ejc

7 September 2012 | Journalism.co.uk

Die Welt publisher hopes metered paywall will ‘set tone’

Die Welt German publisher Axel Springer AG, which owns 230 newspapers and magazines across Europe, hopes to "set the tone" for the market when it launches its metered paywall for the website of daily national newspaper Die Welt. Speaking at the World Editors Forum Christoph Keese, head of public relations at Axel Springer, said the metered model is currently "being programmed with lots of resources". It is due to be introduced "by the end of the year or early next year", he said. The model will offer a certain allowance of articles before charging for access, but this will be scalable, he added. As with the New York Times metered model, referrals to content, such as from social media and Google, will not count and take away from a user's allowance. The company will be able to analyse its audience in great detail, Keese said. "Many people are just flying by and the system should optimise the kind of revenue we're getting from these kind of people." Die Welt's metered subscription model follows fixed paywalls for two of Axel Springer's regional titles, in Hamburg and Berlin, launched in early 2011.

Original source

7 September 2012 | Journalism.co.uk

News sites can now embed interactive timelines of tweets

Twitter has announced a new tool for embedding interactive timelines of tweets into websites. The new widget, which can be displayed in website sidebars, can show a timeline of tweets from an individual, tweets from people in a Twitter list, a search query, or a hashtag. The announcement post on the Twitter blog explains that an author could add their own tweets alongside their blog, a timeline of tweets containing a hashtag about an event, or a Twitter list. Twitter explains that the embedded widgets enable readers to interact with the tweets, with viewers able to expand tweets to show photos and videos, and interact with the Twitter user by following them, retweeting, responding or favouriting the tweet. The Twitter blog post adds that "tweets add a live, real-time dimension to articles, news reports, and the web at large. These new embeddable timelines enable publishers, writers, developers, and any Twitter user to drop a rich, interactive piece of Twitter into their websites."

Original source

7 September 2012 | Market Watch

Amazon steps up Kindle tablet offerings

Amazon.com unveiled new devices for its Kindle lineup on Thursday, including a re-designed version of its Kindle Fire tablet that will offer a larger screen with a starting price of USD 299. At a media event held in Santa Monica, Amazon also stepped into the higher end of the tablet market, with a USD 499 version of the Kindle Fire that connects to 4G LTE networks and offers an 8.9-inch screen. Amazon added a new data plan that costs USD 50 per year and offers 250MB of data per month. The new, larger Kindle Fire puts Amazon more squarely into direct competition with Apple, which currently rules the tablet market with the iPad. Amazon is keeping its first Kindle Fire, cutting the price on that tablet to USD 159 from USD 199. The unveiling of Amazon’s USD 499 tablet came amid speculation that Apple will launch a “mini” version of its iPad. Jay Marine, Vice President of Amazon Kindle, in an interview after Bezos’s presentation, wouldn’t comment on the rumors, but said Amazon is “super excited to enter that high-end market,” with the launch of the 4G LTE. Amazon launched its first Kindle Fire last November. The low price tag of the device, compared to the USD 500 iPad, made it a strong seller over the holiday period, though Amazon does not release specific sales figures for its devices. Analysts believe the Fire was the second-best selling tablet during the fourth quarter.

Original source

7 September 2012 | New York Times

Apple plans web radio challenge to Pandora

In a move that could shake up the growing field of Internet radio, Apple plans to develop a service that would compete with Pandora Media by sending streams of music customized to users’ tastes, three people briefed on the plans said late Thursday. Apple, which has already dominated the field of digital music with its iTunes store, is in the early stages of negotiating with the major record labels for the service, and the full scope of its plans were not clear, according to these people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private. Apple’s service would probably take the form of a preinstalled app on devices like iPhones and iPads and might be able to connect to users’ iTunes accounts to judge their tastes. By offering streams customized to each user, Apple’s program would compete with Internet radio services like Pandora, Slacker and iHeartRadio, which is offered by the radio giant Clear Channel Communications. But while most such services operate under limited licenses that restrict what they can do with the music — for example, limiting the number of times songs by particular artist can be played within an hour — Apple is seeking direct licenses with record labels that would give the company more flexibility in using music, according to the people briefed on its plans.

Original source

7 September 2012 | Reuters

News Corp nears AUD 2bn Australia pay-TV deal

Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd agreed to back a revised AUD 2bn (USD 2.06bn) takeover offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, in a deal that would give News Corp a greater share of Australia's pay-TV market. A successful takeover would also clear the way for billionaire James Packer, who holds a 50.1 percent stake in Consolidated Media, to exit his last big media venture as he focuses on gambling. The deal will double the stake of News Corp's Australian unit in dominant pay-TV operator Foxtel to 50 percent and give it 100 percent of content provider Fox Sports, boosting its pay-TV exposure at the same time as it cuts back print operations. Consolidated Media (CMH) said its board backed the offer, in the absence of a higher bid. The binding proposal from News Corp represented an implied multiple of 9.4 times forward earnings, as well as a premium of 15 percent to the average share price over the past three months. A sale would see Packer all but exit what was once a media empire, built up over decades by his father Kerry Packer and grandfather Sir Frank Packer, apart from a 10 percent stake in television company Ten Network.

Original source

7 September 2012 | IFEX via The Guardian

Burma lifts ban on press freedom body

The Burmese government has removed 2,082 names from a list of organisations and individuals barred from the country. They include representatives of the Paris-based press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RWB), who had been banned from Burma for 25 years. RWB's director general, Christophe Deloire, said: "We hail this announcement, which follows the lifting of prior censorship for certain publications, and we hope to be able to confirm its validity in the near future." He revealed that an international conference to discuss press freedom will be held in Rangoon on 24 and 25 September. It is being organised by the Democratic Voice of Burma in company with the government. Burma is currently ranked 169th out of 179 countries in RWB's 2011-2012 press freedom index.

Original source