How the New York Times and CNN try to keep up with the tech companies

The New York Times and CNN have both built strong online presences – through strongly contrasting technology strategies. Senior players at both companies explain "The New York Times is now as much a technology company as a journalism company," its executive editor Bill Keller said recently. A glance at the top 10 breaking news sites online shows how seriously that statement must be taken, because in 2009 that list was often led by a tech company rather than a traditional news organisation. AOL News, Yahoo News or MSNBC News attract more US readers than CNN – or the New York Times. Being a big traditional news brand doesn't necessarily bring you success on the web. "What got you to where you are, is not necessarily where you have to go now," says Kenneth KC Estenson, senior vice-president and general manager of CNN.com, when we meet at the Courthouse Hotel to talk about CNN Worldwide Digital. The now renovated Courthouse displays the situation of news organisations perfectly: lots of nicely renovated rooms, but no windows to get what happens outside. Estenson's role is exaxtly to break down that wall. Today, to get the platform right is as important as the quality of the content. So news organisations have to keep up with technological developments around them to stay in the game. The two biggest US players for quality news, CNN and the New York Times, are dealing with this challenge in quite different ways. While CNN.com closely collaborates with technology companies like Facebook, Apple or Google, the New York Times anticipates technical change in-house with the help of its research and development department. R&D at the New York Times Calling the first research and development group in the industry their own, the New York Times takes its technological approach seriously. Already in January 2006, Michael Zimbalist had joined the Times Company as vice-president, research & development operations, and to envision the future of news. His 12-person team analyses data and test and builds products in order to safeguard the future of the 160-year-old brand. 2009 was the year when the New York Times executives understood the full impact of digitalisation. Being eager not to be disrupted but to play along with the disruptors, the executives made several efforts to understand what was going on – including reading the paper only on digital devices for a certain time. The future of news consumption is the core of the technological approach of the Times. Apart from analysing web data for building the metered model, their R&D team continuously envisions how news reading might change with new technology, as for example with RFID chips. As it is likely that RIFD chips will become quite common in the near future, the Times's R&D group invented ways a news organisation could make use of them. The project. called 'Shifd' – or in house, "Custom Times" – is a mobile application that provides users the capability to seamlessly shift content back and forth between their desktop computers and mobile devices. "We made an experiment and put an RFID chip into the phone, the computer and the television. The chip was there to track the user's reading. When a user stopped reading a story on the phone as he or she arrived at work, it opened it again on the desktop. When the user entered the living room, related videos to the story were presented on the television screen," explains the NYT's Nick Bilton. As news consumption changes massively with new media, the NYT puts a lot of effort in developing interfaces. "Touch makes interfaces a lot more compatible and easy to use, in addition to the fact that the web is moving into the living room and offers new connections," Bilton told me. He has just written a book called I Live in the Future: & Here's How It Works, which will illustrate the changing landscape taking place in storytelling industries. For the New York Times, this aspect is apparent as they experiment a lot with different ways of telling the news. Apart from their regular homepage, the New York Times offers four different interfaces: Times Wire, Times Reader 2.0, Times Extra and Skimmer ; all the interfaces deliver them background data – useful when developing an iPad app, for example. CNN.com translates technology back into journalism While the New York Times keeps track with today's technological disruption by turning partly into a technology company themselves, CNN tries a slightly different approach: close collaboration. Starting with CNN in September 2008, the general manager of CNN.com and senior vice-president KC Estenson overhauled the management team at CNN.com and set them on a new strategic direction driven by innovation and embracing new technologies and partnerships. Estenson believes that you have to have deep relationships with today's technology leaders when you want play along. "We don't wanna be slaves to trends but it is vital knowledge to us. I want us to be considered. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook: I made it a priority for us to be in first position with them," he says. Since Estenson took over, CNN has launched an iPhone application, redesigned its website and reached out more to social media. CNN was among the first TV broadcasters to understand the full impact of social media on television, and teamed up with Facebook for the presidential inauguration. As the live Facebook feed on CNN.com made it possible to watch the proceedings along with comments from your friends in the sidebar, the broadcaster was able to report 600,000 status updates and record breaking 21.3 million video stream views globally on that day, with a peak of 1.3 million streams just before Obama began his speech. But more interesting than just integrating the new technology within the site is CNN.com's translation of social media back into journalism. CNN took citizen journalism not only as an inevitable add-on, but as something that carries serious weight. iReport was initially launched August 2006 basically as a commission form, and has become more important after the Virginia Tech massacre. It is said that internally it was a big discussion with the executives, but in February 2008 it was accepted as a legitimate source of newsgathering within CNN. Estenson decided to professionalise iReport further. Apart from integrating iReport prominently at the center of CNN's website instead of hiding it away at the bottom, the iPhone application integrated iReport prominently. Today, CNN's iPhone app is as much a news-making as a news delivering application, and as the iReporters can add their telephone number, email and location to their report, CNN's editors can get back to them or even assign them to certain content CNN is looking for. Today, there are about 10,000 iReports per month which are available to CNN.com. For each bigger event, an iReport monitoring journalist familiar with the context of the event will be assigned to the breaking news team. iReport clearly enriched the coverage of the Haiti earthquake of CNN as CNN had seven reporters on the ground and significantly enhanced their work with social media. Conclusion CNN.com and New York Times are two good examples for news organisations which came to understand that today technology plays a serious part in their business. Today, getting the technology right is not more important than good journalism, but it is as important. In fact, technology is becoming more and more an integral part of doing good journalism. The different approach to technology at the New York Times and CNN makes it apparent that each has to fit a journalistic brand, though, as how technology is approached is part of a journalistic profile. Either way it looks like the news organisations that tear down the wall and build a bridge between editorial and technological thinking will be most likely to survive. Digital media CNN New York Times Newspapers Citizen media Mercedes Bunz guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Easily Take Ownership Of Windows 7 Files and Folders [How-To]

When you're denied access to a file in Windows 7 one of the easiest ways around it is to just Take Ownership. This comes in handy when you're dealing with stubborn system files and folders that don’t want to let you in. Normally this is a long process involving several CMD prompt lines or GUI clicks so today I'm going to review how to easily add the Take Ownership option to the Windows 7 right-Click context menu for the easiest 1-Click access possible. Related Groovy Articles... (possibly): Configure Windows 7 to Display File Extensions [How-To] Stay Organize With Windows 7 Libraries [How-To] Windows 7 Data Backup and Restore Guide [How-To] File Compression – Great way to Store, Send and Secure Files Select Files and Folders in Windows 7 with Check Boxes [How-To] Create PST Files Using Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 Copyright © groovyPost.com 2009 | All Rights Reserved

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Hyundai's Consumer Loyalty Passes Honda and Toyota

Kelley Blue Book has released the latest Market Intelligence Data, in which Hyundai has taken the top spot, passing both Toyota and Honda in brand loyalty among shoppers on kbb.com. Comparing February 2010 data to Q4 2009, Hyundai had the greatest increase in loyalty with current Hyundai owners looking at new models within the brand increasing by 10.4 percent to 56.3 percent. This puts Hyundai in the top spot, up from third in Q4 2009. Honda continues to hold the second spot with 55.8 percent, while Toyota has fallen to the number three spot at 53.3 percent. "Hyundai is clearly benefiting from 'a perfect storm' - a result of introducing passionate new products like the 2011 Sonata and 2010 Tucson, while Honda's mainstream vehicles like the CR-V and Accord are a bit stale in the marketplace and Toyota is experiencing a huge consumer perception crisis," said James Bell, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com. "To sustain this momentum, Hyundai should continue to promote its attractive new-vehicle lineup, solid warranty offer and strong price-points to new-car shoppers. Hyundai's main challenge in the near future will likely come from domestic automakers like Ford and GM as they gear up for battle over buyers starting to look for a change from 'Camry-land.'"

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Die Hard [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) tagged "die hard" 17 times

Die Hard [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) By Bruce Willis Buy new: $9.99 65 used and new from $7.74 Customer Rating: Customer tags: blu-ray(47), die hard(17), high definition(12), action(11), bruce willis(10), adventure(7), alan rickman(7), playstation 3(5), blu ray movies(3), thriller(2), 1080p(2), bad blu ray picture quality

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Twitter and Facebook Influencing Purchase Decisions

A recent study of social media usage makes it quite clear that people who become Facebook fans and Twitter followers of a brand are more likely to not only recommend, but they are also more likely to buy from those brands than they were before becoming fans/followers. And it seems that Twitter is the [...]

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John Ivison: Where will Jim Flaherty's axe fall?

Remember the Budget? Big thick book, lots of numbers, came out two weeks ago. I mention it because you may have forgotten all about it, given the infrequency with which the opposition has mentioned the Conservatives’ financial plan. The government is delighted to have emerged unscathed, after unveiling a document that promised an end to its four-year spending binge, and even started to pour morning-after black coffee in the form of department budget freezes. Jim Flaherty, the Finance Minister, indicated that more cuts are coming and said the government is in the process of a spending review to identify opportunities for additional savings. He may need them. The government estimates that the nation’s books will be within $1.8-billion of being balanced five years from now, if everything goes to plan. But Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, disagrees, estimating the government’s numbers are too optimistic to the tune of $25-billion. Mr. Flaherty’s problems are compounded because the government has already ruled out tax increases and cuts to transfers to individuals or other levels of government, which account for $72-billion and $56-billion respectively. If Mr. Page is anywhere close to being right, the government may need to cut one-fifth of the remaining $120-billion it spends on direct program expenses. So where is the Finance Minister’s axe likely to fall? People who have talked to him say that by instinct and inclination he is keen to go after Canada’s regional development agencies, which will spend close to $2-billion of taxpayers’ money in the coming year. These organizations — the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Economic Development Agency for the Regions of Quebec, Western Economic Diversification, plus the two created by this government, the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and the Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario — are beloved by governments and loathed by opposition parties, for obvious reasons. This year’s budget even increased their budgets by $100-million. My colleague David Akin has catalogued more than 3,500 spending announcements the federal government has made since its re-election and there are unlimited numbers of questionable recipients. Take the nine separate towns in Quebec that received snowmobile trail grooming equipment. Or the new deluxe YMCA building in St. John’s, Nfld., funded by ACOA. Or the $50,000 from the same agency for the Sobey’s Slam Curling Tournament held in the riding of then-ACOA minister, Peter MacKay. A recent study by the Fraser Institute revealed that between 1994 and 2007, Canada’s governments spent $202.7-billion on subsidies to business and other corporate welfare projects. That figure has been growing annually and doesn’t even include last year’s stimulus binge — which will cost taxpayers $950 each for the bail-out to GM and Chrysler alone. As the author, Mark Milke, noted, business subsidies allow politicians to appear as if they are doing something to preserve jobs, while the amount of money on any one project is seldom enough to provoke taxpayers to break out the pitchforks. But if they are good for politicians, they are bad for competition. For one, they are unfair — the subsidies to GM and Chrysler clearly had a negative impact on Ford, Toyota and Honda; second, they promote protectionism elsewhere; third, they inevitably provoke suspicions of pork-barrelling; and, fourth, they create an unhealthy demand for yet more corporate welfare from those ineligible for existing grants. Evidence for the latter point is that every region of the country now has its own regional development agency. What better time, then, to cut them all? Those inside government urging Mr. Flaherty to do just that point out that the options for finding billions of dollars in savings are limited. Advocates say that the agencies need not necessarily be closed but could be re-designed to focus on areas like infrastructure, where they would use their local knowledge to identify good projects. But Conservatives with memories of the 2004 election campaign are more cautious about interfering in a funding mechanism that allows politicians to promise bridges, even where there’s no river. Stephen Harper promised to get out of the game of picking winners and losers by lowering corporate tax rates by the same amount as he saved by ending corporate welfare. This proved a difficult concept to grasp for some on the East Coast, such as the Newfoundland Conservative candidate who urged his potential constituents to “vote for Harper — he’s the boy who’ll get us our ACOA money.” He lost but so did Mr. Harper, who garnered just seven seats east of the Ontario border. After embracing the concept of business subsidies, he has seen that number rise to 21. “They are too valuable to the regions and Flaherty would face the mother of all battles with premiers and Cabinet colleagues if he wanted to do that,” said one insider. “Does he want to torch Atlantic Canada and fight Peter MacKay? It would be a battle royale.” Yet any Conservative Party worth its salt should be able to persuade voters of the virtue of cutting wasteful spending. Surely, even snowmobilers and curlers would be pacified if they learned that the $1,300 each Canadian taxpayer contributes every year was being spent more productively. National Post jivison@nationalpost.com

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New Stanek WND column, "The copycat who stopped live tweeting her abortion"

Last week I wrote about Angie Jackson, who began live tweeting her RU-486 abortion on Feb. 18 to "demystify" us, thinking it would be a "4 hour bleed out." We learned together Jackson was grossly uninformed about the medical abortion process. For 9 days Jackson tweeted about recurring headaches, nausea, vomiting, bleeding, pelvic pain, backaches, and cramping so bothersome she went through an entire bottle of 20 Tylenol with codeine in a week and had to ask for more (which she was apparently denied, tweeting Feb. 27, "This is definitely the most pain so far. It's distracting & makes me unhappy... Ibuprofin is a joke, ya'll").... Meanwhile, a copycat named Next Thursday, inspired by Jackson, decided to begin tweeting her RU-486 abortion on Feb. 25.... When the day came for Next Thursday to begin her RU-486 abortion, it had first to be determined whether she was too far along.... That the abortion mill qualified Next Thursday for an RU-486 abortion by ultrasound tells me it may have fudged on dates.... a red flag for events to follow.... Three days into Next Thursday's RU-486 abortion, something bad happened. Her second-to-last tweet ominously reads: "I've been bleeding like a stuffed pig all day."... Continue reading my column today, "The copycat who stopped live tweeting her abortion," on WorldNetDaily.com...

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Nigeria on Red Alert After Scores Killed With Machetes

At least 100 people, and likely more, have been killed in an outburst of religious violence in Nigeria -- some of the dead are just babies, according to government officials. News agencies are reporting death tolls ranging from 100 to 300. From the New Zealand Herald: "Rioters armed with machetes slaughtered more than 200 people overnight as religious violence flared anew between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria, witnesses said. Hundreds of people fled their homes, fearing reprisal attacks. The bodies of the dead - including many women and children - lined dusty streets in three mostly Christian villages south of the regional capital of Jos, local journalists and a civil rights group said. They said at least 200 bodies had been counted by Sunday afternoon. Torched homes smouldered after the 3am attacks that a region-wide curfew enforced by the country's police and military should have stopped. The killings represent the latest religious violence in an area once known as Nigeria's top tourist destination, adding to the tally of thousands already killed in the last decade in the name of religious and political ambitions. Jos lies in Nigeria's 'middle belt,' where dozens of ethnic groups mingle in a band of fertile and hotly contested land separating the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south. In Dogo Nahawa, a village five kilometres south of Jos, residents said the dead included a 4-day-old infant. Those who survived claimed their attackers shouted at them in Hausa and Fulani - two local languages used by Muslims. A spokesman for Plateau state where Jos is located, Gregory Yenlong, said police were seeking to arrest Saleh Bayari, the regional leader of the Fulanis, because Bayari's comments incited the attack. He offered no other details. But the chairman of the local Fulani organisation denied that his people were involved in the attack." Agence France-Presse reports on the red alert issued by the government in response: "Acting President Goodluck Jonathan immediately placed security agencies in the region on a red alert, an official statement said in Abuja. Jonathan 'has placed all the security services in Plateau (State) and neighbouring states on red alert so as to stem any cross border dimensions to this latest conflict,' his office said in a statement. 'He has also directed that the security services undertake strategic initiatives to confront and defeat these roving bands of killers,' it added. Dan Manjang, an advisor to the Plateau state government confirmed the deployment of troops in the area." Nigeria on Red Alert After Scores Killed With Machetes originally appeared on About.com World News on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 20:30:51. Permalink | Comment | Email this

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Best Southwest: Dinner to die for

The Cedar Hill Education Foundation hosted its annual murder mystery dinner March 6. This year's story was about the murder of a famous artist. Get a firsthand account from one of the story's characters in this week's issue of Best Southwest neighborsgo. • Follow us: Facebook | Twitter • In print: Pick us up at Starbucks • Post online, get in print

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Virgin Media unveils new HD V box

Virgin Media has unveiled its brand new V box, and it signals the company's move to HD for all of its customers at no extra cost. The latest V box is a non-PVR option for Virgin Media's customers, with the replacement for the V+ PVR likely to coincide with the arrival of the TiVo software later ... — full article at techradar.com Related Stories: • TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL DVRs has an intriguing QWERTY Remotes — hardwaresphere.com • TiVo Premiere Goes Official — ubergizmo.com • HP MediaSmart Expander for TiVo® — hp.com • The Palm Paradox — slashgear.com • In Depth: 12 things to expect from Virgin Media's next-gen box — techradar.com • What TiVo needs to do to make the Wall Street boys happy — crunchgear.com

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