News

Washington Post sale: round-up of reactions

Legacy newspaper sales: you wait around for one and then two come along at once. In the same week that The New York Times Company sold The Boston Globe to billionaire sports entrepreneur John Henry, the news that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos had bought The Washington Post shocked a media industry unaware that the newspaper of Watergate fame was up for sale. Though the Globe sale generated its fair share of column inches, the revelation that Don Graham would be saying goodbye to the paper run by his family for 80 years prompted a flurry of comment and analysis. To help keep track of reactions to one of the year’s biggest industry shocks we’ve put together an overview of the WaPo sale, covering the deal’s key players, opinion pieces from media journos and the sale viewed from a business perspective. And the Borowitz Report.

As NYT prepares for global growth, WSJ censored in China

The New York Times’s decision to rebrand its international sister publication, the International Herald Tribune, is the latest step in the paper’s plans to present the NYT brand as a truly international entity. By relaunching the Paris-based title as the International New York Times, the New York Times Co. hopes to bolster the title’s world-wide audience figures by stressing its ability to produce internationally pertinent content. But as the Wall Street Journal saw its Chinese-language site censored by China’s government over the weekend, questions abound as to how successful attempts at true global reach will prove to be for Western news organisations confronted with radically different media markets.

Sun paywall launches today, but editor assures ‘we are not becoming digital-first’

Sun+ launches today, making The Sun the first national British tabloid and the last of News UK’s titles to erect a paywall. Despite revamped apps and other offerings to entice new subscribers, Digital Editor Derek Brown promised, “We are not becoming digital-first.”

For the El Tiempo publishing house in Colombia, alliances are the key

Jon Ruiz, CEO of Casa Editorial El Tiempo, editor of Colombia’s leading national newspaper and many other publications, joined the company in 2004, having worked for Unilever for five years and Philip Morris for 15 years. On October 30-31, he will give a presentation at the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Latin America 2013 conference in Bogotá. We spoke to him before the event to get an idea of ​​the challenges that a successful Latin American publisher faces in the Internet age.

OC Register goes against all reason

How can a newspaper succeed that, according to the prevailing opinion in the industry, acts in contrary of all rules of rationality – and this just in the U.S.? The Orange County Register shows how.

Report: Thomson Reuters plans radical restructuring project

Thomson Reuters, the international press agency specialising in financial news and coverage, may soon implement a radical shake-up of its services, if reports from website The Baron prove to be accurate. Run by former Reuters journalists, this site claims to have seen documents mapping out proposals for two alternative five-year economic plans for the press company.

Business Insider gives sponsor limited content control; is it ethical?

Business Insider’s “The Future of Business” section gives underwriter SAP limited editorial control, raising ethical concerns. Though SAP can’t shoot down headlines or specific language, the company has ultimate veto power for all posts published on the blog it sponsors, Ad Age reported. This prevents BI from covering any of SAP’s competitors for “The Future of Business,” which mixes staff-written pieces with others by SAP.

Bernard Tapie becomes sole shareholder of La Provence after split with Hersant family

In the south of France, regional news titles La Provence and Nice-Matin are finding that things aren’t so quiet in the country. Yet the local news hitting the national papers has nothing to do with events reported by these two papers, and everything to do with the issues surrounding their ownership.

Axel Springer sells its regional papers to Funke Mediengruppe in 920 million euro deal

German publishing houses Axel Springer and Funke Mediengruppe said yesterday (25 July) they have reached an agreement whereby Funke will acquire Axel Springer’s regional newspapers, TV program guides and women’s magazines.

ABC emulates BBC with links to commercial news sites

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will pilot a new service designed to funnel its online audience to other news media sites. Managing director of the ABC Mark Scott will unveil the plans in a speech to the Australia American Chamber of Commerce in Sydney, reports The Australian, which managed to get an advanced copy of Scott’s announcement.