Pew report: 23% of Americans read print newspapers, number continues to decline
The number of Americans who say they read print newspapers continues to plummet, according to a new poll from Pew Research Center. Just 23 percent of Americans said they read a newspaper yesterday, while a year ago the figure was 41 percent.
Many news lovers prefer an outlet’s website to its offline format. Pew writes “55 percent of regular New York Times readers say they read the paper mostly on a computer or mobile device, as do 48 percent of regular USA Today and 44% of Wall Street Journal readers.”
Social media plays a role in discovering news, it was reported. Around 19% of the public says they saw news or news headlines on social networking sites yesterday, up from 9% two years ago.
When looking at Americans who say they regularly read a daily newspaper, 38 percent said they do, although this percentage also has declined, from 54 percent in 2004.
An interesting sidebar is the number of Americans who admit to regularly enjoying following the news. Currently, 43 percent say they enjoy following the news a lot, a decline compared with 45 percent two years ago and 52 percent in 2008, 2006 and 2004.
Digital Journal Inc. launches /newsrooms division for brands
The /newsrooms division is co-founded and led by marketing and social media veteran, Sabaa Quao who is joining Digital Journal Inc. as Chief Marketing Officer.
“Digital Journal has seen meteoric growth in 2012 and the launch of our /newsrooms division diversifies us as a modern digital media company and positions us to own a significant piece of the social enterprise technology and publishing spaces,” said Chris Hogg, CEO of Digital Journal Inc. “Digital Journal’s deep expertise in social, publishing and marketing combined with our technology and global network of content creators means we can deliver a scalable digital media solution that is unmatched. We will now leverage these proven tools and processes to serve marketers and brands.”
Digital Journal has earned worldwide attention and praise for its role as a digital media pioneer and leader. In June 2012 Digital Journal was proclaimed one of the Top 20 most promising companies in Canada by The C100, a non-profit, member-driven organization made up of top executives of companies such as Apple, Cisco, EA, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Oracle, and venture investors representing more than $8 billion in capital. The C100 supports Canadian technology entrepreneurship through mentorship, partnership and investment.
How /newsrooms work
Digital Journal’s /newsrooms division opens new opportunities for the tens of thousands of content creators from 200 countries who participate in the company’s global network. Digital Journal’s /newsrooms division can support social media campaigns and marketing services to enable brands to grow audiences at scale, engage brand influencers and meet the pressures of 24/7 interaction that marketers are feeling. If you were to create CNN or The New York Times but dedicated to social media coverage, content creation, and publishing for and around brands, that would be Digital Journal’s /newsrooms division.
/newsrooms are an extension of a brand’s existing marketing and advertising efforts and Digital Journal takes everything a brand is already doing and adapts it to a strategy that puts content, live events and social media engagement at the forefront. This strategy harnesses the audience-growing skill of journalists, with the brand expertise and commercial inclination of a skilled marketing team.
Digital Journal’s /newsrooms begin by making brands relevant on a personal level; a content strategy becomes central to that goal by identifying the themes and content categories related to the brand. Digital Journal then combines journalistic professionalism with strong lead-generating content marketing initiatives to grow the audience and customer base.
In addition to content, /newsrooms also apply a customized social media approach to help develop a brand’s audience and engage top influencers. Applications may include covering live events, curating assigned content on specific topics valuable to a brand, using social media to disseminate news, analyzing social media influence, managing the engaged audience, and running Command Centres to ensure the brand is always on — just like a media organization.
“Brands and companies have become publishers, with little choice but to address what it means to engage 24/7 with their audiences,” says Sabaa Quao, Digital Journal’s Chief Marketing Officer and head of /newsrooms. “At the same time, companies are guardedly watching to see if their core business will be dramatically altered, damaged, or destroyed. Now with /newsrooms, brands can scale up their interaction and collaboration with influencers who are engaging with their products, in real-time.”
Digital Journal can already attest to the power of /newsrooms, as the company is a product of its own success; starting out as a Toronto-based magazine, Digital Journal used the /newsrooms approach and technology to grow from a local magazine into a global digital media organization with tens of thousands of contributors in 200 countries, reaching millions of people every month.
For more information visit digitaljournalmedia.com
About Digital Journal Inc.
Digital Journal Inc. is a global digital media company that delivers technology, content and social media solutions to brands and media companies. Headquartered in Toronto, Digital Journal is widely recognized as a pioneer and leader in digital media and in 2012 Digital Journal was proclaimed one of the Top 20 most promising companies in Canada. Boasting a proprietary digital platform and a network of tens of thousands of professional content creators in 200 countries, Digital Journal provides an out-of-the-box solution that touches every corner of the digital media industry.
Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom teases new online music service Megabox
Internet mogul Kim Dotcom uploaded a YouTube video promising a new online music service called Megabox. It will reportedly allow artists to sell their own music and earn 90 percent of the revenue generated through those transactions.
In the video posted by the controversial founder of Megaupload, it seems both artists and music fans can create separate profiles. After artists create their profiles, they can share as much of their music as they’d like.
If the video teaser is to be trusted, Dotcom has lined up some impressive musicians to join the service, such as The Black Keys, Will.i.am and Rusko.While his previous project Megaupload (now shut down) also included videos to watch and share, the YouTube clip doesn’t show any videos being uploaded or shared on Megabox.
Dotcom is trying to make a comeback after his previous online giant Megaupload got him in hot water with the FBI and RIAA. He was charged earlier this year with various alleged crimes, including facilitating “massive worldwide online piracy” through his Megaupload cyberlocker.
Dotcom has also been accused of racketeering and money laundering amounting to “more than $500 million in damages and over $175 million in profit,” according to authorities.
But after a judge ruled the Megaupload founder’s home, known as the Dotcom Mansion, wassearched illegally, the case was suspended and now U.S. authorities are working to extradite the German to stand trial for what they have called the biggest case of its kind to date, USA Today writes.
Dotcom has only released scant details about Megabox, but he earlier said “Megabox would feature something called Megakey, a solution allowing artists to earn income even from those users who download music for free. Dotcom hasn’t disclosed any details of the service, but said the Megakey business model was tested with over a million users and it worked,” as this mediareport tells us.
TechCrunch’s Matt Burns is excited about Megabox’s potential: …it’s probably a safe bet that Dotcom and the rest of the Megaupload world are prepping Megabox to be the anti-RIAA and as pro-artist/fans as possible. And that’s awesome.”
This article originally appeared in Digital Journal [Link]
350,000 U.S. news broadcasts online at searchable index
by Greta McClain (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)
The Library of Congress may be the largest library in the world, containing millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts, but a website is striving to be the world’s largest internet searchable index.
Brewster Kahle, whose stated goal is “Universal access to all knowledge,” has created Internet Archive, an online searchable database inspired by the Library of Alexandria.
The archive, which has already digitized millions of books and is trying to collect everything published on every web page for the last 15 years, is now adding news broadcasts to its database. The archive’s online collection includes more then 350,000 separate news broadcasts, all of which have been produced in the last three years.
Currently there are 20 different news channels represented which encompasses more than 1,000 news series.
Newton Minow, former FCC chairman had this to say about the archive:
“The Internet Archive’s TV news research service builds upon broadcasters’ public interest obligations. This new service offers citizens exceptional opportunities to assess political campaigns and issues, and to hold powerful public institutions accountable.”
Kahle told the New York Times the archive was not just for researchers. Everyday average citizens make up part of the website’s estimated two million daily visitors.
“We don’t expect this to replace CNN.com,”
he said.
The intention of the archive is not to replace or compete with the Web outlets owned by the news organizations”. In fact new material would not be added until 24 hours after it was first broadcast.
With news broadcasts currently available from 2009 to the present, Kahle’s plan is to “go back” year by year, slowly adding news video going back to the start of television. That plan will take some innovation, however, since the use of closed-captioning on a regular basis did not start until around 2002. Kahle believes it can be done, but it will prove challenging. He told the New York Times:
“We need some interface that is good enough and doesn’t interrupt commerce enough that they get upset with us.”
Kahle said the service is free to everyone and his ultimate goal is to
“collect all the books, music and video that has ever been produced by humans.”
This article originally appeared on Digital Journal [Link]
Half of Americans think bad weather affects ‘cloud computing’
by Darren Weir (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)
The survey has found that while many Americans have heard of cloud computing, they don’t really understand what it means. Most believe it can be affected by the weather, while some think it refers to pillows, drugs, toilet paper or a mysterious network.
The survey commissioned by Citrix found that while 54 percent of Americans asked say they don’t use cloud computing, 95 percent of them do use things like online banking, Facebook, Gmail, online gaming, photo or music storage sites and online shopping, all cloud based services.
The survey questioned 1000 American adults last month and found a third of those asked, say they believe the cloud is a thing of the future, even though they are already using it. But despite their confusion, 59 percent believe the “workplace of the future” will exist entirely in the cloud.
About one in five Americans admit that they’ve pretended to know what the cloud is or how it works, 14 percent of them in a job interview. Young Americans are the most likely to fake it (36 percent ages 18-29, 18% ages 30 and older).After learning more about it though, 68 percent say it has economic benefits by lowering costs (35 percent) and encouraging small business growth (32 percent). Among those who hardly ever or never use the cloud, the top three reasons are cost (34 percent), security concerns (32 percent) and privacy concerns (31 percent).
Digital Journal reported last month that even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is worried about the security of cloud computing.But others see some unexpected benefits of the cloud, like the ability to work from home in their “birthday suit” (40 percent), accessing files from the beach (33 percent) and keeping embarrassing videos off their personal hard drive (25 percent).
This was originally published in Digital Journal [Link]