Mobile opens the doors for Google Maps

Just when you thought Google Maps was finished mapping every inch of the globe, they’ve opened up a whole new world to map: the indoors.

The latest version of the Google Maps application for Android phones and tablets offers floorplans of some large indoor public spaces, such as airports and shopping malls.

Google Maps 6.0 for Android also shows users where they are within the floor plan, with a blue dot that updates as the person moves, PC World reported. The app refreshes when users move to different floors within the building. Labels within the maps include bathrooms, ATMs, airport gates, store names and more.

Although only a handful of indoor spaces have been mapped so far, Google accepts floor plans from any venue that wishes to be included, so the space is sure to grow quickly.

Google Maps went indoors for two main reasons: the spread of mobile accompanied by the increasing privitisation of public space, according to Fortune. The move also “further solidifies Google’s lead over AOL’s MapQuest.”

Image: Before and after Google Maps went indoors at the Mall of America

News Summit: Balancing cost cutting with great journalism

HONG KONG - Staff reductions have been the rule for the last 10 years and many times, the “do more with less” motto has threatened editorial quality.

“Managers have to cut costs but continue to produce great journalism pieces,” Martha Stone, CEO of World Newsmedia Network in the USA, told the Tuesday morning session of News World Summit 2011, hosted by the Global Editors Network, in Hong Kong.

Stone also revealed the results of the latest World Newsmedia Innovation Study 2011, which indicates that “on the top of the heap for investment is the notion of developing journalism skills,” followed by developing skills of sales people and iPad/tablet products.

According to the study, the top areas for media companies to cut costs include printing, administration, materials, distribution, office spaces, as well as content generation.

More than 50 percent of the media companies who participated the study pointed out social media and paid-for e-reader/tablet products as opportunities, while 47 percent said so for paid-for mobile services.

Within the next five years, over half of the respondents said more than 20 percent of the revenue will come from sources other than traditional media.

The global study is in its third year and available in 9 languages.

Economist’s digital successes translating into profit

More than a million readers access the Economist on a mobile device each month, and more than three million of its iOS and Android apps have been downloaded, the magazine announced. At the same time, its digital-only subscribers now total more than 100,000.

At the same time, its half-year operating profit is up 6 percent, to £26.2 million, and its revenues are up 4 percent, to £164.3 million, according to the interim financial report, released by The Economist Group.

The success with increasing its digital readership across platforms and seeing increased profits can be attributed to investing in digital editions, launching new apps for Android smartphones, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s new Fire reader, in addition to apps already available for the iPad, iPhone and Kindle devices. At the same time, the demand for digital editions has “exceeded our expectations,” Rupert Pennant-Rea, the group’s chairman, said in a statement.

Tablets, e-readers and smartphones aren’t the only devices attributing to digital success; The Economist’s website is also growing, with a 45 percent rise in monthly visitors, to more than seven million, since September 2010.

And, up to a point, The Economist’s success is also due in part to “being in the right place at the right time with the right product” – an international magazine, written in English, Roy Greenslade wrote today for MediaGuardian. Add an aggressive digital strategy to that mix of good fortune, and we arrive at where The Economist is today.

“We suddenly realised that if we were making a distinction between lean-back and lean-forward, here was lean-back digital or lean-back 2.0. We made a conscious choice to avoid the web-style interactive approach. Instead, we saw the potential of delivering a better lean-back experience than we have ever achieved in print,” Economist group Chief Executive Andrew Rashbass told Greenslade.

News Summit: Bye-bye mass media

HONG KONG - The media landscape is changing thanks to the Internet. It has not only produced a new way of sharing, but also changed the ways media were traditionally consumed. Now consumers become journalists themselves and can produce content.

“The linear stories become conversations. The audience gets more active. They re-use and even alter our content,” Robert Amlung, head of Digital Strategy of ZDF TV in Germany, told the Monday morning’s session of News World Summit 2011, hosted by the Global Editors Network, in Hong Kong.

“We have to accept that the old ways of doing things [are] not being replaced, but there are new ways.”

“Media have lost control. We have to change to stay who we are. Media needs to let go the content, not keeping the content like before, and keep their way from mass communication to communication of the masses,” Amlung added.

“The media ecosystem in the 21^st century is more diverse, but healthier. We need to move from knowing everything, or pretending [to know] everything, to be willing to try everything, and perhaps, fail,” said Dan Gillmor, director of the U.S.-based Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism.

“The good news: trying new things is inexpensive,” Gillmor added.

British users don’t like to engage with brands on social networks

Almost two out of three British online users do not want to engage with brands on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, according to a recent survey by TNS.

The study surveyed more than 72,000 Internet users worldwide, and found that Britons are less willing to embrace online marketing messages and corporate blogposts compared to those in other countries.

61 percent of British Internet users reject with brands on social networks, compared with 57 percent across other developed countries and 45 percent in Latin America, Media Guardian reported.

There is a big digital divide in attitudes towards the expenses of online access. About half of the population in fast-growing markets, such as Egypt, Nigeria and India, said they would use the Internet more if it was cheaper, while 81 percent in Ghana and 71 percent in Nigeria also said so.

20 percent of the 2,093 Britons surveyed said that social networks are a good place to buy products, lower than the global average of 40 percent. A further 60 percent disagree that social networks were a good place to learn about brands, according to TNS.

Users in fast-growing markets tend to be more open with brands on social networks - only one out of three Columbians and 37 percent of Mexicans don’t like to be bothered by brands.

The Digital Life study was conducted between June and September, 2011, by TNS.

Did Romenesko plagiarize, or is Poynter in the wrong?

A name synonymous with all things journalism, Jim Romenesko, has resigned after 12 years at the Poynter Institute.

Romanesko’s departure comes after questions were raised about his use of quotation marks when summarizing articles in his daily round-up of media stories. Poynter Online Director Julie Moos wrote that he displayed “a pattern of incomplete attribution” in his posts. Not fully quoting the words of others “is incomplete and inconsistent with our publishing practices and standards,” she wrote.

Some say Poynter was correct in its move to cite the missing quotation marks as plagiarism. Others are insisting Poynter is the guilty party, pointing out that Romenesko’s blog is the main reason for Poynter Online’s success, and that the site is trying to make Romenesko look bad just as he was scheduled to depart to launch a competing product.

What it comes down to, The New York Times’s Jeremy Peters noted, was that Poynter, “an organization that teaches journalistic ethics and practices, had scolded its most famous writer for a technical infraction of its guidelines.” The result of which was Poynter being accused of “being school-marmish and petty, and for tarnishing the name of a man who is deeply admired by his colleagues.”

“FWIW, as someone who Romenesko has linked various times, I have never given, nor could I imagine giving, a crap about this practice. Even in the supposedly damning example cited above [this comment appeared below Poynter's post on the story], the bulk of the quoted material appears in quotes. The bolded phrases not in quotes are, to be charitable, boilerplate. Unless there are far more egregious examples out there--which I strain to imagine, since the practice and intent of Romenesko's blog is self-evident--this is a nothingburger,” TIME columnist James Poniewozik commented.

Romenesko had offered his resignation twice before, but Poynter had refused to accept it, he said, according to The Times. He had planned on going part-time at Poynter and starting his own website in just a couple of months.

His new site will continue covering media news, but will also discuss “other things I’m interested in.”

RIM makes deal with NewspaperDirect

RIM has inked an agreement with e-editions distributor NewspaperDirect for its PressReader app to be preloaded on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the firms announced today.

PressReader gives users access to more than 2,000 news publications from 95 countries. Most newspapers and magazines can be bought for US$0.99 per issue, or downloaded as part of a paid subscription on PressDisplay.com.

The app basically reproduces publications as PDFs, which “means potentially a significantly less interactive experience than an app but also one that costs less to put on a device,” paidContent explained.

Hearst experiments with side projects

Hearst this week sold a majority stake in its topics app LMK to digital holding company Black Ocean. The size of the deal wasn’t especially noteworthy, but it does show that the publisher is looking to businesses outside of traditional editorial, and is trying its hand at “becoming incubators of startups that can then be sold,” paidContent pointed out today.

Earlier this year, Hearst launched organizational service Manilla, which helps users keep track of finances, rewards programs and subscriptions.

Late last month, Hearst Magazines UK announced a partnership with Zappar, an “augmented reality” app. Consumers who buy the print products can use the app to “bring the covers to life.” The app is free from iTunes or the Android Market Place, and when used, plays exclusive content on handheld devices from each magazine cover.

Just last week Hearst announced it would back YouTube’s new original channels, according to ClickZ. The channels are a way for Hearst to maximize its editorial brands, with staffers from titles like Car and Driver and Popular Mechanics offering their expertise on the Automotive channel, and staffers from titles like Marie Claire and Seventeen offering their advice on a Fashion and Beauty Channel.

comScore: Google’s U.S. search market share up; Yahoo down

Google widened its lead over Yahoo in the U.S. online search market in October, according to the latest data from comScore.

Google’s share was up to 65.6 percent last month from 65.3 percent in September, while Yahoo’s dropped to 15.2 percent from 15.5 percent. Microsoft gained a tenth of a percentage point, making it 14.8 percent share of the U.S. market, Bloomberg reported.

Google, which revenues mostly came from query- result-based advertising, is trying to improve its search engine facing competition from Yahoo and Microsoft after they signed a 10-year partnership. Google announced earlier this month that it is making results “fresher” by adding more recent links on some subjects, which affects about 35 percent of searches.

According to eMarkter, Microsoft and Yahoo together will account for about 16 percent of spending on search-based advertising in U.S. in 2011, while Google is expected to grab about 76 percent.

Barnes & Noble unveils Nook Tablet

Barnes & Noble today launched a new Nook Tablet for US$249. The device has double the memory and internal storage of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, expected to be released soon for $199, Computerworld reported.

Although the Nook is “superior” to the Kindle Fire, its over-$200 price tag is likely to push consumers away, analysts said, according to the report. Amazon is a more recognised brand name, and the access to Amazon content is expected to sell better to holiday shoppers.

However, the Nook Color was also priced at $249 and “sold millions,” paidContent reported. It now costs $199. The Nook Simple Touch e-reader, initially priced at $139, is now $99.

B&N currently has about a 27 percent cut of the U.S. e-reader market.

Image: Ars Technica

Search leads U.S. mobile ad revenues in 2012

As search is the top marketing spending on the Web, it leads on mobile platforms, too, according to the latest estimates from British market researcher mobileSquared.

The company said total mobile ad revenues will reach $2.35 billion in U.S. for 2012, up 65 percent from $1.42 billion this year, Media Post reported.

Search revenues, the growth driver, will top $1 billion itself and represent 43.1 percent of all mobile ad revenues in 2012, up 90 percent from the previous year.

SMS and other opt-in messaging used to dominate mobile advertising in early years, but banner ads now have become the second largest format, accounting for 27.8 percent in 2012. Mobile display will follow with 48 percent gain in value next year, making it $442.2 million in total revenues.

Opt-in messaging will be up 47 percent to $383.8 million, or 23.9 percent of revenues, while ad-related app revenue will represent 2.4 percent and video and mobile TV advertising will make up 2.7 percent of revenues, Media Post reported.

Image: mobileSquared