August 3rd, 2010 by Wadds

Media that I pay for


Flag of Northumberland

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Ged Carol has blogged a list of ten media that he pays for and his motivations for doing so. He’s willing to pay for unique content, ritual and aesthetic quality. I’d add community to the list – I willingly pay for content pertinent to my location.

Working in the media we have the luxury of access to a wide variety of publications ranging from the daily newspapers to the weekly gossip magazines. But here is my list of media that I pay for personally.

The Observer – we’ve always had a copy of The Observer at the weekend. It would be somehow wrong if we didn’t. That’s despite the fact that for the last ten years at least family commitments have meant we’ve rarely been able to read it before 9pm

Countryfile – because I live in the country. Hardcore countryside dwellers claim that it’s a glossy written for townies that want to live in the country. It’s probably not far from the truth

Over the Bridges – I don’t strictly pay for this because it’s free but I do stump up a contribution to its upkeep whenever asked. It’s a hyper local monthly publication run by volunteers for our corner of Northumberland

PR Week (via CIPR) – despite a wide variety of blogs and online publications focused on the public relations industry PR Week remains an essential read and the industry’s most influential mouthpiece

Northumberland Gazette – if you live in Northumberland you have to subscribe to the Gazette. It has an incredibly loyal following and will almost certainly be the last regional publication standing in the UK

The Week – wonderfully curated content from the week’s national media. Its an essential read for anyone that doesn’t get chance for a daily dose of a broadsheet and tabloid newspaper

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July 29th, 2010 by Wadds

PR agencies need to handle traditional, online and social media

The ABC Multi-Platform report plopped into my inbox yesterday. It continues the narrative of a decline in print and the shift to online.  Some web properties such as Mail Online are enjoying incredible growth (up 4 per cent month-on-month to 42 million).

The third IPA TouchPoints Survey reported last week that social media penetration in the UK was 37 per cent with Facebook the most popular platform. You’d be forgiven for thinking that it should be much higher.

This is the ongoing story of media fragmentation. We’re at an inflection point and for the moment at least PR agencies need to be able to help brands navigate traditional, online and social media.

At least that’s our view at Speed. Media planning tools are taking an increasingly important role helping us identify audiences and their media habits.

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July 28th, 2010 by Wadds

Media is media, defamation is defamation

It didn’t need a High Court judgement to remind us that media law applies in social media as in any other aspect of the media.

But a judgement handed down by Mr Justice Tugendhat yesterday saw a plaintiff awarded £10,000 for being defamed on Facebook.

The case concerns Jeremiah Barber who, posted child porn on the Facebook page of Raymond Bryce, after falling out, along with a defamatory comment.

Inevitably we’ll see more of these types of judgements. Its a booming business for media lawyers.

Here’s a related article that I wrote in March for Reputation Online about copyright and privacy in social networks.

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July 12th, 2010 by Wadds

Rothbury: does social media and round-the-clock reporting threaten editorial integrity?

Two-days after the standoff between the police and Raoul Moat in Rothbury the police presence has diminished but the media presence remains almost as strong as ever.

Attention has now turned to the role of the media in reporting on the Rothbury story and its influence on the unfolding events.

The past seven days have seen journalists from national and international radio, TV and print outlets descend on the small Northumberland town and its 1,700 residents. Mobile studios were set up around the village to report minute-by-minute on the search for Moat.

Rothbury residents were polarised in their response to the manhunt choosing either to stay indoors or going about their lives as normal. Those that did venture out were sought out by journalists to comment on the story.

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter spawned discussions as the search for Moat progressed. Every aspect of the story was debated and discussed online.

Here’s the issue in my view: in an era were the media has an almost limitless capacity to publish content on the internet and almost anyone can create that content whether it be words, pictures or video, inevitably editorial boundaries are pushed far beyond any public interest claim.

And so a questionable phone interview with Paul Gascoigne was played live on air by local radio stations in Newcastle. User generated eye witness video footage showing the standoff between Moat and the police was published by the BBC.

Journalists themselves used Twitter to communicate with each other and their audience crossing a line, possibly for the first time on a major news story, between personal comment, speculation and reporting.

Media blogger Enemies of Reason has played out some of the possible scenarios that could have resulted from a heavy-handed media approach:

“There was the rush to the riverbank by photographers keen to get a key photo of Moat – maybe the deadly money shot, who knows? And those pictures of cops with guns, almost certainly telling the army of snappers to get away, for their own safety, and maybe so they didn’t by their presence provoke him into shooting anyone, even himself. If Moat had done something because he’d seen the advancing photographers, what then? Anything for a picture? Would it not matter? But what if a police officer had been shot dead because a photographer in the bush had looked like a sniper? Who knows. Luckily it didn’t happen. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have happened.”

The relentless round-the-clock reporting from Rothbury has led to the media being accused of becoming part of the story.

At one point on Friday evening Northumberia Police took the unusual step of directly asking the media to back-off, claiming that its presence was “impacting the ongoing operation.”

Rothbury is beginning to get back to normal.

But for the media the question remains. Do social media and round-the-clock news reporting threaten editorial integrity?

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June 8th, 2010 by Wadds

Government sets out UK media priorities

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt outlined the Department of Media, Culture and Sports’ priorities for the media at the Hospital Club in London today.

Here’s a link to the speech in full. And here’s my summary of the key points.

  • Support for a universal internet service level of 2Mbps
  • Series of market testing projects to bring superfast broadband to rural and hard-to-reach areas
  • Support for Ofcom’s proposals to open up access to BT’s ducts and telegraph poles to promote further third party investment
  • Scrap the Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC)
  • Relaxation of local cross-media ownership rules
  • Review by Nicholas Shott, head of UK Investment Banking at Lazard, into the viability of local television stations throughout the UK
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June 2nd, 2010 by Wadds

iPad media update: more apps, PaidContent analyses take-up and a call for comment from Communicate Magazine

In my search for media apps for the iPad yesterday I completely missed the FT’s new app­. A search for Financial Times (rather than FT) in the Apps Store will find it for you (or click on the link). It’s free until July. Thanks to everyone who pointed this out.

Michael Cooper recommends Guardian Eyewitness, Reuters and Wired. I’ll check these out in the coming days. And for RSS readers he says “Newsrack looks to be a worthy RSS feed reader but I’m holding out for Reeder which should appear soon.”

Peter Houston who writes an excellent blog called Flipping Pages about the future of digital magazines says that “the NPR app is excellent, a wonderful mix of magazine, radio and video in a quirky three-tier layout.”

Robert Andrews writing in Paid Content has analysed the economic implications for newspaper publishers of early take-up of media apps and content on the iPad.

Finally Communicate Magazine is looking for early feedback from communication professionals on potential uses of the iPad in corporate communication and reputation management. Check out its two-minute survey.

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June 1st, 2010 by Wadds

iPad media disappoints (for now)

At the FT Media Conference in March mainstream media publishers lined up to described how they were scrambling to get their apps onto the iPad.

Yet with a few notable exceptions to the shift from print to iPad is disappointing. The Guardian and The Financial Times have repurposed their existing iPhone apps. At double magnification they pixelate but if you’ve already bought the app you won’t need to shell out again.

Pulse is good. It’s based on the Newser like-grid but with full articles rather than summaries. It aggregates and serves up stories in a visually appealing format. Tap a story that interest you and you’re taken to the full text

I’m also a fan of Instapaper. It allows you to save web pages from a browser for syncing and viewing later offline. I already use the web version but I can see it being a productivity boom on the iPad.

Existing web properties work well on the iPad. The Safari browser is fast and touch driven navigation is incredibly natural.

Video also works well providing of course that you don’t need Flash. ITV Player won’t work but BBC iPlayer is fantastic. And the Sky Mobile TV app is good.

The iPhone audio apps that I have come to love, such as RadioBox and Spotify, work well on the iPad. But again that’s no surprise; they’re the same app repurposed for the iPad.

I’ve looked hard for books that make good use of the iPad without success. If you’ve any recommendations I love to hear from you. Likewise if you’ve discovered any interesting approaches to new media on the iPad please let me know.

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May 20th, 2010 by Wadds

Ofcom report spotlights fragmented media – radio most trusted

Radio is the most trusted source of media content. That’s a conclusion from a report published this week by media watchdog Ofcom.

66% of people consider radio to be the most reliable and accurate source of media content, followed by 58% for online (editorial), 54% for TV and 34% for newspapers. Only three in ten internet users trust web content.

It’s very easy to get enthusiastic about the potential of social media especially if you are embedded within the industry. But you’re not necessarily your target audience.

Change is undoubtedly taking place in the way people consume media and brands communicate with their audiences and there’s no doubt that the future lies in engagement.

But do not underestimate the influence of mainstream editorial media as a means of generating influence.

Speed’s view – for now – is that no media whether broadcast, print, online or social, can work in isolation.

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April 20th, 2010 by Wadds

YouTube video: the internet is the media

Here’s another loud YouTube video mashup that shows the scale of the internet and makes the point (again) that it is the dominant media by size. It’s worth five minutes of your time. But turn the volume down.

Via Ged Caroll.

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April 6th, 2010 by Wadds

Media camp rolls into Westminster

I walked home from the office tonight via Westminster. The media has set up camp on College Green opposite the Houses of Parliament, in readiness for the election campaign. Whatever your view of the health of the UK media, it will undoubtedly play a dominate role in the forthcoming election.

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April 6th, 2010 by Wadds

iPad is a great business for Apple – but it won’t save print

The iPad could prove to be a smart way for Apple to grab part of the publishing market as a content aggregator. But it won’t save print media by providing a new audience as Apple fanatics are predicting. In fact it could hasten its decline.

At best it’s another chapter in the unfolding story of the fragmentation of media. Publishers must make their content available on yet another platform and be prepared for Apple to act as gatekeeper.

If the iPad is successful the only winner will be Apple. Remember iTunes?

Alan Patrick blogged about this yesterday in the iPad will save print media and other modern myths.  If you’re interested in the future of media businesses his slideshare and commentary on Where is the Money in Media is required reading.

Snap by Sharynmorrow on Flickr with thanks.

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March 31st, 2010 by Wadds

Speed on the future of media – roundup of recent posts

We spend a lot of time at Speed thinking about the future of media and how we need to innovate our services to help clients build and protect their reputation in traditional, online and social and media.

We’re out and about speaking on this issue in the coming weeks at CIPR, PIRA, Strategic Social Media and Social Media in Business events.

Here’s a round-up of posts from the past month.

  1. Regional online media’s content conundrum
  2. How do you make money from online news content?
  3. NLA web licensing won’t make a dent in online losses for newspaper industry
  4. Is the Daily Mail the UK’s most successful online newspaper?
  5. Online newspaper circulation figures: ABC Multi-Platform Monthly Report – February 2010
  6. BBC web site set to become content hub; iPlayer 3.0 to incorporate social features
  7. Media industry urged to stop worrying about Murdoch
  8. Newser and Wikipedia founders spotlight start-up media business opportunities
  9. Newser founder Michael Wolff on the future of media – “smaller less profitable news organisations”
  10. Reputation Online on Times Online blocks
  11. BBC Strategy Review: BBC 1 – commercial sector 0
  12. Future of media according to Sorrell
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March 28th, 2010 by Wadds

How do you make money from online news content?

We’ve seemingly spent the past six-months obsessing about online business models for traditional media. That was the view of Emily Bell, the Guardian’s director of digital content, speaking at The Guardian’s Changing Media Conference two weeks ago. She’s spot on.

But with Murdoch’s move to erect a paywall around Times Online from June we’ve now seen almost all of the broadsheet newspapers set out their stall for generating income from content online – and all are taking very different approaches.

Here’s a summary.

As the Financial Times has demonstrated success requires a mix of business model and distinctive editorial – particularly when the BBC and others provide so much news content for free.

The attitude of broadsheet publishers to aggregators and search is less clear. The Times recently started blocking clipping agency Meltwater and aggregator NewsNow, but for now at least it is allowing Google in.

Google aggressively counters the claim that it is a parasite feeding off traditional media.

Speaking at the Financial Times Media & Broadcast Conference at the beginning of the March, Google UK’s managing director Matt Brittin said that the search engine was a virtual newsagent that sent four billion clicks a month to online news web sites.

So which model will work? There’s no way of telling. If I knew the answer I’d be seeking out an opportunity to invest behind one of these emerging business models.

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March 18th, 2010 by Wadds

Media industry urged to stop worrying about Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch - World Economic Forum Annual M...
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Newser-founder and media entrepreneur Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) said that the media industry spends too much time worrying about Rupert Murdoch and that News International is no longer in a position to materially impact the future of the newspaper industry.

Wolff should know. He recently wrote The man who owns the news, a biography of Murdoch.

Speaking at The Guardian’s Changing Media Summit today, Wolff said, “Murdoch has always been the defiler of the newspaper industry yet now he’s its last defender. It’s incredibly painful for him but he might not make it to retirement [in the newspaper business] or whatever he wants to do next”.

“He wants to be the saviour of the industry but no one else in News International thinks like this – no one is challenging him. Up until a year ago he’d only been on the internet accompanied,” he said.

In a closing prediction to his keynote Wolff said that we will have stopped worrying about Murdoch in five years time.

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March 9th, 2010 by Wadds

University of Cardiff digital communication masterclass: media trends and PR skills

PR is the management of reputation. That used to exclusively mean using media relations to build trust between an organisation and its audiences.

But traditional media is in turmoil: ad revenue is at an all time low thanks to the recession and the internet has reduced the cost of publication and distribution to almost zero.

The rise of social networks has led consumers to fundamentally change their media consumption habits. Consumers are becoming contributors.

The impact on the PR profession has been dramatic. Command and control media relations no longer works and increasing brands are building direct relationships with their audiences using compelling content and story telling.

These changes formed the core of a guest lecture I gave on digital communication to the International PR MA course at the University of Cardiff yesterday.

The slidedeck cites five trends in the media and the rise of social media – and five areas where I believe PR professionals need to skill-up as a result.

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