Public radio station launches digital news magazine
Another online news destination has launched in the Bay Area. KALW Public Radio unveiled its new “local digital news magazine” this week called Crosscurrrents. The site lists more than 30 members of the Crosscurrents team and is actively soliciting correspondents from every corner of the Bay Area. The homepage displays ample original reporting, plus a [...]
Notes: Haiti aftershock, E-readers, Gates Tweets
Haiti trending on Twitter, as a 6.1 aftershock hits. Information on donations here. Bill Gates is Tweeting @billgates (yes, it’s a verified account). He has 175,000 followers already. LR wouldn’t trade its 1,400 for any of ‘em… E-reader buzz nothing next to mobile explosion (Via Nieman) Is Skiff Reader the savior for local papers? (Via [...]
The Washington Post’s ‘identity crisis’
The New Republic has a withering report about the state of affairs at The Washington Post. The report is based upon interviews with 50 current and former staffers. The report paints a picture of a newspaper suffering a severe identity crisis with infighting between print and online: “(The Post‘s) peers seem to have coherent strategies [...]
E-reader owners are major new media consumers
A new study finds that the most voracious consumers of new media are people who own e-readers. The study, “Hidden Opportunities in New Media,” from L.E.K. Consulting, reports that people who own e-readers consume 18 hours a week of digital media (not just e-books). By contrast, iPod owners – no Luddites – consume nine hours. [...]
Morris Publishing Group files Ch. 11
Morris Publishing Group, the privately held owner of 13 daily newspapers, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday. Morris runs such papers as Bluffton Today, The Augusta Chronicle and the Savannah Morning News. It runs 28 nondaily papers, five shoppers’ papers, 18 city magazines and Skirt! magazine (a locally-branded women’s magazine for 14 local markets). The [...]
Adult social media use hits new highs
Social media is not child’s play. That’s the central message of a new Forrester Research report that shows adults using social networking sites in big numbers. Some of the report’s findings: A third of adults post at least once a week to social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. A quarter of adults publish a [...]
Chicago neighborhood news site launches
The Chicago neighborhoods of Lincoln Square and North Center and Ravenswood Manor now have their own hyperlocal news site. CenterSquareLedger.com launched today, hoping to provide the neighborhoods’ residents with regular local information. Staffers publicized the site’s launch the old-fashioned way – they handed out flyers at their local train stops. The site has flat advertising [...]
Notes: Google TV, NBC’s critics wrong, Apple tablet
Noted, while hoping Rupert doesn’t mind us linking… 2010 “Make or break year” for Google TV Ads local effort. (MediaWeek) Why critics of NBC have it wrong. (HuffPo) We all have the “right to link.” (Buzzmachine) And finally – Maybe it’s called the “iPad.” Maybe it will launch on March 31. Maybe Harper-Collins is going [...]
Study: Aggregators take eyeballs from news sites
News seekers are far more likely to go to an aggregator site such as Google News than they are to a traditional news site, according to a study done by Outsell, Inc. The study finds that people seeking news turn to an aggregator 31 percent of the time, whereas they only go to a traditional [...]
Big moves in hyperlocal news will continue in 2010
We think 2010 will be a big year for independent news startups (note the newly added category here on LR) and we continue to find evidence supporting this assumption. The latest comes from a post by Andria Krewson on MedisShift: 5 Recent Big Moves In Hyper-Local News. The lede: The pace of change for hyper-local [...]
Using coffee shops as mobile bureaus
Here’s an idea we really like: reporters at California Watch are sticking in their community by basing themselves in neighborhood coffee shops. Why not? As long as you have WiFi (and a strong cup of coffee), you’re ready to report. (Via E&P – and it’s good to have you back.) At California Watch, Editorial Director [...]
Notes: Bay Area, non-profits, WaPo, Haiti
Let’s see what’s in the ol’ LR RSS reader today: Bay Area News Project loses KQED as a partner (paidContent) Can investigative non-profits sustain themselves? (E&P) WaPo enters content sharing agreement with Hindustan Times (Editors Weblog) Are non-profits the future of investigative reporting? (Editors Weblog) Donations-via-text for Haiti now at $22 million. (WaPo) Video: Steve [...]
For local TV, what if Conan jumped to the web?
Revision3, the online video production company that sprung out of the popular podcast Diggnation, has posted an open letter on its site offering Conan O’Brien his own show — and just about anything else he wants. “I know you don’t have a big footprint in online media at the moment, but take our word for [...]
Lost Remote app now available for iPhone
We’re proud to announce our first app – Lost Remote for the iPhone. The app is free, and you can get all the LR news you get here, on the go. We used the company AppMakr to develop the app, and based upon the results, we recommend you give it a try. The company charges [...]
Fake AP Stylebook to become real book
At little off-topic, but we have to note this with delight: Local newsies have been getting a kick out of the very funny Twitter feed @FakeAPStylebook, a parody of the newsroom bible on writing. Now, the team is going to publish a real book (real fake book? Fake real book?). The feed is published by [...]
Knight offers boot camp for news entrepreneurs
The Knight Digital Media Center is making an interesting offer to those who are considering (or are already in the process of making) a community news website. The News Entrepreneur Boot Camp will be held this year May 16 – 21 at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism in LA: “This special boot camp [...]
Conan back on air in September?
Variety reports that Conan O’Brien could be back on TV as soon as this September. While the deal to push Conan off NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” aren’t finalized, it’s reported that part of it will include a short non-compete clause that would expire in September. The logical landing place for Conan would [...]
Google offers Haiti ‘people finder’ tool to news sites
Google has created an embeddable “people finder” tool that is pulling together Haiti quake submissions across multiple news sites, reports Poynter Online. “Within 24 hours (of the quake), it became clear that there were too many places where people were putting information, and each site is a silo,” explained Christopher Csikszentmihalyi, director of the MIT [...]
