Via corybe:
Most newsrooms know that mobile is growing fast. Everyone can see mobile usage (phones and tablets) creeping up on their desktop numbers. For example, The Guardian recently said mobile visits hit 35%, outpacing desktop at certain hours of the day. A growing handful of media brands — including where I work at Breaking News — have watched mobile soar over desktop in audience. And we’ve all seen the stories about the unprecedented growth of tablets, the fastest-growing product in the history of consumer electronics.
Soon, mobile will be the primary way people get their news.
If that’s really the case, then why isn’t mobile dominating journalists’ discussions on Twitter? Packing sessions at journalism conferences? Sitting at the top of “most popular” story lists on journalism blogs?
I have a few theories:
Cory Bergman is the general manager of NBC News’ Breaking News and points to social media’s ease of use; the overall newness of mobile as a form factor for delivering news; and the potential threat mobile poses for advertising dependent organizations among other factors that many news organization have been slow to enter mobile.
Read through for his explanations of each.
See also Jason Pontin’s great article from last year in Technology Review about why publishers don’t like apps. This isn’t to say they don’t like mobile. Instead, Pontin explains why TR ditched their native app in favor of HTML5.
Will we reach a point where journalists start designing for mobile-first instead of mobile-option?
PFC Manning has offered to plead guilty to various offenses through a process known as “pleading by exceptions and substitutions.” To clarify, PFC Manning is not pleading guilty to the specifications as charged by the Government. Rather, PFC Manning is attempting to accept responsibility for offenses that are encapsulated within, or are a subset of, the charged offenses. The Court will consider whether this is a permissible plea.
PFC Manning is not submitting a plea as part of an agreement or deal with the Government. Further, the Government does not need to agree to PFC Manning’s plea; the Court simply has to determine that the plea is legally permissible. If the Court allows PFC Manning to plead guilty by exceptions and substitutions, the Government may still elect to prove up the charged offenses. Pleading by exceptions and substitutions, in other words, does not change the offenses with which PFC Manning has been charged and for which he is scheduled to stand trial.
PFC Manning has also provided notice of his forum selection. He has elected to be tried by Military Judge alone.
The Guardian simplifies the point: “By taking this legal route, Manning is not pleading guilty to any of the 22 charges brought against him, and nor is he making a plea bargain. He is asking the court to rule on whether his plea accepting limited responsibility is admissible in the case.”
The first 45 minutes have been Mr Cool versus Mr Angry. Romney is delivering what Republicans hoped he would: a confident, aggressive approach to Obama. He has repeatedly denied outright claims by Obama from the start.
Obama has remained calm. His main line of attack is that Romnney would add $8 trillion in spending through tax cuts for the wealthy, also extend Bush era tax cuts and raising military spending. How then was Romney going to square this with cutting the deficit? Romney denied this outright.
Romney also denied he planned to cut taxes that would add $5 trillion to spending. Good comeback from Obama: Romney has been touting this tax plan for months and now five weeks before the election he has dropped it. Romney’s approach, as well as aggressive, is to patronise the president. At one point saying he has been in business for years and point Obama made no sense for anyone who knew anything about accountancy.
He gives the slight edge to Romney, for topping low expectations.
In which Ecuador’s president denies an earlier report by The Guardian that he’s made a decision on offering asylum to Julian Assange. Rough translation of the tweet: “Assange asylum rumor is false. There is still no decision. I’m waiting for the Foreign Ministry’s report.” More details over this way.
In case you were wondering, an Olympic record was set today (two in archery, one by a man who happens to be blind), according to the Guardian’s new site, “Was an Olympic record set today?”
Battle the Olympians: The Guardian gives readers a nostalgic, 8-bit glance at how their athletic capabilities stack up against previous winners of Olympic gold. Nothing too fancy, but sometimes you just need something fun after a day of heavy news. (ht AntDeRosa) source
My goal all along has been to put this experience behind me as fast as possible before carrying on with life as normal. The cost is insane, the trauma has been considerable. I wish both had been less. But given my options, I am comfortable with my choice. I wish there had been another option, though. I wish there was a way of eliminating these cells without taking out so much of my body. I wonder how long it’ll be till that option exists?The Guardian’s Emma Gilbey Keller • Discussing her 40-day ordeal with breast cancer, which ended abruptly, after she chose to get a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery — a process that was not cheap but prevented a prolonged process. A pretty crazy read, but one that you most definitely should read. (via Katie Rogers)
It’s too bad that scary column mug is attached to Michael Wolff’s column on Thomson Reuters possibly buying out the Financial Times. The news is kind of a big deal in the media world … well, as long as you can get past the mugshot.
Here’s how to keep all that political ‘news’ in perspective…
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and…
But what about The Guardian? :-(
The Guardian is run by the people who should run the country from afar.
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LOVE LOVE LOVE this #altwiki idea a bunch of news orgs are planning: tmblr.co/ZRhcTyEyDfRv
— Ernie Smith (@shortformernie) January 18, 2012
@shortformernie Why do you LOVE LOVE LOVE it? Scab.
— Ron Mills (@O2ron) January 18, 2012
@O2ron Journalism is about objectivity and engaging stories. This encourages interaction on an important issue. #SOPA
— Ernie Smith (@shortformernie) January 18, 2012
@O2ron Big news outlets have to be objective. This allows for a balance between objectivity and informing the public.
— Ernie Smith (@shortformernie) January 18, 2012
@O2ron It’s not a newspaper’s role to play activist, so this is common ground. Don’t like it? Don’t take part.
— Ernie Smith (@shortformernie) January 18, 2012
One of the things that always gets me is the way that people always assume the worst intentions of mainstream media outlets, as if they’re large organizations who always think in terms of protecting their own vested interests, over the generally-more-accurate approach that it involves hundreds of people individually working for common goals. And last night, I pointed out how genius I thought the #altwiki idea was — as sort of a way for The Guardian, The Washington Post and NPR to avoid taking a formal stance on SOPA while still getting a chance to be active in the blackout off to the sidelines. I got some blowback from a few folks, but I’ll defend the approach heavily. It gets people engaged in the event (and thinking about the issues involved) without forcing the outlets to take a stance — allowing them to keep their objectivity. That’s win-win to me. — Ernie @ SFB
- 0804 Eastern — First Reuters report citing NTC official saying Gaddafi died
- 0812 Eastern — Reuters writethru saying same
- 0812 Eastern — Al Jazeera English carries Reuters report; cites own sources that Gaddafi had been wounded
- 0824 Eastern — CNN cites Al-Ahrar televised report that Gaddafi died; Al-Ahrar is an NTC media operation.
- 0824 Eastern — The Guardian posts what is claimed to be a cell phone photo of “the arrest” of Gaddafi.
- 0826 Eastern — The Guardian cites NTC spokesperson saying Gaddafi is dead, and his body is arriving in the city of Misrata “any minute now.”
That cell phone photo … whew.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has defended the organisation’s release of all 251,000 secret US diplomatic cables that it held without the redaction of the names of informants mentioned in them.
In an interview with New Scientist, Assange said the leak publishing outfit’s usual editorial “harm minimisation” procedures had become irrelevant after other websites published the full text of the unredacted cables. [more]
Or … y’know, Julian, you could’ve set the example and show that you disagree with the other sites by not following their example. As an example, if one news outlet publishes a photo of a domestic violence victim, it doesn’t mean every other outlet should publish it. Instead, it means that you can show your higher standard by not doing so. Denounce the sites leaking the unredacted cables, not The Guardian.
A valid point by CopyEditor that should be kept in mind when reading this article. (P.S. CopyEditor runs a great Tumblr.)
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