James Thornett The views and opinions expressed here are my own and not those of the BBC, my employer.
Posts Tagged ‘Journalism’
Guardian Local due for 2010 launch
The Guardian have announced a move into the provision of local news on the web in 2010 with the launch of Guardian Local in three UK cities.Sarah Hartley, the Guardian local launch editor said: “While researching developments at the grassroots of community journalism, I’ve been impressed by the range and depth of coverage from local [...]
The future of local media is, erm, regional?!?
The Future of Local Media conference in Salford took place today, the same day that Ofcom released it’s response to a Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) consultation on delivering TV news in the nations and regions. Ofcom also released a research report on Local and Regional Media in the UK. Thus Stewart Purvis, [...]
Using maps on news websites
Paul Bradshaw posted some thoughts yesterday on the use of maps on news websites, a subject often discussed on this blog. Most recent ‘highlights’ are discussed such as MPs expenses, although Mapumental from MySociety is not listed, nor is my favourite longstanding example of a local news map, the London SE1 News Map. There is [...]
Microsoft to partner with local newspapers for MSN Local News Map
Microsoft, through their MSN Local portal, are hoping to provide local news on a map, in partnership with local newspapers across the UK. Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN, said: “We are hoping to take feeds from local newspapers and tag every piece of information to a map. Hyper-local news online has never been more [...]
Northcliffe Local People media briefing
Northcliffe explain the launch of Local People “a network of websites for people to get together and discuss the issues affecting their communities“.
Birmingham Local Blogs Wire
Following my recent post on Will Perrin’s Talk About Local initiative, Jon Bounds has pushed ahead and created a Birmingham Local Blogs Wire by feeding a selection of blogs about Birmingham through Yahoo! Pipes. You can read all about the thinking behind the Birmingham Blog Wire here. Robin Hamman (@cybersoc) and I spent many an [...]
Northcliffe launches community sites for local people
Another attempt to provide local communities with a voice online has recently been piloted by Northcliffe Media in South West England. From journalism.co.uk Northcliffe and its digital arm Associated Northcliffe Digital have begun the roll-out of its ambitious plans for a network of hyperlocal websites. The new platforms will be evenly distributed between areas with [...]
Guardian allows users to geo-tag content with launch of new Open Platform tool
The Guardian has today launched Open Platform with the hope of freeing up their data and allowing users to build other tools and services using Guardian content. Of particular interest is the work on a crowd-sourced solution to geo-tagging. “Stamen and OpenStreetMap developed a service that they hope will encourage Guardian readers to “geo-tag” the [...]
‘Kitemark’ could distinguish journalism from ‘web noise’
From Press Gazette:- A ‘digital kitemark’ to differentiate quality journalism from ‘the noise of the web’ should be introduced, according to a new report published this week. “A digital kitemark… would identify and differentiate professional journalism amidst the noise of the web,” the report says. In my experience websites are already pretty good at providing [...]
Trinity Mirror launches local wiki website
Coming hot on the heels of their Liverpool Echo news map, the Trinity Mirror have launched a wiki site for the North East of England. The website, www.wiki-north-east.co.uk, is aiming to be “a collaboration of editorial articles and user generated content for and about the people, places and events of the North East.“ Read an [...]
Trinity Mirror launch beta local news map
As reported by The Guardian, Trinity Mirror have today announced the launch of a map-based local news service on their Liverpool Echo website. Chief Executive Sly Bailey said that the service was a follow-up to the development of a series of hyper-local websites across the group. “As a next step we’re launching a map-based news [...]
Initial conclusions on BBC Local Video proposals
The Ofcom website is today announcing that the BBC Trust’s Public Value Assessment (into the BBC’s proposals for a new Local Video service) and provisional conclusions will now be published by the 27 November 2008. Ofcom will submit the Market Impact Assessment to the Trust so that it can be published on the same day. [...]
Job title includes ‘Hyper-local’!!
Noooooo!!!! I’ve already mentioned my aversion to the use of ‘hyper’ and ‘ultra’ as supposedly valid prefixes to the word local when it comes to defining interactive services or content propositions. Now for the first time I’ve just seen the phrase included in a job ad, for a Hyper-local Video Journalist in Las Vegas. Apparently, [...]
ITV Local adds crime information
More activity from websites looking to improve their coverage of local crime information. This time it’s ITV who are launching a crime section on ITV.com, tying crime data and related news to the eleven regions in the ITV Local network. ITV is working with the charity Crimestoppers to add crime information to the site in [...]
Media coverage of the BBC Local Video PVT
Here is an updating list (thanks to the miracle that is del.icio.us) of links to media coverage of the BBC‘s application to provide a local video service on bbc.co.uk. (Disclaimer: I am involved in this application as part of my day job at the BBC.) The PVT began on 24th June 2008. my del.icio.us
BBC Trust begins public value test into local video proposal
The BBC Trust has today started its public value test (PVT) of the BBC’s local video proposal. (Disclaimer: I am involved in this proposal as part of my day job at the BBC.) The Trust has published BBC management’s application as well as supporting documents, a service description and a full timetable for the PVT. [...]
ITV Local has 4 million video views in May
Media Guardian reports that ITV’s web video figures rocket. ITV Local, which offers news, weather and entertainment content to different regions, recorded four million video views in May. The four ITV regions where video has taken off the most are Meridian, which accounted for 16% of views, Central at15%, Anglia with 11% and London at [...]
Huffington Post goes local
From Media Guardian article – Huffington Post starts local news push. The Huffington Post is planning to expand into local news across the US, founder Arianna Huffington said last night, beginning with a site edited for the community of Chicago. Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from [...]
Lessons learned from hyperlocal
While we are on the subject of news becoming ‘more local’, here’s an interesting post from Rob Curley on the experience of running the hyperlocal project LoudounExtra.com, developed by Washington Post Newsweek International. “…I thought the two biggest problems with LoudounExtra.com were poor integration of the site with washingtonpost.com and not enough outreach into the [...]
Northcliffe re-vamps local websites with geo-coding on stories
Northcliffe Media have begun geo-coding stories produced on their “thisis” websites as the group prepares to introduce geographical targeting on the “next generation” of local news websites. The 10 remodeled sites, including thisiscornwall.co.uk, are part of the plans to re-vamp the 55 existing sites and to add 35 new regional websites under Northcliffe’s ‘thisis’ brand, [...]
Where 2.0 Conference 2008
The main inspiration for getting this blog up and running was the O’Reilly Where2.0 Conference which took place in Burlingame, CA, from 12th-14th May this year. I’ve been meaning to write up some overall thoughts of the event but have been waiting to get the site live first. So, full review to come along shortly, [...]
