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 number of tweets posted by journalists from UK media outlets fell by almost 25%, according to the latest NewsTweet Index from PR firm Portland, with big falls at Sky News, which could be linked to its controversial social media guidelines introduced earlier this year.

Overall apparent changes in the tweeting habits of some of the UK’s top journalists saw 80,000 fewer tweets sent in the last three months compared to the previous quarter despite the ongoing economic turmoil, elections, big tax (and pastie) stories, the government’s problems and the on going Leveson inquiry, which all featured heavily. 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 »

The Times has given an update on digital subscription numbers and says  The Times and Sunday Times now have 131,000 digital subscribers across all platforms.

That is an improvement on figures it gave in February when News International said its two UK newspaper websites behind paywalls had 119,255 digital subscribers for The Times and 113,818 for the Sunday Times. Read More »

Copyright violations are the bane of entertainment executives lives. If you stop and listen you might just be able to hear the anguished screams of entertainment corporations, floating through the sky from Hollywood. Conversely, in the UK news industry such copyright infringements are unheard of. Why is this?* Read More »

The Econ0mist has proven itself incredibly successful on Facebook and very adept at engaging people on the social network. Testament to that is its passing the one million fans mark.

The one million strong milestone highlights not only how well it has done, but also how much bigger it is on Facebook when compared to its rivals. It has more than twice as  many fans as Time and the Wall Street Journal for instance. Read More »

An entertaining rant recently appeared from internet sceptic John MacArthur, the publisher of Harper’s Magazine, who believes the internet is out to put him out of business (he might be right) and where he compares it to nothing more than a giant photocopier that is stealing the life from his magazine.

Called ‘Internet con men ravage publishing’ he accuses those who give free content away, he points to the Guardian and others, of being  ideological radicals and internet boosters who are doing nothing less than promoting the death of print. Read More »

Guardian News & Media has launched a really interesting experimental mobile app for iPhone and Android, which is inspired by its London home of King’s Cross and the stories that surround the historic area of London.

The free mobile app – ‘King’s Cross, London – Streetstories’ is described as an immersive audio walking guide that automatically activates sounds, music and stories relevant to your GPS location as you walk through the streets of King’s Cross providing listeners with old and new tales from this part of London. Read More »

A lot of fan-fair around The Guardian’s open journalism campaign, Three Little Pigs – but did it live up to the hype? There was a comment on here last week that many of the ads we chose for January’s highlights didn’t have concept. The sort of interaction we’re looking for. However, you couldn’t accuse this of not having a concept – surely? Very interesting and right out of the BBH playbook.

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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 »