Martin Clarke, publisher of Mail Online, has described the Daily Mail’s all-conquering website as the “crack cocaine” of journalism.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Clarke said people are addicted to it as he talked about the success of the paper that has beaten The New York Times and The Guardian to become the world’s biggest newspaper online. Read More »

What hope is there for print if even some of its longest serving exponents are quitting to go online. The latest to make the leap, quite literally, is Superman. In the latest issue of the DC Comics’ hero series, which is out tomorrow, Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent has what is described as a “Jerry Maguire” style moment and quits the Daily Planet in a feat of pique.

His next destination is unlikely to be  another print title, according to the comic’s writer Scott Lobdell.

Lobdell says more he says likely to become a blogger and start the next Huffington Post or Drudge Report. Read More »

Good piece in the FT this morning looking at how public relations is changing and how the humble press release is no longer quite as humble as it used to be.

The rise of PR has gone hand in hand with the ever shrinking news rooms, number of journalists who inhabit them, and the rise in churnalism, which demands a constant stream of digital news to fill magazine and newspaper websites.  That has resulted in as much as 41% of news now being driven by PR.

The story quotes a figure from the US that says the ratio of PRs to journalists has shifted from 1.2 to one to four to one between 1980 and 2010.  Read More »

Bad news again from Guardian News & Media as it announced that as many as 100 jobs are to be cut, from its staff of 650, and losses of £44m — up by £6m on last year.

Amid all of this financial pain it has pushing been ahead with its digital first ‘open journalism’ strategy that has become the core of the paper’s business. Underpinning this is an old style digital land grab. A drive for the largest audience the paper can find online fuelled by expansion into the US. All this, we are told, is apparently at odds with the implementation of any kind of paywall.

We hear this even though there is mounting evidence to suggest that having a metered paywall, as that is the only variety of relevance, is the right answer for similar newspapers. Read More »

The Huffington Post is looking to double its audience within the next two years as it seeks to form partnerships with struggling newspapers, according to a report in the FT.

AOL plans to launch The Huffington Post into ten more international markets in the next two years having already launched into Canada and the UK in 2011. Read More »

BuzzFeed the site best known for offbeat stories (“what cats want for Christmas”), gossip and viral videos has hired a star reporter from US politics site, Politico.com, with the aim of building what is being described as the “first real social news organization”.

Ben Smith, who was a senior political writer at Politico.com, will be editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed and will be responsible for building a news organisation that will produce original content and have a focus on how best to share this via the social web. Read More »

A few weeks back a post went up about how twice as many get their news via Facebook, which underscored its position a place where increasingly a lot of people pick up and share news.

Facebook has just published a list of news that is being shared with its 50 most shared stories of 2011. It is a real mix from the serious, the top most shared story was about the the Quake and Tsunami in Japan, to the ridiculous. The third most story is headlined ‘No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed’. I don’t even know where to start with that one. Read More »

24/7 Wall St has published its list of the 25 most valuable blogs in the US. It is an interesting list with interesting price tags attached showing that blogs continue to be huge business. Combined they are worth almost $1 billion.

While the Huffington Post is no longer represented, it is so much bigger than that these days and seeems to have ascended to become a news organisation in its own right, the list shows how these well funded and increasingly well resourced sites compete with traditional media. Read More »

Amusing viral video looking at how different media outlets come up with their Occupy Wall Street headlines.

I particularly like the Huffington Post one: “what did the New York Times go with? Just repost that but in a bigger font.”

The Fox News one is also good  “Obama ruins economy, inspires shanty towns”. That’s Fox telling it like it is. Read More »

AOL is expected to surpass its quarterly earnings forecast, thanks to gains made in display advertising sales, according to analysts at financial firm UBS.

The much-maligned media company is to report revenues of $532m (£340m) this quarter, rather than the predicted $525m (£335m). The boost comes from year-over-year growth of its domestic display sales, up 21% for the quarter. Read More »