This week's edition of GIS Weekly
tells the tale of how another newspaper figured out that GIS could be a
vital tool for circulation. Of course, many folks in the
newspaper industry knew that long before word reached the editorial
department, but no matter: more and more publishers and even some
editors are "getting it." See "The Cultivation of Newspaper Readership Using Segmentation Software" by Susan Smith.
Here are some quotes:
"We mapped the single copy purchase points to determine where they are
and how likely prospective newspaper readers were to be near them or
see them and we found that we could a) increase the density of our
single copy purchase points and b) relocate them to be more in field of
travel of likely newspaper readers. When we did that, we saw in the
Essex County Capital newspapers, basically the North Shore of Boston,
for example, a 25% increase in single copy sales, during the course of
less than a year.”
"
What was the company's initial investment in the software?
“On an annual basis it's about $20,000-$30,000,” commented [research director Forbes] Durey. “The
MapInfo software is priced in various stages. MapInfo's sales team was
very flexible in designing a pricing strategy to meet our current
needs. Our initial investment was $800-$900. We tested that for about a
year, and then we decided to dive in and use all the data and
capabilities that MapInfo offers. At this point, we purchased the full
set of capabilities from MapInfo's TargetPro software. Newspapers can
expect a varying degree of investment from $1,000 up to $30,000 or
more.”
"If you look at
the MapInfo investment we made, it equates to roughly 20 cents per
subscriber per year. What fraction of the value of the subscriber is 20
cents? In the newspaper business today it's a very small fraction.”
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Month Archive
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Monday, November 28
And the GIS light went on at the The Eagle-Tribune
by
Tom Johnson
on Mon 28 Nov 2005 11:56 AM MST
Friday, November 25
New GIS Tutorial Book just out
by
JTJ
on Fri 25 Nov 2005 10:37 AM MST
ESRI Press has a new book out, a tutorial for ArcView 9 by friends-of-the-IAJ Wilpen Gorr and Kristen S. Kurland at Carnegie Mellon University. What's of special interest to journalists is the example projects, one "creating a voting
district map for a local election" and another "comparing
county financial information in a map." These, and more, would be
perfect fits in a journo's tool box. Don't be put off by the list
price of $70; Amazon has it marked down to $45.
New GIS Tutorial Book Provides Self-Study Instruction for ArcView 21, 2005 -- Redlands, California—... more » Thursday, November 24
Creative analytic techniques
by
JTJ
on Thu 24 Nov 2005 08:24 PM MST
A recent edition of MIT's Technology Review
tells a tale with direct parallels to analytic journalism. That
is, investigators bringing well-known and established analytic tools to
new applications. In this case, using computer scans to conduct a
"visual autopsies." See:
"Dead Men Do Tell Tales Virtual autopsies reveal clues that forensic pathologists might miss. By John Gartner http://www.technologyreview Wednesday, November 23
Taking games seriously
by
Tom Johnson
on Wed 23 Nov 2005 02:41 PM MST
Serious Games Initiative
http://www.seriousgames.org/ The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy. Says information specialists Marylaine Block: "As one who believes nobody should be allowed to run for office until they have played Sim City for at least six months, I think such games have enormous potential for helping people explore complex social problems and possible solutions."
More thinking about looking
by
Tom Johnson
on Wed 23 Nov 2005 02:33 PM MST
Our
friend Marylaine Block once again delivers some insights directly
applicable to analytic journalism. See the piece below where she
explains why visual statistics and infographics are essential to what
we're doing (or trying to do).
ExLibris #268 Permanent URL http://marylaine.com/exlibris Archive: http://marylaine.com/exlibris THE POWER OF VISUALIZED INFORMATION by Marylaine Block When I discussed some possible futures for reference service at the California Library Association <http://marylaine.com/ref.html>, I focused heavily on the value we create for users by not just finding information for them but providing context and meaning for information. One of the best ways to ... more » Tuesday, November 22
Map Mashups: When a good idea takes off
by
JTJ
on Tue 22 Nov 2005 08:43 AM MST
CNET.com News serves up a good overview of what happens when a company pushes its powerful code kernels out to the world.
Mapping a revolution with 'mashups' By Elinor Mills
Even before Google gave its blessing, Paul Rademacher was hacking away at the code behind its mapping application so he could mix it with outside real estate data and see exactly where homes listed for sale were located in the San Francisco area. Little did the computer graphics expert know that his HousingMaps.com, which combines a Google map with ... more » Monday, November 21
A gallery of network visualizations
by
Tom Johnson
on Mon 21 Nov 2005 02:25 PM MST
Just received a reference to this gallery of network
visualizations. The site is new to me, but perhaps not to all of
you. Goal Not all projects shown here are genuine complex networks, in the sense that they aren’t necessarily at the edge of chaos, or show an irregular and systematic degree of connectivity. However, the projects that apparently skip this class were chosen for two important reasons. They either provide advancement in terms of visual depiction techniques/methods or show conceptual uniqueness and originality in the choice of a subject. Nevertheless, all projects have one trait in common: the whole is always more than the sum of its parts. How it started Later on, as a teaching assistant of Information Architecture at Parsons Design+Technology
What are the demographics of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, pop. 1,034?
by
Tom Johnson
on Mon 21 Nov 2005 01:58 AM MST
The Cartography blog tips us to a valuable site when quick hits are needed on a community, a SMALL place, in the U.S. or Canada. Check out ePodunk"ePodunk is a site that focuses on place and provides information on 25,000 communities in the U. S. The site also contains a number of interesting maps, including maps of the Katrina diaspora, ethnic origin, fastest growing counties and others. There is also a Canadian version of the site, focusing on Canadian places, but it, sadly, does not seem to have any maps."Thursday, November 17
Growth opportunity (of the intellectual sort) for journalists
by
Tom Johnson
on Thu 17 Nov 2005 09:00 PM MST
With newspapers -- and news magazine -- cutting staff on
an almost weekly basis, some of us in journalism are going to have to
reinvent ourselves. One of our tenents of Analytic Journalism is
simulation modeling, a methodology and analytic tool we believe will be
to the social sciences in the 21st century (and journalism IS a social
science) what quantum physics was to the hard sciences in the
20th. So here's an interesting opportunity for someone.
"> The Department of Mathematics as the University of California, Los > Angeles is soliciting applications for a postdoctoral fellowship > position in Mathematical ... more »
Crime in California stats available
by
JTJ
on Thu 17 Nov 2005 12:18 PM MST
California Attorney General's statistics: availability of new statistics.
Crime in California, 2004 - This publication contains the most comprehensive set of data on California crimes, arrests, and criminal justice actions. Crime in California contains information on crimes, arrests, adult felony arrest dispositions, adult corrections, criminal justice expenditures and personnel, citizens' complaints against peace officers, and domestic violence. You can view the report at: http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/publicat View the CJSC Home Page at: http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc |
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