It’s been a year since The New York Times erected a paywall limiting users to 20 free articles per month and requiring that they pay for a digital subscription of $15 or more per month to continue reading. Now that the company has initiated the transition, it is locking down access a bit more. Starting in April, readers are going to get just 10 free articles per month — half as much as the paper offered before — in a move to help push people to sign up for its premium digital subscriptions.

For the complete story, click the following link:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/20/2887305/new-york-times-free-access-paywall-digital-subscribers 

The Suburban Newspapers of America organization is proposing a name change for the organization.

To read more, click the following link:

http://www.suburban-news.org/News/tabid/158/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/146/SNA-Board-Proposes-Name-Change.aspx

What do you think of the proposed change?

Want to know what the next big thing could be? Will the iPad or the tablet be a fading fad in just a few years? For more, check out this link:

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/12/the-newsonomics-of-tomorrow/

The following in from Minnesota Public Radio.

Red Wing, Minn. — Five months ago, the Red Wing Republican Eagle went from publishing five days a week, to two days a week.

“It is a blow to the community when you lose a daily newspaper,” said Steve Messick, publisher at the Republican Eagle. The paper belongs to Forum Communications, a company that owns the most dailies around Minnesota.

The Superior Telegram, the Stillwater Gazette and the International Falls Journal also stopped publishing daily last year. Nationwide, more than 100 newspapers have done so, too. Other Minnesota papers have merged and a handful have closed down altogether in recent years.

Messick said despite the cuts, the Internet is helping newspapers in rural Minnesota flourish. He says his paper eliminated three printing days because of a slump in advertising revenue as well as a rise in the cost of paper.

To read the complete story, click this link:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/03/11/small-newspapers/

This comes from Poynter, and it is a great post from Mallary Jean Tenore on 25 ways to use Facebook, Twitter and Storify to improve political coverage.

Social media has become a powerful tool for journalists covering elections. It’s given journalists a way to see how politicians and campaign staffers are interacting with voters and sharing news. And it’s helped them find local voters and get a better sense of what their audience wants in election coverage.

As the Republican primary season intensifies, here are 25 tips on how journalists can use Facebook, Twitter, Storify, Google, LinkedIn and other tools to improve coverage leading up to — and on — Election Day.

Here is a link to the full story from Poynter:
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/digital-strategies/151883/25-ways-to-use-facebook-twitter-storify-to-improve-election-coverage/ 

(NetNewsCheck )— To enable journalists to better utilize Facebook in their distribution, reporting and storytelling, we conducted a study looking at how people were engaging with Journalist Pages on Facebook. We hope that the findings, which focus on post dynamics, engagement and activity, will provide journalists with some best practices and insights on optimizing their engagement and distribution on Facebook to better reach their audiences.

We’ve also conducted research on how users are engaging with news organizations on Facebook and will be releasing the findings in the coming weeks. We hope that this serves as a guide, but also a spark, for conversations about best practices in using Facebook as a journalist.

Highlights:

-Starting the conversation: Posts that include a question or call to action from the journalist received the highest amount of feedback.

-Personal analysis is effective: Posts that included the journalist’s analysis and personal reflections had 20% more referral clicks than that of an average post.

-Images work: Photos received 50% more likes than non-photo posts, and journalists who shared links that included a thumbnail image in the link preview received 65% more likes and 50% more comments than posts that did not include images.

Post Dynamics & Engagement

Inclusion of Questions and Calls to Action: While posts that included a question only accounted for 10% of the posts sampled on Journalist Pages, posts with questions received 2X more comments and 64% more feedback overall than an average post. The top posting styles:

-Posts that asked questions or sought user input: +64%.

-Call to read or take a closer look: +37%.

-Personal reflections or behind-the-scenes posts: +25%.

-Posts with catchy/clever language or tone: +18%.

Post length: On average, meaty posts from journalists get more feedback via comments and likes. The analysis showed that 4-line postings received a 30% increase in feedback over average posts and 5-line postings showed a 60% increase in feedback over average posts. However, 1-line posts show the greatest fluctuation, receiving the highest maximum feedback observed, at 15X higher than the average post. 5-line posts were a close second, showing a maximum of around 10X the average post. For journalists posting teasers for links or status updates on their Pages, this means both short and long posts can yield results but meatier posts on average generate more feedback overall.

Photos: Readers respond well to photos on Journalist Pages. Though uploaded photos accounted for only 10% of the posts to Journalist Pages, they received 50% more likes than non-photo posts.

Links with Thumbnail Images: Links that include an image thumbnail in the link preview get more engagement on average. Journalists who shared links that included a thumbnail image in the link preview on their Page Wall saw a 65% increase in likes and 50% increase in comments on those posts.

Story Type & Daily Activity

Engagement by Story Type: Posts about education, politics and behind-thescenes insights and analysis from journalists received a higher amount of feedback on average. Education posts got 2X more likes, politics received both 1.7X more likes and 1.6X more comments, and a journalist sharing his or her thoughts had 1.4X more likes.

Referral Clicks & Story Type: International news stories had 70% more referral clicks than that of an average post. Stories about politics received 60% more referral clicks. Posts that included the journalist’s analysis or personal reflections received 20% more referral clicks than an average post.

Daily Feedback and Referral Clicks: Journalists received the highest amount of feedback later in the week. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday had the highest amount of feedback, with Sunday receiving the highest amount of feedback at 25% more likes and 8% more comments above average. Referral clicks were above average Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, with links getting 85% more clicks on Saturday and 37% more on Wednesday than an average post.

Hourly Feedback: Readers are active throughout the day. Feedback spikes occurred on Journalist Pages at the start of the day (7 a.m. and 8 a.m. showing a 30-40% increase); late in the morning (10 a.m. ET received 40% increase in feedback); later in the workday (4 and 5 p.m. ET showing 40% and 100% increases); and on into the evening hours (midnight ET getting 30% increase and 2 a.m. ET getting 20% increase).

The following is from Poynter.org:

Where are all of the truly great Sunday, front page designs in the U.S. these days?

As I do my daily run through the Newseum’s collection of front pages, Sunday looks a lot like Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

“Papers seem to be taking fewer chances,” said Suzette Moyer, creative director of the St. Petersburg Times’ Bay Magazine. “Instead of blowing out that one big story that they know is good, papers are trying to appease every reader by cramming it all on the front page.”

For the complete article by Sara Dickenson Quinn, click this link:
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/visual-voice/149076/4-reasons-the-sunday-front-page-now-looks-a-lot-like-the-monday-front-page/ 

From the Inland Press:

“City council considers tax levy”—does that headline make you want to buy a paper?

That’s what Bill Ostendorf, president ofCreative Circle Media Consulting in Providence, R.I., said newspaper copy editors should be asking themselves when writing headlines.

“The problem that I see out there is that so many headlines are dull,” Ostendorf said. “Just read the headline and ask yourself, ‘Would I buy the paper because of this headline?’ And the answer too often is no.”

Headline writing is essential today considering readership habits, Ostendorf said during a recent Inland Webinar.

For full story, click this link:

http://www.inlandpress.org/articles/2011/10/16/slideshow/doc4e3042c439bd3580493196.txt