Out With A Bang

Sometimes I readily recognise I need to get out more.

And tonight is one of those nights. But then have you seen the weather in Norfolk?

So I end up wandering round the Twitter-verse and stumble across people citing Addiply as part of their ‘Daily Newspaper’… stand up and be thanked, @Dazzx and @E11ie5 among others.

And I’m a little intrigued.

So, I do my own.

The Ricky Daily. Out of my @addiply account and… Hey presto… out pops a newspaper-like thing that contains all manner of Twitter goodness.

It also has a Twitter feed.

And the ability, likewise, to build a ‘Daily Newspaper’ around a #-tag.

This we have done before; we have ‘previous’ for playing with #-tags. We did, after all, persuade those good folks at 4iP to fund the whole #ncfc Twitter stream that now adorns www.myfootballwriter.com/norwichcity and, of course, the #itfc stream that keeps those south of the border amused on www.myfootballwriter.com/ipswichtown

This was in December, 2008; an aon – or eon (?) – ago.

Here we go… http://www.4ip.org.uk/2008/12/4ips-first-project-out-the-door-ncfc/

Anyway, back to the @addiply version…

And it’s interesting; it’s engaging and it’s very much ‘me’…. http://paper.li/Addiply

Whether anyone else finds ‘me’ interesting and engaging is another matter. But anyway…

OK. Way, way back when, we had this idea for www.mylocalwriter.com Alongside the likes of www.mybasketballwriter.com www.mybaseballwriter.com it lies unused in a url cupboard somewhere.

The theory is obvious… www.mylocalwriter.com can work for any street, postcode or place. It’s a network model.

And into that we were going to drop an automated Twitter feed… based on a #-tag. Not #ncfc this time, but a postcode #NR2. Or #Loddon.

Then local punters could deliver ‘real time’ news into that community. Bus broken down on Church Plain; be advised… #Loddon… etc etc

Now, of course, I could do a ‘Daily Newspaper’ for a specific community by employing a spot of #-tag thinking as opposed to Twitter following…

ie create this… http://paper.li/tag/loddon

At which point, I’m beginning to twig that Iskander and Co could be onto something here… and then I read this: http://gigaom.com/2010/08/29/let-a-thousand-personalized-newspapers-bloom/ and I realise I’m not alone in thinking: ‘Mmm… smart…

But I have one problem.

One tiny fly in my RickWaghorn Daily ointment.

That…

A Trainline.com button ad.

Sat on *my* page.

As I witter on about all things new media.

And why Leeds? From Kings Cross?

No, no, no…

If *my* content is of any worth and value, so – therefore - is the advertising space therein. And I don’t give away my ad space lightly – why should any of us? That’s been our undoing. From Day One. Giving away free ad space to the likes of Trainline.com… for an ad that’s of no relevance or interest to anyone reading The Rick Waghorn Daily.

Probably.

OK. Now go back #Loddon.

If you can coral enough Tweets, links, pics and videos from that #-tagged community to create a ‘Daily Newspaper’ for that same, 5,000-strong community, what kind of advertising do we need to look for?

Trainline.com – or something that recognises the value of that ad space to that ‘local’ community? And, likewise, rewards both the publisher and platform owner for creating fresh and engaging content that can be thus monetised?

Mmmm…

There’s something very clever afoot with the Paper.li people. But I can think of better ways to monetise their product than simply letting Google run riot… drill ‘My Daily’ down into a hyper-local space and we have to look to new ways of enabling a 1,000 Personalised Newspapers to bloom.

But, then I’m biased…

From a distant vantage point here in deepest Cringleford, it is often difficult to judge just *how* important certain launches are… certainly as far as what-was-once-our-audience are concerned.

You can get a sense of ‘milestone’ moments, but unless these events are actually rolling out among your friends and neighbours, it is hard to assess their impact.

So, for example, I don’t live in the ‘burbs of Washington. I don’t know how that ‘community’ is taking to www.tbd.com – the latest and, arguably, most ambitious hyper-local start-up in the US; one that clearly intends to reach out the hand of collaboration to 16o neighbourhood bloggers… which, to my mind, signals a worthy intent to look at our new world from the bottom up.

Likewise, I don’t know one end of Motherwell from another. I’ve done a pre-season friendly at Fir Park wearing my Norwich City ‘hat’; if memory serves, it was the first game of football Little Man ever saw as we combined a family holiday with the competitive joys of Motherwell (a) in the back end of July.

Therefore, I have no real feeling of how next month’s launch of a souped-up www.STVLocal.com will go down with the punters on the streets of North Lanarkshire where, it appears, the first of the new-look sites will roll out…

http://milnemedia.typepad.com/milne_media/2010/08/stvlocal-names-executive-editor-and-north-lanarkshire-as-first-pilot-area.html

A significant date for the diary? Yes, I think it is. Potentially, *very* significant. For a host of reasons. Some of which STV share with TBD. And could again with UTV across the water.

Because all three are arriving into this new and emerging landscape legacy-lite; almost with a clean slate.

And that’s fascinating. And intriguing.

Take STV. My understanding is that their ‘patches’ are specifically designed to correlate with local government ’patches’ of interest and influence.

And that’s smart.

That’s re-drawing a ‘circulation’ map with a brain.

Because now I can go to the ‘marketing’ department of North Lanarkshire Council and can offer them the chance to ‘message’ into a community that exactly mirrors their own ‘patch’.

Given the likely pressures on North Lanarkshire’s marketing budget come the autumn, that’s good news… now I’ve got a local content platform into which I can tailor-make my messaging. Simple, cost effective stuff…

I’m not ‘paying and spraying’ it everywhere over the web; nor am I trying to spread myself across four local newspapers and three newspaper groups, none of whose medieval circulation fiefdoms mirrors my own.

http://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1 meets http://local.stv.tv/authority/north-lanarkshire/

So if the likes of STV and UTV are ‘legacy-lite’ in terms of circulation areas, they are also free from the constraints of a printed news product.

And that’s *very* interesting when it comes to ad sales. And how they reap full commercial reward for opening up some 200 local, digital plays across Scotland.

The blue bit of the pic is a clip from a motoring banner ad; the red is the headline strap from STV’s Motherwell ‘branch’.

For all your motoring needs in Motherwell, you now have the opportunity to click on that banner and meet the good folk from Arnold Clark; the one on Shields Road.

Motherwell.

And this is fascinating; and this is where the opportunity lies.

Because in offering ad space to this lot – http://www.arnoldclark.com/find-a-dealer-search/motherwell-motorstore/ref/arnbe/ - specific to that Motherwell patch, what STV haven’t done is cannibalised their Friday night ‘motoring supplement’ in the process.

They don’t have a print product to ‘protect’.

More than that, they don’t have a local newspaper ad sales rep who has his or her own commission to protect…

Fag packet numbers, but if a full page ad for Arnold Clark is 500 notes in the *weekly* motoring supplement of the Johnston Press owned Motherwell Times and 150 quid for a 24/7 slot on http://local.stv.tv/motherwell/ where do I earn my monthly bonus as a local newspaper sales rep?

By keeping Arnold Clark in print.

It’s slitting my own throat encouraging him to move to a digital platform; a dilemma that applies both to the individual and the corporate halves of ‘the pitch’. The money is in the print ad; that’s what pays for the presses, the paper boys, the bankers…

The danger is that if you ‘over-play’ your digital hand to Mr Clark and his ilk, he might not come back to the print side of the bargain. ‘You know, what…’ he’ll say. ‘I figure this web thing is the future; I’ll take one of them at 150, forget the print version… not interested… 

STV, UTV and – eventually – ITV don’t have to pay for a print press; they are ‘legacy-lite’ and video rich. Handy, if the world will one day be wifi enabled.

They can ’sell’ digital ad space without one hand tied behind their back; not looking over their shoulder fearfully to a print past, but instead racing ahead towards a mobile-led, video-heavy future.

Prove the North Lanarkshire model – staff it up with ‘community editors’; all managed by combat proven digital veterans – and you roll your tanks out across that newspaper lawn; dropping in YouTube clips and live streams as you go.

Fascinating.

And what have STV, UTV and their ilk got in common with TBD.com? TBD partnered not with the local newspapers, but with the local TV company; two, in fact…

“TBD is a partnership between a television and a Web operation,” is the killer quote from this piece from PoynterOnline.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=188372

“The websites for News Channel 8, an all-news cable channel, and WJLA, an ABC affiliate, will be replaced by TBD. News Channel 8 will be rebranded TBD TV; the ABC affiliate will retain its brand and maintain its emphasis on weather coverage.

“We are really now a multimedia operation that is fueled by Web and TV,” said Steve Chaggaris, Allbritton’s vice president for cable news. Television viewers will see a wider variety of local stories, and the station will rely on multimedia content from Web staff.

‘Brady said he thinks the partnership will work because the DNA of a television station is closer to that of a website. One thing you never need to tell people on TV, he said, is, “You need to move faster.”

‘He and others also mentioned the numerous ways that the website and TBD’s bloggers can be promoted on TV…’

Give a ‘community editor’ on the streets of Motherwell a FlipCam and you can promote that footage on STV…

And that’s smart. 

And – as the BBC and Sky go to war once more in Edinburgh – rather more significant than many might realise.

I first met Dave Cohn in 2007; at Jeff Jarvis’ www.NewsInnovation.com gig at CUNY.

If memory serves, he helped me find a plug-point; or a wifi connection. I was a bit of an Englishman in New York, so to speak.

Anyway, I have followed his www.Spot.Us adventures with much interest and admiration. And he probably already knows what I think… that he is a classic ‘not-for-profit’ that richly deserves to be a ‘not-for-loss’…

I also think the ‘If Content is King, Collaboration is Queen…’ post was one of those seminal ones you stumble across every now and then; one of those that whacked a big nail smack on the head.

All of which – in part – explains why I enjoyed his latest post… the fact that it transparently came from the heart merely added to its significance and validity.

http://blog.digidave.org/2010/08/generations-in-the-desert-thoughts-from-aspen

In turn, it prompted a spot of soul searching from Steve Buttry; one of the driving forces behind http://www.tbd.com/; their ‘Director of Community Engagement’.

http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/generations-in-the-desert-a-response-from-one-whos-wandering/

I’ve never met Steve; but there is little doubt that TBD is reaching out more than most to seek a ‘bottom up’ solution to the travails of our time; recognising that a new Age Of Participation’ is upon us; that the Age Of Imposition is in its death throes. Hence the hand of friendship and partnership extended to 160-odd local bloggers, etc, etc…

Or to return to Dave’s original post, he in all likelihood shares that ‘passion’ for… the idea of making the process of journalism participatory and transparent…

But what I found particularly interesting is the whole ‘generational’ aspect of their thinking; that it is our ‘BabyBoomer’ generation that has been *blessed* with trying to make this web thing work – or more accurately, to try and find *work* within this web thing as the certainties of a 40-year newspaper career head for the nearest toilet.

At 44, I figure I’m too old to be either a Generation X or a Millenial. I’m one of those for whom options are fast narrowing as press towers, print runs and paper boys begin to look soooo 20th Century. 

And that 40 years wandering in the desert seeking this new ‘Promised Land’ for our profession will, indeed, feel like 40 years… even if its only four. And a half.

I can’t start again; set out with the kind of certainties that a Phil John or a Josh Halliday bring to the future of our trade. And that’s what makes Dave’s original post so fascinating; that not everyone is lost in this digital content desert.

I picked up my ten-year-old boy from his Mum’s on Friday. He’s a bright lad; but not bound for the software stars. He and his mate had, however, still managed to video, edit and post a short clip of ‘content’ off his Mum’s new lap-top.

Without a bat of an eye-lid. There is no desert in his mind’s eye; the forces of technical nature are quite happily carrying his generation along towards a very green and pleasant land. And if that future didn’t include The Beccles & Bungay Journal, would he bat an eye-lid?

Er, no.

Would anyone under the age of 25? Or 30? They’re making up their rules as they go along; queueing round the block at the local Apple Store, not in the specific hope of downloading a Guardian News app or subscribing to a Times website but in the pretty sure and certain knowledge that somewhere there – in the palm of their hand – lies their future lives.

Where they will meet and marry; where they will shop and sell; and above all, where they will *see* and speak to their community through a mobile vehicle of whatever final dimension and function that will by video/TV led.

Which is one reason that TBD fascinates; the partnership there is with local ‘TV’ stations; legacy-lite platforms for whom video has long been their business; not print classifieds.

It is why I continue to bat my eye-lids in the direction of anyone with a wifi cloud up their sleeves; people who can deliver the children of my generation a ‘broadcast’ platform to play with; to build their lives upon.

The comment that follows Dave’s original post merely underlines the point; that it will, indeed, be the children who inherit the digital Earth… once the disbelievers, the nay-sayers and those of faint hearts and false hopes have withered and waned in their desert exile.

“According to the Scriptures,” writes an Anthony DeBarros.

“There was one primary reason why God caused that nation to wander in the desert for 40 years:

“The people had no faith… They were stubborn. They would not listen, and their hearts were hard. So, God said, you’re not going into the new land. Not even Moses, their leader.

“God waited until the generation died off, then he took their children across…”

Way back when, when we first started to try and prise their local ad bucks off SMEs in Norwich and beyond, we had a very cheesy ad flier.

One line was pure cheese.

“My son is [now] ten years old,” it read. “It is not in his genes with a ‘G’ to read a local newspaper. What’s in his jeans with a ‘J’ is a mobile phone…’

Not surprisingly, I was wrong.

There’s not a mobile phone in the pocket of his jeans. There’s an iPod.

And upon that will he and his mates not only watch their concept of ‘TV’, but they will also *make* and *broadcast* their concept of ‘TV’.

And somewhere in that direction lies their Promised Land.

Not for the first – nor, I suspect, the last – I have to give a hat-tip to the young tyro that is The Guardian’s Josh Halliday.

Not just for a spotting a very interesting new development in the distribution of hyper-local news, but then to have the nous to put two and two together and get two, potential pieces of the jigsaw to ‘fit’.

This was the piece that he spotted; Starbucks plan to deliver hyper-local news based on their network of local coffee-shops – all, of course, now wifi enabled.

This was the piece…

 http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2010/08/_starbucks_is_thinking_global_but_acting.php

And this was the Tweet that followed…

Editors Weblog: Starbucks is thinking global, but acting #hyperlocal http://bit.ly/d1Y35G Ring a bell, @addiply?

It did, indeed, ring a large bell. On many a front… if truth be told.

Putting aside this long-held notion that the next content ‘Budweiser’ might actually be built not as the kind of vertical beloved by our friends across the Pond, but as a horizontal network of micro-breweries… or coffee shops… the relevation that Starbucks and Co were looking to build a portal play featuring six ‘channels’ was fascinating.

‘The coffee shop is working with Yahoo Inc. to create the new website design which consists of six free channels: news, entertainment, wellness, business, career, and my neighborhood, Starbucks. 

As Master Halliday no doubt knew…

Not for the first time, I defer to Pete Kirwan and his analysis of how the local newspaper ad market is currently faring.

http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/mediamoney/2010/08/13/ad-revenue-recovery-different-strokes-for-different-folks/

Quite what term anyone would use in the PR corridors of Trinity, Johnston, Archant et al to describe such 4% YOY declines is another matter; ‘robust’ is often thrust to the fore… as in ‘a robust performance in the face of the on-going tough economic conditions…’ That kind of thing.

Me? I think ‘wary’ would be my choice adjective for this moment in time; wary of just what the autumn ’spending’ review might bring in the current climate as one minister after another lines up to demonstrate his cutting credentials…

One almost needs to employ a Murray Walker commentary kit as you run through those that have already fallen victim to the axe… ‘And *there* goes the Audit Commission… And *there* goes 400 jobs from the COI… and *there* goes 40% budget cuts at the DCMS…’ etc etc.

The local newspaper groups – OK, read the PaidContent piece on Northcliffe earlier this summer – initially appeared calm in the face of any impending public sector storm…

http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-dmgts-regional-arm-poised-to-return-to-profit-as-it-plots-150-app-launc/

Here we go: ‘The DMGT chief executive, Martin Morgan, told journalists and analysts yesterday that public sector ad spend accounted for about 3% of total business to consumer revenues and within that, 7% to 8% of revenues at the Northcliffe Media regional newspaper division.

“This equates to a total public sector ad spend of about £18m, with about £10m spent on Northcliffe Media titles, according to revenue figures published by DMGT yesterday.

“Local media should move into year-on-year revenue growth in the second half of the year,” said Morgan, adding that it would take something “very major to blow us off course” from achieving that prediction.

“Government-related advertising is actually a small part of overall advertising, we are not a major recipient of government spending.”

That, of course, was May.

Come August and DMGT’s latest forecasts are rich with a wariness of just where this Government is taking us… suddenly a return to growth does not look so certain; so much is up in the air..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/30/dmgt-too-bullish-regional-papers

And, in particular, this line: “There is a lot more uncertainty on what might happen in the medium term. With austerity measures the unknown is spending impact…”

OK, let’s return to a familiar hobby horse… statutory planning applications and local government notices that the Newspaper Society continue to insist *must* remain within the pages of the local newspaper.

Otherwise, of course, local councils might hide them away in unseen corners of their own websites and threaten the very fabric of local democracy.

Hence the Society’s delight late last year when the then Government upheld the current statutory demand on local councils to pump £15 million into the classified sections of the local newspaper…

http://www.newspapersoc.org.uk/blog/index.php/2009/12/23/government-rejects-plans-to-scrap-planning-notice-advertising

Objecting, were 76 local planning authorities; and it is interesting if you head for their site, the views from the other side of the planning fence:

http://www.planningofficers.org.uk/file/e0bf5fef4dec706be5314027d3a7f93b/society-slams-dclg-decision-not-to-dispense-with-the-need-for-newspaper-publicity-of-planning-applications.html

And, in particular, this line: “Phil Kirby, the Society’s Immediate Past President, said “web publication of notices is a good thing and we are all going to be made to do it; but it’s not that good, as we are still going to have to duplicate the requirement by also using a newspaper…”

But this is the point… and it is *not* about trying to drive another nail into the coffin of regional newspapers; I have 14 years worth of pension lodged with Archant; it is *not* in my interest to go and see them meet their maker.

But in a very short while, there are district councils right across this land who are going to have to make some *very* painful decisions when it comes to their spending.

Big decisions that will hit people’s every day lives.

And this is where the Newspaper Society has got to get *very* creative in its defence of statutory planning actions and notices still being installed in the back pages of its *print* product at an on-going cost to both the local council and – us – the local council tax payers.

Because what do I want? Two cleaners at the local OAP day centre to keep their job? Or the Rotherham Advertiser to be kept in local planning applications?

And if I’m the editor of the Rotherham Advertiser and I’m going full tilt slamming the local council for withdrawing lollipop ladies, closing local libraries, cutting back on home help provision and the 2,001 other activities that we expect our local council to provide how does that sit with the claim that *only* putting council planning applications online is such a dire threat to civil democracy in South Yorkshire? 

And where will Mr Pickles sit in all this? Election success bagged, ‘local’ TV reviews smashed into the long grass of late 2012, where is he going to sit in all this?

For me, clinging on to planning app revenues as if their life depended on it simply demonstrates the need to let go…. it’s gone; the web and her ability to open up and free such data has killed the goose that used to lay those golden eggs.

In the current climate – as austerity bites ever deeper into those front-line services we hold dear – defending your right to demand payment for printed, planning application advertising isn’t a winner.

It doesn’t wash. 

I want a lollipop lady outside my lad’s school; frankly, I’ll take my chances on whether or not South Norfolk District Council hide the planning application for a second floor extension to the semi in Conifers Lane…

I don’t do numbers; never have. And, if truth be told, I suspect I never will.

So I am therefore very loathe to draw any grander commercial conclusions from our little foray into West Yorkshire on the back of The Guardian’s ‘Local’ experiment in Leeds.

But last week’s post sparked an interesting debate about advertising relevance and reward; which is why – in part – I thought I’d make a return to the subject tonight.

Put it this way; we don’t often get ten comments…

http://rickwaghorn.co.uk/2010/07/28/its-a-simple-point-one-that-gmg-and-their-leeds-outpost-has-just-started-to-prove-its-always-been-the-little-victories/

Anyway, irrespective of the commercial conclusions anyone upstairs at King’s Place might care to draw from one, tiny little venture into that local text ad market, it has prompted me to shine a little light into one or two corners of the GNM web empire to see what other ‘relevant’ advertising arrives on their door-step.

All, of course, viewed from the vantage point of a suburban chalet bungalow in Cringleford; it is from here that I view the world…

Take Greece, for example. And this story… http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/01/greece-war-zone-revolutionaries-tourists

The fear is that as austerity bites, the Greeks will find themselves at the mercy of their own, home grown ‘Red Brigades’; the warning to visitors is to be vigilant… etc, etc..

It follows on, therefore, that I would be interested in a Giant Aquarium in France.

When last I looked that Greek story was the third most viewed story on Guardian.co.uk; that’s prime real estate advertising-wise.

After all, according to the ABCe figures of April ‘10 there’s a potential global audience of 35 million readers there; in a sense how great is that for Nausicaa aquarium in Boulogne to be seen by that many eye-balls…

How many people, however, suddenly think: ‘You know what, let’s give Greece a miss this summer… let’s try Boulogne for a change…’ must be a moot point.

How do I know there were 35 million odd global visitors to Guardian.co.uk in April? Because they published their ‘traffic’ figures here…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/advertising/display-audience-guardian-traffic-users

Handily, for all of us in need of cones, barriers, traffic lights and signs, we now all know where to go…

OK; stop.

The genius that is Google is not in doubt.

Nor is the size or the complexity or the sheer scale of the task they accomplish every milli-second of every day for every million upon million of web publisher and web advertiser.

It is an extraordinary feat to even get one ‘traffic’ ad to one page that mentions ‘traffic’ – and all whilst charging and charting the process of that instant transaction for the benefit of publisher, advertiser and Google alike.

It is, I guess, what you might describe as a complex business model – a subject that has crossed the path of a certain Mr Shirky before now…

http://rickwaghorn.co.uk/2010/04/27/if-mr-shirky-is-foretelling-a-collapse-to-simplicity-does-that-not-apply-as-much-to-complex-voting-systems-as-it-does-to-complex-business-models/

And there is nothing big or clever about pointing out the odd clanger that a distant algorithm makes; nor is there anything new to it, either. It has been a little hobby horse in this neck of the woods for a while now; ever since I too tried to prise a journalistic living off AdSense way back when on www.myfootballwriter.com.

http://rickwaghorn.co.uk/2008/07/06/for-niche-publisher-and-niche-advertiser-the-question-is-always-the-same-wdgdfy/

But, for me, if The Guardian is determined to stick to its ‘content-for-free’ guns and not follow The Times behind the nearest paywall, then there’s nothing particularly big or clever about offering Boulogne aquarium ads on Greek terrorist stories; or traffic management ads whilst celebrating your web traffic figures.

Actually, as far as I can see there’s nothing big or clever for www.assuredhighwaysolutions.com in being on the Guardian web traffic page; probably not their ‘target’ audience. But we digress…

Guardian/Leeds is a tiny, tiny outpost in the huge and complex web octopus that is www.guardian.co.uk.

But last month we managed to find two, local web advertisers willing to cough a tenner a week to get themselves in front of an appropriate and relevant audience. Actually, they found Guardian/Leeds… they placed their ads themselves.

So that’s £72 a month. Off two text ads. Neither of which requires clicking on for The Guardian to earn. Both advertiser and publisher know that they are there for a week. Or a month. Or whatever. Come-what-may click and action-wise.

Simple.

Now all they’ve got to do is find another two for this month; or for another two to find them… not always so simple, granted. DIY advertising still requires a level of education; awareness.

But then nor is building new web models simple as the old world order crumbles and disintegrates; we all have to start again from fresh - seek out new revenue streams from the bottom up, not lazily live off the crumbs from top down.

And, for me, it all starts from the streets of Leeds up; not from the hallways of Mountain View down.

I’ve not really pondered David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ thing; no particular reason. Just had other things to do; other fish to shallow fry.

But on Thursday I found myself sat in County Hall, Norwich, listening to a succession of Norfolk residents bemoan the level of rural connectivity in their beloved county.

On one level, it was a tedious two-hours as community rep after community rep stood up in front of a Norfolk County Council working group and laid their digital souls bare…

Horror stories abounded; farmers who could not access DEFRA updates; kids who had to queue at libraries for one, precious hour of web time; women with their iPhone 4s retreating into their loft for a one-bar of connection; people seeing their house prices starting to teeter as the question of broadband connectivity entered the estate agents’ polished pitch.

And the room was full; people had travelled from nigh on every corner of the county to make their voices heard. The frustration and the fear was evident; people were missing out; communities – both commercial and societal – were being left behind.

Present were two of the county’s Tory MPs; it is, they confirmed, a ‘hot’ topic in their mailbag; both had already banged on Jeremy Hunt’s door to bid for pilot project funding next autumn as HM Government top-slices the BBC and goes a-searching for rural broadband solutions.

One thing they did, however, warn: BT aren’t coming to anyone’s rescue; there is neither the central funding nor the compelling commercial reason for BT to re-lay every underground duct in Norfolk to offer the level of connectivity that the county so clearly craves.

There was, in short, a clear and present danger of chronic market failure; broadband connectivity into the spectacular corner of rural England was bust.

Read Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ musings and it is interesting…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/19/david-cameron-big-society-launch

He wants to turn government ‘completely on its head’. He’s seeing a world turned upside down…

“For years there was the basic assumption at the heart of government that the way to improve things in society was to micromanage from the centre, from Westminster.

“But this just doesn’t work. It has turned able, capable, individuals into passive recipients of state help with little hope for a better future. It has turned lively communities into dull, soulless clones of one another. So we need to turn government completely on its head.”

That is fascinating. Because that’s what we see… a world turned upside down; a revolution that starts at the bottom, not the top… a revolution that harks back to 1649 when the Diggers came to town… only they didn’t have the tools to do the job.

We do.

http://rickwaghorn.co.uk/2009/12/30/as-2010-looms-perhaps-we-need-to-party-like-its-1649-not-1499-and-to-recognise-that-maybe-the-world-is-indeed-turning-upside-down/

The people that gathered in that room in Norfolk County Hall was an attmept ‘by various groups of the common people to impose their own solutions to the problems of their time…’

Because neither ‘big’ Government nor big old BT are going to offer a solution to their problems; one is all-but bust; the other sees no commercial logic to answering the needs of ’small’ society.

But give these people the tools for the job and they will build…

My Old Dear gets The Times deliverd (still); I don’t leap over anyone’s paywall to garner quotes… ‘I will not bow to the masters, pay rent to the lords etc etc..

But there was a comment piece by John Sutherland on Page 22; how the English prefer ‘the casual expert’ a la Sherlock Holmes to the diligent pro; it is, he says, the basis of ‘Big Society’.

“What, if one thinks about it, is the basic principle of Mr Cameron’s Big Society?’ writes Sutherland.

“That ‘ordinary people’ without any training or experience can manage their community’s hospitals, libraries, schools and welfare systems better than the trained professionals.

“It’s not fiction that the Prime Minister is writing but the future history of our country.”

He’s right; and he’s wrong.

I don’t get any sense whatsoever that – in 99% of cases – people sense a complete ‘market failure’ of their schools, hospitals, libraries, etc… How many people really have a ‘Mr Benn’ moment and really feel the need to be a hospital administrator, a head teacher or a librarian?

‘You know what,’ mused Mr Benn. ‘Today I really want to be head of Norfolk social services…’

The ‘trained professionals’ that they’d love to be, however, is a BT engineer who can actually transform their lives into something resembling the 21st Century.  

And who are the other ‘trained professionals’ in full retreat?

Us. Local journalists and – more importantly – those that breathed commercial life into us, local ad reps. They’re going; there too lies huge ‘market failure’.

Give people tools for the job… and they will build.

Give them access to a 100-meg wifi mast and a self-serve, local ad system that’s not wholly dependent on a black box in California getting it right and they will build sustainable ‘community halls’ to hang beneath the clouds upon which our futures lie.

They will find ‘village correspondents’ to deliver fresh content; they will deliver new data feeds; they will find and source new advertising ‘messaging’ that works to the mutual benefit of their communities.

*That* is Big Society building something that is palpably bust; that’s where it works. Cloud-based community hallways; digital doorways into a new Age of Enablement.

Apologies. We have been blog-lite of late.

For many a reason, we’ve been a bit head down recently; scrabbling about with this presentation and that.

Anyway, this event managed to slip by without too much fanfare…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leeds

It’s the noticeboard bit; down and to the right. There…

It has two Addiply ads. Now filled. By local, Leeds punters.

And as you can see, both are paying a tenner a week for the privilege. Or rather they were; the next advertiser will need to find 15 notes to oust the pair out of their chosen slots.

There’s a bid model at work.

Those two agreed to a tenner a week. OK… Times two… that’s £80 a month; minus PayPal and an Addiply commission… OK, that’s about £72 a month heading GMG’s way.

Courtesy of their decision to ‘go local…’ For two, small, text box ads.

That allows two, local Leeds platforms to display their wares.

No GMG ad salesman in sight; it’s too small beer for them.

Does that £72 out-perform the revenue return from the Google AdSense proposition at the foot of the page… for that individual page? In that one, tiny corner of the vast GMG empire? What’s the scores on the doors… Googliath vs Addiply?

I don’t know. They’re not my numbers. I would only go as far to suggest we give MrG a run for his money. That’s all.

But look again at those advertisers; this one in particular…

http://www.leedsforum.co.uk/index.php?referrerid=95

And the wording of his text ad: ‘Live or work in Leeds…’

Right, go to the bottom of the page where the Google ads now hang out. And this might be unfair; it might just be one of those occasions where the wrong ad popped up… when a distant algorithm was having an off day….

… but the top ad is for ‘Love Leeds More’.

Quote: ‘Visit Leeds This August and Stay for just £20′

OK, it’s my italic.

But that ad is a completely different beast altogether from the one that Addiply has delivered.

Ours is aimed at people who ‘live and work… ‘ in Leeds.

Google’s is for people who ‘visit…’ Leeds.

I might be making a wild stab in the dark here, but I suspect the Guardian’s vision for Guardian/Leeds is that it is read by – and, indeed, written by… – people who are Leeds residents. It’s aim is to keep councils under check, to get potholes repaired, to see civic good nurtured and sustained.

It’s whole thrust is not towards the casual visitor; yes, there’s a good-ish ‘fit’ for the student accommodation ad, but it is not a tourism gateway.

The algorithm – in my humble opinion – has dished up the wrong kind of ad.

And if your commercial future rests on matching the right ad with the right eye-ball, that’s not good.

Particularly when the revenue from that particular ad space *can* be dependent on someone clicking upon that ad… that GMG, TheLichfieldBlog or whoever are resting their business model on PPC.

If I live in Leeds and read GuardianLocal/Leeds… why would I click on an advert that’s built around a visit proposition?

Answer is… I won’t.

Therefore, chances are, I as the Guardian won’t earn. For as long as that visit ad tops my Google Ads box and is working on a PPC basis, I’m all-but giving my ad space away for nothing.

And yet I’ve pulled in an audience that’s delivering 20,000-plus views a week…

http://www.addiply.com/index.php?option=com_addiply&Itemid=69&r1=1&r2=8

None of this is rocket science; none of this should be news to anyone.

B&B ads slapped onto ‘local’ news websites don’t work because those same local news websites are aimed at people who have no need for a B&B; they live there…

And, therefore, they will not take action via that ad… whether that’s to click on it, transact through it… etc etc…

The value is in tenancy; those are where my potential punters are; how much does it cost me to place my brand in front of them… A tenner.

Or £15 now that the ‘bid’ model is starting to kick in on the streets of Leeds.

Simples. Simples.

That’s where our futures lie. With the simples.  

I did tweet it out at the time. But as the dust settles in another long week in media history – and I find a moment to pause for breath – it is probably worth repeating the ‘gag’. Such as it is…

Question: What does the long grass look like?

Answer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/15/local-media-ownership-rules

The key ‘commitments’ – and I use the word in its loosest possible sense of the term – are included in these three paragraphs…

‘The department said today that it intends to decide by January 2012 whether to use part of the TV licence fee to fund broadband delivery to rural areas.

‘By the summer of 2012, it expects to begin licensing the first of as many as 80 local TV companies, part of a Tory plan to see local media companies deliver TV, print and online content to replace services such as ITV’s regional news.

‘The DCMS said that 10 to 20 local TV stations will be licensed by the end of the current parliament in 2015. It wants to “foster the development of a new breed of strong local media groups, by removing local cross-media ownership rules to encourage local TV…’

The link, of course, harks back to the Roger Parry notion that the likes of Archant, JP, TrinityMirror et al have nothing else on their minds right now – and would, therefore, leap at the opportunity to fill the hole left by the departing Archie Norman and the rag-tag of regional content that does for ITV’s stab at ‘local’ news.

For most provincial newspaper ceos, November 2012 is a lifetime away… most, I strongly suspect, can look no further forward than the summer of 2011. Certainly not if you’re John Fry and JP; between now and the birth of the Roger model there is the small matter of that £475 million-odd debt mountain to service… speculation around which has always been rife.

http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/mediamoney/2009/09/07/johnston-press-a-cash-machine-for-the-masters-of-the-universe/

Such fall-outs of JP’s aggressive acquisition policy aside, there are, of course, 81 ’slots’ up for grabs.  

Each of the Parry-designed ‘Local Media Companies’ is, it appears, designed to service a ‘patch’ 500,000 punters strong.

“A typical LMC will cover cover a single city or group of towns and will combine the media formats of local television, radio, print and websites,” to quote the Government’s favoured report.

We have, of course, walked this walk before – why, for example, it is in the very nature of this web beast to defy any kind of artificial imposition ordained from on high; the revolting masses of whom Parry clearly has little or no conception will not take to being coralled into convenient political constructs that have little or no relevance to the realities of day-to-day web life.

An LMC will cover ‘a group of towns’. Because that’s a proven model?

That people living in Fakenham really want to know what’s happening in Dereham? Just as much as people in Witney want to know what’s happening in Abingdon?

And they clearly won’t be interested in accessing WitneyTV… and all the host of other little ‘TV’ channels that are springing up in our midst?

There are already 12 ‘TV’ stations in Cornwall…

http://rickwaghorn.co.uk/2010/06/12/why-imho-81-into-mycornwall-tv-and-yournorwich-tv-wont-go-whatever-messrs-parry-and-shott-think-the-answer-to-local-tv-will-bubble-up-from-below/

Put frankly, the Parry model is bollo*ks.

In a sense, the Tories might get lucky in the fact that they could claim that ‘the market’ is, indeed, demonstrating the way to go… that in the best traditions of laissez-faire economics, the Government might be all too happy to bat this notion of ‘local TV’ deep into the political long grass and see what ‘the people’ deliver.

For, to my mind, we’re right back to Christopher Hill; we’re right back to the ‘World Turned Upside Down’…

http://rickwaghorn.co.uk/2009/12/30/as-2010-looms-perhaps-we-need-to-party-like-its-1649-not-1499-and-to-recognise-that-maybe-the-world-is-indeed-turning-upside-down/

We’re back to that quote in his introduction…

‘Popular revolt was for many centuries an essential feature of the English tradition and the middle decades of the seventeenth century saw the greatest upheaval that has yet occurred in Britain.

‘… This book deals with what, from one point of view, are subsidiary episodes… the attempts of various groups of the common people to impose their own solutions to the problems of their time, in opposition to the wishes of their betters…’

MyCornwall.TV – what we could potentially do with www.southnorwichnews.co.uk as a ‘TV’ station – these are all examples of the ‘common people’ attempting to find a solution of their own to ‘the problems of their time…’

And this is the line: ‘in opposition to the wishes of their betters…’

On one level, you could claim that one of those ‘betters’ would be Rupert Murdoch who, as we speak, is trying to impose a pay-wall on us all.

But, equally, that could also apply to the Parry vision of 81 LMCs springing up across the country; that if I live in Abingdon, I will find news of Witney interesting… that the future of local ’TV’ news in this country will come down to this thing 81 ‘patches’ big… that this size will, somehow, fit all…

Actually – to re-quote Mr Weller – the more I see, the more I know, the more I know, the *more* I understand, it is probably just as well that HM Government’s plans for the future of local news in the UK are, indeed, hidden deep within the long grass… to be retrieved only once the fun and games of the 2012 London Olympics are over.

Thatway, locked away in some DCMS vault for the forseeable future, no-one can ever suggest that they’re utterly clueless as to how this thing might ever actually work… no, no… they are deep in ‘consultation’; working closely with Roger and his plan.

To ruminate, cogitate and procrastinate (albeit occasionally…) on the latest pearls of Mountain View wisdom the man has to offer.

Because as much as we might have the odd quibble with the complex business model that is AdSense/DoubleClick, Mr Schmidt is still a man worth listening to – particularly when it came to his key-note speech at The Guardian’s Activate2010 gig last week.

Where next for newspapers – in the same moment of media time as Rupert and Co were slamming up their pay-walls around The Times and its content – was all fascinating stuff; even if – I guess – the correct terminology might have been where next for content… it, as far as I can ever see, will remain king.

*All* we have to do is build a new palace for Content’s throne. Millions of them, if truth be told.

Anyway, there were some gem lines is Mr Schmidt’s key-note; many of which struck a chord in this neck of the woods as we wandered around with a couple of PowerPoints and a blank piece of paper.  You can watch the speech here…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2010/jul/02/google-eric-schmidt-activate

As usual, it prompted a flurry of articles… the gist of which was that the future of ‘news’ would involve something mobile, something cloud-based and something that was highly personalised to all of us… 

http://www.editorsweblog.org/newspaper/2010/07/in_a_16_minute_speech.php

In particular these lines: “Mobile is the hottest area of computer technology…

“The smartest developers now are writing apps for mobile before they write for Windows or Apple Mac desktop operating systems. Part of that is because these devices are hugely personal to us when we use them.” 

And on the future of newspapers? This: “What does the newsreading experience look like many years from now? I think it’s delivered to a digital device, which has text, obviously, but also colour, and video, and the ability to dig very deeply into what you are supplied with…

… The most important thing is that it will be more personalised.”

So it will be my news; the news that matters to me… and, crucially, organised to my way of thinking…

Actually, change that. News can mean so many things to so many different people; as journalists we can get all too hung up on what the ‘news’ that really matters to me is….

To a 16-year-old the news that matters could be that Johnny X just got off with Yasmin Y; to a 25-year-old it could be the news that the next XBox Live release has just got a preview clip out… we can’t impose ‘news’ values on anyone. It’s each to their own out there…

Try again.

So it will be my content; the content that matters to me… and, crucially, organised to my way of thinking…

Personalised. And organised.

As you do, I found this little curio the other day… here:

http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_collectibles/80s/filofax.php

That the word ‘FiloFax’ was actually coined by a secretary. A secretary going places, it seems…

“The original idea for a loose leaf ring binder goes back to Philadelphia in 1910, when the Lefax organiser was invented to hold engineering data.

“In 1921, a UK company, Norman and Hill, began making the Lefax. The name Filofax (File of Facts) was coined by a secretary Grace Scurr, who eventually became chairman of the business…”

A ‘file of facts’. Organised and personalised to meet the individual user’s tastes and requirements.

Right now, that’s fascinating.

Truly fascinating.

Because for me, I think we have to empower people to build; to personally organise the ‘news’ that really matters to them in a way that works for them… Not in a way that works for us.

And we have to stand back and let them decide what is the ‘news’ that matters to them.

And if they organise their news around an alert that there’s a half-price sale on at Karen Millen this weekend, a 10% discount at CostaCoffee and a free screening of ‘Gone With The Wind’ at the local Playhouse, then so be it…

The ‘page’ earmarked for the very latest developments in the Northern Ireland peace process or the fluctuations of the Euro against the Dollar, lets leave that on the shelf for someone else to read.

Let people personally organise their own news. Whatever that is…