Times to relaunch tabloid

The Times is already planning a major relaunch of its tabloid edition, following an overall circulation boost of just 1% year on year (compared, for example, with the Indy's 20% growth). "Despite a heavy advertising campaign and price incentives to switch to the tabloid version, the majority of Times readers still favour the broadsheet and the costly experiment of publishing two versions has failed to provide the hoped for circulation boost." In the short term first-edition deadlines will be brought forward to 7.30pm to improve distribution.
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

NYT digital edition circulation

I've found it difficult to get reliable information about digital/aka electronic edition circulation figures, in particular those for the New York Times. If anyone knows a good source, please let me know! I did manage to spot these figures in a Seybold Report: Olive Software says ABCs from September 2003 show the NYT's electronic circulation as 3,172.
(From The Seybold Report)

Guardian digital edition "best in show" - Slate

Follow-up to Jack Shafer's review of digital editions (see below). The first review was largely negative, with Shafer reckoning that digital editions didn't "fit" well with screens, and that the software was "too rudimentary". Now he says "the electronic editions of Florida Today and the Guardian are changing my thinking. The future of newspapering might be closer than I thought". What makes these two satand out, he argues, is that they both handle context better than their rivals. He concludes: "If pressed to give a best-in-show award, I'd give the nod to the electronic Guardian for its superior, simple, and self-explanatory navigation. This is one electronic edition that doesn't need a user's manual. Printing stories, e-mailing them, displaying pages in PDF, and searching keywords are all very easy in the electronic Guardian. But Florida Today isn't far behind."
(From Slate)

Guardian Number 6 most linked to by bloggers

JD Lasica notes that at a presentation by David Sifry at Technorati Developers Salon a slide ranks media sites by the number of blog links to them as follows: 1, NYT; 2, CNN; 3, BBC, 4; Wash Post; 5, Slashdot; 6, The Guardian; 7, Plastic; 8, Suicide Girls; 8, Salon; 9, BoingBoing; 10, Instapundit; 11, Slate; 12, Fox; 13, SFGate; 14, Reuters; 15, Drudge Report; 16, MSNBC; 17, USA Today; 18, Talking Points; 19, Scripting News; 20, Metafiler; 21, Eschaton; 22, Kos; 23, Wil Wheaton. At first I thought, "cool, we're in the top 10". Then I thought, "blimey, the blogosphere is about an inch deep ... more of a disk really". Shame.
(From JD Lasica)

A new twist on flexible computing

Sony's Gummi project proposes a new way to interact with flexible computer displays: twisting. Move and re-shape the display to navigate its contents and to zoom in and out.
(From The Register)

Simply entangle a few photons ...

... and your CD capacity increases nine times.
(From New Scientist)

Warnock's advice for software companies ...

"Don't hire MBAs."
(From The Register)

Guardian "most obvious success" at online/offline

Article in netimperative: "The most obvious example of a successful offline/online publisher is the Guardian ... if the main aim of an offline title's new media operations is to support the brand, we find it hard to think of anything better ... Guardian Unlimited is often true to its name: it has the feel of backstage at the Guardian -- much of the content is irreverent commentary -- and the rest builds on the main title's strengths ... The 'backstage' content, in particular, is a winner since it taps in to the informal joy of the web communications age. The Internet is an organic information free-for-all of rumour, implication and opinion in which the normal rules somehow don't apply. Items such as its 'live' sports online commentaries and The Fiver ... nail this feeling perfectly, and at the same time enable content that, instead of compromising the offline title, actually supports it -- and builds further loyalty."
(From Paid Content)

NYT updates digital edition

The New York Times has introduced an enhanced version of its Newsstand "electronic edition". New features include copy and paste facilities, offline storage options and an expanded search.
(From Associated Press)

Slate on digital editions

Jack Shafer in Slate looks at three American digital editions and reckons they should be designed for the purpose - encapsulating the look and feel and a (perhaps enhanced) vocubulary of newspaper design, but formatted for the access medium (a computer screen). "Publishers shouldn't be frightened of cannibalizing the current print readership — they need to get there before the competition does."
(From Slate)

Tabloidisation update: The Examiner

Now even the Huddersfield Daily Examiner has moved from broadsheet to tabloid ... er, sorry, compact. "Once upon a time, a decision to become a compact newspaper signalled a move down market." Not so now: the Examiner will continue to offer "a real good read".
(From Ifra news)

Print on demand (ish) in Switzerland

Print-on-demand service NewspaperDirect have, according to Steve Outing, done a deal with Switzerland's largets retail kiosk chain, k-Kiosk AG, to produce a selection of world newspapers daily. They'll be printed at a central facility and then distributed to each vendor, so it's not quite print on demand -- just a shorter, smaller distribution chain.
(From E-Media Tidbits)

Renaming doesn't work

Lisa William's response to an E-Media Tidbits item about one of the campaigns to come up with a better name for RSS rang a loud bell with me. She points out that in her view (and I agree), "renaming efforts rarely succeed", and that in the technology world, such efforts usually take place when the technology is about to go mainstream, and the technorati suddenly start worrying about how hoi polloi won't be able to understand it. "We must remember that nearly all technical terms ... were once unfamiliar." So it's too late. Which makes me think we should just give up trying to be clever and just call our publishing system Octopus.
(From E-Media Tidbits)

Sturm: be like TiVo

Newspaper Association of America president John Sturm, speaking at the NAA's AGM, said that newspapers must use technology to give readers what they want. "People want to consume their media where, how and when they choose ... Until someone comes up with TiVo for newspapers ... we are the quintessential pull media."
I'm not so sure. The need to give people what they want in ways they want is of course becoming increasingly necessary to retain or gain competitive advantage, but it isn't sufficient. I'm hardly saying anything new (the "My Newspaper" debate has raged for years), but I still believe that one of the distinguishing qualities of the newspaper is its push factor: that I buy a paper precisely because I don't know what has been decided (i.e. edited) for me, not by me.
(From Associated Press)

Six Degrees 2.0

Mark Lemmons's creative software team at Creo have released a major update to their Six Degrees desktop search engine (note the now more specific description than in the past). The software now comes in several flavours: a free "Lite" version; a "Personal Edition" equivalent to the earlier commercial single-user product; a "Anywhere Edition" with remote access features and support for Blackberries and Palm devices; and a "Workflow Edition" with workflow features and support for XMP data. That last feature in particular makes me want to dig up my version 1 licence key...
(From MacNN)