FT model makes a lot of sense

Still no news about news re Guardain Tech. They are closing down then print, moving online. But there is no comment.

Meanwhile the FT and Cengage launched a digital archive of FT to 2006 yesterday at Online Information. I did some video but don't know how it looks. More on this later.

Today spoke to people at FT stand. They have a subscription offer for digital content on any platform that includes Factiva Lexis Nexis etc etc - all the combiners of content widely regarded as legit, at least here in Olympia. The deal seems to be that FT results do not show up unless the password check out. If you go direct to the FT site you get three clicks, not five as in the new Google model.

This seems to combine reasonable access for free and an income for the hard working journalists. So a possible future would be that you need to subscribe to the News of the World to get the best value from Microsoft.

Technology Guardian moves online

Now back with more web access so can follow up print news on Thursday that the Technology section will not be printed as of 2010. Strange thing is that there was nothing about this from Peter Preston yesterday or the media bit today. Fact and opinion are to be kept apart but surely this is news, something to write about. how can you have a media bit that is often rude about bloggers, citizen journalism etc. and claims that the problems of print are not that urgent, then have a Thursday report that a section will be online only? by the way, the Technology lot want us the readers to write in about it. No payment on offer.

I really do think they should be more informative for the print audience. The policy seems to be to have an online offer that is suitably modern and available free while the people who pay get a limited view. And nonsense from columnists about the dangers of bloggers but anyway back to some sourced speculation.

Will media on a Monday be next?

Copied from journalism.co.uk

The Financial Times’ managing editor, Dan Bogler suggested that while newspapers like the Times or Guardian might not be able to charge for general news, or the front pages, they might be able to charge for niche areas, something he knows they are thinking about.

“The Guardian is big on media, is big on public sector jobs, if they bundled that content both print and online and charged for it, I bet you they could. They might not be able to charge for everything they have but they could charge for certain parts,” said Bogler.

“Yeah well, definitely, Dan’s right – clearly he’s got the inside track on this,” Kelner said.

“The Guardian is looking at the Media being an online section as opposed to being with the newspaper and certainly that is one of the niches the Guardian could charge for.”

MediaGuardian recently celebrated its 25th birthday in print and is read by 525,000 readers every week, according to its advertising information; online it attracts 950,000+ unique users per month.

This is crazy. Will the price be reduced for the people who no longer get a print version of the Technology or Media?

Who is supposed to read the sections? Is it the normal Guardian reader, whoever we are, or is it specialists working in media or tech? Do the people who work in media want to read Peter Preston on the "bilious bloggers"? Enough to pay extra online?

What about some reporting for the general reader on what is actually happening?

More to come on this story I think.

glories of the past are gone

Glories of the past are gone, financial that is and for the music industry. They need to transform to a promising future in ringtones, downloads and streaming. That is the guardian media verdict for Monday 2nd. For newspapers it turns out that "print is not dead" but they seem to be aware of a transformation and news organisations are coping quite well as revenue increases slightly when you include online. Another encouraging sign is that Peter Preston boasts of the UK newspaper success with websites that score well with page views from the USA. I think the Guardian is making a move. However the new model may still need more respect for the readers/contributors than print journalists are used to.

Complaint about missing report on Kindle in UK

Today Friday I found an item in the Guardian about the Amazon Kindle. On the business pages towards the end the headline was that Microsoft have no plans for an e-reader. There is a brief mention that Amazon launched an international version of the Kindle two days ago. I don't think there was anything in the Guardian on Thursday, even in the Tech section. The news was in an email alert on Wednesday from the Bookseller so I am continuing to check the daily email as it seems to cover digital publishing fairly well. Coverage of the Kindle continues on the Neill Denny blog. The Teleread blog has more about ePUB but file formats have always been a minority interest.

The Guardian however seems to me to be fairly reliable about the impact of technology on music or television but has series of blankouts when it comes to print, publishing or journalism. Through a search I have found two blog entries for Technology and Digital Content but I am concerned about the printed version that is charged for and the sort of reporting it provides. The print audience is just being informed about what is available online. The implications for Guardian policy are also not dealt with.

Over the last decade Amazon has changed the UK book market to a large extent. The availability of the Kindle will move this in a deeper direction. UK media may ignore it without a UK specific launch but I think many Guardian readers will find out about it. USA news titles are already available for download. The nature of the Amazon launch evidences a take on global media in itself.

My guess is that the Books section of the Guardian tomorrow will have no mention of the international Kindle or what it implies. The extracts from the Bookseller stopped a while ago. Extracts from a range of blogs also vanished. Now there is a bit from the Guardian blog though it appears to be much like a long piece of text from a columnist with maybe a comment at the end with no response. They will have to talk about something else now the Booker is over.

Jeff Jarvis and the Press Association

Jeff Jarvis is backing the Press Association moves on local news.

But will this just be reporters on a classic model? How to involve citizens? Many Guardian writers ignore such issues but maybe Jeff Jarvis will consider this later.

local news and Press Asssociation

Alan Rusbridger is on Twitter and uses it to promote his view that funding should be available for the Press Association to report local news now that newspapers and ITV find this difficult. He welcomes Twitter as a way to amplify existing media.

What about Twitter as a way for anyone to publish, a way to build communities of people who share news? Is the only option to pour money into existing models? something missing here, I think.

Greenslade still on about the BBC

It never stops. Print journalists and former print journalists such as blogger Roy Greenslade are still on about the BBC as if the free BBC news is the reason they have a problem.

A recent story in the Guardian (that i can't find at the moment, tried the Guardian search and can only find opinions similar to Roy Greenslade) reported that 16% of respondents backed the approach of forcing the BBC to charge for content in order to make life easier for commercial companies. So why is this opinion constantly repeated by journalists? Is it worth £1.90 to read stuff you know you don't agree with and is only written from self interest. A Radio Times might be a better bet on the weekend.

Source Digital Spy found through Google News