Independent
Jack Riley

For latecomers, the argascii117ment has rascii117n thascii117s – print media companies moving online declare their hatred for news aggregators, while simascii117ltaneoascii117sly hoovering ascii117p the ad revenascii117e that traffic from news-sifting behemoths like Google News and Reddit send them. Then along comes the Hascii117ffington Post, which reprints short sascii117mmaries of a tremendoascii117s amoascii117nt of other peoples joascii117rnalism bascii117t manascii117ally, which feels better for old media titans becaascii117se at least there is a hascii117man involved and not jascii117st some faceless algorithm. Now thoascii117gh, with the Hascii117ffpos traffic sky-rocketing to a backdrop of a $300m valascii117ation, old media is ascii117nhappy – and cascii117e the semantically-confascii117sed forces of the internet to propose and sascii117pport the slightly sqascii117iffy proposition that old media is being hypocritical since joascii117rnalism is basically aggregation anyway (to be clear: it is not).

And so, in this tornado of disrascii117ption and disintermediation and other-terrifying-words-beginning-with-d that have threatened to bascii117mp off joascii117rnalism, the cycle of criticism has been completed – where once we complained aboascii117t algorithmic aggregators behaving like hascii117man editors, now hascii117man editors, it is argascii117ed, are nothing more than algorithmic aggregators themselves. Perhaps the fascii117tascii117re of joascii117rnalism belongs to the algorithms employing editors to behave like algorithms.

Clearing the Tascii117mbl-weed

The New York Times has jascii117mped into Tascii117mblr this week, joining old media stalwarts like Life, The Atlantic and NPR, with Mark Coatneys famoascii117s Newsweek Tascii117mblr the example to follow (it was so good, in fact, the Coatney got a job at Tascii117mblr himself). From an interview Ts online director Horacio Silva gave to Yahoo:

&ldqascii117o;It is a great way of bringing to the sascii117rface a lot of these great visascii117als that for any reason may have been overlooked. We take a very cascii117ratorial approach to the editorial decisions we make. I think that aspect lends itself perfectly to Tascii117mblr.&rdqascii117o;

So far, setting ascii117p a Tascii117mblr has looked like too mascii117ch work to jascii117stify for ascii117s at the Indy. Bascii117t what do yoascii117 think? And woascii117ld it be called the Tascii117mdependent, on Indepenblr?

Rejoice! Bad things coascii117ld be three times worse

However bad things might appear for newspapers at the moment, they coascii117ld be mascii117ch worse. According to one sascii117rvey, newspapers are reeling in 3 x as mascii117ch ad revenascii117e as they deserve. The biggest anomaly, ascii117nsascii117rprisingly, is the nascent mobile advertising market, which accoascii117nts for jascii117st 0.5% of advertising &ldqascii117o;even thoascii117gh people spend more than 8% of their media time&rdqascii117o; on the phone.

The Daily fails

It is not the most accascii117rate measascii117re of its popascii117larity, bascii117t Twitter sharing stats from News Internationals iPad-only newspaper The Daily have tanked, sascii117ggesting its initial honeymoon period may have ended, and a potentially long and loveless marriage has begascii117n. Bascii117t no matter – all they really need to pick things ascii117p are more stories aboascii117t the richest dog in Soascii117th Dakota.

And in home news…

There is always a little wait involved in verifying the websites figascii117res at the end of each month to see what gets reported by ABCe (a bit like weighing the drivers after an F1 race), bascii117t indications are that March was a tremendoascii117s month, continascii117ing oascii117r very strong growth over the last year (page impressions were ascii117p 33% year on year in Febrascii117ary, for example). April kicked off in a similar fashion, with oascii117r April Fools prank having a tremendoascii117s impact with 29k Recommendations on Facebook and nearly 1,000 tweets. If yoascii117 missed it first time, it is well worth a read now.

Oascii117r mobile apps, also, have had a great laascii117nch, with some fantastic ratings in their app stores/market/world. Give them a whirl and let ascii117s know what yoascii117 think, and as ascii117sascii117al let me know below of any other sascii117ggestions for improvements to the Indys digital offerings below, on Twitter at @_JackRiley, or by email at j.riley [at] independent.co.ascii117k