Award-winning writer and journalist Heather Brooke, who recently published the book ‘The Revolution will be Digitised’, was a fan of  the Guardian’s ‘open journalism’ philosophy, but she has had a change of heart and recently labelled it “a failed business model”.

The Guardian’s open journalism initiative essentially articulates its view of the future of journalism, as free and open, in opposition to the growing spread of paywalls in the UK and the US. Read More »

The tension between journalists and bloggers has raged ever since “web 2.0” emerged in the new millennium. The journalist is educated and trained, and considered the voice of the nation. Surely they are above other wannabe hacks? But the internet came along and broke this business model, allowing “citizen journalists” to share what they wanted with the world.

Yes, that leads to a lot of dross. But there are some people who can write well, deliver a balanced opinion, and actually share real facts. So what’s the difference between these writers and ‘journalists’? The difference is that journalists get paid by newspaper brands that add credibility and scale with which they can broadcast their views. Read More »

News International’s experiment with a non-penetrable paywall around websites for The Times and Sunday Times has been a failure, while the rise of Mail Online has been the “world success story”, according to former Guardian leader, Tim Brooks. Read More »

A fascinating glimpse here at Fleet Street and how it produced newspapers during the Second World War. This film looks at how The Times was produced doing the blitz.

Britons, we are told right at the start, are inveterate newspaper readers as we dip into a world of plush looking smoky offices where the heart of the newspaper is the “intelligence department”. Read More »

Tech PR firm Text 100 has carried out some research into the way journalists use social media. It interviewed 72 journalists about the way they use social media channels in their professional lives to research companies and communicate with PR executives. Read More »

As the Leveson inquiry rattles on, every day seems to uncover a new angle to what can truly be called a scandal (today whether Rupert Murdoch is a fit and proper owner for BSkyB)- proving once again that sometimes truth really is more bizarre than fiction. Headline-writers had a field day when it emerged that the Met Police had ‘loaned’ ex-News International chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, a horse. In the midst of allegations of bribery, corruption and inappropriate relations between the media empire and the police force, this slightly surreal turn of events did nothing to stem the rising tide of evidence against News International.

Events took another dramatic turn when James Murdoch resigned as News International’s Executive Chairman. The official line was that it was to focus on ‘international television’ but it’s clear that the only way the Murdoch empire might truly recover from this mess is with a clean slate – a new paper (the Sun on Sunday) and a new public face. Which may potentially be another Murdoch. Read More »

A study looking at how newspaper companies are coping with the transition to digital found on average they were losing print ad dollars at a whopping seven times the rate that they were growing digital ad revenue.

Most papers it said are not putting significant effort into the new digital revenue categories and said that executives predict newsrooms will continue to shrink, with more papers closing while those that survive deliver a print edition only a few days a week — something that the Guardian’s Alan Rusbrigdger suggested last year. Read More »

Lots of kind words being said about the BBH created ad for The Guardian. It is a modern day take on the fair tale of The Three little pigs as armed police take the pigs into custody after they wreaked their revenge on the big bad wolf.

The ad gives a perfect state of nation snapshot of how newspapers and news have changed and the affect digital and social media has had upon them as the story of the death of the wolf at the hands of the pigs plays out. Read More »

Interesting move by The Sunday Times today. It reacted to the outpouring of tweets following the death of war correspondent Marie Colvin in Syria by putting her final report for the paper outside of its paywall.

There was a mass of tweets this morning as the tragic news broke of the death of the long time and highly respected Times journalist who was killed in the besieged city of Homs along with photographer Remi Ochlik after a shell hit the house they were sheltering in. Read More »