More speculation about Apple tablets

I've not read Robert Cringely before. He can write. He latches on to the recent excitement about 802.15.3 -- short range, high bandwidth wireless networking to the merely moderately geeky; super remote control to real people -- and speculates that it's coming soon to an Apple tablet near you.
(From Haddock)

Reader's editor and online communities

Interesting think piece by Jay Rosen about how, as readers start to identify newspapers' online presences as being the newspaper, and meanwhile those newspapers try to foster online communities and encourage readers to provide more feedback to articles online, the role of the "reader's editor"/"public editor"/"ombudsman" should perhaps be rethought. Rosen suggests that the reader's editor should run a weblog that points to articles and collates comment (including his own) on those articles.
(From PressThink)

Times in tabloid ad row

To the relief of all the pundits, the "inevitable" has finally happened and advertisers have started making a fuss about the obligation to provide two formats of their ads to newspapers running parallel broadsheet and tabloid editions. The Indy volunteered to pay the cost of producing two versions, but The Times refused.
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

GODE trial "for four weeks"

It appears that the Guardian and Observer Digital Edition beta trial will last four weeks. That takes us to December 18 or thereabouts.
(From DotJournalism)

Online classified is cannibalising print

... says the OPA.
(From Media Daily News )

Print easier to drop than other media

The Pew Internet and American Life Project's report, "Consumption of Information Goods and Services in the United States", finds that the majority of the US populace would find it easier to give up their favourite newspaper than to give up other media ("computers, the internet, mobile phones, email, television).
(From E-Media Tidbits)

US ad spending up (a little)

The Newspaper Association of America reckons newspaper ad spending in the US crept up 1.5 per cent to $10.9 billion in Q3. However, classified is still on a downward trend (down 0.5% overall), particularly job ads (down 10.7%).
(From Editor & Publisher)

IE to include popup blocker

Following various debates about GODE's use of popups (and some browsers' inability to distinguish legit popups from those served by advertising) comes the news that Microsoft has indicated that it will include a blocker in the next version of Internet Explorer for Windows XP. An analyst estimates that as many as 20 per cent of web users have already installed some form of anti-pop-up software.
(From CNET News)

The past and future of product convergence

Little potted history of print, web, and digital editions from Digital Deliverance, with a rousing call in particular to newspaper web operations to see digital editions as something to participate in (and thereby improve), not to feel threatened by. The Guardian and Observer digital editions get a nod here too (well spotted, Vin Crosbie), which is nice given the cross-functional makeup of our project team. Has the usual (but that doesn't mean wrong) recommendations for where to go from here: fully leveraging PDF's functionality; openness to many reading devices; tabloidisation; introducing good commercial models, etc. Vin's prediction: "By 2010, newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters ... will be able to publish a single digital edition that can be used on the Web, in print, and on portable devices and e-paper, and that will feature the advantages of both Web sites and newsprint. This convergence has already begun."
(From Digital Deliverance)

News's Les Hinton on tabloidisation

Interesting (and unusually broad-minded for a News exec) comments from News International executive chariman Les Hinton about moving to tabloid from the broadsheet format. He observes that one UK broadsheet (the Guardian or Telegraph) may choose to make a virtue of staying broadsheet so that this becomes a USP. News is going to be aggressive with retailers and give 18p per copy of the Times sold (rather than the current 12.5p) in shops stocking the tabloid version.
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

Times goes tabloid

The Times is joining the Indy in publishing a tabloid alternative in the London area as of Wednesday November 26.
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

Creo Tokens at MacExpo

If you're going to MacExpo, take a look at Tokens on the Creo stand -- and say hello to Lori. Tokens has won a "best of show" award.
(From Creo)

Towards a single newsroom

Examples of newspapers who have moved their web staff into the print newsroom. (Interesting display of prejudice here: what I mean is that the web and print staff have moved into a single newsroom together.)
(From Online Journalism Review)

Guardian digital edition - from Guardian Newspapers

OK, beta is now accessible. The Observer too, of course. Hope you like it. Comments/bugs/feedback to beta.feedback@guardian.co.uk, not me!
(From Yours truly)

Guardian digital edition - from NewspaperDirect

Pressplay is NewspaperDirect's advancement of its B2B digital newspaper service: a website allowing the public to download pages of numerous worldwide newspapers. Today's Guardian (international edition) is available, but you'll have to pay. I haven't checked yet but it would be interesting to see how fast these pages become available after transmission to NewspaperDirect. (The site says "minutes after they are published".)
(From E-Media Tidbits)

Newspaper registration service under threat

The Royal Mail is planning to cut the newspaper registration service, used by regional UK newspapers to mail their products at a reduced rate. Each week about 100,000 newspapers are delivered using this service -- which has been in place for 150-odd years. The Newspaper Society is now protesting the plan.
(From Hold The Front Page)

Introducing Peppercoin

Can this MIT spinoff micropayment technology succeed where others have failed? Apparently it's easier to use and -- significantly -- it's cheaper to process. And it was codesigned by one of the inventors of RSA -- the encryption system that allows web credit card transactions -- so it has a pretty impressive pedigree.
(From MIT Technology Review)

Bill Joy interview

Last time he was in Wired it was an international cultural event, so it's gotta be worth a look. Some noteworthy bits: computers have gotten 25 times better, but software hasn't; with a good desktop such as a G5 "a database becomes a data structure"; "Mac OS X is a rock-solid system that's beautifully designed"; "open source doesn't assist the initial creative act"; Windows is "of absolutely no technical interest"; "SARS was just a TV story about a bunch of people wearing masks"; "When Moore's law ceases to be true, maybe around 2014 - that would be a good time to retire"; "a Hippocratic Oath for scientists would be useful"; "Clean water would do more to alleviate disease than high tech medicine".
(From Wired)

Who's going to buy the Telegraph?

Following Conrad Black's fall ... the candidates currently are: 1, Associated; 2, Richard Desmond; 3, the Barclay brothers; 4, the Washington Post. Up for grabs (possibly) are the Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, the Spectator, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post.
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

Tribune president: paid content will be ubiquitous

For the ONA conference in Chicago keynote, Tribune Publishing's Jack Fuller said that "everyone will move, at least in part, to a model paid by the reader". He emphasised adaptability and understanding young readers as the priorities for online publishers.
(From Online News Association)

Sony in Japanese ebook venture

Sony and 14 publishing companies are planning an ebook rental service for launch next spring in Japan. One of the planned readers will use E Ink's electronic paper technology. No readers will have comms features: all will require download via PC.
(From EE Times)

WSJ counts paying subs on ABC

Following ABC USA's rule change in July, the Wall Street Journal has included some of its paying online subscribers on this month's circulation figures. The effective boost is 16 per cent. The move has sparked excitement elsewhere.
(From Online Journalism Review)

Times to launch weekly business mag

Some of the secret moves in Times HQ are not size-related. Apparently they've got the go-ahead for a weekly business supplement positioned somewhere between the FT and the Economist.
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

Email vs RSS spat goes on

"When someone states that one application ... will kill another ... buzz flocks like flies to his statement. It's good publicity, but nonetheless his statement is the type of material to which flies tend to flock."
(From Digital Deliverance)

Indy to take tabloid nationwide

INM has announced that it intends to complete its move to distribute a tabloid version of the Independent nationwide by the beginning of 2004. "Our target is a minimum increase in sales of 50,000," said CEO Ivan Fallon.
(From Financial Times)

Convergence defined

From OJR's extract of Rich Gordon's contribution to Digital Journalism.
(From Online Journalism Review)

Digital editions: usability, popularity, etc

Online NewsHour gets voxpops on how digital editions are picking up. On E-Media Tidbits Katja Riefler reports that a study by the University of Trier concluded that digeds are perceived, unsurprisingly, as halfway houses or bridges between the printed paper and the web. More (if you can read German).
(From Online NewsHour)

Spam is turning brits off

Research from the iSociety project at the Work Foundation has found that 25 per cent surveyed respondants say that spam has made them cut back on their email usage. 70 per cent say spam makes the online experience "annoying". Apparently all this is slowing adoption of broadband.
(From Online Publishing News)