All posts in category media

A Black Tuesday clothing hack

My Black Tuesday shirt. I’m not sure this was the original intention when @mybroadband gave me this shirt but with the addition of a small red gag I think it serves a purpose. Support the Right2Know campaign and oppose the Protection of [State] Information Bill.

eBooks: part of a survival strategy for news organisations

It’s pretty obvious now that if news publishers want to survive this rough period they’re going to have to be smart, clever and brave. In particular they’re going to look beyond their traditional markets to new ventures that draw on existing skills but tap into new income streams. Two things that all news organisations have [...]

When printed newspapers become too expensive to survive

Today’s quote of the day comes via The New York Times and is from MediaNews chief John Paton who heads up the US’s second-largest news publisher. On the future of print Paton had this to say: At some point, print is going to cost more money than it is worth. If you don’t have a [...]

Daily newspapers: a twilight industry

It’s not a pretty picture if you’re a newspaper publisher. Daily newspaper sales dropped by more than 72,000 copies over the past three months when compared with the same period last year, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) numbers released today. Of the four major newspaper groups only Caxton managed to return [...]

Three things newspapers could learn from Gordon Ramsay

    I’m a fan of cooking shows. My long-suffering family has to put up with hours of Jamie, Gordon and Nigella as they turn out mouth-watering dishes that I promise to one day replicate. On of my favourite TV chefs is Gordon Ramsay. I ’ve watched most of the shows: the one where he saves bad [...]

No guarantees for newspapers battling change

News organisations are in a terrible place right now. Newspapers are dying and yet news on tablets, PCs and mobile are generating nowhere near the revenue hoped for. Even worse, it’s unlikely that these new digital platforms will ever deliver the types of revenues enjoyed during the heyday of newsprint. Readers just aren’t prepared to pay for [...]

F’ing news reader shines spotlight on social media

This morning’s outburst by Radio 702 graveyard shift news reader, Mark Esterhuysen, has been the source of many jokes on Twitter this morning but it does raise an interesting issue: Should media organisations be actively monitoring their staff on social networks? Esterhuysen’s expletive-laden outburst (don’t listen if you’re easily offended by the F-word), clearly took the [...]

As media evolves journalists need to embrace change

I’ve been a journalist for the best part of two decades. In that time not much has changed. And yet, so much has. The end product, a newspaper, is largely the same as it has always been, but the processes to produce it are not. Over the years I’ve seen layers of skill stripped from [...]

Better live tweeting for journalists

Twitter is changing news. Today many major news stories break on Twitter long before TV, radio and newspapers are able to cover them. And increasingly journalists are reporting live from the sidelines of major events putting readers in the know hours before many of them will even think of buying a newspaper. At the forefront [...]

News organisations could turn Twitter rumour mill to their advantage

It’s no secret that I am a big Twitter fan. Twitter is almost always the first place I turn to for my daily news and it’s also the first place I go when I have news of my own to share. In between Twitter is simply entertainment, a place filled with 1,002 voices (at the [...]