Guardian's Eyewitness iPad app tops 90,000 downloads

The Guardian’s Eyewitness app for the iPad has been downloaded 90,000 times since launching on the US App Store last month, according to Guardian News & Media.

The Canon-sponsored app, which showcases the Guardian’s photography, is now available on the UK store and is the second Apple app the title has launched.
Emily Bell, outgoing director of digital content at Guardian News & Media, said, “To have our app on so many iPads in the US is a fantastic achievement that has enabled us to reach new audiences. We’re looking forward to even more people downloading it now the device is available outside the US.”
The Guardian iPhone app was the company’s first paid-for mobile product and has been downloaded more than 100,000 times since it launched last November.
Guardian News & Media hasn’t announced plans to launch mobile apps on other platforms, such as Android and Ovi, but has launched a mobile-optimised version of its website.

Source: newmediaage

The Times expected to cut up to 50 jobs

Guardian reports that in preparation for its June paywall, the Times, will be reducing its editorial budget by 10% and implementing a number of voluntary redundancies that could leave up to 50 journalists out of work.
In a lunchtime meeting at the Times last week, editor James Harding revealed that sister publication, the Sunday Times, would also be cutting its editorial budget by 10%, which could lead to the elimination of 30 jobs. The grand total of redundancies could reach 80.
Staff at the Times have two weeks to apply for voluntary redundancies, this is the only News International publication to offer these, and those who decide to take the offer, would receive four weeks' salary for every year worked plus a four-month notice period.
The Sunday Times staff will also be hearing about the paper's cost saving plans soon, which could be cutting £4.5 million from the current editorial budget of £42.5 million a year, would go into effect on July 1st. It is estimated that The Times and the Sunday Times lose up to £240,000 per day. The company has blamed these losses on an advertising downturn.
After his lunchtime meeting announcement, James Harding emailed his staff and wrote that Times Newspapers (to include both Sunday Times and Times) are suffering "unsustainable" losses, according to Guardian.
"We cannot ensure the long-term future of this paper and our futures in journalism if we cannot make a viable business out of the Times."
"We are clearly in a period of galloping technological change and we need to ensure that we have the resources to invest so that we can lead the market in digital journalism," the editor of the Times said. "Today, we are starting a process to cut costs, reduce our losses and free up resources for the future of our journalism."
Interestingly enough, the newspaper's decision to cut back on staff and editorial budget comes just a few weeks before the newspaper erects a paywall around its website. The Times will start charging for access to its online content in June, before The Sun and News of the World, also owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International.

Sources: Guardian

FT offers staff three-day working week

THE Financial Times is cutting staffing costs by offering employees the chance to work fewer hours over summer, including a three-day working week option.
The FT has launched the "global voluntary scheme" offering staff flexible working options as part of a plan to help ride out the worst of the media downturn.
Options include working a three- or four-day week between June and August, an option to buy an additional seven days leave and to extend annual leave at 30% pay with a minimum booking period of two weeks.
In a document to staff outlining the options the FT pushed the flexible options with a series of questions.
"Do you fancy spending more time with your family over the summer months? Have you been meaning to book that trip of a lifetime? Would you like to improve you work-life balance in 2009?
"If the answer is yes to any of the above questions, the FT may be able to assist," said the document.
"The options are part of our ongoing efforts to ensure we have the flexibility to respond positively to the changing market," said Aimee Watson, the human resources manager in global human resources at the FT in an email.
"We believe that this is a creative way to help the company reduce costs and retain talent, whilst giving employees the opportunity to take more time off."
The email said applications will only be considered where there is a "clear business rationale", and that taking advantage of any of the flexibility options "will have no negative consequences for your future employment".
Earlier this month FT journalists voted to hold a ballot on strike action in a bid to stave off compulsory redundancies among the 80 positions being cut.
In December John Ridding, the Financial Times chief executive, said plans were being put in place to cut costs which would include offering staff the opportunity to work less.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Quality newspapers 'not profitable', Guardian boss claims

BUSINESS models for the UK's leading newspapers "do not make any sense", according to the managing director of Guardian News & Media (GNM).
Speaking in this week's PrintWeek, which comes out on Friday, Tim Brooks claimed that due to declining circulations and the advent of online news, the Quality Press is being forced to re-evaluate its operations to make them sustainable.
"The real issue is that the Quality Press, in aggregate, is not profitable," he said.
He went on to say: "The days when you can trade in just words are gone."
GNM, which is part of the Guardian Media Group and operates The Guardian, The Observer and guardian.co.uk, has not made a profit since 2000 and is supported financially by the Scott Trust.
Brooks has said he will never launch another printed newspaper and has pitched the company's future on multimedia and guardian.co.uk, which currently attracts 26m unique users per month – the highest of all the UK newspapers, according to ABCe figures from the end of last year.
"All future investments will be digital," he said.

Sourc: printweek.com

Pay freeze at Guardian Media Group

GUARDIAN Media Group today announced a pay freeze for the 2009-2010 financial year, affecting employees across its businesses including the Guardian and Observer newspapers.
The freeze affects the company's wholly owned businesses, including Guardian News & Media, publisher of the Guardian, the Observer, guardian.co.uk and MediaGuardian.co.uk; the Manchester Evening News local newspapers and GMG Radio, operator of the Smooth Radio and Real Radio networks.
GMG blamed "the impact on revenues of the economic downturn", in "anticipation of worsening conditions" in the coming year.
The freeze will hit all staff and management within GNM, GMG Regional Media, GMG Radio and GMG Property Services, which operates software businesses for estate agents and those working directly for GMG plc.
Bonus payments to commercial staff based on financial performance – up to 70% of individuals' total bonus packages – for the current financial year, up to 31 March, will be scrapped but bonuses based on "achievement of personal objectives" will be paid.
In the 2007-2008 financial year all commercial staff received a bonus based on the company's performance. Commission received by sales staff is not affected by the changes announced today.
The GMG remuneration committee has also suspended both financial performance and personal objective bonuses for the 2009-10 financial year, starting on 1 April, unless specially approved.
Management at the company's various divisions met union officials to inform them of the pay freeze today.
Today's announcement does not affect Trader Media Group or Emap, which are part owned by GMG.
In 2007, GNM staff voted for a two-year, 4.8% pay rise, with an additional inflation-linked boost from April 2008. This arrangement ends on 31 March this year.
GMG is owned by the Scott Trust

Source: Guardian.co.uk

The Times revamps Saturday issue

The Times's Saturday issue is being revamped. It's to have four new sections - sport, Saturday Review (a broadsheet for arts and books), Weekend (lifestyle) and Playlist (an A5-shaped what's on guide). The glossy magazine, also refreshed, remains. The main news section will now accommodate money.
The point of the exercise is to make the paper easier to navigate and is clearly the result of improved printing facilities. Instead of tucking sections into each other, they will now appear separately, with the broadsheet acting as a sort of "breaker" among the sections.

Source: Guardian.co.uk