Daily Mirror catches relaunch fever

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Daily Mirror website 19 April 07Another week, another relaunch – this time it’s The Daily Mirror website, which MediaWeek reports:

“now hosts three embedded video players featuring content in the three core areas, accessible through a slide-down video screen.
“The site will feature breaking sports news and live results, and celebrity gossip and videos under the 3am brand.
“It also offers blogs by Daily Mirror journalists, user-generated content, message forums and an archive of Mirror content from its 103-year history.
“The relaunch was led by MGN Digital, which earlier this week announced a tie-up with video content specialist Roo Group to develop a video portal for the Sunday Mirror website, www.sundaymirror.co.uk.

Jeff Jarvis interview

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Journalism.co.uk has an interview with online journalism figurehead Jeff Jarvis. I like the way he sums up the current situation as follows:

“News, information and media are all going to be improved by conversation. Yes, there are bozos that say stupid things, but that is not the point.

“The point is that there are people who know more than we do out there and this is a means to learn and gather and share that. In journalism we have to be at the point where we take advantage of that.”

My wife uses the word ‘bozo’ too…

New journalist job no.117: Database Editor

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At some point someone should compile all the new jobs that have been created by news organisations’ shift online. Here’s one to start you off: Database Editor.

Read Derek Willis’ post about his new job at WashingtonPost.com – one I can imagine becoming increasingly important as news orgs start to realise the power of databases – from archives to stories that use databases to empower readers (e.g. Channel 4’s ‘NHS postcode lottery’ piece ).

More behavioural targeting for advertisers as Times revamps website

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Times website 19 April 2007MediaWeek has lots of blah about the Times revamp meaning ‘upgrading’ audio and video (whatever that means) and “more analysis” (you need to ‘revamp’ a website to do that?). But what’s this hidden in par 2?

“Zach Leonard, digital media publisher of Times Online, said the site would also offer more contextual and behavioural targeting for advertisers and sponsors.”

Sounds like that’s the real headline story here.

UPDATE (Feb 6): There’s an ‘ask the designers’ feature at Times Online where they explain the process of the redesign, including the reason for that strange lime green. Georgia works well but it is very ‘now’ and may start to date in a few years…

UPDATE (Feb 9): There’s even more at Press Gazette on the systems that are being used to integrate print and online, to handle comments, and the future plans around video and archive content.

Online Journalism Blog email feed

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If you’re one of the subscribers to the FeedBurner email newsletter that I set up for this blog’s previous incarnation – do not worry: I have updated the details so that you will continue to receive updates from the new, WordPress-based version.

If you’re interested, the new feed is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/onlinejournalismblog

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Wiki weakness: the PR trap

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Following Shane Richmond’s detailed analysis of wikis and factors hindering their growth as news tools (namely vandalism and inaccuracy), Jemima Kiss has an interesting article highlighting another: PR companies, “after Microsoft apparently paid a blogger to work on various technical entries”. It’s a trap that blogs have already fell foul of – from fake blogs like Cillit Bang’s Barry Scott’s and the even faker WalMart couple-travelling-across-the-USA blog, to PR companies who are employed to seed positive mentions of their clients’ products/services across blogs (among other sites).

Press releases, sponsored ‘surveys’ and PR-organised media events have always provided a large amount of journalistic fuel, so this is nothing new, but one skill the future editor must have is the ability to spot these tactics in their blogs and wikis.

THIS BLOG IS MOVING

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I’ve bowed to the inevitable and decided to move the Online Journalism Blog to WordPress. I’ve had a few good years with Blogger but the relationship never felt like it was going anywhere, and, to be honest, on occasion I even felt ashamed to be seen in public together.

I admit, I was starstruck by the prospect of better Google rankings, but the indie appeal of WordPress has finally won me over. Oh, and the fact that when Blogger went over to a Google sign-in I couldn’t log on at work (I’m sure it’s something to do with cookie settings and I could sort it out if I had the time, but no, I’d rather spend endless hours configuring WordPress to work the same way).

So, if you want to carry on reading my clippings, comments and very occasional flash of insightful analysis, add https://onlinejournalismblog.wordpress.com/ to your Favourites and https://onlinejournalismblog.wordpress.com/feed/ to your RSS feed.

I may occasionally still post to Blogger while I figure WordPress out, but don’t hold your breath.

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Paul Bradshaw lectures on the Journalism degree at UCE Birmingham media department. He writes a number of blogs including the Online Journalism Blog, Interactive PR and Web and New Media

Another wiki service

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Following my previous post on the free xwiki service for creating wikis, I’ve discovered SocialText, a more commercial operation but which does offer a free ‘personal version’ as well. Worth exploring if you’re thinking of experimenting with ‘the new blog’ (TM).

 UPDATE: Added to the list is Zoho’s wiki, part of a whole suite of free online office products. And you can add PBwiki to that, too.