News

That's Life! launches fortnightly supplement

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:22:00 GMT

That’s Life! has launched a new cookery collection series to accompany the weekly title.

Pacific Magazines will sell the part-work cookery collection series That’s Life! Real Fast Food with That’s Life on a fortnightly basis in selected newsagents and Coles.

“The move taps into the overseas success of the part-works phenomenon, particularly that seen in the UK, as well as our readers’ love of no-fuss, realistically priced, good food,” said That’s Life publisher Fiona Legdin.

“We have invested heavily in this significant brand extension and, as a result, are delighted that all readers can enjoy the first edition, Tasty Chicken, bagged free with this week’s magazine.”

Each edition of That’s Life! Real Fast Food will contain over 75 recipes. There will be 24 titles to collect in total.

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Wikipedia founder supports micropayments

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:57:00 GMT

Wikipedia-founder Jimmy Wales has expressed his support for micropayment models online in an interview with the Associated Press.

Wales commented that micropayments, where the user pays by clicking on the item on a smart phone or gadget and is charged in their phone bill, could be a useful model for newspapers.

He said: “If I just click on my iPad app and it’s billed on my normal bill, that micropayment model makes it possible for people to have an impulse purchase.”

To read the article in full click here.

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Mashable named most influential news Twitter account

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:52:00 GMT

A PHD student at Cornell University in the US has identified Mashable as the most influential news media Twitter account.

Daniel Romero used a study by HP Labs’ Social Computing Lab to help him create his list of the 100 most influential news media accounts, according to journalism.co.uk.

CNN, Time and the BBC all featured in the top 10 of the list.

Journalism.co.uk highlighted the fact that a large number of followers does not always guarantee more influence, rather the quality of links and how they are shared are major factors.

To view the list at journalism.co.uk click here.

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Gourmet magazine to launch special print editions

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:12:00 GMT

Gourmet has announced it will produce three special-edition printed magazines based on recipes that were published in the print magazine before its demise last year.

The first of the special editions will be called “Gourmet Quick Kitchen” and will feature 81 recipes alongside new photography, kitchen hints and menus.

Kemp Minifie and Catherine Kelley have edited the special edition, which will appear on newsstands this month.

Gourmet Magazine had just under one million readers in the US alone before it closed in October 2009. Conde Nast launched the Gourmet Live app in July to serve these readers.

The names of the two further special editions are yet to be announced.

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Monacle opens pop-up shop in New York

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:08:00 GMT

Monacle magazine has launched a pop-up shop in New York’s West Village, following the success of the London, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Hong Kong shops.

The 188 sq ft store is located in a red brick landmark building and features the magazine’s distinctive black and white branding.

Monacle’s team of designers in London designed the store, which sells the brand’s evolving collection of fashion and lifestyle products, such as the new design collaborations from Oliver Spencer, the Tomorrowland x Monacle travel suit series and the Ettinger card case.

International affairs, business, culture and design magazine Monacle was launched in February 2007.

Headquartered in London with bureaux in Tokyo, Zürich and New York, Monocle appears 10 times a year in print and is updated constantly at monocle.com.

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Associated Press clarifies credit and attribution policy

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:41:00 GMT

Associated Press has issued its writers with new guidelines for credit and attribution when writing stories that other organizations broke first.

Senior managing editor Michael Oreskes laid out the new guidelines in a letter to staff this week.

He said: “In the age of the Web, the sourcing and reliability of information has become ever more crucial. So it is more important than ever that we be consistent and transparent in our handling of information that originated elsewhere than our own reporting.”

Oreskes added that the policy was aimed at “introducing consistency to our practices around the world, and applies to our print, broadcast and online news reports.”

To read the policy as laid out by Oreskes click here.

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Pacific Magazines to launch three women's titles in New Zealand

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:44:00 GMT

APN News & Media has licensed three of Pacific Magazines’ women’s title and will launch them in New Zealand through its New Zealand Magazines division.

New Zealand Magazines will publish weeklies New Idea and That’s Life and the monthly title Girlfriend from 1 October.

APN News & Media chief executive Brendan Hopkins said: “This licence will strengthen our portfolio and make New Zealand Magazines an even more attractive channel for both readers and advertisers.

“The titles are complementary with our existing portfolio, and they will increase New Zealand Magazines’unduplicated reach from 1.2million New Zealanders to 1.5 million.”

New Zealand Magazines currently publishes New Zealand Women’s Weekly, the NZ Listener, Crème, Simply You and Simply You Living and operates the media sales agency for Time Magazine in New Zealand.

Hopkins added that “building alliances will be a key part of APN’s future direction.”

Pacific Magazines NZ managing director Georgina Brujic said: “We welcome the chance to work with APN in the New Zealand market. The move sets a foundation for growth for the brands and people at Pacific Magazines.”

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Google promotes display advertising services

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:37:00 GMT

Google has outlined the services it offers online publishers to help them generate more advertising revenue in the latest of a series of posts looking at the future of display advertising.

This week, director of product management Jonathan Bellack wrote a blog post talking about the different core display advertising products for publishers.

“We believe that the new technology we’re developing to make display advertising work better will help to grow the display advertising pie for all new publishers, by orders of magnitude.

“We shouldn’t be asking how publishers can eke another five or 10 per cent out of display advertising in the next few years. We should be looking at how the industry can double or triple in size.”

Google’s three core display advertising products for publishers are:

AdSense
DoubleClick for Publishers
DoubleClick Ad Exchange

To read the article in full click here.

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Apples launches social media network

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:57:00 GMT

Apple has introduced a new social media network called Ping that allows users to find out what your friends and the artists you follow are downloading.

The new social media network Ping is available through iTunes 10 and lets users enter conversations about music and gigs, tell their friends which gigs they are going to and more.

“iTunes is the number one music community in the world, with over 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries and now we’re adding social networking with Ping,” said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

“With Ping you can follow your favourite artists and friends and join a worldwide conversation with music’s most passionate fans.”

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Dictionaries go online

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:22:00 GMT

Printed dictionaries could be a thing of the past according to the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary who has placed the future of the third print edition in question this week.

In an article printed in the UK newspaper The Independent, the Oxford English Dictionary publisher suggested that the next edition of the dictionary would be available online only.

Oxford University Press chief executive Nigel Portwood said: “The print dictionary market is just disappearing; it is falling away by tens of per cent a year.”

Despite the OED being published in Oxford in the UK, it is actively sold in Australia and New Zealand.

Oxford University Press director, general division, Australia and New Zealand, Richard Harms agreed that technology was changing fast and this would impact on the form new dictionaries would take.

“Our locally-published Australian dictionaries (such as the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary) will increasingly become made available in both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ formats as user needs continue to change and adapt to emergent technologies.”

All of which suggest that the days of hefty dictionaries on the desks of journalists could be numbered.

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Google signs new licensing agreement with Associated Press

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:53:00 GMT

Google has renewed its licensing agreement with the Associated Press that allows it to host AP content on its Google News site.
Google senior business product manager Josh Cohen announced the news in an official blog this week.

He said: “We’ve extended our existing licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News,” he wrote.

“We look forward to future collaborations, including on ways Google and AP can work together to create a better user experience and new revenue opportunities.”

The Associated Press director of media relations Paul Colford said: “Under the agreement, AP and Google will also work together in a number of areas, such as ways to improve discovery and distribution of news.”

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Twitter infiltrates profile writing

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:47:00 GMT

Traditional journalism and social media have collided in online magazine Slate’s “all-access”interview with rapper Kanye West this month.

The article, titled: “Kanye West has a Goblet” comprises exclusively of West’s Twitter feeds.

Advertising Age likened the piece to the 1966 Equire article “Frank Sinatra has a cold” written by Gay Talese, which is regarded as one of the best profiles of the singer, despite the fact Sinatra declined to be interviewed for the piece.

Slate journalist wrote: “No, I don’t get to ask any questions, but I do get a constantly updating record of West’s thoughts, whereabouts, cravings, jokes, meals, flirtations, bon mots and on and on.”

Advertising Age wrote of the piece: “This is an object lesson in fatal flaws of profiles in general – and celebrity profiles in specific. Already affronts to any properly formed intelligence, those fawning profiles are now apparently useless even to artists themselves.”

Click here to read the Slate article in full.

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Media agency enters web-auditing debate

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:17:00 GMT

Media agency Maxus has entered the growing debate surrounding web auditing by stating it will only advertise on sites that are audited by the Audit Bureaux of Australia, The Australian revealed today.

Maxus chief executive David Gaines said: “We’re getting to the point where nothing’s really happening [from an industry perspective], so we’re going to officially boycott sites that don’t adhere to the ABA’s audit process.”

Incoming ABA chief executive Paul Dovas welcomed the news. He said: “The stance taken by Maxus heralds a new era in media accountability, where commitment and responsibility is measured by direct action.

“The ABA Web Audit is the recognised industry standard for accountability. We urge all media agencies to do the same and protect themselves by using audited data which delivers consistency, accuracy and comparability for advertisers and media buyers.”

The new follows comments made by outgoing ABA chief executive Gordon Towell, which sparked debate about resistance to web auditing because of general unwillingness to give up autorefresh.

Towell made the comments when speaking to Mumbrella for its weekly Mumbrellacast before his departure from the ABA last week.

He said: “There has been resistance. I think it’s the major factor. I have no doubt about it. The problem is that for years, people have counted their page impressions in a certain way. The advertisers pay against the numbers. If we switched off autorefresh overnight it could have a profound impact on traffic.”

The ABA’s web audit standards, which are supported by Publishers Australia, do not allow autorefreshed pages to be counted.

To listen to Towell’s interview with Mumbrella in full click here.

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Former Telstra boss tells journalists to learn from technology

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:13:00 GMT

The iPad generation “must now be the target of news media companies” claims the chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation and former Telstra head in a column for The Australian.

Ziggy Switkowski, who worked as chief executive of Telstra between 1999 and 2005, made the claims following comments from News Limited chairman John Hartigan that journalists need to embrace new technology.

In the article, titled “Why the paper tigers must see the iPad generation as their main course”, Switkowski outlined his views of what the printed media must do to ensure its survival and highlighted what could be learnt from technological change over the years.

“For a media company owning strong mastheads, the commercial strategy is becoming clearer; manage the cash cow that printed daily newspapers represent and accept an accelerating, but still profitable decline tied to an ageing readership over the next two decades.”

To read Switkowski’s article in full click here.

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Carat predicts magazine advertising spend will fall

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:59:00 GMT

Media agency Carat has improved its predictions for magazines’ share of advertising spend in 2010 and 2011, but still believes magazines will lose out to online and television.

According to figures, published in Mumbrella this month, Carat predicts that magazines’ global share of advertising spend will be 10.2% in 2010 and 9.8% in 2011, marginally up from previous predictions.

Figures published by Carat in March predicted a 2.3% growth for total media buying in Australia in 2010, however the new figures increase that dramatically to 7.5%.

Mumbrella wrote: “Globally, Carat predicts that the global share of media spend will shift towards online and television at the expense of newspapers and magazines.

To read the Mumbrella story and view figures from Carat’s report, click here.

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