Content Generation

ANOTHER takeover, another re-branding of a major telecom company. With this new development, Ugandan mobile phone users can expect an all-out price war after the takeover of Zain by Indian telecom giant, Bharti Airtel, industry watchers predict.

They add that Bharti is in position to price aggressively and win clients because of its low rates. The company?s ability in India to negotiate lower prices from equipment suppliers because of the size of its orders may be replicated in Africa, said Julian Watson, a London-based director of telecoms research for IHS Global Insight, in a recent interview with Business Week.

A senior official at KPMG, an audit and advisory firm in Kampala, said Bharti will leverage on Indians? hardworking and innovative nature to drive costs down. ?But with lower costs, quality could be compromised.

Full Story: Bharti Airtel's entrance to shake up Uganda telecom industry - New Vision

Star metro section Tuesday, March 23, 2010. The story and two photos were used without the writer’s or photographer’s knowledge and the content was manipulated to make it appear to be current. … It was altered to mislead readers in a way that could damage this reporter’s credibility with the sources of the original story.

Star management to uphold since 2006, when the company first presented the idea of having journalists produce and edit so-called ‘advertorial’ content. The summer camp article is a glaring example of why the Guild has raised objections to the unit’s work being repurposed in this manner. It allows another department — marketing, custom content, momslikeme or whomever — to use our work in such a careless and unprofessional fashion that it reflects badly upon the journalism produced by those in the Star newsroom.

Star management to uphold since 2006, when the company first presented the idea of having journalists produce and edit so-called ‘advertorial’ content. The summer camp article is a glaring example of why the Guild has raised objections to the unit’s work being repurposed in this manner. It allows another department — marketing, custom content, momslikeme or whomever — to use our work in such a careless and unprofessional fashion that it reflects badly upon the journalism produced by those in the Star newsroom. “The Guild wants original reporters and photographers notified in the future if another department reuses a story or photograph. Guild members have the right to have their bylines removed from their work if they object to the way it is used. The online version of the story (which we spotted on indystar.com and asked to be removed from the site) had no markings that indicated it was advertising-produced.

Full Story: Blurring the Lines Between News and Advertising Content - Cincinnati CityBeat

Generally speaking, getting higher in Google’s organic rankings requires a dedicated SEO effort both on and off-site, or at the very least a content generation strategy that directs a huge proportion of web traffic to your site. By manipulating dozens of factors, brands, companies and website hosts aim to get their content higher up the search results page.

However despite it’s meteoric commercial success, Google has always presented itself as a company with a moral aspect. Recently, the world’s largest search engine has entered a non-commercial partnership with suicide prevention agencies that seems to solidify this image.

Now, searches conducted on Google such as “ways to commit suicide” and “suicidal thoughts” will deliver a toll-free number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the charity’s site will get automatic precedence in the search rankings. Rather than simply fulfil its function as providing users with such troubling information as suicide tips, Google now directs people to prevention hotlines and more responsible guidance.

Full Story: Google's offers suicide prevention hotlines automatic rankings - Vertical Leap News (press release)

That’s a bit weird because DVorkin already has a day job: He’s the founder and CEO of True/Slant, a news network/aggregator/publisher he launched last year.

And it makes sense given that Forbes Media is one of True/Slant’s financial backers. Employees there say COO Tim Forbes has been particularly enamored of True/Slant’s low-cost, high-frequency approach to content generation, so you can read into this move what you will.

DVorkin started showing up at editorial meetings this week, I’m told. I’m also told that both Forbes magazine editor Bill Baldwin and Forbes.com editor Paul Maidment are reporting to him. “All I know is that it means we failed to fix our own problems,” an employee there tells me.

Full Story: Back to the Future: True/Slant CEO Lewis Dvorkin Moonlighting As Redesign ... - All Things Digital (blog)

WebProNews reports that Google is taking an interest in news content after Rupert Murdoch of News International was heard talking of blocking search engines like Google from ”taking stories for nothing” and breaching copyright laws.

Speaking to the American Society of News Editors, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, commented that the web is positive news for the news industry, rather than signalling its demise.

Politico , as saying that online news content generation provides more source choice for readers, increasing the remit of news from its print shackles. Instead of seeing just one view or subjective opinion, readers are seeing a range of opinions and are thus able to draw their own informed conclusions.

Full Story: Google to save journalism? - Vertical Leap News (press release)