Guardian hints at less UK print, source The New Yorker

Through Online Media Daily Europe I have found a story in the New Yorker about the Guardian. Mostly it is about the global scoops around security issues. But also there is some interesting information about finances and plans.  Apparently Rusbridger asked the Scott Trust "What is our future? There is no disagreement that print will shrink.” By 2011, according to reporter Ken Auletta, the trust had decided to invest more heavily in its online presence, starting with its U.S. effort.

But at some point, if the Guardian does not begin to make money, the trust’s liquid assets, currently two hundred and fifty-four million pounds, would be depleted.

 

There is another section I am just going to copy, in the public interest and to avoid muddle in rewriting- 

Jeff Jarvis, an Internet evangelist who teaches journalism at the City University of New York and who advises Rusbridger, says that eventually the Guardian will have to generate more revenue from its digital edition, abandon its print newspaper, or reduce the number of days it publishes. “Every day they wait is dollars gone,” he said. As for printing only on certain days, he says, “Die Zeit, in Germany, is a good model. One day a week in print and the rest digital.”

Rusbridger can envisage a paperless Guardian in five to ten years. He also “can imagine,” he says, printing on only certain days. For the moment, with digital dollars composing only a quarter of the company’s revenues, “if you want to support the kind of journalism we do, you can’t kiss goodbye seventy-five per cent of your revenues,” he said. “But all that will change.”

My guess that Monday to Friday could be without print is based on reading it. The Education coverage on the MOOC and Futurelearn is lacking resource. See previous posts for the dissonance effect. How much longer till the UK print readers get some reporting that is more or less sensible?  Can they continue to brief on their web approach in New York and then knock e-learning in the UK?

Networked Learning Hotseats starting, some video links

The hotseats have started for the Networked LEarning conference in April next year. this is through a Ning site. It is open to anyone but you need to set up an account. The main site is here.

The first week is about "blind spots" , attitudes that block understanding or development for a project or community. Mine that I realise include an expectation that academic language will take too long to get much out of. But here is a video, only about ten minutes, that makes a lot of sense and I watched it to the end ( stats show this is not always so on YouTube) 

Three stories and the mobile holiday #ISO9000 #Futurelearn #IPEX2014

This blog is about connecting quality, learning and communication technology. Mostly in the UK as locality but with web links. Over the next few months there are three main stories that could well show how these are supporting each other. Previously there have been blocks. 

Futurelearn will get some attention and show how online learning can develop. There will be some resistance and critique but there is enough space to try something. Some form of quality assurance is involved.

ISO 9000 is due for revision and this will become more public.So many interests are now involved that there will be criticism of any direction of change. But there are so many sites already with certificates that this discussion will get attention. 

IPEX, the global print show, is early next year in London and the Cross Media warmup is next month. The London College of Communication used to have "Print" in the title but no longer has any print courses. My guess is that Cross Media will be quite sensible in positioning print as part of communication. But this may wobble abit as IPEX gets closer.

The appeal of print is strong and continues. Universities are probably still more likely to build a library than to expand their contribution to Futurelearn. Not sure about this, the thing is to try to observe as it happens. So the background will repeat whatever the news, and links found when possible.

Already there is speculation as to the numbers and nature of mobile devices to be sold over the holiday season. In the shops there are almost no e-readers without connectivity. 

Previously I thought about a Winterlude, a period of reflection at the turn of the year. Now the issues seem a bit clearer and the holiday will be more of an event, scale as yet unknown. To be evaluated as part of BETT.

Guardian print decline may not be gradual #MOOC

I have been away for a few days enjoying Open House London. Now back at a desktop screen I am checking out some links and find that the Guardian is possibly reducing the print operation. A story on the Printweek website has no information on numbers of redundancies but there are quotes about continuing discussions.

I still think it is possible the Guardian will stop a print version other than at the weekend. I have stopped buying it so much since the price went up but usually read the paper on Monday and Tuesday for the Media and Education. However these are getting worse for useful comment, as I find it. This week still no report on Futurelearn so maybe they think if it is ignored it will go away. 

The plans for print may just be about fewer pages, but if the prices increase also there is a strong chance of fewer sales. 

Meanwhile lots of investment in a digital operation in Australia. How can this work out with all the issues identified for the MOOC ? It is getting too silly the way they write one thing in print and do another online.  

I also found that Haymarket will move PR Week to being a monthly with new digital support. This sounds like they could have done with Printweek rather than selling it as they did. 

My guess is that most Business to Business magazines will move online. That includes the sections in the newspapers. 

So Guardian Education will be an opinion piece from an academic on why the MOOC will never work and then most of the space on why you should look at the professional network Guardian website.

Future starting now as in Futurelearn

I have signed up for three courses - web science, branding and sound evaluation. More on this in future posts. 

But first a bit about the Guardian and how they report this. I have not seen the print version today but yesterday there was nothing. Most comment has been negative so far this year. There was a blog copied from Clay Shirky on the first announcement but this obviously came from outside the normal Guardian set of views.

Today a search on the Guardian website finds a blog post by Stephen Caddick from UCL. This is not quite as negative as the earlier views in Guardian print. Eventually "

We should seize the opportunities they give of blowing that open and of universities becoming flexible, dynamic hubs of innovation, learning and collaboration." but in the meantime some UK universities are keeping Futurelearn at a distance because of concerns at a model where "one size fits all".

Actually I think the "student voice" comes over in the way that a lot of MOOCS find a high drop out rate in the first couple of weeks. People are probably fitting together those sources that contribute to their interest and situation. The stats may look bad for particular courses but I don't think this matters from a student viewpoint.

Currently much of what I do is around a weekly show on community radio, Phonic FM ( Wild Show Thur 10-12 am ) so there is some group for discussion on branding , "critical listening for studio production", and web science. Maybe not in those words but time will tell. The idea that there is no MOOC reality face time or whatever you want to call it is also a bit wrong.

I am concentrating on the more practical topics. I can't make out why Peter Scott is not supporting the MOOC ideas. It may be too commercial but where are the alternative proposals? I am trying to think what mode two and soforth was about. It seems to be just another complex set of ideas. I don't see where it has related much to practice. Same for Design Science. It is not easy to find explanation of where management theory has been applied. 

Of course I do realise the Web Science course may turn out to involve some developed theory. Whatever it is they have researched, why not present it in a MOOC as well as in a hardback book?