The British newspaper, The Guardian, is among the most sophisticated of all news media in the digital space, so any contemplation or decision on its part deserves attention.
The news organization is now evaluating how its journalists should participate in comment threads. This shouldn't surprise anyone --- once journalists were expected to blog, it was not unexpected they'd have to engage ---- but not many outlets are that far down the road. So the Guardian's deliberations on this front will be worth studying.
The Guardian will soon unveil a new Pluck-based platform to widen the interactivity between creators and audience, and there are still many questions from the newsroom's journalists on how plucky they can be in participating, how to use those threads for news, and largely how to ensure the venerable brand is preserved.
Ask for a picture, along will come a video.
So suggests Google in its latest sense of how it needs to serve the market.
Matching graphical displays with searches for pictures represents a big opportunity, says the company.
As a result, expect the change soon because Google has not found a way to monetize the image searching. There is still some way to go, the company says, but the notion is being pursued.
When you read and read and read about the transition in the media business, it's not surprising that once in a while you tap into two streams of information that work together.
Herewith: A Red Herring story on how old media are struggling with adaptation to new media, and a MediaPost story on how small media are doing well in withstanding a new digital culture.
Each item offers insight into reasons why it's happening.
I was the Q in the Q-and-A session today at a session featuring Google's Josh Cohen at the annual Canadian Newspaper Association conference in Toronto.
We spent about an hour examining what Google wants to do in the news and publishing space (lend assistance to make advertising more relevant), what it won't do (be a provider), what publishers can do about getting better results from Google search (file fast, often and build credibility with the users to reinforce rankings), and what can be learned from user behaviour with news (they're taking charge, but they're also looking for direction).
He reads papers, loves having them, but reads many more online. He was affable and open, and a number of delegates later felt he'd been more accessible than anyone else from the digital behemoth they'd seen. (A blog on the conference from Toronto's Eye Weekly calls me a journeyman gadfly. Who writes these things?)
Later in the program, the head of marketing for Virgin Mobile Canada had some interesting thoughts about young people: they're respectful of their parents, they don't consider computers technology, they're impatient with delays, they prefer to do as they learn, and their understanding is informed more by gaming (trial and error and restart) than theory.
Reed Business Information is discussing the notion of paying journalists according to the number of page views their work earns. They'd accept a lesser salary and be given bonuses on the basis of the Web traffic their work generated.
It has a faint echo of the recent kerfuffle at Gawker, where a number of contributors groused about the approach.
After all, page impressions are only one measurement --- and one that can be distorted rather easily --- and have the potential to induce very-low-common-denominator work. More difficult work, which may not produce as much traffic, might be diminished.
If we were to organize newspapers or newscasts on the basis of audience, a number of things would disappear. The newsroom's total package is what drives budgets that in turn accord compensation.
Many organizations provide bonuses when traffic objectives are reached, but moving to a new pay-per-view formula would be quite a grenade.
The annual Newsroom Barometer is out from the World Editors Forum and Reuters its results suggest greater comprehension of the quality and quantity of newsroom change necessary in the time ahead. The Zogby poll of more than 700 editors and news executives in 120 countries was conducted in March.
A year ago editors were assessing the landscape differently, with some hesitation or early judgment of the value of multi-platform journalism.
Now an overwhelming number see integrated newsrooms as the norm, see the multi-platform journalist as the basic model, and view outsourcing as a given on certain functions.
Certainly, more want to hire more journalists, but more view online as the most common means of consumption within five years, and more also see news as a free commodity in the future.
A big interest and concern: Training. Editors are a little anxious that, having understood the need, they may not have the means to carry out the transformation.
A big priority for their media: Analysis and commentary. Editors view the value of value-added information as increasing in an age of commoditized conent.
A big worry: The loss of young readers. This is viewed as their biggest issue, and no one seems to have the answer.
The new Accenture survey of North American media and entertainment executives has some illuminating findings on the anticipated direction of digital media.
A couple of surprises: Executives aren't concerned about involving themselves in social media and worry little about reputational issues in doing so. And they are extremely skeptical of the North American mobile market taking off.
A couple of non-surprises: They believe advertising-supported (as distinct from subscription-supported or pay-per-view) models are the most viable. And they believe digital advertising will surpass conventional advertising within five years.
There was a general optimism about the growth of short-form video as a driver of business.
The kicker in this survey is quite interesting. Accenture thinks there's a bit of self-delusion among the executives it surveyed --- that is, they think they're a lot more ready for the future than they really are. In its examination of the factors in place at these companies, Accenture found "a false sense of current capabilities."
It still feels like the last chapter hasn't been written, but today's decision by Microsoft not to pursue Yahoo! is more than a little stunning. The $5-billion increase in the offer was deemed too little. and Microsoft has indicated ---- publicly, at least for now --- that what Yahoo! wants is not what Yahoo! gets.
Somehow, $47.5 billion is not enough for an Internet giant.
Now, while this is seemingly outside of the media landscape, it will of course have enormous implications for the advertising and content pieces digitally in the years ahead.
It's also --- if you're to believe it's the last gasp of the dickering --- a real solidifying of three major players: Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! One is weaker than the other two, but has the opportunity to generate.
The challenge for newspaper companies is to venture into the digital space with the same prominence, and the latest Borrell Associates online revenue survey indicates they're doing that.
Newspaper online revenue surpassed $2 billion in 2007 in the U.S., which puts them ahead of all local media companies and accounts for some 27 per cent of the overall online revenue pie. Newspaper firms held a three-to-one advantage on television and Yellow Pages.
One of the more interesting findings in the survey was that non-newspaper advertisers accounted for a majority of the revenue for the first time --- some 59 per cent of the total.
Video is the fastest growing of the advertising and is expected to quadruple in 2008. And the survey indicated that extra staff for online sales pay off handsomely.
When Eric Schmidt talks, everyone listens. And when the Google CEO acknowleges the company's $1.65-billion takeover of YouTube has yet to produce a revenue model, everyone should be paying attention.
No matter that YouTube is the brand leader and has all the familiarity of Facebook and MySpace, the world's largest Internet company hasn't found a way to insinuate profit into the picture.
In catching up to his lengthy CNBC interview of this week, it was apparent there are several products to come in the advertising realm but admit the commerce had not caught up to the creativity of YouTube.
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