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July 2008

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• 07.30.08
  For once I can’t think of a pithy headline; think of me with a wry smile – that will have to do. General | (0)

  http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/mediamoney/2008/07/29/tomorrows-world-futures-digital-revenues-compensate-for-print-ad-decline/?disqus_reply=1050300#dsq-alerts Made me smile. Can't think why... Or perhaps me, the Mrs and Neil can... Of course Jeff “Link To The Rest” Jarvis would love it. Indeed, looking at Future’s deal, the big, fat, obvious question that forms in my mind is: why isn’t Conde Nast, EMAP or IPC doing this already? Exactly. Why not indeed.

  Tagged: Conde Nest, EMAP, IPC
  
• 07.29.08
  If we start to suspect that the playing field is starting to empty, who fancies being a player? General, Journalism | (1)

  We're not going to go round the block again. We're just going to try and move the debate on. Anyway, on the basis of this... http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2008/07/perilously-funded-papers-hit-wall.html ...and this week's announcement by TrinityMirror of their first half-year results - and therein, one presumes, their explanation of how, exactly, they are going to continue to service the pension fund that caused their recent little spat with The Times - you do begin to wonder whether private equity will ride to anyone's rescue newspaper-wise. http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/mediamoney/2008/07/18/the-economics-of-going-private-if-the-predators-are-willing-perhaps-their-bankers-are-too-weak/ As our Pete points out, the prospect of owning a creaking press, a fleet of little diesel vans and a wobbly pension mountain might ...

  Tagged: BCU, City, CUNY, Peter Kirwan, TrinityMirror, UCLAN
  
• 07.21.08
  The big question now is whether this many-headed monster of info and apps can ever be tamed into something that’s even vaguely house-trained? General, Journalism, MLW | (0)

  For reasons that won't be too hard to fathom for both our regular readers, this was all very interesting... http://www.4ip.org.uk/blog/levellers_fishbones_and_sir_tim_berners_lee/ Not least because these days we can join some of the dots therein... that I was lucky enough to speak at www.2gether08.com which was a kind of warm-up garden party for the full-on launch of the 4iP funding initiative later this autumn... And we've also been round the block with Sir Tim and his partner Martin Moore once or twice before on their success at this year's Knight News Challenge... http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=73 And again... http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=89 And, of course, we've also crossed paths with the good folks at NESTA. Which ...

  Tagged: 4iP, Bob Wyman, Google, Jeff Jarvis, Knight News Challenge, Martin Moore, MyLocalWriter, NESTA, Sir Tim Berners Lee
  
• 07.20.08
  It is an intriguing idea – that we could have state intervention in the provincial newspaper industry. Boy, would that kick up a fuss… General, Journalism | (4)

  First things first; declare our interest - Bob Russell MP is a very valued columnist on our Colchester United site, www.myfootballwriter.com/colchesterunited - and as an ex-local journalist himself, is more than well-placed to put the following early day motion in front of his Parliamentary colleagues... http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=36391&SESSION=891 ...and calls upon them to: '...engage with the local newspaper industry to ascertain what steps can be taken to ensure the survival and prosperity of local newspapers in the best interests of the local communities which they serve... It is a noble cause - the survival of a local news platform upon which the likes of our ...

  Tagged: Bob Russell, House Of Lords, NESTA
  
• 07.17.08
  What’s left that is of any value? Us, the journalists. Our name, our respect, our contacts… Now organise that in a geography-lite fashion. General, Journalism | (0)

  I like Mark Potts; never met him - just listened from a distance when he took to the stage at Jeff Jarvis' NewsInnovation gig in New York last autumn. At which he delivered one of those lines that I have long carried around with me... talking about his experience at BackFence, he said: 'We knew we were on the right track, we just run out of track...' It's a phrase that, as I say, has followed me round for the last 12 months; particularly, funnily enough, each and every time I come into contact with a banker - most of whom couldn't ...
• 07.16.08
  Behind a torrid two days for our old friends at Trinity lies a simple truth… people just don’t like newspaper stocks. General, Journalism | (0)

  There's not too much to be gained from going round this block again; particularly if Trinity are getting a bit twitchy on the lawyer front - as the man from The Times appears about to find out... http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/07/trinity_mirror_sues_the_times.html So, clearly we're not going anywhere neat the 'Who said what to whom...' minutiae of Trinity's roller-coaster ride on the stock-market over the last 48-hours. But there are some bigger issues out here that events of the last two days merely reinforces... That brokers and analysts on either side of the Atlantic just don't like newspaper stock. Period. End of. The only time they will like them again ...

  Tagged: TrinityMirror
  
• 07.14.08
  MyFootballWriter is two-years-old this week… So what, exactly, have we learnt out there where the metal meets the meat? General, Journalism, MFW | (3)

  As ever in our household, anniversaries of any sort are the Mrs’ preserve. I knew that www.myfootballwriter.com was heading for its second birthday at some point soon; a swift glance at her all-knowing, five-year diary revealed that ‘Rick’s first match report has just gone live; looks really good…’ on July 17. 2006. So that makes it 'Happy birthday MFW..!' this week. Of course, when we first threw ourselves on the mercy of the world-wide web - Archant redundancy cheque in hand - it was out of the ‘brand’ that was Rick Waghorn; the one whose many chins had adorned Norwich bus stops and ...

  Tagged: Clay Shirky, MyFootballWriter.com, TrinityMirror
  
• 07.10.08
  WWGD and, ads-wise WTFDGD… Or do we all admit it? We’re all about to become tiny cogs in The Daily Google… Advertising, General, Journalism | (0)

  http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/07/10/google-as-the-new-pressroom/#comments Well, someone had to say it... Google bleeding this, Google bleeding that... Don't get me wrong; it's a great post. Big and thought-provoking. And Mr Wyman remains a very switched on guy; even if he does now appear to work for you-know-who... http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=72 But if we guess how the conversation went during 'Breakfast With Jeff' there is, to my mind, a very real danger that the powers-that-be down Buckingham Palace Road are allowing themselves to slip into the mind-set of becoming The Daily Google.... Or maybe, that's the answer. No, please not. Let's not go that quietly into the night... Not just yet.

  Tagged: Bob Wyman, Daily Telegraph, Google, Jeff Jarvis
  
• 07.10.08
  I guess it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas – or King Canute calling for a towel… General, Journalism | (0)

  Sometimes you do begin to wonder. You really, really do... http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=41621&c=1 And, in particular, the evidence of Professor Steven Barnett of Westminster University and his contrary take on the proposition: “The only future for print media is online”. "Barnett warned that the history of technological change in media was littered with wildly inaccurate predictions about the future. "He said the development of online technology had followed the same pattern as previous technological revolutions in media, which had usually resulted in existing platforms adapting and coexisting with new media.... “...Each time, the pattern is exactly the same – those traditional media adapt and defy expectations ...

  Tagged: House Of Lords
  
• 07.08.08
  A single, fine piece of thread and a gloupy, sugary soup of glorious data. All you do then is allow to cool. General, MLW | (1)

  As I mentioned, I was wandering round www.2gether08.com last week - at which Messrs Watson and Loosemore announced the launch of this... http://www.showusabetterway.com/ ...which I can only commend. Nice if they could have found a way to have added another nought onto the end and given 20 great mashes a little pick-me-up, but there we go. Eyes down for the full £20,000 it is. My early favourite was this baby... something that was muttered about in passing last week. But, heh, you go girl, you go... http://www.showusabetterway.co.uk/call/2008/07/war-graves-comm.html Unfortunately the party appears to be pooped somewhere in the bowels of the Imperial War Museum with a restrictive ...

  Tagged: Imperial War Museum, MyLocalWriter.com, showusabetterway, Tom Loosemore, Tom Watson
  

• « Previous Entries

recent posts

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• This weekend, all eyes are on BBC vs Sky; round two. Maybe more eyes should be on STVLocal. That’s interesting…
• The Children will indeed inherit this digital Earth of ours; ‘TV’ will be a play thing in the palm of their hand…
• If Starbucks are building localised doorways and channels through their coffee shops, can’t we do the same into rural communities?
• OK, as austerity bites ever deeper into our daily lives lets go round this block again: planning application or lollipop lady?
• The genius that is Google is not in doubt; not up for debate or question. But ‘It’s complicated…’ as FaceBook would say.
• Give people the tools and they will build… if Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ is to be made flesh, we have to look to the heavens. To the wifi clouds above our head.