Deal with the Devil: Facebook, Google, mobile apps

A deal with the devil. Versión en españolIt was the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke who wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” And clearly many people think that way about applications for smartphones.   Mobile apps can show us detailed maps of most places on earth.    They can read QR […]

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181€ million to keep Catalan-language media alive

Front page of La Vanguardia, in Catalan BARCELONA, Spain — Americans are used to traveling thousands of miles within their wide open spaces and hearing only English, with variations of accent and expression. But in France, Germany, Spain, and other parts of Western Europe, there are still regions of distinct languages and dialects preserved by […]

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‘Every journalist has to be a user-experience designer’

Maria Ramirez of El Español interviews Gideon Lichfield. (Photo: TIE Comunicación/Congreso Periodismo) HUESCA, Spain — A digital business publication like Quartz qz.com would seem to be making all the right moves. In just over two years it built an audience of 10.9 million unique users a month. (Versión en español) But the struggle is to continue growing amid […]

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In Spain, two digital journalism success stories

Ignacio Escolar, left, of El Diario and Pedro J. Ramirez of El Español (photo: James Breiner) HUESCA, Spain — Two of the leading figures of the digital media revolution took the stage together and chatted about what it is like to wear the hats of journalist, shareholder, owner, and chief salesman of their respective media […]

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A finger in the eye for Spanish journalists

Arsenio Escolar, photo by 20minutos Versión en español HUESCA, Spain — At first, there was timid, nervous applause from the journalists, professors, and students who were listening to harsh criticism from a respected colleague, Arsenio Escolar, the editor of 20minutos, a free distribution daily that is one of Spain’s major digital outlets. Maybe they were recognizing […]

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Universities and entrepreneurship don´t always mix

Versión en español BRISTOL, England — A few years ago, I was on a team designing a master’s degree in digital journalism. The university required that we propose three areas of research for the professors in this program to pursue. One subject area we proposed was new business models for news. Another was the use […]

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