Off And On

Posted by Julian christopher on April 14, 2008 12:52 PM

Following up on a previous blog about 'off the record,' the piece below from Media Guardian illustrates very clearly just how, er, interesting such conversations can prove...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/07/pressandpublishing1

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Between Ourselves

Posted by Julian christopher on March 18, 2008 10:42 PM

The truly global nature of the modern media has been on clear display this month, with comments made to a Scottish journalist leading to the resignation of a high-profile figure in the race to be the Democratic candidate in this year’s US Presidential elections.

In an interview with The Scotsman newspaper http://www.scotsman.com/latestnews/Obama-aide-quits-after-making.3857275.jp, Samantha Power, a senior aide to Barak Obama, called Hilary Clinton “a monster” – and then swiftly attempted to pull back by saying “that was off the record”

The journalist, Gerri Peev, quite understandably didn’t agree that it was, having not previously agreed that anything in the interview was off limits, and published the comment as part of his article – and within a few political heartbeats, Ms Power was on her way, resigning with an apology to both her boss and his opponent.

Continue reading "Between Ourselves" »

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Backbone At Breaking Point?

Posted by Julian christopher on February 15, 2008 5:26 PM

As a follow-on from my previous two pieces, this article from Guardian Media commentator Steve Hewlett on the impact of the BBC iPlayer's success on Britain's broadband infrastructure makes for interesting, if worrying, reading - hope, for the sake of all of us that are ever-more reliant on the Internet, that this is high up the 'to do' list of new Culture secretary Andy Burnham and the UK's internet service providers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/11/bbc.bbc

I'd e-mail them to flag it up, but I don't want to contribute to making things any shakier...

• add or read comments (1)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Mind The Gap

Posted by Julian christopher on February 10, 2008 11:58 PM

"The entire media sector is becoming increasingly dependent on the internet. We seem woefully ignorant of the implications of this. We need a next generation network - what I would call true broadband of 100Mb - into every home if we are to deliver on these promises. The ISPs are holding back. My radical proposal, which I accept will probably never happen, is that we need a public sector internet. Just as we build roads to carry traffic, but don't regulate what travels on them."

Thus spake veteran internet commentator Bill Thompson (www.thebillblog.com), proposing, as he says, a radical solution to the need to get people online at at least the same speed as everything on which they depend is migrating there.

Continue reading "Mind The Gap" »

• add or read comments (1)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

I On The Future

Posted by Julian christopher on January 28, 2008 10:26 AM

When I was a lad (cue Hovis advert music and clichéd images of small boy pushing large bike loaded with bread up a steep cobbled Lancashire mill town hill), it was fairly easy to tell the difference between state-funded and commercial television.

The biggest difference was, of course, that ITV was stacked full of commercials for all sorts of products that would get witheringly stern looks from Gillian McKeith these days, whilst the BBC channels were free from such intrusions.

These days, however, you’d be struggling to notice the difference, with trailers for new programmes, services and ways of watching your favourite programme littering the airwaves of our primary public service broadcaster.

And you would have had to try really hard over the last month or so to avoid hearing all about the Corporation’s latest triumph.

Continue reading "I On The Future" »

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

BONG! Good Evening, Here Are The Olds...

Posted by Julian christopher on January 17, 2008 10:56 PM

The new Newcastle manager is not the only old stager to have made a re-appearance this week, though admittedly King Kev’s unexpected return did reach the top of the scale for dramatic impact.

Sir Trevor McDonald OBE, the whimsical joys of his ‘And Finally’ stories and Big Ben’s ‘Bongs’ returned to our television screens, as ITV resurrected News At Ten in an attempt to boost its late evening ratings.

Judging by the first viewing figures, Sir Trevor’s return did not make as big an impact as his employers would have hoped, with the BBC’s Ten O’Clock bulletin more than two million viewers ahead (4.7m versus 2.6m) of its new rival by the third evening of direct competition.

Putting aside the relief of Sir Trevor finding himself back in a role that suits him infinitely more than the tabloid horror that is The Tonight Show or his recent “comedy” news review show, the return of News At Ten provides a reminder of just how much there is in the current TV schedules that has a more than familiar look to it.

Continue reading "BONG! Good Evening, Here Are The Olds..." »

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Blame It On The Media

Posted by Julian christopher on November 22, 2007 10:56 PM

So, farewell then, Steve McClaren. Your short, and not at all sweet reign as England manager comes to an end on the back of a team performance that brought a whole new dimension to the word ‘insipid’.

As seems to increasingly be the case these days when anything high profile goes pear-shaped, the blame game starts immediately – on whom can we pin this latest failure now that the main man has taken the bullet with his name on it?

In this case, is it the players, the FA, the pitch, the weather, the coaches, the system, the media?...

Continue reading "Blame It On The Media" »

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Channel Four At 25

Posted by Julian christopher on October 30, 2007 10:12 PM

Two major media institutions - the Today programme and Channel Four - are celebrating significant landmarks at the moment, and as I wasn’t around for the birth of the former 50 years ago, the latter’s arrival into the broadcasting world in 1982 is a little easier for me to write about.

I guess my interest in the media must have begun relatively early, as I can clearly remember, at 13 years of age, rushing home from a friend’s house for 445pm to catch the opening moments of this new channel, and then trying to work out exactly what Countdown had to recommend about it.

Continue reading "Channel Four At 25" »

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Sharing And Selling

Posted by Julian christopher on October 23, 2007 9:51 AM

A few of you have probably noticed that there have been some sporting shenanigans going on across the Channel over the last few weeks - and what a cracker the Rugby World Cup turned out to be.

Notwithstanding England’s Lazarus-like performance in reaching the final against all odds, some of the best drama of the tournament arrived at the quarter-final stage, when the mercurial French team faced up to the supposedly all-conquering All Blacks’ Haka.

So when, a few days later, I spotted a link on the Guardian’s sport website to footage of the moment on YouTube, I thought I’d take another look – but when I clicked through, I found that it has been removed ‘due to a copyright claim by the Rugby World Cup.’

Continue reading "Sharing And Selling" »

• add or read comments (1)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

People In Glass Houses

Posted by Julian christopher on October 1, 2007 11:08 PM

There’s a new star in the television firmament, joining the likes of Goldie, Bouncer and Roly the enormous and slightly effete Eastenders poodle in the Animal Hall Of Fame.

Cookie the kitten was officially introduced to the adoring masses last week by a selection of rather sheepish-looking Blue Peter presenters, who looked like they’d been caught with their hands in the, ahem, cookie jar.

Alongside Cookie was a fellow Blue Peter cat named Socks, who, if all was fair and good with the world, should have himself been called Cookie - but because of some naughtiness in the BP office, he’s now ended up being the only TV pet with an identity crisis.

Such bad behaviour will be making the sainted Shep turn in his grave.

Continue reading "People In Glass Houses" »

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Facing Up To The Future

Posted by Julian christopher on September 18, 2007 12:23 PM

As all good PR people know, there’s nothing like combining a bit of righteous indignation, some dramatic survey research and a few sweeping generalisations to make a ‘news’ story – and this week’s spot prize for media alchemy goes to law firm Peninsula, which has the online social networking phenomenon firmly in its sights.

According to Peninsula’s latest piece of research, a minimum of 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees “wasting time” on social networking – and its director of employment law is calling on all firms to block access to sites such as Facebook (though I’m presuming that even he would allow people who actually work for Facebook to take a peek now and again…).

Continue reading "Facing Up To The Future" »

• add or read comments (1)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

A Plea For Creativity

Posted by Julian christopher on September 4, 2007 11:49 AM

Those that have had the pleasure/misfortune (delete as applicable) to know me over the years would testify that I’m a fairly mild-mannered chap, but there are a few seemingly-minor things that are liable to turn my eyes a Voldemort shade of furious red.

Numbered amongst these are the collected works of Gilbert & Sullivan, the fact that the media seems to enjoy turning a procession of talentless nonentities into feted celebrities and the numerous times that the England cricket selectors patently pick the wrong team just to annoy me.

But the thing that makes me want to really spit blood is the use of the word ‘delighted’ in news stories written by my industry peers.

Continue reading "A Plea For Creativity" »

• add or read comments (1)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Enjoy Your Free Lunch While You Can

Posted by Julian christopher on August 28, 2007 10:18 AM

The late, lamented Spike Milligan once very perceptively wrote that 88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Pausing briefly to consider the acres of ‘interesting’ PR-led survey stories that grace our newspapers at this time of the year (of which I’ve been just as guilty as the next man over the years), I’d like to offer another, slightly more accurate one that I noted recently.

More than a quarter of all the material picked up and recycled across London every day is a discarded free newspaper – and a recent trip to the capital city showed me just how this situation has arisen.

Continue reading "Enjoy Your Free Lunch While You Can" »

• add or read comments (7)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Newspapers Slow To Come To Cameron’s Party

Posted by Julian christopher on August 20, 2007 2:54 PM

Newspapers have always played a central role in making and breaking our political leaders.

When I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s, there was never any doubt about which papers supported which party, and numerous red-top proclamations, such as “It Was The Sun Wot Won It” and “The Sun Backs Blair,” mark more recent key moments in British political history.

Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson fully understood the power of the media and made utilising it to its fullest extent one of the key elements of the ‘New Labour Project.’

Three successful election campaigns and a decade in Government were the results of this strategy, and there was a great deal of expectation that David Cameron would take up this media baton as he attempted to lead the Conservatives back to power.

Continue reading "Newspapers Slow To Come To Cameron’s Party" »

• add or read comments (1)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

Nothing But The Truth?

Posted by Julian christopher on August 3, 2007 12:08 PM

The source of that faint rumbling noise that you’ve no doubt heard in the distance recently has finally been confirmed as a large number of London television executives moaning as they beat their breasts in penitence and supplication.

Over the last few weeks, a whole host of programmes have been found to be ‘fake’ in one way or another.

From Children In Need and Blue Peter to Richard & Judy and GMTV, so many of our broadcasting institutions have been found to be built on shifting sands that it’s almost become easier to list the ones that aren’t under suspicion.

Continue reading "Nothing But The Truth?" »

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit

The end of the newspaper?

Posted by Julian christopher on July 26, 2007 4:35 PM

For me, one of life’s simplest and greatest pleasures is wandering down to the newsagent on a Sunday morning, scooping up a rainforest’s worth of newspapers and then working my way through them over the next couple of hours with the help of a large cup of coffee and a couple of croissants – or at least it was, until I had kids…

Now that weekend lie-ins last until about 7am, this sort of self-indulgence is just a distant memory – but in another decade or so, when I hope to get my Sunday mornings back, there’s a growing likelihood that my trips to the newsagent might well be obsolete.

Newspaper circulation figures have been steadily falling over the last few years, and the latest ABC statistics, which measure readerships month-by-month and year-on-year, show that there’s no sign of this trend abating.

Continue reading "The end of the newspaper?" »

• add or read comments (2)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit