El año de Murdoch

No hay duda de que este fue el año de Murdoch. El principal accionistas de News Corp no sólo adquirió The Wall Street Journal, además ha profundizado el giro que tomó desde que se hizo de My Space: dejar de lado los dogma que han acompañado a la industria y a los medios por décadas. El contenido no sólo debe ser bueno, sino que fácil de adquirir y gratis. "Free People, Free Markets, Free Thinkig" es el lema que acompañó la salida de la familia Brancroft del diario y que, según Murdoch, lo inspira. En los top ten de la industria en 2007, desarrollado por Editor and Publisher, aparecen además los despidos masivos en los principales diarios estadounidenses, la venta del Chicago Tribune y la decisión de la agencia que audita el tiraje de periódicos en EE.UU. -Audit Bureau of Circulations- de incluir por primera vez las audiencias virtuales. Nielsen también se sumó a la moda de ranking y para completar el año junto los top ten en la industria de internet y la entretención.


Por Joe Strupp
Editorandpublisher.artículo

10. Bilal Hussein

The Associated Press photographer, first detained by U.S. and Iraqi military in 2006 for undefined terror-related crimes, spent the entire year (and more) in jail and recently went to court to face charges that remain unclear. The Iraqi snapper, whose gripping photo of insurgents on the attack helped the news cooperative win a 2005 Pulitzer, drew international attention and support for his cause with several organizations (especially the AP) demanding his release and one group collecting 2,200 names on an online petition. Elsewhere in Iraq, dozens of more Iraqi and foreign journalists were killed amid continuing violence.

9. Newspaper Guild Election and Battles

Linda Foley had essentially run The Newspaper Guild unopposed since taking the presidency 12 years ago. She was continually re-elected with no major opposition. But with the newsroom union facing tough battles in the age of job cuts, economic problems and more newspapers trying to break local units, a clear opponent arose in Secretary-Treasurer Bernie Lunzer.Although the election is not slated to occur until late spring 2008, the battle began months ago with dueling Web sites and increased rhetoric between the two factions. Meanwhile the guild found tough contract battles this year in Philadelphia; Toledo and Dayton, Ohio; York, Pa.; and Rochester, N.Y. MediaNews Group, which has been taking a hard line in York, actually pulled the plug on the Guild unit at its Oakland (Ca.) Tribune's Alameda Newspaper Group after merging it with a non-union sister chain