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De Standaard De Standaard stands for balanced journalism. Not black & white, but grey. We want to be a trusted brand in a world which is characterised by information overflow. Cross-media strategy

Economic Section (E&F) 11 Full time journalists About 12 tabloid pages / weekday Plus: website, supplements, series,… Specialists AND Generalists

Our object of study…

Why a piece on Apple TV? Signpost function: not just the news, also the trends Computer & TV: in the middle of our lives, yet incompatible? It’s Apple, stupid!

The birth of a short article Get the press release via Look up the archive (“Is this news?”) Convince your boss Define length and place Get extra info (mail, phone, web, archive) … and mash it all up

Some journalistic guidelines Write for your reader, not for yourself or your sources. “Does my reader want to know this?” Get the facts before the rest Be concise Provide some entry points: catchy title, quotes, graphs & pictures, referrals, URLs…

Some journalistic constraints Fixed length & format => Fact filtering Limited time => Source selection Limited knowledge => Reliable sources? Complexity => Nuance?

1.Filter out the facts What, When, Where, How?

1. WHAT is Apple TV? “an easy to use and fun way to play your iTunes content from your PC or Mac on your widescreen tv, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts.” ? “a box that connects your pc and your tv” “It can play all media that are stored on your hard drive on your television”

WHEN and WHERE can you get it? “now shipping” “available beginning this week” (it’s Wednesday!) ? “available throughout Belgium by next week” “a lot of stores already this weekend” Need more info? Go to the website

HOW does it work? “easy to connect to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical ports” “tv connection runs via the HDMI port, used on nearly all widescreen TVs, or a classic component port.”

2. What are the the shortcomings? Technical & content limitations

Shortcomings “A so-called Scart-connection is not available” “Cannot be used to stream video directly from the internet to your TV” “You had better buy your movie on iTunes”

3. Add some context What’s Apple’s big plan?

Apple’s big plan Van den Eynde: “Targeting people who are downloading increasingly more media” Draw more people to iTunes Impose their own formats and “ecosystem” : drive people to Mac, iPod, iPhone… ……….They’re after your time & money!

4. Writing style Talk to your reader, don’t sell him something.

Talk to your reader “anyone can quickly browse (…)” “Users can watch (…)” “consumers can easily browse (…)” …Who is this about? “a small box you can connect” “you can play all media (…)”

Don’t sell him this thing According to Apple, the Apple TV is… –Easy to use –Fun –Stunning –Quick –Simple –Intuitive –Seamless –… According to the newspaper, it is… –Small –Compatible, suitable

But remember… Journalism is not an exact science!

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