Forbes is reporting Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper chain, which controls more than 80 newspapers around the country from small community papers to USA Today, apparently has plans to switch over its community papers to a tiered pay model this year. (One notable exception: USA Today.) The switch to a tiered paywall — where the first few stories per month are free — comes amid a renewed emphasis on digital-first news gathering, which has included handing out thousands of iPhones and iPads to news staffers at various properties.

From Forbes:

Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, is planning to switch over all of its 80 community newspapers to a paid model by the end of the year, it announced during an investor day held in Manhattan Wednesday.

“We will begin to restrict some access to non-subscribers,” said Bob Dickey, president of community publishing. The model is similar to the metered system adopted by The New York Times a year ago, in which online readers are able to view a limited number of pages for free each month. That quota will be between five and 15 articles, depending on the paper, said Dickey. Six Gannett papers already have a digital pay regimen in place.

This news is hardly unexpected. Not only are other major newspapers and outlets heading in this direction, but Gannett itself has been toying with this model at some of its properties for some time and started actively testing this tiered model this month.

Jim Romenesko posted the paywall FAQ customers of those test sites received in January. According to that, subscribers continue to have unfettered access to all content on all platforms.

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“Users have asked for it for a long time,” Jeff Elder, Storify’s marketing director, told me via email. “This is a storytelling app, letting you create content on the iPad as never before.”

Just like the Storify website, the app lets users curate content from Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. There are two main differences: Users can tweet directly from the app and it is also touch-enabled, allowing content to be moved with just the touch of a finger.

“Whether you’re at a conference or at home, you can mix social streams to create simple, beautiful stories to share and remember the moments in life that matter,” Xavier Damman, Storify co-founder and CEO, said in a press release. “You now have storytelling at your fingertips.” continued…

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We have a big announcement to make at midnight PST. Stay tuned. #feb22 #storify

— Storify (@Storify) February 21, 2012

What’s your prediction? Will the announcement be an acquisition? Or maybe a big new hire?

NBC News’ Craig Kanalley is curating a lot of the speculation in this Storify. Want to be a part of the story? Tweet your guess with the hashtag #Feb22.

Due to technical difficulties, the Storify won’t embed in WordPress.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Not only did the piece score her a book and TV deal, but she said the feedback from readers has been overwhelmingly positive — and, in some cases, life-changing.

“One of my favorite responses was from a man in his sixties with a 35-year-old daughter, saying that she’s lovely, intelligent, she’s the apple of his eye, and she is not married and has no intention of getting married — a point of concern for him and his wife,” Bolick told mediabistro.com for its “Hey, How’d You Do That?” series. “But, after reading the article, they don’t feel concerned anymore… It was very sweet that he had just come in to this new way of thinking towards his daughter and was then applying it to me.”

Read the full interview to get Bolick’s tips for successful freelancing and share your comments below.  What’s the best piece of feedback you ever received for an article?

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So, what is it like to be a social media or community editor? What are the job responsibilities and how does one end up landing such a gig? The goal of “Four Questions With …” is to answer some of these questions and to give insight into what is a new and constantly evolving field.

This month, we chatted with Mark Johnson, The Economist’s community editor based in its London office. He joined the well-respected news magazine in June 2010 after working in publishing, developing digital strategy at HarperCollins in London.

Here are Johnson’s thoughts on community, social media and journalism. continued…

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Above is one of my favorite videos about online journalism — a 1981 television report from KRON-TV in the San Francisco Bay Area. It shows how, through a special service, people were able to dial into servers and download the day’s newspaper.

How long does it take to download the newspaper? Well, over 2 hours (after all, the modems shown require the user to physically place a telephone handset on top of them).

It speaks of eight newspapers who had online versions available at the time: the Columbus Dispatch, The New York Times, the Virginian-Pilot & Ledger Star, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Times and the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. continued…

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In a letter posted on the site, editor James O’Shea says:

Unlike similar start-up efforts like the Texas Tribune in Austin, the Bay Citizen inSan Francisco and ProPublica in New York, we never recruited the kind of seven figure donations from people of means concerned about the declining quality of news coverage around the country. As a result, CNC never raised the resources to make investments in the business side of our operation that would have generated the revenue we needed to achieve our original goal – a self-sustaining news operation within 5 years.

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Depending on how advanced the newsroom is when it comes to understanding the basics of how to utilize social media and online communities for their reporting, the process of changing their ways could be ongoing and end up taking years.

Once all is said and done, a few years have gone by and you’re less a reporter and more a social media manager.

For some people that’s a great situation. But for others, it can feel limiting and uncomfortable.

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Included in this week’s round-up is discussion about the secret to successful content strategy; why amateurs tend to build better communities than professionals; about the ‘myth’ of engagement; and why you must build engagement in an online community in order to grow it.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Guardian and the Washington Post were two of the biggest names to first experiment with social readers. So far, almost 6 million people have signed up for and installed The Guardian‘s news app, says Martin Belam, the news organization’s lead user experience and information architect. More than 5o percent of users are under the age of 24.

“The app is putting our reporting and features in front of the grown-up audience of the future,” Belam recently blogged.

Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s director of media partnerships, concurs that the apps have, so far, shown “significant increases in traffic and engagement.”

“These apps create new ways for readers to discover content, while giving publishers the opportunity to reach new audiences,” Osofsky wrote in a blog post announcing the newest additions to Timeline. “They’re built around news and content people care about and identify with and provide easy ways to control the social experience.”

So, who are the new news apps on the block?

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Throughout the year, there are several conferences in the fields of journalism and media for everyone from up-and-coming journalists to seasoned professionals. Just a few weeks ago, we covered a few panels on journalism at this year’s SXSW conference. Here are just a few conferences taking place through the year that will help you network, expand your skill set, and learn new topics from some of the thought leaders in the journalism industry. Feel free to let us know about other journalism and media conferences in the comments.

SABEW 2012 Spring Conference

Date: March 15-17, 2012

Location: Indianapolis, IN

» Register Online

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) will hold their 49th annual conference in Indianapolis, IN at the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex at Indiana University. This year’s conference keynote speakers are Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana. The conference will include speakers from several media outlets like ESPN, Reuters, and The New York Times. The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism will also co-present a seminar with Investigative Reporters and Editors titled “Be a Better Business Watchdog — CAR for Business Journalists”. Early-bird registration ends on February 20, 2011, and registration prices will rise after that date.

ACES 2012

Date: April 12-14, 2012

Location: New Orleans, LA

» Register Online

The 16th National Conference of the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) will take place down in the Big Easy at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel. This year’s keynote speaker is Roy Peter Clarke, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute. There are 40 information-packed sessions at this year’s conference, including “Writing for SEO, Writing for Social Media” and “Editing Maps and Graphics”. You can register up until the day of the event, but prices will rise on April 1, 2011. You can register for any of the days of the conference or for the entire three-day event.

2012 NABJ Convention and Career Fair

Date: June 20-24, 2012

Location: New Orleans, LA

» Register Online

The 36th annual National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Convention and Career Fair will be in New Orleans at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, and includes a film festival, an author’s showcase and bookstore, and a host of other special events. The theme for this year’s convention is #NABJ12 — New Platforms. New Directions. New Orleans, and session topics will fall under three tracks: Perfecting Your Craft (mastery of reporting, writing, editing, and other journalism cornerstones), Tech & Tools (highlighting new and emerging technology), and Innovation Station (emphasizing innovation and entrepreneurship in the dissemination of enws and information). Pre-registration prices are available until May 15, 2012.

UNITY 2012 Convention (UNITY ’12)

Date: August 1-4, 2012

Location: Las Vegas, NV

» Register Online

The 5th Annual UNITY 2012 Convention is a coalition of four alliances: the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), the Native American Journalists Assocation (NAJA), and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Assocation (NLGJA). The conference will include a media showcase, a career expo, as well as several 90-minute workshops. The early-bird registration deadline is March 16, 2012, and registration prices will rise after that date.

Excellence in Journalism 2012

Date: September 20-22, 2012

Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL

» Register Online

The Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association are partnering again for this year’s Excellence in Journalism Conference at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa. Registration is not open yet, but pricing and package registration details are available. Make sure to check out the Excellence in Journalism Conference Facebook page for the latest information about the conference.

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The site uses realtime data from Twitter updates, Facebook posts, YouTube activity, Breaking News and Bing searches to find patterns and tally what’s trending.  Top stories are featured in a slider, and the rest of the stories are shown in a grid-like display (think Newser, but cleaner) in reverse chronological order. They summarize those top trending stories in 100 words or less, and snow you an icon to indicate where that trending story originated. If a story originated on Twitter, you see the top tweets about the topic displayed at the top of  the article. continued…

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According to a report by Pew Research Center released on Monday, digital advertising is on track to overtake all other platforms by 2016. Though there has been little success in trying to get traditional advertisers to move online, the focus should not be on transferring the models of legacy media advertising to the digital world, but rather using new media to develop better models. This is already happening with advertising exchanges that offer an alternative to advertising networks, the largest of which are owned by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Of course, the tech savvy companies are at an advantage here—developing new models is easier than switching from the old to new. Nonetheless, how can digital advertising better serve the news?
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All You

“We put every article — whether a craft, recipe or exercise tip — to a strict test: Is it real? Is it practical and doable? Is the information actionable and valuable?” said executive editor Susan Spencer.

To find out which sections Spencer calls ”fertile areas for assignments,” check out How To Pitch: All You. [sub req'd]

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Making yourself indispensable and being willing to work your way up.

“I remember when I would interview people, even for an editorial assistant job, and you would ask them, ‘What do you want to do?’ And when they say ‘I want to be an editor-in-chief one day,’ it’s such a turn off,” she told us. “Immediately in your mind you’re like, ‘OK. This is someone who feels entitled who is not going to want to work very hard.’ People who are so obvious at wanting the glory usually don’t want to put in the work for it.”

Read more in So What Do You Do, Janice Min, Editorial Director of The Hollywood Reporter? and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Is it a bad idea for young journos to be so vocal about their ambitions?

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