Tag Archives: New technology
FT giving staffers money to buy tablets
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Robert Andrews of PaidContent.org reports that the Financial Times is offering a $480 rebate to its staffers if they purchase a tablet such as an iPad.
Andrews reports, “The FT, which has its own app on iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab, wants to encourage the tablet reading habit in its own staff first. It means a potential bill of £540,000 or $864,000. Even staff who already own a tablet will get the payout. Seems like one way to spend this year’s bonuses, and will do no harm to the FT’s tablet reader count.
“Here is FT Group CEO John Ridding’s memo to staff…
‘I’m pleased to let you know that we are launching today a new initiative that will allow FT staff to claim a £300 (€350/ US$480) subsidy for the purchase of a personal iPad or tablet. This will run from today until 30th June 2011.
‘The FT is making this investment because digital channels and tablet devices are becoming increasingly important for us and the media industry in general, and as recognition of your contribution to our strong performance this year.’”
Read more here.
Dow Jones plans B2B digital overall
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Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, is planning a digital overhaul of its business-to-business activities with a new focus on improving revenues from specialist audiences, reports Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson of The Financial Times.
Edgecliffe-Johnson writes, “Robert Thomson, Dow Jones’ editor-in-chief since News Corp took it over in 2007 and a former US managing editor at the Financial Times, said two editors had been assigned in September to an unidentified ‘special project’ focusing on new means of delivering industry-specific information to customers traditionally served by the group’s newswires and data products.
“‘It’s obvious to even the casual observer that the part of the business that has slipped a little is B2B. It’s fair to say that that’s the concern which most occupies my thinking at the moment,’ he said.
“The ‘hoo-ha and hullabaloo’ around the $5.6bn News Corp takeover focused attention on the Journal, ‘but the truth is that Dow Jones is both a B2B and a B2C [business-to-consumer] company,’ he added. Declining newswire revenues have left the Journal – in print and online – as Dow Jones’ largest revenue driver, but its other operations range from Barron’s, a financial weekly, to the Factiva news archive, databases of corporate information and 22 local US newspapers.
“Dow Jones’ B2B division contributed 60 per cent of group profits shortly before the takeover, but News Corp has not broken out the revenue or profit split since then.”
Read more here. Talking Biz News reported earlier this month that the special project would focus on foreign exchange coverage in a new platform.
WSJ app for Android tablet is a nice touch
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Richard Lai of Engadget reviews the Android tablet app for The Wall Street Journal, calling it a “pretty good job.”
Lai writes, “The biggest difference between the iPad version and the Android version of WSJ’s app lies in the article layout: rather than splitting the body into multiple columns and spreading them across pages horizontally, the Android version does it all in a single column on a single page. This makes sense in portrait mode given the smaller screen size, but it’s not as pleasing to the eye in landscape mode; that said, if you do have a thing for wider paragraphs, then they’re certainly tolerable if you pick the large text size — you can do so using the button with the larger ‘A’ at the bottom right corner of the page.
“Speaking of which, you’ll also find two more buttons next to the text size keys — one’s for jumping to the top of the page, and the other’s for jumping to the bottom, just like the ‘Home’ and ‘End’ keys on a desktop keyboard. We haven’t been using these four tiny buttons much yet, but they could do with some sizing up to cover more of our fingertip.
“Another big difference between the two versions is the way video clips are embedded in the articles. In short: it’s not for the short-tempered — it’s bad enough that the articles take almost twice as long to load, but you’re also forced to watch them in full screen only; whereas the iPad version lets you watch them right inside the article (like HTML5 videos in iOS’ Safari) or in fullscreen mode. In WSJ’s defense, this is probably more to do with certain limitations on Android, so here’s hoping that Google will throw in some useful tweaks in the near future to aid developers on this matter.”
Read more here.
WSJ iPad app extends to Europe, Asia
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The Wall Street Journal announced that it has added its European and Asian editions to its iPad application.
Those editions can be accessed by all users, along with the U.S. version, when launching the app using the edition selector feature. The regional editions offer content from each day’s paper, mirroring the experience of the print Journal in each region.
“The Wall Street Journal continues to evolve products and news offerings to anticipate the needs of our readers, and to reach new audiences in innovative ways,” said Neil McIntosh, editor of europe.WSJ.com, in a statement. “Our regionalized iPad app provides us with the perfect platform to showcase the best of our high-quality business content for a European audience, retaining the look, feel and physicality of the printed page while combining it with the convenience, versatility and style of a digital experience.”
The Wall Street Journal iPad app has had more than 720,000 downloads since its launch in April.
Read more here.
CNBC launches new technology for watching markets
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Business news network CNBC launched Monday a data wall called the Real Time Exchange that allows it to provide market data to readers.
For example, a S&P 500 Market Heat Map gives traders a real-time look at the state of the stock market, highlighting individual stocks and sectors through a dynamic ranking of winners and losers. The stocks that are up are in green, and the stocks that are down are in red.
The Squawk Box Overnight Indicator displays U.S. futures, the major markets in Europe & Asia, U.S. Treasuries and key commodities.
The Global Market Map highlights all major markets by region, with real-time data in U.S., Europe and Asia.
Rival Fox Business Network rolled out what it calls the DataWizard back in August. It’s a similar data wall.
Wired loses creative director, iPad sales strong
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John Koblin of Women’s Wear Daily has an update on Wired magazine’s strong iPad sales, and the loss of its creative director.
Koblin writes, “Condé Nast ‘It’ boy Scott Dadich has resigned as creative director at Wired to focus full time on his other gig as the company’s executive director of digital-magazine development. Dadich got his corporate job back in July and has divided his time over the last three months, designing the print edition of Wired at its San Francisco offices and tutoring magazine editors at 4 Times Square in New York on how to merge their print products with those mysterious and magical digital devices.
“Dadich, who Condé executives are banking on to yank the company into the New Media era, helped the publisher forge a relationship with Adobe, which has been used to design apps for tablet devices. So far, Adobe has helped create the Wired and New Yorker iPad apps, while magazines like Vanity Fair, GQ and Glamour have been working with Condé Nast Digital. Sources have said the Adobe track is becoming the preferred one among Condé Nast executives — meaning future apps will likely use that platform.
“And just how are those digital issues performing? After Wired’s enormous first month in June, when it sold 100,000 copies — an even better result than the usual 76,000 it sells off the newsstand — sales have been about a quarter of that. In July and August, the Wired iPad app sold 31,000 and 28,000 copies, respectively, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Rapid Report. A Wired spokeswoman confirmed the magazine has sold an average of roughly 30,000 copies since the June release.”
Read more here.
FT app producing ad revenue
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Mark Sweney of The Guardian in London reports that the Financial Times application for the iPad has produced $1.5 million in advertising revenue since it was launched in May.
Sweney writes, “Ben Hughes, who is also the paper’s global commercial director, said more than 400,000 subscribers have signed up for the app. He added that it now accounts for 10% of the paper’s new digital subscriptions.
“‘My job is to make the FT brand sweat,’ he told the MediaGuardian Changing Advertising Summit. ‘Print [advertising] isn’t dead but media owners are just having to find new ways to put [different models] together.’
“Hughes said traditional print advertising now accounts for just 40% of the FT’s overall revenue.
“He said changes in the advertising market are not limited to opportunities created by new technology. The FT is also exploiting areas such as events, he pointed out.”
Read more here.
CNBC app will be part of Google TV launch
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Business news network CNBC will have the only real-time, financial news and data application preinstalled on the upcoming Google TV platform, the network announced Monday.
Google TV will be available on Sony televisions and Blu-ray players as well as on Logitech companion boxes. These devices go on sale this month and will be available at Best Buy stores nationwide.
“CNBC offers an unparalleled suite of digital financial products that ensure the real-time data, news and analysis investors care about are available to them across multiple platforms,” said Scott Drake, vice president of CNBC Digital, in a statement. “We are proud to be a part of the Google TV launch and offer users a seamless, one-screen experience that provides them with the essential information they need to be successful in this complex market.”
CNBC’s real-time Google TV application includes real-time stock quotes available with data directly from the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges, pesrsonalized watch lists and editorially selected “hot stocks” so users can track the stocks that matter to them as well as the market at large, access to CNBC.com, global programming from CNBC EMEA and CNBC Asia, news alerts to show users the information driving their stocks today, and CNBC’s editors picks for the most important news videos of the day.
Bloomberg introduces Android app
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Bloomberg L.P. released Thursday a new Android application that included news and stock home screen widgets. It’s free.
It is the first business and finance app for Android that allows users to read stories while off-line.
“Bloomberg uniquely harnesses technology to combine data, news and information into integrated tools that are relevant for our users,” said Oke Okaro, global head of Bloomberg Mobile, in a statement. “We’ve made significant developments in creating rich, personalized experiences on mobile, and we’re working on some incredible applications that will leverage Bloomberg’s core strengths as a multimedia and technology company.”
Bloomberg’s apps include interactive charts that enable users to drill down on information that’s personally relevant for them. For example, starting with the 52-week stock chart that appears on the stock’s summary page, users can tap a stock chart to see it in full-screen mode — where they can also see details for the open, close, high, or low for a time period ranging from five years ago to the current day.
The app provides news related to particular stocks, and users can create personalized views of the news by industry, region, exclusivity or popularity.
Bloomberg also has an app for subscribers to the Bloomberg Anywhere service that enables them to tap into the tens of thousands of terminal functions on the go.
Economist to launch iPad, iPhone apps later this year
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Rob O’Regan of EMedia Vitals reports that The Economist will launch iPhone and iPad applications later this year.
O’Regan writes, “The goal of the new apps is to replicate the magazine experience, while taking advantage of the devices’ unique features. ‘As closely as possible, we want it to feel like you’re reading The Economist in print,’ said Oscar Grut, the Economist Group’s managing director of digital editions.
“Grut believes the iPad and other e-readers like the Kindle offer an opportunity to replicate the lean-back experience of the print magazine.
“‘The strong message we’re seeing is that people are using these devices in a completely different way than they use desktops,’ he said. ‘We’re seeing increasing evidence of the enjoyment people derive from reading on these devices. For us it’s a complete departure from the old world of digital. It’s much more like print.’
“Which, of course, plays right into the type of analytical, long-form journalism The Economist offers.”
Read more here.
