David Higgerson, pictured at his leaving do with half of the Girls Behaving Stylishly team – aka Emma Pinch and Laura Davis. As I left, David was clutching two pints and attempting to lift a third to his mouth. Isuspect it got very messy later on.
Month: May 2008
Blogging Macca
The live blogs keep coming; we’re blogging the Liverpool Sounds concert on Sunday with words and images (but maybe not live streaming as there organisers are confiscating cameras and ‘recording equipment’. Boo!
So that will be sorted out today and Sunday will see various Post & Echo people Twittering, texting and phoning in their experiences to the live blog, along with readers. Should be really exciting.
In other news Ben Johnson has apologised to the Post and Echo journalists for calling us all lazy. He rang both papers to say he meant to say the national press, not the local ones, so I guess I can forgive him for that.
Don’t know if my hard-working friends on the nationals will be so kind about his work next time they get to write about it though…
So that will be sorted out today and Sunday will see various Post & Echo people Twittering, texting and phoning in their experiences to the live blog, along with readers. Should be really exciting.
In other news Ben Johnson has apologised to the Post and Echo journalists for calling us all lazy. He rang both papers to say he meant to say the national press, not the local ones, so I guess I can forgive him for that.
Don’t know if my hard-working friends on the nationals will be so kind about his work next time they get to write about it though…
Why streaming in high winds is a Bad Idea
It was a beautiful day at West Kirby – sun, sea, people’s dogs hurling themselves into the marine lake after balls, perfect for streaming on Qik in fact. Erm no. It sounds like an excerpt from that Twister film where cows get picked up and hurled around by tornados.
So, today I learned: Streaming without wifi is slow and painful; streaming without wifi and in gale force winds is an absolute bloody dead loss.
I like to think I can search for a lesson in even the most mundane of defeats…
So, today I learned: Streaming without wifi is slow and painful; streaming without wifi and in gale force winds is an absolute bloody dead loss.
I like to think I can search for a lesson in even the most mundane of defeats…
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Royal liveblog and Press walk-out
Today the Post and Echo liveblogged the Queen and it was a LOT more slick than the second [text ammended – see comments] one we tried. It featured videos, photos, reporters Twittering news in – we certainly learned a lot from the LDP liveblog.
I can even see the funny side of a post being accidentally put on the publicly-facing site by a twat who perceptively named himself/herself T.W.A.T (I told one manager it stood for Tunbridge Wells Automotive Trust and it was a well-known anacronym – for a few beautiful seconds he believed me.
Then the Post editor Mark Thomas, Echo editor Ali Machray and I went to the opening of the Liverpool Cityscape painting at the Walker Art Gallery. It was a gathering of the great and good, who had rocked up in the name of Art, fizzy wine and nibbles.
Then artist Ben Johnson got up to make a speech… and 20 minutes later was still talking, oblivious to his audience’s growing distraction.
People had stopped listening… right up until he thanked the press office for “having to deal with bloody lazy press” and “managing to drag lazy reporters in so they could see what we were doing”.
Well, the bloody ACRES of coverage this inflated ass has got in the local media doesn’t bear telling. So Mark, Ali and I signalled our appreciation of his comments by Walking Out In A Huff.
The look on the Glitterarti’s faces was, in a word, picturesque.
I can even see the funny side of a post being accidentally put on the publicly-facing site by a twat who perceptively named himself/herself T.W.A.T (I told one manager it stood for Tunbridge Wells Automotive Trust and it was a well-known anacronym – for a few beautiful seconds he believed me.
Then the Post editor Mark Thomas, Echo editor Ali Machray and I went to the opening of the Liverpool Cityscape painting at the Walker Art Gallery. It was a gathering of the great and good, who had rocked up in the name of Art, fizzy wine and nibbles.
Then artist Ben Johnson got up to make a speech… and 20 minutes later was still talking, oblivious to his audience’s growing distraction.
People had stopped listening… right up until he thanked the press office for “having to deal with bloody lazy press” and “managing to drag lazy reporters in so they could see what we were doing”.
Well, the bloody ACRES of coverage this inflated ass has got in the local media doesn’t bear telling. So Mark, Ali and I signalled our appreciation of his comments by Walking Out In A Huff.
The look on the Glitterarti’s faces was, in a word, picturesque.
Too much paperwork – too little paper work
I’m fed up. I’ve done nothing but attend meetings, shuffle paperwork and answer the telephone this week. And when I’m not doing that, I’m being hunted down by people who want to make my life more difficult or just subtly shift more work onto me.
I’m naming this phenomenon geo-nagging (i.e. the ability of others to find me, wherever I may be, and give me problems) and I’ve Had Enough.
The latest random act of geo-nagging was someone I had never even seen before (probably using GPS) tracking me down so he could refuse to move chairs for a meeting. The chairs weren’t fixed to the floor you understand… but they weren’t being moved by his staff either.
Life was much simpler when you just had to negotiate your way past the loosely-tethered rottweiler to push a doorbell that may or may not work and then wheedle your way into the front room of a family whose little darling had just been banged up for some random thuggery – and then persuade them to talk about it.
I’m naming this phenomenon geo-nagging (i.e. the ability of others to find me, wherever I may be, and give me problems) and I’ve Had Enough.
The latest random act of geo-nagging was someone I had never even seen before (probably using GPS) tracking me down so he could refuse to move chairs for a meeting. The chairs weren’t fixed to the floor you understand… but they weren’t being moved by his staff either.
Life was much simpler when you just had to negotiate your way past the loosely-tethered rottweiler to push a doorbell that may or may not work and then wheedle your way into the front room of a family whose little darling had just been banged up for some random thuggery – and then persuade them to talk about it.
Flowers for friends
I’m sending virtual flowers to Joanna and Sarah to cheer them up because I can’t buy them a beer.
Mobile post sent by Alison using Utterz. Replies.
Baby Superlambbanana
Cute! And right outside my office 🙂
Creating communities
This is a reply to Alison Gows´utter on newspapers building communities
markmedia‘s Mobile post sent by Alison using Utterz. Replies. mp3
I posted Markmedia‘s reply to my Utterz here because it’s actually a far more lucid and interesting answer than my ramble deserved.
Mark makes an excellent point about newspapers having to become a hub; I was talking to Neil MacDonald about this earlier although I used the phrase ‘toolbox’ – giving them as much information as we can in our online space and providing them links to expert external sites that can inform them further.
Mark is right – our products (paper and online) can be hubs for the audience. We need to make our sites indispensible – an information port of call – rather than a repository of our news. Users should be able to add to that information bank, as with wikis, and put up external links. If we don’t offer the service, readers will find somewhere else that does. People use papers and websites in the most disposable of ways – occupying time on a bus, or searching for information, consuming it and moving on.
The idea of loyalty (“our readers love the paper”)is a myth repeated by journalists but we’re only fooling ourselves; our audience will stay with us if we can attract and hold their attention – if we can’t they will move on.
Creating communities
This is the link to @foodiesarah’s blog presentation http://tinyurl.com/55edel
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Headlines and Deadlines 