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"A solution based on giving people the same thing for a new, higher price only opens you up to disruption. A solution based on providing more value for your users that keeps them loyal to you is going to last a lot longer. "
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"This is all going to turn into B-roll. With each passing day, the filing clerks of our hearts and minds will cart it a little further back, to a dimmer and dustier shelf. But it happened, so that:" This piece of writing really resonated with me. I think beyond the remarkable writing and heart-rending topic, it's an important message for journalists. Not to let an issue become a B-roll.
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Best or worst? Anyway, some of them were new to me. I do like Sweden's idea though - I wouldn't call it fail;I think it's actually quite cool
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I've made it into Hansard, albeit with a sex change. Still, Alison is a pretty easy name to confuse. Sigh. I'd care less if he at least agreed with me.
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- I see I have changed sex. If it's in Hansard, I guess it must be true.
- However, I say to that newspaper editor, and to others who share his view, that we need to consider what that means. In his summary of recommendations, Lord Leveson says:
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Sunday, 30 December 2012
My Interesting Reads (weekly)
Sunday, 23 December 2012
My Interesting Reads (weekly)
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"People have always wanted to involve themselves in great stories. With industrial-age media you could only involve yourself in a limited way - you could read Charles Dickens or Scott Fitzgerald and imagine yourself in the worlds they described. But each new medium has seemed more immersive than the one before - movies seemed far more immersive than print, and in many ways it's easier to get lost in video games or online than it is in the movies. That doesn't mean Gears of War is better than A Tale of Two Cities. It does mean that some people might find it more seductive. "
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A wonderful piece of storytelling
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"We build the world’s simplest and most beautiful storytelling tools, and we offer them for free to anyone who wishes to use them. "When you tell stories on Cowbird, we automatically find connections between your life and the lives of others, forming a vast, interconnected ecosystem, in which we all take part. Our goal is to build a public library of human experience, so the knowledge and wisdom we accumulate as individuals may live on as part of the commons, available for this and future generations to look to for guidance."
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When you read through the inaccuracies surrounding the Newtown shootings, that tried at tested fallback for failures - "Breaking news changes all the time" - starts to look a little ragged. Most of what was published wasn't journalism, it was regurgitation
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" What can we expect in the next 18 months? How can we build upon the inherent (and many) advantages offered by the mobile space?"
Friday, 21 December 2012
Emerging markets... in Journalism?
A new, uh, spin on corporate communications reached me via The News Hook's post How HSBC uses journalism to reach new customers.
Essentially, HSBC bank has found a niche in the knowledge market - in this case, how to expand into emerging economies - and is filling it with niche content. The article explains:
According to News Hook, the site has 10,000 members, and HSBC is using the gap in the market not to push its services, but to meet users search needs and, I assume, convert them into customers if possible.
As an aside, I use a Zemanta plug in on this blog, which helpfully throws up linked articles around what I'm writing. I thought it's related articles choices for this were... illuminating.
Essentially, HSBC bank has found a niche in the knowledge market - in this case, how to expand into emerging economies - and is filling it with niche content. The article explains:
HSBC’s tack was to start a news site focused on helping American and Canadian businesses that want to expand abroad. Recent articles explore how changing policies in China could impact international companies, whether international companies need political risk insurance and why American companies should consider going public in Canada. Some of the content is behind a subscription wall but membership is free (the site claims 10,000 members and over 10,000 visits a day).
“HSBC has been very progressive in understanding that in having more voices with their content, that it’s just a better way of creating a dialogue with viewers to the site who are ultimately potential customers,” says Deborah Stokes, who edits the site... “[It is] independent content and independent voices.”
I'm intrigued. Trinity Mirror has a number of writers in the regionals whose roles includes anticipating and responding to users' online searches - for example this on WalesOnline.co.uk
I'm not sure if a bank moving into journalism is a brilliant innovation or a bit 'all your base are belong to us' but it does raise the question that, beyond the mainstream media and the independents, there is another funded strand for journalism and professional journalists.As an aside, I use a Zemanta plug in on this blog, which helpfully throws up linked articles around what I'm writing. I thought it's related articles choices for this were... illuminating.
Sunday, 16 December 2012
My Interesting Reads (weekly)
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This issue of having reporters respond to critics online is, says Jeff Soderman, one of courage and trust for publishers. I agree. You cannot cheerlead for your staff to get out on social media, and then bust them over the head the first time they make a mistake. But people need to take advice, learn fast and - crucially - not be dicks when they respond. "As far as I can tell, this type of strict ban on journalists responding to complaints is not “commonly used” by broadcasters or other news organizations “across the country,” though we invite you to share examples in the comments if you know of any places where it is policy. But is it a good idea? The decision boils down to two factors: trust and courage. Do you trust your journalists enough to handle these interactions professionally, and do you have the courage to weather the fallout of a mistake or two along the way?"
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Instapaper creator Marco Arment, posting on his blog about his app strategy for The Magazine:"If the App Store gets spammed with hundreds of bad clones, The Magazine itself will lose credibility and potential subscribers as people make incorrect assumptions about its article quality. That’s why The Magazine isn’t part of a bigger strategy: I don’t want everyone to rush into this model, making an app that looks and works just like mine. I don’t want to make “the WordPress of Newsstand”, because I don’t want it to be that easy to copy The Magazine."
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Handy roundup of some of the free tools available
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Henry Blodget does the maths to speculate at what point the NYT becomes supported by digital revenue alone
The rise of the retweet junkie
I thought I'd tweeted off my chest the things that appalled me about the 'be first or be right' social media minefield following the shattering horror of the Newton shootings.
But then I read this post by Andy Dickinson, and it struck a chord. It made me realise I hadn't blogged a lot recently because I was either posting tweets or just using Diigo's bookmarks-to-blog option and not bothering to otherwise update my blog.
Writing my thoughts down here has only ever brought me clarity, and wise words of advice or support from people who stopped by to read them. I don't have time to do the tool exploration and testing I used to on here (which, incidentally, I really miss) but if I can't find 10 minutes a week to consider the stuff that's annoyed, inspired, smacked me between the eyes with its brilliance or helped me shape how I think, do or feel about journalism, then it's a poor look-out.
Cheers, Andy.
Anyway, to return to where we came in the social media 'first or right' issue. I tweeted this a few hours after the shootings, which I had to follow on my iPhone, as I was travelling (and mostly followed via Twitter)
But then I read this post by Andy Dickinson, and it struck a chord. It made me realise I hadn't blogged a lot recently because I was either posting tweets or just using Diigo's bookmarks-to-blog option and not bothering to otherwise update my blog.
Writing my thoughts down here has only ever brought me clarity, and wise words of advice or support from people who stopped by to read them. I don't have time to do the tool exploration and testing I used to on here (which, incidentally, I really miss) but if I can't find 10 minutes a week to consider the stuff that's annoyed, inspired, smacked me between the eyes with its brilliance or helped me shape how I think, do or feel about journalism, then it's a poor look-out.
Cheers, Andy.
Anyway, to return to where we came in the social media 'first or right' issue. I tweeted this a few hours after the shootings, which I had to follow on my iPhone, as I was travelling (and mostly followed via Twitter)
Strange days when people jostle in a race for retweets, rather than for the truth.I was angry and perplexed that opinion and rumours were being peddled and passed on as if they were nuggets of Golden Truth.
— Alison Gow (@alisongow) December 14, 2012
Even Jeff Jarvis got himself tied in knots after taking on trust the Twitter account of the (wrongly) identified shooter was genuine and real.
It wasn't the right account. hell, it wasn't even the right name. Cue this.
But mistakes like that aside - and taking as read the fact that how people react on a social network is but a sideshow to the enormity of this tragedy - what I saw on Twitter on Friday night was depressing.
It wasn't about racing to share information, and I actually don't think it was about being first, a lot of the time; it was about ego, and the retweet boost.
Journalists can be needy creatures. When I was a reporter I wanted the front page; not much better than landing a belting story and being told it's going to be the splash - it's Hack Crack.
On Twitter, Hack Crack becomes Retweet Smack, and it's available to all, courtesy of the site's Interactions option which shows just who and how many times your tweet has been favourited or shared.
Four or five years ago, I was sitting down with journalism students and urging them to use social media to raise their profiles, and market their work and themselves.
I still believe that's vital, but I also think the whole 'be your own brand!' clarion call has helped create RT monsters.
RT monsters don't need news breaks to exist - their bible is Favstar, and you've probably encountered them on a day-to-day basis.
Typically, they're the user who takes your Twitpic link, deletes your tweet, and reposts it with their own, or they steal others' jokes and ideas, and post them as their own - Twitter's Witty Writers brigade gets very vocal about this.
Retweet junkies abound on Twitter. I think Pat Smith summed up the issue of neediness and validation perfectly with this, during a discussion about the Newton Twitter frenzy:
@josephstash @alisongow separate to this tragedy, the fevered search for constant validation through traffic/social is a huge problem
— Patrick Smith (@psmith) December 14, 2012
Validation - now there's a thing social media was made for: How many followers do you have? How often do you get retweeted? Who, exactly, are your followers - any good ones? What's your Klout score, your Favstar ranking? Who likes your Instagram?
Personally, I want my journalists to validate facts, not themselves. You can be a brand without letting it become the most important thing about you.
Personally, I want my journalists to validate facts, not themselves. You can be a brand without letting it become the most important thing about you.
Sunday, 9 December 2012
My Interesting Reads (weekly)
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"German business daily Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) bade farewell to its readers on Friday in a final edition packed with gallows humour cartoons and melancholy musings on the revolution in the media industry that sealed its fate. Publisher Gruner + Jahr decided to shut the FTD after accumulating what German media said were 250 million euros ($325 million)in losses since its launch in 2000. Around 330 employees are expected to lose their jobs."
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Survey on how users perceive branded advertising content, the value it has, and how it can ultimately damage the title hosting it. Interesting read that will be welcomed by journalists I suspect, less so by advertising teams.
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Cornering the market for advertising spend in elections... "BuzzFeed, potentially, represents more than another destination for advertising. The goal of BuzzFeed content is to thrive outside the website, to be easily readable on mobile devices, and to spread on Twitter and Facebook. For campaigns, that could help extend their reach on social media, which has steadily gained prominence in elections."
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Controversial piece on commercial/editorial convergence and why journalists need to understand the Business of News "The economics of journalism no longer work like they used to. The same holds true for the advertising business. These two clashing industry realities require both print stalwarts and digital believers to get a grip."
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"Boston.com has begun offering advertisers the chance to write their own blog posts, joining a growing list of web publishers pinning at least some of their hopes on a tactic variously known as native advertising, custom content or branded content. The idea is that the same readers who regularly and easily ignore banner ads may actually appreciate sponsored content that resembles a website's editorial approach. Advertisers, in turn, might pay higher rates."
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"A junior reporter on a weekly newspaper has been sacked after naming a man questioned by police investigating historic child sex abuse allegations last week as a well-known entertainer. The journalist, who worked for the Archant-owned Great Yarmouth Mercury, posted the celebrity’s name on his personal Twitter account"
Sunday, 2 December 2012
My Interesting Reads
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Embedded document on Telegraph website. Plus Guardian's more reader-friendly digest of the report http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/28/leveson-inquiry-report-essential-guide
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