Shopping

I recently took part in Manchester Open City afternoon.

The project involved photographers walking around Manchester capturing images that give the feel and look of the city.

The group I was with was given the theme of shopping and instead of trying to take photographs of shops,I decided to try and capture the downside of shopping which for me is the boredom as you drag yourself around the shops.

Out photographer guide Mark Page gave me a good tip,just shoot and see what you come up with.You can read Mark's write up of the event here

But for the moment here are some of my efforts

Rumours of Manchester Evening News sale

Manchester is all a buzz after this morning's story in the Telegraph that Guardian media group is considering selling the Manchester Evening News

According to the paper

GMG is considering the sale of GMG Regional Media, whose flagship publication is the Manchester Evening News, in a desperate attempt to save more than 100 job losses at its two national newspaper titles.

with a source claiming that

"GMG and The Scott Trust, which was set up to safeguard journalistic freedom and The Guardian's liberal values, has turned its back on its heartland to keep The Guardian afloat."

Rumours abound that Trinity Mirror is in the running.

As yet there is no comment from Guardian media

New business paper launching in Manchester

Into an already crowded Manchester business market comes another publication in the New Year.

The Business Edge has been formed by practicing accountants, business advisers and tax specialists in order to assist businesses

to develop and grow as well as to help navigate through the jungle of red tape and government bureaucracy.

Membership will cost £449 per annum and as How Do reports

The initial print run of the 40-page paper will be 10,000, which will be distributed to the company's mailing list, newsagents and local “cash and carrys” in Cheetham Hill.

Could not resist this photo

I whipped my camera out of my bag in Manchester earlier this week-too late to capture the pigeons swooping down but hopefully capturing the moment.

Gary Copitch talks about how Social Media in Manchester is connecting communities.

Via-TM_AT_MBS

On a watershed of creativity for Manchester and Media City

This post first appeared on the Innovation Manchester Blog


Napoleon had a saying that morale is to the physical as three is to one.

What he meant was that an army will win for its creativity and innovation and not on their strength.

For Alex Connock, chief executive of Ten Alps talking at today’s Insider Business Media summit at the Lowry,this is the lesson for Media City.

Overlooking the building work at the complex, Connock said that the physical part has been done,the bricks and mortar have been laid.Now the project stands on a watershed.The creativity needs to come to the fore.

He gave the example of Hollywood,which started its life as a ranch with real cowboys being the actors.It didn’t take a building to initiate the creativity,the studios came after.

Paul Newman head of communications at Media City gave a tour of the complex from the vantage point of the balcony of the Compass Room before Michael Nulty editor in chief of New Media Age gave the assembled audience a synopsis of the challenges to the sector.

Despite the gloom of last year,he found that the digital sector was very optimistic and had come out of the best year that many seen

A year on, what had actually happened was that it was impossible to predict a trend because the business had become so granular.

Whilst online display had according to Nulty “taken a hammering” there had been an acceleration to new cutting edge approaches.

The paradox of this recession is that risk taking is becoming the norm.The digital sector has realised that to carry the audience it must take risk and a strategy of safety was no longer perversely a safe strategy.

The digital sector, he continued, are starting to look not only at marketing but also setting the agenda through strategy.Digital businesses are by their very nature agile but to stay ahead of the game they did to be collaborative.

Some much for convergence in Manchester

So we all thought that the cuts at the Manchester Evening news last month were in part at least to protect its new media interests and Channel M.

No so as we discovered late yesterday,management at the group have discussed making 41 redundancies out of 74 staff.

Press Gazette reports that

Channel M chief executive Mark Dodson read out a statement to staff this afternoon which revealed that due to the economic downturn the station could not exist in its current form and jobs would have to be cut across the board.

It's live broadcast will now be restricted to just three hours a day.

Perhaps we should look to re employ a town crier?

A new free magazine for Manchester

The city will get a new free business and lifestyle magazine.

Worklife magazine will launch this week in a bi monthly format and according to How Do News will

will have a circulation of 10,000 print copies across Manchester, bolstered by a further 20,000 digital e-zines, which will be circulated with each new edition.

The rejunenate group is behind the venture and they describe themselves as a

community of ambitious professionals who understand the value of networking and mutually beneficial relationships in the business world.

Channel M-local channel or a mini version of Granada

There has been quite a debate going on over at the controversial Chris Paul's Labour of Love.
It started with Chris's comments on David Cameron's appearance on Channel M earlier today but has turned into a debate about whether the local channel fulfills its role as a truly local community based station.

According to Chris

Why did GMG stick £15 M into this Granada-lite effort? It could hardly be more different from real, relevant, refreshing community TV? Just a tired, pale imitation of grown up ITV. And thus doomed to fail its brief. And indeed fail its commercial desires. As part of GMG convergence and concentration business plan.

and later asking

What's it for? What is it achieving? Is it worth the investment? Does it fulfil the purpose of Community TV?
And is the concentration of media ownership with GMG a good thing at any level? Even for GMG itself soul-wise and journalism-wise?

Dave Ottewell,the Manchester evening news correspondent disagrees

I personally think Channel M did a superb job staging a live debate. I think that for a local TV station - with a fraction of the budget of certain rivals - to get the leader of the opposition to answer viewers'/readers' questions for an hour is a real coup.
This is exactly the sort of thing that anyone who believes in local media, political accountability, etc. etc., should support.

Personally I tend to side with Chris who believes that a truly independent local channel would provide more of an independent voice for Manchester.Practically though it is difficult to see how the economics of funding would work.
I suppose that we are lucky to have a local channel at all.

Manchester to get a new business magazine

A rather interesting development.Manchester is to get a weekly business magazine.According to Press Gazette

The 32-page paper, owned by American publisher Crain Communications, will have an initial, controlled print run of 15,000 and a further 3,000 will be available to buy on newsstands across the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, priced £2.

Interesting,firstly a week before Xmas seems a strange time to launch but also will it work in Manchester.

Crain publishes four similar titles in the US and a host of trade publications

I would be interested to see the business rational of the plan

This from an earlier Press Gazette interview with its editor Steve Brauner

Crain’s real strength will be its strict focus on Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs – not the North West in general – save for a small, affluent pocket of nearby Cheshire. He points out that the community his previous newspaper covered, Barrow-in-Furness, had just 1,000 businesses altogether.