular and extremely helpful forum users getting a dividend then? That's where most of the value lies in this site. You're all being sold to line Martin's pockets otherwise."

Some, however, were supportive. Aliasojo accused fellow readers of "acting like a dumped spouse", adding: "I live on this site and I hate change but I don't particularly think this is a bad thing. It's us users that has [sic] made this site what it is (sorry Martin but without us the site would never have grown) and I can't see that a new company would shell out £87m just to come in and make sweeping changes to a working model and risk alienating its user base."

The sale is expected to be completed in the autumn.

Hilary Osborne

Jill Insley

Bharat: To be successful, news orgs ‘need to be fueling the technical innovations’

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:04:53 +0000

Google News founder Krishna Bharat describes innovation as collaboration:

“It used to be that you could focus on journalism because the technology around you was stable. You could hone your craft on top of TV or print or whatever it… Read more

Live blogging TEDx talks with David Carr, Ben Smith, Lisa Williams & more

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:04:47 +0000

During today’s Poynter TEDx event, we’ll hear from a variety of thought leaders in journalism and social media. We’ll live blog all of the sessions, which focus on three main topics: changes in journalism, curation and engagement.

You can follow… Read more

Newsprint under threat in digital age - Sky News Australia

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:39:53 +0000

Newsprint under threat in digital age
Sky News Australia
'I reckon most of the big mastheads will still be around in 100 years' time,' said Professor Alan Knight, head of the graduate school of journalism at the University of Technology Sydney. 'They will be relatively less influential in terms of the ...

and more »

Our Blog Network: 05.31.12

Thu, 31 May 2012 23:00:00 +0000

AppNewser David Thorne Earned More With Self-Pub Book Than Traditional Publication

GalleyCat Lauren Weisberger Inks Deal for The Devil Wears Prada Sequel

SocialTimes The MTV Movie Awards Let Users Tweet for the Best Hero

AllFacebook Click-Through Rates 2.25 Times Higher On Ads With Open Graph Actions

AllTwitter How Twitter Can Help You Quit Smoking

10,000 Words How The Seattle Times Is Using Facebook Groups as a Crowdsourcing Tool

TVNewser CNN Drops Offer to Fox News AP Who Produced Anti-Obama Video

TVSpy Detroit Fire Official Removed From Office Following Run-In with WJBK Reporter

PRNewser Should the 'I Love NY' Logo Be Changed?

AgencySpy LBi Issues 'So Work Hot/Not' Summer Attire Guide

MediaJobsDaily Three Tactful Ways to Follow Up After the Interview

FishbowlNY More Bad News for Print

FishbowlDC Baby Boyle: Daily Caller Scribe Cries 'Assault'

FishbowlLA Report: Marilyn Monroe Hologram Being Readied for Concert Appearance

UnBeige Marina Abramovic Documentary Coming to Film Forum and HBO

Advertise on Our Blog Network

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

AOL's Patch: Big Losses on Hyperlocal News - BusinessWeek

Thu, 31 May 2012 22:41:55 +0000

AOL's Patch: Big Losses on Hyperlocal News
BusinessWeek
By Felix Gillette on May 31, 2012 In the fall of 2009, a group of journalists and publishers gathered in Manhattan to hear Jeff Jarvis, a Web evangelist and blogger, deliver a talk about the bright future of “hyperlocal” news. Jarvis told the assembled ...

and more »

Michael Bloomberg Reads Eight Newspapers a Day

Thu, 31 May 2012 21:36:00 +0000

The New York City mayor said today that he reads eight newspapers per day, mainly because he trusts what their editors tell him qualifies as news. "The fallacy with [reading news on the Internet] is I don't know what I want to read," said Bloomberg. "I want someone to tell me what to read."

@ThinkBreatheLiv Way to kick it oldschool, Bloomberg!

@PKBNews Good for him...

@RussTorresNYC So do I!

Read the full story on FishbowlNY

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Journalism professor accepts challenge to blog for Business Insider

Thu, 31 May 2012 21:03:40 +0000

College Media Matters | Business Insider
When University of Tampa journalism professor Dan Reimold criticized Business Insider financial blogger Joe Weisenthal, Henry Blodget responded that Reimold “would fail miserably” if he tried to keep up with Weisenthal’s… Read more

Start summer internship search early - Allentown Morning Call

Thu, 31 May 2012 20:24:04 +0000

Allentown Morning Call

Start summer internship search early
Allentown Morning Call
Dear future journalists, listen to my advice: Start early and fill out forms often. As I have searched the Web, there are many opportunities, but many are closed after April. Since there are so many opportunities, fill out as many as you can.

CPJ welcomes Malawi's repeal of news censorship law

Committee to Protect Journalists — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:00:26 +0000

Nairobi, May 31, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Wednesday's vote in the Malawi parliament that repealed a sweeping amendment to the country's penal code which had allowed the government to ban any news "not in the public interest."

Don't Read Politico, Urge Politico Editors [Politico]

Thu, 31 May 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Megalomaniacal supervillain Jim VandeHei and emotionally hobbled robo-reporter Mike Allen, both of Politico, have penned a rugged endorsement of Mitt Romney's chief grievance today, agreeing with his advisors that the press corps is busy "scaring up stories to undermine the introduction of Mitt Romney to the general election audience." We need more serious, measured, balanced, non-inflammatory reporting on both candidates, said the men responsible for Politico, a web site that catalogs what political flacks' "dietary dossiers." More »

Berman To Anchor, CNN's 'Early Start'

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:40:03 +0000

CNN hired John Berman, a 17-year ABC News correspondent, to be an anchor and reporter for "Early Start."

Mike Bloomberg reads eight newspapers a day

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:32:52 +0000

VentureBeat
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg: Not a fan of Big Gulps, but he’s a certified newsprint aficionado.

“I have not gone to read everything on the internet. I still read eight newspapers a day,” Bloomberg said

AP uses itself as an example in Stylebook’s social media chapter

Thu, 31 May 2012 15:52:26 +0000

Journalists criticized the Associated Press last fall for telling its staffers that they shouldn’t retweet information that expresses a personal opinion. Now, the AP Stylebook is offering that same advice to other news organizations.

The new Stylebook, released… Read more

Blog: Mission tells Nepal: No excuse for deferring press freedom

Elisabeth Witchel/CPJ Impunity Campaign Consultant — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:34:36 +0000

As Nepal's constituent assembly failed to meet Sunday's deadline for the passage of a new constitution, a new report released this week on the risks to Nepal's media should remind political parties that peace and stability are not prerequisites to media freedom but rather that a strong, independent press operating without fear is a requirement for a healthy civil society.

Morning Media Newsfeed 05.31.12

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:37:00 +0000

Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Morning Media Newsfeed via email.

May 2012 Ratings: CNN Hits 20-Year Low (TVNewser)
As expected, based on reports throughout the month, it was a rough May ratings-wise for CNN, with the network hitting a 20-year low in primetime. Deadline Hollywood From April 30 to May 27, the cable news network attracted an average of 389,000 viewers in primetime. It was also CNN's second-lowest-rated month in primetime among the 25-54 demographic (114,000 viewers) since October 1991. HuffPost Erin Burnett received just 89,000 viewers in the key demo at 7 p.m. NYT / Media Decoder In what seems an incongruous development, the month of May -- in the middle of what is shaping up as a close presidential campaign -- generated some of the worst recent ratings for cable news television. TVNewser As usual, Fox News comes in first among the cable news channels in May, but even the perennial ratings leader was not immune to a decline this month. Compared to May 2011, FNC is down -6 percent in total viewers and -12 percent in the adults 25-54 demographic in total day. In primetime, the network is down -9 percent in total viewers and -23 percent in adults 25-54 viewers. TVNewser MSNBC continued its run as the No. 2 cable news network in May, second to Fox News in both total day and primetime. Like the other cable news networks, MSNBC experienced declines in May -- down double digits across the board.

Colombian Rebels Free French Reporter After Month In Captivity (Reuters)
Colombia's FARC guerrillas freed French reporter Romeo Langlois on Wednesday, a month after taking him hostage in a firefight that showed the leftist group is still a menace despite a decade of military blows. BBC News The France 24 reporter was captured while filming the destruction of cocaine laboratories by army soldiers in the Caqueta region.

Chicago Sun-Times Shuffles Newsroom, Stresses Digital Moves (Crain's Chicago Business)
The Chicago Sun-Times Wednesday announced the appointment of a new managing editor and a reorganization of newsroom personnel as it shifts its emphasis to digital news distribution. "We are no longer a newspaper company," Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC editor in chief Jim Kirk said in a memo to staff. Time Out Chicago In all his years as a reporter and columnist -- including those when we competed head-to-head on the media beat -- Kirk always chose his words with precision and care. I never once recall him hyping a story. So when the new editor in chief announced plans Wednesday to restructure the Sun-Times editorial operations, his prose came as something of a surprise.

continued...

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A Big, Not Easy solution to the journalism crisis in New Orleans - Poynter.org

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:28:22 +0000

A Big, Not Easy solution to the journalism crisis in New Orleans
Poynter.org
He concluded: “Journalism is a profession; it requires careers, and careers require a living wage, and until newspapers recover a revenue stream for their online product, they have no future.” Simon and our other grieving Hatfields/Traditionalists were ...

Citizen journalism in Sudan - FRANCE 24

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:20:12 +0000

Citizen journalism in Sudan
FRANCE 24
Citizen journalists report on the violence in southern Sudan. Spanish web users show solidarity with an artist on trial for blasphemy. And a French journalist is tweeting Dante's Divine Comedy. By Electron Libre Idris lives in the Nuba mountain area in ...

Groundbreaking Mag Celebrates Native Women; Now in Multiple Platforms for ... - Indian Country Today Media Network.com

Thu, 31 May 2012 11:10:25 +0000

Indian Country Today Media Network.com

Groundbreaking Mag Celebrates Native Women; Now in Multiple Platforms for ...
Indian Country Today Media Network.com
To build the Native Daughters website, Molly Young, another UNL journalism student, drove through a blizzard to film teens in Santee, Nebraska talking about suicide and escaping the reservation. To build the free curriculum companion for Native ...

Tribune Voices: Blacks' views on gay marriage evolving

Dahleen Glanton — Thu, 31 May 2012 05:00:00 +0000

For many African-Americans, views about same-sex marriage are evolving.

Is Mary-Kate Olsen Dating Nicolas Sarkozy's 42-Year-Old Brother? [Mary-Kate Olsen]

Wed, 30 May 2012 23:52:12 +0000

Page Six reported Wednesday that America's weird young spinster aunt Mary-Kate Olsen, 25, is now dating Oliver (né Olivier) Sarkozy, 42, the half-brother of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. According to the Post, the two were spotted in the Hamptons over Memorial Day weekend (presumably together, or this ain't much of a story), and have been dating for about a month. More »

Our Blog Network: 05.30.12

Wed, 30 May 2012 23:00:00 +0000

TVNewser CNN Cuts Meteorologists Reynolds Wolf and Jacqui Jeras

TVSpy Miami Stations Air New Video of Cannibal Attack

SocialTimes Goodbye Google Places, Hello Google+ Local

AllFacebook Morgan Stanley Chairman/CEO: '100 Percent Within Rules' For Facebook IPO

AllTwitter Hate The Bitly Update? Here Are 5 Alternative URL Shorteners For Twitter

10,000 Words 5 Things Your Online Journalism Portfolio Should Include

AppNewser iPhone 5 Schematics Leaked

GalleyCat Stephen King: 'We're Going to Hold Off on e-Publishing This One'

PRNewser Kentucky Wants You to Visit the 'Hatfields & McCoys'

AgencySpy Asics Goes Robin Hood on a Moving Vehicle

MediaJobsDaily Five Ways to Negotiate a Job Offer

FishbowlNY Shoshana Berger Opens Up About Wired

FishbowlDC Trump vs. Will: Who Reps the Modern GOP?

FishbowlLA APTRA Salutes One of the Country's First Openly Gay TV Reporters

UnBeige British Fashion Designers Immortalized on Disembodied Postage Stamps

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

FCC Issues Cable Operator Pricing Survey

Wed, 30 May 2012 21:16:24 +0000

A random sampling of cable operators will be receiving survey forms from the FCC and have until...

South African paper harassed over painting of Zuma

Committee to Protect Journalists — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:23:35 +0000

New York, May 30, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the campaign of harassment and intimidation against a newspaper in South Africa after it published a photo of a painting of President Jacob Zuma more than two weeks ago.

Unknown gunman threatens Argentine journalist

Committee to Protect Journalists — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:15:40 +0000

New York, May 30, 2012--Authorities in Argentina must immediately investigate death threats made against a local radio journalist and ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

CPJ welcomes release of French journalist in Colombia

Committee to Protect Journalists — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:08:34 +0000

New York, May 30, 2012-The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes today's release of French journalist Roméo Langlois who was held hostage for more than a month by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Blog: Rising violence in Pakistan's warring Baluchistan

Bob Dietz/CPJ Asia Program Coordinator — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:26:05 +0000

The murder of a part-time journalist and a gunfire attack on the house of the president of the Turbat Press Club, both on May 28, underscore the nature of the escalating violence in Baluchistan. According to the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, which monitors violence across South Asia, at least 10 people were killed in Baluchistan on May 28 alone.

CPJ Impact

Committee to Protect Journalists — Wed, 30 May 2012 18:09:42 +0000

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, May 2012

CPJ highlights World Press Freedom Day

In a new report marking World Press Freedom Day, CPJ listed the world's top 10 most censored countries, where dictatorial control over news coverage is achieved through a combination of propaganda, brute force, and sophisticated technology. Eritrea, North Korea, and Syria topped the list, underscoring the fact that domestic restrictions on information have broad implications for global geopolitical stability.

CPJ also participated in World Press Freedom Day activities around the globe, from Mexico City to Rabat. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon spoke about combating impunity at an event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, which was hosted by the French and Greek missions to the U.N. The event marked the fifth anniversary of a U.N. resolution to protect journalists working in conflict zones and sought to assess journalist security and map a way forward. In a video message, Simon reflected on the resolution and its importance, and the need to prioritize journalist security.

Elisabeth Witchel, CPJ's U.K.-based Impunity Campaign consultant, also participated in a panel discussion marking the opening of a photo exhibition in London. The event, which documented the fight for a free press in Mexico through photography, was developed by the U.K.-based aid agency CAFOD in collaboration with CPJ and The Guardian.

CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz participated in a video panel discussion, organized by the U.S. Embassy to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, in which he spoke about the right to information and the pivotal role of free expression in the Sri Lankan reconciliation process.

NYTs To Queens Subs: You're No Longer Fit For Print

Wed, 30 May 2012 16:43:00 +0000

The New York Times has not yet abandoned print editions in favor of going digital. But to residents of the New York City borough of Queens, it might seem like the newspaper doesn't want to take on new print subscribers.

Conviction in Thailand undermines Internet freedom

Committee to Protect Journalists — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:18:44 +0000

Bangkok, May 30, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's conviction of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster and director of the Prachatai news and commentary website, for violating Thailand's 2007 Computer Crimes Act.

Thai webmaster conviction chills press freedom online

Committee to Protect Journalists — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:33:13 +0000

San Francisco, May 30, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's conviction of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of the Prachatai discussion board, under Thailand's Computer Crimes Act. The court's decision, which affirms that website operators can be criminally liable for the content of user comments, chills online press freedom in the country, and leaves Thai news sites vulnerable to unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.

Newspapers, Muscle and Innovation

Wed, 30 May 2012 11:11:03 +0000

Newspapers need a jolt. So it's interesting that Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is extending its reach into the sector by acquiring 63 newspapers around the country with a clear intent to buy more. Does he know something the rest of us don't?

In Moscow, radio host hospitalized after being attacked

Committee to Protect Journalists — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:10:12 +0000

New York, May 29, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a brutal attack on a radio journalist on Monday and calls on Russian authorities to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

FCC Seeks Comment On Small Cable EAS Waiver

Tue, 29 May 2012 19:06:52 +0000

The FCC has asked for comment on whether to grant smaller cable operators an expedited waiver...

Blog: One year later: Saleem Shahzad's case is buried

Mazhar Abbas/CPJ Guest Blogger — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:01:04 +0000

On May 21 this year, a military court convicted three Pakistani naval officers of negligence and dereliction of duty for their actions during an attack on the main naval airbase in the heart of Karachi on May 22, 2011. After the incident had ended, the military said 10 security guards were killed, two aircraft were blown up, and the four men who carried out the attack were shot or blew themselves up after they had held out for 16 hours on the Mehran Naval Base.

Perhaps the best insider details about the raid came from Saleem Shahzad, a political reporter for Asia Online, in his article, "Al-Qaeda had warned of Pakistani strike," that ran two days before his abduction on May 29, 2011. He had written in the past about militant groups and the military, with a book, Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, released just weeks before his murder. In his last article, he wrote about the Mehran events, reporting that armed forces personnel sympathetic to Al-Qaeda had helped coordinate the attack. On May 31 last year, his body was found floating face-down in an irrigation ditch.

Ross Taylor, David Weatherwax, Picked As BOP's Photojournalists Of The Year

Donald Winslow — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:53:09 +0000

Comcast Exec Among FCC's Open Internet Monitors

Tue, 29 May 2012 18:09:00 +0000

The FCC has named the members of its Open Internet Advisory Committee, which is charged with...

Journalists wounded in newsroom attack in Bangladesh

Committee to Protect Journalists — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:53:32 +0000

New York, May 29, 2012--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Monday night's attack on the offices of an Internet news outlet in Dhaka in which at least nine journalists were wounded.

Newspaper Revs Sink 6.9%, Auto Ads Brake

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:45:00 +0000

The latest figures for the newspaper industry show no evidence of a rebound or even stabilization in advertising revenues. According to the Newspaper Association of America, total ad revenues dropped 6.9% from $5.5 billion in the first quarter of 2011 to nearly $5.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012. This was due to declines in print ad revenues, which fell 8.2% to $4.36 billion over the same period.

When Journalists Should Use Kindle Singles to Self-Publish - Mashable

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:54:54 +0000

Mashable

When Journalists Should Use Kindle Singles to Self-Publish
Mashable
Victoria Turk, who just graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, published a long-form journalism piece as a short book that sells for $0.99 on Amazon's web platform. Titled “The Damage Done,” her 29-page book tells the story ...

Inside Forbes: In Journalism, What's New Is Actually Old... and 'That's the ... - Forbes

Tue, 29 May 2012 12:17:48 +0000

Inside Forbes: In Journalism, What's New Is Actually Old... and 'That's the ...
Forbes
Decades after ascending 30-something floors to his office, I said to myself: Why not build the best page possible on the Web to brand a new kind of journalist (or author, or knowledgeable expert) — one who wants to attract and engage with a community ...

Best Of Photojournalism Still Photography Winners Coming Later Today!

Donald Winslow — Tue, 29 May 2012 11:31:51 +0000

A Doomed Romance With a New Orleans Newspaper

Donald Winslow — Mon, 28 May 2012 11:46:42 +0000

FCC General Counsel Schlick Exiting

Fri, 25 May 2012 18:55:00 +0000

FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick will exit the commisison effective mid-June, the chairman's...

Carly Harrington: Journalist starts online news site - Knoxville News Sentinel

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:03:20 +0000

Carly Harrington: Journalist starts online news site
Knoxville News Sentinel
By Carly Harrington With traditional ink-on-paper journalism in a state of flux, some have been setting their sights toward Internet news publishing. This shift to the web is where you'll find former print reporter, John Huotari.

NPPA Multimedia Immersion 2012 Videos

Donald Winslow — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:27:08 +0000

Free Press, Public Knowledge Pan FCC Chair's Usage-Based Pricing Shout-out

Tue, 22 May 2012 20:24:12 +0000

Usage-based pricing critics inside the Beltway were quick to criticize or try to correct FCC...

Broadcasters Take FCC to Court Over Political File Posting

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:53:58 +0000

Say it was arbitrary and capricious decision, and court should overturn...

FCC Names New Homeland Security Bureau Chief

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:41:01 +0000

David Turetsky, most recently a media lawyer at Dewey & LeBoeuf, is joining the FCC as chief of...

Photojournalists Arrested, Injured, Covering Chicago NATO Protests

Donald Winslow — Mon, 21 May 2012 18:05:34 +0000

Reporters Committee Launches Hotline For Media Covering Chicago NATO Summit

Donald Winslow — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:39:54 +0000

How the newspaper was made in 1942

Fri, 04 May 2012 20:33:09 +0000

The British Council has posted a wonderful video on the production of an issue of The Times during the Blitz in the 1940s.

The film, called Morning Paper, follows the different stages of the process, from the daily editorial conference to the printing presses.

“Britons are inveterate newspaper readers,” says the presenter. “The morning survey of events at home and aboard is for them almost a ritual.”

Thanks to Richard Sambrook

10 best practices for Twitter for journalists

Wed, 02 May 2012 19:58:00 +0000

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have become part of a reporter’s toolkit. Yet research shows that media outlets and journalists tend to approach these Web 2.0 services with a 1.0 mindset.

In an attempt to help newsrooms, journalism professors Susana Herrera and José Luis Requejo have put together a list of 10 best practice guidelines for using Twitter.

The article is published in the March 2012 issue of the Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies (subscription required).

For the guidelines, the scholars looked at the academic research on Twitter and studied the official accounts of leading news outlets such as The New York Times, the BBC, The Washington Post and National Public Radio.

The 10 best practices they identified are:

Have a voice that is credibile and reliable, but also personal and human
Be generous in retweets and credit others
Link to external material rather than simply broadcast your own content
Listen and respond to others
Provide information that adds value
Seek out the views of users
Promote the most interesting and useful content for audiences
Use hashtags created by the Twitter community
Include multimedia with tweets
Link to other networks where a conversation is happening, such as Facebook

The paper includes examples of tweets that reflect the best practices above so you can see how they are implemented by the various news organisations.

(Full disclosure: I am collaborating with Susana Herrera on a research project on Twitter).

Photo courtesy of Steve Jurvetson

Facebook fans 'lonely'?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:38:31 +0000

A report on Facebook, Bill O'Reilly and the Fox "brand," Current TV"s new hire, a Pulitzer for a PA reporter, GMA rises

Slides from ISOJ talk on Andy Carvin sourcing of the Arab Spring

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:36:38 +0000

Here is the presentation I gave at the International Symposium on Online Journalism at UT Austin of our paper, Sourcing the Arab Spring: A case study of Andy Carvin’s sources during the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.

The abstract is available on the papers site of the International Symposium on Online Journalism.

 Sourcing the Arab Spring: A Case Study of Andy Carvin’s Sources During the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions  
 View more presentations from Alfred Hermida

Rethinking journalism, tackling data, Twitter reporting and more from #ISOJ12

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:15:55 +0000

Here are the posts covering some of the highlights of the International Online Journalism Symposium for 2012 at UT Austin:

Japan tsunami photos highlight human cost, study finds
In the final research panel at ISOJ, Rosellen Downey, Erika Johnson, and Bailey Brewer, University of Missouri, looked at the coverage in photos of the Japanese tsunami.

WSJ Raju Narisetti on the need to create great news experiences
The last keynote at ISOJ was Raju Narisetti, managing editor, Wall Street Journal Digital Network Narisetti said the big challenge faces journalism is turning great content into great experiences.

Study points to prominence of activists in Andy Carvin coverage of Arab Spring
A new study shows how far NPR’s Andy Carvin, known as “the man who tweets revolutions,” favoured the voice of protesters in his reporting on Twitter of the Arab Spring.

Insights into data journalism in Argentina
Angelica Peralta Ramos, multimedia development manager, La Nación in Argentina, gave an insight into the challenges of doing data journalism.

Making data visualisation useful for audiences
At ISOJ, Alberto Cairo, lecturer in visual journalism, University of Miami, raised some critical questions about the visualisation of data in journalism.

Bob Metcalfe on disruption and how to get readers to pay
Day two of the ISOJ started off with a keynote by Bob Metcalfe, professor of Innovation and Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise, University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering.

Study of Samoa Topix finds local news forum falls short
Linda Jean Kenix of University of Canterbury in New Zealand presented the results of a study of Samoa Topix at ISOJ.

The challenges for journalism start-ups in Europe
Online journalism start-ups in Europe are struggling, according to a report from the Reuters Institute for the study of Journalism.

The inside story of a local newspaper’s cafe project
At ISOJ, John White, deputy editor for online, Winnipeg Free Press, Canada, outlined the paper’s News Café. A year ago, the Free Press created the café downtown.

The six traits of successful entrepreneurs
Mark Briggs, author of Entrepreneurial Journalism and director of Digital Media at KING 5, Seattle, got people thinking at ISOJ by going over the six traits for entrepreneurs.

Local media as news for a mass intelligent audience
The afternoon keynote at ISOJ was by Jim Moroney, publisher & CEO, Dallas Morning News, and chairman of the board, Newspapers Association of America.

Study into Twitter as a community reporting tool
The first academic presentation at International Symposium on Online Journalism came from Carrie Brown of the University of Memphis. For her study was called #Memstorm: Twitter as a community-driven breaking news reporting tool.

Global insights into the mobile media revolution at ISOJ
The second session at International Symposium on Online Journalism focused on the impact of mobile and tablet.

Google’s Richard Gingras calls for a rethink of journalism at ISOJ
The International Symposium on Online Journalism for 2012 kicked off with a talk by Richard Gingras, head of news products, Google.

WSJ Raju Narisetti on the need to create great news experiences

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:31:54 +0000

The last keynote at ISOJ was Raju Narisetti, managing editor, Wall Street Journal Digital Network

Narisetti said the big challenge faces journalism is turning great content into great experiences

He noted that great content is now available in a wide variety of places. So just having smart content is not enough. Instead, he said, we have to create experiences to engage the user.

We are terrible at turning the multimedia parts of stories into a great experience, said Narisetti. There are words, images, perhaps video. But collectively, they do not make for a great experience

For him, a great experience comes at the intersection of technology and content.

Narisetti said that great experiences will not just come from developers or programmers. Instead we should think about embedding the developers in the newsroom.

“The physical architecture of the newsroom matters a lot,” he said. Titles matter now, he added, as a title will affect how journalists in the newsroom perceive and react to a developer.

In his view, a title like frontend developer or backend developer makes it hard for journalists to relate to the work of developers.

Moreover, Narisetti said the credits matter. He recalled how at the Washington Post, a major project credited the journalists but not the developers.

Looking ahead, Narisetti said we need to consider how projects will live on in the future. Is there a shelf-life? Do we post a note to readers, telling them this database is no longer updated?

We have to maintain the experience, he said, or think of the shelf-life of an experience.

In other words, newsrooms must plan for impermanence.

Talking about journalism education, Narisetti asked how students were being taught about engagement, about metrics, about enhancing loyalty to the brand.

One of the things they are doing the WSJ is thinking about the news as a stream of content. He showed an example of the WSJ live coverage of the Oscars.

The WSJ is doing the same thing with market coverage, to have a stream of news and information.

For Narisetti, it is about finding ways of having readers come back to your journalism and your brand.

Study points to prominence of activists in Andy Carvin coverage of Arab Spring

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:35:36 +0000

Here’s the media release on the research I presented at the International Symposium on Online Journalism at UT Austin on Saturday, April 21:

A new study shows how far NPR’s Andy Carvin, known as “the man who tweets revolutions,” favoured the voice of protesters in his reporting on Twitter of the Arab Spring.

The rigorous analysis of more than 5,000 tweets found that Carvin’s feed gave higher priority to the messages from citizens in repressive societies who were documenting and expressing their desires for social change on Twitter.

During key periods of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings in early 2011, just under half of the messages on his Twitter stream came from activists and bloggers (48.3%), even though they only made up a quarter of his sources (26.4%).

Carvin also relied mainstream media journalists as sources. While they made up about a quarter of his sources (26.7%), journalists accounted for 29.4% of tweets.

The study, “Sourcing the Arab Spring: A Case Study of Andy Carvin’s Sources During the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolution” by academics in Canada and the U.S., points to the dramatic impact social media is having on journalism and the ways news is being reported.

University of British Columbia professor and lead author Alfred Hermida said: “Our findings suggest a new style of near real-time reporting where journalists tap into social media to include a broader range of voices in the news.”

“The prominence of what many may consider to be rebel voices raises questions about traditional journalistic approaches to balance and objectivity.”

Carvin, a social media strategist for U.S. public service radio broadcaster NPR, rose to prominence during the uprisings in the Middle East for his mastery of aggregating and verifying real-time news on Twitter.

The study shows how his approach to sourcing marks a break with established news practices. Traditionally, journalists cite a small number of sources who hold institutional positions of power and authority, such as government officials, police or business leaders. Journalists rely on these elite sources, shaping what news gets reported and how it is reported.

News coverage quoting ordinary people still fills only a small part of the news. When it comes to covering protests, journalists tend to cite on officials and police, and tend to discredit activists.

The researchers analysed tweets from two periods in 2011, identifying and categorizing Carvin’s top sources (322 in all). The first, from January 12 to January 19, covered the major portion of Tunisian demonstrations leading to the fall of President Ben Ali. The second, from January 24 to February 13, covered the Egyptian protests and subsequent resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.

University of Minnesota professor Seth C. Lewis, a co-author on the study, said: “This research focuses on the work of a single person, but it’s a key case study for understanding larger transformations occurring as journalism evolves through social media.”

The study is authored by Alfred Hermida from the University of British Columbia, and Seth C. Lewis and Rodrigo Zamith from the University of Minnesota.

Note to editors:

The results of the study will be presented on Saturday, April 21, at the International Symposium on Online Journalism at 11:15 a.m. CDT (12.15 p.m. EDT). A live video stream of the conference will be available on the symposium website.

The abstract for the paper, “Sourcing the Arab Spring: A Case Study of Andy Carvin’s Sources During the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions,” is available from the symposium website on Friday, April 20.

About the researchers:

Alfred Hermida is an award-winning associate professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His research focuses on social media and emerging genres of journalism. An online news pioneer, he was a founding news editor of BBCNews.com and was a BBC correspondent in the Middle East. He co-authored Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers and is currently working on his second book on the impact of social media on the news.

Contact: alfred.hermida AT ubc.ca - Twitter: @hermida

Seth C. Lewis, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. His research on the changing nature of journalism in the digital era has received several top-paper awards and has been published in leading academic journals. He co-edited two editions of The Future of News: An Agenda of Perspectives, and he is affiliated with Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab. Previously, he was an editor at The Miami Herald and a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Spain.

Contact: sclewis AT umn.edu - Twitter: @sethclewis

Rodrigo Zamith is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. His primary research interest is in the interplay between media, public opinion, and policymaking, with a focus on foreign affairs. He has previously worked as reporter at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Contact: zamit001 AT umn.edu

(Photo by David Skok)

Insights into data journalism in Argentina

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 15:36:29 +0000

Angelica Peralta Ramos, multimedia development manager, La Nación in Argentina, gave an insight into the challenges of doing data journalism.

In her ISOJ talk, she explained how La Nacion started doing data visualisations with few resources and in a less than friendly government environment.

Peralta pointed out that Argentina ranks 100 out of 180 in corruption index. The country does not have a freedom of information law and it not part of the open government initiative.

But there is hope said Peralta. La Nacion wanted to do data journalism but didn’t have any programmers so they adopted tools for non programmers such as Tableau Public and Excel.

One of its initiatives involved gathering data on inflation to try to reveal more accurate inflation levels.

The newspaper has been taking public data and seeking to derive meaning from masses of figures.

For example, La Nacion took 400 PDFs with tables of 235,000 rows that recorded subsidies to bus companies to figure out who was getting what.

It is using software to keep track of updates to the PDFs to show how subsidies to the companies are on the rise.

Peralta’s short presentation showed how some media organisations are exploring data journalism in circumstances which are very different to the US or UK.

La Nacion have a data blog and will be posting links to the examples mentioned by Peralta.

Confirming Wall Street's Misgivings About Newspapers

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:34:19 +0000

Papers lost $7 of print advertising for every $1 they gained in digital, a new study says

Introducing Some of My Talented Students

Thu, 12 May 2011 04:04:23 +0000

An example of one of my students’ capstone work, plus read more below.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 was a good day for our Juvenile Justice Information Exchange — JJIE.org reporter Ryan Schill, for Kennesaw State University and for me. Wednesday, Schill became a graduate of Kennesaw State and editor John Fleming published Schill’s story the Straight Dope on Fake Dope. It’s a well written and researched story, and right after we posted it, Youth Today a national newspaper asked to reprint it. Of course, we said yes.

For me it was a special day because last semester Schill was in my Advance Media Writing class. I quickly noticed that Schill has that special talent of being able to do research, get out on the street to do the reporting and then put it all together in a well written story. I asked him to start writing for us here at the JJIE.org and he has produced under the tutelage of editor Fleming.

Ryan Schill

It is wonderful to see students excel, and this has been a good semester. I taught our Journalism and Citizen Media capstone course for graduating seniors. They focused on Marietta, Ga. My students did fantastic work producing both videos and an online magazine. Take a look at Marietta in Motion. Unlike students in the past, today’s journalism students must have a range of abilities and these students do.

So congratulations to my capstone students and to all of Wednesday’s Department of Communication graduates and, of course, to Schill, who just signed a contract to do more writing for us. It was, indeed, a good day for Kennesaw State University and for the JJIE.org.

Center for Sustainable Journalism Posts Editing/Reporting Job

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 03:57:39 +0000

We just posted a new job opening at our Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. Here is the description:

The most unique job in journalism today:

We’re looking for a high energy journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit to run the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE.org). This established online news operation is getting local and national attention for strong reporting about children and the law. The person we hire must be self motivated and determined to succeed, with a solid work ethic and great news judgment. You will work with a small team to gather news and information from a niche beat, report compelling stories in multi-media formats, and edit the work of other writers. Be ready to roll up your sleeves and network with news sources, attend events and conferences, and break original stories. This experimental journalism project has potential to expand and we need the right person to lead the way. Writing samples will be required.

You can apply for the job here, look for the heading Communication Professional III.

It really is a great job and this experiment in niche journalism is growing rapidly. We now have 10,000 unique visitors a month, with about 1,000 page views a day. Interested in helping it grow more and expand beyond Georgia, then apply now.

SoCon11: Another Social Media Success Story

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 19:03:24 +0000

We are beginning to put up photos and content from our SoCon11, social media conference. You’ll find some fun photos from our 5th Anniversary networking party, including this shot of our Center for Sustainable Journalism folks who put on the conference, including from left Noah Echols, Ellen Miller, Leonard Witt, Clay Duda and a masked Carole Arnold. As you will see from the photo from Saturday, we again packed more than 300 attendees into the Social Science Building auditorium at Kennesaw State University. See what the #SoCon11 tweeters said here.

Here are the slide shows of some of the Power Point presentations. Watch for more content coming up soon. If you attended and want to use a photo for your blog or newsletter, feel free.

Thanks to everyone from our staff to the more than 25 presenters to the 300 plus attendees for making it a wonderful 1.5 days of learning, sharing and networking. See you next year at SoCon12.

SoCon11 — 5th Anniversary, Fullhouse for Social Media Event

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:22:18 +0000

Our networking party tomorrow night at the Carter Center kicks off SoCon11. It is the 5th Anniversary of the Southeast’s premier social media conference produced and hosted by our Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. As with last year, we have a sell out crowd of 300 for Saturday. On Friday night we expect about 200.

Although it is too late for this year, be sure to watch for next year’s SoCon12. Those of you who have registered, see you soon.

The Icahn Saga: The Poison Pill That Isn't

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:24:00 +0000

Carl Icahn is a reporter's dream. When things get a little slow, the 74-year old dealmaker always does something to spice it up. Which is what he did today when he said he was launching a tender offer for shares of Lionsgate(LGF)in a bid to give him a 30% stake in the company that makes the Saw and Tyler Perry movies.

So why is Icahn making his move on Lionsgate now, nearly a year after he last tried to win control of the company through a failed tender offer to buy the studio's convertible bonds? Among the reasons is this tasty little morsel: in 2009, when the company mounted a successful defense against Icahn, it went out of its way to remind investors that if Icahn got enough of the convertible notes he could be considered to control more than 20% of the company. That would trigger a bank covenant and "could result in a cross-default and acceleration of Lionsgate's payment obligations," the company said back then in a press release. Translation: the company might have to cough up a chunk of cash to pay off its $340 million revolving line of credit to its banks.

Well, that defense doesn't seem to be very potent right now. While no one was looking - no one except Icahn, it appears - Lionsgate but paid down that line of credit. As of Dec. 31, it said in its most recent financial filings, it had drawn only $12 million. So, if Icahn triggered the 20% threshold, it would only cost Lionsgate $12 million to pay off the line, not much for a company that had revenues of nearly $1.2 billion in the nine months that ended Dec. 31.

Neither Icahn not Lionsgate would comment. But Icahn is apparently worried that Lionsgate was keeping its powder dry so that it could use that credit line to make an acquisition, and both MGM and Disney's (DIS)Miramax library are on the market right now. He worried that they might overpay, I am told by sources who understand Carl Icahn's thinking on this issue. And without that line of credit, Lionsgate might not have the money to mount a bid at all, or at least that's what Icahn may be thinking.

Then again, the credit line is cheap money, priced at 2.5% above "adjusted LIBOR" or 2.73% as of Dec. 31, the company's filing says.. That's super cheap money that Lionsgate would no longer have at its disposal. And don't you think for a minute that Lionsgate's management won't make that point to shareholders in an effort to dissuade them from tendering their shares of Icahn.

Yup, here comes Lionsgate-Icahn, the sequel.

Leno Leaves, NBC's Wobbly Business Model Returns

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:48:20 +0000

Announcements don’t get much more dramatic than the one NBC made today about yanking The Jay Leno show from its 10 o’clock time period just three months after the former host of The Tonight Show began his one-hour comedy, skit show.

Yes, NBC TV honcho Jeff Gaspin told an overflow gathering of reporters on Sunday’s TV Critics Tour in Pasadena, Calif., NBC’s 200-odd affiliates had forced the change because prime time ratings tanked. The reason? Their 11 pm news programs, a nice little profit center for most stations, was suddenly hemorrhaging through no fault of their own.

But what Gaspin didn’t say – at least not so boldly – was that NBC had also made an abrupt u-turn on its plans to remake a broken business model for making TV shows. Prime time pilots are made for $10 million, shows for $3 million or so, and viewing audiences are going south. Gaspin’s predecessor, Jeff Zucker, had made the fateful decision to bring in Leno, and to shuttle Law and Order and other 10 pm shows out of their time slots, by arguing that ratings would go down but so would costs.

So much for that idea. Coupled with the announcement that Leno was taking his $500,000 a week show off the air at 10 pm., was the announcement that NBC was going back to the good old ways that networks have always operated. Namely, big producers, big stars, and cross your fingers the shows work. How about these for some biggies to whom NBC said it is throwing its bucks the next few weeks in hopes of finding TV lightning in a bottle – Jerry Bruckheimer, David E. Kelly and J.J. Abrams, who will direct a pilot called “Undercovers” about CIA agents. The last time Abrams directed a pilot, it only cost $13 million.

Of course, that pilot was Lost, which was an immediate and big (although not terribly long lasting) hit on ABC. Clearly, that’s what NBC is hoping Abrams will bring to NBC as well. Then again, they’re hoping the same thing for a remake of “The Rockford Files” that they’ve also ordered for what’s going to be a pricey sum. We all know how their last retread effort -- i.e. “Knight Rider” -- turned out.

News Corp, Time Warner Play to DC Not The Viewers

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:05:35 +0000

Was there ever any doubt that News Corp. and Time Warner would come to an agreement that would allow Time Warner’s cable unit to continue showing News Corp’s cable or broadcast properties on its system? The announcement on Jan. 1 that the two sides had averted a showdown that would have kept the BCS football game on the sidelines for 11 million folks is, well, a yawner.

It’s become almost an annual kabuki dance among cable or satellite operators and content providers to show which side – content or distribution – has the most muscle when it comes to such talks. Guess what fellas? Neither of you really have what it takes any longer to force your will on the other.

The last time we had a showdown anywhere near this size was back in 2000, when Time Warner, in the midst of a similar showdown with ABC, allowed Regis Philbin and his then-hit show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” to go dark for some 3.5 million homes. The cries from Washington were deafening. Hearings were held, fingers slapped.

So when the chorus started again in Washington on Dec. 30 on the current impasse you knew that Fox and Time Warner were destined to do whatever they could to avoid having DC on their backs. First, Sen. John Kerry urged the sides toward arbitration, and then FCC commissioners started encouraging peace. If there is anything that a media company wants less than a shutdown in the ad markets, it’s to have the feds on their backs. So Time Warner and News Corp. wisely extended the Dec. 30 deadline, then scurried to cut a deal that you know is less than the monthly $1 per subscriber fee that News Corp. had all but insisted was their right to get from cable operators.

One thing News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, who owns TV stations, newspapers and internet sites, understands is that he sure as heck doesn’t want an angry FCC looking over his shoulder. In the past, he’s done back flips to keep them happy, whether it was striking a deal that allowed him to own the New York Post and New York area TV stations, or to get his deal to buy DirecTV passed a few years back. As for Time Warner, do you think they want the feds thinking bad thoughts about them when the FCC is still contemplating rules on such things as “net neutrality” – that is, whether Time Warner’s online offerings are to be regulated? Uh, no.

Sure, it was good theater. News Corp. told America that it might not get the NFL, American Idol or Glee. Time Warner said it was fighting to keep consumer prices from zooming if Fox high jacked higher fees from them. Yeah, yeah. A good show boys. It sure played in Washington.

So Long AOL Time Warner, Old Friend

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:30:51 +0000

For media reporters everywhere, Thursday will be one wistful day. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is expected to climb the podium and ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. With that, AOL will officially be unleashed from Time Warner. The divorce marks the end of an era. The soap opera representing the union of AOL and Time Warner was the media story that just kept on giving for a glorious and tumultuous decade.

When I took over the media beat at BusinessWeek in October, 2000, my first story was a commentary that said Time Warner executives were already questioning whether merging with AOL made sense, this three months before the deal would close. The piece was illustrated with storm clouds looming over a photo of Time Warner CEO Jerry Levin and AOL CEO Steve Case. That prompted an angry call from the Time Warner PR denizens to our then editor-in-chief Steve Shepard. The worst was still to come for AOL Time Warner, the best for those of us covering media. Accounting scandal. Corporate politics. Management shakeups. Government investigations. Parent company name change. Strategy Shifts. Turf battles. Plunging share price. Shareholder lawsuits. Sweeping layoffs.

The story's lasting legacy for journalism outfits is that the AOL Time Warner merger broke down newsroom silos. It really was the first big story that made technology and media reporters work together because AOL in those days was typically covered by the tech side. And, boy, were we suspicious of each other. I partnered for years with Cathy Yang, our AOL reporter, but it took a while before we worked well as a team. Today, the overlay between technology and media is so common that teaming up is no big deal.

Now, tens of thousands of column inches later, three books and I am sure a script has been optioned somewhere, we’ve come to the end of the AOL and Time Warner thread. We’re going to miss the worst corporate merger in history. They say the recent NBC Universal-Comcast partnership will become the new AOL Time Warner. Maybe. But I just can’t imagine it will dish out the same Sturm und Drang that kept us rich in bylines all these years.

Dow Jones Executive Recruited To Be Bloomberg BusinessWeek President

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:41:21 +0000

A Dow Jones executive charged with boosting revenues across the company's various print and online properties will become the first president of Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Paul Bascobert, 45, will be responsible for finding new revenue opportunities for the magazine, as well as boosting circulation and reversing the losses that BusinessWeek has posted during the past several years. He begins his job on Jan. 4. (see below for a staff memo announcing Bascobert's hiring from Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff and Bloomberg BusinessWeek Chairman Norman Pearlstine). Bloomberg's acquisition of BusinessWeek closed on Dec. 1.

Despite the dire shape of the media industry, Bascobert says he is optimistic "because I see a real demand for a well-written global business product." He says it is too early to articulate what his concrete plans will be for the magazine, but "I am encouraged by the forward thinking at Bloomberg."

Bascobert did say that he believes a weekly magazine is a better complement to a business news website than a daily newspaper. Providing a daily news digest online and then a deeper, more analytical take on business weekly, he says, serves readers more fully.

At Dow Jones, where he served as chief marketing officer of its Consumer Media Group, Bascobert's accomplishments included everything from lowering operating costs by streamlining distribution and outsourcing certain IT functions to helping launch local editions for The Wall Street Journal. He also managed to do the unthinkable in this depressed newspaper market: boost circulation revenues.

A Chat With BusinessWeek's Editor-To-Be

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:05:29 +0000

Josh Tyrangiel, who was named this morning to be editor of a Bloomberg-owned BusinessWeek, says it's too early to lay out specific plans for the magazine but his goal is to create "a great indispensable business weekly."

In a brief interview, Tyrangiel, 37, says he plans to meet soon with BW staffers as a group and individually to gather their input so "we can formulate a strategy for the magazine together." Tyrangiel has been serving as a deputy managing editor of Time magazine and as the top editor of its online operations.

While he earned kudos for his work online at Time, Tyrangiel says he is committed to long-form journalism in print. "Listen, the big mistake magazines made was trying to imitate the Web," he said. "Magazines are read reclining, and that lends itself to longer, more in-depth stories."

Tryangiel has edited business stories in the past but he acknowledged that he is not a traditional business journalist. He says his background is an "opportunity" for the magazine. "I need help," he said, "and I am going to rely on the staff. I want the staff to stay in their lanes and be experts on their subjects."

He believes a big reason that Bloomberg LP Chief Content Officer Norman Pearlstine and Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler recruited him is that "I am a good person at bringing people together. We are going to work on this as a team."

Humble mom charged with murder after wreck kills baby

A Humble woman was arrested Thursday night on a charge of murder after an accident in April that left her 8-month-old baby dead, according to the Montgomery County Police Reporter. Ashli Nicol Heil, 28, was booked into the county jail with bond set at $250,000, according to the Police Reporter. Authorities say Heil was driving a white Suburban southbound on FM 1984 near Miller when she lost control of the vehicle on April 2 at about 6 p.m. The vehicle crossed into the northbound lane, almost striking another vehicle before hitting a cedar tree, officials said at the time. Read more: SUV crash injures mom, kills infant daughter on FM [...]