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Filed under: Internet

More Americans get news online than from printed newspapers

Pew internet newsJust in case you had any doubt that the newspaper industry is in trouble (or needs to change the way it thinks about content and revenue), Pew has released a study showing that for the first time more Americans get their news from the internet than from traditional newspapers.

To be fair, television still trumps them both. 70% of respondents said that they get most of their national and international news from TV, 40% cited the internet, and 35% said newspapers. The numbers add up to more than 100% because people were allowed to give more than one answer.

What may be the most interesting figure is the fact that 59% of people under 30 said they get most of their news online while an equal percentage said TV was a primary source of news. The kids these days are not as keen on newspapers, which got a response of 28%. Radio came in fourth, followed by magazines.

Now, this isn't all bad news for traditional media organizations. We've seen companies like CNN and the New York Times make some great strides in providing news online over the last few years. Part of the reason people are moving online for their news is because they can find trusted, reliable news sources on the internet. The question that remains to be seen is whether internet news can be profitable enough to fund the kind of in-depth journalism old-school papers like the New York Times have been doing for years.

[via CNET]

Filed under: Internet, News, Web services

Associated Press kills youth website and nobody notices

After two years, the Associated Press is shutting down its multimedia service aimed at 18 to 34 year olds. As a measure of just how successful this service was, the first time we'd heard of it was when we found out it was being closed.

AP called the service asap, presumably because it sounded edgy and important. On October 31st, the site, which features audio, video, and multimedia news stories will shut down.

AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll said the site was a journalism success story, winning at least one prestigious award for best new site with fewer than a million visitors. But with such a small audience, it was hard to justify the cost of the project.

Looking at the site today, there are some very compelling bits of journalism making great use of images, video, and words to tell stories. The site layout's a bit complicated, and it's hard to tell when you click on a headline whether you're going to get video, or just a text-based story with a picture at the top. Hopefully the multimedia producers who work on asap will land on their feet and get jobs either as journalists for the AP or as multimedia reporter/producers for other news sites.

[via paidContent]

Filed under: Business, Web services

Jupiter Media buys Mediabistro for $23 million

MediaBistro
Juperter Media has agreed to pay $23 million to purchase journalism job site Mediabistro. The site, which was founded in 1996 grew out of a series of parties founder Laurel Toby had been throwing since 1993 for media professionals.

Now Mediabistro is more than just a site for job listings. It's also a clearinghouse of news about journalism and media jobs. For a subscription fee, users can also get premium content including enrollment in seminars on writing and other topics.

Mediabistro's been on the market since last year, with a $25 million asking price. Once the numbers get above $.02, our heads hurt, so we'll leave it up to you to decide if Jupiter came close to meeting that figure.

Touby will stay on as a senior vice president of the company.

Filed under: Internet, News, Web services, Social Software

NewsTrust: Who can you trust

NewsTrust
Anybody can slap together a website that lets you vote on news stories or other submissions with a simple thumbs up or down. But what does that really tell you?

NewsTrust is a social news rating site that takes a different approach. Rather than finding the most popular stories of the day, NewsTrust is a non-profit site aimed at finding the best examples of journalism each day.

When you submit a story or vote on a story submitted by other users, you'll be asked to fill out a little questionnaire. Click on any of the headings (like Trust, Fairness, or Context) for descriptions of the journalistic values behind each. Like any good web 2.0 site, NewsTrust also lets you add tags to stories and leave comments.

It's not clear whether the result is more useful than sites like Digg or Netscape if you're looking at finding the most interesting stories of the day. But if you're looking for the most thoroughly researched and reported stories, you might want to check NewsTrust out.

[via Poynter]

Filed under: Internet, Video

6 billion Others: everyone really does have a story to tell

6 billion othersThere's an old saying that "everyone has a story to tell." Of course, nobody really has time to collect everyone's stories. Or do they?

6 billion Others is massive project to "create a sensitive and human portrait of the planet's inhabitants." Six directors traveled across the globe to interview a variety of people on various topics. No, they're not going to get 6 billion interviews under their belt anytime soon, but this is as close as you're likely to get to the emotional version of a global census.

They conducted 6,000 interviews in 65 countries and shot 4,500 hours of film, asking participants about happiness, love, laughter, tears, dreams, their parents, and dozens of other topics. The goal is to have thousands of interviews available by next year. But the site already has some remarkably well produced video montages available. Not a bad way to restore your faith in humanity heading into the weekend.

[via Teaching Online Journalism]

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