How far we have come -Part 2-the net ends that directional tyranny

News is no longer just a report. It's a conversation, a broad process in which many people contribute to varying degrees.

The words of Steve Yelvington who continues to push the idea of participatory journalism.

As he says

This is not new, but rather a restoration of normalcy that was disrupted by Gutenberg and Marconi. We humans evolved in tribes, and we digest news and information by sharing it and talking about it with our friends and family. The one-way flow that is characteristic of print and electronic broadcasting is at odds with our nature. The Internet ends that directional tyranny.

Remember how far the web has allowed us to come

A great article from Tech Flash which is entitled a world without newspapers.(H-t Sarah Hartley

It looks at print's increasingly fractious relationship with technology and some of its consequences,including thatWeb journalism is fast becoming the dominant form of news media and that nothing is ever final online.

However this for me is its most important contribution

The Internet has democratized media by shifting power from institutions to individuals.

It's worth a read just to remember how far technology has allowed us to come

The media world has evolved from a top down, command and control model into a complex ecosystem of mainstream media, blogs and user-generated content. It was once relatively clear where news came from (your local paper), when it would arrive (each morning) and who was the messenger (the longtime beat reporter).

and adds

Today, the news can come from anywhere, anybody, anytime. News, gossip, and rumor move instantly through the Web—often without the benefit of an editor attempting to separate fact from fiction. One important scoop can turn an obscure blogger into an influencer virtually overnight.

Dyke turns on Thompson

As the BBC prepares outline its strategic plans for the future which despite rumours of closures and job losses,could see an extra £600m diverted into programme-making,its Director general comes under fire from a former holder of the office.

Greg Dyke accused his successor of being overpaid and out of touch with his staff,

According to the Guardian,he

said the BBC's programming was "in pretty good shape" but the way management was handling the reshaping of the corporation had failed staff.

adding

It is a good job, and Mark earns more than twice what I earned when I was doing it. The staff are whingeing. Mark is doing some great things, but he is not taking them with him."

What Tuesday's papers are saying

Lord Ashcroft and the pound are under attack this morning.

The unanswered questions says the Independent,which include On what grounds was Lord Ashcroft's non-dom status granted? and How can a British citizen who claims to be a permanent resident of the UK gain non-domicile tax status?

Whilst the Guardian reports that the Conservative leadership was facing fresh demands to reveal what they knew about the tax status of Lord Ashcroft.

Meanwhile the Times says that he struck a private deal ten years ago to save himself tax on his overseas income,

Other papers from the right choose to focus on the pound which says the Telegraph fell sharply on Monday as financial markets took fright at the growing possibility of a hung parliament.

The Guardian describes how

In frenetic morning trading, sterling at one stage dropped by more than four cents against the dollar to a nine-month low of below $1.48, but rallied slightly to end the day 2.5 cents down.

Whilst the Express says that holidaymakes and shoppers were dealt a severe blow yesterday as the pound tumbled to a 10-month low and experts warned that sterling was “staring into the abyss”.

The pound wont be helped by the latest opinion poll in the Indy which suggests that Labour would have 17 more seats than the Tories in a hung parliament.

The Mail leads with the story of an elderly couple were killed in a suspected arson attack after they challenged yobs terrorising their sheltered housing complex,

Albert and Kath Adams, both 77, died after a gang set fire to a mobility scooter in their porch.

10,000 troops have been deployed on the streets of Chile to enforce a military curfew and crack down on looting following Saturday's massive earthquake. reports the Telegraph

Whilst the Times reports from the coastal town of Constitución,where

“The sea came and covered everything. It was 30 metres high. There were two waves. When we saw the sea coming in, everybody ran. I climbed up the hill.”

Meanwhile the Independent says that four Britons were reported missing last night by a website for surfers in the resort of Pichilemu, including Scottish couple Kirsty Duff and Dave Sandercock.

There is a great deal of coverage of the appearance of Phil Jones in front of a parliamentary inquiry.He says the Guardian

admitted he had sent "awful emails" but said he expected to be cleared of accusations that he tried to pervert the scientific process.

Whilst another appearance this time in the Hague also gets headlines.

Radovan Karadzic has answered genocide charges for the first time since the Bosnian War with a claim he fought a "just and holy" war against Muslim extremists.

reports the Telegraph

According to the Times,the Yorkshire ripper,Peter Sutcliffe

was wrongly convicted of murder and may be safe for release less than 30 years after admitting killing 13 women, medical evidence presented to the High Court concluded yesterday.

The death of BBC presenter Kristian Digby is widely reported.

The To Buy Or Not To Buy host, 32, is thought to have suffocated while starving himself of oxygen for a thrill.says the Sun

More from the BBC in the Guardian which reports that its former director general Greg Dyke,has said his successor is overpaid and out of touch with his staff,

The Yorkshire Ripper returns to the headlines.According to the Mail,Peter Sutcliffe is using taxpayers' money in an attempt to win his freedom.

The Times reports that one of Peter Sutcliffe’s psychiatrists believes the paranoid schizophrenic killer may now be safe for release

Yesterday was the day in which 11 year old find out which school they will be attending next Septemeber and the Telegraph reports that half of children in some areas have been rejected from their preferred secondary school amid fierce competition for the most sought-after places.

Finally the Independent reports from Warsaw where free round-the-clock concerts are being held to mark the composer Chopin's 200th birthday.

You could have heard jazz star Grazyna Auguscik as she improvised over Chopin melodies, or an unknown young pianist playing nocturnes at 3am to curled-up couples and solitary night-owls. Nearly 300 musicians signed up to play at "The Longest Birthday", the idea for which came from the doubt surrounding the composer's actual date of birth.

How mobile is changing America

A new study out from Pew this morning suggests that Americans want their news portable personalized and participatory.

According to the report

The internet is at the center of the story of how people’s relationship to news is changing. Six in ten Americans (59 per cent) get news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day, and the internet is now the third most popular news platform, behind local television news and national television news.

In terms of Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.

In terms of Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.

In terms of Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

Twitter ads business model

Twitter is planning a new ad funded business model according to Charles Arthur writing in the Guardian this morning.

He quotes a story coming out of All things digital which claims that

1. Ads will be tied to Twitter searches, in the same way that Google’s (GOOG) original ads were. So a search for, say, “laptop,” may generate an ad for Dell (DELL). The ads will only show up in search results, which means users who don’t search for something won’t see them in their regular Twitterstreams.

2. The ads will use the Twitter format–140 or fewer characters–and will be distributed via the third-party software and services that use Twitter’s API. The services will have the option of displaying the ads, and Twitter will share revenue with those that do.

3. Twitter will work with ad agencies and buyers to seed the program, but plans on moving to a self-serve model like Google’s, down the road.

Over 4 million U streams dedicated to the Chile and the subsequent Tsunami

Some quite remarkable figures courtesy of Mashable

Yesterday video streaming site Ustream ran live video of local news broadcasts covering the earthquake in Chile and the ensuing Hawaii tsunami warning. Today Ustream announced that it has delivered 4.35 million streams related to the events.

Lebedev about to spend £1 on the Indy

According to yesterday's Sunday Times,

Alexander Lebedev, the former KGB agent turned media mogul, will this week pay a token £1 to take control of The Independent — the same price as buying one copy of the paper from the newsstand. But he will pledge to invest millions in the loss-making title and the Independent on Sunday over five years.

The report adds that

The final hurdle to a sale is close to being overcome this weekend after Independent News & Media agreed to take part of the pain of a 10-year printing deal with rival publisher Trinity Mirror.

What Monday's papers are saying

David Cameron's speeech to the Tory spring conference makes many of the front pages.

According to the Telegraph he insisted that he has what it takes to run Britain,

Speaking confidently without notes at the party’s pre-election conference in Brighton, he said: “Every day that goes by I feel I have what it takes to turn this country around and get it moving again. And that is what we badly need to do.

The Guardian reporrts that in his speech he

was forced to admit today that Britain harbours doubts about the Conservatives and conceded the party still faces a "real fight" if it is to persuade voters that the Tories are ready for government.

Mr Cameron admitted that time was running out to win over a sceptical public says the Independent.

But says the Mail, insisting he has 'what it takes to turn this country around', he vowed to do all he could to avoid the 'incredible dark depression of another five years of Gordon Brown'.

David Cameron yesterday vowed to tear Gordon Brown's "dark"record apart in the election campaign says the Sun.

Whilst the Times chooses to lead with the fact that he propelled marriage to the centre of the election campaign after surprising the Tory party faithful with a promise to spell out his flagship policy before polling day.

The other main news from the weekend is the earthquake in Chile.Accordong to the Guardian,the death toll from Saturday's devastating earthquake in Chile rose to more than 700 as rescue workers fanned out across a 600km-long stretch of the country

The increase in the death toll came as officials revealed as many as 300 people had perished in the small coastal town of Constitucion alone.reports the Independent

President Bachelet desribes 'a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort for Chile to recover'says the Times

Meanwhile many of the papers report that storms swept through western Europe at the weekend, killing up to 50 people in France

Three people were killed in Spain, two in Germany and one in Portugal, but France was the worst hit as heavy rains, strong gusts of wind and high tides destroyed Atlantic coast sea walls, killing 25 people in the town of l'Aiguillon sur Mer alone, the mayor told French television

says the Telegraph

Back home and the Times reports that a lack of 24-hour nursing cover and poor planning by doctors is threatening government plans to give the terminally ill a right to die at home, campaigners say.

Meanwhile a murder tragedy in Southampton.The Mail reports that the suspect on the run after the death of his girlfriend and baby daughter was described by police as 'armed and dangerous' yesterday.

Stephanie Bellinger, 24, and her eight-month-old daughter Lily were brutally stabbed to death in the semi- detached home they shared with Anthony Marsh, 21.

The Express lead with news that a poison as harmful as arsenic is ­contaminating fruit juices and cordials drunk by millions of people every day across Britain.According to the paper

The toxin called antimony, which is lethal in large doses and has been linked to cancer, was discovered in 16 of the most popular brands of juice and squash.

For the Sun,its the Coles that once again dominate the front pages as Cheryl Cole has opened her heart and confessed she is terrified about single life.

The Mirror says that Cheryl Cole has finally dashed love rat Ashley’s lingering hopes of a reunion – in a phone chat with his mother Sue.

Finally many of the papers report on the latest from Silvio Berlusconi who has reports the Guardian,unveiled a selection of candidates for election that includes a Miss Italy contestant, a former TV weathergirl and a showgirl turned dental hygienist.

Doing more with less in the B2B sector

Are B2B magazines lagging behind their customer colleagues when it comes to digital media?

Well the answers yes if you believe the survey by the American Society of Business Publications Editors (ASBPE).

They found that 80 per cent of respondents in the sector complained of a lack of training in the tools and techniques of digital media.

While b2b editors are working without much, if any, training for the digital world, their workload increasingly involves online publishing. The survey found that 38% of editors spend at least half of their time now working on digital content, and even more (62%) feel that spending more time on digital would benefit their publications.

Ht-Martin Stabe

European privacy threatens American freedom of expression

An interesting take from the New York Times' Adam Liptak on the Italian google ruling earlier in the week.

He writes that whilst in

one sense, the ruling was a nice discussion starter about how much responsibility to place on services like Google for offensive content that they passively distribute.

in another,

it called attention to the profound European commitment to privacy, one that threatens the American conception of free expression and could restrict the flow of information on the Internet to everyone.

What the Sunday's are saying

More bullying revelations,the army in crisis and the handshake that never was.

The Mail on Sunday is in possession of tape recording which shows a bullying Prime Minister in action.

one of his closest aides revealed in a sensational tape-recording how the Prime Minister shoved him on the stairs inside No10.

It adds

The adviser says Mr Brown’s staff have made excuses for his bullying behaviour for years. And, damagingly, he questions whether they had been right to do so, arguing a ‘core part’ of being Prime Minister is to treat people properly.

Meanwhile in the Observer it's week 2 of the Rawnsley revelations.According to the paper

Tony Blair descended into such a deep depression after the Iraq war that he told Gordon Brown and John Prescott he would quit No 10 the following summer

The head of the army has warned that British troops are facing a crisis of deteriorating morale on the home front that risks undermining the war in Afghanistan is the lead in the Sunday Times.

In a confidential draft memo prepared for ministers, General Sir David Richards, chief of the general staff (CGS), said that recent cuts to the defence budget are having a “cumulative and corrosive effect on our soldiers and their families”.

Yesterday's Chile earthquake is covered in all the papers,the Independent says it killed

at least 210 people, bringing down homes and hospitals, and setting off a tsunami that triggered warnings and evacuations across the entire Pacific

In the Chilean capital,says the Telegraph,

some five million woke up to "hell" as the earthquake, which struck in the small hours of Saturday morning, collapsed tower blocks and bridges and swallowed cars as it ripped cracks in the roads. Rescue teams worked throughout the day to dig out people buried alive in the rubble.

There is much political coverage.The Sunday Telegraph leads with the story that a Labour minister says his party has been infiltrated by a fundamentalist Muslim group that wants to create an “Islamic social and political order” in Britain.

The Independent claims that The Conservatives would abandon Labour's belief that "pumping" money into the most deprived areas is the way to solve Britain's social problems,

The Telegraph says that David Cameron will declare that he will not retreat into the "Conservative comfort zone" and will carry on with his modernising crusade as he attempts to arrest his party's dip in fortunes.

The Express claims that disruptive pupils will be put back on track by a task force of ex-Army officers under ground-breaking Conservative education plans.

According to the Sunday Times,disgraced MPs will retain their privileged access to the House of Commons even after losing their seats in parliament.

Hundreds of the best-performing comprehensive schools appear to be covertly selecting pupils from more affluent backgrounds and blocking those from more deprived families,reports the Observer

A double story on the front of the News of the World.As Wayne Bridge

refused to shake hands with his former friend and team-mate when the pair lined up against each other at Chelsea yesterday.

the paper turns it attention to Peter Andre and reports how

ex-model Maddy Ford reveals how the Mysterious Girl star swept her off her feet only eight days after his divorce.

Meanwhile the Sunday Mirror reports that Simon Cowell has told Cheryl Cole she must not go back to cheating husband Ashley, telling her: Its time to think of yourself, kiddo. He's had enough chances.

According to the Sunday Times,exam watchdogs secretly downgraded the GCSE results of thousands of pupils last summer to avoid a damaging public row over grade inflation,

Finally,The Sunday Telegraph reports the comments of Hilary Mantel, who has announced that girls are ready to have babies when they are 14 years-old.

The 57-year-old novelist said that society ran on a "male timetable" which dictated that women should have babies at an older age.

Addiply to the fore

I’d encourage other geographical hyperlocal start-ups to sign-up to addiply as we have done. You might just find it makes sense.

The words of Bournville blog's founder and now Guardian Cardiff local blogger Hannah Waldram who celebrates the blog getting its first advert through the Addiply business model.

For those who don't know the Addiply story,it essentially offers publishers a chance to allow businesses to target a focused readership generated by hyperlocal sites so that the two can meet and hopefully generate a long running relationship between the two parties.

And whilst as many recognise at the moment it's not going to turn those being hyperlocal sites in publishing millionaires,as more and more sites get signed up synergies will begin to take place.

I am currently in the process of setting up a couple of hyperlocal sites and am planning to take on board the Addiply model.

Keep watching this blog for more developments.

The power of twitter at Sony

Sony have clearly demonstrated the power of using twitter after it revealed that it has generated over £1m in sales through its twitter account.

New Media age reports that

Speaking at Marketing Week’s Social Media for Brand Building event yesterday, Sony head of corporate communications Nick Sharples said the company sees Twitter as a viable sales platform as well as a tool to amplify PR activity.

adding that

Sony launched a campaign for a special edition of its Cyber-shot camera range last year and used social media to extend PR coverage over nine months, resulting in over £12.5m in revenue.

What Saturday's papers are saying

With renewed rumours of an early general election,many of the papers return to political themes on their front pages.

According to the Telegraph,the Conservatives are planning tax cuts,George Osborne will unveil an emergency “enterprise” budget within 50 days of a Conservative election victory which will sharply cut taxes for business,says the paper

The Guardian claims that the Tories are planning for a hung parliament.Ahead of their spring conference says the paper

David Cameron has established a special unit to prepare for a hung parliament, amid growing fears among senior Tories that they will struggle to win an overall Commons majority.

The Independent meanwhile looks at the activities of lord Ashcroft claiming The Tories have spent £6m over two years in the parliamentary seats that hold the key to election victory.

According to the Times,Alistair Darling is set to reveal details of how he plans to cut £11 billion from Whitehall spending in the pre-election Budget including

Some hospital buildings face closure as the government seeks to save billions of pounds from more efficient services,

It leads with its exclusive yesterday though reporting that unions at the BBC are threatening industrial action over 600 possible job cuts as two radio stations and half the corporation’s website may go.

The Guardian claims that the

decision to dramatically cut the BBC's scope and expenditure follows increasing pressure from the Conservatives, who have threatened major cutbacks if they come to power at the general election, and rival media organisations struggling to compete with the corporation's activities.

The High court ruling on the Binyam Mohamed case continues to attract headlines.As the Independent reports it has emerged that a senior judge had suggested MI5 officers could not be trusted to tell the truth.

The Telegraph reports on the comments of the head of the Army, General Sir David Richards who says British forces could be pulled out of Afghanistan within five years,

Sir David said they have reached a “turning point” in the battle against the Taliban.

But there were more problems in Afghnanistan yesterday as when 17 people died in a car bomb attack in Kabul apparently aimed at Indians working in the Afghan capital.

The Mail turns its atention to the postal service reporting that First class post has plunged to its worst performance in more than a decade.

Nearly one in four letters sent by first class post did not arrive the next working day.

The Express meanwhile leads with news that staff at the Met Office have been awarded £12million in bonuses despite repeatedly getting forecasts wrong,

A big sporting showdown at Stamford Bridge today as the Sun reports that Wayne Bridge last night vowed to snub John Terry's handshake before this lunchtime's big match.


The seven-hour verdict that cost Thaksin $1.4bn is the headline in the Independent as it reports that

The Thai authorities were last night braced for demonstrations after the country's highest court seized $1.4bn of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's assets and ruled that the exiled tycoon had abused his power in office.

Finally the Telegraph reports that whilst Charles de Gaulle famously bemoaned the difficulties involved in running a country with 246 different types of cheese the French are failing out of favour with the industry.So in an effort to fight back

The Association Fromages de Terroirs (AFT), which aims to protect France’s traditional cheese culture, is now trying to fight back with a series of posters of “Fromgirls”, displaying scantily clad women working in the industry.

Crossroads of civilisation

A lovely find from Richard Sambrook

Needed to celebrate desire to contribute for free rather than question it.

Just love this quote from Arianna Huffington

"Self expression is the new entertainment, We never used to question why people sit on the couch for seven hours a day watching bad TV. Nobody ever asked, 'Why are they doing that for free?' We need to celebrate [this desire to contribute for free] rather than question it."

Thanks to Seth Godin

Media under attack from Home Office report.

Also in the news this morning is a report out from the Home office which warns that that children are 'over-exposed' to sexual imagery, and that parents have little power to stop it.

In an attack on the media,the report advocates tougher regulation of adverts and the placing parental controls on mobile phones.

It has created headlines such as Sexy videos should be banned until after TV watershed in the Telegraph.

The report, by psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos, also recommends the banning the sale of lads' magazines such as Zoo from under-15s, and restricting them to the top shelves to keep them out of children's eyeline.

But should we in the media be concerned.Toby young certainly doesn't think so.Writing this morning in the Telegraph he says that the report

feels like a bit of cheap electioneering rather than a serious piece of research.

and questions whether indeed

there’s a “clear link” between sexual imagery and violence against women

The report he concludes

is a not a serious investigation into the causes of violence against women. Rather, it posits a link between that violence and various things that Dr Popadopoulus disapproves of — such as lad mags and airbrushed photographs — in a spurious attempt to either ban them or regulate them on grounds of public safety.

Beeb-getting its house in order before a Tory government does it for them?

If correct then this morning's Times has usurped the BBC with reports of its strategic plans.

According to the paper,the corporation plans to close two radio stations, shut half its website and cut spending on imported American programmes.

The radio stations to close are 6music and the Asian network as the paper says

Mark Thompson, the Director-General, will admit that the corporation, which is funded by the £3.6 billion annual licence fee, has become too large and must shrink to give its commercial rivals room to operate.

adding that

It will be seen as an attempt to show a potential Tory government that the BBC understands the effect the deep advertising recession has had on commercial rivals and that it does not need outside intervention to get its house in order.

It is interesting that one of the proposals is to halve the content of its online presence,no doubt trying to calm the nerves of local newspaper groups who see the continued moves of the Beeb as unfair competition.

The BBC have yet to comment on the story.According to the Times,the document goes before the Trust and will be announced next month

What Friday's papers are saying

Both the Telegraph and the Guardian lead with what the former calls frightening echoes of the Baby Peter case,in which a seven-year-old girl starved to death by her mother might still be alive if she had not been failed by social services, a High Court judge has ruled.

Khyra Ishaq, who weighed just 2st 9lb (16.8kg), was said by a paramedic to be like a concentration camp victim when she was finally rescued from her home.reports the Guardian

The Mail says that

Khyra Ishaq was beaten with a cane and allowed to die a slow and agonising death, despite being monitored and visited by at least nine social workers, education officers, teachers and police

Meanwhile the Times claims to have got sight of awideranging strategic review at the BBC in which it

will close two radio stations, shut half its website and cut spending heavily on imported American programmes

According to the paper

Mark Thompson, the Director-General, will admit that the corporation, which is funded by the £3.6 billion annual licence fee, has become too large and must shrink to give its commercial rivals room to operate.

RBS stands accused of creating 100 millionaires on the front of the Independent despite says the paper making a loss of £3.6bn.

the bank will reward its 16,800 investment bankers with £1.3bn in bonuses. The average that each of them will pocket comes to £160,000, made up of a basic salary of £80,000 and the same again in bonus, although that will be paid in shares. That compares to the national average full-time wage of those whose taxes are propping up the bank of about £25,000.

Meanwhile says the Guardian,

Fears of a double-dip recession and a sterling crisis in the run-up to the election were raised last night amid news of collapsing investment in British industry and a warning from one of the world's leading financiers that the pound could plummet within weeks.

The latest opinion poll in the Telegraph shows that Labour could still win the most number of seats at the general election

The latest survey indicates there will be a hung parliament, but it would be Gordon Brown who would be in the position to try and form a government as leader of the largest party.

and the Independent reports that George Osborne is seen as "lacking experience" by Britain's business leaders but still outscores the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, according to its latest survey.

Professor David Kerr reports the Times, one of the architects of Labour’s NHS reforms is to become a key adviser to the Conservatives.

Many of the papers report that Italy's highest appeals court have quashed the four-and-a-half year prison sentence handed to Tessa Jowell's estranged husband, David Mills,

However says the Times, the court ordered Mr Mills to pay €250,000 (£220,000) to the Italian state for “damaging” its image.

Insult to the 7/7 victims is the lead in the Mail as it says that families of the July 7 victims reacted furiously yesterday to the decision to include the deaths of the four bombers at the inquest.

More climate change controversy in the Express as its front page reports how climate scientists yesterday stunned Britons suffering the coldest winter for 30 years by claiming last month was the ­hottest January the world has ever seen.

War seems to have broken out on the football field

Wayne Bridge's dramatic international retirement has caused the simmering tension between the Manchester City left‑back and his former best friend John Terry to erupt into open warfare.

reports the Guardian

I cant forgive Terry he makes me sick says the front page of the Mirror

However the Sun says that Wayne Bridge was last night accused of damaging England's World Cup hopes by the ex- lover who broke his heart.

Back to more important matters and the Telegraph's headline "Barack Obama health care summit descends into bickering" is covered in many of the papers

It did not take long for the bipartisan health care summit to degenerate into the kind of bickering and points-scoring that has created a crescendo of anger about the conduct of politics in Washington.

reports the paper

Staying on the subject of America,the Mail reports that

America's refusal to support Britain in the Falklands oil drilling row was last night blamed on the UK's decision to release sensitive U.S. intelligence on a terror suspect.

Finally watch out Switzerland,Muammar Gaddafi has appealed for jihad against the country after its referendum in November to ban the construction of minarets on mosques.reports the Times ,