Technology
Attitudes about news transcend technology and generational divide
2015 RJI Mobile Media Research Report 5 Millennials more likely than boomers to use smartphones for news, but professional journalism and news sources matter to both This is my final report on the results of the 2015 Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute Mobile Media News Consumption Survey. I will use it to explore the generational … Continued
Team Recordly demonstrates its prize-winning interviewing tool at Silicon Valley tech firms
The winning team in the 2016 RJI Student Competition took full advantage of their grand prize trip to California last week, demonstrating their Apple Watch/iPhone interviewing tool in five key venues. Recordly members John Gillis, Zolbayar Magsar, Anna Maikova,Yaryna Mykhyalyshyn and Sintia Radu began their tech tour at Apple world headquarters in Cupertino. They … Continued
Interviewing tool for Apple Watch wins 2016 RJI Student Competition
Technical Merit award goes to event-mapping app
Can structured news reinvent archives and reimagine objectivity?
In earlier posts I have reviewed the long-term potential of structured journalism to make newsrooms economically sustainable, empower news consumers and future-proof journalism as a profession. However, journalism is not just another business. Its economic and market success is important not only to its shareholders, customers and employees, but also to society in general. Journalism, … Continued
Kevin Poortinga: Controlled Chaos: The Balance Between Herding Cats and Collaborative Innovation
Kevin Poortinga, USA TODAY Kevin Poortinga leads the USA Today Lab, a department designed to quickly incubate concepts, new businesses and new initiatives for the media network, which consists of more than 100 local news organizations and flagship USA TODAY. When not prototyping or experimenting, the Lab also champions an internal innovation grants program, a hybrid … Continued
Phablets likely to boost responses to ads embedded in news stories and videos
2015 RJI Mobile Media Research Report 3 Owners responded more frequently to embedded ads using large-screen smartphones than with other devices Owners of phablets were much more likely to respond to advertisements embedded in news stories and videos than owners of standard smartphones, tablets and personal computers, according to the latest Donald W. Reynolds Journalism … Continued
FL#142: Enlisting product managers and automating more complex stories
This week we explore the role of product managers within news organizations, and we find out how more complex stories might be written by computers. PART 1: Product managers for news Borrowing from the tech and business worlds, several large news organizations have integrated the role of product manager into their workflows. The result can … Continued
Reporting into structure: How journalists, crowds and robots can work together
In previous posts, I’ve written about structured journalism’s potential to improve newsroom economics by rebundling news as networks of structured information, and to provide new value to consumers by giving them more control over the news they consume. But what does structured journalism do for journalists? Will structure merely contribute to the tech-driven weakening of … Continued
The Apple News app is not living up to its hype
The Apple News app launched with much hype on September 15. I’ll always remember that date because the app’s launch was a major determinant for me to pivot Reportory, my news customization platform, from a consumer-facing service to a license play for publishers. The Apple News app hadn’t launched when I first profiled 15 other … Continued
Undergoing the great entrepreneurial pivot
Many entrepreneurs find themselves pivoting at some point during their entrepreneurial journey. Even some of the leading tech companies today pivoted in their early days: Instagram initially was a check-in service called Burbn; Facebook was FaceMash, asking users to rate which person was hotter; and YouTube was a video dating site. Whether pivoting sales strategy, … Continued