Local Texas PJ Gets the Right Shot

Corpus Chrisi Caller Times photographer George Congora went beyond on the Dick Cheney shooting story: He took his 28-gauge shotgun, a target, and a video camera out to a field, and re-enacted the accident.

When he holds up the target, with dozens of pellet holes around the face, neck, and chest shining in the light, readers can truly see - and feel - the story.

Less expensive than an infographic, and more compelling, no?

AOL Launches Chinese-Language Portal

Online Media Daily reports that AOL has launched a Chinese-language web portal. The web portal will initially be a translation of the English portal, but will update its content as AOL learns about its readers. The portal will also offer video content and programming from China.

AOL has made a smart move in targeting the Chinese-Americans and Chinese-speaking community. Market segmentation will be a challenge because of the differences in culture between the newer generation vs. the older generation. However, Chinese is the 2nd most spoken household language in the US (after Spanish, and not including English) and will be an increasingly influential group of people given the business dynamics in Eastern world.

This is another example of media companies developing a niche strategy, yet again suggesting that the mass market strategy is not a viable way to reach the market.

Blog of the French daily newspaper Alsace - Olivier Vault: "Readers are using the blog to challenge us"

On January 30th, the French regional daily newspaper l'Alsace launched its blog (here -- in French). Since then, comments have been regularly posted. The conversation is on its way. Olivier Vault, journalist and head of the multi-media department at the newspaper, who led the project, responds to our questions:

There are more than 300 comments to the post regarding the caricatures of Muhammad. Other posts are also regularly commented. How does the newsroom react?
There are two attitudes, the journalists who are not interested and those who understand that they have something to gain and nothing to lose. For those in the latter category, they got it after a post on the result of the match of the French football cup, Colmar vs. Monaco (a small team against a famous professional one). I put it online right away on February 1 around 11 PM. The blog had not yet even been announced in the print newspaper. The number of comments (used on the following day by the sporting pages) was significant. And so, the newsroom realized that it was something interesting, at least to collect quotes. Since then, we have used some comments from the post about the Muhammad's caricatures (here -- in French), in the print version.
We created an "Interactive" page for the print version. The target of this page is to regularly display some content from the blog. It was in my head to be launched in March. But the avalanche of reactions on the caricatures pushed us to do it more quickly. In the future, the page should become weekly.

Is somebody in charge of reading all the comments?
Of course! Actually, we wanted to launch once we had the team in place to handle the moderation (a posteriori) aspect. It is an enormous amount of work, but necessary for legal and branding issues. But what I had underestimated was that readers are using the blog to challenge us. Then, it is necessary to answer them as soon as possible.

Did you censure comments?
Until now, 25 comments have been censured, all on the post "caricatures of Muhammad". There were insults, racist remarks, even historical revisionism. But overall, I have been surprised by the quietness of the debate on such a sensitive subject, even if all the comments are not interesting. Some were totally incomprehensible. We try to be very tolerant with regards to moderation. If it is neither abusive nor illegal, we leave them. Over time, this seems to be a good formula, ensuring the continuation of the conversation.

How did you organize the blog promo?
Initially (the first five days), promotion was done exclusively online, in particular with our RSS feeds. Then, our editorial page "news of the day" was devoted to the experience, its raison d'être and the social phenomenon of the blogs. This editorial promotion was followed by the usage of the comments in the print, where we systematically send the readers back to the blog. The "Interactive" page announces the discussion feeds available. Lastly, a radio promotion is planned for the weeks to come, to reach those who do not read -- for the moment -- the newspaper, print or digital versions.

Are you going to launch a blog platform for readers?
We are thinking about it. But the economic model is more difficult to figure out and the moderation can become a colossal undertaking...

Rooftop Logos

What's next? People painting their Skype IDs and GMail addresses on rooftops, for jobs and personals?

AOL, Yahoo and E-mail Freakonomics

According to the New York Times and other sources, AOL and Yahoo are set to impose a small (1/4-cent to 1-cent) fee on bulk mailings, to speed those messages into registered users' Inboxes and (so the companies say) cut down on spam. Individuals will be exempt, but companies will have to pay.

The idea that the market could solve spam is admirable, although other considerations could likely make it falter. And many believe it's just an attempt to garner new, badly needed revenues.

On the business side, it imposes too great a cost on small businesses, for which every penny counts. For big business, it means they'll cut down on messages that don't generate revenue - thank-you or welcome emails, confirmations, or other customer-service messages - and only send messages that bolster the bottom line. Customers will get more spam from companies they do business with, less information about important service or upgrade issues, and ultimately pay more.

Why? Because the costs imposed by Yahoo and AOL will be pushed back onto the consumer receiving the emails - who is already paying his or her ISP for connectivity. So customers will not only have to pay for the pipe, they'll have to pay more for the content coming through that pipe, in the form of higher prices.

On the competitive side, though, there will always be competitors out there who will offer free email. We can see the wheels turning now in the mind of an engineer somewhere, on how easy it will be to offer a truly free, open-source email service. If open-sourcenauts can offer software, offering open-source services won't be far beyond. And as Netscape found out to their dismay, how can you compete with free?

Letting friends and family know of a new phone number is time-consuming and cumbersome. Letting them know you're switching from AOL and Yahoo to a truly free email system - open-source or (yes) Google - is as simple as clicking "Send."

The Daily Newspaper Needs To Clearly Define The Promise

"What problems are people trying to solve in their lives, and how can we help?" These are key questions that a news organization needs to raise as it publishes a daily newspaper, explains Stephen Gray, managing director of the initiative launched by the American Press Institute (read our other post). And we will add another question: Which medium is most suited to provide each of the different types of information?

In other words, it is a question of clearly defining the PROMISE made to the readers based on their needs. Then we need to determine which medium (or media) is best to fulfill each part of the promise.

This promise, which we also call "the contract with the readers", should be written in black & white. It needs to be approved by every team that contributes to the fulfillment of the promise. And we would even go as far to ask, why not have each new employee sign it? It will instill a sense of a common mission across the news organization.

The more we work with newsrooms and in particular with daily newspapers, we see that the service to readers is not clear. And that the organization which is publishing the newspaper on a daily basis does not have a common mission across its staff. Readers can feel this gap in service. So we come back to this: daily newspapers need to clearly define the promise to readers and deliver on that promise. Readers will know the difference.