Is there a thread for the rapid death of the newspaper industry?

It's only ever guns, crows and crack these days.

Don't forget the foxes. Animals be fighting back.

Crow update: http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/8208903.CATFORD__Elderly_dancer_reveals_crow_attack_horror/

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/resources/images/1323867/

keen dancer and former actress, you say

she's no tipi hedren

She's Edna Lunt

from IMDB

Edna Lunt:
Letters of Service (2004) .... Dancing Patient

omg terrifying my gf is a blonde Lewisham/Catford jogger. I know someone who'll be getting a hard hat for her next birthday.

Heard magpies do this all the time in Australia, and that they have to wear special hats.... hang on a sec, this might be a dream...

No, it's not.

Erk, just read about the Mirror cutting a third of its staff. Dark times. Though I guess it's lost, what, half its readers during the past 10 or 15 years?

press gazette says a quarter of the staff of the mirror, the smirror and the people? made £70m profit last year as well per NUJ. what a bunch of cunts. newspapers shouldn't be plcs.

This was kind of worrying/a blow too. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/10278700.stm My friends who work for DC Thompson are based at the other site, but it doesn't bode well, I guess. Also not that many companies that still print their own magazines etc., I think.

The crow attack story really belongs in the "Stuff that looks like the Onion" thread

A STUNNED mum nearly choked on her favourite chocs - after she found one shaped like a WILLY.

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01065/sna1523choc280_1065094a.jpg

Last night a Cadbury's spokesman said: "It appears some of the Nibbles have melted.

"We will of course offer a full refund if the consumer is unhappy."

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wait, I'm sorry, I'm only just learning about the chocolate genitals

"My two-and-a-half-year-old grandson eats these and I'd have been horrified if he'd found it."

BUT HE HAS REAL GENITALS

Two-and-a-half is a bit young to be learning about eating a bag of dicks tbf,

The Times loses half its traffic since introducing paywall

Still probably too early to judge, and impossible to know how that compares with their projections, but that looks like a pretty decent result to me, no?

Is there still advertising behind the paywall?

there were hardly any ads when i looked at it during the trial period. i presume they want that to change, because the subs revenue on its own is going to be pitiful.

I bought the Wall Street Journal a couple of times recently and got the impression that Murdoch has in fact changed it for the worse. I mean I haven't read it consistently in a few years, but I remember that I used to really like it outside of the editorial page. Today I was particularly put off by a cover story that seemed to be stealth-blaming the federal government for the BP disaster because BP "relied on" some 2004 government report that said that the effects of an oil spill wouldn't be as bad as this.

color me surprised

My sources say that not only is nobody subscribing to the website, but subscribers to [The Times] itself—who have free access to the site—are not going beyond the registration page. It’s an empty world.

"Times loses almost 90% of online readership
Less than three weeks after the Times paywall went up, data shows a massive decline in web traffic"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/20/times-paywall-readership

(linked to from http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/07/27/london-times)

looks like someone already pointed this out upthread

"london times" lol

well what rupert wants, rupert gets

on the other hand, advertising is fucked too:

“We have been so overtly dependent on advertising as the turbine that runs this place, and that is a very, very risky model as we emerge from the recession,” Condé CEO Chuck Townsend told The Times. “In a company like ours where 70 percent of our margins are generated on the advertising side, we must develop a much, much more effective financial relationship with the consumer.” That is, get money from the consumer instead of the advertiser.

Good luck.

interesting article about conde nast and news apps, and how they might be more attractive advertising platforms than the web - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/16/ipad_saves_wired/

The bind is pretty obvious - the more you charge -> the fewer subscribers you have -> the less you can make off advertising (unless your smaller subscriber base is especially worth targeting due to being loaded or some such)

im not an expert or anything but it strikes me that publications charging for their web advertising on a per-click basis are seriously undervaluing their ad space.

i've only just realized that it is impossible to click on an actual newspaper advertisement

therefore they should be free!

exactly

I don't know how much online advertising costs but it seems like it should be the same cost as print per reader/viewer PLUS a per click fee

i know all ads aren't like this, but i can't believe anyone actually clicks on something like, say, the little Google text ads they've started inserting at the bottom of YouTube videos

^ i'm sure there are surveys and all that proving me wrong, but this^

like, HOLY SHIT "Custom Profile Layouts"! man, just want I've always been looking for! (custom profile layout for **what**? and what the fuck does this have to do with Radiohead playing "High and Dry" on Jools Holland in the mid-90s?)

ok then the video ends and some audio starts up advertising American Military University

none of that has anything to do with Radiohead, and the chances that someone watching the same video I was watching would actually click on any of that shit is zero. if anything, I'll probably be more apt to just associate whatever brands pop up randomly with this stuff with spammy activity in general

the ads in the sidebar on my gmail- now these are pretty good, have used and will use again

lol

nah srsly, car rental for hols this week, bike hire last week, these guys know what's up

Drifting a bit off topic here possibly - but the subtitles google have implemented for YouTube, which use automated voice recognition technology, are an offshoot of their desire to scan YouTube videos for key words to allow them to target advertise more effectively.

Obv lots of pitfalls here - automated voice rec tech still has lots of problems associated w' it (hence the low quality of the captions in many cases) and you can't always guarantee that verbal content matches the point of the vid (the radiohead song problem perhaps), but they'll be able to charge more for ads if they can show a decent level of targeting.

Britain’s most outrageous newspapers, Daily and Sunday Sport are looking for an ambitious trainee reporter to join the busiest news desk on “Fleet Street”

To fill the role you must be keen, sharp, unshockable and hungry for the story. You will have a love of tabloid-style reporting and an interest in all things topical from Kelly Brook’s cleavage to Wayne Rooney’s bald patch.

The successful candidate will be a team player with a great sense of humour and a flexible approach to working hours.

NCTJ qualification or equivalent is a must. Newspaper or news agency experience is a bonus.

In return, you will get on-the-job training at a world famous national newspaper group and the grounding for a glittering media career. Starting salary is £16k.

ty

;)

Amazing letter in today's Western Daily Press:

http://imgur.com/W8Jzz.gif

LOL, couple downstairs from me have a Union Jack doormat. They're Russian.

There's a Celtic supporters' club round my way who bust out a Union Jack doormat for their Christmas parties etc. Classy

http://imgur.com/ie9Fi.jpg

XDDDD

Already looking forward to seeing him become Lord Coulson when he leaves his role as our government's highest paid adviser:

A dozen former reporters said in interviews that hacking was pervasive at News of the World. “Everyone knew,” one longtime reporter said. “The office cat knew.”

One former editor said Coulson talked freely with colleagues about the dark arts, including hacking. “I’ve been to dozens if not hundreds of meetings with Andy” when the subject came up, said the former editor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The editor added that when Coulson would ask where a story came from, editors would reply, “We’ve pulled the phone records” or “I’ve listened to the phone messages.”

Sean Hoare, a former reporter and onetime close friend of Coulson’s, also recalled discussing hacking. The two men first worked together at The Sun, where, Hoare said, he played tape recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At News of the World, Hoare said he continued to inform Coulson of his pursuits. Coulson “actively encouraged me to do it,” Hoare said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/magazine/05hacking-t.html