Monthly Archives: February 2010

The London Weekly ploughs on as issue four published

By February 26 2010, 11:33 am Leave a comment

The London Weekly has incredibly made it to issue four. There is a picture and several people have picked up copies. If it is a hoax the joke just keeps going.

Apparently the quality of The London Weekly is as questionable as ever. @philhawkins87 took this snap and @jasonpaulgrant picked up a copy that has Gary Smith (he of all frontpage leads so far) with another corking splash (after last week’s Cheryl Cole story): “Older Londoners reveal hurdles to accessing home care services”.

There are still very few details about the project although via MediaWeek.co.uk’s investigations this week we know a little more.

After Judith Townend on journalism.co.uk discovered that The London Weekly is based in offices on Mare Street in Hackney (not the address given when you look up who owns the newspaper’s website) a phone call to the paper’s increasingly paranoid operation confirmed the address.

Although reporter Dan Sabbagh had to give his name and reason for business before even a postal address is provided. Making the trip to Hackney Sabbagh found no one was home:

“This [Mare Street] turns out to be a set of old-fashioned warehouse offices and studios about a quarter of a mile south of Hackney Town Hall. But when Media Week visited the premises, there was no obvious sign of the title among the artist studios in the building.

“On the ground floor there is no reception, and no brass plate or other logo indicating where to go. The warehouse unit is apparently on the first floor, but there is no direction for the newspaper, nor any sign of offices in the rabbit warren of corridors.

“There is a small office for Invincible Magazine, a title whose editor-in-chief is Jordan Kensington, but the door is closed and nobody answers.”

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How Twitter phishing can be good for you (seriously)

By February 26 2010, 10:04 am 2 Comments

What a week, horny 24-year olds, people exchanging pictures and free shares – yes that was the week that was on Twitter as phishing scams ran riot across the social network. It’s been such fun.

No really, I know people say that phishing is bad and that people are trying to steal your identity to do dastardly things (all true), but as long as you speedily change your password you should in most cases be fine.

That aside it turns out that there is a massive plus side to phishing scams: it actually acts as a prompt to reconnect with people – yes to social network. Who would have thought it, but it seems that sometimes you need a little wake-up call to make those connections. Go figure.

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Yahoo chases social media with Twitter deal

By February 24 2010, 10:55 am Leave a comment

Yahoo! is making a bid for social media relevance by getting closer to Twitter. The troubled search firm says it plans to go further than Google or Bing and do more than add Twitter to search results.

I have no idea if this will pan out for Yahoo. But what is clear is that Twitter is an integral part of Yahoo’s plan to turn itself into a social media hub so that anyone with a Yahoo! ID can update multiple social networks simultaneously. There is talk of deals with MySpace and LinkedIn as well. They are throwing it all in.

There are clear parallels with Google and its efforts to socialise itself with Google Buzz (while we are on Buzz why did Google choose that name when Yahoo already has Yahoo Buzz?). Both search firms want the search traffic, but they want more than that: they want the social media engagement as well. They want to put themselves at the centre of your (yes you) social media universe.

Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, consumer products group, Yahoo! couldn’t be any clearer about this:

“We’re turning the key to the online social universe — you will find the most personally relevant experiences through Yahoo. We’re also simplifying people’s lives by bringing their social worlds — and the world — together for easy access.”

Yahoo! has already tied with Facebook and the Twitter deal, which will see Yahoo! pay undisclosed millions to the microblogging firm, should be done by December.

So what exactly Yahoo! planning with its 140 character deal? Well in the press release announcing the deal Yahoo says the partnership it says it includes three primary elements:

1) People will be able to access their personal Twitter feeds across Yahoo!’s many products and properties, including the homepage, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sports, and others, letting them check in more easily on what’s happening with the people and things they care about while on Yahoo!.

2) People will be able to update their Twitter status and share content from Yahoo! in their Twitter stream, so they can easily share their Yahoo! experiences with their friends and followers on Twitter.

3) Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! media properties like News, Finance, Entertainment, and Sports will include real-time public Twitter updates across a variety of topics. Yahoo! Search users will immediately see real-time Twitter results today; go to Yahoo! and try it out.

One question that crops up is this: what does this mean for Twitter money making plans? Sure it is getting cash for its data, but Yahoo!, Bing and Google are doing these deals because they think they can monetize it around their advertising.

Yahoo is clear in its release about this issue. It says that it will use the Twitter integration to “drive deeper user engagement, and create new and compelling opportunities for developers, advertisers, and publishers”.

See all about money. Twitter is working on an own ad platform of its own and Anamitra Banerji, head of monetization at Twitter, has told the US IAB that “he is concerned that some of the external Twitter ad platforms may be doing damage to the Twitter experience”. Yeah, that and future revenues.

There is a weird schizophrenic thing going on at Twitter. It needs to make money as it grows and burns cash and it is doing that with these partnerships, but clearly there is a concern within Twitter itself of how these deals might “damage” its own efforts to generate cash.

There is an awful lot riding on Twitter. It’s own hopes of expansion and also those of rivals. For Yahoo! this socialisation feels like a chance to regain relevance. Although as someone who never uses it I’m really not sure how that is going to pan out.

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Advertisers fight it out for YouTube’s homepage

By February 23 2010, 3:28 pm Leave a comment

Wow things have really moved on for YouTube. One time advertisers had little interest in the video sharing site and now they are fighting to own the video site’s homepage, which means a profit ahead as revenues leap.

Advertisers used to be worried about being associated with some of the inappropriate content that you can find on YouTube. Not it seems anymore according to this Adage piece.

YouTube’s home page sold out in the fourth quarter and film studios are now biding for space on what is a prime piece of video real estate to promote their latest movies.

Lionsgate and Twentieth Century Fox are among the studios that have embraced it. And what they have embraced is a site that is estimated to be serving as many as 1 billion videos per day.

Twentieth Century Fox bought the YouTube homepage in 15 countries for ‘Avatar’ to drive traffic for the trailer. Well something worked (clearly being a mega budget 3-D extravaganza helps).

Last week alone YouTube’s advertising partners accounted for 44.7% of the views among the top 100 videos, compared to 36.3% six months ago. That’s quite a change.

The piece quotes YouTube Ad Director Shishir Mehrotra, saying: “When I took this job a year and a half ago, people kept asking ‘What is going to be the equivalent of the Google text ad for YouTube?’. What we realized is there is no one ad format for video, because consumers come to YouTube to do different things.”

The piece makes a very good point in comparing it to MySpace circa 2006. Everyone talked about MySpace being the place where entertainment advertisers went. That was only a year after Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for $580m. Now it’s worth…oh way less. Is it on a road to profit? Well it is on a road at least.

YouTube seems to have triumphed even as the market has become more competitive with the likes of Hulu and others taking a share of its market. It has been helped by more and more professional content being uploaded onto the service much by media companies and advertisers who have become adept at establishing their own channels.

What does all this mean in hard numbers? Well last month All Things Digital reported Barclays analyst Douglas Anmuth saying that YouTube will see a revenue jump of 55% to $700m in 2010 and that it will “start contributing positively” to the Google’s earnings. I think that means the long road profit has almost been reached.

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Bloggers are "liggers with laptops" say fashionisatas

By February 23 2010, 10:01 am 5 Comments

London Fashion Week is here and fashion journalists and PRs are unhappy with an influx of bloggers who are taking the best seats at the show, contributing little and are says one journalist little more than “liggers with laptops”. Yes it is handbags at dawn.

That pretty much describes some journalists, but let’s skip that for a moment. The Times has a piece today chronicling the surge of the fashion bloggers. At last year’s London Fashion Week 22% of press accreditation went to bloggers. This year it is 33%. Hold on to your tiaras.

According to The Times “some bloggers are prepared to resort to any means — fair or foul — to gain admittance”. Sacrebleu!

One unnamed blogger turned up at a show and claimed to be from Harper’s Bazaar before being turned out and stuck back in the cheap seats. A “seasoned journalist” complained about seeing a 16-year-old girl who’d previously been on work experience on her title seated in the front row because of her connection to a blog. The poor professional journalists was seated several rows back.

Wow. I’m full of respect for that 16-year old. Making it to the front row of a major fashion show clearly takes some rocks. Good for her.

Another glossy magazine reporter told The Times: “Look, some of the bloggers are brilliant but a lot of them are liggers with laptops.”

Get over yourself. Seriously, I know a lot of journalists and they (okay we) love freebies. Who doesn’t. Books, music, film, flights, festivals, gigs and restaurants all paid by some PR who bills their client. Sometimes absolutely nothing gets written. Is that ligging?

Personally I get slightly embarrassed and do my very best to get something written (honest). I swear on a week long trip to Jordan I was the only journalists to write any copy while there. On trip to New York likewise, but I have also flown to San Francisco several times and produced next to nothing. That’s the way it goes and it doesn’t always go to press.

Someone described as an influential PR complains that “if you read some of these blogs, they are just cut-and-pasting each other; they don’t use their access to say anything original” — although no blogs are named/shamed.

Not sure I entirely believe that. Blogs are about original comment and content (but not always) and most bloggers have a take on whatever it is they write about. Their influence is growing in every field.

I wrote recently about press accreditation being given to political bloggers giving them access to Parliament and some of the fears that move excites.

Where ever there is a traditional media there are bloggers. They have gone mainstream. Their skill is not just in producing original “commtent” (yes horrible fake word) it is also in being fast. A blog can get coverage of an event up online far quicker than many traditional journalists seem able.

Their entrance into more and more parts of daily media life is bound to upset some and no more so it seems than the rarefied world of fashion.

Burberry chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey, though has a different take and one that looks to the future. He is known “to be at the forefront of technological innovations and the use of new media”. That’s one of the reasons behind Burberry getting together with Sky to produce this week’s live 3D broadcast — a first for a fashion show.

He says it is important to give bloggers the respect that they deserve. “They have a very articulate way of expressing their opinion. The difference between bloggers and traditional press is bloggers are often talking directly to a final consumer.”

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Google not a challenger to Twitter or Facebook (says Google)

By February 22 2010, 12:06 pm 2 Comments

Here’s a confession. I haven’t looked at Google Buzz for like a week. Then I read this story about Google saying that Buzz is absolutely not a rival to Twitter or Facebook. Got it?

In an interview with eWeek Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product management for Google, says that Buzz is not just about what he called “status-casting” or “just checking in”. He said it was meant for a place of “meaningful interactions around meaningful topics within Buzz”.

I could see that happening. But to be honest I haven’t yet. Finding the time is a real issue. It is increasingly THE social media issue as Buzz competes for our time. I mean if I Buzzed this right now I might not get around to tweeting it?. I would forget, move on, and more to the point get distracted. Also I want to share it with as many people as possible and not just my email contacts (my mum and sister have no interest).

Horowitz argues that he is hearing again and again that those meaningful interactions he mentions (“that kind of value proposition”) are “unique to Buzz”.

“In the realm of positive feedback, I think that people are finding that the conversational mode of buzz is very, very powerful and the quality of audience is also great.”

Really? Well, if you say so, but for most of us that remains to be seen, but what Horowitz is clear about in the interview is that Buzz is not designed as a Facebook or Twitter killer but rather Buzz is filling a niche for something that is not already in the market and creating a “unique” space.

“[Buzz is] absolutely not [a Facebook or Twitter killer]. This is creating a new category of communication. It’s filling a niche, which is not currently met in the market. I think something unique is happening on Buzz that will continue to evolve. It’s hard to create a trend line or extrapolate too much from six days of use, but certainly conversation and the conversational web is a place where Buzz has excelled. I think it is unique and offers a compelling, interesting experience.”

Horowitz also gave a few stats and said that Buzz was attracting around 200 posts per minute from users posting content from their mobile phones. Good numbers indeed.

Google Buzz seems to have ridden out the privacy row, but I wonder how much people will be talking about it in a month or two months time, you know, when the buzz has died down.

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Tory blogger Iain Dale features Gordon Brown as Hitler

By February 22 2010, 9:15 am 12 Comments

It hasn’t taken very long for Conservative Party supporters to take the election fight online into the gutter. Last weeek we saw spoof posters of asylum seekers cropping up, but featuring Gordon Brown as Adolf Hitler as Tory blogger Iain Dale has done goes far beyond anything that is even remotely acceptable.

There is nothing to justify use of a man who exterminated more than six million people and started a world war leading to the deaths of many millions more with Gordon Brown.

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Twitter traffic leaps putting paid to growth critics

By February 19 2010, 4:17 pm Leave a comment

He wasn’t making it up at all. Last month Twitter co-founder Evan Williams hit back at claims of falling usage and this week the stats are in the Twitter’s traffic has taken a leap.

Williams made his comments after a bunch of posts suggested a falloff, but since that things have only looked up for Twitter. He said Twitter’s growth was going to pick up and he wasn’t wrong, according to new ComScore traffic figures.

ComScore data shows that the number of unique visitors to Twitter jumped by around 9% between December and January to 21.79 million, which is an all time high.

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Mydavidcameron.com says the spoofing is over (for now)

By February 19 2010, 1:05 pm Leave a comment

The spoofers behind Mydavidcameron.com are calling it day. Taking their cue from the fact Tories are aping what they’ve done.

Knowing when to leave is a (political) art and in a blog post Clifford Singer, who was behind Mydavidcameron.com, says that the spoofing always had “had a limited shelf-life”.

That’s one reason to call it a day. He also points to another highlighting the argument that such spoofs play into the hands of the opposition.

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The bloggers are coming to Parliament #ge2010

By February 18 2010, 12:37 pm Leave a comment

The digitisation of the political process is stepping up as it emerges that Westminster is going to allow select bloggers access to the parliamentary lobby system, which has previously only been the realm of professional journalists.

It is going to mean that bloggers will get access to the off-camera government briefings given by the PM’s press spokesman. That could be really interesting and democratizing effectively expanding the lobby beyond the small group of journalists that it currently comprises.

PRWeek reports that talks have been taking place between the Commons authorities and Financial Times political editor George Parker, who chairs the parliamentary press gallery.

He says the system is being tested on a case-by-case basis and that “because it’s a new form of journalism and the authorities are having to adapt”.

Ironically, Commons authorities are understood to be “concerned that an influx of bloggers into the lobby could further undermine the reputation of Parliament”. Okay, if you say so as bloggers are clearly the problem.

Does that sound like MPs are worried what bloggers might uncover with their lobby pass?

“What the Commons authorities are concerned about is that there should be no precedent set that would create a free-for-all. They don’t want to have the House of Commons over-run by bloggers,” Parker said.

Parker goes onto to say that initially they are only likely to give a pass to people who are operating for a respectable news organisation or website with a reasonably large. They are also keen to see it used for journalism rather than coming “commenting on stuff”.

That sounds a little prescriptive and old school. Blogs mix news and comment like bartenders mix gin and tonic. Sometimes there is very little between them.

Whatever else it shows it is a further sign of the role that social media is going to play in the 2010 General Election.

Elsewhere today more news of what the Labour Party is up to with its social media strategy.

Campaign reports today that it is to use online real-time feedback directly from the public via Twitter to inform its nationwide campaign.

This follows Labour’s #Changewesee campaign that has been spread successfully via social media. The Change We See has used Twitter, Facebook and Flickr to highlight the real changes the Government has made to people’s lives such as building schools and hospitals.

But as Labour continues to develop its social media campaigning it really needs to pay attention to the report just out that highlights how it is lagging when it comes to effectively using email and integrating social media into that.

Return Path found that it simply wasn’t doing this. And that is a big opportunity. Email is a great space to tell your story, share links and get people digitally involved with what you are doing.

Oh yeah and money. People will give you money if you ask for it in your emails. They might not come out and campaign on the doorstep, but handing over £5 is not such a reach.

It has been widely reported that the “donate now” button proved incredibly effective for Barrack Obama’s digital campaign team in the 2008 presidential elections. The Obama team is estimated to have raised around $500m online with two-thirds of that coming via email as people hit the donate button.

Most of those donations were small (in the region of $6), but that soon builds up.

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