David Black

“Regional newspaper group Archant is overhauling its network of news sites to allow readers to see a front page personalised to a radius around their location.”

“Once you’ve geographically tagged your stories, your ability to do hyperlocal sites is so much easier. I can create a web site for half a village if I want, because if all of the stories are tagged, they are the stories that come top of the list”

April 2007 national newspaper ABCs.

“I think journalism itself is a dated concept. We are now in the world of conversation… Just because it’s said in 140 characters or less doesn’t mean it’s not journalism.”

Suw Charman: “The historic role of gatekeeper, played until now by professional journalists, is obsolete. But new technology and increased civic participation are creating new opportunities for the mainstream media, and three key roles are emerging.”

“John Wilpers, editor in chief of BostonNow, a free weekday daily introduced last month, said he wanted to fill the paper with items that local bloggers submitted to the BostonNow Web site.”

Rupert Murdoch: “The outstanding example is the London Times. In good months it has 10 million unique users and is greatly expanding its franchise. It’s attracting enough advertising to more than pay its costs.”

“For a while, the new front page will be a facade concealing a busy building site, as work proceeds on an 18-month programme to redesign and rebuild every part of GU.”

“A new front page for Guardian Unlimited will allow us to better reflect the rich variety of content already on offer, and help tell stories in new and exciting ways.”

Martin Belam: “I’d like to see one of the papers take the plunge and offer full ad-supported content feeds… There are some areas which remain untapped, like personalised RSS feeds for search results, and putting content tagging on news stories”

“The simple fact is that unbundled classifieds are economically hyperefficient. One Craigslist beats 10,000 fragmented classifieds. “

“I don’t think that news has become a commodity because newspapers make it free. Rather, I think that news is free because its a commodity.”

“Facebook, the social networking Web site, is adding free classified ad listings, putting it into competition with dozens of established companies like Craigslist and many newspapers.”

“Imagine the impact this could have on housing ads, such as searching for a roommate. Neither Craigslist nor newspapers can compete with prospective roommates being able to size each other up based on their Facebook profiles.”

On Facebook’s classifieds launch: “I’m not sure whether newspapers can compete on that level, since the amount of time and effort they have put into becoming a social network for their communities is in most cases approaching zero.”

59 million people (37.6% of active US Internet users) visited US newspaper sites each month during Q1, up 5.3% year-on-year (Nielsen//NetRatings NetView). The overall Internet audience grew 2.7 percent during this period.

“Don’t buy the hype.. order of magnitude differences are emerging between newspapers and newer strategic groups – in terms of attention depth, breadth, velocity, and prosumption intensity.”

Robert Freeman: “I’m worried that newspaper groups will take the foot off the development accelerator at just the point at which they’ve been given some breathing space to beat the beeb at their own game.”