May 15, 2012
On May 18-19, the Knight Digital Media Center-USC and the City University of New York are offering a special workshop on mobile opportunities for publishers of community and ethnic media outlets in the New York metro area.
This event is invitation-only, but the workshop resources are available to anyone online…
See the Community Mobile Tumblr blog.
Topics covered include:
- Tools and services to jumpstart your new outlet’s mobile strategy
- Engaging your community via mobile and social media
- Mobile revenue opportunities
- Recent research and statistics on mobile trends and user demographics
- Examples of mobile projects relevant to ethnic and community media
Many resources on these and other topics are already listed there, and we’ll add more before, during, and after the workshop.
The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
April 24, 2012
This week the Online News Association began accepting applications for the 2012 MJ Bear Fellowships—which offer three young digital journalists mentoring and connections to support their efforts and vision…
Eligible for these fellowships are “up-and-coming early-career journalists inside or outside the newsroom who are just beginning to make their voices heard in the industry and working to expand the boundaries of digital news.”
Two fellowships are for North American journalists; one for a journalist from elsewhere around the globe. Open to any working digital journalist age 23-30 (as of Sept. 21, 2012), fluent in English, excluding full-time students.
The fellowship includes:
- Assignment of a personal ONA mentor for six months.
- Registration, travel and accommodations for the 2012 Online News Association Conference.
- Recognition at the ONA12 conference
- Membership in ONA, with three years’ dues paid in full.
Learn more and apply now
Deadline: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 11:59 pm ET
The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
By Amy Gahran, 04/24/12 at 2:19 pm
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April 16, 2012
A new service from Google offers digital publishers a new way to earn money, without trying to get consumers to pay directly for content. Voluntary short “microsurveys” offer consumers a way to access content free of charge, which providing marketers with useful data. Could this work on community and niche news sites?...
Google announced its Google Consumer Survey service at the end of March. Since then some publishers have been kicking the tires on it.
Some publishers have been field testing Google microsurveys Journalism.co.uk reported that over the last eight months of testing, the Texas Tribune is earning about $5,000 per month from this service.
How do these one-question surveys work? According to Google product manager Paul McDonald, “When a site has implemented this option, the user will see a prompt that offers a choice between answering a market research question or completing another action specified by the publisher (such as signing up for an account or purchasing access). All responses are completely anonymous—they aren’t tied to your identity or later used to target ads. Publishers get paid for hosting surveys.”
According to Journalism.co.uk, “Market research companies pay Google 10¢ a question and Google passes 5¢ of that on to the publisher.”
Does this sound familiar? A while back the journalism crowdfunding site Spot.us began offering community funded sponsorships where marketers create short surveys, and they pay Spot.us to offer those surveys to users. Spot.us users who opt to take those surveys earn $5 credit to help fund the story pitch of their choice.
“I hate to sound like that guy at the bar who says ‘that was my idea,’ as I cry into my whiskey because it’s not just about the idea/concept. It’s execution,” Spot.us founder David Cohn recently wrote. “And certainly anything Spot.Us (or really any startup) does can be executed at a grander scale by the big three (Twitter/Facebook/Google).”
Can the survey approach pay off? Cohn noted:
“Some people value money greatly and won’t spend it on journalism. For this large subset of society, the surveys are ideal. What we found on Spot.Us was that the number of folks who valued time over money (preferred to donate rather than take a survey) was below 1%, whereas when we offered a survey the number of people who engaged rose to be closer to 10%. Moreover, these people were more than willing to take new surveys as they came about. Some members of Spot.Us have taken every single survey we’ve ever offered. (With a sales force of one—this is not exorbitantly high—but still a positive indicator.)
“On a long enough time line an individual who took surveys was more valuable to the organization than an individual who donated hard cash. People who gave money on average gave $40 twice—separated by 60 days. So after 70 or so days I could say a donor was worth $80 to the organization. But in 160 days I couldn’t say they’d be worth more. A survey taker was worth $5 a pop, which means after 16 surveys they are just as valuable as a donor. Anything after that is gravy and perhaps a reason to shift gears.”
Want to try Google Consumer Surveys on your site? Complete the publisher signup form.
The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
April 11, 2012
Today the Center for Investigative Reporting announced it will launch an investigative news YouTube channel this summer. Also, tomorrow CIR is co-hosting an event bringing together investigative journalists and technologists…
According to CIR, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is providing $800,000 to support the new investigative news video channel on YouTube, which CIR will curate. It will launch in July.
Besides selecting videos to run on this channel, CIR also will train journalists in “audience engagement and other best practices for online video.”
The Investigative News Network will work with its member organizations to “leverage the channel to reach new audiences and increase the amount of earned revenue to subsidize their public-interest journalism.” CIR and INN will both promote this channel and engage users via social media and online chats.
TechRaking, April 12. This invitation-only one-day conference is being held at the “Googleplex” in Mountain View, Calif. It will “bring together technologists and muckrakers to form a more perfect union by exploring the problems and opportunities that lay before us.”
See the schedule. Topics include collaboration; money, politics and data; 15-minute interactives, and much more.
Track the action online:
The News for Digital Journalists blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
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