Friday round-up: Learning from (others') experience

"Mood swings that would make a crystal meth addict blink in disbelief"

That was just one of the side-effects of setting up the Caledonian Mercury online, says Editor Stewart Kirkpatrick (pictured) on the blog allmediascotland.

18 hour days, seven days a week was what it took to launch what the CM team describe as "The Economist meets the Huffington Post drinking Irn Bru.”

But the hard work has seemingly paid off. He writes: "Since we launched in January, more than 700,000 people have visited the site, looking at more than 1.5million pages. We have more than 1600 fans on both Facebook and Twitter.

"We're cracking the advertising nut and while our committed team of writers have had to be patient at times, we have started to pay them a decent amount."

(Link via Jon Slattery)

More from the BBC

Content Management Systems can be the bane of an online journalist's life, as notes Adam Tinworth.

He has highlighted a blog by the BBC Online team, that he says makes for fascinating reading, on how they've developed their publishing system.

The new version, they write, underpins the new News site and has made substantial changes to systems and workflow, but it is still focused on the task of managing content which fits into a general journalistic pattern. It does not try to be all things to all people, and this in no doubt plays some part in its success.

A more in-depth blog post on all its bells and whistles is in the offing, but you can see a good overview of the more structured approach they've taken to making it all work - and work well.

And finally, the obvious...

Journalism graduates - like you didn't know finding a job was going to be difficult enough, Deb Wenger, on the Advancing the Story blog, has produced a quick checklist of what a modern graduate needs to have a hope in hell of getting their toe through the door.

It's no good just having a journalism degree - your qualification needs to cover all bases now. And whilst some of the tips only apply to US graduates, there are some other obvious ones - like work experience, basic web publication skills as well as an entrepreneurial attitude.

It may all sound like the ABC of modern journalism but it's still good to consider your own skills set and ask the question - do you measure up?

Reporting the courts in the 21st Century

Journalist and Freedom of Information campaigner Heather Brooke (pictured) has sparked a debate on modern court reporting by asking whether court cases should be allowed to be recorded by journalists.

It seems to have polarised opinion: some journalists argue that it is the natural progression, allowing for more accurate reporting, and could go further - tweeting and live blogging for example; others say that going as far as using twitter and the like could endanger the practice of fair and accurate reporting if it were swamped with opinionated blogging and snippets of information.

Here are a selection of comments so far:

Heather Brooke: "The simple answer is to allow tape recorders for all: no party is disadvantaged and an ‘official’ recording is there for checking. This is how it works in other countries. But this is to ignore the root objection of the courts: that they are losing control of how court proceedings are presented to the public.

"Many trials in the upper courts are now officially recorded (and in the case of the new UK Supreme Court, filmed) yet these records are not accessible to the public. All High Court hearings have been digitally recorded since February 2010 and sit in a basement in the Royal Courts of Justice. When I spoke to the court’s governance officer he told me there were no plans to make these accessible directly to the public. Why not?"

Siobhain Butterworth, The Guardian: "There is something rather quaint about journalists in the 21st century using pens and notebooks to record what goes on in court hearings when the tools of the trade now include laptops, mobiles, BlackBerrys and other digital paraphernalia. Why not use them in court? In fact, why not report live from the courtroom? The obvious answer is that judges won't let you.

"The difference between scribbling notes (publishing later) and filing copy instantly from the courtroom using an electronic device is self-evidently slight and there's a lot to be said for the sort of full, accurate, contemporaneous, reports of court hearings that live-blogs and twitter reporting could achieve."

Mike Dodd, Editor, Media Law: "You'd need to trial it, to see how it worked. I'd be very suspicious about tweeting - I'm not sure that court cases are the sort of thing where you'd want to put out short, pithy messages."

(Quoted in Siobhain Butterworth's article)

Steve Dyson, Media Consultant and former Editor, Birmingham Mail: "No, no and no again. Why not? Only by insisting on accurate, balanced, fair and contemporaneous reports can court coverage be reasoned, calm(ish) and not damaging to justice. Wild snippets as tweets, opinionated blogs and even edited broadcasts will make a mockery of something very precious.

"Live broadcasts, maybe, but courts cannot be subjected to the unhindered internet media. Yes, a pencil and dated notebook sounds archaic but, do you know what, it works; it engenders care; it encourages factual checks; as does the process from reporter to newsdesk to sub... For legal checks on court copy. Let's not get shoddy."

(Commenting on Jon Slattery's blog post on this topic)

What do you think? Should court cases be recorded? Should we go further and start tweeting and blogging in court?

Lessons we can learn from the BBC's election coverage

Covering a major news event like an election can be tricky – how do you keep audiences engaged with a story that stretches over several weeks?

In what Alfred Hermida describes as a “brief but fascinating insight” into his research, Einar Thorsen of Bournemouth University, UK, was made a presentation at the IAMCR 2010 in Braga of his examination of the relationship between BBC online journalism and citizenship during the 2005 and 2010 UK General Elections.

In a quick presentation, reports Hermida, Thorsen explained how civic engagement as a key of the BBC mandate reflected in its election coverage online, with them taking a less fragmented approach in 2010 than their 2005 output.

According to Thornsen, with research showing that audiences were oblivious to original features online, the BBC made it a key aim to distinguish between web and broadcast output.

Another issue was a strategic discussion of how the BBC covered politics online in an attempt to attract more people to politics.

Thorsen showed a BBC live updates page, incorporating reports from BBC journalists, user emails and tweets. But it was based on a manual process, with an individual cutting and pasting bits of HTML content into a static page.

Everything was verified and checked by a second pair of eyes, said Thorsen, usually a person looking over a journalist’s shoulder.

The BBC also outsourced the moderation of comments, allowing them to monitor the debate online to select and highlight some comments.

Thorsen’s research also revealed that some journalists still have doubts over the value of user-generated content (UGC).

He found in some BBC journalists that some described UGC and comments as an example of civic engagement online, while other described it as “utter s**t” and “a complete waste of time”.

Facebook tips for journalists

If you're still trying to get your head round how to make the best use of social networking tools, you may want to have a gander at Facebook's Media page.

As blogged by Paul Bradshaw, the resource is designed to give guidance on "best practice" for journalists wanting to boost their online profile. Although, he says, it features "ad-speak" heavily, it can be pretty useful as a resource.

For those who might wish this sort of thing would all just go away, there is a basic introduction to using Facebook as a journalistic resource plus tips, case studies and links to examples, such as Arianna Huffington's page, for those who are already users of the site.

The process is broken down into three stages: gaining short-term distribution, building lasting connections and advancing the story and features tips such as having "Like" or "Recommend" button on your articles as well as interacting with your audience through regularly kept status updates and creating "events" on Facebook to promote broadcasts.

Should journalists' social media use be policed by the PCC?

The Press Complaints Commission's code of conduct is usually standard practice for most newspapers and the development of online content has already provided grey areas for lawyers but Leicester Mercury editor Keith Perch has questioned the role of the PCC, on his blog, when it comes to journalists' use of social media.

He is quick to explain that the scope would be for the professional use of such tools- such as linking to work done for a particular publication - treating it in the same way as a newspaper columnist and therefore personal use would not be included.

Quoting an email he sent to his journalists asking for their views, Perch writes: "As a columnist, the journalist gets far more freedom and is able to express an opinion. However, as a columnist their work is subject to my editing. I reserve the right to edit their posts.

"In practice, I never see their posts until after they have been published, but staff know that I am reviewing them and, therefore, I believe, they take this into consideration before publication."

Perch is inviting people to debate the issue on his blog. What do you think? Should Twitter feeds, official Facebook pages and the like come under the remit of the PCC?

(via Jon Slattery)

New York Times: early burnout risk for young Online news journalists

If you’re feeling the strain from constant deadlines and draining every resource you have to find something new to break to your readers, you may take some solace from the fact that you are far from alone.

When the Washington-based Politico’s two top editors sent their reporters an email on April Fools’ Day last year saying that they would be required to start at 5am, not everyone saw the funny side, reports The New York Times. One girl even started crying.

This, says the report, is just one indication of the early burnout that young journalists can suffer in the online news business where, they say, the pressure of meeting a deadline for a paper can now be felt at any point of the day where the emphasis can be on getting something out as fast as possible before your rivals get the scoop.

It describes how the vibe of the newsroom is now “frantic and fatigued” with young reporters chained to their computers, rather than living the romantic notion of travelling the globe in pursuit of a story, to write articles that will “impress Google algorithms” and “draw readers their way”.

Like with The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times displays a “most viewed” list on its home pages. Some media outlets, including Bloomberg News and Gawker Media, now pay writers based in part on how many readers click on their articles.

It’s perhaps a familiar tale of woe and one that adds fuel to the fires of those who argue that journalism quality will suffer as focus shifts to the numbers rather than the stories.

But, as Politico’s Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris told The New York Times: “Everybody in the audience is his or her own editor based on where they want to move their mouse or their finger on the iPad,” said the editor in chief, John F. Harris. “And if you’re not delivering to that reader, you’re going to lose them.”

Politico may not be a harbinger but when next you feel your head dropping towards your chest as you rush to break the latest news, you can at least stop and think - to borrow a phrase from our new Prime Minister - “we are in this together”.

(With thanks to Heather Chin for link)

New iPad app offers "world's first fully personalised newspaper"

A new news app for the iPad, Apollo, aims to offer "the world's first fully personalized newspaper," according to a report on the World Editors' Forum blog.

The app is loosely based on the music platform Pandora, which suggests to users new music that it thinks they will like, based on their preferences. The Editors blog reports that after its release on Friday by Hawthorne Labs, Apollo quickly jumped to number 11 in the Apple iPad store, according to co-founder Evan Reas. It is priced at $4.99 (or €3.99).

Quoted by TechCrunch and others as saying that the app aimed to "deliver the final blow to the newspaper industry," Reas stressed to the EW that he did not in fact intend to destroy news providers, but simply that he believed that print newspapers were becoming less relevant to younger people, and that digital news was the future.

"What I was trying to express is that the traditional newspaper (and system that surrounds print news) is dying," he wrote on his blog.

Reas has stressed that he did not want Apollo to be seen as a threat to the news industry. "We believe that we are a friend to traditional news sources, helping them get new views from a new medium," he said, adding that "we think it is mutually beneficial for us and the content sources."

Apollo aims to help readers discover new content that they will like, based both on their expressed preferences - they can like or dislike specific articles, and favourite sources - and on which articles they read, how much time they spend on each, and what 'similar' users like.

The news is separated into different category groups, which are displayed as boxes along the bottom. Each of these has a choice of several different subcategories, which were chosen following extensive user testing, Reas said.

The categories are intended to prompt users to read different types of news, and maybe to discourage them from only reading about the topics with which they are already familiar.

The Editors Weblog write how, one of the arguments against personalized news is that it takes away the element of serendipity, the chance to discover something totally new, but Reas said that the categories and the fact that Apollo is continuously bringing in new sources and articles will retain an element of this.

Apollo selects news from thousands of sources, both established news sources and blogs, using their public RSS feeds to link to content within the app. No content is licensed, and as the RSS feeds are public this should not be a problem.