Ten top UK dailies publish airline-sponsored interviews

In an unusual twist on sponsored content, on Monday 10 top British newspapers, including the Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph, published Justin Rose interviews, apparently sponsored by British Airways.

Tribune Co. and News Corp: a tale of two very different splits

When the Tribune Company first announced its decision to split into two separate companies, one dedicated to broadcast and the other to publishing, comparisons were inevitably made with a similar move made by News Corporation in June. However, Ken Doctor’s analysis of the ‘newsonomics’ of the Tribune’s spin-off would seem to suggest that two cases may not be so similar after all.

BuzzFeed’s Community section: Publications recruit staff with UGC

BuzzFeed’s Community vertical takes user-generated content to the next level by giving readers the same publishing tools as reporters and even featuring audience-submitted pieces on the front page. The platform reprises the much-discussed question of how to define a journalist, as BuzzFeed uses the section as a recruiting tool.

New York Times announces latest additions to growing digital family

Last Friday saw New York Times’ Executive Editor Jill Abramson reveal a series of new projects as part of a long-running initiative to improve and expand the title’s digital reach and offerings. In a missive addressed to the NYT’s staff, Abramson announced her plans for a new long-form digital-only magazine that will provide an “immersive” reading experience “that will include new, multimedia narratives.”

Android dominates smartphone market, but publishers haven’t monetised it

Google’s Android is now the undisputed champion of the smartphone market, beating Apple’s iOS across the globe. Yet publishers consistently prioritise iPhone development over that of Android, often launching iOS apps before Android counterparts (a recent example: NPR). Apple’s purchasing ecosystem and wealthy clientele have proved more lucrative, but several developments, including the rumored launch of Google Play News, could shift this dynamic and help publishers monetise on the operating system.

New-look paywalls could charge less to earn more

If media executives had a £1/$1 (insert currency here) for every time they thought about how to monetise online content, they would never again need to worry about financing their publications. Unfortunately this isn’t the case, and for the past 10 years many media organisations have not stopped in their search to develop new payment models to replace falling print revenue. Just this week two innovative models in the paid-content field have come to the fore, and both seek to increase revenue at the same time as charging readers less.

Newspaper websites overwhelm readers, should declutter

Picking up a newspaper, a reader expects to see an editor’s judgement of the most important stories that day. But this hope is false-placed on the web, with many newspapers so overindulging in cheap online space that homepages become cluttered to the point of ruining the user experience.

French press to pay higher postal tariffs due to government funding cuts

The French government has announced that it will eliminate its 32.5 million euros of annual funding to the national postal services in response to increasing pressure to reduce public spending, hereby forcing the press industry to pay higher postal tariffs, reported Les Echos.

Japan’s biggest mafia group launches magazine for its members

If reports in several Japanese newspapers are correct, the printed press may have found an unlikely advocate in the form of one of Japan’s most notorious mafia organisations, the Yamaguchi-gumi. The criminal group is said to have created an 8-page magazine named Yamaguchi-gumi Shinpo (The Yamaguchi Clan Gazette) that is distributed exclusively amongst its approximately 28,000 members.

Press+ takes its meter subscription model global

RR Donnelley’s Press+, which provides a digital subscription metering solution for publishers, recently announced it is expanding globally and has added London-based John Michael Hull as business development director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Hull was previously the business development manager for Piano Media.