JP Digital Digest: Thinking about paywalls? Read this first...

JP Digital Digest: Thinking about paywalls? Read this first...

This is a really article, I got some ideas from it. Steve Outing talked about paywall, and he gave some tips for paywall, and he thought paywall will only work in certain markets.

Here is some tips for protecting newspaper:

1. Offer paid subscriptions to the newspaper that also include free access to a digital-replica edition.

2. Offer paid digital-replica edition subscriptions that mimic the paper in electronic form, for those second-home owners in the area and others who want to keep up with...news and developments and prefer not to receive the print edition by mail when the news is several days old.

3. Continue to keep all your Web site content -- including locally produced news -- free to all. And yes, that includes print subscribers who might be tempted to save money, cancel the print edition, and rely on the free Web site.

4. Have your Web manager focus on better ad targeting, in order to identify out-of-area users as potential tourists interested in hotels, camping, excursions, etc. and show them relevant ads.

5. Most importantly, devise other reasons for paying print and/or digital subscribers to keep paying -- primarily by value-added online, digital, mobile and even physical extras not available to non-paying users of the Web site.

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Digital skill survey results

I made in survey around the university about digital skills (survey form see Appendix). It called ‘Survey for Digital Skills, including thirteen normal digital skills, and two questions for each skill. I asked students which skills do you think are essential and hard to grasp. This was a basic survey, because this can be seen what important and difficult digital skills are for students in the basic technology.

I made a total of 40 questionnaires in March 22nd to 24th. From the survey I found:

1. Male thinks digital skills are more important then female, and 90% of men think that the majority of computer skills are very necessary.

2. With the increasing of blog, more people think and blog-related skills are become more important.

3. Mobile technology proportion also increased.

4. People tend to think that life is not a necessity for difficult skills, and general skills will be able to meet the needs in daily life.

5. The proportion of digital skills in Essential part (total 100%).

HTML: 10.5%; Blogging: 20.4%; Publishing: 18.7%; Advanced linking: 13.4%; Mobile skills: 6.9%; Others: 8.6%

6. The mark of digital skills in Hard Part (100 for each).

HTML: 62; Web design: 80; SEO: 67; Video-shoting: 52; Video-editing:70; Photoshop: 74; Flash:78; Others:20

Should we put paywall to mobile?

Google and Twitter (Wray, online, 2009)responded for the argument. They though the charge online could not work in this digital media era. As a website of searching and sharing, the Google and Twitter will not work as the “free” time, and they referred to the power of sharing. But, if someone bought an article on The Times, and he may sharing on the Facebook or Twitter, so that the Murdoch can get money form other readers.

The social bookmarking and blogs are the biggest challenge for charging online content. A Research reported that 90% consumers won't pay for online news, and 86% of the 16-24 age claimed they never to pay online (online, 2009).

Moreover, The Guardian said that they have no new paywall, and they will not join the Murdoch’ charging online (online, 2009). It means that reader will read on the free online news not on the charge online news, and Murdoch will lose readership and advertising.

The media company could consider about the mobile charging. Like the FT, FT as new apps to IPhone, there are three articles are free, and other article are paid for, but the FT still get loyal customers (online, 2009).

A survey showed that IPhone users are happier to pay for online (Wray, online, 2009), and China mobile gained 10 million customers for mobile news (online, 2009). It means that the market of mobile user is a place the charging online should be work.

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Ipad -- could be anything

Ipad is quite good for any users, it could be e-book, computer, music player...

However I think it is quite suit for journalists, it can get Wi-Fi, so journalists can write articles and publish as soon as possible and any where. The most important is Ipad with low weight and long battery. So it is maybe a good tool for journalists.

Good news for iPad users!!

I found a good website for iPad users, include myself!!

iPad can be used as a e-book! We can download Novels, Comics, Newspapers & more without any more software, only need to connect with internet.

I've tried, and its really good for me. I download a novel when I went to travel. It helped me spent a good time on train! Unfortunately, its have to pay... Hope free one day!! :)

http://www.mypadmedia.com/join.html

P.S. I am not promoting for the website, I am just a user.

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Creative Commons

Creative commons is a good solution to the copyright issues. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that works to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in “the commons” — the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing. (Online resource: CC)

Creative Commons provides free, easy-to-use legal tools that give everyone from individual creators to major companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to pre-clear copyrights to their creative work. CC licenses let people easily change their copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” (Online resource: creativecommons.org) If you’ve created something and want people to know that you’re happy to have them share, use, and build upon your work, you should consider publishing under a Creative Commons license.

CC’s legal infrastructure gives you flexibility (for example, you can choose to only pre-clear noncommercial uses) and protects the people who use your work (so that they don’t have to worry about copyright infringement, as long as they abide by the terms you have specified). (Online resource: creativecommons.org)

Creative commons has been a good solution to copyright. It effectively helps the copyright issues. Traditional journalism and digital journalism all reflect the balance of society. For example, when the financial crisis comes, press pay high attention on financial crisis.

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Social networking

Example of social networking: Facebook

People can find your friend and friend's friend easily on Facebook.

Google Map and Google SketchUp

Google Map:

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

Google Maps are now widely used in people's lives. When people go to travel, they may do some research on GOOGLE maps to set plan. Google Map has evolved the traditional paper map in some extent.

People can create a map by themselves. This is a video to introduce how to make a google map.

Google Sketchup:

Google Sketchup is a powerful but simple graphics tool. Since Google bought Sketchup, it is free to download.

For me, this software very simple to use, especially after watching the video tutorial, even if the first operation, there would not be difficult to use, and the interface is very simple, and running very quickly, the software almost instantly started.

Video collection for video-shooting

In modern life, video-taking has not only engaged in professional staff. Now many people have liked taking videos. Video can record snippets of our lives, our memories of life.But as a professional journalist, video-shooting is a must to master skill. This is directly related to the quality of programming.

I looked for the three videos on Youtube, all are very useful for journalism students and the general public . The first one that is more professional. The second and the third is shooting skills to use the Flip .

Web first strategy

The reverse publication is a good way to combine online and print. Reverse publication is web first strategy, and print company put news online first. “This means having reporters and editors think first about reporting and producing text and multimedia stories for the web, then writing a text story for the print edition (Grabowicz, Stevens, Rue & Monti, online, 2009)”.

The feature of web first is speed. People could read news at first time, and it is easy for people to catch and undestand the news. The TOB.com launched and used web first strategy of online newspaper website in 2000 (Grabowicz, Stevens, Rue & Monti, online, 2009), and The Guardian decided online first in 2006 (Sweney, online, 2006). The two examples show that the web first strategy widely, and it create a huge readership and making advertising revenue from online.

However, the web first is not good for print. Because it is much quick than newspaper, people will focus on the online news instead of waiting for newspaper. So that the circulation of print will goes down. Mike Alexieff said that: “web is free and storied are speed, why pay for a late news on newspaper (edited by Patten, online, 2008)?”

The advertising is not good for print, online news attracted many advertisers and the classify ads going online. The advertising revenue is almost the mainly, even only revenue for online, so the “dual product” (Doyle, 2002) could not suitable for online.

At the same time, the geography changed, the economies of scale will total different, such as regional newspaper, Lancashire Evening Post. On other side, the online news still has some problems. Even though the online news is speed, it not deep discussion on that news, it’s just a brief induction, and somebody would doubt the truth of the report. And also it’s not work for old people and loyal customers.

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What is copyright?

Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain.

Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work. Copyright is described under the umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.

An example of the intent of copyright, as expressed in the United States Constitution, is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."[1]

Copyright has been internationally standardized, lasting between fifty to a hundred years from the author's death, or a shorter period for anonymous or corporate authorship. Some jurisdictions have required formalities to establish copyright, but most recognize copyright in any completed work, without formal registration. Generally, copyright is enforced as a civil matter, though some jurisdictions do apply criminal sanctions.

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Photoshop tutorial

Photoshop is your online photo sharing, editing and hosting resource. Upload, organize, edit, store (up to 2GB free) and share your photos.

For me, photoshop is hard work, but interesting. I just know the basic tool to edit my photo. And there are many and many shills I don't know. I think it need a long time to learn. I wanted to show my skills, but I think you may think it is too basic. hehe... So, I found 2 good video on YouTube. Hope helpful!

Basic photoshop tool:


Advanced photoshop tool:

Commercially funded TV and Public service TV

With the development of economics, some large media companies have enough money to buy, merger or build a TV station. But the first TV is public service TV. In developed country, the commercial TV has a big market, and people like the programmes of it. While, it rare and not popular in most developing and ‘Third Word’ countries, because government ‘controlling’ the TV station.

The common point of commercial TV and public TV is that the quality of the programme, presentation of the report and the principle of journalism are no fundamental difference. On the other hand, the public TV is a government-funded service for the public. The commercial TV is client-oriented (Bai Du net, 2008, online).

Professor Zhan Li said that the commercial television is by capitalists or consortia, in order to ad-based revenue, and use the pornography, violence, crime and vulgar entertainment programmes to reach profit, but it also meet people’s demand. The public television refers to the national assembly by the government. It is funded by fees paid by the public and state funding, some supported by advertising revenue. The purpose is to make television services in strict accordance with the public, so that raise people's level of education by watching TV, the promotion of country development and the provision of high ideals and goals of entertainment( Mao, 2005, online).

Even though the commercial TV makes profit as purpose, it can not be denied the position that in people’s daily lives. Commercial TV offers a lot of entertainment for people to relax. Furthermore, the commercial television also made a lot of reform. For example, FOX television that is under News Corporation also has a series of non-pure entertainment programmes, such as news programme. The aim is to reach the audience's request, and change the commercial television’s original impression in the hearts of the most public.

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SEO and how it help media company under credit crunch

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

Some companies will choose the online to maintain profit, and they wanted to use the digital skills to get profit. The SEO is way to get more readership. SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, is a technical skill for online marketing (http://www.webconfs.com/, 2009) The SEO help the website to promote itself and it will show the ranking of the website, and the ranking shows the popularity of that website.

The SEO will help media company gain the readership when readers search online. Readers could search online from every place of the whole world, and it is different from traditional market (http://www.primaryposition.com/, 2009). Increased internet exposure is one of the SEO’s advantages (Adams, 2007). When people search online, they will prefer the high ranking website than low ranking’s, so that, the high ranking website could attract more readership.

Reference: http://www.webconfs.com/seo-tutorial/introduction-to-seo.php.

http://www.primaryposition.com/page.php?id=26

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Top-3-Advantages-Of-SEO&id=490272

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