Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle To Start Charging For Online Content

Browsing the Web sites of two major daily newspapers is about to start costing: After posting substantial losses, both Newsday and the San Francisco Chronicle have announced plans to begin charging readers for online content.

As revenues continue their precipitous decline, we can expect more newpapers to consider adopting online pay models. Back in October, the Christian Science Monitor announced it would shift to a "Web-based strategy" that includes charging subscription fees for a daily PDF edition. Other outlets charging for online content have yielded mixed results: The LA Times began charging for online access to its "Calendar" arts section in 2003, but eliminated the pay wall in 2005 after seeing a sharp drop in traffic to its Web site. Around that time, the New York Times tried putting its opinion columnists behind a pay wall with the 2005 implementation of its "TimesSelect" program, but scrapped the subscription program two years later, saying "projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising."...more

Why the End of Newspapers Is Not the End of News

Today’s collapse of the Rocky Mountain News has prompted the usual hysterics and hand-wringing over the death of print—but people need to get over the notion that quality news only comes on paper.

Forget the newspaper industry. Let’s launch the News Industry. Say hello to News Inc. Let’s do what every industry does: Identify consumer demand and meet it.The good news is that consumers are just learning all the new ways they can get news and are still figuring out what works best for them. There is still time for those of us in the news industry to work with them and find out at the same time. ...more

Two Sides to the Gaza Story

Excellent example of simple but strong use of streaming media on the internet ...more

China & Africa

Issue 46 of the China Review looks at China's dealings with Africa and how this has recently been portrayed in the Western media. It can now be downloaded from the Great Britain-China Centre website.

Highlighes include:
Turning a China threat into a China Opportunity - Raphie Kaplinsky on the potential for expansion of the China-Africa connnection
Chinese Entrepreneurs in Africa's Informal Economies - Aleksandra Gadzala examines the success of small scale Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa
Telling Stories - British Broadsheets on China, Africa and the West - Emma Mawdsley assesses broadsheet coverage of China-Africa relations
A Trip Down Memory Lane - excerpts from Elizabeth Watson's book documenting conversations with Shanghai's older generation
Improving China's Public Finance Management - read about how GBCC is breaking new ground
Treasures from Shanghai - the British Museum's new exhibition is well worth a visit

Go direct to the PDF version

or go to the China Review introduction page

Annie Leibovitz pawns rights to all future work

She is the world's most famous celebrity photographer, whose portfolio contains some of the most iconic images of the past 30 years, not least the glamorous pictures of Michelle Obama on the latest cover of Vogue. As such Annie Leibovitz is hardly the kind of person you would normally associate with going to a pawn-broker....more

Manchester Masters

Manchester Masters is a new initiative that aims to retain the top creative graduates in Manchester.

Despite being home to several world renowned universities, for too long Manchester has suffered from the best creative students migrating to London or New York after graduation.

Manchester Masters is working to change this by keeping the top talent here in our city, to become the advertising, design, PR, digital and marketing leaders of tomorrow - and to ensure that Manchester continues to develop through innovation.

Each year, 10 of the very best students will be selected (through a rigorous application exercise) to undertake 4 quarterly placements at top Manchester businesses.

The students will also have access to a personal mentor to further develop their business skills and to provide guidance during the year.

Each business is required to contribute just £1500 per quarter to the student's expenses.

Simply click here to register your initial interest and we'll then contact you to discuss your requirements.

Win $50,000 for your dream assignment

Name Your Dream Assignment is a contest to find the most creative, inspiring photo shoot idea.

If it’s yours, you’ll win $50,000 to bring that dream assignment to life, plus the Lenovo® ThinkPad® W700 with Windows Vista® to help you along the way.*

The contest begins in 6 days on March 3, 2009....more

WHNPA MM Awards

Crafting China's Future Champions ...more

The Preparers

Setting the Stage for the Inauguration of the 44th President ...more

The rest are here ...more

Ad Networks Are Transforming Online Advertising

Forget the lingering hopes that online advertising would remain a beacon of stability in this economy. In recent weeks major Web publishers, from Yahoo! (YHOO) to New York Times Co. (NYT) , have reported that revenues from their mainstay pictorial display ads are down. The poor economy isn't their only problem either. It's simply speeding up a shift in online advertising that's challenging the Net's leading destinations like never before....more

Photographic truth and manipulation

We know photographs can be false yet we want them to be true. Indeed, the desire for photographic veracity has persisted, perhaps even intensified, even as knowledge about image manipulation becomes more widespread...more

China takes Seven World Press Photo Awards

At the WPP awards announced last Friday there was seven awards given to Chinese photographers throughout all the categories which made the country the second best represented after the USA. However all the awards were for photographs taken within the borders of mainland China. In contrast there was not one UK award this year....more

Who is in the frame for the Deutsche Börse photography prize?

Adrian Searle dissects this year's contenders for the biggest photography prize in the world ...more

World Press Photo Winner Struggling To Find Work

Last spring Anthony Suau pleaded with Time magazine – where he's been a contract photographer for 20 years – to publish his photo essay on the economic crisis in Cleveland, Ohio.

"When I arrived there I was in shock," Suau recalls. "There was almost not a single street in Cleveland that didn't have a house that was boarded up because of a foreclosure." He compared the scene to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Time decided not to print the story, and Suau's pictures ran only on Time.com, where it drew little attention in the U.S. – until today, when one of Suau's Cleveland pictures won the World Press Photo of the Year award....more

Px3 2009 7 Days Left to Submit

Deadline: 28th of February 2009

Px3 is coming to a close in 7 days! Don't miss the opportunity to have your work showcased at next year's exhibition in Paris, included in the annual book, and viewed by leaders in the photography industry and a large public audience. Over 39,481 votes were tallied to determine 2008's Px3 Public Choice Winners! Px3 awards incluce the "Photographer of the Year" and 3,000 Euros. Non-professional photographers compete for the "Best New Talent Award" and 2,000 Euros... more

For Subscribers Only: Locking Up the News Sites

Out of all the imperfect scenarios available, the least imperfect version looks to me like this: A bunch of news organizations get together, create a site walled off from the prying Web-crawlers of Google (and the momentary affections of the casual Web surfer), charge subscription fees, and split these fees and any ad revenue....more

Spot Us

A new website allows journalists to pitch stories they want to do and then asks the community to donate to giving you the resources to make the story.

See and example below,


Chris Cook's Pitch on Spot.Us from spotus on Vimeo.

Sign up and make your pitch ...more

How Low Will Newspapers' Ad Revenues Go?

When Arthur Sulzberger Jr. refused to talk to his own reporter about the financial condition of the New York Times Co., it was the latest sign of an industry in deep trouble.

After all, the Times is not only the nation's top-selling metropolitan daily but also boasts the top newspaper Web site, averaging 19.5 million unique visitors each month. Its struggles have sparked a passionate debate about how to wring more cash from the online world where the Times, like most newspapers, gives away its wares for free....more

Photographer's Forum Magazine Spring Photography Contest

SLIMMER NEWSWEEK HAS MAG STAFF STEAMING

NEWSWEEK staffers have yet to simmer down after last week's stunning announcement that it was going to radically downsize its circulation, first to 1.9 million by July, and then ultimately to 1.2 million next year. ...more

The death of the news

If reporting vanishes, the world will get darker and uglier. Subsidizing newspapers may be the only answer. ...more

Cyberethics: The Emerging Codes of Online Conduct

Last week, a Carnegie Council Workshop for Ethics in Business explored the codes of online conduct that are emerging as new media gain more influence in political and business affairs. The event was cosponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton's strategy+business magazine and the NYU Center for Global Affairs, and was part of the Ethical Blogger Project....more

11% of Online Americans Now Using Twitter

Online microblogging services like Twitter, a popular social media tool for many media companies and television networks, are used by 11% of online Americans, according to a research report conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project in December and released today. That’s up from 9% of online Americans using the service in November. ...more

Ian Exhibits at the National Media Museum

UK course leader exhibits new work in major exhibition at the National Media Museum
National Media Museum 13 Bradford Feb to 19 April 2009 ?Baby, picturing the ideal human 1840s-now?
This season at the NMM sees an exploration of the variety of relationships between photography and babies. Each era has its own idea of beauty and 'Baby, picturing the ideal human 1840s - until now' explores these ideas and investigates the ways advertisers, artists, journalists and parents have represented babies in photographs.
Material in the exhibition is drawn from over fifty collections around the world and includes the work of social documentary photographer/ course leader of MA photography Uni of Bolton Ian Beesley.?

http://www.ianbeesley.com/
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/General/Exhibitions.asp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2007/10/11/born_in_bradford_feature.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2009/01/19/baby_exhibition_bradford_feature.shtml

New York Times Considers Charging for Web Access

NYT editor Bill Keller directly addressed questions about the paper's business model today—specifically, about charging for online news, and the possibility of the paper going non-profit. He'll have to decide sooner than he'd like....more

Meanwhile Alun Mutter makes the point that most ad revenue for Newspapers comes from selling on from print ads....more

1981 TV Report on the Birth of Internet News

Camera and lens prices set to rise

Sigma warn that prices will rise, Nikon look set to follow suit, as
Kodak look set to lay off up to 4,500 employees.

Nikon: http://tinyurl.com/cz46j9
Sigma: http://tinyurl.com/agva2v
Kodak: http://tinyurl.com/c75x93

(source EPUK)

Nigeriatown

MM on Guangzhou's growing African community from New Yorker Magazine....more

IMAGES', NEW COMPETITIONS

From January 2009, as part of Images, the Festival of Visual Arts in Vevey, Switzerland, the Foundation Vevey: Ville d’Images is inviting entries for the 5th European First Film Awards and the 7th International Vevey Photo Awards. With complete freedom of choice as regards subject matter and genre, these bi-annual competitions provide precious support to contemporary creators....more

Appeal from Photo MA Graduate Paddy

Guys,

I'm making a short film called Catterfly this month and would love your support.... It's a story of dreams and reality, the ability to change vs the will to do it - It's going to be 3-4 minutes and it's going to be awesome.

If you can logon to indiegogo and be my friend that would be great and would create some all important 'buzz' about the project - see links below

I'll also give some updates on how I'm doing and of course show the film when it's done - I'm hoping to premiere it at the Beijing Independent Film Festival in April, and then hopefully send it to other festivals internationally.

If you'd like to donate a small amount that would also obviously be awesome - see the website for details....

Would love your support!

http://www.indiegogo.com/Catterfly

Thanks!

Paddy

The Inge Morath Award

The Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Foundation announce the sixth annual Inge Morath Award. The annual prize of $5,000 is awarded by the Magnum Foundation to a female documentary photographer under the age of 30, to support the completion of a long-term project. One award winner and up to two finalists are selected by a jury composed of Magnum photographers....more

New Amazon Kindle offers Auto Newspaper Delivery

The latest step in electronic newspapers was announced this week with Amazon offering automatic newspaper delivery to their new Kindle device. Newspaper electronic versions are delivered to the device through wireless and 3G networks so are ready in the morning when you wake....more

Web-Only Newsrooms Entering Pulitzer Contest for First Time

A new rule, announced late last year, stipulates that the sites must produce original work and "publish" at least weekly. They also cannot be connected to magazines or broadcast outlets...more

China on the Wild Side

Photographer Rian Dundon spent two years living Changsha and made this photo essay now on Time's website....more

Death of photography?

The death of photography is something that is often proclaimed. It is often a coded way of saying that the still picture is no longer important. Yet this declaration to seems more than little premature. In the last year, some 250 billion digital photographs were produced. This number is growing rapidly, so that by 2010 (next year) some 500 billion digital photographs will be made globally....more

Photocinema International Photography festival