K4 updated

Softcare have announced an update to their QPSalike K4 publishing system. Version 5 works with InDesign/InCopy 3.0. An enhanced use of XML allows story structuring; for example photo credits may be associated with a photo. The user interface has been improved, as have the querying tools. Images, adverts, and multimedia objects -- in fact just about any old file -- can be tracked through the workflow.
(From Macworld UK)

Tabloidisation update: Indy hints about discarding broadsheet

INM managing director Terry Grote: "If the broadsheet sales get down below a certain level and the tabloid sales keep rising, then we probably will do it”.
(From Media Week)

Philips demonstrates e-paper

(Low-res .wmv file.) If your browser doesn't know what to do with the link, change the protocol from http to mms. If that doesn't work take a look at the press release here.
(From E-Media Tidbits)

Philips: E Ink "no longer a research project"

Philips Electronics have announced that the rollable version of E Ink's e-paper will go into mass production in the near future. The rigid version of e-paper is already due to go to market later this year.
(From CNET News)

AIM report on digital editions

Advanced Interactive Media had done a (NewsStand-sponsored) report on digital editions, summarising findings from a couple of surveys and looking at some case studies. SOme noteworth stats: of respondents to one servey, "69.4 percent were interested in subscriptions, 65.8 percent in single-copy purchases, 54.1 percent enjoyed reading the publication, and 49.4 percent were interested in getting d-editions that they read for work or research ... 74.3 percent said they preferred the paper version; 76.2 percent did not like sitting in front of the computer to read the magazine, and 66.5 percent found reading on the monitor hard on their eyes."
(From E-Media Tidbits)

Tabloidisation update: more Garcia enthusiasm

The Triangle Business Journal (a US tabloid) is convinced, mostly by Mario Garcia as usual, that US broadsheets will all go tabloid in the next decade or so. Meanwhile they're watching in Japan too.
(From Newspaper Association of America)

Tabloidisation update: US takes note

The new look, new frequency Editor & Publisher notes the tabloidisation moves in the UK market, and considers what it means for the United States -- where the vast majority of papers are "broadsheet". Apparently the conjestion charge may be to blame...
(From Editor & Publisher)

Tabloidisation update: Telegraph remains cautious

Despite rumous of a Febraury launch the Telegraph appears still undecided about tabloidisation. Interesting quotes: "Some sources said there was a division between the editorial side of the operation ... which was keen to press ahead with a tabloid version, and the business side ... which remained unconvinced it could be made to pay. Some also say the hold-up has as much to do with technical issues as with financial considerations. The Telegraph has been slowly introducing a new computer system staff say would be unable to handle the simultaneous production of a tabloid."
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

Digital Deliverance on GODE

Vin Crosbie agrees with the Reg's review of the Guardian and Observer digital editions (see below), citing in particular the fact that, unlike NewsStand digeds, you don't need to download any software. He's impressed that we did the work in-house, and says that GODE "is as sophisticated as anything produced by [third-[party] vendors". Cheers! Also says that Waldo has some interesting things to say "about the linked fate of print and Web editions" in a forthcoming Digital Deliverance report.
(From Digital Deliverance)

Alexa ranks GU 16th most popular news site on the web

Alexa publishes rankings of most popular sites, by category (the definitions being their own), of users of the Alexa toolbar. The Guardian comes in at number 16 - the fourth most popular newspaper site after the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today. The top 25 are: 1, CNN; 2, My Yahoo!; 3, BBC News; 4, The Weather Channel; 5, New York Times; 6, Google News; 7, Drudge Report; 8, MSNBC; 9, Fox News; 10, Washington Post; 11, USA Today; 12, Yahoo Weather; 13, CNN Money; 14, ABC News; 15, Reuters; 16, Guardian Unlimited; 17, MSN Money (CNBC); 18, WeatherBug; 19, Internet.Com; 20, AccuWeather; 21, Forbes; 22, San Francisco Chronicle; 23, New York Post; 24; Weather Underground; 25 LA Times.
(From E-Media Tidbits)

Ranking stories on your site

Adrian Holovaty says "it'd be useful if news sites made stories' importance more obvious", comparing online news sites with newspapers. Online, "stories sit alone, in templated obscurity, with no hint of how much more or less newsworthy they are than every other story". In print, the design conventions and page ordering communicate the significance. He recommends that online we assign importance values to each story, perhaps using a ranking number.

But in a printed newspaper, a story is only important in relation to the other stories around it: i.e. a decision is made entirely within the context of that day's news for that day's section. Furthermore, what some see as a problem for newspapers -- that they are merely a snapshot in time -- actually works in their favour: stories don't have to be reassessed for significance in perpetuity: the judgement is only necessary in the context of a single day in history. This isn't true online: you either have to cast your archive as something totally wedded to the time at which each item within it appeared (something to which most news sites are averse), or you have to constantly update the significance ranking of your archived stories. If you don't do this you run the risk of appearing inconsistent in your treatment of a given subject -- or worse, being embarrassed by leaving something as low-ranking that turns out to be huge.
(From Adrian Holovaty)

OmniWeb 5

Omni Group have announced their new browser, OmniWeb 5, which is due to go beta at the start of February. As predicted (following the release of Safari) they're now focusing entirely on user interface. I was particularly taken by the workspaces feature. We have talked about using scripts to record and "play back" sets of URLs, sizes and positions for browser windows (e.g. for desk editors who always want the same four tickers open). The feature is built into the application here (hopefully with assignable keyboard shortcuts). I also liked "site preferences" and the use of the drawer device for "tab" thumbnails. I'm not sure the shortcuts feature is all the way there yet: I'd like something akin to Launchbar, where shortcuts are learnt rather than defined. Dunno what they're doing with RSS. The main problem with OmniWeb in the past has been speed, but it now uses Safari's zippy WebCore (albeit an earlier version). Some discussion on MacSlash.
(From MacSlash)

US news audience: November

The Nielsen/Netratings United States audience figures for news sites for November place 8 newspaper groups (they count Gannett and USA Today separately) in the top 20 most viewed.

Organisation	Unique audience	Time per person
1. CNN	19.8 million	28min 32sec
2. MSNBC	19.7 million	18min 37sec
3. Yahoo! News	16.7 million	25min 50sec
4. AOL News	15.3 million	39min 51sec
5. Gannett Newspapers	8.7 million	15min 27sec
6. New York Times	8.7 million	35min 29sec
7. Tribune Newspapers	8.0 million	13min 20sec
8. Knight Ridder	7.8 million	12min 58sec
9. Internet Broadcasting Systems	7.5 million	15min 15sec
10. ABCNews	7.4 million	13min 21sec
11. USA Today	6.0 million	15min 44sec
12. Washington Post	5.2 million	19min 26sec
13. Hearst Newspapers	4.4 million	15min 39sec
14. Fox News	4.3 million	31min 25sec
15. Associated Press	4.2 million	5min 19sec
16. CBS	4.1 million	7min 24sec
17. BBC	3.7 million	8min 50sec
18. MSN Slate	3.6 million	9min 48sec
19. Advance Internet	3.6 million	16min 30sec
20. Time Magazine	3.5 million	4min 15sec

(From Editor & Publisher)