Monitor Launches E-Paper

By ISMAIL MUSA LADU in Namuwongo, Uganda

Daily Monitor has officially launched an electronic version also known as e-paper, for its newspaper to expand its reach and offer more interaction to its readers.

The e-paper is a digital version of the Daily, Saturday and Sunday Monitor with the same ‘Look and Feel’ as its print editions.

The e-paper comes with in-built features that can allow readers to easily access information in a number of formats like RSS feeds, PDF and audio.
Articles search will now be possible with this revolutionary facility.

Speaking at the launch of the e-paper yesterday at  Monitor Publications Limited(MPL) offices, the Presidential Advisor on ICT, Ham Mulira described the initiative as “excellent”.

Dr Mulira who is also the former Minister of ICT said with the new digital format, the entire world will have unlimited access to Daily Monitor  news, an advantage he implored advertisers not let go in order to tap into global markets.

“Somebody in San Francisco will now be able to read articles about Uganda and possibly inform a friend who may pick interest to come and see our gorillas here, so this is very crucial (initiative),” Dr Mulira envisioned. According to Dr Mulira the         e-paper will increase mileage for advertisers because of its ability to expand on the reach of Daily Monitor.

The Managing Director- MPL, Tom Mshindi said the company’s values of accuracy and independence among others will be continuously upheld in order to live to Daily Monitor brand promise of ‘Truth Every Day’. He emphasised that the e-paper is easy to use since it allows that user to easily scroll through the newspaper and view a particular page or article.

Mr Allan Zaramba, Digital Sales Manager for MPL adds that the e-paper has ‘save and print’ capabilities for reference purposes.

The e-paper which is currently on free trial will in a few days require a minimal subscription fee of only Ug. Shs 10,000 per month to have unlimited access. The fee is payable by credit card online  or cash at the Monitor Advertising Centre at Crown House, Kampala Road. 

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Monitor_launches_e-paper_85174.shtml

New Technologies in the photo world

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Mathias Mugisha is a veteran photojournalist who joined the New Vision in 1999. He holds a diploma in photography and journalism. He works for the different New Vision magazines and the Sunday Vision as a writer and photographer specializing in travel and adventure.

Interview 

Ali: Mathias, tell me about your work.

I am a general photographer at the New Vision though 75% of my work is self-generated. I do some travel writing also. Life is much easier with new technology. Before the advent of the digital camera, we used to shoot photos, take them for development into film and finally print them on paper. Today we shoot digital photos, which are instantly accessed via the computer. I use a Nikon D300 digital camera. It is a mid range professional camera with 12 mega pixels. 

How do the new technologies help you in your work?

Today I type in all my stories on a computer, which is accessible by my editors. New technologies make it easier to beat the deadlines, which are very strict at the New Vision. Since the abandonment of the dark room, the computer is used for cleaning up, retouching and storing photos using Photoshop programme. 

I own a digital voice recorder that is very helpful for interviews. After conducting an interview, I copy the recorded interview onto my computer for further analysis before writing the story.

I also use the Internet a lot. Actually, I am in the process of establishing a website where I will place all my photos that I take. I will also use it for marketing, such that those who wish to buy my photos can do so online. 

I too, use the Internet for sending stories and pictures. It is fast and convenient. While upcountry, I can write my stories and take pictures, which I instantly send to my editor for publishing.  I also use the Internet a lot for researching and enriching my stories.

Furthermore, I use Yahoo messenger for chatting – relaxing and enhancing my work by way of networking with other photographers around the world. Sometimes I consult them on technical issues like the best way of setting a camera, lighting and other things. They also consult me on the same issues. We also share new technologies in our field.

I have very high respect for mobile telephony. I don’t like the quality of the photos they deliver, but sometimes in the absence of professional photos, we make do with that. However, sometimes, I receive assignments via the mobile and also report or consult via the same. I can file stories or interview people, call contacts and vice versa using the mobile phone.  I in addition use the mobile phone to send a summary of my story by SMS, use it as a recorder, radio, torch, time (I have no watch), appointment making, date and calendar, alarm and store for my information.

 

Chitchat with Vision’s Website Editor

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Davis Weddi joined the New Vision in 1996 as a freelance journalist. His first story was placed on the front page of The New Vision on 1st April 1996. It was a fool’s day story of vampires attacking travellers in a bus! He was confirmed as a full time staff in 2004. He has studied in Sweden, German and South Africa photojournalism courses, features writing and news websites.

Interview

Ali: Where did you study website building and maintenance?

Davis: I did a course in Global Electronic Journalism for 6 months from Stockholm University in Sweden. The course involved research news websites, uploading audio, visual and video online. We used tools like PHP, Java, CSS mobile XML, XTML and promoting new languages. There after, I worked for a company that took SMS orders for MacDonald’s in Stockholm.

Where did you start from when you joined the New Vision?

In 2003, I found a static website portal; www.enteruganda.com, and I started uploading it casually. In 2004 I was made the website editor at the New Vision. The division was employing 7 staff, but making a paltry $ 200.00 a month! The division needed dynamism to make money. This called for adequate content and a better content uploading team. 

We gave ourselves a target of earning $ 25,000 per month within 4 years. Today we are earning much more than that with a staff of 8 well-paid people. We have also opened up new websites; each product now has its own website. We also established a jobs website; www.jobs.co.ug. Our clients, the advertisers from the print media add an extra 5% of the cost for the same advert to be run online. The income from the online advertisements is much more than what some newspapers in this country earn.

The websites are now integrated with the newsroom via the Integrated Enterprise Content Management System (IECMS), which will facilitate erasing paper use from the newsroom. The workflow system follows what a journalist does – distributes stories to the editors, sub editors, pre press and finally to the printer and finally uploaded online automatically.

Hasn’t this automation reduced the readership of the hard copy?

The statistics available don’t show that sales are suffering; our biggest online readers are abroad.

How does your website fare compared to other websites in Uganda?

Out team looks at self-generated and Google analytics. It is the most visited website in Uganda so far. Our website is dynamic and we have the capacity of uploading content anytime. For example, we can upload content for the Uganda market the next day and for the Diaspora the evening before. We now sell our Internet stories internationally to organizations like AllAfrica.com

Where are you heading to with the website?

We hope to redesign the website to meet modern times. We are now testing mobile SMS. There is also a need to unify radio, newspaper and television. Mobile alerts are also in the pipeline.  We have already collected 2 million mobile telephone numbers and we hope to work with the mobile telephony operators to establish whether a number is switched on. The New Vision is to sign up with all telephone mobile operators to allow all users to access the service.  We are also confident that applications like E-government, E-Health, and E-Business can be sold to government. In this case government can use or telephone number database for communicating development, health or political messages.

Journalists will also be enabled to send breaking news through the same system. The system will allow readers and listeners to the New Vision’s products interactivity with each other and with the newsroom.

What ICT challenges has New Vision met? 

New Vision is prepared to meet all challenges head on. It has heavily invested in its staff through in-house training and IT schooling. So far a few journalists maintain blogs, but soon it will be a requirement for every journalist to keep a blog, where he/she can interact with readers.

How is Internet use nationally?

Uganda’s Internet usage is on the increase. Every day newspapers sign up new online readers especially the youth. Statistics from the ICT ministry show increased Internet usage. Currently there are over 22,000 local websites and nearly 300,000 email addresses. The New Vision has positioned well itself to meet this increasing demand. Soon local language websites will be developed.