links for 2007-05-04

“Belgian French-language newspapers were back on Google on Thursday after agreeing that the search engine can link to their Web sites, the first signs of a thaw in a bitter copyright dispute.”

The Guardian’s blog site had a whole series of posts for World Press Freedom Day.

Martin Belham looks at Sun Online. He’s impressed with their use of Feedzilla, with MySun. The blogs, though, are of “variable quality”.

Martin Belham continues his series of newspaper site reviews. He likes the blogs but is surprised the regular stories don’t allow commenting.

new US Hitwise data: print media web sites got 29.7% more traffic from Google than last year. Broadcasters’ sites got 35.9% more traffic via Google.

“Associated Newspapers has stopped …Evening Standard vendors distributing … London Lite. According to media buyers, the move has been driven by declining sales of the Standard. Distribution will now be solely via London Lite distributors.”

A University of Maryland study suggests that RSS feeds from mainstream news sites aren’t very useful in keeping up with the news.

The Belgian newspapers are using the “no archive” tag that prevents Google’s from caching their webpages. Google has not signed a license to use the newspapers’ content, and maintains its legal position.

“Fleet Street reporters are not the only users of the right-to-know laws. Robert Verkaik, Law Editor, surveys some of the other beneficiaries”

Robert Freeman: “ITV Local is an altogether different disruptor. This one is a direct threat. The BBC just wants to stay relevant with local audiences, ITV not only wants the local audience”