All posts by Jim Muttram

Telegraph cuts jobs to invest in online

A Guardian story has the details of the changes happening at the Telegraph: “We must adapt or face decline,” says Telegraph chief.

“Job losses are necessary at the Telegraph Group because the digital revolution was making some newspaper practices obsolete,” chief executive Murdoch MacLennan said today.

Announcing details of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph’s long-anticipated move from Wapping to Victoria, Mr MacLennan said the daily title’s business section would be the first to switch to the new 24-hour digital newsroom in a fortnight.
Other departments will start transferring at end of the month with the company aiming to complete the move in November.
‘Some aspects of our news operation have not altered significantly in decades,’ Mr MacLennan said.

‘The competition – not just from our traditional print rivals – is changing, growing and becoming fiercer. Readers are migrating online, and advertisers are following them. People are demanding customised news, wherever and whenever they want it. We have to adapt to these realities, or face a future of decline which goes to the very heart of our business,’ he said.

‘As big as the challenges are, there are unparalleled opportunities, too. In a multimedia world, strong brands will flourish. And the Telegraph – with its hallmarks of honesty, integrity and reliability – is perfectly placed to become the digital market leader in news and comment.

‘There should be no limit to our ambitions, provided we embrace this sea change in the information society with imagination and determination. There should be no limit, either, to what our brilliant journalists and writers can achieve…”

Tails wags dog

In the first example of its kind that I have noticed, the AOP reports: “Online publisher Magicalia, an affiliate member of AOP, has bought specialist magazine publisher Encanta Media for £2.72m million.

Magicalia acquires Encanta from Endless, the Leeds-based £100m buyout and turnaround fund, which purchased the company in January this year following the collapse of Highbury House Communications.

Magicalia operates 40-plus websites, and will initially concentrate on building web communities around Encanta’s nine specialist interest magazines in woodworking, gardening and patchwork.”

Premium news on a shoe string?

A start up from Sweden called Silobreaker could give the premium current awareness vendors a run for their money. The site indexes web content and adds a lot of tags – and then adds on some Web 2.0 interface stuff which makes for a nice-looking service. And at $398 a year it’s quite a bit cheaper than Nexis or Factiva. Of course, it doesn’t have the depth or breadth of those two, but then I’m always reminded of the Innovator’s Dillema.