Welcome to the Digital Edge Blog!
The Digital Edge Blog focuses on developments, trends, best practices and more in newspaper digital media. The blog launched in 2006 (archives before August 2008 are here).
We look forward to reading your comments and contributions to the Digital Edge Blog. Questions? E-mail Beth Lawton at beth.lawton@naa.org.
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Digital Edge News Update: Gazette Communication's New Multi-Platform Structure; Publishers Testing Journalism Online for Paid Content
New Multi-Platform Structure
Working Well at Gazette Communications  Under a new
Gazette Communications structure, all reporters, photographers and other
journalists are working for the newspaper, its Web site and the local television
station.
Editor
& Publisher reported, "Gazette Communications, which owns the Gazette; its
Web site, Gazette Online; and local TV station KCRG, relocated all of its
reporters, photographers, and other journalists from those three outlets to a
new 'content room' at the newspaper, where they dig up news and dish
it out to each of the three outlets. No one entity has oversight of the
journalists, and each unit must compete for their work."
So far, the
system has created a situation where no news outlet - print, online or
television - is the "lead dog."
Source:
Editor & Publisher
AP, Verve Wireless Create While Label App Solution for Mobile Phones  Verve Wireless and the Associated Press announced Friday they will help publishers create mobile apps based on the AP Mobile platform.
The White Label App Solution program will offer apps for the Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm Pre and Windows mobile phones, among others."Studies show that mobile apps drive 4x- to 10x-greater usage because they are fast and easier to use. They also allow publishers to build a powerful bond with users
because the apps are stored on cell phone screens - in effect, 'owned'," Reuters reported. Source: Reuters
Several Publishers to Start Testing
Journalism Online's Payment System
Several
newspaper publishers - somewhere between five and 15 of them - will start to
test the content payment system from Journalism Online, LLC this month. However,
most readers may not notice any changes initially.
"If
publishers are worried that charging for content will cause a huge drop in page
views (and thus advertising revenue), they can dip their toes in by choosing
settings that affect a minimal amount of content or just the most frequent
users. Publishers can decide if they want to swim to the deep end as they see
how users respond," Poynter reported.
Source:
Poynter NAA Resource: industry leaders asked NAA to profile a variety of companies offering a
"paid content" solution and communicate back to the industry the
various models and capabilities of those companies. This NAA report on paid content platforms summarizes
the "request for information" responses and provides links to documentation provided by each
of the companies.
Go to www.naa.org/paidcontentplatforms to access this report.
Quote of the Day: Doctor on
Tribune's AP Experiment
"It's
telling that the Tribune company papers are going AP-less, but their Web sites
aren't. That tells us that precious, and costly, newsprint will be used mainly
for local news, but pixel-based newsreading will include the wider world.
Which, of course, makes the formerly mass market newspaper a niche - what
happened locally yesterday - and the Web mass."
-- Content Bridges blogger Ken
Doctor in a blog entry about The Tribune Co.'s experiment using as little AP
content in print as possible.
Geolocation Feature Could Make
Twitter More Navigable
With more
than 26 million tweets each day, navigating the universe of Twitter postings is
like suffering from information overload. "Which is why a new feature that
Twitter says it could unveil in the next few weeks - ‘geolocation' - holds such
potential to make the Twitter rapids navigable," The New York Times reported.
"The idea is to take advantage of global positioning systems on cell phones to
allow Twitter users to include a precise location with each tweet. Users would
be able, right off the bat, to limit their searches to tweets from a particular
location."
This may be
especially useful for newspapers trying to use Twitter as a local news source.
Source: The
New York Times
For News Organizations, Google Wave
could be ‘Crowdsourcing on Steroids'
 Google's
Wave could change the way news organizations and readers get information about
local events.
Media Bullseye's Robert Quigley wrote, "It is crowdsourcing on
steroids. The potential here is very exciting. Add to it Wave's ability to be
embedded on external sites (such as our newspaper's Web site), and suddenly you
have a game-changing tool."
Source:
Media Bullseye
Texas Tribune: A Case Study
on Non-Profit News
An
online-only news site, The Texas Tribune, launched early last week as a
non-profit news organization. The Editors Weblog spoke with Texas Tribune
Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith about
the Web site and non-profit model.
Source: The
Editors Weblog
Also see:
News
Erupts, and So Does a Web Debut (The New York Times)
5 Reasons Digital Media
Professionals Should Attend mediaXchange 2010
 1.
Learn about new partnership opportunities that can boost your newspaper's local
digital revenue.
2. Network with and get new
ideas from leading digital media executives in the newspaper industry and
beyond.
3. Meet with major
advertisers eager to reach out to your digital audience.
4. Maximize your revenue by
learning about revenue-driving digital media innovations from industry leaders.
5. Gain a better
understanding of the prospects for online video, mobile, search and
behaviorally targeted advertising.
Registration is already open for mediaXchange 2010,
April 11 - 14 in Orlando.
2010 NAA Planbook: Your
"How-To" Guide to Improving Advertising Effectiveness and ROI
To meet the
demands of today's business challenges we've introduced a new approach for our
best-seller, making it more indispensable than ever before.
Included for 2010: new
research on the value of newspaper media to advertisers, and how America shops
and spends; a competitive media section; increased emphasis on digital product
advantages; and more!
Don't Wait - Order Today! Planbooks are available now. Order yours at www.naa.org/planbook.
Upcoming NAA Webinars: Free Classifieds, Local Digital
Revenue Strategies, More  Nov. 18: Some newspaper
executives believe that offering free classifieds - at least in some categories
- can increase print circulation, online traffic, classifieds revenue or some
combination of those positive results.
Learn about the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution's program, how it has grown the newspaper's classifieds
audience and how free classifieds might help your newspaper in this free
webinar from NAA. Registration will open soon for this webinar!
Dec. 2: Innovation and
opportunity in the local market often benefits from the expertise and
experience of partners who have developed tools, technology and business models
across many markets. Here is a no-cost, time friendly opportunity to hear
specific, quick-to-market opportunities to drive digital revenues in your
market.
Each of four sponsoring companies will present an overview of their offering,
describe the business opportunity from a newspaper digital media perspective
and invite followup/questions on and offline.
Confirmed presenters: Paper G and Second Street Media.
If you are an industry supplier interested in participating, please contact
Kevin McCourt at Kevin.McCourt@naa.org or 571-366-1055.
Registration for attendees will open next month.
To register for the free
NAA webinars listed below, go to www.naa.org/events.aspx:
- Oct. 27: Monetizing Digital Content Vendor
Presentation: Microsoft
- Nov. 4: Retail Newspaper Partnerships: Perspectives
from Retailers, Agencies and Newspapers
- Nov. 10: Monetizing Digital Content Vendor
Presentation: Yahoo!
- Nov. 18: Free Online Classified Programs
- Dec. 2: Local Digital Revenue Strategies (registration
will open soon)
Published
Nov 09 2009, 09:04 AM
by
Beth Lawton
About Beth Lawton
Beth Lawton is manager, digital media communications in the Business Development division of the Newspaper Association of America. She writes and edits many of NAA’s Digital Edge reports and the Online Publishing Update.
Prior to joining NAA two years ago, she worked as a Web producer and editor in newsrooms in the Midwest and the Caribbean.
Beth is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism (MSJ New Media 2003).
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