‘Dark days for the Fourth Estate’ in Pakistan

These are dangerous times to be a journalist in Pakistan.The country ranks alongside Syria and Somalia in terms of journalists’ deaths. In six bloody weeks of 2013, six media workers died, bringing to 90 those who have lost their lives during the past five years, according to a tally by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.

Real-time social analytics: how editors become cyborgs

Successful online publishing relies on effective use of web analytics. In order to assess how a story will perform online and where it should be placed, most editors take input from Google Analytics or monitor trends in social media sharing. In many newsrooms there is a dedicated person who monitors statistics and makes recommendations to the editorial team on a frequent basis.

SXSW: Survival techniques for nonprofit news organisations

As the traditional business model for news flounders, nonprofits have played an increasingly more significant role in maintaining news coverage, particularly in the US. A panel at South by South West Interactive on Nonprofit Journalism: Survival of the Scrappiest gave nonprofits concrete advice on how to tackle some of their key challenges.

SXSW: using sources in the social media age

There has been a fundamental shift in journalists’ relationship with social media, said panelists of the Sources in the Social Media Age session at South by South West Interactive. “Journalists used to apologise for being on Twitter at work,” said Greg Galant, CEO of Sawhorse Media, “now they apologise for not being on it.”

Meme raises questions of racist reporting: Does media have Missing White Woman Syndrome?

An annotated photo of a crime brief from Chicago Tribune’s RedEye spread virally Monday, leading to a barrage of questions about whether news outlets suffer from “Missing White Woman Syndrome (MWWS)”, the tendency to cast aside crime stories with minority victims and instead favor those that affect caucasian females.

Print media is a highly trustworthy advertising channel

A recent pan-European survey conducted by VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, asked more than 700 consumers in 13 countries about their media usage and their attitude towards advertising. Print Power, an organisation dedicated to promoting print media (http://www.printpower.eu/en), presented this week the results that underline the strength of print media.

Upworthy’s success demonstrates importance of clickable headlines

Viral sharing site Upworthy is like “chocolate sauce on brussel sprouts,” David Carr wrote, and the site’s more than 9 million monthly viewers are licking their lips. The mission of the site, founded last March by former leaders of Facebook, Reddit and BuzzFeed: Give information-packed links a makeover with eye-catching, clickable headlines, and watch as they go viral; watch as headlines inspire people to learn about issues such as gay rights, women’s empowerment and climate change.

Despite journalist’s outrage, Atlantic’s unpaid freelance request is not unique

The Atlantic apologized for offending veteran journalist Nate Thayer when an editor asked him to cut one of his articles for online publication — without pay. Global Editor Olga Khazan told Thayer that the magazine had depleted its freelance budget but suggested Thayer might benefit from exposure on The Atlantic’s website. Thayer vehemently refused, even though unpaid work is an increasing reality for digital freelancers.

Washington Post’s sponsored content launch suggests advertorials here to stay

The Washington Post recently launched its sponsored content platform “BrandConnect,” which allows marketers to create and display blogs, videos and infographics on the newspaper’s website. The Post will be the first major U.S. newspaper to share its platform with advertisers, Digiday reported, and analysts suggest that it certainly won’t be the last.