The CEO of the company that owns The New York Times announced in Hamburg last week that the newspaper’s website will adopt a “first click free” strategy, which will allow some free access to content in spite of an upcoming paywall. At the World Editor’s Forum in Hamburg last week, Janet Robinson said readers will have access to a set number of free articles a month. Details about prices and subscription packages for print and online will be announced later this year.
The Associated Press is reporting that at least 17 journalists have been injured while covering the mining rescue in Chile. The accidents are just one consequence of the “mob scene,” as AP calls it, that has overcome the small section of the Atcaama desert. The stress caused from lack of hotels, food and proper roads has led journalists to “jostle for position, shout over each other’s questions. walk into each other’s camera shoots and battle for space.”
Toronto’s soon to be ex-mayor railed on news outlets Tuesday at the Democracy and Journalism lecture hosted by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. David Miller said there is an increasing tendency by the media to report on the “trivial” and “titillating” at the expense of “important” and “relevant” news. Among the causes, he said, is the need to fill the 24-hour news cycle, and an interest in personality and trivia. The trend, he says, is threatening the quality of public debate.
About the author
Wendy Gillis was the Senior Editor for the Winter 2011 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.