So the New York Times really did it: after months of speculation, years after its last failed attempt, it announced that it will charge online readers and explained why in a staff memo. There have been so many opinions ventured about this move that it’s become a big, boring, droning buzz. The reality is that…
Complaints by media proprietors like Rupert Murdoch that Google News is “stealing” their content has always been countered by the argument that Google and other news aggregators actually direct web traffic back to orignating news sites. However, a survey of news consumers by Outsell Inc. found 44 per cent of Google News visitors scan headlines without ever clicking…
The world’s news media went into full disaster mode this past week. In the Students’ Lounge, the word to graduating students is: “Always be ready to cover a disaster.’ Meanwhile, the Poynter Institute has posted tips for journalists heading to Haiti. Australian commentator Tim Burrowes argues that, far from being ‘vultures’ and ‘in the way,’…
International journalists in China have had their email accounts hacked, say numerous reports. But are emails in any country safe from surveillance?
The New York Times is expected to begin charging readers for online access this year. A (free) online story in New York Magazine reveals the heated debate between print and online managers, and the difficult issues behind such a decision. Excerpts: “The decision to go paid is monumental for the Times, and culminates a yearlong…
Canadian Press reporter Stephanie Levitz, one of some three dozen journalists who ran with the 2010 Olympic flame, wrote a terrific first-person piece about her ethical dilemma … Update Jan. 17: Canwest Olympics reporter Jeff Lee responds …
The death of Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang on patrol with Canadian troops in Afghanistan has produced an outpouring of sympathy from across the Canadian journalism community – not least because her situation inside an armoured vehicle was both blameless and helpless. It has also reignited debate about the potential return on such excursions. Colin…
John Tierney ponders the key question, imo, of the past decade: “When does the wisdom of crowds give way to the meanness of mobs?” Tierney’s New York Times piece today focuses on a new book by digital pioneer Jaron Lanier, “You Are Not a Gadget,” and Lanier’s attack on “the glorification of open-source software, free…
When the bank pulled the plug on Canwest’s newspaper division last week, faint hope flickered in the land. A Town Hall post asked: “Are we coming to the end of the decade-long train wreck of Canadian journalism?” But the history of Canadian media ownership lends itself to more of the same, with hope for a…