All Articles Tagged "online news"
HuffPo Contributors Seek Payday
(Businessweek) — At 7:48 a.m. on Feb. 7, the morning after AOL (AOL) executives had completed a deal to purchase the Huffington Post for $315 million, the thousands of actors, authors, activists, academics, and comedians who collectively make up the blogging corps of the Huffington Post received an e-mail from the site’s founder. ”Thank you,” Arianna Huffington wrote, “for being such a vital part of the HuffPost family—which has suddenly gotten a whole lot bigger.” Huffington assured the bloggers that although her role is shifting—she will oversee all content at the new, merged venture—their roles aren’t. “Together, our companies will have a combined base of 117 million unique U.S. visitors a month—and 250 million around the world—so your posts will have an even bigger impact on the national and global conversation,” she wrote. “That’s the only real change you’ll notice—more people reading what you wrote.” Conspicuously unmentioned: the subject of pay. Since its launch in 2005, the Huffington Post has relied on unpaid contributors to stock the news-and-aggregation site with myriad opinions on everything from health care to Palin hair. It’s an arrangement unlikely to change soon. “We’re in the business of paying people for original reporting,” says Roy Sekoff, the site’s founding editor. “If people want to express their opinions, they do so on the site for free.”
Washington Post, New York Times Start Aggregation Service
(Washington Business Journal) — The Washington Post and several other publishers are launching their own news aggregation site that will charge a monthly subscription fee and not rely on advertising. Culpertino, Calif-based Ongo, which received $12 million in financing from The Washington Post (NYSE: WPO), The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) and Gannett Co. Inc.(NYSE: GCI) last fall, has launched an online news service that includes complete coverage from The Washington Post, USA Today and the Associated Press as well as select stories from the New York Times and Financial Times for $6.99 per month. Subscribers can also add stories from other papers, including the Detroit Free Press and Miami Herald for an addition 99 cents a month.
AOL Bets on Hyperlocal News, Finding Progress Where Many Have Failed
(New York Times) — City council meetings, high school football games and store openings may seem like small town news, but they are critical to AOL’s revival effort. Over the last year and a half, AOL, the former Internet colossus, has spent tens of millions of dollars to build local news sites across the country through Patch.com. The idea is that the service would fill the gap in coverage left by local newspapers, many of which are operating on a string after declines in advertising revenue.
The Future of Social Media in Journalism
(Mashable) — The future of social media in journalism will see the death of “social media.” That is, all media as we know it today will become social, and feature a social component to one extent or another. After all, much of the web experience, particularly in the way we consume content, is becoming social and personalized.
Gather And Share: The New News Consumption
(MinOnline) — The digital environment radically changes the way people consume and propagate news, according to a new survey by Gather.com. Of 1450 people surveyed, 49% now consider the Web their primary source of news. But each demographic demonstrates different news sharing habits. Among people aged 45 and older, 68% share news stories they see via email, while 54% of those under 45 use Facebook. Among those 24 and younger, however 90% use either Facebook or Twitter as the way they trade interesting news items with others.
