Gavin's Blog

Jeff links to two videos of him talking with staff at the Guardian about the future direction of the news organisation. As ever he is refreshing to watch, equally so as his writing, which I have been reading now for seven years.

Unfortunately many of my colleagues in the industry (in various firms) are slow to think about these changes, or the repercussions these changes will have for everyone working in the media in Ireland. I consider myself fortunate for not only having discovered Jeff’s writings early on (and indeed Dan Gillmor), but for the fact that I will myself shortly start my seventh year blogging. And I guess I am one of the relative few that made the transition from blogging to print media.

As for changing people’s habits in the old media world – I consider it a good day when I convert a colleague to Firefox 3 – nevermind Delicious, Magnolia, blogging, Twitter, RSS, Podcasts, or any of the other exciting things going on online.

Slowly but surely, I guess.

Jeff Part 1
Jeff Part 2

I don’t blog much about work, mainly because there is no set conditions by which we blog. And also because text sub-editing doesn’t involve much in the way of newsiness.

Yesterday though I edited our two world pages for the first time. It was an interesting day, though Sunday can be slow I guess.

From the morning I had intended to lead with Berlusconi and the Italian elections on the first page and Zimbabwe on the second world page. Nothing much happened during the day to alter that.

Half way through the day news of a coalition in Kenya came through, so I decided to sit that beside the Zimbabwe story and use a lead picture of Kenyan President Kibaki. I think the BBC used a similar, or the same, picture – mainly because it was the best of a bad lot. Zimbabwe was still my lead, and the Obama ‘incident’ was my second lead. A leg of briefs, including the 8,000 year old trees story (made sure to keep that in, it was very interesting), H5N1 in South Korea and a couple of others. Downpage was a story on Tibetan monks being arrested, and some violence in Darfur on the fifth anniversary of the conflict.

On the first page nothing much changed from my morning plan, except some design alterations. I kept the Murat libel story, led with Italian election too with a main pic and colour piece below. A leg of briefs leading with Nepal elections and British tourists killed in Ecuador. The Italian woman killed in Turkey, the Paps selling drugs to Ledger story.. and that about summed it up.

I would have liked to have got in the BAE/corruption/banking story, but space dictated. I would also have liked to put in something about the Pope’s US visit, but again not enough space. Rawstory mentioned that he may snub a Whitehouse dinner.

Besides that I was happy enough, and I shall speak to the powers that be to get some feedback on my selections. I guess the other metric I have is the competition, and since I don’t have access to the Indo as yet I should look at what the IT picked.

They led with all the same stories. And about 70% of their offleads were the same. They gave more space to the old trees story than I did. They also got the Pope in which I would have liked, and a tee-up to Merkel’s visit to Ireland today (though it was a local journo writing colour really). Overall though pretty much the same selections, though they didn’t feature Darfur, Ledger, or the Italian lady killed in Turkey.

If I was writing in my capacity as an employee of de paper I would ask you for your opinions on future direction, or stories I missed that should have gone in.

But since this is purely a personal blog I cannot do so, though of course comments are always welcome.

Hmm. Why do I get the feeling RTE are not giving this story the coverage it deserves.

People are bored with the tribunal and Ahern? Yea right.

Via Jim Fallows comes news that the Atlantic, an excellent magazine I have subscribed to for many years, is opening its archives online.

Twill be opened up tomorrow, and is definitely worth a look.

Another moment to remember, when Google ad revenue outstripped ITV1 ad revenue in Britain.

Google pulled in total revenues of £327m compared with an estimated £317m for all of ITV1′s output during the same period between July and September 2007.

The report said the new figures offered a significant milestone as it was the first time Google has overtaken ITV1 in pulling in UK advertising revenue.

Last year the ubiquitous internet firm surpassed Channel 4′s total advertising bounty, with Google generating £871m in revenue from sponsored links for 2006. For the first nine months of this year, Google’s advertising revenue increased to £925m.

Times Select is dead. Finally.

They’ve also opened up a huge part of their archives.

In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.

The New York Post is saying that the NY Times is due to abandon Timesselect, it’s pay-for wall that many believe never really made any sense. It’s a good move for the Times and can only bring in more readers – and much needed advertising revenue. Now if only the Irish Times would do the same.

I really don’t like the name. But I’m guessing that Kijiji will further decimate print classifieds in the US and beyond. Kijiji is owned by eBay.

More here.

Time have a cover story this week on media mogul Rupert Murdoch. That MySpace deal looks eye-wateringly cheap looking back at it. As for his thoughts on where newspapers are going: (my emphasis)

When Murdoch talks about the future of newspapers, you get a sense of how contemporary he really is. Circulation and advertising revenues are ebbing away everywhere, he notes, proportional to broadband penetration. “You’ve really got to worry,” he says. “Tribune Co.’s revenues [in May] dropped 11% across broadcasting and newspapers. That’s huge. The Times dropped 8.5%. Half of men under 30 aren’t reading print newspapers, and there’s no sign that they come back as they age.”

How does he respond to this bleak picture? By musing about investing even more in newspapers. “What if, at the Journal, we spent $100 million a year hiring all the best business journalists in the world? Say 200 of them. And spent some money on establishing the brand but went global — a great, great newspaper with big, iconic names, outstanding writers, reporters, experts. And then you make it free, online only. No printing plants, no paper, no trucks. How long would it take for the advertising to come? It would be successful, it would work and you’d make … a little bit of money. Then again, the Journal and the Times make very little money now.”

Ouch. For those of us working in the newspaper industry these are pretty harsh words. But then I and many others have been harping on about the decline of print newspapers for several years now. Increasing broadband penetration = declining newspaper buying. What is the cheapest way to publish? Online. Where are people increasingly reading? Online. Where should you be driving your readers? Online.

The traditional print industry is in real crisis in countries where broadband is increasing – the NYTimes figures speak for themselves. Online seems like the most obvious place to go.

But why does Murdoch want to buy the WSJ then? What has the WSJ got that Murdoch wants? Brand recognition, loyalty and history. He believes he can make money from it too. Online.

Since Ireland is so behind in the broadband stakes, it seems clear that Irish newspapers have extra time to adjust to the coming shift in readership. I just wonder if they will be ready.

Hehe.

… I would have thought that, although the decline in readership … will probably go on…

WSJ: They’re all going to MySpace.

Mr. Murdoch: I wish they were. They’re all going to Facebook at the moment.