• home
• About
• browse ↓

The Archives

• 03.01.09
  Me, Mr Rushbridger and an e-mail about the Titanic as the world finally begins to twig that big media is going down fast…. General, Journalism, MLW | (3)

  Many, many moons ago - long before OWAB was born and whilst we still had one eye on the KnightNews Challenge funding our MyLocalWriter.com dreams - I took a deep breath and pinged over an email to Mr A Rushbridger of The Guardian fame. As a one-time reporter on the Cambridge Evening News, I kind of figured he'd have more of an idea of local than most. Whether he remembers said exchange, I've no idea. His reply was courteous and encouraging, if memory serves. But we both then went our seperate ways. The point is that in it, I drew this clumsy analogy ...

  Tagged: Google, Jeff Jarvis, MyLocalWriter
  
• 01.29.09
  What did our very first VIP Club meeting do last night? Well, perhaps, it started to answer the question that Lord Carter has yet to find… General, Journalism, MLW | (2)

  The much-trailed 'Digital Britain' report thumps on everyone's desk tomorrow and from the snippets that are already emerging it looks like the Government have decided that the future of local news provision lies in the hands of TrinityMirror, Newsquest, Johnston, etc... Cos it ain't going to be ITV. And it can't only be the BBC. But it might be Channel Four. Well, that's the future sorted then... http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42961&c=1 Given that we had our very first VIP Club meeting last night, there was one line that stood out like a sore thumb in the above... 'Carter told journalists today: “We don’t have all the answers to ...

  Tagged: addiply.com, audioboo, bestbefore.tv, JohnstonPress, Lord Carter, MyLocalWriter, ThisFrenchLife.com, VentnorBlog
  
• 01.14.09
  He didn’t get it – and I’m not wholly sure any of us do. But I think I now know where I’d start… where my new audience for hyper-local news hangs out. General, Journalism | (2)

  For whatever reason - maybe it's because at heart I'm a sucker for schmaltz - 'Big' is one of my favourite films. The chopsticks scene in FAO Schwarz even prompted a visit-cum-pilgrimage to said Manhattan toy store when I did Jeff Jarvis' www.newsinnovation.com gig in the way-off autumn of 2007. The other brilliant bit is the scene in the corporate boardroom; the launch of the insect that becomes a building. And in amidst all the usual 'Mmm... yeh, great... wow...' Tom Hanks' character gives it the classic: 'I don't get it...' line. 'I don't get it... why would you deliver news on a ...

  Tagged: MyLocalWriter
  
• 09.15.08
  That first ad was my sister-in-law; she was asked… that second ad, however, was an act of someone else’s will. They placed that ad themselves. And that’s the stroke of genius. A DIY ad model in action… Advertising, General, MLW | (3)

  Ha-ha.... there we go. There we go.... How long it has been there, I've no idea. I've been running around a little of late; me and Neil have had our heads down underneath the MyFootballWriter bonnet for a few days - tinkering with this and that. More on which later. But anyway, whilst I've been away something slightly unusual has happened. We have a second advert. On Addiply. Lift your gaze a few inches and there it is. Next to the one my sister-in-law took out - with a little nudge and a wink - for her Pilates class in Fakenham... http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=68 Our self-service, DIY, niche/local ...

  Tagged: AboutMyArea, Addiply, Johnston Press, MyLocalWriter, Pilates, Towcester
  
• 08.19.08
  TrinityMirror head for the hills and plant their final flag atop Fort Dunlop; in their fleeing wake lie 65 jobs and a weekly wasteland… General, Journalism, MFW | (8)

  An hour after writing the post below and out of the darkness that is the UK provincial newspaper industry comes this... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/19/trinitymirror.pressandpublishing ...65 jobs to go; and more to follow if they can't find a buyer for their clutch of weekly titles... Several lines stand out... not least this one: Trinity Mirror's three Birmingham titles will be served by a single sports desk at the new multimedia facility... Bang go the seperate title football writers that used to follow the Blues and the Baggies; one man from the Mail, the other from the Post. One man will be left to do the job of ...

  Tagged: Lord Fowler, MyLocalWriter, Project Stamford, TrinityMirror
  
• 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
  

recent posts

• If we are, indeed, to let 1,000 Personalised Newspapers bloom perhaps there are better ways of monetising My #Loddon Daily
• 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.