We've listened to our fair share of SEO experts

Is SEO everything for web content? Well maybe not

Online news design relates the Daily Mirror’s associate editor Matt Kelly who spoke at WAN 2009 saying that a change from a SEO dominated approach, had started paying a rich dividend for the Mirror’s websites.

"We’ve listened to our fair share of SEO experts at Mirror Group, but when we relaunched Mirror.co.uk about eighteen months ago, we fought very hard to put SEO to one side and focus instead on trying to reinject some of the brand values that had served the newspaper so well for more than one hundred years. Some of that bold tabloid panache, the dynamism, the straight-talking, entertaining view of the world so familiar to readers of the Daily Mirror newspaper. And the relaunch was a great success."

Centotaph wars break out between the Sun and the Mirror

It seems this morning that the Mirror has decided to retaliate against the Sun over its attacks on Gordon Brown's performances around war memorials.

Its front page this morning attacks the Tory leader over his photo shoot at the Garden of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey.

The paper reports how

The Tory leader slipped in by a side gate at 10.15am, 30 minutes before dignitaries including the Queen arrived for a First World War commemoration service.

adding that

Mr Cameron had clearly been instructed on how to behave and moved briskly from pose to pose, often bending down to read the names on crosses as he was snapped.

It follows the Sun's attacks on the Prime Minister's behavior at the Cenotaph when it accused the Prime Minister of forgetting how to bow.

Get ready for the next installment

Tabloid watch-the summer silly season

Last year it was sharks,this year we have Jellyfish and bats.

This morning's front page of the Mirror carried the story that

Swarms of the tropical Portuguese Man o' War have been swept here from the Caribbean by unseasonal high winds. A lad of seven had a lucky escape after he was stung by one in Charmouth, Dorset.
Worried marine experts yesterday warned holidaymakers to be on the lookout for killer tropical jellyfish lurking on Britain's beaches.
At least 19 of the poisonous 10-inch sausage-shaped creatures have been found washed up on our shores in the past week.
A seven-year-old boy had a lucky escape when he was stung on the leg while paddling in Charmouth, Dorset.

Meanwhile on another continent the Star tells us that

ATTACKS by deadly vampire bats have left at least 38 people dead.
The blood-thirsty predators have devastated whole villages after sinking their fangs into women and children.Settlements in Venezuela, South America, have come under attack from the winged menaces, with natives fearing for their lives. It is thought the bats were carrying rabies, which then infected members of the remote Warao tribe.

Miiror's new website-shades of a celeb magazine

Straight off the blocks this morning,the Mirror unveils its new website,the second unveiling of the week following the Telegraph's yesterday.

Now am I missing something,is this a newspaper site or is it a celeb magazine?

Main story

TV Jeremy in Horror car crash,and dotted around on top of celeb photos,Amy Finehouse(no not a mispelling),a three foot burgler,and Black and White twins.
Even its most newsworthy story on Leah Andrew looks like the start of a tragic piece in Ok magazine rather than a serious newspaper article.

Mirror makes its debut on the ABCe's

The latest ABCe's are out and the Mirror group who have entered the contest for the first time have come out with a strong showing.

Across the papers four titles,the group had 4.4m unique hits in March,up 93% on obviously unaudited figures of a year ago.

The Mirror has put some investment into its sites but one biog complaint is the lack of real time.It is very often the last of the main newspaper websites to update in the morning

Maybe this is going to change

Press Gazette reports that

In statements released by the parent company Trinity Mirror this week, Mirror Group Digital head Paul Hood stressed that the digital strategy of the national newspaper division would focus on growing its domestic audience

For the other sites,the Telegraph saw a large increase in its online readership whilst the Mail continues to close the gap on the Guardian.

Sun and Mirror have exclusive photos

Exclusive photographs on the front of the tabloids this moring.

The Mirror has exclusive pictures of the room when it is alleged that Shannon Matthews was held

For 24 nail-biting days, this dingy bedroom with its threadbare carpets and dirty walls was the most hunted hideaway in Britain

The Sun has exclusive photographs of the accomodation where British troops stay prior to being sent to battle zones

Our pictures show a broken pipe spewing out sewage, mouldy accommodation huts and broken windows taped up with plastic at RAF Brize Norton – where airborne troops stay before flying to the war zone.
The appalled gunner who gave us the photos said: “Imagine this as the last place in England you see before you die for your country.”

Unusual for the Mirror to lead with foreign news especially as it is the only paper that does this morning.The story is relegated to the inside pages of the qualities

Quite like the second para for its dramatic content

An American captain ordered his men to battle stations after receiving a radio transmission that said: "I'm coming at you! You will explode in two minutes!"

Along with

They came over the early morning horizon like a swarm of angry wasps - five heavily armed Iranian gunboats captained by hothead Revolutionary Guards.
Recklessly, they weaved and darted so close to three patrolling US warships in the tense Strait of Hormuz that commanders had to take evasive action.
For a while they seemed no more than an irritant. Then a radio transmission from an Iranian craft just 200 metres away raised tensions to an unbearable height.

We are all Xmas turkeys

So the Beeb wins the ratings war over Xmas but perhaps the Mirror's leader tells us the real reason

BBC bosses are celebrating victory in the Christmas ratings war after screening nine of the 10 top shows.
But was it really the BBC's brilliance or were we all too full of turkey to pick up the remote?

Quite what is the Mirror implying?

Under the headline

Gun nut kills eight after Bush speech

A crazed gunman shot eight people dead before killing himself in a crowded shopping mall last night - an hour after President Bush gave a speech nearby

Was the thought of another year of Bush too much? Perhaps an instance of where the headline isn't quite appropriate for the story

I like this

Excellent editorial from the Mirror this morning

Prince Harry was quizzed by cops over the shooting of two hen harriers.
But which is the real endangered species? The partying Prince or the birds of prey?

How the papers report the same news

For a really good analysis of the news values of our nationals,this morning's reports on Government's Migration Impact Forum

All report it,but concentrate on different ways on what they believe is its impact.

I have produced the first three paragraphs of the reports below


Guardian

Migrants are more skilled and often more reliable and hardworking than British workers, and are fuelling the country's economic growth to the tune of £6bn a year, according to the first official study of their impact published yesterday.
The report for the government's Migration Impact Forum also concludes that migrants on average earn more and so pay more tax than UK workers.

Times

Migrants are more reliable and harder working than British-born workers and are boosting economic output by £6 billion a year, according to a government study published yesterday.
Immigrants have a better work ethic than the British and are willing to work longer hours with less time off sick. Weekly mean earnings of migrants are also £60 higher than their UK counterparts.
But while large numbers of migrants bring overall economic benefits, their arrival may be hitting the wage levels of the unskilled, the study found.

Telegraph

Immigrant workers are both higher paid and more reliable than their British counterparts and contributed £6 billion to economic growth last year, a Government study said yesterday.
Migrants earned £424 a week on average, compared with £395 for UK workers, and paid more in tax than they consumed in services.
However, a separate paper issued together with the study by the Home Office admitted there were complaints about the impact of immigration on housing and other public services. Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, said the research showed that ''in the long run, our country and Exchequer are better off with immigration rather than without it".

Independent

Migrant workers contributed £6 billion to the country's economic growth last year and earned higher wages than their British counterparts, Home Office figures revealed yesterday.
The study concluded that new arrivals were harder-working, brought sought-after skills and paid more in tax than they used in public services.

Mail

Immigrants are placing a huge strain on public services, Labour finally admitted last night.
Crime is up, schools are struggling to cope with Eastern European children, community tensions are rising, health services are coming under enormous pressure and house prices are being driven up, the Government said.
The findings, based on a survey of public sector workers, are the first published by ministers after ten years of an 'open door' immigration policy.

Express

Many UK regions have reported concerns about the impact of immigration on housing, crime and health, according to a study on migrants from eastern Europe.
Feedback from the Government's regional co-ordination groups, to be presented to the Migration Impact Forum (MIF) in Whitehall, said migrants are putting pressure on the housing market and driving up rents, creating increased demand on GPs and contributing to tensions in the community.

Sun

LABOUR admitted last night that mass immigration strained our housing, schools and healthcare.
Immigration minister Liam Byrne said the influx had been “unsettling” for some areas.
And he admitted removing exit checks was a “mistake” – as now we do not know how many illegal immigrants are here.
He said the checks would be started again.
His comments came as a Home Office report revealed migrants boosted the economy by £6billion last year

Interesting.Only the Times led with the story,but the Guardian covered it on its second front page piece.Both those papers concentrated on the benefits in their openings,but the Times brings a negative effect on wage levels.The Indy was similar in its positive outlok as was the Telegraph which also introduced the second report on the impact on housing and public services.

Then to the red tops,no sign of the report in the Mirror,the Sun leading with the negatives as did the Express and the Mail which made no mention of the positives.

Surprising,not really

A return to sensible Tabloid analysis

After concentraying on Maddy for some time,the Mirror this morning devotes front pag space to a different issues that has been around across the year.

The piece by Tony Parsons asks "Why are our kids killing each other?"

The paper reports on a story which gets a lot of coverage

Rizwan Darber - the 51st youngster this year to die by the knife or gun - was stabbed to death by a gang of teenage muggers because he refused to hand over his mobile. And the more you read of Rizwan's tragic story - the sweet kid studying for his A Levels, his devastated mother and brother, the sheer senselessness of his dying before his life had really begun - the more his brutal murder makes you sick to your stomach.

And Parsons uses this to ask

Suddenly we find ourselves in living in a country where our children are murdering each other.
Murder for a cheap mobile phone. Murder to show how hard they are, how deserving of respect. Murder for drug money, for wounded pride. Murder for nothing at all.
The economy may be booming but lives - especially young lives - have never been so pitifully cheap.
Suddenly we find ourselves in a land that most of us struggle to recognise

Its second leader goes on to say

Our country needs a full, open and honest debate about crime.
The fatal mugging of London teenager Rizwan Darbar shows why we can no longer avoid the discussion.
We acknowledge there are no easy answers and often complex, deep-seated issues need to be addressed.
So let us start now because unless we find the right answers to the correct questions, we will never reclaim our streets.

Cats in a sack

If you didn't know where the Mirror's political offiliations lie,try reading voice of the Mirror this morning

The Tories are fighting like cats in a sack.
Ambitious shadow minister George Osborne stabbing best friend David Cameron in the back shows the rats are abandoning the sinking ship.
Tories are panicking because Gordon Brown is riding high in the polls, a respected Prime Minister in a rejuvenated Labour government.
Next week's Conservative conference in Blackpool looks like it'll be a real horror movie.

But it is investigative journalism

There is a fair amount of controversy about the story which broke in the Mail on Sunday about the Mirror investigative journalist Emily Miller who tried to infiltrate
Tory party Hq.As the Mail reports

Emily Miller, 25, who claimed to work for a charity that helps Indian children, applied for a £40,000-a-year job as assistant to Conservative Party chairman Caroline Spelman.
She said she wanted to help Mr Cameron to defeat Gordon Brown at the next Election. But her real aim was to spy on the Conservatives' Election plans and to help Labour win a fourth term.
Ms Miller was caught out when the Tories discovered her Hotmail email account was linked to the Daily Mirror, Labour's main cheerleader in Fleet Street.

There have been calls for legal action and the PCC to get involved.But am I missing the point.This is investigative journalism,it is no different surely to similar cases of infiltration and dont the public have a right to know what is going on behind the close doors of our political parties?

Keystone Kops

So the Madeleine story returns to our pages after a few weeks hiatus excepting of course the Express which has decides d now that it s more important than either Diana or the long term weather prospects.

Let's hope that the Portuguese police aren't reading the Mail this morning

The Keystone Kops could have done a better job of investigating Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
How can the Portuguese police have waited until now - more than three months on - to organise a proper forensic examination of the Algarve apartment from which she went missing?
Indeed, they might never have arranged it at all without the insistence of the British police, whose offer of specialist help and sniffer dogs they inexcusably refused for 90 days.

And it continues

But there's a darker side to it, too, which goes far beyond incompetence.
This week, the Portuguese papers have been full of utterly unsubstantiated insinuations, whispered by 'police sources' - unnamed, of course - that the McCanns themselves or their holiday companions may know more about Madeleine's disappearance than they've revealed

And on the topic of leaders let's hope that David Cameron doesn't read the Mirror which says

Is there any point to the Tory party anymore?
Dopey David Cameron has lost another supporter - and this time a valuable one

.

We will just have to wait and see then

Is there going to be an autuum election or not.Depends whether you read the Mirror or the Sun.

The former claims that it has a secret memo hich would suggest

An astonishing masterplan to sweep Gordon Brown to a fourth Labour election victory

However according to the Sun

GORDON Brown has ruled out an October election — despite being advised to have an early poll two years ago, The Sun can reveal.

Early election fever was stoked yesterday after a leaked memo written in 2005 showed Tony Blair’s polling guru Philip Gould urging the PM’s successor to go for a snap autumn poll.
But insiders insisted last night that Mr Brown never saw the document — and has already rejected calls for an autumn general election

.

Death of Richard Stott

Richard Stott,former Editor of the Mirror died yesterday at the age of 63.
Perhaps the story that sums up his charactor and dedication the nost was that he was working to the last editing Alistair Campbell's diaries from his hospital bed.

Many tributes in the press this morning,with the Mirror leading those tributes.

Joe Haines writes in the paper that

Many men, and some women, proudly boasted how brave they were in the presence of Robert Maxwell when he owned the Mirror - but they only mentioned it after he was dead.
Richard Stott, twice editor of this paper, who died yesterday, was the exception.
He did it to Maxwell's face, totally fearlessly.
Once Maxwell admitted to having made "a small error".
Stott was having none of it. "You looked a right ****," he said.

Roy Greenslade writes a great piece on his Guardian blog

His Daily Mirror reporting record speaks for itself. He was responsible for one of the best pieces of post-war tabloid investigative journalism by exposing the England football manager, Don Revie, for bribery and match-fixing. He got a "reporter of the year" award for that in 1977 and he should have got another for his probe into the mysterious disappearance of the Labour MP John Stonehouse and, arguably another, for his investigation into the Tory minister Reginald Maudling.

After the floods the scaremongering

And the Sun joins in as well,claiming an exclusive on its front page inder the headline TOXIC TIDE,the paper claims

"Experts confirmed that water samples collected by The Sun on the outskirts of Gloucester bore traces of animal and human faeces.

Analysis revealed disturbing levels of bacteria and viruses, including salmonella, hospital superbug C.Diff and cryptosporidium.

Dysentery, gastroenteritis, gastritis and meningitis could all be contracted by the rapid spread of infection, causing crippling stomach pains, diarrhoea, and possible long-term effects in children"

Interestingly the Mirror this morning uses the arrest of its journalists yesterday to point out the fallability of Gordon Brown's proposed new terror laws

Says the paper

The disquieting experience of these two Mirror journalists raises hugely worrying questions

TWO Daily Mirror journalists were arrested under anti-terror laws, and their homes raided at midnight by police, after they tried to test security at a rail depot.
Reporter Tom Parry and photographer Roger Allen were held for 12 hours and quizzed at length under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001.
Meanwhile their family homes were being searched and computers, photographic equipment and even personal possessions seized by British Transport Police officers.
The heavy-handed response shows how the Act could be misused to intimidate journalists on a legitimate assignment - and raises questions over whether the authorities can be trusted with new powers under Gordon Brown's 56 day detention proposals.

Really?

MIRROR DOESNT SORT IT

Guardian Media is reporting that

Two Daily Mirror journalists were arrested today after
trying to plant a fake bomb on a London Underground train.
The two men, one
believed to be Mirror undercover reporter Tom Parry, were arrested this
afternoon at Stonebridge Park depot, which is towards the northern end of the
Bakerloo Line in north-west London.
They were caught carrying their fake
bomb by railway staff who asked what they were doing on the premises and then
called the British Transport Police.

Not the first time that the paper or these journalists have been involved in similar pranks,having succeeded in planting a fake bomb on a nuclear train and a train reportedly carrying ordenance for Iraq and Afghanistan.