Registration scheme foiled …

Steve Outing posts on his behaviour in relation to the “first article free of registration” strategy a good number of pubishers have deployed.

We are actively looking at this.  From recent analysis there is evidence to support this theory – according to HBX - 92% of what we term “drive by” or causal users of the sites look at only one article during a visit despite there being very well targeted related artricles – 7% carry on so must be registered or register at this point.  Not sure what happens to the other 1%.  

WSJ Europe / Asia moves to compact format and bundles with WSJ.com

These initiatives include reformatting its Asian and European editions on Oct. 17 into an easier-to-read, convenient and accessible compact format; combining the Asian and European print editions with the award-winning The Wall Street
Journal Online at WSJ.com to better serve the needs of highly mobile international business leaders; pursuing a new, more targeted circulation strategy focused on C-suite executives; and making a number of related personnel promotions and reassignments. The combination of a compact format, plus the full content of The Wall Street Journal Online — the largest paid subscription news site on the Web — will offer readers a more convenient daily package of more news in more ways that better suits how busy readers use news today.

John McMenamin, head of international advertising sales, The Wall Street Journal, said, “These new initiatives are an aggressive step to offer advertisers increased access to the Journal’s unparalleled audience by combining both print and online platforms, and shifting to a compact format that better lends itself to the needs of our global readership and the advertisers who want more opportunity to reach them.”

The newspapers will carry more themed and regionally relevant content and an updated statistics package, more navigational online tools, more stories and fewer jumps between pages. The Asian Wall Street Journal will be renamed The Wall Street Journal Asia when the compact edition launches in October, and will continue to be edited in Hong Kong. The Wall Street Journal Europe will continue to be edited in Brussels.

The full release is available. 

Business week: Mainstream press will open archives

Link: Prediction: Mainstream press will open archives.

Circulation down at FT but 80,000 paying for FT.com

Pearson Chairman Dennis Stevenson commented that: 

"The fact is the FT’s circulation always suffers in recession. However the FT’s circulation in the U.K. has gone down further than you would expect – it has happened at a time when 80,000 people are looking at FT.com and paying to do so."

Good answer, but I bet you any money they would prefer 80,000 readers of the paper.  Difficult to compare the two media forms but in simple terms if you compare revenue per edition (advertising and cover price) the newspaper will generate at least 10 times what each "edition" of FT.com generates. 

Reuters slows NewsML roll-out

Overview of the Reuters project …

NewsML is the structure used to publish news in any format. It can be used by news providers to combine their pictures, video, text, graphics and audio files in news output available on web sites, mobile phones, high end desktops, interactive television and any other device.

Copyright and licensing for digital preservation

Excellent report looking at how libraries can use material deposited by publishers.

Libraries cannot preserve digital material they do not own. Adrienne Muir describes a new project to identify copyright and licensing issues that currently hinder digital preservation and looks at whether new legislation will help.

Selling Wills Online – Analysis

Scottish Archive Network – Market analysis and assessment of the sale of documents and other archival artifacts through existing commercial websites.

DRM Debate

Good background as well as recent debate on DRM being good/bad.

Olive Software get new funding

“March 23, 2004 – Olive Software, Inc., a global leader in content management, ePublishing and archiving technologies for the publishing and library industries, announced today that it had secured a $6 million investment partnership with Sequoia Venture Capital.”

Tony Ridder (Knight Ridder) on Online Newspapers

“We are currently evaluating multiple approaches to developing a news and information relationship with consumers ages 18-to-24. One good venue for doing so is online. We have the entertainment data, sports coverage, event listings and classifieds young people want. Online technology enables us to package it the way they want to see it”, Tony Ridder, Knight Ridder in article from Presstime.