Question: what would you do with six hours in Amsterdam? Dubai? Barcelona? That is precisely what Yahoo TimeTraveler was created to answer. A few years ago I stopped for six hours in Amsterdam en route to a conference in Cairo. I took the train from Schipol airport into the city, picked up a ride on a canal boat, dawdled through the ancient streets by the Oude Kerk, and toured the Anne Frank house. But did I see the best of Amsterdam? Hard to say. Yahoo, which seems to be on a bit of a roll in the past few weeks, releasing “killer” mobile browsers and reinvigorating Flickr groups, released TimeTraveler for iPhone and iPod Touch today. With TimeTraveler, I’d have had a much better chance ... Continue reading →

John Paton may be getting most of the Digital First headlines, but behind the scenes the digital first pressures are building up on publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. Today, we hear that the Newhouse’s Times Picayune is following the “Michigan model,” no longer a “daily” paper, but one published three days a week on paper. That model, launched in Michigan at the beginning of February, has quickly proven itself to Newhouse execs. The principles, if not the execution — or the longer-term impact — are clear: Pare down print days so as to keep 80%-plus of print advertising. Sunday is a natural here, with its heavy preprint business. Those preprints are endangered themselves, but not immediately; they now account for about a fifth ... Continue reading →

The partnership has created 2,600 new advertising opportunities, shown in blue on the map Local digital advertising exchange Addiply has partnered with About My Area, a network of commercial community news and what's on sites. The move has dramatically increased Addiply's offering, providing an additional 2,600 advertising opportunities targeted at particular postcodes. Addiply now maps and geolocates every publisher in the About My Area network, a network of hyperlocals launched in 2005 that allow so-called citizen journalists to add content and offers franchises to those wanting to make money from advertising. People clicking on any of the hyperlocal areas in About My Area (such as Bishop Auckland ) will now see an opportunity to buy Addiply ad space, providing companies with a chance to target ... Continue reading →

Voting Tips Every week, millions of votes are cast for American Idol contestants. As the season progresses and the demand for voting increases week after week, it can get more difficult to get through right away on the toll-free phone lines. The tips below will help American Idol viewers have the best opportunity to vote for their favorite contestants. Follow these tips for successful voting: Call Toll-free during non-peak periods. Toll-free voting lines are open for two hours following each American Idol broadcast. The highest call volumes for toll-free telephone voting generally occur within the first 30-45 minutes after the show ends and this is the time when viewers are most likely to get a busy signal. Waiting for non-peak times, such as the second ... Continue reading →

Media foundations launch European Press Prize by Peter Whitehead / 24th May, 2012 Seven of Europe's most distinguished media foundations have joined forces to launch the European Press Prize, rewarding excellence in journalism across all 47 countries of Europe. Although MDLF is a global foundation and its partners are exclusively European, we share a belief that saluting serious writing and reporting - in print or on newspaper websites - can help raise journalism's role as a vital defender of democracy's freedoms. Adriaan Stoop, Chairman of the Board of the European Press Prize Foundation, said: "All our foundations have strong connections to media organisations. We deeply believe that therefore we have a responsibility for the quality of the public debate in Europe. By launching these awards ... Continue reading →

If I have a worry about the runaway successes we’ve seen recently on Kickstarter, the latest of which is the $10.2 million raised by e-ink watch Pebble, it’s that project owners could end up suffering because of the sheer scale of their success. One particularly important issue, which has gone largely undiscussed in the crowdfunding community, is tax. In my long-past life as an underemployed music journalist, I met a lot of musicians who were focused exclusively on the creative aspects of their lives. They didn’t want to understand how record labels structured their contracts or what the legalese meant. They didn’t want to think about what the words or the numbers really meant; if they could have ignored it completely, they would have. Now, ... Continue reading →