Dec/110
2011 – Achievements and Standpoint | Feitos e Ponto de Situação
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The year is almost over and I have the need to put things into some perspective. So, despite considering it as one of the worst years I had in my life, I’m going to look at the things I did, and try to prove myself it wasn’t really that bad. ACHIEVEMENTS Professionally, the first half was good, I was teaching in a training program created by Porto University, instructing journalists from Cofina, one of the biggest portuguese media groups. I worked with over 200 journalists and editors and it was a really rewarding experience. I think I changed some minds and helped many improve their skills. The rest is not up to me. I also worked as an instructor with the team of P3, a new youth oriented news website, which was a different challenge because they were online only, thus with a whole another approach to content production. And my teaching days were then over. I had to go back to be a student and finish my overdue MA final project. It wasn’t that good, and I could make all the excuses in the world because I really have a few good ones for not doing better and they would all be true, but the fact is I could have done better. Still, I had a commendation over it and I got an upgrade in my degree. So far it hasn’t impressed anyone. I wanted to develop a few projects but with all the problems I had this year some were postponed and I had to give up on others. I wanted to open my own business as a multimedia journalism producer/ consultant, but there’s a crisis going on, and people around here weren’t very impressed with my credentials. I have far better recognition abroad than in my own country, which kinda pisses me off. The fact is, I didn’t create my own job, nor I have one to complain about. Meanwhile, I invested in video content, using a HDSLR, all my efforts can be seen here (only those uploaded in the last 3 months count). I did a short doc about a cultural association I work with, and most of the stuff I made is based on the events we have there, like concerts and exhibitions. It’s a good testing ground and I’m planning to use what I’ve learned to create more journalistic stuff. |
O ano está quase a acabar e tenho a necessidade de pôr as coisas em perspectiva. Apesar de achar que este foi um dos piores anos da minha vida, vou olhar para o que fiz e tentar provar que afinal não foi assim tão mau. FEITOS Profissionalmente, os primeiros meses foram bons, fui formador num programa criado pela Universidade do Porto para a Cofina, onde trabalhei com mais de 200 jornalistas e editores das várias publicações do grupo e foi uma experiência fantástica. Acho que mudei algumas mentalidades e ajudei muitos a melhorar as suas capacidades. O resto não é comigo. Também dei formação à equipa do P3, o que foi um desafio especial porque eles estão exclusivamente online, logo com uma aproximação completamente diferente na criação de conteúdos. E a seguir acabaram-se os dias como professor. Tive que voltar a ser estudante e acabar o meu projecto final de mestrado. Não correu lá muito bem e podia dar todas as desculpas – e até tenho algumas muito boas e que são verdade – para isso, mas sei que podia ter feito melhor. Mesmo assim, passei com louvor e tenho agora um grau académico melhor. Até agora ninguém ficou lá muito impressionado com isso. Quis desenvolver alguns projectos mas com todos os problemas que tive este ano alguns foram adiados outros esquecidos. Queria abrir o meu próprio negócio como jornalista multimédia / formador /consultor, mas há uma crise lá fora e as pessoas não parecem muito impressionadas com as minhas credenciais. Tenho melhor reconhecimento noutros países do que aqui, o que me deixa um bocado lixado. A verdade é que falhei em criar o meu emprego ou a arranjar um de que me possa queixar. Entretanto investi na produção de vídeo com uma HDSLR, podem ver aqui alguns dos resultados (só os dos últimos 3 meses contam). Fiz um pequeno trabalho sobre a associação de que faço parte, e muitos dos videos são sobre coisas que por lá vão passando como concertos e exposições. É um bom tubo de ensaio (!), e estou a planear usar o que aprendi para fazer conteúdos mais jornalísticos. |
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I also wrote some interesting posts for the blog (check list below) and started a monthly column in a computer magazine, and did some articles for P3 (people there like me, what can I do?). I wrote an article about documentaries in this non-linear world, and a post at Innovative Interactivity about what features a news product should have. |
Escrevi ainda uns posts interessantes aqui no blog (ver lista abaixo) e comecei uma coluna mensal na PCGuia, e fiz ainda alguns artigos para o P3 (o pessoal lá gosta de mim, que é que posso fazer?). Escrevi ainda um artigo sobre documentários neste mundo não linear, e um post convidado sobre as características que um produto jornalístico online deve ter. |
- The upward spiral and the tornado effect: monitoring the spreading of news
- The failure of the single product business model
- #MAProject: Basic concepts – The JTeam and Views to a Crisis
- The Rise of the Zombie Articles (or why staying up late doesn’t make you smarter)
- O DN tem uma nova redacção, mas tem uma orientação para o online?
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Standpoint This was one of the longest, strenuous years I have ever experienced. Even though I was able to accomplish some goals, they look meaningless in the overall outcome. I’m broke, unemployed, I have no perspectives. It has always been one step forward and three behind. I had to give up on a lot of things, and basically I feel like it’s 2001 for me (another bad year) but with a heavier burden. I wasn’t expecting this. My projects are moving slowly, there is no money or time to devote myself fully to them. I’m starting 2012 on basic survival mode, but that’s the outlook for millions of Portuguese people this year. Going abroad is a possibility, I understand Nando’s is always hiring. There’s a lot to decide in the upcoming weeks. Still, I’m on the market, I’m trying to sell training and consultancy programs for local and regional newspapers, I’m available as a freelancer both for national or international media, and I’ll be presenting a few more ideas if things don’t get any worse. 2011 won’t be missed, too many bad things have happened, but such is life. I’m finishing way worse than I started, and I’m considering other options for my future, because life is unstoppable in its motion and either you roll with or get crushed. I’m a roller. Death to 2011, I’ll look back on it with a bitter taste in my mouth. |
Ponto de situação Este foi um dos anos mais longos e extenuantes que vivi. Apesar de ter atingido alguns objectivos, tudo parece inútil no balanço geral. Estou basicamente falido, desempregado, sem grandes perspectivas. Foi sempre um passo para a frente e três para trás. Tive que desistir de muita coisa, e sinto-me de volta a 2001 (outro ano péssimo) mas apenas com um fardo ainda mais pesado. Não estava mesmo à espera disto. Os meus projectos pessoais estão a andar devagar ou parados, não há dinheiro ou tempo para me dedicar a eles. Vou começar 2012 em modo de sobrevivência, mas sou e mais uns milhões de concidadãos. Ir para fora é uma possibilidade, também se lavam pratos lá fora. Há muito para decidir nas próximas semanas. Por enquanto, estou no mercado, a tentar vender programas de formação e consultadoria para media locais e regionais. Estou disponível como freelancer para publicações nacionais ou internacionais, e tenho mais algumas ideias na manga se isto não piorar. Não vou ter saudades de 2011, aconteceram demasiadas coisas más, mas é a vida. Termino o ano bem pior do que quando comecei e estou a ponderar outras opções para o meu futuro, porque a vida não pára, ou a acompanhamos ou somos esmagados pelo movimento. Morte a 2011, vou-me lembrar deste ano com amargos de boca. |
Dec/111
O DN tem uma nova redacção, mas tem uma orientação para o online?
Ao ver este vídeo do DN tenho duas reacções: uma de admiração e respeito pelo investimento feito na evolução e na criação de melhores condições de trabalho numa redacção nacional, outra de estupefacção. Onde é que está a estratégia para o online?
O espaço de trabalho define a forma e os resultados desse trabalho e, pelo que percebi da descrição feita, o DN vai-se lançar como canal de televisão. A lista de inovações centra-se principalmente no hardware, no cenário, nas funcionalidades, mas zero na filosofia de conteúdos online e na estratégia de relação com os utilizadores, com a utilização da interactividade e do multimédia, na utilização das redes sociais. O que falta ali é o futuro dos conteúdos digitais.
Não vou falar mais especificamente do DN, já tive chatices que cheguem por causa de críticas a outros projectos e até agora ninguém me provou que estava errado, só me dificultou a vida profissional e animosidades mais ou menos veladas. Eu sei que não sou um génio, mas percebo disto.
Isto é um problema transversal aos grandes jornais (e jornalistas do papel?) portugueses que parecem morrer de inveja das televisões e querem ser uma, o que até é bem claro nas movimentações de investimentos dos grupos de media nacionais. O que querem perpetuar é a comunicação unidireccional que estão habituados a fazer desde sempre. É um problema de mentalidade, não de capacidade ou qualidade na informação.
As direcções dos jornais não percebem o online. Isso é ponto assente senão não faziam certos (des)investimentos.
Por isso, acho que a única coisa que posso fazer em vez de dar os meus bitaites de borla – se os quiserem vão ter que pagar – posso partilhar com vocês algumas ideias de outros sobre o que é ter uma filosofia dirigida para o online e conteúdos multimédia e interactivos:
How a Digital First approach guides a journalist’s work
How Digital First journalists work
Digital platforms are first in the processes and priorities of the Digital First journalist. We publish newspapers as well, but newspapers cannot drive our work. Newspapers are a shrinking audience and revenue stream and our digital community and revenue stream are growing. Our survival demands a digital focus.
Digital journalists produce content initially for multiple digital platforms: our news websites, blogs, social media, text alerts, email alerts and newsletters (and whatever comes next or whatever I’ve overlooked). Editors responsible for print products will assemble them primarily from content produced originally for digital platforms.
Whatever your job, you need to make high priorities to:
- Work and think first for digital platforms.
- Experiment and take risks.
- Try new tools & techniques.
- Cover news live.
- Join, stimulate, curate and lead the community conversation.
- Engage the community in your coverage.
Ten things every journalist should know in 2012
7. Focus on what works – do less to do more. No news organisation however well resourced can achieve everything. Work out what works and strive for excellence in that area.Sometimes you need to take a step back to see where your priorities should lie. You may realise it is better to write one original feature than chase five stories already in the public domain.
E no que toca ao valor da marca, ela passa por isto:
Did I need a newspaper to write precisely the same story days after I read it for the first time? How much do we care about the race for ‘first’ when first is now measured in seconds or perhaps minutes?
Robert Hernandez: For journalism’s future, the killer app is credibility
We want people who will cut through the spin and tell us what’s going on, how it will affect us and what can we do about it. We want transparent news. We want news that, while it may not always achieve that goal, honestly strives to be objective.We want to trust journalism. And to do so, we need to trust journalists.And bypassing the blogger-vs-tweeter-vs-media company-vs-journalist debate, it is going to come down to one thing: Credibility.
Forget doom, journalism’s future is bright
Senão, o que acontece é isto:
Newspapers Dead Within Five Years, USC Predicts
Posso oferecer duas borlas, uma sobre a criação de produtos jornalísticos dentro da filosofia que defendo para conteúdos digitais e este apontamento que mostra porque é que não fiquei demasiado impressionado com a nova redacção do DN (vejam o slideshow para ter uma ideia).
Isto é o que eu penso que é parte do futuro do jornalismo. O vídeo do DN é muito daquilo que eu penso que não é.
Dec/110
The Rise of the Zombie Articles (or why staying up late doesn’t make you smarter)
No, this is not about news over an invasion of braindead flesh eaters. It’s about stories that were supposedly dead in the archives but somehow managed to get back to life via social networking and bookmarking.
Ad for the Best Horror Movie Festival in Portugal that suits this post perfectly
I already wrote about this subject here, but I want to share a situation that happened in Portugal last week. There was an article from Público going around Facebook that seemed awkwardly familiar, about the superior intellectual skills of those who stayed up late. Since I became an early bird and found out I’m more productive this way, the comments of those who felt their undisciplined sleeping habits were an advantage kind of pissed me off. That’s why it got stuck in my memory.
The article was first published over a year ago, but it had a huge come back, with hundreds of shares on Facebook, and there was a flurry of blog posts about it. And then there were funny things happening: the title on Facebook wasn’t the same as the original article (it seems someone decided to add “and drunk” to the original “Smarter people go later to bed”) and everyone had an opinion about the study results the article was based on, although they only had access to a short lead, because the full article is behind a paywall.
This is all that was available to read.It's in Portuguese, FYI.
Three questions come to my mind:
- How does an article return to life in the social networks?
-Do people even read what they share?
-How can news media make the best of this resurrection?
Well,the first answer is: it needs to be timeless and address strong feelings in the crowd. It’s hard to know what makes content viral, especially with such a lapse in time, but I’d bet on content that empowers user’s beliefs (or defies them) and generates discussion.
The second answer raises a scary possibility which is that people don’t really read the articles they share, but have strong opinions about the issues they cover, so they act uninformed.
Question number three is all about archive management and social network strategies: how can this accidental engagement of the community be used? Should the article be pulled behind of the paywall and be given eyeball opportunity again? Should the journalist do a follow up on the subject, ask the readers for their opinion, do a poll? Stay up late to assess the veracity of the story by asking intelligent questions or do IQ tests relating them to users sleeping habits?
Articles online are perennial, or they can come back more easily than their paper version. So their zombiefication can be promoted or, at least, be better defended. There are risks in having zombie articles out there, especially if the crowd doesn’t read them or notice the publish date: rumors based on misleading out of time titles can wreak havoc and, in some way, eat our brains.
And a funny fact for you: the vast majority of those who shared the article supported the theory that staying up late was a sign of being smarter. Wishful thinking, I guess.
What do you think about this? Have you shared any zombie articles lately?
Dec/1113
Os mais inteligentes não se deitam mais tarde e lêem tudo até ao fim
Agora que tenho a vossa atenção, passo a explicar: o Público deve andar admirado por ter um artigo do ano passado, fechado a sete chaves por detrás da sua assinatura, com tanto impacto nas redes sociais.
Dois pontos importantes:
- as pessoas não lêem os artigos que partilham no Facebook;
- porque é que um post popular com quase um ano de vida não passa para o domínio….hmm…público?
artigo no site do Público
Há assuntos que parecem ter um encanto especial, particularmente aqueles que validam práticas de vida que não nos são muito favoráveis. eu delirei com o estudo que dizia que a cerveja não provocava barriga e que comer chocolates não engordava e fazia bem à saúde. Este do Público que diz que as pessoas que se deitam mais tarde são mais inteligentes.
Aliás, o que podemos ler no que está disponível no site é o seguinte:
As “corujas” são mais criativas e as “cotovias” mais organizadas. Entre cérebros “artísticos” e “pragmáticos” era essa a diferença imposta pelos ritmos de actividade. Mas agora um estudo veio quebrar este equilíbrio com uma conclusão, no mínimo, controversa: as pessoas que se deitam tarde têm tendência para ser mais inteligentes do que as outras. Por Luís Francisco
sendo o título :
Sono
Os mais inteligentes deitam-se tarde
mas como podem ver na imagem, o que está a ser partilhado no Facebook é:
Os mais inteligentes deitam-se tarde e bêbedos
o que para mim só prova uma coisa: o pessoal partilha tudo a que achar piada sem ler o texto na sua totalidade. E mudam os títulos quando os partilham.
Um artigo em Abril de 2009 no Telegraph anunciava que os que se deitam mais tarde são mais ricos e mais espertos, só para verem como é um tema recorrente nas secções de ciência. Não vou contestar tais estudos, mas acho que se nos andarmos todos a deitar tarde e a más horas para acordar para o trabalho bem cedo a coisa não resulta. Uma das causas mais comuns para acidentes rodoviários é adormecer ao volante, por exemplo.
Eu funciono melhor de manhã mas é porque acho que evito a estupidez geral de quem acha que é muito inteligente porque se deita tarde e não porque fez alguma coisa por isso. De qualquer das formas, tenho dias que antes de almoço já trabalhei 6 horas e ainda faço mais 8 no resto do dia. Como não me pagam por isso, deve ser a prova de que sou meeeeeeeeeeeesmo menos inteligente do que se me deitasse às horas a que me levanto.
No que toca ao jornalismo em si, acho fantástico que um artigo com quase um ano tenha ganho vida através das redes sociais. Eu em antecipação já tinha escrito um post na semana passada a falar disso mesmo (isto é porque acordo cedo e dá-me para escrever coisas).
O que não está a acontecer é a mobilização por parte das publicações em rentabilizar ou compreender o fenómeno, com uma má gestão dos arquivos e, como neste caso, negando-lhes o acesso, mas se houvesse a possibilidade de se fazerem micro pagamentos talvez até rendesse alguma coisa. Eu disse que o Público deve andar admirado, mas se calhar nem por isso.. Também não importa muito porque os utilizadores não passaram do lead, só para verem o que o pessoal está disposto a ler se o título for demasiado apelativo ao ego. Eu prefiro coisas mais ligadas ao estudo.
Se fizermos uma pesquisa no Google com o título do artigo, podemos observar um fenómeno interessante :
pesquisa a 14 de Dezembro de 2011. Vejam o sublinhado a amarelo.
A blogosfera está a ampliar o efeito zombie deste artigo. Imaginem que um artigo sobre a economia portuguesa se torna viral de um momento para o outro, apesar de ter sido publicado há mais de um ano? Um tweet lançou um rumor que levou 10000 pessoas a esvaziar as suas contas bancárias na Letónia.
A crowd não está a fazer bem o seu trabalho de curadoria? O mais extraordinário é que parece que o tema tem sido discutido e dissecado em posts, comentários e fóruns sem que a esmagadora maioria dos utilizadores tenha lido o artigo.
Como é que se podia tirar proveito do buzz à volta deste artigo? Um follow up? Uma aproximação à comunidade, com questões sobre os hábitos de sono dos seus membros? Um teste de QI em que se separavam os resultados por hora de deitar?
Eu aprendi há muito tempo que a inteligência não é uma coisa que se tem, mas algo que se usa, normalmente aliada à curiosidade. Se leram este post até ao fim digo-vos que, para mim, vocês são os leitores mais inteligentes do mundo.
Nov/110
Of Past and Future: Archives and information’s lifespan
It was quite interesting to know that social media is “breathing new life to old stories“. It seems that archive content is becoming viral thanks to (frictionless) sharing. This clearly shows the main difference between paper and digital, linear and non-linear.
The Guardian and The Independent have both integrated their content into Facebook and this has lead to wide and rapid distribution of their content via the social network.
The strange thing is that – without any effort or intention on their part- many of the most popular stories from these papers on Facebook have not been to do with revolution in Egypt or US presidential campaigns, but they have instead been articles from the late 1990s. As the FT Techhub reports, the most shared list on The Independent website has been littered with stories with headlines like: ‘Sean, 12, is youngest father’.
What does this mean for newspapers?
I have always defended that media should have a digital strategy for archives:
Well organized archives are paramount in a medium in which information lives forever. This allows a longer lifespan for content, make it easily available for future reference, it can be used for self reference in future content, and cross referencing for external content and curation.
And it also builds brand. This out of time sharing phenomenon is important to understand how users information habits have changed in the past years and what are their needs, and what is causing this. And the answers are pretty straight forward:
Changes
- users have access to content from different points in time more easily than ever;
- users have the personal interest in sharing what they find relevant. Social Media is a huge factor these days;
- users can comment and build on that information, use it to generate more information, and make it available;
- users can organize that information for themselves, or for their community;
So, you have a news organization. And in your website’s database you have thousands of news articles. What do you have to do to make that content more valuable?
Needs
- content should be tagged accordingly. I spent a lot of time during my training sessions explaining why tags were important for users and journalists- not do they only help classify the contents of a story, but it relates that content to other articles: people, places, events, etc. As a user I can find more information about a specific item, as a journalist I can use an old article as a reference for my current story;
- archives should have better mechanics: lists of items are useless, make them look more like a section of your website, with images and metadata, and other types of data, like visits, shares, number of related articles through tags or if it belongs to a series, and the ability to visually place them in time;
- this content has to be available to be curated using tools similar to Storify or Bundlr (disclaimer: I know and I’m friends with Bundlr’s creators, and I think it would make a great internal curation tool for news websites).
- news content should be broken down to raw data: addresses, statistics, number of victims, poll results, goals scored, minutes played (sports are the best subject for archive use, I once was giving a class in a room filled with year collections of a sports newspaper, gigabytes of information on paper, thousands of charts, profiles, data visualizations to be created).
Causes
And what is causing this? Well, it’s easy, information is perennial (as long the servers are maintained). Even Cristiano Ronaldo used archive information (moving images, for the matter) to create a video showing his time as a young player(Facebook video) in Portugal. Now information can be reused, reviewed, replayed. And some stories just live forever, others find a new life, or a new importance under the right light.
News have now a different life cycle, and the potential is great for new products, relationships and business.
What do you think news companies should do with their archives? Do you think they are putting their previous work to good use? As a user, would you like to have more access to news archives and make new things with that information?
Oct/110
Glass ceilings, transparency, taking risks and a flashback
In all my naïvety I wrote this in my previous blog:
Imagine you’re a reporter
afterchasing a major story, it involves loads of data, there are many different sides to the issue, and people to interview that have specific knowledge about it, be it technical, scientific, or just exclusive. Good journalists always delivered good stories on their own, and covered all the necessary angles to the subject. Working alone means full control of the process, from start to end, and a fair amount of discretion, secrecy, that often resulted in exclusives, the former bread and butter of good newspapers. But what if the process was public, and open to everyone?I’m not saying all of the process, but some parts of it. If a journalist is snooping around, asking questions about something, doors will close anyway, that will open with new information and the need to answer, retaliate, whatever - sometimes a statement comes out of conflicting views. But the saying goes “two heads are better than one”, and if we ask for users to help, many minds will work for the same purpose.
The crowd could gather data, process it, provide input, suggest questions, and the journalist – besides having to do all the things he’s supposed to – would coordinate all of these contributions. This would improve the relationship between the users/readers and the journalist/story/brand. But if you are not a fan of full disclosure before publishing, why not do it afterwards? Release the videos rushes, the full audio, share the documentation and data you gathered in an open database. The advantages? Trust.
The Guardian did this now:
We often report big breaking stories as they happen, but have you ever wondered what stories we’re working on – and what’s about to drop? To help you find out, the Guardian newsdesk is opening its doors.
You can now see (below) a live account of our plans in the form of the daily newslist kept by our editors. It provides a glimpse into the scheduled announcements, events and speeches that make up the news day. You will also be able to view what our editors think about the stories by reading their updates on Twitter in the panel opposite. We will include conversations we have about the day’s news, story ideas we get from our correspondents and the latest information on stories that we get during the day.
We won’t quite show you everything. We can’t tell you about stories that are under embargo or, sometimes, exclusives that we want to keep from our competitors, but most of our plans will be there for all to see, from the parliamentary debates we plan to cover to the theatre we plan to review. We reserve the right to stick to our guns, but would love to know what you think.
Why do I keep on doing this? To convince myself I wasn’t that naive.
Sep/110
Survey: analyzing the need for Multimedia Production in Portugal
For my MA report, I conducted a small survey about multimedia production in Portuguese newsrooms, and although it is not statistically relevant (only 13 responded), it was answered by some of the most important media companies in Portugal, including two reference national dailies and two major TV networks.
The results do not fall far from the expected: there isn’t still a solid investment in the newsrooms to create and publish multimedia/interactive content, in spite of the desire to do so, mainly because they lack the skilled professionals to do so.
Point by point here are the conclusions reached with the survey:
Confronted with the importance of multimedia in today’s news practice they all consider it is at least important but most don’t have the habit of producing them. This may be explained by the insufficient staff available to create them, many times overlapping functions as page makers, and the habit of only use in house production.
Most of the interactive content that comes from external sources is created by LUSA, the national news agency, which sells exclusive infographics or retail videos.
As you can see in the following chart, the types of content are mostly very simple to produce, being photo galleries and videos the most common. Very few take the time to build their own multimedia packages, but these have increased significantly in the last years in other brands that did not respond to the survey, some of them featuring multimedia packages on a regular basis.
When asked if their companies were interested in buying content created by others, the answers were quite conservative. It is understandable that they wish to have control over the process despite paradoxically they don’t produce multimedia content due to staff limitations.
And how much they would be willing to pay for a basic multimedia package? The example given was one with 4 videos plus an interactive chart. Most of them indicated the usual price range here in Portugal for this type of products, between 75 to 150€. This is clearly insufficient, even if we look at it as a one-man-band endeavour. To make them profitable, these packages would have to be made in a 10 to 15 hour period, and have at least 10 orders per month.
I’m currently producing a similar package and first video only took 7 working hours total (it was more than that but i’m not counting with hardware glitches).
But the idea of acquiring multimedia kits, which by definition would be pieces that could be assembled and adapted to each newsroom’s editorial and design guidelines, was more appealing. Again, the issue of control over news content creation is present.
I also asked for their insights about the need for multimedia production in Portuguese newsrooms and the answers were pretty similar: many agreed that though multimedia content is important “newsrooms aren’t ready enough to operate them” and “there isn’t enough money to invest in external production”.
This seems to be a structural problem within news organizations, as pointed out by others: there is a lot of interest in the newsrooms in multimedia contents, finding them valuable “from an editorial point of view” and as a support for their text stories.
However, “because of the unpreparedness of the professionals, or by having the need to recruit new staff or acquire external content, it will be difficult to persuade administrations of the importance of those contents, mainly because websites haven’t been able to impose a profitable business model”.
The idea that media administrations are reluctant to invest in multimedia was also reinforced in other answers.
So, as a freelancer, things don’t seem that bright for me. And all I can say from first hand experience is that there is a strong will to produce multimedia content in portuguese newsrooms. They just don’t have the time or the money in most of them.
What do you make of this picture? Let me know in the comments.
Sep/110
The news website of the future? New portuguese project P3 presents bold layout
P3 is the name of a youth oriented news website, under the umbrella of Público, one of the reference news brands in Portugal. With a small team they tried to create a new concept that affects not only the design but also the relationship with users and functionality. They premiered around midnight this 22nd of September, and it looks really great.
I already had a sneak preview back in June and I should say I was looking forward for them to come out. Few times a new news website can be looked as a milestone in the industry, but I truly believe this is going to be one of those moments. I wish only the best to the team, where I have some friends.
Explore the website and share your thoughts about the look and feel of the layout.
More news about P3 soon.
Sep/110
Newspapers’ Paywalls&Online subscribers in Portugal
If evidence that one solution does not fit all was needed, let’s just take a look at the online subscribers numbers in Portugal. So, you think a paywall will do?
These are the newspapers and magazines that adopted a online subscription model, none of them being too closed, we can still see most of the stories online. What else do they offer behind the wall? I honestly don’t know. Followin the number of subscribers is the number of copies sold on average in the first 6 months of 2011, except when noted.
A funny thing happened while collecting these numbers, mostly from articles on their own websites: they all boasted rises and superiority over the competition. It’s perfectly acceptable and understandable as a marketing strategy, but there’s nothing to boast about, overall sales are dropping. The last bit of information is the number of unique visitors to their website.
So, as you can see, there is a residual number of subscribers compared to the total number of newspaper buyers and unique visitors. Different markets require different strategies, and paywalls do not seem to be the solution for Portuguese media. Do you agree? Or maybe we could all make this test.
Data taken from here and here.
