WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

Jonathan Stray checks for the Nieman Journalism Lab the real sources of the recent breaking-news story about the China/Google hacking case and finds that”

– Out of 121 unique stories, 13 (11 percent) contained some amount of original reporting. I counted a story as containing original reporting if it included at least an original quote. From there, things get fuzzy. Several reports, especially the more technical ones, also brought in information from obscure blogs. In some sense they didn’t publish anything new, but I can’t help feeling that these outlets were doing something worthwhile even so. Meanwhile, many newsrooms diligently called up the Chinese schools to hear exactly the same denial, which may not be adding much value.

- Only seven stories (six percent) were primarily based on original reporting. These were produced by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Tech News World, Bloomberg, Xinhua (China), and the Global Times (China).

- Of the 13 stories with original reporting, eight were produced by outlets that primarily publish on paper,  four were produced by wire services, and one was produced by a primarily online outlet. For this story, the news really does come from newspapers.

So how are we going co cover real news without original reporting?

And who is going to pay for real reporters?

And real journalism?

Let’s get real.

Why Apple keeps cash and its short-term and long-term investments coming in at $40 billion?

Apple is holding onto cash to take “big, bold” risks, Jobs said at the company’s shareholder meeting today

One financial website says: perhaps because Apple wants to buy Nintendo!

Not a bad idea.

Big news from the Apple shareholders meeting today in Cupertino:

Very soon, 25 Apple stores in China.

iPhone now in 70 countries.

Apple is now the top notebook provider to education in US.

Elmer-DeWitt reported the best line of the meeting:

“Steve is as feisty as ever (suggesting that questioners come to an actual question) and in good humor! …Another shareholder then asked a long winded question about what Apple/Jobs fears, “What keeps you awake at night?” Jobs deadpans: “Shareholders meetings.” Audience erupts in laughter.”

After the annual meeting, the Apple shares are UP.

WOW!

“Fakelaki” means in Greek “small envelope.”

Unfortunately, giving envelopes with money when making requests is a set custom in Greece.

Envelopes to secure authorizations, permissions, certifications or construction approvals can contain up to thousands and tens of thousands of euros.

According to the Corruption Perceptions Index on 180 countries made by Transparency International in 2009, Greece ranked 71st overall and had the worst corruption among EU nations.

So, what real newspapers did in Greece?

Well, getting “felakai”.

Looking away.

Not doing watchdog journalism but enjoying close and profitable relations with politicians, builders, bankers and other Big Business.

A few year ago, INNOVATION relaunched ET, a newspaper that had the opportunity to become THE first real newspaper of the country.

Theodoros Aggelopoulos and Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki had a dream, and we too.

Some brave ET editors and journalists did their best… but it didn’t work because the publishers surrendered to political advisers that wanted “more of the same” under a new format and a fantastic design.

Reading today this story I felt very sad because a real free press (this was the name of our paper, Eleftheros Typos, Free Press), could have made the difference in this country.

So, instead, they have now the lowest newspaper circulation rates of Europe.

Why?

Because readers and advertisers know better.

I remember that many years ago the CEO of the World Association of Newspaper (WAN), Timothy Balding, wanted to convince the World Bank that the best and cheapest way to solve many international financial crisis was just to support, fund and help entrepreneurs willing to start real newspapers in these countries.

He was right.

Perhaps Greece needs today more “real newspapers” than money from Germany, France or the EU.

Yes, the last Greek governments, PASOK or New Democracy, share the main responsibility of this mess.

But many newspaper publishers, editors, and reporters must accept that their own inaction and complicity with the system has made the corruption an acceptable “way of life”.

A Greek friend of mine that I respect a lot told me:

“Publishers and journalists are quite responsible for this situation as  the politicians.Last years, newspapers gained subsidies from the government as state-advertisement. Ministers, governors of public sectors organisations spent millions to finance newspapers without circulation.”

The result?

No credibility.

No journalism.

Just propaganda.

No readers.

No advertisers.

No free press.

And now the country is “shooting itself in the foot”.

What a dramatic lesson!

But I am sure than soon or later, real journalism will be alive and prosper in such great country.

Let’s hope.

(Pictures by AP/Bela Szandelszky and Petros Karadjias)

The social networking trend is clear.

That’s also good news for compelling and relevant content providers.

Without this kind of content chatting becomes sharing gossip.

And bad  news from one-direction media.

As Jeff Jarvis said: “We can no longer expect our consumers/readers/users to come to us and wait for us; we must anticipate their needs by listening to their signals and go to them.”

Your audience was part of your business, now is part of the message.

(Thanks to Tom Corbett)

A fascinating session at the Goldman Sachs technology conference with Tim Cook.

“We say no to good ideas every day.

We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose.

The table each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, yet Apple’s revenue last year was $40 billion.

I think any other company that could say that is an oil company.

That’s not just saying yes to the right products, it’s saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones.

I think this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris you talk about that happens to companies that are successful and sole role in life is to get bigger, I can tell you the management team at Apple would never let that happen.

That’s not what we’re about. Small list of things to focus on.”

Brilliant!

As I said in my Tablemania blog a few weeks ago, Tim Cook is the perfect candidate to become the next Steve Jobs.

(Illustation by Luis Grañena for Tabletmania/lainformacion.com)

Downloads: about 100 songs per second.

The Apple iTunes store pened for business in April 2003, generating revenues of $520 million in the last quarter alone.

Today the store will reach the 10 billion song downloads mark.

Michael Wolf writes too much and thinks too little.

This cheap shot against Apple is a good example.

Apple is a private company.

In a free market.

So, they have freedom to chose the way to do business.

And, we, the customers, freedom to buy or not to buy the Apple products.

It’s clear that Steve Jobs is not Rupert Murdoch.

It’s clear that Apple is not News International.

It’s clear that Apple wants to have a consistent image in all its products.

Mr. Murdoch can publish The Sun and The Times, The New York Post and The New York Post at the same time in the same markets.

It’s his choice.

Yo can like it, or not, but he makes the decisions, and you and I the decisions to buy or not to buy his newspapers.

The  editors of Times of London, have decided not have a page 3 girl.

And Publico in Spain not to make money with prostitution classifieds.

They have freedom.

And we must respect their decisions.

So, why Apple cannot decide to keep the iPhone applications clean of viruses, garbage, poor software and content that could upset parents or young customers?

They don’t want to become another Myspace full of crazy content.

So, what, Michael?

If you want page 3 girls buy The Sun, but not object to The Times.

If you want more girls, and some porno, you don’t need Apple.

It’s free in many websites.

In many magazines.

In many newspapers.

And, I am sure, in many smart phones.

But not in the Apple iPhone.

Steve Jobs rules, takes the shots and leads.

Is his company, not yours.

And you and I have many options.

Like Apple.

If you are leader, you don’t follow, you lead.

That’s cheap.

I used to be subscriber of the WSJ online.

And this is the offer that I got today: a $50 one.

So, If I go to newsstand here in St. Davids I will have to pay almost $3 for a WSJ printed copy.

But if I re-subscribe to the online edition, I will spend only less than $0.16 per day.

Is this the way to save print publications?

Is this the way to make money online?

I am not sure.

Today is Steve Jobs 55-year birthday.

Tomorrow is the annual Apple shareholders meeting in Cupertino.

Last year Steve was absent.

But tomorrow he will be there.

Expect some good news about the iPad.