mediaharsha

     By Harsha Man Maharjan Day by day the number of online news portals is increasing because it is easy to start. Having two three computers or laptops and two three journalists are enough to start up.  Any eligible person who dreams to have media can start it in a shoe string. Many online news portals are sprouting without proper planning on their economic sustainability. But Setopati, a digital patrika which was started on 1 April 2012 sought suggestions from its readers or visitors for its appropriate business model and came up with a mixed model of subscription and advertisement. This initiated a debate for and against Setopati’s plan. So, this is the right time to discuss about the appropriate business models for Nepali online news portals in light of models being practiced in the world.   Media products are different from ordinary products as often they don’t get used up even if people consumed it. Media economic scholar Gillian Doyle uses wo...

By Harsha Man Maharjan Note: This is the draft of my article I sent to  Republica  on 2 October 2013 but remained unpublished till today. So I have decided to upload it on my blog. Though online news portals are mushrooming in Nepal, their content and operation show they are in fledgling state and are fraught with problems. Yes, the demands of these portals are increasing day by day as these new media have advantages over traditional media-they are highly interactive or participatory and instant. Among all, online media made possible multimedia technology marrying text, audio and video. None the less many of Nepali online portals could not shoulder the burden of providing instant and interesting news. Either they lift news/features from online or other sources with or without proper courtesy or update other’s news which is a kind of tinkering. It is difficult to present the exact picture of online news portal in Nepal as no authority has the informatio...

During the recent program organized by the Press Coucil on 22 september 2013, Kishor Shrestha, from the Council  informed that there is not only investigative journalism, but also cut-paste journalism in Nepal. He was referring to hubahu journalism in print media, but this kind of journalism is popular in online news portals too. The way online media are practicing this is different from what tv and radio are doing. Usually FM radio and television stations are reading selected portion of the news from newspapers. But some online news portals are lifting matters from websites from print media. For example in the issue of Nepal magazine on 22 September, Sitaram Baral has wrote a long cover story on the conflict inside the family of Gyanendra Shah. This reporting was uploaded on ekantipur next day and other news portals like http://muldharnews.com , http://topnepalnews.com , http://realkhabar.com , etc started to upload this article citing the source, Nepal magazine. None of t...

Source:  http://www.journalism.org/commentary_backgrounder/newsweek_numbers June 3, 2013 By Katerina Matsa On Tuesday, May 28, Variety reported that  IAC , Barry Diller's media and internet company, is considering selling Newsweek. It would be the magazine's second sale within a three-year period that included a merger with The Daily Beast and the decision to cease publishing a print edition. Editor-in-chief Tina Brown confirmed this in a  memo  on Wednesday, May 29. "Newsweek is a powerful brand," she wrote, "but its demands have taken attention away from The Daily Beast." The news magazine genre in general has faced a difficult time transitioning to the digital space. But for Newsweek, the past few years have been especially tumultuous. Between 2007 and the end of 2009, when the magazine was still owned by the Washington Post Co., Newswee k reduced its total staff by 33%, according to Pew Research analysis of the magazines' staff boxes. Its reve...

From now on I will be posting interesting articles on media by others also in this blog.