Media News - Monday, June 25, 2012

Al Jazeera’s The Stream holds open editorial meeting using Google+ Hangout

Al Jazeera programme The Stream has opened an editorial meeting to its audience by holding it via a Google+ Hangout On Air, which enables anyone to follow the conversation. The Stream is using publicly available video conversations to share the topics of the stories they are working on and gather ideas. The Stream, which runs on Al Jazeera English four days a week, has used its strong social media community to shape and set the news agenda since the show's launch last year. Indeed the Webby Award-winning programme describes itself as "a social media community with a daily TV show". Last Thursday, in its first open news meeting via Google+ Hangout Malika Bilal, a co-host of the programme, invited those taking part in the video conversation to pitch their ideas of what should be included by The Stream in its web coverage. The show is currently off-air as it is working on a re-launch but continues to cover stories which have "a unique social media angle" on its website. It does this by using Storify to curate tweets, Facebook posts, videos and more. In addition to show producers, other contributors taking part in the Google+ video hangout yesterday included journalists, bloggers and key members of its social media community from across the world, including from Malaysia, Uganda and Brazil. (Journalism.co.uk)

Flipboard in deal to carry New York Times content

The New York Times announced late Sunday it would collaborate with Flipboard to make the entire newspaper available on the popular social news-reader app. Beginning Thursday, Times subscribers will have access to articles, videos, photo slideshows, and blogs produced by the newspaper from within Flipboard. Nonsubscribers will be able to read a limited sampling of the newspaper's content. The partnership is being touted as a first for both companies. It marks the first time the startup has persuaded a large publisher to make its content available on its platform. Indeed, Flipboard says the authentication process and navigation experience was designed specifically for Times' readers. For the newspaper, the partnership marks the first time its subscribers have been allowed to get full access to its content through a third-party platform. Flipboard characterized the partnership as a natural marriage of print media and mobile devices. Along with news, the app pulls information from Facebook and Twitter accounts, turning friends' updates into an attractive magazine-style presentation of headlines, story blurbs, and photos. Flipboard, which has hitherto been an iOS-only app, released versions last week for Android phones, as well as Kindle Fire and Nook tablets. (CNET News)

German daily sent to all 41 million households

Germany's best-selling newspaper was given away free to almost all of the country's 41 million households on Saturday in a controversial celebration of the daily's 60th anniversary that set a world record for largest circulation. Bild newspaper - a tabloid-style daily both feared and respected for its massive influence in Germany but also known for its hard-hitting campaigns and photos of nude women - sent 41 million copies to all but 200,000 postal addresses of people who expressly requested not to receive Saturday's newspaper. "Free Bild for everyone!" wrote the daily in two-inch high letters on page one above an open letter from editor in chief Kai Dieckmann. Bild said Guinness World Records in Germany has certified the print run as "the largest circulation for the free special edition of a newspaper". Bild, which likes to pride itself for having its finger on the pulse of what makes ordinary Germans tick, normally costs 70 cents per issue. Critics of the newspaper organised a boycott of the free delivery and about 200,000 people filled out forms requested they not receive the Saturday edition. Bild said that represented 0.6 percent of German households. According to media reports, Bild had a daily circulation in the 1980s of 5 million before falling to about 3 million now. (BDNews24.com)

Fox News reporter hired as Vatican media adviser

In an effort to shore up its communications strategy amid a widening leaks scandal in a troubled papacy, the Vatican has hired the Fox News correspondent in Rome as a senior communications adviser. The correspondent, Greg Burke, 52, who has covered the Vatican for Fox since 2001, will leave the network to help improve and coordinate the Vatican’s various communications operations, Mr. Burke and the Vatican spokesman said. Some Vatican watchers called the move a power play by media-savvy Americans — including Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York and the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — inside a Vatican hierarchy run by Italians whose most frequent communications strategy is to accuse their critics of defamation. Mr. Burke is a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement, and his hiring underscores the group’s role in the Vatican. In a telephone interview on Sunday, Mr. Burke, the Vatican’s first communications expert hired from outside the insular world of the Roman Catholic news media, said that he would not replace the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, but would advise officials on how to shape their message. He said he had turned down the Vatican twice in the past month before accepting the paid position. He will answer directly to officials in the Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s executive branch. (New York Times)

Iraq orders closure of 44 media outlets

An Iraqi regulatory body has ordered the closure of 44 media outlets in the country including the BBC and Voice of America in a dispute over broadcast licenses, sources with knowledge of the order said on Sunday, but no action has yet been taken. Other organizations targeted for shutdown include privately-owned local TV channels Sharqiya and Baghdadia as well as U.S.-financed Radio Sawa. A senior source at the Communications and Media Commission (CMC), the body responsible for the order, said the move had nothing to do with the way the outlets had reported on sectarian conflict in the country, as some reports have suggested. "The CMC sent such a letter warning them that they're going to shut down their services because they didn't pay (their license fees)," a senior source at the CMC told Reuters. The BBC said it was negotiating the renewal of its license with the Iraqi authorities. Some of the outlets on the list no longer operate bureau in Iraq. (Reuters)

Top editors quit at Australian media giant Fairfax

Top editors at Australian newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald resigned on Monday, after parent company Fairfax last week announced an overhaul designed to embrace the digital era. Peter Fray, publisher and editor-in-chief at the 180-year-old Sydney paper, and its first female editor Amanda Wilson, said they were leaving, as did The Age's editor-in-chief Paul Ramadge, the papers said on their websites. The resignations follow last week's shock announcement that Fairfax will slash about 1,900 jobs and downside The Herald and The Age from broadsheet to tabloid size and put the two dailies' websites behind a paywall. The Australian media sector is enduring a turbulent period, with the two major newspaper groups Fairfax and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited both flagging large job cuts last week. News is yet to nominate how many positions will go from among its staff of 11,000 but reports put the figure at 1,000 to 1,500 as media companies lose readers and advertisers in the switch to online platforms. At the same time, mining magnate Gina Rinehart has increased her stake in Fairfax, provoking fears she will seek to assert her influence on the newspapers which are known for their integrity and professionalism. (AFP)

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