Archive for the ‘Online Newspapers’ Category
For the fourth time in seven years, Fresno Christian High Schools online newspaper has been honored as one of the nations best.
The Feather Online (www.thefeather.com) was one of 15 online newspapers to win a Pacemaker, the highest award given by the National Scholastic Press Association.
Feather adviser Greg Stobbe and six student-editors accepted the award last weekend at a conference in Seattle. Stobbe said he is proud that his students work was recognized with such a prestigious award.
Many people and organizations call this the Pulitzer Prize competition for high school journalists, he said.
Among the 31 Pacemaker finalists was the Grizzly Gazette (www.grizzlygazette.net), the online newspaper for Granite Hills High School in Porterville. The Gazette won Pacemakers in 2007 and 2008 and also was a finalist in 2006.
AdvertisingAgency.comhas done its share in offering business clients quality advertising solutions. In addition to their already efficient line of advertising solutions, AdvertorialAgency.com recently introduced an innovative “have-your-own business column” solution.
The new offerings targets entrepreneurs who are in search of strategic advertising which is content-driven. The columns will be published in online newspaper editions. This innovative advertising solution offers a number of great advantages and opportunities for entrepreneurs seeking to promote new initiatives.
Through online newspaper columns AdvertorialAgency.com promotes advertisements in a dynamic form, enabling businesses to adequately promote business activities in general and new products specifically. Many people nowadays read online newspapers; so such columns provide guaranteed great visibility compared to other sources.
Furthermore, AvertorialAgency.com hires proficient editorial personnel to carry out pertinent tasks in creating informative and entertaining columns which compel your target audience. Such advertorial-based columns encourage sales increases and warrants a continuous stream of visitors to your business, whether online or in-store.
In-column online newspaper advertising is a cost-effective method in comparison to print and broadcast advertising. Additionally, it provides the benefits of achieving an improved market share in various locations.
Businesses through advertorial-based columns can choose to present varied content that relevantly promotes a business, including pertinent information about the company in addition to manufactured goods and services. AdvertorialAgency.com dedicates time and effort to develop opportunities like this for businesses all over the world.
AdvertorialAgency.com’s online column space for businesses is developed to inspire new loyal customers, who will read ads on a regular basis which take the form of informative and entertaining value-added content. This type of advertising method does not pose a difficulty to entrepreneurs with the intention of compelling a massive audience. Online in-column newspaper advertising enables businesses to reach out to a wide-reaching audience competently and with confidence. The approach has proven to be effective for increasing sales. This is because through daily-maintained columns business owners can build a long-standing relationship with loyal consumers who frequent the columns.
One of the notable benefits AdvertorialAgency.com offers is that entrepreneurs get consultation on how to approach their audience efficiently. Moreover, AdvertorialAgency.com consulting services reduces advertising cost.
AdvertorialAgency.com’s service requires little time and effort with great promises of market expansion through content-driven advertising.
AdvertorialAgency.com puts businesses ahead of the competition in advertising and warrants that clients are satisfied in the end.
AdvertorialAgency.com is giving business owners the opportunity to attract educated professionals who have lots of disposable income who otherwise would not be interested in various business products and services.
OGDEN, Utah (AP) — When Zaynab Alshakhiss won her bid for the Weber State University student Senate, it didn’t draw much attention in Ogden, but when the news hit in Alshakhiss’ native Saudi Arabia, the media mobilized.
Over spring break, more than a dozen print and online newspapers approached Weber State representatives and Alshakhiss for the story of her groundbreaking win as the international student senator for the 2012-13 year.
Alshakhiss is, after all, a woman elected to represent not only female Saudi students at Weber State, but also male Saudi students. She will also represent non-Saudi international students.
Weber State has more than 500 international students.
”It makes it a big deal because I’m a girl,” said Alshakhiss, a 22-year-old computer science major.
”It’s unusual. Most of the time, leadership positions where I am from are for males. It makes it kind of a big thing. Most of the newspapers were actually supportive. They were so excited for the news.”
Hamad Al Yami, a former WSU student senator who now works at the WSU International Student and Scholar Center, alerted at least some of the media.
”Everybody was so excited about the achievement of a Saudi woman getting in a leadership position,” he said. “It means a lot for the Saudi women to see a Saudi woman involved with making decisions and representing all the international students at Weber State.
”She is one of about 70,000 Saudi students in the United States, and there are no other Saudi women in her position. There are a few Saudi women who do lead groups of only Saudi students.”
Alshakhiss said it was Al Yami who helped her see her leadership potential.
”We had been working together to organize students in a club,” Alshakhiss said of her friend. “He just suggested, ‘What do you think (of running) for Senate? If you want to do it, I’m going to support you.’ “
The idea didn’t immediately appeal to her.
”First of all, I was afraid,” Alshakhiss said. “It was going to be the first time in my life I would run for a position like this. It would be a big responsibility.
”But Hamad tells me, ‘Don’t even worry. I will help you as much as you need me, and others will help you.’ I decided to like the idea and said I would go for it.”
Al Yami said helping Saudi women achieve their leadership potential is one of his goals.
”Zaynab has shown leadership through the Saudi Club at Weber State,” he said. “Why shouldn’t she run for this position in student government?”
Alshakhiss said her senatorial goal is to improve life for all WSU international students.
”I would like to accomplish whatever would make their life here easier and better,” she said. “Any issues they face, I would like to handle it and do whatever I can to help them, to take some action to solve problems.”
In Saudi Arabia, it is not the cultural norm for men and women to exchange ideas freely, Alshakhiss said.
Because she has been living in Utah since 2008, she’ll feel comfortable talking to constituents of both genders, Alshakhiss said.
She said she chose to attend Weber State because family members live in the area.
Al Yami said another strong female leader in Saudi Arabia has Utah ties.
In 2009, Norah Al-Fayez became the first woman ever named to a ministerial post in her native Saudi Arabia when she became the deputy education minister for women’s education.
Al-Fayez earned her master’s degree in education from Utah State University in 1982.
Alshakhiss hopes her election will inspire at least some of the girls and women back home who see her story in the newspapers.
”I think it will,” she said. “Why not?”
After graduation next year, and maybe an American job to gain some experience, she would like to move back to her home country, Alshakhiss said.
Would she like to be a leader again, back in Saudi Arabia?
”I would like to for sure.”
Good news for newspaper websites and their advertisers. Newspapers improved upon website traffic in the first quarter of 2012 with a 4.4% increase year-over-year in adult unique visitors (113 million) and a 10% increase in adult average daily visitors (25 million). That according to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), citing comScore data.
More good news: newspapers achieved a more than 7% increase in unique visitors ages 21 to 34, with average daily visits by this age group up 17% and total visits rising by 15%. Young audience engagement with newspaper websites is demonstrated by a 10% increase in average daily visitors in the 18-to-24 age group.
And those visitors skew male, according to the Nieman Journalism Lab, citing a University of Texas study. “Are you a young dude interested in the news? You’re a top paywall target,” writes Nieman’s Adrienne La France. (The paywall typically allows perhaps 10 visits per month, before requesting the visitor subscribe; or puts in-depth content and lead stories behind the paywall). But the University of Texas study showed strong intent to pay–not strong follow through. The researchers compared the free/paid content to ramen noodles and steak; of course someone prefers steak, and young subscribers would prefer the deeper content behind a paywall, but cannot necessarily afford it.
As Caroline H. Little, NAA president and CEO. “These increases come even as more newspapers implement digital subscription strategies. In tracking newspapers that have been charging for digital content for a year or more, we found that 37% have experienced increases in unique visitors, with 24% reporting increases of 10% or more.”
In Front Of or Behind the Paywall?
So traffic is up to sites, and Americans are reading, if not paying. The Boston Globe earlier this week dropped its six-month-old paywall for 12 days, in hopes of attracting try-and-buy traffic. With just 18,000 paid subscribers, compared to the 454,000+ digital subscribers to the New York Times, the smaller and regional Globe (ironically, owned by the New York Times Co.) finds subscribers more elusive.
The message to advertisers is that online newspapers are far from dead; and that with a property like the New York Times, paywall will not hide your ad, it will filter out those who watch their purse strings. Good for advertisers like, perhaps, Accenture or Tag Heuer watches. For lower-cost consumer goods, and those advertising locally or in regional properties like the Boston Globe, stay above the digital fold and in front of the paywall.
Other key findings of NAA’s comScore analysis indicate that in the first quarter, unique visitors in the high-income bracket ($100,000 and above) are up more than 6%, with average daily visitors increasing by 15% and total minutes spent rising by more than 19%.
Like the comScore data, NAA’s multiplatform study underscores young people’s growing preference for digital newspaper formats. Of those surveyed in the 18-to-34 age group, 24% said they read only print newspapers while 34% read both print and digital newspapers. For digital-only newspapers, the number jumps to 48%.
Online newspapers tired of catering to Apple’s in-app purchasing restrictions are starting to bypass the tech giant completely by creating web-based apps using HTML5 technology, Journalism.co.uk reports. The latest title to jump on the trend? Washington’s local paper The Chronicle, which offers the HTML5 app as part of a subscription bundle that includes complete online and print access, the article said.
The Chronicle’s web app is similar to a “native” iPad app in terms of user experience; rather than downloading the app from Apple’s Newsstand, though, one can access the web app through the iPad’s Internet browser and save it as an icon on the homescreen, the article said. App users can share articles through Facebook and Twitter, as well as download stories to read them offline later, the article said.
For the rest of this article please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com
Participants at the NGOs Forum of African Commission on Human and Peoples Right (ACHPR) on April 12, 2012 added their voice to the widespread condemnation of the Gambian authorities over their deliberate policy of blocking access to critical online news websites in the country.
Systematically, the Gambia authorities have either attacked the online news newspapers by hacking into their websites or blocking their IP addresses, making it impossible for Gambians to access the news sites.
We the participants of the NGO Forum are deeply concerned at the continuous blocking of the online newspapers and information websites thereby denying alternative sources of information to the Gambian public, said a resolution adopted at the end of the forum.
We note with grave concern that the Gambian government continues to unduly restrict freedom of expression and access to information … the resolution stated.
Both the online newspapers and the mainstream media have suffered repeated censorships from the authorities. This situation has forced several independent journalists to flee into exile.
In 2008 for instance, The Gambia Echo and Freedom Newspaper, two online newspapers, were blocked for being critical of the administration. In the case of the Freedom Newspaper, it reported on the alleged corruption and mismanagement at the countrys state telecommunication company.
The participants appealed to the Gambian government to urgently engage in a comprehensive media law reform and repeal all draconian laws, especially the criminal defamation, publication of false news and all other anti-freedom of expression legislation in the countrys law books.
VTD requires that all commenters identify themselves by first and last name. You may wonder why we dont accept anonymous comments. The short answer is: We want to keep the discourse civil.
You might rightly ask, since most online newspapers accept anonymous posts from readers, what makes VTD so special?
The long answer is: Anonymous comments dont support our mission. We are a nonprofit news organization dedicated to enhancing democracy through in-depth journalism. Our role is to foster a civil online discourse, and one very simple and effective way to do that is to require commenters to identify themselves. This isnt a new idea, of course. This is the way newspapers have treated letters to the editor since time immemorial.
As a result of our comment policy, VTD has created a safe zone for readers who want to engage in a thoughtful discussion on a range of subjects. We hope you join the conversation.
VTD requires that all commenters identify themselves by first and last name. You may wonder why we dont accept anonymous comments. The short answer is: We want to keep the discourse civil.
You might rightly ask, since most online newspapers accept anonymous posts from readers, what makes VTD so special?
The long answer is: Anonymous comments dont support our mission. We are a nonprofit news organization dedicated to enhancing democracy through in-depth journalism. Our role is to foster a civil online discourse, and one very simple and effective way to do that is to require commenters to identify themselves. This isnt a new idea, of course. This is the way newspapers have treated letters to the editor since time immemorial.
As a result of our comment policy, VTD has created a safe zone for readers who want to engage in a thoughtful discussion on a range of subjects. We hope you join the conversation.
VTD requires that all commenters identify themselves by first and last name. You may wonder why we dont accept anonymous comments. The short answer is: We want to keep the discourse civil.
You might rightly ask, since most online newspapers accept anonymous posts from readers, what makes VTD so special?
The long answer is: Anonymous comments dont support our mission. We are a nonprofit news organization dedicated to enhancing democracy through in-depth journalism. Our role is to foster a civil online discourse, and one very simple and effective way to do that is to require commenters to identify themselves. This isnt a new idea, of course. This is the way newspapers have treated letters to the editor since time immemorial.
As a result of our comment policy, VTD has created a safe zone for readers who want to engage in a thoughtful discussion on a range of subjects. We hope you join the conversation.
Many media prognosticators continue to spew a doom-and-gloom forecast for online newspapers, digital publishers and marketers, and electronic content providers. But Roger McNamee, managing director/founding partner of private equity firm Elevation Partners, foresees a more optimistic near-term future for these players-provided they get with the program, specifically HTML 5 and mobile apps.
In fact, McNamee, believes were about to enter a golden era of online publishing in which well see a fundamental shift in consumer behavior away from the commoditized content of indexed searching-Googles strategy-and toward the publisher-friendly apps approach espoused by Apple.
Engagement, which is the primary indicator of economic value, is typically 15 to 20 seconds per story in Googles model, said McNamee. Engagement shifts to two to five minutes per app in Apples model, and with HTML 5, indications are youre going to take it much further. From a publishers point of view, thats a huge improvement. This shifts the power back to the people who deserve it-the content creators and the consumers.
The promise of HTML 5 is streamlined functionality: media can be directly embedded within sites using simple HTML tags without plugins required, offline data for web apps can potentially be stored, and interactive features such as drag-and-drop are simpler to integrate. HTML 5 is an essential building block of what McNamee calls the Hyperweb, which comprises the services layer and software that leverage the Hypernet- the sum of the wired internet and the mobile data infrastructure for wifi and cellular.