REPORTR.NET: Is nonprofit journalism sustainable online?

The first panel on day two of the ISOJ tackled one of the big questions in journalism – is nonprofit journalism online sustainable? “We don’t know,” said Lisa Frazier, President & CEO, The Bay Citizen, one of the new startups in this area. The Bay Citizen has a clear civic mission to provide local news …  Read More

Symposium veteran moderates Twitter panel to close out first day of ISOJ

Cindy Royal, who first attended ISOJ the year before she started UT’s doctoral program in 1999 and hasn’t missed one since, moderated the final ISOJ panel session Friday. Royal, who earlier tweeted, “This is event has grown so much in 12 years! @rosental announcing new journal! @ Opening Session #isoj http://gowal.la/p/cUBr #photo,” said she keeps …  Read More

REPORTR.NET: Research on how journalists are using Twitter

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

CNN takes pilates approach to breaking news

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

Gerber touts Google’s One Pass, hints at mobile applications

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

REPORTR.NET: iPad lessons from ‘The Daily’

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

REPORTR.NET: Research shows benefits of open innovation for news

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

REPORTR.NET: How newspapers in Norway are transitioning to digital

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

REPORTR.NET: Lessons on newspaper paywalls from Mexico

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

‘DMN’ director talks about the ‘Great Equalizer’ of news access

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