International Symposium on Online Journalism
A program of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin
Social Media | April 1, 2011
The final research paper at the [Friday session of] ISOJ focused on how newsrooms were using Twitter. Dale Blasingame from Texas State University, San Marcos, looked at how Twitter was changing TV news. (Paper, PDF).He started by saying that a web first approach in newsrooms is no longer enough due to the instant dissemination of … Read More
Engagement | April 1, 2011
CNN.com vice president and managing editor Meredith Artley spoke Friday, day one of ISOJ, on how CNN embraces its audience and the future of journalism by going beyond breaking news. Artley said that while stories about Lindsay Lohan and missing snakes were interesting, people wanted more than fluff. Stories coming out of the tragedy in Japan, … Read More
Business Models | April 1, 2011
Jim Gerber, director of content partnerships with Google, opened a panel discussion, during the 12th ISOJ, of the challenges to paid news content by citing three critical areas: (1) sustaining traffic while bringing in and maintaining advertising without alienating consumers; (2) managing access and revenue models; and (3) selling across multiple platforms. Gerber then focused … Read More
Innovation | April 1, 2011
John Kilpatrick, vice president of design for The Daily, provided an inside look into the new iPad app at the ISOJ. The Daily is a custom application with a custom content management system that was built from the ground up for product. The idea is to be able to create custom experiences everyday, exploring what … Read More
Innovation | April 1, 2011
The first research paper at ISOJ from Tanja Aitamurto, University of Tampere, Finland, and Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota, looked at processes of innovation. Presenting the paper, Lewis highlighted the challenge facing news organizations today: keeping up with modern demands for R&D while finding new sources of revenue. He said media organizations have under invested … Read More
Business Models | April 1, 2011
Elvind Thomsen from Norway outlined how the Schibsted Media Group had shifted its financial base from print to digital at the ISOJ. Newspapers are popular in Norway, with the average user reading 1.3 newspapers a day. But this is declining, from 1.6 newspapers in 2009. Thomsen said part of the reason for this was virtually … Read More
Business Models | April 1, 2011
In the session on paywalls at the ISOJ, Jorge Meléndez, vice president for new media, Grupo Reforma (Mexico), explained how the newspapers have had paywalls since 2002. The newspaper sites were free for the first two years. But they realized there was a very small online advertising market so the group just did it. Part … Read More
Business Models | April 1, 2011
Mark Medici, Dallas Morning News’ director of audience development, discussed during ISOJ the implementation of a Dallas Morning News pay option: subscriber content. Companies cannot fail to innovate, Medici said, otherwise they fail. So the Dallas Morning News is trying to innovate by empowering and understanding their consumers. Medici said the web time line has … Read More
Business Models | April 1, 2011
Just days after The New York Times paywall went live, media executives gathered at the 12th International Symposium on Online Journalism to discuss the merits and challenges of charging for newspaper content in an environment where readers are used to accessing online news for free. The panel, “Paywalls: Charging for News Content. Does it Work?,” … Read More
Keynote | April 1, 2011
In her talk “Reasons to be Cheerful: An Optimist’s view on the State of Digital Journalism,” Vivian Schiller gave seven reasons to be optimistic about where journalism is headed. Schiller, who resigned her post as NPR’s CEO last month after gaffes at NPR on her watch, gave a keynote address at the 12th International Symposium … Read More