Media News - Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Thomson Reuters to cut 140 journalist jobs

Global information company Thomson Reuters Corp plans to cut 140 editorial jobs by the end of the year as its Reuters news service absorbs Thomson Financial News. More than half the cuts will be in Europe, while the rest will be scattered, Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger wrote in a memo to employees on Monday. Reuters also plans to add about 50 new jobs in growth areas, Schlesinger said, adding that the news organization should have about 2,500 employees by year's end. Britain's National Union of Journalists said it had not ruled out a strike but would negotiate with the company first. Thomson Reuters had said it would shed jobs after Thomson Corp bought Reuters Group Plc for more than USD 16bn in cash and stock on April 17. Thomson Reuters, which employs 50,000 worldwide, could lose about 1,500 jobs in total, according to a BBC report. Thomson Reuters is cutting as many as 650 jobs in its content, technology and operations division, according to a memo sent to employees by the head of that group, Peter Moss. (Reuters)

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Russian Duma will not pass media bill

The State Duma will not pass a bill that had raised alarm about media freedom by toughening the penalties for libel. Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, a senior leader of United Russia, said Monday that his party had changed its position on the bill, which would have allowed courts to close media outlets for publishing libelous statements. Critics said the bill would have given authorities an additional tool to crack down on dissent. The bill passed its first reading in the Duma last month by a vote of 339-1, raising alarm among media-freedom groups. It was authored by United Russia deputy Robert Shlegel, the Duma's youngest member and a former spokesman for the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi. United Russia holds a commanding majority in the Duma and effectively controls which legislation is passed. (Moscow Times)

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Aftonbladet ditches free paper

Swedish tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet has decided to ditch its free sister paper Punkt SE. The move comes after Norwegian media giant Schibsted announced it had bought 35 percent of the shares in Metro Sweden for SEK 350m (EUR 37m). Schibsted, which owns both Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet, also said it was entering into an advertising agreement with Metro. Aftonbladet's brief flirtation with the free newspaper market was a financial failure. In 2007 Punkt SE made a total loss of SEK 198m. For the first quarter of 2008, the free paper ran a loss of SEK 44m. The costs of the closure are expected to amount to SEK 65m, said Schibsted in a statement. Schibsted's Sweden manager Gunnar Strömblad said Metro Sweden was a good match for the company's existing newspapers. Schibsted expects its collaboration with Metro on the advertising market to result in income synergies of SEK 40-50m after two to three years. The Norwegian company's share acquisition also entitles it to two places on the board of Metro Sweden. Before the deal goes through however, the companies must receive approval from the Swedish Competition Authority (Konkurrensverket). (The Local)

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Suspension of SABC chief executive overturned

A South African court ruled Monday that the suspension of the state broadcaster’s chief executive had been unlawful. The SABC board suspended Dali Mpofu earlier this month, a day after doing the same to its news division chief, in a shake-up at the broadcaster which has been accused of bias by supporters of ruling party leader Jacob Zuma. Mpofu told Reuters the High Court judge had ruled that the meeting at which the decision was taken to suspend him was unlawful. The SABC board suspended Mpofu in part over allegations that he failed or refused to follow decisions it had taken. Zuma backers have accused the radio and television service of favouring President Thabo Mbeki in the contest to lead the African National Congress at a party congress in Polokwane in December. Zuma won overwhelmingly. (Reuters via Media Network Weblog)

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China launches 3 bilingual websites for quake information

Three bilingual websites, offering news and information about the Sichuan quake in Chinese and English, were launched by China’s official news organizations today, a week after the earthquake struck. The three sites - www.xhwenchuan.cn, www.512gov.cn and www.wenchuan.cn - were established by the Xinhua News Agency, the People’s Daily and the China Central Television Station, respectively. The sites will provide the latest news on rescue efforts, the situation of survivors and infrastructure reconstruction. They will also post knowledge about sanitation and health, as well as psychological counseling for survivors. The sites hope to help survivors link up with their relatives and orphans find new lives, and to collect public suggestions on reconstruction. More than 34,073 people were confirmed dead in last week’s 8.0 quake in Sichuan Province and 245,108 people were injured as of 12:00 am Monday. Another new site that has recently appeared is the English version of sina.com. (Xinhua via Media Network Weblog)

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Google learns 10 new languages

Google has added capabilities for 10 new languages to its Google Translate service. The addition of Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish brings the total number of languages to 23. The service now has the option to translate text and web pages, as well as perform cross-language searches between any two languages in the list. Jeff Chin, a product manager for Google, wrote in the company's official blog: ‘For example, we now support Chinese translation to/from any of our languages (e.g. Chinese to French). ‘So for those of you who will be following or attending the Olympics in Beijing, you'll be able to more easily find and access content from local sources.’ Google has also added a 'Detect Language' option to help automatically identify the language of the text being translated. Chin admitted, however, that the system is not perfect. ‘Machine translation is a hard problem, but it plays an important role in helping people access content they might otherwise be unable to read,’ he said. A 'Suggest a Better Translation' feature allows users to correct inaccurate translations in an effort to refine the service. (VNU Net)

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