Toluu : WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

NEWS, TIPS & OPINION FROM JUAN ANTONIO GINER, FOUNDER DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION INTERNATIONAL MEDIA CONSULTING GROUP

IF THIS IS THE FUTURE, DON’T COUNT WITH METoday

Today’s most e-mailed piece from The New York Times edition is a great Maureen Dowd column about the Pasadena Now website.

James Macpherson is the man behind this news experiment.

“Many newspapers are dead men walking. They’re going to be replaced by smaller, nimbler, multiple Internet-centric kinds of things such as what I’m pioneering.”

Well, if this the future, don’t count with me.

His workers in India deliver him a transcript of a 20-minute press conference at CityHall, about 90 minutes after the event. The cost? $1.70 or $1.80.

One year ago he was looking for bloggers to do restaurant reviews.

No pyament, but free meals.

So, expect very reliable reviews.

What a smart publisher to work for!

(Picture by AP)

THE SLOW FAST-RESPONSE INDIAN COMMANDOSYesterday

Nine-and-a-half hours after the terror strike, the Indian “fast-reponse” NSG Commandos arrived in Mumbai.

A world record.

Here is the amazing timing:

9:30 p.m. Wednesday: The terrorists strike Mumbai. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is in Kerala. He is briefed about the attack. By the time he grasps the enormity of the situation, 90 minutes have gone by.

11 p.m.: Mr. Deshmukh calls Home Minister Shivraj Patil - who has now resigned from his post - and asks for NSG commandos. “How many men?” Patil asks. “200,” Mr. Deshmukh says. Mr. Patil calls NSG chief J.K. Dutt and tells him to send 200 battle-ready commandos to Mumbai.

11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday: Most of the NSG men have to be roused from sleep. They don their uniforms, strap on safety gear and collect ammo and firearms. It is discovered that the plane that can take 200 men, the IL 76, is not in Delhi but Chandigarh. Someone wakes up the IL 76 pilot; the plane refuels. It eventually arrives in Delhi.

5 a.m. The commandos land at Mumbai airport. By the time they board the waiti

SAY IT AGAIN: HOW MANY ROOMS?November 29

The chaotic coverage by the Indian press of the Mumbai tragedy is amazing.

And The Times of India again leads the lack of accuracy.

The main story on today’s homepage includes conflicting numbers about something that is just a fact.

But fact checking must be too much to ask for a newspaper that many consider to be the best paper in the country (imagine the rest of them!).

As you can see in the picture below, in the same story The Times of India gives you two different figures about the number of rooms of the famous hotel under siege: 400 and 565.

The Taj Mahal hotel’s webpage clearly states the number of rooms: 565.

I read this story two hours ago, and nobody has found the mistake yet.

So if the reporting was bad, then the copy editing is worse.

CONFLICTING REPORTS AND LACK OF JOURNALISMNovember 28