FAQ: Can print compete with online?

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Another in the FAQ series, this one comes from a Bournemouth University student, and largely focuses on print’s future in the wake of the Independent newspaper going online only.

1. What have been the defining factors in the growth of online media? Is it mostly down to convenience, lowered costs or advancing technology?

It depends who you’re referring to and what you mean by ‘defining factors’ – defining in what ways?

For media organisations that existed before the web, it was both an opportunity to access new revenue streams, but more importantly defend against potential new competitors. Continue reading →

Cut out the middleman and let Facebook’s algorithms do the firing:

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From Julia Greenberg:

“Facebook now tells the industry what matters most, which dictates how resources are spent and what stories are told. Not in a sort of theoretical, hey-this-could-happen-someday kind of way, but a real, look-it’s-happening-all-around-us-already way. When Facebook says it will prioritize video in News Feed, every publisher that can afford to do so builds a video team. When Facebook says it will launch Live, publishers suddenly start streaming live. Facebook is setting the rules, and news organizations are following.”

From Recode:

“Mashable [has] announced that it is firing a large portion of its editorial staff. Additionally, Mashable is pivoting from hard news coverage; it will focus on producing lots more video about “digital culture.” According to Politico and a Mashable editor, 30 people were laid off.”

How to survive a hackday

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When done well hackdays can provide a perfect mix of technical experimentation and editorial nous. I regularly organise them with news organisations as part of my MA in Online Journalism; and The Times’s Build The News hackday has become an annual fixture.

So I thought I’d pull together some of the tips I gave to my students before they attended this year’s hackday, plus a few that they have learned themselves. Continue reading →

Anatomy for journalists? Skeletons we should all be able to find

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Image by Tony Hirst

A couple weeks ago Tony Hirst published a rather wonderful post about what he calls ‘tech anatomy’: in other words the workings “of the computing related stuff that populates our daily lives”. These include:

  1. The Anatomy of a URL
  2. The Anatomy of a Web Page
  3. The Anatomy of a Tweet
  4. The Anatomy of an Email Message
  5. The Anatomy of a Powerpoint File
  6. The Anatomy of an Image File

In admirably succinct fashion, and with illustrations, he picks apart those six things. It’s a masterclass in the sort of system knowledge that every journalism student should have, because this knowledge is crucial to newsgathering and verification. Continue reading →

Podcasting and money in the UK

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In a guest post for OJB first published on his blog, broadcaster Joe Norman explores the UK market for podcasting.

Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself questioning whether — in the UK in particular — it is possible to make money from podcasting.

The bigger productions seem to be an add-on to radio programmes, heavily reliant on content produced — presumably — using on-air budgets.

Many of the others appear, on the face of it, to be labours of love with some sponsorship that may cover cost. Continue reading →

New video interview app Qanda wants your questions AND your answers

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Qanda Question GIF

GIF from Qanda

Qanda is a new app which invites you to ask your friends, idols, politicians, or anyone else, questions and, crucially – using selfie video – provides the opportunity for you and your subjects to share the answers. Anna Noble speaks to creator Martin Verpaalen about the potential of the app (currently only available on iOS) for journalists.

“If you could ask anyone, anything, what would it be?”

The openness of social networks like Twitter or the ability to find an expert on LinkedIn, might make you think that this is territory already covered.  But how much do we really openly share our own ideas? Continue reading →

Forget adblockers – one local newspaper site has inspired a ‘content blocker’

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Evening Mail News Blocker Chrome Web Store

The Evening Mail News Blocker is available in the Chrome Web Store

What we need in the adblocking debate is a fresh perspective. Cue Birmingham website Paradise Circus, which has today released a browser extension to get rid of all that pesky journalism slowing down your daily advertising consumption: Continue reading →

Beyond Spotlight: 6 more data journalism projects that influenced policy

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spotlight data journalism

Brian d’Arcy James plays data journalist Matt Carroll in the movie Spotlight

Spotlight won an Oscar for its portrayal of the Boston Globe’s investigation into institutional silence over child abuse, including some old school data journalism by Matt Carroll. But it’s far from the only example of data journalism shaping policy: Anna Noble asked members of the NICAR-L computer assisted reporting forum for five of their own examples (first published here).
Continue reading →

How publishers could end up helping authorities hack their own readers

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Alan Rusbridger holding the destroyed Snowden files hard disk

The Guardian complied when authorities demanded they destroy the Snowden files

So far most of the talk about the Investigatory Powers Bill has been about the lack of protection for journalists’ sources thrown up by powers to intercept communications.

But there’s another part to the Bill which relates to facilitating state hacking – and an analysis by Danny O’Brien has thrown up some worrying ambiguity on this front for publishers – not just those based in the UK. Continue reading →

This UK podcast is making money – and employs 4 people

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Andy Nugent

In a guest post first published on his blog, Joe Norman talks to the team behind The Anfield Wrap, a UK podcast which manages to employ four people through a subscription-based business model.

The Anfield Wrap is an independent podcast for Liverpool supporters. Starting in 2011 as a weekly show, usually on a Monday (post weekend match)— it was then picked up by local radio station Radio City Talk, who commissioned a second show for Fridays.

Neil Atkinson, content manager at The Anfield Wrap (TAW) and the main presenter, says they were very quicky seeing 20,000 downloads a week — and it became clear there was demand for more: Continue reading →