[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. To quote:

“News University works in concert with leading journalism organizations and journalism schools to offer three types of e-learning:

• Self-directed classes that journalists can complete at their own pace.
• Faculty-moderated seminars that are scheduled over the course of days or weeks.
• Live eSeminars that are broadcast over the Internet.

“NewsU’s course topics range from basic reporting and writing skills, such as interviewing and lead writing, to visual journalism, such as using color in news design, as well as courses for newsroom managers. NewsU is launching with nearly 20 courses and will continue to add more to meet the training needs of busy journalists…”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. To quote:

“News University works in concert with leading journalism organizations and journalism schools to offer three types of e-learning:

• Self-directed classes that journalists can complete at their own pace.
• Faculty-moderated seminars that are scheduled over the course of days or weeks.
• Live eSeminars that are broadcast over the Internet.

“NewsU’s course topics range from basic reporting and writing skills, such as interviewing and lead writing, to visual journalism, such as using color in news design, as well as courses for newsroom managers. NewsU is launching with nearly 20 courses and will continue to add more to meet the training needs of busy journalists…”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. …from the OJR’s Mark Glaser, including the trend of basing payment on popularity. Will we see a split between ‘tabloid’ bloggers chasing numbers and ‘quality’ bloggers who can afford independence? As always with these things, it seems there are both good and bad aspects to the trend: on the one hand journalists become more aware of their audience and self-promotion; on the other when does chasing ratings become an ethical issue?

There is no escape from the hit counter, it seems…

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Continuing the Trinity-Mirror theme, the company is experimenting with a digital edition of the Journal in Newcastle… watch this space.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. There’s been a lot of analysis of Murdoch’s speech asking newspapers to embrace the internet, but Roy Greenslade’s angle makes a particularly salient point about the growth of online advertising revenue in publishing (previously reported here). To quote liberally:

“the Murdoch theme was prefigured in a statement about Trinity-Mirror’s preliminary results on March 3 by its chief executive, Sly Bailey. Hers was less philosophical and dealt more with advertising than editorial because she was talking to financial analysts rather than editors. […] The central plank of T-M’s strategy, she said, involved the development of digital media.

“In our regional business, she said, our goal is to become a multi-platform local publishing and advertising business. “What we want is simple: to win strong, profitable positions in key classified markets online.”

“T-M’s move into online classified advertising has seen a staggering turnaround in revenue. [By 2004] the digital business generated a turnover of £6.3m and produced a profit of £700,000. “And we expect that trajectory to continue”, she says.

“But journalists will ask, naturally enough, where the future lies for editorial. […]

“During the National, the [Trinity-Mirror-owned] Post teamed up with Racing UK, the leading racing channel on digital TV, to enable website visitors to benefit from the Post’s tipsters giving their views of the runners on pre-recorded videos. It was only a pilot but it looked and sounded impressive.

“Are we far from the moment when we see another stage in the multi-skilling of print journalists as they video themselves in order to tell the story behind the stories they write for their papers?”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Mira Katbamna “looks beyond the glossy covers” in this review of women’s magazines, which refreshingly includes a number of online publications (at the bottom, of course)

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Rupert Murdoch’s papers have hardly been at the cutting edge of online journalism – but his speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors contains some particularly important comments about the way that the print industry has reacted to the internet.

Interestingly, in comparing the new technology with the rise of audio and TV news before it, he makes the point that, by contrast, the print industry has an opportunity to use the internet.

But most telling is the lacklustre way this has been done so far. Key quotes:

“We have to refashion what our web presence is. It can’t just be what it too often is today: a bland repurposing of our print content. Instead, it will need to offer compelling and relevant content. Deep, deep local news. Relevant national and international news. Commentary and debate. Gossip and humor.

“…We need to be the destination for bloggers. We need to encourage readers to think of the web as the place to go to engage our reporters and editors in more extended discussions about the way a particular story was reported or researched or presented.”

Much as I hate quoting Murdoch in this way, I have to say I look forward to seeing if his vast organisation starts asking “how high?” to his call for jumpers. Perhaps this is the start of a recruitment drive for online journalists… We can but hope.

You can also read Dan Gillor’s take on the speech here.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. From the Blog Herald: “Bloggers in the Canadian Province of British Columbia who blog on an upcoming referendum on multi-member constituencies are being required to register with Elections BC, a Government initiated body which runs elections in the province.” The focus seems to be on one-party blogs, and I presume aimed at monitoring potential campaigning irregularities, although not having an intimate knowledge of Canadian law…

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. From Journalism.co.uk: “More than 60 nominees have been selected by organisers Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) in association with news agency Deutsche Welle.”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. The idea that you can’t make money from content online seems to be taking a bit of a bashing recently. New Media Age reports, for instance, that ad revenue for online publishers “grew by more than a third in 2004 compared to the previous year”, with the Online Publishers Association (OPA) Europe reporting average increases in Web ad revenue of 41%. The forecast for 2005 is a further 25%.

Time to revisit our assumptions, perhaps…

UPDATE (Apr 15 05): The good news continues as CNET reports that “Online profits beat print loss at Dow Jones“: “For the first time, the company’s online operations have earned more money than its esteemed Wall Street Journal and Barron’s magazine.”