Neil Arun didn’t want to miss a rare but risky opportunity to embed with an Iraqi police unit, hunting members of al Qaeda. But his employers -- responsible for Neil’s security -- weren’t happy. This film by Richard Pendry nvestigates how a frontline journalist balances risk and reward.
The sites News International hopes will persuade readers of the Times and Sunday Times to pay for online journalism were launched this morning. Take a close look. They are free to view for the first month, but will retreat behind a paywall after we've all had a good chance to sample the wares. Will the experiment generate revenue to pay for journalism? John Witherow, editor of the Sunday Times, has predicted that his title will lose 90% of its online readership. But he hopes that losing a vast number of uncommitted readers will be more than compensated for by the 10% who truly appreciate good journalism. James Harding, Editor of the Times, explained the argument on Today. The world of journalism is watching to see if this will work. Optimism is not widespread, but many people who do not believe paywalls can pay hope they will be proved wrong.
I had a look at them this morning and they are a marked improvement. They are very tidy and well laid out in my opinion - sort of New York Times-esque. It will be interesting to see how they get on.
I agree with you about the layout. I particularly like the way the 'above the fold' area at the top of the homepage reflects a traditional newspaper design. (Did somebody say 'convergence'...?) The grids lower down work well too. But nobody's going to pay purely for nice design. The key question is whether there's enough distinctive content to make it worth the dosh. I haven't seen enough of the multimedia elements to convince me that there is yet. The couple of bits of video I've watched have been the usual mix of Sky News packages and awkward Times corresondents stood blinkng in front of a newsroom camera. No ground being broken there. But let's give it a good run during the trial period and see how we feel when the man asks for the money.
The only reason I would pay for this is because I like the Times. I am not a big fan of this layout. The new font doesn't make for comfortable reading... even with my specs on.
I think the Guardian website is easier to get around now and looks nicer. The only problem for me paying for it is I will feel obligated to look at it even though I am not totally comfortable with it. It's kind of a lose-lose for me.