Valer Kot – Knowledge Bridge

WhatsApp for Radio Toolkit

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 12:07:09 +0000

The sixth guidebook in our series was created through the efforts in supporting innovation by MDIF’s SAMIP (South Africa Media Innovation Program) and Children’s Radio Foundation. This MAS series of practical guides for media managers focuses on using WhatsApp for radio to reach audiences. The purpose of these guides is to help media decision-makers understand some of the key topics in digital news provision, and give them practical support in adopting concepts that will improve their operations and streamline how their companies work.

About authors:

Clémence Petit-Perrot is the Children’s Radio Foundation’s Learning and Innovation Director. She oversees the development all new initiatives within the organisation. Part of her portfolio includes piloting technological solutions like WhatsApp to increase listeners engagement and measure the radio shows’ impact. Before joining CRF, she was the Southern Africa correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI). She also worked for the South African production company DOXA, producing social documentary films and leading a digitisation project of anti-Apartheid audiovisual archives.

Linda Daniels is a journalist by training and has worked in print, digital and broadcast media. She has reported on a range of issues, which include climate change, Intellectual Property and South African politics. Her work has appeared in local and international publications. Between 2013 and 2018, she worked at the Children’s Radio Foundation as the Radio Capacity Building Associate and managed the WhatsApp Integration project.

Please download and share the guide. We would love to hear from you – send any comments or suggestions to us at mas@mdif.org.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.kbridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/WhatsApp-for-Radio-Toolkit.pdf” title=”Guide #6: WhatsApp for Radio Toolkit by Clémence Petit-Perrot and Linda Daniels”]

Guide #5: Introduction to podcasting

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 10:41:39 +0000

The fifth guidebook in MAS series of practical guides for media managers focuses on Podcasting. The purpose of these guides is to help media decision-makers understand some of the key topics in digital news provision, and give them practical support in adopting concepts that will improve their operations and streamline how their companies work (see Guide #1: Product Management for Media Managers, Guide #2: Launching a paywall: What you and your team need to know, Case studies on paywall implementation, Guide #3: Best Practices for Data Journalism and Guide #4: Facebook News Feed Changes: Impact and Actions).

Guide #5: Introduction to Podcasting, by Erkki Mervaala.

What is needed to start a Podcast?

What benefits can a podcast bring to you?
What a podcast is and isn’t + technical aspects
Planning your production and what you should know before beginning?
What equipment and software you need to create a podcast?
Recording and editing the audio
Feeds and hosting, distribution and promotion
Analytics and metrics – finding and using your Podcast data
Monetization and next steps

Please download and share the guide. We would love to hear from you – send any comments or suggestions to us at mas@mdif.org.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.kbridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Guide-5-Introduction-to-Podcasting-by-Erkki-Mervaala.pdf” title=”Guide #5: Introduction to Podcasting by Erkki Mervaala”]

About author: Erkki Mervaala is a former Program Manager and Digital Media Specialist for Media Development Investment Fund. He is also a member of the award-winning Finnish climate journalist collective Hyvän sään aikana and works as the managing editor for the climate news website of the same name. Mervaala has worked as a Central Europe foreign correspondent for several Finnish magazines and newspapers. He has also worked as a screenwriter for Yellow Film & TV, web developer and UI/UX designer. He has been a podcaster since 2008.

You can contact him via e-mail.

Guide #3: Best Practices for Data Journalism

Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:23:32 +0000

We are pleased to announce the release of the third guidebook in MAS series of practical guides for media managers (see Guide #1: Product Management for Media Managers, Guide #2 – Launching a paywall: What you and your team need to know and Case studies on paywall implementation). The purpose of these guides is to help media decision-makers understand some of the key topics in digital news provision, and give them practical support in adopting concepts that will improve their operations and streamline how their companies work.

Guide #3 – Best Practices for Data Journalism, by Kuek Ser Kuang Keng.

Media organizations have invested in data journalism because it has been proven to:

Find stories that would not have been found through traditional reporting.
Find insightful or important stories hidden in data.
Verify or clarify claims more authoritatively with evidence
Communicate information quickly, effectively and memorably.
Tackle bigger stories that involved a huge amount of information or data.
Set your reporting apart from your competitors.
Engage the audience in more innovative and personalized storytelling approaches.

To be clear, data journalism does not replace traditional journalism, but rather complements and enhances what journalists have been doing for centuries.

Please download and share the guide. We would love to hear from you – send any comments or suggestions to us at mas@mdif.org.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.kbridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Guide-3-Best-Practices-for-Data-Journalism-by-Kuang-Keng.pdf” title=”Guide #3: Best Practices for Data Journalism by Kuang Keng Kuek Ser”]

About author: Kuang Keng Kuek Ser is an award-winning digital journalist. He produces and consults on data-driven reporting and interactive journalism projects. Keng is also the founder of DataN, a training program that lowers the barrier for newsrooms and journalists with limited resources to integrate data journalism into daily reporting. He has more than 10 years of experience in digital journalism. He was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 2013 to further his studies at New York University’s Studio 20. In 2015, Keng was selected as a Google Journalism Fellow and a Tow-Knight Fellow.
You can contact him via e-mail or follow @kuangkeng on Twitter.

Case studies on paywall implementation: Gazeta Wyborcza and Malaysiakini

Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:43:58 +0000

We are pleased to announce the release of case studies on paywall implementation for the second guidebook in MAS series of practical guides for media managers (see Guide #1: Product Management for Media Managers, Guide #2: Launching a paywall: What you and your team need to know). The purpose of these guides is to help media decision-makers understand some of the key topics in digital news provision, and give them practical support in adopting concepts that will improve their operations and streamline how their companies work. The case studies aim to provide practical guidance and strategic direction to help media organizations navigate the paywall implementation.

Case Studies to Guide #2: Paywall Implementation at Gazeta Wyborzca and Malaysiakini, by Marius Dragomir, Dumitrita Holdis and Ian M. Cook.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.kbridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Guide-2-Case-studies-appendices.pdf” title=”Case Studies to Guide #2: Paywall Implementation at Gazeta Wyborzca and Malaysiakini”]

Please download and share the guide. We would love to hear from you – send any comments or suggestions to us at mas@mdif.org.

Authors: Marius Dragomir, Dumitrita Holdis and Ian M. Cook – Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) at Central European University (CEU) School of Public Policy (SPP).

Launching a paywall: What you and your team need to know

Mon, 08 Jan 2018 12:35:58 +0000

We are pleased to announce the release of the second guidebook in MAS series of practical guides for media managers (see Guide #1: Product Management for Media Managers). The purpose of these guides is to help media decision-makers understand some of the key topics in digital news provision, and give them practical support in adopting concepts that will improve their operations and streamline how their companies work. The series aims to provide practical guidance and strategic direction to help media organizations navigate the digital transition, including best practices to implement different strategies, processes, tools and techniques.

Guide #2 – Launching a paywall: What you and your team need to know, by Tomáš Bella.

What subscription model is right for you?

Readers‘ clubs – just pay, no wall (The Guardian model)
Metered paywall (The New York Times model)
Hard paywall (The Times model)
Crowdfunding
Technical aspects – what software do you need (CRM, vendors, payment methods and processing, analytics)
Pricing strategies, discounting
Marketing (how to persuade people to pay?)

The aim of this guide is to help you avoid the largest traps that lie ahead as you seek to launch a subscription system, and to help you understand what needs to be done to build a successful project.

Please download and share the guide. We would love to hear from you – send any comments or suggestions to us at mas@mdif.org.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.kbridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Guide-2-Launching-a-paywall-by-Tomas-Bella.pdf” title=”Guide #2 – Launching a paywall: What you and your team need to know by Tomas Bella”]
About author: Tomáš Bella is co-founder and web director of an independent Slovak daily newspaper: Denník N (dennikn.sk), which also develops open-source software for publishers REMP (remp2020). Previously, he was Editor-in-Chief of the largest provider of Slovak web journalism, sme.sk, and co-founder and first director of Piano, now the world’s largest company offering publishers paywall software.

Practical Guide to Product Management in Digital Media

Mon, 18 Dec 2017 09:18:29 +0000

We are pleased to announce the release of the first guidebook in MAS series of practical guides for media managers. The purpose of these guides is to help media decision-makers understand some of the key topics in digital news provision, and give them practical support in adopting concepts that will improve their operations and streamline how their companies work. The series aims to provide practical guidance and strategic direction to help media organizations navigate the digital transition, including best practices to implement different tools, processes and techniques.

The guides are not designed to replace existing resources; on the contrary, they summarize current trends and approaches to critical issues in an easily understandable way and provide links to other resources – always with a strong emphasis on practical use and real-life examples. Over time, we will add a case study to each of the guides to highlight a particular approach undertaken by MDIF’s portfolio companies.

Guide #1: Practical Guide to Product Management in Digital Media, by Derrick Fountain.

Does your ogranization suffer from these kinds of problems?

No clear understanding of who the real customer is for a product or feature?
Trouble deciding which features to build, fix or improve for existing products?
Having difficulty getting all stakeholders on the same page?
Do you feel that your investments in digital aren’t yielding measurable results?
Do you feel that there is a lack of communication and coordination between the technical and content teams?
Do you feel that you are spinning your wheels because your organization is struggling to set priorities?

This guide provides practical strategies and tactics for implementing the product management function in a media organization.

Please download and share the guide. We would love to hear from you – send any comments or suggestions to us at mas@mdif.org.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.kbridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Guide_Product_Management.pdf” title=”Practical Guide to Product Management in Digital Media”]

About author: Derrick Fountain is a global product leader with deep experience of launching digital products in the US, the Middle East, Africa and Turkey. He is currently Head of Digital Products at TRT World in Istanbul. Prior to that, he was Principal Product Management Specialist at Al Jazeera Media Network, where he launched more than 50 web and mobile products. His professional career in media started in 2008 with US-based LAKANA, where he managed a network of 36 mobile web portals.

Basics of web analytics by BBC Academy

Valer Kot — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 13:34:55 +0000

Who is reading, watching or listening to your online content? And where are they from? Web analytics measures performance and can inform site strategies. How metrics help your journalism? How BBC News uses web analytics? BBC prepared the following four videos covering the basics of web analytics.

Attention-based measurement instead of clicks and CPM?

Valer Kot — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 16:04:01 +0000

Chartbeat, a web software company that serves publishers with real-time analytics, has gained accreditation from the Media Rating Council for a new way of measuring the actual attention of readers, as part of a move to get publishers and advertisers to stop focusing only on clicks and pageviews.

Attention measurement (the time spent actively engaging with a page) seems to be a hint of real innovation in this cluttered space of online advertising. If this will change how publishers measure and reward meaningful content rather than just chase after raw clicks and impressions, then not only advertisers are getting a better deal, but also publishers are motivated to focus on high quality, engaging content rather than volume of content and appealing titles.

A similar effort was initiated in 2012 by IAB to define a “viewable impression” metric. However, attention-based measurement of both content and advertising can be a game changer – both for publishers and advertisers. The Financial Times has already started experimenting with a new way of selling ads based on time spent rather than impressions.

Chartbeat Aims To Move Publishers’ Attention Away From Page Views

Outside Voices: Online Ad Viewability Not Ready For Prime-Time

IAB Viewable Impression Measurement Guidelines

Data-driven journalism: The process to transform raw data into stories

Valer Kot — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:17:37 +0000

Data-driven journalism is a process based on analyzing and filtering large data sets for the purpose of creating a news story. Tow Center for Digital Journalism released an extensive report “The Art and Science of Data-Driven Journalism – When journalists combine new technology with narrative skills, they can deliver context, clarity, and a better understanding of the world around us“ written by Alex Howard that examines the methods and predictions concerning running a data-driven newsroom. Following is a list of the 14 findings, recommendations and predictions explored in detail in the full report (PDF):

1) Data will become even more of a strategic resource for media.

2) Better tools will emerge that democratize data skills.

3) News apps will explode as a primary wayMeasuring the impact of data-driven journalism for people to consume data journalism.

4) Being digital first means being data-centric and mobile-friendly.

5) Expect more robojournalism, but know that human relationships and storytelling still matter.

6) More journalists will need to study the social sciences and statistics.

7) There will be higher standards for accuracy and corrections.

8) Competency in security and data protection will become more important.

9) Audiences will demand more transparency on reader data collection and use.

10) Conflicts over public records, data scraping, and ethics will surely arise.

11) Collaborate with libraries and universities as archives, hosts, and educators.

12) Expect data-driven personalization and predictive news in wearable interfaces..

13) More diverse newsrooms will produce better data journalism.

14) Be mindful of data-ism and bad data. Embrace skepticism.

UK daily newspapers have doubled in price since 2004 and shrunk in size

Valer Kot — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 12:50:16 +0000

William Turvill at Press Gazette looks at the rise in cover prices for UK daily and Sunday national newspapers over the past ten years. As he points out, all of the national ‘broadsheet’ daily newspapers in UK have at least doubled their cover prices since 2004 up to now and have generally fared worse than the tabloids in terms of circulation loss. “The Guardian, for instance, has seen its circulation drop by 50 per cent since 2004, but its cover price has nearly tripled – from 55p to £1.60 – in this time.”