The Financial Times launches rapid-fire news service, fastFT

The Financial Times has launched a digital breaking-news platform to facilitate the rapid delivery of “market-moving news and views 24 hours a day” in the form of 150-300 word stories. By providing up-to-the-minute reporting, it is hoped that this new application will encourage the “active news consumer” to stay loyal to the FT for their daily fix of financial news.

Circa appoints Reuters’ Anthony De Rosa as new editor-in-chief

Circa, a San Francisco news startup that aims to transform the way that news is accessed on mobile phones, has announced that Anthony de Rosa, currently social media editor at Reuters, will be joining its team of 12 editors as editor-in-chief.

Ekstra Bladet launches digital paid subscription model

Denmark’s largest news website, ekstrabladet.dk launched EKSTRA, a paid subscription system based on the “freemium” model, on 13 May. Content that was previously accessible on the site for free remains so, whilst EKSTRA will offer extra “quality journalism” in the form of in-depth reports and analyses on complex current affairs issues for 29 DKK (3.90 €) per month, with a 30 day free trial.

Newsroom safety in Mexico: reporting on violence while seeking to avoid retribution

Javier Garza Ramos is deputy editorial director of El Siglo de Torreón and is newsroom safety advisor to the World Editors Forum. As he explains below, his paper suffers from frequent attacks on its premises and its journalists are under constant threat of kidnapping.

He will speak at the World Editors Forum in Bangkok next week on newsroom protocols to protect staff.

The Guardian launches its Australian digital edition

The Guardian has today unveiled a free online edition to cater particularly for its Australian audience, which comprises a considerable 1.1 million regular readers. Katherine Viner, new editor-in-chief of Guardian Australia, has promised a “fresh and independent view” on Australian and international news, and a “digital storytelling” approach to “engage readers in new ways.”

The loneliness of the profit-making broadsheet

Besides the FT, the Daily Telegraph and its now full integrated stablemate, the Sunday Telegraph, remain the only profitable ‘quality’ or broadsheet paper in the UK. On a recent WAN-IFRA visit we asked how the newsroom supports this (and how come so many people still wear ties?)

Worldcrunch Impact bets on Kickstarter to launch ‘solutions journalism’ initiative

Worldcrunch, an English-language global news startup launched two years ago in Paris, is embarking on a new project, ‘Worldcrunch Impact’, with the ambitious aim of healing the ills of journalism as it currently stands – that is, changing the fact that digital media covers news in a manner that is “too fast, too thin, too loud.” The project’s launch depends entirely on the success of its Kickstarter funding campaign.

6 talking points from our visit to BuzzFeed UK

Last week our WEF study tour group dropped into the newly opened BuzzFeed UK offices in London to chat with Luke Lewis. Everybody is talking about BuzzFeed – but what do you really need to know?

Our interview with Arianna Huffington: an excerpt

Arianna Huffington’s spreading the word. She wants to start a new conversation. It’s what she and the Huffington Post do better than most in the news media industry. This time it’s all about redefining success. “We need a third metric, beyond money and power, that places value on our well-being, wisdom and our ability to make a difference in the world,” she says.

Justice Department target Fox News reporter in North Korea leak case

Just a week after the AP/Department of Justice affair, the White House has become involved in a second potential scandal involving the alleged surveillance of Fox News journalist, James Rosen, as part of an inquest into a leak of classified information regarding North Korean nuclear test plans in 2009.