Updated Sunday, April 5, 01:49 am EST
Here is a pdf of the “multimedia newspaper” concept.
One of the many journalists who approached me for a little chat in Bucharest was Petre Danoiu, who describes himself as a visual journailst, and who was quite enthusiastic as he showed me what he considers to be a possible model for the newspaper/online combination of the future. Petre calls his creation, “the multimedia newspaper” , and it uses those bar codes we are all familiar with for a variety of functions, such as supermarket product pricing to airline boarding passes.
Petre describes the future as “maybe in 2029, or maybe sooner”, and his creation is based on the assumption that people will always appreciate a printed newspaper more than an online or digital edition. or even television, radio, etc..
“Let’s have online reinvent offline,” Petre tells me..
How does he propose to do this? He pulls out a printed copy of his concept newspaper, a dummy, in a very compact A4 format, where one sees bar codes running across the top of the pages.
Petre says he was inspired by Umberto Eco’s writing in a document titled From Internet to Gutenberg.
And here is how Petre explains it:
I named the project “Net 2.0.28 – The multimedia newspaper”. I’m using
the conventional printing technology in order to convert the printed information into the digital world by using the barcodes (Semacode, or
QR Code). Sure, at this moment, when barcodes are used only as “shortcut” to www , the barcodes technology is not allowing us to stock
big amounts of information, but Net 2.0.28 is a newspaper for the year 2028 (design made in 2008). At that time, the printing technology will
allow us, I’m sure, to print unique copies, personalized newspapers,customized ones, for each subscriber.
Customizing editions for individual users is part of Petre’s plan. In fact, the prototype he showed me included several pages for a fictitional user named Julia, in which all the contents would be those that Julia specifically subscribed to receive.
A selected bibliography about blogging
Several of you asked me for an updated bibliography about blogs and blogging.
This selection is courtesy of : David Shedden, Poynter Library director:, who, as usual, provided us with most valuable information.
“When Journalists Blog: How It Changes What They Do”
Paul Bradshaw, Nieman Reports, Winter 2008
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100696
“Journalism as a Conversation”
Katie King, Nieman Reports, Winter 2008
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100670
“Bloggers and Other Online Publishers Face Increasing Legal Threats”
David Ardia, Poynter Online, September 22, 2009
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=150968
“Murky Boundaries: What are the Guidelines for the Personal Blogs of Journalists who work for Mainstream News Organizations?”
Kevin Rector, AJR, June/July 2008
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4522
“Blogging Journalists: Suvey Results Pt. 1.”
Paul Bradshaw, Online Journalism Blog, October 14, 2008
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/10/14/blogging-journalists-survey-results-pt1-context-and-methodology/
“Blog History 101”
Simon Owens, MediaShift, September 22, 2008
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/09/scott-rosenberg-traces-the-blogospheres-origins266.html
“Blog History”
Liz Donovan, Behind the News, April 9, 2007
http://newsresearch.blogspot.com/2007/04/blog-history.html
“Blogs Turn 10 – Who’s the Father?”
Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache, CNET News, March 20, 2007
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1025_3-6168681.html
“History of Blogging Timeline”
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_blogging_timeline
The one-advertiser edition for Gazeta Sporturilor
As I reviewed the Romanian newspapers during my visit to Bucharest to speak to editors, publishers and designers in a program sponsored by the Media Management Institute and the US Embassy, one newspaper stood out, Gazeta Sporturilor, especially because it seemed to be the one daily here more willing to experiment with advertising strategies that deviate from the traditional.
I engaged in conversation with its editor, Catalin Tolontan (tolo.ro) who explained that his newspaper attempts to do these “one advertiser” edition several times a year, and that this experiment brings about 15000 euros worth of revenue. For example, the pages shown here were bought entirely one client, Cosmote (a mobile telephone service provider).
The idea is not totally revolutionary, as I have seen similar approaches to one-advertiser editions in Latin America and some parts of Europe. I think that, for a specialized newspaper, such as a sports or business daily, this may be an interesting approach worth considering occasionally. I don’t believe it is feasible, nor very client friendly, to sell the entire newspaper to one advertising client everyday, at the risk of alienating the others. On special occasions, why not?
As Gazeta editor Tolontan put it to me: “This is one way we have of adapting to the financial crisis, and we welcome such experimentation, especially at times like this.”
The following link shows two similar projects with advertising clients BRD – Groupe Societe Generale and Ceresit (Henkel):
http://s4.transfer.ro/storage/transfer_ro-752412ae06.zip
Reviewing the Romanian newspapers
Here I am this evening, speaking at the US Embassy in Bucharest: the topic, all about Blogs
Earlier in the day, speaking to Romanian publishers, editors and designers
Eveninmentul zilei is a midmarket daily (notice interview with me bottom of page); Business Standard, is a new financial daily in Romania, in tabloid format.
Adevarul is one of the “quality” midmarket newspapers with various regional editions, with powerful promotion/marketing campaigns, such as giving out books; Libertatae is the largest circulation and largest readership of any newspaper in Romania.
Cotidianul is a quality newspaper in tabloid format; Gazeta Sporturilor is colorful and full of important sports information
From one transition to the next
With about 150 editors, publishers, designers in the audience, all the questions usually turn to “how can we survive?”, with a few trying to learn as much as possible from the “mistakes of the American newspapers”.
However, quick conversations with publishers and editors show that, in many cases, traditional journalism prevails here, and little or no investment is made on the newspaper’s online operations, although I am happy to see that there are already some financial online newspapers that do not exist in print (www.wall-street.ro). LIke U.S. editors 10 years ago, some of the Romanian editors I meet still think that it is NOT news until it appears in print. There is little, if any, experimentation with advertising.
The existing newspapers fall into three