New York Times | Johnny The Rocket

WSJ vs. NYT: Why the upcoming newspapers war will be exciting. And good for the readers!

‘Project Amsterdam’. According to New York Magazine’s piece on Rupert Murdoch, that’s the name of his $15-million secret plan to defeat The New York Times. A very Bond villain-like name.

Next month, if all goes according to plan, the Journal will launch an eight-to-sixteen-page metropolitan section that will directly challenge the paper of record on its home turf.

This is fascinating. For the first (…) Continue reading.

Digital journalism is a comeback of “yellow papers” – and, finally, the death of sterile, conservative and cowardly newspapers (PHOTO GALLERY)

On September 20th, 2009, President Obama offered his opinion on contemporary news media – specifically, and curiously, on their workflow. “Cable news and blogs, operating on a 24-hour news cycle, focus on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can’t get enough of the conflict,” the president stated.

This environment, continued Obama, makes “it more difficult for us to solve problems.” The alleged rise (…) Continue reading.

Readers are smarter than we think. They enjoy long, challenging articles. But they have to be exciting, awe-inspiring and surprising

The New York Times just published an intriguing study by University of Pennsylvania, where researchers spent a year intensively studying NYT’s list of most e-mailed articles, checking the changes every 15 minutes.

What do the readers really share? “The results are surprising,” says Josh Tierney, who reported on the study. He goes on to say:

I would have hypothesized that there are two (…) Continue reading.

The tablet was never supposed to save journalism simply by appearing. Newspapers must re-invent their content and make use of it.

In retrospect, it was our fault.

Not the absurd amount of rumors – Apple is as much to blame for that as are the gadget blogs and Mac rumor websites (and NYT and WSJ, for that matter). Let’s be clear: Apple loved the hype. No money could have gotten them such amazing marketing.

No, it was our fault, the media industry’s, the journalists’, the newspapers’ fault, to place all our hopes on (…) Continue reading.

There’s A Formula To Your Despair. ‘Bring Yellow Journalism Back’

A beautiful article by Jack Shafer in Slate on yellow journalism. I had been convinced nobody quite understood what I’ve been preaching for months, and, finally, I bump into this. Doesn’t quite nail all the points, but the headline alone makes it worth reading.

Here’s an excerpt:

“How many times while plowing through a New York Times or Washington Post news story have you muttered to yourself, “I haven’t had this much fun since the (…) Continue reading.

The day newspapers died a shameful death: NYT sends a news alert – the missing boy in Colorado has been found! Alive! Hiding in his garage!

How the hell did the story about a boy hiding in his garage in Colorado end up on the front page of every single news website in the world? And not just obscure portals in Central Europe – the freaking New York Times sent an e-mail news alert to calm the horrified public – the boy has been found! He was not in the floating balloon after all!

I can already (…) Continue reading.