Stop what you are doing right now. Head to iTunes and rent a copy of Page One: Inside The New York Times.

The movie tells the story of the fragmentation of media over a 12-month period spent in the news room at The Times.

Its not going to win any Pulitzer Prizes for reporting or storytelling but there are some wonderful moments as it fronts up to the issues that traditional news organisations are facing as ad revenue declines and audiences move from print to digital editions.

Times’ staffer David Carr debates the future of media on televised panel with Michael Wolff creator of the news aggregator Newser. Carr holds up a version of the Newser homepage with content from traditional media outlets removed.

It’s a neat stunt that shows without mainstream media there wouldn’t be a lot of content on Newser.

We watch as journalists’ debate the role of Wikileaks as a news organisation. The New York Times was one of three news organisations to partner with Wikileaks in the release of US cables in November last year.

We learn that US media organisations can no longer afford to travel with the US Presidential and that coverage of the election next year will inevitably be dumbed down as veteran reporters are replaced by “24-years olds with video cameras”.

At a time when the future of the news and the role of user generated content is an oft debated issue the movie shows the crucial role of editors to sift and validate as part of the news process.

If you like that you might also like a family project we’ve set up at home. We’ve installed web cams in a couple of bird boxes and alongside nests in the garden and are uploading images to a Posterous site and tweeting at @tweetingbox.

A great shot of Origin’s Paul Fabretti snapped by Don’t Panic’s Andy Wake yesterday during my presentation on business blogging at the Some Comms conference in Manchester.

I’ve clearly work to do on my audience engagement

To take part players grab and release a balloon on the course and use a variety of tricks to make it go faster. There’s an incredible line-up of prizes for the fastest racers. Good luck.

Fans of the Archers, the fictional Radio 4 soap opera about country folk, have launched a Twitter campaign to save the village pub.

Followers of the programme will know that The Bull is under threat after its landlord Sid Perks died. His partner Jolene doesn’t want to take it on. Change is almost certainly coming, but fans of the 60-year old show are fighting back.

A storyline in the show discussed whether social media campaign should be launched using Facebook and Twitter to save The Bull.

But listeners (five million per week and counting) jumped in before the scriptwriters had chance to develop the plot launching a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #savethebull.

The Archers has spawned countless satirical personalities on Twitter mimicking characters in the soap. I’m delighted to report that they have all come out to play.

Creativity and those very British characteristics of mischief and fun are alive and well online.

• one of our number took the nautical fancy dress theme a little too far
• we sneaked into a item that a BBC crew were filming for BBC Breakfast
• we narrowly avoided a five-punt pile up as we navigated the Fen Causeway
• but eventually, with the addition of paddles, we all got to grips with controlling a punt and managed to line up our flotilla of six punts under the bridge behind King’s College
• spent a glorious afternoon enjoying the hospitality of the Granta, a very splendid river side pub

Company away days are variously billed as team building exercises or bonding sessions. But for us it was simply an opportunity to spend time together and kickback after working bloody hard during the first half of the year.

Thanks to Abbie and Sonia for first class organisation.

But relying entirely on Twitter users for your transport and lodgings is entirely novel. That’s what Paul Smith, perhaps better known as Twitchhiker, did last year. You can follow him on Twitter @twitchhiker.

Now he’s documented his 30-day journey in a new book of the same name.

We met very briefly at Tyneside Twestival in February 2009 shortly, as it turns out, after the fateful trip around Tesco in Gateshead, that provided the inspiration for his trip.

Twitchhiker’s goal was to travel to Campbell Island, near New Zealand, on the opposite corner of the world, using the goodwill of Twitter to propel him in his bid to raise cash for charity:water and prove that the  world isn’t full of “bastards and rapists”.

It makes for a great story.

In the book Twitchhiker takes you with him on his journey from its start point in Newcastle, to Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Washington and Chicago. The list goes on until Twitchhiker reaches New Zealand.

Each step of the way you are introduced to the new friends that he meets that help him along his way and provide hospitality.

In places it’s extraordinarily candid. Twitchhiker isn’t frightened of sharing his fears or his failings with his audience.

But it’s also really well written. I guarantee you won’t be able to put it down and that once you’ve finished it you’ll be reaching for a map or even Twitter to plan a journey of your own.

There’s not a lot that a 50-year old creative agency could teach about social media you’d have thought. But you’d be wrong.

Characters from the show have been tweeting in the run up to the launch of the new series. Its a delightful social media execution that is completely on-message for Mad Men.

Here are a couple of tweets that I’ve exchanged with the show’s Don Draper and Peggy Olson.

Unfortunately the show’s promotional strategy doesn’t extend to its digital rights management. Anyone outside the US is blocked from viewing trailers for the new show via the Mad Men web site.

In the UK, Mad Men which won a BAFTA for best international show this year, is broadcast on BBC3, but there’s no news yet of when the new series will air.

Update: Thanks to CorpComm’s Helen Dunne for straightening me out this story. The Mad Men Twitter feeds are independent of the TV show and have been in existence for a couple of years. Peggy Olsen’s tweets won their author a Shorty award last year.

New cufflinks from Swagger & Swoon (@swaggerandswooon)

North East photo blogger Charles Bell posted this snap of me on his This Too Will Pass photo blog after I joined him for my first trip to St. James’ Park to see Newcastle beat Middlesbrough at the end of last year. He even bought me the scarf as a present.

He also accompanied my daughter Freya and I for the Whitley Bay Boxing Day Dip and shot this wonderful series of photos.

Thanks Charlie!