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June 2008

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• 06.30.08
  Read the TrinityMirror news today and the words ‘upbeat’ and ‘very’ wouldn’t be the first two to spring to mind. Misc | (0)

  Given events that are fast befalling TrinityMirror today... http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=41543&c=1 and, of course, here... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/30/trinitymirror.pressandpublishing and here... http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/06/trinity_mirror_the_end_is_nigh.html ... you do have to wonder just how that all sits with the Newspaper Society's 'very upbeat' view of the world. The best line came from Citi Investment Research. "The advertising environment remains volatile and there is no sign of the classified market bottoming yet," they warned. "While the new bank facility gives some comfort on the capital structure near term we believe the pension will remain a cause for concern in the longer term. We remain sellers." We remain sellers... Just don't ask Lord Fowler to buy it. �

  Tagged: Lord Fowler, TrinityMirror
  
• 06.29.08
  Too swift to judge, too quick to condemn? Quite possibly. For on reflection, I guess they were damned if they did, damned if they didn’t… General, Journalism | (1)

  I was reading that line in the House Of Lords report again; the one where the Newspaper Society offered a 'very upbeat' assessment of the state of their nation; as opposed, of course, to the more sober, albeit slightly outsider's line taken by Guardian editor Alan Rushbridger - a view-point that their lordships appeared to put rather more faith in as and when they finally penned Friday's report. "The evidence we received from the Newspaper Society, which represents the regional and local industry, was very upbeat. They claimed the readership of those papers had increased in recent years: their figures showed ...

  Tagged: House Of Lords, Newspaper Society
  
• 06.28.08
  Why Lord Fowler and Co have little to say by way of succour for an ailing provincial newspaper industry. General, Journalism | (4)

  Give the walk we walk and the talk we try to talk, it would be wholly remiss not to give Lord Fowler's epic work a mention. The House of Lords' report on 'The Ownership Of The News', Vol 1, is clearly a worthy document and for those of you with a couple of hours to spare, here's the full monty in PDF form... http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldcomuni/122/122i.pdf Given the number of influential people that Lord Fowler and friends managed to drag before it, the conclusions that they ultimately reached are, to my mind, likely to stay entrenched within the mind-set of their lordships at least until ...

  Tagged: House Of Lords, Johnston Press, Lord Fowler, OfCom, Peter Kirwan, Sly Bailey, Stamford Herald & Post, Stamford Mercury, TrinityMirror
  
• 06.26.08
  The struggles of Mr Dale to reap his rightful rewards from his daily diary. There’s a lesson in there for us all… Advertising, General, Journalism | (0)

  Interesting on many a front; reverse publishing is something that we've pondered with all that (potentially) MyFootballWriter.com content - what do you do with it all at the end of every week... http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=6&storycode=41470&c=1 But for me, the killer line comes in the numbers... the fact that he attracts 72,000 uniques per month; on a site that - you guess - is read thoroughly by the high-minded audience it appeals to... He engages. Brilliantly, you suspect. I'd love to know what his average visit time is. High. Sticky stuff, that insider political gossip. All of which did what for him, financially? Diddly squat, it appears. "While ...

  Tagged: Google, Iain Dale, Press Gazette
  
• 06.25.08
  Not sure which is better viewing – BBC versus Channel Four over the missing millions or the Newspaper Society versus the BBC over their threat to the ‘plurality’ of news General, Journalism | (2)

  This is always well worth watching - the Newspaper Society versus the BBC. Almost as good as Channel Four versus the BBC over where are they going to get their missing £150 mill from... from BBC Worldwide, says Channel Four, that's a nice little earner... Yes, it is. Get your grubby mits off, says the BBC. Besides, you sure you actually need this £150 mill? Couldn't you make a few more savings instead, says the lean, mean fighting machine that is the BBC... OK, OK... how about we give you a few of our local news clips. And that little desk in the corner ...

  Tagged: BBC, Channel Four, Johnston Press, Newspaper Society, TrinityMirror
  
• 06.24.08
  Bit by bit, the pieces start to fall into place. Let’s give a FaceBook-esque ‘StamfordPeople’ a whirl; how to find yourself a baby-sitter in 2008… General, Journalism, MLW | (0)

  I guess we ought to do the introductions first; or rather, the credit. I stumbled across a guy called Patrick Thornton last night who - from a distance - appears to be one of Jay Rosen's 'posse' out in the States. In that he's just taken over from Knight News Challenge winner David Cohn in working on www.beatblogging.org - http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2008/06/19/my-newest-journalism-adventure/ David I've met; co-hosted Jeff Jarvis' www.newsinnovation.com gig in NY last autumn and helped me find an Internet connection - ex-Canary boss Peter Grant was in the midst of getting sacked, if memory serves. Top man. And a Knight News Challenge winner, ...

  Tagged: beatblogging.org, David Cohn, FaceBook, Jay Rosen, Knight News Challenge, NY Times, Oliver Luft, Patrick Thornton, Project Stamford
  
• 06.23.08
  Why events at CERN next month ring a bell in this neck of the woods; why we all have to go back to the basic building blocks of life and start all over again… General, Journalism | (3)

  We've already touched on the potential impact of CERN on our world twice before. Once, of course, with regard to what CERN 'old boy' Sir Tim Berners-Lee is up to with his wad of Knight News Challenge cash - http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=73 - and once with regard to the mother of all operating systems that could soon be downloading a box-load of DVDs to a lap-top near you. In an instant. Meet 'The Grid' - http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=39 Anyway, CERN was again the suject of a double-page spread in the Mail On Sunday's 'Live' supplement last week - basically signalling the fact that the Large Hadron Collider ...

  Tagged: CERN, Clay Shirky, MediaStandardsTrust, Sir Tim Berners Lee
  
• 06.20.08
  Always interesting the different perspectives we all bring to bear. From atop of the water lily, it might look agile; from the bottom of the pond, it just looks rather more than hopeful. General, Journalism | (0)

  Interesting to read the Buzzmachine/Guardian take on the Huffington Post's one-editor strong invasion of Chicago... http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/06/19/arianna-invades-chicago/ It's a move that we've already walked once round the block. http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=92 And I'm sure we'll go round the block again with it. But, even now, I'm not sure that if I was given one word to describe it I would plump for 'agile'. But then the eminent Ms Bell comes at it from sat atop a water-lily. Me? I've long been pond-life and proud. So, in fairness, perhaps from her perspective it is agile. It's a nimble little move that an organisation of GMG's ilk would love to pull ...

  Tagged: Chicago, Huffington Post, The Guardian
  
• 06.20.08
  Panic of the streets of Stamford…. Dublin, Dundee and Humberside… General, Journalism | (1)

  With due apologies to The Smiths, but the fate of the Stamford Mercury is one that's dear to my heart... http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/06/johnston_press_denies_sale_rum.html We've obviously been round this block before... http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=87 Because if there is any talk of a sale afoot there won't be too many banks out there willing to grease the wheels of any sales either - unless they're Malaysian, perhaps; and it will be very interesting to see what the House Of Lords makes of the issue of media ownership when their long-awaited report is delivered a week today. But given that there's a regional newspaper group not a million miles away from here ...

  Tagged: Johnston Press, Stamford Mercury, The Smiths
  
• 06.19.08
  The Huffington Post prepares to do ‘local’; but if you find Loudon County to disparate a beast to work, will Chicago be any better? General, Journalism | (1)

  For obvious reasons, this is clearly worth keeping an eye - The Huffington Post does local... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/19/digitalmedia.pressandpublishing The two key pars of Ms Kiss' piece come at the top... "The Huffington Post is planning to expand into local news across the US, founder Arianna Huffington said last night, beginning with a site edited for the community of Chicago. "Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources as well as contributions from bloggers in what will be the first of a series of projects in "dozens of US cities". The Chicago site will initially be ...

  Tagged: Chicago, EveryBlock, Huffington Post, Loudon County, LoudonExtra, Rob Curley, Trinity Mirror
  

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